Sunday March 10, 2019 First Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 24
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 26:4-10
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
"The priest shall receive the basket from you
and shall set it in front of the altar of the LORD, your God.
Then you shall declare before the Lord, your God,
'My father was a wandering Aramean
who went down to Egypt with a small household
and lived there as an alien.
But there he became a nation
great, strong, and numerous.
When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us,
imposing hard labor upon us,
we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers,
and he heard our cry
and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
He brought us out of Egypt
with his strong hand and outstretched arm,
with terrifying power, with signs and wonders;
and bringing us into this country,
he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
Therefore, I have now brought you the firstfruits
of the products of the soil
which you, O LORD, have given me.'
And having set them before the Lord, your God,
you shall bow down in his presence."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
say to the LORD, "My refuge and fortress,
my God in whom I trust."
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
No evil shall befall you,
nor shall affliction come near your tent,
For to his angels he has given command about you,
that they guard you in all your ways.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Upon their hands they shall bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the asp and the viper;
you shall trample down the lion and the dragon.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress;
I will deliver him and glorify him.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Reading 2 Rom 10:8-13
Brothers and sisters:
What does Scripture say?
The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart
—that is, the word of faith that we preach—,
for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For one believes with the heart and so is justified,
and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
For the Scripture says,
No one who believes in him will be put to shame.
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek;
the same Lord is Lord of all,
enriching all who call upon him.
For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Gospel Lk 4:1-13
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days,
to be tempted by the devil.
He ate nothing during those days,
and when they were over he was hungry.
The devil said to him,
"If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become bread."
Jesus answered him,
"It is written, One does not live on bread alone."
Then he took him up and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him,
"I shall give to you all this power and glory;
for it has been handed over to me,
and I may give it to whomever I wish.
All this will be yours, if you worship me."
Jesus said to him in reply,
"It is written:
You shall worship the Lord, your God,
and him alone shall you serve."
Then he led him to Jerusalem,
made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him,
"If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down from here, for it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,
and:
With their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone."
Jesus said to him in reply,
"It also says,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test."
When the devil had finished every temptation,
he departed from him for a time.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 26:4-10
The book of Deuteronomy records the orations Moses declared to the Israelites on the last day of his life.
His speeches tend to dwell upon: 1) the covenant that God had established with the Israelites in the wilderness; 2) the laws of that covenant, and 3) the emphatic necessity of obedience to those laws as the condition for enjoying the benefits of the covenant.
Today’s lesson is found near the end of the longest of these speeches (chapters 5-26). Here Moses revisits instructions for the celebration of the Feast of Weeks, which he first announced in chapters 16:9-12. The Israelites were to celebrate the first harvest in June “by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you” (16:10 NRSV). Now, in chapter 26, Moses provides the actual liturgy for that first-fruits celebration ritual.
As a liturgy, our lesson includes instructions for certain prescribed actions and words specific to this annual ritual occasion.
Actions: We can picture here the worshiping Israelite standing in the Yahweh-sanctuary, holding a basket filled with yield from the harvest. As the priest receives the basket and lays it down in front of the altar, we can hear the worshiping Israelite offer the liturgical recitation along with the first fruits.
Words: The recitation reviews the saving actions of God, reaching back through the story of the ancestors:
During this first-fruits ritual the worshiping Israelite holds the first-fruits of the bountiful land upon which he stands in worship. In that physical stance the worshiping Israelite is a living testimony that God has been faithful to the promise made from the very first divine encounter with the ancestors: “Go to a land I will show you, and there I will bless you” (Genesis 12:1-3). Redemption from homelessness and oppression has happened because God did what he said he was going to do (“I will deliver them from the power of the Egyptians” (Exodus 3:8).
During this ritual the worshiping Israelite identifies with the ancestors conspicuously not according to any power or glory attributed to them, but rather in their powerlessness (“afflicted us, heard our cry, brought us out”). More than anything else God does, the liturgy celebrates the faithfulness of God as it is manifest in the rescue of the powerless.
All told, our lesson offers us a vision of imitatio Dei, the imitation of God. We confess that God has acted on behalf of the powerless and blesses them with abundance. But God acts toward a further purpose: that the redeemed might themselves act on behalf of the powerless in the same way that God has acted, blessing them with abundance. In short, God continues to redeem the powerless, but through the agency of the people of God when they choose to be faithful.
Responsorial 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15.
Psalm 91 is the second psalm in Book Four of the Psalter.
It is classified as an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving, in which an individual praises God for goodness to or on behalf of that individual, usually for a deliverance from some trying situation. We are called to read Psalm 91, therefore, in the context of a worshiper’s grateful praise for deliverance.
The opening verses of the psalm are filled with rich imagery, rich metaphor. The Bible attempts to describe the nature and character of God with words, words that are crafted by our ancestors in the faith as they sought to depict the creator, sustainer, ever-present God. We read in the Old Testament that God is judge, king, lover, holy, and so forth. How do each of us -- how do you? -- understand the concepts of judge, king, lover, holy being?
Readers often bring a “narrow lens” of understanding to the biblical text through no fault of their own, but rather by way of the interpretations of their faith communities. As we study scripture we “widen our lens,” so we can discover new ways of reading the biblical text that enrich our understanding of who God is and who we are in relationship to God and to others. One metaphor for God will not do. The beauty of metaphoric imagery for God in the biblical text is that it allows for a multiplicity of conceptualizations, or as one scholar states, "a vast collection of interwoven images." To achieve a full understanding of God, we must tune our ears and focus our eyes to hear and see other images, other metaphors than to ones we have always seen and heard.
The opening verses of Psalm 91 speak of God’s presence with and protection of the psalm singer as “the shelter … the shadow … my refuge … fortress” and uses four names for God -- “Most High -- Elyon,” “Almighty -- Shaddai,” “LORD -- Yahweh,” and “God -- Elohim.” Elyon and Shaddai were common epithets for God in the Old Testament. Elyon appears eight times in the Pentateuch and nineteen times in the book of Psalms. Its root is the Hebrew verb ‘alah, and means “to go up, to ascend.” God is the great God, transcending all other devotions.
In verse 2, we read that God is “my refuge” and “my fortress.” While these words are most often interpreted as having to do with “fleeing from an enemy” and “safe haven under attack,” if we read them as the words of protection and safe haven that a mother (or a parent) provides, we “bring the words down to earth -- down to everyday life,” so to speak. The basic meaning of the word that is translated as “refuge” is “to cover, to hide” (Hebrew chasah), and fits well with verse 4, that states, “God will cover you with pinions and under God’s wings you will find refuge.” Recall also that in Matthew 23:37, Jesus lamented, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings!”
With this metaphoric image -- God as the parental figure feeding and protecting his children -- in mind, let us move to verses 9-16 of Psalm 91. Here we read that God will provide extraordinary protection to the one who seeks refuge in God. Verse 11, of course, was taken up by the composers of the gospels of Matthew and Luke (Matthew 4:6; Luke 4:10-11) as a reference to Jesus, but in the greater context of Psalm 91, we may interpret these words as the caring protection a parent gives to a child whom they have conceived, born, and nurtured.
The closing words of Psalm 91 are rich with promise to those who love the parent who has nurtured them. The mother (and father) God will bless, protect, answer, be present in times of trouble, rescue, honor, and grant long life and salvation.
The season of Lent is a preparation of hearts, minds, and bodies for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the embodiment of God in this world. We are called to give our best, as the Lectionary reading from Deuteronomy 24 emphasizes. How do we do that? We must remember in this time of sacrifice that God is ever-present, manifesting Godself as mother, father, brother, sister, and yet holy other. Embrace the nurturing mother image of God as solid refuge in this season of preparation.
Reading 2 Rom 10:8-13
Our passage follows directly on the heels of a bold statement: "For Christ is the end [Greek: telos] of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4). (Actually, a better translation is: "For the end of the law is Christ....") Whether telos refers to the Mosaic law's termination or to its consummation/goal occasions no small debate. The statement's basic emphasis is much clearer, however: Christ is the agent through whom God's righteousness is actualized. Even the law aimed toward Christ. Christ is the means of righteousness for everyone who has faith.
To unpack the claims of 10:4, Paul offers in 10:5-13 a series of references to scripture. Trying to follow his point can make our heads hurt.
As is usually the case when Paul refers to scripture, scholarship on verses 5-13 has generated deep debates about Paul's method and purpose. What we discover in these verses is not a scriptural "proof" meant to convince us. Rather, Paul collects biblical voices to provide resonance for his theological assertions. As a skilled midrashic deejay, he remixes a scriptural conversation for the Roman churches to hear, a conversation in which -- in Paul's arrangement -- Christ sits at the center of the voices. All the words gravitate around him, thus acquiring new meaning as they express God's work through Christ. (The relevant texts are Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 30:11-14; Isaiah 28:16; Joel 2:32.)
Paul finds in Moses' discourse about the law (Deuteronomy 30:11-14) affirmation that God's word (Greek: rhēma) -- the life that the law promised -- is very close to the people of God who received the law through Moses (see Romans 10:8). Just as near is Christ (the law's telos), according to Paul's christological rereading of Deuteronomy. Christ himself came "down" to humanity and enfleshed the law's ultimate purpose (taking telos in Romans 10:4 as consummation), which is to give life. Christ accomplished what the law could not, hampered as it was by the power of sin (recall Romans 7:8-12). There's no need, then, for us to go up to heaven to seek Christ; he already came to us. Nor do we descend into the grave to find him; he's not there.
Concerning the nearness of the law, Moses spoke of "the word" being in the "mouth" (NRSV: "lips") and the "heart" of the people of Israel (Romans 10:8a). Paul rereads this in verse 8b as "the word (Greek: rhēma) about faith" that he now preaches as an apostle of Christ.
That is, Paul proclaims Christ, good news about Christ's faithfulness and a message that in turn elicits faith in its hearers. In intimate ways, a believer interacts with Jesus: She confesses his Lordship in her "mouth" (NRSV: "lips") and expresses faith in her "heart." This way of confession and faith is the way of
God's salvation is available to all. This is a bold statement. We err if we hear it as anthropology, as a claim that all people are about the same, or as a maxim that "a person's a person, no matter how small" (that's not Paul, but Horton Hears a Who!). Rather, Paul makes a statement about God: God has made salvation near to all.
Gospel Lk 4:1-13
In each of the three Synoptic Gospels, after his baptism, Jesus is reported to have spent forty days in the desert, fasting and praying. In Luke and in Matthew, the devil presents three temptations to Jesus. The devil tempts Jesus to use his power to appease his hunger, he offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus will worship him, and he tempts Jesus to put God's promise of protection to the test. In each case, Jesus resists, citing words from Scripture to rebuke the devil's temptation.
Each temptation that Jesus faces offers insight into the spirituality we hope to develop as we keep the forty days of the Season of Lent. We can trust God to provide for our material needs. We worship God because God alone has dominion over us and our world. We can trust God to be faithful to his promises. Jesus' rejection of the devil's temptations shows that he will not put God to the test. Grounding himself on the Word and authority of Scripture, Jesus rebukes the devil by his confidence in God's protection and faithfulness.
This Gospel highlights for us one of the central themes of the Season of Lent. We are dependent upon God for all that we have and all that we are. Anything that leads us to reject this dependency or to distrust its sufficiency, is a temptation from the devil.
Luke ends his report of Jesus' temptation in the desert by noting that the devil departs for a time. The implication is that the devil will return. Jesus knows that he will be tempted again in the Garden of Gethsemane. The depth of Jesus' trust in God is shown most fully when Jesus rejects the temptation to turn away from the task God has given to him. Jesus' final rebuke of the devil is his sacrifice on the Cross.
Jesus' responses to the temptations of the devil teach us how we can respond to temptation. As we start our journey through Lent, this Sunday's Gospel calls us to adopt the same confidence that Jesus had in the face of temptation: God's word alone will suffice, God's promise of protection can be trusted, and God alone is God.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
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Sunday March 3, 2019 Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 84
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 27:4-7
When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear;
so do one's faults when one speaks.
As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace,
so in tribulation is the test of the just.
The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had;
so too does one's speech disclose the bent of one's mind.
Praise no one before he speaks,
for it is then that people are tested.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
To proclaim your kindness at dawn
and your faithfulness throughout the night.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
They shall bear fruit even in old age;
vigorous and sturdy shall they be,
Declaring how just is the LORD,
my rock, in whom there is no wrong.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:54-58
Brothers and sisters:
When this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility
and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality,
then the word that is written shall come about:
Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?
The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters,
be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Gospel Lk 6:39-45
Jesus told his disciples a parable,
"Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
'Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,'
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your brother's eye.
"A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,
nor do they gather grapes from brambles.
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,
but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;
for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 27:4-7
The book of Sirach (also known as "Ecclesiasticus" from the Latin Vulgate) was written by Jeshua ben Eleazar ben Sira in the early second century, BC. Jeshua wrote in Alexandria, Egypt, where a large Jewish population lived. Because the Jewish population was native (second generation and beyond), they had lost Hebrew and adopted Greek as a native language. While the book was originally written in Hebrew, it was quickly translated into Greek and found its way into the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament.
The book is a collection of wise sayings useful for teaching ethics to the young. Written in the first person, the book extolled the Hebrew traditions. These factors indicate the writing was possibly used as a text book in religious schools found in the Jewish quarter of Alexandria.
In this passage, Sirach encouraged a small dose of skepticism, akin to “don’t judge a book by its cover.” He counseled his students to see beyond the good looks, the fancy clothes, the smooth flow of speech or the alluring ring of rhetoric; the wise person should peer into the mind and the heart. Only then, Sirach insisted, could you find the person’s true character. The one seeking righteous friends should test them to find out if they were truly worthy.
Sirach was honored in the early Church as a guide to life. It still has that power.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16
The opening verses of the text assert that the praise of the Lord is a positive good. This may seem self-evident, but it is worthwhile to reflect on further.
Far too often the worship of the church is carried out as if it were solely a matter of obligation. Perhaps you've been a part of a congregation in which the hymns are merely endured, in which the liturgy is something to be slogged through on the way to coffee hour, or in which the prayers of the church are more or less a sleep-inducing drone. For these congregations, the claim "it is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High!" (Psalm 92:1) can come as a much-needed shock to the system.
The claim here is that the worship of God's people springs forth from the deep gladness brought on by a recognition of God's mighty and manifold works. Praise that is rooted in this ground will be lively and flourishing.
The closing verses offer the rich image of the righteous person as a tree. At one level, the symbolism is fairly straightforward. Trees are symbolic of enduring life and fertility. They are long-lived, in contrast to the grasses and plants of the field. Fittingly then, this text declares that those who are right with God will enjoy a similar long and fruitful life.
We should not fail, however, to notice that the trees described by the Psalmist do not spring up just anywhere: "They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God" (Psalm 92:13).
These long-lived, fruitful trees are planted and cultivated. They are deliberately placed, nourished, and protected. Because of this care, they are able to flourish.
This observation leads to many possible avenues of exposition, touching on the sovereignty of God (who plants where he wills), God's providence (who else is the source of water, nourishment, and protection?), or, finally, on the reasons for lively praise as recommended in the beginning of the Psalm.
Ultimately, it is because God does such things for God's people that they ought to praise God with glad enthusiasm.
As noted, the praise called for in verses 1-4 is based on the works of God. In the middle segment, the reader learns which aspect of God's many works the Psalmist has in mind.
First, the reality is acknowledged that the wicked -- those who oppose God, who do not give him praise and honor, and who prey upon his people -- often seem to prosper. It should not be difficult for any congregation to draw connections here to their own observations and experiences. The question then arises, "If this is so, what grounds have we for praise?"
The answer, the central reality of the Psalm, comes quickly.
The prosperity of the wicked is like that of the grass: short-lived and ephemeral, without endurance. By contrast, the sovereign rule of God is eternal: "you, O Lord, are on high forever" (Psalm 92:8).
This is the pivot point, on which the Psalm and the questions it raises both turn. Because God reigns eternally, it is a given that eventually, all opposing God's reign will be expunged. The enemies of God (and, not incidentally, of the Psalmist) will certainly not prevail, just as the grass will certainly wither and die once its season is over.
Such a reminder of God's enduring rule, and its inevitable consequences for the wicked, adds depth and context to the Psalm's closing observations about the righteous. The tree-like endurance and long, fruitful life they will enjoy under God's providence stands in contrast to the cheap and flimsy present prosperity of the wicked, just as the mighty cedars of Lebanon stand in contrast to a clump of grass.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:54-58
All the saints should not die, but all would be changed. In the gospel, many truths, before hidden in mystery, are made known. Death never shall appear in the regions to which our Lord will bear his risen saints. Therefore let us seek the full assurance of faith and hope, that in the midst of pain, and in the prospect of death, we may think calmly on the horrors of the tomb; assured that our bodies will there sleep, and in the mean time our souls will be present with the Redeemer. Sin gives death all its hurtful power. The sting of death is sin; but Christ, by dying, has taken out this sting; he has made atonement for sin, he has obtained remission of it. The strength of sin is the law. None can answer its demands, endure its curse, or do away his own transgressions. Hence terror and anguish. And hence death is terrible to the unbelieving and the impenitent. Death may seize a believer, but it cannot hold him in its power. How many springs of joy to the saints, and of thanksgiving to God, are opened by the death and resurrection, the sufferings and conquests of the Redeemer! In verse 58, we have an exhortation, that believers should be steadfast, firm in the faith of that gospel which the apostle preached, and they received. Also, to be unmovable in their hope and expectation of this great privilege, of being raised incorruptible and immortal. And to abound in the work of the Lord, always doing the Lord's service, and obeying the Lord's commands. May Christ give us faith, and increase our faith, that we may not only be safe, but joyful and triumphant.
Gospel Lk 6:39-45
The third and final section of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain begins: And he told them a parable. There are actually four parables, three of which we read today. They are all about how to be a good disciple.
The blind cannot lead the blind. And a disciple cannot be a good disciple unless he or she has learned from the teacher. Everyone who is fully trained is like the teacher who knows how to cure the blind. Before you can be a good disciple and teach others you must take care of yourself. Do not try to take a speck out of your brother’s eye until you have taken the board out of your own. Finally, only when you have purified yourself can you produce the good works that the teacher requires. Discipleship asks us to produce good deeds. But to produce them requires the integrity and purity of heart found in the teacher. When people see your good deeds they will know that this is because you have a good heart.
The final parable, which we do not read today, is about building on the solid foundation of rock and not on sand. This is the only way to face the difficulties a disciple will encounter and survive
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
The third and final section of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain begins: And he told them a parable. There are actually four parables, three of which we read today. They are all about how to be a good disciple.
The blind cannot lead the blind. And a disciple cannot be a good disciple unless he or she has learned from the teacher. Everyone who is fully trained is like the teacher who knows how to cure the blind. Before you can be a good disciple and teach others you must take care of yourself. Do not try to take a speck out of your brother’s eye until you have taken the board out of your own. Finally, only when you have purified yourself can you produce the good works that the teacher requires. Discipleship asks us to produce good deeds. But to produce them requires the integrity and purity of heart found in the teacher. When people see your good deeds they will know that this is because you have a good heart.
The final parable, which we do not read today, is about building on the solid foundation of rock and not on sand. This is the only way to face the difficulties a disciple will encounter and survive
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
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Sunday February 24 2019 Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 81
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Sm 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23
In those days, Saul went down to the desert of Ziph
with three thousand picked men of Israel,
to search for David in the desert of Ziph.
So David and Abishai went among Saul’s soldiers by night
and found Saul lying asleep within the barricade,
with his spear thrust into the ground at his head
and Abner and his men sleeping around him.
Abishai whispered to David:
“God has delivered your enemy into your grasp this day.
Let me nail him to the ground with one thrust of the spear;
I will not need a second thrust!”
But David said to Abishai, “Do not harm him,
for who can lay hands on the LORD’s anointed and remain unpunished?”
So David took the spear and the water jug from their place at Saul’s head,
and they got away without anyone’s seeing or knowing or awakening.
All remained asleep,
because the LORD had put them into a deep slumber.
Going across to an opposite slope,
David stood on a remote hilltop
at a great distance from Abner, son of Ner, and the troops.
He said: “Here is the king’s spear.
Let an attendant come over to get it.
The LORD will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness.
Today, though the LORD delivered you into my grasp,
I would not harm the LORD’s anointed.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:45-49
Brothers and sisters:
It is written, The first man, Adam, became a living being,
the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
But the spiritual was not first;
rather the natural and then the spiritual.
The first man was from the earth, earthly;
the second man, from heaven.
As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly,
and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.
Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.
Gospel Lk 6:27-38
Jesus said to his disciples:
“To you who hear I say,
love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well,
and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.
Give to everyone who asks of you,
and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
For if you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners do the same.
If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners,
and get back the same amount.
But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High,
for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give, and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.”
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Sm 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23
David’s troubles from Saul here begin again; and the clouds return after the rain, when one would have hoped the storm had blown over, and the sky had cleared upon that side; but after Saul had owned up to his fault in persecuting David, and acknowledged David’s title to the crown, yet here he revives the persecution, so perfectly lost was he to all sense of honor and virtue. The Ziphites informed him where David was, and he marched out with a considerable force in quest of him. David gained intelligence of his motions, and took a view of his camp. He and one of his men ventured into his camp in the night and found him and all his guards fast asleep. David, though much urged to it by his companions, would not take away Saul’s life, but only carried off his spear and his cruse of water. He produced these as a further witness for him that he did not design any ill to Saul, and reasoned with him upon his conduct. Saul was hereby convinced of his error, and once more desisted from persecuting David. The story is much like that which we had earlier in chapter 24. In that both David is delivered out of Saul’s hand, and Saul out of David’s.
Here is, David’s bold adventure into Saul’s camp in the night, accompanied only by his kinsman Abishai, the son of Zeruiah. He proposed it to him and to another of his confidants, but the other either declined it as too dangerous an enterprise, or at least was content that Abishai, who was forward to it, should run the risk of it rather than himself. Whether David was prompted to do this by his own courage, or by an extraordinary impression upon his spirits, or by the oracle, does not appear; but, like Gideon, he ventured through the guards, with a special assurance of the divine protection. The posture he found the camp in Saul lay sleeping in the trench, or, as some read it, in his chariot, and in the midst of his carriages, with his spear stuck in the ground by him, to be ready if his quarters should by beaten up and all the soldiers, even those that were appointed to stand sentinel, were fast asleep. Thus were their eyes closed and their hands bound, for a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them; something extraordinary there was in it that they should all be asleep together, and so fast asleep that David and Abishai walked and talked among them, and yet none of them stirred. Abishai’s request to David for a commission to dispatch Saul with the spear that stuck at his bolster. He would not urge David to kill him, because he had declined doing this before when he had a similar opportunity; but he begged earnestly that David would give him leave to do it, pleading that he was his enemy, not only cruel and implacable, but false and perfidious, whom no reason would rule nor kindness work upon, and that God had now delivered him into his hand, and did in effect bid him strike. The last advantage he had of this kind was indeed but accidental, when Saul happened to be in the cave with him at the same time. But in this there was something extraordinary; the deep sleep that had fallen on Saul and all his guards was manifestly from the Lord, so that it was a special providence which gave him this opportunity; he ought not therefore to let it slip. David’s generous refusal to allow any harm to be done to Saul, and in it a resolute adherence to his principles of loyalty. David charged Abishai not to destroy him, would not only not do it himself, but not permit another to do it. And he gave two reasons for it. It would be a sinful affront to God’s ordinance. Saul was the Lord’s anointed, king of Israel by the special appointment and nomination of the God of Israel, the power that was, and to resist him was to resist the ordinance of God, Rom. 13:2 . No man could do it and be guiltless. The thing he feared was guilt and his concern respected his innocence more than his safety. 2. It would be a sinful anticipation of God’s providence. God had sufficiently shown him, in Nabal’s case, that, if he left it to him to avenge him, he would do it in due time. Encouraged therefore by his experience in that instance, he resolves to wait till God shall think fit to avenge him on Saul, and he will by no means avenge himself. The temptation indeed was very strong; but, if he should yield, he would sin against God, and therefore he will resist the temptation with the utmost resolution. He and Abishai carried away the spear and cruse of water which Saul had by his bed-side (v. 12), and, which was very strange, none of all the guards were aware of it. If a physician had given them the strongest opiate or stupifying dose, they could not have been faster locked up with sleep. Saul’s spear which he had by him for defense, and his cup of water which he had for his refreshment, were both stolen from him while he slept. Thus do we lose our strength and our comfort when we are careless, and secure, and off our watch.
David reminds Saul again of the proof he had now given of his respect to him from a principle of loyalty: I would not stretch forth my hand against the Lord’s anointed, intimating to Saul that the anointing oil was his protection, for which he was indebted to the Lord and ought to express his gratitude to him (had he been a common person David would not have been so tender of him), perhaps with this further implication, that Saul knew, or had reason to think, David was the Lord’s anointed too, and therefore, by the same rule, Saul ought to be as tender of David’s life as David had been of his. Therefore, David went on his way. And, after this parting, it does not appear that Saul and David ever saw one another again.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13
What are the contours of praise for God?
How do we know it if we are actually engaged in it? Is it simply a matter of the emotions somehow reaching out to the creator of life in some message of thanksgiving? Is it more than emotions? Is the body involved in ways that transcend the mind to give forth something of gratitude to the God of all that is, ever was, and ever will be? If someone asked you to pick up a pencil and draw on paper a picture of praise, what would it look like and why? I think the very request to praise God invokes something deep within sinew and bone, molecule and atom that desires to express recognition for life caused by a power greater than what we can evoke or manufacture.
In Psalm 103, the writer contends that praise is something to be called forth from the people. It is an invitation to all who would listen to join with the writer in offering praise to the living God. But, what is praise? Of what does it consist? Is it something that only people can offer? Can animals and even plants offer praise? Do they have a capacity to render praise to God for life? Do we run the risk of anthropomorphizing everything if we even ask the question? Yet, there is something about the essence of praise that tugs at one’s skin, moves beneath the surface like blood through veins, and touches the sparks that travel along our brain’s axon and dendrite trails.
The question of an animal’s capacity to feel and think has long been debated. Some would contend that animals dream and thereby share something in common with humans. So what does this have to do with Psalm 103? I think it has everything and nothing to do with it. The psalms were written as poetic exhalations or inhalations that disclose something of the writer’s emotions and thinking at the time of their composition. They display something about the human capacity to reflect and imagine the greatness of God as one who is as intimate as breath and as distant as the farthest galaxy from human experience. God is both known and unknown at the same time. There is both an intimacy that transcends language and a distance that escapes human abilities to discern.
We share something with animals in this regard. Neither of us can determine the exact contours of God, nor can we discern the depth of God’s activity within and among us. Perhaps we can see glimpses, hear fleeting notes, or plumb the depths of imagination and critical reflection to discover something about God. However, all of human musings ought to be subject to careful examination and reflection. People also have a great capacity to believe what they want to believe regardless of what may be discernable or particularly evident in the facts spread before them. They choose at any moment to claim various degrees of certitude, but language breaks down quickly as it cannot carry the breadth nor depth of what draws forth praise from the living.
Psalm 103 inhales and exhales praise. It is a reflection on the contours of human capacities to know God and to exclaim that God has done and that God continues to do amazing things. Where is one’s inmost being? Is it lodged within sinew and bone or does it reside somewhere less material? Does it rest uneasily at some place in the mind where the past, present, and future are continually colliding to declare and dismiss at the same time the activity and presence of God?
Psalm 103 can be read like a reflecting pool that shows the clouds overhead and distant stars so that we might reach down and touch them. They are not the actual objects, but reflections of them. As such we are able to grasp something of their essence and as such they can push inward reflection on what they may mean. The Psalmist recounts the various activities of God and invites people to reflection about them.
God heals diseases, redeems people from pits, crowns people with love and compassion, gives good things for human desires, renews one’s youth like the eagles, and works righteousness and aims toward justice for all of the oppressed. This image of God is one that comprises a theology of hope in the midst of hardships. It is a perception of God that provides courage to face the trials of the day be they war, disease, despair, loneliness, unjust systems of oppression, or anything that would cause human life to be diminished in some way.
The Psalmist in these verses provides a type of heat to the waters of personal experience and declares to those who would hear something about a God that is not only worthy of praise, but who can and does meet people in the contexts of life to provide solace, comfort, and strength. This recognition alone when coupled with personal experience draws forth from people something deep within and expels it outward into the sky as activities of praise.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:45-49
Gospel Lk 6:27-38
Today's gospel reading is a continuation of the teaching that began in last Sunday's gospel. We continue to hear Jesus' Sermon on the Plain. Recall that in Luke's Gospel, this teaching is addressed to Jesus' disciples. This is in contrast to the parallel found in Matthew's Gospel, the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus' words are addressed to both the disciples and to the crowds.
These words from Jesus' teaching are familiar to us. They constitute the crux and the challenge of what it means to be a disciple: Love your enemies, turn the other cheek, give to those who ask, do unto others, lend without expecting repayment, judge not lest you be judged.
There are several similarities between Luke's and Matthew's report of Jesus' great teaching. Both begin with the Beatitudes. Matthew includes nearly all the content that Luke does; the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel is longer than Luke's Sermon on the Plain. There are, however, differences in language and nuance. For example, Matthew presents this portion of the teaching as a contrast between Jesus' teaching and the teachings of the law and the prophets. This is in keeping with Matthew's concern to address his predominantly Jewish audience. It is likely that Luke omits this contrast because it was unnecessary for the Gentile believers for whom Luke is writing.
Another point of contrast between Matthew and Luke's presentation is the terminology. In Luke, Jesus contrasts the behavior of his followers with the behavior of “sinners.” In Matthew, Jesus contrasts the behavior desired with the behavior of tax collectors and Gentiles. Matthew concludes the teaching about love of enemies with the admonition to be perfect as God is perfect; Luke concludes by emphasizing God's mercy.
In both Gospels, Jesus' words challenge those who would follow him to be more like God. God loves us beyond our expectations, beyond anything we can possibly imagine. In response to God's love, we are to love as God loves, beyond expectations and with a depth beyond imagining.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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Sunday February 17 2019 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 78
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 17:5-8
Thus says the LORD:
Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a barren bush in the desert
that enjoys no change of season,
but stands in a lava waste,
a salt and empty earth.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
it fears not the heat when it comes;
its leaves stay green;
in the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked,
nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
but delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
that yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:12, 16-20
Brothers and sisters:
If Christ is preached as raised from the dead,
how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised,
and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain;
you are still in your sins.
Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,
we are the most pitiable people of all.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Gospel Lk 6:17, 20-26
Jesus came down with the twelve
and stood on a stretch of level ground
with a great crowd of his disciples
and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.
And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false
prophets in this way.”
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 17:5-8
The divided heart. Thi seems to be the condition of most of the Christian world at the present time.
Jeremiah kept telling the people of Judah that God's judgment was coming, but the people just wouldn't listen. They had a divided heart. They wanted to hold on to God with one hand, but they wanted to hold on to the sinful things of the world with the other hand.
God said that they had written their sin in such a way that it wasn't going to be erased. It was engraved, not in stone, but even worse: it was engraved on the tablets of their hearts! That means they were fully satisfied with their sin and had no plans to change.
What's sad is that these folks would have argued that they were worshippers of Jehovah God, but in the practical everyday living of their lives, there was not much to prove it.
Jeremiah kept preaching, and they kept not listening. As a matter of fact, when you come to chapter 26, the people had become very tired of Jeremiah's preaching, and in essence said, "It's time for us to get ourselves another preacher, but first we've got to get rid of this one." Do you think that ever happens in this modern day in which we live? They tried to kill Jeremiah, but God delivered him.
In v5, God speaks to these people. They bring a curse on themselves. It is a curse that is a result of their own doings. They're conducting their lives like people who know nothing about God, and their hearts are departed from all they've been taught.
Will God just let this go? V6, answers that question. They will be like a "barren bush in the desert." Some of the more modern translations say, "a shrub in the desert." The Hebrew word literally says "naked, or destitute." They do not have any real help in their times of trouble.
Why will God not help them? He would, if they would humble themselves, and pray, and seek His face, but they won't do it, and He will not bless sinfulness.
A person who really knows God, but has come to have a departed heart, is in a very dangerous position.
Look at this! It's like finding a gardenia in a garbage can! In the midst of all these people who seemed to have no fear of God, there are some who do, and God says that they are "blessed."
They trust in the Lord. If God's word says it, then as far as they're concerned that's the way it is. For them, every man is a liar when compared to God.
Their hope is in the Lord. They confidently look forward to what God has said, through the eyes of faith. If they see an unfavorable stock market report, they don't panic, because they stock market is not their source, God is their source.
If the doctor says, "It's really bad, they don't give up, because their hope is not in the doctor, their hope is in the Great Physician, and they are fully persuaded that God has the last word.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
This deceptively simple psalm serves as the introduction to the Psalter and sets before us, the readers, a vision of life as a journey marked by bifurcating paths: turn one way, happiness (1:1), another, destruction (1:6).
Our psalmist, to entice us to choose the happy trail, paints the happy life with images stolen from paradise -- verdant with plant life, nourished by gentle waters, seasonably fruitful, and unfailingly prosperous (1:3). The psalmist invites us to the royal garden, perhaps atop the Mountain of God, Eden-like. In contrast, he likens the fate of those who choose to turn at the forks of life’s journey time and again toward destruction, not simply to chaff, but to chaff that the discerning wind drives out of the garden into judgment (1:4-5).
The choice would appear clear: reject the path that leads to destruction and choose the other path, the happy life. But where might we find this path to the garden? Dutifully, the psalmist announces:
Happy is the one … [whose] delight is in the law of the LORD,
and [who] on his law meditates day and night.
One mystery remains: What is “the law of the LORD,” and what does it require?
The Law of the LORD as the Pentateuch
The Jewish Bible is organized differently from the Christian Old Testament and is comprised of three parts: in order, the Torah (the Pentateuch), the Neviim (most of the historical and prophetic books of the Christian Old Testament), and the Ketuvim (which begins with Psalms and concludes with Chronicles).
In the first chapter of Joshua, the first book of the Neviim, God tells Joshua: “[Act] in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you … This book of the law … you shall meditate on it day and night … For then you shall make your way prosperous” (Joshua 1:7, 8). In this passage, “this book of the law” refers to Deuteronomy and more expansively to the entire Pentateuch, the Torah. And, if the “way” of Joshua and the nation he now leads is to “prosper,” Joshua will need to “mediate … day and night” on the Torah, the law of the LORD.
The beginning of the Ketuvim, namely Psalm 1, echoes the beginning of the Neviim and likewise highlights the priority and vital importance of the Torah. Repeating words from Joshua, our psalmist proclaims: “Happy is the one … [whose] delight is in the law of the LORD, / and [who] on his law meditates day and night … In all that he does, he will prosper” (1:1, 2, 3 author’s translation). If we are right that Psalm 1 alludes to Joshua 1, then the psalmist’s “law of the LORD” refers to “the law that my servant Moses commanded you … this book of the law,” namely, the Torah.
When we identify the “law of the LORD” with the Torah, we transform Psalm 1 into an interpretative key to the Torah and the Neviim, and vice versa. Our psalm, with Joshua 1, exhorts us to mediate for teaching that leads to happiness and, correspondingly, to read the Neviim, the stories of Joshua to Kings and the prophecies of Isaiah to Malachi, as the arena in which the psalmist’s claim that “Happy is the one … ” plays out. How do you learn not to walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers? Meditate on the Scripture. How happy is a tree planted by streams of water and how miserable the fate of the wicked?
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:12, 16-20
First Corinthians 15 is a great way to open discussions about the historical shape of early Christian confession and faith. There are other verses in here which are not in verses shown but I think they some continuity of thought.
This Pauline letter is one of earliest writings in the New Testament, alongside his Thessalonian correspondence. It predates the writing of the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation by decades. Moreover, it is one of the earliest writings to follow on the heels of the Christ event (e.g., life, ministry, death, resurrection) some twenty to twenty-five years later.
The passage is an interesting window into the theological imagination and confessional life of the early Church as well as Paul. It is striking how Paul refers to the authority of a tradition that predates him in a letter where he is busy asserting his own authority and perspective in the present moment. Repeatedly, Paul makes statements such as, “I laid the foundation, and someone else builds” , “To the rest I say -- I and not the Lord…” In each instance, Paul stands flat-footed on his own theological and leadership laurels and he makes demands on the lives of the Corinthians.
Although Paul makes demands based on his own perspective, he, nonetheless, leverages the confessional traditions and history of those who precede him. He says in 1 Cor 15:3, “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures…” Paul discloses that the content of his Gospel, not necessarily his ethical advice, comes from elsewhere. The proclamation of Christ’s death is not an invention but a recollection. Paul rehearses the traditions of the community as a way to unify the divisive Corinthians around one banner -- namely their shared experience of belief in Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:11).
According to Paul, this passing of tradition from one person to another is an essential characteristic of the Christian experience. Several times in this letter he reminds the congregation that he is handing onto them (paradidomi) what he already received (1 Cor 11:2, 23; 15:3). The proper way for them to practice Christian confession and faith is to continue the tradition of information sharing: “I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions just as I handed them on to you” (1 Cor 11:2). In so many words, Paul tells them to duplicate his actions, linking remembrance with active communication (1 Cor 4:16; 11:1).
One useful way for understanding the literary shape of this section is as a creedal story.
These verses are full of creedal language and resonances. In these creedal statements one can undoubtedly hear a precursor to the Apostle’s Creed (1 Corinthians 15:3b-5a): “…Christ died for our sins…he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day…and that he appeared…” Paul’s creedal statement here balances the idea that Christ died and was raised with the language that Christ was also seen, repeatedly.
The opening verses to chapter 15 in 1 Corinthians call us to remember the words of faith that have encouraged us. They invite readers to engage in the spiritual practice of personal recollection and group confession. We are reminded that a “great cloud of witnesses” from the past and present surround us (Heb 11:1). In terms of the future, we are called to be witnesses to future generations of this living hope. It is an invitation to boldly state what we believe together, and in that way truly become connected confessional people.
Gospel Lk 6:17, 20-26
Last Sunday we heard Jesus call Peter to be his disciple. Jesus then travels with Peter and the other disciples. Luke reports acts of healing (a person with leprosy and a paralytic man) and the call of Levi, the tax collector. Jesus also replies to questions from the Pharisees regarding fasting and the observance of the Sabbath. In the verses immediately before today's gospel reading, Jesus is reported to have chosen 12 men from among his disciples to be apostles. Apostle is a Greek word that means “one who is sent.”
Today's gospel reading is the beginning of what is often called the Sermon on the Plain. We find a parallel to this passage in Matthew 5:1-7,11 that is often called the Sermon on the Mount. As these titles suggest, there are differences and similarities between these gospel readings.
When spoken from the mountaintop in Matthew's Gospel, we can't miss the impression that Jesus is speaking with the authority and voice of God. The mountaintop is a symbol of closeness to God. Those who ascend the mountain see God and speak for God; recall the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments. As Luke introduces the location of Jesus' teaching, Jesus teaches on level ground, alongside the disciples and the crowd. Luke presents Jesus' authority in a different light. He is God among us.
Another distinction found in Luke's version is the audience. Luke's Sermon on the Plain is addressed to Jesus' disciples, although in the presence of the crowd; Matthew's Sermon on the Mount is addressed to the crowd. In keeping with this style, the Beatitudes in Luke's Gospel sound more personal than those in Matthew's Gospel—Luke uses the article “you” whereas Matthew uses “they” or “those.” There is also a difference in number: Matthew describes eight beatitudes; Luke presents just four, each of which has a parallel warning.
The form of the Beatitudes found in Luke's and Matthew's Gospel is not unique to Jesus. Beatitudes are found in the Old Testament, such as in the Psalms and in Wisdom literature. They are a way to teach about who will find favor with God. The word blessed in this context might be translated as “happy,” “fortunate,” or “favored.”
As we listen to this Gospel, the Beatitudes jar our sensibilities. Those who are poor, hungry, weeping, or persecuted are called blessed. This is, indeed, a Gospel of reversals. Those often thought to have been forgotten by God are called blessed. In the list of “woes,” those whom we might ordinarily describe as blessed by God are warned about their peril. Riches, possessions, laughter, reputation . . . these are not things that we can depend upon as sources of eternal happiness. They not only fail to deliver on their promise; our misplaced trust in them will lead to our demise. The ultimate peril is in misidentifying the source of our eternal happiness.
The Beatitudes are often described as a framework for Christian living. Our vocation as Christians is not to be first in this world, but rather to be first in the eyes of God. We are challenged to examine our present situation in the context of our ultimate horizon, the Kingdom of God.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen
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Sunday February 10 2019 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 75
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 6:1-2a, 3-8
In the year King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne,
with the train of his garment filling the temple.
Seraphim were stationed above.
They cried one to the other,
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!
All the earth is filled with his glory!"
At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook
and the house was filled with smoke.
Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips;
yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
Then one of the seraphim flew to me,
holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
He touched my mouth with it, and said,
"See, now that this has touched your lips,
your wickedness is removed, your sin purged."
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
"Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?"
"Here I am," I said; "send me!"
Responsorial Psalm Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Because of your kindness and your truth;
for you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
when they hear the words of your mouth;
and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD:
"Great is the glory of the LORD."
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Your right hand saves me.
The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:1-11
I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, Christ appeared to more
than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles,
not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace to me has not been ineffective.
Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them;
not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed.
Gospel Lk 5:1-11
While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening
to the word of God,
he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake;
the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
"Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch."
Simon said in reply,
"Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets."
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats
so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
"Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men."
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 6:1-2a, 3-8
The opening verse brings comfort in that although the earthly kingship is under transition, the heavenly kingship is secure with the Lord sitting on a throne described as “high and lofty” (Isaiah 6:1). This throne is flanked by seraphs, likely some sort of winged serpent (see also Numbers 21:6; Deuteronomy 8:15; Isaiah 14:29; 30:6.)
Isaiah then moves to a puzzling image to address this military crisis. The passage emphasizes the holiness of God, and not his might. The seraphs, or angels, flank the Lord, and declare to each other:
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts;
The whole earth is full of his glory (Isaiah 6:3).
Isaiah uses the appropriate title of the Lord of Hosts, drawing on the theme of YHWH as our warrior, fighting for us. But such fighting does not depend on traditional military categories of weaponry, troops, or strategies. The Assyrians were vastly superior to Judah in all of these categories. Rather, Isaiah chooses to emphasize the grand holiness of God, expansive to the ends of the earth. Together, the passage makes two assumptions: (1) holiness, and not military might, will protect the people; (2) the glory of the Lord goes far beyond the borders of the vast Assyrian empire.
The holiness of God then confronts Isaiah to look at his own lack. For although God is great and holy, the prophet realizes his meagerness. He justly worries over his presence before the grandeur of the Lord (Exodus 33:20).
He expresses his own despair in that he is “lost” and that both him and his people have “unclean lips.” The verbal declarations of praise did not match the heart of unfaithfulness. It is remarkable that Isaiah would be called to a spoken prophetic ministry with such lips.
But at this point, the seraph approaches with a live coal. Apparently, the coal was too hot to touch even for a seraph so Isaiah 6:6 mentions a “pair of tongs.” Imagine the biting pain placing such coal on the lips of Isaiah. Fire has a cleansing, atoning purpose, but the pain must have been brutal. The cleansing of sin is not easy. But the touching of the coal to the lips cleanses the prophet, and prepares him for a life of prophecy. As it turns out, the sanctioned words of a fierce prophet prove more powerful and enduring than any military leader. Isaiah’s ministry pushes God’s people to lives of holiness, that they may be set apart from the other nations.
From Isaiah 6:8, the Lord asks the question and the prophet delivers a powerful response, “Here am I, send me.”
The voice continues to ask us. In a broken world, with injustice all over the world, and brokenness in our own homes, who will speak for the Lord. God asks, what will we say? By ourselves, we are so inadequate. We literally deserve death in the presence of God.
But through God’s grace, we may stand and be his lips, confident on his power (not ours) that we too can express, “Here am I. Send Me.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
In eight brief verses, the singer of Psalm 138 gives thanks to God in the presence of three groups: the gods (verses 1-3); the kings of the earth (verses 4-6); and enemies (verses 7-8). Second-person pronouns abound in verses 1-3, occurring eleven times as the psalmist addresses God directly.
In verse 1, the psalmist gives thanks to God, making music in the presence of the gods. Psalms 135 and 136 also mention “the gods.” In Psalm 135:5 the singer declares “great is the LORD, our God, our Lord, more than all the gods.” And in Psalm 136:2-3, the psalmist says, “Give thanks to the god of gods … give thanks to the lord of lords.” Such phrases are common in the Old Testament, expressing God’s sovereignty over any claimants to the appellation “god.”
In verse 2 of Psalm 138, the psalm singer continues the words of thanks, this time to the “name (shem)” of god, because of God’s “steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness (‘emeth).” “Name” was an important concept in the ancient Near East. Names reflected the natures and characters of the person who bore them and were conceptually equal to the essence of ones being. The name “Jacob” means “he usurps,” because he grabs Esau’s heel at the birth, attempting to be the first-born twin (Genesis 25:26). He indeed usurps Esau later in life when he coerces Esau into selling to him his birthright and when he tricks Isaac into giving him the blessing.
After wrestling at the Jabbok, God changes Jacob’s name to “Israel,” which means “he has struggled with God” (Genesis 32:28). During Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush in Exodus 3, Moses replies to God’s command to return to Egypt with a seemingly simple request. “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I tell them?” (3:13).
Moses asks for God’s name in order to fully understand and then convey to the Israelites who this God was. In Exodus 20, God commanded the Israelites that they not “make wrongful use of” God’s name. And the book of Deuteronomy tells us that God’s name will dwell in the place of God’s choosing in the promised land (Deuteronomy 12:5; 14:23-24; 16:2).
The word “steadfast love (hesed)” occurs some 245 times in the Old Testament, 127 times in the book of Psalms. One Jewish scholar defines hesed as “a free-flowing love that knows no bounds.” Hesed is most closely connected conceptually with the covenant relationship between God and children of Israel. Genesis 17 records these words of God to Abram, “I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now alien … and I will be their God” (verses 7-8).
In verse 3, the psalm singer states what has prompted these words of thanks to God. The first begins in most English translations with the words “On the day that I called,” suggesting a particular point in time when the psalmist cried out. In Hebrew, however, the phrase has a broader temporal frame of reference, best understood as “whenever.” Thus, the psalmist thanks God for answering whenever the psalmist cries out.
In verse 4, the venue of thanks and singing to God shifts from the realm of the gods (verse 1) to the earthly realm of kings. The reason that kings ought to join the psalm singer in giving thanks and singing to God is three-fold: 1) The kings have heard the words (verse 4b; 2b); 2) The glory of the Lord is great (verse 5b); and the Lord is exalted, seeing and knowing the states of the lowly and the haughty alike (verse 6).
God stretches out a hand (verse 7); God’s hand delivers (verse 7); and the psalmist asks God not to “forsake” the “work of your hands” (verse 8). The word translated “forsake” is rapah and means “be slack, be loosened, be weak.” The psalmist has experienced God’s upholding hands over and over in the past and petitions God to continue to uphold and protect.
Psalm 138 celebrates the name, the steadfast love, the faithfulness, and the intimate care of God in the myriad places in which we find ourselves in life -- our sanctuaries of safety; our chaotic social, political, and economic world; our daily trials and troubles. The psalm singer reminds the faithful that their God is a God who remembers and cares; that their God is a God worthy of thanks and worship; and that their God is a God above all gods
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:1-11
The entirety of this chapter is the eloquent center of Paul's primary argument for the Resurrection.
As a result, these first eleven verses should be considered as a prologue to what is laid out in the remainder of the chapter. Paul introduces himself in relationship to the Resurrection as an apostle, though one with a mixed and questionable lineage. The God-given authority of his apostleship is the rationale for proclaiming the Resurrection and for his witness to be accepted among the Corinthians.
Rhetorically, the question of ethos (personal image and credibility) is a major feature of these eleven verses. Paul was not among the original group of apostles who experienced the historical Jesus directly. He came to belief through the bitter avenue of his personal persecutions of believers and so he admits in verse 9 that "For I am the least of the apostles...."
By claiming apostleship, he deftly alters the historical meaning of an apostle -- one who experienced Jesus in his earthly life -- to include one who also experienced him at other levels of reality. Paul alludes to this encounter in verse 8 where "he appeared also to me."
This text can be divided into these four sections: Paul's rationale for why his message should be accepted (verses 1-3); the content of Paul's message concerning Jesus (verses 3, 4); the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus (verses 5-8) and a reiteration of the type of apostle which Paul considers himself to be in relationship to proclaiming the gospel.
Paul starts his discussion of the Resurrection by reminding the Corinthians that they heard it from him. He affirms that this message means "you are being saved" (verse 2) and that they have a responsibility for this salvation "if you hold firmly to the message that I have proclaimed" (verse 2). Paul combines remembrance of his Corinthian relationships with admonition and a reminder of the salvific benefits of the Gospel.
Paul then describes the content of his message, creedal in form. Jesus died for our sins "in accordance with the scriptures" (verse 3). He was then raised and again Paul reiterates the phrase here "in accordance with scriptures" (verse 4). This two-fold repetition is significant! Proclaimers should remember that this reference might be lost on contemporary listeners, who can miss the fact that "scriptures" meant Hebrew Scriptures only.
In the third part of this text, Paul lists the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. He notes that "he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve" (verse 5). At this point, Paul's list omits the most obvious part of all the gospel resurrection narratives, when his account is set next to them -- where are the women? Paul's writings precede the writing of the Gospels. It is historically impossible to know what kind of information Paul received from others about the resurrection. As with all accounts, his list is partial. No witness has the entire story!
Paul continues his list with Jesus' appearance to hundreds of men and women, to Jesus' brother James, and "all the apostles," (verse 7). This reference seems to indicate far more people than the original twelve. The final section, verses 9 -11, is a splendid combination of personal confession and assertion of Paul as an apostle, with his short comings and the gift of his apostleship.
He confesses he was late to his work -- "one untimely born" (verse 8) -- and actually "unfit to be called an apostle" (verse 9). He states clearly that he is undeserving of what he is doing for one simple reason: "because I persecuted the church of God." (verse 9). The phrasing is interesting here because he ascribes the church to God, a will that laid its foundations prior to Jesus' appearance.
Paul continues to show what undergirds his work (including his boast that "I worked harder than any of them" verse 10b). In verse 10 he mentions "the grace of God" -- twice. God's grace is what supports Paul in terms of his self-understanding "I am what I am" (verse 10) as well as his work. In both personality and deeds, Paul senses God's presence and grace.
Paul concludes this introduction by admitting that it doesn't make any difference --really -- from whom the Corinthians heard the gospel. The most important thing is "you have come to believe." (verse 11). This is a generous statement in view of the jealousy Church leader's exhibit over taking credit for their deeds!
Gospel Lk 5:1-11
Last Sunday, we heard how Jesus was rejected in his hometown of Nazareth. In the verses that follow, Jesus travels to the town of Capernaum and begins his ministry of teaching and healing. While in Capernaum, Jesus cures a man possessed with a demon and heals Simon's mother-in-law. After spending some time there, Jesus prepares to preach in other places. The fact that Jesus had previously been in Simon's home and healed his mother-in-law suggests that this encounter is not the first between Jesus and Simon Peter. We can read today's Gospel, therefore, as a description of the developing relationship between Jesus and Simon Peter.
In today's Gospel, Jesus teaches from Simon's boat. Jesus turns to Simon and instructs him about where to lower the fishing nets. Simon and others have been fishing throughout the night and have not caught anything. Simon protests, claiming that such an effort would be futile. Simon ultimately obeys Jesus and lowers his nets into the deeper water as directed. Notice here that Peter calls Jesus by the title “master.” He already recognizes Jesus as a person of authority. They catch so many fish that the nets begin to tear; Jesus' presence has created abundance out of scarcity, just as it did at the wedding feast at Cana, which we heard at Mass just a few weeks ago.
Simon Peter becomes a follower of Jesus immediately. He calls Jesus “Lord”—the title given to Jesus after his Resurrection—and protests his worthiness to be in Jesus' presence. Today's Gospel, therefore, marks a turning point in the relationship between Jesus and Peter.
Two of Simon's partners are also named as witnesses to the event described in today's Gospel: Zebedee's sons, James and John. Yet Jesus' words are addressed only to Simon. Jesus gives Simon a new job, telling him that he will become a different kind of fisherman. No longer will he catch fish; instead he will catch people. In these words, we hear the beginning of the leadership role that Peter will have within the community of disciples. Peter was chosen for this role. His task will be to bring others to Jesus. Already he is doing so; the Gospel tells us that all the fishermen with Peter also left their nets and followed Jesus.
We continue to speak of Peter's leadership and influence in the Church today when we call the pope the “successor of Peter.” We participate in the mission of the Church when we bring people to Christ through the example and positive influence of our lives.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance everywhere I go;
Flood my soul with your spirit and life;
Penetrate and possess my whole being so completely
That all my life may be only a radiance of yours;
Shine through me and be so in me
That everyone with whom I come into contact
May feel your presence within me.
Let them look up and see no longer me—but only Jesus.
Amen.
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Sunday February 3 2019 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 72
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 1:4-5, 17-19
The word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I dedicated you,
a prophet to the nations I appointed you.
But do you gird your loins;
stand up and tell them
all that I command you.
Be not crushed on their account,
as though I would leave you crushed before them;
for it is I this day
who have made you a fortified city,
a pillar of iron, a wall of brass,
against the whole land:
against Judah's kings and princes,
against its priests and people.
They will fight against you but not prevail over you,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 71:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15-17
R. I will sing of your salvation.
In you, O LORD, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me, and deliver me;
incline your ear to me, and save me.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
Be my rock of refuge,
a stronghold to give me safety,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
For you are my hope, O Lord;
my trust, O God, from my youth.
On you I depend from birth;
from my mother's womb you are my strength.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
My mouth shall declare your justice,
day by day your salvation.
O God, you have taught me from my youth,
and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:31—13:13
Brothers and sisters:
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.
But I shall show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in human and angelic tongues,
but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy,
and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own,
and if I hand my body over so that I may boast,
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
It is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease;
if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
Gospel Lk 4:21-30
Jesus began speaking in the synagogue, saying:
"Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?"
He said to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb,
'Physician, cure yourself,' and say,
'Do here in your native place
the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'"
And he said, "Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you,
there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built,
to hurl him down headlong.
But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 1:4-5, 17-19
The Lectioner has chosen some specific verses from Chapter 1 for today’s reading. It is helpful to review the “in between” verses to get a fuller understanding of the reading.
In this chapter we have, I. The general inscription or title of this book, with the time of the continuance of Jeremiah’s public ministry (v. 1-3). II. The call of Jeremiah to the prophetic office, his modest objection against it answered, and an ample commission given him for the execution of it (v. 4-10). III. The visions of an almond-rod and a seething-pot, signifying the approaching ruin of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (v. 11-16). IV. Encouragement given to the prophet to go on undauntedly in his work, in an assurance of God’s presence with him (v. 17-19). Thus is he set to work by one that will be sure to bear him out.
Verses 1-3 We have here as much as it was thought fit we should know of the genealogy of this prophet and the chronology of this prophecy. 1. We are told what family the prophet was of. He was the son of Hilkiah, not that Hilkiah, it is supposed, who was high priest in Josiah’s time (for then he would have been called so, and not, as here, one of the priests that were in Anathoth), but another of the same name. Jeremiah signifies one raised up by the Lord. It is said of Christ that he is a prophet whom the Lord our God raised up unto us, Deu. 18:15, Deu. 18:18 . He was of the priests, and, as a priest, was authorized and appointed to teach the people; but to that authority and appointment God added the extraordinary commission of a prophet.
Verses 4-10 Here is, I. Jeremiah’s early designation to the work and office of a prophet, which God gives him notice of as a reason for his early application to that business (v. 4, v. 5): The word of the Lord came to him, with a satisfying assurance to himself that it was the word of the Lord and not a delusion; and God told him, 1. That he had ordained him a prophet to the nations, or against the nations, the nation of the Jews in the first place, who are now reckoned among the nations because they had learned their works and mingled with them in their idolatries, for otherwise they would not have been numbered with them, Num. 23:9 . Yet he was given to be a prophet, not to the Jews only, but to the neighboring nations, to whom he was to send yokes ch. 27:2, ch. 27:3 ) and whom he must make to drink of the cup of the Lord’s anger, ch. 25:17 .
With this trust Jeremiah has a charge given him (v. 17): "Thou, therefore, gird up thy loins; free thyself from all those things that would unfit thee for or hinder thee in this service; buckle to it with readiness and resolution, and be not entangled with doubts about it.’’ He must be quick: Arise, and lose no time. He must be busy: Arise, and speak unto them in season, out of season. He must be bold: Be not dismayed at their faces, as before, v. 8. In a word, he must be faithful; it is required of ambassadors that they be so. In two things he must be faithful:—(1.) He must speak all that he is charged with: Speak all that I command thee. He must forget nothing as minute, or foreign, or not worth mentioning; every word of God is weighty. He must conceal nothing for fear of offending; he must alter nothing under pretense of making it more fashionable or more palatable, but, without addition or diminution, declare the whole counsel of God. He must speak to all that he is charged against; he must not whisper it in a corner to a few particular friends that will take it well, but he must appear against the kings of Judah, if they be wicked kings, and bear his testimony against the sins even of the princes thereof; for the greatest of men are not exempt from the judgments either of God’s hand or of his mouth.
Nay, he must not spare the priests thereof; though he himself was a priest, and was concerned to maintain the dignity of his order, yet he must not therefore flatter them in their sins. Because he had no reason to fear the wrath of men if he were faithful; for the God whom he served would protect him, and bear him out, so that they should neither sink his spirits nor drive him off from his work, should neither stop his mouth nor take away his life, till he had finished his testimony, v. 18. This young stripling of a prophet is made by the power of God as an impregnable city, fortified with iron pillars and surrounded with walls of brass; he sallies out upon the enemy in reproofs and threats, and keeps them in awe. They set upon him on every side; the kings and princes batter him with their power, the priests thunder against him with their church-censures, and the people of the land shoot their arrows at him, even slanderous and bitter words; but he shall keep his ground and make his part good with them; he shall still be a curb upon them (v. 19): They shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail to destroy thee, for I am with thee to deliver thee out of their hands; nor shall they prevail to defeat the word that God sends them by Jeremiah, nor to deliver themselves; it shall take hold of them, for God is against them to destroy them. Note, Those who are sure that they have God with them (as he is if they be with him) need not, ought not, to be afraid, whoever is against them.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 71:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15-17
It may not be a stretch to claim this Psalm as such, particularly since it borrows lines from other Psalms with frequency (e.g.: Psalm 22, 31, and 38). And, like so many other Psalms in the Psalter, Psalm 71 makes use of the familiar prayer pattern that moves from petition to declaration.
Though construed as a prayer, this Psalm is primarily a declaration of an individual’s trust and hope in God that can be voiced in various life stages: birth (v. 6), youth (vv. 5, 17), and old age (vv. 9, 18). No matter when it is voiced, one thing is sure: the Psalm’s message of trusting and hoping in a faithful God is capable of enduring throughout the long-haul of life.
Compared to its predecessor Psalm 70, Psalm 71 is a less urgent plea for help and a more sturdy statement of hope and trust. While the suppliant is not immediately apparent, it may be that the Psalm is voiced from the perspective of an individual in a later stage of life capable of reflecting on all stages. That individual could be David in old age shortly after Absalom’s revolt, or more likely a member of the Rechabite community in exile (see Jeremiah 35). Verse 21 suggests the author of the psalm could have been a leader.
A psalm of hope
The verses laid out in this week’s lectionary passage introduce a structure that will be maintained throughout the remainder of Psalm 71. The Psalmist issues an opening statement requesting help (v. 1-4), and follows with a statement of trust (v. 5-8). This pattern repeats itself in verses 9-13 and 14-17, as well as in verse 18 and 19-24.
From the opening four verses, it is clear that the Psalmist is entirely dependent on God (v. 1) because of God’s righteousness (v. 2). In contrast to other passages of scripture that speak metaphorically of YHWH as a high cliff or ask to be taken away to Zion, this Psalmist claims YHWH is an abode under which to take refuge (v. 3). Perhaps a victim of some sort, the Psalmist trusts that God has the ability and the power to set the wicked, the unjust, and the cruel right (v. 4). Here, the Psalmist is making an eschatological statement that even in the midst of powerful opposition, God will rule and prevail over that which is unjust in both the short-term as well as the long-term (v. 3-4).
Verses 5 and 6 make clear that any strength the Psalmist will have does not reside in self, but in God. How does the Psalmist know this? By experiencing YHWH’s protection and deliverance throughout a lifetime. In other words, from the womb until old age, the Psalmist has always, and will always belong to God (v. 5-6a). Praise, then, is the most appropriate expression to God. This praise is not a once-in-a-while liturgical action, but an action that imitates God’s care over the Psalmist’s lifetime. Thus, praise becomes an ongoing, continual action of living a sacrificial life of worship (v. 6b).
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:31—13:13
What I find interesting about the Corinthians is that they challenged Paul; they offered their own ideas about his gospel and defended their interpretations at least as passionately as Paul argued for his own. Thus, the relationship between the Corinthians and Paul can serve as a healthy model for integrating dispute and disagreement into the modern, post-modern, or emergent church which still thinks about what it should become and how it should behave in the world.
In this particular installment of the disagreement between the Corinthians and Paul, Paul is reflecting upon the diversity of gifts at play in the community at Corinth. Apparently, their house churches had plenty of people feeling like they brought something special to the life of the church: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). Because of that diversity of gifts, there seemed to have been some talk among the Corinthians about whose gift was best.
So Paul tells them I shall show you a still more excellent way.
Paul's answer begins with the spirit. In the passage directly after this one, he will use the metaphor of the body to strengthen his argument (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) and bring the discussion to a temporary close in chapter 13, with the famous reflection on love. Paul's answer begins with the spirit. In the passage directly after this one, he will use the metaphor of the body to strengthen his argument (1
Corinthians 12:12-31) and bring the discussion to a temporary close in chapter 13, with the famous reflection on love.
In his love poem, Paul makes a decisive shift, diminishing the allure of spiritual gifts and functions. Tongues, prophesy, knowledge, miracles, servanthood to the point of death are important, but they still do not qualify as the “more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31). Love is the key.
The problem of the Corinthian community seemed to have been that there were too many people claiming the special value of their own particular gifts, too many people wanting to be involved and participate in the life of the community, and thinking that their involvement was better than that of their neighbor. Paul needed to level the playing the field and bring unity where there was division.
Because of the popularity of 1 Corinthians 13 in our modern context, it is easy to miss the flexibility Paul exercises concerning the triad of faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Most people think Paul’s list is fixed with faith first, love as the bookend, and hope as the middle. Actually, Paul uses this triad elsewhere and in a different configuration.
He tailors the triad to fit the community he addresses. For example, in the Letter of 1 Thessalonians the triad appears twice, In both instances, the order Paul rehearses is faith, love, and hope (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 5:8). Paul shifts the order because the Thessalonian church excels in faith and love but struggles with hope (1 Thessalonians 1:8; 3:6), especially hope for the future (1 Thessalonians 2:19, 4:13).
Accordingly, Paul underscores the primacy of love in 1 Corinthians 13 because it is the spiritual resource the Corinthians lacks most. Paul describes “the work of love”. Paul says love is: patient, kind, and selfless. It involves truth-telling, fortitude, constancy, and tolerance (1 Corinthians 13:4-5,7).
Gospel Lk 4:21-30
This Sunday we read from the Gospel of Luke, continuing immediately from last week's Gospel. Recall that in last Sunday's Gospel, Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah and announced that this Scripture was now fulfilled. In today's Gospel, we learn that the people of Nazareth are impressed by Jesus' words, and yet they seem surprised. They still think of Jesus as merely Joseph's son. They do not expect such words from someone they believe that they know.
This Gospel is about who Jesus is and who people believe him to be. The story of Jesus' preaching and rejection at Nazareth is found in each of the Synoptic Gospels. In Luke's Gospel, this incident is told in a way that foretells Jesus' passion and death and helps explain the inclusion of the Gentiles in the promise of salvation. In Luke's Gospel this incident appears at the beginning of Jesus' ministry; in Matthew and Mark, this event is placed considerably later, after Jesus has preached and taught elsewhere. Only Luke identifies the content of Jesus' teaching in any detail, telling us that Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue. In Mark and Matthew's Gospels, Jesus teaches in the synagogue in Nazareth, and the townspeople take offense because Jesus is only the son of a carpenter. They reject his authority to teach them. In Matthew and Mark, it is only after Jesus is rejected that he observes times when Israel has rejected prophets.
In Luke's Gospel, the people are surprised but not immediately offended by Jesus' words in the synagogue. It is the words that follow his reading from the prophet Isaiah that seem to offend them. Jesus challenges and provokes the people of Nazareth by referring to examples in which Israel rejected the prophets. He also challenges them to respond to his message, the message of a prophet, in a way that is different from their ancestors. This call for a new response leads to his rejection.
It is helpful to consider the historical context of Luke's Gospel. Luke has witnessed the acceptance of the gospel message among many Gentiles. He endeavors to explain why the Good News of Jesus has not been as well-received by his Jewish contemporaries. Luke's report interprets the cause of Jesus' rejection at Nazareth in the context of this later Christian history. Just as the people at Nazareth did not welcome the Good News that Jesus announced, so too many among the people of Israel will not accept the preaching of the gospel.
After Jesus' words of challenge, Luke reports that there was a movement to kill Jesus by throwing him over a cliff. This differs from the reports found in Mark and Matthew's Gospels, where Jesus is said to be unable to perform miracles in Nazareth because of the people's lack of faith. Luke says that Jesus walks away from the crowd that intended to kill him; it is not yet his time. The animosity of the people of Nazareth prefigures and prepares the reader of Luke's Gospel for the cross. Luke wants all to understand that it is through his death on the cross that Jesus offers God's salvation to all.
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Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Sunday January 27 2019 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 69
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly,
which consisted of men, women,
and those children old enough to understand.
Standing at one end of the open place that was before the Water Gate,
he read out of the book from daybreak till midday,
in the presence of the men, the women,
and those children old enough to understand;
and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law.
Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform
that had been made for the occasion.
He opened the scroll
so that all the people might see it
— for he was standing higher up than any of the people —;
and, as he opened it, all the people rose.
Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God,
and all the people, their hands raised high, answered,
"Amen, amen!"
Then they bowed down and prostrated themselves before the LORD,
their faces to the ground.
Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God,
interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.
Then Nehemiah, that is, His Excellency, and Ezra the priest-scribe
and the Levites who were instructing the people
said to all the people:
"Today is holy to the LORD your God.
Do not be sad, and do not weep"--
for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.
He said further: "Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks,
and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared;
for today is holy to our LORD.
Do not be saddened this day,
for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!"
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 15
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
The command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
The ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart
find favor before you,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:12-30
Brothers and sisters:
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Now the body is not a single part, but many.
If a foot should say,
"Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body, "
it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.
Or if an ear should say,
"Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body, "
it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
But as it is, God placed the parts,
each one of them, in the body as he intended.
If they were all one part, where would the body be?
But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I do not need you, "
nor again the head to the feet, "I do not need you."
Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker
are all the more necessary,
and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable
we surround with greater honor,
and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety,
whereas our more presentable parts do not need this.
But God has so constructed the body
as to give greater honor to a part that is without it,
so that there may be no division in the body,
but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.
If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it;
if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.
Now you are Christ's body, and individually parts of it.
Some people God has designated in the church
to be, first, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers;
then, mighty deeds;
then gifts of healing, assistance, administration,
and varieties of tongues.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?
Do all work mighty deeds? Do all have gifts of healing?
Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
Gospel Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21
Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events
that have been fulfilled among us,
just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning
and ministers of the word have handed them down to us,
I too have decided,
after investigating everything accurately anew,
to write it down in an orderly sequence for you,
most excellent Theophilus,
so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings
you have received.
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,
and news of him spread throughout the whole region.
He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.
He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
"Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
The two figures Ezra and Nehemiah are both leaders of the Judean community and representatives of the Persian rulers, who sent them to provide spiritual and political leadership for the struggling Jerusalem community. Ezra and Nehemiah rarely appear together, and there is some speculation that they may have been active at differing times. Nehemiah makes only a cameo appearance in verse 9 here, and the singular verb vayomer (“said”) suggests that both he and the Levites may have been added secondarily to a verse in which originally only Ezra spoke (see also the beginning of verse 10).
Ezra first appears in Ezra 7, when he sets out from Babylon to Jerusalem during the reign of Artaxerxes of Persia. He is described as “Ezra the priest-scribe, the scribe versed in matters concerning the LORD’s commandments and statutes for Israel: (7:11). He is sent with money from the emperor and others for offerings in the temple. He comes to teach the law of the Judean God and of the king. Beginning in verse 27, the story is told by Ezra himself. In Ezra 9, in a scene reminiscent of some of the darker texts of the Pentateuch, he receives the disturbing news that the people have intermarried with the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, and all the other “ites” in the land. His reaction shows how deeply steeped he is in the ancient story he has come to convey.
Fortunately, however, what follows, while drastic and unsettling, is at least not the mass murder usually associated in the Pentateuch with these prior inhabitants of Canaan. The book of Ezra ends with the returned exiles painfully dismissing their foreign wives and children, revealing the depth of concern in this community for maintaining identity and boundaries.
The story then turns to Nehemiah, and Ezra does not reappear again until this chapter, Nehemiah 8. Here we see him in a new role that looks both innovative and strangely familiar: reading and expounding upon Scripture. The passage emphasizes that this occasion includes not just the priests, Levites, or even just the men, but all the people, men and women. It also asserts that Ezra read at the request of the people themselves.
They gather on the first day of the seventh month, which today is Rosh Hashanah (the fall new year), which is followed by Yom Kippur and the Festival of Sukkot, or Booths. They gather not at the temple but at the Water Gate, where all are admitted. The location of this gate is uncertain, but its name suggests proximity to the Gihon spring, Jerusalem’s only natural water source, on the eastern side of the city (cf. Neh 3:26; 12:37). The Babylonian Talmud (Sukkah 4) would later place the Water Gate on the way to the pool of Siloam, and would associate it with a joyous water-drawing ritual during the week of Sukkot (see verses 14-18).
The narrative does not specify which parts of the Torah Ezra read, nor can we know for sure whether it was already in the form that became canonical. In fact, variation between the pentateuchal prescriptions for the festival that follows (Leviticus 23:33-43; Numbers 29:12-38; Deuteronomy 16:13-15) and the festival as described in Nehemiah 8:14-18 may suggest some differences. But more important than the specifics, perhaps, is the practice that Ezra institutes of reading Scripture to others as authoritative directives from God, and interpreting so all understand. The reading evidently continues throughout the week of the festival (verse 18).
For later followers within this tradition, this early glimpse, within Scripture itself, of the faithful reading Scripture, carries a picture-within-a-picture quality. It’s like finding an ancestral village or grave, a marker of the place from which we came, an early precedent for scriptural interpretation. Jesus’ reading from the prophet Isaiah in this week’s Gospel passage echoes Ezra even as it too provides a glimpse of precedent.
The occasion could have been marked by dismay, as it was for King Josiah, when he first heard the words from the law book found in the temple and tore his clothes in mourning, recognizing the nation’s neglect of divine commands and fearing God’s wrath (2 Kings 22:11-13). Instead, however, when the people begin to weep, Ezra and others tell them instead to rejoice, because “this day is holy to the Lord” (verse 9). Rather than fasting, they are told to feast and share their food, because “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (verse 10).
The grammar of this final assertion is intriguing. Translations and commentators disagree over whether it is more properly rendered, “[your] joy in the Lord is your strength,” or “the Lord’s joy is your strength.” Either way, the point of cheerful trust in God is clear. Psalm 19 likewise reflects this position, as the wonders of God’s two great creations, the sky that wordlessly pours forth God’s glory and the Torah that is sweeter than honey, inspire the psalmist’s own grateful commitment.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 15
Psalm 19 offers a unique opportunity to direct the church’s attention to the nature and function of scripture.
There are reasons for thinking that Psalm 19:1-6 existed as a separate poem or was written by the author of vv. 7-14 based on an earlier (perhaps) non-Israelite hymn about nature or its gods. However, many scholars feel that Psalm 19 is best interpreted as a poetic unity. So, while the lectionary offers us an opportunity to focus on half of the psalm, the meaning of vv. 8-15 eventually relates to the whole poem. First, the Bible is a book that speaks on many levels. We're talking about how Psalm 19 addresses every aspect of our being through six descriptive phrases (e.g., “the law of the Lord is perfect”) with their accompanying effects (e.g., “reviving the soul”). The parallel pattern demonstrates an underlying unity in their function for our lives, while the different items indicate the variety of effects in our lives. To paraphrase a religious scholar, the six aspects increase our vigor, wisdom, joy, truth, reverence, and righteousness. New and life-long students of the Bible will be blessed by the realization that the Bible cannot be classified under one purpose. It is not primarily a moral code book, though it contains laws and ethical principles. It’s not merely a source of doctrine or history, though all of these can be discerned in its pages. It is not just a drama of redemption, because within the overarching narrative structure are several other literary forms. To sum it up, the Bible’s unity and diversity, its continuity and discontinuity exist in a healthy tension. Psalm 19 witnesses to the vibrant nature of the Bible.
Second, the Bible is a book that claims, comforts, and convicts us. The prayer in vv. 11-14 dispels any notion that Bible reading is solely an intellectual activity. To be sure, our prayerful engagement with its message enables us to “love God with all our mind,” but the prayer moves us from the nature of God’s word to its claim upon our lives. Through repetitions, the psalmist displays the close connection between the Word and our prayers: “heart” (vv. 8, 14); “perfect/blameless” (vv. 7, 13), and “much/great” (vv. 10, 11, 13). The second half of the psalm moves from describing the Bible to responding to its truth. And through an echo of the first half of the psalm, our “hidden faults” (v. 12) are revealed by the light of God’s word analogous to the sun revealing what is hidden in nature (v. 6). Verses 11-13 depict a vigorous process of conviction, confession, and growth by means of eight verbal forms, laid out in two groups that end with the same Hebrew root, nqh (“clear,” “be innocent”).
Third, the Bible is a book that helps us connect nature’s wonders with God’s mercy, and both of them to us. This point integrates the psalm on its own terms and connects creation and redemption through some very interesting parallels with the language and plot of Genesis 2. In its canonical unity, the poem declares that God’s revelation doesn’t lead “to awe and fear of natural powers, [or] to legalistic religion, but to a relationship so personal and cherished that one’s desire is simply to be pleasing in the Lord’s sight.”
We experience God not “as a cosmic enforcer but as a forgiving next of kin.” The Bible reveals the true and living God to us through its witness to his creative, redemptive, and restorative activity through Israel’s Messiah on behalf of the cosmos and every human soul.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:12-30
The lectionary text for this second Sunday of Epiphany finishes out this chapter in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.
It is clear that this section continues many of the arguments stated in the first half of the chapter, and the themes and issues discussed in last week's commentary are still very present in this discussion. Paul persists in working out the unity that is present and possible because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. One issue that comes to the surface in working with these texts from 1 Corinthians is how quickly, after the extraordinary unity, community, and fellowship we experience during the season of Christ's birth, we succumb to the divisions to which we have become accustomed and with which, more often than not, we feel more comfortable.
Paul moves into one of his most well-known, memorable, and effective metaphors of Christian community, the image of the body. The word that is translated in the NRSV-CE (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition) as "member" can also be translated as "part" or "limb." While the term "member" makes sense in the context of Paul's argument for and support of the meaning of community and the church of Christ, I do wonder if most hearers of this text equate Paul's terminology with their voluntary church membership and are not aware of Paul's radical claim in using this metaphor.
Being a member of the body of Christ means an absolute, out-and-out conjoining of one with the other, a sister or brother in Christ. To exist in division, to see only difference and not the unity we are able to profess because of Christ, to demand conformity without celebration of difference, is to entertain the notion of dismemberment. We will find ourselves cut off from the very source of our life, our existence, and in a way, our ability to be most fully who we are. To what extent are we able to live out fully our callings when we are not able to rely on and give support to others to live out theirs? Is it not true that who we are called to be necessitates our fellow members of the body of Christ to embrace and embody their callings?
Once again, we are reminded of our interconnectedness as a community of Christ. It is tempting to spiritualize Paul's words in this passage, but the call is to a far-reaching communal ethic and a need that transcends any and all differences that we try to put in place. While our tendency is to elevate certain spiritual gifts over others, Paul's words here are a deliberate claim of evenhandedness, even giftedness, when it comes to how and in what ways God chooses to work in and through our calls to faithful living.
Another issue that this text raises is how we associate certain criteria with the presence of the Holy Spirit. The tendency to equate certain manifestations of the Spirit at work, while eschewed by some believers, is much more assumed than we want to admit. The real challenge of this text is to celebrate difference that is possible because of the radical claim of Christian unity. To celebrate difference finds its necessity in the history of human existence. How we reject, negotiate, and accept difference has been a constant of our collective experience.
On a practical level, this is a call just to be: to be who you are, to be who you are in the moment, to be who you are called to be; never to compare yourself to anyone but yourself. The reality is such that this is something that humans need to practice. The propensity to measure our worth up against the standards of others' societal perceptions is the condition that creates the need to hear God's gospel word in these words from Paul. Sadly, we need to discipline ourselves to such frank and open acceptance of ourselves, when the truth is God knows us intimately, thoroughly, and still calls us to service.
On a theological, cultural, historical level, one cannot help but hear this portion of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians without thinking that when we operate from a place and perspective that sees difference as primarily negative, to what extent does the criteria for difference become an unending search for the need to find difference? In the extreme think about the holocaust! While this may sound like a hyperbolic example, the propensity of humanity to think in categories of incongruities, irregularities, and inconsistencies exposes our extraordinary need for abundant forgiveness and our need to claim over and over again our unity in Christ
Gospel Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21
Today's Gospel reading combines two separate passages taken from the Gospel of Luke. First we hear the opening verses where Luke establishes the purpose of his Gospel. His style is typical of polished Greek and Roman literature. In this passage, we learn that Luke may have written to a specific person, Theophilus; but the word Theophilus may also be a general reference, functioning as the phrase “Dear Reader” might in contemporary writing. In Greek, the word Theophilus translates as “lover of God.”
Today's Gospel reading then skips several chapters in which one would find the Infancy Narratives, Jesus' baptism by John, the temptations Jesus faced in the desert, and the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. In chapter four of Luke's Gospel, we hear that Jesus is in his hometown of Nazareth, attending the synagogue on the Sabbath, which is said to be his custom. In this account, we find another important clue that Jesus lived as a faithful, observant Jew. We will continue to read from Luke's Gospel in sequence for the next two Sundays.
As Jesus stands in the synagogue, he reads from the scroll handed to him; it contains the words of the prophet Isaiah. At this early moment in his ministry, Jesus announces his mission in continuity with Israel's prophetic tradition. This reading from Isaiah defines Jesus' ministry. We will find more evidence of this as we continue to read from Luke's Gospel throughout the year. Jesus' ministry will include bringing glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, healing to the sick, freedom to the oppressed, and proclaiming a year acceptable to the Lord.
Through this text from Isaiah, Jesus announces God's salvation. The “year acceptable to the Lord” is a reference to the Jewish tradition of Sabbath years and jubilee. The Sabbath year was observed every seventh year. It was a year of rest when land was left fallow and food stores were to be shared equally with all. A year of Jubilee was celebrated every fiftieth year, the conclusion of seven cycles of Sabbath years. It was a year of renewal in which debts were forgiven and slaves were freed.
This tradition of Jubilee is the framework for God's promise of salvation. And yet in Jesus, something new begins. Jesus not only announces God's salvation, he brings this salvation about in his person. Jesus is Yahweh's Anointed One, filled with the Spirit of God. The Kingdom of God is now at hand. It is made present in Jesus, in his life, death, and Resurrection. Jesus will send the Holy Spirit so that the Kingdom of God can be fulfilled.
The Holy Spirit is Jesus' gift to the Church. The Holy Spirit enables the Church to continue the mission of Jesus. When we do what Jesus did—bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, healing to the sick, and freedom to the oppressed—we serve the Kingdom of God.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Sunday January 20 2019 Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 66
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 62:1-5
For Zion's sake I will not be silent,
for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,
until her vindication shines forth like the dawn
and her victory like a burning torch.
Nations shall behold your vindication,
and all the kings your glory;
you shall be called by a new name
pronounced by the mouth of the LORD.
You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD,
a royal diadem held by your God.
No more shall people call you "Forsaken, "
or your land "Desolate, "
but you shall be called "My Delight, "
and your land "Espoused."
For the LORD delights in you
and makes your land his spouse.
As a young man marries a virgin,
your Builder shall marry you;
and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride
so shall your God rejoice in you.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 9-10
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name.
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Announce his salvation, day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Give to the LORD, you families of nations,
give to the LORD glory and praise;
give to the LORD the glory due his name!
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Worship the LORD in holy attire.
Tremble before him, all the earth;
Say among the nations: The LORD is king.
He governs the peoples with equity.
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:4-11
Brothers and sisters:
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.
To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom;
to another, the expression of knowledge according to the
same Spirit;
to another, faith by the same Spirit;
to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit;
to another, mighty deeds;
to another, prophecy;
to another, discernment of spirits;
to another, varieties of tongues;
to another, interpretation of tongues.
But one and the same Spirit produces all of these,
distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.
Gospel Jn 2:1-11
There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
When the wine ran short,
the mother of Jesus said to him,
"They have no wine."
And Jesus said to her,
"Woman, how does your concern affect me?
My hour has not yet come."
His mother said to the servers,
"Do whatever he tells you."
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings,
each holding twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus told the them,
"Fill the jars with water."
So they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them,
"Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter."
So they took it.
And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine,
without knowing where it came from
— although the servers who had drawn the water knew —,
the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him,
"Everyone serves good wine first,
and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one;
but you have kept the good wine until now."
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee
and so revealed his glory,
and his disciples began to believe in him.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 62:1-5
I. Will. Not. Keep. Silent.
It will not be possible to make me shut up. I will talk and not stop talking, proclaim and not stop proclaiming, preach and not stop preaching. I will shake the skies with my voice. I will not pause. I will not rest, for the sake of the precious city God loved and left, and I will keep this up until every nation and king can see that Jerusalem has been declared innocent and lifted up to a place of glory and honor.
Who is speaking in this passage? There are two ways to read Isaiah 62:1-5, and there are solid arguments and first-rate scholars on both sides of the fence.
Some hold that the prophet speaks in the voice of God, vowing God's unceasing speaking and acting on behalf of God's beloved city. Others hold that the prophet does not speak in God's voice but instead vows to act as intercessor for Jerusalem.
In light of the other lectionary readings for this period it seems that the latter is more likely. God made extravagant promises to God's exiled people. Earlier in the book of Isaiah, God promised to build up the barren and forsaken city of Jerusalem with foundations of sapphires, ruby towers, gates and walls of precious jewels (54:12). God promised to bring the exiled people home, and promised them the richest of feasts (56:2). Indeed, they did come home. Around the year 539 Cyrus, king of Persia, proclaimed an end to the exile, allowing Judeans to return home to their native land, returning to them the sacred vessels and other objects from the plundered temple in Jerusalem, and even encouraging them to rebuild the temple with funds from the royal treasury of Persia.
However, the reality people returned to was far from glorious. The land seemed to them like a desert. It was true that the land was not empty: people had remained in Judah during the years of exile, and others had moved into the area, making a life for themselves in Jerusalem and in the surrounding countryside. But none were able to undo the damage done by Nebuchadnezzar and his army some sixty and fifty years before. And when the exiles returned, it was all they could do to secure homesteads for themselves and try to grow crops to feed their families. Times were difficult, and people were hungry (the book of Haggai gives an excellent picture of the challenges they faced). When prophets finally convinced them to rebuild the temple, it was clear that its glory could not match the glory of former days. Where were the glittering jewels? Where was the abundant feast? The land still felt like a desert. The city seemed forsaken, bereft of God's sustaining presence. What could be the reason? Was Jerusalem still shadowed by God's just punishment?
The prophet knows this is not true. The prophet knows that God has declared Jerusalem innocent. God said to Zion, yes, I left you, but now I return to you (54:7), and my love will never leave you (54:10). So now the prophet vows to hold God to God's promises. The prophet will pick up right where God seems to have left off and make sure that God gets no rest until Jerusalem is built up, filled with her children, surrounded by fruitful fields, and shining with the continuous light of God's presence.
The prophet promises newness, transformation, and new names signaling joyful union for Jerusalem and all the land around her. The prophet can only make these promises because God has made them. So now imagine the prophet standing before God and gathered people to remind all who are present -- including God -- of God's promises. The prophet has an opportunity to meet the people where they feel God's absence most keenly, where they most worry that God might not come through. And the prophet has an opportunity to call on God -- out loud and without stopping -- to do everything God has promised.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 9-10
This is part of the enthronement psalms (93; 95-99) and calls the people to praise God (verses 1-3, 7-10a, 11-12a) and gives reasons why God is worthy of praise (verses 4-6, 10b, 12b-13). Taken together these veraea “describe the nature and consequences of God’s rule.”1
God’s reign gets spectators involved and awakens sleepers. No wonder the Psalm brims with imperatives: three times we are told to sing, and after that to bless, tell, declare, ascribe and worship. This Psalm is motivational. It moves people to proclaim God’s mercy and might.
In Part 1 (verses 1-3) God’s people get their marching orders. First we are to “sing a new song” (verse 1). But what exactly is that new song? It might be a response to some event in the story of God’s people, such as “the return of the exiles from Babylonian captivity” or it could be a song looking toward the future, or one that combines past, present and future.
After three calls to sing, the Psalm moves to another imperative: the call to bless God’s name (verse 2). Of course God does not need our blessing. But in worship, to bless God is to tell of God’s saving deeds…to extol God’s mercy, might and compassion. Ancient worshippers in the Temple used Psalm 96 (and others like it) to bless God, and they may also have knelt and lifted up their hands. Worship is between the worshipper and God, yet it moves outward with another imperative: we are to tell others of God’s salvation. This is not just preaching to the choir, but to all the world. The Psalmist says we are to declare God’s glory “among the nations” God’s marvelous works “to all the people.” So Psalm 96 has been called a “missionary psalm.”
Part 2 (verses 4-6) tells why God is to be praised. God is great above the heavens. But down here on earth where there are many gods, the one true God outshines them all. The Psalmist dismisses those other gods-with-a-small-‘g’- as mere idols. They are things we made up, in contrast to the creator who made us, and the heavens (verse 5). We praise God as Creator, and we also praise God’s character.
Perhaps the most famous description of God’s character appears in Psalm 103:8 (and elsewhere): God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” The description of God’s character found in Psalm 96: 6 has a different emphasis: God’s “honor and majesty are before him, his strength and beauty fill the sanctuary.” This points to God’s sovereignty and holiness, an important theme in scripture though often neglected today.
Part 3 (verses 7-10) returns to the imperative mood once more, in a worship setting. Three times we are told to ascribe to glory to God. To “ascribe” is to name a quality that belongs to a person or thing. To a deer we ascribe speed and grace and to an artist or composer we ascribe creative genius. To God we ascribe glory and strength -- especially when looking at creation. To express our gratitude and dependence on God, we are told to bring an offering, come into God’s courts (verse 8) worship the Lord, and tremble before God (verse 9). In verse 10 we are to say to the nations that the Lord is King.
Part 4 (verses 11-13) is not included in the lectionary, perhaps because of the judgment theme. These verses proclaim that God comes to judge the nations in righteousness. Yet this judgment evokes more joy than dread, for the whole world, both nations and nature, will rejoice -- even the trees will sing.
The church is more than a social network or a cultural artifact. So why worship? Because we are created to be in relationship with God. And because God calls us to worship.
Consider three basic questions: First, whom we do worship? (see 1 Thessalonians 1: 3,10 and Psalm 96: 4-6). Second, why do we worship? (Because God our creator calls us to be in relationship. That is what Psalm 96 does.) And finally how we do we worship (Psalm 96: 1-3 and 7-9). There is great variety in how we worship, but proclamation is at the heart of it.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:4-11
This text is about spirituality.
For Paul spirituality entails the ongoing reality and work of the Holy Spirit in believers’ lives both individually and corporately. The problem is that some spiritual elitists have really messed this up. They have regarded their gifts of the Spirit as making them superior to other members of the Corinthian community. This text introduces the extended section of 1 Corinthians 12-14 wherein Paul is presenting the proper and improper uses of spiritual gifts. In this introduction Paul emphasizes unified divine action, which empowers diverse human activity for the common benefit of all.
Paul’s opening words in 1 Corinthians 12:1, “Now concerning” introduces the new topic at hand parallel to how he introduces new topics in 7:1; 8:1; 16:1. While almost every English translation presents Paul as introducing spiritual gifts in 12:1, Paul does not use his typical word for spiritual gifts. Instead, the Greek word Paul intentionally uses would better be rendered “matters related to the Spirit.” Spiritual gifts are a particular subset Paul will discuss under the broader topic of matters related to the Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 12:2-3 Paul presents a contrast between the Corinthians’ former and current spiritual realities. Formerly as pagans they were misled to worship speechless idols (v. 2). Now, however, their Spirit-inspired speech is quite different (v. 3). God’s Spirit would never empower anyone to declare, “May Jesus be damned.” Rather, the Spirit empowers the saving confession, “Jesus is Lord!” In this way, Paul reminds his Corinthian audience that the primary work of the Holy Spirit is to create faith whose principal pronouncement is the lordship of Jesus. Hence no believer should feel that the Holy Spirit is not at work in them. One cannot believe apart from the direct, empowering work of the Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 Paul constructs three parallel sentences highlighting allotted diversity flowing out of divine unity. Each verse opens with the same Greek word meaning “varied allotments” as he emphasizes how the triune God works in multiple ways. The first diverse allotments of the Spirit involve gifts. Here the Greek word which Paul uses is almost non-existent beyond the Pauline epistles. It is the word charismata (from which comes our English word, charismatic), typically translated as “gifts.” It is important to note, however, that this rare word is a cognate of the Greek word, charis, meaning “grace.” Thus for Paul these diverse gifts flow directly out of God’s grace. Thus one cannot claim them as their own possession or a product of their own innate talents. They always remain divine grace-gifts.
In verse 5 Paul notes that Jesus allots various ministries. Whereas in verse 6, it is God who activates various activities (Paul’s play on words) in everyone. In light of the spiritual elitists in Corinth, Paul is letting them know that not only did the Spirit create faith in everyone, the triune God is at work in and through everyone. No one is ignored or left out. Every single one of them is a charismatic Christian. The implication is also that no one is spiritually superior to others.
Paul emphatically bookends his next section, 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, with the fundamental point that it is the Spirit which works in every single Christian as the Spirit so choses. Likewise, the Spirit works in each Christian not so much for the benefit of any individual Christian but for the benefit of the entire community. Thus the Spirit’s activity is quite diverse; no single Christian receives all the Spirit’s gifts. Yet each Christian is empowered by the Spirit for ministry which builds up the whole community.
In vv. 8-10 Paul elucidates the Spirit’s activity by presenting nine gifts, which the Spirit manifests in the lives of various Christians. The fact that Paul opens his list with the Spirit giving an utterance of wisdom (12:8a) is contextually significant. In 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16 Paul countered the relishing of wisdom by some Corinthians with the foolishness of the cross. Thus an utterance of wisdom involves the epistemology of the cross and an ability to interpret God’s hidden plan as revealed in Christ-crucified as the center of God’s salvific activity.
In this context “an utterance of knowledge” (12:8b) most likely refers to theological discernment for communal benefit (recalling 1:5). This Spirit-imparted knowledge stands in stark contrast to the arrogant knowledge displayed by some Corinthians which lacks theological discernment regarding how one’s actions may be harming one’s fellow Christian (Paul’s argument in chapter 8).
The reference to the Spirit allotting faith to someone (12:9a) is a bit deceptive. Here faith does not relate to core Christian faith since Paul is highlighting varied grace-gifts given distinctively and diversely by the Spirit (opposite of how he highlights the unified confession of faith worked by the Spirit in v. 3). Rather, it refers to a grace-gift empowering one to do some type of miraculous work (as it will also be used in 13:2).
The Spirit’s empowerment of another with grace gifts for healing (12:9b) is a counter-cultural claim. In Corinth (as well as throughout the Greco-Roman world), gifts for healings were deeply linked with the god (and cult) of Asclepius, a son of Apollo. While there was a significant temple to Asclepius in Corinth, Paul is telling Christians in Corinth that true healing does not occur there but here in the midst of their own community as a result of the Spirit’s gifting activity.
The references to the allotment of prophecies and discernment of spirits (12:10a) are interrelated. Prophecy does not involve predicting the future but speaking a message originating with God. Discerning spirits involves determining whether or not the person speaking a prophecy has actually been energized by the Spirit or not. Likewise speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues (12:10b) are also interrelated. Here tongues (the gift of glossolalia) involves the Spirit empowering one to speak in an unknown, heavenly language. Since it is unknown, the Spirit also needs to empower another to interpret the message which has been spoken.
Gospel Jn 2:1-11
This Sunday we begin the liturgical season of Ordinary Time. For many Sundays in this lectionary cycle (Cycle C), our readings will be taken from the Gospel of Luke. Occasionally, however, we will read from John's Gospel. This is true of today's Gospel reading, which describes the beginning of Jesus' ministry and his first miracle.
To situate today's reading within the context of John's Gospel, we note that John's report of this event follows Jesus' call of his first disciples. John tells us that Jesus and his disciples were invited to this wedding at Cana, as was Jesus' mother, Mary. There is no parallel report of this miracle at Cana in the Synoptic Gospels.
In the Church's liturgical history, the wedding feast of Cana is closely associated with the baptism of the Lord and the adoration of the infant Jesus by the Wise Men. In this context, the sign Jesus performs at the wedding feast is celebrated as an epiphany or a manifestation of Jesus' divinity.
Yet awareness of Jesus' impending passion and death is ever present in John's Gospel. Even in this report of Jesus' first sign, the language used anticipates Jesus' passion. When Jesus says to his mother that his hour has not yet come, he protests against her wishes in language that John will use again when reporting Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples. When introducing the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet, John writes that Jesus knew that his hour had come. In John's Gospel, Jesus is very much in command and aware of all that is to happen to him.
Here, as elsewhere in John's Gospel, Mary is not mentioned by name, but is referred to instead as the mother of Jesus. Mary is influential in Jesus' first sign. She will also be present at his Crucifixion, a witness to the final manifestation of his divinity.
John's Gospel describes seven signs that indicate Jesus' identity to his disciples. John never speaks of these signs as miracles because their importance is not in the deed that Jesus performs but in what these deeds indicate about Jesus' identity. Here, as when John describes the other signs, the disciples are said to begin to believe, but no mention is made as to whether the other wedding guests are even aware of what has happened.
Marriage and wedding feasts are metaphors used in Scripture to describe God's salvation and the Kingdom of God. Here at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, John's Gospel seeks to establish that Jesus is going to re-interpret and fulfill Yahweh's promise to Israel. Jesus establishes the New Covenant. A hint about what this New Covenant will be like is made evident in the deed that Jesus performs. Asked to do something to address the awkward situation that the absence of wine at a wedding feast would create, Jesus' miracle produces vast quantities of wine—six jars holding thirty gallons each are filled to overflowing with choice wine.
This lavish response to a simple human need is a vision for us of the abundance of God's kingdom. It challenges us to respond generously when confronted with human need today. We respond as best we can, fully confident that God can transform our efforts, bringing the Kingdom of God to fulfillment among us.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Eternal Word, only begotten Son of God,
Teach me true generosity.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve.
To give without counting the cost,
To fight heedless of wounds,
To labor without seeking rest,
To sacrifice myself without thought of any reward
Save the knowledge that I have done your will.
Amen.
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Sunday January 13 2019 The Baptism of the Lord
Lectionary: 21
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 42:1-4, 6-7
Thus says the LORD:
Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
upon whom I have put my spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
a bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,
until he establishes justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait for his teaching.
I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10.
R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
Give to the LORD, you sons of God,
give to the LORD glory and praise,
Give to the LORD the glory due his name;
adore the LORD in holy attire.
R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The voice of the LORD is over the waters,
the LORD, over vast waters.
The voice of the LORD is mighty;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.
R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The God of glory thunders,
and in his temple all say, "Glory!"
The LORD is enthroned above the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as king forever.
R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
Reading 2 Acts 10:34-38
Peter proceeded to speak to those gathered
in the house of Cornelius, saying:
"In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.
Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly
is acceptable to him.
You know the word that he sent to the Israelites
as he proclaimed peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all,
what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him."
Gospel Lk 3:15-16, 21-22
The people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
"I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
After all the people had been baptized
and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him
in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven,
"You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 42:1-4, 6-7
In Isaiah 42, the divine speaker announces the presence of a servant who is chosen by God and a source of delight for God. God will place God’s spirit upon this servant so that the servant is able to bring forth justice to the nations, to be a light, to open blind eyes and bring out prisoners.
The role of these individuals is as God’s earthly representatives, as God’s chosen ones, as workers of justice in the world. What is their mission and role? Why are they divinely chosen? Why do they need the spirit of God? And is this a role for individuals and/or communities?
And how might we, as God’s people today, fashion our actions and demeanors into ones fitting for us as servants of God, ones in whom God delights? Are we God’s servants, establishing justice on earth as it is in heaven?
How do we take up the mission of the servant and live out our baptismal vows?
To answer some of these questions, let’s focus more on this servant figure in Isaiah 42.
The servant of Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55) is spoken of in four different passages -- Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12. Scholars typically extract these four passages from their surrounding literary contexts in order to interpret them with reference to each other; yet, these “servant songs” -- actually the passages are poetic as is the surrounding Isaiah material -- are part of an exilic prophetic announcement about the near future. So, they are best read within the confines of Second Isaiah’s overall message as presented in the middle section of the prophetic book of Isaiah.
The kingdom of Judah finds itself in exile with the temple in ruins and kingship at an end. Zion in all its splendor has been diminished, and some of the Judahites are forced exiles in the foreign land of Babylonia. Without a temple and a Davidic leader, the future of the people is greatly in peril. They need assurance, assistance, and a new vision.
Into this difficult political and religious situation, the prophet of Isaiah 42 introduces a servant figure. Interpreters spend much of their energy debating the precise identity of the servant. Is it the prophet himself? Or a ruler whether foreign such as Cyrus or native such as a Davidic kingly figure? The later Christian tradition of course develops the identity of the servant Christologically. The exact historical referent for the servant is perhaps tangential to the passage’s principal concerns.
One fundamental and fruitful tension in the biblical text centers on whether the figure represents an individual or a community, the servant as a historical person or all of Israel. Personal or communal. The figure is spoken of in individual terms obviously but this fact does not preclude a collective interpretation. In fact, Isaiah 49:3 explicitly names the servant as Israel: “And [God] said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified”.
Christians have typically seen the servant in individual terms and associated clearly with Jesus -- his life and ministry, but especially his death and resurrection. Jews have understandably gravitated toward the communal interpretation and viewed Israel as called to be a servant to the world, a light to other people.
We might venture the same sort of communal/individual tension within the interpretation of the baptism of Jesus in Matthew. On one (historical and literary) level, Matthew is clearly presenting a narrative about an individual. Jesus is baptized. He is the Beloved, God’s son, the one in whom God is well pleased. On another (theological) level, Christian readers are invited to see themselves in this baptism experience, to see the Christian community as baptized like Jesus into faith, into the beloved community. We are together the daughters and sons of God. God is well pleased with us.
When we hold the tension between communal and individual readings of Isaiah 42 and Matthew, our response to these readings become clearer. We have individual models of servanthood as examples. Second Isaiah’s servant and Jesus point us toward our important work. They demonstrate that relationship with God is possible. They lay out the types of ministry possible when we are led my God’s spirit. But we -- as a community -- also participate in this work of justice together as communities of faith. As churches, not just as individuals, we are God’s servants to the world. We participate in God’s new thing (Isaiah 42:9), God’s new exodus out of exile and brokenness. God’s community is God’s servant.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10.
Psalm 29 is classified as a Community Hymn, but is often considered an Enthronement psalm because of its striking similarities with Psalms 93-99.
Enthronement psalms are those that celebrate God’s sovereign reign over the world, and a cursory reading of Psalm 29 (see especially verse 10) reveals the reasons why such a designation may be appropriate.
Many scholars indicate that Psalm 29 is one of the earliest Hebrew psalm compositions, an adaptation and/or incorporation of various elements of hymns to Baal, the Canaanite fertility and weather god. But Psalm 29 borrows those elements and “turns them on their heads.” The message of Psalm 29 is that The Lord, not Baal, is the God whom the Israelites can rely on to rule over creation and provide peace (better, well-being) for the land and the people. How, then, does the singer of Psalm 29 present the case for The Lord?
In the first two verses of the Psalm, the word “give” occurs three times. The Hebrew word is yahab and means “give,” suggesting perhaps a better translation of “acknowledge.” The psalmist calls upon hearers to acknowledge the Lord, the Lord’s glory and strength, and the glory of the Lord’s name. The hearers who are called to acknowledge the Lord in verse 1 are “heavenly beings”, in Hebrew beney ‘elohim (children of god). The identity of this group is open to question and interpretation.
Some maintain that the words refer to a “divine, heavenly council” (see Job 1:6). Others, and in the context of Psalm 29, very plausibly, assert that the call issued in verse 1 is to Canaanite gods and goddesses to recognize Yahweh as the true god. And yet others suggest that the call is to a “heavenly choir,” who then will lead the “earthly congregation” in praise of the sovereign God.
Verses 3-9 speak of the “voice of the Lord” (qol yhwh) as sovereign over or emanating out of the waters and mighty waters, the lightning and thunder, the cedars of Lebanon, the flames of fire, the earthquake, and the mighty wind, as we see also in the Enthronement Psalms 93-99. All of these natural phenomena are elements of theophany experiences (appearances of the presence of God) in the Old Testament such as we see in Genesis 15, Exodus 3 and 19, 1 Kings 19, and Ezekiel 1.
These passages tell us that God is present in all of the magnificent, awe-inspiring, and sometimes terrifying elements of creation. But as we see in the story of Elijah’s encounter with God in 1 Kings 19, sometimes God is present in “a sheer silence”, what some of us have learned as a “still small voice.” The central message of Psalm 29, thus, is that God is sovereign and that God’s reign extends to all creation in all its manifestations.
Verse 10 announces, that The Lord “sits enthroned” over the flood, that The Lord “sits enthroned” as king forever. The word translated “sits enthroned” is yashab in Hebrew and means simply to sit, to dwell, to settle down, to occupy. God sits or dwells over the earth and dwells or settles down in the midst of the people as sovereign. The first and only mention of humankind in Psalm 29 is in verse 11 -- “May the LORD bless his people with peace (shalom).” As with so many of the Enthronement Psalms, humanity is not the focus; rather the focus is on God’s sovereignty.
While Psalm 29 may have been a call to the Canaanite gods and goddesses, particularly Baal, to observe and acknowledge God’s sovereignty over all creation, it is also a sober reminder to humanity of our place within the created order. In Genesis 1, God says to the first humans, “Be fruitful and multiply ... subdue the earth ... have dominion ... ” And the ever-enduring, ever-present question is, “Should we interpret these words as permission to do with creation as we like, to use it for the sole good of humanity? Or do the words give humanity a special responsibility to care for creation as God would care for it?
The Enthronement Psalms in general and Psalm 29 in particular ought to make us stop and consider, remind us of God’s sovereignty over God’s good creation, and indeed, invoke in us a little “cosmic humility.” The message of Psalm 29 may best be summed up in the closing words of the Lord’s Prayer. “For thine is the kingdom and the power and glory forever. Amen.”
Reading 2 Acts 10:34-38
The first Easter drastically changed how Christians understand God’s activity in the world.
Today’s first reading features a similar paradigm shift in Christians’ understanding, regarding how wide-reaching God’s favor truly is.
I. The literary context: Acts 10:1-11:18
Our reading occurs within the larger narrative episode surrounding Cornelius (10:1-11:18). The extensive length of the story and its surprising number of repetitions (e.g., 10:28-29, 30-32, 11:4-17) both imply the profound significance of the episode. The central discovery of the episode is stated at its close: “God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life” (11:18). Despite the particular issues of table fellowship (10:28; 11:3), baptism (10:47-48), and circumcision (11:3), the Spirit’s manifestation confirms the overall point: God has accepted Gentiles alongside Jewish believers (10:45-47; 11:18).
II. The text at hand: Acts 10:34-38 (43)
Today’s reading features Peter’s message to the gathered household of Cornelius. After opening exchanges (10:24-33), Peter addresses directly the context at hand:
“I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (10:34b-35).
The Greek is bolder about God’s lack of partiality: “God is not a partiality-shower (lit. ‘face-taker,’ prosopolemptes).” The concept appears elsewhere in Scripture regarding God’s lack of favoritism toward the rich and powerful (Deuteronomy 10:17; Lev 19:15; 2 Chronicles 9:17; Psalm 82:2; Sirach 35:15-16; Colossians 3:25; Ephesians 6:9; James 2:1, 9), but applying this same language to Jew-Gentile distinctions is quite new (also in Romans 2:11). The next verse only accentuates this meaning: “in every nation anyone who fears ... is acceptable to him” (v. 35). The language of “acceptable” (dektos) is rare in Luke-Acts, and first occurs to describe the nature of Jesus’ ministry as “the year of the Lord’s acceptance (dektos).” As these factors show, Peter’s message opens with one of the boldest declarations in Luke-Acts about the nature of God’s favor toward non-Jews.
Due to convoluted phrasing, translations render verses 36-37 in various ways. But two focal points in the text clearly emerge: God’s message entails “preaching peace by Jesus Christ,” and this Jesus “is Lord of all” (v. 36). Both points would have sound spoken loudly to hearers within the Roman Empire. The phrase “preaching peace” (euangelizomenos eirenen, lit. “proclaiming the good news of peace”) uses language employed elsewhere in association with Roman emperors (“good news” and “peace” regarding Augustus’s birth, OGIS 2:458; cf. Luke 2:14). Even more, the phrase “Lord of all” implies the inferiority of all rival lords, both human and divine (Epictetus calls Caesar “lord of all” in Discourses 4.1.12. This parallel would be striking to a centurion of a leading cohort in the Roman army (Acts 10:1). However, Roman rulers are not the only rivals on the horizon: Peter’s speech later recalls how Jesus’ ministry confronted the oppressive power of the devil (Acts 10:38), a cosmic foe still at large in Acts (13:8-13; 26:18; cf. 19:11-20).2
The rest of Peter’s message (Acts 10:37-43) summarizes Jesus’ ministry, passion, and resurrection (vv. 37-38, 39b-41). Peter also emphasizes how Jesus’ followers are now witnesses (vv. 39, 41) called to testify -- with ancient prophets -- that he is both judge of all and source of forgiveness for believers (vv. 42-43). In fact, verses 37-43 spotlight major themes from Luke-Acts: John’s baptism, the Spirit’s presence, the devil’s oppression, the apostles’ testimony, Jesus’ resurrection, and the fulfillment of scripture. These verses summarize the highlights of Luke’s story about Jesus so that the audience in Cornelius’s home may hear the story authentically.
Gospel Lk 3:15-16, 21-22
Today we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. In today's Gospel, as in the other Gospel accounts of Jesus' baptism, we hear John the Baptist address the confusion of the people who thought that John might be the Messiah. In response, John contrasts the baptism that he performs with the Baptism that Jesus will inaugurate. John the Baptist says that he has baptized with water, but that someone will come and baptize with the Holy Spirit. The type of baptism that John performed was not yet a Christian Baptism; it was a preparation for Christian Baptism through which sins are forgiven and the gift of the Holy Spirit is received.
The baptism of Jesus is reported in each of the three Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Clearly, it was an event of great significance for Jesus and for the early Christian community. The Evangelists Mark and Luke report the story from Jesus' perspective; the voice from heaven is addressed to Jesus. Compare this to Matthew's Gospel in which the voice from heaven speaks to everyone. In Luke, however, the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus during his time of prayer after his baptism. Through his Gospel, Luke will show Jesus to be a person of prayer who withdraws regularly from the crowds and his disciples to pray to his Father.
The baptism of Jesus is considered a manifestation of God in Jesus, another “epiphany.” On this, the last day of the Christmas season, our Gospel reveals to us Jesus' relation to God: the son of Mary and Joseph is also God's own Son. In Luke's Gospel, all three members of the Trinity are manifested here: God the Father in the voice, the Holy Spirit descending, and Jesus the Son. At the beginning of his Gospel, Luke is communicating to us important information about the identity of Jesus. In the verses that follow, Luke lists the genealogy of Jesus, tracing Jesus' ancestry back to the first person, Adam, who is also identified as the son of God. We, the children of Adam and Eve, are again made children of God through Baptism.
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings.
Making the Connection
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Sunday January 6 2019 The Epiphany of the Lord
Lectionary: 20
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 60:1-6
Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples;
but upon you the LORD shines,
and over you appears his glory.
Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you:
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.
Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
your heart shall throb and overflow,
for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,
the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come
bearing gold and frankincense,
and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king's son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Reading 2 Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6
Brothers and sisters:
You have heard of the stewardship of God's grace
that was given to me for your benefit,
namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.
It was not made known to people in other generations
as it has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Gospel Mt 2:1-12
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
"Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage."
When King Herod heard this,
he was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it has been written through the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel."
Then Herod called the magi secretly
and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
"Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word,
that I too may go and do him homage."
After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed for their country by another way.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 60:1-6
Isaiah 60:1-6 is a piece of poetry brimming with energy and hope.
Due to the fact that Hebrew distinguishes between a male and a female second person, we can see that the prophet is addressing a feminine “you.” Thus, scholars identify the poem as belonging to a group of poems within Isaiah 40-66, which are written to Zion, who is personified as a human female (see also 49:14-26; 51:17-52:12; 54:1-17; 62:1-12). “Arise! Shine!” the prophet calls to her, summoning Zion to bear witness both to the wonder of God’s sudden appearance as well as to her own renewal and restoration.
The original recipients of this prophetic word were Jews living in Judah -- now the Persian province of Jehud -- in the period following the Babylonian exile. Living in reduced circumstances amidst the rubble of a wealthier time, the people’s historical visions of a glorious Zion might have seemed a distant fantasy. Zion, both the geographical locale as well the idea of a sacred bond between people, place, and God, was in ruins. The Zion poems of Isaiah 40-66 represent an attempt to rebuild the idea of Zion and to infuse her with a new vigor. This effort is not simply to make people feel better nor to reclaim a theological idea for its own sake. The purpose of the rehabilitation of Zion is to inspire and empower the people to help make this glorious vision a reality. Isaiah 60:1-6 is, thus, not a simplistic prediction of a new age but contains a call, an imperative, to be a part of the restoration of Zion.
The imperatives are what drive Isaiah 60:1-6. The reader is propelled through the poetic unit by the two imperative pairs that occur at v. 1 and v. 4: “Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem!” and “Raise your eyes and look about;” Following these commands, the prophet describes the scene before Zion using verbs in the prophetic present and so adds persuasive force to them: “Your light has come, and the glory of the Lord shines upon you!” The upshot is something like: “Look up! Something is happening right now! Don’t miss it!” If Zion doesn’t look up, she’ll miss the events that are taking place even as the prophet speaks.
Imagery provides the poetic force in vv. 2-3 and vv. 5-6. In vv. 2-3, the prophet describes the light of God in terms so vivid one can almost feel the warmth emanating from the page and uses the image of thick clouds and darkness to powerful effect in the description of the experience of the other nations. Thick clouds connote not just darkness but potentially destructive weather patterns, and, thus, suggest a looming threat to the more powerful nations. In the future, the prophet promises that security and warmth will be the new normal for Zion. The other nations will face insecurity and darkness and so will flood to Zion, seeking to enjoy the benefits of God’s presence just as Zion does.
In vv. 5-6, the imagery of light continues -- “Then you shall see and be radiant,” v. 5 -- but the source of the brightness is not divine but is the result of joyful reunions and a renewed prosperity. The imagery in v. 5 is very tender; the missing children of Zion will be carried gently home to her. The absence of those who remained in the Diaspora is clearly still a source of pain for the community, but it will be felt no longer, the prophet promises. Nor does the restoration end with reunions. Poverty will be replaced by plenty. The power of v. 6 lies in the sheer volume of the wealth the prophet describes streaming to Zion. By land and by sea, all the wealth of the nations will make its way to Zion, replacing her poverty with what sounds like a suffocating quantity of riches: “Caravans of camels shall fill you, … ”
The vision of Isaiah 60:1-6 and of the other Zion poems of Isaiah 40-66 is one of complete restoration. The tone is triumphant and tender, and it can be difficult for a contemporary audience with some knowledge of history to reconcile it with the reality of the period; a period that did not see a dramatic reversal of fortune for Zion. It’s important to remember, however, that biblical prophecy is not a flat prediction but is, rather, an invitation to change, to be empowered, and, sometimes, to repent. Within Zion’s call to witness in Isaiah 60:1-6 is also a call to the community to believe in the vision, to endure the present hardship, and, with God, to bring the vision into reality.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13.
Psalm 72 is an expansive, generic enthronement hymn that was likely a staple of coronations in ancient Israel/Judah.
In the verses omitted by the lectionary, there are mentions of Tarshish, Seba, and Sheba (the latter, perhaps giving rise to the epigraph, “Of Solomon”), but for the most part the psalm -- certainly as it will be heard in Christian worship today -- floats free of specific historical context.
In that way, the psalm serves a purpose similar to that of the “charges” that are part of our baptism, confirmation, or commissioning liturgies where the community rehearses what it believes are God’s mission priorities for the life and ministry of the person being set apart.
Verse 1 sets the tone and contains the only petitions voiced to God in the imperative (with emphasis added through the parallel structure): “Give the king your justice … [and] the king’s son your righteousness.” Saving justice is a trademark of God’s reign and must be embodied by God’s agent in the world.
The rest of the psalm is organized around a long series of petitions that being with, “May he …” The psalm asks that God grant the king -- and the people, through the king’s reign -- righteousness, justice, prosperity, protection (from oppressors), a name that endures, shalom (well-being), political dominion (through which all the world is blessed), and -- as a spontaneous response to these missional priorities -- the tribute and admiration of the nations.
The petitions could be in order of priority, but the effect of the psalm when read aloud is of an intensifying spiraling and overlapping of attributes. If we also read verses 18 and 19 they seem to have been added to the main body of the psalm; they are a benediction to God, a doxology that closes out Book II of Psalms.
In the psalm’s historical context, the monarch enjoys a divinely ordained blood lineage. In our context, heroic assets and the “right to rule” are attained by or projected onto leaders in more secular ways. But still, today’s hearers can identify with the ancient singers of this psalm whose hopes for justice soar at the installation of each new leader, even as they lament the ways those same hopes were dashed or unfilled by the old one.
Is Jesus the “king” of Psalm72? Most hearers in worship will understand “king” to refer to Jesus (thus tracking with New Testament writers and the bulk of the church’s history of interpretation!).
But if we decide that Psalm 72 is “about Jesus,” and we declare that, “yep, Jesus is the one who fulfills (or fills full) this messianic description,” then to whom, how, and when does the promised justice come? Inside the church, we find comfort in the internal-spiritual or eschatological venues of fulfillment.
But the compelling power of this psalm’s petitions lie in applying them to the real world of politics and economics. If we are unable to articulate how Jesus’s reign effects concrete change for the nations, we run the risk of making Jesus as distant and irrelevant to today as are Solomon or Hezekiah!
Saving justice is a trademark of God’s reign and must be embodied by God’s agent in the world. And John the Baptist knows that justice and righteousness do not appear by magic or without cost; they involve winnowing, purifying, and comeuppance.
What if rather than spiritualizing the petitions and sticking with the biblical default referent for “king” (whether Solomon or Jesus), we took the petitions at their real-world face value and ask God to deliver justice and righteousness to the world through a new, surprising referent, a tangible contemporary entity ordained into leadership by God: the church (the Body of Christ) or even our secular representative republic.
Reading 2 Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6
Mystery" is the term that runs throughout this passage from Ephesians. It fits the day in the liturgical year because an "epiphany" is a manifestation of something. And in this case what is revealed has been a mystery.
The term "mystery" appears several times in just a few verses, helping to catch the attention of readers. After all, many of us find it hard to resist a good mystery. Paul says that a mystery has been made known to him (3:3). And it is a mystery about Jesus (3:4). No one has really understood this mystery before. It has been hidden through the ages (3:9). So those who listen in will come to know the mystery. Thus far the passage has all the makings of a new version of a bestselling novel. We might even give it a title like "The Jesus Code." Apparently God also knows that we like a good mystery.
Traditional mysteries often follow a set form. The classic mysteries are set in a manor house in Scotland with a small cast of characters: an elderly widow, a servant with peculiar habits, and a distant relative who has inexplicably shown up for a visit after many years. The usual event is a tragic death, which turns out to be a murder. As the detective investigates the case, he often finds that there is intrigue going on over who is to receive a sizable inheritance. The clues in the case are assembled. The police are confused and follow the wrong track. But eventually the master detective solves the case and shows how the pieces of the story fit together. In the final pages, the mystery is solved. The meaning is made known to the readers. The story is over.
The mystery that Paul speaks will depart from the standard patterns of a mystery story in at least three ways: first, the heart of the story is not something tragic, like theft and murder, but something magnificent, namely a gift. To be sure, this is an inheritance case. Paul is speaking about the Gentiles coming into the inheritance of salvation. But in a typical mystery story, one of the heirs to an estate usually plots to seize the whole inheritance. The idea is to exclude others from the gift, so that one heir can have it all.
In Ephesians, however, the mystery revolves around God giving the inheritance away too freely. What is so mysterious is that God has written a whole new group of heirs into his will. This does not shortchange those who were heirs before, because there are "boundless riches" in Christ (3:8). There is plenty to go around. So the mystery in this case is the mystery of grace. Second, Paul does not work with a small cast of characters but speaks in cosmic terms about what God is doing. This is a story that has to do with the vast group known as the Gentiles. The scale of the story does not fit into the classic manor house. It takes up the whole world. To be sure, the Gentiles are an unlikely group for God to be including in the inheritance. Traditionally, Gentiles were those who worshiped other gods. They were not the devotees of the God of Israel.
The key to the inheritance is that through Christ, God has called the Gentiles to faith in a new way. It is through faith in Christ (3:12) that the Gentiles are brought into relationship with God and given an inheritance in his grace. The mystery that was revealed to Paul was that God was not content to let the Gentiles be separated from him. Instead, God has acted to bring them into a new relationship with him. And Christ was the way God did that. Note that the inheritance theme was sounded early in Ephesians (Eph 1:14, 18). The letter recognizes that sin separates all people from God. Therefore, all people-Jews and Gentiles-have the same need of grace. No one has an inborn right to be an heir of God's grace. People become heirs by the mercy of God. Moreover, all people are called to the same faith. To be a child of God is to relate to God in faith. And faith has a future. The mercy and gift of the Spirit that people have already received is an assurance of this. People are God's children now, in faith. And faith has a future through the promise of resurrection.
Third, this means that the revelation of the mystery is not the end of the story. It creates a new beginning of a story. The usual pattern is that once the mystery is revealed, we can close the book. The case is solved. The suspense is over. But for Paul, the revelation of the mystery is just the beginning. If God has extended the promise of an inheritance to the Gentiles, this opens up a vast new chapter. Paul is in the business of making the news of what God has done public (3:7-10).
Public interest in real-life mysteries-like the mysteries in the detective novels-usually continues as long as the solution remains unknown. Once a case has been solved, it has a place in the newspaper for a few days, then, the story fades as other issues dominate the front page. For Paul, the pattern is the opposite. The disclosure of the mystery of grace remains the heart of his story. It is the news that has its proper place at the forefront of his work. He is not bashful about saying so. To know what God has done in Christ is to have the "boldness and confidence" that come from such faith (3:12).
Gospel Mt 2:1-12
The visit of the Magi occurs directly before the story of the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. Matthew’s Gospel tells a version of Jesus’ birth that is different than the one in Luke. Of the actual birth of Jesus, Matthew tells us little more than, “When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod . . . ” The story of the census is found only in Luke’s Gospel, but we hear about the visit of the Magi only in Matthew’s Gospel.
We know little about the Magi. They come from the East and journey to Bethlehem, following an astrological sign, so we believe them to be astrologers. We assume that there were three Magi based upon the naming of their three gifts. The Gospel does not say how many Magi paid homage to Jesus. In Matthew’s Gospel, they represent the Gentiles’ search for a savior. Because the Magi represent the entire world, they also represent our search for Jesus.
We have come to consider the gifts they bring as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ role in salvation. We believe the meaning of the gifts to be Christological. Gold is presented as representative of Jesus’ kingship. Frankincense is a symbol of his divinity because priests burned the substance in the Temple. Myrrh, which was used to prepare the dead for burial, is offered in anticipation of Jesus’ death.
The word Epiphany means “manifestation” or “showing forth.” Historically several moments in Christ’s early life and ministry have been celebrated as “epiphanies,” including his birth in Bethlehem, the visit of the Magi, his baptism by John, and his first miracle at Cana.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.
Refrain:
O star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.
Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again,
King forever, ceasing never,
Over us all to reign.
Frankincense to offer have I;
Incense owns a Deity nigh;
Prayer and praising, voices raising,
Worshiping God on high.
Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorr’wing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.
Glorious now behold Him arise;
King and God and sacrifice;
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Sounds through the earth and skies.
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Sunday December 30, 2018 Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Lectionary: 17
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14
God sets a father in honor over his children;
a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.
Whoever honors his father atones for sins,
and preserves himself from them.
When he prays, he is heard;
he stores up riches who reveres his mother.
Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,
and, when he prays, is heard.
Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;
he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.
My son, take care of your father when he is old;
grieve him not as long as he lives.
Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him;
revile him not all the days of his life;
kindness to a father will not be forgotten,
firmly planted against the debt of your sins
—a house raised in justice to you.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Reading 2 Col 3:12-21
Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another,
if one has a grievance against another;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
And over all these put on love,
that is, the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,
the peace into which you were also called in one body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Wives, be subordinate to your husbands,
as is proper in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives,
and avoid any bitterness toward them.
Children, obey your parents in everything,
for this is pleasing to the Lord.
Fathers, do not provoke your children,
so they may not become discouraged.
Gospel Lk 2:41-52
Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast
of Passover,
and when he was twelve years old,
they went up according to festival custom.
After they had completed its days, as they were returning,
the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,
but his parents did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan,
they journeyed for a day
and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,
but not finding him,
they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple,
sitting in the midst of the teachers,
listening to them and asking them questions,
and all who heard him were astounded
at his understanding and his answers.
When his parents saw him,
they were astonished,
and his mother said to him,
“Son, why have you done this to us?
Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
And he said to them,
“Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
But they did not understand what he said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was obedient to them;
and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor
before God and man.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14
The book of Sirach [also known as Ecclesiasticus] is part of the Wisdom literature in the Old Testament. It was compiled by Jesus Ben Sirach in the period between 195-180 BC. The fundamental question discussed in Wisdom literature is: “what promotes human well-being?” The passage for reflection this week is parental counsel to growing children. Honor your parents, blessings will come upon you! The commandment to honor parents is derived from ‘fear of the Lord’. ‘Fear of the Lord’ is respectful listening to the word of God and obeying his laws. Honoring parents implies respectful and obedient listening to them and care for their needs! It is also addressed to all ‘you who need instructions’. Those who observe the commandments of the Lord are the ones who possess wisdom. Sirach was concerned about the stability of family in changing social situations, the rise of conflicts between grown children and aging parents. Intimate family ties are necessary for harmony in society. Sirach emphasizes on parents’ authority over children as a divine gift rather than a social convention. One who is good to parents also would try to do good for others. Kindness toward parents is rewarded by a peaceful life. The prayer of one who honors his/her parents is heard. Sirach also notices that in old age, parents might lose control of their physical, emotional and intellectual faculties. With affection Sirach speaks to all children that in such circumstances maintain your calm, reasoned judgment, respect and kindness toward your parents.
Flor McArthy, in his commentary on today’s readings, adds that this second element has greater relevance today. Because of the pace of modern life, he states, the elderly tend to be pushed to the margins, if not out of the picture altogether. In our strength it is easy to forget those who are
weak and perhaps a little senile. Under God, we owe everything to our parents. The author of Ecclesiasticus asserts that kindness to parents is especially pleasing to God. That kindness even takes on a deep spiritual meaning, as atonement for one’s sins.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5.
God intends that men bear the greater responsibility to protect those in need and to lead those we protect, especially as it relates to the life of marriage and family. Providing an Old Testament echo of the Christ-redeemed husband in Ephesians 5:25-33, Psalm 128 provides a picture of the man the Lord blesses.
Psalm 128 is a wisdom psalm and a companion to Psalm 127. As songs of ascent (Psalm 120-134) they were sung by families as they left home on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh in the holy city. Interesting the psalm begins with a blessing and closes with a prayer. Four times in the psalm we see the word ―blessed (v. 1, 2, 4, 5). Utilizing two different but related Hebrew words, the psalm describes the man the Lord blesses and what some of those blessings look like.
While the writer includes all who fear the Lord (v.1), the psalm is addressed especially to the man of the house (v.3). Be clear about who you trust, Psalm 128 begins on the same note as Psalm 1. The phrase ―everyone informs us that all are blessed who
1) fear the Lord and 2) walk in His ways. ―Blessed‖ carries the idea of ―happy, fortunate.
Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389) also knows as Gregory the Theologian was a church father who helped defend and define biblical and orthodox Christology. He also spoke eloquently to Christian marriage calling it ―true companionship. With the imagery of a fruitful vine and olive plants scattered all around the table the psalmist emphases both growth and fruitfulness for the man who fears the Lord. (cf. Mic. 4:4; Zech. 3:10).
Because this man walks with God his wife flourishes like a fruitful vine in or beside the house. He sets her free to soar as a woman of God for the glory of God! Located rightly in the center of the home, she fulfills the calling of a Proverbs 31 lady because of the man of God who stands tall at her side! Fruitful and sexually charming (see Song of Solomon 7:8-12), she is unlike the unfaithful women of Proverbs 7:11 whose ―feet would not stay at home. No, she knows her man is her’s and she is his! Her attractiveness goes hand-in-hand with her faithfulness. Redeemed by grace from the curse of Genesis 3, her husband loves her and knows her (Eph. 5:25-33; 1 Peter 3:7), and she submits to him and respects him (Eph. 5:21-24, 33). Together they seek to educate and encourage their children (Eph. 6:1-4), and later their grandchildren to love and serve the Lord. Be a blessing to your children.
A man can bless his children in many ways. He can bless them by loving Jesus and teaching them to love Jesus. He can bless them by loving his wife, by loving their mother as he promised, ―til death do us part. The olive tree flourishes in a home with a godly dad and mom who are committed to each other. It would point to both longevity and productivity made possible because of the household of faith in which they, the children, were nurtured. They are not like the grass that withers and the flower that fades. No, these are the arrows of Psalm 127 who challenge their father’s enemies in the gate! Be concerned with where you live 128:5-6 The blessed life must be a life that reaches out to extend and share the blessings of God to others. This man will be concerned for his city and nation, his children and his grandchildren. He will recognize, as we must, that the family’s future is bound up in health and welfare of the nation. From marriage to being grandparents in only 6 verses!
At least 3 times in the psalms of ascent (120-134) the psalmists pray for the ―shalom, the peace, of their nation (Psalm 122:6-7; 125:5). Indeed many of the psalms end with a prayer for the land and the city (14:7; 25:22; 72:18-19; 106:48; 122:6-7; 125:5; 130:7-8; 131:3; 134:3; 135:21; 148:14). This may be a concise or ―Readers Digest version of the great Aaronic benediction found in Numbers 6:24-26. We should pray for our nation and her leaders (1Timothy 2). We should be active in promoting righteous and moral policies that invite the blessing of God on our land. If good and godly men do nothing evil will prevail.
Reading 2 Col 3:12-21
The Letter to the Colossians combines large segments of theological/doctrinal and practical/ethical materials.
At times, however, it is nearly impossible to determine which kind of issue one is dealing with. The passage for this first Sunday after Christmas has the flavor of both theological and ethical concerns. Interpreters in general, however, regard these verses as belonging to the more doctrinal portion of the epistle -- though they still admit that there are prominent ethical features to the text.
It is important to locate verses 12-17 of chapter 3 in their immediate literary context. Colossians 3:1-17 is a recognizable section of the letter. First, in verses 1-4 readers are admonished to seek heavenly ways because they have been raised with Christ. Second, verses 5-17 elaborate the meaning of this exhortation. Here, there are a pair of passages, one negatively focused (verses 5-11) and one positively oriented (verses 12-17).
Colossians 3:5-11 contains two lists of five negative items Christians are to shun. Then, in 3:12-17 there are a series of admonitions, including another list of five items, this time positive items that Christians are to embrace. Our text for this Sunday contains the more positively expressed set of verses.
The verses of our lesson begin with the word "therefore" in Greek--though this is often translated "then" and placed somehow as something other than the first word of the sentence. The "therefore," however, reaches back to the material in 3:1-4 and recognizes that whatever actions the Christians take are taken because of what God has done -- that is, Christian life is the consequence of the gospel. The verses of this lesson (verses 12-17) focus on Christian virtue, defining and describing Christian character while speaking to the community of believers.
The previous section of the letter (verses 5-11) with its concern with vices is now left behind. Now, the letter presents the positive dimensions of life in Christ as actions. Christians are to "put on" certain characteristics so that they live these qualities, they do not merely "have" them. Not merely traits, but actions define Christian living. As Christ lived, so the Christians are to live.
The list of five virtues in verse 12 ("compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience") are found elsewhere in the Pauline epistles to designate actions/characteristics of God or Christ. These "virtues" describe the character of active Christian living as God's chosen people who are called out of the ordinary realm of human existence to be especially dedicated to God as/because God loves them. The Christian community lives as it embodies the very gospel by which it was called and that it now proclaims.
The passage tells us that virtue exists, love prevails -- why? Because "the Lord has forgiven you." Thus, that which the community experiences, the community is called to live out -- and here, it is crucial to see that the "you"s of these verses are consistently in plural forms; that is, the author addresses the community, not merely the pious individual. The gospel is personal, but it is not -- based upon these verses -- to be made private. The text of Colossians envisions a community in action.
In light of the admonition, "Above all these put on love," the rest of this passage registers imperatives that may be considered for forming and directing the life of a Christian community. Other than to put on (and live out) the five virtues that are given in verse 12, the passage states a variety of directions: Verse 13 tells the recipients of the letter that they must forgive exactly as the Lord has forgiven -- a very high standard indeed. Verse 14 itself is the admonition to put on love, which seems to supersede and epitomize the other virtues and directions given in this passage. Verse 15 seems to speak of the results of following the directives to love and to forgive -- that is, the Colossians are both to let the peace of Christ reign in their hearts and to be thankful to God for the peace and forgiveness that they experience.
Verse 16 focuses on the life of the community in quite concrete terms: The Colossians are to "let the word of Christ dwell in [them] richly, which means teaching and admonishing, and singing. Thus we see education, exhortation, and worshipful expression. Finally, in verse 17, the author tells the Colossians to do whatever they do -- be it in word or in deed -- in the name of the Lord, all the while giving thanks to God through him. Thus, all of life is to be devoted to the Lord and lived in accordance with the gospel of God's grace and love at work in Jesus Christ.
In essence, all of Colossians celebrates the gift of God through Jesus Christ to the community of faith. That gift is a new context ("Christ") and a new power ("love") for living. As we clothe ourselves in Christ (take on his way of life) we are transformed, not merely by our own actions, but above all by God's own love at work in the gospel of God's grace at work in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Gospel Lk 2:41-52
Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. This feast is part of the Christmas season, and we should place today's Gospel in the context of what Luke's Gospel tells us about the birth of Jesus. Luke has been answering the question “Who is Jesus?” through his stories of the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. Today's Gospel reading continues this theme. It has no parallel in the other Gospels and is the conclusion of Luke's Infancy Narrative.
Mary, Joseph, and Jesus are presented in this Gospel as a faithful Jewish family. They are participating in the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, an event shared each year with family and friends. When Jesus is found, Luke describes him as seated in the Temple in the midst of the Jewish teachers. Although he is young, Jesus seems not to need teaching about his Jewish tradition. In his dialogue with these learned teachers, Jesus astounds them with his insight and understanding. Jesus is a child of Israel. His Father is God.
The dialogue between Mary and Jesus contains many references to family relationships. In fact, in this Gospel reading Mary and Joseph are never identified by name. Instead they are referred to by their relationship to Jesus. Ultimately, this emphasizes Luke's point about the identity of Jesus. When Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the Temple, they question Jesus and express their anxiety. Jesus replies in words that many have thought to be disrespectful. Jesus says that he was never lost; he was at home. Jesus is God's Son, and he is in his Father's house. Luke will continue to suggest that faith in Jesus establishes new family relationships as he describes Jesus' public ministry.
In Luke's Gospel, Mary's importance is even greater than her role as Jesus' mother. Mary is the first disciple and will be present with Jesus' disciples after his Resurrection at Pentecost.
The link below has a video about today’s gospel. It gave me a new perspective on Jesus words in the text. It reads kind of kind of disrespectful in the text but the video gives it new meaning, at least it did for me. You may have to cut and paste it into another session of explorer. God Bless and Happy New Year.
Joel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJJo0Fksivk
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
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MERRY CHRISTMAS fellow scripture readers!!! I added the readings and a reflection on just the Gospel for Christmas day at the end of this weeks scripturers. Just a little extra reading this week. Enjoy and God bless you all!!
Sunday December 23, 2018 Fourth Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 12
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Mi 5:1-4a
Thus says the LORD:
You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah
too small to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel;
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient times.
Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time
when she who is to give birth has borne,
and the rest of his kindred shall return
to the children of Israel.
He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock
by the strength of the LORD,
in the majestic name of the LORD, his God;
and they shall remain, for now his greatness
shall reach to the ends of the earth;
he shall be peace.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
O shepherd of Israel, hearken,
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power,
and come to save us.
R Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
May your help be with the man of your right hand,
with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Reading 2 Heb 10:5-10
Brothers and sisters:
When Christ came into the world, he said:
"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll,
behold, I come to do your will, O God.'"
First he says, "Sacrifices and offerings,
holocausts and sin offerings,
you neither desired nor delighted in."
These are offered according to the law.
Then he says, :Behold, I come to do your will."
He takes away the first to establish the second.
By this "will," we have been consecrated
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Gospel Lk 1:39-45
Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Mi 5:1-4a
In order to understand the benevolent image in today's reading of the coming ruler who it is necessary to fill in the landscape in which this savior will bestow nourishment and salvation.
At the outset, it is also important to suspend the notion that this is a foretelling of the coming Jesus of Nazareth. Doing so will help you first to see Micah's own times and hear his own voice before layering onto it the Christological lens so familiar to Christian preachers.
If we think only in terms of this coming one as Jesus, we miss Micah's message to his own people. We lose scripture's assertion -- and the proclamation of the prophet -- that LORD speaks in each moment of history to that particular time. If we think of Micah's words only as foretelling a future savior, the LORD's concern for the present is lost.
The speeches of the prophet we know as Micah are believed to refer to events around the eighth century BCE, a time of great unrest and turmoil for the northern kingdom and Jerusalem because of the domineering strength of the Assyrian nation. The people to whom Micah's words were directed had no chance to match the warring might of their neighbors. Micah insisted that the only hope for them was to trust in the LORD's power by remaining faithful.
Micah's prophecy rails against the social and moral abuse rampant in the land. We know the situation by looking at the book of Micah as a whole. Those with power have taken away from the poor their land and inheritances (2:1-5), evicted widows from their homes (2:9), fixed the scales and weights to cheat customers (6:10-11), taken bribes (7:3), and more. The language is as graphic (3:1-3) as the butchery of Sweeney Todd, so horribly do the "haves" treat those who have less. Baal worship is officially endorsed by the rulers (6:16). The LORD will not tolerate this disobedience.
But the LORD's wrath is not just against the political rulers and the wealthy, it is also against the prophets and religious authorities whose words serve only themselves: "who cry 'Peace' when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths" (3:5). There is no hope for them, for "the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them..." (3:6). Micah declares the ruin of the holy city Jerusalem.
From out of the devastation, however, the day will come when righteousness and peace will be restored. Micah's familiar image of swords being beaten into plowshares forms part of this portrait of a coming peace when, once again, everyone will sit under vines and fig trees on land they own (4:3).
The seven chapters in Micah can be outlined as collections of speeches containing oracles of punishment and then prophecies of salvation. Chapter 5 includes the first promise of restoration. The people will have their land back. Because land is vital to survival, identity, and a future, retrieving a place on which to fashion a life means salvation. Much of the language here is about protecting the land from the Assyrians, the great power menacing the little nations around it.
The reading for today proclaims that out of one of those little nations will come the one who brings security. That savior is, of course, interpreted in the Christian scriptures as Jesus, making it natural that we should immediately think of him. Matthew 2:5-6 gives us the scene in which the wise men ask King Herod how they are to find the child who is the king of the Jews. The suddenly alarmed king calls his advisors into the situation room and asks where this Messiah was to be born. The advisors remind Herod of the scripture that addresses Bethlehem: "for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel." (2:6b)
The verses from Micah are also recalled in John 7:32-43: “Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David’s family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” (7:42). Another interpretation might see the promised salvation as a social, political, or economic arrangement that creates justice for all and whose origin is not known for dominance over others.
By pondering the image that Micah sets out rather than leaping to the assumption that this coming savior is the Christian Christ, we can look for the correspondence between disparate ages of human history with divergent needs, all being saved by a God who is justice, kindness, and humility itself. Faith in God and joy in the coming incarnation is not dependent on the prophet's accurate future predictions. That would be proving a point. The power of Micah's image is not in its foretelling but in its truthfulness. The God who cared for "the little clans of Judah" still cares for the faithful needy ones. And we are everywhere.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19.
This very touching and beautiful psalm purports also to be a psalm of Asaph. Compare the notes at the title to Psalm 60:1-12. The word rendered eduth, which means testimony, may have been used here with reference to the contents of the psalm as a public testimony in regard to the dealings of God with his people. But it is not possible now to determine with certainty the meaning of these titles.
The psalm, in its design, has a strong resemblance to Psalm 79:1-13, and was probably composed on the same occasion. It has been generally supposed to have reference to the time of the Babylonian captivity. Some have referred it, however, to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes; and others regard it as a prayer of the ten tribes which had been carried away to Assyria.
The first part is a prayer, addressed to God as a shepherd - as one who had led his people like a flock - that he would again shine forth on them now that they were in trouble, and that he would stir up his strength, and come and save them, Psalm 80:1-3.
The second is a prayer, also - founded on the troubles of his people; a people fed with their tears; a strife to their neighbors; and an occasion of laughter or mirth to their foes, Psalm 80:4-7.
The third is also a prayer - founded on the former dealings of God with his people, on his care for them in ancient times, and on the fact that they were now desolate; their state being represented under the image of a vine brought from abroad; planted with care; attentively nurtured until it sent out its branches in every direction, so that it filled the land; and then broken down - torn - rent - trampled on - by a wild boar out of the wood, Psalm 80:8-19. In view of this desolation the psalmist prays that God would interpose, and he pledges the assurance that if this were done for them, the people would no more go back from God.
Reading 2 Heb 10:5-10
Christ was obedient not only in his death, but from the moment of his coming into the world.
This is the message of today's reading. The author's declaration here is close to Paul's statement in Romans 3:25, where he speaks of God putting forward Jesus "as an expiation through faith in his blood." Yet, it is not Paul that the author of Hebrews has in mind.
What we find here is a positive explanation of Christ's priestly act. What is said about Christ is in reply to the inability of the priestly or Levitical sacrificial system to perfect the individual's conscience. The author said in 9:14 that the perfection of conscience was the goal of worship. The speaker here is Christ. In fact, it is only the second time in book that Jesus himself speaks. More importantly, these words are ascribed to Christ "when [he] came into the world" (Hebrews 10:5). Thus, the complete obedience that is the essence of Christ's priesthood is also expressive of his character. One may clearly see this in his faithful and obedient sacrifice on the cross, but the author wants us to understand that Christ was faithful at the moment of his coming into existence. Jesus is the son who "learned obedience through what he suffered", and did so from the beginning.
Christ enters the world reciting the words of Psalm 40:6-8. The two statements express Jesus' priestly role, his mediation between humanity and God. Earlier in Hebrew 2:12-13, Jesus speaks of his complete solidarity with his brothers and sisters. In today's passage, he declares his utter commitment to God's will (10:5). The choice of this psalm has been called inspired by some scholars. A psalm of David, which makes it eminently appropriate for the messiah, the psalm expresses confidence and hope in God even in circumstances of persecution. Placed in Hebrews, it expresses the contrast between the sacrifices of the first covenant, which was external, and the response of faithful obedience to God's will, which is internal. It is this internal transformation that the author regards as the essence of the true worship of God.
The actual verses quoted from the psalm come from the Septuagint (i.e., the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) rather than the Hebrew. This is most evident in the use of the term "body," which does not appear in the Hebrew rendition. (It has "ear.") The point appears to be that Jesus was committed entirely to God, including his body.
By contrast, the quotation that appears in 10:7 presents something of a problem. Outside of the grammar, which is challenging, the meaning of "in the scroll of the book" is unclear. Since this is a psalm of David, the author appears to be making a connection between the ideal king, who has the will of God written in his heart, and the messiah's analogous dedication to the divine will. The messiah is completely and utterly committed to doing what the Lord desires.
The purpose of the priestly sacrificial system was the sanctification of the people. Yet, the author says that it could not accomplish what it desired, setting the people apart as a kingdom of priests mediating God's will to the nations (see e.g., Exodus 19:6). This is highlighted by the statement, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired . . . in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings you have taken no pleasure" (Hebrews 10:5-6).
Some have taken this language as supersessionist, the idea that the covenant with Israel has been voided by God and replaced by a new one with Christians. It does not appear that the author's statement is that strong. There is no outright rejection of the Torah here. In fact, the author's use of "the scroll of the book" mitigates against such an understanding. Nevertheless, Hebrews is saying that the access to God claimed by the proponents of the priestly system is untrue. What God desires is faithful obedience, which places this claim in Hebrews in the same vein as those made by the prophets. The sort of obedience that Hebrews understands as perfecting the conscience is not found in such ritual observances.
Jesus declares, "I have come to do your will, O God" (10:7). It was through a single-minded obedience of Christ's will and -- most pointedly -- body, says Hebrews, that our sanctification through God's will has come about. The author wants us to see that the incarnation is explained by the atonement, but the atonement would never have come about without Christ's faithful obedience.
Gospel
On this the last Sunday before Christmas, our Gospel reading prepares us to witness Christ's birth by showing us how Jesus was recognized as Israel's long-awaited Messiah even before his birth. The Gospel turns our attention from the ministry of John the Baptist to the events that preceded John the Baptist's birth. The story of John the Baptist and his parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah, are reported only in Luke's Gospel. Luke pairs the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus, establishing John's early connection to the Messiah.
Our Gospel reading recalls Mary's actions after the announcement of Jesus' birth by the angel Gabriel. Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, her cousin, who is also with child. Elizabeth greets Mary with full recognition of the roles that they and their unborn children will play in God's plan for salvation. If we were to continue to read the verses that follow in Luke's Gospel, we would hear Mary respond to Elizabeth's greeting with her song of praise, the Magnificat. Both women recall and echo God's history of showing favor upon the people of Israel.
In Luke's Gospel the Holy Spirit helps reveal Jesus' identity as God to those who believe. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and sings Mary's praise because she bears the Lord. We sing these words of praise to Mary in the Hail Mary. Even John the Baptist, the unborn child in Elizabeth's womb, is said to recognize the presence of the Lord and leaps for joy.
It is appropriate in this season of Advent that we consider the role of Mary in God's plan of salvation. Elizabeth describes Mary as the first disciple, as the one who believed that God's word to her would be fulfilled. Mary's faith enabled her to recognize the work of God in her people's history and in her own life. Her openness to God allowed God to work through her so that salvation might come to everyone. Because of this, Mary is a model and symbol of the Church. May we be like Mary, open and cooperative in God's plan for salvation.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
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December 25, 2018 - The Nativity of the Lord – Christmas - Mass at Dawn
Lectionary: 15
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 62:11-12
See, the LORD proclaims
to the ends of the earth:
say to daughter Zion,
your savior comes!
Here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
They shall be called the holy people,
the redeemed of the LORD,
and you shall be called "Frequented,"
a city that is not forsaken.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 97:1, 6, 11-12.
R. A light will shine on us this day: the Lord is born for us.
The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;
let the many isles be glad.
The heavens proclaim his justice,
and all peoples see his glory.
R. A light will shine on us this day: the Lord is born for us.
Light dawns for the just;
and gladness, for the upright of heart.
Be glad in the LORD, you just,
and give thanks to his holy name.
R. A light will shine on us this day: the Lord is born for us.
Reading 2 Ti 3:4-7
Beloved:
When the kindness and generous love
of God our savior appeared,
not because of any righteous deeds we had done
but because of his mercy,
He saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he richly poured out on us
through Jesus Christ our savior,
so that we might be justified by his grace
and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
Gospel Lk 2:15-20
When the angels went away from them to heaven,
the shepherds said to one another,
"Let us go, then, to Bethlehem
to see this thing that has taken place,
which the Lord has made known to us."
So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph,
and the infant lying in the manger.
When they saw this,
they made known the message
that had been told them about this child.
All who heard it were amazed
by what had been told them by the shepherds.
And Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart.
Then the shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God
for all they had heard and seen,
just as it had been told to them
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Gospel Lk 2:15-20
There are four Masses that are celebrated for the feast of Christmas, and each is given its own set of readings to help us contemplate Christ's birth. The Gospel for the Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve is taken from the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, the genealogy of Jesus and the angel's announcement of the birth to Joseph. The Mass at midnight proclaims the birth of Jesus through the angels' announcement to the shepherds in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 2:15-20 is the reading for the mass at dawn on Christmas morning. It continues the story of the birth of Jesus as found in Luke's Gospel with the shepherds' visit to the infant Jesus. Finally, the Gospel for Christmas Mass during the day is taken from the beginning of John's Gospel. It is not an Infancy Narrative like those found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Instead, John's Gospel starts at the very beginning of time and presents Creation as the framework for announcing the Incarnation. John's opening words echo the first verse in the Book of Genesis, “In the beginning was the Word.”
The story of Jesus' birth, which begins with a reference to Caesar Augustus, concludes with the shepherds, people looked down on by most of society, visiting the infant. As the angels return to heaven, the shepherds decide to go see “this thing” that has happened in Bethlehem. Their visit confirms everything the angels had told them about the birth of the Savior and Messiah. They then spoke publicly about all they had seen, to the great astonishment of all who heard. Mary ponders all this in her heart, and the shepherds return to their fields praising God. What had been told to them really happened. This account does not tell us very much about the infant Jesus because Luke's concern is that God's action of sending a savior be publicly proclaimed. As Paul says before King Agrippa in Acts of the Apostles 26:26, “None of this was done in a corner.” The picture is simple, two parents and an infant in a stable. But the reality is great, God's salvation offered to all.
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Sunday December 16, 2018 Third Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 9
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Zep 3:14-18a
Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!
Sing joyfully, O Israel!
Be glad and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
The LORD has removed the judgment against you
he has turned away your enemies;
the King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst,
you have no further misfortune to fear.
On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!
The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty savior;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in his love,
he will sing joyfully because of you,
as one sings at festivals.
Responsorial Psalm Is 12:2-3, 4, 5-6.
R. Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
God indeed is my savior;
I am confident and unafraid.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
With joy you will draw water
at the fountain of salvation.
R. Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
Give thanks to the LORD, acclaim his name;
among the nations make known his deeds,
proclaim how exalted is his name.
R. Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
Sing praise to the LORD for his glorious achievement;
let this be known throughout all the earth.
Shout with exultation, O city of Zion,
for great in your midst
is the Holy One of Israel!
R. Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
Reading 2 Phil 4:4-7
Brothers and sisters:
Rejoice in the Lord always.
I shall say it again: rejoice!
Your kindness should be known to all.
The Lord is near.
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Gospel Lk 3:10-18
The crowds asked John the Baptist,
“What should we do?”
He said to them in reply,
“Whoever has two cloaks
should share with the person who has none.
And whoever has food should do likewise.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him,
“Teacher, what should we do?”
He answered them,
“Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.”
Soldiers also asked him,
“And what is it that we should do?”
He told them,
“Do not practice extortion,
do not falsely accuse anyone,
and be satisfied with your wages.”
Now the people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
“I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Exhorting them in many other ways,
he preached good news to the people.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Zep 3:14-18a
The third Sunday of Advent traditionally has a focus on joy. And, indeed, almost all the texts for this Sunday speak of joy.
Our reading from Zephaniah sets the tone: Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! (3:14). The prophet piles on the exhortations to joy: exult, rejoice, sing, shout!
Why this invitation to sing the Hallelujah Chorus? Because the LORD has issued a pardon and commuted Israel's sentence. The judgments against Judah and Jerusalem are turned aside, and the nation (or at least a remnant thereof) is set free (see Zephaniah 3:12-13).
According to the superscription of the book (Zephaniah 1:1), Zephaniah prophesied during the reign of King Josiah (640-609 BCE), before the Babylonian exile. The passage chosen as the reading for today, however, may have been added after the exile. It differs markedly in tone from the earlier parts of the book (which are largely about judgment) and it speaks of "gathering" the outcasts (3:19-20).
Whether the passage is exilic (period of exile) or pre-exilic, the message is clear: God is for Israel. God has forgiven her iniquities, which are detailed earlier in the book--complacency (1:12); corrupt leaders (3:3-4); injustice (3:1, 5). And not only is "daughter Zion" forgiven, but the LORD himself is with her. Therefore, says the prophet, "Fear not!" (3:16). It is the injunction spoken to everyone who encounters the near presence of the LORD, or the LORD's angel, a presence gracious but nonetheless terrifying. In this Advent season, Zechariah and Mary both hear those words: Fear not!
Fear not. Do not be afraid. Why? Because "the king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst" (3:15). If this oracle is indeed exilic, it is addressing the loss of a Davidic monarch. Israel has no need of a descendant of David, the prophet seems to say; the LORD himself is Israel's king. And this king will not leave. He dwells in the midst of his people so that they need not fear disaster anymore.
The image shifts, from God as pardoning judge and king, to God as savior and warrior, one who rescues Israel from all her enemies. It is striking that in this verse (verse 17), some of the same words for "rejoicing" come up again; but this time, it is the LORD who is the subject of the verbs! Human beings are not the only ones who are filled with joy; God, too, bursts into song! Why? Because the relationship is restored. The love between God and Israel is renewed. We hear in verse 17 strong echoes of the biblical metaphor that pictures the relationship between God and Israel as a love affair, a marriage.
In the last few verses, the image shifts one more time, to God as shepherd, gathering the lame and the ones who have strayed, and bringing them home again. The LORD will give them a "name" (renown) and change their shame into praise, in the sight of "all the peoples of the earth" (3:19-20).
We are accustomed to images of God as judge. (Indeed, much of Zephaniah uses such imagery.) We are accustomed to images of God as shepherd, gathering the flock into the fold. But how often do we imagine God as one who rejoices? One who sings? Yet here, in our text, God and God's people alike are caught up in a joy that overflows into song, a joy that springs from love renewed, relationship restored.
This joy is not one-sided. It is not simply God's people who rejoice because God has forgiven and restored them. That is an altogether understandable reaction to God's redemption. It is not simply God's people who rejoice. God, too, sings and shouts with joy over this love restored. The divine heart overflows with jubilation!.
This Sunday, we speak of joy, the joy of a people redeemed and restored, but also the joy of a God who is deeply invested in the life of the world. God sings. God shouts. God rejoices. And we, we who are wondrously and inexplicably God's beloved, join in the celebration.
Responsorial Psalm Is 12:2-3, 4, 5-6.
Chapter 12 provides a transition between Isaiah’s narrative of Judah’s history, marked by periods of obedience and disobedience to God’s will, and oracles of judgment against the nations. The chapter reflects the context of chapters 1-39, with Judah living under the grip of Assyria’s domination, and it points to the theme of God’s comfort for those returned from Babylonian exile in chapters 40-66.
It also points toward the day of God’s judgment and salvation -- a day of joy, exaltation, and praise. That day, which is referred to twice in chapter 12, is described gloriously in 2:2-4: the peoples of the world will stream to the mountain of the Lord, where God will instruct and judge, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. The day of which Isaiah 12 sings is the day when the peace of God will finally be established upon the earth, and the nations of the world will wage war no more.
Two distinct voices can be heard in Isaiah 12, possibly reflecting the linkage of two hymns for the purposes of communal worship. The chapter begins with an individual’s song of thanks for God’s anger being turned away (verse 1), and of praise for God’s salvation (verse 2). In this verse an almost exact echo of the song of Moses following the deliverance of the people of Israel from Pharaoh’s army is heard: “The Lord is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation” (Exodus 15:4).
The speaker demonstrates that God continues to provide deliverance of God’s people from all that may enslave them. In verse four, the song continues in a communal voice, praising God’s glorious acts of salvation and calling on the people to make that glory known through all the earth (verses 4 and 5). The singer calls upon the people to live in expectation of the day of salvation and, in so doing, to make the kingdom of God known here and now.
Zion is exalted because the ineffable and majestic God, the “holy one of Israel” (verse 6), has actually chosen to live in her midst. The two parts of the song are linked by verse three. The verse is a promise to the people that on the day of judgment they will know in abundance the joy of God’s salvation.
Water is a common motif in the Hebrew Scriptures. There are narratives of God’s miraculous provision of water for desperate persons (Genesis 21:19) and communities (Exodus 17:1-7). Water is often used as a metaphor for salvation (Isaiah 35:6-7 and 55:1; Ezekiel 47:1-12). And water represents the very presence of God with individuals (Psalm 42:1 and 63:1) and with communities (Isaiah 44:3).
Here in Isaiah 12:3, the “wells of salvation” from which the people will draw seem to reflect both salvation and divine presence, as the reference to God’s indwelling with Israel suggests.
The wells of salvation, the water of God’s gracious presence, are bottomless, endless. These are the waters that give life, restoring vibrancy to a world that is dying of thirst, and seeking wholeness for those overwhelmed by the floods of destruction.
The water of forgiveness, of liberation from all that holds us in captivity, of refreshment of souls that are parched for grace, is the same water of which Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well: “but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14). The water of salvation that flows with the very presence of God is coming again to the world in endless supply for our deepest need.
Reading 2 Phil 4:4-7
It's an exclamation we've heard time and time again, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4).
The two-fold expression to rejoice echoes what the apostle said in 3:1, "Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord." Rejoicing is a keynote of this letter. The inclusion of the pantote, translated as "always," can also be rendered "at all times." The statement calls for an ongoing activity, one not based upon the particular circumstances of the apostle's readers. In one way, this adverb points to the future and its possible trials. The idea then is to keep on rejoicing in the Lord at all times, regardless of what may come upon you.
At this point, it is important to remember that Paul wrote this from prison. As portrayed in Acts, Paul and Silas, although beaten and in prison, sang hymns and prayed (Acts 16:25). Thus, the apostle has already demonstrated to his congregation what it means to rejoice in adversity. (At 2 Corinthians 6:10 Paul speaks of himself as "sorrowful yet always rejoicing.")
The key to understanding Paul's exhortation to rejoice is that it is "in the Lord." This signifies that the Lord is either the object of our rejoicing or its grounding, the one in whom our joy thrives. This continuous rejoicing in the Lord is a very important concept for Paul. It is a distinguishing mark for Christians (see Romans 12:12) and a characteristic of life in the kingdom of God (14:17). It is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). It becomes evident during times of suffering and trial (Romans 5:3-4; 2 Corinthians 6:10; 8:2-3).
In the third short sentence, the term to epieikes "gentleness") is tricky to translate. Its use in the Greek language includes "what is fitting," "magnanimity," and "reasonableness." It can also be understood to describe the clemency of a ruler. Undoubtedly, the Philippians would have been aware of the purported benevolence of the Roman emperors. If the Christian life is to be characterized by joy it is also distinguished by a gentleness that is known to all. It is akin to being merciful.
In a world where strict adherence to the letter of the law would lead to injustice, epieikeia knew how to act with fairness. The treatment of Jesus highlights for Paul what this gentleness is all about (see 2 Corinthians 10:1). Thus, the gentleness he describes is the response of a person who has suffered injustice and disgrace.
The "gentleness" that Christians have is to be made "known to all sorts of people" (Philippians 4:5). This idea harkens back to something Paul says earlier in the letter, "Only live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ" (1:27). Politeuesthe "live your life") denotes life as a citizen. And so, the idea of living in two communities -- the church and the civic community -- is intoned with this exhortation to gentleness. It reminds us that the church should not be too preoccupied with its own interests.
The shortest sentence is the fourth: kurios eggus ("the Lord is near"). It combines ethics and eschatology, although its meaning is not entirely clear because of the ambiguity surrounding how eggus is supposed to be understood. Like its English counterpart, eggus can be understood spatially or temporally. Spatially, it means "near" or "close at hand." If this is true, then "near" here signifies that the Lord is close to or present with the Philippians. Thus, the Lord is aware of their conduct as well as a ready source for their aid. Temporally, it means the Jesus' second coming is imminent. The early Christians often would say, Marana tha ("Come, O Lord"). Thus, this statement would be a parallel to such exclamations (see 1 Corinthians 16:22; Revelation 22:20), and fits well with what the apostle says in 3:20-21 about the readers eagerly awaiting Jesus' return from heaven. The truth may be that both understandings are correct. Paul may have intended to include both ideas of time and space in his use of eggus: the Lord whose return is imminent is also continually near his people to guide them.
Why place this admonition here? Well, it could serve to connect what was said earlier about gentleness to what is said afterwards about anxiety. In other words, as he exhorts them to rejoice, the apostle commands them to let their gentleness to be known to all, and not to be anxious.
We are not only urged to stop worrying about anything, but also exhorted in every situation to make our requests known to God. In 4:6 three synonyms for prayer are heaped together. The Philippians are urged, as a corrective to their anxiety, to let their specific requests be made known to God. Paul is echoing Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount, "your heavenly Father knows that you need them." Paul may be urging Christians to cast all of our cares upon God (cf. 1 Peter 5:7). In doing so, we acknowledge our total dependence upon God.
The longest sentence is the last. Paul tells us that the result of laying out our cares to God is that God's peace, which is more wonderful than anyone can imagine, will stand guard over our hearts and minds. While we are still vulnerable, we are also assured of God's concern and protection.
Gospel Lk 3:10-18
This Sunday's Gospel continues last week's focus on John the Baptist and his role in preparing the way for Christ. Recall that last week's reading described John's appearance in the desert and established his connection with the prophetic tradition of Israel. If we were to read Luke's Gospel continuously, we would learn about John the Baptist challenging the crowds who came to him and calling upon them to show evidence of their repentance. John tells his listeners that they cannot rely on their lineage as Israelites because children of Abraham can be raised up from stones. Repentance, rather, must be observable in one's actions. Here, Luke is continuing to set up two important themes of his Gospel message: the Christian faith is expressed in one's actions, and the call to salvation is extended to everyone, Jews and Gentiles.
In today's Gospel reading, the crowds ask John the Baptist for specifics. What evidence of repentance is required? John replies by naming concrete actions: crowds should share their food and cloaks; tax collectors should be just; soldiers should act fairly. The concern for justice is a hallmark of Luke's Gospel.
When the crowd begins to wonder if John the Baptist might be the Messiah, John interprets his baptism and makes it clear that his ministry is in preparation for the Messiah. John the Baptist knows his place and role in God's plan of salvation. By encouraging the crowd to act similarly in accordance with their stations in life, John's teaching suggests that each person has a role to play in God's salvation. It is the great mystery of our salvation that God permits and even asks for human cooperation in his divine plans.
The third Sunday of Advent is also called Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is a Latin word that means “rejoice.” This name is taken from the entrance antiphon for Sunday's Mass, which is also echoed in today's second reading from the Paul's letter to the Philippians. Some people mark this Sunday by lighting a pink candle instead of a purple one on their Advent wreath. It is a reminder that the Advent season is a season of joy because our salvation is already at hand.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong
and failing to do good,
I have sinned against you
whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with your help,
to do penance,
to sin no more,
and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.
Our Savior Jesus Christ
suffered and died for us.
In his name, my God, have mercy.
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Sunday December 9, 2018 Second Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 6
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Bar 5:1-9
Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery;
put on the splendor of glory from God forever:
wrapped in the cloak of justice from God,
bear on your head the mitre
that displays the glory of the eternal name.
For God will show all the earth your splendor:
you will be named by God forever
the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship.
Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights;
look to the east and see your children
gathered from the east and the west
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that they are remembered by God.
Led away on foot by their enemies they left you:
but God will bring them back to you
borne aloft in glory as on royal thrones.
For God has commanded
that every lofty mountain be made low,
and that the age-old depths and gorges
be filled to level ground,
that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God.
The forests and every fragrant kind of tree
have overshadowed Israel at God’s command;
for God is leading Israel in joy
by the light of his glory,
with his mercy and justice for company..
Responsorial Psalm Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
"The LORD has done great things for them."
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those who sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Reading 2 Phil 1:4-6, 8-11
Brothers and sisters:
I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you,
because of your partnership for the gospel
from the first day until now.
I am confident of this,
that the one who began a good work in you
will continue to complete it
until the day of Christ Jesus.
God is my witness,
how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer:
that your love may increase ever more and more
in knowledge and every kind of perception,
to discern what is of value,
so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God.
Gospel Lk 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Bar 5:1-9
Put off, O Jerusalem. Earlier in the book Jerusalem was personified as a mother mourning for her exiled children: For she saw the wrath of God coming upon you, and she said: Give ear, all you that dwell near Sion, for God hath brought upon me great mourning: For I have seen the captivity of my people, of my sons, and my daughters, which the Eternal hath brought upon them. For I nourished them with joy: but I sent them away with weeping and mourning (Bar 4:9-11). It was a common practice of the time to put on simple clothing for the act of mourning (Joel 1:13), and this Mother Jerusalem did: I have put off the robe of peace, and have put upon me the sackcloth of supplication, and I will cry to the most High in my days (Bar 4:20).
And put on the beauty, and honor of that everlasting glory. A change of clothing (“and put on”) meant a change in status, and in the Bible often signifies divine blessings. Joseph’s status (for example) is closely associated with clothing. His status as his father’s favorite was symbolized by a tunic (Gen 37:3-4). His jealous brother’s stripped him of the tunic when they sought to rid themselves of him (Gen 37:23). Later, Pharaoh showed him favor by placing him in charge of all Egypt and bestowing upon him a fine linen robe (Gen 41:39-42). All of this related to the divine plan (Gen 45:4-5). The long naked Gerasene demoniac was found fully clothed after being healed by Jesus (Luke 8:26-39, esp. verse 35). The repentant son in the Parable of the Prodigal is clothed with his father’s finest robe (Luke 15:11-32, esp. verse 22). See also Revelation 3:4-5, Gal 3:27; Eph 4:24, Eph 6:11, etc).
Garment of justice. Reverses the guilt and shame mentioned in their confession of sin: To the Lord our God belongs justice: but to us, and to our fathers confusion (shame) of face, as at this day (Bar 2:6).
Will set a crown on thy head. Reversing the situation of punishment that resulted because of their sins. The kingdom centered in Jerusalem had fell into abeyance and the children of the kingdom scattered to serve pagan monarchs: And he hath delivered them up to be under the hand of all the kings that are round about us, to be a reproach, and desolation among all the people, among whom the Lord hath scattered us (Bar 2:4).
To every one under heaven. Those Gentile peoples who were bidden by Mother Jerusalem to witness the exile (Bar 4:14) are now called upon to witness its end. For as the neighbors of Sion have now seen your captivity from God: so shall they also shortly see your salvation from God, which shall come upon you with great honor, and everlasting glory (Bar 4:24).
The repentant, having appealed to the name of God will themselves be given a name: Remember not the iniquities of our fathers, but think upon thy hand, and upon thy name at this time: For thou art the Lord our God, and we will praise thee, O Lord: Because for this end thou hast put thy fear in our hearts, to the intent that we should call upon thy name, and praise thee in our captivity, for we are converted from the iniquity of our fathers, who sinned before thee (Bar 3:5-7).
Like clothing, a new name indicates a change in status (Gen 17:5; Matt 16:17-19; Isa 62:2; Rev 2:17, etc.). “The conferring of a name in a context such as the present one involves not only the giving of the name, but the bestowal of the attributes indicated” (Jerome Biblical Commentary 37:20).
Arise…stand on high. A reversal of their exile: And we are brought low, and are not raised up: because we have sinned against the Lord our God, by not obeying his voice (Bar 2:5).
And behold thy children gathered together. Mother Jerusalem, who saw the captivity of her children (Bar 4:10) is bidden to witness their being gathered together, reversing the punishment of exile and bring the relief for which they had prayed (Bar 2:4, Bar 2:13).
Some translations, such as the RSV and NAB speak of the return in this fashion: “but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne, ” thus emphasizing the contrast and reversal of their situation: led out on foot by enemies, carried back on thrones by God.
See Isaiah 40:3-4 and Luke 3:4-6 (part of today’s Gospel reading). A kingly people carried on thrones deserves a king’s welcome. In ancient times, when a king or royal figure was traveling to a city in the kingdom, it was expected that the roads be put into good repair before his arrival, such is the underlying imagery here. God has decreed that all the obstacles for his people’s return be removed. High mountains were often an image of (or associated with) arrogance and opposition to God (Jer 51:24-25; Zech 4:7; Isa 2:11-15; Isa 37:24), perhaps because they were often associated with pagan worship (Hosea 4:13). Valleys, ravines, etc., also were associated with sin (Isa 57:5; 2 Kings 23:10). It’s not hard to understand how the image came to be associated with repentance; human pride and sin must be brought down before one can return to God.
God will bring Israel with joy. Thus is reversed the prophecy of Jeremiah 7:34 which was quoted in Baruch 2:23: And I will take away from you the voice of mirth, and the voice of joy, and the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, and all the land shall be without any footstep of inhabitants. God’s punishment having had it desired effect-opening his people to the grace of repentence-God’s mercy now comes to the fore.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6.
The theme of restoration that began with Psalm 80 in Advent 1, and Psalm 85 in Advent 2, is continued this week in Psalm 126.
In this psalm, the theological theme of restoration is knitted together with the theme of rejoicing. The product is one of the grandest, most eloquent lyrical prayers in the Psalter.
Psalm 126 is one of a collection of poems (Psalms 120-134) known as the "Songs of Ascents." These most likely did not all originate from a single source or for some unified purpose, but were rather collected together for some common use While interpreters cannot be one-hundred percent sure, the best guess is that the psalms of ascents were collected together in order for the faithful to use when they made pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Although one should not press the metaphor, one can make an analogy between the ancient pilgrimages that Israelites made to Jerusalem and the modern preparations that Christians make during Advent for Christmas.
The psalm has two stanzas (vv. 1-3; 4-6). Similar to the way in which Psalm 85 begins, the first stanza of Psalm 126 recalls God's past acts of restoration (v. 1) and the emotions of joy and celebration of laughter that accompanied those saving acts. The temporal clause with which the psalm begins, "When the Lord restores the fortunes of Zion," most likely has in mind the return of the people to the land following the Babylonian exile. But within the broader biblical narrative, the phrase calls many divine restorations to mind:
The first stanza contains a most surprising testimony concerning God's gracious deeds in the entire Old Testament. The nations--that is, the people who worship other gods and often threaten Israel (cf. Psalm 124:2)--praised God. The very people who, during the years in Babylon, looked upon God's people and "were astonished at him−so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals−these very nations witnessed the restoration of the people to their land and to their God and they said, "The Lord has done great things for them!" Thinking ahead to the New Testament, one is reminded of the non-Israelite magi coming to worship the one who was born "King of the Jews," or the Roman centurion who announced, "Truly this man was God's Son!"
Even more surprising, the nations' testimony to God's deeds inspires Israel to respond with its own testimony, repeating the words of the nations verbatim: "The Lord has done great things for us" (v. 3). Often in the psalms, the enemies' words are quoted as reason for God to punish them (see, for example, Psalm 10:12-14 or the ending of Psalm 137). Here, the words of the nations are quoted approvingly. Even more shockingly, the people of God then repeat the words of the nations. Why? Because God's gracious and faithful acts of restoration are so self-evident, even the blind nations can see them. And because the blind nations see those acts, the often-even-more blind people of God can see them, too.
The second stanza develops the themes introduced in the first stanza and rephrases them in the form of renewed appeals for restoration (this is similar to the structure of Psalm 85, lacking only the set of promises with which Psalm 85 culminates). The people ask God restore them once again, in order that they may rejoice yet again.
It should be emphasized that the closing verses of the psalm are an appeal couched in the form of imaginative wishes: "May those who...." The Advent people who approach Christmas recall God's restorative acts in the past. They recall the testimony of the nations to God's deliverance. They recall their own joy. And they know that until the Son of God comes again, we will be in constant and everlasting need of God's continued restoration.
In this psalm, the theological theme of restoration is knitted together with the theme of rejoicing. The product is one of the grandest, most eloquent lyrical prayers in the Psalter.
Psalm 126 is one of a collection of poems (Psalms 120-134) known as the "Songs of Ascents." These most likely did not all originate from a single source or for some unified purpose, but were rather collected together for some common use While interpreters cannot be one-hundred percent sure, the best guess is that the psalms of ascents were collected together in order for the faithful to use when they made pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Although one should not press the metaphor, one can make an analogy between the ancient pilgrimages that Israelites made to Jerusalem and the modern preparations that Christians make during Advent for Christmas.
Reading 2 Phil 1:4-6, 8-11
What difference does it make that Paul is writing his letters to an entire community, the ecclesia (assembly) in Philippi? He could have addressed his letter just to the elders there. He could have written directly to the bishop, telling him what to say to his flock and what to do next. He could have exercised a “chain of command” understood both in the Roman household and the Roman Empire that recognizes authority in specific leaders who then require those beneath them to carry out the wishes of those at the top. There is efficiency and quality control in the top-down system.
But he doesn’t. Paul writes “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi” (verse 1). And this matters! He and Timothy are in jail, a condition of vulnerability in the ancient that relies on friends outside for basic needs like food and blankets. He and his partner Timothy reach out to more partners beyond the prison walls. Paul’s whole ministry is one of partnerships, sometimes with fellow missionaries (for example Barnabas, Timothy, Silas) traveling alongside him, and sometimes empowering local leaders such as Lydia or Priscilla. So, while Paul seems like a pretty big personality, he was not a lone ranger. Paul’s letter is clear that the whole community of brothers and sisters in Christ share “in the defense and confirmation of the gospel”.
The claim that we all “share in the gospel” is a key narrative for Christian life, especially when so much Christian culture seems to focus on individual salvation. The good news of Jesus, our experience of God’s love and grace, is not an individual possession but a communal reality that God is enacting all the time and in which we are invited to participate. Instead of focusing on individuals, Paul calls attention to the community, “all the saints,” who, together as a community, share in the gospel. This means sharing alike in the joys and in the sufferings of our common life on behalf of God’s love for the world.
Gospel Lk 3:1-6
This week and next, our Gospel readings invite us to consider John the Baptist and his relationship to Jesus. John the Baptist appears in the tradition of the great prophets, preaching repentance and reform to the people of Israel. To affirm this, Luke quotes at length from the prophet Isaiah. John baptizes for repentance and for forgiveness of sins, preparing the way for God's salvation.
The three Synoptic Gospels—Mark, Matthew, and Luke—attest to the importance of the baptism of John in preparing for Jesus. Only the Gospel of Luke, however, extends the connection between these two men to their birth. The first two chapters of Luke's Gospel contain the Infancy Narrative, which tells about the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. These stories set the stage for the beginning of Jesus' public ministry in chapter 3.
The evangelist Luke is the author of the Gospel that bears his name, and he also wrote the Acts of the Apostles as a continuation of the story of Jesus and the Church. In these two works, Luke's sense of time and history emerges. He identifies three epochs of salvation history: the time before Christ, the time of Christ, and the time of the Church and the Holy Spirit. In today's Gospel reading, as elsewhere, John the Baptist is presented as the figure who bridges the time before Christ and prepares the way for Christ's own ministry.
In today's Gospel we also note Luke's attention to political and historical detail. Luke shows that salvation is for all people and situated in world events. Therefore, Luke lists the political and religious leaders at the time of John's appearance in the desert. Salvation is understood as God's breaking into this political and social history.
John's preaching of the coming of the Lord is a key theme of the Advent season. As John's message prepared the way for Jesus, we too are called to prepare ourselves for Jesus' coming. We respond to John's message by repentance and reform of our lives. We are also called to be prophets of Christ, who announce by our lives the coming of the Lord, as John did.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
My God,
I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong
and failing to do good,
I have sinned against you
whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with your help,
to do penance,
to sin no more,
and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.
Our Savior Jesus Christ
suffered and died for us.
In his name, my God, have mercy.
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Sunday December 2, 2018 First Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 3
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 33:14-16
The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will fulfill the promise
I made to the house of Israel and Judah.
In those days, in that time,
I will raise up for David a just shoot ;
he shall do what is right and just in the land.
In those days Judah shall be safe
and Jerusalem shall dwell secure;
this is what they shall call her:
“The LORD our justice.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior,
and for you I wait all the day.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
All the paths of the LORD are kindness and constancy
toward those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
The friendship of the LORD is with those who fear him,
and his covenant, for their instruction.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Reading 2 1 Thes 3:12—4:2
Brothers and sisters:
May the Lord make you increase and abound in love
for one another and for all,
just as we have for you,
so as to strengthen your hearts,
to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen.
Finally, brothers and sisters,
we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that,
as you received from us
how you should conduct yourselves to please God
and as you are conducting yourselves
you do so even more.
For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
Gospel Lk 21:25-28, 34-36
Jesus said to his disciples:
“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,
and on earth nations will be in dismay,
perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
People will die of fright
in anticipation of what is coming upon the world,
for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
And then they will see the Son of Man
coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
But when these signs begin to happen,
stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at hand.
“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man.”
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 33:14-16
It seems likely that this particular section of Jeremiah's prophecy is a later addition, in its current literary context, the promises are spoken to address a dire situation. The armies of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, are advancing on Jerusalem. The streets of Jerusalem will soon be filled with the corpses of her people (33:4-5), and the prophet Jeremiah himself is imprisoned by King Zedekiah (33:1).
The worst has not yet happened, but it is inevitable. Any reasonable person can see that the city is doomed. Jeremiah's many prophecies of judgment--prophecies that have landed him in prison--are coming true. Yet now, in the midst of catastrophe, the prophet finally speaks words of promise! In the previous chapter, he has purchased a piece of land, a foolish thing to do in a country soon to be conquered by invading armies. Nevertheless, he has purchased the land as a pledge, as earnest of God's redemption: "For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land" (32:15). In the midst of impending doom, a sign of hope is enacted.
Similarly, in chapter 33, the prophet speaks of the coming restoration, the restoration of normal, everyday life. There will come a time in the land of Judah when "there shall once more be heard the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride" (33:10-11).
And now, in this passage, Jeremiah speaks of the restoration not simply of daily life (as momentous as that is), but also of one of the chief signs of God's favor, the restoration of the Davidic line. A righteous Branch will sprout from the line of David. A similar image is found in Isaiah 11:1 The image is one of hope and unexpected joy: new life springing up from what looks like a dead stump.
One of the chief tragedies of the Babylonian Exile, of course, was the end of the Davidic dynasty. For nearly four hundred years, descendants of David had occupied the throne of Judah, and God had promised that it would always be so (2 Samuel 7; Psalm 89). But the Babylonians destroyed David's city, burned Solomon's temple, and took David's heirs into exile. The promises of God seemed to have come to an end.
To a people devastated by loss, Jeremiah's prophecy offered hope: "The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah" (33:14). All might seem lost, but God still is faithful. The house of David might be cut down, but God is able to bring life out of death. A branch will sprout.
Historically, of course, the Davidic line did not return to the throne, so passages like this (and its parallel, Jeremiah 23:5-6), were in time interpreted to be speaking about the coming ideal ruler, the Messiah. That is certainly the reason this passage is one of the lectionary readings for the first Sunday in Advent. The descendant of David who will "execute justice and righteousness in the land" is the one for whom we wait in this Advent season. And his salvation encompasses not just Judah and Jerusalem, but the whole world.
A righteous Branch will spring up. It is a word of hope, but not naïve hope. Jeremiah is not someone who looks at the world through rose-colored glasses. Far from it! This is a prophet imprisoned by his own government because he keeps prophesying doom.
A righteous Branch will spring up. Maybe so, but that saving act of God is not readily apparent in Jeremiah's or Judah's current situation, dreading the imminent arrival of enemy armies.
A righteous Branch will spring up. This word of tenacious hope is spoken to counteract all of the life-sapping, despair-inducing evidence to the contrary. And that is its power.
The same proclamation is given today to us, inheritors of Jeremiah's task. We are called to speak a word of hope and promise in a world often filled with fear and uncertainty, even despair. Especially in this season of Advent, we speak words of hope. In the midst of darkness, light is about to break in. In the midst of despair, hope erupts. After long waiting, a branch will sprout. The complete fulfillment of God's promises has not yet happened, but it is coming. Such is Advent faith, and Advent hope.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
In the first lesson (Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32) Israel argues with God, accusing God of unfairness. No, says Ezekiel; the problem is that Israel needs to “get a new heart and a new spirit!” Israel must become teachable. The second lesson (Philippians 2:1-13) is the famous hymn to Christ. It invites us to have this mind among yourselves. To learn from Christ. Not because we are good enough, or because having the mind of Christ is an achievement, but because Jesus has “humbled himself and became like a servant.”
It is God’s work and not our ability that changes us. In the Gospel, (Matthew 21:23-32) the chief priests and elders interrogate Jesus; showing themselves to be anything but teachable. Jesus tells them that “the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” Why? Because these sinners were teachable: they believed John’s testimony. But as for the chief priests and elders, those know-it-alls did not change their minds when they heard John’s testimony about Jesus.
In all of these texts, God teaches us humility, trust and joy in the presence of God. Learning nice little moral lessons, or memorizing factoids about God is not the point. Instead God invites us to be changed by divine mercy and love. The work of Psalm 25 is to express receptivity, or even to make us receptive. The Psalm can be used as a refrain to support the other texts, as a theme for prayer, or the focus of an entire sermon.
Originally, this Psalm was a Hebrew acrostic; that is, it began with the first letter of the alphabet, and ended with the last. But this is more than a word game. It is about God’s A- Z mercy in your life, even when you feel abandoned. Taken as a whole, Psalm 25 is a prayer for help, growing more intense as it progresses: “I am lonely and afflicted. Relieve the troubles of my heart, and bring me out of my distress. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins. Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me” (25:16-19). And the last petition is for the whole people of God: “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all its troubles.”
Through it all, Psalm 25 speaks of God’s character. “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees” (25:10). The New Interpreter’s Bible finds the Psalm’s theological center here, in God’s “steadfast love and faithfulness.”
Repeatedly the Psalmist asks to be taught God’s ways. “Make me to know your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths” (verse 4). “Lead me in your truth, and teach me” (verse 5). “God instructs sinners in the way…and teaches the humble” (verses 5-6). To know about God is a starting point, but the Psalmist wants something more. The Psalmist wants to be with God, to walk in God’s path.
People want to be instantly gratified, but if we really need something we will wait for it. “For you I wait all day long” (verse 5). Waiting was hard for the Psalmist, who was in desperate need of help. Enemies were seeking to inflict harm. It seems that the enemies were external -- the “wantonly treacherous ones” who put the Psalmist to shame (verses 2-3). Shame comes from outside and is inflicted by individuals or groups. But “enemies” may also be within us, for example, guilt or regret for the “sins of my youth or my transgressions” (verse 7). Pride can make us unteachable, but so can guilt and shame. Then we can’t move forward, can’t hear God’s voice of wisdom, or receive blessing and forgiveness.
And yet we may become most teachable when we are vulnerable, when our illusions of superiority and self-sufficiency have been stripped away (verses 16-19). So the Psalmist who implores God, “lead me in your truth and teach me.”
This is a relationship with God, a two-way communication in which the Psalmist both receives God’s teaching and dares to instruct God. The Psalmist tells God what to remember: steadfast love and mercy (verse 6). And the Psalmist tells God what to forget: “the sins of my youth” (verse 7).
Reading 2 1 Thes 3:12—4:2
For a newly converted Thessalonian, the gathered community of disciples was their new home, family, and support network. Relationships mattered more now than ever as they sought to work out together what it meant to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Additionally, we should note that the Thessalonians’ are continuing to relate well to Paul and Silas (1 Thessalonians 3:6), and this is in spite of the shame that would no doubt be associated with Paul and Silas’ suffering.
This reaction by the broader population against those Thessalonians who have begun to follow Jesus is a key aspect in the context of our verses. If we sneak a peek at the verses that are prior to our passage we note there that Paul refers to persecution and suffering on three occasions in just eight verses. It is clear that Paul and Silas are suffering persecution (1 Thessalonians 3:7), but also that the Thessalonians themselves are in the midst of persecution for their faith (3:3). The Thessalonian believers have begun to follow a new King, and are seeking to adopt a set of values and an ethos rooted in Jesus. Consequently, they have begun to turn away from and reject some of the norms of their immediate society. So, how might this all begin to resonate with us?
First, we are reminded here of the joy of knowing that we are loved when life is tough.
The joy and thankfulness that is expressed in 1 Thessalonians 3:9 comes across to us as sheer delight and even with a hint of relief. The reason for this is twofold: First, because in spite of everything that is set against the fledgling Thessalonian community they are continuing in their faith. But second, I think that Paul and Silas’ exuberant thankfulness relates to the fact that the Thessalonians have maintained their commitment to relationship with Paul and Silas. They have not disowned Paul and Silas. The Thessalonians are suffering; Paul and Silas are suffering. Nothing would be easier than to call the whole thing off and to desert each other. But this is not what has happened. They continue to love, and support, and encourage one another. Relationships matter, and particularly when life is tough -- which it most often is -- relationships matter. To know that you are loved, prayed for and supported in the midst of suffering is a wonderful and joyous experience.
Second, that the key to Christian discipleship is love.
That love is central to Thessalonians is evident throughout the letter (1 Thessalonians 1:3), but Paul and Silas’ prayer here is that “the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all” (1 Thessalonians 3:12). This apprentice Christian community have rooted themselves and their relationships in love. And it is love that will ensure their survival in the midst of suffering persecution. Paul elsewhere made that radical claim that without love we are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2), and the Apostle John is emphatic is his assertion that love, rooted in the life and example of the Lord Jesus, is to be demonstrated in practical ways amongst the community (1 John 3:16-17). Indeed, Jesus himself, made clear that the only thing that mattered is to love God, and to love one’s neighbor as you loved yourself (Luke 10:27-28). To be rooted in love and to practice love ensures not just the survival of faith in the midst of difficulty, but the growth and increase of faith.
Third, there is the prayer that the Thessalonians may be strengthened in holiness (1 Thessalonians 3:13).
In some ways holiness is similar to love. Both are expressions of the reality of God. God is love and those who encountered God speak of his holiness. To live a holy life is to live as a living and breathing expression of the love, life, and reality of God. This reality has already been seen in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. However, to live in holiness is not to make life any easier. The trials and persecutions experienced by the Thessalonians will not subside once they intensify their imitation of the life, love, and reality of the Lord Jesus. But rather, Paul turns the Thessalonians attention to a higher and more glorious goal, that of the coming of the Lord Jesus (1 Thessalonians 3:13).
Gospel Lk 21:25-28, 34-36
Today is the first Sunday of Advent, which is also the first Sunday of the new liturgical year. The Advent season includes the four Sundays that precede Christmas. Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord. In this season, we recall two central elements of our faith: the final coming of the Lord in glory and the incarnation of the Lord in the birth of Jesus. The key themes of the Advent season are watchful waiting, preparation, and justice.
In this new liturgical year, the Gospel of Luke will be the primary Gospel proclaimed (Lectionary Cycle C). Today's Gospel is taken from the last chapter before the passion narrative in which Jesus is teaching in the Temple. We hear Jesus speak to his disciples about the need for vigilance and prayer as they wait for the coming of the Son of Man in glory. This passage marks the conclusion of a lengthy dialogue in which Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, warns about the persecution and tribulations to follow, and identifies the signs that will signal the coming of the Son of Man in glory.
The community for whom Luke wrote his Gospel may have believed that they were already experiencing some of the events Jesus described. Most scholars believe that Luke's Gospel was written after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. At the time, many Christians interpreted this event as an indication that Jesus' second coming was near.
Though Jesus predicts a time of destruction and fear, Jesus indicates that others will be frightened; Jesus' disciples are not to fear, but are to stand tall. Yet Jesus does not promise deliverance from anxiety or tribulations. He encourages his disciples to pray for strength. The early Christian communities did not find consolation in the promise of a utopia, nor should we. Instead, we find in our Christian faith the means by which we witness to God's unfailing love for us in all circumstances.
Jesus' predictions about the end times may sound dire, but in the next paragraph Luke tells us that people woke early to listen to Jesus' teaching in the Temple area. In his person and in his message, those who heard Jesus found strength and consolation. Like the first Christians, we may encounter events and circumstances that could lead us to despair. Through prayer, however, we find strength and consolation in Jesus' words and in his continuing presence with us to endure all things and to witness to the action of God in our world.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
St. Therese of Liseux Prayer from “Story of A Soul”
May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.
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Sunday November 25, 2018 The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Lectionary: 161
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dn 7:13-14
As the visions during the night continued, I saw
one like a Son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
when he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
the one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship;
all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 93:1, 1-2, 5
R. The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty.
The LORD is king, in splendor robed;
robed is the LORD and girt about with strength.
R. The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty.
And he has made the world firm,
not to be moved.
Your throne stands firm from of old;
from everlasting you are, O LORD.
R. The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty.
Your decrees are worthy of trust indeed;
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, for length of days.
R. The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty.
Reading 2 Rv 1:5-8
Jesus Christ is the faithful witness,
the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father,
to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
Behold, he is coming amid the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him.
All the peoples of the earth will lament him.
Yes. Amen.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, " says the Lord God,
"the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty."
Gospel Jn 18:33b-37
Pilate said to Jesus,
"Are you the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?"
Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?"
Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here."
So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?"
Jesus answered, "You say I am a king.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dn 7:13-14
The selection of Daniel 7:13-14 as a lectionary passage for the Feast of Christ the King reflects nearly two millennia of interpretation that identifies Jesus with the “one like a human being” in Daniel 7.
Jesus himself quotes this passage in Mark’s and Matthew’s gospels, foretelling that his disciples “‘will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming with the clouds of heaven’” (Mark 14:62) and, in Matthew, that “all the tribes of the earth … will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). For Christian audiences, Jesus’s quotation and reinterpretation of Daniel 7:13-14 casts the passage in a Christological light. But to understand the significance of Jesus’s identification with the one like a human being in Daniel seven, it is necessary first to understand the passage in its earlier, Jewish context.
Daniel 7:9-10 and 13-14 shine a spotlight first on the kingship of God, who is portrayed in Daniel’s vision as “an Ancient One,” and second on the eternal kingship that is given to the one like a human being. Kingship and sovereignty are thus central themes in this passage. Heavenly kingship -- and a heavenly kingdom -- are not divorced from earthly kingship. The book of Daniel thematizes the relationship between earthly and heavenly rule, emphasizing that the sovereign authority of earthly kings depends upon the will of God (e.g., Daniel 2:21, 5:32).
Within the book of Daniel, these verses are part of a longer vision report that takes place toward the beginning of the reign of the fictional King Belshazzar (Daniel 7:1). The chronology provides context for Daniel’s vision. Through most of the book, years are reckoned according to the reigns of earthly kings. This way of reckoning time was common throughout the ancient Near East, and is found also in the biblical books of Kings and Chronicles. For the audience of Daniel, this system of dating calls attention to the historical reality that, after Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Judah in 587 BCE (Daniel 1:1-2), Judah no longer had its own earthly king. Ruled instead by the Babylonian empire, Judeans were now subject to the whims of kings who neither respected their autonomy as a people nor recognized the power and authority of their God. The stories in Daniel portray the kings of Babylon commanding the worship of idols (chapter 3) and imagining themselves in the place of God (chapters 4, 6).
Readers learn at the conclusion of chapter 5 that the arrogant impiety of King Belshazzar prompts God to bring an end to Belshazzar’s kingship (Daniel 5:26-28). But Judeans still are not free. A new king, Darius the Mede, “receives the kingdom” immediately upon Belshazzar’s death (5:30). This narrative reflects the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus in 539 BCE. At this time, former subjects of the Babylonian Empire, including the Judeans in captivity and at home, became subjects of the Persian Empire.
Daniel’s vision in chapter seven reveals that, in time, yet another empire would follow that of Darius, and the Judean people would continue to suffer under foreign rule. The Macedonian general Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire, including Judea, in 333-332 BCE. After his death, his successors fought to establish their own kingdoms. His generals Ptolemy and Seleukus each founded an empire, the Ptolemaic empire with its capital in Alexandria, Egypt, and the Seleukid Empire with its capitals in Seleukia in Mesopotamia and Antioch in Syria. Judeans were subject first to Ptolemaic rule, then to Seleukid rule.
Between the years 167 and 164 BCE, the Seleukid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes persecuted his Judean subjects, profaned the temple in Jerusalem, halted the regular sacrifices to Yaweh, and established a Seleukid military garrison in Jerusalem. The biblical books Daniel and 1 and 2 Maccabees (the latter two books are considered part of the Apocrypha by Protestants and deuterocanonical by Catholics) provide our main literary sources for the persecution. They describe a program of state terror, murder, and enslavement and the outlawing of Jewish identity, scriptures, and worship.
Daniel seven received its final form during the persecution of Judean Jews by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The vision of the one like a human being offered hope to Jews who had been subject to foreign rule for over four centuries and now were victims of state terror and persecution. Even as they saw their houses burned, their loved ones tortured and slaughtered, and their temple profaned by an “abomination that desolates” (Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11), Daniel’s vision allowed them to see something else: the end of empires, the sovereign power of God, and their own future kingdom. The king who persecuted them would soon pass away. His kingdom, portrayed as a monstrous, mutated beast (7:7-8), would perish (7:11), just as the kingdoms before it had done (7:12). In its place God would establish a new and everlasting kingdom that would not pass away (7:14, 18, 27). It would be given not only to the one like a human being, but also “to the people of the holy ones of the Most High” (7:27).
The other kingdoms were characterized by violence, destruction, exploitation, and oppression. The final, eternal kingdom would be oriented toward justice (Daniel 7:10, 22, 26). It has its origin at the very throne of God.
In this week’s Gospel lection, Jesus declares, “my kingdom is not from this world” (John 18:36). It is from heaven. This statement describes its origin, not its scope. Do not imagine Christ’s kingship in abstraction from earthly politics. In the here and now, many still suffer political domination, state terror, and persecution. Others exercise authority and participate willingly in political systems. God gave sovereignty to this Human One in response to the evil perpetrated by empires and the suffering of God’s people. In so doing, God sought to free and empower the oppressed and inaugurate just rule on earth as in heaven.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 93:1, 1-2, 5
The interpretation of Psalm 93, apart from the vexing problems of setting and context, is straightforward. Declarations of the eternal nature of Yahweh's reign ("from everlasting" verse 2; "forevermore," literally "for length of days" verse 5), as well as its stability ("established" verse 1 and "never be moved" verse 2 are the same word in Hebrew; "very sure" verse 5) frame two verses employing watery imagery, whether of a mythological or natural quality (3), to reassert the supreme majesty of Yahweh (4). Thus, Psalm 93 serves as a hymn that praises Yahweh's kingship. That kingly power is illustrated in three ways:
1. Verses 1-2 announce the stability the world enjoys as a direct result of God's rule.
2. Verses 3-4 attest God's defeat of the chaos represented by the watery abyss. Their power is indicated through the device of "staircase" parallelism in which the scheme is ABC, ABD, ABE where A is the "flood," B is the verb "lift up," and C, D, and E move to a climax after the repeated initial subject and verb. Nevertheless, Yahweh is "more majestic" than even this most powerful and unpredictably chaotic force.
3. Verse 5 subtly shifts from creation to governance. Yahweh's "decrees" match his reign in stability as they are "very sure."
Regardless of what one thinks about such matters, there are two moments in the history of the universe when one can literally say Yahweh malak: at the creation of the universe and at the end of history. The Sunday of Christ the King liturgically celebrates the latter of these as the church year comes to an end. Daniel 7:14 announces "to him was given dominion and glory and kingship." Does our psalm, emphasizing the former, say anything less?
Reading 2 Rv 1:5-8
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood.
Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness ... There is a powerful New Testament emphasis upon the faith of Jesus Christ, as in Paul's writings, especially in Galatians 2:16,20; 3:22; Romans 3:22,26; Ephesians 3:12; Philippians 3:9; etc. There is a false impression that since Christ was deity incarnate he did not need to have faith; but in our Lord's humiliation as a man, faith in the Father was his predominate characteristic. All hope of salvation rests ultimately in the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the faithful witness in the sense of delivering accurately to mankind the word and the commandment which the Father gave him on behalf of humanity.
The firstborn from the dead ... The New Testament records the resurrection of Dorcas, the daughter of Jairus, Eutychus, the widow's son at Nain, and that of Lazarus in addition to the resurrection of Christ. In addition, there were "many of the saints" who came out of their graves following the resurrection of Christ (seven resurrections). In what sense, then, is Christ the firstborn from the dead? He alone came back from death never to die again; and besides this, there is the inherent significance of his being the first of many to triumph over death. As Beckwith put it: "The language implies the future resurrection of the saints."[15]
The ruler of the kings of the earth ... Christ is here spoken of as the possessor of all power and authority, fully in keeping with the Saviour's words, "All authority in heaven and upon earth has been given unto me" (Matthew 28:18). It should be noted that this authority belongs to Christ in the present time and perpetually. He is not planning to start ruling at some future time; he rules now! A great deal of the misunderstanding of this prophecy, as well as of the whole New Testament, derives from a failure to take account of this tremendous truth. Many have difficulty believing that Christ rules now; because, as they say, the world is in such a dreadful mess. However, the world was in a dreadful condition in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, who had to eat grass with the beasts of the field for seven years to learn that "The Most High rules in the kingdom of men" (Daniel 4:25). As for the reason why God's rule permits such atrocious wickedness on earth, it is clear enough that God permits it because it is in keeping with his purpose. The reign of Christ now in this present time will be more extensively treated under the "thousand years" interpretation (Revelation 20:2). There is no way in which this student of the Lord's word can accept such a declaration as that of Hal Lindsey, who wrote: "Even though Christ has the right to rule the earth, he isn't exercising this authority over kings and kingdoms at this time."[16] If Christ is not exercising his authority, how can the church receive his promise that Christ will be with us "even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:18-20)? Yes, despite the inability of some to see and recognize it, Christ is ruling now and will continue to rule until the last enemy is destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:25).
Unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood ... Of significance are the present tense (loveth) and past tense (loosed), showing that Christ's love is continuous, and that the redemption mentioned is a past accomplishment. Since it is an undeniable truth that Christ keeps on saving the saved until at last they are saved eternally in heaven, it is evident that the initial salvation in conversion is the redemption that John had in view here; therefore, the KJV rendition of this as "washed us" is likewise correct. On what the scholars consider sufficient textual evidence, this was changed to "loosed us" in subsequent versions. The Greek words for these two expressions are almost identical in appearance; and, furthermore, it is immaterial exactly which is the original reading. As Hinds said:
Both words state true facts. That Christ washes us, cleanses us, through the merits of his blood is unquestionably true, as stated in Revelation 7:14. But by Christ's blood we are loosed from our sins also.[17]
The passage in Revelation 7:14, as well as the overtones of the whole context, incline us to accept the opinion of Carpenter: "The general tone of thought would lead us to prefer "washed" as the true reading."[18] The slavish following of certain preferred manuscripts is not necessarily an infallible method of determining accuracy.
Gospel Jn 18:33b-37
This Sunday is the last Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year. On this Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. Each year we set aside this Sunday to reflect upon this title that we have given to Jesus. In Lectionary Cycle C, we read a portion of the passion from the Gospel of John, which is also part of the Gospel reading proclaimed each year on Good Friday.
In John’s Gospel, Pilate is shown in a more favorable light than in the other Gospels. In today’s reading, we hear one of two dialogues between Jesus and Pilate that are reported in John’s Gospel. Pilate questions Jesus about the charges brought against him. Caiaphas and the high priests have charged Jesus with a political crime, one that would require a punishment of death. Pilate distances himself from the Jewish leaders who accuse Jesus; he is not a Jew, and he seems to want little to do with this Jewish affair.
In his responses to Pilate’s questions, Jesus distinguishes his kingdom from the political powers of this world. King and kingdom may be appropriate terms for Jesus’ mission and promise, but only by analogy. Jesus is king, but not the kind of king we imagine or expect. He was certainly not the kind of king Pilate feared he might be.
Jesus refers to a kingdom that does not belong to this world. This has been mentioned earlier in John’s Gospel. Recall that in his prayer during the Last Supper discourse (see John 17:6-18), Jesus prayed for his disciples who are in the world but do not belong to the world. Yet like Jesus, they are sent into the world for the world’s salvation. In today’s reading, we see Jesus identify the final proof that his kingdom is not of this world: If his kingdom were of this world, then there would be people fighting to save him. Again we hear echoes of John’s theme—salvation is worked out through a cosmic battle. It is helpful to return to the first chapter of John’s Gospel to understand the context for Jesus’ words to Pilate. Jesus came into the world, but the world did not know him. In John’s language, the world prefers the darkness, and yet the light will not be overcome by the darkness.
Truth has been another important theme in John’s Gospel. We see it emphasized in the conclusion of the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate. Those who know the truth will recognize Jesus as king and will know how to interpret this insight. Yet Jesus’ kingship was hidden from many of his contemporaries. Only those chosen, those who have the eyes of faith, are able to see. As modern disciples of Jesus, we also struggle at times to recognize Jesus as king. Today’s Gospel invites us to see with eyes of faith that we might recognize that Jesus, through his crucifixion and death, is indeed king and Savior of all.
Making the Connection
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Sunday November 18, 2018 Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 158
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dn 12:1-3
In those days, I Daniel,
heard this word of the Lord:
"At that time there shall arise
Michael, the great prince,
guardian of your people;
it shall be a time unsurpassed in distress
since nations began until that time.
At that time your people shall escape,
everyone who is found written in the book.
"Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake;
some shall live forever,
others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.
"But the wise shall shine brightly
like the splendor of the firmament,
and those who lead the many to justice
shall be like the stars forever."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord!
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord!
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord!
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord!
Reading 2 Heb 10:11-14, 18
Brothers and sisters:
Every priest stands daily at his ministry,
offering frequently those same sacrifices
that can never take away sins.
But this one offered one sacrifice for sins,
and took his seat forever at the right hand of God;
now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool.
For by one offering
he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated.
Where there is forgiveness of these,
there is no longer offering for sin.
Gospel Mk 13:24-32
Jesus said to his disciples:
"In those days after that tribulation
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
"And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds'
with great power and glory,
and then he will send out the angels
and gather his elect from the four winds,
from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.
"Learn a lesson from the fig tree.
When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves,
you know that summer is near.
In the same way, when you see these things happening,
know that he is near, at the gates.
Amen, I say to you,
this generation will not pass away
until all these things have taken place.
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.
"But of that day or hour, no one knows,
neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dn 12:1-3
“At that time”. This phrase connects this verse to the tumultuous events of chapter 11. When those terrible things take place, God has a plan to save his people.
“there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of your people” . We first heard of Michael in 10:13, when “a man clothed in linen”—presumably an angel (10:5)—sought to reassure Daniel. He said that the prince of the kingdom of Persia had opposed him, but Michael dealt with that dark prince. He then said, there is none who holds with me against these, but Michael your prince (10:21). In the New Testament, Michael is portrayed as fighting Satan (Jude 1:9; Revelation 12:7).
Jewish tradition speaks of seven archangels, four of whom—Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel—were allowed to stand in God’s presence. While the duties of the archangels are not clearly delineated, the idea seems to be that God placed them in command of the great host of God’s angels to do God’s bidding. It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since the nation began until that time.
This time of anguish would be when Antiochus IV tried to “profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and shall take away the continual burnt offering. He will defeat Egypt and “go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many”.
At that time your people shall escape.
This is the point. In spite of this bad king’s power and wealth, “he shall come to his end, and none will help him”. His power and wealth will not protect him against the justice of God, who will deliver his people. Judas Maccabeus and his family will defeat Antiochus and his armies—a true David-and-Goliath kind of victory.
“everyone who is found written in the book”. This would be the Book of Life (a phrase that is used in Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27). That is a book in which God records the names of the righteous. It is “a list of those who belong to God’s people, the citizen list of the true Jerusalem”.
It is these people—those whose names are written in the Book of Life—who shall be delivered.
“Many (rab·bim) of those”. This Hebrew word, rab·bim, means “many.” Some scholars interpret rab·bim in this context to emphasize the selectiveness of those who will awake to everlasting life. Other scholars feel that the emphasis is on the large number rather than the selectiveness.
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, others to reproach and everlasting disgrace”. In the Old Testament, “sleep” is sometimes used as a metaphor for “death” (Job 14:12; Psalm 13:3; Jeremiah 51:39, 57).
This is one of only a few references to resurrection in the Old Testament—although the word “resurrection” doesn’t appear until the New Testament. Other allusions to resurrection in the Old Testament include:
• Isaiah 25:8 (“He will destroy death forever, The Lord will wipe away tears from all faces”).
• Isaiah 26:19 (“But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise!”).
• Ezekiel 37:12-14 “Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: Look! I am going to open your graves; I will make you come up out of your graves, my people, and bring you back to the land of Israel. You shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and make you come up out of them, my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may come to life, and I will settle you in your land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD. I have spoken; I will do it—oracle of the LORD.
• Hosea 6:2 (“He will revive us after two days. On the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence”).
But, for the most part, Old Testament Jews tended to think of living on through their children rather than living eternally in heaven.
In the New Testament, the Jewish people were divided on the subject of resurrection. Pharisees believed in resurrection, but Sadducees did not (Matthew 22:23; Mark 12:18).
“But those with insight shall shine brightly”. In this verse, “Those who are wise” stands parallel to “those who turn many to righteousness”—which suggests that wise people are righteous people. It takes a wise person to lead people to wisdom and a righteous person to lead people to righteousness.
However, we should not hear this to mean that “those who are wise” constitute an exclusive elite. Spiritual wisdom isn’t limited to those few people who enjoy a high IQ, but is a characteristic of every faithful believer. Spiritual wisdom isn’t manifested in mental gymnastics, but in a life lived faithfully for God.
“like the splendor of the firmament and those who lead the many to justice shall be like stars forever”. People have been fascinated by the bright lights of the sky—the sun, moon, and stars—from the beginning of time. Many ancients worshiped the stars, although Jewish law forbade such practice (Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:2-5).
Those of us who live and work indoors, surrounded at night by bright light, can barely fathom the impact that the moon and stars had on primitive people. Their nights would take on a quality of darkness that most people today never experience. On a clear night, they would see millions of stars—most of which would never show through our light-pollution.
The stars were not only beautiful; they were useful too. The ancients found their way around the darkness by moonlight and starlight. They learned early that they could use stars for navigation. Stars might seem to move across the night sky, but the ancients knew that the stars were never out of place. If they seemed out of place, it was only because the observer didn’t understand them—or because the observer was out of place.
Now, Daniel’s vision promises that the faithful shall shine like those stars—beautiful—dependable—useful—eternal. People would admire them. They would learn to guide by the light of their faithful mentors. Faithful people would bless all those who observed their lives, just as we are all blessed by the lights that God has placed in the sky.
Surely with this verse in mind, Jesus concluded his Parable of the Weeds by saying: “Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11
Psalm 16 is a lovely and eloquent poetic rendering of Israel’s radical monotheism. Each of its sections offers a variation on the theme of “no other gods” or “the LORD alone.”
Verse 1 features the major psalmic concept of “refuge,” which is introduced in Psalm 2:12 and appears frequently, especially in Book I (Psalms 1-41; see 5:11; 7:1; 11:1; 14:6; and more). To “take refuge” in God means to trust God unreservedly. This, in turn, means to submit the self fully to God, as the psalmist indicates that she or he has done by addressing God as “my Lord” in verse 2.
The theme of “the LORD alone” culminates in the conclusion to verse 2. The word “good” refers to the resources, material and other things, that make life possible; so the psalmist affirms that his or her life derives from and depends solely upon God.
Verses 3-4 are notoriously difficult, and translations vary considerably. But general acceptance is that the psalmist expresses exclusive loyalty to God by honoring those who honor God (verse 3), as well as by avoiding every semblance of idolatry (verse 4).
In contrast to those who drink idolatrous offerings (verse 4), the LORD is the psalmist’s only “cup” (verse 5). But the real unifying feature of verses 5-6 is the language of land-settlement that is drawn from the book of Joshua -- “”portion” (Joshua 19:9), “lot” (18:6, 8), “boundary lines” (17:5, “portions” and “heritage” (14:3; 17:6; “inheritance”. Because land represented access to life, the affirmation again is that the psalmist’s life derives from and depends solely upon God.
The affirmation “I bless the LORD” (Psalm 16:7) reinforces the psalmist’s submission to God (see verse 2), since “bless” seems originally to have meant something like to “kneel in obeisance to.” The mention of “counsel” and round-the-clock instruction recalls Psalm 1 (see “advice” in 1:1 and “night” in 1:2), which opens the Psalter by orienting readers exclusively to God and God’s will, as a matter of life and death. Verse 8 continues the focus on the constancy of God’s presence, which proves to be the psalmist’s sole source of stability (see 15:5, and compare 13:4 where “shaken” represents the same Hebrew root).
The variation on the theme of “the LORD alone” involves anthropological language in verse 9: “heart,” “soul” (more literally “glory”), and “body.” The psalmist’s whole being is involved in the unreserved commitment to God. So the psalmist does what all Israel does in 14:7 in responses to God’s life-giving presence: “is glad” and “rejoices.” The Hebrew root underlying “secure” (verse 9) is ordinarily translated “trust,” reinforcing the opening affirmation of refuge found in God. The result is life (verse 10; “Sheol” and “the Pit” are names for the realm of the dead).
Not surprisingly, “the path of life” is mentioned explicitly in verse 11. This verse serves well as a culmination, since its vocabulary recalls earlier sections of the poem -- see “pleasures” and “pleasant places” (verses 6, 11), “right hand” (verses 8, 11), and “joy”/”rejoices” (verses 9, 11). The repetition summarizes and reinforces the message of the whole; that is, the psalmist’s joyful affirmation that his or her life derives from and is dependent upon “the LORD alone.”
The appearance of Psalm 16 in the lectionary is an opportunity both to appreciate its artistic beauty and to open ourselves to the challenge of Israel’s radical monotheism. In our pervasively self-centered context, for instance, what difference might it make if we entertained the conviction that life is not something we achieve, but rather something we receive as a gift from God? What difference might it make if we viewed the life-sustaining resources that most of us enjoy not as something we have earned or deserve, but rather as evidence of God’s goodness? Might a pervasive sense of entitlement begin to be replaced by a posture of humility and gratitude?
Reading 2 Heb 10:11-14, 18
Read in the context of post-modernism, Hebrews 10, seems to call into question our assumptions around the so-called means of grace practices that all Christians engage in during times of worship. The sharp contrast between the repeated sacrifices done by the Jewish priest and the once-and-for-all sacrifice that Jesus did serves as a reminder of the true nature of the identity of Jesus as the one who establishes a new covenant. As partakers of Holy Communion, Christians are reminded of the presence of Jesus Christ in the bread and wine elements.
The preacher of Hebrews returns once again to the basic text, which is Psalm 110:1-4 of which an eternal priest like Melchizedek was to remain seated until his enemies were put down. Having already offered his once-for-all sacrifice, he sits in the rightful place, “at the right hand of God,” (Hebrews 10:12a). What then should Christians do or what are the implications of what the Hebrew preacher is saying in these verses? There seems to be three elements that can assist us to interpret these verses in a practical way. First, sacrifices are meaningful when they give people what they need, rather than what they want. Since Jesus came as a high Priest, he came as John claims, to “have life and have it abundantly.” It is crucial to remember the presence of Jesus Christ in all that we do and say. Second, we must prepare ourselves to receive, be it the effects of baptism or Holy Communion, and we can only do this after prayer. Prayer is absolutely necessary for spiritual and faith transformation and without prayer, all that we do in our churches slides into meaningless and powerless rituals. Third, people must pray for Holiness (Psalm 51:1-2). The problem in our postmodern era and in some parts of the world is that there are some Christians who believe that there is nothing to confess while they live in sin, yet God commands us to “be perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
The following verses of Hebrews 10:15-18 are probably problematic to most Christians because the mention of the “Holy Spirit” as the one that testifies about what God through Jesus says, tends to be difficult for people to wrestle with. Yet, the power of the written word and Jesus’ power is manifested in the work of the Holy Spirit, which is the cornerstone of biblical interpretation, worship, and all that takes place in the Church. Like Christians, Jewish preachers and writers attributed the inspiration of Scripture to the “Holy Spirit,” who in ancient Judaism was viewed as the Spirit of prophecy (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
Hebrews 10 reminds us to always remember that Jesus is more superior to any other priest, be it a Levitical or modern day priest.
The theological notion that Jesus is a high priest before God leads interpreters to wrestle with the idea of a heavenly tabernacle of which Jesus Christ is the embodiment (Exodus 25:9; 40; 26:30). While the notion of colonization and decolonization do not appear in Hebrews, readers may be intrigued to notice how verses 15-18, are a call to be decolonized from colonial powers of culture, religion, and empires. The promise of verse 18 is that the new covenant established by Jesus Christ, the eternal priest, was first and foremost for the forgiveness of sins, and one’s sins will never be remembered because of the ‘atonement’ that was made by Jesus. In the postmodern period, the gospel of Jesus Christ has one goal in mind, simply to decolonize families, individuals, churches, and world communities from religious, cultural, and imperial colonization. Hebrews has one goal in mind and that goal is to rescue souls from spiritual death; restoring and nourishing believers to eternal life through Jesus Christ. Thus, being a believer is equal to being a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). The problem for our time is that there are many Christians who do not believe in what Jesus Christ did, and consequently their faith in Jesus is not well established.
The theology of Hebrews is that forgiveness is for everyone no matter how wicked one is. The key is simply to confess and believe in what Jesus did. The message that Jesus has compassion for everyone is profoundly important for readers and interpreters of Hebrews. Hebrews summons Christians to a life of constant spiritual alertness, engagement, and striving to be Holy and perfect (Hebrews 12:2).
Hebrews 10:19-25 are indisputably a call to a new form of worshiping God, one in which faith in Jesus allows believers to have access to God without waiting for a priest. The superiority of Jesus’ sacrifice opened a new door for believers to have obedience in both death and resurrection of the messiah. In verse 21, there is an allusion to Jesus’ superiority over Moses and this helps interpreters to appreciate the magnitude of the ‘Christ event.’ Of theological depth is the language of “Drawing near,” which signals an invitation to enter into a relationship with God (Hebrews 7:19), as well as availing oneself in the presence of God (Hebrews 10:19-20).
Gospel Mk 13:24-32
This Sunday is the second to last Sunday of our liturgical year. As we approach the end of the Church year, our Gospel invites us to consider Jesus’ predictions and teaching about the end of the world. In the context of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ words about this are spoken to his disciples as he prepares them for his passion and death.
Before we consider Jesus’ words, it is important to note the political backdrop against which many think Mark’s Gospel was written. Most scholars concur that Mark wrote his Gospel for Christians living in or near Rome about 30 to 40 years after the death of Jesus. This was a time of political turmoil in Rome. Some Christians experienced persecution by the Romans during the reign of the emperor Nero (about 64 A.D.). Jewish revolutionaries rebelled against the Romans, which led the Romans to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. In this time of political turmoil and persecution, many in Mark’s community might have wondered if the end times predicted by Jesus were in fact quite near.
Last Sunday we heard Jesus’ observation about the contributions being made to the temple treasury and the example of sacrificial giving that he saw in the poor widow’s offering. If we had been reading Mark’s Gospel continuously, we would have heard Jesus predict the destruction of the Temple, his teaching about the costs of discipleship, and the woes that will accompany the end times. Finally, we would have heard Jesus instruct his disciples about the need for watchfulness so that they will not be caught unprepared for this final day of judgment.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues this teaching by offering his disciples signs to look for that will indicate that the coming of the Son of Man is near. His words and images draw upon Old Testament imagery, especially images found in the Book of Daniel. Next, Jesus offers the lesson of the fig tree, a parable that teaches that if one knows how to read the signs, one can be prepared for the end times. Jesus also teaches, however, that no one knows when the end time will come, except the Father. In the verses that follow this reading in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus continues to warn his disciples to be on watch for this end time.
Jesus’ words are not spoken to frighten his disciples, nor should they frighten us. Rather, they are offered to prepare us for the changes we will experience during our lifetimes and at the end times. Our consolation and hope is found in the lasting nature of Jesus’ words and God’s never-ending love for us.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday November 11, 2018 Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 155
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 17:10-16
In those days, Elijah the prophet went to Zarephath.
As he arrived at the entrance of the city,
a widow was gathering sticks there; he called out to her,
"Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink."
She left to get it, and he called out after her,
"Please bring along a bit of bread."
She answered, "As the LORD, your God, lives,
I have nothing baked; there is only a handful of flour in my jar
and a little oil in my jug.
Just now I was collecting a couple of sticks,
to go in and prepare something for myself and my son;
when we have eaten it, we shall die."
Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid.
Go and do as you propose.
But first make me a little cake and bring it to me.
Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son.
For the LORD, the God of Israel, says,
'The jar of flour shall not go empty,
nor the jug of oil run dry,
until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.'"
She left and did as Elijah had said.
She was able to eat for a year, and he and her son as well;
the jar of flour did not go empty,
nor the jug of oil run dry,
as the LORD had foretold through Elijah.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia
The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
the LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia
The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia
Reading 2 Heb 9:24-28
Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands,
a copy of the true one, but heaven itself,
that he might now appear before God on our behalf.
Not that he might offer himself repeatedly,
as the high priest enters each year into the sanctuary
with blood that is not his own;
if that were so, he would have had to suffer repeatedly
from the foundation of the world.
But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages
to take away sin by his sacrifice.
Just as it is appointed that human beings die once,
and after this the judgment, so also Christ,
offered once to take away the sins of many,
will appear a second time, not to take away sin
but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.
Gospel Mk 12:38-44
In the course of his teaching Jesus said to the crowds,
"Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes
and accept greetings in the marketplaces,
seats of honor in synagogues,
and places of honor at banquets.
They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext
recite lengthy prayers.
They will receive a very severe condemnation."
He sat down opposite the treasury
and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury.
Many rich people put in large sums.
A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.
Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them,
"Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more
than all the other contributors to the treasury.
For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth,
but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had,
her whole livelihood."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 17:10-16
On the surface, 1 Kings 17:10-16 tells a familiar story of a prophet who performs miracles.
A widow and her son, on the brink of starvation, are provided with an oil jug that will not run dry and a stash of grain that will never be empty. Such a surface reading misses the import of the specific details of this text, details that provide surprising hooks into the contemporary world.
This passage is part of the introduction of the prophet, Elijah, into the books of Kings. The first cycle of Elijah stories (1 Kings 17:1–19:18) centers on the nation’s economic collapse as the result of a severe drought that ruins crops and decimates the population. In the opening verse of the cycle, the reader is told that Israel’s God, Yahweh, has sent the drought.
Images of food and water permeate these chapters. The cycle is framed by two scenes where God feeds Elijah (17:4-7 and 19:5-9). The cycle depicts the interplay of religion and politics during national crisis. The drought is the result of the religious policies of Ahab, and it is prolonged by a lengthy government-sponsored contest between prophets of competing religions. This contest with the prophets of Baal in chapter 18 is won, not when Elijah calls fire down from heaven, but when clouds appear on the horizon (18:44-45).
The story of the widow of Zarephath precedes this contest. The story illustrates the severity of the drought, while the woman’s plight humanizes the casualties of this tragic interplay of politics and religion. The Elijah narrative then commences with a clear focus on those most vulnerable: a widow and her child.
In today’s world, the statistics on women and children in situations of famine are sobering. Human rights organizations note that the effects of natural disaster, including climate change, are felt most acutely by women and children. Oxfam International’s film, “Sisters on the Planet,” includes the story of a Ugandan woman named Martina during a time of severe drought (http://www.oxfam.org/en/campaigns/climatechange/sisters-planet).
Her story eerily echoes the passage from 1 Kings. Both stories open with the women gathering sticks to cook what meager food they can find. Both stories hint that the drought might be the result of a prophetic curse. In both narratives, the audience experiences the severity of the drought through the heartbreak of women unable to adequately feed their children.
Both stories require the audience to have compassion for the ways decisions in our homeland affect women in other parts of the world. One of the important details of the story in 1 Kings is that this woman is a Phoenician. Phoenicia was a rich country just north of Israel. Elijah is sent by God to this one woman. The effects of the drought are felt beyond the borders of Israel.
The story of the Phoenician widow sets up an ironic contrast with the other female figure who appears later in the cycle, Ahab’s queen, Jezebel, was also Phoenician and whose religious fervor for her native gods (Baal and Asherah) led to Ahab’s religious policies. The story of a poor widow from Phoenicia becomes a fitting contrast to the damaging effects of the workings of a rich Phoenician wife.
Although the story seems to be about Elijah, his actions are rather problematic on their own. His command to the woman to feed him the last of her grain is shocking. Why would she acquiesce? Did she feel threatened by him? She was, after all, alone and vulnerable. Or was she simply convinced that his prophetic promise of food (17:14) was authentic? The text does not say.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
Worship is obviously an appropriate concept to anchor Psalm 146, the first of the concluding five "hallelujah" psalms and a fine example of the "hymn" genre.
Providence and Praise
The call to praise is reinforced by the abundant references to the covenant name of the Lord throughout the psalm. The saturation of God's name is itself a testament to the ubiquitous providence of God. While it is true that many psalms praise God for specific, miraculous acts of individual and national deliverance, the argument here is precisely that these divine acts are not special interventions, not extraordinary instances of divine compassion, but rather Israel's characteristic language of Yahweh's providential presence in the world.
Yahweh is the one "who made heaven and earth . . . who keeps faith forever . . ." (verse 6). Scholars are therefore correct to suggest some influence on this psalm from the biblical wisdom traditions, for they contributed to Israel's theology of creation and providence. Hence, one can see why this psalm would become part of Judaism's "daily morning prayers."
What should be emphasized with equal seriousness is that God's characteristic involvement with creation and history has a certain focus in this psalm, namely the oppressed and hungry, the prisoners (verse 7), the blind, and those who are bowed down (verse 8), and the stranger, orphan, and widow (verse 9). Israel's law and prophets called the nation to account for its treatment of the most vulnerable members of society, and a Christian reading of this psalm rightly sees a connection with Jesus' programmatic Nazareth sermon (Luke 4:16-29). God's providence is praised not only in Jesus' miracles, which are the first fruits of the restoration; it is also profoundly united to our understanding of the incarnation and crucifixion, in Jesus' complete identification with humankind and his complete self-giving. We can think of the way the motion picture, Seven Pounds, vividly portrays Ben Thomas (Will Smith) as a Christ-figure who gives himself -- literally -- to create healing and restoration in others.
The Infinite King and Finite Princes
Psalm 146 provides energy to the theme of God's providential involvement by linking it to God's righteous rule from Zion (verse 10) and presenting a stark contrast between this king who "will reign forever" and "princes . . . mortals in whom there is no hope" (v. 3; see also Psalm 118:9).
"Princes" come under particular indictment because, as nobles, they were in a position to effect change for the poor and oppressed. The prophets often laid responsibility for Israel's woes at the feet of its various leaders (Isaiah 3:14; Jeremiah 23; Ezekiel 34; Hosea 5:1). Yahweh's royal office is highlighted, therefore, because he alone enacts true justice within history.
However, translating this judgment into our socio-political system, apart from a fully developed biblical theology of leadership, might lead to unwarranted applications. The hymn does not say that leaders are unnecessary or that they are not useful. It does warn against trusting them for salvation.
Reading 2 Heb 9:24-28
The letter to the Hebrews paints a series of contrasts between Jesus, our great high priest, and the sacrificial system of atonement that pre-figured his redeeming work.
Today's lesson sums up these contrasts with an image of Christ's heavenly, final and effective intercession for us sinners, resulting in the tremendous good news of God's complete and lasting forgiveness.
In order to get to this good news, we need to wrestle a bit with the author's language of blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins (9:22, 25-26), of the earthly realm as a copy of heavenly realities (8:5; 9:23-24; 10:1), of the end of the age (9:26), and of the second coming of Christ (9:28). These ideas are not part of the currency of our everyday conversation. They assume an understanding of ancient Israel's atonement ritual during the Exodus, even prior to the building of the Temple under David.
At that time, the place of worship was a tent with an inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 9:1-5; Exodus 25-30), where the high priest entered once a year to offer sacrifices for himself and for the sins of the people (Hebrews 9:6-10). Drawing on Exodus 25:40, the author of Hebrews says that this sanctuary, and the sacrificial system that went with it, was a copy of a heavenly reality (Hebrews 8:5); drawing on Greek Platonic philosophy, Hebrews adds that the copy was inferior to the reality towards which it points. That reality is Christ's self-offering on our behalf (Hebrews 8:7), as the one who is both priest and sacrificial victim (Hebrews 9:23-24).
This vivid picture of the ultimate reality towards which the Jewish system of atonement points lies behind today's text, which makes four points about Christ:
The idea of Christ's bloody sacrifice is offensive to many modern sensibilities; we may feel that we have advanced culturally beyond such rituals. Yet a moment's thought will illuminate the many ways in which we still sacrifice each other, using other people as scapegoats for our own wrong and guilt. This happens in families and communities, when one member or group becomes the outcast whose expulsion makes everyone else heave a sigh of relief.
For example, in Ian McEwan's novel (later movie), Atonement, a young handy man bears the guilt for a rape committed by a member of the upper class. In Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye, a helpless young African-American girl becomes the scapegoat of the family and the community. Our sacrificial systems are subtle, but nonetheless real and destructive. Christ's final self-offering on the cross means we have place to put our guilt without sacrificing each other.
We also encounter the contrast between imitation and reality in relationship to matters of faith. The popularity of books and movies such as The Da Vinci Code testify to a widespread fear of being "taken in" by religious beliefs, sold a bill of goods by the church. Hebrews tells us that it is crucial to distinguish rightly between imitation and reality, which means, ultimately, listening to the lonely night questions about what really matters. What really matters, says Hebrews, is what Christ does in the presence of God, reconciling us to the divine presence. Only God can really deliver on God's promises. There is room here for both appropriate cynicism about human pretensions, and boundless faith in God.
Christ's once-for-all redemption, contrasted with the repeated sacrifices of the old system of atonement, removes the church from the business of mediating between God and humanity. This means that the church is not a system of atonement. A human system of dealing with sin has to be repetitive because, as a mere imitation of divine reality, it cannot have any lasting effects. But since Christ has effected forgiveness once-for-all, such a system is now obsolete, superfluous and misleading.
What a difference it makes to experience the church as a community of forgiven sinners, who don't need to sacrifice each other, whose consciences are cleansed "from dead works to worship the living God" (9:14). When it comes to Christian community, this is the real deal.
Gospel Mk 12:38-44
The context for today’s Gospel continues to be mounting tension between Jesus and the Jewish authorities. Mark reports some of Jesus’ teaching in the Temple area in today’s reading and in the preceding verses not included in our Lectionary sequence. In the first part of today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus warn the crowds not to follow the example of the scribes in seeking honor and attention from others. It is important to recall that Mark indicates that Jesus taught these things while in the vicinity of the Temple in Jerusalem. Mark is setting the stage for Jesus’ passion.
Jesus then observes how Jewish pilgrims are making their contributions to the temple treasury. The Temple in Jerusalem was the center of Jewish worship in the time of Jesus. It was expected that observant Jews would make pilgrimages to the Temple to offer prayer and sacrifices. Pilgrims were also expected to make a financial contribution to the temple treasury.
As we would expect to be the case, Jesus observes that those who were rich contributed large sums to the treasury. Those with less means made smaller contributions. A similar situation exists in most of our parishes as well. Jesus calls attention, however, to a poor widow who makes the smallest of contributions—two coins of little value. Jesus upholds the poor widow’s offering for his disciples’ consideration, commending her because her small offering was an act of profound generosity, giving from her livelihood rather than her surplus.
To give from our livelihood is not only an act of generosity, it is also an act of trust in God. We can only give from our need if we trust that God will provide for us. Jesus himself demonstrates the ultimate act of generosity and trust in God as he gives his life for us on the cross.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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Sunday November 4, 2018 Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 152
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 6:2-6
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
"Fear the LORD, your God,
and keep, throughout the days of your lives,
all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you,
and thus have long life.
Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them,
that you may grow and prosper the more,
in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers,
to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.
"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!
Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God,
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength.
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD lives! And blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
Reading 2 Heb 7:23-28
Brothers and sisters:
The levitical priests were many
because they were prevented by death from remaining in office,
but Jesus, because he remains forever,
has a priesthood that does not pass away.
Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him,
since he lives forever to make intercession for them.
It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:
holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,
higher than the heavens.
He has no need, as did the high priests,
to offer sacrifice day after day,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people;
he did that once for all when he offered himself.
For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests,
but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law,
appoints a son,
who has been made perfect forever.
Gospel Mk 12:28b-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
"Which is the first of all the commandments?"
Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
'He is One and there is no other than he.'
And 'to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself'
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
"You are not far from the kingdom of God."
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 6:2-6
Chapter 6 begins a new unit in Deuteronomy that runs until 11:32.
As a prelude to the reading, Chapters 1-4 of the book set the stage by recounting key moments in Israel's journey from Mount Horeb (Sinai) to the plains of Moab, across the Jordan from the long-promised land. Chapter 5 then re-presents the Decalogue (5:6-21; cf. Exodus 20:1-17) and discusses some of the events that transpired when the Ten Commandments were given (Deut 5:22-33).
Now the commandments are very much still the subject in 6:1-11:32. Or, as 6:1a puts it, perhaps it is the commandment (singular!) that is the point of this larger unit since many commentators believe it to be an extended exhortation or sermon based on the first commandment. Indeed, 6:5 can be seen as the positive (re)articulation of the prohibition against other gods (see further below).
Undoubtedly, Deuteronomy from verse 6:4 onward are the most famous verses in this Sunday's lection. But 6:1-3 should not be passed over too quickly. Note, first, that despite the singular "commandment" of 6:1a, Moses (who preaches Deuteronomy as his valedictory address) immediately glosses that singular with plural subjects: "statutes and ordinances." These many "statutes and ordinances" can nevertheless be glossed as a singular "commandment," and the singular "commandment" can be understood as many and various "statutes and ordinances"--which in Deuteronomy almost certainly refers to the detailed legislation in 12:1-26:15.
That bewildering amount of material is a singular entity: a commandment. This commandment, and these statutes and ordinances, are specifically for life in the land that Israel is entering (Deuteronomy 6:1b; see also 12:1). Life there will be different than it is in the wilderness; there, Israel will face new challenges and temptations (see, e.g., 7:1, 17; 8:7-20). Since Moses will not accompany Israel into Canaan (see 3:23-39), he is at pains to stress what is important before he dies. What he leaves ringing in Israel's ears and written before Israel's eyes for future reading and hearing (see Deuteronomy 31:10, 19, 24, 30; 32:44-45) is the importance of the Lord's instruction, command, statutes and ordinances--in a word, the Lord's Torah (see 1:5).
Moses proceeds to emphasize that this instruction is not only necessary, it is beneficial: it results in proper obedience, even into future generations, and eventuates in long life (6:2). Of course, things don't always work out that way. The life of one of Israel's greatest kings, Josiah, who is the only person in the entire Old Testament to incarnate, as it were, the words of Deuteronomy 6:5 (see 2 Kings 23:25), is tragically cut short (2 Kings 23:29; cf. 22:20).
But Moses is preaching right now. Moses is mid-sermon right now. He can't be bothered by exceptions to the rule. And the rule, for Israel--especially for Israel in the land--is to keep the Lord's Torah. If they do, good things (of whatever and various sorts) will happen (see Deuteronomy 6:3). If they don't, all is, quite literally, lost (cf. 28:47-68; 29:18-28).
The first thing Israel must do, for things to go well, is "to hear" (6:3, 4). "To hear" means "to listen," but also, in Deuteronomy's idiom, it means to obey. The Hebrew imperative "Listen up!" or "Hear this!" is sema (pronounced sh'ma) and 6:4-9 is famously known as the Shema, after the first word of 6:4. Faithful Jews recite it at least twice a day, in the morning and at night, in compliance with the Shema itself (6:7b).
Verse 6:4 is notoriously difficult to translate (see the notes in virtually any English translation). The rendition "The LORD is our God, the LORD alone" is perfectly acceptable and connects with the exclusive worship that Deuteronomy, the Decalogue, and the Shema itself repeatedly emphasize (cf. 4:35, 39; 5:7-10; 6:5; 32:39). The other common translation--"The LORD our God is one LORD"--while perhaps not as felicitous in context, nevertheless captures aspects of God's integrity and unity (cf. 1 John 1:5).
"Loving God with everything".
The "everything" is defined (in English, at least) as the "heart" (which in Hebrew anthropology corresponds mostly to our "mind"), the "soul" (perhaps better, in our understanding, the "self"), and the "might" (which could be taken, with the rabbis, as implying the love of God with one's "stuff" or property as much as with one's strength or capacity). However, the terms are translated, it is clear that complete devotion is commended--better yet: commanded.
The emphasis here on obedience, even an obedience that can be dictated, should chasten overly-romantic notions of what it means to "love" God. One demonstrates love for God by what one does and what one does not do--that is, how they do or do not obey--not merely by how one does or does not feel.
It comes as no surprise, then, to learn that "love"-language was widely used throughout the ancient Near East in political treaties and covenants to mark the proper attitude and behavior of parties toward each other, especially vassal subjects to their overlords. Nevertheless, we (and Deuteronomy) are still talking about love, not cold, hard, unfeeling obedience.
If 6:4 is the undergirding proposition, with 6:5 a positive (re)articulation, then 6:6-9 comprise a blueprint for proper enactment. As important as love with the heart is (and it truly is!), there are words to consider. "These words" (6:6a) refer, at one level, to the entire book of Deuteronomy itself, the name of which, in Hebrew, is debarim ("words"). These words must be "on the heart"--or, in our parlance, "on the mind"--presumably that means always.
In a word (or is it commandment?), Deuteronomy 6:4-9 indicates that all parts of the Israelite body, Israelite family, Israelite time and activity, and Israelite domestic and civic space are to be dominated by "these words" that Moses speaks and preaches. And, again, those words are, at one very important level, the entire book of Deuteronomy itself.
Readers will have to keep reading Deuteronomy to know what all these words comprise if they are to obey the Shema. Preachers will have to keep preaching Deuteronomy if they are to assist in that same process. Both acts are imperative, at least if Jesus is to be believed. He is the Reader of Israel's Scripture and the Preacher like Moses who told us that on the Shema and the love of neighbor "hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:40).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
The first words, I love you, Lord, my strength, are the scope and contents of the psalm. Those that truly love God, may triumph in him as their Rock and Refuge, may with confidence call upon him. It is good for us to observe all the circumstances of a mercy which magnify the power of God and his goodness to us in it. David was a praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did, we shall speed as he did. It is not possible to apply to the history of the son of Jesse those awful, majestic, and stupendous words which are used through this description of the Divine manifestation. Every part of so solemn a scene of terrors tells us, a greater than David is here. God will not only deliver his people out of their troubles in due time, but he will bear them up under their troubles in the mean time. Can we forget that it was in the hour of Christ's deepest calamity, when Judas betrayed, when his friends forsook, when the multitude derided him, and the smiles of his Father's love were withheld, that the powers of darkness prevented him? The sorrows of death surrounded him, in his distress he prayed, Heb 5:7. God made the earth to shake and tremble, and the rocks to cleave, and brought him out, in his resurrection, because he delighted in him and in his undertaking.
Reading 2 Heb 7:23-28
Hebrews 7:23-28 occurs in the middle of a larger argument about Jesus being a heavenly high priest.
This is one of the central ideas of Hebrews, and it is a unique contribution in the New Testament to our understanding of Jesus. Our passage has two main points: 1) Because Jesus is not subject to death, in contrast to the earthly priests, as the heavenly high priest he is able to serve and offer salvation perpetually; 2) Jesus only had to sacrifice himself once for all people, in contrast to the repeated sacrifices made by the earthly priests.
Christ is first identified as high priest in Hebrews 2:17, and the basic points are summarized in 4:14-16. The detailed discussion of the designation occupies 5:1-10 and chapters 7-10. In the argument of Hebrews, Christ's identity as the heavenly high priest is what enables him to offer eternal salvation -- so it is a point of tremendous importance! A basic understanding of the argument will provide valuable context for understanding our passage.
The argument is complex, but it may be summarized as follows: Priests in Judaism must be from the tribe of Levi, but as the Messiah, Jesus is from the tribe of Judah (David's tribe). Thus Jesus could not be in the traditional Jewish priesthood. However, Psalm 110, a psalm recognized as a messianic prophecy in the Judaism of the time, contains the line, "You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek" (verse 4). Melchizedek is an obscure character from the story of Abraham (Genesis 14:17-20), a "priest of God Most High." Psalm 110:4 thus provides a way for Jesus as the Messiah to be a priest, indeed a priest "forever." This last point becomes the basis for the contrast between the eternal priesthood of Jesus and the limited priesthood of the earthly priests.
This contrast is the subject of verses 23-25 in our passage. Earthly priests obviously die, so their priesthood is of limited duration (verse 23), but because of his resurrection and exaltation to God's right hand, Jesus' priesthood will have no end (verse 24). This eternal status thus provides a different order of salvation than that available through the traditional priesthood -- the salvation offered by Jesus is eternal, because his intercession on our behalf will never cease (verse 25). A similar point can be seen in Romans 8:34.
Verses 26-28 provide further contrasts between Jesus and the earthly high priests. While verse 26's adjectives "holy," "blameless," and "undefiled" can be used in a variety of contexts, together with the following phrase, "separated from sinners," they emphasize Jesus' sinlessness, a point made elsewhere in Hebrews (4:15) and by other New Testament writers (e.g. 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5).
Verse 27 adds the contrast between the once-for-all nature of Christ's sacrifice and the perpetually repeated sacrifices offered by the earthly priests. This contrast will be greatly elaborated in chapters 9 and 10, especially 10:1-14. The fact that the earthly sacrifices have to be performed repeatedly points to the fact that they cannot take away sins in the first place; otherwise they would cease (10:1-4, 11).
These sacrifices cleanse only "the flesh", being unable to "perfect the conscience of the worshiper". Christ's sacrifice, on the other hand, was "a single sacrifice for sins" "offered for all time", penetrating into our innermost being, cleansing our conscience, having "perfected for all time those who are sanctified". The resulting covenant is thus one of the inside, of the heart and mind, as attested by the Holy Spirit, with the result that other sacrifices are needed no more.
Verse 28 adds yet two more contrasts between Jesus and the earthly priests. First, the weakness of the earthly high priests contrasts with the perfection of Jesus. The language of Jesus having "been made perfect" often surprises readers. It is not a claim, however, about the intrinsic character of Jesus -- after all, Jesus' sinlessness is a key assertion of Hebrews, as discussed above -- but about his having been fitted perfectly to his role.
The second contrast is that Jesus was appointed high priest with an oath, unlike the earthly priests. "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind." The author of Hebrews sees this formula as underscoring the eternal nature of Christ's priesthood.
Gospel Mk 12:28b-34
As we continue to read from Mark’s Gospel, our Lectionary skips a chapter that helps set the context for today’s reading. If we were to read the sections skipped (chapter 11 and part of chapter 12), we would hear about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, his cleansing of the Temple, and the questioning of Jesus’ authority by the chief priests, scribes, and elders. The context, therefore, for this Gospel is Jesus’ growing exposure before the Jewish authorities. Jesus is being questioned and tested by the Jewish authorities, yet the scribe who addresses Jesus in today’s Gospel seems to be an admirer; he is not testing Jesus.
The question posed in today’s Gospel requires Jesus to interpret the Law of Moses. The Mosaic Law consists of the Ten Commandments and many additional commandments, numbering into the hundreds. For a devout Jew, adherence to the Mosaic Law is an expression of faithfulness to God’s covenant with Israel. The ranking of these commandments was regularly debated among the teachers of the Law.
Jesus was not the only Jewish religious teacher to connect these two commandments, love of God and love of neighbor. Both of these commandments were central elements of the religious tradition that Jesus learned from his Jewish community. Indeed, these commandments continue to be central aspects of contemporary Jewish religious understanding. Jesus’ response to his questioners proposed an integral connection between these two aspects of the Jewish Law. Love of God finds its expression in our love for our neighbor. Many believe, however, that this connection was heard in a new and fresh way when spoken by Jesus.
The scribe who questions Jesus in today’s Gospel engages in a positive dialogue with Jesus. He agrees with Jesus’ teaching that the commandments to love God and love neighbor stand above the commandment to offer worship and sacrifice in the Temple. With this dialogue, Jesus appears to close the debate with the Jewish authorities. Mark reports that no one dared to question Jesus further.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
O my God, I love you above all things with my whole heart and soul, because you are all good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me and I ask pardon of those whom I have injured.
Amen.
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Sunday October 28, 2018 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 149
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 31:7-9
Thus says the LORD:
Shout with joy for Jacob,
exult at the head of the nations;
proclaim your praise and say:
The LORD has delivered his people,
the remnant of Israel.
Behold, I will bring them back
from the land of the north;
I will gather them from the ends of the world,
with the blind and the lame in their midst,
the mothers and those with child;
they shall return as an immense throng.
They departed in tears,
but I will console them and guide them;
I will lead them to brooks of water,
on a level road, so that none shall stumble.
For I am a father to Israel,
Ephraim is my first-born.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
"The LORD has done great things for them."
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Reading 2 Heb 5:1-6
Brothers and sisters:
Every high priest is taken from among men
and made their representative before God,
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring,
for he himself is beset by weakness
and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself
as well as for the people.
No one takes this honor upon himself
but only when called by God,
just as Aaron was.
In the same way,
it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest,
but rather the one who said to him:
You are my son:
this day I have begotten you;
just as he says in another place:
You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek.
Gospel Mk 10:46-52
As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
"Jesus, son of David, have pity on me."
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more,
"Son of David, have pity on me."
Jesus stopped and said, "Call him."
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
"Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you."
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?"
The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see."
Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you."
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 31:7-9
When return seems impossible, the prophet sees a way home that will accommodate their different, but limited, human abilities and life stages. God makes it possible for all to walk a straight and smooth path. Finally, the oracle answers the pain of displacement, loss, and alienation with the intimacy of life as a family.
The prophet himself is not in exile, but in Judah, land of promise. His oracle thus speaks to multiple audiences. Most directly, he speaks to those who remain in Judah and Israel, whose children, parents, brothers and sisters, friends, neighbors, extended families, and neighboring tribes have been taken from them, first by Assyria over a century before and most recently by Babylon. He also speaks to those now in exile, the people of Israel and Judah who had been deported from their homeland against their will. Some, those deported from Judah in 597 BCE, could be traced to Babylonia. Others, the deported tribes of Israel or Ephraim, had been lost in place and time, and were connected now only in memory, tradition, and hope. The oracle focuses especially on this remnant of Israel, lost to their brothers and sisters in Judah and Samaria, scattered to the corners of the earth. Only God can know where they have been taken. Only God
The first verse of this passage is a loud one. Jeremiah’s audience is breaking a silence imposed throughout the earlier chapters of the book. Earlier, the prophet had been told not to pray or cry out on behalf of the people (Jeremiah 7:16, 11:14, 14:11). God refused to hear the laments of the people and promises to end the sound of their celebrations (7:16,29,31; 16:9; 25:10). The people too had been instructed to refrain from mourning their dead and from feasting in gladness (16:5-9; cf. 25:33). But Jeremiah and his people were not completely silent. Despite the injunction God placed on them, we hear repeated weeping, wailing, mourning, and lament (9:1,10; 13:17; 14:17). The command to keep silent is an impossible one. The people’s pain at their woundedness, the desolation of the land, and the loss of their kin kept breaking through the silence (31:9).
Now God wants the amplifier to be dialed up to eleven, and the song is one not of sorrow but of joy. The first word of the Lord’s speech is a command to the people: “shout joyfully” (Jeremiah 31:7). The verb is a favorite of the psalmists, and occurs many times in Isaiah. But it has not occurred in Jeremiah prior to this moment. The entire book has changed keys. The minor chords of chapters 1-29 gave voice to judgment, anger, exile, and death. Chapter 30 marked a shift: God would answer the sound of distress (30:4-7) with salvation (30:8-11), cure the incurable wound (30:12-17), and restore Jacob’s tents, city, children, and ruler (18-21). Chapter 31 continues in this new key, picking up strains of gladness foretold in 30:19.
The glad shouts here in 31:7 are for Jacob, in response to the good news of restoration and salvation for those who have been lost for so long. They are also to be shouted “for the chief of the nations” (New Revised Standard Version) or “at the head of the nations” (New American Bible). The exact meaning of this latter phrase is less obvious: it may paint a moment of triumph, when captives are finally free to look their captors in the eye and say, “you didn’t win, after all.” Gloating is dangerous, as the prophets so frequently remind us, but so is quiet acquiescence to empires and injustice. The other possible meaning of this phrase is to interpret the chief or head of the nations as referring to God. The passage culminates in the restoration of the familial relationship between God and Jacob; this journey home is a celebration for them both.
The company the Lord will gather from the North and from the corners of the earth includes the blind and the lame, pregnant women, and women in labor (Jeremiah 31:8). A multitude will return and they will walk on a straight path alongside brooks of water (31:8-9). None will stumble (31:9). God does not promise to change the bodies of blind and lame. Yet God ensures that the path home includes and accommodates them as they are. God does not ask the women among them to postpone their pregnancies or deliveries or postpone their travel so as not to slow down the pace of the company. This party will travel as slowly as it needs to, and they will have the water they need to sustain them at every step.
Those whom God intends to bring back to you will come to you at their own pace, and they will bring new life into your midst. They are the firstborn, returning to their ancestral home.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
In this psalm, the theological theme of restoration is knitted together with the theme of rejoicing. The product is one of the grandest, most eloquent lyrical prayers in the Psalter.
Psalm 126 is one of a collection of poems (Psalms 120-134) known as the "Songs of Ascents." These most likely did not all originate from a single source or for some unified purpose, but were rather collected together for some common use While interpreters cannot be one-hundred percent sure, the best guess is that the psalms of ascents were collected together in order for the faithful to use when they made pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Although one should not press the metaphor, one can make an analogy between the ancient pilgrimages that Israelites made to Jerusalem and the modern preparations that Christians make during Advent for Christmas.
The psalm has two stanzas (vv. 1-3; 4-6). Similar to the way in which Psalm 85 begins, the first stanza of Psalm 126 recalls God's past acts of restoration (v. 1) and the emotions of joy and celebration of laughter that accompanied those saving acts. The temporal clause with which the psalm begins, "When the Lord restores the fortunes of Zion," most likely has in mind the return of the people to the land following the Babylonian exile. But within the broader biblical narrative, the phrase calls many divine restorations to mind:
The first stanza also contains what is considered to be perhaps the most surprising testimony concerning God's gracious deeds in the entire Old Testament. The nations--that is, the people who worship other gods and often threaten Israel (cf. Psalm 124:2)--praised God. The very people who, during the years in Babylon, looked upon God's people and "were astonished at him−so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals−these very nations witnessed the restoration of the people to their land and to their God and they said, "The Lord has done great things for them!" Thinking ahead to the New Testament, one is reminded of the non-Israelite magi coming to worship the one who was born "King of the Jews," or the Roman centurion who announced, "Truly this man was God's Son!"
Even more surprising, the nations' testimony to God's deeds inspires Israel to respond with its own testimony, repeating the words of the nations verbatim: "The Lord has done great things for us" (v. 3). Often in the psalms, the enemies' words are quoted as reason for God to punish them (see, for example, Psalm 10:12-14 or the ending of Psalm 137). Here, the words of the nations are quoted approvingly. Even more shockingly, the people of God then repeat the words of the nations. Why? Because God's gracious and faithful acts of restoration are so self-evident, even the blind nations can see them. And because the blind nations see those acts, the often-even-more blind people of God can see them, too.
The second stanza develops the themes introduced in the first stanza and rephrases them in the form of renewed appeals for restoration (this is similar to the structure of Psalm 85, lacking only the set of promises with which Psalm 85 culminates). The people ask God to restore them once again, in order that they may rejoice yet again.
The psalm paints bountiful images:
It should be emphasized that the closing verses of the psalm are an appeal couched in the form of imaginative wishes: "May those who...." The Advent people who approach Christmas recall God's restorative acts in the past. They recall the testimony of the nations to God's deliverance. They recall their own joy. And they know that until the Son of God comes again, we will be in constant and everlasting need of God's continued restoration.
Reading 2 Heb 5:1-6
Christ was first identified as high priest in 2:17, and 4:14-16, part of a previous lectionary text, which presented the basic idea and implications of Jesus being high priest.
But it is not until today's passage that Hebrews begins to really make the case for Jesus being high priest. After a brief digression, the argument is picked up again in chapter 7 and continues from there through chapter 10. Our passage has two sections to it: Verses 1-4 give the definition of and criteria for being a priest and verses 5-10 show how Christ meets these criteria.
The first verse gives the defining function of a high priest, offering sacrifices for sin. While the Jewish high priest played other roles, too, this function is the only one of real concern in Hebrews. Hebrews especially focuses throughout on the high priestly activities on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the annual ritual where the high priest would atone for the sins of the Jewish people (see Leviticus 16).
Verses 2-3 emphasize a high priest's solidarity with sinners. Verse 2 gives the positive side that a high priest can sympathize with sinners because he himself has experienced weakness. This aspect of Jesus' character was presented in 2:9-18 (especially verses 17-18), revisited in 4:15-16, and will be elaborated later in our passage, verses 7-9. Verse 3 gives the negative side, that because a high priest is himself a sinner he must atone "for his own sins as well as for those of the people" (Leviticus 16:6 covers this requirement). This negative side will provide a key contrast with the sinless Jesus, a point already mentioned in 4:15 and to be elaborated in 7:26-28.
Verse 4 specifies an important prerequisite for anyone to take on the role of high priest: The high priest must be called by God. The original high priest Aaron is the quintessential example, whose calling is recounted in detail in the Old Testament (see Exodus 28:1, 40:12-15; Leviticus 8:1-12; Numbers 18:1-20), and to whom the story of the false claimant Korah and company provides a key counter-example (Numbers 16:1-35).
In actuality, the history of the high priesthood was an inglorious one, the office having become highly politicized, especially in the Maccabean and Roman periods that led into the time of Jesus. Opposition to the corrupt priesthood was one of the factors that led to the formation of the dissident Qumran community, locus of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Christ's divine appointment to the high priesthood is explained briefly in verses 5-6 (and at much greater length in chapter 7). To twenty-first century readers, the passage's explanation will likely be baffling. The author simply quotes verses from the middle of two different psalms and viola -- we have Jesus as high priest!
The key for the original audience was that both psalms, Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, were widely recognized as messianic prophecies, so it would have been natural for the audience to apply these two verses to Jesus (see Mark 12:35-37 for an important application of Psalm 110; in Hebrews Psalm 110 has been used already in 1:13). The first quote (Psalm 2:7) establishes the Messiah as God's Son; Hebrews already quoted the verse for this very purpose in 1:5. The second quote (Psalm 110:4) is where the priesthood comes in explicitly.
To fully explain how Hebrews applies Psalm 110:4 to Jesus' status as high priest would require a full study of chapter 7, but to summarize briefly: Jesus could not be a regular Jewish priest because, as the Messiah, he is from the tribe of Judah, whereas priests must come from the tribe of Levi. The character of Melchizedek, however, provides an alternative priesthood.
Melchizedek is an obscure figure who appears in the story of Abraham in Genesis 14:17-20. He is said to be both a king and a "priest of God Most High." He appears nowhere else in scripture until his name shows up in this psalm, where the addressee of the psalm -- understood by Jews of this period to be the Messiah -- is said to be a priest in his order. Hence we have the basis for the Messiah to be identified as a high priest, despite the non-Levite ancestry. Particularly important for Hebrews is that he is said in the verse to be a priest "forever," which connects nicely to Christ's immortal post-resurrection status, and which provides a contrast with the mortality of the Levitical priests.
That Jesus' cries to be saved from death were "heard" refers to the resurrection -- he was saved, but only after experiencing death first! Language about Jesus learning obedience and being made perfect (verse 9) often surprises readers today, but the author clearly does not see this as compromising Jesus' sinlessness (see 4:15).
Rather, his being "made perfect" refers to the fact that in order for Jesus to be a high priest, he had to share in the experiences of those he represented -- hence he had to suffer. Being perfected means being fitted properly to the role of high priest, and this required suffering. This was described in 2:5-11. The ultimate purpose of Jesus becoming high priest is given at the end of verse 9: "He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him." It takes an eternal high priest to bestow eternal salvation!
Gospel Mk 10:46-52
Today we continue to read from Mark’s Gospel. In this Gospel, we find evidence of Jesus’ fame in the sizable crowd that accompanies him as he journeys to Jerusalem. Jesus’ reputation as a healer has preceded him. When the blind man, Bartimaeus, hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, he calls out to him, asking for his pity.
When Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus, the crowd around him tries to silence him. Yet Bartimaeus persists, calling out more loudly and with greater urgency. He will not be silenced or deterred from getting Jesus’ attention. We notice how quickly the crowd’s reaction changes when Jesus calls for Bartimaeus. Those who sought to quiet him now encourage him.
When Jesus restores Bartimaeus’s sight, no elaborate action is required. (In other healing stories in Mark’s Gospel, actions accompany Jesus’ words). In this instance, Jesus simply says that Bartimaeus’s faith has saved him. Throughout Mark’s Gospel, the success of Jesus’ healing power has often been correlated with the faith of the person requesting Jesus’ help. For example, it is because of her faith that the woman with the hemorrhage is healed. When faith is absent, Jesus is unable to heal; we see this after his rejection in Nazareth.
Once his sight has been restored, Bartimaeus follows Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. In Mark’s Gospel, Bartimaeus is the last disciple called by Jesus before he enters Jerusalem. Bartimaeus hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, but he calls out to Jesus using words of faith—“Son of David.” Many in Jesus’ time believed that the anticipated Jewish Messiah would be a descendent of King David. Bartimaeus’s words prepare us for the final episodes of Mark’s Gospel, which begin with Jesus’ preparation for the Passover and his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. As Mark has shown us in our readings over the past few Sundays, however, Jesus will be the Messiah in a way that will be difficult for many to accept. Jesus will show himself to be the Messiah through his suffering and death.
Cut and paste the below link to see a video of the healing of Bartimaeus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_00PM3bdCME
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
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Sunday October 21, 2018 Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 146
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 53:10-11
The LORD was pleased
to crush him in infirmity.
If he gives his life as an offering for sin,
he shall see his descendants in a long life,
and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.
Because of his affliction
he shall see the light in fullness
of days;
through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,
and their guilt he shall bear.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
Reading 2 Heb 4:14-16
Brothers and sisters:
Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God,
let us hold fast to our confession.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who has similarly been tested in every way,
yet without sin.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
Gospel Mk 10:35-45
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him,
"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
He replied, "What do you wish me to do for you?"
They answered him, "Grant that in your glory
we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."
Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the cup that I drink
or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
They said to him, "We can."
Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared."
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them,
"You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles
lord it over them,
and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 53:10-11
The central movement of the Suffering Servant poem in Isaiah 53:4-12 is from humiliation to exaltation, from shame to honor, from weakness to greatness.
From Weakness to Greatness: Individual Servants
This movement is a recurring pattern in the ways of God throughout Scripture. God chose a humble elderly immigrant and his barren wife to be the primary vehicle of God's blessing "to all the families of the earth" (Genesis 12:1-3). God regularly chose the younger and less likely sibling over the usually preferred elder brother as God's specially chosen and exalted servant: Isaac over Ishmael (Genesis 17:15-19), Jacob over Esau (Genesis 25:22-26), Joseph over the other sons of Jacob (Genesis 37:1-11; 50:15-21), Judah over the first-born Reuben (Genesis 49:3-4, 8), young David over the other sons of Jesse (1 Samuel 16:10-13), King Solomon over his older brother Adonijah (1 Kings 1:22-40).
God was in the habit of raising up the weak and unlikely to lead God's cause against the strong. God called a humble and reluctant shepherd named Moses (Exodus 3:1-11; Numbers 12:3; Deuteronomy 34:10-12). God tapped Gideon, the weakest member of Israel's weakest clan, to save Israel from its oppressors (Judges 6:11-16). God appointed an insecure teenager named Jeremiah to be "a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:1-10).
God's appointment and use of these many unlikely individuals and servants stands against the backdrop of the most unlikely choice of all in the Old Testament: God's selection of the people of Israel as God's own special people and "treasured possession" among all the nations (Deuteronomy 7:6). Israel was the most unlikely of candidates for this exalted vocation. Lowly Israel was the "fewest of all peoples" (Deuteronomy 7:7). Many other nations could claim much older and grander pedigrees as powerful and venerable empires with deep roots in history: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia and Greece. Each of these empires considered Israel an insignificant outpost, a weak province to be plundered, a humble upstart who needed to be crushed and taught a lesson from time to time.
The Servant of Isaiah 53: Individual or Collective?
All of this is important background to the suffering servant poem of Isaiah 53:4-12. Scholars debate the identity of the humiliated, marred, sick, and suffering servant who is then dramatically exalted by God. Some say the "servant" could be an individual. The suffering servant could be an anonymous and persecuted prophet of Israel. Or could the servant be Cyrus the Persian who elsewhere is called God's anointed "messiah" and "shepherd" and who overthrew Babylon and freed Israel from its exile (Isaiah 44:28, 45:1, 13)?
Others argue for a collective interpretation. The suffering servant is the whole people of Israel who suffered in exile. In exile, they were despised by the nations, but then God exalted them by freeing them from exile and returning them to their home in Jerusalem. Evidence for this position is that the people of Israel or Jacob are often called God's "servant" throughout Isaiah 40-55 (Isaiah 41:8-9; 44:1-2, 21; 45:4; 49:3). At other points in Isaiah 40-55, the "servant" seems to be an individual or a sub-group within Israel, perhaps a persecuted disciple or group of disciples of a prophet, who work to redeem and restore Israel (Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-6; 50:4-9).
We are not sure why the lectioner chose only verses 10 and 11 but I think we need the background of the previous verses to understand these two. The servant will be rewarded if only he keeps the faith.
The world may wonder how much real effect the ministry of Jesus and his community can have. What good is it to preach the gospel, sing a hymn, pour water over a baby, offer a bit of bread and a sip of wine, hold a hand, speak a forgiving word, stock a food shelf, fold hands in prayer, fold clothes for the homeless, visit the sick, comfort the grieving, negotiate a conflict, advocate for the poor, carry out a daily vocation with integrity, all in the name of Christ?
The nations may scorn and despise these seemingly humble and weak ministries of Christ's church. Yet Scripture testifies that it is through such seemingly weak and foolish means that God chooses to do God's work (1 Corinthians 1:27-31). For the long and unbroken chain of God's quiet, humble and faithful servants stretching from ancient Israel to all the hidden corners of the world today, we give thee thanks and praise.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
One of the table prayers we have used in our family has been "God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food." This prayer summarizes the pattern of the psalms of praise in the Bible: it expresses praise and thanks and gives two reasons for praise and thanks: God's greatness and God's goodness.
I suggest that Psalm 33 is a psalm of praise with imperative plurals calling to praise (verses 1-3, "Rejoice, Praise, Sing") followed by reasons for praise, including God's greatness (verses 4-12) and God's goodness (verses 13-19). The psalm is then rounded off with an affirmation of trust (verses 20-21) and a request addressed to the Lord in "you" form (verse 22).
The Same Old Songs? (verses 1-3)
The three imperative plural verbs are addressed to the congregation: "rejoice, praise, sing." These three verses provide thought for a worship committee:
1. Worship should be joyful! (verse 1)
2. Worship may include the use of musical instruments, mentioned here for the first time in the psalms; a modern-day writer would have spoken of trumpets, trombones, guitars, harps.
3. Worship of the Creator ought to be marked by creativity. In other words, let us have a few new songs in the language and melodies of our own age! (verse 3)
4. Those leading worship ought to be well trained so that they "play skillfully." Let us worship God with the best musicians and poets we have! After all, we are following in the tradition of Johann Sebastian Bach!
5. Worship ought to be enthusiastic, even with the volume turned up! (verse 3)
Why Praise? God is Great! (verses 4-12)
Now the psalm gives some reasons for praising God. The first word of verses 4 and 9 is "for," bracketing that section as a unit. Why praise God? Because God created the whole cosmos and especially our "blue planet" with its deep blue seas. How did God do this? The psalmist picks up the notion of creation through the word. God said "let there be"—and there it was! (Genesis 1).
The "God is great" theme continues in verses 10-12 when the writer reflects on God's work in history. As the prophets make clear, God was concerned not only with what was happening in Israel and Judah! God was also involved with the great nations of their day, in the actions of Assyria, Babylon, Persian and Greece (see Amos 9:7-8, Isaiah 13-23, Jeremiah 46-51). And while God may be moving in mysterious ways in our own time, we may assume that God is also concerned about what happens in the nations of our time, Iraq or Afghanistan, Africa or Antarctica, the United Kingdom or the United States. Psalm 32 had things to say about individual happiness (32:1-2, 11). Psalm 33:12 asserts that a people whose God is the Lord -- will be blessed.
Why Praise? The Lord is Good! (verses 13-19)
I recall touring a Greek Orthodox church where there was, front and center, near the ceiling, a painting of a huge eye, with a brown iris and black pupil. Our guide explained: "That painting represents the eye of God. Walk around anyplace in our sanctuary, look back and you will see that the eye of God is watching you!" Verses 13-15 declare that the Lord looks down at what is happening on our planet. Verses 18-19 promise that the Lord "keeps an eye on us." Children, as we know, love to have their parents and grandparents "keeping an eye" on them. They like be watched and praised for their accomplishments. But I think they also like the sense that someone who loves them is watching, protecting, in case anything should go wrong!
God is great, says this psalm, and God is also good. That goodness is expressed in the declaration of God's steadfast love (Hebrew, hesed; verses 5, 18). The prophet Isaiah had said that the earth was filled with the glory of God (Isaiah 6:3). This psalm says that the earth is filled -- with God's steadfast love (hesed, verse 5). Thus, we ought not locate God only high in the heavens...but think of God in terms of a cloud of amazing grace, spread throughout the entire planet! The fact that God has an eye on us is reason for fear and trust in God's steadfast love (hesed, verse 18).
In the Meantime (20-22)
The writer catches our mood as we live out our days. We can be glad because we can trust.
Finally, we can pray (and here is the third hesed) "Let your steadfast love be upon us, as we live in hope."
Reading 2 Heb 4:14-16
Last week we had HEB 4:12-13 and I had added 14-16. So not much new to add so I just repeated last week’s message.
In "Glory Days," Bruce Springsteen sings of that high school baseball player who "could throw that speedball by you.
Make you look like a fool boy." So the image with which this lectionary reading from Hebrews begins--with a disturbing image, not of a speedball, but of the word of God that slices us open for inspection. The opening two verses (4:12-13) describe the power of God's word.
The writer lists several characteristics of that word. First, it is "living and active" (4:12). The writer frequently describes God as "the living God" (3:12; 9:14; 10:31; 12:22), and here he uses the same adjective to describe God's word as one that acts and accomplishes the divine will.
Secondly, the divine word penetrates. The writer pictures the word as a sword (compare Isaiah 49:2; Wisdom of Solomon 7:22, 24; 18:15-16; Ephesians 6:17; Revelation 1:16; 2:12; 19:15). No matter how sharp a knife or dagger one might wield, the word of God cuts with even more precision as it reaches our innermost being.
Third, as the word penetrates, it judges our hearts. The role of the heart is a central feature in the sermon against unbelief (3:7--4:13). The writer quotes the psalmist's warning against hard hearts (3:8, 15; 4:7), for God laments that the wilderness generation went astray in their hearts (3:10). Since our hearts represent who we are as a whole, the condition of our hearts marks our openness to or rejection of God's voice. Thus the divine word unmasks and makes clear our faithfulness or unbelief.
The following sentence (4:13) also focuses on judgment, but the focus shifts from the divine word that judges to those of us who are judged. Nothing is hidden from the Creator whose scrutiny encompasses all of creation. God sees and knows all, and we stand accountable before God for our response to the divine word. The term "laid bare" comes from the verb "to grip in a neck-hold," an image that conveys vulnerability and peril. This stress on our exposure and accountability provides a solemn warning for all of us who hear the word of God.
Given this uncomfortable picture of our nakedness before God, we may rightly ask, "Where is the good news in this passage?" Thankfully, the text does not end here. Instead, the writer affirms Jesus' high priestly ministry to us in our need (4:14-16). That affirmation transforms the warning of the first section. Even though the word of God penetrates and exposes the deepest recesses of our hearts, we should not despair. We must give an account, a word that responds to the divine word. But in our efforts to speak, we are not left alone. There is one who has come to help us, to be our "merciful and faithful high priest" (2:17).
As the Exalted One seated at God's right hand (1:3, 13), Jesus has passed through the heavens to occupy a place of honor and glory. That status inspires us in moments of discouragement to hold on to our confession, our hope, and our confidence in God and Jesus (3:1; 10:23). We have an advocate in God's court.
Gospel Mk 10:35-45
In this Sunday’s Gospel, we continue to read from the section of Mark’s Gospel that reports Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. Last Sunday we heard Jesus lament the particular challenges those with many possessions face in order to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus then predicts his passion to the Twelve, who are amazed and afraid. In this part of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ words to his closest disciples seem to be intended to prepare them for the events that will occur in Jerusalem.
In today’s Gospel, James and John ask to be given seats of honor when Jesus enters into his glory. Once again, the disciples seem to be selective in what they hear Jesus say. They want to share Jesus’ glory, but do not appear to understand that his glory will be preceded by his suffering. Jesus notes their lack of understanding and predicts the suffering they will endure for the sake of the Gospel. Jesus says that the honor they seek is not his to give. When the other ten hear what James and John have asked, Mark reports that they are indignant. Jesus takes the opportunity to teach them.
Jesus explains the importance of service and sacrifice in the life of a disciple. In particular, he seems to be preparing the Twelve for their leadership roles in the emerging Christian community. Echoing the Gospel we heard several weeks ago (on the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 9:33-37), Jesus acknowledges that his teaching is countercultural. In today’s Gospel, Jesus contrasts the dynamics within the community of disciples with those shown by the rulers of the Gentiles.
Following Jesus’ example of sacrificial love continues to be countercultural in our day as well. We might take this opportunity to consider our models of authority and examine our own exercise of authority. On whose example do we model our leadership?
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
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Sunday October 14, 2018 Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 143
Reading 1 Wis 7:7-11
I prayed, and prudence was given me;
I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
I preferred her to scepter and throne,
and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her,
nor did I liken any priceless gem to her;
because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand,
and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.
Beyond health and comeliness I loved her,
and I chose to have her rather than the light,
because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.
Yet all good things together came to me in her company,
and countless riches at her hands.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 90:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
Make us glad, for the days when you afflicted us,
for the years when we saw evil.
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Let your work be seen by your servants
and your glory by their children;
and may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Reading 2 Heb 4:12-13
Brothers and sisters:
Indeed the word of God is living and effective,
sharper than any two-edged sword,
penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow,
and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
No creature is concealed from him,
but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him
to whom we must render an account.
Gospel Mk 10:17-30
As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up,
knelt down before him, and asked him,
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
you shall not defraud;
honor your father and your mother."
He replied and said to him,
"Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,
"You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
At that statement his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
"How hard it is for those who have wealth
to enter the kingdom of God!"
The disciples were amazed at his words.
So Jesus again said to them in reply,
"Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,
"Then who can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said,
"For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God."
Peter began to say to him,
"We have given up everything and followed you."
Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 7:7-11
The Book of Wisdom, written in the 1st century B.C. is known to us only in the Greek. It is generally held certain that Greek was the original language. For this reason, it is not contained in the Hebrew Bible; nor is it in the Protestant Bible, having been discarded by Martin Luther around A.D. 1520. Because it is known that Jesus and the apostles used the Greek (Septuagint) translation of the Old Testament, Wisdom has always been considered canonical by the Catholic Church. In fact, the Muratorian Fragment (A.D. 155-200), the earliest known list of writings approved as Scripture for use in the Church at Rome, and which gives a fairly orderly treatment to the titles contained in the New Testament, includes Wisdom as a New Testament book.
The book is divided into 3 parts: 1) Wisdom & Human Destiny (chapters 1-5), 2) Solomon & The Quest For Wisdom (chapters 6-9), and 3) Wisdom At Work In History (chapters 10-19).
Today’s reading comes from the second part and describes Solomon’s (or at least the authors who borrowed his name) praying and the riches that came to him.
I prayed,
Solomon’s prayer is given in 1 Kings 3:7-9 and 2 Chronicles 1:8-10. The author’s version of this prayer is given in Wisdom 9.
and prudence was given me;
Prudence is understanding. The author develops a parallelism: Prayer – pleaded; prudence – wisdom. Solomon preferred wisdom over power, riches, health, comeliness, and light. Solomon prayed for wisdom and it came to him along with all these good things. I pleaded and the spirit of Wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepter and throne, and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her, nor did I liken any priceless gem to her; Because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver is to be accounted mire. Beyond health and comeliness I loved her, And I chose to have her rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.
God was pleased with Solomon’s humble request, to be given wisdom to lead his people rather than riches.
Wisdom never ceases to exist (see Wisdom 7:29-30).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 90:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
Psalm 90 has often been categorized as a wisdom psalm, which, like the book of Ecclesiastes (see 3:19-20; 7:2), is very much in touch with human finitude and the brevity of human life (see also Psalms 39:4-6; 49:10-12, 16-20).
While this interpretive approach is helpful, it has often overlooked the facts that Psalm 90 is consistently addressed to God, that it is the only psalm attributed to Moses, and that it opens Book IV of the Psalter.
These facts do not imply that Moses is the author of Psalm 90, but rather that the editors of the Psalter invite readers to hear Psalm 90 as a prayer offered by Moses on behalf of the people in response to the crisis of exile that is articulated in the concluding psalm of Book III (see Psalm 89:38-51). For instance, the plea for God to "Turn" (verse 13) recalls Moses' request for God to "Turn" in Exodus 32:12 (note also that "compassion" in verse 13 represents the same Hebrew root as "change your mind" in Exodus 32:12). In short, as Moses interceded for the people in the face of God's anger over their creation of the golden calf (Exodus 32:1-6), so Psalm 90 portrays Moses as intercessor in the face of God's anger expressed in verses 7-11.
These two interpretive approaches are not mutually exclusive; and in fact, they can even be seen as complementary. In any case, Psalm 90 features the concept of time (see words or phrases related to time in verses 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16); and one of the most startling aspects of Moses' life is that, in effect, he ran out of time -- that is, he died before entering the land of promise, because God was angry with him (Deuteronomy 3:26).
Before our lection picks up at verse 12, the contrast between humanity's limited time and God's enduring time has been drawn very sharply (see verses 3-6). But Psalm 90 is not over at verse 10. Even though verse 11 repeats "anger" and "wrath" from verse 7, its mention of "the fear that is due you" hints at something more positive.
The possible wisdom orientation of Psalm 90 reminds us that, according to the sages, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10; see Proverbs 1:7; Job 28:28). Thus, verse 11 anticipates verse 12, which marks the transition from the thoroughly depressing verses 3-11 to the much more hopeful verses 13-17.
But what is it that constitutes a "wise heart"? "To count our days" is an accurate literal translation; but what good would derive from simply keeping track of one toilsome, wrath-filled day after another? In this case, a more paraphrastic rendering is helpful. "Lord, teach us to make each day count, to reflect on the fact that we must die, and so become wise."
In other words, "a wise heart" involves the disavowal of autonomy; and it means the entrusting of life and future fully to God. Such "fear of the LORD" offers the courage and energy to live each day to the fullest, quite literally, for God's sake!
Such disavowal of autonomy in favor of daily dependence upon God recalls another Mosaic connection -- namely, Exodus 16 and God's daily provision of manna in the wilderness. In this regard, it may not be coincidental that the three consonants in the Hebrew word for "count" are the same ones that compose the word "manna."
In any case, daily dependence upon God is capable of transforming the human perception and experience of the passage of time. When we entrust life and future to God, then we can experience the passage of time as something other than an oppressive reality to be endured.
The concluding verses of Psalm 90 reinforce this conclusion. The "morning" can bring the fulfilling and joyful experience of God's love (verse 14; compare verses 5-6 and Psalm 89:49). Our "days" and "years" can bring gladness (verse 15; compare verse 9), not merely "toil and trouble" (verse 11). Entrusted to God, even our human "work" (twice in verse 17) can endure, insofar as it contributes to God's "work" (verse 16).
By way of God's "compassion" (verse 13) and "steadfast love" (verse 14), human time partakes of eternity. In short, when life and future are entrusted to God, there is hope. For the psalmist, the recognition of human finitude and fallibility is not finally cause for despair, but rather an occasion for prayer. And in humble, honest, faithful prayer, the psalmist arrives at the good news that the hope of the world is grounded in God's "compassion" and "steadfast love" (verses 13-14).
Reading 2 Heb 4:12-13
In "Glory Days," Bruce Springsteen sings of that high school baseball player who "could throw that speedball by you.
Make you look like a fool boy." So the image with which this lectionary reading from Hebrews begins--with a disturbing image, not of a speedball, but of the word of God that slices us open for inspection. The opening two verses (4:12-13) describe the power of God's word.
The writer lists several characteristics of that word. First, it is "living and active" (4:12). The writer frequently describes God as "the living God" (3:12; 9:14; 10:31; 12:22), and here he uses the same adjective to describe God's word as one that acts and accomplishes the divine will.
Secondly, the divine word penetrates. The writer pictures the word as a sword (compare Isaiah 49:2; Wisdom of Solomon 7:22, 24; 18:15-16; Ephesians 6:17; Revelation 1:16; 2:12; 19:15). No matter how sharp a knife or dagger one might wield, the word of God cuts with even more precision as it reaches our innermost being.
Third, as the word penetrates, it judges our hearts. The role of the heart is a central feature in the sermon against unbelief (3:7--4:13). The writer quotes the psalmist's warning against hard hearts (3:8, 15; 4:7), for God laments that the wilderness generation went astray in their hearts (3:10). Since our hearts represent who we are as a whole, the condition of our hearts marks our openness to or rejection of God's voice. Thus the divine word unmasks and makes clear our faithfulness or unbelief.
The following sentence (4:13) also focuses on judgment, but the focus shifts from the divine word that judges to those of us who are judged. Nothing is hidden from the Creator whose scrutiny encompasses all of creation. God sees and knows all, and we stand accountable before God for our response to the divine word. The term "laid bare" comes from the verb "to grip in a neck-hold," an image that conveys vulnerability and peril. This stress on our exposure and accountability provides a solemn warning for all of us who hear the word of God.
Given this uncomfortable picture of our nakedness before God, we may rightly ask, "Where is the good news in this passage?" Thankfully, the text does not end here. Instead, the writer affirms Jesus' high priestly ministry to us in our need (4:14-16). That affirmation transforms the warning of the first section. Even though the word of God penetrates and exposes the deepest recesses of our hearts, we should not despair. We must give an account, a word that responds to the divine word. But in our efforts to speak, we are not left alone. There is one who has come to help us, to be our "merciful and faithful high priest" (2:17).
As the Exalted One seated at God's right hand (1:3, 13), Jesus has passed through the heavens to occupy a place of honor and glory. That status inspires us in moments of discouragement to hold on to our confession, our hope, and our confidence in God and Jesus (3:1; 10:23). We have an advocate in God's court.
Gospel Mk 10:17-30
Today we continue reading the Gospel of Mark from where we left off last Sunday. Last Sunday our Gospel told how Jesus was tested by the Pharisees about the requirements for divorce. Recall that these chapters come from the second part of Mark’s Gospel, which chronicles the beginning of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.
In today’s Gospel, an unnamed man approaches Jesus and inquires about what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus replies that one must follow the commandments of the Law of Moses. The man acknowledges that he has observed all of these since his childhood. Jesus then says that only one thing is lacking: he must give his possessions to the poor and follow Jesus. The man leaves in sadness, and Mark tells us that this is because he had many possessions.
The belief in resurrection and eternal life was a relatively recent development in Jewish thought at Jesus’ time, and it wasn’t shared by everyone. The Pharisees taught that there would be a resurrection from the dead; the Sadducees did not share this belief. Jesus taught that there would be a final judgment for everyone and eternal life (the Kingdom of God) for believers.
Jesus makes two requirements of the wealthy man who approaches him. First, he must give up his possessions. Throughout history, some Christians have taken this literally. Their example witnesses to us a radical commitment to the Gospel of Jesus. Some have read this as a particular requirement directed to this specific individual. Still others have sought to explain the meaning intended by the word possessions as those things that prevent one from following Jesus. Christians have generally understood that at the least, following Jesus requires that believers hold material possessions loosely and remain vigilant against seeking security in accumulating possessions.
The second requirement Jesus makes of this man is the invitation that Jesus extends to all would-be disciples: “follow me.” Jesus very much wants this man to be his disciple. We believe that the Christian faith is one in which each believer is in a personal relationship with Jesus. Just as this Gospel tells us that Jesus loves the man and is sad when he departs, so too, Jesus loves us and is saddened when we are unable to follow him.
We see in this Gospel reading another example of Mark’s pattern, which shows Jesus offering further elaboration about his message and meaning to his disciples. To his disciples, Jesus laments the challenges faced by those who are rich in following him and entering the Kingdom of God. In reply to the disciples’ astonishment at the strictness of the standard that Jesus speaks about today, Jesus reminds his disciples that nothing is impossible with God. Salvation is determined by our ability to rely completely upon God.
Peter replies to Jesus by boasting that the disciples have already given up everything. Jesus acknowledges that those who have given up everything for the sake of the Gospel will be rewarded. This reward begins now, in the new community that one will gain in this life, and will continue in the eternal age to come. Our personal relationship with Jesus is also an invitation to the community of faith, the Church.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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I don’t remember if I gave you this link before, but if you want to look up the references in commentaries you can use this link to all the books of the Bible. Just cut and paste it into your web browser. Google or Firefox etc. God bless!
http://www.usccb.org/bible/books-of-the-bible/index.cfm
Sunday October 7, 2018 Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 140
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 2:18-24
The LORD God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him."
So the LORD God formed out of the ground
various wild animals and various birds of the air,
and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
whatever the man called each of them would be its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle,
all the birds of the air, and all wild animals;
but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.
So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man,
and while he was asleep,
he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib
that he had taken from the man.
When he brought her to the man, the man said:
"This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called 'woman, '
for out of 'her man' this one has been taken."
That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one flesh.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
May you see your children's children.
Peace be upon Israel!
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Reading 2 Heb 2:9-11
Brothers and sisters:
He "for a little while" was made "lower than the angels, "
that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting that he,
for whom and through whom all things exist,
in bringing many children to glory,
should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.
He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated
all have one origin.
Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers.”
Gospel Mk 10:2-16
The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,
"Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?"
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?"
They replied,
"Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her."
But Jesus told them,
"Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate."
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery."
And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
"Let the children come to me;
do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to
such as these.
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it."
Then he embraced them and blessed them,
placing his hands on them.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 2:18-24
The book of Genesis begins with two different but complementary stories of God's creation of the world.
Two Creation Stories and Two Portrayals of God
In Genesis 1, God is portrayed as speaking from afar, bringing order out of chaos in a well planned and carefully structured progression of six days of creation. Genesis 1 teaches us that God's intentions for creation will come to fruition in accord with God's will and desire.
When we turn to the second creation story in Gen 2:4b-25, the portrait of God is somewhat different. God gets "down and dirty" with creation, forming the human (adam) from the land or clay (adamah). God performs CPR on the newly formed lump of clay, breathing into the dirt-creature's nostrils "the breath of life." Like the crazed doctor who brings to life the lifeless Frankenstein in the film Young Frankenstein, we can imagine God exclaiming, "He's alive! He's alive!"
The image of the garden of Eden as a laboratory with God as the chief scientist engaging in trial-and-error experiments captures something of the spirit of God's portrayal in Genesis 2. Although God will finally and assuredly have God's way with the world (Genesis 1), God will also encounter unexpected challenges and try new solutions in a give-and-take in interaction with creation and its creatures (so Genesis 2).
Being Lonely: Not Good!
In Genesis 1, God had repeatedly said that everything was "good." In Genesis 2, God surveys his emerging horticultural experiment in Eden and senses something is "not good." God observes, "It's not good that the man should be alone" (2:18). God's discovery highlights what is fundamental to human nature and human flourishing: humans are social creatures who thrive in close and intimate relationships with others. Thus, God resolves to make for the single human "a helper [Hebrew: ezer] as his partner." A "helper" in the Old Testament is not a subordinate but one who may be an equal or sometimes even a superior to the one who is being helped. In fact, God is often called a "helper" to humans in need (Psalm 10:14; 54:4).
God's first experimental attempt to resolve this deficit of community is to create an array of wild animals, birds, and domestic animals as possible soul mates for the human. God marches the colorful parade of diverse wild life before the human and invites him to give names to the various creatures (2:18-20). Elephant, condor, dog, cat, kangaroo, what have you. The act of naming in the ancient world was a means of defining and shaping the character and essence of the one named. By naming the animals, the human participates with God as a co-creation, but sadly this first experiment does not work. The animals are interesting, but none of the animals fully resolves the ache and void of human loneliness.
The Second Experiment: Success at Last!
So God embarks on another experiment. God assumes the role of chief surgeon and anesthetizes the man into a deep sleep. This new attempt at finding a "helper as his partner" will not involve human co-creation this time. It will all be God's doing, a gift from God alone. God surgically removes a rib from the man's side and lovingly shapes the rib into a second human being who is "like" the man but also "opposite" him, like two puzzle pieces that fit together. The animal-as-full-partner experiment had been a bust, but this time God gets it oh so right! The man awakes and instantly recognizes the fulfillment of his deep longing in the eyes of the new "other," the woman.
For the first time in Scripture, the human speaks in the elevated language of poetic verse as a sign of the ecstasy and joy that accompanies this discovery:
This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh.
This one shall be called Woman [Hebrew ishshah]
for out of Man [Hebrew ish] this one was taken.
"At last," the search is over. The imagery of being "bone of my bones" and "flesh of my flesh" speaks of a bond between the man and woman so strong that to sever it would be as if to rip out a physical part of one's own body. The man's lyric response is the Bible's first example of love poetry but not its last. The Bible's other great celebration of human love and passion is the Old Testament book, the Song of Songs, a commentary and sequel to Genesis 2.
Love as a Fragile Gift
This marital bond is so intimate that the two "become one flesh"--naked, open to one another, vulnerable, trusting, passionate, loving, and "not ashamed" (2:24-25). This union of two lonely human beings yearning for community and finding it in one another is the great climax of the second creation story.
Unfortunately, the happy union is quickly strained and marred as the narrative suddenly and unexpectedly descends into the story of Adam and Eve's disobedience and expulsion from the garden of Eden in Genesis 3. Mutual trust, partnership, support, freedom from shame, and equality of relationship are all threatened by human disobedience in Genesis 3.
The reality and the mystery of human love is that sometimes it endures and sometimes it does not. Genesis 2 reminds us of God's original intention and desire for humans--to find in at least one other person a bond of love that runs so deeply and so intimately that we never feel alone.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
This, as the former, is a psalm for families. In that we were taught that the prosperity of our families depends upon the blessing of God; in this we are taught that the only way to obtain that blessing which will make our families comfortable is to live in the fear of God and in obedience to him. Those that do so, in general, shall be blessed (v. 1, 2, 4), In particular,
It is here shown that godliness has the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
It is here again and again laid down as an undoubted truth, that those who are truly holy are truly happy.. God blesses them, and his pronouncing them blessed makes them so. They are blessed now, they shall be blessed still, and forever. This blessedness, arising from this blessing, is here secured.
That, by the blessing of God, they shall get an honest livelihood and live comfortably upon it. It is not promised that they shall live at ease, without care or pains, but, What your hands provide you will enjoy; you will be blessed and prosper.
Here is a double promise,
That they shall have abundance of comfort in their family-relations. As a wife and children are very much a man's care, so, if by the grace of God they are such as they should be, they are very much a man's delight, as much as any creature-comfort.
The wife shall be as a vine by the sides of the house, not only as a spreading vine which serves for an ornament, but as a fruitful vine which is for profit, and with the fruit whereof both God and man are honored, Jdg. 9:13. The vine is a weak and tender plant, and needs to be supported and cherished, but it is a very valuable plant, and some think (because all the products of it were prohibited to the Nazarites) it was the tree of knowledge itself. The wife's place is the husband's house; there her business lies, and that is her castle. Her place is by the sides of the house, not under-foot to be trampled on. She shall be fruitful as the vine, not only in children, but in the fruits of wisdom, and righteousness, and good management, the branches of which run over the wall (Gen. 49:22; Ps. 80:11), like a fruitful vine, not cumbering the ground, nor bringing forth sour grapes, or grapes of Sodom, but good fruit.
The children shall be as olive plants, likely in time to be olive-trees, and, though wild by nature, yet grafted into the good olive, and partaking of its root and fatness, Rom. 11:17. It is pleasant to parents who have a table spread, though but with ordinary fare, to see their children round about it, to have many children, enough to surround it, and those with them, and not scattered, or the parents forced from them.
That they shall have those things which God has promised and which they pray for: The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, where the ark of the covenant was, and where the pious Israelites attended with their devotions. Blessings out of Zion are the best-blessings, which flow, not from common providence, but from special grace, Ps. 20:2.
That they shall live long, to enjoy the comforts of the rising generations: "Thou shalt see thy children's children, as Joseph, Gen. 50:23. Thy family shall be built up and continued, and thou shalt have the pleasure of seeing it.' Children's children, if they be good children, are the crown of old men (Prov. 17:6), who are apt to be fond of their grandchildren.
Reading 2 Heb 2:9-11
Hebrews 2:9-11 opens to us a spiritual reality that we must come to understand and appreciate if we are to make the most of this wonderful opportunity of salvation that God gave to us completely unbidden. Because of our disobedience and the resulting curse of death placed on us, we could never experience what is said of us in Psalm 8:4-8, which the author of Hebrews refers to here. However, Jesus suffered death and gained the victory for us. As a result, He wears the crown of glory and rules the universe. We know this Being as God-in-the-flesh, but the author uses His earthly name, Jesus, so that we can see the historical setting of His victory.
"Jesus" calls to mind the concept of salvation, as it means "savior." The author writes that Jesus accomplished the redemption of His people by "tasting] death," not—interestingly—by merely "dying." To taste death is a graphic illustration of the painful way He suffered and died. He was not spared this excruciating trauma because He was the Son. He experienced suffering, both physical and emotional, to the very marrow of His bones.
In Hebrews 2:10, we find that the "everyone" of verse 9 is, in realty, not in this context the whole world, but it is limited to the "many sons" being brought to glory—in other words, the church. He bore the suffering that should have come upon us as the wages of our sins. He is the Author, the Pioneer, the Trailblazer, the Forerunner, going before us to our salvation. He is the One clearing the path, as it were, as we make our way following our calling. In Hebrews 12:2, He is called "the author and finisher [or perfecter] of our faith." The Father made Him pass through gruesome suffering in our behalf.
He completed His preparation for the responsibility that He now holds as our High Priest; the Father has charged Him with the task of preparing many others to share life with them in the Kingdom of God. Jesus, therefore, is the One who makes men holy. The path to sanctification lies in obedience to doing God's will, and that obedience is to be given out of gratitude because one understands and knows the Father and Son from within an intimate relationship (John 17:3).
Gospel Mk 10:2-16
Today we continue to read from the Gospel according to Mark. For the past three Sundays, we have been hearing Mark’s reports of conversations between Jesus and his disciples. Recall that in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus uses these private moments to teach his disciples in greater detail about the Kingdom of God. Beginning with today’s Gospel, Jesus returns to Judea, Jewish territory, and resumes his public ministry. The first verse of chapter 10 of Mark’s Gospel tells us that crowds gathered around Jesus, and he taught them, as was his custom. Immediately, the Pharisees approach Jesus to test him.
The Pharisees question Jesus about the lawfulness of divorce. Under specific conditions, divorce was an accepted practice among the Jewish people during the time of Jesus. It was regulated by the Law of Moses, as found in Deuteronomy 24:1-5. This law only permits that a husband may divorce his wife if he finds her to be indecent. This is the justification that the Pharisees reference when Jesus inquires about the commandment of Moses. In reply, Jesus quotes from the Book of Genesis and counters that God’s original intention was that men and women would become one flesh in marriage. Jesus describes the teaching of Moses as a concession made to God's original intention because of human stubbornness.
In private, Jesus’ disciples question him further about this teaching on divorce. It is to his disciples that Jesus lays out the implications of his teaching by explaining that remarriage after divorce is adultery. Jesus’ teaching was more restrictive than the teaching of the Pharisees, which permitted remarriage. Jesus further distinguished his teaching from the cultural norms of his time by applying his words equally to men and women. Jewish culture permitted only that a husband may divorce his wife. Wives were not permitted to divorce their husband for any reason, including adultery.
At first glance, the final part of today’s Gospel seems unconnected to the previous teaching about divorce. When read together, however, these passages present a strong picture of Jesus’ emphasis on the importance of family. God intended for women and men to be joined together in marriage. Among the purposes of marriage is the raising of children. By welcoming children and fostering their relationship with God, parents and families bear witness to the Kingdom of God.
At the end of today’s Gospel, the people were bringing their children to Jesus, and again Jesus’ disciples show that they just don’t get it. Recall that in the Gospel for each of the past two Sundays, Jesus has taught his disciples the value and importance of these “little ones” in the Kingdom of God. Yet in today’s Gospel, the disciples try to prevent people from bringing their children to Jesus. Jesus reprimands his disciples and welcomes these children. Again Jesus offers these children as an example of the kind of complete trust and dependence upon God that ought to be the attitude of all believers.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
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Sunday September 30, 2018 Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 137
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Nm 11:25-29
The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses.
Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses,
the LORD bestowed it on the seventy elders;
and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied.
Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad,
were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp.
They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent;
yet the spirit came to rest on them also,
and they prophesied in the camp.
So, when a young man quickly told Moses,
"Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, "
Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses’aide, said,
"Moses, my lord, stop them."
But Moses answered him,
"Are you jealous for my sake?
Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
the decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
Though your servant is careful of them,
very diligent in keeping them,
Yet who can detect failings?
Cleanse me from my unknown faults!
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
.
From wanton sin especially, restrain your servant;
let it not rule over me.
Then shall I be blameless and innocent
of serious sin.
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
.
Reading 2 Jas 5:1-6
Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.
Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten,
your gold and silver have corroded,
and that corrosion will be a testimony against you;
it will devour your flesh like a fire.
You have stored up treasure for the last days.
Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers
who harvested your fields are crying aloud;
and the cries of the harvesters
have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure;
you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.
You have condemned;
you have murdered the righteous one;
he offers you no resistance.
Gospel Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
At that time, John said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."
Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us.
Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ,
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.
"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,
it would be better for him if a great millstone
were put around his neck
and he were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed
than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.
It is better for you to enter into life crippled
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'"
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Nm 11:25-29
We have here the performance of God's word to Moses, that he should have help in the government of Israel.
Here is the case of the seventy privy-counsellors in general. Moses, though a little disturbed by the tumult of the people, yet was thoroughly composed by the communion he had with God, and soon came to himself again. He did his part; he presented the seventy elders before the Lord, round the tabernacle, that they might there stand ready to receive the grace of God, in the place where he manifested himself, and that the people also might be witnesses of their solemn call. Note, Those that expect favor from God must humbly offer themselves and their service to him. God was not wanting to do his part. He gave of his Spirit to the seventy elders, which enabled those whose capacities and education set them but on a level with their neighbors all of a sudden to say and do that which was extraordinary, and which proved them to be actuated by divine inspiration: they prophesied, and did not cease all that day, and (some think) only that day. They discoursed to the people of the things of God, and perhaps commented upon the law they had lately received with admirable clearness, and fullness, and readiness, and aptness of expression, so that all who heard them might see and say that God was with them. Thus, long afterwards, Saul was marked for the government by the gift of prophecy, which came upon him for a day and a night.
Here is the particular case of two of them, Eldad and Medad, probably two brothers.
They were nominated by Moses to be assistants in the government, but they went not out unto the tabernacle as the rest did. Most think that they declined coming to the tabernacle out of an excess of modesty and humility; being sensible of their own weakness and unworthiness, they desired to be excused from coming into the government. Their principle was their praise, but their practice in not obeying orders was their fault.
The Spirit of God found them out in the camp, where they were hidden among the stuff, and there they prophesied, that is, they exercised their gift of praying, preaching, and praising God, in some private tent. Note, The Spirit of God is not tied to the tabernacle, but, like the wind, blows where he listens. There was a special providence that these two should be absent, for thus it appeared that it was indeed a divine Spirit which the elders were actuated by, and that Moses gave them not that Spirit, but God himself. They modestly declined preferment, but God forced it upon them; nay, they have the honor of being named, which the rest have not: for those that humble themselves shall be exalted, and those are most fit for government who are least ambitious of it.
Joshua moved to have them silenced: My lord Moses, forbid them. It is probable that Joshua himself was one of the seventy, which made him the more jealous for the honor of their order. He takes it for granted that they were not under any necessitating impulse, for the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets, and therefore he would have them either not to prophesy at all or to come to the tabernacle and prophesy in concert with the rest. He does not desire that they should be punished for what they had done, but only restrained for the future. This motion he made from a good principle, not out of any personal dislike to Eldad and Medad, but out of an honest zeal for that which he apprehended to be the unity of the church, and concern for the honor of God and Moses.
Moses rejected the motion, and reproved him. Though Joshua was Moses's particular friend and confidant, though he said this out of a respect to Moses, whose honor he was very loth to see lessened by the call of those elders, yet Moses reproves him, and in him all that show such a spirit. We must not secretly grieve at the gifts, graces, and usefulness of others. It was the fault of John's disciples that they envied Christ's honor because it shaded their master's.
The elders, now newly ordained, immediately entered upon their administration; when their call was sufficiently attested by their prophesying, they went with Moses to the camp, and applied themselves to business. Having received the gift, they ministered the same as good stewards. And now Moses was pleased that he had so many to share with him in his work and honor.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14
The song employs beautiful imagery, playful poetry, and elegant prayer-petitions. - In the first section (verses 1-6), the focus is on creation, the genre is similar to a hymn, the poetry is flexibly fluid, and the generic name for God is used.
- In the second section (verses 7-10), the focus is on God's Torah (translated as "law" but "instruction" would be better), the genre is similar to a wisdom psalm, the poetry becomes consistently formal, and the proper name of the LORD is used.
- In the third section (verses 11-14), the focus shifts to the "servant" who speaks the psalm, the genre is similar to a prayer, the poetry becomes more informal, and the proper name for the LORD continues to be used.
Most current interpreters hold that the poem is a coherent whole. The root metaphor of the psalm is speech:
Part I (verses 1-7) Creation's Speech -- praise for God
Part II (verses 8-12) Torah's Speech -- instruction of humanity
Part II (verses 13-15) Servant's Speech -- prayer to God
Psalm 19 intends to teach. The first part of the poem teaches that the heavens tell us that there is a God. The power of the creator can be known about through the paradoxical, unspoken speech of creation: "There is no speech, nor are there words; [the heavens'] voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world" (verses 4-5).
But the second part of the psalm teaches us who God is and what God wills. The Lord's Torah -- we would call it Scripture -- is a word that we can actually understand and gives us words to follow.
The Assigned Verses: "The Torah of the Lord is Perfect"
As already mentioned, the poetry and focus of the psalm change beginning with verse 8, which is the first verse in the psalm's second section. The focus shifts to the "Torah of the Lord." The poetry becomes rigidly regular. Each of the lines in verses 8-10 is constructed identically: noun + Lord + adjective + participle + noun.
Each phrase begins with a synonym for the Torah of the Lord -- Torah, decrees, precepts, commandment, fear, and ordinances -- are a reference to the word of God revealed in the Scriptures. Torah is not here "law" in the legal sense, but as "instruction" in a more holistic sense. This section of the poem celebrates what God has done and continues to do through the Scriptures. God revives the soul, makes wise the simple, enlightens the eye, endures forever, and is altogether righteous.
Stop a moment. Pause briefly and linger on the promise here.
The Bible is such a part of Western society that we often fail to appreciate the means of grace that Scripture is. The psalm offers poetic testimony that invites both church and synagogue to realize the miracle that we hold in our hands. And it does this by offering promises about what the Word does (revive the soul, make wise the simple, enlighten the eye, and so on).
The poem then offers two (literally) golden metaphors for the Word. It is more desirable than refined gold. It is sweeter than the golden honey of the honeycomb.
Yes, the Torah of the Lord is perfect. Yes, its laws are a gracious gift from the very God who created us -- they show us how to live and they offer pictures of what it means to love the neighbor.
As the psalmist knows, "in keeping them there is great reward" (verse 12). Reward here doesn't mean that God miraculously rewards those who keep God's law. Rather, reward here means that good things come in the very earthly keeping of the laws -- don't steal and you stay out of prison, don't kill and you won't be executed, and so on.
But, as the psalmist also knows that perfect obedience is beyond human capacity. The psalmist knows that no one "can detect their [own] errors." Therefore the psalmist prays, "Clear me from hidden faults" (verse 13).
The psalm ends with a prayer that many preachers use for the start of their sermon: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." The use of this prayer in connection with preaching begs us to wonder if even our proclamation of God's word needs God's forgiving, gracious blessing.
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Reading 2 Jas 5:1-6
James returns to the principle that work must serve the needs of others. His words in the beginning of chapter 5 are scathing. He warns “the rich” to “weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you” (James 5:1). While the gold in their vaults and the robes in their closets may look as shiny as ever, James is so certain of their coming judgment that he can speak as if their riches were already decomposing: “Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted” (James 5:2–3). Their self-indulgence has succeeded only in “fattening” them “for the day of slaughter” (James 5:5). The day of slaughter seems to be a reference to the day in which God judges those whom he called to lead and care for his people, but who preyed on them instead (Zech. 11:4–7).
These rich people are doomed both for how they acquired their wealth and for what they did (or didn’t do) with it once they had it. James echoes the Old Testament as he excoriates them for their unjust business practices: “Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (James 5:4; cf. Lev. 19:13).[1]
Leviticus 19 is one of James’s favorite Old Testament passages; see Luke Timothy Johnson, Brother of Jesus, Friend of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 123ff.
Money that should be in the hands of laborers sits instead in the treasuries of the landowners. And there it stays—they hoard their wealth and ignore the needy around them (James 5:3).
Business leaders must be especially diligent about paying their workers fairly. An analysis of what constitutes fair pay is beyond the scope of this discussion,
but James’s words “the wages you have kept back by fraud” (James 5:4) are an accusation of abuse of power on the part of these particular wealthy landowners. The workers were owed wages, but the rich and powerful found a way out of paying them without incurring punishment by the legal system. The rich and powerful often have means to subvert the judiciary, and it’s astonishingly easy to exercise unfair power without even recognizing it. Abuses of power include misclassifying employees as independent contractors, inaccurately registering workers in a lower skill code, paying women or minorities less for doing the same job as others, and using children for jobs so dangerous that adults refuse to do them. Misuse of power can never be excused just because it is a so-called standard practice.
James also condemns those who “have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure” (James 5:5). The question of what constitutes living in luxury and in pleasure is also complex, but it confronts many Christians in one way or another. James’s chief concern in this passage is the well-being of the poor, so the most relevant question may be, “Does the way I live enhance or diminish the lives of poor people? Does what I do with money help lift people out of poverty or does it help keep people impoverished?”
Gospel Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
Today we continue to read from the Gospel of Mark. Recall that last week we heard Jesus chastise his disciples for their argument about who among them was the greatest. Jesus taught them that the greatest among them will be those who serve the least ones. In today’s Gospel, the disciple John questions Jesus about an unknown exorcist who was driving out demons in Jesus’ name. John’s question might have been motivated by jealousy. Previously in Mark's Gospel, Jesus healed a boy whom the disciples had been unable to heal. John’s question is further evidence that the disciples have not yet grasped Jesus’ words to them. They continue to compare themselves to others who seem to have greater healing powers, and they do not want to share the power of Jesus’ name with others.
Today the demon possession described in the Gospels might be seen as a form of mental illness, but the need for healing these syndromes was as real then as it is now. Exorcism was a common practice in first-century Palestine. Some people had the power to heal the symptoms of possession. One of the strategies used was to invoke the name of a person or figure who was believed to have the power to heal.
The disciples observed that the unknown exorcist invoked Jesus’ name and was successful in his healing efforts. This unknown healer recognized the power of Jesus’ name, yet he was not a follower of Jesus. In his reply to his disciples, Jesus acknowledges that deeds of faith can precede the words of faith. He also teaches that the disciples should not be reluctant to share Jesus’ healing powers with others.
Later in this Gospel, Jesus teaches us not to create obstacles for those who are just beginning to have faith but to encourage even the smallest signs of faith. The Greek word used here for sin also connotes “stumbling” or “causing scandal.” In vivid terms Jesus teaches his disciples the consequences to those who would put obstacles before people who are on the road to faith.
Making the Connection
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Sunday September 23, 2018 Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 134
This weeks review has a little extra session at the end discussing books of the bible and in particultr Wisdom.
Hope you find it useful.
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 2:12, 17-20
The wicked say:
Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him.
For if the just one be the son of God, God will defend him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test
that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 54:3-4, 5, 6 and 8
R. The Lord upholds my life.
O God, by your name save me,
and by your might defend my cause.
O God, hear my prayer;
hearken to the words of my mouth.
R. The Lord upholds my life.
For the haughty men have risen up against me,
the ruthless seek my life;
they set not God before their eyes.
R. The Lord upholds my life.
Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord sustains my life.
Freely will I offer you sacrifice;
I will praise your name, O LORD, for its goodness.
R. The Lord upholds my life.
Reading 2 Jas 3:16—4:3
Beloved:
Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
there is disorder and every foul practice.
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure,
then peaceable, gentle, compliant,
full of mercy and good fruits,
without inconstancy or insincerity.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace
for those who cultivate peace.
Where do the wars
and where do the conflicts among you come from?
Is it not from your passions
that make war within your members?
You covet but do not possess.
You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;
you fight and wage war.
You do not possess because you do not ask.
You ask but do not receive,
because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Gospel Mk 9:30-37
Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,
but he did not wish anyone to know about it.
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.”
But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him.
They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,
he began to ask them,
“What were you arguing about on the way?”
But they remained silent.
They had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest.
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
“If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
Taking a child, he placed it in the their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me.”
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 2:12, 17-20
For they have said. A reference to the wicked and ungodly men introduced at the end of the last chapter with these words: It was the wicked who with hands and words invited death, considered it a friend, and pined for it,
and made a covenant with it, Because they deserve to be allied with it
(Wisdom 1:16). Their culture of death philosophy is introduced here, and continues in the following verses. They reject the concept of immortality and, as a result, adopt a “live for today alone” approach to the things of this world, and a “might makes right” approach to their fellow human beings. For this reason they persecute the just man whose life and very existence is a witness against them. But they err in thought, and are blinded by wickedness, unable to discern God’s plan for humanity. No doubt thinking themselves highly independent, each one priding himself on being his own man, they are in reality in the devil’s possession (Wisdom 2:23-24).
Verses 12-22 which forms the bulk of today’s readings concerns the suffering of the just man. As is the case with so many texts along these lines, this one is often applied to Christ in the liturgy.
The truly righteous man is a living witness against the sinner who cannot abide the testimony. They say he is not for our turn, i.e., he refuses to turn in their immoral direction. They are incensed that this is itself a witness against them: he is contrary to our doings. The righteous man thinks the time past is sufficient to have fulfilled the will of the Gentiles, for them who have walked in riotousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings and unlawful worshipping of idols, because they know a judgement is coming. The unrighteous, however, think it strange that you run not with them into the same confusion of riotousness (see 1 Peter 4:3-4).
Pope John Paul II (Veritatis Splendor #93)~By witnessing fully to the good, they (martyrs and saints) are a living reproof to those who transgress the law (cf. Wisdom 2:12), and they make the words of the Prophet echo ever afresh: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isa 5:20)
Wis 2:15 The very sight of the righteous man makes them irate. This statement of the unrighteous will take on added meaning in verses 17 and 19 (see notes below)
Wis 2:16 He treats them like Triflers because of their superficial philosophy (Wisdom 2:1-5) and the lifestyle they have embraced because of it (Wisdom 2:6-10). Triflers because they treat the righteous man of no account, and persecute him (Wisdom 2:12-20). They are thoroughly superficial: clouds without water, which are carried about by winds: trees of the autumn, unfruitful, twice dead, plucked up by the roots: Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own confusion: wandering stars, to whom the storm of darkness is reserved for ever (Jude 12-13).
Wis 2:17 & 18
In verse 15 they said, he is grievous to us, even to behold, but here they wish to try and test him to see for themselves if he is righteous and true, and if his end is as he hopes. Here they imitate Satan, the Devil, in whose possession they are (Wisdom 2:24-25, John 8:42-44), for he tempted Christ is just such a manner: If thou be the son of God…(Matt 4:1-11). See also Matt 27:39-43.
Wis 2:19 Note the reference to examining and knowing. They bring up once again the theme of sight (verse 15 & 17) and knowledge (“reasoning with themselves”, verse 1). Also, having determined that we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as if we had not been: for the breath in our nostrils is smoke (Wisdom 2:2), the unrighteous have decided that the lives of others are of no real consequence: Let us examine him by outrages and tortures.
Wis 2:20 Modern translation such as the RSV differ regarding the second part of the verse: Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 54:3-4, 5, 6 and 8
If making plans of our own (presumably in the face of God's plans for us) is laughable, how about issuing commands to God, telling God the Divine's own business in no uncertain terms? Who would dare to give God orders? Yet this is, in a sense, exactly what Psalm 54 does.
Our psalm begins with a four-fold plea: "save me...vindicate [me]...hear [me]." Each of these pleas -- actually imperative verbs -- and a fourth “listen” [to me] quite literally command God's attention, response, and action. These imperative clauses that form the introduction to the psalm demand God's attention. And while some Hebrew language grammarians might call this particular use of the imperative a "jussive," (a command) that is really just a delicate way of labeling the act of giving orders to someone who out-ranks you.
But enough grammar. Why is God's attention and action commanded? Because the enemies of the psalmist, the insolent and the ruthless, have risen against him to tear him apart with their words.
At issue here in Psalm 54 is speech: speech directed to God in response to the vile slander of human beings. Notice the tension that is present in regards to the hearing of speech in the psalm. God is commanded to "give ear," to listen, to pay attention to the psalmist's words, and perhaps at the same time to the false witness of the psalmists enemies. It is almost as if the psalmist begs God, "Can you not hear the insolent and the ruthless as they lie about me?"
That the enemies actions are speech-based seems clear in that the enemies are said to be "rising against" him, a reference (most likely) to the actions of witnesses in the gate of the community (Isaiah 29:20-21: "For the tyrant shall be no more, and the scoffer shall cease to be; all those alert to do evil shall be cut off -- those who cause a person to lose a lawsuit, who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate, and without grounds deny justice to the one in the right"; cf. Psalm 27:12, "Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they are breathing out violence").
Notice also that the psalmist does not answer word-for-word those who falsely accuse him. Such a response is the fool's move; implicit in the psalm is the sense that he-said-they-said doesn't get a person anywhere. Instead, the psalmist "sets God" before him, appealing to God to judge on his behalf, to find for the defense if you will, and to reverse the judgment, pronouncing it against the psalmist's enemies. Indeed, before offering a pledge of thanksgiving, the psalmist exults in this reverse judgment saying that God "will repay my enemies for their evil," and that "my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies."
The psalm, which may strike us as an odd selection for reading/recitation during worship, actually couches the whole conflict very much in terms of the worship life of the community. This may be, at least in part, what is meant by the idea of "putting God" before oneself -- which the psalmist does and his enemies do not (compare verses 2 and 3). It is only in the presence of God that the conflict will be appropriately resolved. In service of putting God before himself, and at the same time putting his pleas before God, the psalmist employs several terms which are worship-related and technical.
At the end of the psalm, coming in response to his (presumed? assumed? anticipated?) vindication the psalmist vows an act of thanksgiving for God's judgment against his enemies. The author of the psalm says, "I will sacrifice," presenting a "freewill offering," in order to "give thanks" (verse 8). In worship, the psalmist will celebrate his deliverance.
One might ask at this point, if any sinner (which all of us most surely are) could ever do such a thing as demand that God act as judge on our behalf. But because God has delivered us from every trouble (verse 9), and because God is our helper (verse 6), even the sinful man or woman can, in the face of evil, rely on God to be not just a judge, not just any judge, but their judge.
Reading 2 Jas 3:16—4:3
3:13-18 These verses show the difference between men's pretending to be wise, and their being really so. He who thinks well, or he who talks well, is not wise in the sense of the Scripture, if he does not live and act well. True wisdom may be known by the meekness of the spirit and temper. Those who live in malice, envy, and contention, live in confusion; and are liable to be provoked and hurried to any evil work. Such wisdom comes not down from above, but springs up from earthly principles, acts on earthly motives, and is intent on serving earthly purposes. Those who are lifted up with such wisdom, described by the apostle James, is near to the Christian love, described by the apostle Paul; and both are so described that every man may fully prove the reality of his attainments in them. It has no disguise or deceit. It cannot fall in with those managements the world counts wise, which are crafty and guileful; but it is sincere, and open, and steady, and uniform, and consistent with itself. May the purity, peace, gentleness, teachability, and mercy shown in all our actions, and the fruits of righteousness abounding in our lives, prove that God has bestowed upon us this excellent gift.
The former chapter speaks of envying one another, as the great spring of strife and contentions; this chapter speaks of a lust after worldly things, and a setting too great a value upon worldly pleasures and friendships, as that which carried their divisions to a shameful height. The apostle here reproves the Jewish Christians for their wars, and for their lusts as the cause of them: The Jews were a very seditious people, and had therefore frequent wars with the Romans; and they were a very quarrelsome divided people, often fighting among themselves; and many of those corrupt Christians against whose errors and vices this epistle was written seem to have fallen in with the common quarrels. Hereupon, our apostle informs them that the origin of their wars and fighting was not (as they pretended) a true zeal for their country, and for the honor of God, but that their prevailing lusts were the cause of all.
They make a war within as well as fighting without. Impetuous passions and desires first war in their members, and then raise feuds in their nation. From lust of power and dominion, lust of pleasure, or lust of riches, from some one or more of these lusts arise all the broils and contentions that are in the world; and, since all wars and fighting come from the corruptions of our own hearts, it is therefore the right method for the cure of contention to lay the axe to the root, and mortify those lusts that war in the members. It should kill these lusts to think of their disappointment: "You lust, and have not; you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain. You covet great things for yourselves, and you think to obtain them by your victories over the Romans or by suppressing this and the other party among yourselves. You think you shall secure great pleasures and happiness to yourselves, by overthrowing everything which thwarts your eager wishes; but, alas! you are losing your labor and your blood, while you kill one another with such views as these.’’
Sinful desires and affections generally exclude prayer, and the working of our desires towards God: "You fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. You fight, and do not succeed, because you do not pray you do not consult God in your undertakings, whether he will allow of them or not; and you do not commit your way to him, and make known your requests to him, but follow your own corrupt views and inclinations: therefore you meet with continual disappointments.’’
James is trying to get them to turn back to God and beg His forgiveness.
Gospel Mk 9:30-37
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus again predict his passion, death, and Resurrection to his disciples. The setting here is important. Jesus and his disciples are preparing to journey through Galilee, a Jewish territory in which Jesus has already encountered problems with the Pharisees. Perhaps this is why Mark indicates that Jesus was trying to journey in secret. In predicting his passion, Jesus is acknowledging the danger they will face and is trying to prepare his disciples for it. Yet Mark tells us that the disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying and were afraid to ask what he meant. Such hesitation on the part of the disciples is not characteristic behavior. Peter had no fear about rebuking Jesus in last week’s Gospel. Perhaps this is an indication that the disciples were aware that a new situation was emerging.
Mark paints a vivid picture in today’s Gospel. Having arrived at Capernaum, Jesus and his disciples enter a house. In this private place, Jesus asks his disciples about the argument they had while they were journeying. Again, the disciples are uncharacteristically silent and afraid to answer. They have been found out. Jesus then summons the Twelve, whom Mark identified earlier in his Gospel as those chosen by Jesus to preach and to drive out demons. To this select group of disciples, Jesus teaches that those who would be first in God’s kingdom must be servants of all.
Jesus then calls forward a child and teaches the Twelve that to receive a child in Jesus’ name is to receive both Jesus and the One who sent him. We might easily fail to understand the significance of this action. In first-century Palestine, children were without status or power, possessing no legal rights. In this action, Jesus is teaching his disciples and us that when we serve the least ones among us, we serve Jesus himself. Who are the people without power or status in our society that Jesus is calling us to serve? Do we do so willingly? Jesus teaches that God’s judgment of us will be based on this criterion alone.
Making the Connection
Teach me true generosity.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve.
To give without counting the cost,
To fight heedless of wounds,
To labor without seeking rest,
To sacrifice myself without thought of any reward
Save the knowledge that I have done your will.
Amen.
Books in the Bible
Old Testament New Testament
Catholic 46 27 73
Lutheran/Protestant 39 27 66
Jewish 24 0 24
7 Books eliminated by other religions
Tobit – Judith – Wisdom – Sirach – Baruch – 1 Macabees – 2 Macabees
Book of Wisdom
THE BOOK OF WISDOM
The Book of Wisdom was written about fifty years before the coming of Christ. Its author, whose name is not known to us, was probably a member of the Jewish community at Alexandria, in Egypt. He wrote in Greek, in a style patterned on that of Hebrew verse. At times he speaks in the person of Solomon, placing his teachings on the lips of the wise king of Hebrew tradition in order to emphasize their value. His profound knowledge of the earlier Old Testament writings is reflected in almost every line of the book, and marks him, like Ben Sira, as an outstanding representative of religious devotion and learning among the sages of postexilic Judaism.
The primary purpose of the author was the edification of his co-religionists in a time when they had experienced suffering and oppression, in part at least at the hands of apostate fellow Jews. To convey his message he made use of the most popular religious themes of his time, namely the splendor and worth of divine wisdom (6:22–11:1), the glorious events of the exodus (11:2–16; 12:23–27; 15:18–19:22), God’s mercy (11:17–12:22), the folly of idolatry (13:1–15:17), and the manner in which God’s justice operates in rewarding or punishing the individual (1:1–6:21). The first ten chapters in particular provide background for the teaching of Jesus and for some New Testament theology about Jesus. Many passages from this section of the book, notably 3:1–8, are used by the church in the liturgy.
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Sunday September 16, 2018 Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 131
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 50:5-9a
The Lord GOD opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
He is near who upholds my right;
if anyone wishes to oppose me,
let us appear together.
Who disputes my right?
Let that man confront me.
See, the Lord GOD is my help;
who will prove me wrong?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 114:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I love the LORD because he has heard
my voice in supplication,
Because he has inclined his ear to me
the day I called.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The cords of death encompassed me;
the snares of the netherworld seized upon me;
I fell into distress and sorrow,
And I called upon the name of the LORD,
"O LORD, save my life!"
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Gracious is the LORD and just;
yes, our God is merciful.
The LORD keeps the little ones;
I was brought low, and he saved me.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
For he has freed my soul from death,
my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
I shall walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 Jas 2:14-18
What good is it, my brothers and sisters,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister has nothing to wear
and has no food for the day,
and one of you says to them,
"Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, "
but you do not give them the necessities of the body,
what good is it?
So also faith of itself,
if it does not have works, is dead.
Indeed someone might say,
"You have faith and I have works."
Demonstrate your faith to me without works,
and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.
Gospel Mk 8:27-35
Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that I am?"
They said in reply,
"John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets."
And he asked them,
"But who do you say that I am?"
Peter said to him in reply,
"You are the Christ."
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,
"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the gospel will save it."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 50:5-9a
Result: preaching consolation
B The Lord GOD has opened (perfect) my ear
(verses 5-6)
Result: suffering
a - did not hide face
b - disgrace
B’ The Lord GOD will help (imperfect) me
(verses 7-8)
Result: vindication
a - set face like flint
b - no disgrace
A’ The Lord GOD will help (imperfect) me (verse 9)
Result: no one can declare me guilty
The first two strophes A (verse 4) and B (verses 5-6) are further characterized by past tense (perfect) verbs describing what the Lord God has done, namely, given the servant the tongue and ear of a disciple. In contrast to this, the last two strophes B' (verses 7-8) and A' (verse 9) are characterized by future tense (imperfect) verbs describing what the Lord God will do; in both cases God will help him. All four strophes conclude with the results of God's activity. The two middle strophes are further linked by their repetition of "disgrace”, "insult") and "face" as the servant describes the vindication of his suffering. An exhortation identifying the speaker as the "servant" closes the song (verses 10-11).
The first strophe begins with the servant declaring that "The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a disciple" (limmudim), not the tongue of a "teacher". That is, he has been equipped by God for the prophetic office. The purpose of his calling is that he "may know how to sustain the weary with a word," that he may console those who are suffering under the burdens of life. He has received this "tongue of a disciple" because every morning the Lord God wakens his ear to listen as a disciple (in Hebrew, the same word as above).
In the second strophe the servant describes what has happened to him as a result of his acceptance of this call and his unwillingness to shrink from the burdens that call entailed. He suffered the physical hostility of being scourged and the ultimate ancient near eastern humiliation of having his beard plucked out and being spit upon, as well as the mental anguish and disgrace that accompanied such abuse.
The third strophe describes a reversal signaled by the change from past tense verbs descriptive of God's activity to future tense verbs. Despite the disgrace and humiliation the servant experiences, he goes on to declare his unwavering trust in and reliance upon God. He is convinced that the God who called him to this disagreeable office is with him in the midst of his suffering: "he who vindicates me is near," he cries out in verse 8, and this confidence results in the strength he needs to courageously bear the disgrace and humiliation he has encountered, knowing that in the end he will be vindicated.
In the final strophe, he reaffirms that the Lord God will help him and he challenges his adversaries to a trial, let those who judge him so harshly now dare to face him in the court of heaven where the Lord God will stand beside him as advocate. The outcome is not in doubt, his cause will be vindicated and his adversaries will perish, deprived of victory and like a garment that falls apart to rags or is consumed by moths.
Following the Song itself, Second Isaiah has added a concluding exhortation "Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant?" Second Isaiah asks. Answer: "Those who walk in darkness and have no light," those who suffer persecution. And all because despite their suffering and affliction they "trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon their God," and they will be vindicated.
Powerful as this message is this week, Christians must read and hear these words the way the church has always read and heard them: as descriptive of the suffering experienced by Jesus in his life-giving passion and death. Just as the servant was persecuted for his faithful obedience to God, maintaining that faithful obedience to the end, so Jesus was persecuted for his message, remaining obedient unto death, "even to death on a cross" as Paul reminds us.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 114:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
A hymn celebrating Israel’s escape from Egypt, journey through the wilderness, and entry into the promised land, and the miracles of nature that bore witness to God’s presence in their midst. In the perspective of the Psalm, the people proceed directly from Egypt into the promised land (Ps 114:1–2). Sea and Jordan, which stood like soldiers barring the people from their land, flee before the mighty God as the earth recoils from the battle (Ps 114:3–4). The poet taunts the natural elements as one taunts defeated enemies (Ps 114:5–6).
Pairs of cosmic elements such as sea and rivers, mountains and hills, are sometimes mentioned in creation accounts. Personified here as warriors, the pairs tremble in fear before the Divine Warrior. The quaking also recalls the divine appearance in the storm at Sinai and elsewhere. But each time repeating the exhortation, “I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living”, indicating it id the Lord their God providing for them.
Reading 2 Jas 2:14-18
In this latter part of the chapter, the apostle shows the error of those who rested in a bare profession of the Christian faith, as if that would save them, while the temper of their minds and the tenor of their lives were altogether disagreeable to that holy religion which they professed. To let them see, therefore, what a wretched foundation they built their hopes upon, it is here proved at large that a man is justified, not by faith only, but by works.
I. Upon this arises a very great question, namely, how to reconcile Paul and James. Paul, in his epistles to the Romans and Galatians, seems to assert the directly contrary thing to what James here lays down, saying if often, and with a great deal of emphasis, that we are justified by faith only and not by the works of the law. Amicae scripturarum lites, utinam et nostrae—There is a very happy agreement between one part of scripture and another, notwithstanding seeming differences: it were well if the differences among Christians were as easily reconciled.
1. When Paul says that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law (Rom. 3:28), he plainly speaks of another sort of work than James does, but not of another sort of faith. Paul speaks of works wrought in obedience to the law of Moses, and before men's embracing the faith of the gospel; and he had to deal with those who valued themselves so highly upon those works that they rejected the gospel (as Rom. 10, at the beginning most expressly declares); but James speaks of works done in obedience to the gospel, and as the proper and necessary effects and fruits of sound believing in Christ Jesus. Both are concerned to magnify the faith of the gospel, as that which alone could save us and justify us; but Paul magnifies it by showing the insufficiency of any works of the law before faith, or in opposition to the doctrine of justification by Jesus Christ; James magnifies the same faith, by showing what are the genuine and necessary products and operations of it. 2. Paul not only speaks of different works from those insisted on by James, but he speaks of a quite different use that was made of good works from what is here urged and intended. Paul had to do with those who depended on the merit of their works in the sight of God, and thus he might well make them of no manner of account. James had to do with those who cried up faith, but would not allow works to be used even as evidence; they depended upon a bare profession, as sufficient to justify them; and with these he might well urge the necessity and vast importance of good works. As we must not break one table of the law, by dashing it against the other, so neither must we break in pieces the law and the gospel, by making them clash with one another: those who cry up the gospel so as to set aside the law, and those who cry up the law so as to set aside the gospel, are both in the wrong; for we must take our work before us; there must be both faith in Jesus Christ and good works the fruit of faith. Paul may be understood as speaking of that justification which is inchoate, ( just begun and so not fully formed or developed; rudimentary.) James of that which is complete; it is by faith only that we are put into a justified state, but then good works come in for the completing of our justification at the last great day; then, Come you children of my Father—for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat, etc.
Having thus cleared this part of scripture from everything of a contradiction to other parts of it, let us see what is more particularly to be learnt from this excellent passage of James; we are taught,
That faith without works will not profit, and cannot save us. So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Can faith save him? Observe here, (1.) That faith which does not save will not really profit us; a bare profession may sometimes seem to be profitable, to gain the good opinion of those who are truly good, and it may procure in some cases worldly good things; but what profit will this be, for any to gain the world and to lose their souls? For a man to have faith, and to say he has faith, are two different things; the apostle does not say, If a man have faith without works, for that is not a supposable case; the drift of this place of scripture is plainly to show that an opinion, or speculation, or assent, without works, is not faith; but the case is put thus, If a man say he has faith, etc. Men may boast of that to others, and be conceited of that in themselves, of which they are really destitute.
Gospel Mk 8:27-35
Today’s reading is the turning point in Mark’s Gospel. Almost exactly at the book's midpoint, this passage initiates a major shift in Mark's plot. The word Christ has not appeared since the Gospel's opening verse. We have had seven-plus chapters of Jesus' ministry, questions asked about his true identity and authority, secrets told and disclosure promised, and demonic powers identifying Jesus as God's Son. Readers have been given no indication that death awaits Jesus, although if you know the book's ending maybe you see foreshadowing in his baptism (1:9-11), the opposition he encounters (3:6), and John's execution (6:14-29).
In the presentation of the life and ministry of Jesus found in the Gospel of Mark, the deeds of Jesus have shown Jesus to be the Son of God. Yet many, including Jesus’ disciples, have not yet realized his identity. In today’s Gospel Jesus is near Caesarea Philippi, a very Roman setting and once the limit of ancient Israel's northward extension. Here he pops the question: "Who do people say that I am?" Now he wants to discuss his reputation, here at this borderland?
He then turns the question directly to the disciples and asks what they believe. Peter speaks for all of them when he announces that they believe Jesus to be the Christ.
The word Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for Messiah, which means “the anointed one.” At the time of Jesus, the image of the Messiah was laden with popular expectations, most of which looked for a political leader who would free the Jewish people from Roman occupation. Jesus does not appear to have used this term for himself. As we see in today’s reading, Jesus refers to himself instead as the Son of Man, a term derived from the Jewish Scriptures, found in the Book of Daniel and in other apocryphal writings. Many scholars suggest that the phrase Son of Man is best understood to mean “human being.”
Now that the disciples have acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, Jesus confides in them the outcome of his ministry: he will be rejected, must suffer and die, and will rise after three days. Peter rejects this prediction, and Jesus rebukes him severely. The image of Christ that Jesus is giving is not the image of the Messiah that Peter was expecting. Jesus then teaches the crowd and the disciples about the path of discipleship: To be Chris’s disciple is to follow in the way of the cross.
We can easily miss the fear that Jesus’ words must have evoked in his disciples. Death by crucifixion was all too familiar as a method of execution in Roman-occupied territories. It was also an omnipresent danger to the Christian community for whom Mark wrote. The path that Jesus was inviting his disciples to share meant tremendous suffering and death. This is the kind of radical commitment and sacrifice that Jesus calls us to adopt for the sake of the Gospel.
Making the Connection
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Sunday September 9, 2018 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 128
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 35:4-7a
Thus says the LORD:
Say to those whose hearts are frightened:
Be strong, fear not!
Here is your God,
he comes with vindication;
with divine recompense
he comes to save you.
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared;
then will the lame leap like a stag,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.
Streams will burst forth in the desert,
and rivers in the steppe.
The burning sands will become pools,
and the thirsty ground, springs of water.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The God of Jacob keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD gives sight to the blind;
the LORD raises up those who were bowed down.
The LORD loves the just;
the LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The fatherless and the widow the LORD sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 Jas 2:1-5
My brothers and sisters, show no partiality
as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes
comes into your assembly,
and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in,
and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes
and say, “Sit here, please, ”
while you say to the poor one, “Stand there, ” or “Sit at my feet, ”
have you not made distinctions among yourselves
and become judges with evil designs?
Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.
Did not God choose those who are poor in the world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom
that he promised to those who love him?
among the people.
Gospel Mk 7:31-37
Again Jesus left the district of Tyre
and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
into the district of the Decapolis.
And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd.
He put his finger into the man’s ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” --
And immediately the man’s ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly.
He ordered them not to tell anyone.
But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it.
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
“He has done all things well.
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 35:4-7a
Isaiah 35:4--7a is a small selection from the larger vision found in 35:1--10. Chapter 35 can be divided into two sections:
1) The theophany of the LORD (verses 1--6a)
2) The return of the people (verses 6b--10)
Both units begin with descriptions of the desert changing from a dry and barren place into a land that is flourishing (verses 1--2a) with an abundance of water (verses 6b--7). The two sections also share the theme of joy, first at the coming of the LORD and then for the return of God's elect. Most scholars assign Isaiah 35 to Deutero Isaiah, an exilic author, since the prophet uses the well-known theme of the LORD making a way or "highway" in the desert (cf. Isaiah 40:3; 43:19).
In verses 1-6a, the author draws heavily on the theme of the LORD's coming. God's appearance in the created order, also known as a theophany, is the primary image within this first half of Chapter 35. The section begins in verses 1--2 with the wilderness rejoicing and blooming when it sees the "glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God" (verse 2). Thus, the barren ground responds and is transformed at the coming of the LORD.
Following this doxological response from nature, the people are encouraged to take heart and not to fear (verses 3--4). It is common within the biblical narrative for the people to respond in fear to the LORD's appearance. Here, however, the writer provides assurance that God's coming will result not in the people's destruction but in their salvation (verse 4b). Moreover, just like the parched land, the weakest and most vulnerable in society will respond and be transformed--the blind shall see, the deaf shall hear, and the lame shall "leap like a stag" (verse 6a).
In verses 6b--10, the LORD's coming parallels the homecoming of the exiles. The theophany in the first section has given way to the corresponding image of God's people returning through the desert, a holy pilgrimage with Zion as its destination. Like the first section, this second unit of Chapter 35 begins with the transformation of the natural order. The desert becomes a well-watered land. The salvation of the LORD, whether depicted theologically through the appearance of God or anthropologically in the people's joyful journey home, begins with the natural order's transformation and response to the mighty acts of God. Rather than facing the harsh natural forces of the wilderness, the people return upon a well-watered highway. Instead of hostile terrain, the travelers encounter a flourishing path with "streams in the desert" (verse 6b).
This passage emphasizes the radical nature of God's work among humanity. When the LORD appears, strange and marvelous things happen. The wilderness becomes a flourishing path with streams of water flowing abundantly. Dangerous roads become secure paths upon which the redeemed can walk with assurance. The blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame not only walk but leap for joy. The exiles return home.
When God visits God's people, there is only one appropriate response. All of creation and humanity are transformed at the appearance of their God, and all rejoice together and sing for joy. The LORD's presence, whether characterized by a theophany or manifested through the mighty works done on behalf of God's people, changes everything, quite literally.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10
This is a praise psalm. Indeed, they’re all praise psalms here at the end of the Psalter. Psalms 146-150 make up a sort of “praise collection” -- with the Hebrew root halal (“praise”) appearing 40 times in the last five psalms. Each of those five psalms begins and ends with the Hebrew “Hallelu-Jah” -- that is, with the exhortation to “Praise the Lord!”
Psalm 146 is, like the four psalms that follow, unrestrained in its exuberance. Generally speaking, praise psalms attend to the variety of reasons for such exuberance in the first place. Here in Psalm 146, the reasons are ample. Praise the Lord for creating sky, earth, and sea, and all that is in them and for keeping faith without ceasing (verse 6). Praise the Lord, too, for giving justice to the oppressed, food to the hungry, freedom to the imprisoned, and sight to the blind, not to mention a few other items, such as protecting strangers and supporting widows and orphans (verses 7-8). There’s a lot of praiseworthiness here. Simply put, the psalm gives credit where credit is due.
The words of Isaiah 61:1-2 -- words which proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor -- are reflected in this section of Psalm 146. For this reason, scholars believe that Psalm 146 -- like Isaiah 61 -- derives from Israel’s post-exilic period. As if to underscore the psalm’s historical setting, the very next psalm begins by declaring, “Hallelujah … The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds” (147:2-3).
Reading 2 Jas 2:1-5
The apostle is here reproving a very corrupt practice. He shows how much mischief there is in the sin of prosopolepsia —respect of persons, which seemed to be a very growing evil in the churches of Christ even in those early ages, and which, in these after-times, has sadly corrupted and divided Christian nations and societies. Here we have a caution against this sin laid down in general. The character of Christians fully implied: they are such as have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ; they embrace it; they receive it; they govern themselves by it; they entertain the doctrine, and submit to the law and government, of Christ; they have it as a trust; they have it as a treasure. How honorably James speaks of Jesus Christ; he calls him the Lord of glory; for he is the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person. Christ’s being the Lord of glory should teach us not to respect Christians for anything so much as their relation and conformity to Christ. You who profess to believe the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, which the poorest Christian shall partake of equally with the rich, and to which all worldly glory is but vanity, you should not make men’s outward and worldly advantages the measure of your respect. In professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, we should not show respect to men, so as to cloud or lessen the glory of our glorious Lord: how ever any may think of it, this is certainly a very heinous sin. We have this sin described and cautioned against, by an instance or example of it. For if there come into your assembly a man with a gold ring, etc. Assembly here is meant of those meetings which were appointed for deciding matters of difference among the members of the church, or for determining when censures should be passed upon any, and what those censures should be; therefore the Greek word here used, synagoge, signifies such an assembly as that in the Jewish synagogues, when they met to do justice. To this the phrases used by the apostle have a most plain reference, and therefore the assembly here spoken of must be some such as the synagogue-assemblies of the Jews were, when they met to hear causes and to execute justice: to these the arbitrations and censures of their Christian assemblies are compared. But we must be careful not to apply what is here said to the common assemblies for worship; for in these certainly there may be appointed different places of persons according to their rank and circumstances, without sin. Thus, now hear the case: "There comes into your assembly) a man that is distinguished by his dress, and who makes a figure, and there comes in also a poor man in vile raiment, and you act partially, and determine wrong, merely because the one makes a better appearance, or is in better circumstances, than the other.’’ Observe hence, God has his remnant among all sorts of people, In matters of religion, rich and poor stand evenly; no man’s riches set him in the least nearer to God, nor does any man’s poverty set him at a distance from God. With the Most High there is no respect of persons, and therefore in matters of conscience there should be none with us. All undue honoring of worldly greatness and riches should especially be watched against in Christian societies. James does not here encourage rudeness or disorder. Civil respect must be paid, and some difference may be allowed in our carriage towards persons of different ranks; but this respect must never be such as to influence the proceedings of Christian societies in disposing of the offices of the church, or in passing the censures of the church, or in any thing that is purely a matter of religion; here we are to know no man after the flesh. It is the character of a citizen of Zion that in his eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honors those that fear the Lord. If a poor man be a good man, we must not value him an iota less for his poverty; and, if a rich man be a bad man, we must not value him any iota the more for his riches. Of what importance it is to take care what rule we go by in judging of men; if we allow ourselves commonly to judge by outward appearance, this will too much influence our spirits and our conduct in religious assemblies.
Gospel Mk 7:31-37
Today we continue to hear the Gospel of Mark proclaimed. In today’s reading, Jesus heals a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. This is a story about Jesus’ healing power, and in it we find clues about our understanding of sacrament. We are struck by the physical means used to heal the man, the use of spittle and touch. The Church continues to celebrate the sacraments using physical means. In the Sacrament of Baptism, water and oil are used to show the power of the Holy Spirit. In the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, we are anointed with holy oil on the forehead and the hands. In the Eucharist, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. We are a sacramental people who believe that God’s grace is given to us through these physical signs.
Some, however, see in this Gospel an image of the proclamation of the good news of Jesus to the Gentiles. The geographic references tell us that Jesus is journeying through Gentile territory. Jesus had previously visited this region and healed a person possessed by a demon. Jesus was already famous there, which explains why people brought the deaf man to him. The story that precedes this reading in Mark’s Gospel sets the stage. Jesus encounters a Gentile, a Syrophoenician woman who asks him to heal her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus engages her in a dialogue about not feeding to dogs the food intended for children. Jesus is struck by the woman’s great faith when she replies that even dogs eat the food that falls from the table, and he heals her daughter immediately. The faith of this Greek woman compels Jesus to respond to her plea.
Mark shows that Jesus’ own mission affirms the early Church’s mission to the Gentiles. This was a significant issue to the early Christian community, which found that the good news of Jesus took root and spread quickly among the Gentiles. Yet there is an irony in the story of healing that Mark tells. Jesus gives the man the gift of speech, but then tells him not to use it. Jesus asks that the news of his healing power, which is evidence of his identity as the Messiah, not be spread. This is a recurring motif in Mark’s Gospel and is sometimes called the “messianic secret.”
Making the Connection
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Sunday September 2, 2018 Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 125
Reading 1 Dt 4:1-2, 6-8
Moses said to the people:
"Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe,
that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land
which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin upon you,
you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.
Observe them carefully,
for thus will you give evidence
of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
who will hear of all these statutes and say,
'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.'
For what great nation is there
that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us
whenever we call upon him?
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees
that are as just as this whole law
which I am setting before you today?"
Responsorial Psalm Ps 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Whoever walks blamelessly and does justice;
who thinks the truth in his heart
and slanders not with his tongue.
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Who harms not his fellow man,
nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
by whom the reprobate is despised,
while he honors those who fear the LORD.
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
.
Who lends not his money at usury
and accepts no bribe against the innocent.
Whoever does these things
shall never be disturbed.
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Reading 2 Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27
Dearest brothers and sisters:
All good giving and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.
He willed to give us birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this:
to care for orphans and widows in their affliction
and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Gospel Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
—For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. --
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"
He responded,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."
He summoned the crowd again and said to them,
"Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.
"From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 4:1-2, 6-8
The book of Deuteronomy (from the Greek deuteronomos, literally, "second law") consists of a series of speeches given by Moses to the generation of Israelites who are about to enter into the Promised Land. In many ways, the lectionary text for today may be understood as a microcosm of the entire book of Deuteronomy, as it consists of injunctions to follow the law, as well as motivations for doing so.
The theological center of the passage appears in verses seven and eight. Note the parallel structure in the following rhetorical questions:
If God draws near in the law that God gives, then we can expect the law to produce the same things that God produces. According to our Deuteronomy text, it does. As God gives life, so the law gives life. In verse 1, Moses urges the Israelites to listen to the statutes and ordinances he is teaching them. Why? "In order that you may live and go and inherit the land." In verse 2, Moses explains that nothing is to be added to, or taken away from these commands. The law shares God's attribute of completeness and wholeness.
What is missing in the lectionary pericope is verses 3-5, which recount the Israel's history at Baal Peor, where the Israelites yoked themselves to foreign women and the gods of Moab (cf. Numbers 25:1-13). Moses explains, "The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who went after the Baal of Peor, while those of you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today" (verses 3-4). While this may not be a very palatable text, it makes the point strongly that there is death to those who do not follow God, and life for those who hold fast to God. Note how easily, then, the author switches between talking about the life-giving law and the life-giving God.
Verse 6, where our text picks up again, explains that keeping the statutes and ordinances will demonstrate the Israelites' wisdom and understanding to other nations. The wisdom and understanding of God will be evident to the other nations as the Israelites obey the law. Verse 8 tells us that the statutes and ordinances referred to in verse 1 are equated with the torah, which is described with the adjective, "righteous," probably referring to the social righteousness of these laws.
Christians must decide whether we too are heirs of this command. Jesus was called "Rabbi" by his disciples, who were students of his interpretation of the law. It is therefore highly unlikely that Jesus calls us to dismiss the law's life-giving power, wisdom and understanding. Far more likely is that if we study Deuteronomy and learn more about the law, it will bear witness to those around us (the other nations) and we will learn to love Jesus more.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5
The Hebrew Bible as a whole represents the tension felt in Israelite society over the relationship between the worship one offers to God and the actions one takes with respect to neighbor. No single text in the Old Testament ever completely resolves this tension, though a strong case can be made that the prophetic witness certainly directed Israelites away from legalistic ritual toward obedience to God's word in general (1 Samuel 15:22, "surely, to obey is better than sacrifice") and concern for social justice in particular (Isaiah 1:11-17; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21-24; Micah 6:6-8).
Moreover, the Ten Commandments themselves exhibit a "marriage between cultic duty and moral demand." Rather than replacing concerns for ritual holiness, therefore, Old Testament theology invites Yahweh's worshipers to celebrate their relationship with God from within a life that exhibits love of neighbor. This is certainly part of the thrust of Jesus' teaching in the gospel lection for today, as well as in James's instruction about "the law of liberty" in the epistle reading (James 1:17-27).
Regardless of the number of distinct statements, the economy of language is stunning, with only fifty three Hebrew words compared to the NRSV's one hundred and two words. The psalmist wanted a memorable and trustworthy guide for social conduct, and sermons can present the psalm as a living portrait of the kind of life Moses called for in the Old Testament lection for this Sunday (Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9). Observing Yahweh's words will indeed display Israel's "wisdom and discernment" to all the peoples (Deuteronomy 4:6).
What then shall we do with the specific claims the psalm places upon us? Overall, we affirm that the instructions of verses 2-5 are not conditions for entering worship but descriptions of living in a community guided by wisdom. The active participles in verse 2 (the walker, the doer, the speaker) reinforce this notion by emphasizing qualities of continued practice, not achieved righteousness.
Of particular concern are what people do with their speech (verses 3-4) and how they handle their money (verse 5), but these are not stated as general principles as they might be found in the Book of Proverbs. They are instead contextualized in terms of the effect our words and finances have on "friends" and "neighbors" (verse 3). Even when other persons are not mentioned by name, their presence is implied as the recipients of an oath (verse 4) or a loan (verse 5).
To bring the message full circle, the psalm is describing the kind of community within which God dwells. When the psalms were being collected in the post-exilic era, many dispersed Jews would never experience Temple worship. Psalm 15 encouraged them that communities of honesty and justice, wherever they may be, were themselves dwelling places of God.
Reading 2 Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27
This theme -- God's goodness and perfection, and therefore the goodness and perfection of what God gives -- is the starting place for the present passage (verse 17). Human beings, brought forth by this good God by means of a word of truth, are to reflect divine goodness and perfection in the world.
One of the notable features of James is the author's use of vivid, concrete images that, parable-like, both illustrate the author's points and leave enough ambiguity to tease our minds into active thought. But the one who hears without doing, James implies, has what one of my associates called "moral Alzheimer's," a kind of deep forgetfulness that leaves the religious self unable to function fully.
So this is what James tells us: that we are to be quick to "hear," because not hearing enough leads us, apparently inevitably, to speech that is angry and unproductive. But hearing alone is not sufficient. We must also "do," because failing to act is evidence of a fundamental failure to function as God's first fruits in the world.
In what, then, does our religion consist? Perhaps the second startling turn in this passage is not so unexpected, after all, to those who have followed the argument leading up to it. Pure and undefiled religion, according to James, is this:
That's it. The care of "orphans and widows" is a synecdoche for actions taken on behalf of the less fortunate, since in the ancient world widows and orphans were the most vulnerable members of society, singled out for special consideration also in biblical law and prophetic pronouncements. And since such work would necessarily bring one into contact with unbelievers and with the seamier side of human existence, believers are supposed to be careful to avoid participation in practices contrary to their Christian ethic.
Certainly these are important facets of most Christians' understanding of their religion. They would likely make many Christians' "top ten." But James challenges us to imagine a Christianity in which these are vital. What would such a faith and practice look like?
Perhaps, if we as Christians were to follow James's precepts, we would do a lot less talking and a lot more listening. We would forswear anger and self-deception. We would measure our faith by our personal relationships, both in our habits of speech and our relationships with others in the community. Our primary expression of our religion would be in outreach to the poor and neglected. By such attitudes and actions, James tells us, we fulfill the divine purpose and become first fruits of all God's creatures
Gospel Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
The writer of Mark's Gospel often mentions apparently small details almost nonchalantly, in passing, seemingly on the way to a larger point. But these small details often make an even larger point, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Such is the case here. The fact that these Pharisees and scribes are from Jerusalem matters a great deal. For Mark, Jerusalem's greatest significance is that it is where Jesus will die. Mark's narrative is breathlessly hurtling toward Jerusalem, and to the death and resurrection of Jesus that will set the fulfillment of the kingdom of God in motion. By noting that these Pharisees and scribes are from Jerusalem, Mark is linking not only them, but this entire event, to Jesus' death and resurrection. It is because the kingdom is at hand that it's imperative that Jesus' message is understood, right now.
In today’s Gospel, Mark provides a significant amount of information about the Jewish observance of ritual-purity laws. Most scholars believe that Mark includes this information because his audience includes Gentile Christians who have no knowledge or experience of these laws. We can infer, therefore, that many in Mark’s community were not Jewish Christians.
In this Gospel, Mark addresses the question of which Jewish practices would also be observed in the newly emerging Christian community. This was a significant question for the early Christian Church, especially in communities that included both Jewish and Gentile converts to Christianity. We also hear this question addressed in the letters of Paul with regard to table fellowship. In Gospel passages such as the one today, we see the Gospel evangelists finding justification for a Christian practice distinct from Judaism in the remembrances of Jesus’ teaching and the practice of his first disciples.
Jesus first criticizes the Pharisees for putting human tradition above God’s Law. Here, Jesus is referring to the tradition of the elders, the teachings of the Pharisees, which extended the ritual-purity laws of Temple worship to everyday Jewish life. Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for making this tradition equal to and as binding as the Law of Moses.
Next, Jesus comments on the meaning behind the Pharisees’ language of holiness—clean and unclean. Jesus teaches that a person is not defiled by the food that enters his or her body, but rather by sin that emerges from his or her words and actions. In this teaching, Jesus unmasks a deeper question behind the one posed to him by the Pharisees. The real issue is holiness, which is not found in external acts alone. Holiness comes from within and is evidenced in the actions and attitudes that emerge from a person’s life.
If we read today’s Gospel carefully, we will see a pattern in Jesus’ teaching method that will be repeated in the weeks ahead. Jesus’ first teaching is directed to the Pharisees who questioned him. Jesus’ words are then directed to the crowd, teaching that a person is defiled by his or her words and actions, not by the food that he or she eats. In verses omitted in today’s reading, we learn that Jesus returned home with his disciples, who in turn questioned him about what he had taught. The words we read at the conclusion of today’s Gospel are addressed to Jesus’ disciples. Mark’s narrative shows several audiences for Jesus’ teaching: his antagonists, the crowds, and Jesus’ disciples. As we see in this reading, the words to the Pharisees are often words of challenge. The teaching to the crowds is often a general, sometimes cryptic, message. With the disciples, who often misunderstand Jesus’ words, further explanation is offered about his message and its meaning.
Jesus’ words challenge us as well. In our desire to show that we are holy, we might also give too much credence to externals, following rules without thinking about the intention behind them. Jesus reminds us that we do not make ourselves holy by our actions. Rather, we become holy when we allow God’s Spirit to transform us. Our actions should be an expression of the conversion of our heart to God and to God’s ways.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Morning PrayerGod, our Father, I offer you today
all that I think and do and say.
I offer it with what was done
on earth by Jesus Christ, your Son.
Amen.
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Sunday August 26, 2018 Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 122
Reading 1 Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem,
summoning their elders, their leaders,
their judges, and their officers.
When they stood in ranks before God,
Joshua addressed all the people:
"If it does not please you to serve the LORD,
decide today whom you will serve,
the gods your fathers served beyond the River
or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling.
As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
But the people answered,
"Far be it from us to forsake the LORD
for the service of other gods.
For it was the LORD, our God,
who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt,
out of a state of slavery.
He performed those great miracles before our very eyes
and protected us along our entire journey
and among the peoples through whom we passed.
Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
.
The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Many are the troubles of the just one,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him;
he watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Reading 2 Eph 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32
Brothers and sisters:
Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is head of his wife
just as Christ is head of the church,
he himself the savior of the body.
As the church is subordinate to Christ,
so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ loved the church
and handed himself over for her to sanctify her,
cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,
that he might present to himself the church in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that she might be holy and without blemish.
So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
For no one hates his own flesh
but rather nourishes and cherishes it,
even as Christ does the church,
because we are members of his body.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.
Gospel Jn 6:60-69
Many of Jesus' disciples who were listening said,
"This saying is hard; who can accept it?"
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,
he said to them, "Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending
to where he was before?
It is the spirit that gives life,
while the flesh is of no avail.
The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe."
Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe
and the one who would betray him.
And he said,
"For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father."
As a result of this,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer accompanied him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"
Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
Joshua invites all Israel to the town of Shechem in the central highlands of Israel. Joshua reminds them of the long history of all that God had done for Israel: the promises to the ancestors, the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, and God’s provision through the wilderness (Joshua 24:1-13). Although much of this section is deleted from the lectionary reading, these verses are important. They testify to God’s grace, mercy and unmerited love of Israel which forms the reason for Joshua’s call in verse 14: “Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve him completely and sincerely.” Reverence and obedience to God are the primary ways by which God’s people give thanks to God for the generous gifts of life and freedom God has already given.
Joshua urges the people to put away “the gods of the ancestors” and “serve the LORD.” Speaking on behalf of his own household, Joshua declares: “We will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15). If the other Israelite household are unwilling to follow the example of Joshua in serving the LORD, then they are free to “choose” among multiple other foreign gods, whether Mesopotamian gods (from “beyond the River [Euphrates]”) or “the gods of the Amorites [Canaanites]” (24:14-15). It doesn’t matter which other god they choose; they will have broken the sacred covenant bond between them and their one true God.
The Israelites respond to Joshua enthusiastically: “We also will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:18)! Now the reader might expect Joshua at this point to say, “Great! I’m delighted to hear you’re on board!” Instead, Joshua sternly replies, “You cannot serve the LORD!” God is jealous for your love, and God will not forgive you endlessly and without consequence. If you forsake God, God will “consume you, after having done you good” (Joshua 24:19). The people urgently answer back, “No, we will serve the LORD” (24:21). The elderly Joshua seems to have a longer view of these matters based on his long experience.
Joshua knew all too well what Moses also knew (Deuteronomy 31:27, 29). The future of God’s people in the land depended ultimately not on the people’s sincerity, faithfulness or obedience. No, ultimately, the future depended on God -- God’s faithfulness, God’s mercy, God’s powerful word, God’s transformation of the heart. Israel would suffer severe consequences for its centuries of forsaking God (exile from the land). In the end, however, God would bring Israel back to the land not because of who the people were, but because of who God was…and who God is.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21
Anything seem familiar about this Psalm? It’s the same one as last week and the week before that. Not sure why the Lectioners’ did this but I’m assuming it’s to drive home the idea that this month is about the Body and Blood of Jesus.
So you can review last weeks’ commentary if you’d like.
Reading 2 Eph 5:21-32
Here the apostle begins his exhortation to the discharge of relative duties. As a general foundation for these duties, he lays down that rule v. 21. There is a mutual submission that Christians owe one to another, condescending to bear one another's burdens: not advancing themselves above others, nor domineering over one another and giving laws to one another. Paul was an example of this truly Christian temper, for he became all things to all men. We must be of a yielding and of a submissive spirit, and ready to all the duties of the respective places and stations that God has allotted to us in the world.
When we consider Scripture in reference to marriage, our thoughts often go to the Book of 1 Corinthians 7 or 13:4-8. There, we find the familiar description of what love is. The Book of Ephesians however, has something important to say about marriage as well. This verse in particular has often been the subject of controversy and is often misunderstood in its true intent and meaning.
Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is head of his wife
just as Christ is head of the church,
he himself the savior of the body.
As the church is subordinate to Christ,
so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
Wives may be called to submit to their husbands, but it is because husbands are called to love their wives. As Christians, we have no problem submitting ourselves to Christ. Jesus died on the cross to cleanse us from sin. His love and His sacrifice is what calls us to give our lives completely to Him. We are called to do the same in marriage. Submitting to our husbands is easy and comes naturally when our husbands treat us with love and respect. Likewise, loving and respecting your wife comes easily when your wife is respectful of you. Submission is not a show of weakness; it is an act of love.
So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
A respectful and faith-filled marriage is based on mutual love and respect. Love and submission go hand in hand. These two acts are meant to complement each other rather than place one spouse above the other. The husband is called to lead his family in faith and the wife is called to love and serve her family. Together, husband and wife raise their family in faith and love; just as Jesus intends us to do.
When we give ourselves in marriage, we become one with our spouses. Our lives become so intertwined that we are no longer two separate individuals leading two different lives; rather, we are one united front facing life’s joys and challenges together. In serving our spouse, we are serving the Lord.
Marriage should not be a competition between husband and wife. The love between husband and wife is what calls us to serve one another in marital duties. To love, honor and serve our spouse is one of the best ways to love, honor and serve our Lord.
Gospel Jn 6:60-69
This Gospel is a perfect example of why we need to attend mass or scripture study each week. If we picked up this Gospel and read the second sentence we would be wondering what the apostles were talking about. But last week we had JN 6:51-58 in which Jesus was talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood so their question here is in reference to that section. For our Gospel today we hear the conclusion of the “Bread of Life discourse” in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. In the preceding verses, which we have heard proclaimed in our liturgy over the past few weeks, we have heard Jesus explain that he is the Bread of Life, given so that those who believe may have eternal life. This discourse follows the miracle in which Jesus fed more than five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish. As Jesus has been teaching these things, John’s Gospel describes a murmuring crowd unable to accept Jesus’ words. In today’s Gospel, the crowd has dwindled in number, and John no longer references them, or the Jews. Instead John describes the questioning of those considered to be Jesus’ own disciples.
Today’s Gospel first records the response of those in the crowd who are described as Jesus’ disciples. Just as the larger crowd had struggled with Jesus’ teaching, these disciples also cannot accept Jesus’ words. Jesus is said to know about their murmuring. He responds by acknowledging their unbelief and by reiterating that only those chosen by the Father will follow Jesus to the end. John’s Gospel reports that many of those who had been Jesus’ disciples ceased to follow him at this point. The number of people following Jesus dwindled from a crowd of more than 5,000 to only 12 people. And it is to these Twelve that Jesus now turns his attention.
Simon Peter’s response to Jesus’ question as to whether those closest to him will also leave, reminds us of the reports of Peter’s confession of faith in the Synoptic Gospels. Peter announces, on behalf of all the Twelve, that they have come to believe all that Jesus has taught about himself: Jesus is the one from God in whom they have found the path to eternal life.
This conclusion of the Bread of Life discourse focuses on personal faith in the life of Christian discipleship. Each person must make his or her own judgment about who Jesus is and in doing so determine the way of life that he or she will follow. God’s grace invites us to be Jesus’ disciples, but each person must respond to the grace of God and confess as his or her own the belief that Jesus is the one from God. This faith then commits us to the path of life, leading us to eternal life.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen.
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Sunday August 19, 2018 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 119
THE READINGS ----------
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Reading 1 Prv 9:1-6
Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidens; she calls
from the heights out over the city:
"Let whoever is simple turn in here;
To the one who lacks understanding, she says,
Come, eat of my food,
and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;
advance in the way of understanding."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
.
Reading 2 Eph 5:15-20
Brothers and sisters:
Watch carefully how you live,
not as foolish persons but as wise,
making the most of the opportunity,
because the days are evil.
Therefore, do not continue in ignorance,
but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.
And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery,
but be filled with the Spirit,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts,
giving thanks always and for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.
.
Gospel Jn 6:51-58
Jesus said to the crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Prv 9:1-6
Wisdom who has previously partnered with God in creation, (Proverbs 8:22-31), is now the host of a great banquet. But before she sets her table, she builds a house (or perhaps a banquet house). It seems that the whole purpose of her building is hospitality; she needs a place to host the banquet to which she will soon invite the world. Wisdom is no lady at leisure ordering the staff about -- she has staff but works with them and does hard, manual labor herself.
First in verse 1, Wisdom builds her own house, then she crafts seven decorative pillars -- either chopping down trees or carving stones. Then in verse 2 she butchers her own fresh meat, mixes her own wine and sets her table. In verse 3 she tasks her serving girls with an undisclosed task, likely invitations to specific guests -- who are they? -- yet she herself invites complete strangers en mass. She goes from place to place, specifically inviting those who are woefully unacquainted with her in verse 4, calling out to them, shouting loudly in public places, in so doing she models extraordinary yet perhaps acceptable behavior for human women. In verse 5 she explains that the way for those bereft of her to benefit from her is to feast at her table. And if they do so, they will live and walk in understanding.
Wisdom's table is a metaphor for the acquisition of wisdom. But what is wisdom? It is more than innate intelligence or sense; for it can be gained by those who lack it. In Biblical Hebrew, wisdom is as much technical expertise or craft(wo)manship as it is intellectual knowledge. The women (Exodus 35:26) and men (Exodus 31:6) who craft the Tabernacle in the wilderness are all called wise; if Israel keeps the Torah they will be a "wise and understanding people" in Deuteronomy 4:6; the wise woman who led her city seems to be the governing official who saves her people from certain death by shrewd and lethal political dealing in 2 Samuel 20:22, and of course the wisdom of Solomon was legendary, 1 Kings 4:29. So wisdom is craft: statecraft, Torah-craft craftwomanship, craftsmanship and craftiness.
The source of wisdom is Wisdom herself. And who (or what) is Wisdom? In rabbinic (Jewish) thought, Wisdom is the Torah. The rubric goes something like this: Both Wisdom and Torah are feminine nouns. Proverbs 3:18 says, "She is a Tree of Life," also understood to be the Torah. Torah-knowledge, fruit from that tree, should be feasted upon like the banquet at Wisdom's table: "taste and see" (Psalm 34:8), the sweetness of God's word(s) is compared to honey, (Psalm 119:103; Ezekiel 3:3), the notion continues in the New Testament in Revelation 10:9. Wisdom is also intimately tangled up with God, said to be both the first of God's creation (Proverbs 8:22) and God's co-worker/master-worker (Proverbs 8:30). God is the source of Wisdom (and Torah and life).
Wisdom also appears in the Gospels as the vindicator (Matt 11:19) and parent (Luke 7:35) of Jesus of Nazareth, in both cases Wisdom is to be identified with God and not Mary of Nazareth. In addition, the Wisdom of God is the source of a text that Luke (11:49) quotes as scripture; it is otherwise unknown, but clearly authoritative for him.
Wisdom has built her house...she has set her table. So pull up a seat and sit down. Eat and drink your fill. And be satisfied.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
Psalm 34 is a testimony embedded in the narrative of scripture. Like any testimony, it gives the narrative of God and the narrative of David, the Old Testament protagonist or antagonist -- depending on which part of his life the reader is considering. In Psalm 34, David gives testimony of a time when he fled Saul, took refuge with the Philistines, and came to be afraid of King Achish, the king of Gath (1 Samuel 21:10-12).
The structure of the first eight verses of this Psalm does two things: it establishes the author’s intention to give a testimony (v. 1-3) and it provides details of David’s experience that prompted the testimony.
David begins his testimony in Psalm 34 by stating his intent: to worship God at all times (v. 1). This praise, however, is not passive; it is an intentional commitment to extol the name of GOD in an ongoing manner. This praise is to be continuous. It is to happen at all times. The author then invites, even commands others to listen (v. 2), particularly those who are weak. What is the cumulative result? The assembly will worship GOD together by offering praise, so that what began as one individual’s praise has now become a corporate reason to praise (v. 3).
Verses 4-6 are a more specific account of the general introduction to Psalm 34. Here, the Psalmist doesn’t tell the whole story, but he does say that he prayed to GOD, GOD heard, and GOD rescued him from what may have been a terrifying experience (v. 4). GOD delivered him from the “object” of the fear, not only the feeling of fear. Looking to GOD will do for others as it did for the Psalmist: give a new appearance (v. 5). In this particular instance, the new appearance was one of radiance, of shining. Verse 6 provides a recap of the Psalm: a weak man called to GOD, GOD listened, and GOD delivered.
Thomas Long has said, “To be human is to live a story.” Psalm 34 reminds us of this. Psalm 34 also reminds us that sharing that story through the practice of Christian testimony is deeply embedded in the narrative of scripture and in the narrative of God and God’s people.
Here, we see David’s testimony embedded in the narrative of scripture, of God, and of God’s people. Through David, we are reminded that as Christians our testimonies are not boring because they involve the action of God, the one whose ears are turned to us, the one who has delivered our forebears, and the one who is ready to deliver us if we are bold enough to ask. And, we are reminded that when God does deliver us, we are to share that story so that our individual praise can become a communal praise.
Reading 2 Eph 5:15-20
Addressed to the church in Ephesus but presumed to have been circulated to many churches, Ephesians 5:15-20 fits well within the framework of today's governing scripture -- the Gospel reading -- and the congenial imagery of Proverbs. Both tell us that this Sunday is about the food of true life. The living bread is given -- body and blood -- for the beloved community.
This passage sets forth stark alternatives aimed specifically at living a life that is centered in worship: singing (lalountes) and giving thanks (eucharistountes) in the name of the Lord. This passage also lays out a pathway to that life by setting up stark oppositions. One scholar sees three oppositions in Ephesians 5:1-20: love vs. lust, light vs. darkness, and wisdom vs. foolishness. The text for this Sunday focuses on the last of these.
God has given us time, ourselves, and Earth in and through which to exercise reverence by being wise, focused on God's desire for all creation, and Spirit-filled. We honor God's gifts when we attend to its profundity, acknowledging that creation and our own lives actually matter. If we spend our days numbed to God's gifts (that is, inebriated by a myriad of possible anesthetics, including greed, power, contempt for others, and all manner of unfocused indulgences), we cannot experience life "filled with the Spirit."
The contrast here is between going along with social norms and, conversely, being directed by a more penetrating source of purpose. These admonitions are not meant to be legalisms that straitjacket joy; they articulate contrasts that can help us see our true identity as beloved of God in Christ Jesus. To be filled by the Holy Spirit is, in fact, to be baptized and, thus, invited to the feast of bread and wine.
It is not possible, aside from the presence of Christ, to know the will of the Lord or to make the most of our time or even to be careful! Indeed, a person can choose one path rather than another, negotiate the extent to which we believe we have a handle on God's will, and learn how to be useful and productive with our days. We may well be good care-takers of Earth and its creatures. But we cannot know most deeply what God has made available to us without knowing what it is to live a life of thanksgiving. The writer of Ephesians describes that thanksgiving as a gathering of those who come together to sing to the Lord and give thanks "at all times and for everything."
There is a certain irony in a text that sets foolishness against wisdom. The cross is wisdom. Life in Jesus' risen presence is abundant life. Yet, isn't it also foolish? To live a life of thanksgiving in the face of all that is wrong in the world, all the pain and need and stupidity, may seem to some people to be a very foolish way to live. So this passage invites us to think deeply about the relationship between foolish and wise life, to pay attention, so that we live according to what resides beyond the present moment.
Gospel Jn 6:51-58
On this Sunday, we continue to read from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. Today’s Gospel elaborates further on the teaching that Jesus began in our liturgy last week. In that reading, the crowds wondered about how Jesus could say that he had come down from heaven because they knew Jesus to be the son of Joseph. In this Gospel, some have difficulty with Jesus’ teaching that he is the living bread sent from God. Recall that Jesus had told them that just as God gave the Israelites manna to sustain them in the desert, so now God has sent new manna that will give eternal life. We hear the concluding verse of last week’s Gospel repeated in today’s reading: Jesus himself is the bread sent by God; Jesus’ flesh is the bread that is given for the life of the world.
Among the stumbling blocks for those who heard but did not understand Jesus is teaching that the bread that Jesus will give is his own flesh. In response to the people who quarreled over his words, Jesus teaches with even greater emphasis that salvation comes to those who eat his Body and Blood. Jesus doesn’t seem to answer the question posed about how salvation will come about, perhaps because this reality can only be understood after his death and Resurrection. Instead, Jesus teaches about the life that he will give to the world.
To many ears, Jesus’ words are jarring and difficult to hear. Many who heard Jesus could not accept what he said. Many today continue to struggle to accept these words. But they are important words because they reveal our intimate connection with Jesus.
Without the familiar story of the last supper, this text is the primary reflection on the Eucharist in John. With that in mind, we need to notice the clear and insistent focus on Jesus himself as the one given by the Father, the one who is the Bread of Life from Heaven, the one on whom we must feed.
If this text is at one level a meditation on the Eucharist then part of the point is that the Eucharist is life-giving because it is Jesus who gives it, and it is life-giving because it is Jesus himself who is given. The Eucharist is life-giving because it draws us deeper into relationship with Jesus, so that we may "abide" there (verse 56). There can be no proper understanding of the Eucharist apart from this life-giving participation in the life and the death of Jesus himself.
This is the mystery that is at the heart of our eucharistic theology. In the elements of bread and wine, Jesus’ Body and Blood are made truly present. When we share in the Body and Blood of Christ, Jesus himself comes to dwell within us. This communion with the Lord makes us one body, brings us eternal life, and sends us forth to be Christ’s body for the life of the world.
Without the familiar story of the last supper, this text is the primary reflection on the Eucharist in John. With that in mind, we need to notice the clear and insistent focus on Jesus himself as the one given by the Father, the one who is the Bread of Life from Heaven, the one on whom we must feed.
If this text is at one level a meditation on the Eucharist then part of the point is that the Eucharist is life-giving because it is Jesus who gives it, and it is life-giving because it is Jesus himself who is given. The Eucharist is life-giving because it draws us deeper into relationship with Jesus, so that we may "abide" there (verse 56). There can be no proper understanding of the Eucharist apart from this life-giving participation in the life and the death of Jesus himself.
Making the Connection
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Sunday August 12, 2018 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 116
My fellow scripture study friends. Please mention our site to a friend or fellow church goer. Hopefully they will find the site enriching and informative. God bless!
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 19:4-8
Elijah went a day's journey into the desert,
until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it.
He prayed for death saying:
"This is enough, O LORD!
Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers."
He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree,
but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat.
Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake
and a jug of water.
After he ate and drank, he lay down again,
but the angel of the LORD came back a second time,
touched him, and ordered,
"Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!"
He got up, ate, and drank;
then strengthened by that food,
he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
Let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
And delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy.
And your faces may not blush with shame.
When the afflicted man called out, the LORD heard,
And from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Reading 2 Eph 4:30—5:2
Brothers and sisters:
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
with which you were sealed for the day of redemption.
All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling
must be removed from you, along with all malice.
And be kind to one another, compassionate,
forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
Gospel Jn 6:41-51
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,
"I am the bread that came down from heaven, "
and they said,
"Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?
Do we not know his father and mother?
Then how can he say,
'I have come down from heaven'?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Stop murmuring among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 19:4-8
Elijah literally finds himself in the wilderness in this reading, but he also seems to be figuratively in the wilderness as he asks the Lord to take his life. Elijah has endured a traumatic episode with the prophets of Baal and Asherah up in the northern region of Carmel. Although he successfully dispatched the prophets and demonstrated God’s power to Ahab, something is wrong. Elijah experiences a sense of shame or failure or some type of emotion on which we cannot quite put our finger. It leaves him deflated, despondent and depressed. We may never know what exactly led to this situation under the broom tree in the wilderness, but I imagine we can all think of difficult situation like this. We can think of Hagar in the wilderness with her young boy, but God would not allow that situation to endure. We can think of Jonah under his own tree in faraway Nineveh, equally despondent.
The Bible presents these scenarios to us in order to highlight the travails of God’s people. Whether they be a foreign female slave, a runaway prophet, or perhaps the most famous prophet, there will be bumps in the road or perhaps chasms in the road. Our Scripture focuses on “the way.” At times that way is crystal clear. 1 Kings has previously presented Elijah as assured and triumphant. He seemed to have no problem finding his way, yet now we see a very different Elijah, an Elijah sharing more in common with Hagar and Jonah than Elisha and Isaiah. While we meet a very different Elijah here, we meet the same Lord here who ministered to Hagar and Jonah.
Elijah’s struggles with many things, but nothing more than himself. We can all probably recognize how we can be our own worst enemy. 1 Kings 19 clearly demonstrates Elijah’s demons bringing him to a standstill. Oftentimes, it is easy for us to see the source of other people’s problems. We have seen many triumphs of Elijah before this event, and we know that there will be many triumphs to follow. With all of this in mind it can be hard to understand how things went so wrong so quickly for Elijah. Yet that is part of Elijah’s story just like it can often be part of our story. We can often find ourselves most at risk, when we are feeling most invulnerable.
God sends unexpected help to Elijah during his time of great vulnerability. Elijah is able to overcome his great sadness through the care of the angels and the nourishment of their food. This story invites us to see how the Lord has been present to us in difficult moments. It also invites us to view our problems through a lens able to see God’s divine presence in the world. Just as God is clearly present to Elijah in order to help him overcome his travails, we must have the same confidence that God is present and will be present in our lives. We know the whole of the Elijah story and can see this as just a blip in the story. We must also have the awareness that our travails and troubles are far from the whole of our story. Just as God has been present in our past, we must persevere in the hope that God will be present in our future.
We find a compassionate God here sending an angel to Elijah in his hour of need, and sending an angel again to Elijah in the following verse. As God accompanies Elijah, Hagar, and Jonah on their journey, Scripture invites us to consider how God has accompanied us on our journeys. We can think of Elijah going from mountain top to mountain top on his journey from Carmel to Horeb. Those mountain experiences are memorable and often fill us with life, especially when we have transcendent experiences of God. Yet Scripture stops here to focus on the horizontal experience rather than the vertical experience. This reading challenges us to see how God was present to us in the boring parts of our journey. Elijah teaches us to bring all our emotions to God. God will be present to us in different ways on different parts of the journey. We cannot experience the theophany of a storm cloud and deluge in the middle of the desert, but God finds a different way to be present to us. Our reading assures us that God makes the entire journey with us.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Perhaps Psalm 34 as poetry set to song served in some way the people of God. Each human life is an aggregation of experiences that build up over time. Sedimentary layers of rocks, sludge, and discarded ideas mingle together and press in on one another. We are walking repositories of all that has happened to us and each new experience fits into that matrix to find its place among the rest.
If one were able to cut through the accretions to see by way of a cross section all that has been, what would they discern. I suspect they might be surprised to see layers where God's grace covered the hard places and where God's presence brushed against jagged stones of disappointment or personal pain. Perhaps the activity of God in human experience is not unlike a fertile layer of soil laid down by a springtime flood over our river bottoms of stone and sand. Once given to the rocky places new life can emerge where none previously may have been thought possible. Our hard times can be transformed by recognition of the abiding presence of God.
What would it mean to bless the Lord at all times with praise continually in our mouths? Is the Psalmist realistic about human capacity to stay focused on a topic? Or is the Psalmist interested in inviting the people of God to some reorientation of thought and action? How would it be to go through life with each 24 hour day permeated by reflection on the presence of God and God's activity in the things we think are somehow too removed, too banal, or too mundane? What if God were one of us as the pop song suggested? How might we note the difference?
The opening explosion of praise invokes human senses of taste, hearing, sight, and touch. It seems only the sense of smell is missing or perhaps it isn't. Since smell is intimately connected with our sense of taste it may be implicitly indicated. Smell from campfire smoke as the angel of the Lord encamped nearby touches minds filled with memories of outdoor camping experiences in the wilderness and in travels from place to place.
The Hebrew word -- ira -- translated into English as "fear" stands out in the text and draws hearers toward further reflection about how to not only be cognizant of the actions of God, but to face fears through living in right relation with the living God. The word fear is sprinkled through the Psalm from start to finish -- delivered from all fears and angels encamp around those that fear God.
Fear for human beings is the result of many catalysts. It can be derived from human experiences of guilt and shame. It can arise from threats real and imagined to our existence or the existence of those whom we love. It can grow from experience with the natural world that can be a place of physical and emotional pain. It may emerge when one is faced with something that has not been previously experienced -- like the first time standing at the edge of a high cliff when faced with the recognition that one slip could cause our demise.
Fear can make the legs weak or can trigger a response to run from the perceived danger or risk. Rarely in my experience does fear invite adoration. Instead the fight or flight response seems more common. Maybe the idea of fearing God is not so much fighting or fleeing as it is recognition of the scale of something that cannot be fully comprehended. Like an unsolvable math problem, the number of stars in the universe, or the number of beats our heart will beat over a lifetime -- we cannot determine with certitude what the solution or numbers are. We only know that they exist and if we had the capacity to determine them the answers would only produce more questions.
Reading 2 Eph 4:30—5:2
Our passage contains a lot of moral advice that can be found in many places in the ancient world.
In that sense, there is nothing "original" in this text. However, the wealth of moral instruction does not mean the Bible is simply "moralizing" its readers. The key difference lay in the motivation for the morality. Most commentators agree that Paul's framework for his ethical instruction is baptism.
Interwoven throughout the letter to the Ephesians are many references to death and life (2:1, 5), putting away the old self (4:22, 25) and being marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit (1:13, 4:30). In other words, instead of simply being exhorted to do good works, the community is continually reminded that it has been engrafted into the body of Christ and that its hope is grounded in Christ's present and future redemption. The result is a life lived in love, rooted and grounded in the love of Christ (5:2). Our discussion of this text focuses on common misunderstandings of Paul's words.
Be Angry?
In some highly sentimental versions of the Christian faith it is thought that any type of anger is a sin. Paul surprises us here by recognizing that anger has its place. He also says that it has its limits. Even those with a superficial knowledge of the Bible recognize that this is a book acquainted with anger. The prophets (Amos for example!) can hardly contain their outrage at the way the people of Israel have violated God's covenant.
Jesus was upset when he overturned the tables of the moneychangers or when he encountered almost any form of self-righteous arrogance. And Paul himself was furious with church in Galatians as it fell back into seeing the law as a way to please God (Galatians 3:1-3). Indeed, God may be slow to anger but this does not mean God is never angry. God gets upset when his people turn to idolatry. As one of my professors put it, love is always outraged at betrayal.
And yet we must be careful. Paul warns the Ephesians not to "let the sun go down on your anger" (4:26). He recognizes that anger can quickly become obsessive. Instead of being upset over a thoughtless word or deed, we have a tendency to make it "personal" in a hurry. We nurse a grudge and cook up schemes for revenge. Once we have slipped into this realm we have opened the door for the devil (4:27). The well-being of the community then becomes secondary and our main purpose is simply to get even. Thus Paul reminds us of the need to let forgiveness have the last word (4:32).
Paul also says in our text that we must not "grieve" the Holy Spirit. What is meant by this unusual phrase? Paul says in Ephesians that the Spirit has "sealed" us in the promises of Christ (1:13, 4:30), given us access to the Father (2:18), and provided us with the inner power to sustain the life of faith (3:16-17). This is an impressive list of gifts. Perhaps Paul's use of the word "grieve" can be understood in the context of the human tendency to slip into behavior that undermines our community in Christ (4:31). For example, parents have a hard time conceiving of a situation where they would stop loving their children.
We can all cite examples of mothers and fathers who have gone to extraordinary lengths to help a prodigal son or daughter. These parents have indeed been "grieved" or disappointed by the actions of their loved ones -- but they rarely break off the relationship completely. Even in the most dire of cases there is still a flicker of hope for reconciliation and restoration. So it is with God. The "seal" or bond of the Spirit is inviolable.
This section concludes with the ultimate exhortation: be imitators of God (5:1)! Here is where there is a true break with the typical virtue-vice lists of the ancient world. A standard has now been set that transcends all human morality. It could also lead to despair if not handled carefully.
Our culture's interpretation of love might be said to be at war with the biblical understanding of agape. Commercials and conventional usage suggest that love is largely a romantic feeling produced by the right combination of clothes, physical conditioning, smile and make-up. In other words, love is dependent upon being lovable.
This is the exact opposite of agape love which reaches out and extends itself to the most unlovable.
Paul highlights the effects of this love as well. We now inherit the status of "beloved children" (5:1). Our task then is to take this love to the neighbor or "live in love" (5:2) as Paul says. Perfect imitation of this love is not possible. God's word of forgiveness will always be relevant (4:32). But the love of Christ dwells in our hearts as well (3:17). And that makes a big difference as we make our way into the world.
Gospel Jn 6:41-51
On this Sunday, we continue to read from the “Bread of Life discourse” found in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. Recall that we have been reading from this chapter for the past two weeks and will continue to read from it for another two. Last week, the crowd asked for a sign that would show that Jesus came from God. Jesus replied by saying that he is the sign and the bread of life sent by God. At this point, our Lectionary omits six verses in which Jesus predicts the unbelief of the crowd and further develops his connection with God the Father. In these verses, Jesus says that he was sent by God to do the Father’s will. Jesus promises that those who look upon the Son with faith will find eternal life. Some of these themes are repeated in today’s Gospel reading.
Today’s Gospel begins with a report that the Jews complained about Jesus’ claims regarding his identity. They knew his family, and they knew he was the son of Joseph. They could not comprehend what Jesus meant when he said that he came down from heaven. Jesus responds to the complaints by saying that only those who are chosen by God will recognize him as the one that God sent. This is a recurring theme in John’s Gospel, that God has chosen those who will have faith in Jesus.
In the verses that follow, Jesus talks more about his unity with the Father. He is the one who has seen the Father and, therefore, knows the Father. Those who listen to God will recognize that Jesus is the one sent from God. Those who believe will have eternal life. Jesus concludes with the central element of our eucharistic theology. He promises that the bread of life will bring eternal life to those who partake of it, and he tells us that the bread of life will be his own flesh, given for the life of the world.
In today’s reading, we hear Jesus say again, as he did in last week's Gospel, that he is the bread of life. We also hear Jesus add that he is the living bread. Both of these statements help us understand better the gift that Jesus gives us in the Eucharist. We celebrate this gift of Jesus each time we gather for Mass. We believe that receiving Jesus in the Eucharist will lead us to eternal life.
Making the Connection
Act of Faith
O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because you have revealed them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
Amen.
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Sunday August 5, 2018 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 113
My fellow scripture study friends. Please accept my apologies. I was on vacation. Here is last weeks study.
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 16:2-4, 12-15
The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The Israelites said to them,
"Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt,
as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert
to make the whole community die of famine!"
Then the LORD said to Moses,
"I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.
Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion;
thus will I test them,
to see whether they follow my instructions or not.
"I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.
Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,
so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God."
In the evening quail came up and covered the camp.
In the morning a dew lay all about the camp,
and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert
were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground.
On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, "What is this?"
for they did not know what it was.
But Moses told them,
"This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
What we have heard and know,
and what our fathers have declared to us,
We will declare to the generation to come
the glorious deeds of the LORD and his strength
and the wonders that he wrought.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
He commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven;
he rained manna upon them for food
and gave them heavenly bread.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Man ate the bread of angels,
food he sent them in abundance.
And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountains his right hand had won.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Reading 2 Eph 4:17, 20-24
Brothers and sisters:
I declare and testify in the Lord
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their minds;
that is not how you learned Christ,
assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him,
as truth is in Jesus,
that you should put away the old self of your former way of life,
corrupted through deceitful desires,
and be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
and put on the new self,
created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth.
Gospel Jn 6:24-35
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
"Rabbi, when did you get here?"
Jesus answered them and said,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
you are looking for me not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal."
So they said to him,
"What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."
So they said to him,
"What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat."
So Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world."
So they said to him,
"Sir, give us this bread always."
Jesus said to them,
"I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 16:2-4, 12-15
The need for bread in this early stage of the journey out of Egypt provides both God and God’s people with an opportunity to understand and to trust the other. Throughout the narrative, the people struggle to trust and to follow God, and God struggles to know and to nurture this fledgling community of former slaves.
In the opening verses, the narrator establishes that it is the second month of the children of Israel’s journey out of Egypt, and the people are complaining (lit. “murmuring”) against Moses and Aaron because they are hungry. The complaint in this narrative is the third of its kind (see also Exodus 14:11; 15:24). Each complaint follows a certain pattern: (1) the people encounter a potentially devastating threat to their well-being -- the pursuit of the pharaoh and his chariots, deadly dehydration, starvation; (2) they complain (literally “murmur”) against their leadership; (3) their human leaders bring the complaint before God; and (4) God saves them by various means -- the miraculous crossing of the sea, providing drinkable water, and, in this narrative, providing bread from heaven.
The language of the complaint is strong. One might even say it is unfair. “The Israelites said to them, "Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!" (16:3). The harsh servitude the people endured in Egypt, described in the earlier chapters of Exodus, bears no resemblance to this description of the plenty they claim they enjoyed there.
Interestingly, the people make no mention of pharaoh and his unreasonable demands. In an indirect way, the people seem to blame God both for their current crisis in the wilderness as well as their enslavement: "Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh was the one trying to kill them in Egypt. God rescued them! Their hunger leads them to what seems to be willful forgetfulness.
One might be tempted to regard the pattern of complaints in these chapters and the injustice in the wording of this particular complaint in a negative light, but, while Moses and Aaron appear to be frustrated with the people, the text portrays God as focused on the people and their needs rather than disturbed by their demands. Indeed, the complaint and the occasion that prompts it provides God with an opening to learn more about them by means of a test.
The test itself is multilayered. On the surface, the test enables God to know the people’s response to the gift of manna: will they follow God’s instruction and gather only what they need according to the day? Will they respect the Sabbath? The answers to these questions seem to be the overall purpose of the test according to 16:4, but the test also serves another, perhaps more important, purpose: the gathering of manna in the wilderness -- with specific amounts brought in on certain days -- creates a structure in the people’s lives that is a reliable constant in the turmoil of their wilderness wandering.
The people gather in the morning what they need for the day and no more, except on the day before the Sabbath when they gather enough for both days. There are no days on which the manna fails to appear. Although the reader is not yet aware that this journey to their new land will take forty years, the narrator notes that this provision of manna lasts the entirety of the trip (16:35). Order is thus established in the midst of chaos by means of this rhythm of divine provision.
In verses 2-3, the people claimed to long for Egypt and its bounty, but what Egypt really represented was a complete lack of rest with a pharaoh who cared nothing for their well-being or their needs. Here, bread and rest -- on the Sabbath -- are provided generously and reliably. The difference between the former reality of their lives in Egypt and their present reality in the hands of a trustworthy God, who provides for them even in the wilderness, is made clear when one compares the beginning of the narrative to the end of the reading at verse 15. The “idealized and unwarranted memories of Pharaoh’s food (verse 3) are to be replaced with the genuine memories of the bread from God.”1
The stress and chaos of life on the journey of the children of Israel through the wilderness is intense and debilitating, so much so that the people begin to long for their former lives as slaves in Egypt. As they long to go back, God’s grace pushes them forward by providing strength for the journey in the form of food and a structure to their days and weeks by the instructions regarding the keeping of the Sabbath.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
Psalm 78 is the second longest psalm in the Psalter; only psalm 119 is longer.
The psalm is often called historical, and it is an instruction or meditation in poetic form about how to live a godly life. The theme of the psalm is the relationship between God and his people. It describes the life of the Israelites from the time in Egypt to the election of David as king.
Since the psalm is very long, it is radically abridged in the lectionary. Only two introductory verses and five verses in the middle of the psalm are chosen for the day.
The story is not told in chronological order, since the aim of the psalmist is not to write history. It is rather to give examples for coming generations how not to act. History is related in order to understand the present. In that sense the psalm is a mirror for the reader/listener. The content of the psalm is built on contrasts.
The beginning of the psalm is unusual in that it is not addressed to God but to "my people," i. e. to those who listen to the teacher. The wording is remindful of that in the wisdom traditions of the Old Testament.
The teaching is called "parable” and ”dark sayings” (verse 2). The first word suggests something of importance, the second expression can also be translated ”mysteries” or ”riddles.” The intention is to make clear from the beginning that what follows is more than a retelling of history. There is something to learn from history, and that’s what the psalmist wants to stress.
Verses 34–37 are part of the section in the psalm where the Israelites in the desert are in focus. The picture of the people is not a flattering one. Israel on its way to the promised land is a history of constant trouble. The people are disobedient. It is only when God is forced to be harsh and punishes the Israelites that they return to God and ask for his help. The pattern is well-known from other parts of the Old Testament, from both the historical books and the prophetic literature.
The people knew that God was their rock and redeemer (verse 35), but their memory of this was short. Very soon after a conversion they were back to ”normal” again; and normal in their case was disobedience, lies, and an unsteady heart.
In contrast to the people, God is depicted as compassionate, forgiving, and mild (verse 38). The verse is not only the key verse in the psalm, it is also -- according to the Masoretes -- the center verse of the Psalter.
In the following God’s reactions and actions are further described, and so are the people’s actions. The contrast between the two -- God and the Israelites -- is hammered in. The psalmist’s aim is clear: he wants his listeners to have trust in
Reading 2 Eph 4:17, 20-24
The apostle charged the Ephesians in the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus, that having professed the gospel, they should not be as the unconverted Gentiles, who walked in vain fancies and carnal affections. Do not men, on every side, walk in the vanity of their minds? Must not we then urge the distinction between real and nominal Christians? They were void of all saving knowledge; they sat in darkness, and loved it rather than light. They had a dislike and hatred to a life of holiness, which is not only the way of life God requires and approves, and by which we live to him, but which has some likeness to God himself in his purity, righteousness, truth, and goodness. The truth of Christ appears in its beauty and power, when it appears as in Jesus. The corrupt nature is called a man; like the human body, it is of divers parts, supporting and strengthening one another. Sinful desires are deceitful lusts; they promise men happiness, but render them more miserable; and bring them to destruction, if not subdued and mortified. These therefore must be put off, as an old garment, a filthy garment; they must be subdued and mortified. But it is not enough to shake off corrupt principles; we must have gracious ones. By the new man, is meant the new nature, the new creature, directed by a new principle, even regenerating grace, enabling a man to lead a new life of righteousness and holiness. This is created, or brought forth by God's almighty power.
In the following verses notice the particulars wherewith we should adorn our Christian profession. Take heed of everything contrary to truth. No longer flatter or deceive others. God's people are children who will not lie, who dare not lie, who hate and abhor lying. Take heed of anger and ungoverned passions. If there is just occasion to express displeasure at what is wrong, and to reprove, see that it be without sin. We give place to the devil, when the first motions of sin are not grievous to our souls; when we consent to them; and when we repeat an evil deed. This teaches that as sin, if yielded unto, lets in the devil upon us, we are to resist it, keeping from all appearance of evil. Idleness makes thieves. Those who will not work, expose themselves to temptations to steal. Men ought to be industrious, that they may do some good, and that they may be kept from temptation. They must labor, not only that they may live honestly, but that they may have to give to the wants of others. What then must we think of those called Christians, who grow rich by fraud, oppression, and deceitful practices! Alms, to be accepted of God, must not be gained by unrighteousness and robbery, but by honesty and industry. God hates robbery for burnt-offerings.
Gospel Jn 6:24-35
Confusion seems to abound in this passage. Except that in John confusion is as much a literary device as is symbolism. Each point of confusion, that is, offers Jesus a chance to redirect his audience to what is more important. First, the crowds want to know how he and the disciples got around the shore. Jesus accuses them of just wanting to eat again when they should be working for imperishable food. Implication: the spiritual reality of what happened is more important than the earthly one.
Then they want to know what kind of work they should be doing that would be pleasing to God and, presumably, grant imperishable food. Jesus answers that the only work that matters is believing in the one God sent. Implication: according to John's Jesus, it all comes down to this -- do you believe Jesus is the One who reveals God uniquely and fully?
The people then ask for a sign like Moses did by providing the ancient Israelites with manna (which is kind of interesting, since Jesus has just fed 5000 of them!). Jesus responds that it wasn't Moses who provided manna but God. Implication: you do not need and should not look for an intermediary, as God will provide bread from heaven for God's people directly.
Finally, the people ask for, even demand, this bread, and Jesus responds that he is the bread. Implication: Jesus reveals God's character and provides direct access to relationship with God, something formerly mediated by covenant, law, or leader but now is directly accessible through him.
Throughout, this scene provides something of a halting but progressive disclosure that in Jesus God is revealing God's own self most clearly and fully so that all people will have access to God or, to hearken back to John 1, so that all people can become "children of God" (1:12).
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because you have revealed them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
Amen
Act of Hope
O my God, relying on your infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of your grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.Amen.c
Act of Love
O my God, I love you above all things with my whole heart and soul, because you are all good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me and I ask pardon of those whom I have injured.
Amen.
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Sunday July 29, 2018 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 110
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Kgs 4:42-44
A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing to Elisha, the man of God,
twenty barley loaves made from the firstfruits,
and fresh grain in the ear.
Elisha said, "Give it to the people to eat."
But his servant objected,
"How can I set this before a hundred people?"
Elisha insisted, "Give it to the people to eat."
"For thus says the LORD,
'They shall eat and there shall be some left over.'"
And when they had eaten, there was some left over,
as the LORD had said.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The eyes of all look hopefully to you,
and you give them their food in due season;
you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
Reading 2 Eph 4:1-6
Brothers and sisters:
I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace:
one body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.
Gospel Jn 6:1-15
Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes
and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip,
"Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
"Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little."
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?"
Jesus said, "Have the people recline."
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
"Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted."
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves
that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
"This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Kgs 4:42-44
1) Today's text begins not with scarcity but with generosity. It begins with the announcement that a man from Baal-shalishah comes bringing "food from the first fruits." The text does not provide his name, only mentioning the village he comes from. There is no indication of any obligation on the part of this man to provide food to Elisha nor any mention that Elisha is in need of food.
The giver arrives without explanation. And it is the gifts that are described: "twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain." This is a generous amount! It is not hard to picture, to smell, and to savor the taste of this pile of fresh bread and grain, or to recognize the labor that went into producing them.
2) A second surprising act of generosity then takes place: a sharing of these tasty foods. Elisha decides to share these first fruits with others and instructs "Give it to the people and let them eat."
3) The picture suddenly changes and the generous pile of barley loaves and fresh ears of grain suddenly seems quite small when the servant in charge of administering Elisha's instruction reveals there are a hundred people to feed. The servant's question makes it clear that the eating is to include everyone. How can the giving be accomplished with equity?
4) There is nothing magical about the food that is being discussed in this passage, but there is something unusual. It is described as "food from the first fruits." In the Israelite calendar, the first fruits marked the end of the harvest. The offering of "first fruits" acknowledged that the land and its produce belonged first of all to God. That reality was to serve as a reminder of God's providing and as a curb against selfishness and greed.
The "food from the first fruits" is a holy offering (Leviticus 23:20). According to the festival instructions, it is to be delivered to the priest who is to offer it before the LORD. In 2 Kings 4, however, it is brought to the prophet Elisha who instructs that it be offered to the people. The people will dine on the LORD's meal.
5) While the delivery of the first fruits to Elisha could be viewed as a protest against the religious establishment at Gilgal, nothing in the text makes that connection. Nor is there any objection to this redirection of the food offering (unlike the objection to Jesus plucking grain on the Sabbath in Mark 2:23-28). Instead, there is a surprising third act of generosity. Elisha repeats the instruction, "Give it to the people and let them eat," adding, "for thus says the LORD, 'They shall eat and have some left.'" And it was so. The source of this abundance is God. The LORD feeds the people with the LORD's own food.
A miracle occurs in this story: a sack of grain and twenty barley loaves feed one hundred people, with food remaining. It is a miracle:
The passage depicts the miracle of daily existence: human community and holy living are dependent upon the abundant providing of God, human generosity and willingness to share, and attention to equity.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18
The main subject of Psalm 145 is the eternal kingship of the Lord.
The psalm contains a comprehensive expression of praise for God as heavenly king. Perhaps this is why the psalm’s superscription designates it as a “song of praise” (Tehillah). Psalm 145 is the only psalm to be identified this way. The Talmud recognizes its unique identity as a song of praise by saying, “Everyone who repeats the Tehillah of David thrice a day may be sure that he is a child of the world to come”. What the Talmud surely recognizes is that Psalm 145 invites the believer to praise God in ways that acknowledge God’s exclusive prerogative as ruler of the cosmos and God’s unique care for those who seek him. This central set of concerns is expressed in verses 10-18.
Psalm 145 is an acrostic poem. Each successive verse begins with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostics were perhaps composed for ease of memorization or to make the theological point that what is expressed in the poem aims to be comprehensive. The acrostic style creates a somewhat artificial structure. Nevertheless, the psalm has two distinct points at which the psalmist invites praise of God. In the first verse the psalmist declares “I will extol you, my God and King,” thus giving personal witness to the intention to praise. Then verse 10 expands the voice of praise to “all your works” and “all your faithful.” Hence, verse 10 marks a second beginning of praise in Psalm 145. The initial “I” voice in verse 10 speaks on behalf of all God’s creatures and all God’s people with a similar promise of praise: “All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you.”
A key question about verse 10 concerns the identity of “your faithful.” Does this expression refer to a special group within Israel (e.g. “those who love him,” as opposed to the wicked; see v. 20), to all the Israelites, or to some broader constituency? Although the psalm does not make the identity explicit, the pairing of “your faithful” with “all your works” would seem to argue for a broad identity. Even if the faithful ones who speak God’s praise do not designate an expanded, inclusive group, however, their praise sends word of God’s grace to all people (v. 12). The message, if not the messengers, includes all who turn to God. The only criterion for inclusion is need recognized and expressed.
An important part of the theology of Psalm 145:10-18 is the location of the psalm in the Psalter. It appears as the last psalm before the final doxology (Psalms 146-150, tied together by “Praise the Lord” at the beginning and end of each). As the final psalm in the last Davidic collection in the book (Psalms 138-145), Psalm 145 is also the last word of David in the Psalter. Here David speaks and praises God, and his praise in turn introduces the praise-filled conclusion to the Psalter in Psalms 146-150. At the center of David’s praise, verses 10-18 declare that “your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations” (v. 13) and “the Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings” (v. 17). In other words, God as heavenly king is faithful in a way that no king of Israel ever was, and God’s kingdom of righteousness endures forever, in contrast to the Davidic monarchy that could not last. Perhaps most remarkably, David himself delivers this message. David appears here (as Moses earlier, in Psalm 90) as mediator for and guide to Israel from across the ages. He points the Israelites who have known humiliation and defeat at the hands of the Babylonians to the kingdom of God rather than to the kingdom of David’s descendants. They will find hope and future in the heavenly King rather than in a mortal “in whom is no help” (Psalm 146:3).
It is also appropriate that this final message on the lips of David sums up much of what the Psalter has been expressing in Psalms 1-144. Namely, God is uniquely concerned for the lowly and downcast (see Psalms 1; 34; 37). As verse 14 says, “the lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.” As the psalm expresses this feature of God’s character it also presents a thorough-going understanding of God’s grace available through dependence and faith. As verse 18 proclaims, “The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.” Indeed, the main requirement for getting help from God and knowing God’s salvation is calling on him out of one’s need. In other words, God looks for those open to divine direction and help. Faithfulness is thus defined primarily by dependence.
Reading 2 Eph 4:1-6
Paul begins our section by reminding his listeners that he is a "prisoner in the Lord" (4:1). However, as Paul sees it, his frequent stays in prison are never without purpose. He does not simply refer to himself as a prisoner but as a "prisoner in the Lord" (compare 3:1). We might consider imprisonment to be a "waste" of time because it inhibits our freedom to do what we want to do. But Paul has a different perspective. Even confinement does not diminish his energy for his mission in life: to proclaim Christ. Indeed, he even reports to the church of the Philippians that his imprisonment serves to spread the gospel of Christ (Philippians 1:12-14). Perhaps there are two lessons that might be drawn from Paul's example.
First, we should never limit Christ's presence and power to places we typically regard as holy or sacred. As Paul's own situation reminds us, the power of Christ can never be constrained by a physical or social location. We might think divinity goes hand in hand with wealth, splendor, influence and comfort. But almost everything in the gospels subverts this understanding.
God shows up in a manger and not a palace. The first to hear about the incarnation are not statesmen but shepherds. Jesus is regularly accused of hanging out with sinners and then, like Paul, becomes a prisoner of the state on the way to a shameful death. And then the first witnesses of the resurrection are women, deemed by their culture to be unreliable gossips.
Second, it is worth noting that stays in prison can often hone understanding and insight. Letters from captivity (like Ephesians or Philippians) are profound meditations on the meaning of faith in the midst of suffering and exclusion.
Paul pairs the words "called" and "callings" in two different places in the passage (4:1 and 4:4). The reader is reminded of the relationship between our being called by God and the subsequent assignment of a calling in the world. The language of calling links the church with the election of Israel. God has chosen for himself (1:4) a people and this election depends firmly on God's decision. It is done "before the foundation of the world" (1:4) and it relies solely on God's gracious initiative. And the result of being called is that the faithful now have callings where they lead lives marked by humility, love and patience (4:2).
It is easy to get confused about the dual nature of a call. It is worth underlining that being called and having a calling must be distinguished but never separated. Our relationship with God simultaneously involves a relationship with neighbor or community. And these callings are multiple as it is impossible for a Christian to not be in some type of calling at all times of life.
Just as God is active in every nook and cranny of creation so God uses his people to make sure people are fed, clothed, comforted, educated, protected, etc. Proclaimers would be wise to remind listeners that a calling should not be pared down to a job or occupation. This would mean wide stretches of human experience would be outside of God's providence. God calls us not only to work but to friendship, family life, citizenship, etc. In other words, our bearing witness to the truth is grounded in a deep humility (4:2).
Gospel Jn 6:1-15
The feeding of the multitude is the only miracle story told in all four Gospels.
Perhaps this story has such a secure place in the memory of the church because of the Eucharistic themes which it carries.
While each Gospel includes this story, each also strikes distinctive notes in the telling. Only John tells us that this event takes place near the festival of Passover (John 6:4). What may seem like an insignificant detail in fact is at the heart of what the entire chapter claims about Jesus.
At the end of chapter 5, Jesus complained that his opponents did not understand or believe what Moses had written (John 5:39-47). We then are ushered immediately into a scene that not only takes place at Passover, one of the great events associated with Moses, but into a text that overflows with echoes of the Passover event. Some examples include:
Verse 14 indicates that the people have made the connections. Faced with this feeding miracle in the wilderness, they remember the promise that God will raise up a prophet like Moses, and they confess that Jesus is that prophet. But they fail to realize what this sign actually reveals. Instead of seeing in Jesus the very embodiment of God's glory, love, and Word, they see a king, a political or military figure who might serve their desires.
We ought to remember the Passover was a festival of national liberation from a foreign oppressor. It is an act of revolution to want to make Jesus king. The crowds are certainly acting on their beliefs, and acting boldly; but they have missed the point of what has happened. They see Jesus' gracious gift, but they want a glory for him that fits into their assumptions and serves their goals.
How often do we fail to see the depths of what God is doing, because we are focused only on what serves our immediate desires and needs? We fail to realize how graciously God is acting among us, for our sake and for the sake of the whole world. We only see partially and in distorted ways. We need the continuing word of Jesus, and the gift of himself, if we are to move more deeply into the glory of God. This is what the crowds need as well, though it will take all of chapter 6 to tell the story.
It is at the cross that we see the full depth of God's glory, and the cross cannot be avoided. Like the crowds in John 6, we have been fed by God's grace, fed with God's mercy and care and steadfast love; and, like them, we often fail to see what God is doing among us. We look for the "wrong" kind of Jesus, one who will simply serve our programs, our desires, and our wishes.
Jesus will have no part of this, because God is up to something far greater. Jesus comes to us as God in the flesh, the one who reveals to us the Father and draws us into the Father's love. Jesus comes across the fearful, lonely, empty, threatening times and places, and says "I am." The "I am" has come to be with us and bring us to the goal God has intended.
This divine presence means we find ourselves called, as the disciples were, to feed the hungry. Of course this means we are to provide food and clean water to so many in this world who lack those things. And of course, our resources are not sufficient for such a task. But this cannot be an excuse to refuse what Jesus' gives, and to bring it to others within the world. is no excuse not to receive from Jesus' hand what he gives, and to go into the world with this gift.
All life and all good gifts come from God. Jesus comes to open our hearts and our hands to those around us. We can do that only because he also comes to open our eyes to his own presence as the grace-and-peace-filled "I" in the middle of the storm.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
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Sunday July 22, 2018 Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 107
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 23:1-6
Woe to the shepherds
who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture,
says the LORD.
Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel,
against the shepherds who shepherd my people:
You have scattered my sheep and driven them away.
You have not cared for them,
but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.
I myself will gather the remnant of my flock
from all the lands to which I have driven them
and bring them back to their meadow;
there they shall increase and multiply.
I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them
so that they need no longer fear and tremble;
and none shall be missing, says the LORD.
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David;
as king he shall reign and govern wisely,
he shall do what is just and right in the land.
In his days Judah shall be saved,
Israel shall dwell in security.
This is the name they give him:
"The LORD our justice."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Reading 2 Eph 2:13-18
Brothers and sisters:
In Christ Jesus you who once were far off
have become near by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, he who made both one
and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh,
abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims,
that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two,
thus establishing peace,
and might reconcile both with God,
in one body, through the cross,
putting that enmity to death by it.
He came and preached peace to you who were far off
and peace to those who were near,
for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Gospel Mk 6:30-34
The apostles gathered together with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them,
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
They hastened there on foot from all the towns
and arrived at the place before them.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 23:1-6
Just as sheep need a shepherd to guide and protect them, the people of Israel need responsible leaders to provide for them. Wise leadership matters.
Jeremiah 23:1-6, which concerns shepherds and their sheep, was chosen for this Sunday in July because of the thematic connection to the Gospel reading, Mark 6:30-34, which includes a description of the crowd following Jesus “like sheep not having a shepherd.” As we will see below, this image of shepherd-less sheep provokes feelings of anxiety and concern.
Our passage issues judgment to shepherds who have not upheld their duties to their flock. Jeremiah is not concerned with actual livestock and real shepherds. Instead, the prophet is using a common metaphor from the ancient Near East to speak of human kings and leaders as shepherds to the people. The ovine imagery is appropriate since the duties and responsibilities of shepherds would be well-known to ancient readers. Shepherds are supposed to take care of their sheep. Feed them; protect them; guide them.
But the kings have not been good shepherds given that the sheep now find themselves in exile, scattered among the nations. God blames these leaders for destroying and scattering the sheep. Given the use of the plural, shepherds, we are to assume that a whole set of Judah’s kings is responsible, not just a single figure.
This judgment against the leadership brings up the question of responsibility and accountability. This passage from Jeremiah seems to want to place all the blame for the exile on the Judahite leadership (more specifically, the last few kings of Judah before the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem). But can we always blame the shepherds for the disastrous affairs among their sheep fold? What role might the sheep play also in this scattering? And how about other nations’ shepherds who have held more political and military power? The theological and ethical perspective of Jeremiah 23 is quite narrow: woe to the shepherds!
The shepherd is indeed a very biblical image. Psalm 23 uses this same imagery to speak of God as a shepherd. Shepherds take their sheep to green pastures and still waters and along correct paths. They protect them with their rod and staff in the darkest valleys. Likewise, Ezekiel 34 speaks of the leaders of Israel as shepherds and of God as the good shepherd. God seeks out the scattered sheep and rescues them from dangerous places.
Many of us today do not have intimate knowledge of these pastoral responsibilities. The metaphor of a shepherd really works only for those of us with prior biblical knowledge or livestock experience. How might we reimagine this metaphor for today? How do we speak of and imagine leadership? Similarly, many of us do not live under the rule of a king. To conceive of God as a king does not resonate as well with a people of democracy. We need perhaps new metaphors for leadership, a way to update and expand our biblical metaphors. But where shall we obtain these understandings of leadership? Should we think of God as the good C.E.O.? or the President?
God’s solution to this instance of poor leadership is forthcoming. The oracle of judgment becomes an oracle of salvation in verse 3. God takes the initiative. God will gather the flock from their scattering, bringing them back to the fold of the land of Israel, and raise up new shepherds, new leaders, for them.
Verses 5-6 then move beyond the shepherd metaphor to speak of a righteous branch. God will raise up a Branch who will reign wisely so that Judah and Israel will be saved. Jeremiah has in mind an earthly king or line of royal figures here, a future Davidic monarchy.
Finally, we get a glimpse of the characteristics of a proper leader or shepherd in verse 5: the execution of justice and righteousness in the land. The specifics of this type of wise leadership are still withheld, as these details are not a part of the rhetorical goal of this oracle of promise. Nevertheless, we have a promise of new leadership. God will begin again with the house of David to enthrone a sagacious shepherd.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6
Literary artistry. The basic facts about the psalm preach an eloquent message by themselves. There are fifty-five Hebrew words in this psalm, and unlike many psalms there are almost no repetitions. Only the Hebrew words for “Lord” (vv. 1, 6), “day” (v. 6, twice), and possibly “restore/return” (vv. 3, 6) are repeated. It’s as if the poet were given a list of some fifty words and told to write the most memorable poem in human history. Moreover, a total of fifty-five words creates a precise center (the 28th word), namely, “you,” in reference to the Lord. Thus, the thought at the very center of the poem is the phrase, “you are with me” (v. 4). Combine that insight with the closure created by the use of “Lord” in the psalm’s opening and closing phrases, and we see the portrait of the divine shepherd who is there at the beginning, the middle, and the end of our journey. By virtue of its literary artistry alone, therefore, this psalm declares that God enfolds his people so that we all are part of the flock; and yet this shepherd intimately knows the sheep in all their distinction and difference. Each one of us is throughout his or her life a unique and precious possession of God.
Historical context. Scholars have done excellent work explaining the ancient Near Eastern context of the psalm. Still, this is not an idea that every commentary discusses, and it almost certainly is not on your parishioners’ radar. Nevertheless, it is important for grasping the psalm’s meaning in its original context to know that both Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures used the shepherd image for their kings, their gods, or both. The epilogue to the famous Code of Hammurabi has that king state: “I made the people lie down in safe pastures, I did not allow anyone to frighten them.” Or in regard to the image of the banquet (vv 5-6), there is the goddess Anat who “arranges seats for the warriors, arranges tables for the soldiers.” The biblical psalmist, being well aware of this broad cultural background, is thus making an affirmation of faith: The Lord -- not a foreign god or king -- is the only true shepherd of each and every Israelite. We now hear this psalm not merely as a message of comfort on life’s journey but a theological creed spoken in the midst of our own culture with all of its earthly leaders and “gods” that can never be the Shepherd-King of Psalm 23.
Biblical theology. Finally, while many parishioners will connect this poem with the shepherd images elsewhere in the Bible (e.g., Jeremiah 23, Ezekiel 34, John 10), few will identify the echoes of Israel’s national journey of deliverance, wilderness, and emergence in the land (see especially Psalm 78:52-55). This most precious of personal psalms is about both our individual journeys and the journey of the people of God. Finally, biblical theology finds echoes of prophetic themes connecting this psalm to the covenantal standards of justice. And the poet’s sense of protection from the enemies (v. 5) moves toward a richer understanding of reconciliation through the good shepherd who tells us to love and forgive them (Matthew 5:44; Luke 22:34).
Reading 2 Eph 2:13-18
Ephesians 2:11-22 in Context
Rhetorically, Ephesians 2 lays very important groundwork for the rest of the letter. It’s helpful to see the argument in terms of concentric circles. The outer circle in 2:1-10 communicates God’s cosmic transformation of humanity from being dead in sin to alive in Christ. The inner circle in 2:11-22 begins with a “therefore” (dio), suggesting that everything said issues from 2:1-10. Here Paul focuses on the reconciliation of Jew and Gentile, which falls within God’s bigger move of reconciling humanity from sin and death to life. This social, on-the-ground-relational transformation cannot be divorced from the greater cosmic move of transferring humanity from the house of the old aeon to the new house under the lordship of Jesus Christ. God’s reconciliation does not stop with me and my own sinfulness; it aims to resurrect humanity from the palpable widespread systemic brokenness of a world caught under sin and death.
Uncircumcision and Circumcision
Verses 11-12 focus on Gentiles who had been excluded and separated. They are the “uncircumcision.” It is not that Gentiles were “not saved” -- not on the train to heaven but rather on the highway to hell. The writer describes their situation as “apart from Christ, separated from the commonwealth of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, not having hope and godless in the world.”
These verses provide opportunity to go in two directions. First, they provide a doorway to reorient the idea of God’s salvation. Being saved is not just “getting a ticket out of hell,” or positively put, assurance of heaven. It is a movement from one sphere of life to another. These verses remind us: salvation involves more than forgiveness of the individual sinful self; it is the integration into God’s work of redemption and reconciliation, which is strongly implied in the following verses (see also 2 Corinthians 5).
From the perspective of the author, humanity outside of God’s reconciliation exists as hopeless wanderers. It’s not that humanity apart from God has no identity or home. Humanity apart from God’s mission would not see themselves this way. But human identity outside of God’s working of redemption is about as lasting as the fog in the San Francisco bay. Sure, it’s thick and dense and a force to be reckoned with; but it will pass, revealing it was only a mist with no substance. It’s not that God has called humanity from nothingness; God has called humanity from the illusion that our stubborn insistence that we and our manufactured ways can actually bring into actualization our full identity as those made in the image of God.
The Two Have Become One
The circumcision and the uncircumcision are two separate groups within humanity according to our author. One group was considered outsiders, the other insiders with regard to covenant with God (and it was not only that Jews saw Gentiles as outsiders; from the perspective of Gentile life and religiosity, Jews were equally ignorant of God as defined by their history and tradition). This separation between the two groups was not limited to theological disposition -- to “belief”; it played out in very real ways in terms of human social relations. While it would be incorrect to say these groups of people had no interaction, it is important to understand that they did not sit at the same table together; they were not interested in sharing life. They were opposed.
This passage trumpets the good news that God has brought uncircumcision and circumcision together. One radical element of this message is that God’s unification of the two groups does not mean “uniformity.” One group does not fall under the power of the more dominant group. Rather, Paul says that God in Christ has made one humanity of the two. Gentiles do not become Jews; Jews do not become Gentiles. Rather, both Jews and Gentiles become united in Christ as Jew and Gentile. The uncircumcision are welcomed into the story of God played out through the people of the circumcision, to play their own part in the continuing story of redemption.
Gospel Mk 6:30-34
Verses 30-34 are the introduction to the "Feeding of the Five Thousand" account in Mark 6:35-44 and the incident when Jesus walked on the water in Mark 6:45-52. However, we skip over those two great stories. (I imagine these texts are omitted because they are included in Year A when Matthew 14:13-21 and 14:22-33 are read.)
Give It a Rest
In a Gospel which is so fast-paced and where so many things happen "immediately," it is a striking shift in verse 31 when Jesus tells the disciples to get away by themselves to rest. Unfortunately though, we find out that Jesus and the disciples never get their little vacation. (For Jesus, after presumably three years of ministry, he would have to die to get three days of rest in the tomb!)
It may be a small point, but we do see that the success of the disciples in their ministry is not measured simply by how much they accomplish. Having been out on their own, now they are called back to Jesus. It is the same with the Gospel. It's not a matter of how much we accomplish, but a matter of our relationship with the Lord.
Mark 6:34 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It reads, "As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd."
We've seen similar scenes in Mark. This time the large crowd impinges upon Jesus and the disciples' plan for a little rest, but still Jesus has compassion. (The Greek used here is splagchnizomai, a great word denoting sympathy, mercy, and loving concern.)
Why does Jesus have compassion on them? "Because "they were like sheep without a shepherd." That is such a poignant and powerful image, and I suspect many of us often feel like we are in that position.
In chapter 10 of the Gospel of John, this image will be elaborated with the reflection on what it means for Jesus to be the Good Shepherd. For John, it ties in with Jesus being the one who knows and is known by the sheep. Most importantly, the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
If that is the case, then what would it look like for Jesus to show compassion to these "shepherdless" sheep in Mark? You might be anticipating something like how Jesus healed their sick and took the children into his arms. But that's not what the text says here.
What does Jesus do? "And he began to teach them many things" (Mark 6:34).
The supreme shepherd leading His sheep.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Sunday July 15, 2018 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 104
THE READINGS ----------------------------
Reading 1 Am 7:12-15
Amaziah, priest of Bethel, said to Amos,
“Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah!
There earn your bread by prophesying,
but never again prophesy in Bethel;
for it is the king’s sanctuary and a royal temple.”
Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet,
nor have I belonged to a company of prophets;
I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores.
The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me,
Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD —for he proclaims peace.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and prepare the way of his steps.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Reading 2 Eph 1:3-14 or 1:3-10
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without blemish before him.
In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ,
in accord with the favor of his will,
for the praise of the glory of his grace
that he granted us in the beloved.
In him we have redemption by his blood,
the forgiveness of transgressions,
in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.
In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us
the mystery of his will in accord with his favor
that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times,
to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.
In him we were also chosen,
destined in accord with the purpose of the One
who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will,
so that we might exist for the praise of his glory,
we who first hoped in Christ.
In him you also, who have heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him,
were sealed with the promised holy Spirit,
which is the first installment of our inheritance
toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory.
Gospel Mk 6:7-13
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey
but a walking stick--
no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
They were, however, to wear sandals
but not a second tunic.
He said to them,
“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave.
Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,
leave there and shake the dust off your feet
in testimony against them.”
So they went off and preached repentance.
The Twelve drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Am 7:12-15
There are two episodes in the prophetic career of Amos, set in the northern kingdom of Israel around 750 BCE.
Verses 7-9 recount a vision of doom for Israel that he received. Verses 10-17 describe his encounter with the priest Amaziah, which results in Amos’ being banned from the temple at Bethel. These originally separate episodes are connected by their similar announcements of judgment against King Jeroboam II of Israel (vv. 9, 11). Although their tone is largely negative, they are not completely without hope, and they offer contemporary readers an opportunity for critical self-reflection.
The vision
The phrase “vision” may bring to mind the elaborate, bizarre imagery associated with Ezekiel or Revelation. Many prophetic visions in the Bible, however, are simple object lessons. (Imagine a really ominous children’s moment!) The prophet sees a single object or scene, which is either self-explanatory or comes with a brief explanation.
Bethel was the site of an ancient religious shrine (see Genesis 28:18-19) that became the chief sanctuary of the kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 12:28-33). Amos had proclaimed that the worship-taking place there was meaningless because it was divorced from a concern for economic justice, especially for Israel’s oppressed agricultural laborers (Amos 5:21-24). He even warned of Bethel’s destruction (Amos 3:14, 5:5-6). Not surprisingly, these words attract the attention of Amaziah, a priest there. He perceives Amos as a threat not only to the temple at Bethel but to the stability of the nation, because the prophet had threatened the king. These fears were not groundless; prophetic activity had played a role in political uprisings in Israel before (see 1 Kings 11:29-39; 2 Kings 9:1-10). In response, Amaziah first sends a letter to King Jeroboam reporting Amos’ role in a possible conspiracy (Amos 7:10-11). This action would not have been unusual, as royal officials (including priests) frequently reported prophetic activity to rulers in the ancient Near East. Amaziah also forbids Amos from ever speaking at Bethel again. In the process, he makes it clear that Bethel is committed to the interests of the state: “it is the king’s sanctuary, and … a temple of the kingdom” (Amos 7:13 NRSV). He attempts to discredit Amos in v. 12 by dismissing him as an outsider and implying that he only prophesies for income. (Although he prophesied in Israel, Amos was a citizen of the neighboring kingdom of Judah.)
Ironically, Amos defends his prophetic activity by denying that he is a professional prophet. The phrase “prophet’s son” in v. 14 doesn’t necessarily refer to biological descent from a prophet, but rather to membership in a prophetic guild. Candidates for public office use similar rhetoric when they claim not to be career politicians or members of “the establishment.” He warns that neither Amaziah nor his family will escape the coming disaster that God has decreed for Israel (vv. 16-17). The story ends there, without revealing what happened to either Amaziah or Amos. King Jeroboam himself died peacefully, but his son was assassinated, triggering several decades of political instability for Israel (2 Kings 15:8-31). The kingdom was eventually conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE, and many of its citizens were exiled. The original audience of Amos 7, which was written after the time of the historical prophet, would have likely made these retrospective connections.
It’s easy to cast Amaziah as the villain in this story, but closer examination reveals a more sympathetic character. No doubt he sincerely believed he was doing God’s will by supporting the ruling powers. As current trends lead many to despair about the future of the church in America, one can even admire his commitment to the security of the institution he served. Faithful leadership frequently requires Amaziah’s brand of pragmatism. And yet his investment in the status quo ultimately led him to oppose God’s transformative work in the world. This unfortunate example should force us to examine our own individual and communal commitments. Whose interests do we promote? Does working with political and economic institutions -- which no doubt accomplish much good -- give our tacit approval to their unjust actions or policies? Can we simultaneously benefit from and speak out against structures that promote violence, enshrine economic oppression, and dehumanize persons of color, women, and sexual minorities? These are complex questions, and the answers may look very different in different contexts. This story invites us to self-reflection and criticism, lest we too sacrifice our witness to secure our survival.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14
Reflecting on Psalm 85:8-13 without the first verses is akin to a liturgy that omits the call and prayer of confession, moving instead straight to the assurance of pardon.
The words are applicable alone, yet are designed as part of a whole. The psalm is a communal prayer for help and can be divided into three sections or stanzas, verses 1-3, 4-7, and 8-13. Verses 1-3 serve as a reminder of God's forgiving acts in the past, followed by pleas by the people for God's forgiveness in the present, ending with a section expressing hope for restored relationship between the people and God.
Verses 1-3 function as the call to confession reminding the people and God of God's past saving acts. God's active grace is clear in the verbs used "favor," "return," "lift," and "cover." These acts are God's alone given to an undeserving people (verse 3). The people have angered God repeatedly and in response God has relented and turned back all anger.
The second section, verses 4-7, is a cry to God for restoration now. The sinful acts of the people are not named specifically, allowing for use of this psalm in many times and places. Yet, the sins are clearly present as the people ask God if God will be angry forever (verse 5).
Many scholars see this psalm in light of the exile and this as a prayer for restoration after the exile was over. This is a possible context, but certainly not the only situation to which this prayer can apply. The pleas in this stanza are universal and, as we all know, from Genesis 3 forward, the story is a long one of sin and redemption. Over and over, the people found ways to turn from God either out of fear, lack of faith, greed, or in a search for other gods. These verses are then not about one event, but they reflect all of the times that God has restored "the fortunes" of Jacob. "Fortunes" is best understood not in terms of monetary gain, but as a restoration of the community to full communion with God.
A new voice enters at verse 8. The voice could be a prophet or a worship leader. Ultimately, it is not the person speaking the words that matter, but the message being delivered. The imperative form of the last section, give way here to the cohortative, meaning a wish for the future. The wish is a view of the world ordered by God's kingdom.
A warning within a wish for the future is not uncommon (Psalm 95:8-10). The warning serves as a reminder that the people and God have been in this place before, and the people will probably put them there again. The response to God's great forgiveness should be more than words, it involves a change in behavior. It involves remembering the warning.
The remainder of the psalm gives us a glimpse of God's kingdom. The image is of a world transformed by God's forgiveness. What if for just one Sunday, we could see and believe the power of God's forgiveness? Could we imagine the world as it should be when God sets it back in place? What if as we hear the words of assurance, the heavens open and we see the glory of God? Would we listen to the warning and change our world?
To announce God's grace and restoration is to call a new beginning into the world. Psalm 85 celebrates God's grace and offers all of us a glimpse of God's kingdom.
Reading 2 Eph 1:3-14
The Second Lesson for this Sunday is the first in a series of readings from the Letter to the Ephesians extending over seven Sundays.
Of the total verses in Ephesians (155), nearly half (75 of them) will be read during these seven Sundays.
The lesson for this Sunday begins with a lofty doxological statement concerning God the Father (1:3-6). Next, we have a brief characterization of Jesus as the one in whom we have redemption (1:7). In 1:8-10, the author again speaks about God and of what God has done in Christ. Finally, in 1:11-14 the focus is once more upon Christ.
But even in these verses there is no clear-cut division. For example, within 1:11-14, primarily on Christ, there is a clear reference to God the Father in the long phrase at 1:11b: "the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will."
The passage is filled with assertions about God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. In its "God statements," it sets forth an image of God as one who:
In its "Christ statements," the passage portrays Jesus as one whose death is redemptive -- in this case explicitly meaning the forgiveness of sins -- and whose coming into the world is revelatory; he has made known "the mystery" of God's will. In him we have gained an "inheritance" and have "the word of truth," which is "the gospel of [our] salvation."
Christ is therefore both the Redeemer and the Revealer. Of course, these are the two main functions of Christ throughout the New Testament.
Concerning the Spirit, it is the "promised" Spirit. Whether the author knows of the promise of the Spirit in the Gospel of John (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7) or simply from the promise in Joel 2:28-29, one cannot tell. In any case, the view that the Spirit would be poured out and distributed among believers in the early days of the Christian church was widely held. Both Acts and the letters of the apostle Paul testify to it (Acts 2:1-36; Romans 5:5; 8:13-16; 1 Corinthians 12:3-11, etc.).
The experience of the Spirit is a "pledge" or "down payment" for the final and ultimate redemption that is to follow. Here is a case of the "already/not yet" dynamic that one finds in the New Testament. The gift of the Spirit is the "already" of the new age of redemption, but it is only a pledge of more to come, the "not yet."
What is written about the Spirit in 1:13b-14 is similar to what Paul himself had written. He said that God has anointed us "by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first installment (2 Corinthians 1:22).
Gospel Mk 6:7-13
This week’s Gospel and the one for next week describe how Jesus sent the disciples to minister in his name and the disciples’ return to Jesus afterward. These two passages, however, are not presented together in Mark’s Gospel. Inserted between the two is the report of Herod’s fears that Jesus is John the Baptist back from the dead. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ ministry is presented in connection with the teaching of John the Baptist. Jesus’ public ministry begins after John is arrested. John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus, who preached the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God.
While we do not read these details about John the Baptist in our Gospel this week or next week, our Lectionary sequence stays consistent with Mark’s theme. Recall that last week we heard how Jesus was rejected in his hometown of Nazareth. The insertion of the reminder about John the Baptist’s ministry and his death at the hands of Herod in Mark’s Gospel makes a similar point. Mark reminds his readers about this dangerous context for Jesus’ ministry and that of his disciples. Preaching repentance and the Kingdom of God is dangerous business for Jesus and for his disciples. Mark wants his readers to remember that we, too, may find resistance as we choose to be disciples of Jesus.
Mark’s Gospel tells us that Jesus sent out the Twelve. These twelve were selected from among Jesus’ disciples and named by Mark in chapter 3. Mark notes that these twelve are also called “apostles.” The word apostle means “one who is sent.” The number twelve is also a symbolic number, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. By naming twelve apostles, Jesus shows his mission to be in continuity with the mission of God’s people, Israel.
Jesus’ instructions to the apostles are very specific. He repeats the mission that they are sent to preach and to share his authority to heal and to drive out demons. Jesus sends them in pairs, establishing his mission as a communal endeavor. Jesus also instructs them to travel lightly, without the customary food, money, and extra set of clothes. These instructions mean that the Twelve will be dependent on the hospitality of others, just as Jesus depended on others to provide for his needs.
Jesus continues to send us into the world as his disciples. But like the first disciples, we are not sent alone. Jesus has given us the community of the Church, which strengthens our life of discipleship. The Christian message can only authentically be proclaimed in and through the community of faith that is the Church. In our work with others, we build this community of faith and can invite others to share in it.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday July 8, 2018 Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 101
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 2:2-5
As the LORD spoke to me, the spirit entered into me
and set me on my feet,
and I heard the one who was speaking say to me:
Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites,
rebels who have rebelled against me;
they and their ancestors have revolted against me to this very day.
Hard of face and obstinate of heart
are they to whom I am sending you.
But you shall say to them: Thus says the LORD GOD!
And whether they heed or resist—for they are a rebellious house--
they shall know that a prophet has been among them.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 123:1-2, 2, 3-4
R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.
To you I lift up my eyes
who are enthroned in heaven --
As the eyes of servants
are on the hands of their masters.
R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.
As the eyes of a maid
are on the hands of her mistress,
So are our eyes on the LORD, our God,
till he have pity on us.
Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.
Have pity on us, O LORD, have pity on us,
for we are more than sated with contempt;
our souls are more than sated
with the mockery of the arrogant,
with the contempt of the proud.
R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.
Reading 2 2 Cor 12:7-10
Brothers and sisters:
That I, Paul, might not become too elated,
because of the abundance of the revelations,
a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan,
to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.
Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me,
but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,
for power is made perfect in weakness.”
I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses,
in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.
Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and constraints,
for the sake of Christ;
for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Gospel Mk 6:1-6
Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 2:2-5
Stubborn. Impudent. Rebellious.
These are the adjectives God uses in this address to the prophet to describe the people of ancient Israel. The descriptors certainly do not cast Ezekiel’s audience in the best light. The labels neither tell the whole story of Israel’s behavior nor provide the ethical scope for a proper theological anthropology.
It’s a one-sided characterization.
First, the adjectives remind us of that side of humanity that finds it difficult to respond obediently to God’s call. This may not be the easiest notion to preach, but we are capable of stubbornness. The prophets did not wait until Lent to remind people of this capacity.
For Ezekiel’s context, words such as “stubborn” are particularly poignant given their occurrence within his call or commissioning near the beginning of this biblical book. Our lesson today from Ezekiel 2 comes immediately after the well-known chariot vision of Ezekiel in which the prophet sees “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” (Ezekiel 1:28). Ezekiel has experienced an overwhelming divine vision and now hears a divine voice. If he is not already engulfed in the immensity of his prophetic call, our passage promises to create such a feeling. His call shall not involve preaching to a receptive audience ready for introspection and change. The prophet is called instead to a house of rebellion, a phrase unique to this biblical book.
This rather pessimistic attitude toward ancient Israel is also a result of the exilic context of the book of Ezekiel. If God is not to blame for the exile (and Ezekiel surely affirms that theological notion), then the people must be to blame. This point, of course, highlights the danger of such name-calling. While it is true that we like ancient Israel can be a stubborn people at times, it is simply not true that many events -- especially international events like the fall of nation-states, are the result of our rebellion. When attempting to make sense of their exilic situation, some prophets tended to emphasize Israel’s direct role in their demise, while ignoring the more likely political factors at play. We must be careful when speaking of rebellious houses to not misplace blame and shame. When bad things happen, it can be tempting to resort to blaming the victim.
Second, the call of God through the prophet implies that the people can respond. Although they are rebellious, they are not without hope. God holds out hope that the people will hear and respond. This implication is actually not emphasized much in this small passage from Ezekiel. Additionally, if you continuing reading into Ezekiel 3, you will find more name-calling (“the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart”) and little signal that God thinks Ezekiel’s prophecies will result in changed hearts.
Yet, the prophetic call for change still goes forth. And this prophetic message is written down and preserved. It is read and reread through the years and centuries until this very Sunday in Pentecost. The prophetic call goes forth not because there is no chance of a response. The call comes to us because we can and do respond.
Third, this passage from Ezekiel 2 connects to the Gospel reading for today, Mark 6:1-6. In the lesson from Mark, Jesus teaches in his hometown synagogue and receives a less than positive reception. In response to this rejection, he quotes a proverb: “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house”
The two readings share the idea that a prophetic voice is not always heard. Jesus identifies himself as a prophet -- standing in continuity with ancient Israel’s prophetic tradition -- who, like those earlier prophets, does not find everywhere a receptive audience. There is risk inherent in speaking for and about God. Prophets take this risk. Some will hear and respond to the call; others will be more stubborn.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 123:1-2, 2, 3-4
Psalm 123 is the fourth psalm in the collection of psalms held together by the common designation “of Ascents” in their titles (Psalms 120-134).
These psalms were probably collected for use during pilgrimage to Jerusalem or to promote such pilgrimage. The term “ascents” comes from a Hebrew root meaning “to go up.” This word appears in the last line of the Chronicler’s history as part of the report that Cyrus of Persia, having conquered the Babylonians, would allow the exiled people of Judah to return to their homeland and to worship God in the soon-to-be-rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. The word to the exiles concerning anyone who would return to Jerusalem was, “Let him go up” (2 Chronicles 36:23). Thus, “ascents” in the title of Psalm 123 denotes ascent to Jerusalem and/or to the temple on Mount Zion.
The psalm has elements of the prayers for help known elsewhere in the Psalter (e.g. Psalm 13): complaint of trouble and petition for salvation (verses 3-4) and expression of trust (verses 1-2). These features most often appear in reverse order, with complaint and petition first, followed by a statement of trust, though the present order occurs in some other psalms such as Psalm 40. The two parts of Psalm 123 hold together well, with the statement of trust and confidence serving as the foundation for the complaint and petition. For example, references to mercy in verses 2 and 3 connect the two segments of the psalm. The petition for mercy in verse 3 is related to the recognition that it is God’s nature to give it.
The psalm opens with an individual speaking (“I lift up;” v. 1). In verse 2 the voice becomes plural (“our eyes look to the Lord”) and the community voice pervades the remainder of the psalm. This shift from first-person singular to first-person plural speech probably reflects the situation of worship in which an individual spoke on behalf of the worshippers gathered (see similarly-cast prayers in Psalms 129 and 131).
Psalm 123 begins with the declaration, “To you I lift my eyes” (Psalm 123:1), which is similar to the opening of Psalm 121 (“I lift up my eyes to the hills”) and may in fact be an adaptation of Psalm 121:1. “Lifting the eyes” is an expression of anxiety and helplessness.1 In Psalm 121 the psalmist lifts eyes to the hills in search of security and protection. The psalm suggests this is found in God’s presence as experienced in the Jerusalem temple. In Psalm 123:1, however, the eyes are not lifted to God’s dwelling place in the Jerusalem temple, but to God’s heavenly abode (“enthroned in heaven”). Though the psalm appears in a collection meant for pilgrimage to Jerusalem, it identifies God first and foremost as the one who dwells in the heavens. The worshippers who prayed this prayer lived in the period after the Babylonian exile. They had experienced the vulnerability of the temple in Jerusalem when they saw it destroyed and, as a result, they placed their trust in and conceived God primarily as the one who was enthroned in the temple that could not be destroyed by an enemy.
Verse 2 contains a double simile that expounds on the opening declaration. The worshipping community “lifts its eyes” as servants look to a master (v. 2a) or as female slaves look to their mistress (v. 2b). The images connote vulnerability, dependence, and obedience. But here the notion of the “master” is transformed. The psalmist who calls on the Lord as master knows no dread or fear, only mercy. This master is one exclusively sought out for salvation: “our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy on us” (v. 2).
The psalmist seeks mercy in the form of relief from the contempt and oppression of the enemy. The notion of being held in contempt by an enemy is a common theme in the Psalter. For example, the reference to being scorned by the proud suggests a situation akin to the psalmist’s description of enemies sarcastically asking “Where is your God?” in Psalm 42:3. The language here is particularly close to that in other passages that distinguish humankind as rich and poor, righteous and wicked. Those who are speaking scornfully are “at ease” (v. 4) and are identified thus as rich and wicked. Although the psalm does not identify the enemies further, this language appears in Amos 6 in reference to those who enjoy economic privilege and oppress the poor. Both Amos and the psalmist identify the poor as righteous (Amos 2:6; Psalm 34:4-10, 19-22). The division does not suggest that material wealth itself is a mark of wickedness or that lack of it is a sign of righteousness. Rather, the language is used this way to highlight the typical attitude of dependence and humility of the poor and the common lack thereof by the rich.
Reading 2 2 Cor 12:7-10
What gives us the courage to do the right thing -- to act on what our conscience calls us to do -- when we know that we often will not be rewarded for it in this life?
Can we boldly defend the common good in the face of powerful detractors concerned solely with their own interests and agendas? And when we do speak the truth about what needs to be done in specific circumstances, can we do so with the love and forgiveness needed to bring about the justice we are calling for? These are some of the larger questions Paul grapples with in 2 Corinthians that provide a context for interpreting this passage.
The logic of double-negation
In 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, Paul asserts that we can be confident in all circumstances, whether we are “at home” or “away” from either “the body” or “the Lord.” This theme resonates with his refrains in Philippians that “living is Christ and dying is gain” (Philippians 1:21) and that in any and all circumstances -- whether in plenty or in need -- we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:12-13).
There is a logic of double-negation at work in these verses that runs throughout Paul’s letters. This logic brings to the fore the point that God’s “yes” -- God’s promise, which we receive in Jesus through the Spirit -- is far greater than all our human distinctions and circumstances (2 Corinthians 1:18-22). In Galatians, for example, Paul states that through the Spirit we eagerly await the “hope of righteousness” because “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything”; all that counts is “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:5-6). In 1 Corinthians, he makes clear that the foolishness and weakness of the cross of Christ embodies the fact that God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).
As depicted in the great hymn of Romans 8, Paul’s point with these negations is to affirm that nothing -- neither death nor life; not angels, rulers, or powers; not height or depth, nor anything else in all creation -- can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). The love of God encompasses everything in reality. Grounded in God’s love through Christ’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s communion, we can be what we have been called to be: an open statement of truth, commending ourselves with confidence to everyone’s conscience before God, regardless of our circumstances (2 Corinthians 4:2; 13:13).
Being at home or away from the body
Is Paul not introducing yet another dualism -- another distinction -- with his talk about being “at home” or “away” from “the body” or “the Lord”? We can gain some insight on this question by taking a look at his “fool’s speech” regarding the “super-apostles” who have defamed him and abused the Corinthians with their deceptive misuse of spiritual power.
In that speech Paul refers to “visions and revelations” he experienced fourteen years prior, saying that he does not know whether they were “in the body or out of the body” (2 Corinthians 12:1-7). Paul himself has had such visions and revelations, which may indeed have been “out of the body” experiences. In these kinds of experiences we may have a powerful sense of union with God or sense of being “at home” with the Lord. Yet Paul is very clear: those experiences are no more sacred -- no more weighted with authority -- than others.
Why? Because the only power and authority we can ultimately rely on is the sufficiency of God’s grace. Through that grace, power is “made perfect (teleitai, better translated as “reaches full maturity”) in weakness.” Indeed, our ultimate criterion is the weakness of Jesus’ suffering body undergoing all of our vicissitudes, even to the point of death on a cross (2 Corinthians 12:8; cf. Philipians 2:8).
Walking by faith not sight
In fact, all that we do in our bodies will be manifest (phanerothenai) before “the judgment seat of Christ” -- the eschatological place and time where and when Christ will judge all the living and the dead (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 2:16, 14:9-10). This reference to Christ’s “judgment seat” is not a threat but a promise. Although we live in a world where technical savvy, wealth, and power seem continually to trump God’s steadfast love, justice, and righteousness, we can be confident that the latter -- described as God’s mercies and consolation in 2 Corinthians -- will prevail in the end (2 Corinthians 1:3; cf. Jeremiah 9:23-24).
Wherever we are, we are accountable to God -- and thus also to one another -- for what we do in our bodies, whether good or evil. And God’s grace is sufficient to give us the power to please God in all circumstances.
So being in “ecstasy” (eksestemen, taken out of ourselves) before God does not immune us from being accountable for what we do with our bodies (2 Corinthians 5:13). Rather, knowing the fear of the Lord -- that we are ultimately accountable to God and not to any other power -- frees us to speak to speak the truth and to persuade others to do the same. Well known to God, we can confidently make ourselves known to others, even as we persuade them to reciprocate by living in the same confidence and sincerity (2 Corinthians 5:11-13).
Grounded in God’s love, we can speak truth to one another -- we can risk sincerity -- even when we disagree or might be wrong. God is reconciling the entire world through Christ, in spite of anything we or others have done (2 Corinthians 5:19): God’s promises are always a “yes.” Rooted in that “yes,” our lives can be an open statement of truth -- regardless of where we find ourselves (2 Corinthians 1:20-22).
Gospel Mk 6:1-6
This is one of those instances where the lectionary disturbs the narrative flow of Mark's gospel.
Verses 1-6 of chapter 6 are really a self-contained unit, but who wants to end on that challenging verse 6? So we get verses 7-13 related to the sending of the disciples. We don't hear the rest of this story, however, until two weeks later in the lectionary when the return of the disciples is narrated in Mark 6:30.
So let’s just stick with the lectionary and deal with verses 1-6.
The reason why the people of Nazareth reject Jesus in Mark 6:1-6 has never been entirely clear to me. I am more familiar with instances where a small town celebrates, even exaggerates, the success stories of locals who have made it big.
The text suggests an initial positive reception, but somewhere in verses 2-3 everything changes. Why might this be?
The identity of Jesus is a consistent issue in Mark. In the gospel, we hear the opinions of rulers, religious authorities, crowds, disciples, and family members. For the author of Mark, the important question keeps coming around to "who do you -- the reader -- say that Jesus is?" And if you do honor Jesus as a prophet (or more than a prophet), who does that make you? Does it mean new allegiances that supersede traditional country and family values? As you answer those questions, Mark is leading you into a confession of faith.
But what about Jesus' inability to perform miracles? Apparently it caused Jesus to wonder too! A couple things to note:
Would you agree that we are living in a world that is more and more characterized by unbelief?
If so, doesn't it feel as if we are living in a Nazareth-world -- a culture that is, at best, disinterested in Jesus?
If so, isn't it utter folly to think we can change anything by preaching Christ?
In fact, isn't any Christian whose life has been transformed by Christ living defenseless in a world where security and status are calculated commodities?
We do have one thing, we have experienced the faithfulness of God in Jesus crucified and risen. So, we may marvel at the unbelief around us, but still we go forth, proclaiming and practicing our faith in Christ.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy catholic Church teaches, because in revealing them you can neither deceive nor be deceived.
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Sunday July 1, 2018 Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 98
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24
God did not make death,
nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.
For he fashioned all things that they might have being;
and the creatures of the world are wholesome,
and there is not a destructive drug among them
nor any domain of the netherworld on earth,
for justice is undying.
For God formed man to be imperishable;
the image of his own nature he made him.
But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world,
and they who belong to his company experience it.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13
R. (2a) I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear
and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the netherworld;
you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.
I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;
a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;
O LORD, be my helper.
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Reading 2 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15
Brothers and sisters:
As you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse,
knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you,
may you excel in this gracious act also.
For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.
Not that others should have relief while you are burdened,
but that as a matter of equality
your abundance at the present time should supply their needs,
so that their abundance may also supply your needs,
that there may be equality.
As it is written:
Whoever had much did not have more,
and whoever had little did not have less.
Gospel Mk 5:21-43
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat
to the other side,
a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea.
One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying,
"My daughter is at the point of death.
Please, come lay your hands on her
that she may get well and live."
He went off with him,
and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.
She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors
and had spent all that she had.
Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.
She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd
and touched his cloak.
She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured."
Immediately her flow of blood dried up.
She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,
turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?"
But his disciples said to Jesus,
"You see how the crowd is pressing upon you,
and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'"
And he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman, realizing what had happened to her,
approached in fear and trembling.
She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."
While he was still speaking,
people from the synagogue official's house arrived and said,
"Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?"
Disregarding the message that was reported,
Jesus said to the synagogue official,
"Do not be afraid; just have faith."
He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside
except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official,
he caught sight of a commotion,
people weeping and wailing loudly.
So he went in and said to them,
"Why this commotion and weeping?
The child is not dead but asleep."
And they ridiculed him.
Then he put them all out.
He took along the child's father and mother
and those who were with him
and entered the room where the child was.
He took the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum,"
which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise!"
The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.
At that they were utterly astounded.
He gave strict orders that no one should know this
and said that she should be given something to eat.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24
Recently I’ve spent more time than usual thinking about death. The main reason is that my wife and my son-in-law’s parents succumbed to cancer. It seems like one moment they were fine and moving about and living a fine retirement life and the next they totally bed ridden. My wife had prayed for years that “If this disease will strike anybody that I love,”please take it out of their body and put it in mine. Sacrificial love is the best response to death.
God, wrote the author of the Book of Wisdom, “did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living” (Wis 1:13). He is a God of life, and “he fashioned all things that they might have being” (Wis 1:14). And yet, God became man, knowing that he would suffer and die.
The Gospels, as we see in today’s reading, are full of encounters between the God-man Jesus Christ and death. In bringing the daughter of Jairus back from death, Jesus demonstrated several things: his supernatural power, his compassionate love and the orientation of his perfect and selfless will. The evangelist Mark recounts three statements made by Jesus as he was healing the young girl. The first remark was spoken to the father: “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” The second was made to the grief-stricken crowd: “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And, finally, he said to the daughter: “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” (Mk 5:36-41)
Those statements provide a marvelous catechesis of the divine response to death. First, we are not to fear death, but to have faith since death has been conquered by Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection. Second, by faith we are able to know that there is real, lasting hope beyond death, and that those who fall asleep in Christ are not dead but fully alive.
Third, we know that at the final judgment, God will reunite the righteous with their bodies: “For that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality” (1 Cor 15:53). God did not make death — it is the result of man’s sin — but he has given us a supernatural response to it.
Essential to that response is the “formula of exchange,” or admirabile commercium, which states that the eternal Son of God became what we are so that we could become what he is. This takes on various forms in Tradition, including that found in today’s epistle: “For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).
The riches of the Son, as many of the early Church Fathers pointed out, are located in his divinity, and so the riches given to us through the Son include sharing in that divinity. The blessing of eternal life in Christ, is the only true and lasting answer to death.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13
The two dominant kinds of psalms are laments and psalms of praise, reflecting the lows and highs of life. Most of the psalms in the first part of the book are laments, but these prayers usually end on a hopeful note. That hope is sometimes expressed as a promise or vow of praise.
Psalm 30 is a fine example of a text that fulfills such a vow. It is a classic psalm of thanksgiving where the speaker declares or narrates to the congregation what God has done to deliver him/her from crisis. The Hebrew term for this kind of psalm is todah, a song that confesses how God has acted to deliver. In poetic form, the psalm tells a story of thanksgiving; it narrates the divine action of deliverance that has brought forth praise.
The structure of Psalm 30 tells the story:
The opening of the psalm declares praise and thanksgiving for God's rescue from the crisis at hand and from opponents who had made the crisis more difficult. The psalmist lifts up God just as God has lifted up the psalmist.
Beginning in verse 4, the speaker addresses the congregation, the "faithful ones." They are called to join in the thanksgiving to God. Verse 5 uses powerful poetic imagery to articulate the reason the congregation should give thanks: God's anger and the resulting weeping are but a moment in the context of a life of joy and hope.
Another way to put this is that God's 'no' to the faith community always comes in the context of God's 'yes.' Night and day become symbols of God's anger and favor. The striking reversal witnessed in verse 5 is characteristic of the poetic power of this psalm; other reversals are in verses 2, 7, and 11.
Verses 6-11
The body of the psalm tells the story of the crisis, the prayer, and the deliverance. All was well in the life of this person. Perhaps he or she had come to trust in human achievement rather than in God. Suddenly prosperity faltered and he/she cried out to God for help and mercy. The pleas are in verses 8 and 10.
The petitioner's questions in verse 9 are part of this persuasive prayer to convince God to answer mercifully. Behind the questions lie the petitioner's hopes to live and praise God, a life that is only possible with deliverance from death. In such praise, the speaker will bear witness to God's involvement in the world and narrate the good news of God's deliverance.
We again find powerful poetic imagery in verse 11 to describe the rescue. Grief changes to dancing and the customary sackcloth attire for grieving is turned in for joy. The thanksgiving is for God's deliverance from the crisis and for a new perspective on life centered upon gratitude.
Verse 12
The psalm concludes with a renewed promise of praise and thanksgiving to God throughout life. With the new perspective of gratitude, the psalmist's main vocation for life is the praise of God. Renewed life is a gift from God best enjoyed in thanksgiving.
Psalm 30 narrates a story that envisions God as present in joy and in trouble, that is, in all of life. The psalm proclaims a gospel of divine involvement in the world in all of life. It is a daring act of faith to see God in all the parts of life, and our psalm with powerful poetry helps us to imagine such a reality. The psalmist strongly holds to God's providence in the midst of a crisis of life and death, and God did not leave the psalmist alone but came to deliver her/him from the crisis.
Psalm 30 is a poetic testimony. Giving testimony or bearing witness is an old tradition in Christian communities. Such words powerfully seek to draw listeners into the experience of thanksgiving so that God's providence is not limited to the speaker, but becomes part of the life of the congregation. The poetry of Psalm 30 thus becomes a compelling way to express faith in terms of prayer and thanksgiving.
Life as praise or thanksgiving would be an appropriate response to the psalm. The goal of the divine deliverance narrated in the psalm reaches beyond the rescue itself to the response of gratitude as a completion of the prayer.
Reading 2 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15
This passage fits in a larger section of 2 Corinthians (8:1-9:15) that is chiefly concerned with Paul's collection for the Jerusalem church. In Galatians 2:10, Paul indicates that concern for the poor has been a part of his ministry from the beginning. According to Romans 15, Paul views the collection as a service to the poor among the saints in the Jerusalem church (Romans 15:25-26).
Paul's collection for the Jerusalem church is a massive undertaking. Paul only mentions the contribution of the Macedonian churches in our present passage (2 Corinthians 8:1 and 9:2, 4). His previous letter indicates that he intended the churches of Galatia to participate as well (1 Corinthians 16:1).
The instructions in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 imply that the church has raised questions about how to collect their contribution. Paul's directions in that letter suggest that the Corinthians are eager to participate. The apostle appeals to this zeal in 2 Corinthians 8:10-11 and encourages them to finish what they started a year ago. Ultimately, it seems that the Corinthians made some contribution because Paul acknowledges in Romans 15:25-26 that he will deliver to Jerusalem the collection from Macedonia and Achaia (where Corinth is located).
Before Paul reminds the Corinthians of their commitment to the collection, he boasts that the Macedonian churches have given generously (2 Corinthians 8:1-5). In fact, Paul uses language that characterizes their action in a superlative fashion. The Macedonian believers have undergone a severe test of affliction, yet their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity (8:2).
According to Paul, these saints, though suffering themselves, begged to give to this collection for the poor. If the Macedonians, who have suffered terrible affliction, have given so great a gift, then the Corinthians can surely give as generously.
In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul gets more mileage out of the Macedonian success story by shaming the Corinthian church into acting. Perhaps the apostle is anticipating that some in the Corinthian church might now be opposed to contributing to this collection. After all, the relationship between Paul and this community has recently shown signs of strain (2 Corinthians 2:2-4; 7:1-13). Paul worries that the Corinthians will be humiliated, if some from the Macedonian church come to Corinth with Paul, and the collection is not ready. He reminds the church again that they have promised to participate and that the collection should be a willing gift (2 Corinthians 9:5).
Before he resorts to shaming them directly, he reminds the believers that their actions to support the Jerusalem poor demonstrate the earnestness of their faith (2 Corinthians 8:8). Paul reframes the whole collection as the gospel enacted. In 2 Corinthians 8:9, Paul retells the good news through the lens of generosity. Christ gave up extraordinary riches so that others might receive the abundant wealth of God's grace.
Indeed, there is plenty of evidence that Paul thought of the collection as more than an act that remembered the poor. There were surely poor people in the churches of Macedonia, Galatia, and Achaia. Though Paul seems devoted to remembering the poor -- especially those in Jerusalem (Galatians 2:10), this collection is more than an offering.
In Romans 15, Paul gives further rationale for why he would encourage all the Gentile believers to help the Jerusalem church. According to Romans 15:27, Paul believes that the Gentile saints are in debt to the Jews: "for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings."
According to Paul, it is through Israel, and particularly through the majority of Israel's trespass of not recognizing God's work through Jesus, that salvation has come to the Gentiles (Romans 11:7-12). The Gentiles are, therefore, indebted to Israel. The collection connects these two communities and becomes an outward manifestation of Paul's eschatological vision that Jew and Gentile will praise God together with one voice (Romans 15:1-13).
These Gentile churches are collecting money for believers in Jerusalem whom they have likely never met. Furthermore, based on the frustration Paul expresses in Galatians 2 over the exclusive dining practices of some of the Jerusalem leaders, it is not clear how well these Gentiles would have been welcomed by the Jerusalem saints. Yet, this offering binds the Jerusalem community to the Gentile believers who are now serving as benefactors. To use Paul's language, this collection shows the believers' indebtedness to one another and ultimately to the God who is working among them.
Paul is clear that he is not calling the Corinthians to give to the point that it hurts. They share in responsibility to care for their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem, just as their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem share in caring for them (8:14). It is hard to establish any form of "equality" (8:14) if one party has nothing because it has given up everything.
Instead, the Corinthians are the ones who have means. The Corinthians are urged to give generously with the knowledge that God has already provided abundantly for them for this very purpose: "And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work" (9:8).
Gospel Mk 5:21-43
The text at hand is one of those two-for-one deals where one story is used to frame another, and they mutually interpret each other.
Look for both differences:
Prior to the events described, Jesus had been on the far side of the Sea of Galilee where he had encountered the Gerasene demoniac. Now back in Jewish territory, Jesus faces potentially dangerous situations again, both from being crushed by the crowds and being infected with ritual uncleanness.
I suppose a preacher has to say something about this uncleanness business. Safeguards are placed around such matters and given a ritual context involving priests and sacrifices, but it is also a matter of plain common sense. If a body is oozing, flaking, bleeding, or dead, you probably don't want to touch it. Being unclean, therefore, is going to leave you socially isolated.
However, the situation is complicated. After all, the woman, clearly unclean by the standards of Leviticus 15:25-27, is mixed up in the press of the crowds around Jesus. The 'dead' girl is surrounded by family and friends.
I realize how tempting it is to focus on this story as an example of holistic, social healing which reintegrates a person into community and restores one to family. I also suspect we do so because we are quite hesitant to promise miracle cures
In the central story, Jesus does not seek out and restore the woman. She's the one who takes the extraordinary and prohibited initiative in touching Jesus.
English translations attempting to provide a clear and understandable story obscure the dramatic way the scene is described. In a more literal rendering, you should hear the string of participles that build up, finally culminating in the woman's action: "And a woman--having been bleeding for twelve years, and having suffered greatly from many physicians, and having spent all she had, and having benefited not one bit but rather having gone from bad to worse, having heard about Jesus, having come in the crowd from behind--touched his cloak." Jesus stops and makes a scene, while the disciples get testy with Jesus and his seemingly futile desire to know who touched him.
It reminds me of the scene in Genesis 3 after Adam and Eve have eaten the fruit and are hiding from God. God takes an evening stroll in the garden and calls out, "Where are you?" It's not that God is unaware of their location. Rather, the question offers an opportunity for Adam and Eve to come forward and come clean. God will do a similar thing again in Genesis 4 when asking Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
In those cases, the truth comes out in nuanced parcels or is avoided altogether. In Mark 5:33, however, "The woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth."
The whole truth! This seems to me to be a good preaching approach. What does it mean for this woman to tell the whole truth? Is she confessing something about her plan and her confidence in Jesus? Is she telling the truth about herself? I imagine her saying something like, "I was desperate, and you were my last hope."
What are the consequences of this woman speaking the truth? Jesus responds with three affirmations:
But even Jesus, rather than compassionately sharing how he feels Jairus' pain, basically tells him to buck up and keep the faith. Arriving at Jairus' house and the distressed commotion of the grieving family and friends, Jesus tells them to knock it off, because the girl is only sleeping.
The distraught crowd promptly responds by laughing at Jesus. I'm not sure which stage of grief that reflects, but Jesus is surely the one still in denial.
Jesus' next empathetic move is to kick them all out except for the parents and his chosen disciples. He takes the girl's hand (remember, touching a corpse makes you "unclean"), and with a couple simple words restores her to life.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
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Sunday June 24, 2018 - Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
Lectionary: 587
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 49:1-6
Hear me, O coastlands,
listen, O distant peoples.
The LORD called me from birth,
from my mother's womb he gave me my name.
He made of me a sharp-edged sword
and concealed me in the shadow of his arm.
He made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me.
You are my servant, he said to me,
Israel, through whom I show my glory.
Though I thought I had toiled in vain,
and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,
yet my reward is with the LORD,
my recompense is with my God.
For now the LORD has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb,
that Jacob may be brought back to him
and Israel gathered to him;
and I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15
R. (14) I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.
O LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and when I stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,
with all my ways you are familiar.
R. I praise you for I am wonderfully made.
Truly you have formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother's womb.
I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works.
R. I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.
My soul also you knew full well;
nor was my frame unknown to you
When I was made in secret,
when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.
R. I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.
Reading 2 Acts 13:22-26
In those days, Paul said:
"God raised up David as king;
of him God testified,
I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart;
he will carry out my every wish.
From this man's descendants God, according to his promise,
has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus.
John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance
to all the people of Israel;
and as John was completing his course, he would say,
'What do you suppose that I am? I am not he.
Behold, one is coming after me;
I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.'
"
Gospel Lk 1:57-66, 80
When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child
she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,
and they rejoiced with her.
When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother said in reply,
"No. He will be called John."
But they answered her,
"There is no one among your relatives who has this name."
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, "John is his name,"
and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors,
and all these matters were discussed
throughout the hill country of Judea.
All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,
"What, then, will this child be?"
For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.
The child grew and became strong in spirit,
and he was in the desert until the day
of his manifestation to Israel.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 49:1-6
Who is the servant in these readings? Jacob, Babylon and earlier as chapter 48 drew to a close, the identity of the Servant remains open. Cyrus is no longer a possible candidate so the role of Servant defaults to Israel. At the end of chapter 48 the voice of an individual prophet emerges for the first time in 48:16b, "And now the Lord GOD has sent me and his spirit." The Spirit that earlier anointed the Servant of Isaiah 42:1 now commissions an individual prophet to fulfill the role of the Servant. It will be this individual who will speak as the Servant of Yahweh throughout chapters 49-53 and will fulfill the role of the Servant spoken of earlier in chapters 40-48.
Both Isaiah 42:1-6 and 49:1-8 describe the Servant as ministering to the nations (42:1; 49:6), teaching the coastlands (42:4, 49:1), caring for justice (42:3-4; 49:4), and serving as a light to the nations and a covenant to the people (42:6, 49:6, 8). Just as 42:5-9 is a commissioning speech, so too 49:1-3 functions in the same manner. The one key development in chapter 49 is that the Servant, who is clearly identified as Israel (49:3), will now have a ministry to his own kin. The Servant is commissioned to "bring Jacob back to him" (49:5) and "to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the survivors of Israel" (49:6). His ministry is not merely to liberate the nations, but to revive and restore his own people.
Israel as God's Servant has not been faithful to its role as God's elect nation (cf. 48:1-2). Israel as God's Servant is called to open the eyes of the blind (42:7), but is itself plagued with the same problem: "Who is blind but my servant, or deaf like my messenger whom I send? Who is blind like my dedicated one, or blind like the servant of the LORD?" (42:19).
The prophet commissioned in chapter 49 is not a replacement of Israel as God's Servant, but is commissioned to call Israel back to be faithful to its vocation as a light to the nations. God's Servant is to be concerned for the local as well as the global. As important as it is to reach the nations, it is oftentimes the case that it is easier to reach out to strangers halfway across the globe than to one's own family or neighbors. The people of God are never to neglect their own kin as exemplified by Jesus' own willingness to go to Nazareth and Jerusalem.
It appears that the radical transformation announced as a new exodus in Isaiah 40-48 was not completely realized by the Israelites who returned home to rebuild their Temple following 538 B.C.E. Many Israelites refused to return, preferring their life in Babylon to the challenging task of rebuilding a desolated homeland. The prophet-Servant of Isaiah 49-53 is charged with the difficult task of persuading a reluctant and obstinate people to embrace a dangerous mission. As evidenced in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the returnees would face opposition and oppression from within and without the Judean community. Isaiah 49-53 captures the progression of resistance the prophet-Servant experiences. He first encounters an unresponsive audience, then experiences confrontations and insults, and eventually endures violence and death.
Second Isaiah makes clear that Servanthood involves prophetic ministry in the tradition of Jeremiah and the psalms of lament. Like Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5), the Servant is called to prophetic ministry while in his mother's womb (Isaiah 49:1). Unlike Cyrus who wields a literal sword and bow, the weapon a prophet employs is his preaching (Isaiah 49:2; cf. Hosea 6:5; Jeremiah 23:29). Like Jeremiah, faithfulness to one's prophetic vocation may result in rejection and opposition, resulting in the prophet to question his call to ministry (Jeremiah 20:7-18).
Observe that the lament of the prophet in 49:4 recalls the complaint of Israel in Isaiah 40:27-31. In that text Israel accuses Yahweh of disregarding the "right" or justice (mispaṭ, 40:27) of Israel and for this reason they have grown faint and lost strength (koaḥ, 40:29, 31). In Isaiah 49:4 the prophet-Servant complains to Yahweh, "Though I thought I had toiled in vain,
for nothing and for naught spent my strength,
Yet my right is with the LORD,
my recompense is with my God."
In contrast to this self-evaluation, Yahweh is much more positive in his assessment of his Servant. In 49:3 Yahweh states that he will be glorified in his Servant, such that in 49:5 the prophet can claim, "I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and my God is now my strength." Humans do not possess the means to properly assess their own ministries and achievements; only God can do so.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15
Psalm 139 combines praise of, appeal to, and wisdom meditation on God who knows all and who encompasses all. The psalmist admits to God, in effect, "You know where I live," which is to say, God can get at me as God wills and there is no place to hide. Normally, for us, the "I know where you live" line is seen as threat, and that certainly can be the case with God as well. Can this possibly be good news? The psalmist obviously hopes that it is, but only because he, like the lectionary, can draw this intensely personal plea into the whole story of Israel with God. This is precisely not the Athenians' "unknown god" (Acts 17:23) -- or any other generic deity, from whom we would almost certainly want to keep our address and phone numbers unlisted. Can you trust an unknown God?
The psalm is like others that understand God as a kind of final court of appeal to whom one can turn when unjustly accused (e.g., Psalm 7; 26; 69). This is not some claim of being without sin (see, e.g., Psalm 69:4-5), but rather a case-by-case insistence that those "wicked" who now accuse me of particular wrongdoing are simply wrong, or perhaps even unjust persecutors. So, "Search me, O God, and know my heart" (Psalm 139:23) -- an appeal that can only be made out of trust in a known God, a God of justice, a God who liberates those wrongly held captive, a God of mercy and steadfast love.
The one praying is hemmed in by real enemies, real injustice, real "terrorists" -- that is his claim -- and the appeal is to a God who will not and cannot let that stand. Thus, search me and know me! Of course, on another day (or in another sermon) the psalmist and the listener might come to understand that the appeal to "see if there is any wicked way in me" (verse 24) might turn up things they would rather not have uncovered; but even then the God of this psalm is one to whom one could then flee in hope of mercy.
In Psalm 139, though, the psalmist must not flee to God, God comes to the psalmist. There is no place to flee (verse 7), and in these verses the psalm becomes a meditation on God's amazing and incomparable "God-ness" (not unlike the meditations of Job) and a hymn of praise to the God who knows not only Samuel and Nathaneal but "me." The psalm proclaims a relationship with God that is profoundly personal, but never private. God knows me, cares about me, seeks me out, formed me in my mother's womb, knows me heart and soul, knows my anatomy inside and out -- but this is not "my" God as in a God of my choice; this is Yahweh, a God with a name and a history, the God who chooses Israel and me, the God who sent Jesus, the God who calls me not only to look within but to look without to see others wrongly accused and to call them brothers and sisters.
A surprising turn in the psalm is its insistence that even Sheol -- the grave, death itself -- cannot separate me from God. Elsewhere, the Psalter thinks it can (Psalm 6:5; 30:9; 88:4-6) -- not because there is a limit to God's power and grace, but because there simply is no "there" there -- nothing with which God can relate. Death is death, so, prior to a doctrine of resurrection, I am just gone. Job, too, worries that even his "hope" will be lost if he succumbs to the invasive nothingness of death (Job 17:11-16); but our psalmist retains that hope. "God be at mine end, and at my departing," he would be able to sing (almost certainly "he" in those days), anticipating the joy that comes with the morning (Psalm 30:5), where "neither death, nor life...nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).
The psalm writer does not know all the details of Paul's confession, does not yet know Easter, but he knows God -- more, he knows that God knows him -- so he is willing to open himself to wherever this God is taking him, confident that there can be no separation.
Reading 2 Acts 13:22-26
Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it. Now for a time of about forty years He put up with their ways in the wilderness. And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land to them by allotment. After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior; Jesus.”
“After John had first preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not He. But behold, there comes One after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.’ Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death. Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.”
Gospel Lk 1:57-66, 80
She brought forth a son: The promise was fulfilled just as God said it would be. God always keeps His promises.
b. They rejoiced with her: This fulfilled Gabriel’s promise recorded at Luke 1:14 (many will rejoice at his birth).
In those days “When the time of the birth was near at hand, friends and local musicians gathered near the house. When the birth was announced and it was a boy, the musicians broke into song, and there was universal congratulation and rejoicing. If it was a girl, the musicians went silently and regretfully away!”
c. They would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias: Both Zacharias and Elizabeth knew the name of the child had to be John, according to the command from the angel (Luke 1:13).
d. They made signs to his father: They treated Zacharias as if he were deaf, not mute. This must have been constantly annoying to Zacharias.
e. His name is John: Now, Zacharias responded in total faith. It wasn’t “I think his name should be John.” For Zacharias, this was recognition of a fact, not a suggestion.
i. Even though he had failed before, God gave Zacharias a second chance at faith. He gives the same to us today.
ii. “This was a return from the point of unbelief, and the exercise of will in the appointed way.”
f. Immediately his mouth was opened: Just as Gabriel said, Zacharias could speak again. He spoke, praising God. It was fitting that Zacharias’ first words were praise to God. His chastisement for disobedience had not made him bitter. Instead, it made him want to trust God all the more, at every opportunity.
The child grew and became strong in spirit: The promise of God came to fruition in John’s life. John was in the desert till the day of his manifestation because that is where God trains many of His prophets.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Sunday June 17, 2018 Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 92
Reading 1 Ez 17:22-24
Thus says the Lord GOD:
I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar,
from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot,
and plant it on a high and lofty mountain;
on the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it.
It shall put forth branches and bear fruit,
and become a majestic cedar.
Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it,
every winged thing in the shade of its boughs.
And all the trees of the field shall know
that I, the LORD,
bring low the high tree,
Sunday June 10, 2018 Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 89
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 3:9-15
After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree,
the LORD God called to the man and asked him, "Where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden;
but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself."
Then he asked, "Who told you that you were naked?
You have eaten, then,
from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!"
The man replied, "The woman whom you put here with me--
she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it."
The LORD God then asked the woman,
"Why did you do such a thing?"
The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it."
Then the LORD God said to the serpent:
"Because you have done this, you shall be banned
from all the animals
and from all the wild creatures;
on your belly shall you crawl,
and dirt shall you eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
R. (7bc) With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the Lord.
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption
and he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
Reading 2 2 Cor 4:13—5:1
Brothers and sisters:
Since we have the same spirit of faith,
according to what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke,
we too believe and therefore we speak,
knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus
and place us with you in his presence.
Everything indeed is for you,
so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people
may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.
Therefore, we are not discouraged;
rather, although our outer self is wasting away,
our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this momentary light affliction
is producing for us an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison,
as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen;
for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.
For we know that if our earthly dwelling, a tent,
should be destroyed,
we have a building from God,
a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in heaven.
Gospel Mk 3:20-35
Jesus came home with his disciples.
Again the crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,
for they said, "He is out of his mind."
The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said,
"He is possessed by Beelzebul,"
and "By the prince of demons he drives out demons."
Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables,
"How can Satan drive out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself,
that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand.
And if Satan has risen up against himself
and is divided, he cannot stand;
that is the end of him.
But no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property
unless he first ties up the strong man.
Then he can plunder the house.
Amen, I say to you,
all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be
forgiven them.
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will never have forgiveness,
but is guilty of an everlasting sin."
For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."
His mother and his brothers arrived.
Standing outside they sent word to him and called him.
A crowd seated around him told him,
"Your mother and your brothers and your sisters
are outside asking for you."
But he said to them in reply,
"Who are my mother and my brothers?"
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,
"Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 3:9-15
Since God seems not to know where the humans are, does this mean God is not omniscient? When the human explains he was afraid because of his nakedness, does he not know that God will find this strange? How did the human even know there is something to fear in being naked?
God asks the sensible question: How did you know you should hide? Not waiting for an answer, God drives immediately to the suspicion that the knowledge of good and evil has come into the human: "Have you eaten from the tree...?"
This story is hard to hear without centuries of built-up prejudices ruling the interpretation. In order to let the gospel rise to the surface, we have to expunge the ideas that this story tells us the woman is inferior and the snake is despicable. How can we do that?
Rather than seeing this story as depicting necessary dualism between human and divine, human and nature, good and evil, knowledge (bad) and ignorance (bliss), we might notice the harm that comes from such simplistic readings. Seeing the story only through the structures of oppositions leads to divisive and untrue views of creation.
1) The story does not say the woman is a vixen for suggesting that the fruit should be eaten nor is she inferior to the man. If we see the woman in Genesis 3 through the view of her creation as the "helper" (Genesis 2:18), and we define "helper" as a subordinate creature (i.e., he initiates; she obeys or follows), we ignore the more generous interpretation offered by the word "helper" when it is used to refer to God.
2) We might note that this story shows us the possibility that truth does not come only from the divine but from what God has created: the snake, the tree, and the initiative -- the daring -- of the woman in taking a risk.
3) Try shedding the notion that the "fall" story is about sin -- especially sexual sin -- and the shame of the naked body. Try the notion that gaining the knowledge given by the forbidden tree allows the humans to differentiate themselves from the rest of nature. This self-image is necessary for stewardship and care of creation. It also opens the opportunity to know God's goodness in clothing them (Genesis 3:21-22). Once the human beings have shown themselves willing to transgress the boundaries of God, nakedness becomes frightening, since even the boundaries of their bodies no longer seem secure. Blame is their response to fear of vulnerability rather than shame.
4) See what difference it makes to reinterpret the snake's qualities. The Hebrew word for "cunning" is arum which can also be crafty and prudent (Proverbs 12:16) and clever (Proverbs 12:23; 13:16; 14:8; and 22:3). We speak of cunning in negative terms while clever is positive. The snake did not simply cause disobedience but put an end to uncritical obeisance (respect, homage, worship, adoration, reverence, veneration, honor, submission, deference). Consider whether asking a question is evidence of evil, for that is what the snake, in fact, does. Asking what God really said is not the symbol of demonic powers but, rather, using one's intelligence.
5) This Genesis story sets the stage for the vocation of the faithful. In the garden, when confronted with their fear [of nakedness, of vulnerability, of non-differentiation from animals because they are not yet clothed], the humans seek to place blame on someone other than themselves. The adam (creature of dust) blames the woman, and the woman blames the snake. As a story depicting human reaction to threats, this scene is perfect. What, if not blame others, do humans exercise when they are attacked? What, if not oppression of the foreigner, do nations initiate when scared? We have come a long distance from the beginning of this scene. No longer is creation simply a garden in which the creator walks in the evening breeze. Trouble has appeared.
Jesus' way is markedly different from that of the humans in Genesis 3. Jesus re-defines kinship, saying that his family is neither based in biology nor comprised of people like himself: fellow rabbis and theologians. His family are those who do "the will of God." He challenges the expected structures of relationship and of power, creating community out of relationships centered in God. The Old Adam and the New Adam stand in stark contrast. Jesus "refuses the idolatry of security."6
It remains for us humans to acknowledge our fear and, clothed with the garments of God's care for us, to see how we might respond with our weaknesses rather than by asserting power over others. How might such a posture alter our relationships with Earth (and even snakes!)?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
The lament of Psalm 130 is familiar to our hearing and our living. The psalmist cries out to God from “the depths” (verse 1), from the darkest abyss of human suffering. That abyss takes different shapes in individual and communal human life, but we all have had or will have some experience of it.
Grief, depression, illness, poverty, abuse -- any of these experiences, and so many more, can plunge us into a darkness so deep that it can feel almost like death. That the abyss, the pit, the deep, is so centrally and universally a part of human life is reflected in the Psalms’ repeated reference to it. Augustine, in his exposition on this psalm, likened the abyss to the belly of the whale in which Jonah was trapped: Jonah’s abyss was deep in the water, in the yawning center of the whale’s body, tangled in the “very entrails of the beast.”
In verses 1 and 2, that cry is a demand to be heard, an insistence that God listen to the voice of torment: “Pay attention to my suffering, and for heaven’s sake, have mercy on me!” Often such a demand issues from a sense of God’s absence in the depths. Pain, whether physical, psychological, spiritual, or some combination, can be so isolating that we feel abandoned to our misery, even by God.
But the careful structure of Psalm 130 indicates that the demand here issues not from a sense of abandonment but from a certainty that God will hear. The writer cries out from the sure conviction that God cares. Verse 5 states that the psalmist trusts in the promises that God has made and waits for their fulfillment, and twice in verse six the psalmist describes his or her soul as waiting for the Lord “more than those who watch for the morning.” This phrase may refer to those who, after a night of prayer, receive confirmation of God’s redemption with the new light of dawn. The psalmist is asserting that he or she lives with even greater certainty of God’s attention than these.
Is this the pious boasting of a holier-than-thou jerk, eager to show us up in the faithfulness department? Actually, this text is a careful statement about God’s character, not the psalmist’s, and the key to this understanding is found in verses 3 and 4. “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.”
The psalmist is not asserting the power of God’s judgment or even the extent of human sin, as these verses are often read. The writer is telling us that God is not the kind of God under whose judgment the sinner withers. Rather, “there is forgiveness with God,” as verse 6 states. Forgiveness, in other words, is who God is. This Psalm is about the very character of God, which remains steadfast even in the abyss. God is not to be feared because of the wrath of God’s judgment, but God is revered because “with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem” (verse 7). God’s unchanging love is the essence of who God is, and God’s power is precisely the power to redeem.
It is this God, the writer argues, the God who is mercy and love, who will redeem the people. In similar laments, like Psalm 25:6, the psalmist must call upon God to remember God’s mercy. Not here. He the writer calls on us to remember that God is mercy. We need this reminder especially in the depths of misery. Augustine says that Jonah’s prayer, uttered from the depths of the whale’s body, was not contained by that body. Jonah’s prayer “penetrated all things, it burst through all things, it reached the ears of God.”
Even the prayer that issues from the utter abandonment of human suffering reaches God’s ears, is heard and answered by the God whose very being is love. What’s more, Augustine continues, that love not only hears, but becomes a companion who leads us on our way. God hears the cry from the abyss, meets us in the depth of our pain, and accompanies us in and through it, sharing in our suffering and leading us toward the light of God’s redemption.
The sad truth is that human beings can be downright ignorant in the depths. The deepest suffering not only can tear at our flesh and our hearts, it can strip us of all that makes us who we are, such that we feel that our very selves are lost. To someone in this state, whose stolen self is unable to issue the prayer for God’s hearing, what does Psalm 130 offer?
Together with the gentle companionship of others who have known suffering and redemption, the words of Psalm 130 can be a healing balm to the shattered soul, offering assurance of God’s endless mercy, and of the divine companionship that will remake all that is broken. Psalm 130 issues a calling to the assembled to claim for each and all of us the vast mercy of God and to companion one another through and out of the myriad abysses we each and all encounter.
Reading 2 2 Cor 4:13—5:1
Within the context, Paul's words illustrate his profound faith in God's salvation type acts. For a God who can defeat death itself, frail mortal bodies are no challenge to God's power. Instead, God demonstrates God's power in choosing mere mortals to bear witness to divine glory. With so great a God working among the Corinthians, there is no need to allow the sufferings of the present age to deter them from testifying to God's new creation.
Paul's Risky Mission
Paul's life is certainly not an illustration of a health and wealth gospel. The apostle is no stranger to suffering. At the beginning of this letter, he makes reference to severe affliction experienced in Asia (2 Corinthians 1:8). In 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, the apostle recounts beatings, shipwrecks, and other near-death experiences to demonstrate the danger of his mission and the sincerity of his faith. Furthermore, the passage under study immediately follows a catalog of hardships that illustrate human frailty (4:8-12). All these hardships exemplify that "death is at work in us" (4:12).
The stakes are high in Paul's mission. Both death and life are at work. Though death is making small victories -- afflicting, perplexing, persecuting, and striking down (4:8-10), God has already defeated death by raising the Lord Jesus. This same God "will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence" (4:14).
Certitude in God's Power
Underlying the entire message of 2 Corinthians -- and indeed Paul's whole gospel -- is the apostle's certitude in God's power. God made Paul a minister (3:4-6), and it is by God's mercy that Paul has survived numerous hardships (4:1). God is a God of consolation (1:3-7) and reconciliation (5:18-21).
God has chosen mortal bodies in which to display God's power. God is in the act of transforming bodies that are so fragile and vulnerable that Paul likens them to jars of clay (4:7). According to Paul, the reason that God has chosen such fragile vessels is to make clear "this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us" (4:7). The good news is only possible because a powerful God is at work.
It is God's spirit that dwells in us and transforms mortal bodies. If the holy law (Romans 7:12), that could not bring life, brought fleeting glory to Moses' face, how much more lasting glory will God's life-giving Spirit bring to those who love God? (2 Corinthians 3:7-11). This mighty Spirit is working to transform mortal flesh and to bring life (4:11-12).
The apostle's certitude in God's power gives him strength to face any hardship. Since Paul has faith that God who raised Jesus will also raise up those who are in Jesus (4:13-14), he can say with confidence, "We do not lose heart" (4:16).
In 2 Corinthians 4:16, Paul acknowledges the frailty of our human existence. In the context of this passage, the "outer nature" is subject to all the sufferings of this present age -- beatings, shipwrecks, afflictions, and trials. This outer nature is aptly paralleled to earthen vessels that, by their very nature, are subject to weakness (4:7).
Paul can express hope in the midst of adversity and can subject his body to physical and emotional hardships because he knows with all certainty that God will rectify his body. The Spirit's very presence is his assurance that God is at work creating life and redeeming all creation (5:5).
Building from God
Paul contrasts the transient nature of the "earthly tent" with the eternal nature of the heavenly building from God (5:1). Heaven is the very locus of God's new creation. Paul's appeal to this heavenly building is similar to Paul's reminder in Philippians 3:20 that "our citizenship is in heaven." Though trials and hardships may come in this old age that is passing away (1 Corinthians 7:31), Paul calls the church to think in terms of God's new kingdom where death is swallowed up by life.
Unwavering Hope
Amidst real hardships and suffering, Paul expresses hope in God's work to redeem and to transform. The threat of hardship would be enough to drive most believers away, but Paul will stop at nothing to be a bearer of God's good news. He knows that the God who is at work in his mortal body is the same God who resurrected Jesus from the dead. It is in this God whom Paul places his unwavering hope.
Gospel Mk 3:20-35
So now Jesus comes home. We want to see how this story will play out in his hometown. Up to this point, even with all the excitement, the reports and the prospects have not been good. Even as Jesus continues to heal and to draw crowds and disciple followers, he has to skirt around in the border regions and escape to the mountains (3.1-19). The upshot has been that already only this far in the story the Pharisees and the Herodians conspire how they can destroy him (Mark 3:7). It is telling that the last named disciple Jesus calls is Judas Iscariot, “the one who betrayed him” -- the past tense would seem to mark this already as essentially a done deal (Mark 3:19). So when at the beginning of today’s reading we join the crowds, packed together so tightly that they can’t even get their arms free to grab some food, we sense that somebody has to do something to restore some order.
A Mess of a Family Gathering
And for that his family is ready? Yes, they come ready with restraints to shackle his body and with charges to tame his outlandish speech: “he’s out of his mind; you don’t really need to listen to him.” And the scribes from Jerusalem add a religious stamp to the charges: “he is actually in league with the demonic powers.” That should take care of any mistaken assumptions and relegate to insignificance the clamoring crowds. Those in the know have the essential facts to discount his person and his credentials. Enough said about this Jesus. The threats to the ordering of society, family, and religion have been thwarted once again.
Just more Riddles
So what will Jesus answer to these charges? He seems to offer some help to alleviate the uproar when he picks up a theme with us from the beginning; the talk is about the “kingdom” and about who has authority and power. But as usual his words are always in riddles. But to those who have ears to hear, perhaps we hope especially to us, his riddles make sense. They call us to consider deeply just what is going on here -- to rethink what the story of this Jesus might have to do with how we imagine our world and the ways of God with God’s creation. What is it that God is calling us to see and hear in this Jesus? Who is it that has the power to change our world, and how is that power going to be exercised in those of us who are called to journey along with this Jesus in this Pentecost Season?
The Risk of Blasphemy
The answers to these questions are not always so clear. They will call for a people who are aware of the risk of listening to the wrong sources, who are aware of the risk of joining in the wrong words whose error becomes so much blasphemy. In this Jesus the Spirit of God is at work. That much has been signed at the beginning, in the descent of God’s Spirit upon him at his baptism. God’s benediction on him has been pronounced; the promise is that in his journey among and with us God will be at work. To question or reject that presence and the signs of this kingdom is to risk missing out on the good news that God has in store for us in the person and message of this Jesus.
True Family and the Will of God
There are no guarantees in our hearing. Even those who have all the proper credentials -- whose blood lines would seem to link them to this Jesus, or who claim status among the leaders of the temple in Jerusalem -- are ultimately at risk for missing out on this journey. Jesus puts it very directly. It is not status but action in response to the call of God in the person of this Jesus that marks what it means to belong to his “family.” That would seem to sum it all up simple and to the point. Relationships in this family are dynamic; they flow from the encounter and response to this Jesus.
And yet, at this point in the journey, there remains a hiddenness or a mystery to it all. Relationships in this family are couched in terms of “doing the will of God.” But at this point in the story, just what that “will of God” entails is not specifically detailed. For those of us who thrive on lists, who need “things to do” to establish some comfort level, this story of Jesus will not comply with our wishes. We will have to be willing to come along for the journey. We will just have to trust this Jesus and the invitation to join him and to believe that in his company we will participate in the unfolding of the good news of God’s kingdom among us and in our world.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Sunday June 3, 2018 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Corpus Christi - The Feast of Corpus Christi is the Roman Rite liturgical solemnity celebrating the real presence of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in the Eucharist—known as transubstantiation. Two months earlier, the Eucharist is observed on Holy Thursday in a somber atmosphere leading to Good Friday.
Maundy Thursday commemorates Jesus Christ's institution of the Eucharist during the Last Supper, which is described in the Christian bible.
Some people call it Holy Thursday, others Maundy Thursday. But what does the “Maundy” in “Maundy Thursday” mean? It’s certainly not a commonly-used word or something you’re likely to hear outside the context of Easter. What did this term mean, and where did it come from?
Etymologically, the consensus is that “Maundy” comes from the Latin word Mandatum (itself from the verb Mandare), which is translated “commandment.”
Jesus gave the apostles the greatest commandment while he washed their feet.
Lectionary: 168
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 24:3-8
When Moses came to the people
and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD,
they all answered with one voice,
"We will do everything that the LORD has told us."
Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and,
rising early the next day,
he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar
and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelites
to offer holocausts and sacrifice young bulls
as peace offerings to the LORD,
Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls;
the other half he splashed on the altar.
Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people,
who answered, "All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do."
Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying,
"This is the blood of the covenant
that the LORD has made with you
in accordance with all these words of his."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18
R. (13) I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 Heb 9:11-15
Brothers and sisters:
When Christ came as high priest
of the good things that have come to be,
passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle
not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation,
he entered once for all into the sanctuary,
not with the blood of goats and calves
but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls
and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes
can sanctify those who are defiled
so that their flesh is cleansed,
how much more will the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works
to worship the living God.
For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant:
since a death has taken place for deliverance
from transgressions under the first covenant,
those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.
Sequence
Lauda Sion
Laud, O Zion, your salvation,
Laud with hymns of exultation,
Christ, your king and shepherd true:
Bring him all the praise you know,
He is more than you bestow.
Never can you reach his due.
Special theme for glad thanksgiving
Is the quick’ning and the living
Bread today before you set:
From his hands of old partaken,
As we know, by faith unshaken,
Where the Twelve at supper met.
Full and clear ring out your chanting,
Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting,
From your heart let praises burst:
For today the feast is holden,
When the institution olden
Of that supper was rehearsed.
Here the new law’s new oblation,
By the new king’s revelation,
Ends the form of ancient rite:
Now the new the old effaces,
Truth away the shadow chases,
Light dispels the gloom of night.
What he did at supper seated,
Christ ordained to be repeated,
His memorial ne’er to cease:
And his rule for guidance taking,
Bread and wine we hallow, making
Thus our sacrifice of peace.
This the truth each Christian learns,
Bread into his flesh he turns,
To his precious blood the wine:
Sight has fail’d, nor thought conceives,
But a dauntless faith believes,
Resting on a pow’r divine.
Here beneath these signs are hidden
Priceless things to sense forbidden;
Signs, not things are all we see:
Blood is poured and flesh is broken,
Yet in either wondrous token
Christ entire we know to be.
Whoso of this food partakes,
Does not rend the Lord nor breaks;
Christ is whole to all that taste:
Thousands are, as one, receivers,
One, as thousands of believers,
Eats of him who cannot waste.
Bad and good the feast are sharing,
Of what divers dooms preparing,
Endless death, or endless life.
Life to these, to those damnation,
See how like participation
Is with unlike issues rife.
When the sacrament is broken,
Doubt not, but believe ‘tis spoken,
That each sever’d outward token
doth the very whole contain.
Nought the precious gift divides,
Breaking but the sign betides
Jesus still the same abides,
still unbroken does remain.
The shorter form of the sequence begins here.
Lo! the angel’s food is given
To the pilgrim who has striven;
see the children’s bread from heaven,
which on dogs may not be spent.
Truth the ancient types fulfilling,
Isaac bound, a victim willing,
Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling,
manna to the fathers sent.
Very bread, good shepherd, tend us,
Jesu, of your love befriend us,
You refresh us, you defend us,
Your eternal goodness send us
In the land of life to see.
You who all things can and know,
Who on earth such food bestow,
Grant us with your saints, though lowest,
Where the heav’nly feast you show,
Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia.
Gospel Mk 14:12-16, 22-26
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,
Jesus’ disciples said to him,
"Where do you want us to go
and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"
He sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the city and a man will meet you,
carrying a jar of water.
Follow him.
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house,
'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room
where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
Make the preparations for us there."
The disciples then went off, entered the city,
and found it just as he had told them;
and they prepared the Passover.
While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, gave it to them, and said,
"Take it; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 24:3-8
24:3 Moses came and told the people all the Lord’s words and all the decisions. All the people answered together, “We are willing to do all the words that the Lord has said,” 24:4 and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early in the morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and arranged twelve standing stones – according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 24:5 He sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls for peace offerings to the Lord. 24:6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar. 24:7 He took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people, and they said, “We are willing to do and obey all that the Lord has spoken.” 24:8 So Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
The first two verses record the appointment of a second session upon mount Sinai, for the making of laws, when an end was put to the first. When a communion is begun between God and us, it shall never fail on his side, if it does not first fail on ours. Moses is directed to bring Aaron and his sons, and the seventy elders of Israel, that they might be witnesses of the glory of God, and that communion with him to which Moses was admitted; and that their testimony might confirm the people's faith, in this approach.
In the following verses, we have the solemn covenant made between God and Israel, and the exchanging of the ratifications; and a very solemn transaction it was, typifying the covenant of grace between God and believers through Christ.
I. Moses told the people the words of the Lord, v. 3. He did not lead them blindfolded into the covenant, nor teach them a devotion that was the daughter of ignorance; but laid before them all the precepts, general and particular, in the foregoing chapters; and fairly put it to them whether they were willing to submit to these laws or not.
II. The people unanimously consented to the terms proposed, without reservation or exception: All the words which the Lord hath said will we do. They had before consented in general to be under God's government (ch. 19:8); here they consent in particular to these laws now given. O that there had been such a heart in them! How well it would be if people would always be in the same good mind that sometimes they seem to be in! Many consent to the law, and yet do not live up to it; they have nothing against it, and yet will not persuade themselves to be ruled by it.
This is the tenor of the covenant, That, if they would observe the foregoing precepts, God would perform the foregoing promises. "Obey, and be happy." Here is the bargain made.
1. How it was engrossed in the book of the covenant: Moses wrote the words of the Lord (v. 4), that there might be no mistake; probably he had written them as God dictated them on the mount. As soon as ever God had separated to himself a peculiar people in the world, he governed them by a written word, as he has done ever since, and will do while the world stands and the church in it. Moses, having engrossed the articles of agreement concluded upon between God and Israel, read them in the audience of the people (v. 7), that they might be perfectly apprised of the thing, and might try whether their second thoughts were the same with their first, upon the whole matter. And we may suppose they were so; for their words in (v. 7) are the same with what they were (v. 3), but somewhat stronger: All that the Lord hath said (be it good, or be it evil, to flesh and blood, Jer. 42:6) we will do; so they had said before, but now they add, "And will be obedient; not only we will do what has been commanded, but in everything which shall further be ordained we will be obedient." Bravely resolved! if they had but stuck to their resolution. See here that God's covenants and commands are so incontestably equitable in themselves, and so highly advantageous to us, that the more we think of them, and the more plainly and fully they are set before us, the more reason we shall see to comply with them.
2. How it was sealed by the blood of the covenant, that Israel might receive strong consolations from the ratifying of God's promises to them, and might lie under strong obligations from the ratifying of their promises to God. Thus has Infinite Wisdom devised means that we may be confirmed both in our faith and in our obedience, may be both encouraged in our duty and engaged to it. The covenant must be made by sacrifice (Ps. 50:5), because, since man has sinned, and forfeited his Creator's favor, there can be no fellowship by covenant till there be first friendship and atonement by sacrifice.
In preparation therefore for the parties putting their seals to this covenant, Moses builds an altar, to the honor of God, which was principally intended in all the altars that were built, and which was the first thing to be looked at in the covenant they were now to seal. No addition to the perfections of the divine nature can be made by any of God's dealings with the children of men, but in them his perfections are manifested and magnified, and his honor is shown forth.
He erects twelve pillars, according to the number of the tribes. These were to represent the people, the other party to the covenant; and we may suppose that they were set up against the altar, and that Moses, as mediator, passed to and fro between them. Probably each tribe set up and knew its own pillar, and their elders stood by it. He appointed sacrifices to be offered upon the altar (v. 5), burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, which yet were designed to be expiatory (the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing). We are not concerned to ask who these young men were that were employed in offering these sacrifices; for Moses was himself the priest, and what they did was purely as his servants, by his order and appointment. No doubt they were men who by their bodily strength were qualified for the service, and by their station among the people were fittest for the honor.
Preparation being thus made, the ratifications were very solemnly exchanged. The blood of the sacrifice which the people offered was (part of it) sprinkled upon the altar (v. 6), which signifies the people's dedicating themselves, their lives, and beings, to God, and to his honor. In the blood (which is the life) of the dead sacrifices all the Israelites were presented unto God as living sacrifices, Rom. 12:1. The blood of the sacrifice which God had owned and accepted was (the remainder of it) sprinkled either upon the people themselves (v. 8) or upon the pillars that represented them, which signified God's graciously conferring his favor upon them and all the fruits of that favor, and his giving them all the gifts they could expect or desire from a God reconciled to them and in covenant with them by sacrifice. Thus our Lord Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant (of whom Moses was a type), having offered up himself a sacrifice upon the cross, that his blood might be indeed the blood of the covenant, sprinkled it upon the altar in his intercession (Heb. 9:12), and sprinkles it upon his church by his word and ordinances and the influences and operations of the Spirit of promise, by whom we are sealed. He himself seemed to allude to this solemnity when, in the institution of the Lord's supper, he said, This cup is the New Testament (or covenant) in my blood.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18
In this final section of the psalm, verses 12-19, the psalmist vows to offer up public expressions of gratitude in the house of the Lord, so full is his heart with thanksgiving for what God has done. He will lift up the cup of salvation, call on the name of the Lord, and offer up a sacrifice of thanksgiving (Leviticus 7:11-15) so that everyone will know what God has done and join the psalmist in giving God praise. The expression “cup of salvation” in verse 13 is found only here and its meaning is unclear. It may refer to a drink offering that often accompanied temple sacrifices (Numbers 15:8-10; 28) or it may be a figurative expression for drinking in the benefits and blessings of God’s salvation.
Read in the context of the passion of Christ, the psalmist’s “cup of salvation” calls to mind another cup, the cup that is poured out for us as the new covenant in Jesus’ blood (Luke 22:21). Here, at an annual Passover meal with his disciples, while remembering and rehearsing God’s mighty act in delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt, Jesus lifts up the cup and proclaims that in him, God is bringing about something new, a new redemptive work for all people.
While ours is not a political liberation like the Exodus nor a healing from sickness like the psalmist, both of these images are helpful metaphors for understanding what Christ has done for us. Sin is like a brutal taskmaster, controlling our wills and enslaving us to the selfish and evil inclinations of our own hearts. Who can deny that we do what we do not want to do and what we do not want to do, we do. Often we act in ways that damage relationships, dehumanize ourselves, and destroy shalom. Similarly, sin is like an untreated sickness that poisons our life as individuals and as communities. It robs people of the life of blessing and human flourishing that God intended for them and leads to death.
Lifting the cup, Jesus announces that the reign of sin is over. In him, there is forgiveness for sin, freedom from guilt, and a new covenant whereby we are restored to new life as God’s kingdom people. In Christ, the old has passed away; the new has come. Redemption and restoration are ours as all are now invited to drink in the benefits and blessings of the cup poured out, Jesus blood shed for us.
The significance of Psalm 116 is that it invites us to remember and rehearse how we too have been “delivered from death” by the death of our Lord and Savior and cultivates in us a posture of thanksgiving and praise for all God’s goodness to us. Whenever we celebrate the Lord’s supper, Christ holds out to us the cup that is poured out as a new covenant in his blood, inviting us to drink in the benefits and blessings of his sacrifice, to say with grateful hearts yes to God, yes to salvation, yes to dying to sin, and yes to our new life as God’s kingdom people in Jesus Christ.
Reading 2 Heb 9:11-15
The author of Hebrews (probably Paul) continues to show in our text (9:11-14) that "Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come." The previous tents of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies are now a "perfect tent" in Jesus Christ. This is a tent "not made with hands, that is, not of this creation" (9:11). The connection to the Ark of the Covenant and sacrifice of atonement is unique in the New Testament and draws us into the rich history of the "first covenant" now brought to perfection in Jesus Christ.
The perfection in Christ is now spelled out: He entered once for all into the Holy Place, “not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Greek: lutrosis) (9:12). The goat was used for the
people's sacrifice, and the calf was used for the sacrifice for the high priest and his house (Leviticus 16:5-11). Once again we have a connection to Paul in the same section in Romans: "For there is no distinction, all have sinned and sare deprived of the glory of God; They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:22-23). Christ's act of atonement (Greek: hilasterion) on the cross secures an eternal redemption. Christ has entered into the perfect heavenly sanctuary after he provided an eternal redemption, thus securing our eternal redemption by his blood/death on the cross.
The analogy to the first covenant sacrificial system has provided a remarkable way in which the author of Hebrews has drawn us into the history and meaning of the way in which the first covenant attempted to bring the gift of redemption to the people. It was not a perfect system, but it foreshadows the perfect redemption of the blood of the cross in Jesus' redeeming and atoning death.
Our text now brings us to a resounding conclusion: "For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of a heifers ashes can sanctify those who have been defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit* offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God" (9:13-14).
What is present in these words stands through all eternity! The imperfection of previous sacrifices is past. There is no more meaning to all things previous. They have had their place in the history of God's salvation for the people, but now all things are new. The blood of Christ is the complete sacrifice. In Christ Jesus redemption is accomplished.
Jesus' final word from the cross in the gospel of John is the word of fulfillment: "It is finished" (John 19:30). The Greek tense signifies that Christ's redemption has been made for all times. It is completed/accomplished/finished in the past and it remains completed/accomplished/finished into the eons of eons.
Our text from Hebrews is also the word for All Saints Day. In the gospel text assigned with this text from Mark 12:28-34, we hear the confession of the scribe who proclaims the truth of our Hebrews text. Jesus had taught him the truth of the first and second commandment, and he responds: " The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’ And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:32-33).
Jesus commends the scribe for answering wisely: "You are not far from the kingdom of God" (Mark 12:34). This unknown scribe bears witness to the truth that it is not through the blood of animals or the sprinkling of ashes by burning a red heifer that there is ceremonial sacrifice for sinful and defiled persons (9:13-14). Only through the perfect sacrifice of Christ is God's work of salvation brought to perfection or completion: "It is finished" (John 19:30). This is the word from the cross for all the saints in Christ Jesus for all eternity. Amen.
Gospel Mk 14:12-16, 22-26
Our text begins with preparation for the evening meal: "On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed" (14:12). All the imagery of this meal is present and its significance in marking the deliverance of the captive Israelites in the Exodus. There is no mistaking what this meal will signify for the life of the new community centered in the deliverance of Christ's death and resurrection.
Details of the preparation and setting for the meal are described: "So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal" (14:12-16). The first watch of the night is noted: "When it was evening, he came with the twelve" (14:17).
During the meal Jesus takes bread, blesses, breaks and gives it to the disciples with the words, " Take it; this is my body" (14:22). Jesus also takes the cup with the words, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God" (14:23-25). With these words, what could the disciples be thinking?
The meal concludes with the singing of the Hallel, and the walk to the Mount of Olives. Here Jesus notes they will all fall away and recalls prophetic words which identify the betrayal of the Son of Man: "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered." The shepherd will be struck down in crucifixion, but the promise of resurrection will gather the sheep: "But after I have been raised up, I shall go before you to Galilee" (14:28).
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Sunday May 27, 2018 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Lectionary: 165
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 4:32-34, 39-40
Moses said to the people:
"Ask now of the days of old, before your time,
ever since God created man upon the earth;
ask from one end of the sky to the other:
Did anything so great ever happen before?
Was it ever heard of?
Did a people ever hear the voice of God
speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?
Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself
from the midst of another nation,
by testings, by signs and wonders, by war,
with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors,
all of which the LORD, your God,
did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
This is why you must now know,
and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God
in the heavens above and on earth below,
and that there is no other.
You must keep his statutes and commandments that I enjoin on you today,
that you and your children after you may prosper,
and that you may have long life on the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22
R. (12b) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the Lord the earth is full.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made;
by the breath of his mouth all their host.
For he spoke, and it was made;
he commanded, and it stood forth.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own
Reading 2 Rom 8:14-17
Brothers and sisters:
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a Spirit of adoption,
through whom we cry, "Abba, Father!"
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.
Gospel Mt 28:16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 4:32-34, 39-40
In this chapter we have, a most earnest and pathetic exhortation to obedience, both in general, and in some particular instances, backed with a great variety of very pressing arguments, repeated again and again, and set before them in the most moving and affectionate manner imaginable.
They saw a strange composition of fire and darkness, both dreadful and very awful; and be a striking foil to each other; the darkness made the fire in the midst of it look the more dreadful. Fires in the night are the most frightful, and the fire made the darkness that surrounded it look the more awful; for it must be a strong darkness which such a fire did not disperse. In allusion to this appearance upon Mount Sinai, God is said to show himself for his people, and against his and their enemies, in fire and darkness together, Ps. 18:8, 9. He tells them again (v. 36) what they saw, for he would have them never forget it: He showed thee his great fire. One flash of lightning, that fire from heaven, strikes an awe upon us; and some have observed that most creatures naturally turn their faces towards the lightning, as ready to receive the impressions of it; but how dreadful then must a constant fire from heaven be! It gave an earnest look of the day of judgment, in which the Lord Jesus shall be revealed in flaming fire. As he reminds them of what they saw, so he tells them what they saw not; no manner of similitude, from which they might form either an idea of God in their fancies or an image of God in their high places. By what we see of God is sufficient ground for us to believe him to be a Being of infinite power and perfection, but no occasion given us to suspect him to have a body such as we have. What they heard at Mount Sinai (v. 12): he enlarges upon towards the close of his discourse, v. 32, 33, 36. First, They heard the voice of God, speaking out of heaven. God manifests himself to all the world in the works of creation, without speech or language, and yet their voice is heard (Ps. 19:1-3); but to Israel he made himself known by speech and language, condescending to the weakness of the church's infant state. Here was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, to prepare the way of the Lord. Secondly, They heard it out of the midst of the fire, which showed that it was God himself that spoke to them, for who else could dwell with devouring fire? God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind, which was terrible; but to Israel out of the fire, which was more terrible. We have reason to be thankful that he does not thus speak to us, but by men like ourselves, whose terror shall not make us afraid, Job 33:6, 7. Thirdly, They heard it and yet lived, v. 33. It was a wonder of mercy that the fire did not devour them, or that they did not die for fear, when Moses himself trembled. Fourthly, Never had any people heard the like. He bids them enquire of former days and distant places, and they would find this favor of God to Israel without precedent or parallel, v. 32. This singular honor done them called for singular obedience from them. It might justly be expected that they should do more for God than other people, since God had done so much more for them.
He urges God's gracious appearances for them, in bringing them out of Egypt, from the iron furnace, where they labored in the fire, forming them into a people, and then taking them to be his own people, a people of inheritance (v. 20); this he mentions again, v. 34, 37, 38. Never did God do such a thing for any people; the rise of this nation was quite different from that of all other nations. They were thus dignified and distinguished, not for anything in them that was deserving or inviting, but because God had a kindness for their fathers: he chose them. See the reasons of free grace; we are not beloved for our own sakes, but for his sake who is the great trustee of the covenant. They were delivered out of Egypt by miracles and signs, in mercy to them and in judgment upon the Egyptians, against whom God stretched out his arm, which was signified by Moses's stretching out his hand in summoning the plagues. They were designed for a happy settlement in Canaan, v. 38. Nations must be driven out from before them, to make room for them, to show how much dearer they were to God than any other people were. Egyptians and Canaanites must both be sacrificed to Israel's honor and interest. Those that stand in Israel's light, in Israel's way, shall find it is at their peril.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22
So we wait.
Sitting here on earth we wait in hope and faith. We sit with the blanket of God’s promises resting upon our laps. We stare out the window waiting for God to roll down our street in brand new Cadillac or pushing a carriage with a cooing child. We wait, we watch. What we are looking for is hard to describe. We are looking for a small bit of sustenance when the ground dries up. We are looking for a little life in a deathly world. We are listening for all those echoes of God’s promises in the world. These faint echoes that resemble and initiate what will become.
The truth is, we don’t hear these echoes as often as we’d like. Most of our life is spent waiting for another vision. Like Hannah, like Abraham and Sarah, like Israel in Babylon we rest our heads on God’s promises, but never stop waiting for them to be fulfilled. This difficult waiting is exacerbated by our finiteness which drives us to create our worlds in our own images, which is not surprising given the circumstances of our own making. Given our limited vantage and the unpredictable action of God, the Christian life requires waiting on God.
Waiting is hard. It is fitting that this lectionary passage comes during ordinary time within the liturgical season because what is more ordinary than waiting. Verse 20 sounds like the Psalmist is trying to convince herself that she is not sick and tired of waiting. The truth is, there is no school that teaches us how to wait. We convince ourselves that we have been faithful, that we are happy, and that the wait isn’t so bad, but mostly it is miserable. I hear deep need in the final verse of the lectionary passage. “May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.” Hope is no longer enough, O God, let your love break into our world and justify our hope. As the psalmist copes with waiting, she begins to remember the times when God delivered the people from danger and fed them in times of hunger (v. 18). Treks across the sea bed. Manna in the wilderness. Deliverance and sustenance. When we wait, our minds wander to those times when God delivered us from danger and provided sustenance during times of need. Times when God was our shield and our help (v 20). When we wait, we begin to remember and remembering soothes our anxiety and renews our hope.
In North America and elsewhere, the outdoor trails of our parks and forests are marked with blazes. Blazes are small directional signs that assure the traveler that he or she is on the right path. The hike requires following the blazes. But the blaze is not the destination, just the marker. Hikers are bound to leave the approaching blaze in the past. The marker is a reminder that you are on the right trail and that while you might not see another marker for a while, it will show up. Indeed, if you travel far and don’t see a marker, it is time to backtrack and remember where the last time you saw a marker. The trail marker is not just reassurance that you are on the right path, it is also a reminder that the trail is bigger than any one person. The steadfast love of God is not just a reassurance that God has chosen you as God’s heritage, but also a reminder that our finitude limits our perspective. The finite always have to wait until they see the next blaze.
So we wait.
Reading 2 Rom 8:14-17
For many Christians, the Holy Spirit remains a puzzle. The other members of the Trinity, the Father and the Son, are better defined. But there is much confusion about the Spirit. Questions like the following are likely to be in the minds of listeners: Just what does the Holy Spirit do? How would I know if the Holy Spirit is involved in my life? It might be helpful, using our text in Romans as a guide, to describe the work of the Holy Spirit under the following headings.
The Holy Spirit Points to Christ
Often when people speak of the Holy Spirit they associate it with an extraordinary or spectacular event. We tend to let stories like the tongues of fire that appeared on the heads of the apostles (Acts 2:3) or the dramatic conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus define our understanding of how God works in the world. And there is little question that many acts of God are astonishing.
But just as notable is the way God works in a mundane manner. When Paul speaks of the power of the Spirit in our verses he points to our inclusion in God’s family. The Spirit makes us “children of God” (8:14) and so intertwines our lives with Christ that we now understand God as a Father or even a “Daddy” (as Abba might be translated -- see 8:15). In addition, Paul suggests we are now “heirs” with Christ (8:17). In other words, all that the Son shares with the Father (peace, life, righteousness) has now been bequeathed to us as well.
In most cases the Holy Spirit usually does not try to draw attention to itself but rather works on us to strengthen our relationship of faith in Christ. This means the Spirit is very busy indeed. In our stumbling attempts at faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit is at work, overcoming our own desire to be in control. When we seek comfort, the Spirit reminds us of Christ’s seeking of the lost sheep and his forgiveness to a betrayer like Peter. When we need correction, the Spirit calls to mind Christ’s injunction against the love of money or the need to forgive -- even those we classify as enemies.
Those who wonder about the Spirit’s presence in their lives need only look to their struggling faith in Christ and they will find plenty of evidence. Left to our own devices, we wander far from the source of light and truth. But the Spirit has other plans. God’s Spirit continually reaches out to embrace and encourage us.
The Holy Spirit is a Gift
The Holy Spirit is not something that resides in us or is under our control. There is such a thing as the human spirit, of course. This is the source of our imagination and creativity. It enables poets, painters, writers to practice express their gifts and it inspires magnificent works in literature and art. But when we attach the word “Holy” to the word “Spirit” we move beyond the human realm. We are now speaking of God and a force beyond human manipulation. Similar to the wind, the Holy Spirit is not something we can manage or direct (Acts 2:2).
The Holy Spirit Means Trouble
This might strike people as a bit odd. After all, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the “helper” (John 16:7). Furthermore, we are told the fruits of the Spirit are things like peace and joy (Galatians 5:22-23). And it is true that to be in a relationship with Christ (the chief task of the Holy Spirit as explained above) does bring a peace that passes all understanding. But those joined to Christ in faith by the Spirit are also returned to the world in lives of self-giving love.
The first thing the Spirit does after descending upon Jesus in his baptism is to drive him out into the desert for a frightening encounter with the devil (Mark 1:12-13). Think about that … the desert … a place traditionally identified with temptation and trial. People should be cautioned about associating the Holy Spirit with “playing it safe” or material abundance. As a wise, older pastor once told me, the “Spirit brings us to where the pain is.”
In fact, our text from Romans assumes that those who are part of God’s family will also experience difficulty. As joint heirs with Christ “we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17). Paul’s point is not that we go out and seek suffering. That would turn suffering into a “good work” and simply be another attempt to manipulate God to our own ends. Nor does our participation in suffering mean that we are somehow in the midst of the Spirit’s work.
For example, I do not believe that God wishes things like depression for his children. However, those caught up in the Spirit, that is, those joined to the radical love of Jesus Christ, should not be surprised that it leads to conflict, struggle and trouble. After all, the Spirit not only drove Jesus to the desert; it also propelled him on a ministry that would eventually lead to a cross.
Gospel Mt 28:16-20
Readers today often interpret this passage as a directive to evangelize others. After all, the imperative verb is right there: “make disciples of all nations…” (28:19). Although Jesus uses the formula “Father and Son and Holy Spirit,” Trinitarian theology as we know it took many centuries to develop. Reading it backward into this first century Gospel may not be appropriate.
But if we only read this passage as a manifesto on evangelism, we may be missing out. The passage is also a strong statement of the authority of the risen Jesus. The word “therefore” in “Go therefore and make disciples” suggests that the action of making disciples results from the previous verse: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 20:18). Jesus’ instructions result from the authority he possesses.
Because of this, it is fitting to reflect on this passage on Holy Trinity Sunday. The risen Jesus, fully vested with divine authority, stands before his disciples with one final teaching.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). Jesus’ authority has been apparent from the outset of the Gospel. His healing powers testify to his authority over demons and sickness. He casts out demons “by the Spirit of God,” which is evidence of the presence of God’s kingdom (12:28). The power of God’s Spirit comes into the world through Jesus as he shows compassion to those who need him (9:36; 14:14).
Jesus also has the authority of the Son of Man. Many interpreters identify the authority of Matthew 28:18 with the dominion given to the human one in Daniel 7:13-14: “I saw one like a human being [Aramaic: one like a son of man] coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.” Because Matthew has already identified Jesus as the Son of Man, the authority given to Jesus evokes this scene from Daniel, in which the human one comes to have authority over all.
As the Son of Man, Jesus already displays the divine authority to forgive sins. He heals a paralyzed man not only for the man’s sake but “so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Matthew 9:6). Because the power to forgive resides with God alone, the scribes think Jesus has committed blasphemy. But Matthew presents Jesus as the one who rightly claims this authority because he is the Son of Man.
Jesus’ instructions connect his authority to the topic of baptism. Although baptism has not been mentioned since Matthew 3, in that context John the Baptist connected Jesus’ authority to judge with baptism. John pointed to one “more powerful than I” who “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (3:11-12).
Jesus’ instruction to baptize in Matthew 28:19 calls to mind the baptism “with Holy Spirit and fire” that John foretold. In recognition of the divine authority Jesus possesses, his followers are also to be marked through baptism -- not in John’s name or the Spirit’s name alone but “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19). The Son is evoked alongside Father and Spirit to identify the power that acts in baptism. It is a baptism that fully acknowledges the authority the Son possesses.
Finally, Jesus’ authority as a teacher comes through in these verses. The disciples should teach others “to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Jesus is the source of commandments that disciples should obey.
Matthew’s aim was not to convey a fully developed Trinitarian theology but to spread the good news about Jesus. Part of that good news is that Jesus fully shares the authority of the Father and the Spirit. He is a powerful healer, judge, and teacher, because his power is the same divine power known throughout the stories of the Old Testament. Through this power, those who become disciples may experience his mercy and learn to live by his teachings.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Sunday May 20, 2018 - Pentecost Sunday - Mass during the Day
Lectionary: 63
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:1-11
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.
At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
"Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?
We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
How manifold are your works, O LORD!
the earth is full of your creatures;
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD be glad in his works!
Pleasing to him be my theme;
I will be glad in the LORD.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13
Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Gospel Jn 20:19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:1-11
Today’s lectionary passage begins with the one hundred twenty gathered together. Luke then describes the coming of the Holy Spirit as the sound of a rushing wind, an apparition of tongues resting on each, and the gift of the ability to speak in other languages. The narrative turns next to the outsiders who witness this spectacle. These include immigrants to Jerusalem from all over the Mediterranean basin. Exegetical notes
When the day of Pentecost had come: Although contemporary Jews commemorate the holy gift of the Law, Torah, at Mt. Sinai on Shavuot, it is not clear whether the ancient harvest festival carried that meaning in Luke’s day. Whether or not it did, Luke’s narrative serves as a Christian appropriation and reinterpretation of the festival day.
…there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind: comprises one long sentence describing the coming of the Holy Spirit. This is no gentle inbreaking. The spirit comes suddenly, even violently upon the gathered. Fiery tongues appear and settle on each of them. Luke makes no distinction here, with regards to gender, as he will in other parts of Acts. Then the gathered begin to speak in “other tongues” as enabled by the spirit. The later verses in this passage clarify that these are known languages of the Mediterranean basin, rather than the spiritual language that Paul calls glossolalia in 1 Corinthians 12-14.
Now there were devout Jews: Acts 2 focuses on the growth of belief in Jesus among Jews, not among Gentiles as will be the case in Acts 10. Moreover, these are not pilgrims to the harvest festival; they are immigrants, inhabitants of Jerusalem (Acts 2:5). Their homelands encircle Palestine in all directions (2:9-11). Further, they have mother tongues other than the languages of Palestine (Acts 2:8, 11). This points to the cultural diversity of Jews of Luke’s day, likely caused in part by various diasporas (Jews living outside of Israel).
All were amazed and perplexed: Here, “amazed” should be considered a less than pleasant emotion. This is not the joy of a child seeing a magic trick. These have gathered because they also heard the violent wind (Acts 2:6). Their sentiment is closer to bewilderment; they are flummoxed by all of the signs and portents. Some, of course, mock the happenings as a scene caused by people drunk on new wine (2:13). Luke uses their question “What does this mean” to launch into Peter’s speech.
In Luke’s telling, Pentecost engenders fear and bewilderment rather than celebration. The parallel here is to the eschatological day of the Lord. Pentecost is both its forerunner and, paradoxically, its fulfillment. The Holy Spirit proves not to be a quiet, heavenly dove, but rather a violent force that blows the church into being (Acts 2:41-47). That church consists mainly of immigrants, people of different languages and cultures with different mother tongues (Acts 2:5, 9-12, 14). To these, the message goes forth, a message of the coming of the Day of the Lord, full of heavenly portents and prophetic women, slaves, and men. But in the midst of the chaos of Pentecost rests an anchor. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
This reading from Psalm 104 is a case in point.
A quick glance at the text reveals a three-part structure:
The Wonders of Creation (24-26)
In the portion of the Psalm that precedes this reading, the Psalmist has offered an extensive catalogue of the many things that God has created. Accordingly, we have the exclamation of verse 24, "How manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures." It is, in one sense, a summary of what came before.
Nevertheless, the crowning example of the sea and its most awesome creature (Leviathan) serves perfectly well to illustrate the point without reference to those earlier verses. What God has created is awesome beyond the comprehension of mortals.
No ancient Israelite could even begin to claim full comprehension of the sea, with its vastness, unpredictability, and dangerous power. Indeed, despite all the efforts of science and exploration that lie between the ancients and our own time, the sea remains in many ways mysterious and in all ways uncontrollable.
The claim here is that God created and therefore has dominion over not only the sea but even its most dangerous and terrifying inhabitant, the whale/sea monster Leviathan. If there are such incredible wonders in the creation, the power, wisdom, and skill of the creator must be even more incredible.
Dependence upon Providence (27-30)
A natural question arising from looking at the near-infinite diversity of creatures is, "How do they all find what they need to survive? How can the world provide for so many different needs?"
The Psalmist turns the improbability of the world furnishing a suitable niche for so many different creatures into another theological observation: it all depends on the providence of God. Whatever lives, says the Psalm, is receiving life, breath, and sustenance from the hand of the Creator. And if that providing hand were ever to be closed, no creature could survive.
The existence of life, then, is an argument for the providence of God!
Praise the Lord! (31-35)
While one might well be tempted to focus on the Pentecost connection mentioned above as the culmination of the treatment of the Psalm, it would be a mistake to disregard the Psalmist's chosen conclusion. The movement from contemplation of the creation through recognition of God's providence must, in the logic of the Psalter, lead to praise.
The proper response of the creature to the Creator is always one of reverent celebration, and the recognition of how extensively God has provided and sustained us is cause for the Psalmist to break out in joyful superlatives.
Praise should come forth "as long as I live," and "while I have being." The Lord's glory is so clearly shown in his creation and providence that the creaturely life must be one of thanksgiving and praise. How else could one respond to such a God?
Seeing the wonders of creation and providence doesn't just encourage us to say, "Wow! God is pretty great." Instead, they demand that the blight of sin be removed, so that the creation may be entirely what God intends it to be.
In Jesus Christ, God has indeed dealt decisively with the blight of sin, not by slaughtering sinners, but by redeeming them. This good news should set off an even more exuberant round of praise than the Psalmist's! But no better beginning could be made to such news than that which closes the Psalm, the first "Hallelujah!" or "Praise the Lord!" of the Psalter.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13
What does it look like to be people of Pentecost, to be those claimed by the Spirit?
In the cultural buffet that is offered under the sign of “spirituality,” this passage from 1 Corinthians makes some important claims about the Spirit through which the church lives, and about the shape of faithful spirituality.
Paul’s discussion begins in verse 3 by insisting that the undeniable sign of the Spirit’s activity will be confession of Jesus as Lord. The Spirit brings faith itself, and specifically faith focused on Jesus as Lord.
This is a radically inclusive claim. As far as the Spirit is concerned, there will be no room for the categories that culture might use to divide the haves from the have-nots (“Jews or Greeks, slaves or free,” verse 13). By the very nature of faith as a divine gift, the Spirit has been and continues to be active in all who confess Jesus as Lord.
Paul indicates how to understand the Spirit’s activity in the church by his identification of the Spirit’s work through the believers as “gifts.” The root of this word points to the nature of these gifts: the gifts (“charismata”) are the result of God’s grace (“charis”). The gifts of the Spirit are the active, experienced instances of God’s grace at work in the church. All believers are given such gifts of the Spirit (notice “everyone” and “each” in 6b-7a).
To be gifted by the Spirit is not something that happens to some believers but not to others. Paul never gives us the impression that he expects some people in the church to be the ones who are ministering, and that there are others who are simply ministered to because they haven’t been given any of the Spirit’s gifts.
It isn’t quite right to simply equate talents with “gifts of the Spirit” either; there is something more involved than simply talent. Paul’s central point about these gifts is made in verse 7, where he notes that these gifts are given to each for the good of the whole church. This allows room for us to rightly identify as gifts of the Spirit those talents that are informed by, summoned by, and “energized” by the Spirit for the good of the church.
We are not talking about being “gifted” individuals who have the talents required to get ahead and earn a good salary or the admiration of others. Paul wants the Corinthians to adopt a new way of looking at spirituality by seeing these abilities as a means through which God is at work with grace and mercy for the whole community. It is that dynamic which transforms talents into gifts of the Spirit. When, by God’s grace and power, talents are reoriented away from us and our own interests and when they become vehicles for God’s love, they are truly the Spirit’s gifts to the church.
Believers are not simply individuals who are empowered and gifted by the Spirit. They are interconnected parts of a single body, and it is to this image that Paul turns near the end of our passage. Others in Paul’s culture used the image of the body to strengthen the hierarchy of society. Philosophers and politicians said that human society was like a body, which had to have a head that told everything else what to do. Of course, the elite rich get to be the head (or the stomach!), and the poor need to keep working as the hands and feet.
Paul overturns this common use of the body image. He questions any assumption that some members of the body are more important than any others. In the body of Christ, behavior will not be determined by concern for honor and status, but by what builds up the whole body, by interdependence, and by love. The work of the Spirit, correctly understood, will result in a unified body of Christ, not in competition or division, since we all receive life and growth from the same flowing baptismal grace (verse 13).
Gospel Jn 20:19-23
Fear colors the scene, as Jesus' followers have secured themselves from the authorities (that is the referent of the problematic expression "the Jews" in 20:19). Note, then, the importance of the language that introduces Jesus' commission: "Peace be with you." Jesus gives peace not "as the world gives" (14:27); he gives peace that provides solace in the face of persecution, a promise of new possibilities, and confidence in his ability to overcome "the world" (16:33). (In this Gospel, "the world" usually indicates a hostile and ignorant response to the truth that Jesus embodies.)
Recalling the moment when God breathed life into the original earth person in Genesis 2:7 (cf. Ezekiel 37:9), Jesus breathes the Spirit of life into (not merely "on") his followers in John 20:22. A new creation is afoot. This creation does not replace "the world." It engages it.
"Forgiving" and "Retaining" Sins
The final verse requires some attention, because many people experience "the Johannine Pentecost" like this:
It is imperative that we make sense of this verse in light of all that has come before it. Too many mistakes have been made in the past by those who have read John 20:23 in isolation or with a sloppy connection to the unrelated words of Matthew 16:19. We must attend to how the Johannine Jesus has already characterized the problem of "sin," the role of the Holy Spirit, and the nature of his ministry. If not, we risk perpetuating a legacy of misuse and polemic that has muddied this verse across the history of its interpretation.
Jesus is not appointing the church as his moral watchdog; nor does he commission it to arbitrate people's assets and liabilities on a heavenly balance sheet.
In John's Gospel, Jesus talks about sin as unbelief, the unwillingness or incapacity to grasp the truth of God manifested in him. To have sin abide, therefore, is to remain estranged from God. The consequence of such a condition is ongoing resistance. Sin in John is not about moral failings; primarily it is an inability or refusal to recognize God's revelation when confronted by it, in Jesus.
Consequently, the resurrected Christ tells his followers (all his followers) that, through the Spirit that enables them to bear witness, they can set people free ("set free" or "release" is a better translation than "forgive" in 20:23) from that state of affairs. They can be a part of seeing others come to believe in Jesus and what he discloses.
Failure to bear witness, Jesus warns, will result in the opposite: a world full of people left unable to grasp the knowledge of God. That is what it means to "retain" sins ("retain" is the opposite of "set free"). Jesus is not--at least, not in this verse--granting the church a unique spiritual authority. He is simply reporting that a church that does not bear witness to Christ is a church that leaves itself unable to play a role in delivering people from all that keeps them from experiencing the fullness that Jesus offers.
Jesus Lives
Receiving the Spirit, the church receives Jesus. And so the church receives Jesus' own capacity to make God manifest, bringing light to the world. The Trinitarian intimacy inferred from John's presentation of these ideas is striking, but even more so is the intimacy expressed between the Divine and humanity.
Such intimacy between God and us is but one consequence of the rich Easter confession about what happens when God raises a corpse to new life. Jesus lives, yes--not apart from us, but in and through us.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord, by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Sunday May 13, 2018 - The Ascension of the Lord
Lectionary: 58
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus,
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for "the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
When they had gathered together they asked him,
"Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
He answered them, "It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth."
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, "Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
All you peoples, clap your hands,
shout to God with cries of gladness,
For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
For king of all the earth is God;
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
Reading 2 Eph 1:17-23
Brothers and sisters:
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation
resulting in knowledge of him.
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call,
what are the riches of glory
in his inheritance among the holy ones,
and what is the surpassing greatness of his power
for us who believe,
in accord with the exercise of his great might,
which he worked in Christ,
raising him from the dead
and seating him at his right hand in the heavens,
far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion,
and every name that is named
not only in this age but also in the one to come.
And he put all things beneath his feet
and gave him as head over all things to the church,
which is his body,
the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
Gospel Mk 16:15-20
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 1:1-11
The book of Acts begins by reminding its reader, Theophilus, of an earlier book -- the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:1-4), placing the reader in the midst of an extended story with Jesus at the center.
The second book, Acts, retains its links to this primal history and describes a new, equally primal history. The book also begins with a small family, brothers and sisters in Christ, living under the rule of that same empire. As the Holy Spirit empowers them, they will become Christ’s “witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The reader is welcomed into this narrative with its own miraculous events, rebirths, and prophecies that will interrupt and transform individuals and communities. From the start, these people overcome severe opposition and find the joy of life God intended from the beginning, enduring into the future.
Through the opening interchange between Jesus and the apostles, Acts reminds its readers of their grounding in a central element of history -- God created us for life and preserves us. “After [Jesus’] suffering he presented himself alive to them” (Acts 1:3). Because he has life, we have life.
If those purposes seem empty or that power seems absent, at times we serve best by waiting (Acts 1:4-5). In our current American culture, “waiting” is generally held as something to be avoided. Fast food, next day deliveries, nonstop flights, Google searches that take milliseconds, on-demand movies, text messaging, and so on all create a culture of impatience. Not that these are all bad, but Acts reminds us that the God of all time acts on God’s own time, and sometimes we just need to wait, sit, and be.
While we wait, Acts reminds us not to assume we already know what we’re waiting for. When Jesus returns to the disciples as promised, they essentially ask, “We already know what you’re going to do. When will you do it?” Although we benefit from certainty in our faith, it helps to remember that God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).
Along those lines, it is not clear that the disciples were expecting Jesus to be lifted up and taken out of sight. From the first book until now -- first surprise, Jesus is crucified; second, he is risen; third, he’s back eating and talking; fourth, he is gone again. The exact nature of what “ascension” was or how it fits with a scientific worldview -- these get no more explanation in Acts than resurrection does in the rest of the New Testament. Whatever it was, it aligns with a slender thread through scripture, found in Elijah’s chariot of fire disappearing into a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11) or possibly in Paul’s talk of someone caught up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:1-4). Luke and Acts both describe the ascension (Luke 24:50-51, Acts 1:9), along with other boundary-crossing glimpses into divine realities: transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36), the wind and fire of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13), Stephen’s pre-martyrdom vision of Christ (Acts 7:55), the complementary visions of Saul on the road to Damascus and Ananias, who welcomed him after he arrived (Acts 9:1-19), Peter’s visionary conversation with God over new dietary laws (Acts 10:9-16), and so on.
Though, as mentioned above, Acts has moments where the people are advised to wait, it is foremost a record of people and God in motion. Luke and Acts show how people, based on all that Jesus did and taught and all the Spirit empowers them to do, act where they are and wherever God calls them to go. And, so, the two men in white robes say to Jesus’ followers, “People wherever you are, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? It’s time to move.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
Since ancient times Psalm 47 has been used for worship.
It is plain to see why Christians have used it on Ascension Day. “God has gone up with a shout” (47:5) brings to mind Jesus’ ascent into heaven. “The early church used the psalm to celebrate the ascension of Jesus, a practice that is commonly followed still in the liturgy of many churches.
Long before Easter, Psalm 47 had a place in Israel’s worship. It is an enthronement Psalm, not for an earthly king but for God. In Psalm 47, the LORD reigns. Psalm 47 proclaims that God is in heaven, ruling over earth.2 The Psalm summits in verse 6: “God has gone up with a shout, the LORD amid trumpet blasts.” Some scholars have supposed that 47:6 envisions the entrance of God into the sanctuary, symbolized by the procession of the holy ark of the Covenant. In any case Psalm 47:6 “expresses the theological heart of the psalter, God reigns.”3
Psalm 47 may be divided into two sections. Verses 1-4 begin with the cue (or command) to clap, shout, and sing. Then we hear the reason for all this joy: God “subdued peoples” and “nations” and “chose our heritage” for God’s people. God made Israel into a nation with a name and a land to dwell in. “The pride of Jacob” (verse 5) refers to the land that God gave to the people, land which once belonged to other nations. In the New Testament, we find a similar expression: “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy”(1 Peter 2:10). There is a before and an after, defined by the mighty acts of God.
Next comes the (literal) high point of the Psalm, verse 6 in which “God has gone up with a shout.” This may refer to a processional in worship, demonstrating that God is enthroned in the heavens. The theological meaning is that that God rules over all nations -- indeed of the entire universe. Israel rejoiced in being God’s people, but also in knowing God as LORD of all, not just some local deity.
The second section of the Psalm, verse 6-9, continues the joy. In verse 7 alone, the people are told four times to sing. Here’s why: God is Lord over all the peoples. “God is king over the nations.” The kings and princes -- those who wield power on earth -- gather to worship God. If only we could hear this psalm instead of just read it, our ears would ring with a royal fanfare of trumpets, and the clapping, shouting and singing would be like waves crashing on the shore.
Above the joyful din come the clear notes of God’s mercy and power. In particular events in history, God is at work delivering and saving Israel. Yet in those specific acts of God, the general mercy and power of God are revealed for all nations. Since God rules overall, all who join in the worship become partakers of God’s blessings.
With this background in mind, it makes perfect sense that churches use Psalm 47 on Ascension Day. The obvious connection is that Christians applied “God has gone up with a shout” (Psalm 47:5) to Jesus being “lifted up” into the sky (Acts 1:9).
Reading 2 Eph 1:17-23
Ephesians 1:15-23 is one of the longer prayer sections in Paul’s letters.
Rhetorically, Paul’s prayer does more than just record the content of his prayer for his audience to read. It serves to (re)establish the vision for their identity and reassert the nature of the faith-life into which they have been called.
Why is Paul doing this, why does he say things in the particular way he does in Ephesians? Context would explain this, of course. But we know little about the context of Paul’s audience. It is likely that the original audience may have been broader than the community in Ephesus. Nevertheless, one clear theme is reconciliation in Christ -- reconciliation to God and consequently also to one another, reconciliation that crosses established lines Greco-Roman culture and human traditions had drawn that kept certain peoples apart. Reminding people of our rootedness in God’s reconciling action in Christ and of its very real consequences for how we live in relation to one another is something we can never wear out.
The general flow of this section can helpfully be broken up into three sections but only two are presented to us today.
Verses 17-19. Here, Paul highlights the purpose of his prayer. He remembers the community in Christ and prays constantly “in order that God … might give you all (as with 90% of the uses of “you” in the New Testament, it is plural) a spirit of wisdom and revelation … ”
Paul’s emphasis here lies on his hope that God will make known to the community God’s wisdom, riches, hope, and power. The wisdom, etc. is for the community, to be worked out as the people live and love in relationship with one another and the surrounding world.
Paul’s theological logic roots the community’s existence in what God has done; it is God who has acted for them. It is good to keep playing this tune as it is all too easy for us humans to start thinking that we can actually set the course for our own existence and believe that it is actually going to turn out well. However, if we play this tune too generically, it loses much of its power. We need to be reminded more specifically of God’s activity that establishes and defines us, and not just generically that we are free or forgiven or redeemed not by what we’ve done but because of what God has done. We need constant reminder of the transforming and upside-down to the world nature of God’s act in the crucified Jesus who now reigns as Lord of all creation. The wisdom, riches, hope, and power come through and are lived out in ways the normal systems of the world would find “foolish.”
Verses 20-23. Here, Paul elaborates on the power of God, focusing on God’s power displayed in God’s raising and exaltation of Jesus Christ.
As a conclusion to the prayer, this section builds on the previous verses that point to what God has done, and it draws focus to the wondrous glory of God that has been “energized” in Christ. At first sight, this passage seems very triumphalist. Paul specifies God’s exaltation of Christ above all things, placing all things under the feet of Christ, and appointing Christ as the head of the church, which is his body.
What makes the difference is not what Paul explicitly says here, but what he assumes. In verses 19-20 Paul writes that the power and strength which God “energizes” is the power that God worked first when God raised Christ from the dead. What gives this statement its bite is the subtle presumption that Christ’s exaltation and Lordship proceed from and are established upon his suffering and death.
The powers and dominions in our Ephesians passage are subjects paradoxically because Christ became a slave. This is, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, God’s power in weakness, foolishness from the world’s perspective, yet God’s wisdom. This is “enlightenment”: transformation through slavery, suffering, and death.
If Christ is the head, as a suffering and dying head, he is the head also of a suffering body that has died to the world’s systems. Christ’s system is not power but service, indeed, slavery in love. Paul’s prayer here in Ephesians does not proclaim victory and triumph as it had always been understood. Rather, by reminding his audience of God’s victory and triumph that comes through raising the crucified Christ, Paul reminds them of the establishment of a new order: God’s new order under the Lordship of the one who became a slave to death.
The old powers, rulers, and dominions defined by power no longer call the shots for those who are in Christ. As Paul goes on to say in chapter 2, sin and the life marked by transgression of God’s good purposes no longer have dominion. This means, as Paul will write about in most of Ephesians, that those systems of existence that kept Jew and Gentile in antagonism no longer determine life. Paul’s prayer reminds the audience of the wisdom, power, and glory of God that give birth to their new existence, an existence rooted in the one whose suffering and death reconciled the world. It is a prayer that their lives of faith active in love would be established upon and molded by this wisdom and subversive power of God. This is Paul’s prayer. Is it ours?
Gospel Mk 16:15-20
The text consists of two parts: a summary of Jesus' preaching in 1:14-15; and a call story in 1:16-20.
These two parts are connected by the sense of urgency brought on via the proclamation of the reign of God.
Mark tells us that after John was "handed over" , Jesus returned to Galilee and began to preach the gospel. One translation speaks of paradothēnai as "arrested," however, the Greek verb has a much fuller sense. It includes an allusion to John's death, for the verb paradidōmi is used in Mark and elsewhere in the New Testament to speak of Jesus' being handed over to death (e.g., Mark 14:21; Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 11:23). Consider the evidence linking these two men's deaths. Both men were prophets who offended the powers that be. Both died violent deaths. Moreover, Mark placed similar passages questioning the identity of Jesus before the account of John's death (6:14-16), and before the first of the three passion predictions (8:27-30), which suggests that he saw a parallel between the two men's deaths. As has been long observed, the cross of Jesus casts a long shadow over the Gospel of Mark. Thus, already in Mark 1:14 the mention of John's being "handed over" raises the specter of Jesus' death. For Mark, Jesus' kingdom ministry takes place, from the very beginning, under the shadow of the cross.
In 1:15 there follows a summary of Jesus' preaching. Such summaries are common throughout the synoptic gospels (cf. Matthew 4:23; 9:35). Mark appears to have constructed this summary on material from Jesus' preaching. The very fact that Mark places this summary of Jesus' preaching of the gospel after mention of John's being "handed over" may be based on tradition containing Jesus' view of history such as is recorded in Luke 16:16, namely, that "the law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed." With the end of John's ministry comes the end of one stage of history. Now, Jesus and his gospel come to center stage. Jesus' ministry is the center of all history.
The reliance on traditional material is evident in the rest of 1:15. The proclamation that "the kingdom of God has come near" (ēggiken hē basileia tou theou) is found elsewhere in Jesus' sayings (Matthew 10:7; Luke 10:9, 11). In addition, Jesus' healings and exorcisms were particularly connected to the coming of the kingdom (Matthew 12:28, Luke 11:20; cf. Matthew 10:7-8, Luke 10:9). It is possible that Jesus thought that both were true. Wherever he conducted his ministry, there God's reign was actively coming into being, even if the kingdom might not come fully until the future.
The announcement that "the time (kairos) is fulfilled (peplērōtai)" also has the ring of tradition. Luke similarly begins his account of Jesus' Galilean ministry with Jesus preaching in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth about the "year of the Lord's favor" that Isaiah had prophesied (Isaiah 61:2). Jesus then said, that time had been fulfilled (peplērōtai) in the people's hearing that very day (Luke 4:19, 21).
Interestingly, Isaiah 60:22, coming just before the part of Isaiah quoted in Luke 4, speaks of the time (Greek: kairos) when God would bring about the restoration of Israel. Possibly this is the source of the statement about the kairos in Mark 1:15. It is likely that the latter half of Isaiah lies behind Jesus' eschatological vision, and is the source of his understanding of the kingdom. Isaiah 61:1 characterizes the time of the Lord's favor as a time of preaching the good news (Greek: euaggelizesthai).
Isaiah 52:7 connects the preaching of good news with the proclamation of God's reign. Thus, the good news of the kingdom of God is that the one true God, with his life and peace and truth, is about to establish his rule over the world. All other opposing powers--whether human powers or sin or evil or death--are destined to end their rule.
The second section (Mark 1:16-20) then illustrates what the urgent call of the kingdom looks like. Jesus, walking along the Sea of Galilee, sees the two brothers Simon and Andrew, fishermen, casting their nets in the sea. He calls them to follow, and immediately, in obedience, they leave their nets and follow him. The same happens with James and John. The time is here, God's kingdom is near; there is no time to lose!
It is striking that these four men would drop everything to follow Jesus if they did not already know him. Indeed, some scholars have speculated that they actually knew Jesus, or knew about him, before he called them into discipleship. Whatever the history of the relationship between Jesus and these four men may have been, however, the story gives effective expression to the urgency of the call to discipleship.
Consider also that Mark portrays Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom coming not only as a gift ("good news"), but also with a demand ("repent"). To be sure, the indicative ("the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near") precedes the imperative ("repent and believe in the good news"). What humans do, comes as a response to God's prevenient action. Still, we must not overlook that the one who promises the kingdom to sinners is the same one who calls sinners to repentance and who calls disciples to give up all that they have to follow him. Since in Jesus everything is given to me, in Jesus everything is demanded of me. The four disciples' willingness to throw in their lot completely with Jesus illustrates that attitude.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Pray the Apostles’ Creed.
I believe in God,
the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
He descended into hell;
on the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Catholic Church,
the communion of Saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.
Sunday May 6, 2018 Sixth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 56
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
When Peter entered, Cornelius met him
and, falling at his feet, paid him homage.
Peter, however, raised him up, saying,
"Get up. I myself am also a human being."
Then Peter proceeded to speak and said,
"In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.
Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly
is acceptable to him."
While Peter was still speaking these things,
the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word.
The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter
were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit
should have been poured out on the Gentiles also,
for they could hear them speaking in tongues and glorifying God.
Then Peter responded,
"Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people,
who have received the Holy Spirit even as we have?"
He ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
or:
R. Alleluia.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Jn 4:7-10
Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.
In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sin
Gospel Jn 15:9-17
Jesus said to his disciples:
"As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments
and remain in his love.
"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you
and your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one's life for one's friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
In a vision Cornelius is told to send for Peter. Who was in Joppa. The humility of Peter is evident when he tells Cornelius to get up for he too is a human being. When Peter entered he found many people gathered together 28i and said to them, “You know that it is unlawful for a Jewish man to associate with, or visit, a Gentile, but God has shown me that I should not call any person profane or unclean.*
He speaks to the household and friends of Cornelius, a notable leader of Roman soldiers who is nevertheless described as "God-fearing" (10:2, 22). This means that he helped the poor and was also known for his regular prayer life (10:2, 32). Peter's "sermon" is startling and even destabilizing. He announces God's radical love is on the move, breaking down cherished and long-held borders and categories.
Peter begins by saying that "God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" (10:34). God shows no partiality! Think of how that statement challenges and undermines our tendency to confine God to the comfortable categories of our own "religions." In Peter's day, the inclusion of Gentiles in God's mission was profoundly controversial. Many of the original followers of Jesus could not conceive of a messiah meant for non-Jews, even though God's promises to Israel have always had universal trajectory (Genesis 12:3).
We are not that different. We tend to build our own "private" faiths, drawing lines around who is "in" and who is "out." And we get upset when people mess with our religion.
The idea that God shows no partiality has sometimes been misunderstood. This is not an affirmation of a superficial universalism. Peter is hardly claiming the modern creed of many in the West who say that God is all-loving and therefore is far above all human religions. According to this line of thinking, God simply wants us to be kind to others and is fundamentally uninterested in particular religious differences.
Our attempts to control God and keep God safely within our predetermined categories are contradicted by the early Christian preaching about Jesus. Most commentators on this text agree that Peter's speech in Acts 10:38-43 is something like an early Christian creed. At the center of this preaching is the fact that this one "anointed" by God ( the messiah) dies on a tree (10:38-39). But according to Jewish law anyone who dies this way is "cursed," literally cut off from the people of God (Deuteronomy 21:23). So early Christian preaching has God most fully revealed in the most unthinkable of places-in the execution of a criminal on a cross. By whatever measurement-religious, social, cultural--the death of the Jew named Jesus was hideous, shameful, and offensive. But because he bore the sin of the world, the cross becomes a place of forgiveness and reconciliation (I Corinthians 5:21).
God's love is now at loose in the world--this is what animates early Christian preaching. It is a wild and unruly force, winning over the hearts of centurions like Cornelius. It reverses conventional categories of who is "in" and who is "out." It eats with sinners and upholds love of enemies as a new norm. Let us be cautious about all human attempts to corral and control this power. The Holy One of Israel has a way of eluding human attempts to hold him tight. Indeed, our "gods" are too small.
Though interpretations will differ, most Christian traditions can agree that baptism is the place where God's love for them becomes personal. The danger of emphasizing a divine love that is "wild and unruly" (see above) is that it is perceived to be forever on the move and never really landing anywhere. But Acts makes clear there is a close link between baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit (10:47). And it is also true that the early mission of the church was inseparable from baptism (Matthew 28:19).
In other words, God's love takes up residence in human hearts. In baptism we celebrate the new life we have in Christ (Titus 3:5). It is also the place where we are joined to Christ (Romans 6:3-4). When assailed by doubt or overcome by despair, we can always point to our baptism as evidence that God's love has not passed us by. Paul's words ring in our ears: "For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his" (Romans 6:5).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
Did you ever try in your mind to imagine the sound of ancient musical instruments and the mindset of the ancient Israelites who played them.
Israel praised with makeshift instruments which craftsmen labored over and their sole purpose was to produce sound that would rise to the skies and be heard by God.
When they thought of God, their first reflex was Praise. Our first reflex might be far more utilitarian: We ask God for stuff, we measure God by whether God seems to be doing what we need, or else, we question God. Why does God allows this or that? Why doesn’t God fix this or that?
Praise is our best counter to evil in the world. If we are "lost in wonder, love, and praise," there is not much chance we will stumble into tawdry sin, or find ourselves jaded and cynical. Praise is the cure for despair and loneliness. If we "make a joyful noise to the Lord" (cf. Psalm 100:1), we experience a quiet in the soul, a community of love.
Psalm 98 praises the Lord "for he has done marvelous things... He has made known his victory" (Psalm 98:1-2). Weaving the universe into existence, fashioning the delicate petals on a rose, crafting massive canyons, musing in wisdom, promising eternal bliss−we could expend every minute of every day noticing some new aspect of the greatness of God.
Of course, the most marvelous "thing" God ever did was to visit us on earth. Jesus, by simply showing up on earth, by teaching, touching, suffering and rising, was and is marvelous. Jesus is the victory of God, and our only sensible response is to praise.
Reading 2 1 Jn 4:7-10
One of the best-known works of Western art is surely that section of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel which depicts God reaching down to touch Adam's fingertip and give him life. So well known is this portion of Michelangelo's monumental work that it appears not merely in art histories and coffee-table display books, but is also used and caricatured in advertising and political cartoons. Only the most jaded of tourists can fail to marvel when gazing up at the mural, so laboriously and painstakingly painted, so powerful in its depiction of the life-giving power of God. We stop, study, appraise and admire. What a masterpiece! What an artist!
In this section of the epistle, John writes, This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world (v. 9). We might be tempted to exclaim, What a masterpiece! What an artist! But "The Sending of the Son" is not simply the title of a painting that we study, admire and appreciate. Michelangelo's painting has power not just because of its artistic merits, but because we can virtually feel the life that flows from God's hand to Adam. Even so, John writes not just that God showed his love among us but that he did so by sending the Son into the world that we might live through him.
God's life-giving love, then, is the theme of this passage. As John develops this theme, he makes three important points: God is the source of all love (4:7-8); God models what genuine love is (4:9-10); and God commands us to love each other (4:11-12). We move from the assertion that God is love to the command that we are to love each other. Indeed, the whole point of the passage is to trace the relationship between God's love and human love, and to show how human love flows from God's own love. The Source of Love (4:7-8)
In exploring the relationship between God's love for us and our love for each other, the Elder makes two statements: love comes from God (v. 7), and God is love (v. 8). The second statement is more far-reaching than the first. To comprehend the sweeping character of the statement God is love, substitute the name of anyone you know--your mother, pastor, friend, a well-known Christian or hero of the faith or even yourself--for "God." Few are the people we would describe simply with the word love. Mom may be the most loving person you have known. She may have shown you what mature, self-giving, genuine love is like. But no matter how full, rich and steadfast her love, the statement "Mom is loving," can never be changed into "Mom is love." For love does not characterize her as it characterizes God.
Because God is love, love comes from God. God is the source of love. Like the electricity running through electrical wires, love comes from God to us, then flows through us to others in the community. When John exhorts his readers, let us love one another, he is encouraging them to allow God's love to flow through them. For because God is love, love must characterize those who claim to be born of God or to know God (v. 7; 3:10, 14; 4:20-21). Those who claim to be doing the will of God and reflecting God's activity in the world will be known by the love they manifest for God and for each other. This was what Jesus told his disciples (Jn 13:35).
In short, God not only gives us the command to love but has also modeled for us what true love is, just as Jesus modeled love for his disciples when he washed their feet before his death (Jn 13:1-17). Love that does not express itself concretely and in service to others is not love (1 Jn 3:16-18). But even more, God also empowers us to love. By confession of the Son whom God has sent, we are born of God and come to know God, who is love (v. 7); we are given life (v. 9); our sins are forgiven (v. 10). We come into the realm of life and love, in which we are given life and are empowered to extend the same kind of life-giving love to others. We come to know the source of love.
Gospel Jn 15:9-17
The theme of these verses is obviously love and the repeated reference to it now (5 times as verb or noun in verse 9 alone; 11 times in the lesson as a whole) clearly gives love the center stage. The effect is now to interpret the whole of the passage on vine and branches in terms of love.
Love is to be seen above all in the love of the Father as shown forth in the love of the Son. Our thoughts are intentionally directed back to the announcement of the depth of God's love for the world as evidenced in the giving of the Son. "God so loved..." (3:16). In the interconnected and unfolding message of John's gospel, it is as if every word and every passage mutually interpret one another. Using a modern analogy, one might imagine that every word in the gospel were hyperlinked to every other word in the gospel, so that "clicking" on one word necessarily explodes and expands into every other word as its commentary and frame of meaning and understanding.
The abiding relationship of vine and branches of last Sunday's lesson, which culminates in the bearing of much fruit, is now given further delineation in terms of love. If abiding is not for its own sake but has an end or a purpose, now that purpose takes shape in love. Love is the fruit of the abiding relationship of Father and the Son, just as it is of the Son and those who follow his words.
Those "words" of Jesus are characterized in this lesson as Jesus "commands" (5 times as verb or noun). Consistent with John's "just as" theology, even these commands which Jesus calls upon his disciples to keep are simply an extension of the commands of the Father which Jesus has already kept. Jesus asks nothing of his disciple community that he has not already modeled in the abiding love which he has with the Father. In this way abiding, loving, and keeping commandments are all bound up together in a mutual relationship.
Lest we miss it, the first section concludes with a direct and clear statement of the outcome or fruit of this abiding love. The commandments of Jesus are not general or scattered but focused and specific: "This is my commandment, love one another as I love you" (12). The repetition of these words again at the conclusion of the second section (17) underscores their
If love for one another is the goal of our abiding in Jesus' love, then the model for that self-giving love is stated clearly in the memorable beginning words of the second section (10-17). There is no greater love than that shown in the giving of one's life for one's friends. Though stated in general terms, the "laying down of one's life" is a pointed reference to God's giving of the Son, and in the narrative an only slightly veiled reference to and anticipation of the passion and death of Jesus on the cross. The power of God's great love in Jesus, confirmed in Easter's promise of the resurrection, always has its frame of reference and its power in Jesus' giving of his life on the cross.
Jesus now speaks of the power of that giving of life to transform the disciples' relationship and calling into a new status. These disciples are no longer to be counted as "servants" but as "friends." In the cross and resurrection they have come to know what this "greater love" has power to accomplish in them through their unity in the abiding relationship with Jesus and the Father. Jesus' words now make it further clear that the power to respond to his command to love one another comes from Jesus' own prior love and calling: "I have called you...; I have chosen you...; I have appointed you... (15, 16
The key guarantor of this abiding relationship that will usher in the fruit of love is the power of prayer. Prayer, too, is grounded in the mutual abiding relationship of Father, Son, and disciple community. The Father will give you whatever you ask in my name (16). When this promise is linked immediately with the repeated reference to Jesus' command to "love one another," it is clear that "whatever we ask" defines and directs Christian prayer toward the fulfilling of the command to love for the other. The promise that such love can be fulfilled resides in the giving that has already preceded in Jesus' love on the cross.
Jesus came so that we might experience an overflowing life (John 10:10). Jesus expresses here the longing and the promise that his joy might be in us and that only in such abiding love and joy is the wholeness of life that the Father's love has in its purview and promise. Just as the power of this love for our lives comes when we draw power from the vine, so our joy comes from knowing that we have been chosen, called, and sent. The abiding power of that love in and through us has power to renew and transform us and the whole of creation.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Act of Love.
O my God, I love you above all things with my whole heart and soul, because you are all good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me and I ask pardon of those whom I have injured.
Amen.
Obstacle Course
Sunday April 29, 2018 Fifth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 53
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 9:26-31
When Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples,
but they were all afraid of him,
not believing that he was a disciple.
Then Barnabas took charge of him and brought him to the apostles,
and he reported to them how he had seen the Lord,
and that he had spoken to him,
and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.
He moved about freely with them in Jerusalem,
and spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord.
He also spoke and debated with the Hellenists,
but they tried to kill him.
And when the brothers learned of this,
they took him down to Caesarea
and sent him on his way to Tarsus.
The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace.
It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord,
and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will fulfill my vows before those who fear the LORD.
The lowly shall eat their fill;
they who seek the LORD shall praise him:
"May your hearts live forever!"
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
All the ends of the earth
shall remember and turn to the LORD;
all the families of the nations
shall bow down before him.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
To him alone shall bow down
all who sleep in the earth;
before him shall bend
all who go down into the dust.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
And to him my soul shall live;
my descendants shall serve him.
Let the coming generation be told of the LORD
that they may proclaim to a people yet to be born
the justice he has shown.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Jn 3:18-24
Children, let us love not in word or speech
but in deed and truth.
Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth
and reassure our hearts before him
in whatever our hearts condemn,
for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything.
Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us,
we have confidence in God
and receive from him whatever we ask,
because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
And his commandment is this:
we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another just as he commanded us.
Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them,
and the way we know that he remains in us
is from the Spirit he gave us.
Gospel Jn 15:1-8
Jesus said to his disciples:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you.
Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own
unless it remains on the vine,
so neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me
will be thrown out like a branch and wither;
people will gather them and throw them into a fire
and they will be burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
By this is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 9:26-31
Remember the earlier verses of this chapter were about Saul going to the high priest and asking for papers to go to Damascus and round up those who belonged to the Way,* so that he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.
On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul,
Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He was blinded and led to Damascus where Ananias was sent by the Lord to restore his sight. He preached the word of the Lord and was being threatened, they watched the gates night and day to kill him--The full extent of his danger appears only from his own account ( 2 Corinthians 11:32 ): "In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me"; the exasperated Jews having obtained from the governor a military force, the more surely to compass his destruction. Then the disciples . . . by night let him down--"through an opening in the wall" ( 2 Corinthians 11:33 ). Could have been a window or perhaps a hole in the wall (see pictures at the end of this document) and so he left Damascus and headed for Jerusalem. These verses pick up the story there.
Saul comes to Jerusalem--"three years after" his conversion, and particularly "to see Peter" ( Galatians 1:18 ); no doubt because he was the leading apostle, and to communicate to him the prescribed sphere of his labors, especially to "the Gentiles."
They were all afraid of him knowing him only as a persecutor of their faith.
But Barnabas . . . brought him to the apostles--that is, to Peter and James; for "other of the apostles saw I none," says he fourteen years after ( Galatians 1:18 Galatians 1:19 ). Probably none of the other apostles were there at the time ( Acts 4:36 ). Barnabas being of Cyprus, which was within a few hours' sail of Cilicia, and annexed to it as a Roman province, and Saul and he being Hellenistic Jews and eminent in their respective localities, they may very well have been acquainted with each other before this. What is here said of Barnabas is in fine consistency with the "goodness" ascribed to him ( Acts 11:24 ), and with the name "son of consolation," given him by the apostles ( Acts 4:36 ); and after Peter and James were satisfied, the disciples generally would at once receive him.
And he was with them, coming in and going out at Jerusalem--for fifteen days, lodging with Peter ( Galatians 1:18 ).
He disputed against the Hellenists-- addressing himself especially to them, perhaps, as being of his own class, and that against which he had in the days of his ignorance been the fiercest.
So they went about to slay him--Thus was he made to feel, throughout his whole course, what he himself had made others so cruelly to feel, the cost of discipleship.
The brothers brought him down to Cæsarea and sent him forth to Tarsus--In Galatians 1:21 he himself says of this journey, that he "came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia"; from which it is natural to infer that instead of sailing direct for Tarsus, he landed at Seleucia, travelled thence to Antioch, and penetrated from this northward into Cilicia, ending his journey at Tarsus. As this was his first visit to his native city since his conversion, so it is not certain that he ever was there again. probably was now that he became the instrument of gathering into the fold of Christ those "kinsmen," that "sister," and perhaps her "son," of whom mention is made in Acts 23:16 , Romans 16:7 Romans 16:11 Romans 16:21
The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the holy Spirit it grew in numbers. Rather, "the Church," according to the best manuscripts and versions. But this rest was owing not so much to the conversion of Saul, as probably to the Jews being engrossed with the emperor Caligula's attempt to have his own image set up in the temple of Jerusalem.
This incidental notice of distinct churches already dotting all the regions which were the chief scenes of our Lord's ministry, and that were best able to test the facts on which the whole preaching of the apostles was based, is extremely interesting. "The fear of the Lord" expresses their holy walk; "the comfort of the Holy Spirit."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32
Psalm 22 is the lament of a conflicted individual, and this is evident in the tension established early in the Psalm. Accusatory statements like “I cry by day, but you do not answer” (v.2) and “I am a worm” (v. 6) are juxtaposed with declarative statements such as “You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel” (v.3) and “You took me from the womb; you kept me safe” (v. 9). Indeed, the first twenty-one verses of the Psalm display an individual in distress, full of contradictory statements about the human plight and the goodness of God.
The first twenty-four verses of this Psalm remain in the first person voice, and they are an explicit dialogue with God. But, verse 25 becomes a testimony of sorts that answers the disruption presented in the litany of complaints and questions in the earliest verses of the Psalm. Verse 25 alters the tone of the litany and sets the individual, and even the whole community, towards a “right and creative relationship” with God. Truly, “the individual’s experience should correspond to that of the community and should deepen its faith.”
From verse 25 onward, the Psalmist establishes the strong implication that what the Lord has accomplished for the individual, the Lord will accomplish for the whole world. From the weak, the poor, and those of the lowest status in the community who must seek help from Lord (v. 26) to the ends of the earth and all nations (v. 28-29), those who remember the Lord, turn to the Lord, and worship the Lord (v. 27) will find a generative faith (v. 30-31) that will eventually confirm and testify to the past, present, and future deeds of the Lord.
To give this Psalm an explicitly Christocentric focus on this Sunday in the Easter season might be to trace the dark days of Christ suffering on the cross to the promise that came with the dawn of the resurrection. Verses 25-31, when viewed from the dark days of Good Friday and Holy Saturday to the dawn of the resurrection, promise that all those who are weak and call upon the name of God in their weakness will eat and be satisfied. In biblical times, this might have been the Psalmist (Old Testament) or Christ or Christ’s disciples (New Testament), but its implications are ever contemporary. Yes, even we when faced with suffering -- whether we find ourselves among the weak or the powerful -- will move from darkness to dawn and proclaim the deliverance that comes from God to God’s people. This is the Psalmist’s story. This is Christ’s story. This is our story as we profess during this season. And, this is the story for generations to come. Thanks be to God.
Reading 2 1 Jn 3:18-24
This epistle, really a sermon, was written for a community that defined itself over and above and against the world around it.
Those in John's community were children of light and those outside were children of darkness. For example, consider a verse that the lectionary omits: "Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you" (1 John 3:13).
John's epistle is written in part to clarify the meaning of John's Gospel for a community which reads that gospel as its central guide to faith and action.
The author writes, "And this is (God's) commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another just as (Christ) has commanded us" (1 John 3:23).
There are two great themes in the Gospel of John. First, John's Gospel is the revelation that Jesus Christ is the revealer of God. Above all, Christ reveals that he is the revealer. And second, Jesus not only reveals himself, he commands those who believe in him to love one another.
These two themes help to shape the identity of this relatively small church as they feel battered by the hostile world around it. This is a community that should do two things very well. True members of this community should believe in Jesus Christ as God's own Son, the full revelation of God's own self. And true members of this community should love one another.
But the writer of this epistle is concerned that in both of these ways, the church members he leads are falling away from the truths with which they began.
1 John 3:16 again recalls John's Gospel and that great text where Jesus sets the command to love one another in the even greater context of his own revelatory love: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another" (John 13:34). Here the communal love for brother and sister is placed in the context of the redemptive love that Christ shows for all of humankind on the cross.
1 John makes the same connection between our love for each other and Christ's love for us. "We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us -- and we ought to lay down our lives for one another" (1 John 3:16).
Here we glimpse the depth of the gift and the gravity of the demand. Christ gives unconditional love for us, even to the point of death. And he demands our unconditional love for each other, even to the point of death.
Yet, as preachers so often do, the preacher who writes this epistle tries to show what love to the point of death might mean, not just at the extreme moments of sacrifice, but in the daily give and take of the loving life.
Concretely, such love means charity. "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help?" (1 John 3:17).
Even in the midst of great economic difficulty, most Americans have more of the world's goods than most of the world can imagine. At its most painful end, Christian love requires giving up our lives. In ways less sacrificial but still surprisingly painful, Christian love requires giving up some of the goods we think we need when we come up against someone who is truly needy.
And concretely such love means living out what we say. The truisms abide because there is truth in them. "Practice what you preach." "Walk the walk, don't just talk the talk." "Sermons in shoes." "Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action" (1 John 3:18).
There is a great word from the Gospel of John , "Abide." Jesus abides with those who love him (cf. John 15:5). In that eternal life to which he invites us, there are many "abiding places" -- a better translation than the traditional "mansions" (John 14:2).
1 John makes clear what the Gospel of John also implies: the dwelling in eternal life is not a promise for the future only, but a promise for the present as well. "All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us" (1 John 3:24). The promise of John's Gospel is still being lived out in the community that treasures its words.
There is a network on the Internet called "LinkedIn." It seeks to provide the opportunity for people to stay in touch with each other and to serve as resources for each other in times of particular need.
1 John believes that the church is the people who are Linked In. The presence of the Paraclete links believer to Christ through faith and believer to believer through love.
The epistle's word for that link is richer than the website's. We abide in God and God in us, and we abide in each other, too.
"When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me."
Gospel Jn 15:1-8
The image, of course, has an Old Testament history with the vine used as a metaphor for the people of Israel, in both positive and negative ways.
One entry into this passage could be some history and information on oenology! (en ologee) (the study of wine). For any of you who have visited the Napa Valley in California or some of the well-known Italian or French wineries, you will appreciate the rich history of wine-making that depends so completely on the welfare of the grapevines and the arts and expertise of the vine grower.
Just as circuitous and complex as a vine and its branches, so too are these brief verses. What are some of the key and inter-related themes for this Easter season text?
The most obvious is the identification of relationships: God as the Vine Grower; Jesus as the Vine and we as the branches. Jesus' role as the vine is twice identified, in verse 1 as "the true vine" and in verse 5 as "the vine." This is the life source of the branches.
It is God who tends to the flourishing of the branches, and likewise will "remove[s] every branch" (John 15:2) that gives no yield. What is the key for this work of the vineyard? It is abiding. Interesting is it not that abiding was used in the second reading also. With almost mantra-like force the word "abide" is repeated eight times.
Perhaps the sole exposure to the word "abide" has been in the very self-focused hymn: "Abide with Me." The hymn's mood tends more towards the realities of ceasing activity than increasing it. This passage from John, however, takes the activity of abiding into the briskness of daylight and opportunity.
What is the meaning of abiding in Jesus, the Risen One during this post-Resurrection season?
First, the relationship of abiding means that we cannot "go it alone" in our spiritual lives, as a "free floating spirituality." Jesus notes the impossible cannot happen: "the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless you abide in me" (John 15:4).
It is no secret that one can be deeply engaged in "things of the Church" in publicly meaningful ways, and yet the activities may not be truly connected to Christ. In that case, the vine grower eventually gets around to pruning such branches.
The possibilities of going it alone in American society are widespread and inviting. Carried over into the spiritual life, this fact can have devastating results. Dependency and inter-relatedness are rarely valued to the extent that individualism is. This passage flies in the face of such attitudes with a very different type of invitation to reliance on God.
Is the process of reliance on the vine an easy one? Hardly. The Vine Grower will deal with the branches in a manner that will alter their very being and formation. And to those who think abiding is a free ride, Jesus reminds them that "every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit" (John 15:2b).
If you have clipped your shrubs way back, you may experience the sense of reluctance in having to strip down once luxuriant branches for a greater and unseen future good. But what are the alternatives?
Removal of self or the removal of entire congregations from the reality of abiding in the Vine prompts Jesus to warn that "you can do nothing" (John 15:5). The string of verbs says such branches " people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. " (John 15:6). In selecting between submission to or departure from the Vine, it is truly an all-or-nothing proposal.
Second, beyond the fact of reliance, abiding in Christ the Vine means change! John 15:5 notes that abiding means the opportunity to "bear much fruit." What does that mean? This passage does not define 'bearing fruit!"
As with any lively metaphor, it invites us to expand on its possibilities in our own lives. We are free to make much of metaphors and this one is no exception. It means plenty, abundance, life-giving and pleasing. But what might that be?
We are invited to contextually explore the possibilities of this question with any given group of listeners. Would bearing fruit mean? A renewal of hope for a dying congregation? A recommitment and new unity of purpose in a congregation ripped by conflict? A congregation beginning to see and respond to the poor, the hungry and the imprisoned in their community in a way they had not before?
Abiding in Christ establishes a communication element that does not exist outside of the divine-human relationship. Jesus invites those who are intent on abiding in him to "ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" (John 15:7). What an amazing directive!
Jesus' words show a readiness to respond to requests from the abiding ones for two reasons. The giving of good things to God's abiders glorifies God in the presence of those who may doubt God, thus serving as confirmation of God's activity.
Furthermore, as a result of the human asking and the divine giving, Jesus says "you become my disciples" (John 15:8). The asking proves and is part of the process of discipling, both to those who wish to abide and to those who witness the lives and actions of the abiders.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Prayer of St Richard of Chichester
Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ
For all the benefits Thou hast given me,
For all the pains and insults Thou hast borne
for me.
O most merciful Redeemer, friend and
brother,
May I know Thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
Follow thee more nearly.
Amen.
Sunday April 22, 2018 Fourth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 50
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 4:8-12
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said:
"Leaders of the people and elders:
If we are being examined today
about a good deed done to a cripple,
namely, by what means he was saved,
then all of you and all the people of Israel should know
that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead;
in his name this man stands before you healed.
He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
given to the human race by which we are to be saved."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29
R. (22) The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in princes.
R. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my savior.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD;
we bless you from the house of the LORD.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my savior.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
for his kindness endures forever.
R. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Jn 3:1-2
Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God's children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
Gospel Jn 10:11-18
Jesus said:
"I am the good shepherd.
A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
A hired man, who is not a shepherd
and whose sheep are not his own,
sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,
and the wolf catches and scatters them.
This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This is why the Father loves me,
because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.
I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my Father."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 4:8-12
I. The literary context: “Ya got trouble”
Our first lesson takes place in the larger context of Acts 3:1-4:31, the first instance of conflict between Jesus’ witnesses and local authorities. The precipitating causes are a lame man’s healing (3:1-10) and Peter’s public proclamation (3:11-26). Positive reception for his message riles the temple authorities, prompting them to arrest Peter and John for investigation (4:1-4). Today’s reading features the apostles’ response at that investigation.
II. The text at hand: A new kind of boldness
The authorities gathered for the investigation are no team of scrubs:
“Their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family” (Acts 4:5-6).
Annas was high priest in 6-15 c.e., and his son-in-law Caiaphas is high priest at this time (18-36 c.e.; John 11:49; 18:13).1 In short, Acts 4:5-6 sets the scene for a serious examination by Jerusalem’s foremost leaders.2
The leaders ask directly: “by what power or by what name did you do this?” (4:7) The entire incident recalls earlier words of Jesus:
“When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say” (Luke 12:11-12).
Not only does Acts 4:5-12 resonate with Luke 12:11-12 in language and tone, it also accurately foresees how Jesus’ followers will respond. Peter is “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:8) and answers in a way that the narrative ultimately calls “boldness” (4:13, parresia). This is the first instance of many in Acts where Jesus’ witnesses proclaim with a “boldness” that stems from the power of the Spirit (4:29-31; 9:27-28; 13:46; 14:3; 18:26; 19:8; 26:26; 28:31). Under this intense atmosphere of investigation, the Spirit’s “bold” empowerment first manifests itself, and at just the right time.
“Bold” is certainly what Peter’s answer is. After reiterating the grounds for investigation (Acts 4:9), he declares emphatically:
“Let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. 11This Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.’ 12There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:10-12).
Peter’s response names several themes representative of apostolic preaching in Acts. First, he addresses not simply the leaders, but “all the people of Israel” (v. 10; see 2:14b, 22, 36; 9:15; 13:26, 38, 46; 28:20). Second, after attributing Jesus’ death to the leaders of Jerusalem (cf. 2:23-24; 3:14-15; 4:27-28), he emphasizes that “God raised [him] from the dead” (4:10). More than any other evangelist, Luke emphasizes the resurrection as Jesus’ vindication (Acts 2:22-36; 3:13, 26; 5:30; 10:40; 13:31-38; see also 24:21; 26:8; 26:23). Third, Jesus’ rejection by those in authority fulfills scripture, as implied by Peter’s quotation of Psalm 118:22 in Acts 4:11 (see also Luke 24:44-47; Acts 2:22-36; 3:18; 13:31-38; 26:22-23; cf. Matthew 21:42; 1 Peter 2:7). Fourth, the message of Jesus entails “salvation” (soteria) -- a divine reality that generates wholeness, restoration, and reversal of societal norms (“healed” in Acts 4:9 is literally “saved,” sesotai).3 Fifth, the language of necessity (“must,” dei, v. 12) about being “saved” is distinctive language of Luke-Acts for identifying matters “necessary” to the overarching purposes of God (Luke 2:49; 4:43; 9:22; 13:14, 33; 17:25; 21:9; 22:37; 24:7, 26; Acts 3:21; 19:21; 23:11). Altogether, Peter’s response in Acts 4:8-12 uses distinctive themes of Luke-Acts to express a bold declaration about the saving nature of Jesus.
III. Reflections: “Boldness” in today’s world
In today’s pluralistic society, interpreters rightly stumble over the exclusiveness of Peter’s language: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Taken at face value, this word excludes. However, in its original context the apostles did not aim to exclude future religious movements, but rather to validate the message of Jesus before a hostile audience and world. In this context, the Spirit’s “boldness” empowered a frank and straightforward emphasis that was seemed necessary. Whether or not a “boldness” empowered by the Spirit today should be so one-dimensional is another question. In short, the contexts of the first audiences of Acts 4:5-12 are very different than our own. While Peter’s words undoubtedly emphasize the distinctiveness of salvation associated with Jesus, how the same Holy Spirit empowers us to express the good news of Jesus “boldly” today is a matter of ongoing dialogue and discernment. Nonetheless, as with the earliest apostles, we are no less in need of Spirit-driven boldness today, lest the world never recognize “companions of Jesus” (Acts 4:13) in their midst.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29
It is probable that David penned this psalm when he had, after many a story, weathered his point at last, and gained a full possession of the kingdom to which he had been anointed. He then invites and stirs up his friends to join with him, not only in a cheerful acknowledgment of God’s goodness and a cheerful dependence upon that goodness for the future, but in a believing the expectation of the promised Messiah, of whose kingdom and his exaltation to it his were typical.
He celebrates God’s mercy in general, and calls upon others to acknowledge it, from their own experience of it (v. 1): O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is not only good in himself, but good to you, and his mercy endures forever, not only in the everlasting fountain, God himself, but in the never-failing streams of that mercy, which shall run parallel with the longest line of eternity, and in the chosen vessels of mercy, who will be everlasting monuments of it. Israel, and the house of Aaron, and all that fear God, were called upon to trust in God (Ps. 115:9-11; here they are called upon to confess that his mercy endures forever, and so to encourage themselves to trust in him, v. 2-4. Priests and people, Jews and proselytes, must all own God’s goodness, and all join in the same thankful song; if they can say no more, let them say this for him, that his mercy endures forever, that they have had experience of it all their days, and confide in it for good things that shall last forever. The praises and thanksgivings of all that truly fear the Lord
In verses 19-29 we have an illustrious prophecy of the humiliation and exaltation of our Lord Jesus, his sufferings, and the glory that should follow. Peter thus applies it directly to the chief priests and scribes, and none of them could charge him with misapplying it, Acts. 4:11 . Now observe here, the preface with which this precious prophecy is introduced, v. 19-21. The psalmist desires admission into the sanctuary of God, there to celebrate the glory of him that cometh in the name of the Lord: Open to me the gates of righteousness. So the temple-gates are called, because they were shut against the uncircumcised, and forbade the stranger to come nigh, as the sacrifices there offered are called sacrifices of righteousness. Those that would enter into communion with God in holy ordinances must become humble suitors to God for admission. And when the gates of righteousness are opened to us we must go into them, must enter into the holiest, as far as we have leave, and praise the Lord. Our business within God’s gates is to praise God; therefore we should long till the gates of heaven be opened to us, that we may go into them to dwell in God’s house above, where we shall be still praising him. The psalmist triumphs in the discovery that the gate of righteousness, which had been so long shut, and so long knocked at, was now at length opened. He promises to give thanks to God for this favor (v. 21): I will praise thee. Those that saw Christ’s day at so great a distance saw cause to praise God for the prospect; for in him they saw that God had heard them, had heard the prayers of the Old-Testament saints for the coming of the Messiah, and would be their salvation. The prophecy itself, v. 22, v. 23. This may have some reference to David’s preferment; he was the stone which Saul and his courtiers rejected, but was by the wonderful providence of God advanced to be the headstone of the building. But its principal reference is to Christ; and here we have, His humiliation. He is the stone which the builders refused; he is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, Dan. 2:34 .
Let the exalted Redeemer be met, and attended, with joyful hosannas, v. 25, v. 26. Let him have the acclamations of the people, as is usual at the inauguration of a prince. Let every one of his loyal subjects shout for joy, Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord! This is like Vivat rex—Long live the king, and expresses a hearty joy for his accession to the crown, an entire satisfaction in his government, and a zealous affection to the interests and honor of it. Hosanna to the Son of David; long live King Jesus; let him reign forever. Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, do their part in this great solemnity, v. 26. Let them bless the prince with their praises: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Jesus Christ is he that cometh —ho erchomenos, he that was to come and is yet to come again.
The psalmist concludes with his own thankful acknowledgments of divine grace, in which he calls upon others to join with him, v. 28, v. 29. He will praise God himself, and endeavor to exalt him in his own heart and in the hearts of others, and this because of his covenant-relation to him and interest in him: "Thou art my God, on whom I depend, and to whom I am devoted, who ownest me and art owned by me; and therefore I will praise thee.’’ Peace in heaven to us through Christ, and therefore glory in the highest.
Reading 2 1 Jn 3:1-2
The apostle, in the last verse of the preceding chapter, having declared that everyone who works with righteousness is born of God, begins the chapter with an exclamation expressive of his high admiration of the love of God in calling them his children, although they are not acknowledged to be such by the men of the world, because carnal men have no just notion of the character of God. Behold what manner — The word ποταπην, thus rendered, signifies both how great, and what kind of love — Love immense, condescending, and kind, compassionate, forgiving, patient, forbearing, sanctifying, comforting, enriching, exalting, and beautifying, the Father — Of universal nature, of men and angels, and of our Lord Jesus Christ; hath bestowed on us — Fallen and depraved creatures, sinful, guilty, and dying; that we should be called sons, (τεκνα, children,) of God and be constituted his heirs, and joint-heirs with his only-begotten and beloved Son: and all this on the easy condition of turning to Him, in repentance, faith, and new obedience. Therefore the world is not acquainted with our true character, our principles and practices, our disposition and behavior, our present privileges and future expectations; and therefore does not acknowledge us for what we really are, nor esteem and love us, but hates and persecutes us; because it knew him not. As if he had said, Since the enmity of carnal men against the divine will, and the divine nature, is so great that Christ himself, the image of the invisible God, inhabited by the fullness of the Deity, was unknown and hated when he dwelt in the flesh, it is no wonder that we are hated also in those respects in which we resemble him. Nevertheless, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. At the day of judgement, it is probable that the wicked will have a transient sight of Christ as he is, but will not thereby be made like him, in body or mind.
Gospel Jn 10:11-18
"One flock, one shepherd . . ."
On this Sunday of Easter the gospel lesson shifts from historical recounting of the events following to resurrection to Christological reflection. The goal is to assist us as we, like Mary and the disciples, seek to understand what happened and is happening to us, the flock of the good shepherd.
In the years, decades, and centuries, to our own time, the followers of Jesus have sought for ways to express, in words and images, who was and who is this person Jesus Christ. John, for example, opened his gospel account with the grand vision of the one who was before all time and through whom all things came into being. Jesus was the very Word of God made flesh. And they turned to the images Jesus had taught them about himself. He told them that he was the vine and they were the branches. He told them that he was the bread of life and living water that would quench their thirst forever. And he taught them that he was their shepherd; they were his flock.
Some of the earliest images of Jesus found in churches and tombs were not portrayals of Jesus on the cross, or the infant in the manger. Rather, they picture Jesus as the gentle shepherd. And what may be one of the earliest paintings of all is of a very young Jesus, dressed in a short white tunic, who has draped a lamb over his shoulders. "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me." (John 10:14) What does it mean to understand the risen Christ as our shepherd? And what kind of flock are we to be?
I think that it is fair to say that most of us do not have much experience with shepherds or with sheep. I believe many of you have heard of or been to a County Fair. I never want to miss the animal barns: cows, pigs, and of course the sheep. In each pen are lovely, wooly sheep being taken care of the 4H boys and girls. Just outside of the barn there will always be one of the 4H members washing, combing, and trimming their lamb. I love the fact that sheep really do say, "Baaaa." But I am afraid that is my only contact with sheep and their caretakers.
When Jesus spoke of shepherds and sheep, he was speaking to people who had everyday experiences with lambs, sheep, goats, and kids. Even if they made their living as a carpenter or fisher, they knew or watched the shepherds all of the time, moving the sheep and goats from the pens to the fields. They drank the milk of those animals, turned that milk into cheese, and eventually ate the animals. Those animals provided not just daily nourishment, they were essential for important religious rituals. All of Jesus' friends and followers had grown up telling and re-telling the story of Moses and the flight out of Egypt. Each year they heard the call to "take a lamb for each family" (Exodus 12:3b) and prepare the Passover meal.
It is important to recognize that this passage not only offers us a functional description of what God in Jesus will do for us. Jesus is also making an ontological statement. He is not only describing what a good shepherd does and will do. He is making the claim that he is the good shepherd. Therefore, it must have seemed quite strange and startling for Jesus' friends and followers to hear Jesus tell them that he was the good shepherd. After all, they knew who the good shepherd was -- God. The scriptures were filled with images of God as the shepherd of the chosen people.
Jesus then described the divine sheepfold. To be his followers was to enter into his sheepfold. He came to be the one who cared for and fed them. It was a dangerous job; protecting the sheep from wolves and bandits. As the good shepherd Jesus had not only to be willing to, he did, lay down his life for the sheep that God had given him.
Like Ezekiel, Jesus then contrasts himself with the hired hand. The hired hand, he explained, thinks only of himself and not the sheep; running away when danger approaches. (Was Jesus suggesting to the Pharisees that they were hired hands?) Jesus then explains that not only is he the shepherd who will give up his own life for the flock, but he has done this willing. It may have looked like he was captured and executed by the authorities, but in reality, "No one takes it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." (John 10:18)
What does it mean to be a sheep of Jesus' flock? It means that we enter through his gate. Jesus is the way to salvation. We know his voice and follow him. He cares for us, keeping us safe. And when we wander away, which we know we do all too often, he comes searching for us.
These are wonderful, comforting images, but this passage includes one other challenging thought. The good shepherd decides who is in the sheepfold, we do not. "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold." (John 10:16) The Pharisees and the disciples alike thought that they knew who the chosen ones of God were. But this shepherd is telling them, and telling us, that there will be "one flock, one shepherd" and it is God, in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, not we, who bring together that flock.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Eternal Word, only begotten Son of God,
Teach me true generosity.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve.
To give without counting the cost,
To fight heedless of wounds,
To labor without seeking rest,
To sacrifice myself without thought of any reward
Save the knowledge that I have done your will.
Amen.
Sunday April 15, 2018 Third Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 47
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
Peter said to the people:
"The God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus,
whom you handed over and denied in Pilate's presence
when he had decided to release him.
You denied the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you.
The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
Now I know, brothers,
that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment
what he had announced beforehand
through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Christ would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9
R. (7a) Lord, let your face shine on us.
or:
R. Alleluia.
When I call, answer me, O my just God,
you who relieve me when I am in distress;
have pity on me, and hear my prayer!
R. Lord, let your face shine on us.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Know that the LORD does wonders for his faithful one;
the LORD will hear me when I call upon him.
R. Lord, let your face shine on us.
or:
R. Alleluia.
O LORD, let the light of your countenance shine upon us!
You put gladness into my heart.
R. Lord, let your face shine on us.
or:
R. Alleluia.
As soon as I lie down, I fall peacefully asleep,
for you alone, O LORD,
bring security to my dwelling.
R. Lord, let your face shine on us.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Jn 2:1-5a
My children, I am writing this to you
so that you may not commit sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous one.
He is expiation for our sins,
and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.
The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep
his commandments.
Those who say, "I know him," but do not keep his commandments
are liars, and the truth is not in them.
But whoever keeps his word,
the love of God is truly perfected in him.
Gospel Lk 24:35-48
The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way,
and how Jesus was made known to them
in the breaking of bread.
While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
"Peace be with you."
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have."
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.
He said to them,
"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
"Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
One of the primary themes of Acts, seems to be the expansion of boundaries that separate individuals and group.
We all know what it’s like to be part of a group. We share common interests, beliefs, commitments, etc. We are part of an in-group. Some among us have experience being part of the out-group. Some have been more marginalized to the out-group more than others, but relegation to the out-group knows no boundaries.
One of the things Luke tries to accomplish in Acts is the expansion of these boundaries, even while making clear distinctions between those who follow Christ and those who do not. The episode narrated in 3:12-19 serves as an example of this tension. In response to the healing of the paralyzed man (read 3:1-11), a large crowd gathers in Solomon’s portico (3:11), a roofed colonnade likely on the south side of the Herodian Temple complex that remained from Solomon’s Temple. Peter explains what has happened (3:12), providing another important parallel between Jesus and Peter, teaching in the temple (cf. Luke 21:37). Here, as in his previous speech, Peter appeals to their common identity by addressing the crowd as “Israelites” and by attributing the healing of the man to “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus..”
This is significant because it links the healing “in the name of Jesus” with “the God of our ancestors,” thus emphasizing a commonality within Judaism and the significance of Jesus within that tradition. Peter also appeals to Israel’s identity by reminding the crowd of the promise of a “prophet like Moses” (which is evident in some Qumran texts and Josephus), other prophets (3:24), and of God’s covenant with Abraham that supports an inclusive identity (which Luke is highlighting) by asserting, “in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (3:25; cf. 3:12–3).
Bet even while appealing to this common identity, Peter sharpens the distinctions between the Christians and the crowd. Mikael Parsons notes the structure within the inner frame of Peter’s speech:
A The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus
B whom you handed over and denied in Pilate's presence
when he had decided to release him.
B / You denied the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you, and you killed the Author of life
This pattern “underscores the fundamental difference between the actions of Peter’s audience … and the mighty deed of God.” Thus, the “God of Abraham” has subverted the actions of the Judean authorities and affirmed the words of Peter and the Christ followers.
Although the crowd rejected Pilate’s attempts to release Jesus (Luke 23:4, 16, 22), thereby participating in Jesus’ death, Peter acknowledges that his hearers and their rulers acted in ignorance (Acts 3:17), even though God had clearly “foretold [this] through all the prophets” (Acts 3:18). But ignorance is not excuse for their rejection of Jesus. They must now “repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:19). By distinguishing the Christ group from the crowd in the temple, Peter draws a distinct boundary between the Christ group and those outside the Christ group. Though they share a common ethnic identity, the two groups are radically different in their response to Jesus. Members of the in-group are those who believe that Jesus is the resurrected Messiah, having demonstrated that belief in the boundary crossing rituals of baptism in Jesus’ name and being filled with the Holy Spirit. Members of the out-group, however, reject Jesus, had him killed, and now must be reconciled through repentance and return to God so that they may be forgiven of their rejection of the Messiah. The core contrast between in-group and out-group here is that in-group members believe in Jesus while out-group members reject him. Belief is contrasted with violence here to distinguish between the in-group and out-group, thus serving to point toward another less prominent identity marker in the narrative.
What does it mean to be part of the in-group, the Christ movement? What identity markers help us know who is ‘one of us’ and who is not? In many ways, our task remains the same as Luke’s -- to help expand the boundaries of who can be part of the Christ group, and to make distinctions that highlight how our group’s values are different from others around us.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9
People are troubled about many things, but God 'puts gladness in our hearts.' Psalm 4 is a good text any time of year because it offers wisdom and imparts faith. But on the Third Sunday of Easter, it has a special job to do.
Psalm 4 deals honestly with unbelief: outside the church, inside the church, or even within preachers. At Easter time, the words "Christ is Risen!" are answered with "Alleluia, he is risen indeed." But unspoken responses might include: "Oh really?" or "I doubt it;" or "I wish I believed that;" or even "You've got to be kidding." Even preachers may privately wonder if Easter is too good to be true.
But God has heard all this before. In the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Easter, Jesus tells his frightened, doubting disciples, "Peace be with you" (Luke 24:36). Likewise, Psalm 4 offers peace to troubled hearts and trust to doubting minds.
To use Psalm 4 on the Third Sunday of Easter, it is helpful to note that the other texts for this day all address the problem of unbelief. Preachers would like the message, "Christ is arisen!", to prompt a worldwide chorus of Alleluias. But from the first Easter down to the present, the good news that Jesus lives brings different responses - even among his followers. Some people receive the message with joy. Others are skeptical or fearful, and still others reject the message out of hand.
The Gospel lesson addresses the problem of unbelief within the inner circle itself. The disciples have just heard two of their own members say that Jesus is risen, yet they are "startled and terrified" and "doubts arise in their hearts" when Jesus appears (Luke 24:37-38). Even some of the disciples find it hard to believe, yet Jesus offers peace.
In this Easter context of faith and doubt, and hoping against hope, Psalm 4 begins with a prayer for help. "Answer me when I call, O God..." (4:1). And it ends with a statement of faith. "You have put gladness in my heart...You alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety" (4:7-8). Beginning and ending with God - always a good idea for the preacher.
But the middle part of the Psalm addresses other people, and these people have various responses to God's grace. Some believe in God, and some do not. Among the believers, some are so anxious they can't sleep at night, even with a "Sleep Number" bed. Still others seem to be wondering what God has done for them lately: "There are many who say, 'O that we might see some good!'" (4:6). Thus, the Psalmist has some choice words to each of these groups of people.1
Reading 2 1 Jn 2:1-5a
Ask a non--Christian--even ask some Christians--what the point of Christian faith is.
For many, it is "Jesus came so that I'll live forever." In the Gospels, however, Jesus never promises that he will be crucified and his disciples will be the risen ones.
Such self--centeredness renders us deaf to a keynote in all of this Sunday's lections: the capacity of the risen Christ to draw individuals into authentic life together.
On the subject of sin: If (on the one hand) we say we don't have sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us . But if (on the other hand) we confess our sins, he is dependable, righteous, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And if (on the one hand) we say we haven't sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word (his promise of forgiveness) is not in us.
This last possibility breaks the pattern, leaving the listener hanging without a countervailing "other hand." Note that the writer of 1 John does not play the role of omniscient scold, rampantly condemning a few misguided souls while claiming for himself and the majority superior righteousness. Real churches act in this way. For no matter how truthful the gospel they have received, all Christians are capable of both clear--eyed contrition and self--deluded evil.
The author hastens to pastoral comfort (1 John 2:1-2). He writes, not to stir up sin or despair, but to console a riven church that Jesus Christ is a living, righteous force that releases us from our sins.
The images for that redemption are both judicial and cultic. Christ is our advocate (parakletos) with the Father, adopting the role that Jesus in the Fourth Gospel attributes to the Holy Spirit who comes after him (John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-11). At the same time, Jesus has sacrificed himself as the expiation (hilasmos) for sins; not merely ours, but the whole world's (1 John 1:7; 2:2; see also Romans 3:25; Hebrews 9:11--10:18).
Gospel Lk 24:35-48
The Gospels tell us that Jesus appeared to the disciples on several occasions after they discovered that his tomb was empty. Part of the mystery of Jesus' Resurrection is that he appeared to his disciples not as a spirit but in bodily form. The bodily form was not one that the disciples recognized though. In John's Gospel, Mary of Magdala does not recognize that the figure standing before her is Jesus until he speaks to her. In Luke's Gospel the disciples who meet Jesus on the road to Emmaus do not recognize him until he breaks bread with them. The resurrected Jesus had a physical presence, but the disciples couldn't recognize Jesus unless he allowed them to. His resurrected body, nonetheless, showed the marks of his crucifixion.
From readings such as today's Gospel, we also see that in his resurrected body, Jesus seems to be free of physical constraints. He appears to the disciples despite the fact that the doors were locked.
Jesus greets his disciples with the gift of peace and the gift of the Holy Spirit. In doing so, Jesus commissions his disciples to continue the work that he has begun: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” During the meeting, Jesus also shows the integral connection between forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The story of Thomas illustrates our Christian experience today: We are called to believe without seeing. In fact, all Christians after the first witnesses have been called to believe without seeing. Thomas's doubt is hardly surprising; the news of Jesus' appearance was incredible to the disciples who had seen him crucified and buried. Thomas's human nature compelled him to want hard evidence that the Jesus who appeared to the disciples after his death was indeed the same Jesus who had been crucified. Thomas is given the opportunity to act on that desire. He is our witness that Jesus is really risen.
Our faith is based on the witness of the Church that has preceded us, beginning with Thomas and the first disciples. Through Baptism we receive the same Holy Spirit that Jesus brought to the first disciples. We are among those who are “blessed” because we believe without having seen.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Sunday April 8, 2018 Second Sunday of Easter
(Or Sunday of Divine Mercy)
Lectionary: 44
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 4:32-35
The community of believers was of one heart and mind,
and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,
but they had everything in common.
With great power the apostles bore witness
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and great favor was accorded them all.
There was no needy person among them,
for those who owned property or houses would sell them,
bring the proceeds of the sale,
and put them at the feet of the apostles,
and they were distributed to each according to need.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let the house of Aaron say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let those who fear the LORD say,
"His mercy endures forever."
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I was hard pressed and was falling,
but the LORD helped me.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just:
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Jn 5:1-6
Beloved:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God,
and everyone who loves the Father
loves also the one begotten by him.
In this way we know that we love the children of God
when we love God and obey his commandments.
For the love of God is this,
that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not burdensome,
for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
Who indeed is the victor over the world
but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ,
not by water alone, but by water and blood.
The Spirit is the one that testifies,
and the Spirit is truth.
Gospel Jn 20:19-31
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord."
But he said to them,
"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."
Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe."
Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 4:32-35
From the start, the risen Jesus charged his witnesses to share the good news of his resurrection with the world (Luke 24:44-48; Acts 1:1-8). After all, this is the climactic (eschatological) sign of God's light-giving, life-saving purpose for all people and places, even "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8; cf. 13:47). The resurrection forges new communities of light and life. Only in such fellowship (koinonia) is the meaning of the resurrection progressively discerned and demonstrated, learned and lived out.
As in our own day, the early church worked out its resurrection faith through regular communal practices, such as baptism, the Eucharist, scripture study, and prayer. An earlier summary reports (following Peter's Pentecost sermon): "So those who welcomed his message were baptized... They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (2:41-42).
But they also engaged in a radical resurrection practice not so popular today: "Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common (koina)" (4:32).
What a remarkable group! They held everything "in common," yet were notably uncommon by normal social standards, both in the limited goods, zero-sum world of Mediterranean antiquity and in the private-boosting, wealth-expanding economy of modern Western capitalism.
How did Christ's resurrection motivate such a unified, generous community? Or, conversely, how did the practice of communal goods inform the early church's understanding of the living Christ?
First, Christ's resurrection is inextricably connected with his crucifixion. God did not raise Jesus from just any death, but death on a cross, signifying ultimate self-emptying and sacrifice. Jesus dies bankrupt and bereft, stripped of all earthly possessions (including clothes - cf. Luke 23:34) and reliant only on his Divine Father into whose hands he commits his breath/spirit (pneuma, Luke 23:46).
It is out of this experience of complete surrender that God brings fresh, resurrection life to Jesus. Losing his life, he saves it. Forfeiting "the whole world" of self-aggrandizing profit, he gains the true wealth of God's kingdom. The crucified and risen Jesus thus inspires his followers to find new life as they "deny themselves and take up their cross daily" (Luke 9:23). They relinquish all they are and own into God's hands or, more literally, at the feet of God's apostles in Acts 4:35.
Second, raising Christ from the grave signals anew God's creative sovereignty over all creation (cf. Acts 4:24). According to one biblical image, God's bringing life from death is likened to a seed falling into the ground, "dying," and then bursting forth, "rising" in fruitful bloom and flower (see John 12:24-25; 1 Corinthians 15:36-38).
Resurrection thus stakes afresh God's claim on the whole earth. "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it" (Psalm 24:1). "The land is mine," God announces, as grounds for the Sabbath/Jubilee provisions of restoring properties to original owners and remitting debts so "there will be no one in need among you" (Leviticus 25:23; Deuteronomy 15:4). Finally, the resurrection of Christ marks the "first fruits" not only of a new, singular beginning, but also of a climactic restoration of all things.
For the early church, this conviction forged a close nexus between Christ's resurrection, ascension and parousia (final re-appearing). "Christ is risen!" joined naturally with "Christ is coming again soon!" Hence, with this imminent hope of a remade world, investing in "lands and houses" for the long haul might seem unnecessary at best, unfaithful at worst.
There is some question about whether selling one's possessions was compulsory (as with the apocalyptic Jewish sect at Qumran) or voluntary for membership in the earliest Christian community. But our summary text suggests it was the norm, if not the rule. And although Peter informs Ananias in the next chapter that he was free to dispose of his property as he wished (Acts 5:4), the fact that Ananias publicly lies about contributing all the proceeds from a land sale (and then drops dead!) demonstrates the strong community pressure to pool all possessions for the common good (5:1-6).
Of course, however much we might admire the radical communitarian practice of the early Jerusalem church, we may also pity, even decry, their shortsighted, impractical economic vision. Quite possibly, it contributed to hard times down the line, requiring assistance (bailout) from the more prosperous congregation in Antioch (11:27-30).
Turns out they were in it for the long haul, or at least a longer haul than they expected. And the clock is now ticking well past the 2000-year mark. It is all too easy, then, for us not simply to pity the early church's practice, but to dismiss it altogether.
But we thereby also run the risk of dismissing their vibrant resurrection faith that ignited their extraordinary common-fellowship (koinonia) in the first place. And resurrection faith that does not profoundly shape communal practice lacks depth of meaning and breadth of appeal.
So, how shall we live out our faith in the risen Christ today?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
On Easter Sunday, the church proclaims, "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his mercy endures forever!" (Psalm 118:1).
Jesus Christ is risen. And in Christ, we too shall rise. God's mercy endures forever! The words of Psalm 118 have long been used to herald Easter. "This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad" (118:24).
In its ancient Jewish context, Psalm 118 was most likely an entrance liturgy to the Temple, used at the festival of Passover. It proclaimed God's deliverance from Egypt and, later on, from the Exile. The Psalm was a liturgical script, complete with speaking parts for leaders and congregation. One can hear the jubilant call and response in 118:2-4: "Let Israel say, 'His mercy endures forever.' Let the house of Aaron say, 'His mercy endures forever.' Let those who fear the LORD say, 'His mercy endures forever.'"
Since New Testament times, Psalm 118 evokes for Christians the story of Easter.
New Testament writers used Psalm 118 "as a means of understanding and articulating the significance of Jesus."3 (See Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7.) Christians have long read this Psalm with Jesus in mind.
"The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice in it and be glad" (Psalm 118: 22-24).
The ancient church relied on the words of the New Testament writers, and during the Middle Ages, Psalm 118 continued to inspire Christian worship.
Just as the Psalmist was delivered by God, so now Christ empowers us, comforts us, and snatches us out of the realm of death. All this is done, so that we might proclaim the deeds of the Lord. Easter is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice in it and be glad! (118:24).
Reading 2 1 Jn 5:1-6
True love for the people of God, may be distinguished from natural kindness or party attachments, by its being united with the love of God, and obedience to his commands. The same Holy Spirit that taught the love, will have taught obedience also; and that man cannot truly love the children of God, who, by habit, commits sin or neglects known duty. As God's commands are holy, just, and good rules of liberty and happiness, so those who are born of God and love him, do not count them grievous, but lament that they cannot serve him more perfectly. Self-denial is required, but true Christians have a principle which carries them above all hindrances. Though the conflict often is sharp, and the regenerate may be cast down, yet he will rise up and renew his combat with resolution. But all, except believers in Christ, are enslaved in some respect or other, to the customs, opinions, or interests of the world. Faith is the cause of victory, the means, the instrument, the spiritual armor by which we overcome. In and by faith we cleave to Christ, in contempt of, and in opposition to the world. Faith sanctifies the heart, and purifies it from those sensual lusts by which the world obtains sway and dominion over souls. It has the indwelling Spirit of grace, which is greater than he who dwells in the world. The real Christian overcomes the world by faith; he sees, in and by the life and conduct of the Lord Jesus on earth, that this world is to be renounced and overcome. He cannot be satisfied with this world, but looks beyond it, and is still tending, striving, and pressing toward heaven. We must all, after Christ's example, overcome the world, or it will overcome us to our ruin.
Gospel Jn 20:19-31
What is a disciple to do in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection?
Following the Easter story of Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene, two parallel stories in John explore the responses of disciples to the message of his resurrection. Although Thomas is often singled out as deficient in belief, his story shares much in common with the response of the disciples as a whole. The twin accounts present the disciples as both believing and disbelieving. The gift of the Holy Spirit enlivens the disciples to continue Jesus’ ministry without rendering them perfect believers.
Thomas is missing when the other disciples encounter Jesus. Yet he hears from them the same proclamation they heard from Mary Magdalene: “We have seen the Lord!” (20:25; cf. 20:18). Like Thomas, the disciples were not immediately transformed by Mary’s proclamation of the good news. They remain behind locked doors, where they are gathered out of fear (20:19). Like Thomas, the disciples only respond with joy to Jesus’ presence after he shows them his hands and his side (20:20, 27). Although “doubting Thomas” gets his reputation from this story, his response of unbelief is not unique, but instead is typical of disciples of Jesus.
There are two theological issues at stake in the portrait of the disciples vis-á-vis Thomas. The first is the question of whether the disciples achieve perfect or complete belief following Jesus’ resurrection. Much of the language of the Farewell Discourse (John 14-17) has led readers to expect that it will. Jesus has spoken of a future time when the disciples would “know” (14:20), “testify” (15:27) and “do greater works” than Jesus has done (14:12). Although they manifest doubt during Jesus’ earthly life, the language of the Farewell Discourse suggests a future time when the disciples overcome these deficiencies. Many scholars read the resurrection stories as just such accounts, where the disciples’ belief is seen in its maturity.
However, the disciples are not presented simply as believers, even after Jesus’ resurrection. Even after his first appearance and the gift of the Holy Spirit (also foreseen in the Farewell Discourse (14:16-17), the disciples remain behind locked doors the second week as well (20:26). They proclaim the Easter message, “We have seen the Lord!” but their actions do not fully match their understanding. Although the narrator proclaims “blessed” the one who has not seen and yet has believed (20:29), this is true of none of Jesus’ disciples. Instead, John portrays the disciples as still reaching toward belief in Jesus.
Even Thomas’s confession, “My Lord and my God!” (20:28) does not mark the completion of his faith. His statement is a significant confession, but it is not the end of the story. In the next chapter, Thomas is named as one of seven disciples. The pattern is familiar: they initially do not recognize Jesus (21:4), but come to understand him (21:7). Yet they finish with a question about his identity that they dare not ask even as they know the answer (21:12). Although John’s language projects a future time in which disciples will understand Jesus, that perfect knowledge always lies outside the boundaries of the Gospel story. The disciples embody a belief that reaches toward but never quite achieves complete understanding of Jesus.
The second theological question these verses raise explicitly is the reader’s relationship to Jesus’ disciples. What is expected of later followers of Jesus, and should they understand themselves as like or unlike the disciples of the story? In verses 19-23, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit onto the disciples. Is this a special possession of the early church? Some interpreters imagine “the disciples” here as a limited group of the twelve (minus Judas and Thomas) who are commissioned as official apostles with particular duties that raise them above the level of the average believer. Jesus’ words to them, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them...” (20:23), reinforce the perception for many that the disciples have a unique role.
Yet it may be better to understand the disciples as a group that reflects John’s understanding of discipleship as a whole. As is often the case in John, “the disciples” who appear in 20:19 are unnumbered and unnamed. Although John clearly knows of the designation “the twelve,” he uses the phrase to identify disciples who are part of Jesus’ most intimate group of associates (6:71; 20:24) rather than to specify the actions or characteristics of the group.
Although readers may be primed to expect Jesus’ last supper to be eaten with the twelve (cf. Matt 26:20; Mark 14:11), or that he will appear to the eleven alone in his resurrection (Matt 28:16; Mark 16:14; Luke 24:33, 36), John specifies only that “the disciples” are present in each case (13:5; 20:19). This designation suggests a more open-ended group of people included in Jesus’ words and actions.
But what then does it mean for Jesus to breathe out the Holy Spirit and to tell this larger group of disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them”? The passage is a commissioning scene, but it is a commissioning of the church as a whole, not an elite group of leaders. John’s language seems to grant broad powers to the church to forgive or retain sins. It may help to remember that throughout John’s Gospel “sin” has referred to the rejection of Jesus and his ministry (e.g., 8:24; 9:41; 15:22-24). Jesus’ presence already reveals and condemns people’s belief or unbelief (cf. 3:17-19; 5:22). In Jesus’ absence the church steps into this role. The image is not a narrow one of a priest assigning penance but a broader recognition that the church becomes the arbiter of acceptance or rejection of Jesus.
Even so, part of our modern difficulty with this text may be that Jesus leaves this authority in the hands of disciples who are not themselves free from sin. John seems well aware of this, having positioned the story of commissioning in the midst of the disciples’ struggle to come to terms with their resurrection faith. Instead of trying to “solve” the problem of this responsibility granted to the church, I would say instead that the passage seems consistent with John’s portrait of the disciples. They are called to do much more than they are capable of. Yet they occasionally achieve great clarity, and in those moments they manifest the hope of the resurrection.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Sunday April 1, 2018 Easter Sunday - The Resurrection of the Lord - The Mass of Easter Day
He is Risen, Alleluia. Have a happy and Blessed Easter!!
Lectionary: 42
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Peter proceeded to speak and said:
"You know what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.
We are witnesses of all that he did
both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commissioned us to preach to the people
and testify that he is the one appointed by God
as judge of the living and the dead.
To him all the prophets bear witness,
that everyone who believes in him
will receive forgiveness of sins through his name."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
"The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD."
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
Reading 2 Col 3:1-4
Brothers and sisters:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
Gospel Jn 20:1-9
On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
"They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don't know where they put him."
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Today’s reading features Peter’s message to the gathered household of Cornelius. After opening exchanges (10:24-33), Peter addresses directly the context at hand:
Then Peter proceeded to speak and said,* “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him. The Greek is bolder about God’s lack of partiality: “God is not a partiality-shower (lit. ‘face-taker,’ prosopolemptes).” The concept appears elsewhere in Scripture regarding God’s lack of favoritism toward the rich and powerful (Deuteronomy 10:17; Lev 19:15; 2 Chronicles 9:17; Psalm 82:2; Sirach 35:15-16; Colossians 3:25; Ephesians 6:9; James 2:1, 9), but applying this same language to Jew-Gentile distinctions is quite new (also in Romans 2:11). The next verse only accentuates this meaning: “in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.” The language of “acceptable” (dektos) is rare in Luke-Acts, and first occurs to describe the nature of Jesus’ ministry as “the year of the Lord’s acceptance (dektos).” As these factors show, Peter’s message opens with one of the boldest declarations in Luke-Acts about the nature of God’s favor toward non-Jews.
Due to convoluted phrasing, translations render verses 36-37 in various ways. But two focal points in the text clearly emerge: God’s message entails “preaching peace by Jesus Christ,” and this Jesus “is Lord of all” (v. 36). Both points would have a sound spoken loudly to hearers within the Roman Empire. The phrase “preaching peace” (euangelizomenos eirenen, lit. “proclaiming the good news of peace”) uses language employed elsewhere in association with Roman emperors (“good news” and “peace” regarding Augustus’s birth, OGIS 2:458; cf. Luke 2:14). Even more, the phrase “Lord of all” implies the inferiority of all rival lords, both human and divine (Epictetus calls Caesar “lord of all” in Discourses 4.1.12; Pindar calls Zeus the same in Isthmian 5.53). These parallels would be striking to a centurion of a leading cohort in the Roman army (Acts 10:1). However, Roman rulers are not the only rivals on the horizon: Peter’s speech later recalls how Jesus’ ministry confronted the oppressive power of the devil (Acts 10:38), a cosmic foe still at large in Acts (13:8-13; 26:18; cf. 19:11-20).
The rest of Peter’s message (Acts 10:37-43) summarizes Jesus’ ministry, passion, and resurrection (vv. 37-38, 39b-41). Peter also emphasizes how Jesus’ followers are now witnesses (vv. 39, 41) called to testify -- with ancient prophets -- that he is both judge of all and source of forgiveness for believers (vv. 42-43). In fact, verses 37-43 spotlight major themes from Luke-Acts: John’s baptism, the Spirit’s presence, the devil’s oppression, the apostles’ testimony, Jesus’ resurrection, and the fulfillment of scripture. These verses summarize the highlights of Luke’s story about Jesus so that the audience in Cornelius’s home may hear the story authentically.
In the lectionary, Acts 10:34-43 appears most notably on Resurrection Sunday, and on that day is hardly the focal text. But this story’s contributions are not only independently profound, they are complementary to the message of Easter.
First, more directly than anywhere else in Luke-Acts (and arguably the New Testament), Acts 10:34-35 declares that “in every nation” God shows no favoritism to particular peoples. For a church now overwhelmingly Gentile that holds dear an Easter story entirely about Jewish characters, this is no small detail. For our benefit Peter’s message proclaims: God does not play favorites.
Second, the passage declares “he is Lord of all,” using politically- and religiously-charged language (kyrios, “lord”) to claim Jesus’ lordship over earthly and supernatural forces. In this way Acts 10:34-43 makes explicit what the resurrection story only implies: Jesus is Lord over all things -- death, the devil, and all the forces that defy God.
Third, the message of Jesus is powerful. Just outside the bounds of our first reading, Peter’s message is interrupted by an unexpected guest: the Holy Spirit (vv. 44-45). Although the narrative of Acts complicates a formulaic relationship between the proclaimed message and the Spirit’s presence, the Spirit’s advent at several occasions (e.g., 2:37; 10:44) implies there is a mysterious power about the message of Jesus.
Whereas today’s Gospel reading states “he is risen,” our first reading declares boldly a message no less profound: “he is Lord of all.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23.
Given that the occasion of this Sunday is so prominent (as it should be), we will inevitably end up interpreting this Psalm through the lens of Easter resurrection.
When testifying one first narrates what one has seen and heard [e.g., "the Lord did not give me over to death" verse 18] and then declares what one believes about what has been seen and heard [e.g., "The Lord has become my salvation," verse 14, and "I shall not die, but I shall live," verse 17]. This Psalm is a leader's testimony to the people.
This individual song of praise becomes a communal song of praise as it moves others to testify to what God has done in their lives. The celebrant could be any one of us who has born witness to God's mighty act of delivering us from bondage when we cannot free ourselves.
iImagine how this Psalm picks up where the shorter ending of the Gospel of Mark leaves off; that is, you break the silence of the women who first witnessed the empty tomb by proclaiming, "He is risen!" In doing so you encourage others do the same. Let the "Alleluias" return.
Finally, it is worth focusing a bit on verse 22 ("The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."). Architecturally, the cornerstone is key; it is key for the stability of the structure and, additionally, as a kind of capstone that points to the architectural plans perfect execution.
The Psalm suggests that what has become the cornerstone was once a stone that the builders rejected. For whatever reason, it was once of no use but now, unexpectedly, has become the chief cornerstone. It is possible that the Psalmist has moved from a place of rejection to restoration and is now celebrating God's role in this. Could it be that when we testify as the Psalmist did we, too, are rejoicing at the unexpectedness of now being the one to testify!
Talk about unexpected . . . whoever imagined a baby from Bethlehem would grow up, die an untimely death and rise from his own tomb! Because the leap has already been made from cornerstone as inanimate object to cornerstone as metaphor for a person, it is no surprise that the leap is made in the New Testament to identify Jesus as the cornerstone, the chief cornerstone even. [Note that this Psalm (this verse) is one of the most often quoted in the New Testament. (See, for example, Matthew 21:41, Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:6-7, Ephesians 2:20.)]
The news that God has defeated death must be proclaimed on this day that the Lord has made. Rejoice! Alleluia!
Reading 2 Col 3:1-4
Colossians is in many ways "the epistle in the middle."
It seems to be midway in the development from the historical Paul to documents such as Ephesians and 1-2 Timothy and Titus that are clearly written in a later generation to update Paul for a new day. Chapter 3 begins the advice-giving section of the letter. The theme of the whole section (3:1-4:6) is stated in 3:1, "So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." The implications of what it means to "seek the things that are above" are drawn out in the succeeding verses.
Why is Col 3:1-4 read on Easter Sunday? The answer is as brief as the reading:
*the text refers to the resurrection of Jesus,
*it connects believers to it, and
*it outlines a basic ethical response that the author hopes will guide believers.
The text does refer to the resurrection of Jesus. He has been raised, and he is currently to be found "above," "seated at the right hand of God." One of the characteristics of Colossians, Ephesians, and the post-Paul era in general is that the time categories used by Paul, such as "this age" and "the age of ages," are now transformed into spatial categories of above and below--or, as in v. 2, "above" and "on earth." In that "above" realm, Christ is seated at God's right hand. The right hand is the hand of power and judgment; the reference to being seated at the right hand has its origin in Ps 110:1, one of the most quoted passages in the New Testament (see Eph 1:20, Acts 2:34, Heb 1:3).
Our passage also connects believers to the resurrection. The resurrection affects not only Jesus but all those who trust in him. In the undisputed letters of Paul the believer is not already resurrected with Jesus. In fact, Paul is quite careful to avoid that language (see Rom 6:4, for example). The author of Colossians had no such qualms. The reference to being "raised with" refers to baptism, in which the believer is identified with the death of Jesus and dies to the world's demands (Col 2:20). But the believer is also raised with Jesus to a life of new behavior.
And so, the author directs the listeners to "seek the things that are above, where Christ is." "To seek" does not mean to go on a scavenger hunt for an illusive set of behavior standards, but rather it means to orient our lives on the things that are above. The author calls on believers to lift their vision, to look beyond the complications and messiness of daily life and to find direction for living from "above." And so, v. 2, believers are to "think of what is above, not o what is on earth." "Set your minds on" translates the Greek word fronei/te phroneite, which refers to a person's orientation or basic stance to life. Where do believers get their orientation--from the "things that are on earth" or from "above?" The author knows that it is difficult for believers to orient their lives properly. And so the author uses the present tense imperative, which signals an ongoing action and a continual need to re-orient, to re-set one's life. In our neighborhood the electricity goes off with some regularity--any major storm or wind almost certainly will mean a blackout. When the power comes back on, I have to spend quite awhile resetting clocks, radios, televisions, and VCR/DVD players. So, too, believers get off track. Our "power" goes off--or better expressed, our ability to access that power goes off. When we reconnect we need to reset our lives. And so for the author of our passage, setting our minds on the things that are above is not a one-time-only decision but a decision that needs to be made over and over again.
And how can believers do that? They can do so by remembering that we have died, v. 3: "for you have died" (see also 2:12, 20). And since the death of believers has occurred in baptism, our passage is close to Luther's counsel that believers need to return every day to our baptisms and kill the old Adam and the old Eve.
Even though the author of Colossians is more relaxed in his use of resurrection language than are the undisputed letters of Paul, he too reserves some things for the end of time. And so the resurrected life of believers, real though it may be (v. 1) is for the moment hidden with Christ. And so, also, the future glory of believers is, well, future! That glory will be revealed only when Christ himself is revealed. And that Christ is our very life, v. 4, by which the author reminds us that Christ is the source of life.
The Colossians text helps us to connect the wonderful good news of Easter to our lives today. When Jesus is killed and when he is raised, in some way we are killed and we are raised with him. And his past-tense resurrection and our past-tense-but-still-future resurrection help us to lift our eyes to the heavens above, both to see the resurrected Christ and to orient our lives to him.
Gospel Jn 20:1-9
In the beginning . . . In the new beginning . . .
John presents us with the narrative that lies at the heart of the Gospel. Jesus, who was crucified, has been raised. We watch as Mary, Peter, and an unnamed disciple discover that Jesus' tomb is now empty; the outward and visible sign that Jesus has conquered death and a new creation has begun. And we are witnesses to the moment when Mary meets her risen Lord. Her grief turns to joy and she brings to us the good news that has been proclaimed throughout the ages, "I have seen the Lord."
This portion of John's gospel is a play that unfolds in three distinctive acts; a story about people searching, about sadness and fear, about action, surprise, and joy. And it is a story that takes us full circle back to the opening of the gospel.
The scene opens on a solitary figure walking through the darkness. Mary Magdalene has broken through her fear in order to tend to the body of her teacher and friend. All gospel accounts of this moment vary on some points. But what is consistent is the day and that it is Mary Magdalene who is the first to go to the tomb.
When Mary finds that the stone has been removed she jumps to conclusions. Her perception of what has happened is that someone has entered and stolen the body. But the author does not tell us if she entered or even looked in the tomb. Did she really know that the body of Jesus was not there? (How often do we jump to conclusions about God's actions in our lives?) Nevertheless, she runs back to tell Peter what she believes has happened.
Act two shifts to the experiences of Peter and the unnamed disciple intriguingly identified only as "the one whom Jesus loved." Over the years there have been many suggestions as to whom these two might represent: Jewish and Gentile Christians, Petrine and Johannine Christians. Could it be that the beloved disciple is unnamed because, as one biblical scholar has suggested, this person is to represent us?
Like Mary they run. The unnamed disciple, perhaps younger, arrives first. Since he could be the junior partner, he waits until the senior partner, Peter, arrives. He allows Peter to be the first to enter. Inside, Peter discovers that the tomb is, indeed, empty. And unlike the four-day dead Lazarus, who stumbled out of his tomb hindered by his burial wrappings (John 11:44), the cloths are still in the tomb. The details are intriguing. The author describes the placement of the wrappings, but also notes that the cloth that had covered Jesus' head has been rolled up and put in another part of the tomb. We should note that the tomb is truly empty when Peter and then the other disciple enter. There is no angel; no heavenly messenger.
John tells us that the beloved disciple "saw and believed." But what did he believe? It could be that he believed Mary was correct -- someone had stolen the body of Jesus. Or did he believe what Jesus had said the night of their last meal together, that Jesus had "conquered the world!" (John 16:33)
Act two ends as the two go home. There are no shouts of joy, no celebration. The emptiness of the tomb does not seem yet to have made a difference. (How many people in your congregation will not be feeling joy, hope, or certainty this Easter morning?)
The focus returns to Mary standing outside of the tomb. Weeping, she does, this time, enter the tomb. It would seem that neither Peter nor the disciple have offered any words of comfort or encouragement to Mary. But Mary does not find an empty tomb. While the body of Jesus is not there, like the synoptic gospel accounts, there are two angels. In response to their almost ridiculous question, (of course she should be weeping,) Mary repeats her interpretation of the situation; the theft of her friend's body.
Finally she repeats the question once again to a man she believes is the gardener. This may not be as ridiculous an understanding as it seems. It could be that John is giving us clues on how we might understand what has happened. Two things drive us back to the beginning of John's gospel encouraging us to view this, not as the end of the story, but a new beginning.
First, in the opening of John's gospel, Jesus' first words are a question directed at the disciples of John the Baptizer. "What are you looking for?" (John 1:38) And here, in this beginning, this new creation, Jesus asks Mary the very same question, "Whom are you looking for?" (John 20:15) A new ministry is beginning, a new story. Is Jesus asking the same question of us this Easter morning? What are we looking for? It was when Jesus called her by name that Mary recognized her beloved Rabbouni. Is Jesus calling our name? And when John's disciples called out to this Rabbi, he invited them to "Come and see" (John 1:39). Are we being called to see the new things that God is doing in our lives and in our world?
Second, unlike the synoptic gospels that begin at dawn, John's tale begins in the dark, the absence of light. This is the writer who, at the opening of his gospel took us not to a stable, but to the very opening of creation, "In the beginning." Could it be that John is taking us back, once more, to that primordial darkness when "the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep" (Genesis 1:2). The author is echoing Paul's declaration that in the death and resurrection of Jesus we are experiencing a new creation, "everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)
And where are we? In a garden. Without knowing it, Mary has correctly identified Jesus as the gardener who is bringing a new world, a new life, and a new creation into being, as he had done before:
"All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it" (John 1:3-5).
In the first creation story God drove Eve and Adam out of the garden. But in this new creation Jesus sends Mary out of the garden rejoicing. She is sent out to tell everyone the darkness has not overcome the Word made flesh who had lived among us. She had seen her Rabbi, and she now understood that she has seen "the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) "I have seen the Lord." (John 20:18) Her message declares to us the new beginning that God has prepared for all of us
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Sunday March 25, 2018 Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
Lectionary: 37 and 38
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 50:4-7
The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
All who see me scoff at me;
they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads:
"He relied on the LORD; let him deliver him,
let him rescue him, if he loves him."
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Indeed, many dogs surround me,
a pack of evildoers closes in upon me;
They have pierced my hands and my feet;
I can count all my bones.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
They divide my garments among them,
and for my vesture they cast lots.
But you, O LORD, be not far from me;
O my help, hasten to aid me.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:
"You who fear the LORD, praise him;
all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him;
revere him, all you descendants of Israel!"
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Reading 2 Phil 2:6-11
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel
Gospel Mk 14:1—15:47
The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
were to take place in two days' time.
So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way
to arrest him by treachery and put him to death.
They said, "Not during the festival,
for fear that there may be a riot among the people."
When he was in Bethany reclining at table
in the house of Simon the leper,
a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil,
costly genuine spikenard.
She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.
There were some who were indignant.
"Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?
It could have been sold for more than three hundred days' wages
and the money given to the poor."
They were infuriated with her.
Jesus said, "Let her alone.
Why do you make trouble for her?
She has done a good thing for me.
The poor you will always have with you,
and whenever you wish you can do good to them,
but you will not always have me.
She has done what she could.
She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.
Amen, I say to you,
wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world,
what she has done will be told in memory of her."
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve,
went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them.
When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money.
Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,
his disciples said to him,
"Where do you want us to go
and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"
He sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the city and a man will meet you,
carrying a jar of water.
Follow him.
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house,
'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room
where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
Make the preparations for us there."
The disciples then went off, entered the city,
and found it just as he had told them;
and they prepared the Passover.
When it was evening, he came with the Twelve.
And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said,
"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me,
one who is eating with me."
They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one,
"Surely it is not I?"
He said to them,
"One of the Twelve, the one who dips with me into the dish.
For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born."
While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them, and said,
"Take it; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Then Jesus said to them,
"All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written:
I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be dispersed.
But after I have been raised up,
I shall go before you to Galilee."
Peter said to him,
"Even though all should have their faith shaken,
mine will not be."
Then Jesus said to him,
"Amen, I say to you,
this very night before the cock crows twice
you will deny me three times."
But he vehemently replied,
"Even though I should have to die with you,
I will not deny you."
And they all spoke similarly.
Then they came to a place named Gethsemane,
and he said to his disciples,
"Sit here while I pray."
He took with him Peter, James, and John,
and began to be troubled and distressed.
Then he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death.
Remain here and keep watch."
He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed
that if it were possible the hour might pass by him;
he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you.
Take this cup away from me,
but not what I will but what you will."
When he returned he found them asleep.
He said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep?
Could you not keep watch for one hour?
Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."
Withdrawing again, he prayed, saying the same thing.
Then he returned once more and found them asleep,
for they could not keep their eyes open
and did not know what to answer him.
He returned a third time and said to them,
"Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
It is enough. The hour has come.
Behold, the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.
Get up, let us go.
See, my betrayer is at hand."
Then, while he was still speaking,
Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived,
accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs
who had come from the chief priests,
the scribes, and the elders.
His betrayer had arranged a signal with them, saying,
"The man I shall kiss is the one;
arrest him and lead him away securely."
He came and immediately went over to him and said,
"Rabbi." And he kissed him.
At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.
One of the bystanders drew his sword,
struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his ear.
Jesus said to them in reply,
"Have you come out as against a robber,
with swords and clubs, to seize me?
Day after day I was with you teaching in the temple area,
yet you did not arrest me;
but that the Scriptures may be fulfilled."
And they all left him and fled.
Now a young man followed him
wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body.
They seized him,
but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.
They led Jesus away to the high priest,
and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.
Peter followed him at a distance into the high priest's courtyard
and was seated with the guards, warming himself at the fire.
The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin
kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus
in order to put him to death, but they found none.
Many gave false witness against him,
but their testimony did not agree.
Some took the stand and testified falsely against him,
alleging, "We heard him say,
'I will destroy this temple made with hands
and within three days I will build another
not made with hands.'"
Even so their testimony did not agree.
The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus,
saying, "Have you no answer?
What are these men testifying against you?"
But he was silent and answered nothing.
Again the high priest asked him and said to him,
"Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed One?"
Then Jesus answered, "I am;
and 'you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of the Power
and coming with the clouds of heaven.'"
At that the high priest tore his garments and said,
"hat further need have we of witnesses?
You have heard the blasphemy.
What do you think?"
They all condemned him as deserving to die.
Some began to spit on him.
They blindfolded him and struck him and said to him, "Prophesy!"
And the guards greeted him with blows.
While Peter was below in the courtyard,
one of the high priest's maids came along.
Seeing Peter warming himself,
she looked intently at him and said,
"You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus."
But he denied it saying,
"I neither know nor understand what you are talking about."
So he went out into the outer court.
Then the cock crowed.
The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders,
"This man is one of them."
Once again he denied it.
A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more,
"Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean."
He began to curse and to swear,
"I do not know this man about whom you are talking."
And immediately a cock crowed a second time.
Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him,
"Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times."
He broke down and wept.
As soon as morning came,
the chief priests with the elders and the scribes,
that is, the whole Sanhedrin held a council.
They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him,
"Are you the king of the Jews?"
He said to him in reply, "You say so."
The chief priests accused him of many things.
Again Pilate questioned him,
"Have you no answer?
See how many things they accuse you of."
Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them
one prisoner whom they requested.
A man called Barabbas was then in prison
along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.
The crowd came forward and began to ask him
to do for them as he was accustomed.
Pilate answered,
"Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?"
For he knew that it was out of envy
that the chief priests had handed him over.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd
to have him release Barabbas for them instead.
Pilate again said to them in reply,
"Then what do you want me to do
with the man you call the king of the Jews?"
They shouted again, "Crucify him."
Pilate said to them, "Why? What evil has he done?"
They only shouted the louder, "Crucify him."
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd,
released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged,
handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away inside the palace,
that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.
They clothed him in purple and,
weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.
They began to salute him with, AHail, King of the Jews!"
and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him.
They knelt before him in homage.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the purple cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him out to crucify him.
They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon,
a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country,
the father of Alexander and Rufus,
to carry his cross.
They brought him to the place of Golgotha
— which is translated Place of the Skull --
They gave him wine drugged with myrrh,
but he did not take it.
Then they crucified him and divided his garments
by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him.
The inscription of the charge against him read,
"The King of the Jews."
With him they crucified two revolutionaries,
one on his right and one on his left.
Those passing by reviled him,
shaking their heads and saying,
"Aha! You who would destroy the temple
and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself by coming down from the cross."
Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes,
mocked him among themselves and said,
"He saved others; he cannot save himself.
Let the Christ, the King of Israel,
come down now from the cross
that we may see and believe."
Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.
At noon darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And at three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?"
which is translated,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
"Look, he is calling Elijah."
One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed
and gave it to him to drink saying,
"Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down."
Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
When the centurion who stood facing him
saw how he breathed his last he said,
"Truly this man was the Son of God!"
There were also women looking on from a distance.
Among them were Mary Magdalene,
Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome.
These women had followed him when he was in Galilee
and ministered to him.
There were also many other women
who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
When it was already evening,
since it was the day of preparation,
the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea,
a distinguished member of the council,
who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God,
came and courageously went to Pilate
and asked for the body of Jesus.
Pilate was amazed that he was already dead.
He summoned the centurion
and asked him if Jesus had already died.
And when he learned of it from the centurion,
he gave the body to Joseph.
Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down,
wrapped him in the linen cloth,
and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock.
Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses
watched where he was laid.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 50:4-7
Isaiah 50:4-7 is part of a larger poem that extends to 50:11.
Its subject is a servant of God (50:10), who speaks of his life in God’s service with both pride and pugnacity. The poem begins with his boast of being attentive to the word of God (verse 4), and he proclaims that his calling is “to sustain the weary with a word.” Then the poem takes a surprising turn: “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.” (verse 6).
This poem is in that portion of Isaiah (chapters 40-55) written in the final years of the Babylonian exile, so speaking a message of comfort to the weary exiles of that time would seem to be a compelling and attractive calling. Inviting torture is less so. And yet this servant, suffering so horribly, goes on to declare, “The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced;…” (verse 7a). He is a compelling and strong character, whose dignity and ferocity are at odds with his beaten visage, and the prophet of Second Isaiah offers him to the people in exile as a powerful symbol of courage and hope in the midst of profound suffering. Indeed, the prophet offers the model of the servant to the people and calls them to be like him -- to understand their own suffering as he does -- rooted in the call to be faithful servants of God.
There are several poems in Isaiah 40-55 whose focus is this individual whom God calls “my servant.” These include 42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; and 52:13-53:12. While there has been a tendency to view these poems as sounding a distinct note within Second Isaiah and excising them from their context, contemporary scholarship has moved away from this treatment of the servant poems and made solid arguments for regarding them as integral to Second Isaiah’s work and message.
Understood within the context of Second Isaiah, the servant poems are best seen as part of the prophet’s effort to inspire and transform the people in exile from seeing themselves as helpless slaves of Babylon (see Isaiah 49:7) to servants of God, endowed with dignity and purpose. This commentary is not the place for a comprehensive study of the imagery of the servant in Second Isaiah, but a few notes on servant imagery within the book might be helpful:
No Name
The servant of God is never given a name in these poems, suggesting that the poems about the servant are not descriptions of a historical individual (or, at least, are not only descriptions of an actual person) but are deliberately non-specific in order to allow the people to imagine themselves as the servant. When there is a particular name associated with the servant, the name is “Israel” or “Jacob” (41:8-9; 44:1-2, 21; 45:4; 48:20; 49:3, 5-6), indicating that the prophet’s intent is for the people as a whole to see themselves as the servant and not to associate the term with one particular person.
Blameless Individual
The servant of these four servant poems is a blameless individual, whose faithfulness to God is unparalleled and whose suffering is extreme (see especially 52:13-53:12). Some have argued that the servant cannot possibly be the people in exile because they were not beyond reproach, but Second Isaiah begins with the admission that the suffering of the people has exceeded the fault: “[Jerusalem] has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (40:2b).
Also consider the perspective of 52:4-5, which reads: “Now therefore what am I doing here, says the Lord, seeing that my people are taken away without cause?” The above examples demonstrate that there is room within the framework of Second Isaiah to regard the people in exile as suffering undeservedly.
Babylon?
The people to whom the prophet writes were living in exile, but there is only a single mention of the people serving Babylon in Second Isaiah. In fact, Babylon is not even mentioned by name in that single text:
“Thus says the LORD, the redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
To the one despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers:” (49:7a).
The Hebrew word translated “slave” here is the same word translated as “servant” in the texts that speak of God’s servant in the rest of Second Isaiah. Considering the fact that the people in exile were under the control of Babylon, it is surely significant that the prophet does not speak of their lives and their labor as belonging to anyone but God. As God’s own servant, the people are divinely called and empowered, and they will ultimately be vindicated (42:1, 6-7; 43:10; 44:1-5; 49:1-6; 50:4, 7-9; 52:13, 53:5, 10-12).
Reading Isaiah 50:4-9a in light of the servant imagery we find throughout Isaiah 40-55 highlights the fact that the servant is not to be viewed simply as a description of a particular person in history. Open ears, learned and sustaining speech, a staunch faith and a willingness to suffer are the hallmarks of the ideal servant of God. God’s calling to be “my servant” is issued to the people in exile, struggling to maintain their identity as God’s own people in the midst of the Babylonian empire. It is a powerful calling, and it issues through the ages to Judea in first century ce and to us as well.
This poem is, of course, the Old Testament reading for this Sunday, which is the Sunday of the Passion. This text will serve as background for most sermons delivered this Sunday, but it is my hope that it will deepen our sense of gratitude for the one we profess as Christians to have fulfilled the calling to be God’s servant in the truest sense.
I hope that gratitude is not the only response to this servant song and to the story of the Passion, however. In both the Passion of Christ and the suffering of the servant of God in Second Isaiah, a call is issued. The call is not to a life of ease but to a life in the service of God, grounded in our faith. May our ears ever be open to the word of God and our mouths ever ready to speak a word of comfort. May our faces never be hidden out of fear or shame because the God “who vindicates me is near.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24.
Psalm 22 is a prayer of complaint that, perhaps more than any psalm, serves as a link between the Old Testament and the story of Jesus' passion.
Indeed, this psalm is an appropriate lectionary reading as we prepare for Holy Week because the Gospels cite and allude to it at least five times in the crucifixion account. It is important to recognize, however, that Psalm 22 is not important simply because it appears in the New Testament. Rather, the New Testament writers drew from it because of its profound expressions of suffering and faith.
Psalm 22 has "an intensity and a comprehensiveness" that is almost unequaled among psalms of this type. The psalm has two main parts: (1) a prayer for help in verses 1-21a; and (2) a song of praise in verses 21b-31. Both of these sections have two prominent divisions in which repetition of a main theme, sometimes with exact vocabulary, strengthens the psalm's expression of both complaint and praise. Verses 1-11 has two complaints (verses 1-2, 6-9), contains some of the most striking language in the Psalms. The psalm opens with the famous cry of dereliction, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
At the other end of this section the psalmist complains,
"But I am a worm not a man, scorned by men, despised by the people" (verse 7). In both cases, however, the complaint is followed by an extended confession of trust that recalls God's protection in the past (verses 3-5, 9-11). The first confession of trust is corporate ("In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted and you rescued them" verse 5) and second individual and personal ("Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother's breast," For you drew me forth from the womb, made me safe at my mother’s breasts. verse 10).
The prayer for help in verses 12-21a focuses on the nature of the psalmist's trouble. The verses leading up to 17-20 include images of animals that circle the psalmist waiting to devour and destroy. These images are followed in both cases by complaints of physical weakness. The section concludes with a concatenation of petitions for God to be near and to save from the sword, the dog, and the lion (verses 19-21a).
The second major portion of the psalm turns to praise and assurance that God has heard and answered. This section offers praise and thanksgiving that matches the repeated calls for help in verses 1-21a. Verse 21b responds tersely to the complaints of verses 1-18 by saying "From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me." The rest of the psalm then promises praise to God, promises that progress from the psalmist's profession before worshippers (verses 22-25) to the praise of those who "sleep in the earth" (verse 29).
The psalmist's promise of praise dominates verses 22-26. Twice the psalmist pledges to honor God by recalling God's goodness (verse 22) and by making vows in the midst of the congregation (verse 25). After both promises of praise the psalmist then declares God's past goodness to those in trouble and those of lowly estate ("the afflicted," verse 24; "the poor" and "those who seek him," verse 26; the word translated "afflicted" and the word translated "poor" are actually the same, ?an? ). Verses 27-31 then expand the promise of praise so that every person in human history is included: "all the families of the nations" (verse 27), "all who sleep in the earth" (verse 29), and "future generations" (verse 30).
The connection between Psalm 22 and the story of Jesus' suffering and death is natural given the extensive description of suffering the psalm contains. Perhaps the most obvious connection between the passion story and Psalm 22 is Jesus' cry of God-forsakenness: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1; Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46). Other portions of the psalm provide an outline of the experience of Jesus on the cross.
In all four Gospels (Mark 15:24; Matthew 27:35; Luke 23:34; John 19:24) the description of the soldiers' activity beneath the cross draws on Psalm 22:18:
"they divide my garments among them,;
and for my clothing they cast lots."
Not only does the psalmist cry out to God with unparalleled expressions of pain and loss (verse 1), but the writer also expresses hope in something close akin to resurrection (verses 29-30). Thus, Psalm 22 is appropriate for the hope that accompanies Jesus' passion as well as the grief. It anticipates a vision of God who holds the believer even after death that will only be expressed fully centuries later.
Reading 2 Phil 2:6-11
What's in a name? From a biblical perspective -- everything!1
A name was believed to represent the essence of a person's character. The name Jesus, of course, is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means "he saves."
"The name that is above every name..."
In Philippians Paul incorporates into his letter what is most likely an early Christian hymn. In this hymn we see how Jesus embodies his given name, "he saves." Being "in the form of God," he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped or exploited, as something to be held onto at all costs and used to his own advantage. Rather, he willingly " ….emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. (2:6-8).
Jesus is not a passive victim, but enters fully and willingly into his mission. He empties himself of all claims to divine glory and honor to become a human being -- not a human of high status and honor, but a lowly slave serving other human beings. He humbles himself even to the point of dying a slave's death, for the shameful and tortuous form of execution by crucifixion was reserved for slaves and rebels against Roman rule.
This Jesus is the one whom God highly exalts and to whom God gives "the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend... and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (2:9-11). In exalting Jesus, God gives Jesus his own name -- "Lord" -- and confers on him Lordship over all creation. One day every knee will bend before him, "in heaven and on earth and under the earth," and every tongue join in confessing together that Jesus Christ is Lord.
This hymn makes the astonishing claim that the one we call God and Lord is most fully revealed in the crucified one. The one who humbled himself and took the form of a slave shows us who God is and how God acts. God's essential character is shown to be one of self-emptying love rather than self-aggrandizement or grasping for power and glory. God's high exaltation of Jesus confirms the divine nature of his mission and ensures that one day he will be acknowledged by all for who he truly is. Jesus, the one who saves, is God's anointed one (the Messiah or Christ), and Lord of all.
Does our life together reflect "the same mind that was in Christ Jesus"? Are we looking to the interests of others rather than our own interests? Are humility and servanthood evident among us?
Gospel Mk 14:1—15:47
Palm Sunday is a day to set the tone for those who will be worshiping together throughout Holy Week and to rehearse the drama of Holy Week for those who will not gather with the worshiping community again until Easter Sunday.
To allow worshipers to move from the joy of the parade into Jerusalem to the joy of the parade out of the tomb without experiencing the somberness of the temple conflicts, the eschatological predictions of future suffering and redemption, the anointing, the last supper, the arrest and trial, the mobs, the crucifixion and the burial is to rob the Paschal Mystery of much of its mystery.
The lectionary for this Sunday divides the readings into the Liturgy of the Palms (anchored by Mark 11:1-11) and the more extended Liturgy of the Passion (focused on Mark 14:1 -- 15:47). But if congregations are willing to forego their usual liturgical format, worship can be structured around a sequence of dramatic readings from the gospel lections (as well as the other lections). Such a format invites worshipers to experience an extended narrative in a way that the confines of Sunday worship rarely allow. Hymns, prayers, communion, and other acts of worship can be included in the service at places that invite the congregation to respond appropriately to the different readings.
Begin with commentary on the scenes in chapter 15 leading up to Jesus' death, focusing on how Jesus' identity is misunderstood. The religious leaders, Pilate, the crowds, and soldiers are all confused about who Jesus is.
Move to a wide angle lens approach and offer a sympathetic reading of these opponents indicating that their misunderstanding should be no surprise given that Mark presents even the disciples as being confused.
Walk through key moments in Mark where the disciples exhibit misunderstanding, e.g., in the parables discourse where insiders are supposed to understand the mystery of the reign of God but Jesus has to interpret the parables for them (4:10-13, 34), in the miracle of calming storm where they question who Jesus is (verses 40-41), when Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ (seemingly understanding) only to be rebuked by Jesus and called Satan after he rejects Jesus' self-understanding as one who must suffer and die (8:27-33), and after the other two passion predictions where the disciples respond inappropriately (arguing over who is the greatest in 10:30-37 and asking to sit on Jesus' right and left hand in glory in 11:32-40).
The strategy behind such a survey would be the cumulative effect of presenting the disciples' misunderstanding. Thus the climax of the narration should be Peter's denial (14:66-72) that is the last scene before the lectionary reading begins in 15:1: when he says in his last denial, "I do not know this man you are talking about," he thinks he is lying, but he is not.
Sum up the misunderstanding in terms of the fact that no human in Mark's narrative calls Jesus the Son of God. The title of the book declares it (1:1). The heavenly voice announces it at Jesus' baptism (1:11) and transfiguration (9:7), but the disciples do not "get it." But finally one person does -- the very man who crucified Jesus, the Gentile, the Roman oppressor, the centurion. When he sees Jesus die, he recognizes him: "Truly this man was God's son" (15:39).
This long narration of Mark's story through the christological lenses of misunderstanding and the messianic title of Son of God finally allows the preacher to claim, on the congregation's behalf, our contemporary misunderstanding of who Jesus Christ, the Son of God is. And it allows the preacher to lead the congregation to the rejection, suffering and death of the cross, even today, as the place where we can truly understand who Jesus is for us (pro nobis).
Preachers with different theological orientations will naturally interpret the significance of the cross in different ways, but reclaiming its centrality (through the lens of Mark) for interpreting the Christ event and indeed contemporary Christian existence is not a bad way to start off Holy Week.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Spikenard (spike nard) was an expensive perfume mentioned in the Song of Solomon (1:12; 4:13–14) and in the gospels’ accounts of women anointing Jesus (Mark 14:3; John 12:3).
Spikenard had a strong, distinctive aroma, similar to an essential oil that clings to skin and hair and continues to give off its heady perfume. It was also thought to have medicinal properties. According to Eastman’s Bible Dictionary, spikenard “is the root of an Indian plant, the Nardostachys jatamansi, (nardo stan chees jata man see) of the family of Valeriance, growing on the Himalaya mountains and in India. It is distinguished by its having many hairy spikes shooting out from one root.” The ointment prepared from the root was highly valued. Spikenard symbolized the very best in ancient cultures the way that “Tiffany diamond” or the “gold standard” does to us.
Spikenard had a unique fragrance, and the presence of its aroma was an indication that the very best had been offered. In the Song of Solomon, spikenard is mentioned in reference to the love between bride and groom. In Song of Solomon 1:12, the bride says, “While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.” Those words imply that, despite all other fragrances in the room, only his bride’s would matter to the groom. The presence of spikenard represented their passion for each other and their desire to have only the best define their love.
When Mary of Bethany broke her alabaster jar of spikenard (John 12:3) and bathed the feet of Jesus with the oil, she, too, wanted only the best to define her love for Him. It has been speculated that this jar may have been Mary’s dowry or her inheritance. In other words, this jar of spikenard ointment may have been all she had of value, and she poured it out on Him. Her extravagant gift is a picture of the kind of offering expected of each of us. Only the best was worthy of her Lord, and she was willing to give everything as an act of worship.
A denarius (or "penny") was what an agricultural worker typically was paid for one day's labor (probably 10 hours, sunup to sundown) Mt. 20:2-9). Was worth about 15 cents.
Note Rev. 6:6 which sets the price of wheat at a penny per measure, or barley at a penny for 3 measures. I have been told that a measure here is enough to feed a person for a day. In other words, it would take an agricultural worker's entire wages for a day to feed himself on wheat; or he would be able to feed himself and two other family members on barley. This verse is obviously indicating a difficult time.
To put the value in today’s dollars let’s assume a minimum wage of $7.50 per hour today. Since some had said the jar was worth 300 days wages it would be worth 7.50 times 10 times 300 or $22,500.00. WOW!!!
Sunday March 18, 2018 – Year B Fifth Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 35
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 31:31-34
The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers
the day I took them by the hand
to lead them forth from the land of Egypt;
for they broke my covenant,
and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.
But this is the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD.
I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives
how to know the LORD.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD,
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Reading 2 Heb 5:7-9
In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh,
he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears
to the one who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
Gospel Jn 12:20-33
Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast
came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee,
and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."
Philip went and told Andrew;
then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them,
"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honor whoever serves me.
"I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?
'Father, save me from this hour'?
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name."
Then a voice came from heaven,
"I have glorified it and will glorify it again."
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder;
but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
Jesus answered and said,
"This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.
Now is the time of judgment on this world;
now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw everyone to myself."
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 31:31-34
On this Sunday, we hear words of promise from the prophet Jeremiah, words about a new covenant and a renewed relationship between God and God's people.
The words are addressed to a people in exile, far from home and bereft of hope. The covenant between God and Israel, the covenant made so long ago at Sinai, is (or seems to be) broken. God has not protected Israel from harm and they have been taken into exile.
Into such a situation, the prophet speaks words of promise. But he frames those promises in terms of the very relationship in question. The prophet speaks of a covenant -- like the one made at Sinai -- between the Lord and Israel. "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah" (Jeremiah 31:31).
There is both continuity and discontinuity with what has come before. The continuity lies in the character of God and the love God continues to have for a wayward people. God will not abandon Israel forever. God will not forget God's promises made so long ago at Sinai:
I will dwell among the Israelites, and I will be their God. (Exodus 29:45; cf. Exodus 6:7)
And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. (Leviticus 26:12)
Just so, in this new covenant, God promises, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33). The relationship is not new. Israel knows this God, and God knows this people. The promises Jeremiah speaks build on a long and shared history between God and Israel, a history marked by wavering on the part of the people and by faithfulness on the part of God. God continues to love this wayward people; they continue to be God's treasured possession. In this new covenant there is indeed continuity with what has come before.
The discontinuity is, of course, implied with the term, "new." This is a new covenant with Israel, not like the covenant at Sinai, "a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says GOD" (Jeremiah 31:32). Still, what is new about this covenant is not so much its content, but the means by which God will bring it about.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says GOD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know GOD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says GOD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:33-34)
The old covenant, written on stone tablets and scrolls, will be replaced by the new covenant, written on flesh. The first set of stone tablets was broken (Exodus 32:19), the second set written again (Exodus 34:1) and hidden away in the Ark of the Covenant (Deuteronomy 10:5). The book of the law, containing the stipulations of the covenant, likewise was stored beside the Ark (Deuteronomy 31:24-26) and mostly forgotten until it was rediscovered in the reign of King Josiah (2 Kings 22), in the early days of Jeremiah's prophetic career.
Unlike the old covenant, then, written on stone tablets that can be broken and scrolls that can be lost, the new covenant will be written within the people, on their very hearts. No need for remedial religious education, because everyone will know GOD, from the king to the stable boy, from the oldest elder to the youngest child.
And it will all be GOD's doing. "I will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more." The people have not demonstrated a great aptitude for faithfulness during the many years of the old covenant, so this time GOD will do it differently. This time, the covenant relies solely on GOD's mercy, GOD's ever-present grace in forgiving a disobedient people and calling them back into relationship with him.
And it is all God's doing. In and through Jesus Christ, the God of Jeremiah continues to forgive, renew, reform, and call God's people into right relationship with him and with one another. God is faithful, even when we are not.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15.
In verses 1 -- 5, the psalm begins with a cry for forgiveness, emphasizing the urgency of the situation with a series of imperative verbs: have mercy, blot out, wash, and cleanse. The picture behind the Hebrew word translated "transgressions" in verses 1, 3, and 13, is one of rebellion, as when children rebel against parents (see also Isaiah 1:2). The literal sense of the Hebrew translated "iniquity" (verses 2, 9) is "to be bent out of shape." For example, in Psalm 38:6, the Jewish Publication Society Bible gives the translation "I am all bent." The word translated "sin" (Hebrew hata' in verses 2, 3, 4, 9) or "sinner" (5 and 13) in non-theological contexts means "to miss the target." Judges 20:16 tells of 700 left-handed sling-shotters who could "sling a stone at a hair and not miss (hata')."
Balancing these words for sin are three Hebrew picture-words for forgiveness. The Hebrew translated "blot out" in verse 1 is also used to "wipe" a dirty dish (2 Kings 21:13). To "wash" in verses 2 and 7 could better be translated "scrub," as one scrubs dirty clothes (Exodus 19:10, 14). "Cleanse" in verse 2 and "be clean" in verse 7 is the same word used for washing clothes in a river (Leviticus 13:6, 34, 58).
In verses 13 -- 17, the one praying looks forward to being happy and right with God once again (verses 8, 11-12). Once he/she experiences the joy of being forgiven, he/she vows to witness and teach others about it and sing and praise God (verses 13-15). In verses 16 and 17 the psalmist says, "The sort of sacrifice the Lord desires is not something I bring as an offering. Rather, the Lord wants me, broken spirit, broken heart and all" (see also Micah 6:6-8).
Reading 2 Heb 5:7-9
Christ was obedient not only in his death, but from the moment of his coming into the world.
This is the message of today's epistle reading. The author's declaration here is close to Paul's statement in Romans 3:25, where he speaks of God putting forward Jesus "as an expiation through faith in his blood." Yet, it is not Paul that the author of Hebrews has in mind.
What we find here is a positive explanation of Christ's priestly act. What is said about Christ is in reply to the inability of the priestly or Levitical sacrificial system to perfect the individual's conscience. The author said in 9:14 that the perfection of conscience was the goal of worship. The speaker here is Christ. In fact, it is only the second time in the book that Jesus himself speaks. More importantly, these words are ascribed to Christ "when [he] came into the world" (Hebrews 10:5). Thus, the complete obedience that is the essence of Christ's priesthood is also expressive of his character. One may clearly see this in his faithful and obedient sacrifice on the cross, but the author wants us to understand that Christ was faithful at the moment of his coming into existence. Jesus is the son who "learned obedience through what he suffered" (5:8), and did so from the beginning.
The actual verses quoted from the psalm come from the Septuagint (i.e., the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) rather than the Hebrew. This is most evident in the use of the term "body," which does not appear in the Hebrew rendition. (It has "ear.") The point appears to be that Jesus was committed entirely to God, including his body.
It was through a single-minded obedience of Christ's will and -- most pointedly -- body, says Hebrews, that our sanctification through God's will has come about. The author wants us to see that the incarnation is explained by the atonement, but the atonement would never have come about without Christ's faithful obedience. Moreover, the sacrifice offered up by Jesus was so perfectly complete that no repetition of it is either necessary or possible. It was offered "once for all" (10:10). Although Jesus "learned obedience from the things he suffered," which implies that he grew in his understanding of the divine will, the reading for today wants us to be certain that even at the moment of the incarnation Jesus was thoroughly committed to carrying it out.
Gospel Jn 12:20-33
This lectionary periscope is the opening section of Jesus’ final discourse for the world.
Greeks arrive on the scene, find Philip, and make one of the most extraordinary requests of the entire Gospel, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Jesus’ discourse that follows is, in part, a response to this request. If you wish to see Jesus, then this is what you will and must see. There is a reason this verse finds itself carved on or engraved in our pulpits. It is a summative theology of preaching, particularly for the Fourth Gospel. Any sermon on the Gospel of John has this as its goal, the very real presence of Jesus that needs to be experienced by any or all of our human senses. Jesus’ response to the request of the Greeks announces that the hour has come (meaning the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension). In many respects, what follows is an interpretation of the hour for the world to hear. One way to view Jesus’ last public discourse is as an interpretation of the “final” sign in the Gospel: Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Both this discourse and the Farewell Discourse are based on the fact that the hour is here. These two discourses share that perspective and shape what Jesus will say and how he will say it in the chapters that follow.
A call to discipleship
An immediate example of how Jesus’ last public words foreshadow his personal words to the disciples is the image offered in John 12:24. The metaphor of bearing fruit will receive fuller treatment in the image of the vine and the branches in chapter 15. Verse 25 is further commentary on the agricultural metaphor presented in verse 24, but viewed through the lens of the Farewell Discourse has less to do with function of Jesus’ death as it does with the possibility of what the disciples will do when Jesus is gone. They will do greater works than these (John 14:12) because Jesus is returning to the Father. So much of this last discourse from Jesus is about discipleship. To serve Jesus (John 13:16) is to follow Jesus and to follow Jesus is to do the works that he did, to feed and tend his sheep (John 13:36-37; 21:15-19), to testify on his behalf (John 15:27).
Don’t forget who Jesus is
John 12:27 is demonstrative of how different the portrait of Jesus is in the Gospel of John. John’s Jesus would never ask for this cup to pass (John 18:11) but willingly lays down his life in the events that are to come. John 12:28-30 should be reminiscent of both the baptism of Jesus and the event of the Transfiguration in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-10; Luke 9:28-36), the latter omitted from the Fourth Gospel and the former, the baptism of Jesus, does not include the words from heaven, neither for the benefit of the crowd nor for Jesus. In the Gospel of John, Jesus does not need confirmation of who he is (John 12:30). He is perfectly aware of his origin, his relationship with God, and his identity (John 1:1). The voice from heaven does not confirm Jesus’ origin, his relationship to God, or his identity, but rather testifies that in Jesus, God’s name has been glorified (John 12:28-30).
A moment of decision
This section of John’s Gospel, particularly 12:31-33, is also the moment of judgment because this is the last time the “world” will hear Jesus’ words. To listen to Jesus is to believe in him and this, for all intents and purposes, is the last chance. The ruler of this world will be cast out, which will be acted out in the next chapter, with the departure of Judas to the dark side (13:27-30). This is another example by which to know that what Jesus says is true. Verses 32-33 at first glance seem to foreshadow the crucifixion. At the same time, literally, “what sort of death he was about to die” suggests that the “the sort of death” includes also that that death leads to his resurrection and ascension. When Jesus is lifted up from the earth to draw all people to himself, that lifting up is simultaneously all three events: crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. The Farewell Discourse provides confirmation of this in that Jesus’ parting words are not just in anticipation of his death, but in anticipation of his ascension, perhaps a far more difficult reality to face than his inevitability in a tomb. To what extent the ascension is even harder theologically because of the resurrection? Jesus must prepare his disciples for his twice departure, his death and his ascension.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
teach me to be generous;
teach me to serve You as You deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward
save that of knowing I am doing Your Will.
Sunday March 11, 2018 - Year B Fourth Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 32
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23
In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people
added infidelity to infidelity,
practicing all the abominations of the nations
and polluting the LORD’s temple
which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers,
send his messengers to them,
for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.
But they mocked the messengers of God,
despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets,
until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed
that there was no remedy.
Their enemies burnt the house of God,
tore down the walls of Jerusalem,
set all its palaces afire,
and destroyed all its precious objects.
Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon,
where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons
until the kingdom of the Persians came to power.
All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah:
“Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths,
during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest
while seventy years are fulfilled.”
In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia,
in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah,
the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia
to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom,
both by word of mouth and in writing:
“Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia:
All the kingdoms of the earth
the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me,
and he has also charged me to build him a house
in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people,
let him go up, and may his God be with him!”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6.
R. (6ab) Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
By the streams of Babylon
we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the aspens of that land
we hung up our harps.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
For there our captors asked of us
the lyrics of our songs,
And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:
“Sing for us the songs of Zion!”
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
How could we sing a song of the LORD
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand be forgotten!
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
Reading 2 Eph 2:4-10
Brothers and sisters:
God, who is rich in mercy,
because of the great love he had for us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
brought us to life with Christ — by grace you have been saved —,
raised us up with him,
and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come
He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;
it is not from works, so no one may boast.
For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them.
Gospel jn 3:14-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23
The great sin that brought this destruction was idolatry. The priests and people went after the abominations of the heathen, forsook the pure worship of God for the lewd and filthy rites of the Pagan superstition, and so polluted the house of the Lord, 2 Chronicles 36:14. The priests, the chief of the priests, who should have opposed idolatry, were ring-leaders in it. That place is not far from ruin in which religion is already ruined.
The great aggravation of their sin, and that which filled the measure of it, was the abuse they gave to God's prophets, who were sent to call them to repentance, 2 Chronicles 36:15, 2 Chronicles 36:16. Here we have, (1.) God's tender compassion towards them in sending prophets to them. Because he was the God of their fathers, in covenant with them, and whom they worshipped (though this degenerate race forsook him), therefore he sent to them by his messengers, to convince them of their sin and warn them of the ruin they would bring upon themselves by it, rising up early and sending, which denotes not only that he did it with the greatest care and concern imaginable, as men rise early to set their servants to work when their heart is upon their business, but that, upon their first deviation from God to idols, if they took but one step that way, God immediately sent to them by his messengers to reprove them for it. He gave them early timely notice both of their duty and danger. Let this quicken us to seek God early, that he rises early to send to us. The prophets that were sent rose earlyto speak to them, were diligent and faithful in their office, lost no time, slipped no opportunity of dealing with them; and therefore God is said to rise early. The more pains ministers take in their work the more will the people have to answer for if it be all in vain. The reason given why God by his prophets did thus strive with them is because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling-place, and would by these means have prevented their ruin. Note, The methods God takes to reclaim sinners by his word, by ministers, by conscience, by providences, are all instances of his compassion towards them and his unwillingness that any should perish. (2.) Their base and disingenuous carriage towards God (2 Chronicles 36:16): They mocked the messengers of God (which was a high affront to him that sent them), despised his word in their mouths, and not only so, but misused the prophets, treating them as their enemies. The ill usage they gave Jeremiah who lived at this time, and which we read much of in the book of his prophecy, is an instance of this. This was an evidence of an implacable enmity to God, and an invincible resolution to go on in their sins. This brought wrath upon them without remedy, for it was sinning against the remedy. Nothing is more provoking to God than abuses given to his faithful ministers; for what is done against them he takes as done against himself. Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Persecution was the sin that brought upon Jerusalem its final destruction by the Romans. See Matthew 23:34-37. Those that mock at God's faithful ministers, and do all they can to render them despicable or odious, that vex and misuse them, to discourage them and to keep others from hearkening to them, should be reminded that a wrong done to an ambassador is construed as done to the prince that sends him, and that the day is coming when they will find it would have been better for them if they had been thrown into the sea with a mill-stone about their necks; for hell is deeper and more dreadful.
Multitudes were put to the sword, even in the house of their sanctuary (2 Chronicles 36:17), whither they fled for refuge, hoping that the holiness of the place would be their protection. But how could they expect to find it so when they themselves had polluted it with their abominations? 2 Chronicles 36:14. Those that cast off the dominion of their religion forfeit all the benefit and comfort of it. The Chaldeans not only paid no reverence to the sanctuary, but showed no natural pity either to the tender sex or to venerable age. They forsook God, who had compassion on them (2 Chronicles 36:15), and would have none of him; justly therefore are they given up into the hands of cruel men, for they had no compassion on young man or maiden. All the remaining vessels of the temple, great and small, and all the treasures, sacred and secular, the treasures of God's house and of the king and his princes, were seized, and brought to Babylon, 2 Chronicles 36:18. 3. The temple was burnt, the walls of Jerusalem were demolished, the houses (called here the palaces, as Psalm 48:3, so stately, rich, and sumptuous were they) laid in ashes, and all the furniture, called here the goodly vessels thereof, destroyed, 2 Chronicles 36:19. Let us see where what woeful havoc sin makes, and, as we value the comfort and continuance of our estates, keep that worm from the root of them. The remainder of the people that escaped the sword were carried captives to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:20), impoverished, enslaved, insulted, and exposed to all the miseries, not only of a strange and barbarous land, but of an enemy's land, where those that hated them bore rule over them. They were servants to those monarchs, and no doubt were ruled with rigor so long as that monarchy lasted. Now they sat down by the rivers of Babylon, with the streams of which they mingled their tears, Psalm 137:1. And though there, it should seem, they were cured of idolatry, yet, as appears by the prophet Ezekiel, they were not cured of mocking the prophets. The land lay desolate while they were captives in Babylon, 2 Chronicles 36:21. That fruitful land, the glory of all lands, was now turned into a desert, not tilled, nor husbanded. The pastures were not clothed as they used to be with flocks, nor the valleys with corn, but all lay neglected. As the just punishment of their former abuse of it. They had served Baal with its fruits; cursed therefore is the ground for their sakes. Now the land enjoyed her sabbaths; (2 Chronicles 36:21), as God had threatened by Moses, Leviticus 26:34, and the reason there given (v. 35) is, “Because it did not rest on your sabbaths; you profaned the sabbath-day, did not observe the sabbatical year.” They many times ploughed and sowed their land in the seventh year, when it should have rested, and now it lay unploughed and unsown for ten times seven years. Note, God will be no loser in his glory at last by the disobedience of men: if the tribute be not paid, he will distrain and recover it, as he speaks, Hosea 2:9. If they would not let the land rest, God would make it rest whether they would or not. Some think they had neglected the observance of seventy sabbatical years in all, and just so many, by way of reprisal, the land now enjoyed; or, if those that had been neglected were fewer, it was fit that the law should be satisfied with interest. We find that one of the quarrels God had with them at this time was for not observing another law which related to the seventh year, and that was the release of servants; see Jeremiah 34:13, etc. Yet we may consider it as giving some encouragement to their hopes that they should, in due time, return to it again. Had others come and taken possession of it, they might have despaired of ever recovering it; but, while it lay desolate, it did, as it were, lie waiting for them again, and refuse to acknowledge any other owners.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6.
We have here the daughter of Zion covered with a cloud, and dwelling with the daughter of Babylon; the people of God in tears, but sowing in tears. The mournful posture they were in as to their affairs and as to their spirits. They were posted by the rivers of Babylon, in a strange land, a great way from their own country, whence they were brought as prisoners of war. The land of Babylon was now a house of bondage to that people, as Egypt had been in their beginning. Their conquerors quartered them by the rivers, with design to employ them there, and keep them to work in their galleys; or perhaps they chose it as the most melancholy place, and therefore most suitable to their sorrowful spirits. If they must build houses there (Jer. 29:5 ), it shall not be in the cities, the places of concourse, but by the rivers, the places of solitude, where they might mingle their tears with the streams. We find some of them by the river Chebar (Eze. 1:3 ), others by the river Ulai, Dan. 8:2 . There they sat down to indulge their grief by pondering on their miseries. Jeremiah had taught them under this yoke to sit alone, and keep silence, and put their mouths in the dust, Lam. 3:28, Lam. 3:29 . "We sat down, as those that expected to stay, and were content, since it was the will of God that it must be so.’’ Thoughts of Zion drew tears from their eyes; and it was not a sudden passion of weeping, such as we are sometimes put into by a trouble that surprises us, but they were deliberate tears (we sat down and wept ), tears with consideration—we wept when we remembered Zion, the holy hill on which the temple was built. Their affection to God’s house swallowed up their concern for their own houses. They remembered Zion’s former glory and the satisfaction they had had in Zion’s courts, Lam. 1:7 . Jerusalem remembered, in the days of her misery, all her pleasant things which she had in the days of old, Ps. 42:4 . They remembered Zion’s present desolations, and favored the dust thereof, which was a good sign that the time for God to favor it was not far off, Ps. 102:13, Ps. 102:14 . They laid by their instruments of music (v. 2): We hung our harps upon the willows. The harps they used for their own diversion and entertainment. These they laid aside, both because it was their judgment that they ought not to use them now that God called to weeping and mourning (Isa. 22:12 ), and their spirits were so sad that they had no hearts to use them; they brought their harps with them, designing perhaps to use them for the alleviating of their grief, but it proved so great that it would not admit the experiment. Music makes some people melancholy. As vinegar upon niter, so is he that sings songs to a heavy heart. The harps they used in God’s worship, the Levites’ harps. These they did not throw away, hoping they might yet again have occasion to use them, but they laid them aside because they had no present use for them; God had cut them out other work by turning their feasting into mourning and their songs into lamentations, Amos. 8:10 . Everything is beautiful in its season. They did not hide their harps in the bushes, or the hollows of the rocks; but hung them up in view, that the sight of them might affect them with this deplorable change. Yet perhaps they were faulty in doing this; for praising God is never out of season; it is his will that we should in everything give thanks, Isa. 24:15, Isa. 24:16. The abuses which their enemies put upon them when they were in this melancholy condition, v. 3. They had carried them away captive from their own land and then wasted them in the land of their captivity, took what little they had from them. But this was not enough; to complete their woes they insulted over them: They required of us mirth and a song. This was very barbarous and inhuman; even an enemy, in misery, is to be pitied and not trampled upon. It argues a base and sordid spirit to upbraid those that are in distress either with their former joys or with their present griefs, or to challenge those to be merry who, we know, are out of tune for it. This is adding affliction to the afflicted. It was very profane and impious. No songs would serve them but the songs of Zion, with which God had been honored; so that in this demand they reflected upon God himself as Belshazzar, when he drank wine in temple-bowls. Their enemies mocked at their sabbaths, Lam. 1:7. The patience wherewith they bore these abuses, v. 4. They had laid by their harps, and would not resume them, no, not to ingratiate themselves with those at whose mercy they lay; they would not answer those fools according to their folly. Profane scoffers are not to be humored, nor pearls cast before swine. David prudently kept silence even from good when the wicked were before him, who, he knew, would ridicule what he said and make a jest of it, Ps. 39:1, Ps. 39:2 . The reason they gave is very mild and pious: How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? They do not say, "How shall we sing when we are so much in sorrow?’’ If that had been all, they might perhaps have put a force upon themselves so far as to oblige their masters with a song; but "It is the Lord’s song; it is a sacred thing; it is peculiar to the temple-service, and therefore we dare not sing it in the land of a stranger, among idolaters.’’ We must not serve common mirth, much less profane mirth, with anything that is appropriated to God, who is sometimes to be honored by a religious silence as well as by religious speaking. The constant affection they retained for Jerusalem, the city of their solemnities, even now that they were in Babylon. Though their enemies banter them for talking so much of Jerusalem, and even doting upon it, their love to it is not in the least abated; it is what they may be jeered for, but will never be jeered out of, v. 5, v. 6. How these pious captives stood affected to Jerusalem. Their heads were full of it. It was always in their minds; they remembered it; they did not forget it, though they had been long absent from it; many of them had never seen it, nor knew anything of it but by report, and by what they had read in the scripture, yet it was graven upon the palms of their hands, and even its ruins were continually before them, which was an evidence of their faith in the promise of its restoration in due time. In their daily prayers they opened their windows towards Jerusalem; and how then could they forget it? Their hearts were full of it. They preferred it above their chief joy, and therefore they remembered it and could not forget it. What we love we love to think of. Those that rejoice in God do, for his sake, make Jerusalem their joy, and prefer it before that, whatever it is, which is the head of their joy, which is dearest to them in this world. A godly man will prefer a public good before any private satisfaction or gratification whatsoever. How steadfastly they resolved to keep up this affection, which they express by a solemn imprecation of mischief to themselves if they should let it fall: "Let me be forever disabled either to sing or play on the harp if I so far forget the religion of my country as to make use of my songs and harps for the pleasing of Babylon’s sons or the praising of Babylon’s gods. Let my right hand forget her art’’ (which the hand of an expert musician never can, unless it be withered), "nay, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I have not a good word to say for Jerusalem wherever I am.’’ Though they dare not sing Zion’s songs among the Babylonians, yet they cannot forget them, but, as soon as ever the present restraint is taken off, they will sing them as readily as ever, notwithstanding the long disuse.
Reading 2 Eph 2:4-10
In the cosmology of Ephesians, "this world" refers to the present age in enmity with God (cf. 1:21). Here "air" is understood to be the zone between earth and the heavens which is inhabited and ruled by antagonistic forces exercising control over the world below. Later in Ephesians, this ruler is labeled the devil (4:27; 6:11). The term "flesh" depicts the human condition so turned in on itself that one's passions, cravings, and mindset are in total disrepute and disobedience thus marking us as children of wrath. While this was the former existence of Christians, it remains the current reality of all non-Christians (verse 2b).
Verses 2:4-7 presents God's intervening actions and the transformation they wrought. Though we were children of wrath, God acted out of the wealth of divine mercy and abundance of love (verse 4). This divine conversion had nothing to do with how loveable we were, but with how incredibly loving God is. Thus, God made us alive with Christ, raised us with Christ, and sat us in the heavenly places where Christ now rules over all powers and dominions (2:5-6 echoing 1:20-21). In the Greek, the three verbs "made alive, raised, and seated" all have a prefix meaning "with," highlighting how God did to us what God had previously done to Christ. This emphasizes the divinely wrought solidarity shared between Christ and Christians
Gospel jn 3:14-21
The central verse in this passage is perhaps the best known Bible verse in the world.
John 3:16 shows up in many public places. Hoisted on posters, etched on jewelry, and isolated from this passage, "For God so loved the world..." has become emblematic of the central message of Christian faith. This centrality is not undeserved. The power of this verse, however, is enhanced when it is read carefully and in context.
The lectionary divides Jesus' speech to Nicodemus, which begins in 3:11 and extends to 3:21, at verse 14. The passage begins with a play on the word "lift up." It describes God's command to Moses to lift up the serpent in the wilderness and the lifting up that is in store for Jesus. The passage makes little sense without the background story from Numbers 21:4-9. In that narrative, the people became "impatient" on their way. Still in the wilderness after their departure from Egypt, and despairing of being able to survive in a land with no food and water, they complained against God and Moses.
Consequently, terrible serpents appeared, bit the people, and killed them. When they repented, the Lord told Moses to make a serpent and set it on a pole so that anyone who had been bitten might look at it and live. The serpent was a mark of God's anger and God's mercy. God's people might be saved by the God of life, if only they would look upon the image of that which would have brought about their death.
To see the Son of Man lifted up calls for "belief" for the sake of eternal life, not simply a restoration of earthly life. God once saved the people by calling upon them to gaze on the serpent. Now, God would save the people by having them gaze in belief upon the Son, lifted up.
Next comes John 3:16, in which the "so" is often misunderstood. The Greek houtos means "so" in the sense of "just so," or "in this way," or the more archaic, "thusly." We could translate the verse as "This is the way God loved the world, with the result that he gave his only Son, in order that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 is not about how much God loved the world. It is about in what way God loved the world.
The single most important thing to notice about this verse is that God loved the world. God deeply loved the world that God created, and God longs for this creation to live. It is not only God's own people whom God will save, as in the Numbers story. It is the cosmos that God has loved, precisely by having given the only son,. God loved by having given the son, a non-coercive act that sets in motion real consequences.
Yet God's action was not disinterested. The purpose of God's having sent the Son was to save the world, just as the purpose of commanding Moses to erect a serpent on a pole was to save the people from death. The son came to save, to grant eternal life because God loved the world. That was Jesus' announcement. I'm here because the God who loved you of old, still does. He sent me to tell you, to show you, to gather you up into life with him forever.
Jesus' coming is like the bringing of a light into a dark space. The contrast of light and dark is intense. Indeed, the coming of the Son into the world leads to numerous pairs of contrasting realities:
If this begins to sound like a theology that demands our deciding to believe or not, we have several reminders in the context that help us to hear more deeply what John wants to say.
First, these verses are embedded in a story where Jesus continues to engage, argue, and persuade people who are slowly transformed into believers. In John 3, Nicodemus is the seeker by night who is left in confusion, only to reappear in 19:39 to help care for Jesus' body. He has emerged from darkness into light over the course of Jesus' ministry.
So also the Samaritan woman of John 4 whose long conversation with Jesus ends in a tentative belief, far from where she first began. Consider the blind man healed in John 9, whose move from darkness to light happens rather quickly in physiological terms, but more slowly in terms of identifying Jesus. The intense contrast between believing and not believing, darkness and light, and evil and truth are descriptions of realities, but not of the process by which human beings come to recognize truth, light, life, and God's own son.
Finally, verses 18-21 follow the first and most important contrast, the contrasting ways to depict God's own goal and longing. God's way of loving the world was to send the Son to save it. Jesus is God's expression of love and longing. The light comes to find us, to illuminate our path for our sake, because God wants us. God reaches out through the Son with the sheer purpose of sharing everlasting life with us.
Yes, John tells us there are real consequences in our daily life and our everlasting relationship with God. But he tells us in order to help us see the contrasts, look clearly at our lives, appreciate the gracious gift of God as a gift of love, and live in fearless confidence of that love. Have we ever been so truly and consistently desired by another as we are by God? No indeed. God loved the world in this way that he gave the Son so that we might live forever with God.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Sunday March 4, 2018 - Third Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 29
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 20:1-17
In those days, God delivered all these commandments:
"I, the LORD, am your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me.
You shall not carve idols for yourselves
in the shape of anything in the sky above
or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;
you shall not bow down before them or worship them.
For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God,
inflicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness
on the children of those who hate me,
down to the third and fourth generation;
but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation
on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.
"You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.
For the LORD will not leave unpunished
the one who takes his name in vain.
"Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
Six days you may labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God.
No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter,
or your male or female slave, or your beast,
or by the alien who lives with you.
In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,
the sea and all that is in them;
but on the seventh day he rested.
That is why the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
"Honor your father and your mother,
that you may have a long life in the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife,
nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass,
nor anything else that belongs to him."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 11.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
They are more precious than gold,
than a heap of purest gold;
sweeter also than syrup
or honey from the comb.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
Reading 2 1 Cor 1:22-25
Brothers and sisters:
Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified,
a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,
and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Gospel Jn 2:13-25
Since the Passover of the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
"Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
"What sign can you show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews said,
"This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it up in three days?"
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they came to believe the Scripture
and the word Jesus had spoken.
While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
many began to believe in his name
when they saw the signs he was doing.
But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,
and did not need anyone to testify about human nature.
He himself understood it well.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 20:1-17
God’s own introduction to these words is important for an appropriate understanding: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” The Ten Commandments are not a law code, a body of laws that are meant to float free of their narrative context. This introductory line about redemption -- often omitted from printed versions of the Ten Commandments, unfortunately -- is recognized in Judaism as the first word; “you shall have no other gods before me” is the second word.
This opening word of God accomplishes several things. It keeps the commandments personally oriented: I am the Lord your (singular) God. Obedience to the commandments is relationally conceived. These are words given to you by your God. The law is a gift of a God who has redeemed you. The Ten Commandments, then, are a gracious word of God and they begin with a word of good news about what God has done on behalf of “you” as a member of the community of faith. The commandments are to be read through the lens of that redemptive confession. God’s saving actions have drawn the people of God into a new orbit of life and blessing, to which the people respond by giving a certain “commandment shape” to their lives.
The Ten Commandments are an integral part of the covenant between God and people at Mount Sinai. This covenant is a specific covenant within the already existing covenant with Abraham. The Sinai covenant does not establish the relationship between Israel and God. Israel has long been God’s people when Sinai happens (“Let my people go”). These commandments are given to an already elected, redeemed, believing, and worshiping community. They have to do with the shape of daily life on the part of those already in relationship with God. The commandments give shape to Israel’s vocation. At the same time, the Ten Commandments specify no judicial consequences for disobedience. Their being obligatory is not conditional on their being enforceable. Their appeal is to a deeper grounding and motivation: these are the commands of the Lord your God, who has created you and redeemed you.
“You shall have no other gods before me” introduces the commandments and gives shape to all the others. Idolatry is the focus. But how will we define idolatry? It commonly has reference to material images; the story of the golden calf comes to mind. In such cases, “other gods” is shaped by the commandment against graven images in Exodus 20:4. “Other gods” could include any person, place, or thing that we hold to be more important or as important as God. These “other gods” could also lift up the long-standing gods who have long been worshiped among us, such as money, property, fame, power … the list is long. The command is to be absolutely loyal to God. In the evangelists language, the call is to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. This commandment is the grounding for all other commandments, which draw out what loyalty to God entails in various aspects of the relationship.
Less well remembered is that idolatry includes the language one uses to speak of God. Might the problem of idolatry for us often be verbal images? Our ideas about God and the verbal images we use for God can be idolatrous; they often have as high a standing in our thinking/speaking about God as does God himself. Or, we can reduce God to a set of fixed propositions and make God into a settled, unchanging God. Is that not to break the first commandment? And negatively affect the way in which the other commandments are kept?
The Ten Commandments are not new commandments for Israel (see Exodus 16:22-30), but they are a convenient listing of already existing law for vocational purposes. Moreover, the Commandments were not thought to be transmitted in a never-to-be-changed form. They were believed to require adaptation in view of new times and places. This is shown by a comparison of the Commandments in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5; the latter text contains some important new developments. For example: the wife -- on a list of property in Exodus 20:17 -- is removed from that list in Deuteronomy 5:21; wife is exchanged with house and given her own commandment, perhaps reflecting a changing role for women in that culture. Might additional changes be made in the commandments in view of changing times and places? Such as, you shall not covet your neighbor’s husband! What commandments might you add to the ten?
Before the Ten Commandments were given, the Bible talks much about law; indeed, laws are already specified in the pre-sin creation accounts (Genesis 1:28). Such commands are reflective of God’s law given for the sake of the world before sin. To obey these commandments and others which follow in their train is to act as one was created to act. And so commandments become an integral part of the life of the community of faith before we get to Mount Sinai.
While the address of the commandments is individual, the concern is not some private welfare. The focus of the commandments is vocational, to serve the life and health of the community, to which end the individual plays an important role. The first commandment lays a claim: How you think about God will deeply affect how you think about and act toward your neighbor.
The first commandment is positively formulated in Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Notably, Jesus uses this positive formulation of the first commandment. The commandment to love one another does not set the Ten Commandments aside, however; it opens up the particularities of the Ten Commandments to limitless, on-the-move possibilities in view of new times and places.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 11.
The Psalm touches on a number of major biblical themes -- creation, law, sin, forgiveness, and ethical conduct among them -- and also offers a rich set of imagery and well-known language on which to draw.
There are three clear sections of the Psalm:
Verses One through Six
Here the Psalmist offers a vivid description of the glories of creation, focused particularly on the heavens might of the One who could and did arrange and regulate such a spectacle.
Verses Seven through Ten
The focus of the Psalm switches abruptly from God's creation to God's torah (law, instruction). This torah is praised repeatedly, whether it is referred to as "commandment," "precepts," "decrees," or any of the other various terms deployed here. The value of God's instruction for "reviving the soul...making wise the simple...rejoicing the heart...enlightening the eyes...enduring forever...[and being] true and righteous altogether" certainly goes a long way toward explaining why it is more valuable and desirable than the richest gold and the sweetest honey.
Verses Eleven through Fourteen
Recognizing all of the virtues of torah, the Psalmist now turns specifically to its value as a guide to right conduct. At first glance, the ethical consequence of receiving torah seems straightforward: if one keeps the law, great reward will result. If one does not, the consequences alluded to in the line "by them is your servant warned" would instead come into play. The difficulty, as the Psalmist goes on to point out, is that one does not always even realize when one has transgressed the law. Thus, the Psalm concludes with a series of pleas to God for forgiveness of unconscious sin, for protection against evil influences, and for the acceptability to God, deserved or otherwise, of the Psalmist's words and thoughts.
The flow of the Psalm through these three sections (with torah serving as the bridge between creation and human conduct) offers a number of possible directions for proclamation. Depending on the specific context and concerns that you personally have, exposition could focus on:
The Psalm's case for Scripture (or for torah) as the essential guide and authority for determining Christian moral and ethical conduct. It is, in the structure of the Psalm, only after God gives torah to enlighten, make wise, and so forth that a person can be "warned" and guided to proper conduct and choices.
The need for God's sovereign and gracious salvation even in the light of torah. The recognition of "hidden faults" and of the need for God's protection from evil influences is a deep admission of human inability to live according to the law, and therefore of the powerful need for forgiveness and the Gospel.
The failure of "natural theology" to offer full, saving knowledge of God. In effect, the Psalm could be construed as saying "The heavens may tell of God's glory, but it is only after God gives torah that the believer can make enough sense of the creation to recognize sin, to cry out for forgiveness, and to place all hope and trust in God's grace.
While any of these approaches to the text might well suit a particular moment in the life of the church, there is a more straightforward and broadly applicable way to engage Psalm 19 as well.
This text is a celebration of three great gifts of God: creation, torah, and forgiveness. Its reading and interpretation can and should summon the people of God to join in, giving thanks for the particular ways these gifts have been manifest in their lives and the life of their community. Such a celebration is appropriate for any of us, and will surely be found acceptable in God's sight
Reading 2 1 Cor 1:22-25
In this text Paul is not seeking to answer age old questions regarding how we humans come to know God.
Likewise he is not trying to provide a theological treasure-map to guide our human quests to find the divine. Instead, Paul is presenting the divine enterprise which intentionally thwarts all human attempts to know or find God. This is the divine initiative of the cross.
Paul's theological perspective is decidedly top-down. In the cross God has deliberately chosen to reveal God's own self and unleash divine power whose goal is human salvation. The irony (indeed the paradox) of this divine scheme is that the cross is the last place where humanity would expect to discover God's ultimate wisdom and power.
At times we may find folk who are baffled why more people were not converted to Christian faith through the preaching of Paul. Actually just the opposite should baffle us: why would any first century person have been converted to Christian faith through the preaching of Paul?
The core of Paul's preaching is the word of the cross (1:18) and the proclamation of Christ crucified (1:23). Yet this is not a message geared to win friends or influence people. The cross was a lousy marketing tool in the first century world (as it most likely remains in the twenty-first century). Here it is important to realize fully the first century realities of crucifixion. This was the enactment of capital punishment meted out by the forces of the Roman Empire. It was reserved for those disreputable individuals or groups such as rebellious slaves, insurrectionists, pirates, or brigands who had threatened the divinely sanctioned social order of the Empire. Thus the cross was the imperial instrument used to suppress subversion.
As a public spectacle, crucifixion was an act geared to shame its victims through degradation, humiliation, and torture before, during, and even after death ensued. At the same time, it was a political statement which declared that all who threatened the imperial social order would find themselves co-crucified with the current victim. In some Jewish circles, it could also be regarded as a sign of divine curse (cf. Deuteronomy 21:23).
Given this reality, it would be sheer idiocy (not just mere foolishness) to speculate how the cross might be a means of divine revelation. Paul, however, goes much further. He does not speculate on what God might or might not be doing through the cross. Rather, he openly, boldly, and regularly proclaims the cross as the intentional and exclusive means God has chosen to encounter humanity and initiate our salvation. The cross is the divine activity which both embarrasses and embraces humanity in an inclusive way.
God's embarrassing action in the cross relates to humanity's attempts to establish its own appropriate means for encountering God. According to 1:22, Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom. Here, Paul is referring to attempts to encounter God, either through miraculous divine manifestations (such as the events surrounding the Exodus) or elaborate philosophical systems and their eloquent rhetorical schemes. The proclamation of Christ crucified does not fit such human criteria - it is offensive to Jewish sensibilities and idiotic to Gentile intelligence (1:23).
God, however, is not a reactive deity. God has not sought out humanity according to the ways humanity has sought out God. Rather, God has intentionally and decidedly destroyed the ways and means by which humanity decided to get to God (1:19, quoting Isaiah 29:14). Through the four rhetorical questions in 1:20, Paul declares that God has rejected and embarrassed the best and brightest of human efforts to understand, explain, and experience God.
At the same time, God embraces humanity through the cross, both as the event of Good Friday and as an act of proclamation. Both Jews and Gentiles are called into relationship with God through the word of the cross (1:24). Suddenly that which outwardly seems moronic and weak, the apparent oxymoron of Christ crucified, becomes divine revelation, divine power, and divine salvation (1:18, 21). We do not get to God, or find the key to knowing God through our efforts. Rather, God comes to us and establishes the terms of the encounter of faith in the proclamation of the cross.
Throughout 1 Corinthians, Paul is confronting various forms of social, theological, spiritual, and moral elitism which have fractured and stratified God's church in Corinth (1:11-13). The core of Paul's appeal is for a unified perspective and purpose among the Corinthians (1:10). By opening 1 Corinthians with this unrelenting focus on the cross, Paul both undercuts elitist perspectives and undergirds foundational Christian unity. God has outsmarted and outmaneuvered human attempts to set the agenda regarding the who and the how of our getting to God (1:25).
At the same time, the cross becomes the epistemological key for understanding not only God, but understanding ourselves as those called by God. Hence the proclamation of the word of the cross by Paul and contemporary preachers does not impart a new understanding of the divine. Rather, it provides people with the experience to encounter God anew precisely where God has most clearly displayed God's own self, own power, and own wisdom. The cross always remains, at one and the same time, offensive idiocy and divine delight (1:21). Paul's preaching never downplays, disguises, or dismisses the power and wisdom of God manifested in the cross of Jesus Christ. Do you feel the power f the cross?
Gospel Jn 2:13-25
I wondered what kind of stone the original 10 commandments were written on? What do you think?? According to tradition passed down the original ten commandments where etched in Blue Sapphire by God. This was to symbolize the link between the earth and God.
A man was hoping to stop in to a new café that had opened in, near his church. But when he got there one of the plate glass doors had been shattered.
Lights were on inside. A man sat at the counter, working at a computer. Two people came up behind him, apparently also intending to visit the shop. They tried to see if the store was open, in spite of the broken glass. They finally caught the eye of the person sitting at the counter, who, it turned out, was the owner. He informed them through the shattered glass that the store had been broken into early that morning and they had stolen the cash register.
The reaction of the two people behind him was astonishment: “They stole the cash register!”
He thought to himself, “What else would you steal? The coffee beans?”
However, as he reflected on it, their astonishment made sense. Somehow this symbol, so central in a culture of commerce, was something that could not be touched. Their reaction was in response to the sense that a center of commerce had been so dramatically upset.
He felt for the owner. It’s not easy to cope with economic loss as well as the feeling of exposure to potential violence, which is becoming very common in our cities. Still, it seemed to shine a light on how we can become so accustomed to a financial system, its familiarity taken as its normalcy, that it masks a deeper and more troubling dysfunction.
That is, they were astonished by the theft of a cash register; but how did they feel about the brazen presence of poverty and inequity in our communities.
John’s story of Jesus cleansing the temple brings this experience to mind. Whereas we tend to get used to what might be called “embedded” realities in church and society, Jesus proclaims a radical vision of temple and society.
In John, proclamation corresponds to or emerges from incarnation and this text’s account of incarnation may startle us. This periscope follows on the heels of Jesus changing water into wine. In that text, Jesus’ actions are unseen. We don’t see the water turned into wine. We only hear Jesus’ command to the servants to fill the jars with water. Everything occurs on the down low, so that only the servants recognize the miracle. Everyone else simply marvels that the host has saved the best wine until last.
By contrast, in this text, Jesus acts with bold, kinetic, and unmistakable gestures. In the Greek, the narrator depicts Jesus’ actions in the temple in one long sentence, extending from verse 14-16. This seems to be John’s way of underscoring Jesus’ intensity. It could also reflect the way a witness recounts an accident or a robbery in the middle of public area. They tell the story in a rush, as if the thing itself were still shocking to the senses. But in these retellings, often a single feature remains in the memory of the witness, something said (or not said) or something done (or not done).
Obviously, a lot happened in several short bursts of christological energy: Jesus came upon (or “found” (New International Version) those who were selling sacrificial animals, “seated at their tables” (established, part of the landscape, so to speak) (John 2:14); took a whip of cords (15a); drove the animals out (like an alarmed shepherd might drive its flock away from a poisonous well, perhaps); emptied coins and turned over tables (15b).
In the span of two verses, Jesus has radically upended the firmly embedded!
All this Jesus did in one nearly seamless rush of holy zeal -- but our witness singles out Jesus’ words to those who sold doves: "Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father's house a marketplace.” (John 2:16b). It brings yo mind Luke, who records that Jesus’ family brought two doves to the temple, to satisfy the prescribed offering for the birth of a son (Luke 2:24). Since they were poor, offering a lamb for a sacrifice was out of the question. Perhaps, though, there was “price gouging” even in the temple -- but it was so ordinary, so much a part of the warp and weft of temple life, that it wasn’t something noted by anyone. Maybe it was as much a part of Roman life as it was a part of religious life.
Given the level of upset, we can understand why the people in the temple might have wanted an explanation for Jesus’ actions. The narrator’s use of the term “the Jews” (John 2:18a) needs to be addressed critically by the interpreter, both in light of John’s narrative purpose and in a post-Holocaust world. According to some theologians, John’s “the Jews” represents “those who question Jesus and do not know him” (544). This is a much broader, more inclusive category than “the Jews” -- and perhaps that is helpful.
In any event, Jesus’ answer reflects the Johannine penchant for misunderstandings and double-meanings, something that we will encounter again in the story of Nicodemus in John 3:1-16, among others. Now, however, it focuses on the double meaning of temple and being raised. Jesus’ opponents believe that he is speaking of the bricks and mortar of the temple but he is speaking of the temple of his body (see also 1 Corinthians 16:19-20).
The wordplay is, I think, instructive but at the same time, we shouldn’t spiritualize this text. Jesus’ actions in the temple may “parable” the much deeper and more profound completion of his life through resurrection, but it does not thereby negate the way in which Jesus upends the embedded powers and attitudes that can become so firmly entrenched in our worldviews.
Our devotion to property values even at the expense of affordable housing options seems to speak to this concern. The so-called “tiny-house” movement seems to hold promise as a means of providing affordable housing for the insufficiently housed and the unhoused. However, the initiative is getting push-back from established communities. One owner objected to a tiny-house initiative in her community saying, “I think tiny homes are great and people can enjoy them if they like, but please don’t put them in our neighborhood. My home is my sanctuary and it’s going to be destroyed by different thinking.”
She is right. Her version of sanctuary will be “destroyed” by different thinking. She worries that existing home values could drop by $100,000 if the tiny-house initiative goes through -- not an insignificant sum of money. But could this be analogous to the anxieties of those who did not know Jesus? They were afraid of losing something that took forty-six years to build. Something will be lost, of course. Jesus dies on the cross. Calvary delivers an enormous hit on heaven’s property value. But the resurrection and ascension of Jesus suggest that this is only the beginning of the formation of much larger, more expansive community.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Sunday February 25, 2018 Second Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 26
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18
God put Abraham to the test.
He called to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am!" he replied.
Then God said:
"Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah.
There you shall offer him up as a holocaust
on a height that I will point out to you."
When they came to the place of which God had told him,
Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.
Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the LORD's messenger called to him from heaven,
"Abraham, Abraham!"
"Here I am!" he answered.
"Do not lay your hand on the boy," said the messenger.
"Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."
As Abraham looked about,
he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket.
So he went and took the ram
and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.
Again the LORD's messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:
"I swear by myself, declares the LORD,
that because you acted as you did
in not withholding from me your beloved son,
I will bless you abundantly
and make your descendants as countless
as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore;
your descendants shall take possession
of the gates of their enemies,
and in your descendants all the nations of the earth
shall find blessing--
all this because you obeyed my command."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
I believed, even when I said,
"I am greatly afflicted."
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
Reading 2 Rom 8:31b-34
Brothers and sisters:
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all,
how will he not also give us everything else along with him?
Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us, who will condemn?
Christ Jesus it is who died—or, rather, was raised--
who also is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.
Gospel Mk 9:2-10
Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
"Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
"This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18
The story named by Christians “the sacrifice of Isaac” and by Jews “the akedah” (the “binding” of Isaac) has engendered heated debate over the centuries. Is it a story of an abusive God, a misguided Abraham, religious violence at its worst? Or is it a story of faith and obedience?
Trying to get around the difficulties, many argue that it is simply an etiological tale about the shift from human sacrifice to animal sacrifice. This seems likely. It is certainly the case that other biblical texts expressly forbid child sacrifice (e.g. Leviticus 18:21; Jeremiah 7:30-34; Ezekiel 20:31). The practice is known in the cultures surrounding Israel and may have been practiced in Israel as well (hence the prophetic condemnation of it).
There is more here, though, than such a history-of-religions interpretation allows. The akedah is a foundational story for Judaism and Christianity in ways that are too complex to trace in this short essay. Even before the canon was closed, the akedah became associated with worship at the Jerusalem Temple. In 2 Chronicles 3:1, the mountain of the Temple is called “Mount Moriah,” the mountain of the akedah. (In fact, “Moriah” appears in the Bible only in these two passages.) Hence, the sacrifice of the ram in place of Isaac becomes the foundational act for all the Temple sacrifices that follow.
For Christianity, the sacrifice of the beloved son has obvious resonance with Jesus’ death. That’s why Genesis 22 is appointed as one of the readings for the Easter Vigil (and sometimes as one of the readings on Good Friday). In addition, the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son became for early Christians one of the greatest examples of his faith: “By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac … He considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead” (Hebrews 11:17, 19). In the history of Christian interpretation, Genesis 22 has continued to be understood as a story of faith against all odds, and as a foreshadowing of God’s self-giving in Jesus Christ.
Despite this rich history of interpretation, well-meaning people through the centuries, horrified by this story, have attempted to negate it in various ways. And it is true that it can be a dangerous text, especially in an era of religious extremism.
Still, there is a theological depth in this story that should not be passed over. The narrative has gripped the religious imagination of Jew and Christian alike for thousands of years. It is worth looking at its details.
The story begins, “After these things God tested Abraham” (22:1). And what do “these things” include? God’s call to Abraham to go to a land he has never seen; God’s promise to Abraham that he will be the father of a great nation; the long years of Sarah’s barrenness; the birth of Ishmael; and at long last, the impossible birth of the boy they call “Laughter.”
Then Abraham, at Sarah’s insistence, casts out his first son, Ishmael, with great sorrow. And now, God demands a most horrible thing: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will show you” (22:2). The rabbis imagine the scene:
God said, “Take your son.” And Abraham said, “I have two sons.” He answered him, “Your only son.” He said to him, “Each is the only son of his mother.” God said, “The one whom you love.” Abraham replied, “Is there any limit to a father’s love?” God answered, “Isaac.”
The Hebrew prose of this story is beautiful and succinct. Abraham does what God demands, and sets out with his son. Abraham doesn’t say much. Isaac says even less, and one is left to imagine what they are thinking and feeling. The narrator uses repetition to heighten the poignancy: “The two of them walked on together,” as the father and son walk together in silence on the third day (22:6). Together in purpose, together in love. The narrator continually emphasizes the relationship between the two, as if we need to be reminded: “Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac.” “Isaac said to Abraham his father, “My father!” and he said, “Here I am, my son” (22:7).
“Here I am” -- in Hebrew hineni. It’s the same word Abraham used to answer God’s call in verse 1: “Here I am.” Abraham is attentive to God, and equally attentive to his beloved son. Here I am.
And Isaac says, “See, we have fire, and wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” And Abraham, heart torn in two, says, “God will see to the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And, again, “The two of them walked on together” (22:7-8). Whether Isaac knew what was going to happen is a matter that the rabbis debated. Perhaps he did not, which makes Abraham’s pain all that much more acute. Perhaps he did, which makes Isaac, too, an example of great faith and obedience. The two of them walk on together, father and son, the son carrying the wood for his own sacrifice. The first century rabbis, with no connection to Christianity but with ample experience of Roman executions, said of this detail: “Isaac carries the wood for the sacrifice like one who carries his own cross.”
They reach the place of sacrifice, and Abraham builds an altar. Again, as if we need to be reminded, the narrator emphasizes the relationship between father and son. “He bound his son Isaac … Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son” (22:9-10).
At that moment, the LORD calls to him with great urgency, “Abraham, Abraham!” And Abraham replies for the third and final time in the story, “Here I am.” One can imagine that his tone now is one of unspeakable relief and hope.
The LORD speaks, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me" (22:12).
“Now I know.” This story does not subscribe to later notions of God’s perfect omniscience. This is a genuine test, and Abraham is free to decide what he will do. God neither knows nor pre-ordains how Abraham will respond. Reading this story with a hermeneutic of generosity, one could argue that God imposes this one-time test on Abraham because God has risked everything on this one man, and God needs to know if he is faithful.
Abraham and his descendants are the means by which God has chosen to bless the whole world (Genesis 12:3). And Abraham has not always proven up to the task (the wife-sister charade, Hagar and Ishmael). Now God needs to know whether Abraham is willing to give up the thing most precious to him in all the world for the sake of being faithful to the God who gave him that gift in the first place. And Abraham passes this most excruciating of tests: “Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."
Then, as Abraham had told Isaac, God provides; God provides a ram to take the place of the beloved son. “So Abraham called that place ‘The LORD will provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided’" (22:14).
There is a word-play here and in verse 8 that is worth noting. The Hebrew word (ra’ah) translated “provide” is literally the word for “seeing.” So the last phrase can be translated, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided” or “On the mount of the LORD he shall be seen.” Given the association of Mt. Moriah with the Temple Mount, both translations speak truth about God’s presence and God’s providence.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19
A single voice speaks here, drawing us into the psalmist's experience and, in effect, leading us to compare our own with his.
The voice here:
When I first read Psalm 116, I couldn't quite connect it with Maundy Thursday. I wondered, "What were those people who organized the lectionary thinking?"
But, after further reflection, these topics seem right on target for the occasion. Remember: this is the evening we remember both Jesus' washing of the disciples' feet and his command (Latin, mandatum, hence the English "Maundy") to love one another. "Love" is the psalmist's first word, and he commands himself (verses 12-19) to respond to the love of God he'd seen in action.
Two questions arise for me. First, why should I obey Jesus' command? And second, how shall I carry it out? But with Jesus' teaching in the background, Psalm 116 provides the answers, appropriately fitting the context of Maundy (or Holy) Thursday.
Granted, it's humanly impossible to "repay" God fully. The bill for rescue is incalculable. As I see it, however, the "big one" should be something God really likes, and it should be something sacrificial.
Reading 2 Rom 8:31b-34
Amazingly enough, this is a question that we should be asking ourselves regularly. ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?' In Romans 8 alone, Paul has written extensively to prove this very point. God loves us, he sent his son Jesus to die for us, he gave us the Holy Spirit to be our counselor and guide and to remind us of everything Jesus told us. In lieu of this, this question holds amazing implications for us as believers... understanding the dynamics of how God feels about you will change your life. When holding this perspective in view and weighing everything else that happens against this revelation of God's love towards you, then the rest seems unimportant. David held this perspective throughout his entire life, he wrote in the Psalms, "The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalm 118:6). He penned this in the midst of turmoil and unrest. However he could write this because he knew God and knew that God loved him and in light of that, nothing else mattered.
Just as asking this question is important, so is reminding ourselves of the answer. ‘If God is for us, then who is against us?' Who can be our foe if God is on our side? Paul goes on in the next couple of verses to explain how God is the one who justified us ( Romans 8:33 ) and Jesus is the one who died for us (Romans 8:34) so in reality who can bring an accusation against us. This is so important to understand. So many people miss it in life if they do not understand the extent of God's love towards them. Jude tells us to keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 1:21) because he knew that having this revelation equips the saints to be powerful in the kingdom.
It is amazing to me to know that God chose me and called me to be his child. It is amazing to know he died for me and sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for me. It is amazing to know that nothing can separate me from his love. Understanding this will empower you to overcome any obstacle you face. Understanding this will release you from the fear that keeps you in chains. David said in the Psalm, "The LORD is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1). And in today's passage Paul asks, "What, then, shall we say in response to this? What is there to say? This revelation leaves us speechless.
Today, we are blessed to know and understand that God loves me and nothing can or will separate me from Him.
Gospel Mk 9:2-10
Transfiguration is one of those "non-holidays" that appears in lectionaries with its own particular set of readings, but doesn't draw much attention from local congregations.
The Transfiguration has many of the elements of the story of a superhero. There's an arduous trek up a mountain; a tightly knit company of friends on a "mission" together; the appearance of other-worldly figures in dazzling light; the transformation of the hero into an equally dazzling figure; a command from a powerful voice from another dimension; a determined descent to battle those other powers back home. Jesus is not exactly a superhero...is he?
Well, "no." And "yes." Inherent in the story of the Transfiguration is the promise of a kind of life beyond what is apparent to earthly eyes most of the time. Both Moses and Elijah, two figures whose passing's were mysterious, were believed by many Jews to be God's precursors of the end times. Because Elijah went bodily into heaven (2 Kings 2:9-12) and Moses' grave was never found (he was buried by God himself in Deuteronomy 34:4-7), these two men of the faith were thought to be available for God to send back. God would send them to inform humankind that God's reign was at hand. It is no accident that these two appear with Jesus on the mountain. They discuss that change already prophesied by Jesus (Mark 1:15) and as the two messengers disappear into the cloud (a sign of God's presence, cf. Exodus 40:34-38), the word comes to "Listen to Jesus," the only one left. Now Jesus becomes the divinely chosen precursor of the turn of the age.
Moses, Elijah, and even God are not the only signs for the alert that God's reign are coming. Peter, contrary to popular portrayal, makes the connection that is too obscure for us to make. According to some Jewish expectation and as stated in the book of Zechariah the prophet (see 14:16-21), God would usher in the new age, the "Day of the Lord," during the Feast of Booths. This God-commanded festival kept by Jews for centuries, was considered a possible time for God's taking control of God's creation and beginning the age of shalom. So Peter's question about building booths is neither laughable nor mistaken. Peter is clear that the end times are coming and the Feast of Booths was upon them. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus need not construct their own booths for the celebration.
Peter was wrong about the timing, as Mark suggests (verse 6). Had he forgotten Jesus' prediction of suffering and death or did he think God had just trumped Jesus' prediction and advanced the timetable? We don't know. But the word from the cloud, "Listen to him," is a reminder to pay attention to Jesus' reliable words (including those predictions in 8:31). He will not be a superhero as we understand it, but as one who lays down his life and thus opens glory to many.
Since this story so emphasizes the dazzling glow of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah that we also need to pay attention to glory. The best known earlier example of a dazzling face transformed by being in the presence of God is that of Moses (Exodus 34:2, 29-35). After Moses has been in conversation with God about the future life of God's people, he descends from the mountain so reflecting the light of God's glory that he must cover his face lest he frighten the people. There are surely similarities to Jesus as he seeks to form a new people of God, has climbed a mountain, and is in conversation with God. Also important, in Daniel the "Son of Man" is also dazzling white. The mysterious messianic figure who will bring about God's will and God's justice, is a supernaturally stunning figure (Daniel 7:9-14). As Jesus is transfigured Peter, James, and John and Mark's audience catches a glimpse of his reality as Son of Man, God's chosen messenger of the God's reign.
Putting all this together, we have a story that reassures Jesus' core disciples and Mark's readers: Jesus' predictions of betrayal, death, and resurrection are to be trusted. The struggles yet to come for Jesus should in no way diminish confidence in his promises or his predictions of resurrection. As Mark's gospel drives toward the bitterness of the passion and the ambiguity of an ending without a resurrection appearance, this story itself shines as a beacon of hope.
Recall that James and John believe in that glory and try to claim a place at Jesus' side there (10:35-37). They don't understand the price of that glory, even when Jesus tries to remind them. Even glory can be misunderstood.
We follow in trust that God is forming us into a new people through Jesus, through whatever comes our way.
Making the Connection
In photographs, scrapbooks, and journals, we record memorable experiences and reflect on the significance of these events in our lives. Events in the life of Jesus, such as the Transfiguration, are recorded in the Gospels to deepen our understanding of Jesus.
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Sunday February 18, 2018 First Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 23
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 9:8-15
God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
and with every living creature that was with you:
all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals
that were with you and came out of the ark.
I will establish my covenant with you,
that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed
by the waters of a flood;
there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."
God added:
"This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,
of the covenant between me and you
and every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth.
When I bring clouds over the earth,
and the bow appears in the clouds,
I will recall the covenant I have made
between me and you and all living beings,
so that the waters shall never again become a flood
to destroy all mortal beings."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Good and upright is the LORD,
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and he teaches the humble his way.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Reading 2 1 Pt 3:18-22
Beloved:
Christ suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.
In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison,
who had once been disobedient
while God patiently waited in the days of Noah
during the building of the ark,
in which a few persons, eight in all,
were saved through water.
This prefigured baptism, which saves you now.
It is not a removal of dirt from the body
but an appeal to God for a clear conscience,
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
who has gone into heaven
and is at the right hand of God,
with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.
Gospel Mk 1:12-15
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1
The story of Noah and the flood is one of those biblical narratives that we are so familiar with we think we know the whole story.
In fact, what we tend to think of as the story is one of two interpretations that are common in our culture. The most common interpretation is very much a children's story of animals and rainbows. This is a story about God's love for animals, about remembering God's love each time we see a rainbow, even about the bright side of every storm.
The second common interpretation is a story that is most definitely not for children. In this interpretation, God is so angered by human rebellion that God floods the whole earth, wiping out nearly everything in a fit of divine rage. This is a story about a God whom you'd be crazy to want to have anything to do with, a God of wrath who is ready and willing to strike down sinners.
Neither of these stories is the whole story, of course, and neither contains much truth. A truer story is that God has a myriad of ways of calling us back to the harmony that God intended for us. Our text for today, in which God establishes a covenant with Noah and his descendants, tells us that God is hanging up the bow, putting aside forever the option of destruction and seeking us as God's own.
The entire flood narrative (Genesis 6:5-9:17) is the culmination of a story of increasing human sinfulness that begins in Genesis 3. There we first see that sin results in disharmony -- between humans and other creatures (3:15), between male and female (3:16), and between humans and their earthly labors (3:17-18). Disharmony intensifies in chapter four, in which the first murder, that of a brother no less, occurs. The genealogy of chapter five draws the link from Adam's generation to Noah's in order to highlight the downward spiral of humanity. Finally, 6:1-8 narrates the breaking of God's harmonious world. In the coupling of heavenly and earthly beings, the boundary between the two realms is shattered. The entire cosmos is thus thrown into disorder, and humanity is so broken that God regrets having created it in the first place.
The language of this divine regret in 6:5-6 is breathtaking. In verse five, God saw that "every inclination of the thoughts of [human] hearts was only evil continually." Yet God's response to this realization is not one of anger or revenge. Rather, God was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart (verse 6). God sorrows over the corruption of the beings that God made with such care and love, and God's heart, in striking contrast to the evil inclination of the human heart, is grieved by their betrayal. God is pained by the brokenness of creation. God sends the flood, then, not as an act of revenge, but out of grief over the rending of right human relationship with God. Note that human betrayal of God's intention has effects beyond human beings; human sin has issued in the corruption of all the earth (6:11), and therefore in its destruction.
That destruction, of course, is not total. God doesn't wipe away the creation entirely and then walk away. The flood is in fact the means of re-creation. God washes the earth clean and both God and the earth begin again. The re-creative nature of the flood is underscored by parallels between this narrative and the creation narrative of Genesis 1:
Which brings us to the covenant, the sealing of the newly-restored relationship between God and God's creatures. Note that this is entirely God's doing. God enters into an eternal covenant with all creation without requiring anything in return. God does so fully aware that "the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth," (8:21) still. The flood has not cleansed the human heart of sin, which we see in the latter portion of chapter nine. But God knows this, and God enters into covenant with us anyway. Perhaps the divine heart that was so aggrieved by human wickedness that God sent a flood is now moved by that same grief to seek another way to get through to us. So God promises to Noah and to his descendants, and to every creature on the earth, never again to destroy all creation with a flood.
The sign of this covenant, God's bow in the clouds, is precisely the bow of battle. Ancient depictions of a deity armed with bow and arrow are not unusual. To hang up one's bow is to retire from battle. That bow in the clouds is the sign of God's promise that whatever else God does to seek our restoration, destruction is off the table.
An implication of this promise is that God will try everything else. God will seek us and seek us, despite or perhaps because of God's knowledge of every sin, every grief, and every shame that veils our vision of God's reality and of our own as God's creatures. Whatever dwells in our hearts that keeps us from hearing the harmony of all life in God's care, God will not give up on loving us into restoration.
Responsorial Psalm
The psalm is intimate and intensely personal, voiced in the first person singular and addressing God in the second person singular. And woven through this appointed portion of the psalm are four key themes: the psalmist's total surrender to God and variations on three imperatives addressed to God: don't let me be put to shame; show, teach, and lead me in your paths; and remember yourself and your character and forget me and mine.
The psalmist's surrender is rendered most beautifully in the opening line, "To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul." Allow yourself to contemplate this offering of the deepest, truest part of the self to God. The act of submission is touching in its profound vulnerability and simultaneously strong in its volition (foreshadowing Jesus' insistence in John 18 that "No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.").
This theme of surrender reappears in verse 2, "My God in you I trust ..." and again in verse 5, "for you I wait all day long." A sermon that enters the psalm through this self-offering could remind Christians that the "path" toward which God finally "leads" us is the way of the cross. It should not be lost on us that the self-offering of a lifted up soul is a first action on that way.
The first imperative "Do not let me be disgraced ..." reveals the sliver of human fear and doubt that restrains the psalmist's trust. (Some commentators prefer to translate this phrase as Let me not be disappointed ...) The psalm is the testimony of one strong in faith: "Yes, you are God; yes, I trust you; yes, I am as sure as I can be that your ways are right."
And yet then comes, "but please, please don't disappoint me; please let me be right about you!" Here with the psalmist we come face-to-face with all that's at stake when we surrender ourselves in faith -- even when that surrender is to the God whose gracious mercy we know so well. The shadow side of trust is the yearning for that trust to be vindicated. The wonderful circular paradox is that the imperative that issues from that sliver of doubt is addressed to the one we've already been empowered to trust.
The second imperative, "make known to me your ways ... teach me your paths," plays on the iconic metaphor of "life as journey." We can infer that the psalmist believes that many paths are available and that confusion among them is inevitable -- thus the need for instruction and guidance. The psalmist asks God to be present and directive about the proper way to go (verses 4, 7, and 9).
Reading 2
What Peter has in mind here appears to have little to do with the classic salvation history that later Church Fathers like Clement and Augustine would develop out of this text, a scheme in which righteous humans are released from the bonds of Hell. Instead, Peter is assuring his audience of the cosmic implications of their baptismal vows. The one in whom they have placed their faith, he insists, is indeed the Lord of all creation, of heaven and earth, of things seen and unseen.
The impact of this proclamation can be better understood when we consider the chapters that precede this hymnic affirmation of the triumphant Christ. Those to whom Peter addressed his epistle were experiencing in their own lives the kind of suffering that was the result of turning their backs on the Hellenistic status quo. Their pleas to God during this time were not unlike those of the Psalmist: "do not let me be disgraced; do not let my enemies gloat over me" (25:2). Their baptism, ironically, is at once the source of their hope and the reason for their earthly trials.
Peter introduces this letter with an allusion to the church as a kind of new Adam living in an old world (1:3-5); as such, the faithful will have to endure, if for but a time, the ills of a culture in which they have been effectively marginalized. Though they are aliens and exiles (2:11), they are nevertheless members of a heavenly household. And the water in which they were baptized, and by which they stand before God with a clear conscience, serves as an appropriate symbol for what they are experiencing in their daily lives. Water, especially in the story of Noah, serves as both an instrument for God's judgment of the wicked and a means for the redemption of the godly. It is good to be reminded which side one is on, especially in times of trial.
In drawing on the story of Noah, Peter wants to assure his readers that they are indeed the church, a new ark rising and falling with the waters of adversity, yet proceeding toward the day of peace when the chaos around them would recede and a new world would be established. And that day would come, for the Lord into whose body they had been baptized is indeed the Lord of creation. He had made himself known to the spirits of disobedience -- even from the first day of his earthly ministry (Mark 1:14-15, passim) -- and placed them on notice. Though it might appear to the aliens and exiles that these wayward angels still held sway over their lives, the waters were indeed subsiding.
While talk of principalities and spirits bound in prison may strike us as a vestige of a bygone world, we should not be so quick to discount the contemporary relevance of this text, especially during this season of Lent. Walter Wink has argued persuasively that "the powers that be" are still a very real part of our existence -- whether as the collective spirit of a nation, a corporation, or other organizations -- and often we are only too willing to offer them the trust and obedience that should be reserved for God alone.
Lent offers us the opportunity to search our conscience, to consider the implications of our baptism, and to assess which side we are really on. Ostensibly, the waters that wash us clean are the source of our salvation, but our actions sometimes suggest an allegiance to the chaos that lies just beyond the walls of the ark. Christ proclaims from the right hand of God that the spirits have been bound, but we too often insist through our words and our deeds that they should once again be set free.
Gospel Mk 1:12-15
We have here a brief account of Christ’s temptation, and the beginning of His preaching after John was arrested.
His temptation. The good Spirit that descended upon him, led him into the wilderness, v. 12. Paul mentions it as a proof that he had his doctrine from God, and not from man—that, as soon as he was called, he went not to Jerusalem, but went into Arabia, Gal. 1:17 . Retirement from the world is an opportunity of more free converse with God, and therefore must sometimes be chosen, for a while, even by those that are called to the greatest business. Mark observes this circumstance of his being in the wilderness —that he was with the wild beasts. It was an instance of his Father’s care of him, that he was preserved from being torn in pieces by the wild beasts, which encouraged him the more that his Father would provide for him when he was hungry. Special protections are earnests of seasonable supplies. It was likewise an intimation to him of the inhumanity of the men of that generation, whom he was to live among—no better than wild beasts in the wilderness, nay abundantly worse. In that wilderness, the evil spirits were busy with him; he was tempted by Satan; not by any inward injections (the prince of this world had nothing in him to fasten upon), but by outward solicitations. Solicitude often gives advantages to the tempter, therefore two are better than one. Christ himself was tempted, not only to teach us, that it is no sin to be tempted, but to direct us where to go for succor when we are tempted, even to him that suffered, being tempted; that he might experimentally sympathize with us when we are tempted. The good spirits were busy about him; the angels ministered to him, supplied him with what he needed, and dutifully attended him. Note, The ministration of the good angels about us, is matter of great comfort in reference to the malicious designs of the evil angels against us; but much more does it befriend us, to have the indwelling of the spirit in our hearts, which they have it, the evil one touches them not, much less shall he triumph over them.
A general account of Christ’s preaching in Galilee. John gives an account of his preaching in Judea, before this (ch. 2 and 3), which the other evangelists had omitted, who chiefly relate what occurred in Galilee, because that was least known at Jerusalem. Notice when Jesus began to preach in Galilee; After John was put in prison. When Johm had finished his testimony, then Jesus began his. Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of God. Christ came to set up the kingdom of God among men, that they might be brought into subjection to it, and might obtain salvation in it; and he set it up by the preaching of his gospel, and a power going along with it. Observe the great truths Christ preached; The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. This refers to the Old Testament, in which the kingdom of the Messiah was promised, and the time fixed for the introducing of it. They were not so well versed in those prophecies, nor did they so well observe the signs of the times, as to understand it themselves, and therefore Christ gives them notice of it; "The time prefixed is now at hand; glorious discoveries of divine light, life, and love, are now to be made; a new dispensation far more spiritual and heavenly than that which you have hitherto been under, is now to commence.’’ Note, God keeps time; when the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, for the vision is for an appointed time, which will be punctually observed.Tthey fondly expected the Messiah to appear in external pomp and power, not only to free the Jewish nation from the Roman yoke, but to make it have dominion over all its neighbors, and therefore thought, when that kingdom of God was at hand, they must prepare for war, and for victory and preferment, and great things in the world; but Christ tells them, in the prospect of that kingdom approaching, they must repent, and believe the gospel. They had broken the moral law, and could not be saved by a covenant of innocency, for both Jew and Gentile are concluded under guilt. They must therefore take the benefit of a covenant of grace, must submit to a remedial law, and this is it—repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. m, shall, without fail, come to him. The instruments Christ chose to employ in setting up his kingdom, were the weak and foolish things of the world; not called from the great sanhedrim, or the schools of the rabbin, but picked up from among the tarpaulins by the sea-side, that the excellency of the power might appear to be wholly of God, and not at all of them. Though Christ needs not the help of man, yet he is pleased to make use of it in setting up his kingdom, that he might deal with us not in a formidable but in a familiar way, and that in his kingdom the nobles and governors may be of ourselves, Jer. 31:21. Christ taught as one that had authority, as one that knew the mind of God, and was commissioned to declare it. There is much in the doctrine of Christ, that is astonishing; the more we hear it, the more cause we shall see to admire it.
Making the Connection
Here’s one version for reference
My God,
I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong
and failing to do good,
I have sinned against you
whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with your help,
to do penance,
to sin no more,
and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.
Our Savior Jesus Christ
suffered and died for us.
In his name, my God, have mercy.
Sunday February 11, 2018 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 77
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Lv 13:1-2, 44-46
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
"If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch
which appears to be the sore of leprosy,
he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest,
or to one of the priests among his descendants.
If the man is leprous and unclean,
the priest shall declare him unclean
by reason of the sore on his head.
"The one who bears the sore of leprosy
shall keep his garments rent and his head bare,
and shall muffle his beard;
he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!'
As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean,
since he is in fact unclean.
He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 32:1-2, 5, 11
R. (7) I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD,"
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Reading 2 1 Cor 10:31—11:1
Brothers and sisters,
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,
do everything for the glory of God.
Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or
the church of God,
just as I try to please everyone in every way,
not seeking my own benefit but that of the many,
that they may be saved.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Gospel Mk 1:40-45
A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
"If you wish, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched him, and said to him,
"I do will it. Be made clean."
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning the him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
He said to him, "See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them."
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Lv 13:1-2, 44-46
So just what is leprosy?
It is a progressive infectious disease caused by a bacteria that attacks the skin, flesh, nerves, etc.; it is characterized by nodules, ulcers, white scaly scabs, if not treated will cause the wasting of muscles, deformities, mutilation, and the eventual loss of sensation,( and is contagious.)
Leprosy was a deadly disease dreaded by everyone in ancient Israel. It is worse than cancer. When somebody has leprosy, he or she becomes automatically ostracized or separated from the community. Thus, as we see in today's first reading, what a leper is going on the street he has to cry, "unclean, unclean... He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp" (Lv 13:45-46).
Today's Gospel passage presents a scenario in which a leper came to Jesus, kneeling down and begging him saying, "if you wish, you can make me clean." (Mark 1:40) Moved with pity, Jesus stretches out his hand touching the leper saying, "I do will it. Be made clean." (Mark 1:41) The Bible tells us that the leprosy left him immediately. What is the significance of this message? What challenges does it give us today?
There are times in our lives when we may be overwhelmed by all kinds of situations confronting us. There are situations that make us become isolated, abandoned, rejected, depressed, and lonely. At times we find ourselves lonely, even amidst the crowd! There are times when problems make our life so miserable, like that of an ostracized leper. There are times when families and friends may not be able to help, but there is somebody whose will is best. We need to approach Him and say, "Lord, let your will be done for me.” The Lord has promised never to abandon us, even if mothers could abandon their children (CF I S. 49:14 – 16).
On a spiritual level, that deadly disease affecting human life today is sin. It is so deadly because it separates us spiritually from our Lord.
Before making any crucial decisions Jesus usually withdraws into solitude to have a deeper encounter with his Father. This is our model. We too must find time within our busy schedule to pray. It is in prayer and deep meditation that we can encounter Jesus profoundly and embrace peace. It is during those quiet moments that we can hear him loud and clear. Such an encounter with Jesus also brings us healing of mind and body. The ancient Latin dictum “Ora et labora” (work and pray) should be our motto as Christians, not “Laborare est Orare” (working is praying), as we see in many cases today working is not synonymous with praying. If you want to encounter Jesus in his busy world, then you need to embrace solitude.
This passage explains to us also why we need our weekly days off, monthly recollection, annual retreat, and annual vacation. Some years ago, in a parish in the United Kingdom a pastor had worked for 14 years in a row without taking any vacation. The people were so concerned because he was running out of energy and zeal. Let us not forget that a car that runs all day, without stopping for fuel refill, will soon run out of gas.
My friends ask me why I go on spiritual retreat. I respond "I need all the help that I can get." Anyone, lay or cleric; living is a busy area; needs recollection, retreats and quiet moments as often as necessary. It is a busy world. We cannot be too busy for prayer and retreat. May the Lord give us many opportunities to encounter him and his healing power as we continue our journey in a busy world.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 32:1-2, 5, 11
Long before the insights from contemporary psychology concerning repression, biofeedback loops, and psychosomatic disorders, the ancient psalmist knew very clearly that unacknowledged and unresolved guilt could have serious physical consequences. There is no reason to think that the language of Psalm 32 is purely metaphorical -- “my bones wasted away; I groaned all day long.”
Unacknowledged and unresolved guilt was taking its toll. And it is still happening!
It is no wonder that some of the most penetrating analyses of sin and guilt have come in recent years not from biblical scholars and theologians, but rather from psychiatrists. For instance, Karl Menninger was motivated by his concern for mental health and a healthier society to ask Whatever Became of Sin? He was concerned that unacknowledged and unresolved guilt inevitably comes out in various forms of unhealthy “escapism, rationalization, and reaction or symptom formation.”
Therefore, he called for a recovery of the concept of sin; and he suggested that clergypersons should take the lead: “It is their special prerogative to study sin -- or whatever they call it -- to identify it, to define it, to warn us about it, and to spur measures for combatting it and rectifying it.”
The appearance of Psalm 32 in the lectionary offers a prime opportunity for clergypersons to take up the challenge “to study sin.” And almost certainly, it will be a challenge! As Menninger points out, sin-talk has not been and is not very popular. For one thing, it can sound archaic and overly judgmental. Then too, our concern for privacy and proper appearances makes confession of sin (or weakness or need) a bit risky.
As Gerald Wilson notes, “The cults of independence and perfection have prevented many a struggling evangelical Christian from admitting his or her fears, failures, and helplessness until the crisis was so great that it can no longer be denied and broke out with the utmost devastation for all those concerned.” This reality, of course, underscores the importance of the challenge “to study sin.”
Perhaps the language of verses 3-4 suggests that the psalmist had arrived (or was about to arrive) at a devastating breaking point. If so, then she or he offers us a very important example of the benefits of confronting and confessing one’s sin. What ends up broken in Psalm 32 is neither the psalmist’s life nor the lives of those with whom the psalmist is concerned. Rather, what ends up broken is the psalmist’s silence!
While neither God nor the psalmists are in favor of sin, the real problem in Psalm 32 is not the psalmist’s sin but rather the psalmist’s failure to acknowledge and confess sin. It is crucial; therefore, that the silence be broken for, as James L. Mays points out, “the silence is the rejection of grace.”
The tragic thing about the failure to confess sinfulness and need is that we close ourselves off from the liberating grace of God. A more literal translation of verse 5c emphasizes this liberating dimension: “and you took away the guilt of my sin.” A burden has been lifted! God bears the burden of sin with us or even for us!
This, of course, is pure grace, anticipating both Jesus’ proclamation of the realm of God (see Luke 7:36-8:3) and Paul’s proclamation of the good news of justification by grace (see Romans 4:6-8 where Paul quotes Psalm 32:1-2).
To be sure, Psalm 32 is about sin and guilt; and it is rightly numbered among the Church’s seven Penitential Psalms (see Psalms 6, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143). But Psalm 32 is even more clearly about the divine willingness to forgive. This willingness is grounded in God’s essential character -- that is, God is gracious, merciful, and steadfastly loving (see Exodus 34:6-7; and note “steadfast love” in Psalm 32:10).
Reading 2 1 Cor 10:31—11:1
The apostle urges he people to refrain where they will give offense, while yet he allows it lawful to eat what was set before them as common food, though it had been offered in sacrifice. "Another man's conscience is no measure to our conduct. What he thinks unlawful is not thereby made unlawful to me, but may be a matter of liberty still; and as long as I own God as a giver of my food, and render him thanks for it, it is very unjust to reproach me for using it." This must be understood abstracted from the scandal given by eating in the circumstance mentioned. Though some understand it to mean, "Why should I, by using the liberty I have, give occasion to those who are scandalized to speak evil of me?" According to that advice of the apostle (Rom. 14:16), Let not your good be evil spoken of. Note, Christians should take care not to use their liberty to the hurt of others, nor their own reproach.
The apostle takes occasion from this discourse to lay down a rule for Christians' conduct, and apply it to this particular case (v. 31, 32), namely, that in eating and drinking, and in all we do, we should aim at the glory of God, at pleasing and honoring him. This is the fundamental principle of practical godliness. The great end of all practical religion must direct us where particular and express rules are wanting. Nothing must be done against the glory of God, and the good of our neighbors, connected with it. No, the tendency of our behavior to the common good, and the credit of our holy religion, should give direction to it. And therefore nothing should be done by us to offend any, whether Jew, or Gentile, or the church, v. 32. The Jews should not be unnecessarily grieved nor prejudiced, who have such an abhorrence of idols that they reckon every thing offered to them thereby defiled, and that it will pollute and render culpable all who partake of it; nor should heathens be countenanced in their idolatry by any behavior of ours, which they may construe as homage or honor done to their idols; nor young converts from Gentilism take any encouragement from our conduct to retain any veneration for the heathen gods and worship, which they have renounced: nor should we do anything that may be a means to pervert any members of the church from their Christian profession or practice. Our own humor and appetite must not determine our practice, but the honor of God and the good and edification of the church. We should not so much consult our own pleasure and interest as the advancement of the kingdom of God among men. Note, A Christian should be a person devoted to God, and of a public spirit.
Gospel Mk 1:40-45
Last Sunday's gospel lesson impressed upon us the scope of Jesus' ministry and mission, and the power of the good news of His preaching and healing to impact the lives of all who flocked to hear the message of forgiveness and presence of God's new reign. With today's lesson there is no relenting in the intensity and success of that mission, whose fast-paced movement by now has developed a kind of rhythm.
In the final words of last Sunday's lesson, we heard that Jesus' mission encompassed all of Galilee and drew the whole world to Jesus' doorstep. But today, once again much like in the case of Peter's mother-in-law (1:29), we are drawn back to the particular, to the impact of Jesus' healing power upon the life of one individual. In fact, the whole movement of today's lesson mirrors that of last Sunday's verses, Mark 1:29-39. Whereas that lesson began with the healing of Peter's mother-in-law and ended with reference to Jesus' mission throughout the whole of Galilee, this lesson begins with the healing of a person with leprosy and ends with reference to the spread of Jesus' fame and people coming to Him from "everywhere."
The clear effect of the progression of these texts is to proclaim the power of the good news, present from the very beginning in Jesus' mission and ministry. Whereas in the other synoptic gospels this story needs some time to work its way out, in Mark this power has its "epiphany" already in Mark's unique portrayal of the ministry and preaching of John the Baptist. When Jesus announces the "kingdom of God" has already come near and the reign of God is upon us in this good news, His preaching compounds and strengthens that message. "Immediately," (to use Mark's favorite word) the powers that be are engaged. Jesus' healing and casting out of demons acknowledge His authority and power as something to be reckoned with. In Jesus' presence lives will be changed. But as the story progresses, beginning especially in last Sunday's lesson, there are signs that such power will not go unchallenged. The new and the old are bound to clash; the new will not be contained by the old. That impending clash becomes more explicit in Mark 2:1-12 and 2:13-22, but it already breathes beneath the surface in this Sunday's lesson.
The leper's arrival and request press the issues of the good news squarely: "If you are willing, you have the power to make me clean" (a translation). The words "if you wish, you can..." disguises and softens Mark's loaded words of "will" and "power." Here, we are invited to face the issue of how Jesus will address the matter of "clean and unclean" in the particular realities of this world. That particularity is clear in the leper's question, which is not about cleansing and power in general, but about the power to make "me" clean. Ultimately, the issue of the good news is whether it has the power to effect change in my life and yours.
The leper's question recognizes that if there is to be healing, it will be dependent on a God who "wills" that it be so. The "if" in his question leaves that matter provocatively up in the air. As such his words remind us that hearing the arrival of this Jesus as good news is contingent on finding in him the epiphany of a God who actually "wills" that this healing be so. But his words also recognize that such actuality takes more than "will." The will to cleanse remains only a possibility until it meets the appearance of One who has the "power" to deliver on the promise of that will. This issue of power is central, for it stands both at the beginning and end of this lesson, though it is unfortunately disguised in the English translations. It is here in the leper's request (verse 40). It is there again in verse 45, where strangely and surprisingly we hear that the successful spread of the word about Jesus means He no longer "has the power" to go around "openly." Instead, He must stay in secret in the wilderness. (Literally, he does not have the ability for "epiphany").
Of course these matters of power will ultimately move this story to the cross. But for now, Jesus' immediate answer is clear. Jesus is moved with compassion. He reaches out, touches the leper, and says, "I do will it." If there is any question of the requisite power to cleanse, it is avoided and leapt over. The "I will" becomes immediate reality in Jesus' command: "Be made clean" (Mark 1:41-42).
In Jesus, "I will" is the power of the good news to change lives and the message of Epiphany; that in Jesus this will and power of God is clearly revealed. Boundaries are crossed; issues of power are addressed; unclean becomes clean; the sick become whole. And Jesus will get into trouble for this!
The trouble is perhaps suggested in the refusal of this good news to be restrained, even by Jesus' own command. Jesus gives the former leper two commands, " See that you tell no one anything " and " show yourself to the priest," neither of which he obeys. Instead, this man goes out and "preaches" the "word" mightily (Greek: polla; literally, "in many words"). And his preaching is effective, so much so that Jesus becomes hampered in His own ministry (Mark 1:45).
This epiphany story draws us into a number of tensions of discipleship and faith. The leper's story makes clear that God's will in Jesus to touch, to cleanse, and to make whole is not just imagination or wish. Instead, it is promise that has the power to touch the particularity of lives, broken and suffering from the powers of the unclean in this world. It also makes clear that the proclamation of this good news has the power, even today, to burst the boundaries of constraint that would keep this good word from being heard. The story of this Jesus will get out!
Making the Connection
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Sunday February 4, 2018 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 74
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jb 7:1-4, 6-7
Job spoke, saying:
Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, "When shall I arise?"
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R. (cf. 3a) Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to praise him.
The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;
the dispersed of Israel he gathers.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He tells the number of the stars;
he calls each by name.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
to his wisdom there is no limit.
The LORD sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts to the ground.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23
Brothers and sisters:
If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I do not preach it!
If I do so willingly, I have a recompense,
but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my recompense?
That, when I preach,
I offer the gospel free of charge
so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Although I am free in regard to all,
I have made myself a slave to all
so as to win over as many as possible.
To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do for the sake of the gospel,
so that I too may have a share in it.
Gospel Mk 1:29-39
On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
Rising very early before dawn, he left
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you."
He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come."
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jb 7:1-4, 6-7
I have been allotted months of futility: Job saw his present suffering like the futile, discouraging work of a servant or a hired man. He felt there was no hope or reward, only weariness.
The words hard service in Job 7:1 are descriptive of military service. The Latin Vugate translates, The life of man is a warfare upon earth. The early English Coverdale translation has it, Is not the life of man upon earth a very battle? With this Job communicated both the struggle of life, together with the idea that he has been drafted unwillingly into this battle.
Wearisome nights have been appointed to me: Job described his physical condition in painful terms. He suffered from insomnia and his skin affliction came back again and again.
Clarke comments on My flesh is caked with worms: “The figure is too horrid to be further illustrated.”
Job mourns the futility of life.
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle: Job did not mean this in a positive sense, as in saying “My, look how fast the time is going by.” As described in the previous verses, in this season of affliction time is dragging by for Job through his sleepless and painful nights. Yet when he looked at his life in totality, it seemed to be a meaningless blur, spent without hope and as a breath.
“Ibn Ezra noted long ago the play on the word [tiqwah, ‘hope’], which can also mean ‘thread.’ Job’s days move fast like a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end through want of thread. Both meanings were equally intended. This is the kind of overtone in meaning that cannot be reflected in a translation without a footnote.”
“Worse than the disease itself, Job lost all hope of being healed. He believed his only release from pain was death.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
- Praise the Lord! Psalm 147 begins and ends with these words, which are both a declaration and an encouragement of praise to Yahweh. This hallelujah begins and ends the five psalms that end the Book of Psalms.
- “There is no heaven, either in this world, or the world to come, for people who do not praise God. If you do not enter into the spirit and worship of heaven, how should the spirit and joy of heaven enter into you?”
- it is good to sing praises to our God: It was right for the Psalmist to tell himself and others to praise the Lord, and he assumed that God’s people would do it with singing. The goodness of praise comes from the truth that it is, in itself, pleasant and beautiful.
- Psalm 33:1 says, praise from the upright is beautiful. True praise is beautiful to God, to His people, and to the individual worshipper.
- Praise is pleasant and beautiful for humanity, “It is decent, befitting, and proper that every intelligent creature should acknowledge the Supreme Being: and as he does nothing but good to the children of men, so they should speak good of his name.”
- If praise is beautiful, “As on the contrary, an unthankful man is an ugly, ill-favoured spectacle.”
(2-6) The care and power of God.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds.
He counts the number of the stars;
He calls them all by name.
Great is our Lord, and mighty in power;
His understanding is infinite.
The Lord lifts up the humble;
He casts the wicked down to the ground.
- The Lord builds up Jerusalem, He gathers together the outcasts of Israel: The Psalmist quickly began to describe the goodness and greatness of God, to give himself and others reasons to praise God. The first reason is God’s active care for Jerusalem and a likely reference to its restoration after the exile.
- “The twelfth chapter of Nehemiah tells how the Levites were brought to the city to lead a grand celebration ‘with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres’ (Neh. 12:27)”. It would have been fitting for them to sing this Psalm, especially Psalm 147:2-3.
- Consider the many kinds of outcasts that Jesus gathers and blesses today.
· Outcasts may be the very poorest and most despised among men
· Outcasts may be those who have made themselves so by their wickedness
· Outcasts may be those who judge themselves to be outcasts
· Outcasts may be backsliders from the church
· Outcasts may be those who have fallen into great depression of spirit
· Outcasts may be those who suffer for righteousness’ sake
- He heals the brokenhearted: God does not only care for communities, but also for individuals. Those who hurt – the brokenhearted and the wounded – are special objects of His care.
- Hearts are broken through disappointment. Hearts are broken through bereavement. Hearts are broken in ten thousand ways, for this is a heart-breaking world; and Christ is good at healing all manner of heart- breaks. There are many reasons why Jesus is good at healing the brokenhearted.
· Jesus is educated for this work, having His own heart broken
· Jesus is experienced in this work, having healed broken hearts for 2,000 years
· Jesus is willing to take the worst patients, and has never yet lost a patient
· Jesus heals broken hearts with medicine that He himself provides
- “That God tells the number of the stars is only what we should expect of Him….But that He should be able to bend over one broken heart and bind it with His sympathy and heal its flowing wounds, this is wonderful, amazing, divine.”
Binds up their wounds: “As a good shepherd, Zechariah 11:4, that good Samaritan, Luke 10:34, and as a good surgeon dealeth by his patient.”
- He counts the number of the stars, He calls them all by name: The same God who cares for the lowly individual also knows and names all the stars. His majesty extends in both directions, from the span of the universe to the individual need.
- The Psalmist allowed us to the make the logical point – that if God knows and names all the stars, He certainly knows me and names me.
- Apparently in the days of Matthew Poole (1624-79), astronomers numbered 1,025 stars. “He telleth the number of the stars, which no man can do, Genesis 22:17. For those thousand and twenty-five which astronomers number, are only such as are most distinctly visible to the eye, and most considerable for their influences.” Now (2016) scientists estimate that there are 1 billion trillion stars in the observable universe. God knows the exact number.
- He calls them all by name: “Calling them all by names (lit., He calls names to them all) is not giving them designations, but summoning them as a captain reading the muster roll of his band. It may also imply full knowledge of each individual in their countless hosts.”
- The ‘stars’ are not forces or deities as in the ancient Near East but created entities over which the Lord is sovereign.
- Great is our Lord, and mighty in power: The Psalmist again described God in the high aspects of His majesty (His understanding is infinite) and in the lowest and most compassionate aspects of His majesty (the Lord lifts up the humble).
- “It turns upside down the familiar argument that in so great a universe our small affairs are too minute to notice.”
- His understanding is infinite: “There is no fathoming his wisdom, or measuring his knowledge. He is infinite in existence, in power, and in knowledge, as these three phrases plainly teach us.”
- The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground: This is much like the phrase repeated three times in the Scriptures – God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:34, James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5).
- “He reverses the evil order of things. The meek are down, and he lifts them up; the wicked are exalted, and he hurls them down to the dust.”
- “As a man ranks himself in one or other of these two divisions, he may expect from heaven storm or sunshine, mercy or judgment.”
Reading 2 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23
This dialectic - preach or be damned - arises from Paul's self-reflection on his role as apostle. Paul is presenting his self-understanding, describing the manner in which he presents himself, and the ultimate motivation which drives him. Preach, or be damned.
To be fair Paul doesn't actually say "damned." Rather, he says "woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:16). As with the Old Testament "woes" that one reads in numerous prophetic oracles (cf. Isaiah 45:9; Hosea 7:13; see also Matthew 23:13-36), this is serious business. This is not the "whoa" of amazement or surprise, but the "woe" of suffering and punishment. In effect, Paul is calling trouble down upon himself should he fail to preach the gospel. "Woe to me if I fail to proclaim the gospel! I must preach or be damned!" With this attitude, Paul sets the stage for a striking reflection on his own calling as apostle, and provides a refreshing resource for our reflection on what it means to be called, commissioned to serve God and our neighbor, and proclaim the gospel.
There is much in this passage that may be familiar, primarily Paul's summary of the nature of his apostleship. One of Paul's most oft-quoted phrases is found here, that he will be "all things to all people" (1 Corinthians 9:22). Among the Jews, Paul is a committed and observant Jew, as he proudly declares elsewhere (Philippians 3:4-6). To those under the law, Paul will conduct himself as one also under the law, even though he is not subject to that law (1 Corinthians 9:20). To those outside the law, he will appear and present himself as one also outside of the law, even though, in a potentially confusing turn-around, he is "not free from God's law" (verse 21). To the weak, Paul will give himself as one who is weak, though he has reason to boast (verse 22).
This fourfold summary of "all things" is at heart a repetition of two things in an A-A-B-B pattern. The Jews and those under the law are best read as one and the same. Likewise, those outside the law, the Gentiles, are also the "weak." Think of this as a Pauline version of "There are two kinds of people." "And," Paul says, "I am whatever they need me to be, a little A-ish or a little B-ish." Though free in Christ Jesus, Paul submits himself, to the point of being a slave, to his neighbors, willing to be "all things to all people."
As with most familiar things, one must be careful not to read "all things to all people" as though Paul is saying that "everything goes." As noted above, Paul is talking less about "all things" than articulating a basic two-part distinction: those under the law, and those outside the law, which covers everyone. What Paul is driving at is not some pluralist vision of all things being equal. He is driven by the need to deliver the gospel to all people, not just the chosen people or the insiders. Outside of this text, Paul explicitly says that theological relativity and idolatry are not a part of the gospel (1 Corinthians 10:14-22). In other words, Paul is stressing that he has given up all claims to his own particularity; but not the particularity of the gospel; in order to "win more," and "save some." The question is, why?
Why is Paul willing to do this? Why be all things to all people? Why risk appearing a chameleon of compromise? Why give up freedom for servitude? Why? Preach or be damned. For Paul this is not a question, or a matter of choice. It is a matter of necessity, of compulsion, of apostolic imperative. It is the gospel that is for all people, the gospel that drives him to reach out both to Jew and to Gentile, to the one struggling under the burden of the law and the one blissfully ignorant of its demands. For Paul the gospel is needed by both kinds of people, it is the one thing that is for all people. This is why he does what he does.
And this brings us again to the remarkable way in which Paul describes the apostolic imperative which drives him, and what it means for us. At the beginning of this little passage from 1 Corinthians, Paul holds in tension a set of contradictory terms: boasting and obligation, reward and commission. The calling, the obligation to proclaim the gospel is not a cause for boasting or arrogance; neither is it a means to an end or a reward. For Paul the gospel, as a blessing to be shared (1 Corinthians 9:23; 10:17; 11:23-26), is both obligation and reward, commission and compensation. Paul does not talk here of his calling or his "Christian life" as something motivated by heavenly reward, or something in which to take pride. Paul, who is accustomed to the occasional pride filled boast, takes a different tack here. He is motivated by the joy from servitude to Christ, the reward of a slavish devotion to all his neighbors, both those under God's law and those unaware of it.
Gospel Mk 1:29-39
As Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee he has called disciples. In the Capernaum synagogue he healed a man with an unclean spirit by "rebuking" the spirit and calling it out of him. The amazed local folks talk about this new teacher and exorcist everywhere. Meanwhile, after the healing in the synagogue, Jesus returns to Simon Peter's house. There lies Simon Peter's mother-in-law in the grip of a fever. This is no small matter in the ancient world. A fever was not only debilitating for a short while, but was often a symptom of a condition that would lead to death. We know nothing from Mark about this fever -- its intensity, its duration, or its cause -- but we do know a valued family member was unable to be up and about her work. Her calling had been taken from her by an illness.
Jesus simply "raises her up." In Mark's direct and uncomplicated style he says, "...and the fever left her and she served them." The verbs are interesting. Simon Peter's mother-in-law is raised up by Jesus, a word that takes on powerful meaning in Mark's gospel and in subsequent Christian communities. In 16:6 the word is applied to Jesus himself. Mark uses egeiro in many healings (see, for example, 9:27). The word suggests that new strength is imparted to those laid low by illness, unclean spirits, or even death, so that they may again rise up to take their place in the world. That's where the second interesting verb comes into play.
Simon Peter's mother-in-law "served" immediately after having been raised. The verb is diakoneo, the same verb Jesus uses to describe the essence of his own ministry in Mark 10:45. It is "to serve" rather than "to be served" that characterizes the Christ of God. It is also "to serve" that characterizes his disciples. Simon Peter's mother-in-law is far from being an exemplar of a pathetic, un-liberated woman for whom serving men is her whole life. Rather she is the first character in Mark's gospel who exemplifies true discipleship. (Side bar: it will be women who are described as having served Jesus in 15:41 as well. This is not a verb used of Jesus' male disciples who famously do not quite "get it" within the gospel itself.)
Needless to say, the second healing really got around among the people. All kinds of folks were brought to Jesus for help. Capernaum's sick were laid before his door and he healed illnesses and cast out demons by the score. Please notice that these two activities were not identical. The ancients did not believe that all illnesses were demonically caused. They knew as well as we do that people get sick for all manner of reasons.
But please notice in addition, that illness bore a heavy social cost: not only would a person be unable to earn a living or contribute to the well-being of a household, but their ability to take their proper role in the community, to be honored as a valuable member of a household, town, or village, would be taken from them. Peter's mother-in-law is an excellent case in point. It was her calling and her honor to show hospitality to guests in her home. Cut off from that role by an illness cut her off from doing that which integrated her into her world. Who was she when no longer able to engage in her calling? Jesus restored her to her social world and brought her back to a life of value by freeing her from that fever. It is very important to see that healing is about restoration to community and restoration of a calling, a role as well as restoration to life. For life without community and calling is bleak indeed.
Jesus' ministry involves restoration of those cut off from community to a full role in the community. Those who have been seriously ill in our own time will understand the joy of simply being back as a participant in the "ordinary" processes of community life. Truly, there is nothing ordinary about life in community. Jesus wields the power of God Almighty to bring about participation: it is God's will for creation to be serving in community with others.
This discussion leads naturally to the end of the passage where suddenly Jesus seems to reject his call to heal and insists that he must proclaim throughout the villages and towns of Galilee the message he came to deliver. That proclamation, or announcement, continues to be in both word and deed as Jesus goes forward. In 1:15 we heard that message from Jesus: "the reign of God has come near. Repent and trust the good news." We have seen in the story of the man possessed and of Peter's mother-in-law how good that good news was: part of God's reign is the casting out of demons and the turning aside of illnesses; it has to do with restoration of those oppressed to a full role in their communities; it has to do with creating a people raised up to serve each other. And people do come in numbers, trusting that Jesus will heal and restore.
Yet his calling at this point in Mark's gospel is to share the in-breaking of God's kingdom through healing and announcement. Jesus is the herald with the power to bring in a foretaste of the kingdom, even as he promises that it is continuing to "draw near." As he goes throughout the Galilee he does not rely simply on words to make his point, but on the casting out of demons.
How vital it is to know that the coming of God's kingdom is indeed good news? One could imagine God's reign coming as a reign of terror. Humans have plenty of experience with powerful kings doing terrible things to those over whom they reign. Will God be like that? Will it be punishment and brutality for those who don't get on board? No. Jesus shows over and over again, that God's power serves the people. From the very beginning of his ministry Jesus casts out those spirits opposed to God's people, those things which lay them low, as part of his heralding the kingdom. God comes to restore, to save and God's power is sufficient to do it.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Sunday January 28, 2018 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 71
Reading 1 Dt 18:15-20
Moses spoke to all the people, saying:
"A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen.
This is exactly what you requested of the LORD, your God, at Horeb
on the day of the assembly, when you said,
'Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God,
nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.'
And the LORD said to me, 'This was well said.
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin,
and will put my words into his mouth;
he shall tell them all that I command him.
Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name,
I myself will make him answer for it.
But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name
an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak,
or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.'"
Responsorial Psalm Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9
R. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works."
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Reading 2 1 Cor 7:32-35
Brothers and sisters:
I should like you to be free of anxieties.
An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord,
how he may please the Lord.
But a married man is anxious about the things of the world,
how he may please his wife, and he is divided.
An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord,
so that she may be holy in both body and spirit.
A married woman, on the other hand,
is anxious about the things of the world,
how she may please her husband.
I am telling you this for your own benefit,
not to impose a restraint upon you,
but for the sake of propriety
and adherence to the Lord without distraction.
Gospel Mk 1:21-28
Then they came to Capernaum,
and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"
Jesus rebuked him and said,
"Quiet! Come out of him!"
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
"What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 18:15-20
How do we know if one speaks for God or if God is being used to promote a social or political agenda? This question is as old as the ages, and this text from Deuteronomy goes hand-in-hand with the Gospel lesson from Mark. These questions are asked over and over again about Jesus. Is he the real deal? Is he really speaking for God, or is he just another itinerant prophet?
The literary setting for Deuteronomy is at the end of Moses' life as the wandering Israelites prepare to enter the Promised Land. Moses is the only leader they have ever known, and his impending death puts the community in jeopardy. Deuteronomy represents Moses' last words to Israel, both present and future. The style is one of a sermon. In other words, it is not simply information, but it encourages and cajoles, calling the people to belief and a life lived according to God's instruction. It is the equivalent of Moses' ancient life instruction book to the people of Israel.
To fully grasp the meaning of this passage in a modern context, some explanation is necessary. What is the modern equivalent of ancient prophets? First, most people are unfamiliar with exactly what a prophet was in the ancient near eastern context. In biblical times, prophets were not rare. Indeed, 2 Kings tells that the king of Israel had 400 prophets at his disposal (1 Kings 22:6)! The problem was not finding a prophet - it was finding a prophet that was truly speaking for God.
Prophets performed a wide range of functions, including some that are condemned in Deuteronomy 18:10-11. Prophets of the Lord are the mouthpieces for God, and their proclamations are made without the common acts of divination or speaking to dead spirits. Prophets of ancient times should probably be thought of as preachers, for they interpret the word of God to the people. Ancient Prophets, however, were distinct from priests who were responsible for leading the people in worship. The only function of an ancient prophet was to declare the word of God to the people. They did not run meetings or organize the congregation.
You can see the modern day equivalent of prophets any given Saturday in New York City. As you go about your tasks, it is not uncommon to see an individual or a group standing on milk cartons and telling the passersby that "God loves them," or that "they are going to hell," or that "they are one of the lost ten tribes of Israel." This religious cornucopia is now intensified by multiple cable television stations and internet sites. Prophets or preachers are still standing up and telling the people they speak for God. Often the messages are contradictory, and we still wonder which ones are true and which are false.
This passage begins with the reason why prophets are needed. It reaches back to the giving of the law in Exodus 19 and 20. When the people heard God speak they were so frightened, they begged Moses to speak with God and be their mediator. Prophets, then, are selected by God ("I raise up" verses 15, 18; "I will put my words" verse 18; "I command" verse 18) for the sake of the people. Prophets answer to God, not to the people, so they are free to speak the truth. Prophets also come "from among their own people" (verse 18). These speakers of truth are home grown. They know the ways and the hearts of the people they speak to and connect with them. They who speak for God must also be paid attention to, for to ignore their calls is the same as ignoring God (verse 19).
The hanging question is the same today as it was in ancient days: how do we know which of the many preachers/prophets who speak are truly speaking for God? The answer in the text is clear. If what the prophet says comes true, then the prophet is speaking for God. It seems like a good answer, but it does not answer all of our questions. Prophets talk of eternal things and life after death. Some of what they say is simply unknowable in this life. The test in Deuteronomy certainly helps us with some prophets who claim to speak for God, but not all. What is clear is that if a prophet/preacher leads folks astray, it is the prophet and not the people who are at fault. Unfortunately, unscrupulous prophets tend to prey on those who are the weakest and most vulnerable.
This text also speaks to Jesus' life and ministry. His truths were not easy to hear, and eventually it was his truth telling that would result in death on a cross. Some would not believe him because he did not have the right pedigree, and did not hang out with the right people. Others did not believe him because they had already formed their own ideas of what the Messiah was to be, and Jesus' message of grace and forgiveness was nothing like they envisioned. Still others were clear that this was Joseph's son who could not possibly be proclaiming God's will. Yet all of the things in the Deuteronomy text can be shown in Jesus' life, preaching, and death.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9
The psalm’s combination of a double call to worship (the lectionary reading) and a prophetic word is best explained with a liturgical or festival setting. The psalm celebrates and interprets the reign of God in the congregation’s liturgical setting. We might envision a procession, but the specific festival setting has been debated.
Jewish tradition ties the psalm to the beginning of Sabbath; others have suggested the Feast of Tabernacles or a covenant renewal festival. The movement of the psalm does suggest a connection to the beginning of worship, but it is difficult to be more specific. Verses 1-7 offer praise to God in the form of a double call to worship. The first summons to praise is in verses 1-2 followed by reasons for the praise in verses 3-5. The second call to worship in verse 6 narrows the focus to God’s covenant people, and verse 7 gives the reason for that call to praise. The last line of verse 7 introduces a prophetic word from God, an oracle. In contemporary terms, the first seven verses call the congregation to come to worship and the last verses deliver the prophetic word in the tradition of verses 8-11, a call to faithfulness. Re-enacting the liturgical setting helped us all to envision the movement and import of the psalm.
In the book of Psalms, this text comes in a cluster of psalms that celebrate the kingship of YAHWEH, an emphasis appropriate for Christ the King Sunday. The emphasis on YAHWEH’s kingship forms a response to the crisis of exile urgently articulated at the end of Book III in Psalm 89. The Davidic Kingdom has fallen, but the kingship of YAHWEH endures as a sign of hope for the community.
The psalm opens with a call to praise. The rendering “come sing joyfully to the Lord” is probably too tame for the Hebrew verbs that call for shouting and singing aloud, a noisy shout of homage similar to the shouting at the entrance of a human king. The call is for a procession to worship with this joyful singing. The movement is to the outer courts and then toward the sanctuary, the holy place of worship and the place of divine presence.
With verse 3, the liturgist brings the congregation to the reason for offering praise to God. The call to praise followed by the reason the congregation should offer praise is the classic style of praise in the Hebrew Psalter. The reason given in Psalm 95 is that YAHWEH is king, here tied to creation language. God created the world from its depths to its heights, from the sea to the dry land, all the world, and God reigns over it. The psalm begins with the broad realm of creation, a call to praise applicable to all peoples.
Reflecting its common ancient Near Eastern setting, the psalm portrays YAHWEH as preeminent among the gods, as king throughout creation and ruler over the powers of chaos and disorder. God created and reigns over creation. Thus all God’s creatures are called to praise.
The second call to praise narrows the focus. The congregation is now called to come and bow down, to kneel before the creator. The scene is analogous to an encounter with a human king with kneeling and bowing in homage. Now the congregation comes into the presence of the sovereign and bows awaiting a royal declaration. The opening call to worship portrays God as creator and ruler over creation.
The emphasis in the second call to worship is that the congregation belongs to God. God created this people and leads them and provides for them and protects them. The reason for praise in verse 7 alludes to the ancient Near Eastern royal image of God as shepherd of the people. God is “our Maker” and “our God.” The reference reminds the congregation that God’s mighty acts in history created this covenant people.
This double call to worship then makes it clear that God as both creator and redeemer is central to ancient Israel’s faith tradition. These verses at the beginning of Psalm 95 call to mind the familiar Psalm 100. These emphases characterize the cluster of psalms that celebrate the kingship of YAHWEH. The psalm’s concluding verses speak a prophetic warning by bringing to mind historical events in which the community did not trust YAHWEH. The call is to live a life of trust and faithfulness.
The sequence of Psalm 95 is important for readers. The psalm begins with the praise of God and moves to a prophetic warning spoken by God. The warning hopes that the community will trust in God, that is, will live out the praise articulated in verses 1-7. God’s gracious acts of creation and of calling out the community lead to the challenge for a response of praise and of lived faith.
Psalm 95 sings praise to God as sovereign and calls for faithfulness in response, in contrast to their ancestors’ response in the wilderness. So the psalm brings the past to bear on the present liturgical context. Those who do not heed the warning of history may have the misfortune of repeating it. The solemn warning that concludes the psalm hopes for a better response to the praise sung in verses 1-7.
Reading 2 1 Cor 7:32-35
But I would have you - I would advise you to such a course of life as should leave you without anxieties. My advice is regulated by that wish, and that wish guides me in giving it.
Without anxiety, solicitude, care; without such a necessary attention to the things of this life as to take off your thoughts and affections from heavenly objects; (see the notes on Matthew 6:25-31)
careth for the things that belong to the Lord, "The things of the Lord;" the things of religion. His attention is not distracted by the cares of this life; his time is not engrossed, and his affections alienated by an attendance on the concerns of a family, and especially by solicitude for them in times of trial and persecution. He can give his main attention to the things of religion. He is at leisure to give his chief thoughts and anxieties to the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. Paul's own example showed that this was the course which he preferred; and showed also that in some instances it was lawful and proper for a man to remain unmarried, and to give himself entirely to the work of the Lord. But the divine commandment Genesis 1:28, and the commendation everywhere bestowed upon marriage in the Scriptures, as well as the nature of the case, show that it was not designed that celibacy should be general.
Gospel Mk 1:21-28
To attribute symptoms of shouting and convulsing with possession by an unclean spirit is not consonant with our understanding of the causes of mental or physical illness. Exorcism may appear alien. Jesus’ confrontation in the synagogue has been read as Jesus teaching over and against “Judaism,” while it is more historically accurate to see Jesus’ deeds and words, his ‘new teaching” to make sense within, and not outside, the ideals of Jewish covenant faithfulness.
Within the narrative world of the gospel of Mark, this encounter is the first public deed of power in his ministry. The story sets up the conflict that structures the first half of the gospel and that was displayed in the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness. It is the conflict between the power of evil, associated with Satan (Beelzebul, Mark 3:22) and demons and the power of God exercised through Jesus. This cosmic conflict is reflected in the earthly realm by the struggle of Jesus with demons, the controversy between Jesus and “scribes and Pharisees,” and the tension between Jesus and his “mother, sisters, and brothers” (Mark 3:31-35).
The cosmic conflict has a social political dimension; possession by demons (legion) is parallel to occupation of the countryside by Roman power (Mark 5:1-13) The conflict is described in violent terms “have you come to destroy us?” Elsewhere it is likened to a battle for ownership of a house (Mark 3:21-27). People who suffer the effects of being occupied or “possessed” by demons lose their ability to control their movements and their voices; either they are immobilized or compelled to move destructively (Mark 9:20-22). They are self-destructive (Mark 5:5). Exorcism by Jesus results in healing and restoration.
In this episode the authority of Jesus’ teaching contrasts with that of the scribes and is paired with his dramatic and effective exorcism of the unclean spirit. Those who witness it are amazed both by the authority of his teaching and his authority over the unclean spirits. The impact of his actions causes his reputation to grow throughout Galilee.
Within the account of the exorcism is a dialogue, initiated by the unclean spirit(s) who calls Jesus of Nazareth by name and appears to know his purpose -- “have you come to destroy us?” The unclean spirit makes a demonic “confession”/recognition and calls him “the holy one of God.” Jesus’ responds by commanding him to “Be silent” and to “come out of him.” That the unclean spirit is the first to name Jesus and acknowledge his power is an early instance of Mark’s ironic reversals and surprises. Evil forces have the most to lose in the coming of Jesus and the “good news.” Apprehending the threat Jesus poses, the spirit exits the man with one last spasmodic movement and one final cry.
The possession by demons illustrates the reality of evil and gives it, even for modern hearers, a shape and a sound. In this first skirmish, Jesus prevails, but not without the unclean spirit protesting and acting out. The voice of the prophet crying in the empty wilderness, the voice from heaven speaking at the baptism, and here the voice of the man, which is at the same time, the voice of the unclean spirit, who shouts and cries out the name of Jesus, not with admiration but with fear. Is the cry with a loud voice with which he comes out, a death rattle, or a curse? As the story proceeds the opposing forces will gather strength, will do more damage, and will seem to silence Jesus himself (Mark 14:61). Jesus commands the spirit to “be silent” with the same word as he commands the sea to “be still” “be silent” (Mark 4:39). He rebukes the unclean spirit, the sea (Mark 4:30) and even Peter (Mark 8:33).
There are risks in identifying the forces of evil and of God in contemporary struggles too, specifically, particularly if one assumes oneself and ones’ own “people” to be on the side of God. The community that performed and heard Mark’s gospel, was powerless and poor in a country occupied by a powerful empire. The theological imagination of the victory of God’s power over illness, disability, and danger was for them, lifesaving good news.
The ancient world view that attributes illness to unclean spirits that lies behind this story, although outdated medically, does dramatize forces that wreak havoc within individual, communities, and countries -- mental illness, addiction, sexual abuse, and racial hatred. The gospel proclaims Jesus’ “authority” over even the most unclean of spirits that continue to take us over.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Sunday January 21, 2018 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 68
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jon 3:1-5, 10
The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying:
"Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you."
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD'S bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day's walk announcing,
"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed, "
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (4a) Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice
and teaches the humble his way.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Reading 2 1 Cor 7:29-31
I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out.
From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,
those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing,
those buying as not owning,
those using the world as not using it fully.
For the world in its present form is passing away.
Gospel Mk 1:14-20
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."
As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea;
they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them,
"Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.
He walked along a little farther
and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They too were in a boat mending their nets.
Then he called them.
So they left their father Zebedee in the boat
along with the hired men and followed him.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jon 3:1-5, 10
A little review reminding you of the first request from God to Jonah.
Jonah is more than just a big fish tale. It is a story with a point, and it is worth telling the whole story.
If we follow the lectionary reading, we enter the story of Jonah right in the middle of the action. “The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time.” We all know what happened the first time. God said, “Get up and go to Ninevah … and Jonah got up and ran away towards Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.”
Jonah’s no Peter, Andrew, James, or John. He doesn’t leave what he’s doing and immediately follow God’s call. He jumps on the first boat going in the opposite direction and he hides in the hold of the ship, hoping that somehow God won’t take notice. It’s as if Peter, Andrew, James, and John, upon encountering Jesus, jumped into their fishing boats and rowed like madmen for the opposite shore, as far away from this dangerous itinerant preacher as they could get.
Jonah did just that, trying to get as far away from the LORD, and the LORD’s bizarre instructions, as he could get. Go to Nineveh? The capital of the Assyrian Empire, that destroyer of Israel, that brutal occupying force. It was unthinkable.
So Jonah runs away, but God sends a storm. The sailors are more pious than Jonah but they eventually reluctantly throw Jonah overboard. The sea calms down immediately, and God appoints a big fish to swallow Jonah.
Jonah, totally immersed in sea water and fish blubber, does indeed sing a prayer: “You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood enveloped me.” The sea in the ancient Near East, of course, is the symbol of chaos, of danger, of wildness. But even in the heart of the seas, God hears Jonah’s prayer. God speaks to the great fish, and the fish vomits him out onto dry land.
That’s where we enter the story. The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” And, this time, still covered in sea water and fish vomit, Jonah obeys. He walks into the city, one day’s journey, and preaches the shortest sermon ever recorded:
It’s a sermon of 5 words in Hebrew -- “Forty days more, and Nineveh will be overthrown!”
The response is electric. Immediately, the people of Nineveh believe God. The people declare a fast. The king, not to be outdone, orders human and animal alike to fast and put on sackcloth. Then all those sackcloth-covered cows and sheep and people bellow out their repentance to God, and God changes his mind about the punishment, and does not bring it about.
Here’s the thing, you see, here’s the thing all of us have found out about following the call of God in and through the waters: God is God and does not act as we think the Almighty should act. In good faith, we follow where we hear God’s call, we go to the city, or the suburb, or to small town and rural America, and we are prepared to bring God’s word to that place, and what we find is that God is already there before us. We find that no people, and no place, not even Nineveh, can properly be called God-forsaken.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
In many of the texts, God teaches us humility, trust and joy in the presence of God. Learning nice little moral lessons, or memorizing factoids about God is not the point. Instead God invites us to be changed by divine mercy and love. The work of Psalm 25 is to express receptivity, or even to make us receptive. The Psalm can be used as a refrain to support the other texts, as a theme for prayer, or the focus of an entire sermon.
Originally, this Psalm was a Hebrew acrostic; that is, it began with the first letter of the alphabet, and ended with the last. But this is more than a word game. It is about God’s A- Z mercy in your life, even when you feel abandoned. Taken as a whole, Psalm 25 is a prayer for help, growing more intense as it progresses.
In verses 1-9, The Psalm begins in an attitude of worship: “To you, Oh Lord, I lift up my soul.” Lifting up the hands is an ancient posture of prayer, expressing our dependence on God. This simple gesture opens a person to receive God’s blessing. So too, the worshipper ‘lifts up’ their soul to receive God’s love. God’s love takes many forms and in Psalm 25:1-9 these include instruction and wisdom.
Repeatedly the Psalmist asks to be taught God’s ways. “Make known to me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths” (verse 4). “Guide me by your fidelity, and teach me” (verse 5). “God instructs sinners in the way…and teaches the humble”. To know about God is a starting point, but the Psalmist wants something more. The Psalmist wants to be with God, to walk in God’s path.
People want to be instantly gratified, but if we really need something we will wait for it. “For you I wait all day long” (verse 5). Waiting was hard for the Psalmist, who was in desperate need of help. Enemies were seeking to inflict harm. It seems that the enemies were external -- the “wantonly treacherous ones” who put the Psalmist to shame, see(verses 2-3). Shame comes from outside and is inflicted by individuals or groups. But “enemies” may also be within us, for example, guilt or regret for the “Remember no more the sins of my youth” (verse 7). Pride can make us unteachable, but so can guilt and shame. Then we can’t move forward, can’t hear God’s voice of wisdom, or receive blessing and forgiveness.
And yet we may become most teachable when we are vulnerable, when our illusions of superiority and self-sufficiency have been stripped away. So the Psalmist who implores God, lead me in your truth and teach me.
This is a relationship with God, a two-way communication in which the Psalmist both receives God’s teaching and dares to instruct God. The Psalmist tells God what to remember: steadfast love and mercy (verse 6). And the Psalmist tells God what to forget: “the sins of my youth” (verse 7).
A person I know has a dog that when she takes it for a walk the dog takes the leash in her mouth, so that she can lead my acquanitence. It is an endearing gesture and always makes her laugh. If this give and take happens between animals and humans, surely it happens between us and God. And as we live in that relationship, we wait, and receive, and lift our souls. We learn, change and grow more and more into the image of God in which we are created.
Reading 2 1 Cor 7:29-31
People who hear this passage read will find it puzzling. They do not have a sense of the imminent coming of Christ, and they can hardly live day-to-day "as though not" having dealings with the world. It is important therefore, to set it in the context of 1 Corinthians and within the larger framework of Paul's ethical teaching, as done here.
It is helpful to put side-by-side two words: "disengagement" and "engagement." In his ethical thinking, and in our passage for today, Paul calls upon persons of faith to disengage from the world and its ways of living. One should step back and see how being entangled with it can be a captivity preventing one from living the new life in Christ. But that is not the end of the matter, for we continue to live in this world and have to deal with it. In Paul's way of thinking, disengagement is not an end in itself. Rather, being disengaged and set free, a person can engage the world from the perspective of being one who is "in Christ." And Paul provides a lot of exhortation in his letters concerning that life, as mentioned in previous verses.
In the end, the primary message of this text is that nothing in this world can compare to the eternal fellowship we have with God and Christ. Dealing with the world is inevitable and important - we need to deal with it well for the sake of our families, our nation, and ourselves. But we need to maintain an "eschatological reserve," knowing that this is not all there is, for we look to the eternal beyond that which is passing away. Still, we should remain invested in the world and its ongoing concerns. Indeed, those who pray for the kingdom and expect Christ to come in glory are bound to be engaged in the world and its struggles. Knowing the certainty of God's ultimate reign beyond history, we work to align the present and future with it.
Gospel Mk 1:14-20
We have seen that the announcement that the kingdom of God is near also appears in Matthew 10:7 and Luke 10:9, 11. Closely connected with this announcement in the tradition known to Luke (a so-called Q tradition), was the call to repentance (Luke 10:13). Perhaps the juxtaposition of the announcement of the reign of God and the call to repentance in the summary of Mark 1:15 is rooted in similar traditional material. In any case, the theological basis for the juxtaposition is clear. Announcing that God's reign is near has the consequence of an urgent call for repentance, that is, aligning one's values and way of life with God's ways. In today's epistle reading (1 Corinthians 7:29-31) Paul similarly calls for an examination of our priorities in light of the kairos.
This section (Mark 1:16-20) then illustrates what the urgent call of the kingdom looks like. Jesus, walking along the Sea of Galilee, sees the two brothers Simon and Andrew, fishermen, casting their nets in the sea. He calls them to follow, and immediately, in obedience, they leave their nets and follow him. The same happens with James and John. The kai euthys ("and immediately") of 1:18 and 1:20, a favorite turn of phrase of Mark, gives expression to the urgency of the call. The time is here, God's kingdom is near; there is no time to lose!
It is striking that these four men would drop everything to follow Jesus if they did not already know him. Indeed, some scholars have speculated that they actually knew Jesus, or knew about him, before he called them into discipleship (cf. John 1:35-40). Whatever the history of the relationship between Jesus and these four men may have been, however, the story gives effective expression to the urgency of the call to discipleship.
Consider also that Mark portrays Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom coming not only as a gift ("good news"), but also with a demand ("repent"). I believe this is a salutary warning that we dare not limit the force of Jesus' preaching of the kingdom by imposing upon it a rigid Law-Gospel grid. If we try to impose such a grid on his preaching and teaching, we will not understand them in their integrity. To be sure, the indicative ("the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near") precedes the imperative ("repent and believe in the good news"). What humans do comes as a response to God's prevenient action. Still, we must not overlook that the one who promises the kingdom to sinners is the same one who calls sinners to repentance and who calls disciples to give up all that they have to follow him. To put it in Pauline terms, Christ is my life (cf. Philippians 1:21); my life is a total gift from him. Therefore I must also be willing and prepared to forfeit everything for him (Philippians 3:7-8; cf. Mark 8:35). Since in Jesus everything is given to me, in Jesus everything is demanded of me. The four disciples' willingness to throw in their lot completely with Jesus illustrates that attitude.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits thou hast given me,
for all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother,
may I know thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly,
and follow thee more nearly, day by day.
Amen.
Sunday JANUARY 14, 2018 Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 65
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19
Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD
where the ark of God was.
The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, "Here I am."
Samuel ran to Eli and said, "Here I am. You called me."
"I did not call you, " Eli said. "Go back to sleep."
So he went back to sleep.
Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli.
"Here I am, " he said. "You called me."
But Eli answered, "I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep."
At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD,
because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet.
The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time.
Getting up and going to Eli, he said, "Here I am. You called me."
Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth.
So he said to Samuel, "Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply,
Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening."
When Samuel went to sleep in his place,
the LORD came and revealed his presence,
calling out as before, "Samuel, Samuel!"
Samuel answered, "Speak, for your servant is listening."
Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him,
not permitting any word of his to be without effect.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10
R. (8a and 9a) Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Sacrifice or offering you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, "Behold I come."
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
"In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
to do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!"
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Reading II 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20
Brothers and sisters:
The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord,
and the Lord is for the body;
God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him.
Avoid immorality.
Every other sin a person commits is outside the body,
but the immoral person sins against his own body.
Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
For you have been purchased at a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body.
Gospel Jn 1:35-42
John was standing with two of his disciples,
and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,
"Behold, the Lamb of God."
The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.
Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them,
"What are you looking for?"
They said to him, "Rabbi" — which translated means Teacher —,
"where are you staying?"
He said to them, "Come, and you will see."
So they went and saw where Jesus was staying,
and they stayed with him that day.
It was about four in the afternoon.
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter,
was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.
He first found his own brother Simon and told him,
"We have found the Messiah" — which is translated Christ —.
Then he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said,
"You are Simon the son of John;
you will be called Cephas" — which is translated Peter.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19
The opening chapters of 1 Samuel provide background for the institution of Israel’s monarchy.
After a narrative on the Hannah’s unlikely pregnancy (1 Samuel 1) and her accompanying prayer (1 Samuel 2), 1 Samuel 3 describes the call narrative for the Israelite leader.
The story is familiar to many of us. Eli is aged, both physically and emotionally from the parenting heartaches at the end of 1 Samuel 2. And as the young Samuel ministers under Eli, he hears God’s voice three times. Upon finally realizing through Eli’s direction that this was, indeed, the voice of God, he gives his stunning answer in verse 10, “Speak for your servant is listening.” The word of God to Samuel reveals the next phase of God’s activity and in revealing to Samuel, his prophetic credibility is established.
But within this familiar story, sometimes we can miss certain details in our reading. Those details are exegetically significant, as the Bible tends to be laconic.
This is not exactly flattering company!
Seems like two overarching themes emerge within these details of Samuel’s call. First, Samuel learns to forego his own agency in favor of God’s agency.
Interestingly, during the primary call (1 Samuel 3:10), Samuel no longer answers, “Here I am.” Why is that? Is Samuel less confused (definitely)? Is Samuel less panicked (probably)?
Verse 11 affirms Samuel’s deference when God responds, “See, I am about to do something.” Structurally, the passage outlines movement from Samuel’s repeated “Here I am” replies to God’s “See, I am.” When Samuel suppresses his own voice to hear God’s, he gets the spectacular proclamation beginning with the word that, “Will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.” God then declares that prophetic fulfillment has finally arrived. Remember, the Word of the Lord had been rare and precious.
Samuel’s eagerness is commendable (“he ran” v.5), but an overzealous human spirit needs to take a backseat to God’s sovereignty (cf. 2 Samuel 7:5). Though we should be slow to judge Samuel, as in those times the Word of God had been rare.
Second, Samuel displays his full humanity. This passage informs our understanding of the rest of the life of Samuel. The Lord was with Samuel, but somehow, this divine appointment does not at all diminish the totality of the human experience. In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel undergoes eagerness, confusion, maturity, growth, realization, knowledge, panic, and affirmation.
Eventually, we see Samuel as a successful prophet (1 Samuel 3:20), military leader (1 Samuel 4), and interceder for the people of Israel when they fail (1 Samuel 15). Towards the end of his life, the corruption of his own sons will ironically mirror Eli’s failure (1 Samuel 8:1-3).
Why does the passage unabashedly display the full humanity within one of Israel’s pivotal prophets? I suspect that this helps us relate to the struggles of our own communities as they walk with God. I suspect that this helps us relate the biblical texts to our own lives.
The word of the Lord is precious. But instead of saying “Here I am,” perhaps we can quietly ask God to “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10
Psalm 40, classified as an Individual Lament, consists of two seemingly distinct parts, verses 1-10 and verses 11-17, suggesting to many scholars that two originally separate psalms were joined at some point to form a single psalm.
In the psalm's first ten verses, the psalmist recounts God's deliverance from some life-threatening situation--described in verse 2 as "the pit of destruction" and "the muddy clay". The content of verses 11-17 resembles an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving, which generally consists of three parts: (1) an Introduction, in which the psalmist declares the intention of giving thanks and praising God; (2) a Narrative, in which the psalmist tells what has happened that has prompted the words of praise; and (3) a Conclusion, in which the psalmist praises God for all that God has done (see Psalm 30 for a good example of an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving). For the most part, 40:1-10 consists of the Narrative of an Individual Hymn.
In the lament portion of Psalm 40, the brief Expression of Trust (verse 17) states that the psalmist is "poor" and "needy" and that God is "my help" and "my deliverer." This commentator reads verses 1-10 as part of the Lament Psalm's Expression of Trust and, therefore, as an integral part of the Individual Lament, rather than as a separate composition added to the beginning of the Lament. God, as "help" and "deliverer," has brought this "poor" and "needy" one "up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog" (40:2). In addition, verbal parallels link verse 10 to verse 11, strengthening the case for the psalm being read as a whole. Verse 10's two occurrences of "faithfulness" ('emet) is echoed in verse 11, as the occurrence of "steadfast love" (chesed).
Thus, let us explore verses 1-10 as part of the Expression of Trust of this Individual Lament, with verse 11 beginning the psalm's Petition.
The reader learns in verse 1 that the psalmist has "waited patiently" for the Lord. The Hebrew verbal root here is qavah, which carries the idea of "hopeful anticipation" or "anxious waiting." In addition, the syntactical structure of this verb in verse 1 is "Infinitive Absolute" plus "Perfect." (Pull that Hebrew grammar off the shelf!) The Infinitive Absolute plus the Perfect emphasizes or intensifies the action of the verb. So, in Psalm 40:1, the psalmist is "actively, anxiously awaiting, with every fiber of the being" for the Lord. This is no quiet resignation--the psalmist is fully confident that God will come to the rescue.
And God, indeed, rescues the psalmist from the "pit" (or, "well"--bor), the "bog" (or, "mire"--teet). A number of psalms use these words as symbols of death (bor--Psalms 7:15; 28:1; 88:6; 143:7 and teet--Psalms 18:42; 69:14). Thus, we may surmise that the threat to which the psalmist refers is not a minor life-event, but a serious situation in which the very being of the psalmist is threatened.
God hears and sets the feet of the psalmist on a secure rock and puts a "new song" in the psalmist's mouth. The phrase "new song" (sheer hadash) occurs six times in the Psalter (33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; and 149:1), but the best insight into its meaning comes perhaps in Isaiah 42:10 (the only place where "new song" appears outside the Psalter). Isaiah 42 is a song of celebration of the "servant," discussed four times in the book (42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; and 52:13-53:12). In the context of Isaiah 42, the "new song" marks a new beginning, a radical change from what has come before. Psalms 96 and 98, classified as Enthronement Psalms, psalms which celebrate the kingship of God over all the earth, contain the same sentiment. Recognizing God as king establishes a new world order--no human king can surpass the power and majesty of Yahweh king. The singer of Psalm 40 celebrates a new beginning after being rescued from the "pit" and the "bog."
Verses 4-10 address the outcome of the deliverance and the "new song." The psalmist declares that those who trust in God will be "happy" (NRSV). The word translated in the NRSV as "happy," and in the NASB and the NIV as "blessed" is 'ashrey, from a Hebrew root that means "go straight, advance, follow the track." It appears twenty-six times in the Psalter. While "happy" and "blessed" are acceptable translations for the Hebrew root word, a better translation seems to be "content." "Blessed" brings to mind the Hebrew word baruk, which carries cultic/sacred connotations. "Happy," at least in our twenty-first-century context does not convey the full depth of the root word. A better translation is, in this commentator's opinion "content," which conveys a deep-seated sense of peace and feeling settled.
The psalmist's sense of contentedness ('ashrey) comes not from listening to the words of the proud (verse 4), from pursuing things that only fleetingly offer satisfaction (false gods--verse 4), or from offering burnt or sin offerings--pious acts of worship (verse 6). Rather it comes from trusting in God (verse 4). The word "trust" is derived from the Hebrew root batach, which means "to feel secure, be unconcerned, to totally rely on another." When humans totally rely on God, they may not be immune to the exigencies of life--the pit and the bog, but they can see beyond the exigencies to a new vision--a new song, and summon all those around them to hear "the glad news of deliverance (verse 9).
Thus, the faithfulness ('emet) and steadfast love (chesed) of God is passed from one generation to the next (verses 10-11).
Reading 2 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20
First Corinthians stands as a masterful example of a leader addressing a divided congregation and honestly critiquing the views of each side.
Prior to this passage, Paul repeatedly attempts to move people away from an attitude of "It's all about me" to a focus on the one who calls and saves them. He opens the letter with twenty references to God or Christ in the first ten verses. He frequently reminds them of the source of their lives (1:28-31; 3:6-7, 11, 16, 21-23; 4:7) as he addresses a host of competing positions.
Various factions in the congregation label others as wise or foolish, weak or strong; fight over who was the best pastor before the current one; bring lawsuits against one another; argue over sexual morality, whether it's better to be married or single, what makes a healthy marriage, what constitutes grounds for divorce, what are appropriate dietary practices; what is the correct understanding of resurrection and the afterlife; and on and on. When conflict becomes that pervasive, no conflict management plans have any hope of succeeding unless the people involved can move beyond self-absorption, step back, and see a bigger picture of a higher calling. Paul seeks to accomplish that.
We will focus on two central elements of this passage.
"'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things are beneficial. 'All things are lawful for me,' but I will not be dominated by anything" (6:12-13). Paul seems to be correcting a misinterpretation or over-application of one of his core ideas (see also Galatians 5:1, Romans 8:1-2). Teachers and preachers often find themselves in the dismaying position of hearing a key point applied in ways they never imagined. This particular idea, that Christ has set us free, lies near the center of the gospel. But Paul begins to clarify its limits.
Christ does not set us free so that we can do whatever we want to do; Christ sets us free so that we can do whatever God wants us to do. Paul's message does not proclaim individual or communal license. For example, Paul argues that over-indulgence in food represents a misunderstanding of who we are as people of God (verse 13a).
This is an alien concept in an American culture where over a third of adults are obese and we have the Food Network. It's not that eating things we like is bad (all things are lawful). However, eating things we like without regard to larger considerations can be harmful to our individual health and harmful to the health of society (not all things are beneficial). A third of the US adult population is obese, and almost a billion people on the planet live in constant hunger (see websites for Bread for the World or US Department of State, Office of Global Food Security). This is as much as anything else a spiritual problem, individually and communally.
Paul notes one trap of focusing too much on our own freedom. What we start to do freely (because we want to, like to, or just because we can) can become our master. As the Eagles' song goes, "these things that are pleasing you hurt you somehow" (from "Desperado"). I can, freely, ignore a healthy diet, not exercise, start smoking, get drunk daily, take cocaine, buy on credit until I'm drastically in debt, and be mean to family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
Soon, what I chose freely -- any one of them -- can dominate my life. I will no longer be free. The cosmos does not actually revolve around me. God, by grace, can set us free from those dominations, but even though the power of a free will is immediate, the way back to health will still be long and hard. Paul cautions us to choose our paths carefully lest the things we freely choose become our undoing or become an imposition on our neighbors and, collectively, foster suffering or oppression.
"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body" (6:19-20). Again, Paul's words here have both individual and communal implications. In the original Greek, the pronouns in this verse are plural. Since he's addressing a community his words should be understood both as addressing individuals (each of you in this community) and the entire group (all of you together).
So, it is appropriate to understand this personally -- "my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within me" -- and communally -- "this body of people, part of the body of Christ, is a temple of the Holy Spirit within us." What I do (or don't do) in my body matters. What we do (or don't do) as a body of believers' matters.
This takes us back to Paul's over-arching purpose in this letter, to focus our attention on the fact that our lives originate in Christ (we were bought with a price) and that we live not for our own sakes but for the sake of God's purposes. My individual body is not mine. It is God's creation to be used for God's purposes. The body of Christ -- congregationally, denominationally, and across the globe -- is not ours. It is God's creation to be used for God's purposes.
The fights, the desires, the pettiness, the selfishness that can consume us are all diversions from, perversions of that for which we were created. We were bought with a price, to glorify God in our bodies. This remains true for both individuals and groups. Paul calls the people back to the fundamental reality of their lives -- it's not "my" life and it's not "my" church. Only when an individual or a congregation gets that can they be free. And, if they get it, the freedom is glorious for each individual, for the congregation, and for God.
Gospel Jn 1:35-42
To lead into todays gospel let’s review the first part of this chapter.
The Gospel of John is a dramatic, gripping narrative.
John 1:29-42 divides into two main parts: verses 29-34 and verses 35-42.
Act I: Background
The play has already begun at John 1:1, of course, with the great Prologue (1:1-18) in which John the Baptist first appears (1:6-8; 15). John the Baptist looms large in 1:19-28. The leaders of Jerusalem interrogate John, asking after his identity. John treads the path of via negative, which the Prologue has taught us to expect from him. The Prologue states that John was not the light, but was a testifier (from the Greek martyr whence we derive the English word martyr). Likewise, John triply confesses that he is NOT the Messiah (verse 20), he is not Elijah (verse 21), and he is not "the prophet" (probably a reference to Moses' declaration in Deuteronomy 18:15).
Still, the leaders press antagonistically, demanding a statement, so John turns to Scripture and places his ministry in the context of words of the prophet Isaiah. They ask him about the meaning of his baptizing practices and he immediately does what he does best in the Fourth Gospel: he testifies to Jesus and his preeminence in the spirit of the words already mentioned in the Prologue at verse 15. And he makes a key observation about the Inquisitors: they do not know Jesus; here we should hear dramatic music or a gong or something of that sort since we are supposed to recall 1:11 at this point ("He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him"). John the Baptist and Jesus have not yet interacted in the narrative but we have been superbly set up for that pregnant imminent moment.
Act II: Jesus and John the Baptist Interact (verses 29-34)
The day after his run-in with the authorities, John the Baptist (JB) sees Jesus and testifies about his identity: "See the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Note the following:
1. Jesus takes away the sin of the world (Greek: kosmos), not the church, just as in 3:16 we hear that God so loved the world and in 4:42 the Samaritans recognize Jesus as the savior of the world. Jesus himself declares in 12:32: "And when I am lifted up from the earth [referring to his crucifixion], I will draw everyone to myself."
2. Try not to read the atonement theology that you are familiar with from Hebrews and perhaps Paul into the Gospel of John. Jesus becomes a Paschal Lamb of sorts in that every holy metaphor, tradition and space dear to Judaism (and Samaritanism, for that matter) finds its fulfillment in Jesus according to the Johannine community, including the Temple (chapters 2 and 4), Moses, scripture (chapter 5:39ff), the manna in the wilderness (chapter 6), the various "festivals of the Judeans," Abraham (chapter 8, especially verses 53-59), and so on.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the significance of Passover would in some way be fulfilled in Jesus for John. Indeed, in John Jesus is killed a day earlier than he is in the Synoptic Gospels. That is, by the time he is enjoying the Last Supper in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he is already dead in John. In John, he is killed on the day when the Passover Lamb is sacrificed (for a helpful chart on this, go to http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/Jesus-Death.htm ).
But Jesus is never considered a ransom in John nor is he a "lamb led to the slaughter" whose death was a "humiliation" (as in Acts. 8:31-32). In fact, Jesus clearly and repeatedly states that he lays down his life of his own accord. He has the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again (10:17-18). No, John simply piles up metaphors on Jesus to impress upon you the significance, identity, and ultimacy of Jesus. He is simultaneously the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd (chapter 10) who knows his sheep and who asked Peter to feed his lambs (chapter 21).
Act III: Come and See (verses 35-42) Todays Gospel.
The Final Act of John's inaugural proclamation parallels the previous day. Once again John sees Jesus and testifies: "See the Lamb of God." On the basis of hearing the testimony of another person, John's disciples follow Jesus. It begins with Jesus directly addressing them: "What do you seek?" (Jesus always asks pointed, direct questions in John). He invites them to "Come and See." They hang out with Jesus (Greek: meno, "abide") which leads to their deep intimate encounter with him. This results in a rich, eternal-life-giving experience of their own with Jesus such that their faith is no longer derivative of someone else's but is now based on their own intimate relationship with Jesus.
And so goes the pattern throughout John, as you see already in verse 41. Andrew has been found by Eternal Life and what does he do? He immediately testifies that Jesus is the Messiah (remember 20:31?) and invites his brother Simon to come and see/encounter Jesus for himself. An intimate encounter occurs and Simon follows. In the passage right after ours, Philip becomes a follower and immediately testifies to Nathaniel, using the same words as Jesus did: "Come and See" (1:46).
The Samaritan woman does the same thing in chapter 4. She hangs out and engages Jesus deeply, his identity is revealed to her, she is flooded by Eternal Life and she goes out to testify and to tell her fellow Samaritans to "Come and See." They do come and they "hang out" with Jesus (verse 40) and they have a direct revelation of their own which leads them to testify: "They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
What are we waiting for? Let's go testify for the sake of Abundant, Eternal Life!
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen.
Sunday JANUARY 14, 2018 Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 65
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19
Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD
where the ark of God was.
The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, "Here I am."
Samuel ran to Eli and said, "Here I am. You called me."
"I did not call you, " Eli said. "Go back to sleep."
So he went back to sleep.
Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli.
"Here I am, " he said. "You called me."
But Eli answered, "I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep."
At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD,
because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet.
The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time.
Getting up and going to Eli, he said, "Here I am. You called me."
Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth.
So he said to Samuel, "Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply,
Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening."
When Samuel went to sleep in his place,
the LORD came and revealed his presence,
calling out as before, "Samuel, Samuel!"
Samuel answered, "Speak, for your servant is listening."
Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him,
not permitting any word of his to be without effect.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10
R. (8a and 9a) Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Sacrifice or offering you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, "Behold I come."
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
"In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
to do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!"
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Reading II 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20
Brothers and sisters:
The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord,
and the Lord is for the body;
God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him.
Avoid immorality.
Every other sin a person commits is outside the body,
but the immoral person sins against his own body.
Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
For you have been purchased at a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body.
Gospel Jn 1:35-42
John was standing with two of his disciples,
and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,
"Behold, the Lamb of God."
The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.
Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them,
"What are you looking for?"
They said to him, "Rabbi" — which translated means Teacher —,
"where are you staying?"
He said to them, "Come, and you will see."
So they went and saw where Jesus was staying,
and they stayed with him that day.
It was about four in the afternoon.
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter,
was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.
He first found his own brother Simon and told him,
"We have found the Messiah" — which is translated Christ —.
Then he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said,
"You are Simon the son of John;
you will be called Cephas" — which is translated Peter.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19
The opening chapters of 1 Samuel provide background for the institution of Israel’s monarchy.
After a narrative on the Hannah’s unlikely pregnancy (1 Samuel 1) and her accompanying prayer (1 Samuel 2), 1 Samuel 3 describes the call narrative for the Israelite leader.
The story is familiar to many of us. Eli is aged, both physically and emotionally from the parenting heartaches at the end of 1 Samuel 2. And as the young Samuel ministers under Eli, he hears God’s voice three times. Upon finally realizing through Eli’s direction that this was, indeed, the voice of God, he gives his stunning answer in verse 10, “Speak for your servant is listening.” The word of God to Samuel reveals the next phase of God’s activity and in revealing to Samuel, his prophetic credibility is established.
But within this familiar story, sometimes we can miss certain details in our reading. Those details are exegetically significant, as the Bible tends to be laconic.
This is not exactly flattering company!
Seems like two overarching themes emerge within these details of Samuel’s call. First, Samuel learns to forego his own agency in favor of God’s agency.
Interestingly, during the primary call (1 Samuel 3:10), Samuel no longer answers, “Here I am.” Why is that? Is Samuel less confused (definitely)? Is Samuel less panicked (probably)?
Verse 11 affirms Samuel’s deference when God responds, “See, I am about to do something.” Structurally, the passage outlines movement from Samuel’s repeated “Here I am” replies to God’s “See, I am.” When Samuel suppresses his own voice to hear God’s, he gets the spectacular proclamation beginning with the word that, “Will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.” God then declares that prophetic fulfillment has finally arrived. Remember, the Word of the Lord had been rare and precious.
Samuel’s eagerness is commendable (“he ran” v.5), but an overzealous human spirit needs to take a backseat to God’s sovereignty (cf. 2 Samuel 7:5). Though we should be slow to judge Samuel, as in those times the Word of God had been rare.
Second, Samuel displays his full humanity. This passage informs our understanding of the rest of the life of Samuel. The Lord was with Samuel, but somehow, this divine appointment does not at all diminish the totality of the human experience. In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel undergoes eagerness, confusion, maturity, growth, realization, knowledge, panic, and affirmation.
Eventually, we see Samuel as a successful prophet (1 Samuel 3:20), military leader (1 Samuel 4), and interceder for the people of Israel when they fail (1 Samuel 15). Towards the end of his life, the corruption of his own sons will ironically mirror Eli’s failure (1 Samuel 8:1-3).
Why does the passage unabashedly display the full humanity within one of Israel’s pivotal prophets? I suspect that this helps us relate to the struggles of our own communities as they walk with God. I suspect that this helps us relate the biblical texts to our own lives.
The word of the Lord is precious. But instead of saying “Here I am,” perhaps we can quietly ask God to “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10
Psalm 40, classified as an Individual Lament, consists of two seemingly distinct parts, verses 1-10 and verses 11-17, suggesting to many scholars that two originally separate psalms were joined at some point to form a single psalm.
In the psalm's first ten verses, the psalmist recounts God's deliverance from some life-threatening situation--described in verse 2 as "the pit of destruction" and "the muddy clay". The content of verses 11-17 resembles an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving, which generally consists of three parts: (1) an Introduction, in which the psalmist declares the intention of giving thanks and praising God; (2) a Narrative, in which the psalmist tells what has happened that has prompted the words of praise; and (3) a Conclusion, in which the psalmist praises God for all that God has done (see Psalm 30 for a good example of an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving). For the most part, 40:1-10 consists of the Narrative of an Individual Hymn.
In the lament portion of Psalm 40, the brief Expression of Trust (verse 17) states that the psalmist is "poor" and "needy" and that God is "my help" and "my deliverer." This commentator reads verses 1-10 as part of the Lament Psalm's Expression of Trust and, therefore, as an integral part of the Individual Lament, rather than as a separate composition added to the beginning of the Lament. God, as "help" and "deliverer," has brought this "poor" and "needy" one "up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog" (40:2). In addition, verbal parallels link verse 10 to verse 11, strengthening the case for the psalm being read as a whole. Verse 10's two occurrences of "faithfulness" ('emet) is echoed in verse 11, as the occurrence of "steadfast love" (chesed).
Thus, let us explore verses 1-10 as part of the Expression of Trust of this Individual Lament, with verse 11 beginning the psalm's Petition.
The reader learns in verse 1 that the psalmist has "waited patiently" for the Lord. The Hebrew verbal root here is qavah, which carries the idea of "hopeful anticipation" or "anxious waiting." In addition, the syntactical structure of this verb in verse 1 is "Infinitive Absolute" plus "Perfect." (Pull that Hebrew grammar off the shelf!) The Infinitive Absolute plus the Perfect emphasizes or intensifies the action of the verb. So, in Psalm 40:1, the psalmist is "actively, anxiously awaiting, with every fiber of the being" for the Lord. This is no quiet resignation--the psalmist is fully confident that God will come to the rescue.
And God, indeed, rescues the psalmist from the "pit" (or, "well"--bor), the "bog" (or, "mire"--teet). A number of psalms use these words as symbols of death (bor--Psalms 7:15; 28:1; 88:6; 143:7 and teet--Psalms 18:42; 69:14). Thus, we may surmise that the threat to which the psalmist refers is not a minor life-event, but a serious situation in which the very being of the psalmist is threatened.
God hears and sets the feet of the psalmist on a secure rock and puts a "new song" in the psalmist's mouth. The phrase "new song" (sheer hadash) occurs six times in the Psalter (33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; and 149:1), but the best insight into its meaning comes perhaps in Isaiah 42:10 (the only place where "new song" appears outside the Psalter). Isaiah 42 is a song of celebration of the "servant," discussed four times in the book (42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; and 52:13-53:12). In the context of Isaiah 42, the "new song" marks a new beginning, a radical change from what has come before. Psalms 96 and 98, classified as Enthronement Psalms, psalms which celebrate the kingship of God over all the earth, contain the same sentiment. Recognizing God as king establishes a new world order--no human king can surpass the power and majesty of Yahweh king. The singer of Psalm 40 celebrates a new beginning after being rescued from the "pit" and the "bog."
Verses 4-10 address the outcome of the deliverance and the "new song." The psalmist declares that those who trust in God will be "happy" (NRSV). The word translated in the NRSV as "happy," and in the NASB and the NIV as "blessed" is 'ashrey, from a Hebrew root that means "go straight, advance, follow the track." It appears twenty-six times in the Psalter. While "happy" and "blessed" are acceptable translations for the Hebrew root word, a better translation seems to be "content." "Blessed" brings to mind the Hebrew word baruk, which carries cultic/sacred connotations. "Happy," at least in our twenty-first-century context does not convey the full depth of the root word. A better translation is, in this commentator's opinion "content," which conveys a deep-seated sense of peace and feeling settled.
The psalmist's sense of contentedness ('ashrey) comes not from listening to the words of the proud (verse 4), from pursuing things that only fleetingly offer satisfaction (false gods--verse 4), or from offering burnt or sin offerings--pious acts of worship (verse 6). Rather it comes from trusting in God (verse 4). The word "trust" is derived from the Hebrew root batach, which means "to feel secure, be unconcerned, to totally rely on another." When humans totally rely on God, they may not be immune to the exigencies of life--the pit and the bog, but they can see beyond the exigencies to a new vision--a new song, and summon all those around them to hear "the glad news of deliverance (verse 9).
Thus, the faithfulness ('emet) and steadfast love (chesed) of God is passed from one generation to the next (verses 10-11).
Reading 2 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20
First Corinthians stands as a masterful example of a leader addressing a divided congregation and honestly critiquing the views of each side.
Prior to this passage, Paul repeatedly attempts to move people away from an attitude of "It's all about me" to a focus on the one who calls and saves them. He opens the letter with twenty references to God or Christ in the first ten verses. He frequently reminds them of the source of their lives (1:28-31; 3:6-7, 11, 16, 21-23; 4:7) as he addresses a host of competing positions.
Various factions in the congregation label others as wise or foolish, weak or strong; fight over who was the best pastor before the current one; bring lawsuits against one another; argue over sexual morality, whether it's better to be married or single, what makes a healthy marriage, what constitutes grounds for divorce, what are appropriate dietary practices; what is the correct understanding of resurrection and the afterlife; and on and on. When conflict becomes that pervasive, no conflict management plans have any hope of succeeding unless the people involved can move beyond self-absorption, step back, and see a bigger picture of a higher calling. Paul seeks to accomplish that.
We will focus on two central elements of this passage.
"'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things are beneficial. 'All things are lawful for me,' but I will not be dominated by anything" (6:12-13). Paul seems to be correcting a misinterpretation or over-application of one of his core ideas (see also Galatians 5:1, Romans 8:1-2). Teachers and preachers often find themselves in the dismaying position of hearing a key point applied in ways they never imagined. This particular idea, that Christ has set us free, lies near the center of the gospel. But Paul begins to clarify its limits.
Christ does not set us free so that we can do whatever we want to do; Christ sets us free so that we can do whatever God wants us to do. Paul's message does not proclaim individual or communal license. For example, Paul argues that over-indulgence in food represents a misunderstanding of who we are as people of God (verse 13a).
This is an alien concept in an American culture where over a third of adults are obese and we have the Food Network. It's not that eating things we like is bad (all things are lawful). However, eating things we like without regard to larger considerations can be harmful to our individual health and harmful to the health of society (not all things are beneficial). A third of the US adult population is obese, and almost a billion people on the planet live in constant hunger (see websites for Bread for the World or US Department of State, Office of Global Food Security). This is as much as anything else a spiritual problem, individually and communally.
Paul notes one trap of focusing too much on our own freedom. What we start to do freely (because we want to, like to, or just because we can) can become our master. As the Eagles' song goes, "these things that are pleasing you hurt you somehow" (from "Desperado"). I can, freely, ignore a healthy diet, not exercise, start smoking, get drunk daily, take cocaine, buy on credit until I'm drastically in debt, and be mean to family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
Soon, what I chose freely -- any one of them -- can dominate my life. I will no longer be free. The cosmos does not actually revolve around me. God, by grace, can set us free from those dominations, but even though the power of a free will is immediate, the way back to health will still be long and hard. Paul cautions us to choose our paths carefully lest the things we freely choose become our undoing or become an imposition on our neighbors and, collectively, foster suffering or oppression.
"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body" (6:19-20). Again, Paul's words here have both individual and communal implications. In the original Greek, the pronouns in this verse are plural. Since he's addressing a community his words should be understood both as addressing individuals (each of you in this community) and the entire group (all of you together).
So, it is appropriate to understand this personally -- "my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within me" -- and communally -- "this body of people, part of the body of Christ, is a temple of the Holy Spirit within us." What I do (or don't do) in my body matters. What we do (or don't do) as a body of believers' matters.
This takes us back to Paul's over-arching purpose in this letter, to focus our attention on the fact that our lives originate in Christ (we were bought with a price) and that we live not for our own sakes but for the sake of God's purposes. My individual body is not mine. It is God's creation to be used for God's purposes. The body of Christ -- congregationally, denominationally, and across the globe -- is not ours. It is God's creation to be used for God's purposes.
The fights, the desires, the pettiness, the selfishness that can consume us are all diversions from, perversions of that for which we were created. We were bought with a price, to glorify God in our bodies. This remains true for both individuals and groups. Paul calls the people back to the fundamental reality of their lives -- it's not "my" life and it's not "my" church. Only when an individual or a congregation gets that can they be free. And, if they get it, the freedom is glorious for each individual, for the congregation, and for God.
Gospel Jn 1:35-42
To lead into todays gospel let’s review the first part of this chapter.
The Gospel of John is a dramatic, gripping narrative.
John 1:29-42 divides into two main parts: verses 29-34 and verses 35-42.
Act I: Background
The play has already begun at John 1:1, of course, with the great Prologue (1:1-18) in which John the Baptist first appears (1:6-8; 15). John the Baptist looms large in 1:19-28. The leaders of Jerusalem interrogate John, asking after his identity. John treads the path of via negative, which the Prologue has taught us to expect from him. The Prologue states that John was not the light, but was a testifier (from the Greek martyr whence we derive the English word martyr). Likewise, John triply confesses that he is NOT the Messiah (verse 20), he is not Elijah (verse 21), and he is not "the prophet" (probably a reference to Moses' declaration in Deuteronomy 18:15).
Still, the leaders press antagonistically, demanding a statement, so John turns to Scripture and places his ministry in the context of words of the prophet Isaiah. They ask him about the meaning of his baptizing practices and he immediately does what he does best in the Fourth Gospel: he testifies to Jesus and his preeminence in the spirit of the words already mentioned in the Prologue at verse 15. And he makes a key observation about the Inquisitors: they do not know Jesus; here we should hear dramatic music or a gong or something of that sort since we are supposed to recall 1:11 at this point ("He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him"). John the Baptist and Jesus have not yet interacted in the narrative but we have been superbly set up for that pregnant imminent moment.
Act II: Jesus and John the Baptist Interact (verses 29-34)
The day after his run-in with the authorities, John the Baptist (JB) sees Jesus and testifies about his identity: "See the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Note the following:
1. Jesus takes away the sin of the world (Greek: kosmos), not the church, just as in 3:16 we hear that God so loved the world and in 4:42 the Samaritans recognize Jesus as the savior of the world. Jesus himself declares in 12:32: "And when I am lifted up from the earth [referring to his crucifixion], I will draw everyone to myself."
2. Try not to read the atonement theology that you are familiar with from Hebrews and perhaps Paul into the Gospel of John. Jesus becomes a Paschal Lamb of sorts in that every holy metaphor, tradition and space dear to Judaism (and Samaritanism, for that matter) finds its fulfillment in Jesus according to the Johannine community, including the Temple (chapters 2 and 4), Moses, scripture (chapter 5:39ff), the manna in the wilderness (chapter 6), the various "festivals of the Judeans," Abraham (chapter 8, especially verses 53-59), and so on.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the significance of Passover would in some way be fulfilled in Jesus for John. Indeed, in John Jesus is killed a day earlier than he is in the Synoptic Gospels. That is, by the time he is enjoying the Last Supper in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he is already dead in John. In John, he is killed on the day when the Passover Lamb is sacrificed (for a helpful chart on this, go to http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/Jesus-Death.htm ).
But Jesus is never considered a ransom in John nor is he a "lamb led to the slaughter" whose death was a "humiliation" (as in Acts. 8:31-32). In fact, Jesus clearly and repeatedly states that he lays down his life of his own accord. He has the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again (10:17-18). No, John simply piles up metaphors on Jesus to impress upon you the significance, identity, and ultimacy of Jesus. He is simultaneously the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd (chapter 10) who knows his sheep and who asked Peter to feed his lambs (chapter 21).
Act III: Come and See (verses 35-42) Todays Gospel.
The Final Act of John's inaugural proclamation parallels the previous day. Once again John sees Jesus and testifies: "See the Lamb of God." On the basis of hearing the testimony of another person, John's disciples follow Jesus. It begins with Jesus directly addressing them: "What do you seek?" (Jesus always asks pointed, direct questions in John). He invites them to "Come and See." They hang out with Jesus (Greek: meno, "abide") which leads to their deep intimate encounter with him. This results in a rich, eternal-life-giving experience of their own with Jesus such that their faith is no longer derivative of someone else's but is now based on their own intimate relationship with Jesus.
And so goes the pattern throughout John, as you see already in verse 41. Andrew has been found by Eternal Life and what does he do? He immediately testifies that Jesus is the Messiah (remember 20:31?) and invites his brother Simon to come and see/encounter Jesus for himself. An intimate encounter occurs and Simon follows. In the passage right after ours, Philip becomes a follower and immediately testifies to Nathaniel, using the same words as Jesus did: "Come and See" (1:46).
The Samaritan woman does the same thing in chapter 4. She hangs out and engages Jesus deeply, his identity is revealed to her, she is flooded by Eternal Life and she goes out to testify and to tell her fellow Samaritans to "Come and See." They do come and they "hang out" with Jesus (verse 40) and they have a direct revelation of their own which leads them to testify: "They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
What are we waiting for? Let's go testify for the sake of Abundant, Eternal Life!
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen.
Sunday JANUARY 7, 2018 The Epiphany of the Lord
Lectionary: 20
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 60:1-6
Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples;
but upon you the LORD shines,
and over you appears his glory.
Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you:
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.
Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
your heart shall throb and overflow,
for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,
the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come
bearing gold and frankincense,
and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13.
R. (cf. 11) Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king's son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Reading 2 Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6
Brothers and sisters:
You have heard of the stewardship of God's grace
that was given to me for your benefit,
namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.
It was not made known to people in other generations
as it has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Gospel Mt 2:1-12
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
"Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage."
When King Herod heard this,
he was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it has been written through the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel."
Then Herod called the magi secretly
and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
"Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word,
that I too may go and do him homage."
After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed for their country by another way.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 60:1-6
I believe that, as preachers, we must always begin from this simple but poignant realization. Too easily can we craft the words of proclamation by slipping beyond the limit imposed by context. We shape an overarching narrative to bolster a particular viewpoint (our own viewpoint, our own cultural bias), applying the story to ourselves without much disruption of practice. The prophetic voice, however, always calls for disruption of some sort, even in its most jubilant and comforting exclamations.
Too simplistically, we can read Isaiah 60 on Epiphany and conjure up images of the three magi bearing gifts, finally making it to the manger. We can reduce epiphany to a cute story that satisfies our deepest longing for narrative integrity. And yet, epiphany is so much more than a story of three magi. Even of that story, T. S. Eliot writes, “I should be glad of another death.”1
The liturgical season that Isaiah 60 inaugurates is a season of revelation. Epiphany, in the early church, was not about the arrival of the magi but the revelation of Jesus Christ, at his baptism, to the whole world as God’s only and beloved child. Epiphany is God’s self-revelation to the world, the beginning of Christ’s public ministry. It was one of the three major feasts of the liturgical calendar around which faith communities organized the rhythms of their life: Easter, Epiphany, Pentecost (not Christmas or a nativity scene or magi!).
Isaiah 60 is part of Third Isaiah (chapters 56-66). Rather than being the voice of one prophet, it is assumed that this prophecy arises out of the Isaianic school, a school of disciples dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the prophecies of first and second Isaiah, as well as speaking those prophecies to a new and complex situation. There are several passages in Third Isaiah that are almost direct citations from Second Isaiah (including the text for today -- see Isaiah 49:12, 18).
Third Isaiah is situated in the sixth century BCE as the exiles from Babylonian returned to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, a major conflict had arisen between those who remained and those who returned. Living conditions were extremely difficult. Jerusalem was in ruins. The people were now divided again not against some outside threat or enemy but among themselves.
The remnant associated with the Isaianic school were on the margins of power. They were a small group. It is possible that they were embattled against those who had much more narrow, exclusionist understanding of what it meant to serve God (rather than the inclusive position argued in Third Isaiah where, for example, even foreigners and eunuchs can serve at the altar).
When reading Isaiah 60 publicly, without also reading at least the preceding chapter, the radical irruption of light and glory, consolation and joy is missed. Chapters 58 and 59 are characterized by gloom, by despair, by a call to repentance (the ways of the wicked are crooked, our transgressions are many, our sins testify against us). They are also marked by a yearning for light and glory to come (we wait for the light but there is only darkness).
The opening line of Isaiah 60 is like a thunderbolt of glory (exegetes, of course, interpret this sudden change of tone to different editorial sources). What surprises the reader or hearer is the abruptness of the shift from doom and gloom to light and glory. Perhaps what is most surprising in this shift is God’s response to the people’s crooked ways and their sense of despair: they are not to mend their ways first (out of fear) rather God comes, God irrupts, God arises and shines forth in glory!
This coming, this shining forth is unconditional. God is always a God whose glory is salvific. The people’s repentance, the mending of ways, the living out of justice is a response to this coming! It is not an attempt to be made right with God but it is thanksgiving for the one who comes, who reveals life and salvation in the midst of the community.
God’s glory in the Hebrew scripture is always God’s presence. The glory of the Lord appears in the wilderness when the people complain about lacking food and God promises manna; when the Arc of the Covenant is completed, the glory of the Lord descends and fills it so that even Moses could not enter it; when Moses asks to see God’s glory, God responds, “You cannot see my face”; it is the glory of the Lord that fills the sanctuary in Isaiah 6 (Holy! Holy! Holy! Kabod in Hebrew – Glory! Glory! Glory!). Throughout the Hebrew scriptures God’s presence, God’s very own face, is designated by glory. God does not posses glory -- God is glory.
Now this glory and light arises among the people, it is the Lord who arises among them, giving what the Lord gives: life and salvation. But this giving is not just for the remnant of Israel, it is not just for those who have returned from exile, but for all the nations. Now, all the nations will come with what is specific to them -- their own little “glories” -- and bring them to the Lord. Just as in Isaiah 6, the Temple could not contain the glory now also here, the people of Israel cannot contain it. The presence of God expands outwards toward the whole cosmos.
A sermon based on today’s texts might want to embody this glory in a doxological manner. Who is this God who now enters into our midst? Who is this God who now actually shows us God’s face, the face of a child? God’s glory is no longer far off in some heavenly realm, experienced as a cloud, but it is calling all people together. Even the story of the magi is a call of a radical responsibility toward all those who have been excluded from our classical narrative. All are swept up in singing a cosmic doxology.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13.
In America, the relationship between political leadership and faith matters is tenuous, superficial, and rather manipulative.
Candidates know that they must declare their spiritual mettle in order to win elections, and once in a while a pastor like Billy Graham makes a cameo appearance in the White House.
For ancient Israel, God and the things of God were prior to and at the heart of things political. God’s prophets were even in position to bring down divine judgment on a reigning king. Psalm 72 is a remarkable hymn, a prayer we believe was used on the day of a new king’s coronation -- and many believe the prayer would have been repeated annually at a festival of the king’s enthronement.
With some imagination, we can picture the raucous day. Still grieving the previous king’s death (or perhaps harboring a sense of relief that he was no more), caravans of citizens would gather around the hillsides of Jerusalem. Hearing the blowing of the shofar, they would gather for worship, for the anointing of the one they fantasized might just be a king like David, the kind of king they had prayed for so long.
A magnificent, noisy, joyful procession would make its way from down in the valleys of Kidron and Hinnom up the spur of the hill, winding past the royal palace (which archaeologists now believe they have uncovered!) toward the temple. Horns blaring, dancers somersaulting, crowds shouting, then a hushed silence as the sacred oil was poured by the high priest over the young king’s head, soaking into his hair and garments, soiling his feet and the ground. See the moment -- and read Psalm 72.
The very notion of praying for a ruler is instructive. What if Americans measured the amount of time they expend complaining about a president or governor or mayor and instead of grousing, actually offered up intensive prayers for the leader in question? The Episcopalians prescribe, as part of their weekly worship regimen, prayers for the president (or for the queen if the praying is being done in the British Commonwealth). During campaigns, many voters are terrified that if the one they are not supporting wins, catastrophe will strike. But wouldn’t it make sense, if that dreaded candidate is elected, that we pray constantly that we will be proven wrong, and that the new leader will in fact prosper?
But even if we pray for a leader, what would the objective be? We might pray for military success, or wizardry with the economy, a quelling of political opposition, or the greatness of our nation. In Psalm 72, we overhear something very different, and we should be uneasy.
The Psalm begins by asking God to “Give the king Your justice… and Your righteousness… May he defend the cause of the poor, and give deliverance to the needy.” Such a campaign in our day would be lambasted as “liberal,” and a debate would be touched off about governmental programs versus private sector aid or, more likely, the conversation would drift toward blaming the poor, and insisting they get busy and take care of themselves.
The cluster of Hebrew terms used in these phrases is telling. “Justice” is not fairness or the good being rewarded and the wicked punished. Rather, mishpat (“justice”) is the Bible’s subversive term for God’s desired state of affairs: mishpat is when the poorest are cared for. A society is just to the degree to which every person has enough and is lifted up; a king is measured, not by hordes of chariots or the gold in the treasury, but by whether the cause of the poor was defended, whether the needy were delivered. Similarly, “righteousness” isn’t smug goodness; zedekah (“righteousness”) is being in sync with God’s ways, embodying God’s will.
Sadly, modern church people in America tend to vote for the more conservative candidates who are prepared to shirk any responsibility for caring for the needy. Not only that, many congregations themselves do little to nothing to engage the poor, advocate for their cause, or ensure that those who oppress the needy are fought tooth and nail. Psalm 72 is an ancient liturgy, a museum piece of an old prayer, but the designs of God that shout from its verses echo across the centuries and raise hard questions pointed right at today’s church.
The most fascinating verse in Psalm 72 is the verse 11: “May all kings fall down before him.” Israel was a small time power, forced into subservience more often than relishing independence. The other kings most certainly would not be falling down before him! Was this national pride? A fantasy? A sick dream? Or a Messianic hint, that in God’s good time, God’s king would be the one before whom all would bow (Philippians 2:10).
But notice why those kings in verse 11 will bow down: “For he delivers the needy when he calls… He has pity on the weak… From oppression he redeems their life” (verses 12 and 13). Other kings never do such things; but one day the truth will be made palpable, and they will realize the wisdom, wonder, and grace of God’s way.
The lectionary mandates that this Psalm be read on January 6, the twelfth day of Christmas, the Epiphany. What a perfect time to weigh God’s desires for leadership, to contemplate what God would like to see done down here for the oppressed, for those who have nothing! The greens we wear and with which we decorate our sanctuaries intimate the growth and life that are the natural result of God have come down to earth to be the kind of King that not only was wanted by God, but desperately needed by God’s people.
During Epiphany, when leaves do not yet hang from the trees, and our yards and the fields are brown and lifeless, we look to God for the Spring to come, for a new day when we give life, and abundantly. Psalm 72:6 dreams that the king will be “like rain that falls… like showers that water the earth.” We are not purveyors of death or condemnation, and we do not dwell in oblivion in our fortress churches. We go out into the world, and seek to be the Body of Christ, to be Jesus out in the world, the Jesus who was the king prayed for over so many centuries.
Reading 2 Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6
Epiphany marks the end of the Christmas season for the church calendar.
By the sixth day in January, the wider society has long moved past the celebrations of Christmas. Employees have returned to work, children have returned to school, and stores are beginning to set out Valentine’s merchandise.
The church, on the other hand, persists a full 12 days after Christmas Day to remember the visit of the wise men to the young Jesus as recorded in Matthew’s gospel (2:1–12). First noted in the fourth century, this celebration of the revelation of God to humanity called the faithful to reflect upon the awesome reality of the Incarnation. God became man; in Christ, the two natures were neither confused nor divided. The revelation of this unity prepared the way for another, for the Gentiles to be joined with God’s people Israel.
It is the revelation of this second mystery that Paul proclaims in Ephesians 3. Actually, this mystery seems to be forefront in his mind from the very beginning of the letter. He hints at it in the first chapter when he declares that his readers have been chosen by God for adoption, a description fitting for those who were not born into the people of God (2:11).
Then, in chapter 2, he describes the mystery explicitly. They, as Gentiles, were formerly separate from God and his people, but now in Christ, the two have been made one (2:12-13). Because of his proclamation of this mystery, Paul is a prisoner (3:1). If we look to Luke’s narrative in Acts, Paul ends up in chains because the Jewish leadership finds great offense at this aspect of his message and actions, namely that he teaches “against the law” and “brings Greeks into the Temple” (Acts 21:28).
Paul, however, seems undaunted by his circumstances. In his view, this is the task to which God has called him, to administer this aspect of God’s grace. His tone conveys a sense of grateful awe that God saw fit to reveal this great mystery to him. For Paul, Epiphany is not just one day, but describes his entire life and calling. He preaches, and subsequently he has been imprisoned for this preaching, because God has revealed this mystery to him. Paul mentions that he wrote about this mystery briefly before. It is not clear if he is referring to his statements in chapters 1 and 2 of this letter or if this refers to another letter to the Ephesians to which we no longer have access.
Even if we are missing another explanation, thankfully, Paul’s description of his understanding of the mystery seems clear from the following verses. The Spirit has now made known what in former times was concealed, namely that the Gentiles are now fellow heirs, fellow members of the same body, and fellow participants in the promises.
A compact reference to Paul’s extended discussions in Galatians and Romans, Ephesians 3:6 asserts the reality that in Christ through the gospel, those who were once not God’s people have been grafted in and become children of the promise. Paul now serves this mystery and does so because God’s power energizes him. This task has cost Paul his freedom. Nevertheless, he does not do it begrudgingly, but gratefully.
The rich alternative economy in which grace comes to unexpected recipients is not a new thing according to Paul’s understanding. It might have just recently been revealed to the apostles and prophets, of whom Paul considers himself to be the least important, as he, a former persecutor, was the last (1 Corinthians 15:8), but Paul finds proclamations of God’s gracious mystery in Israel’s Scriptures to make his case.
Even more, he asserts here that the mystery has been hidden with God, who is the creator of all things, suggesting that this mystery has always been God’s plan. This hunch proves correct in the following verse. This mystery in Christ -- Lord over all peoples, both Jew and Gentiles -- was the eternal plan of God, but only in the last days has God made it evident and begun its fulfillment. When God brings these groups together -- Jew and Gentile -- the church displays the creative diversity of his wisdom. It is not just Paul, the other apostles, or even the Ephesians who now can see this mystery, but also the authorities and rulers (3:10).
Paul might have in mind those Jewish leaders who instigated his imprisonment, but also the heavenly authorities, the spiritual forces whom ancients believed wielded control over the functions of the visible world. The Ephesians now have boldness and confident access to God, an amazing statement for those who would have had no access to the presence of God as manifest in the Jewish temple. Now that the mystery has been revealed, those who were excluded are now included. As they trust Jesus’ faithful actions, which display the faithfulness of God to his ancient plan, they can participate as full members of the people of God.
The great celebration of the Incarnation, according to Paul, flows into the great celebration of the church. As we exhibit unity -- of different races, classes, and genders (as Paul says in Galatians 3:28) -- we display the mystery of God who brings all his creation together in the unity of the God-man, the Jewish baby worshipped by the Gentile kings from the East.
Gospel Mt 2:1-12
God is so determined to proclaim the “good news of great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10) that God reaches beyond fields in the region around Bethlehem to “the East” (some scholars say Persia).
God reaches beyond shepherds at the bottom of the barrel to Wise Ones at the top. God reaches beyond people scared witless by God’s glory to those who observe the glorious star at its rising, and methodically, persistently, and sincerely follow it to a king. All along the way, God directs them, first by a star, then via a verse from Micah, and finally in their dreams.
Yes, I am aware that I am conflating Matthew and Luke; this is precisely what the liturgical year does as well. Preachers overly concerned about biblical literacy might use this occasion to untangle the Christmas story in order to teach that the Magi never made it to the manger. But then the preacher needs to explain that Matthew makes no mention of a manger. Better to save this for Sunday School and preach the Epiphany gospel in its liturgical and calendar context.
That said, in our church we move our Magi from one spot to another during the days of Christmas, rather than placing them in the crèche on Christmas Eve, and only bring them to “the house [where] they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage” (Matthew 2:11) on Epiphany. Placing the Magi in the manger on Christmas Eve misses how far God reaches to ensure that all people -- emphasize all -- receive the good news of Christ’s birth.
While Christian tradition holds that the Magi were kings (an interesting contrast between these kings’ response to Jesus’ birth and the way Herod, king of God’s people, responded), a more precise description might be that the Magi belonged to the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism, which paid particular attention to the stars. This priestly caste gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science.
So these Wise Ones from the East were scientists and practiced other religions, and God used their faith and knowledge to bring them to the Christ. More ironic, God used scientists who practiced other religions to let King Herod and the chief priests and scribes of the people in on the news that their Messiah had been born.
God seems to do whatever it takes to reach out to and embrace all people. God announces the birth of the Messiah to shepherds through angels on Christmas, to Magi via a star on Epiphany, and to the political and religious authorities of God’s own people through visitors from the East. From a manger, where a child lies wrapped in bands of cloth, God’s reach, God’s embrace in Christ Jesus, gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Jesus eats with outcasts and sinners. Jesus touches people who are sick and people who live with disabilities. Jesus even calls the dead back to life. Ultimately, Jesus draws all people to himself as he is lifted up on the cross. In Christ Jesus, no one is beyond God’s embrace.
God’s radical grace is wondrously frightening. I experience a bit of a shudder as I think of the implications of portraying the Magi as scientists who practiced another religion, because to do so pushes me to expand my understanding of both the ways God reaches out to people to announce good news in and through Christ and what it means for individuals to have faith and for gatherings of the faithful to be church.
The Magi did not come looking for the Christ through preaching, liturgy, sacrament, a welcoming congregation, or a vital social ministry. They came seeking the Christ after studying the night skies. As someone who holds on to favorite, cherished ways that God works to proclaim the gospel and bring people to faith, it’s always wondrously frightening to realize anew that God’s own work of embracing all people is more “mystery” than “formula,” because God’s ways are always bigger than my understanding.
The alternative, of course, is to join Herod in not seeing God’s ever-expanding embrace, or feeling threatened by it, and instead giving way to just plain fear: “When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:3). Herod jealously reached out himself, just far enough to violently protect his place and preserve his power.
We too can feel jealous when visitors show up seeking Christ due to experiences outside of our purview and control. We have our own ways of reaching out, just far enough to slaughter someone’s experiences of God’s grace for the sake of our patterns, practices, and perspectives. And so the stage is set for another liturgical year of proclaiming Christ overcoming the conflict between God’s ever expanding embrace and our need to protect and preserve, a drama resolved on the cross and continuing in our day.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Sunday December 31, 2017 The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Lectionary: 17
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14
God sets a father in honor over his children;
a mother's authority he confirms over her sons.
Whoever honors his father atones for sins,
and preserves himself from them.
When he prays, he is heard;
he stores up riches who reveres his mother.
Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,
and, when he prays, is heard.
Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;
he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.
My son, take care of your father when he is old;
grieve him not as long as he lives.
Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him;
revile him not all the days of his life;
kindness to a father will not be forgotten,
firmly planted against the debt of your sins
—a house raised in justice to you.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
R. (cf. 1) Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
Reading 2 Col 3:12-21
Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another,
if one has a grievance against another;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
And over all these put on love,
that is, the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,
the peace into which you were also called in one body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Wives, be subordinate to your husbands,
as is proper in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives,
and avoid any bitterness toward them.
Children, obey your parents in everything,
for this is pleasing to the Lord.
Fathers, do not provoke your children,
so they may not become discouraged.
Gospel Lk 2:22-40
When the days were completed for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
They took him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
He took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:
"Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in sight of all the peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel."
The child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
"Behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be contradicted
—and you yourself a sword will pierce--
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
There was also a prophetess, Anna,
the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years,
having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four.
She never left the temple,
but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.
And coming forward at that very time,
she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child
to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.
When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions
of the law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee,
to their own town of Nazareth.
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom;
and the favor of God was upon him.
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14
Jesus, son of Sirach wrote his wisdom treatise (also known as "Ecclesiasticus" or "Book of the Church") as a text book to train young men entering the bureaucracy in Jerusalem. Authored prior to the Maccabean revolt against the Syrians in 180 B.C., the book contained praises for wisdom and advice for the moral life, especially interpersonal and family relationships. These verses addressed the duty a son owed his parents.
Notice the verses expound upon the Fourth Commandment. A brief reflection on the list of the commandments revealed the esteem placed upon the extended family as the pillar of society. Honoring one's parents was the most important of the commandments that addressed human affairs (more important than murder, theft, adultery, and bearing false witness). Sirach seemed to state that honoring parents was a sign of righteousness. It forgave sin [3:3]. It was a means of divine blessing (children and prayers heard) [3:5]. It was the guarantee of a long life and temporal power [3:6-7]. Even the patience required for the care of elderly parents strengthen character. And God would also look upon the son offering such care with compassion [3:12-14].
Ancient cultures like that in Judea were family-oriented and elderly-centered. Our American culture is just the opposite. What was common necessity then is now considered optional. Yet, the advice given in Sirach is as meaningful today as it was over two millennia ago. Honoring parents creates strong families and strong societies.
The fourth commandment is based upon a deeper command from God: love others as self. Love assumes and builds up respect. How have you shown love and respect to your family members? How have you expected such treatment in return?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
Our Psalm Reading, which gives us the Promise for the week, is a blessing given by temple priests to families and pilgrims as they ascend to the Temple to celebrate the New Year. It presents to us the ideal Jewish family, whose very lives revolve around the LORD and are guided by His Word. The outcome of such righteousness and reverence produces abundant fruits of labor, as well as peace and harmony in the family.
Reading 2 Col 3:12-21
In the Second Reading, which is the source of our Order, St. Paul exhorts his readers to uphold godly obligations and to practice invariably Christian virtues. Meekness, patience, compassion, and kindness all reflect an essential virtue, which is humility. Only a humble person can be forgiving and truly thankful because only he realizes that everything comes from God. As a result, he is able to attain peace and prove the genuineness of his love, which is the fruit of the Spirit that binds everything in perfect harmony and enables him to conquer the empire of the flesh. The Reading concludes, appropriately, with directions for the family, where the virtues are fundamentally applied and tested.
Gospel Lk 2:22-40
Lastly, St. Luke describes the Holy Family in our Gospel, whose obedience and faithfulness to the Word are quite evident. He presents them as the first stewards of God’s Love and the very model of Christian families and communities. The story of Jesus’ presentation in Jerusalem is one of the few stories in the canonical gospels that have to do with Jesus’ childhood.
Along with the stories of the circumcision and naming of Jesus (Luke 2:21, January 1 every year), the visit of the magi (Matthew 2:1-12, Epiphany every year), the slaughter of the innocents (Matthew 2:13-23, First Sunday after Christmas in year A), and Jesus in the temple as a twelve-year-old (Luke 2:41-52, First Sunday after Christmas in year C), this story gives one a rare opportunity to review Jesus’ childhood.
The scarcity of information about Jesus’ childhood reminds us that the gospels are not biographies, or at least not primarily that. They are kerygmatic narratives -- they seek to proclaim the gospel and to undergird and strengthen faith in Christ. The little information that they give us about Jesus’ childhood is not intended, say, to explain the development of his character or personality. It is clear that Luke’s childhood stories seek to make theological points: Jesus was born a Jew among Jews. He came under the law of Moses. And, although he fulfilled the law in honoring his father and mother (Luke 2:51), his ultimate obedience was to his heavenly Father (Luke 2:49; cf. Mark 3:35). As such, our Gospel lesson is easily linked to the epistle reading for the day, where Paul tells us that Jesus was “born of woman” and “born under the law” so that he might redeem those who were under the law (Galatians 4:4-5).
The presentation in Jerusalem is motivated by specific requirements of the law of Moses. According to Leviticus 12, after a woman gives birth to a son, she is impure for forty days. At the end of that period, she is to bring an offering to the temple, which the priest offers as a sacrifice, effecting her purification. In addition, Exodus 13:2, 12, 15 state that every first-born male (which “opens the womb”), whether human or animal, “belongs” to the Lord (cf. 34:20). While (clean) animals (Leviticus 27:27) would be sacrificed, first-born sons needed to be redeemed (Exodus 13:12-15). According to Numbers 3:46-51, the redemption involved the payment of five shekels to the priesthood. However, according to another tradition in Numbers 3:11-13; 8:16-18, the tribe of the Levites takes the place of the first-born sons of Israel as the Lord’s possession. Thus the biblical notion of redemption included the idea that the first-born son “belongs” to the Lord in a special way and is dedicated to serve him (as the Levites were also dedicated to serve him).
Luke has apparently taken this old idea of the first-born son being dedicated to God’s service and made it fruitful for his narrative. The Torah contains no requirement that the first-born son be presented at the temple. However, Luke alludes to the story of Samuel. When Hannah, who had no children, prayed to God for a son, she vowed that, if she had a son, she would give him to God for all his days (1 Samuel 1:11). And indeed, after Samuel was born, Hannah brought him to the temple, and he was “lent” to the Lord for life (1 Samuel 1:24-28). It is clear that Mary in Luke takes the role of Hannah (cf. Luke 1:46-55 with 1 Samuel 1:11; 2:1-10) while Jesus takes the role of Samuel (cf. Luke 2:40, 52 with 1 Samuel 2:26). Thus when Joseph and Mary present Jesus to the Lord in Jerusalem, they are in effect dedicating his life to God (no redemption money is given). Jesus will be “holy to the Lord” (Luke 2:23). With these words Luke subtly alters the language of Exodus 13:2, 12 from a command to consecrate (hagiazein) the first-born to God to a declaration about Jesus. Luke’s wording is reminiscent of Luke 1:35, where the angel Gabriel tells Mary that her son will be “holy” and will be called the “Son of God,” because he will be conceived by the Holy Spirit. Luke’s wording is perhaps also (though more distantly) reminiscent of other stories that speak of Jesus as a “holy one” with a special relationship to God (e.g., Mark 1:24). The story thus sets the stage for Jesus’ life dedicated fully to his heavenly Father (Luke 2:49).
As noted above, Paul speaks of Jesus as having been born under the law in order to redeem those who were under the law. Instead of being redeemed, Jesus himself will by his death redeem others. This happens when Jesus takes upon himself the curse of the law -- indeed, “becomes” the curse (of the law) -- by being crucified on the tree (Galatians 3:13). That is the scandal of the cross, by which God saves the world (1 Corinthians 1:21, 23). The idea is, to be sure, more Pauline than Lukan. Yet the scandal of the cross is hinted at in Luke 2:34. Jesus will be the cause of many rising and falling in Israel -- he will be both the stone upon which some stumble and the stone of salvation (Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:6-8). In any case, Luke’s account certainly gives credence to Paul’s claim. The dedication of Jesus to God at the temple sets Jesus on the way to his work of redemption.
Simeon and Anna appear as devout Jews who are awaiting the fulfillment of God’s promises of consolation and redemption for Israel. These sections of Luke’s story are drenched with the language of Deutero-Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 40:1; 42:6; 49:6, 13; 52:9, 10). Simeon and Anna thus become spokesman and spokeswoman for the salvation and redemption that is to come through Jesus. Simeon gets a glimpse of the salvation that one-day the whole world (“all flesh”) will see (cf. Luke 3:6, Luke’s addition to Mark): forgiveness of sins and deliverance from eternal death (Acts 13:38-39, 46-47). That is the ultimate meaning of Christmas, the incarnation of the Son of God.
Making the Connection
Our families have the primary role in teaching us about the traditions of our faith and how we express our faith. The family of Jesus is a model for Christian families in this important task.
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday December 24, 2017 Fourth Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 11
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Christ the Savior is born! Glory to God in the highest!
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
When King David was settled in his palace,
and the LORD had given him rest from his enemies on every side,
he said to Nathan the prophet,
"Here I am living in a house of cedar,
while the ark of God dwells in a tent!"
Nathan answered the king,
"Go, do whatever you have in mind,
for the LORD is with you."
But that night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said:
"Go, tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD:
Should you build me a house to dwell in?'
"It was I who took you from the pasture
and from the care of the flock
to be commander of my people Israel.
I have been with you wherever you went,
and I have destroyed all your enemies before you.
And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth.
I will fix a place for my people Israel;
I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place
without further disturbance.
Neither shall the wicked continue to afflict them as they did of old,
since the time I first appointed judges over my people Israel.
I will give you rest from all your enemies.
The LORD also reveals to you
that he will establish a house for you.
And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,
I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins,
and I will make his kingdom firm.
I will be a father to him,
and he shall be a son to me.
Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me;
your throne shall stand firm forever."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29
R. (2a) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
The promises of the LORD I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, "My kindness is established forever";
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
"I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations."
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
"He shall say of me, 'You are my father,
my God, the Rock, my savior.'
Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm."
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Reading 2 Rom 16:25-27
Brothers and sisters:
To him who can strengthen you,
according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages
but now manifested through the prophetic writings and,
according to the command of the eternal God,
made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith,
to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ
be glory forever and ever. Amen.
.
Gospel Lk 1:26-38
The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin's name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
"Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end."
But Mary said to the angel,
"How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?"
And the angel said to her in reply,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God."
Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word."
Then the angel departed from her.
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
David being at rest in his palace, considered how he might best employ his leisure and prosperity in the service of God. He formed a design to build a temple for the ark. Nathan here did not speak as a prophet, but as a godly man, encouraging David by his private judgment. We ought to do all we can to encourage and promote the good purposes and designs of others, and, as we have opportunity, to forward a good work.
Blessings are promised to the family and posterity of David. These promises relate to Solomon, David's immediate successor, and the royal line of Judah. But they also relate to Christ, who is often called David and the Son of David. To him God gave all power in heaven and earth, with authority to execute judgment. He was to build the gospel temple, a house for God's name; the spiritual temple of true believers, to be a habitation of God through the Spirit. The establishing of his house, his throne, and his kingdom for ever, can be applied to no other than to Christ and his kingdom: David's house and kingdom long since came to an end. The committing iniquity cannot be applied to the Messiah himself, but to his spiritual seed; true believers have infirmities, for which they must expect to be corrected, though they are not cast off.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29
Many psalms that begin with complaint and prayer end with joy and praise, but this begins with joy and praise and ends with sad complaints and petitions; for the psalmist first recounts God’s former favors, and then with the consideration of them aggravates the present grievances. It is uncertain when it was penned; only, in general, that it was at a time when the house of David was woefully eclipsed; some think it was at the time of the captivity of Babylon, when king Zedekiah was insulted over, and abused, by Nebuchadnezzar, and then they make the title to signify no more than that the psalm was set to the tune of a song of Ethan the son of Zerah, called Maschil; others suppose it to be penned by Ethan, who is mentioned in the story of Solomon, who, outliving that glorious prince, thus lamented the great disgrace done to the house of David in the next reign by the revolt of the ten tribes. I. The psalmist, in the joyful pleasant part of the psalm, gives glory to God, and takes comfort to himself and his friends. This he does more briefly, mentioning God’s mercy and truth (v. 1) and his covenant (v. 2-4), but more largely in the following verses, wherein, 1. He adores the glory and perfection of God (v. 5-14). He pleases himself in the happiness of those that are admitted into communion with him (v. 15-18). He builds all his hope upon God’s covenant with David, as a type of Christ (v. 19-37).
Reading 2 Rom 16:25-27
Paul is now concluding this long and excellent epistle, and he does it with a great deal of affection. As in the main body of the epistle he appears to have been a very knowing man, so in these appurtenances of it he appears to have been a very loving man. So much knowledge and so much love are a very rare, but (where they exist) a very excellent and amiable—composition; for what is heaven but knowledge and love made perfect? It is observable how often Paul speaks as if he were concluding, and yet takes fresh hold again. One would have thought that solemn benediction which closed the foregoing chapter should have ended the epistle; and yet here he begins again, and in this chapter he repeats the blessing (v. 20), "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, Amen.’’ And yet he has something more to say; nay, again he repeats the blessing (v. 24), and yet has not done; an expression of his tender love. These repeated benedictions, which stand for valedictions, speak Paul loth to part. Now, in this closing chapter, we may observe, I. His recommendation of one friend to the Roman Christians, and his particular salutation of several among them (v. 1endash 16). II. A caution to take heed of those who caused divisions (v. 17endash 20). III. Salutations added from some who were with Paul (v. 21endash 24). IV. He concludes with a solemn celebration of the glory of God (v. 25endash 27
.
Gospel Lk 1:26-3
And in the sixth month
After Elisabeth's conception; for so long was John the Baptist conceived before Christ, and so long he was born before him; and it seems as if there was the same distance between the public ministry of the one, and the other: John was before Christ, as man, being his forerunner; but Christ was preferred unto him as mediator, and existed before him, as the eternal Son of God:
the angel Gabriel was sent from God;
the same angel, that near five hundred years before gave Daniel an exact account of the time of the Messiah's coming, and six months ago acquainted Zacharias with the conception, birth, character, and office of his forerunner:
unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth;
the whole country of Galilee was mean and contemptible with the Jews: they observe, though through mistake, that no prophet arose out of it, ( John 7:52 ) and Nazareth particularly was exceeding despicable in their eye: hence those words of Nathanael, "can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" ( John 1:46 ) and yet hither an angel was sent by God; and here dwelt the mother of our Lord. (See Gill on Matthew 1:23)
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever
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Sunday December 17, 2017 Third Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 8
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 61:1-2a, 10-11
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor,
to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and release to the prisoners,
to announce a year of favor from the LORD
and a day of vindication by our God.
I rejoice heartily in the LORD,
in my God is the joy of my soul;
for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation
and wrapped me in a mantle of justice,
like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem,
like a bride bedecked with her jewels.
As the earth brings forth its plants,
and a garden makes its growth spring up,
so will the Lord GOD make justice and praise
spring up before all the nations.
Responsorial Psalm Lk 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54
R. (Is 61:10b) My soul rejoices in my God.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
R. My soul rejoices in my God.
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
R. My soul rejoices in my God.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
R. My soul rejoices in my God.
Reading 2 1 Thes 5:16-24
Brothers and sisters:
Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.
In all circumstances give thanks,
for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not despise prophetic utterances.
Test everything; retain what is good.
Refrain from every kind of evil.
May the God of peace make you perfectly holy
and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body,
be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful,
and he will also accomplish it.
Gospel Jn 1:6-8, 19-28
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
And this is the testimony of John.
When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests
and Levites to him
to ask him, "Who are you?"
He admitted and did not deny it,
but admitted, "I am not the Christ."
So they asked him,
"What are you then? Are you Elijah?"
And he said, "I am not."
"Are you the Prophet?"
He answered, "No."
So they said to him,
"Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us?
What do you have to say for yourself?"
He said:
"I am the voice of one crying out in the desert,
'make straight the way of the Lord,'"
as Isaiah the prophet said."
Some Pharisees were also sent.
They asked him,
"Why then do you baptize
if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?"
John answered them,
"I baptize with water;
but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,
the one who is coming after me,
whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie."
This happened in Bethany across the Jordan,
where John was baptizing.
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 61:1-2a, 10-11
The Messiah, his character and office. (1-3) His promises of the future blessedness of the church. (4-9) The church praises God for these mercies. (10,11)
The prophets had the Holy Spirit of God at times, teaching them what to say, and causing them to say it; but Christ had the Spirit always, without measure, to qualify him, as man, for the work to which he was appointed. The poor are commonly best disposed to receive the gospel, James 2:5; and it is only likely to profit us when received with meekness. To such as are poor in spirit, Christ preached good tidings when he said, Blessed are the meek. Christ's satisfaction is accepted. By the dominion of sin in us, we are bound under the power of Satan; but the Son is ready, by his Spirit, to make us free; and then we shall be free indeed. Sin and Satan were to be destroyed; and Christ triumphed over them on his cross. But the children of men, who stand out against these offers, shall be dealt with as enemies. Christ was to be a Comforter, and so he is; he is sent to comfort all who mourn, and who seek to him, and not to the world, for comfort. He will do all this for his people, that they may abound in the fruits of righteousness, as the branches of God's planting. Neither the mercy of God, the atonement of Christ, nor the gospel of grace, profit the self-sufficient and proud. They must be humbled, and led to know their own character and wants, by the Holy Spirit, that they may see and feel their need of the sinner's Friend and Savior. His doctrine contains glad tidings indeed to those who are humbled before God.
Those only shall be clothed with the garments of salvation hereafter, that are covered with the robe of Christ's righteousness now, and by the sanctification of the Spirit have God's image renewed upon them. These blessings shall spring forth for ages to come, as the fruits of the earth. So duly, so constantly, and with such advantage to mankind, will the Lord God cause righteousness and praise to spring forth. They shall spread far; the great salvation shall be published and proclaimed, to the ends of the earth. Let us be earnest in prayer, that the Lord God may cause that righteousness to spring forth among us, which constitutes the excellence and glory of the Christian profession.
Responsorial Psalm Lk 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54
Mary praises God, characterizing God as one who cares for the lowly and frustrates the intentions of the powerful.
Mary's extended statement of praise (often called the Magnificat, the first word of the Latin translation of her statement) comes in response to her relative Elizabeth's Spirit-inspired words in 1:41-45, which confirm what the angel Gabriel promised Mary in 1:26-35. As with the other two "canticles" in Luke 1-2 (the Benedictus and the Nunc dimittis), the words of the Magnificat come from numerous passages in the Old Testament. The specific form and themes of Mary's praise closely resemble those in Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2:1-10, which comes after the birth of that woman's son, the Prophet Samuel.
The Magnificat does not speak directly about Jesus; rather, it is a description of God. It moves at a rapid pace, progressing through a series of strong, decisive verbs that characterize God's actions throughout Israel's history. Mary speaks about a God who reverses things, who is capable of overturning human authority and structures. Her statement begins by speaking about God's recent actions on her behalf (vv. 47-49) and then turns its attention to God's activity on behalf of and against others (vv. 50-55). Mary is announcing that her story, God's choice of blessing her to bear God's Son, is a part of the ongoing drama of God's activity in the world. This casts Mary as a prophet, one who boldly interprets her experience in light of God and God's history.
Reading 2 1 Thes 5:16-24
The Lord's coming again into this world assumes therefore a very different character from that of a vague object of hope to a believer as a period of glory. In chapter 5 the apostle speaks of it, but in order to distinguish between the position of Christians and that of the careless and unbelieving inhabitants of the earth. The Christian, alive and taught of the Lord, ever expects the Master. There are times and seasons; it is not needful to speak to him concerning them. But (and he knows it) the day of the Lord will come and like a thief in the night, but not for him: he is of the day; he has part in the glory which will appear in order to execute judgment on the unbelieving world. Believers are the children of light; and this light which is the judgment of unbelievers, is the expression of the glory of God-a glory which cannot endure evil, and which, when it shall appear, will banish it from the earth. The Christian is of the day that will judge and destroy the wicked and wickedness itself from off the face of the earth. Christ is the Sun of righteousness, and the faithful will shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
The world will say, "Peace and safety," and in all security will believe in the continuance of its prosperity and the success of its designs, and the day will come suddenly upon them. (Compare 2 Peter 3:3.) The Lord Himself has often declared it. ( Matthew 14:36-44 ; Mark 13:33-36 ; Luke 12:40 , &c.; 17:26 , &c.; 21:35 , &c.)
It is a very solemn thing to see that the professing church (Revelation 3:3) which says that it lives and is in the truth, which has not Thyatira's character of corruption, is yet to be treated as the world-at least, unless it repents.
We may perhaps wonder to find the Lord saying of a time like this, that men's hearts will be failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth. (Luke 21:26) But we see the two principles-both security and fear-already existing. Progress, success, the long continuance of a new development of human nature-this is the language of those who mock at the Lord's coming; and yet beneath it all, what fears for the future are at the same time possessing and weighing down the heart! I use the word "principles," because I do not believe that the moment of which the Lord speaks is yet come. But the shadow of coming events falls upon the heart. Blessed are they that belong to another world!
The apostle applies this difference of position- namely, that we belong to the day, and that it cannot therefore come upon us as a thief-to the character and walk of the Christian. Being a child of the light he is to walk as such. He lives in the clay, though all is night and darkness around him. One does not sleep in the day. They that sleep sleep in the night: they that are drunken are drunken in the night; these are the works of darkness. A Christian, the child of the day, must watch and be sober, clothing himself with all that constitutes the perfection of that mode of being which belongs to his position-namely, with faith and love and hope-principles which impart courage and give him confidence for pressing onwards. He has the breastplate of faith and love; he goes straight forward therefore against the enemy. He has the hope of this glorious salvation, which will bring him entire deliverance, as his helmet; so that he can lift up his head without fear in the midst of danger. We see that the apostle here brings to mind the three great principles of 1 Corinthians 13 to characterise the courage and steadfastness of the Christian, as at the beginning he shewed that they were the mainspring of daily walk.
Faith and love naturally connect us with God, revealed as He is in Jesus as the principle of communion; so that we walk with confidence in Him: His presence gives us strength. By faith He is the glorious object before our eyes. By love He dwells in us, and we realise what He is. Hope fixes our eyes especially on Christ, who is coming to bring us into the enjoyment of glory with Himself.
Consequently the apostle speaks thus: "For God hath not appointed us to wrath " (love is understood by faith, that which God wills-His mind respecting us) "but to obtain salvation." It is this which we hope for; and he speaks of salvation as the final deliverance "by our Lord Jesus Christ I would here call the reader's attention to the way in which the apostle speaks of the Lord's coming in the different chapters of this epistle. It will be noticed that the Spirit does not present the church here as a body. Life is the subject-that of each Christian therefore individually: a very important point assuredly.
The apostle desired that the disciples should acknowledge those who labored among them and guided them in grace and admonished them, and esteem them greatly for their work's sake. The operation of God always attracts a soul that is moved by the Holy Ghost, and commands its attention and its respect: on this foundation the apostle builds his exhortation. It is not office which is in question here (if such existed), but the work which attracted and attached the heart. They ought to be known: spirituality acknowledged this operation of God. Love, devotedness, the answer to the need of souls, patience in dealing with them on the part of God -all this commended itself to the believer's heart: and it blessed God for the care He bestowed upon His children. God acted in the laborer and in the hearts of the faithful. Blessed be God, it is an ever existing principle, and one that never grows weaker !
The same Spirit produced peace among themselves. This grace was of great value. If love appreciated the work of God in the labourer, it would esteem the bother as in the presence of God: self-will would not act.
Now this renunciation of self-will, and this practical sense of the operation and presence of God, gives power to warn the unruly, to comfort the fearful, to help the weak, and to be patient towards all. The apostle exhorts them to it. Communion with God is the power and His word the guide in so doing. In no case were they to render evil for evil, but to follow that which was good among themselves and towards all. All this conduct depends on communion with God, on His presence with us, which makes us superior to evil. He is this in love; and we can be so by walking with Him.
God, as we have said, rests thus in Himself-is this rest for Himself. He gives us, and is for us, this entire peace. The conscience being perfect through the work of Christ who has made peace and reconciled us to God, the new nature-and consequently the heart-finds its perfect satisfaction in God, and the will is silent; moreover, it has nothing further to desire. It is not only that God meets the desires that we have: He is the source of new desires to the new man by the revelation of Himself in love. [See Footnote #10] He is both the source of the nature and its infinite object; and that, in love. It is His part to be so. It is more than creation; it is reconciliation, which is more than creation, because there is in it more development of love, that is to say, of God: and it is thus that we know God. It is that which He is essentially in Christ.
In the angels He glorifies Himself in creation: they excel us in strength. In Christians He glorifies Himself in reconciliation, to make them the first fruits of His new creation, when He shall have reconciled all things in heaven and on earth by Christ. Therefore it is written "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children sons of God" They have His nature and His character.
It is in these relationships with God-or rather it is God in these relationships with us in peace, in His communion, who develops sanctification, our inward conformity of affection and intelligence (and consequently of outward conduct) with Him and His will. "The God of peace himself sanctify you wholly." May there be nothing in us that does not yield to this benignant influence of peace which we enjoy in communion with God! May no power or force in us own anything but Himself! In all things may He be our all, so that He only may rule in our hearts! He has brought us perfectly into this place of blessedness in Christ and by His work. There is nothing between us and God but the exercise of His love, the enjoyment of our happiness, and the worship of our hearts. We are the proof before Him, the testimony, the fruit, of the accomplishment of all that He holds most precious, of that which has perfectly glorified Him, of that in which He delights, and of the glory of the One who has accomplished it, namely, of Christ, and of His work. We are the fruit of the redemption that Christ has accomplished, and the objects of the satisfaction which God must feel in the exercise of His love.
God in grace is the God of peace for us; for here divine righteousness finds its satisfaction, and love its perfect exercise.
The apostle now prays that, in this character, God may work in us to make everything respond to Himself thus revealed. Here only is this development of humanity given-"body, soul, and spirit." The object is assuredly not metaphysical, but to express man in all the parts of his being; the vessel by which he expresses that which he is, the natural affections of his soul, the elevated workings of his mind, through which he is above the animals and in intelligent relationship with God. May God be found in each, as the mover, spring, and guide!
In general the words "soul and spirit" are used without making any distinction between them, for the soul of man was formed very differently from that of animals in that God breathed into his nostrils the breath (spirit) of life, and it was thus that man became a living soul. Therefore it suffices to say soul as to man, and the other is supposed. Or, in saying spirit, in this sense the elevated character of his soul is expressed. The animal has also its natural affections, has a living soul, attaches itself, knows the persons who do it good, devotes itself to its master, loves him, will even give its life for him; but it has not that which can be in relationship with God (alas ! which can set itself at enmity against Him), which can occupy itself with things outside its own nature as the master of others.
The Spirit then wills that man, reconciled with God, should be consecrated, in every part of his being to the God who has brought him into relationship with Himself by the revelation of His love, and by the work of His grace, and that nothing in the man should admit an object beneath the divine nature of which he is partaker; so that he should thus be preserved blameless unto the coming of Christ.
It remains to take notice of one interesting circumstance as to the manner in which the apostle instructs them. He takes, in the first chapter, the truths which were precious to their heart, but were still somewhat vaguely seized by their intelligence, and as to which they were indeed fallen into mistakes, and employs them (in the clearness in which he possessed them himself) in his practical instructions, and applies them to known and experienced relationships, that their souls might be well established on positive truth, and clear as to its use, before he touched on their error and the mistakes they had made. They waited for His Son from heaven. This they already possessed clearly in their hearts; but they would be in the presence of God when Jesus comes with all His saints. This was clearing up a very important point without directly touching the error. Their heart got straight as to the truth in its practical application to what the heart possessed. They understood what it was to be before God the Father. It was much more intimate and real than a manifestation of terrestrial and finite glory. Further they would be before God when Jesus came with all His saints: a simple truth which demonstrated itself to the heart by the simple fact that Jesus could not have some only of His assembly. The heart seized this truth without an effort; yet in doing so it was established, as was the understanding also, in what made the whole truth clear, and that in way of the relationship of the Thessalonians to Christ and those that were His. The joy even of the apostle in meeting them all (those who had died consequently, as well as the living) at the coming of Jesus, placed the soul on an entirely different ground from that of being found here, and blessed by the arrival of Jesus when they were here below.
Thus enlightened, confirmed, established, in the real bearing of the truth which they possessed already by a development of it which connected itself with their best affections and with their most intimate spiritual knowledge, founded on their communion with God they were ready with certain fixed basis of truth to enter on and set aside without difficulty an error which was not in accord with what they now knew how to appreciate at its just value, as forming park of their moral possessions. Special revelation made all clear as to details. This manner of proceeding is very Instructive.
Gospel Jn 1:6-8, 19-28
Have you caught the "holiday spirit" yet? How do you get into the holiday mood? Do you rely on others or events to spark your "Christmas feeling?"
Christmas is coming soon. The lights, the sounds, the smells of the holidays are in the air. No matter where we go, we are reminded of holiday cheer. In fact, many of us rely on this atmosphere to bring us out of our doldrums. We expect people, places, or events to create the mood that Christmas brings.
Human nature tempts us to lean on others to bolster our condition. We expect others to "fix" us when we are down, sustain us when we are "up." We are tempted to treat God the same way. God, the Mr. Fix-it for our souls.
What happens when God doesn't "fix" us? How many times have we been disappointed when our expectations of God are unfulfilled? How many times have we confused faith with expectation? How many times have we forgotten that God defines himself?
John the Baptist had expectations about the One to come. Did Jesus fulfill his expectations? Or, did Jesus define his mission on his own terms?
Popular Translation
John the Baptist preached against King Herod because he married his brother's wife. So, the king had his soldiers arrest John. When he was in jail, John heard the kinds of things Jesus was doing. John sent some of his followers to Jesus with a question. "Are you the one John said would come? Or, is there someone else we should expect?" they asked.
"Go tell John what you see and hear," Jesus answered. "Blind people can now see. Deaf people can now hear clearly. Crippled people can now walk. People with diseases are now healthy. Dead people live again. And the poor have the Good News preached to them. The person who doesn't doubt me is really happy!"
As John's people left, Jesus began to talk to the crowd about the Baptist. "What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swaying in the wind? What did you go out to see? Someone dressed in expensive clothes? People who wear expensive clothes live in a king's palace. So, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, a prophet and much, much more! God talked about John in the Bible:
'I am sending my messenger ahead of you.
He will prepare the way for you.'
Listen! No one who has ever lived is more important than John the Baptist. But the humblest person in God's Kingdom is greater than John!"
Matthew's gospel faces us with the difference between what we expect of others and what they can deliver. John expected someone greater than he. Jesus gave an answer that may have been different from what John expected. In that exchange we discover how Jesus saw his own ministry and the ministry of John the Baptist.
With his comments about his own ministry and that of John's, Jesus implicitly compared the two. John prepared people for the Kingdom; Jesus involved people in the Kingdom. John stood as a Kingdom signpost. As Messiah, Jesus was the Kingdom. As the one preparing the populace, John was greater than anyone else up to that point. But, was John ready to partake in the kingdom? Was he willing to accept the witness of his two followers about Jesus' works? Everyone who still considered the faith question was the least in the Kingdom. [11:11]
Catechism Themes: The Public Ministry of Jesus and The Signs of the Kingdom
The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him. To those who turn to him in faith, he grants what they ask. So miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his Father's works; they bear witness that he is the Son of God. But his miracles can also be occasions for "offense"; they are not intended to satisfy people's curiosity or desire for magic. Despite his evident miracles some people reject Jesus; he is even accused of acting by the power of demons.
By freeing some individuals from the earthly evils of hunger, injustice, illness, and death, Jesus performed messianic signs. Nevertheless he did not come to abolish all evils here below, but to free men from the gravest slavery, sin, which thwarts them in their vocation as God's sons and causes all forms of human bondage.
We expect much from the Lord who gives us much. His gifts challenge us to pass them along to others, especially those in need. As Jesus has freed us from need, so we, too, must free others from need.
Sometimes, however, all we can do is stand in awe. While these experiences help to strengthen our faith, we should not depend upon them in the future. An experience of God is a gift, not an expectation. Once we build our faith solely upon awe experiences, we focus upon them as if they were magic. We might think that these experiences should be an everyday event; if we have a "down" day, our prayer life dwells only upon a return to the "wow" experience. When we do not have a consistent spiritual high, we might be tempted to reject faith as an illusion. We might forget the passion of Christ; even pain and depression are paths to God. Even "down" days are God's gifts to us.
What do we expect from God? Miracles or magic. Miracles engage us in a faith dialogue with God; we become part of the miracle as it becomes a part of us. Magic, however, is meant for entertainment. It impresses us, but does not change us. Miracles demand a response; magic demands applause. Do we pray to be engaged or impressed?
As Christmas approaches, it's time to ask the question. What do we expect from God? Do we want to follow him? Or, do we want him to fix us? Do we seek to be with him? Or, do we expect him to be with us?
Have we confused faith with expectation? Faith puts God in charge. Expectation puts us in charge. Faith allows God to surprise us. Expectation does not.
What should we expect from God? Nothing. What should we believe God can do? Everything! Even the surprise of his Son born in a poor stable.
As a part of preparing for Christmas, reflect on your expectations of the holidays. Are they realistic? Can people or events fulfill your ideals? Or can you set aside your expectations so God can surprise you?
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
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Sunday December 10, 2017 Second Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 5
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 40:1-5, 9-11
Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.
A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low;
the rugged land shall be made a plain,
the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Go up on to a high mountain,
Zion, herald of glad tidings;
cry out at the top of your voice,
Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah:
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9-10-11-12, 13-14
R. (8) Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD—for he proclaims peace to his people.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and prepare the way of his steps.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Reading 2 2 Pt 3:8-14
Do not ignore this one fact, beloved,
that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years
and a thousand years like one day.
The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard "delay,"
but he is patient with you,
not wishing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar
and the elements will be dissolved by fire,
and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.
Since everything is to be dissolved in this way,
what sort of persons ought you to be,
conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion,
waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames
and the elements melted by fire.
But according to his promise
we await new heavens and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you await these things,
be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.
Gospel Mk 1:1-8
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way.
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths."
John the Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of the whole Judean countryside
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
were going out to him
and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River
as they acknowledged their sins.
John was clothed in camel's hair,
with a leather belt around his waist.
He fed on locusts and wild honey.
And this is what he proclaimed:
"One mightier than I is coming after me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 40:1-5, 9-11
Imagine a general amnesty for all prisoners in the United States. While that thought might scare us, there would be joy in many quarters. Fathers would see their families. Sons would see their parents. Heroes would return to their communities. Many lost in the system would see hope in freedom. The impact of such an amnesty was felt by the Jews when they heard the words of Second Isaiah.
The beginning of Second Isaiah presented a scene of divine command and the announcement of a town crier. God pronounced a nation-wide forgiveness and the crier announced the return of the exiles. [40:1-5] The joy of such an announcement must have accompanied the fall of Babylon to Cyrus and the Persian army in 539 B.C. A year later, the Persian ruler enacted an edict of return for the Jews in the Diaspora. They were to rebuild Jerusalem and restore the Temple.
The changing events justified the loyalty of the exiles to their God. Now the Lord could display his power, even through a foreign king. The Jewish nation could once again rally around their God. They could once again show a religious and patriotic pride. The Lord saved them! [40:9-11]
Freedom from bondage implicitly means return. Pardon from sin means return to God. As we wait for the coming of the Lord at Christmas, let us remember the words of Isaiah and their echo in the preaching of John the Baptist. Metanoia, repentance, means turn away from self-centered pursuits. And turning towards the Almighty.
How do you plan to turn away from the self this Advent? And turn towards God?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9-10-11-12, 13-14
His salvation; that complete salvation and deliverance for which all the Israel of God do pray and wait, even the redemption of Israel by the Messiah; of which not only Christian, but even Jewish, writers understand this place; and to which the following passages do most properly and perfectly belong. And the psalmist might well say of this salvation that it was nigh, because the seventy weeks determined by Daniel for this work, Daniel 9:24, were now begun, this Psalm being written after Daniel’s time.
Them that fear him; the true Israel of God, even all those that love and fear him; by which words he both excludes all hypocritical Israelites from this salvation, and tacitly assigns it to all that fear God, whether Jews or Gentiles. And when that salvation shall come, we shall be freed from all that scorn and contempt under which we now groan, and shall recover our ancient glory; and the glorious presence of God, the most eminent tokens whereof we have now utterly lost; and the God of glory himself, even Christ, who is called the brightness of his Father’s glory, Hebrews 1:3; compare John 1:14; and the glory of Israel, Luke 2:32; shall come and visibly dwell in this now despised land.
Reading 2 2 Pt 3:8-14
2 Peter 3:8. Be not ye ignorant — Whatever they are; of this one thing — Which casts much light on the point in hand; that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day — This is an allusion to Psalm 90:4, where Moses had said, A thousand years in thy sight are as one day, which words St. Peter applies with regard to the period intervening between the time when he wrote, and the last day; denoting thereby, 1st, God’s eternity, whereby he exceeds all measure of time in his essence and in his operation: 2d, His knowledge, to which all things past, or to come, are present every moment: 3d, His power, which needs no long delay in order to bring his work to perfection: and, 4th, His long-suffering, which excludes all impatience of expectation and desire of making haste. But it must be observed, that neither the apostle nor the psalmist meant that God does not perceive any difference between the duration of a day and that of a thousand years; but that these differences do not affect either his designs, or actions, or felicity, as they do those of finite creatures. So that what he brings to pass on the day he declares his purpose, is not more certain than what he will bring to pass a thousand years after such declaration. In like manner, what is to be brought to pass a long time after his declaration, is not less certain than if it had been done when declared. The apostle’s meaning is in substance, that in one day, yea, in one moment, he could do the work of a thousand years; therefore he is not slow, he is always equally able, equally ready to fulfil his promise; and a thousand years, yea, the longest time, is no more delay to the eternal God than one day is to us: therefore he is longsuffering; he gives us space for repentance without any inconvenience to himself. In a word, with God time passes neither slower nor swifter than is suitable to him and his economy. Nor can there be any reason why it should be necessary for him either to delay or hasten the end of all things. How can we comprehend this? If we could have comprehended it, St. Peter needed not to have added, with the Lord.
Gospel Mk 1:1-8
To an observant reader, one notes that the first verse in the gospel of Mark does not contain a main verb: "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (1:1).
The significance of this observation is to see that these words do not compose a sentence; they rather serve to express the title of the gospel of Mark. Whatever story, miracle, parable, exorcism, teaching or narrative event of Jesus is in the gospel of Mark, it is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ. This beginning takes place in our hearing or reading of the gospel of Mark. The words of this gospel break into our lives with the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The good news begins with the witness of two prophetic texts from Malachi and Isaiah that announce a forerunner who will go before the coming of God's Messiah. A messenger of God will go "ahead of you" (Malachi 3:1), one who will: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight" (Isaiah 40:3). The faith in which God's people have lived in Messianic hope serves as the inaugural word, bringing together the anticipation and fulfillment times of God's salvation.
The messenger, witness, and forerunner of this time of fulfillment is John the baptizer. The Second Sunday of Advent in Year B focuses on the person of John. In our text from the gospel of Mark, we hear an extensive description of John's identity. He lives in the wilderness near the river Jordan where Jesus is baptized. The baptism he offers is for his people from the Judean countryside as "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (1:4).
John's baptism is preparatory in anticipation for the coming of the Messiah. John even draws people from the city of Jerusalem, the city of religious leaders, who "were baptized by him (John) in the river Jordan, confessing their sins" (1:5). John's baptism of repentance and forgiveness is a call to the people of Judea and those in the city of Jerusalem to turn from their godless ways and receive the forgiveness that is present in God.
The description of John stretches our imagination. He is identified as a wilderness man: "John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey" (1:6). However, the primary intention of John was not to draw attention to himself, but to the one of whom he is the forerunner: "'The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me, I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals'" (1:7). John's role is that of a servant to the one he is called to serve.
The baptism of this one who is to come is radically different from that of John's baptism: "'I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit'" (1:8). This is the role that John plays out in a significant way, calling attention to the one who ushers in God's kingdom. Jesus is the Messiah whose ministry is empowered by God's Spirit.
The baptism of Jesus by John in the river Jordan is a baptism in which the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is evident: "And just as he was coming up out of the water, [Jesus] saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him" (1:10). The voice from heaven confirms who Jesus is: "And a voice came from heaven: 'You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased'" (1:11).
John fulfills the role of the one who is the forerunner, the one who is called to make known "the Messiah, the Son of God" (1:1), "the Lord" (1:3), the one who "will baptize with the Holy Spirit" (1:8), and the one who is "my (God's) Son, the Beloved" (1:11). Within the opening verses of the gospel we are introduced to Jesus, and we see and hear for ourselves the one who is "the beginning of the good news" (1:1).
This is the one who has come, who is present, and who is to come again. We too are called to announce and make known God's Son in this season of Advent. Like the witness of John, we too are witnesses to the one who incarnates "the beginning of the good news, the gospel" (1:1).
At the midpoint of the gospel, in the story of the transfiguration (9:2-13), we will again hear God's voice from heaven announcing the role and mission of Jesus: "Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him" (9:7). As we move into the second half of the gospel of Mark, we are called to listen to the final teachings and deeds of Jesus, along with the witness present in "the Son of Man (who) came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many" (10:45).
At the end of the gospel in the story of Jesus' crucifixion, we will again see the identity of Jesus made known as "the Son of God" (1:1). Throughout the gospel, the unclean and demonic spirits know who Jesus is as he has engaged in battle with them and the powers of this world. As the heavens were "torn apart" (1:10) at Jesus' baptism, the temple curtain is "torn in two from top to bottom" at Jesus' death (15:38). At the cross of crucifixion, we hear for the first time in the gospel of Mark the identity of Jesus as the Son of God on the lips of a human witness in the words of the Roman centurion: "Truly this man was God's Son" (15:39).
From "the beginning," the evangelist Mark leads us through the pages of the gospel with the intention and goal of seeing Jesus Christ as the one who is the crucified and risen Lord. This is not only the beginning of the good news, the gospel, but in Jesus' death and resurrection we have the fulfillment of all the aeons of time in Jesus Christ.
John the Baptist leads us in this Advent season to the one who is our Lord, whose birth we await and whose reign in eternity will never end. This is "the beginning of the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (1:1).
Making the Connection
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Sunday December 3, 2017 First Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 2
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7
You, LORD, are our father,
our redeemer you are named forever.
Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways,
and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes of your heritage.
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
with the mountains quaking before you,
while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for,
such as they had not heard of from of old.
No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you
doing such deeds for those who wait for him.
Would that you might meet us doing right,
that we were mindful of you in our ways!
Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful;
all of us have become like unclean people,
all our good deeds are like polluted rags;
we have all withered like leaves,
and our guilt carries us away like the wind.
There is none who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to cling to you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and have delivered us up to our guilt.
Yet, O LORD, you are our father;
we are the clay and you the potter:
we are all the work of your hands.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
R. (4) Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
O shepherd of Israel, hearken,
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power,
and come to save us.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
May your help be with the man of your right hand,
with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Reading 2 1 Cor 1:3-9
Brothers and sisters:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always on your account
for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
that in him you were enriched in every way,
with all discourse and all knowledge,
as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He will keep you firm to the end,
irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful,
and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel Mk 13:33-37
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man traveling abroad.
He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
each with his own work,
and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
Watch, therefore;
you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming,
whether in the evening, or at midnight,
or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'"
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7
Isaiah 56-66 is thought to be from the post-exilic phase—after Cyrus of Persia gave the Jewish exiles permission to return to Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple.
Isaiah 63:7 – 64:12 is a lengthy prayer of lament. Why lament? Hasn’t God arranged their release from servitude in Babylon? Hasn’t God miraculously raised up Cyrus of Persia, who not only allowed them to return to Jerusalem, but even provided resources for their journey and the rebuilding of the temple.
But their return has been painful. The city and temple lay in ruins, and their neighbors have made rebuilding difficult. Internal divisions have impeded progress. Life in Jerusalem has hardly been a bed of roses.
The prophet reminds the Lord that he is their father (63:16b). Then (astonishingly) the prayer continues, Why do you make us wander, LORD, from your ways,
and harden our hearts so that we do not fear you?*Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. (63:17).
I beg your pardon! Who was it that rebelled? I thought it was Israel. Who was it that walked out the door? Surely it was Israel. How is Israel’s infidelity suddenly God’s fault?
But the prophet is not cataloging facts, but is instead unburdening his heart of its pain. He is also trying to find words that will persuade the Lord to return to Israel (63:17b)—to save them—to make life easier for them.
The one offering the prayer concludes chapter 63 by saying, “Too long have we been like those you do not rule, on whom your name is not invoked.
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
with the mountains quaking before you” (63:19)—which is another way of saying “We regret to inform you that we have not enjoyed any benefit lately from our relationship with you. This has been very disappointing to us. Please take immediate action to remedy this unfortunate situation.”
Again, the prayer is drawing attention to the unsatisfactory quality of the current relationship of Israel with God and highlighting the plight of the Israelites in the hope of motivating God to save Israel.
And then begins our reading with the next verse, 64:1—a continuation of this prayer.
As when brushwood is set ablaze, or fire makes the water boil!
Then your name would be made known to your enemies
and the nations would tremble before you,
(v. 1a). We heard this kind of language earlier in the first section of this book, when Isaiah warned the people of the consequences that they would suffer for failing to rely on the Lord. But then he raised the hope of salvation, saying: “You will be visited by the Lord of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire” (29:6), “that the mountains might quake at your presence” (v. 1b). Israel is seismically active due to the Rift Valley through which the Jordan River flows—so the people have experienced earthquakes. They associate earthquakes with God’s presence and/or God’s judgment (Exodus 19:18; Job 9:6; Psalm 18:7; 68:8; 99:1;
In this instance, this prayer of lament asks that God would announce his presence by an earthquake.
“as when fire kindles the brushwood, and the fire causes the waters to boil” (v. 2a). This portion of verse 2 really belongs with verse 1b. Quaking mountains, burning brushwood, and boiling water are all metaphors for the kind of beyond-our-control energy represented by God’s presence.
“Then your name would be made known to your enemies and the nations would tremble before you,” (v. 2b). The purpose of these manifestations of God’s presence (quaking mountains, etc.) is to impress God’s enemies (who, presumably, are also Israel’s enemies) so that they will become properly respectful of God, (and also of Israel).
“While you worked awesome deeds we could not hope for,*
3such as had not been heard of from of old.
No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen,
any God but you working such deeds for those who wait for him” (v. 3). God has been performing awesome deeds in behalf of Israel for quite some time. The plagues on Egypt that forced Pharaoh to let Israel go come to mind—as does the deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea—and the manna in the wilderness—and the flattened walls of Jericho—and little David’s victory over giant Goliath—and so on and so forth.
With regard to quaking mountains, Sinai comes to mind (Exodus 19:18). God’s presence there was manifested by fire and smoke and a shaking mountain.
But at the moment Israel is not seeing mountains quake or fire or smoke or any other evidence that God is present. That fact lies in the background of this prayer of lament.
Would that you might meet us doing right, that we might be mindful of you in our ways! Indeed, you are angry; we have sinned, we have acted wickedly. (v. 4).
The distinguishing quality of God is that he works for—helps—saves—”those who wait for him.”
Those who worship other gods might claim to have seen demonstrations of their gods’ power, but there is no sense of those gods being in any kind of personal relationship with their people or taking care of their people. The best that can be said for those gods is that they, when placated, visit no harm on their people.
“who waits for him” (v. 4b). Waiting for the Lord means waiting with hope or expectation. Throughout scripture, we find an emphasis on waiting for the Lord (Genesis 49:18; Psalm 37: 9; Hosea 12:6; Zephaniah 3:8; Romans 8:25; Galatians 5:5). To “wait for” the Lord is to live in faith—to live in the expectation that God’s “compassion doesn’t fail”—that his mercies never come to an end—that his faithfulness is not only great but assured. To “wait for” the Lord is to live in the certainty that the Lord has the power and the will to bless those who are faithful. To “wait for” the Lord is to see beyond one’s present circumstances (such as the exile) to a future blessed by the hand of the Lord (such as the
“There is none who calls on your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of you” (v. 7a). In verse 63:19 (part of this prayer of lament), the one offering the prayer noted that Israel has become “as those who were not called by your name”—like those whose identity is no longer entwined with God’s identity.
The fallen leaf, blown away by the wind, no longer seeks a connection to the tree. Israel, having become accustomed to iniquitous behavior, no longer seeks a connection to God. She doesn’t call on God’s name, and doesn’t attempt to take hold of God.
This last phrase, “take hold of God,” brings to mind Jacob, who wrestled with God (or God’s agent) all night. Finally, God (or God’s agent) said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, “for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed” (Genesis 32:26-28). But there is no one in Israel now who has that kind of passion for wrestling with God.
he prayer says that God has delivered the people into their iniquity, but it might be more accurate to say that God has allowed them to go where they were determined to go. God did not propel them down that pathway. God did not encourage their iniquitous behavior. God simply gave them the freedom to choose their path and to walk down it.
ISAIAH 64:8-9. BUT NOW, YAHWEH, YOU ARE OUR FATHER8But now, Yahweh, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter (yo·sere·nu—the one who fashions us); and we all are the work of your hand. 9Don’t be furious, Yahweh, neither remember iniquity forever: see, look, we beg (Hebrew: hab·bet·na—Behold, please) you, we are all your people.
“But now, Yahweh, you are our Father” (v. 8a; see also 63:16). Yet, in spite of everything, God is our Father. God might be disappointed with our behavior. God might have allowed us to engage in self-destructive behavior. God might have allowed us to shrivel up and blow away, like a leaf in winter. But God’s purpose has never been our destruction. God’s hope is the hope of a Father, who always hopes against hope that the child will see the error of his/her ways and return home. The Parable of the Prodigal Son comes to mind (Luke 15).
“we are the clay, and you our potter (yo·sere·nu—the one who fashions us); and we are all the work of your hand” (v. 8b). Just as fathers and mothers love their children, artists also feel a deep affection for their art. When an artist fashions a piece of art, something of the artist is bound up in that art. Part of that has to do with the deep involvement of the artist in the creative process. Part of it is pride of workmanship. Part of it is that the work of art reflects the artists understanding of how the piece should look or sound or feel. The artist and the art are inextricably bound together.
There is an interesting phenomenon at work here. An artist might feel that his/her art is imperfect. He/she might even be reluctant to display his/her art, because the inadequacy of the art would reveal the inadequacy of the artist. However, the same artist who would be frustrated with the imperfection of his/her art would quickly bristle at a critic who would make negative comments about the art. The artist’s intolerance of his/her art is nothing compared with his/her intolerance of the art critic. That is because the artist and the art are inextricably bound together.
This prayer uses that connection of art and artist in an attempt to persuade God to forgive Israel—to redeem Israel—to save Israel. The one offering the prayer has called God a Father. Now he reminds God of the creativity that God has expended in fashioning the nation Israel—God’s people—God’s artwork. Israel might have sinned, and be as disgusting as a soiled menstrual cloth, but God should not/cannot abandon Israel, because artist and art are inextricably bound together.
“Don’t be furious, Yahweh” (v. 9a). It would be too much to pray that God would not be angry. How could God fail to be angry at Israel for its rebellious behavior? This prayer is simply that God will not be exceedingly angry—so angry that he would do things that he might regret later—so angry that he might dash the work of his hands against a wall. It is a prayer that God will keep his anger within bounds. If God will do that, Israel can hope for redemption. If not, there is no hope.
“neither remember iniquity forever” (v. 9b). This is a similar thought with a slightly different slant. It would be too much to pray that God would not notice Israel’s iniquity. How could God fail to notice Israel’s sin? Impossible! It would be too much even to ask that God would not remember Israel’s sin. This prayer asks merely that God will not remember Israel’s sin forever—into eternity. If God will do that, Israel can hope that its relationship with God might one day be restored. If not, Israel has no hope.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
Study Tools
GIVE EAR, O SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL
Belief in the God of Israel is not blind faith, but an informed trust. One expression of our confidence that the LORD is in control of all things is to make our complaints known to Him. In Psalm 80 the writer bemoans the plight of the divided tribes of Israel, and boldly expresses his perplexity at God’s dealings with them.
The Psalmist uses two metaphors: that of God as shepherd (Psalm 80:1-7; Psalm 80:17-19), and that of Israel as a vine (Psalm 80:8-16). Both of these Jesus applies to Himself (John 10:11; John 10:14; John 15:1). He as the God-man embraces both.
Asaph begins his prayer with an appeal that God will hear (Psalm 80:1). Sometimes our Shepherd seems distant, and deaf to our cries. We might need, like the Psalmist, to remind ourselves just who He is - “the one who dwells between the cherubim” - and what He has done on behalf of His church in the past (1 Samuel 7:12).
It is customary to think of our salvation as a single event, ‘when I got saved’. In one sense this is true, but it is also an ongoing event in our lives. The changes and so-called chances of life may present us with new problems as we grow from one level in our Christianity to another, so we need to call on God anew to continue His saving work within us (Psalm 80:2).
There is a refrain throughout the Psalm, growing in intensity and boldness. The appeal for our restoration is first addressed to “God” (Psalm 80:3), then to “God of hosts” (Psalm 80:7), and finally to the “LORD God of hosts” (Psalm 80:19). The prayer that God’s face would shine upon us reminds us of the Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6:24-26), and of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ transfiguration.
There is a picture in the Hebrew language of the LORD “fuming” against the prayers of His people (Psalm 80:4): “How long You fume?” This may not be anger on God’s part, but rather an expression of the Psalmist’s frustration that his prayers seem unable to penetrate the cloud of God’s glory. Sometimes our prayers might seem to reach no higher than the ceiling: nevertheless we must still pray, and tell Him about it!
This Psalm is different to another great Shepherd song, Psalm 23. There the LORD sets a table before us, but here He allegedly feeds us with the bread of tears (Psalm 80:5). God is unchangeable, but our experience of His Providence may vary from time to time.
Sometimes our neighbors bring us strife, or our enemies laugh at us (Psalm 80:6). Or, as Jesus warned us, a man’s foes may be those of his own household (Matthew 10:36). The solution is the same: we must look to Him to shine upon us, “turn us” and save us (Psalm 80:3; Psalm 80:7; Psalm 80:19), and “return” to us (Psalm 80:14).
Psalm 80:17 is clearly Messianic. It is Jesus who is at the right hand of God, ever interceding on our behalf (Romans 8:34): Jesus, whose favourite name for Himself whilst He was upon the earth was “the Son of man” (Mark 14:62). It was Jesus who was “made strong”, strengthened by an angel in the garden of Gethsemane in order that He might do God’s will (Luke 22:43).
Reading 2 1 Cor 1:3-9
It was customary for Greek and Roman letter-writers in the first century A.D. to prefix their epistles with “greetings” (Acts 15:23; James 1:1). Paul regularly uses a pun, replacing “greetings” with “grace” (1 Corinthians 1:3). In what may be a second pun here (1 Corinthians 1:4), Paul gives thanks for the Corinthians’ “grace” - possibly hinting at their gifts.
The “grace” which we receive “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” - and for that matter from the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4) - is more than just free forgiveness, although it is inclusive of that. “Grace” is also an empowering for ministry (1 Corinthians 3:10), as Paul himself testifies (1 Corinthians 15:10). “Grace” is the source of the spiritual gifts given for the benefit of all (1 Corinthians 12:8-11), and those of the leadership in particular (1 Corinthians 12:28-31).
By adding the word “peace” - the traditional Hebrew greeting - Paul internationalizes the Gospel. “Peace” does not just indicate the absence of war, but is about being complete, perfect and full. “Peace” speaks to us of health, success, well-being, rest, and harmony - and is part and parcel of our “peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
When Paul makes this special greeting, he does so as the ambassador of Christ. “Grace and peace” are the offering which we receive from the God who is pleased for us to call Him “Father” (Galatians 4:6). “Grace and peace” is the gift which we receive from God’s Son, with whom we are “joint-heirs” (Romans 8:17).
Paul offers thanksgiving to God for the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:4). This is good pastoral care: Paul wants the Corinthians to know that, even if he does have some stern words to speak to them, it is because his heart longs for them. The Apostle offers his thanksgiving to God, not just once but “always” on their behalf, and particularly gives thanks for their gift of grace.
In fact Paul celebrated the Corinthians’ giftedness, especially in speech and knowledge, in which they were enriched by God (1 Corinthians 1:5). This is part of God’s grace to them. In this the testimony of Christ has been confirmed in them, and strengthened among them (1 Corinthians 1:6).
Again Paul affirms their giftedness (1 Corinthians 1:7), by which they can patiently wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ in His glory. As with all His people, God will not hold them liable to charges, and will confirm their blamelessness at the second coming (1 Corinthians 1:8). He who has begun a good work in us will see it through to the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).
“God is faithful,” Paul reminds us (1 Corinthians 1:9). Our faith may waver, but the Lord’s kingdom is steadfast and true, far outliving the kingdoms of men (Daniel 6:26). The Lord is the One who helps us in the midst of our temptations (1 Corinthians 10:13).
The Lord is the One who calls us into the fellowship of His Son (1 Corinthians 1:9). We may think that we enter into fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ as so many individuals: but ultimately we enter in as part of His body, the church. This fellowship begins at conversion, continues in our communion with other believers, and is eternal.
Gospel Mk 13:33-37
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We have the application of this prophetic sermon. As to the destruction of Jerusalem, expect it to come very shortly. As to the end of the world, do not inquire when it will come, for of that day and that hour knoweth no man. Christ, as God, could not be ignorant of anything; but the Divine wisdom which dwelt in our Savior, communicated itself to his human soul according to the Divine pleasure. As to both, our duty is to watch and pray. Our Lord Jesus, when he ascended on high, left something for all his servants to do. We ought to be always upon our watch, in expectation of his return. This applies to Christ's coming to us at our death, as well as to the general judgment. We know not whether our Master will come in the days of youth, or middle age, or old age; but, as soon as we are born, we begin to die, and therefore we must expect death. Our great care must be, that, whenever our Lord comes, he may not find us secure, indulging in ease and sloth, mindless of our work and duty. He says to all, Watch, that you may be found in peace, without spot, and blameless.
Making the Connection
Well aware of the temptations of distractions and the danger of procrastination, you can appreciate Jesus’ message of vigilance in anticipation of the coming of the Son of Man. Remember the importance of prayer and faithfulness to God as ways to honor Jesus’ command to be alert and ready for his return in glory.
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Sunday November 26, 2017 The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Lectionary: 160
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 34:11-12, 15-17
Thus says the Lord GOD:
I myself will look after and tend my sheep.
As a shepherd tends his flock
when he finds himself among his scattered sheep,
so will I tend my sheep.
I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered
when it was cloudy and dark.
I myself will pasture my sheep;
I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD.
The lost I will seek out,
the strayed I will bring back,
the injured I will bind up,
the sick I will heal,
but the sleek and the strong I will destroy,
shepherding them rightly.
As for you, my sheep, says the Lord GOD,
I will judge between one sheep and another,
between rams and goats.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-2, 2-3, 5-6
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28
Brothers and sisters:
Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since death came through man,
the resurrection of the dead came also through man.
For just as in Adam all die,
so too in Christ shall all be brought to life,
but each one in proper order:
Christ the firstfruits;
then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ;
then comes the end,
when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father,
when he has destroyed every sovereignty
and every authority and power.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
When everything is subjected to him,
then the Son himself will also be subjected
to the one who subjected everything to him,
so that God may be all in all.
Gospel Mt 25:31-46
Jesus said to his disciples:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him,
he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him.
And he will separate them one from another,
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right,
'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.'
Then the righteous will answer him and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?'
And the king will say to them in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Then he will say to those on his left,
'Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'
Then they will answer and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,
and not minister to your needs?'
He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.'
And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS ----------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 34:11-12, 15-17
First Reading: Ezekiel 34:11-16
"Pride goes before the fall." But after the fall, what happens next? This was the question Ezekiel tried to answer for his contemporaries taken into captive exile.
As the son of a priest, Ezekiel was taken into exile by the Babylonians. Soon after, Ezekiel felt the call to prophesy among his countrymen. Through visions and strange behavior, Ezekiel tried to explain why the Jews were in exile. And he looked ahead to God's salvation.
While the Jews lost all because of their sin, they would be gathered together by the power of God. The Lord would bring the Diaspora (communities of Jews spread throughout the world) back to worship in Jerusalem, like a shepherd gathers lost sheep who strayed from the flock [34:11-12]. He care for the injured. He would return the lost sheep (the Jews in the Diaspora) and would give them a place of safety, with lust pastures [34:13-14]. But there would be judgment, for not all the lost would be innocent [34:15-17].
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-2, 2-3, 5-6
Many of David's psalms are full of complaints, but this is full of comforts, and the expressions of delight in God's great goodness and dependence upon him. It is a psalm which has been sung by good Christians, and will be while the world stands, with a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction. I. The psalmist here claims relation to God, as his shepherd (v. 1). II. He recounts his experience of the kind things God had done for him as his shepherd (v. 2, 3, 5). III. Hence he infers that he should want no good (v. 1), that he needed to fear no evil (v. 4), that God would never leave nor forsake him in a way of mercy; and therefore he resolves never to leave nor forsake God in a way of duty (v. 6). In this he had certainly an eye, not only to the blessings of God's providence, which made his outward condition prosperous, but to the communications of God's grace, received by a lively faith, and returned in a warm devotion, which filled his soul with joy unspeakable. And, as in the foregoing psalm he represented Christ dying for his sheep, so here he represents Christians receiving the benefit of all the care and tenderness of that great and good shepherd.
From three very comfortable premises David, in this psalm, draws three very comfortable conclusions, and teaches us to do so too. We are saved by hope, and that hope will not make us ashamed, because it is well grounded. It is the duty of Christians to encourage themselves in the Lord their God; and we are here directed to take that encouragement both from the relation wherein he stands to us and from the experience we have had of his goodness according to that relation.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28
1 Corinthians 15 is Paul’s most extensive presentation of Christ’s Parousia and our bodily resurrection as a result of Christ’s future coming.
That is because some of the Corinthians have rejected the notion of our bodily resurrection. We do not know for sure why this is the case. It could be that they view the soul as the immortal entity of human existence which is housed in a mortal, disposable body. Or perhaps they hold a realized eschatology which sees Christians as already participating in Christ's resurrected reality. In any case, throughout this chapter Paul mounts a sustained argument that presents the resurrection of Christ as the foundational basis for our future bodily resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:19 is not the opening of a new section but the closing of a unit begun in 15:12 wherein Paul draws out the logical inferences to the proposition that there is no resurrection of the dead. If indeed there is no resurrection of the dead, then:
In 1 Corinthians 15:19 Paul then presents the concluding implication of this argumentative chain. If Christian hope is limited by the boundary of mortal existence and does not extend to the hope of the resurrection, then Christians are the most pathetic of people since their hope is based on a mere illusion of life beyond death.
Beginning in 15:20, Paul flips around his argument. He opens with the emphatic temporal marker, “but now,” to present divine reality: Christ has been raised from the dead. His intentional use of the perfect, passive verb, “had been raised” highlights how Christ was raised by God in the past and remains resurrected into the present and future. Christ’s resurrection is the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep (a euphemism for death as a transitory but not permanent state of existence). First fruit was the first of the harvest offered to God as its choicest portion which also vouchsafes the rest of the crop. In his resurrection, Christ is the choicest portion of the eschatological harvest which also vouchsafes the rest of the eschatological harvest (an image he will repeat in 15:23a).
Most English translations of 1 Corinthians 15:21 do not quite capture what Paul is highlighting. There is no verb in the parallel clauses of v. 21a and v. 21b. Our translations seek to solve this dilemma by inserting the verbs “came/come” as if Paul is presenting the means by which death and resurrection arrive. Actually, the assumed verb should be “is” as Paul presents the reality of death and resurrection, i.e., through a human is death and through a human is resurrection of the dead.
In 1 Corinthians 15:22 Paul elucidates this reality claim. In Adam, all die. Here Paul is reflecting his broader theological perspective that Sin and Death invaded creation and enslaved humanity through Adam’s disobedience (see Romans 5:12-21). On the one hand, in baptism we were incorporated in Christ’s death and thus died to Sin so that Sin is no longer our enslaving lord (Romans 6:1-14). Nevertheless, Death still holds sway over our mortal existence so that our Adamic reality means we all die. This, however, is not the last word or our final destiny because all humanity defined by Christ will be made alive. Paul’s intentional use of the future, passive verb, “will be made alive” shows that this is a divine future event occurring at Christ’s Parousia. We do not have a mortal soul which will continue to live on after we die. Rather, we are mortal bodies who die, but through the resurrecting power of God we will be made alive.
Paul then goes on to present the culminating chain of events which will unfold at Christ’s Parousia as the end of created time and space. Christ will obliterate every antagonistic power and rule which stands in opposition to God and God’s salvific plan (1 Corinthians 15:24b, 25b). For Paul, these malevolent powers are both human and non-human. This recalls his prior claim in 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 that the rulers of this age did not comprehend God’s hidden plan and so crucified Christ. Ironically, they inadvertently began the divine sequence of events which will result in their own destruction because God has raised Christ from the dead, and his future coming will involve their annihilation. The final and ultimate enemy which Christ will obliterate is Death itself (15:26). In Paul’s theological perspective, Death is not simply the powerful ally of Sin. Death is the cosmic dark lord who has attempted to have final say over everything which God had created. Thus Paul is not thinking about death in existential terms, though he does understand that all of us feel the sting of death in our own mortal, bodily existence. Instead, Paul is thinking on a cosmic scale. In this regard, the ultimate theological question for Paul is not: “What happens to us when we die?” Rather, the ultimate theological question is, “Who has final say regarding the existence of everything in the cosmos, Death or God?” Paul’s answer is clear: At Christ’s Parousia the final victory will belong to God as humanity marked by Christ will be raised; Christ will destroy all that stands in opposition to God; and Christ will hand over everything he has liberated back to God so that God will be the everything in everything (1 Corinthians 15:24-28).
Here we discover that Easter is much bigger than Easter. On the first Easter, God established the course toward which God is drawing all reality. On that day, God did not simply change the existence of Jesus from being dead to being alive. God changed the destiny of the cosmos in the first fruit defeat of Death by raising Christ from the dead. The divine victory at Christ’s future coming will culminate in the ultimate obliteration of the ultimate enemy of God coupled with our bodily resurrection into eternal life.
Gospel Mt 25:31-46
The Lord's teaching on the final judgment challenges every disciple of Jesus to be a harbinger of God's kingdom in a broken world.
The teaching opens with apocalyptic images that convey Christ's kingship. The image of the Son of Man coming in glory reflects imagery from Daniel 7:13-14 and recalls other places in Matthew's Gospel where Jesus foretells the coming judgment (24:30-31; 26:64).
In chapter 24, after Jesus privately warns his disciples of dark days ahead when false prophets will arise and many will lose faith, Jesus tells his followers that the suffering will be interrupted by "the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (24:30). He will send out his angels to gather all the elect (24:31). In the passage under study, which marks the end of Jesus' eschatological discourse (24:1-25:46), the Son of Man has arrived with his angels and is now seated on the throne, where he is called the king (25:34).
The portrait of Christ as King is a fearsome one in this text. All the nations of the world have gathered before him and behold his majesty. This imagery recalls Zechariah 14:1-21 where every nation will recognize the kingship of the Lord as the Lord stands upon the Mount of Olives -- Jesus' own location as he teaches his disciples (Matthew 24:3).
From the throne, the king uses his authority to separate the people. To illustrate the separation of one individual from another, Jesus likens himself to a shepherd who separates his flock of sheep from the goats who are grazing in the same pasture. The sheep receive the place of honor and inherit God's kingdom (25:34).
Jesus calls the sheep those who are "blessed by my Father" (25:34). Who are the blessed ones? The blessings of the beatitudes foreshadow Jesus' eschatological teaching. Although the Greek word for "blessed" in 25:34 is not the same as the one employed in the beatitudes, both convey a blessing from God.
In the beatitudes, Jesus blesses those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake and who are reviled for their faith (5:10-11; cf. 24:9-14). Likewise, Jesus' teaching on the blessing of the sheep comes after he has warned his disciples that they will be hated by the world and tortured for his sake (24:9). In Christ's kingdom, the blessed ones are those who do not retaliate with violence, but bear witness to a new empire by serving others (25:31-46).
The blessed ones have demonstrated their faithfulness by performing acts of loving-kindness. The charge to care for the poor and the disadvantaged can be found throughout scripture, but it is especially exhibited in the ministry of Jesus. In this Gospel, Christ has announced the arrival of God's kingdom while he cures the sick (e.g., 8:28-9:8, 9:18-38; 12:9-14; 14:34-36; 15:29-31), welcomes the despised (9:9-13), and provides food for the hungry (14:13-21; 15:32-39). He orders his disciples to carry on his ministry by doing likewise (10:5-15, 40-42).
The service of the "least" concerns all people everywhere. Since Jesus has warned the disciples repeatedly of their upcoming persecution (10:16-39; 24:9-14), the context of this passage suggests that believers would certainly be among those who are suffering and imprisoned.
The primary purpose of a prison at the time was not to incarcerate individuals for an indefinite period of punishment, but to have a place for them to await trial (consider Phil 1:19-20; 2:23-24). It was often the responsibility of loved ones to provide some basic necessities while the person was in jail. Not only are believers to provide this service for one another, but they are to demonstrate Christ's love by ministering to others who may have no one to care for them.
The righteous ones performed these deeds with no idea that they were ministering to Christ. Jesus says that whenever they gave food to the hungry, welcomed a stranger, clothed the naked, or visited the sick or imprisoned, they acted in kindness toward Jesus himself. Jesus can identify with the least of these because he has walked in their shoes (cf. 8:20).
On the other hand, those who have failed to see the needs of the disadvantaged have acted as though they have never seen Jesus. They have not followed in Christ's footsteps. They have not continued to do the work that the Master has called them to do (24:45-51). They have not displayed who the real King is.
Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus' teaching has announced and illustrated the kingdom of God. God's kingdom does not function like a typical kingdom. This divine reign has invaded the world and is good news -- especially to those on the fringes of society. This rule welcomes those who have no status and seeks to serve others rather than exploit them.
The righteous have inherited this kingdom. Those who claim to follow Jesus and hope to endure to the end (24:13) are called to live faithfully to God's righteous empire.
Those who have experienced God's kingdom cannot go back to life as it once was. Stanley Hauerwas writes, "The difference between followers of Jesus and those who do not know Jesus is that those who have seen Jesus no longer have any excuse to avoid 'the least of these.'"1
The blessed ones are those who have seen a King who is not like the kings of this world. They are blessed because they know a King who brings real peace, who sees the needy, and who hears the cries of the oppressed. In God's kingdom, no one is hungry, naked, sick, or alone. To bear witness to Christ as King is to be a messenger of this kingdom--to serve others and thereby profess the invasion of God's glorious empire.
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Bring to class a picture of a crying child, a picture of a smiling child, a fork, and two clear glasses. Fill one glass with a small amount of cooking oil and the other glass with the same amount of water. Hold up both glasses for the class to see. These two liquids look alike. By the looks of them, it is hard to tell if one tastes good and one tastes bad.
Amen.
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Sunday November 19, 2017 Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 157
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
When one finds a worthy wife,
her value is far beyond pearls.
Her husband, entrusting his heart to her,
has an unfailing prize.
She brings him good, and not evil,
all the days of her life.
She obtains wool and flax
and works with loving hands.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her fingers ply the spindle.
She reaches out her hands to the poor,
and extends her arms to the needy.
Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting;
the woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her a reward for her labors,
and let her works praise her at the city gates.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
R. (cf. 1a) Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Reading 2 1 Thes 5:1-6
Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters,
you have no need for anything to be written to you.
For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come
like a thief at night.
When people are saying, "Peace and security, "
then sudden disaster comes upon them,
like labor pains upon a pregnant woman,
and they will not escape.
But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness,
for that day to overtake you like a thief.
For all of you are children of the light
and children of the day.
We are not of the night or of darkness.
Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do,
but let us stay alert and sober.
Gospel Mt 25:14-30
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
"A man going on a journey
called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them.
To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one--
to each according to his ability.
Then he went away.
Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them,
and made another five.
Likewise, the one who received two made another two.
But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground
and buried his master's money.
After a long time
the master of those servants came back
and settled accounts with them.
The one who had received five talents came forward
bringing the additional five.
He said, 'Master, you gave me five talents.
See, I have made five more.'
His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Since you were faithful in small matters,
I will give you great responsibilities.
Come, share your master's joy.'
Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said,
'Master, you gave me two talents.
See, I have made two more.'
His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Since you were faithful in small matters,
I will give you great responsibilities.
Come, share your master's joy.'
Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said,
'Master, I knew you were a demanding person,
harvesting where you did not plant
and gathering where you did not scatter;
so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground.
Here it is back.'
His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant!
So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant
and gather where I did not scatter?
Should you not then have put my money in the bank
so that I could have got it back with interest on my return?
Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten.
For to everyone who has,
more will be given and he will grow rich;
but from the one who has not,
even what he has will be taken away.
And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'"
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
The Book of Proverbs is a collection of sayings and wisdom poems that found its present form after the return of the exiles from Babylon. However, many verses surely came from the period of the monarchy in Judea before its fall.
The poem of an ideal wife (31:10-31) comprised the last major section of Proverbs. The poem described the perfect wife as prudent, industrious, and wise. Such a woman would make a prosperous business person by today's standards. But, unlike today, the ideal wife in Proverbs did all this in the shadow of her husband. According to the custom and culture, the wife was part of the husband's family, so her loyalty belonged to her spouse. Even in acts of charity [31:20] she was to advance his reputation [31:23]. Above all, two qualities stand out, stability [31:25] and fidelity to the God of Israel [31:30 b]. Notice that the qualities of sensuality and femininity were absent [31:30a].
If we strip away the notion of the wife, the remaining qualities would describe a faithful believer. Prudent and wise. Generous and industrious. Stable and faithful. We should strive for these qualities in our lives.
Do you see any of these qualities in yourself? In your spouse (if you are married)? How have these qualities improved your life?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
This, as the former, is a psalm for families. In that we were taught that the prosperity of our families depends upon the blessing of God; in this we are taught that the only way to obtain that blessing which will make our families comfortable is to live in the fear of God and in obedience to him. Those that do so, in general, shall be blessed (v. 1, 2, 4), In particular, I. They shall be prosperous and successful in their employments (v. 2). II. Their relations shall be agreeable (v. 3). III. They shall live to see their families brought up (v. 6). IV. They shall have the satisfaction of seeing the church of God in a flourishing condition (v. 5, 6). We must sing this psalm in the firm belief of this truth, That religion and piety are the best friends to outward prosperity, giving God the praise that it is so and that we have found it so, and encouraging ourselves and others with it.
Reading 2 1 Thes 5:1-6
Concerning the time span and the exact moment (of the end time), brothers, you do not have need (for anything) to be written to you, for you yourselves surely know that the Day of the Lord comes thus as a thief in the night. When (people) say, "Peace and security," then sudden destruction rises upon them, just like the (sudden) birth pang in the (pregnant) womb. But you, brothers, are not in the dark, so that the day should overtake you as a thief. For you are all sons of light, sons of the day. We are neither of the night, nor of the dark. So then, we should not fall asleep, but we should remain awake and sober.
"the time span and the exact moment" is "chronos" and "kairos" in Greek. "Chronos" is the flow of time (as in "chronological time"). "Kairos" is the exact moment (as in "the right time"). Paul echoed Jesus' warning in Acts 1:7 about speculation over the end times.
After Paul reassured the Thessalonians about the fate of those who died before the return of Jesus, he turned his attention to the favorite hobby of many Christians: speculating about the end times. He reminded his audience that trying to pinpoint the time frame of Jesus' return was futile. In fact, the Day of the Lord will come as a shock! Paul echoed a favorite image of Israel's prophets for the arrival of the Lord: the rushing onset of labor (Jer. 6:24; 22:23; Mic. 4:9). Notice that Paul implicitly saw this as God's work alone. This belief contradicted that of many Jews who believed that revolution or a righteous life would hasten the coming of the Lord. Paul inferred this was God's work alone, not man's.
Faith, however, empowered the Christian. He or she certainly knew that the Lord would return; they just didn't know when. This anticipation was not merely to be felt, but to be lived in a Christian lifestyle. Notice the qualities Paul used for the Christian who looked to the coming of Jesus. Living as children of the light, of the day. Living sober, alert lives. Paul would compare these qualities to those who lived shamefully in the shadows or in a stupor, like the sleepy or the drunk (see 5:7, not translated).
How we live reflects how seriously take the Christian message. We should live like we are ready for the coming of the Lord.
Are you ready for the coming of Jesus? How can you get ready for his return?
Gospel Mt 25:14-30
Have you ever felt like an outcast? What attitude or chain of events caused your feelings?
Think back to your childhood or adolescence. At one point you may have felt ostracized by your peers. They may have wanted more than you could give. Or, they may have rejected you for whom you were and what you could offer them. They may have taunted you mercilessly. Their barbs may have stung deeply. For a while you might have felt that the world stood against you.
In the last week's parable (Matthew 25:1-30), Jesus compared his followers to an unlikely image: unmarried teenage girls. Imagine the faces of the men in Jesus' audience who heard this parable. Utter amazement and shock. In a society that segregated by gender and that lived in clans ruled by patriarchs, the thought of men being compared to silly young girls seemed outlandish. How dare the Master berate Christian men like that?!
If that image stopped males in their tracks, imagine the power of the image in this week's gospel. The Kingdom was like an extortionist and his three henchmen. The shock must have been unbearable.
Contemporaries of Jesus believed all the wealth of the world was limited and the distribution of riches was preordained. In addition, the economic systems of the ancient world existed for many generations and had grown rigid over time. While someone could quickly amass a fortune, the general populace suspected that person of theft, bribery, or extortion. In a culture wary of change, only the devious and immoral could rise up the economic latter.
When Jesus began the parable, he created additional suspicions. The rich man most likely lived abroad (i.e., he was a foreigner). As he prepared for his journey home, he delegated his underlings to invest his fortune. While the eight silver talents described in 25:15 had a current value of $3 million, such wealth seemed uncountable to the impoverished contemporaries of Jesus. [25:14-16]
The two of the man's employees doubled the money they were given. How could they do this? Since the story assumed the rich man and his employees were non-Jews, they could lend money at exorbitant rates (30% to 50%) and enforce repayment with the threat of prison. If someone could not repay, he was jailed until his family could repay the loan (this was actually a ransom). The populace hated such lenders for their power and their wealth. They drained the poor people, taking an unfair share of a harvest or grain production as repayment. [25:24-25]
(Another explanation made the extortionist and his men tax collectors who could demand any surcharge they wanted. 50% surcharges were common. The tax collector had the power of imprisonment to enforce his levies. The poor hated these collectors as much as lenders.)
What would a cautious, honorable employee do? Bilking money from the poor was immoral. Without government controls or insurance, no investment was truly safe. So the honorable man would bury his master's money. Hidden away far from one's dwelling, no thief could find a man's gold or silver. And, since inflation in the ancient economic order was unimaginable, money maintained constant buying power from generation to generation. Even Jewish rabbis insisted that anyone who buried his master's money was not liable for it, since this was the most prudent course of action. [25:18]
Yet, Jesus belittled the prudent man and praised the extortionist as the image that revealed the Kingdom. Why would Matthew's audience be attracted to this parable? There are three possible answers. First, God worked outside the boundaries of good taste or the moral edicts of the self-righteous. God even used evil for his own ends (witness the crucifixion). Anything, even the greed of evil men, could reveal the Kingdom.
Second, Jesus ministered to the outlaw and the outcast. These people helped to form the original Christian communities. The outlaw and the outcast identified with principles in the parable as their own.
Third, Matthew's audience lived on the fringes of society. Excommunicated by Pharisaical Judaism, the Jewish-Christians of Matthew's community felt persecuted by their Jewish brethren and ignored by the non-Jews. The believers in the evangelist's community only had each other for financial and moral support. To be sure, the early faithful heard the words "Christian" and "sinner" whispered in the same sentence. For, they suffered the same public ridicule as the extortionist and his underlings.
How did Matthew's audience understand the parable? Let us look into Matthew's gospel for clues. Since the master gave his servants wealth, he meant those riches invested, even risked, for increased returns. The only parallel to an increase occurred in Matthew 13:3-9, the parable of the sower and the seed. Jesus interpreted these images in Matthew 13:18-23, where the preacher represented the sower and the Word represented the seed. The increase of the harvest represented the power of the Word in the hearts of people who became Christians.
If we draw a parallel between the two parables, the uncountable riches were the Word and the servants of the master were evangelizing Christians. Since God's Word was dynamic, the results of its use were equally dynamic. Those who preached the Word enjoyed its fruits and the promise of the Master's favor.
The most difficult parallel lay between the foreign master and God. How could anyone envision God as a ruthless extortionist? Yet, early Christians did foresee the coming of the Kingdom in violent terms. The final judgment would come swift and sure. Those who rejected the Lord would be, in turn, rejected. These included "lukewarm" or "fence sitting" followers, Christians in name only. [25:30]
The moral of the parable revealed God's ways. "...the person who has a lot will get more until its more than enough. But the person who doesn't have much will have the little he owns taken from him." [25:29] Like the extortionist, God expected much from his creatures, far more than occasional lip-service. To those who responded with loving service, he would give more, including the very life of his Son. But to those who gave little love, even that small amount would dry up and wither away. Through the eyes of the world, God ruled without mercy. But, through the eyes of his faithful, he ruled with justice and love.
While we might not realize it, we live in the end times. Ever since Christ ascended to his Father, Christians have waited anxiously for the return of their Lord in glory. For the past 2000 years, the Church has recognized the current moment as a time of favor, yet a time of judgment.
As we discussed last week, the risen Christ is fully present to us, his followers, yet we struggle against evil as they journey to meet the Lord. Sometimes, we might fall to our own self-delusions of holiness, sometimes to the lure of worldly temptation, sometimes to wiles of the Evil One. Ultimately, we will undergo a final trial, a choice between ". . . apparent solution to (our) problems . . . " and the truth. (CCC 675) A pseudo-messianic persona or force the Church calls the "Anti-Christ" will led the battle against us. This persona or force can include cults of personality or ideologies. In the end, the "Anti-Christ" (has and) will challenge God's People. Only God can deliver his faithful from the final test. We cannot save ourselves.
"The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil . . . " (CCC 677)
How have you waited upon the Lord, in spite of the challenges you face? Has your waiting been active? Explain.
God has his ways. Sometimes we feel his blessing. Sometimes we feel his distance. There are even times God may feel like the enemy. We enjoy times of intimacy as graced moments. But we might fail to realize that in times of distance and estrangement God offers us his life.
God demands much from us. Indeed, he demands everything! His edicts may sound unreasonable and may turn others away. Outsiders may view Christianity as extortion.
But, he gave everything in return, the very life of his only Son. For, he is the door to eternal life.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
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Sunday November 12, 2017 Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 154
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 6:12-16
Resplendent and unfading is wisdom,
and she is readily perceived by those who love her,
and found by those who seek her.
She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of their desire;
Whoever watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed,
for he shall find her sitting by his gate.
For taking thought of wisdom is the perfection of prudence,
and whoever for her sake keeps vigil
shall quickly be free from care;
because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her,
and graciously appears to them in the ways,
and meets them with all solicitude.
Reading 2 1 Thes 4:13-18
We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,
about those who have fallen asleep,
so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,
so too will God, through Jesus,
bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord,
that we who are alive,
who are left until the coming of the Lord,
will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself, with a word of command,
with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God,
will come down from heaven,
and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who are left,
will be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air.
Thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore, console one another with these words.
Gospel Mt 25:1-13
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
"The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins
who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
The foolish ones, when taking their lamps,
brought no oil with them,
but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps.
Since the bridegroom was long delayed,
they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
At midnight, there was a cry,
'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones said to the wise,
'Give us some of your oil,
for our lamps are going out.'
But the wise ones replied,
'No, for there may not be enough for us and you.
Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.'
While they went off to buy it,
the bridegroom came
and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him.
Then the door was locked.
Afterwards the other virgins came and said,
'Lord, Lord, open the door for us!'
But he said in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.'
Therefore, stay awake,
for you know neither the day nor the hour."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 6:12-16
Every national leader exercises authority with an eye to history. Vanity demands leaders make their mark on the world and leave a legacy. Many kings and presidents have pondered the question: how will future generations judge me?
What is the key to a favorable legacy, as well as a peaceful and profitable rule? The author of the Wisdom of Solomon had his favorite answer: wisdom! In fact he was so enamored with the virtue that he personified it in his writing. The image of wisdom the author painted was that of a young lover, a woman who waited eagerly by the gate to a man's house (so the virtue was easily available), yet aloof enough to only be available to those who sought her. "Lady Wisdom" was no commoner; she was "resplendent and unfading.." Like a classy lover, the virtue was intimate and reliable, a confidant in need. This was a virtue of those groomed for position and power.
The Wisdom of Solomon was written in the so-called "inter-Testamental" period (200 B.C. to 150 A.D.) . Composed by a Greek-speaking Jew (most likely in Alexandria, Egypt), the book was used to instruct young Jewish males in the ways of leadership.
Like the young Jews who heard these words, we, too, should seek wisdom as our guide to leadership. The comfort it brings far outweighs gains from turf battles or displays of ego. When we act wisely, we act for the good of all, not for the self.
Look upon the leadership in your community and church. How is that leadership exercised? With wisdom? How have you exercised leadership? How wise have you been in your dealings with others.
Remember it’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice.
Reading 2 1 Thes 4:13-18
Here is comfort for the relations and friends of those who die in the Lord. Grief for the death of friends is lawful; we may weep for our own loss, though it may be their gain. Christianity does not forbid, and grace does not do away, with our natural affections. Yet we should not be excessive in our sorrows; this is too much like those who have no hope of a better life. Death is an unknown thing, and we know little about the state after death; yet the doctrines of the resurrection and the second coming of Christ, are a remedy against the fear of death, and undue sorrow for the death of our Christian friends; and of these doctrines we have full assurance. It will be some happiness that all the saints shall meet, and remain together for ever; but the principal happiness of heaven is to be with the Lord, to see him, live with him, and enjoy him for ever. We should support one another in times sorrow; not deaden one another's spirits, or weaken one another's hands. And this may be done by the many lessons to be learned from the resurrection of the dead, and the second coming of Christ. What! comfort a man by telling him he is going to appear before the judgment-seat of God! Who can feel comfort from those words? That man alone with whose spirit the Spirit of God bears witness that his sins are blotted out, and the thoughts of whose heart are purified by the Holy Spirit, so that he can love God, and worthily magnify his name. We are not in a safe state unless that it is the way with us, or we are desiring to be so.
Gospel Mt 25:1-13
We conclude the church year with three parables from Matthew 25. Matthew is using themes from Jewsih apocalyptic literature. First a strong inducing of the end of the world, second diametrically opposed realities, third a belief that God is in charge and will bring a judgment against the unrighteous and vindicate the righteous. Finally this school of Jewish thought of apocalyptic literature provides ethical standards for life under great difficulties. When we hear readings from apocalyptic literature elsewhere in the liturgy it is good to keep these thmes in mind. Such writing was meant to give hope to people in persecution, to give them comfort and challenge us as well. An ethical note is found in todays parable of the wise and foolish virgins waiting for a bridegroom. In a time of great trial it is important to be prepared. Of course this story is meant to remind us about the end of time and Jesus eventual return. And no one as Jesus has earlier warned knows when that will happen except the Father. We want to be living in such a way as to be ready for Jesus arrival. There’s a dualism here as well the wise and foolish virgins. The wise prepare the foolish do not. When the doors to the wedding reception are locked those who were unprepared won’t be able to enter despite their protests that they are friends of the groom. Words alone won’t get us in. Crying out even the proper title of respect and faith is insufficient preparation for entry into the kingdom. One must remain ever ready and accomplish God’s will. Good advice even as we await the Lord’s coming.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord, by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.----------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday November 5, 2017 Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 151
THE READINGS ----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Mal 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10
A great King am I, says the LORD of hosts,
and my name will be feared among the nations.
And now, O priests, this commandment is for you:
If you do not listen,
if you do not lay it to heart,
to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts,
I will send a curse upon you
and of your blessing I will make a curse.
You have turned aside from the way,
and have caused many to falter by your instruction;
you have made void the covenant of Levi,
says the LORD of hosts.
I, therefore, have made you contemptible
and base before all the people,
since you do not keep my ways,
but show partiality in your decisions.
Have we not all the one father?
Has not the one God created us?
Why then do we break faith with one another,
violating the covenant of our fathers?
Reading 2 1 Thes 2:7b-9, 13
Brothers and sisters:
We were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children.
With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you
not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well,
so dearly beloved had you become to us.
You recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery.
Working night and day in order not to burden any of you,
we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly,
that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us,
you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God,
which is now at work in you who believe.
Gospel Mt 23:1-12
Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,
"The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people's shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,
greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.'
As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.'
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called 'Master';
you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Mal 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10
Let’s look up the beginning of this reading, the last part is Cursed is the cheat who has in his flock an intact male,
and vows it, but sacrifices to the LORD a defective one instead
Our Liturgical Setting: This year, we've been making our way through the chapters of Saint Matthew's gospel every Sunday of Ordinary Time. The editors of the lectionary usually pick a first reading that resonates with the day's gospel. In today's gospel, Jesus criticizes the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his day. Today's first reading prepares us to hear that.
The Historical Situation: The priests of this period (around 450 BC, after Judah's return from the exile in Babylon) were indifferent about their rituals and their teaching responsibilities, and often unfair in the judgments they made among the people. Malachi expresses God's outrage at this.
Proclaiming It: Notice that the person of the speaker changes in the last three short sentences. Where the prophet had been speaking in the voice of God, he switches to his own voice for three rhetorical questions. Pause before starting to proclaim those questions. Modulate your tone of voice, if you can, to bring out the difference.
You can express the divine outrage by building your volume and sharpening your tone through the first sentence and the long second sentence, until you're practically shouting "I will send a curse upon you."
When introducing the reading, pronounce the author's name MAL uh kie, where the accented first syllable rhymes with "pal," and the third syllable sounds like "eye."
Reading 2 1 Thes 2:7b-9, 13
A monk was sent by his abbot to assume the responsibilities of being the new prior of one of their daughter priories at a distant country. The monk journeyed to his destination, the priory where he was to serve as prior, and upon arrival the other monks welcomed him thinking him to be just simply one from their community who had come to help them with their work. So they sent him into the monastery to help clean the monastery. They gave him a whole list of different chores and duties to do. And he did all that was asked of him each day. After several days, the abbot arrived; and looking for the monk he had sent, he found him in the kitchen washing the dishes after the other monks had eaten.
He gathered the monks in their chapter room and he announced to them that he wanted to introduce to them their new prior. And in walked this monk that they had been putting to work, serving them and their needs, washing dishes, serving tables, cleaning the monastery, tending to the gardens…all the different duties and responsibilities. The prior amazed and impressed - an impression on the community that was long lasting. An impression that when one humbles oneself in service to others, one does simply all that is asked of them.
As we come here this weekend, we hear that we are to be a people who are to be true to our calling – a calling to give praise and glory to our God. And the manner in which we do that is in our humbly serving one another. Our willingness to put the needs, the concerns of others, ahead of our own personal needs and concerns. Our willingness to be that people who put into action what we profess – that God loves us, that God blesses us. And in turn, we show that love and that blessing through our willingness to humbly serve one another.
We are called, in a sense, to embrace humility. Humility indeed stretches us, because no one of us really likes to think of ourselves less than others. And it’s not a matter of thinking of less than others as it is more so thinking that we can serve. That we can serve one another without condition, without seeking appreciation, without seeking acknowledgement, without seeking anything in return – just simply doing what is good in service of others, because it’s good! It’s holy!
And so we come here, in a sense, to recognize that in stretching ourselves it is a matter of giving of ourselves, making gifts of ourselves, to one another. As a community of faith, and even beyond, it’s just simply serving all people.
Because of our knowing how much our God loves us, how much our God blesses us. And all that we can do is to humbly give praise and glory to our God, and we do so in our humble willingness to serve, to serve the poor, to serve the stranger, to serve our families, our friends, our neighbors, to serve anyone who is in need – just because it is good. And it is holy.
That kind of humility is what Paul speaks of in our second reading in the First Letter to the Thessalonians. Just going about and doing because it’s right, and it’s good and it’s holy. Not wanting to in any way impose upon another, but just serving others, always looking at what more can I do, what more can I do?
And as we go through this kind of a community of faith here at Epiphany, this time of year when we take time to reflect upon God’s blessings in our lives, to reflect upon how we respond to those blessings through making a pledge of stewardship, of giving of time, of talent, of treasure, we’re mindful then that it is humbling that we have recognized all that God does for us. And that we offer it humbly in service to one another, in order to continue the work of our God, bringing to light God’s love, God’s goodness, God’s mercy.
And so we gather then to give praise. We pray that we may be a people who can embrace humility. Who are willing to ask what more can I offer? What more can I do? How can I serve? And in our humble service, what we discover is how much more we were unaware of God’s great love and God’s many blessings in our lives.
God indeed loves us and blesses us beyond our imagining, and all that’s asked of us is to humbly acknowledge what our God does. Give God praise and glory and be willing to love and serve one another.
Gospel Mt 23:1-12
This passage introduces a chapter in Matthew filled with Jesus' warnings to the scribes and Pharisees.
Yet it is important to note from the onset that the narrative audience of the chapter is the Jewish crowds and Jesus' disciples (23:1), with no indication that the Pharisees or scribes are listening in. The chapter functions as a negative example for those who follow Jesus, as well as a partial rationale for the judgment on current Jerusalem leadership and the temple which will be the focus of Matthew 24.
To gain a better sense of Jesus' critique of the Pharisees, we would do well to remind ourselves of their primary motivations and distinctives. According to Josephus, the Pharisees surpassed other Jews in their knowledge of the Torah (Life, 38). They were particularly concerned to bring the practices of purification necessary for temple participation into their everyday experience. The Pharisees were not attempting to earn a place in God's covenant through their Torah observance. Instead, as part of God's covenant people, they attempted to live out faithfulness to the Law, with a strong focus on avoiding ritual defilement whenever possible.
Jesus' problem with the Pharisees and scribes is not with their intentions in relation to God per se. We see from this passage that the two significant critiques Jesus provides have to do with (1) their lack of obedience to the Torah as they teach it to the people (23:2-4); and (2) the motivation in doing the Law as a way to gain human favor and honor (23:5-7). Regarding the first, Jesus' followers are told to listen to and obey what the Pharisees and scribes teach from the Torah, since they "sit on Moses' seat." Yet Jesus will immediately qualify the authority of the Pharisees: they themselves do not practice what they preach. This may sound odd, since the Pharisees were known for their devotion to the Law. Yet, as Matthew has shown earlier in his gospel, Jesus indicts the Pharisees for their interpretation of the Torah along with oral tradition when the latter provides a way out of obeying the former. In Matthew 15, Jesus criticizes the Pharisees and scribes for putting their oral tradition above the command to honor parents, thereby breaking God's command in their attempts to keep it (15:3-6)! In addition, the Pharisees are described as putting heavy burdens on those they teach (23:4; the yoke image would have brought to mind the teaching of Torah). By this Jesus places the Pharisees in direct contrast to himself as Torah teacher, since his yoke--his teaching of Torah--is easy and light, not heavy and burdensome (11:28-30), in part because his interpretation of the Torah places centrality on love, mercy, and justice.
Just as Jesus has called his disciples to a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees (5:20), in Matthew 23:1-4 he calls his disciples into faithful obedience in contrast to these leaders. Matthew also alludes back to earlier teaching, reminding them that Jesus' interpretation of the Torah brings life and rest (11:28-30). Both of these reminders can be contextualized in our preaching. Faithful obedience--loyalty to God and God's word--is to be central to Christian living (cf. 23:23). In a cultural context that worships freedom from tradition and constraints--in which religious regulations or laws are often viewed, de facto, as heavy and burdensome--Jesus calls his followers to faithfulness and obedience with the assurance that his teachings are easy loads to bear (11:28-30). Matt 23:1-4 also reminds Christian leaders to reflect upon their own teaching: Are we placing heavy burdens upon those entrusted to us without lifting a finger in aid? Or do we share the teachings of Jesus that bring promised rest?
Jesus' second critique of the scribes and Pharisees is that they do the religious practices for the wrong audience (23:5-7; see parallel ideas in 6:1-18). They wear the required religious garment with fringes (per Numbers 15:37-40), but they accentuate the length "to be seen by others" (23:5). They seek honor from people rather than praise from God alone for their religious observance. Nowhere do we hear Jesus faulting their religious practice per se. Instead, he is highly critical of their misplaced focus upon human accolades.
In contrast, Jesus' followers are prohibited from elevating anyone among them over the others. This is quite a counter-cultural call! Seeking places of honor and the best seats in public gatherings as the Pharisees are described as doing (23:6-7) would have been the acceptable and expected behavior in the first century context. Jesus' renunciation of status concerns and practices in his community would have been difficult to fully envision in that context. In fact, earlier in Matthew the disciples struggle to understand Jesus' teaching on status reversal (cf. 18:1-5; 19:30-20:16; 20:20-28).
This particular message from Matthew continues to speak with relevance to the contemporary church. For, even if we believe ourselves to be more democratic than our ancient brothers and sisters, it is often the case that "the Christian community resembles a Wall Street exchange of works wherein the elite are honored and the ordinary ignored.” The hope offered us as we address these difficult issues is a gracious heavenly Father and Jesus our Messiah who will continue to instruct us and lead us as communities of faith (23:10).
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Amen.
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Sunday October 29, 2017 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 148
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 22:20-26
Thus says the LORD:
"You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.
If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;
then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.
"If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people,
you shall not act like an extortioner toward him
by demanding interest from him.
If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge,
you shall return it to him before sunset;
for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body.
What else has he to sleep in?
If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
R. (2) I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD lives and blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
Reading 2 1 Thes 1:5c-10
Brothers and sisters:
You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord,
receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit,
so that you became a model for all the believers
in Macedonia and in Achaia.
For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth
not only in Macedonia and in Achaia,
but in every place your faith in God has gone forth,
so that we have no need to say anything.
For they themselves openly declare about us
what sort of reception we had among you,
and how you turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God
and to await his Son from heaven,
whom he raised from the dead,
Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.
Gospel Mt 22:34-40
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him by asking,
"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
He said to him,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 22:20-26
“My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword.”
Did our loving, life-affirming God just utter those words?
Such references to violence and vengeance often turn people away from exploring the Old Testament. In fact, it is uncommon for the Church to use passages such as the above in its sacred liturgy. Even in the New Testament we see God striking sinners dead! (Read Acts 5.) How can there be any place for violence and vengeance in the Bible?
To understand, we first have to consider that Israel’s belief in one God (monotheism) developed over a loooong period of time. In its earliest history, the people who would become the nation of Israel imagined God as one of many gods. These gods were understood in very human terms, with human characteristics and behaviors reflecting the worldview of the time. From this perspective, it was important that Israel's God be strong enough to be able to take care of Israel. Perception is everything, and no one would follow a "wimpy" God--what was the point of a god, they thought, except to protect his or her people?
So early on, the Lord God of Israel was understood primarily as a “warrior” who went before Israel in battle. But as time went on, Israel came to understand that God's life-affirming role went beyond protecting God's people against their enemies. In particular, Israel's experience of exile enabled the nation to see God as the very fabric of their lives and of their hearts, the “creator” God whose love for them was expressed in many different ways.
And even today God's power is an important part of our understanding of who God is. Even as the ancient worldview of "many" gods moved aside for Israel's fierce monotheism, God's role as a warrior for the defenseless and upright continued (check out Exodus 22:20-23 and any of the prophetic writings--Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and so on).
Israel, like us, had to mature spiritually in an understanding of God. It is all part of the spiritual process that reveals a caring, merciful and just God to whom we draw closer each day in knowledge and love.
We really don't know our God if we don't know the contours of our relationship with God, from the beginning. The Catholic Biblical School can help with that!
Reading 2 1 Thes 1:5c-10
Thessalonica was (and still is) an important seaport about 185 miles (300 km) north of Athens. In Paul’s day, the region in which Thessalonica was located was known as Macedonia. Today, it is northern Greece. In return for its support of Augustus, the Romans made Thessalonica a free city in 43 B.C.
Paul, Silas, and Timothy visited Thessalonica on Paul’s Second Missionary Journey (NOTE: Silas is his name in the book of Acts, written by Luke. In Paul’s writings, he is known as Silvanus). Paul and Silas had been in Philippi, but were imprisoned there on the complaint of the owner of a slave girl from whom Paul had exorcised a demon. An earthquake freed them that night, but they remained in the jail until the following morning. Learning that they were Roman citizens, the magistrates apologized, freed them, and asked them to leave Philippi (Acts 16).
They then went to Thessalonica, where on three successive Sabbaths they attended the synagogue and presented their case for Jesus as the Messiah. They made a number of converts, primarily among devout Greeks (Acts 17:4)—Gentiles sympathetic to Judaism, but who had not yet become full-fledged Jewish proselytes.
Jewish leaders, unhappy about these conversions, complained to the authorities that Paul and Silas were claiming that there was a king named Jesus (Acts 17:7). As a result of the ensuing conflict, Paul and Silas left for Berea (Acts 17:10). Jewish leaders from Thessalonica followed them to Berea, “agitating the multitudes” (Acts 17:13). Silas and Timothy stayed temporarily in Berea, while Paul went to Athens (Acts 17:14). Paul sent word to Silas and Timothy to rejoin him, which they did (Acts 17:15).
Paul then went to Corinth, where he stayed for a considerable time (Acts 18). Silas and Timothy rejoined him there (Acts 18:5). It was there, after opposition by Jewish leaders, that Paul said, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!” (Acts 18:6).
Paul sent Timothy to assist the church at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 3:2). Timothy brought back a good report (3:6ff.), but expressed concern about their understanding of the status of “those who have fallen asleep in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:14).
• Paul assures the Thessalonian Christians that “the dead in Christ will rise first” when Jesus comes again (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
• He reminds them that “the day of the Lord (will come) like a thief in the night” (5:2)—and that the unrepentant will find no escape (5:3).
• He reminds them also that they are “children of light” (5:5), which assures their salvation (5:8-9).
• He encourages them to “build each other up” (5:11)—and “to respect and honor” “those who are over you in the Lord” (5:12-13)—”to admonish the disorderly”…and to “be patient toward all” (5:14).
• He says, “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks” (5:16-18).
• He tells them to “test all things” (5:21) and to “abstain from every form of evil” (5:22).
THE IMMEDIATE CONTEXT:In verses 1-5b, Paul, including the names of Silvanus and Timothy, expressed their greetings and wishes for grace and peace (v. 1). They remembered the Thessalonians in their prayers—”remembering…your work of faith and labor of love and patience” (vv. 2-3). Paul reminds them that God has chosen them, and that the Good News came to them in power, through the work of the Holy Spirit (vv. 4-5ab).
1 THESSALONIANS 1:5c. WHAT WE SHOWED OURSELVES TO BE5c You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake.
“You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake” (v. 5c). Paul and his colleagues had preached an authentic word in Thessalonica—a reliable word. They had been intent on pleasing God rather than the people to whom they were preaching (2:4). They used no words of flattery to manipulate their hearers (2:5). They sought no human-dispensed glory (2:6). They worked to support themselves so that they might not impose a financial burden on the people to whom they were preaching (2:9). The Thessalonian Christians had seen this. They had experienced the integrity of Paul and his colleagues—their unselfishness—their agape love. All of those things contributed to their confidence that Paul and his colleagues were telling the truth—that they were serving God rather than promoting some sort of private agenda.
1 THESSALONIANS 1:6-7. YOU BECAME AN EXAMPLE6 You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia.
“You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction“ (v. 6a WEB). Having seen the authenticity of Paul and his colleagues (see the comments above on v. 5), the new Christians in Thessalonica responded by imitating them. As they did so, they were also imitating the Lord. The Thessalonian Christians had suffered just as Christ had suffered—and just as Paul and his colleagues had suffered in the furtherance of their preaching ministry.
In the next chapter, Paul will mention how he and his colleagues suffered and were shamefully treated in Philippi (2:2). The book of Acts includes a number of accounts of Paul’s suffering in the service of Christ (Acts 9:28-29; 13:50; 14:4, 19; 16:22-24; 21:30-36; 22:22-25; 23:1-10). In his second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul gave a summary statement of his sufferings in Christ’s service. He was imprisoned, beaten, stoned, and shipwrecked. He endured perils of rivers and robbers—perils from Jews and Gentiles—perils in cities, in the wilderness, and at sea. He was frequently hungry and thirsty—cold—even naked. Above and beyond all that, he experienced daily anxiety for the fledgling churches he had founded (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).
“with joy of the Holy Spirit“ (v. 6b WEB). These Thessalonian Christians experienced joy in spite of their troubles. Before they had known Christ, they could look forward only to an uncertain future. Now they live in the assurance that the Holy Spirit—God’s Spirit—dwells in them, guiding and strengthening them. Furthermore, they live in the conviction that Christ’s death and resurrection have guaranteed their own salvation. Those things make it possible for them to be joyful in the midst of lives that are often difficult (see also 5:16—”Rejoice always!”).
“so that you became an example (Greek: typos) to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia“ (v. 7 WEB). Greeks used the word typos to refer to the mark or impression made by striking something with a patterned image. As a tentmaker, Paul would have worked primarily with leather—and leather lends itself to stamped images. However, a stamped image would need to be clear and accurate to be of value.
Paul tells the Thessalonian Christians that they have provided a faithful example (typos)—a witness with far-reaching impact.
Macedonia was the northern region and Achaia the southern region of the area that we know today as Greece. Paul is telling these Thessalonian Christians that their suffering for Christ—and their joy in Christ—has made them powerful witnesses throughout that part of the world—north to south—border to border.
A life well-lived is a sermon well-preached—a truth not limited to the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Roman philosopher, Seneca—contemporaneous with Paul and his colleagues—said, “We reform others unconsciously when we walk upright.” So we do!
We usually think of witnessing as something that we do for the benefit of unbelievers. It is, indeed, a wonderful thing to see the light of faith begin to shine in the heart of someone who has heretofore lived in darkness. It is especially wonderful to know that our witness helped to make that possible. But in this verse, Paul tells these Thessalonian Christians that they have become “an example to all who believe.” In other words, the Thessalonian example has been a special blessing to those who have already embraced Christ. Why would that be important? Why would someone who already believes in Christ need to see the faithful example of another believer?
The Gospel of Mark tells a lovely story of a father who brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus. When the father asked Jesus to heal his son, Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” The father responded, “I believe. Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24). That father’s response is a prayer that all of us would do well to memorize—and to pray. “I believe. Help my unbelief!”
Many people believe, but none believes perfectly. Our faith-journey sometimes feels as if we are walking a tightrope—and in a sense we are. We are buffeted by forces that threaten to throw us off-balance. The stronger our faith, the more determined is the tempter to unseat us. Therefore, we always need help, and the community of believers (the church) is one of the best places to find that help. When we fellowship with other believers, their faith strengthens ours—and our faith strengthens theirs.
When my wife and I visit the big city, we worship at a large, vital church that our son discovered when going to college there. That church includes personal testimonies in their worship services, a tradition less popular today than in earlier times. They structure those testimonies pretty tightly. Shortly before the sermon, one of the ministers interviews a member of the congregation who has agreed to give his or her testimony. Sometimes the testimony involves a husband and wife with babes in arms or children standing alongside—a particularly charming touch. The questions and answers have been practiced beforehand, giving the testimony a bit of a contrived flavor. Nevertheless, those testimonies are compelling. The congregation collectively holds its breath, listening intently to every word. It would be appropriate to tell the person or persons offering their testimony, “you (have) become an example to all who believe.”
1 THESSALONIANS 1:8: FROM YOU THE WORD OF THE LORD HAS BEEN DECLARED8 For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out; so that we need not to say anything.
“For from you the word of the Lord (Greek: tou kuriou) has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out“ (v. 8a WEB). “The word of the Lord” could mean “the word of God the Father” or “the word of Christ” or both. In the New Testament, it most often appears to mean “the word of Christ”—but the ambiguity may be intentional.
These Thessalonians have not only received the word of the Lord, but have also declared it—preached it—disseminated it. As noted above, their faithful witness has spread widely—from Macedonia to Achaia—from north to south—and to every place where the witness of their faith has touched.
We need to hear this, because we are always tempted to think that our personal witness or that of our small congregation has little potential. However, those Thessalonian Christians were few in number. They weren’t accustomed to traveling far and wide. They could not use radio, television, the Internet, cell phones, etc. to spread the word. Nevertheless, they somehow declared the word of the Lord in such a way that it made a positive impact far and wide—on whomever their witness touched.
“so that we need not to say anything“ (v. 8b WEB). This is hyperbole—exaggeration for effect—overstatement to make a point. Paul and his colleagues are busily preaching and writing on an ongoing basis, and they know the value of their words (Romans 10:15-17). But they also know the importance of encouraging the faithful Christians in Thessalonica to continue being faithful, so they include this bit of over-the-top praise.
1 THESSALONIANS 1:9-10. YOU TURNED FROM IDOLS TO A LIVING GOD9 For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
“For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you“ (v. 9a WEB). Who are “they”? They would be those from Macedonia, Achaia, and elsewhere who have been positively influenced by the example of the Thessalonian Christians.
Those people have told Paul and his colleagues that they have heard good reports about the reception that the Thessalonian Christians accorded them. That was true of devout Greeks (Acts 17:4)—Gentiles sympathetic to Judaism, but who had not yet become full-fledged Jewish proselytes. It was not true of Jewish leaders who became upset when these devout Greeks became followers of Jesus (Acts 17:7-10). Those leaders even followed Paul and his colleagues to Berea, where they agitated the people (Acts 17:13).
But Timothy has visited Thessalonica again, and his report tells us that that the Christians there continued to enjoy strong faith in Christ and an abiding relationship with Paul and his colleagues.
“and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God“ (v. 9b WEB). This is key! The Thessalonian Christians had turned from the worship of idols—inanimate, dead idols—to the worship of the living God. They had moved from the worship of that which is counterfeit to that which is real. People had noticed the difference in their lives, and were favorably impressed. The proclamation of the Gospel was enhanced by their witness.
“and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom (the true God) raised from the dead—Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come“ (v. 10 WEB). The early Christian community eagerly awaited Christ’s Second Coming. Paul had obviously included this emphasis in his earlier preaching in Thessalonica, and he will emphasize it again in this letter (5:2-6).
The fact that God raised Jesus from the dead authenticated his status as Son of God. Later, it also authenticated the proclamation of the apostles.
It was appropriate for these Christians to look forward to Christ’s Second Coming, because Paul had assured them that Christ would deliver them from the wrath to come. They would not suffer the judgment that the wicked would experience at the end of time.
Gospel Mt 22:34-4
Re you familiar with the musical play – “Fiddler on the Roof.”
The play is set in an impoverished Russian village, Anatevka, populated largely by Jewish families, at a time when Russia was ruled by the Tsar. The people of the village were of simple faith and lived close to the land. They heard little news of the outside world and their lives were governed strictly by their age-old traditions.
As the curtain opens for the first act, the attention of the audience is drawn to the roof of a house on the stage. A violin begins a haunting tune and the shadow of a fiddler, violin tucked under his chin, is seen playing and dancing gaily on the roof.
The lights come on the stage and the first person we meet is Tevye the dairy farmer. His opening words go something like this. “A fiddler on the roof? Sounds crazy no?… You might say that every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant simple tune without breaking his neck … It isn’t easy! … How can we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word. Tradition! Because of our tradition we have kept our balance for years … Because of our tradition everyone knows who he is and what God expects of him…. Tradition! Tradition! Without our tradition our life would be as shaky as… as … as a fiddler on the roof!”
Like Tevye, the Pharisees were concerned with tradition. Like Tevye, the Pharisees knew that without Israel’s traditions life would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof. Like Tevye, they knew the importance of knowing who we are and what God expects of us.
The Pharisees tried to trick Jesus by asking him a theological question. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (v. 36). The Pharisees asked Jesus attempting to trick him with a theological question. Jesus answered by quoting the Old Testament and the tradition that the Pharisees respected so much. He said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (vv. 37-39).
There is nothing new in Jesus’ answer. This is not something original. In Jewish writings long before Jesus’ time, these two commandments summarised the whole of the law. In fact Luke’s Gospel attributes this summary not to Jesus but to the Jewish lawyer who asked Jesus what he must do to receive eternal life (Luke 10:26-27). Jesus asked him,
“What is written in the law? How do you read it?” The lawyer replies, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
Every Pharisee, every Jew — even Tevye the dairy farmer in the village of Anatevka — knew those words. These words are the essence, the beginning and the ending of the Jewish piety. In Deuteronomy we read, “Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God; Yahweh is one: and you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). These words were to be recalled in the morning and in the evening. They were to be taught to the children. And they were recited just before the moment of death.
“A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (v. 39), Jesus continued. Jesus went to the heart of the Pharisees’ tradition — and his own. He quoted the Law in Leviticus dealing with right conduct toward the neighbor. He went on, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (v. 40).
The Jews had been out to trap Jesus. First, the Pharisees and the Herodians had a go with a question whether taxes should be paid to the Emperor or not. A question to get Jesus to condemn himself with his own answer.
Then the Sadducees try out a tricky question on Jesus about a woman who marries seven times. Which husband will she have when the dead will be raised to life? Again a question to trick Jesus because the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection.
And now the Pharisees test Jesus again to try and find out where he stands in regard to the traditional faith, the faith of the fathers. And in his reply, we find that Jesus had a great respect for tradition. He goes to the very heart of the Jewish faith and quotes passages of the Old Testament. Earlier in Matthew’s Gospel we hear that Jesus hasn’t come to do away with Israel’s faith. We hear him say, “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18). Jesus has great respect for the traditional faith, but not necessarily the traditional interpretation of the Pharisees.
The Jewish idea of responsibility when it comes to who is to be loved goes like this. Everyone was to love God, that was compulsory. But everyone else was graded as to how much love they were to be given. There were those people to whom it was a responsibility to show love. Those on the outer circles of the community, like outcasts, sinners, tax collectors, Gentiles, Samaritans etc, some were to be loved less, or others were owed no love whatsoever. The Pharisees had established many laws to help people in their observance of this command. These laws told people whom they were to love, and whom they could ignore.
By saying that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love your neighbour, this gives a new slant to the traditional interpretation. To love God that was clear enough but to also say to love one another in the same breath puts both of these commands on an equal footing. One is not more important than the other. To love God is to love my neighbour and to truly love my neighbour is to love God. In fact, we can’t make any sense out of Jesus’ radical command to love our enemies unless we first recognise the love that God has for us and loves us in such a radical way even though we are his enemies because of sin.
The love of God and the love of our neighbor are inseparable. You cannot claim to love God if you don’t love your neighbor. Essentially the entire law of God can be boiled down to two simple commandments: Love God with your whole being; and love whomever God puts next to you as you love yourself.
The late Henry Hamann said in his book on Matthew’s Gospel: “Jesus does not separate love for God from love for man, since the latter flows from the former, and since without the latter the former is impossible”.*
Before we go any further we need to understand what Jesus means here when he uses the word love. That little four letter word “love” is used in many contexts. We talk about loving our dog, loving strawberries and ice-cream, or loving a member of the opposite gender. When we use the word love like that we are expressing our affection and have warm feelings for whatever it is that we are loving. Because we associate the word “love” with affection it’s no wonder that we have difficulty loving those people who annoy us, those who have hurt us, and those who don’t deserve to be loved.
When the Bible talks about love it primarily means a love that keeps on loving, it means commitment. We may have warm feelings of gratitude to God when we consider all that he has done for us, but it is not warm feelings that Jesus is demanding of us. It is stubborn, unwavering commitment. It follows then that to love one another, including our enemies, doesn’t mean we must feel affection for them, rather it means a commitment on our part to take their needs seriously, just as God committed himself to taking our needs seriously by sending his Son into this world. You see this in marriages where because of the aging process one partner has become physically incapacitated, difficult to live with, very demanding, and yet the other partner keeps on caring and putting up with it all. That’s coming close to the biblical idea of love. It’s that commitment even though it isn’t deserved. It’s that stubborn, unwavering commitment to the other person’s needs often at a great sacrifice to him/herself. That’s where many marriages go wrong. The couple say they are in love – they have warm feelings for each but not the commitment. When the warm feelings fade so does their marriage.
This kind of love doesn’t come naturally. It is true that this kind of love comes from God, but putting it into practice is something we have to work on. Love – commitment – is a deliberate action of the will. To love means deliberately to turn toward another person and their needs, to give away something of ourselves to someone else without thinking of what we will get in return. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 15:25-37) we see an example of a man loving his enemy, committing his money, time and energy to seeing to the needs of the man lying in the gutter. He stopped to help and to hang with the consequences. All he could see was someone in need. This kind of love/commitment is self-sacrificing. It is putting the other person first, whether it is God or our neighbour.
In all honesty, it doesn’t take much imagination to realize that this kind of love has been in short supply in our lives. In fact, if we could love perfectly then there would be no more sin in our world. If we loved perfectly, if we were able to be truly committed to other people, then there would be no more violence, or war, what we say and do would only be gentle, kind and caring.
Because this is not the case Jesus came to pay for our lovelessness. He showed us what true love is. His love touched the dumb, the deaf, the diseased, the disabled. His love warned, wept and washed dirty feet. His love told of a shepherd searching for lost sheep, a Father rushing out to embrace and kiss his lost son as he welcomed him home. His love turned the other cheek, and willingly walked that extra mile. His love carried a cross — and died upon it! His love welcomed each of us into God’s family, forgiving our sin in the water of our Baptism. Because of Jesus you are perfect saints in the eyes of God. Eternal life is yours in Christ. Forgiveness of sins is yours. The perfect love of God is yours.
We no longer have to love; we get to love.
We don’t love in order to get to heaven; we love because heaven is already ours in Christ.
We don’t love in order to win God’s favor; we love because we already have God’s favor in Christ.
We don’t love so that God will love us; we love because God has loved us in Christ with the greatest love we will ever know, the crucified love of Jesus.
Jesus came to make us more loving. What form this loving takes is not important, but what is important is that it does take place. When you fail, remember Jesus loves you, and let his love shine through you into the lives of the people around you.
The Pharisees continue to test Jesus with a question about the greatest commandment.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
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Sunday October 22, 2017 Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 145
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 45:1, 4-6
Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus,
whose right hand I grasp,
subduing nations before him,
and making kings run in his service,
opening doors before him
and leaving the gates unbarred:
For the sake of Jacob, my servant,
of Israel, my chosen one,
I have called you by your name,
giving you a title, though you knew me not.
I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.
It is I who arm you, though you know me not,
so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun
people may know that there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, there is no other.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10
R. (7b) Give the Lord glory and honor.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
R. Give the Lord glory and honor.
For great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
awesome is he, beyond all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are things of nought,
but the LORD made the heavens.
R. Give the Lord glory and honor.
Give to the LORD, you families of nations,
give to the LORD glory and praise;
give to the LORD the glory due his name!
Bring gifts, and enter his courts.
R. Give the Lord glory and honor.
Worship the LORD, in holy attire;
tremble before him, all the earth;
say among the nations: The LORD is king,
he governs the peoples with equity.
R. Give the Lord glory and honor.
Reading 2 1 Thes 1:1-5b
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians
in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
grace to you and peace.
We give thanks to God always for all of you,
remembering you in our prayers,
unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love
and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,
before our God and Father,
knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God,
how you were chosen.
For our gospel did not come to you in word alone,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.
Gospel Mt 22:15-21
The Pharisees went off
and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.
They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,
"Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion,
for you do not regard a person's status.
Tell us, then, what is your opinion:
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?"
Knowing their malice, Jesus said,
"Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
Show me the coin that pays the census tax."
Then they handed him the Roman coin.
He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?"
They replied, "Caesar's."
At that he said to them,
"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 45:1, 4-6
This passage stands in the center of the first half of Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55), which was composed in the middle of the sixth century BC to encourage Judeans scattered by the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC to return and rebuild their city and temple.
After a double introduction in Isaiah 40:1-11 and 40:12-31, chapters 41 to 47 unfold through repetition of several themes concerning God’s uniqueness (see verses 5-6), God’s creative power (see verse 7), and God’s plans in history (see especially verses 1-3), as well as Israel’s standing as God’s chosen servant (see v. 4). All of these motifs have occurred already in previous chapters, but here they united to make utterly explicit what the prophet believes God is doing.
The themes of God’s uniqueness and creative power were especially prominent in 40:12-31, which began with the question, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span?” The issue of the existence and power of other gods continued in several passages regarding idols and idol makers (40:19-20; 41:6-7; 42:17; and especially the extended satirical piece in 44:9-20).
God’s unanswered challenge to other gods to speak up for themselves is voiced in 41:21-24, 28-29. Although God’s uniqueness is remembered again in Isaiah 42:8; 43:10-11; 44:6-8, it is especially prominent throughout chapter 45 (see verses 5, 6, 14, 18, 21, 22; and 46:9). God’s creative power is reiterated in 40:20; 42:5; 43:1, 7, 21; 44:2, 21, 24. Israel’s standing as God’s chosen servant began to emerge with the questions in 40:27, but is announced fully in 41:8-10 (see also 41:14; 43:1-7; 44:1-2).
Especially prominent in the first verse of this chapter is the name of the Persian conqueror credited with taking over Babylon in the 540s and allowing exiles to return home. Foreshadowings of this announcement appear first in Isaiah 40, where verse 3 says, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” and verse 10 announces, “See, the Lord God comes with might.” Chapter 41 builds on this expectation by referring to “a victor from the east” (verse 1), whom God has summoned, along with his sword and drawn bow.
This vision is reinforced in 41:25 with, “I stirred up one from the north, and he has come.” God’s own military might reappears in 42:14-15 and 43:14-17. In the last verse of chapter 44, just before this passage begins, the prophet names Cyrus for the first time, portraying the Persian conqueror as God’s obedient agent who “shall carry out all my purpose” (44:28).
All these themes converge explicitly in Isaiah 45:1-7, as the writer imagines Cyrus as God’s anointed (a term formerly reserved for Israelite rulers and priests), a victor subduing nations with God’s guiding. God calls Cyrus by name, even though this king does not know who God is. Thus an event dawning on Babylon’s and Israel’s political horizon, an event begging for interpretation, is credited to God who, as the prophet claims, is in charge of all things in creation and history, who forms light and creates darkness, who makes both weal and woe.
Creation themes from Genesis 1 are both recollected and disputed here, since Genesis 1:3 credited God with calling light into being, but not darkness, and the creation story reiterated seven times God’s characterization of the emerging world not as woeful but only good, even very good.
Continuing past the lectionary passage, Isaiah 45 goes on to argue against anyone who might critique the notion that God could use Cyrus in this way. Verses 12 and 13 specifically set Cyrus’s divine calling in parallel to God’s act of creating earth, heavens, and humankind (see also the reiteration in v. 18). He will once again be mentioned in 46:11 as “a bird of prey from the east, the man for my purpose from a far country.” After the elaborate announcements of God’s plans that reach their crescendo in chapter 45, the Babylonian gods Bel and Nebo (46:1-7), and “virgin daughter Babylon” herself (47:1-15), are described as humiliated, defeated, and exiled.
The Persian conqueror Cyrus, founder of the Achaemenid Empire, ultimately created the largest empire the ancient Near Eastern world had yet witnessed. He is also known from other historical sources. Not only is he mentioned approvingly in 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 and thirteen times in Ezra 1-6, as well as in the later book of Daniel, but he is remembered in monuments such as his magnificent tomb and the column that depicts and names him in his capital Pasargadae, now in Iran.
The cuneiform Nabonidus Chronicle, which relates Cyrus’s conquest of Babylon and his reign, is a copy of a text thought to have been composed within a generation or two of Cyrus’s life. The Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century B.C.E. also wrote extensively about him, as did other Greek and later Roman historians.
But the most famous ancient text concerning Cyrus outside the Bible is the Cyrus cylinder. This writing, like Scripture, depicts the king as a liberator of conquered peoples and a supporter of diverse temples. Unlike the expectations expressed in Isaiah, his conquest of Babylon is described in the cylinder as peaceful, and welcomed by the people and priests of Babylon, who had been neglected by Nabonidus, the final Babylonian king. The cylinder does not mention the Jewish people in Babylon specifically, but its ideology stands consistent with depictions of Cyrus’s policies in the Bible. In 1971 the Cyrus cylinder was declared by the United Nations to be an early declaration of human rights.
The pro-Persian stance of this passage contrasts with biblical views of other empires, including Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome. Thus it stands in some tension with Matthew 22:15-22, which depicts the debate between some Pharisees and Jesus over paying taxes to Caesar, in which Jesus suggests indifference to both pro- and anti-Roman sentiments, saying instead “give to God the things that are God’s” (verse 22). It also appears at least at first to stand in tension with Psalm 96, which depicts God alone as sovereign. But in its suggestion that even world emperors, however unknowingly, are subject to divine decree, this passage reconciles political rule with divine reign.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10
Psalm 96:1-9 calls all people of the earth and indeed the earth itself to sing praise to God and to worship God in God’s temple.
This section of the psalm is dominated by imperatives that call forth that praise: “sing to the Lord;” “tell of his salvation;” “declare his glory;” “ascribe glory and strength;” and “worship the Lord.” The opening call to sing a “new song” does not elicit a song with fresh lyrics or music, but a song with universal scope that declares the extent of God’s sovereignty. Such a song is new is that it “breaks out of the category of space and time and embraces all things.”[1] Although the song appears on the lips of God’s people who worship in the temple, it recognizes God’s guidance of and reign over all creatures.
The reason for the praise the psalm evokes is the identification of God as the one true lord of heaven and earth, the maker of all things (verses 4-6). The song originated in a time and place in which many deities were recognized. Every nation had its gods and claimed them to have sovereignty. The Babylonians, for example, declared that their chief deity, Marduk, created the earth and ruled over it.
Psalm 96:5 declares, however, that Marduk and the other gods are merely idols. That is, the images that represented them were the extent of their reality. Only God was real and powerful and therefore worthy of praise. With this claim Psalm 96 stands close to Second Isaiah who proclaims that Israel’s God is the true creator and only this God has sovereignty over the earth (Isaiah 40:18-20).
Psalm 96:7-9 are almost identical to Psalm 29:1-2. It is possible that Psalm 96 borrowed this section from Psalm 29. If that is the case, however, Psalm 96 has altered the language to fit its context. While Psalm 29 is set in the heavenly realm, with its call for the heavenly beings to ascribe glory to God, Psalm 96 addresses those gathered in the earthly temple. Indeed, Psalm 96:7-9 invites all humankind to “ascribe” strength and glory to the Lord and to offer in his courts worship that is appropriate for the sovereign God.
Psalm 96:1-9, with its testimony of God’s rule over the earth (see also verse 10, “The Lord reigns!”), is part of a grouping of psalms that focus on the reign of God (see Psalms 93, 95-99). These psalms are sometimes categorized as “enthronement psalms” because of they speak of God’s eternal kingship. This psalm and the larger group of enthronement psalms appear in a section of the book of Psalms (Book IV, Psalms 90-106) that seems to be organized to deal with the theological crisis of the Babylonian exile in 587 BCE.
The theological crisis is expressed in many of the psalms that precede this section (Book III, Psalms 73-89). Such psalms painfully related doubts about Israel’s core beliefs (the central role of Jerusalem and the Davidic king in God’s plan, for example). But Psalm 96 along with the other enthronement psalms reminded those who doubted that God was still in control, that God is the one who “made the heavens” (96:5) and therefore God is able to secure the future for God’s people.
What is striking about the claims of Psalm 96 is how untrue many of the statements in the psalm might have seemed to those who spoke them. The people of Judah were constantly at the mercy of enemy nations all around them. Their history started, of course, with slavery in Egypt. After being delivered from bondage and entering the land God promised them they struggled with the Philistines, the Edomites, Ammonites, and the Moabites. Eventually they would be destroyed and exiled by the likes of Assyria and Babylon.
Even in the glory days of David and Solomon these people lived in a small and rather insignificant kingdom in comparison with the great empires of their day. In light of that fact, it may seem rather silly to claim that Israel’s God is “feared above all gods” (verse 4). On what event or events did Israel base its claim to a unique place in the world order? How could Israel claim that its God was king over all the earth?
The answer to these questions lays in the fact that Israel, and later the church, understood their claims of God’s kingship as a future reality. They understood God’s reign eschatologically, as something to come, to be fulfilled when God brings creation to its fruition. The liturgical celebration of God’s reign, therefore, celebrates something that is not fully evident right now. But that does not mean this psalm, or any other liturgy, presents a false hope or a naive view of the world.
Rather, it gives a way to state and restate what God’s people believe about the world. Most importantly, what the psalm says about the world to come shapes the way God’s people live right now. This is the power of liturgy, and the power of Psalm 96. The proclamation only makes sense, however, when it is made in the company of other believers. Together we declare what we believe about the world. As we do, we create a community that not only believes in God’s reign with the head, but also responds to God’s kingdom with the heart. To live as though we belong to the kingdom of God means that we work to bring justice and well-being, just as God also is working.
Psalm 96:1-9 appears in the lectionary on the second Sunday after Pentecost. That liturgical location gives yet another crucially important focus to the interpretation. Pentecost for the first Christians was marked by an outpouring of God’s Spirit that empowered them to proclaim the Good News so that all people might hear, understand, and respond (Acts 2:5-42). As a psalm for the time after Pentecost, Psalm 96:1-9 likewise invites all the creatures of the earth to declare the glory of God. For the church, God’s glory is known most clearly in Jesus Christ.
Reading 2 1 Thes 1:1-5b
What circumstances have occasioned this apparent second letter to the Thessalonians? Just how much "time" has passed since the arrival of the first? Such questions of "timing" may arise for a modern reader who notes, among other things, the almost verbatim mirroring of this letter's greeting with that of the first letter and the somewhat strange to Paul prominent theme of judgment that pervades this brief letter. Might such comparisons suggest a later "timing" when associates or followers of Paul have penned this letter in his name.
Whatever the "timing," even a cursory reading reveals a community undergoing stressful "persecutions and afflictions" (1:4) that tempt it to "give up" or "grow weary" in the struggle to keep doing good (3:12-13).
A Time for Thanksgiving
The opening theme of "thanksgiving" is pure Paul. Yet here somewhat uniquely thanksgiving is an "obligation" (opheilomen), a duty, that belongs to the gift of community (Paul says " we" are bound to give thanks; 1:3) identified by its characteristic marks of "faith" and "love." It is "always" the right time for thanksgiving for a Christian community whose faith "grows abundantly" (the unique emphatic word here illustrates a favorite Pauline device -- prefixing a verb with the word hyper-, as if to suggest "hyper-growth") and whose love toward one another continues to increase.
Paul's words come as a reminder of several aspects of thanksgiving. First, thanksgiving in the Christian community is always somewhat counter-intuitive. When "times" are good, one easily forgets the gifts of God that create and sustain life. When "times" are bad, it is difficult to muster a list of things for which one should be thankful. Second, thanksgiving is never a private matter; it is founded and sustained by life in community--by the mutual interplay of faith in God's grace and the energizing power of acts of love in service to one another.
A Matter for Boasting
Like a mother who tenderly yet firmly encourages a young child who has been "roughed up" on the playground, Paul's loving arms now surround and encourage this community. Avoiding any note of pity, instead he compliments them for their "steadfastness" in the midst of intense persecutions and sufferings (the word "all" underscores the enormity; 1:4), steadfastness that has become a matter for his boasting about them among all the churches. Still one notes here the absence of the third member of the familiar triad of faith, love, and hope (see 1 Thessalonians 1:2: "work of faith," "labor of love," and "steadfastness of hope").
Perhaps Paul senses a community whose world, beset much like our own with divisions, hatreds, and suspicions, places it at risk of giving up the faith or losing energy for loving care of the neighbor (see 3:13). Such times call not for slinking back into our private enclaves, but rather for open boasting about and renewed encouragement of a community actively engaged in the obligations of faith and love.
Prayer with a Purpose
"To this end we always pray for you." (1:11) Paul's prayer bespeaks a confidence in God's care and concern for what happens in this world, a confidence that cannot be taken for granted. A well-known contemporary New Testament scholar and prolific writer puts it this way, "I left the faith...because I could no longer reconcile my faith in God with the state of the world that I saw all around me...There is so much senseless misery in the world that I came to find it impossible to believe that there is a good and loving God who is in control."1
Paul is not naïve about the world of the Thessalonians. Such communities do not happen by accident. They are founded on the purposive presence and call of God, sustained by God's power to bring to fruition ("God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill..." 1:11) acts of love and mercy precisely through the faithfulness and steadfastness of this believing community. This is "tough stuff," not a matter for wimps. Such works depend on "resolve" and "faith" (the Greek word used here, eudokia, has the sense of a firm and positive decision). That firm resolve is not to be taken for granted; it too is a gift of God and it comes in response to prayer that is sustained within the broader community of faith.
Finally, such resolve and good work are not ends in themselves. They redound to a mutuality of glory in which the name of Christ is glorified and, in return, Christ gives glory to the community that bears his name (1:12). It is no accident that all of this, both literarily and theologically, is located within the framework of God's grace and love. "Grace and Peace" begin Paul's address (1:2), and "grace" marks the conclusion of this opening chapter (1:16), underscoring that all Christian community and life are framed by the grace and love of God.
On Whose Authority
The reading assigned for the lectionary skips verses 5-10 perhaps because of their somewhat uncomfortable or troublesome theme of "judgment" (1:5). The writer speaks of current afflictions as part of God's righteous intention "to make you worthy of the kingdom," and promises that "on that day" those who persecute you will in the end be punished because they "do not know God" and do not "obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."
Such strong images of judgment have led many to question Paul's authorship of this letter and to wonder whether the viewpoint expressed does not belong to a later period of the early church, when apocalyptic images such as those in the book of Revelation are more prominent.
Gospel Mt 22:15-21
We think of the last days of Jesus' final week as being full of vexation.
Indeed, they were: betrayal, arrest, torture, and crucifixion. But the first two days of the week were also filled with difficulty. In Matthew's version of the week, Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly on Monday and proceeds to the temple to cleanse it of abuse. Tuesday is particularly full.
Jesus returns to Jerusalem for a series of pronouncements and confrontations by religious leaders. On this day, Jesus curses the fig tree, is questioned about his authority, offers three parables that each conclude with dire warnings for those who assume they are comfortably within God's favor.
Then he is challenged on whether to pay taxes to Caesar, is questioned about the resurrection of the dead, challenged about the greatest commandment, and engaged in discussion about the nature of the messiah.
Finally, Jesus engages in a long discourse (23:1-25:46) in which he denounces religious leaders, laments over Jerusalem, foretells destruction of the temple, gives his disciples a list of signs concerning the end times, offers additional parables, and tells of the final judgment. Tuesday was a big day.
It seems one of the chief accomplishments of the day was to put the religious leaders in their place. Jesus overwhelms his verbal adversaries and denounces temple leadership so thoroughly that by the next day, Wednesday of Holy Week, the leaders began plotting to arrest and kill this bothersome prophet.
The pericope for this day lies within Tuesday's busy agenda. Here we have the failed attempt by the Pharisees and Herodians to trap Jesus on what appears to be a political issue: whether or not it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. We might imagine the smugness with which they employ this trap. The Pharisees are against the Roman occupation government, so they bring along the Herodians, people obliged to Rome for keeping Herod in puppet power.
Together, it ought to be easy to catch Jesus up. Note the false flattery of their opening remarks: "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth . . . " (22:16). Their own insincerity is palpable. Then, they spring the trap: "Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?"
By this time in the day, Jesus is well warmed up for this treacherous game of chess. He sees through their sarcasm to the malice that lies beneath and brands them hypocrites. This is why: Jesus seems to carry no coins. The Pharisees dare not carry Roman coins, for they bear the blasphemous image of Tiberius Caesar and the inscription proclaims him divine. Yet, when Jesus asks for a Roman coin, they readily provide it. There, in the sacred space of the temple, the Pharisees possess the idolatrous image.
The Pharisees are thinking two moves ahead in this game. If Jesus says that it is lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, he alienates the people who hate the Roman occupation and its Caesar. If he says it is unlawful to pay taxes, the people will be pleased, but Jesus will then be liable for arrest by the Romans.
A clever gambit. But, not clever enough. Jesus asks them whose inscription is on the coin. Caesar, they answer. Then render to the emperor what is due him, he says, and to God what belongs to God. Checkmate.
But this is not just a game; and the teaching reaches far beyond those who first heard it. It reaches even to our time. As much as we might like to determine Jesus' attitude about taxes today, or the way governments do their business, our narrative makes it clear that Jesus has greater concerns in mind.
Governments are necessary, taxes may be necessary, and every country has a Caesar of sorts to contend with. So, render unto that Caesar whatever is due. But, don't mess around with the things that belong to God.
Whom do we belong to? Sometimes it seems like we belong to Caesar. Taxes, legal restrictions on our freedoms, imprisonment if you engage in civil disobedience. Or, perhaps, we feel that our job owns us. Or our families. Sometimes, we even feel owned by our material possessions. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it: "Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind."
But to whom do we really belong? Take a look at any person. Whose inscription is on him or her? Each is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). There can be no doubt, then, what Jesus means here. Give yourselves to God because it is to him that you belong.
It is God who claims us, who made us in his own image. We do not belong to anything or to anyone else. We don't even belong to ourselves. We belong to God in all our being, with all our talents, interests, time, and wealth. "We give thee but thine own, whatever the gift my be. All that we have is thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from thee."1
The consequences of belonging to God are remarkable. First, it means that God will not forsake us. The Pharisees and the other religious leaders that Jesus denounces were notoriously bad at caring for the people. They forsook their responsibilities and the people God gave into their care. They deserved condemnation. But, God does not forsake his own. By Friday of Holy Week, Jesus made that clear in the boldest way possible.
Second, it means that because we belong to God, we belong to the people of God, the body of Christ. We are baptized into this fellowship and can only lose our membership by turning our backs on God. If there is any alienation, it is our own doing. And, if we return, God is there, as always.
Third, it means that we give to God that which belongs to God's: that is, we give ourselves. We take the sacred trust and invest it in lives of worship. Sometimes, that worship occurs privately, in devotion. Sometimes, in church with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And the rest of the time, it occurs in the sphere of daily work and service. All of this is worship. Ultimately, giving ourselves to God means that we give ourselves to the world.
Making the Connection
Sunday October 15, 2017 Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 142
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 25:6-10a
On this mountain the LORD of hosts
will provide for all peoples
a feast of rich food and choice wines,
juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
the veil that veils all peoples,
the web that is woven over all nations;
he will destroy death forever.
The Lord GOD will wipe away
the tears from every face;
the reproach of his people he will remove
from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken.
On that day it will be said:
"Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!
This is the LORD for whom we looked;
let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!"
For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
R. (6cd) I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
Reading 2 Phil 4:12-14, 19-20
Brothers and sisters:
I know how to live in humble circumstances;
I know also how to live with abundance.
In every circumstance and in all things
I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry,
of living in abundance and of being in need.
I can do all things in him who strengthens me.
Still, it was kind of you to share in my distress.
My God will fully supply whatever you need,
in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
To our God and Father, glory forever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Mt 22:1-14
Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people
in parables, saying,
"The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son.
He dispatched his servants
to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast."'
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.'
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to meet the guests,
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
The king said to him, 'My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?'
But he was reduced to silence.
Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet,
and cast him into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'
Many are invited, but few are chosen."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 25:6-10a
Isaiah 25:6-10a serves up one of the most glorious images in the Hebrew Bible.
"On this mountain," God labors (God's self!) to prepare a sumptuous, Julia-Childs-worthy meal. God crawls to the back of the wine cellar to retrieve the best vintage wines, wines that have aged for years, perhaps in preparation for this very occasion (verse 6). On this same mountain where the china has been laid out and the wine glasses are sparkling, God will not only nurture and feed; God will destroy. God will destroy "the shroud" and "the sheet" that cover all people (verse 7). Turns out this a feast to commemorate God's defeat of nothing less than death itself.
The meal on Mt. Zion in Isaiah recalls the ritual meal taken on Mt. Sinai that served in part to ratify the covenant between God and the recently freed slaves from Egypt (Exodus 24:9-11). As in Isaiah's vision, that meal on Mt. Sinai also marked the people's transition from death to life, from slavery under Pharaoh to life with YAHWEH.
Prior to the feast in Exodus, the people make a covenant with YAHWEH, which stipulates that if the people obey God's voice, they will be God's "treasured possession out of all the peoples" (19:5-6). God assures them that the whole earth belongs to YAHWEH, but "you," says God, "shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (verse 6).
Isaiah's vision imagines the meal on Mt. Sinai in eschatological terms. In Isaiah's vision, on this mountain, Mt. Zion, God will perform the final act of this performance, this drama between God and God's people. On this mountain, the God of the whole earth will defeat the ultimate enemy and all the people of the world partake in the ritual feast. The enemy Pharaoh is cast onto the cosmic stage and the Hebrews wandering in the wilderness become all the people of the world.
And as the people watch the drama unfold between God and Death on the cosmic big screen, God's achingly tender side emerges for a moment. I imagine God looking into the eyes of dirty-faced children, broken men, and care-worn women, wiping away each tear of grief and disgrace. And the people stand in awe, flooded with relief and joy, and they say, "This is our God", the one we have waited for (Isaiah 25:9).
It's all so beautiful... and yet, we know that on the ground, for the Yahwists in Palestine and in the Diaspora, this was a fantasy -- a stunning articulation of hope but not real life. Death was a reality for them as much as it is for us. How are we to understand this defeat of death when we have experienced death's sting so acutely?
Gene Tucker helps navigate this disjunction between life and text, saying, "While readers may see the end of death as the focal point, the text emphasizes the end of mourning. That is, the stress is upon the pain that death creates for those still alive, the survivors that mourn their loss. Even in this respect the emphasis is upon life and the living."1 The same, I think, is true on All Saints Day. We remember the dead, but through and in our acts of memorial, we also come to see and value life anew.
Like all good art, the images in Isaiah 25 are not uncomplicated -- or blithely "beautiful." For this imagery to work effectively for a people who are well acquainted with the powers of death, which come in natural and political forms, God must be more than just loving, more than just tender. God must be stronger, more voracious, and more vicious than Death. I capitalize Death because the Hebrew word for death (mwt) is related to the word that designates the god of death (Môt), whose appetite for human life is insatiable.
Metaphors of distress in the Psalter often focus on his vast mouth, which threatens to swallow up life in the span of a breath. In Canaanite mythology, YAHWEH's counterpart the storm/weather god Baal defeats Môt (Death) as well as Yam (Sea). This myth of the defeat of Death, informed by the textual memory of the covenant on Mt. Sinai, is cast on a cosmic, future stage. And here God opens up God's tremendous throat to swallow the swallower himself. Reminds me of that Goya painting of Satan Devouring His Son...
Maybe that's a bit gruesome for a sermon. But apocalyptic scenarios, such as we find here in Isaiah's "Little Apocalypse," juxtapose the stunningly beautiful and the horribly grotesque. Isaiah 25 contains images of life and banquets, but surrounding them are radical pictures of violence and judgment (see Isaiah 24:17-23). The rich pictures jump off the page and drip with life and, in so doing, they manage to make us simultaneously yearn and cringe. They engage our senses along the continuum of human experience like the mixture of hunger and revulsion evoked by the communion meal that swirls blood together with wine and serves up bread along with wounded flesh.
Apocalyptic images insist on, indeed depend on, the radical otherness of God. This, of course, is not unproblematic. And yet, shielding congregations from the violent acts and impulses of God in the Bible does make violence go away. War continues to rage, murder and abuse are almost commonplace, and blood flows in the movies, on TV and in video games every day. What are preachers, holding a potential tinder box (Isaiah 25) in their hands, to do? Read only the verses selected by the Lectionary and ignore God swallowing up death and its residuals in the surrounding text (24:17-23; verses 1-3, 10-12)?
That is the option we usually go with. Pastorally and liturgically, this makes sense. On All Saints Day in particular, folks in our pews are grieving over tragic losses of loved ones or remembering the kindness and warmth of grandparents or feeling conflicted and anxious over less happy memories of the "saints" they knew. Why poke a stick in the snake hole on a day like today? Why sully a perfectly glorious image of God wiping away the tears from all faces (verse 8) with talk of the other side of the coin: divine violence and judgment? Good question. Maybe we don't.
But maybe we take up the issue on another day -- because addressing and contextualizing the violence in the Bible (in particular, the violence of God) is a crucial task of the preacher. Violence is a preoccupation of the Bible because it is a preoccupation of humanity.
If we ignore it, we risk ignoring the full humanity of the people in the pews and the full spectrum of issues addressed by the biblical text. We risk communicating to them that this aspect of their lives and of their selves is better served by Hollywood.
To render God in terms both beautiful and grotesque, as Isaiah does, expresses the incomprehensibility of the divine without distancing God with abstractions. God in these depictions is utterly Other and yet also intimately -- even disturbingly -- near.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
Many of David’s psalms are full of complaints, but this is full of comforts, and the expressions of delight in God’s great goodness and dependence upon him. It is a psalm which has been sung by good Christians, and will be while the world stands, with a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction. I. The psalmist here claims relation to God, as his shepherd (v. 1). II. He recounts his experience of the kind things God had done for him as his shepherd (v. 2, v. 3, v. 5). III. Hence he infers that he should want no good (v. 1), that he needed to fear no evil (v. 4), that God would never leave nor forsake him in a way of mercy; and therefore he resolves never to leave nor forsake God in a way of duty (v. 6). In this he had certainly an eye, not only to the blessings of God’s providence, which made his outward condition prosperous, but to the communications of God’s grace, received by a lively faith, and returned in a warm devotion, which filled his soul with joy unspeakable. And, as in the foregoing psalm he represented Christ dying for his sheep, so here he represents Christians receiving the benefit of all the care and tenderness of that great and good shepherd. A psalm of David.
Verses 1-6 From three very comfortable premises David, in this psalm, draws three very comfortable conclusions, and teaches us to do so too. We are saved by hope, and that hope will not make us ashamed, because it is well grounded. It is the duty of Christians to encourage themselves in the Lord their God; and we are here directed to take that encouragement both from the relation wherein he stands to us and from the experience we have had of his goodness according to that relation.I. From God’s being his shepherd he infers that he shall not want anything that is good for him, v. 1. See here, 1. The great care that God takes of believers. He is their shepherd, and they may call him so. Time was when David was himself a shepherd; he was taken from following the ewes great with young (Ps. 78:70, Ps. 78:71 ), and so he knew by experience the cares and tender affections of a good shepherd towards his flock. He remembered what need they had of a shepherd, and what a kindness it was to them to have one that was skillful and faithful; he once ventured his life to rescue a lamb. By this therefore he illustrates God’s care of his people; and to this our Savior seems to refer when he says, I am the shepherd of the sheep; the good shepherd, Jn. 10:11 . He that is the shepherd of Israel, of the whole church in general (Ps. 80:1 ), is the shepherd of every particular believer; the meanest is not below his cognizance, Isa. 40:11 . He takes them into his fold, and then takes care of them, protects them, and provides for them, with more care and constancy than a shepherd can, that makes it his business to keep the flock. If God be as a shepherd to us, we must be as sheep, inoffensive, meek, and quiet, silent before the shearers, nay, and before the butcher too, useful and sociable; we must know the shepherd’s voice, and follow him. 2. The great confidence which believers have in God: "If the Lord is my shepherd, my feeder, I may conclude I shall not want any thing that is really necessary and good for me.’’ If David penned this psalm before his coming to the crown, though destined to it, he had as much reason to fear wanting as any man. Once he sent his men a begging for him to Nabal, and another time went himself a begging to Ahimelech; and yet, when he considers that God is his shepherd, he can boldly say, I shall not want. Let not those fear starving that are at God’s finding and have him for their feeder. More is implied than is expressed, not only, I shall not want, but, "I shall be supplied with whatever I need; and, if I have not every thing I desire, I may conclude it is either not fit for me or not good for me or I shall have it in due time.’’II. From his performing the office of a good shepherd to him he infers that he needs not fear any evil in the greatest dangers and difficulties he could be in, v. 2-4. He experiences the benefit of God’s presence with him and care of him now, and therefore expects the benefit of them when he most needs it. See here,1. The comforts of a living saint. God is his shepherd and his God—a God all-sufficient to all intents and purposes. David found him so, and so have we. See the happiness of the saints as the sheep of God’s pasture. (1.) They are well placed, well laid: He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. We have the supports and comforts of this life from God’s good hand, our daily bread from him as our Father. The greatest abundance is but a dry pasture to a wicked man, who relishes that only in it which pleases the senses; but to a godly man, who tastes the goodness of God in all his enjoyments, and by faith relishes that, though he has but little of the world, it is a green pasture, Ps. 37:16 ; Prov. 15:16, Prov. 15:17 . God’s ordinances are the green pastures in which food is provided for all believers; the word of life is the nourishment of the new man. It is milk for babes, pasture for sheep, never barren, never eaten bare, never parched, but always a green pasture for faith to feed in. God makes his saints to lie down; he gives them quiet and contentment in their own minds, whatever their lot is; their souls dwell at ease in him, and that makes every pasture green. Are we blessed with the green pastures of the ordinances? Let us not think it enough to pass through them, but let us lie down in them, abide in them; this is my rest for ever. It is by a constancy of the means of grace that the soul is fed. (2.) They are well guided, well led. The shepherd of Israel guides Joseph like a flock; and every believer is under the same guidance: He leadeth me beside the still waters. Those that feed on God’s goodness must follow his direction; he leads them by his providence, by his word, by his Spirit, disposes of their affairs for the best, according to his counsel, disposes their affections and actions according to his command, directs their eye, their way, and their heart, into his love. The still waters by which he leads them yield them, not only a pleasant prospect, but many a cooling draught, many a reviving cordial, when they are thirsty and weary. God provides for his people not only food and rest, but refreshment also and pleasure. The consolations of God, the joys of the Holy Ghost, are these still waters, by which the saints are led, streams which flow from the fountain of living waters and make glad the city of our God. God leads his people, not to the standing waters which corrupt and gather filth, not to the troubled sea, nor to the rapid rolling floods, but to the silent purling waters; for the still but running waters agree best with those spirits that flow out towards God and yet do it silently. The divine guidance they are under is stripped of its metaphor (v. 3): He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, in the way of my duty; in that he instructs me by his word and directs me by conscience and providence. These are the paths in which all the saints desire to be led and kept, and never to turn aside out of them. And those only are led by the still waters of comfort that walk in the paths of righteousness. The way of duty is the truly pleasant way. It is the work of righteousness that is peace. In these paths we cannot walk unless God both lead us into them and lead us in them. (3.) They are well helped when any thing ails them: He restoreth my soul. [1.] "He restores me when I wander.’’ No creature will lose itself sooner than a sheep, so apt is it to go astray, and then so unapt to find the way back. The best saints are sensible of their proneness to go astray like lost sheep (Ps. 119:176 ); they miss their way, and turn aside into by-paths; but when God shows them their error, gives them repentance, and brings them back to their duty again, he restores the soul; and, if he did not do so, they would wander endlessly and be undone. When, after one sin, David’s heart smote him, and, after another, Nathan was sent to tell him, Thou art the man, God restored his soul. Though God may suffer his people to fall into sin, he will not suffer them to lie still in it. [2.] "He recovers me when I am sick, and revives me when I am faint, and so restores the soul which was ready to depart.’’ He is the Lord our God that heals us, Ex. 15:26 . Many a time we should have fainted unless we had believed; and it was the good shepherd that kept us from fainting.2. See here the courage of a dying saint (v. 4): "Having had such experience of God’s goodness to me all my days, in six troubles and in seven, I will never distrust him, no, not in the last extremity; the rather because all he has done for me hitherto was not for any merit or desert of mine, but purely for his name’s sake, in pursuance of his word, in performance of his promise, and for the glory of his own attributes and relations to his people. That name therefore shall still be my strong tower, and shall assure me that he who has led me, and fed me, all my life long, will not leave me at last.’’ Here is,(1.) Imminent danger supposed: "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, that is, though I am in peril of death, though in the midst of dangers, deep as a valley, dark as a shadow, and dreadful as death itself,’’ or rather, "though I am under the arrests of death, have received the sentence of death within myself, and have all the reason in the world to look upon myself as a dying man, yet I am easy.’’ Those that are sick, those that are old, have reason to look upon themselves as in the valley of the shadow of death. Here is one word indeed which sounds terrible; it is death, which we must all count upon; there is no discharge in that war. But, even in the supposition of the distress, there are four words which lessen the terror:—It is death indeed that is before us; but, [1.] It is but the shadow of death; there is no substantial evil in it; the shadow of a serpent will not sting nor the shadow of a sword kill. [2.] It is the valley of the shadow, deep indeed, and dark, and dirty; but the valleys are fruitful, and so is death itself fruitful of comforts to God’s people. [3.] It is but a walk in this valley, a gentle pleasant walk. The wicked are chased out of the world, and their souls are required; but the saints take a walk to another world as cheerfully as they take their leave of this. [4.] It is a walk through it; they shall not be lost in this valley, but get safely to the mountain of spices on the other side of it.(2.) This danger made light of, and triumphed over, upon good grounds. Death is a king of terrors, but not to the sheep of Christ; they tremble at it no more than sheep do that are appointed for the slaughter. "Even in the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. None of these things move me.’’ Note, A child of God may meet the messengers of death, and receive its summons with a holy security and serenity of mind. The sucking child may play upon the hole of this asp; and the weaned child, that, through grace, is weaned from this world, may put his hand upon this cockatrice’s den, bidding a holy defiance to death, as Paul, O death! where is thy sting? And there is ground enough for this confidence, [1.] Because there is no evil in it to a child of God; death cannot separate us from the love of God, and therefore it can do us no real harm; it kills the body, but cannot touch the soul. Why should it be dreadful when there is nothing in it hurtful? [2.] Because the saints have God’s gracious presence with them in their dying moments; he is then at their right hand, and therefore why should they be moved? The good shepherd will not only conduct, but convoy, his sheep through the valley, where they are in danger of being set upon by the beasts of prey, the ravening wolves; he will not only convoy them, but comfort then when they most need comfort. His presence shall comfort them: Thou art with me. His word and Spirit shall comfort them—his rod and staff, alluding to the shepherd’s crook, or the rod under which the sheep passed when they were counted (Lev. 27:32 ), or the staff with which the shepherds drove away the dogs that would scatter or worry the sheep. It is a comfort to the saints, when they come to die, that God takes cognizance of them (he knows those that are his), that he will rebuke the enemy, that he will guide them with his rod and sustain them with his staff. The gospel is called the rod of Christ’s strength (Ps. 110:2 ), and there is enough in that to comfort the saints when they come to die, and underneath them are the everlasting arms. III. From the good gifts of God’s bounty to him now he infers the constancy and perpetuity of his mercy, v. 5, v. 6. Here we may observe,1. How highly he magnifies God’s gracious vouchsafements to him (v. 5): "Thou preparest a table before me; thou hast provided for me all things pertaining both to life and godliness, all things requisite both for body and soul, for time and eternity:’’ such a bountiful benefactor is God to all his people; and it becomes them abundantly to utter his great goodness, as David here, who acknowledges, (1.) That he had food convenient, a table spread, a cup filled, meat for his hunger, drink for his thirst. (2.) That he had it carefully and readily provided for him. His table was not spread with any thing that came next to hand, but prepared, and prepared before him. (3.) That he was not stinted, was not straitened, but had abundance: "My cup runs over, enough for myself and my friends too.’’ (4.) That he had not only for necessity, but for ornament and delight: Thou anointest my head with oil. Samuel anointed him king, which was a certain pledge of further favor; but this is rather an instance of the plenty with which God had blessed him, or an allusion to the extraordinary entertainment of special friends, whose heads they anointed with oil, Lu. 7:46 . Nay, some think he still looks upon himself as a sheep, but such a one as the poor man’s ewe-lamb (2 Sa. 12:3 ), that did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom; not only thus nobly, but thus tenderly, are the children of God looked after. Plentiful provision is made for their bodies, for their souls, for the life that now is and for that which is to come. If Providence do not bestow upon us thus plentifully for our natural life, it is our own fault if it be not made up to us in spiritual blessings.2. How confidently he counts upon the continuance of God’s favors, v. 6. He had said (v. 1), I shall not want; but now he speaks more positively, more comprehensively: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. His hope rises, and his faith is strengthened, by being exercised. Observe, (1.) What he promises himself—goodness and mercy, all the streams of mercy flowing from the fountain, pardoning mercy, protecting mercy, sustaining mercy, supplying mercy. (2.) The manner of the conveyance of it: It shall follow me, as the water out of the rock followed the camp of Israel through the wilderness; it shall follow into all places and all conditions, shall be always ready. (3.) The continuance of it: It shall follow me all my life long, even to the last; for whom God loves he loves to the end. (4.) The constancy of it: All the days of my life, as duly as the day comes; it shall be new every morning (Lam. 3:22, Lam. 3:23 ) like the manna that was given to the Israelites daily. (5.) The certainty of it: Surely it shall. It is as sure as the promise of the God of truth can make it; and we know whom we have believed. (6.) Here is a prospect of the perfection of bliss in the future state. So some take the latter clause: "Goodness and mercy having followed me all the days of my life on this earth, when that is ended I shall remove to a better world, to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, in our Father’s house above, where there are many mansions. With what I have I am pleased much; with what I hope for I am pleased more.’’ All this, and heaven too! Then we serve a good Master.3. How resolutely he determines to cleave to God and to his duty. We read the last clause as David’s covenant with God: "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever (as long as I live), and I will praise him while I have any being.’’ We must dwell in his house as servants, that desired to have their ears bored to the door-post, to serve him for ever. If God’s goodness to us be like the morning light, which shines more and more to the perfect day, let not ours to him be like the morning cloud and the early dew that passeth away. Those that would be satisfied with the fatness of God’s house must keep close to the duties of it
Reading 2 Phil 4:12-14, 19-20
In an intense little book called Beginning to Pray, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom tells about a time during the Nazi occupation of Paris when he very nearly was caught by the Gestapo:
"During the German occupation of France I was in the resistance movement and, coming down into the Underground, I was caught by the police.... What took place at that moment was this: I had a past, I had a future, and I was moving out of one into the other by walking briskly down the steps. At a certain moment someone put a hand on my shoulder and said 'Stop, give me your papers.' At that moment . .. I realized that I had no past, because the real past I had was the thing for which I should be shot.... I found myself standing there like the lizard who had been caught by the tail and had run away leaving the tail somewhere behind, so that the lizard ended where the tail had been."1
Something like this happens in the lesson for today. Paul had been walking briskly from his past into his future, so to speak, when God put a hand on his shoulder, and took him from a past and future that he thought he understood, to a previously unimaginable new life in Christ. The break is decisive. It is a matter of life and death, and having broken with his former identity, Paul doesn't walk; he runs into the future that is his in union with Christ.
We, like Paul, live at the threshold between the past and the future. This threshold is cruciform, and it is both an exit and an entrance. We, like Paul, are no longer to find our life, our purpose, our worth, our identity, in the past, but only in the discovery of who we are in Christ. This is incredibly liberating good news. It also is scary, perhaps insulting, and certainly difficult to grasp and comprehend. God continually wrenches us from what is comfortable and familiar and tugs us into the glorious future of the children of God.
Paul narrates his past in terms of his family, nationality and faith, and in terms of his accomplishments. That is, his former identity was bound up in a set of given relationships, as well as personal achievements and failures. Indeed, his greatest achievement, perfection in relationship to the Law of Moses, accompanied his greatest failure, persecution of the church. In any case, having once considered his personal story as a kind of asset, now he considers it loss -- even more, "garbage." I wonder what his relatives would say about that value judgment!
We also have our personal stories, some of which we cherish, some of which we would gladly bury. In either case, we often feel that our identity is bound up in those stories; we want to tell them to each other, or at least parts of them. Like lizards, we trail our personal histories -- our "tails"! -- behind us. Becoming "tail-less" is a necessary part of being transformed in the image of Christ.
In practical terms, this means that we don't own our past or our memories. Rather, access to the past is mediated by the judgment and mercy of God. This is part of what baptism signifies, and we see its effects in the profound freedom from the past in Paul's personal narrative. He does not have amnesia. Rather, from the standpoint of the grace of God in Christ, he is no longer defined by that history, because only God can tell him who he is.
Unlike the past, therefore, Paul's future is not primarily about him. It's about God. Specifically, it's about "the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." That is, Jesus Christ is the threshold where our past and our future meet. Jesus is the one whose faithful obedience to death (Philippians 2:8) nullifies the power of our own history and liberates us for a new future. Paul puts it this way: "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith" (3:8-9).
An alternative translation of verse 9 reads, "the faithfulness of Christ." This divine faithfulness is the incarnate expression of God's faithfulness throughout the history of Israel, now crystallized in Christ and decisively effective for the whole world. In other words, Christ himself makes us righteous and thereby brings us into the life-giving presence of God. When Paul yearns to "be found in" Christ, he is responding to the self-giving love of Christ who was "found in human form" (2:7).
Finally, Paul uses the image of a race to describe the Christian life. A runner who keeps glancing over his shoulder will not win the race. Rather, the one who keeps her "eyes on the prize" will stay on track. Similarly, the runner who mistakes the half-way marker for the goal and stops there, saying "I made it!" will drop out of the race.
So also, Paul says that he has not "already reached the goal" (3:12). The phrase is literally, "have already become perfect or mature." Paul uses the same word in verse 15, when he says, "Let those of us who are mature be of the same mind." Paradoxically, "mature thinking" means recognizing that we're not yet mature! We're not yet perfect, and if we think we are, we are deceiving ourselves. Rather, we are always in the midst of the race, carried forward from the past to the future in union with Christ.
Gospel Mt 22:1-14
We are rightly mystified by the behavior of the characters in this bizarre little story. An initial invitation to come to a feast in honor of the king’s son is met with rejection (verse 3). That’s odd (nobody turns down a royal summons), but not deeply troubling. A second invitation sweetens the deal with descriptions of the elaborate preparations (verse 4) -- it’s going to be delicious! Who wouldn’t come to this party? But those invited are apparently unimpressed, and return to business as usual (verse 5). Again, this is unusual behavior -- but it’s the kind of strangeness we have learned to expect in a parable.
But then things go completely off the rails. We watch in horror as the servants sent by the king to announce the party are seized, abused, and murdered (verse 6). We didn’t see that coming! How did the stakes suddenly get so high? And the weirdness and violence are just getting started. In retaliation, the king goes to war against his own people. Enraged by their actions he unleashes an army. Before we know it, the murderers themselves are murdered, and a city (presumably the king’s own city!) is a pile of smoldering ash (verse 7).
But it gets weirder still. With our heads still spinning, we learn that the dinner is still on (verse 8)! Now the invitations go out again, this time to commoners on the “main streets” of the (destroyed?) city (verse 9). Apparently, while soldiers pillaged and slashed -- all the while as great flames devoured the buildings outside the palace walls -- little Sterno burners toiled away silently under the sumptuous dishes in the great hall, keeping the meal hot for the eventual guests!
In other words, this is not a realistic story, and my first suggestion for preaching it is to tell it in such a way that the hearers are invited to appreciate its absurdities. No doubt this is a disturbing story -- inflammatory, even. But perhaps we can get some perspective and even a little hermeneutical leverage by coming clean about the ways it strains credibility -- even the special credibility we reserve for parables. With the stakes of realism lowered a bit, we can start to answer some questions.
Why is the narrative so tortured in its twists of plot? Because it is being constructed by Matthew as an allegory of salvation history at the end of the first century, Matthew’s community finds itself in conflict with the synagogue down the street, and this story is a tool for thinking about the meaning of that conflict.
Note that this is not a matter of “Christians vs. Jews” -- that kind of thinking would come later -- but an intramural conflict within Judaism. Surely Matthew and his community understood themselves as faithful Jews who had responded to God’s summons to the kingdom banquet offered in honor of God’s Messiah, Jesus. But others had inexplicably rejected the great invitation, ignoring or persecuting both the prophets of old, and the new missionaries of this good news.
In Matthew’s world, a burning city would have called to mind Jerusalem’s destruction at the hands of the Romans in 70 CE, interpreted here as God’s judgment on those who rejected the new thing God was doing in Jesus. An unexpected invitation to commoners on the main streets points toward the surprising ways the invitation to God’s kingdom banquet is increasingly extended to and embraced by those once considered outsiders.
But before we decide that this is just Matthew working out some rhetorical violence against opponents, and assuring his own community that they are on the right side of salvation history, we should read the story to the end: a denouement is coming, and it’s a doozy.
With the party in full swing, the king enters the banquet hall and moves among the guests. To his dismay, he finds that one of them is not dressed properly. “Friend,” he says, “how did you get in here without a wedding robe” (verse 12)? And receiving no satisfactory answer, he has the poor guy bound and thrown out -- not just outside the hall, but into “the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (verse 13). With “friends” like that, who needs enemies?
Again, we find credulity strained to the breaking point: of course the guy isn’t dressed properly -- he was pulled in off the street at the last minute! But again, allegory, and not realism, is calling the shots here. Matthew warns his community against self-satisfaction. This king is no pushover, and if the new guests are beneficiaries of an unexpectedly generous invitation, they must nevertheless be on guard against the complacency shown by the first invitees. The doors of the kingdom community are thrown wide open, and the invitation extends literally to all. But once you come in, there are standards. You can’t go on acting like you are not at an extraordinary party.
But even if appropriate clothing is a metaphor for the need for appropriate behavior in the new, inclusive community, the parable may be saying more here than anybody expected -- and the surplus will preach. Maybe Matthew originally intended this as a stern warning to live up to the rigorous standards of a higher righteousness (5:20, 48), but the story, pushed down and contorted by allegorical demands for too long, rises at the last to assert its own delightful possibility.
Within the world of the story as told, the problem with this guy is not that he is not taking things seriously enough. No, his problem is a failure to party. The kingdom of heaven (verse 2) is a banquet, after all, and you’ve got to put on your party dress and get with the program. The kingdom music is playing, and it's time to get up on the dance floor. Or, as the slightly more sober, but no less theologically astute Barth put the matter: “In the last resort, it all boils down to the fact that the invitation is to a feast, and that he who does not obey and come accordingly, and therefore festively, declines and spurns the invitation no less than those who are unwilling to obey and appear at all.”
Making the Connection
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Sunday October 8, 2017 Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 139
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 5:1-7
Let me now sing of my friend,
my friend's song concerning his vineyard.
My friend had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside;
he spaded it, cleared it of stones,
and planted the choicest vines;
within it he built a watchtower,
and hewed out a wine press.
Then he looked for the crop of grapes,
but what it yielded was wild grapes.
Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard:
What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I had not done?
Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes,
did it bring forth wild grapes?
Now, I will let you know
what I mean to do with my vineyard:
take away its hedge, give it to grazing,
break through its wall, let it be trampled!
Yes, I will make it a ruin:
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
but overgrown with thorns and briers;
I will command the clouds
not to send rain upon it.
The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah are his cherished plant;
he looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed!
for justice, but hark, the outcry!
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20
R. (Is 5:7a) The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
A vine from Egypt you transplanted;
you drove away the nations and planted it.
It put forth its foliage to the Sea,
its shoots as far as the River.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Why have you broken down its walls,
so that every passer-by plucks its fruit,
The boar from the forest lays it waste,
and the beasts of the field feed upon it?
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
O LORD, God of hosts, restore us;
if your face shine upon us, then we shall be saved.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Reading 2 Phil 4:6-9
Brothers and sisters:
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,
if there is any excellence
and if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Keep on doing what you have learned and received
and heard and seen in me.
Then the God of peace will be with you.
Gospel Mt 21:33-43
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:
"Hear another parable.
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near,
he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.
But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,
another they killed, and a third they stoned.
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones,
but they treated them in the same way.
Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking,
'They will respect my son.'
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,
'This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'
They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"
They answered him,
"He will put those wretched men to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other tenants
who will give him the produce at the proper times."
Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?
Therefore, I say to you,
the kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 5:1-7
Justice and righteousness, both of these crucial words/concepts are featured in Isaiah 5:1-7, another of the more memorable passages in all of the prophetic literature. What begins as if it will be a "love-song" quickly develops into an allegory; and lest there be any doubt about the message, verse 7 concludes the passage by offering an explicit interpretation. God is the owner of the vineyard, which represents God's people. The coming destruction (verses 5-6) results from the people's failure to do what God "expected," and more literally and poignantly, what God "hoped for" (verses 2, 4, 7). That is, the failure to enact and embody justice and righteousness invites catastrophe.
Israel and Judah are imaged elsewhere as the vineyard or vine that God has planted. For instance, the psalm for the day, Psalm 80, contains a "plot" similar to the one found in Isaiah 5:2-6. Indeed, Psalm 80 assumes the destruction that is anticipated in Isaiah 5:5-6. The question asked by the psalmist in 80:12 -- "Why have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?" -- is answered in Isaiah 5:1-7. In short, the people have invited their own destruction by the failure to do justice and righteousness. Psalm 80 pleads for the restoration of the vine/people. The Isaiah tradition itself also uses the vine imagery again in Isaiah 27:2-6, both to explain the consequences of disobedience ( verse 4), as well as to plead for the people's obedience (verse 5) and to anticipate an eventual restoration (verse 6).
In Isaiah 5:1-7, however, the tone is judgment. The owner of the vineyard made every possible preparation for a fruitful harvest -- picking a good site, preparing the land, choosing the best plants, arranging for protection and for processing the grapes. But what he got was "wild grapes," or more literally, "stinking things" (verses 2, 4). The portrayal of God here is significant. In particular, what God "expected" or "hoped for" does not happen; in short, God does not guarantee the results.
We must assume that God's people have been given the freedom to respond to God faithfully, or not. Such freedom is absolutely necessary for true relationality -- that is, love (remember, the passage begins as a "love-song") -- to exist. But it is precisely the people's freedom that means things can go wrong, and they do. All of this has important implications for understanding the tone of judgment in Isaiah 5:1-7 and the prophets in general -- that is, judgment is not to be understood as God's need to punish or to get even with the sinful people. Rather, judgment is the set of destructive consequences that result from the people's own choices. God is essentially gracious (see commentary on Hosea 11:1-11).
As for what the people have chosen, verse 7 gives us a general picture, further details of which can be found in the remainder of Isaiah 5. The good, fruitful harvest that God "expected" or "hoped for" is named with the two extraordinarily important words "justice" and "righteousness." The structure and rhetoric of the passage add even further emphasis to these two crucial words. They occur in the climactic verse, and the alliterative word-play in Hebrew highlights them even further. Instead of the "justice" (mishpat) that God "expected," God sees "bloodshed" (mispach). And instead of "righteousness" (tsedaqah), God hears "a cry" (tse'aqah). Instead of the goodness that God expects the people to enact and embody, there is violence that leads the victims to cry out for help.
The Hebrew word translated "cry" is particularly important and revealing. When God's people were being victimized by Pharaoh in Egypt, their response was to cry to God for help (see Exodus 3:7). This word also occurs in 1 Samuel 8:18 in the culmination of Samuel's warning to the people about the "justice" of the soon-to-be-established monarchy. As Samuel puts it, the "justice" of the kings will be nothing but oppression. The people "will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves." In short, the warning is that the monarchy itself will re-create the oppressive conditions of Pharaoh's Egypt. Isaiah 5:7 suggests that the worst has happened. God's own people have chosen a system that creates victims and evokes their cries for help.
The details of the oppressive conditions are evident as chapter 5 unfolds -- joining "house to house" and adding "field to field" (verse 8), thus displacing poor farmers from their land (and only source of livelihood), and resulting in both homelessness and hunger (verse 13). Excess, greed, and conspicuous consumption (see also verses 11-12, 22) are apparently supported by corruption and manipulation of the legal system (verse 23). The deplorable situation results, according to Isaiah 5, from the rejection of God's "instruction" and "word". Although the poor are directly victimized, everyone eventually stands to lose (verse 15) when justice and righteousness (see verse 16) are not enacted and embodied.
Violence, victimization, hunger, homelessness, greed, conspicuous consumption, corruption -- these realities sound all too familiar! Somewhere in our world, a child dies every four seconds from causes related to hunger and malnutrition. In the United States, 51% of our people will have lived in poverty at some point in their lives by the time they reach age 65. 46 million people in the United States have no health insurance. All the while, corporate executives make 419 times more money than the average worker, and then there are the obscenely large bonuses that in recent months have even been funded by taxpayer money. As Mary Pipher concludes, "We have cared more about selling things to our neighbors than we've cared for our neighbors. The deck is stacked all wrong and ultimately we will all lose."3
We can do better. We should do better. God expects us to do better. But tragically, instead of justice, God sees violence; and instead of righteousness, God hears the cries of victims.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20
This portion of Psalm 80 responds to the first lesson from Isaiah 5 by employing the same metaphor of God's people as a ruined, forsaken vine and vineyard.
In the first lesson, Isaiah argues God's side: in spite of my loving viticulture, my grape people were a failure; there was nothing for it but to abandon them and the whole project. The psalm then argues the people's side seeking God's restoration to wholeness.
I'm a loyal fan of The Revised Common Lectionary but let me say that allowing verses 7, 14, and 15 to represent the gist of the people's appeal takes some of the fun out of the juxtaposition of Psalm 80 with Isaiah 5 and Matthew 21. As the first reading and gospel reading make clear, God expects the vineyard to produce fruits of the Reign: justice and righteousness.
What's striking about the people's defense in Psalm 80 is the absence of mention of God's vineyard mission. The psalm seems concerned only with the grandeur of the vine and the restoration of the special relationship once enjoyed between God and God's own people. In verses 1-6, the people address God in unctuous tones, reminding God of the divine power to save and then appealing to God's (or is it only the people's) honor and reputation: "You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves" (verse 6). Then (following the appointed verses) in verse 16, the psalm calls not for mercy but rather for God's vengeance to rain down upon the boars and beasts who have had their way with the vineyard.
The appointed verses begin with a simple request for restoration (verse 7). Then the psalmist hearkens back to Exodus and the conquest of Canaan, reminding God that the vineyard was God's own project (verse 8). The description in verses 9-11 of the vineyard's success deserves some attention from the preacher's imagination. It is a picture of a grotesque grape vine that towers over cedar trees and mountains and stretches from the Mediterranean to the Jordan and beyond.
Sure, it's only a metaphor celebrating God's provision of the land promised to Abraham and Sarah. But the people's pride in this uncanny vine provides an entry point for pointing out dissonance between their vision and God's. Vineyards need protection because grape production involves the maintenance of tricky bio-chemical balances accompanied by a trust in ruthless discipline (one adage has it that the vintner must "cut the plants back as far as he or she can stand and then give the pruning saw to someone who hates wine"). Monster vines don't need protection; nor are they likely to bear the best fruit.
The weakness of the people's appeal is shown most vividly in the question posed in verse 12, "Why have you broken down its wall ...?" God has never been bashful about chastising the chosen people nor about explaining to them exactly why (cf. today's first reading!). God disciplines (prunes) so that the people may grow and bear fruits that befit God's mission. God's people here seem to want restoration of their prosperity, reputation, and "goodness with God" simply for their own sake.
When I'm sitting in worship on October 2 I want to hear you explore whether the people's "case" in Psalm 80 (especially verses 8-11) bears any spiritual metaphorical relationship to the fretful handwringing of the mainline churches in North American (including, sadly, some in my own denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) over our "decline." "We took root and once filled the land! The Appalachians and Rockies were covered by our shadow (though perhaps never the Cascades or Sierra Nevadas). Our boughs and tendrils towered over..."
Well, you get the idea. In what ways do our visions of our former or hoped-for grandeur make grotesque the metaphors into which we have been invited to live: servant, steward, lamb? And then, with the rich judgments of Isaiah 5 and Matthew 21 as background, proclaim as Gospel the confidence we have to pray, with the psalmist (verses 14-15), "Turn now, O God of hosts, look down from heaven; behold and tend this vine; preserve what your right hand has planted," adding, "for the sake of your mission in the word."
Reading 2 Phil 4:6-9
Today’s passage belongs to the last chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Philippians.
It features practical advice for a life centered in Christ. This means that, in terms of contents, the audience should not expect anything new.
What Paul writes here is both a recapitulation and application of what he has already stated in previous chapters of his letter, as the attentive reader will notice. It functions like a well-chosen sending out hymn: It reminds the congregation what the worship including its sermon was all about and provides a practical edge, Let’s reflect on seems to be the most important themes of this passage.
Paul encourages his audience: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). This sentence alone captures two key topics of the letter, namely joy and theological focus. As for the first, Paul repeats almost verbatim what he stated earlier in 3:1, and already there he admitted to being a bit redundant.
Indeed, Paul opened his letter with remarks that he is “constantly praying with joy” (1:4); he goes on to mention “joy in faith” (1:25) and wants the Philippians to “make my joy complete” by having the same intent and mind (2:2). In chapter 4:1, Paul calls the congregation in Philippi “my joy and crown,” thus employing the term as a metonymy for what causes him to be cheerful. The list shows that “joy” is a central concept for Paul in this letter.
Is such a reminder necessary? Is it not somewhat odd to urge people to be joyful? This is probably true; however, if we could measure the “degree” of joyfulness in our Christian congregations, then we would probably have to admit that advice for more joy rather than less might be quite expedient.
We are too often focused on sin instead of celebrating that we are forgiven. We complain too often about the lack of holiness instead of remembering what we are as children of God. We are too often frustrated by feelings of weakness instead of being delighted about the strength of the Holy Spirit working in us. Yes, we too probably need a periodic reminder to “rejoice in the Lord.”
Which brings us to the second key topic of Philippians: theological and Christological focus. It may be stating the obvious, but the joy Paul has in mind is not superficial; it has little in common with the obligatory laughter of invisible (non-existing?) audiences in TV sitcoms. There is a difference between something funny and deep joy, which has a lasting effect and the power to change us.
Specifically, this joy is not the same as “fun,” and following Jesus is certainly not always “fun.” Just as Jesus, so Paul was countercultural. This was manifest in the fact that he was persecuted, beaten, and imprisoned. In the end, his faith cost him his life, as it did for many who believed in Jesus. This was not fun. Those who know Jesus have made this experience for the past 2000 years.
So what is there to rejoice? Real and lasting joy comes from the confidence that, no matter what happens, we are inseparably connected to God and saved. It has to do with where the focus of one’s life is or, to employ a famous phrase by Paul Tillich, with one’s “ultimate concern.” The Apostle Paul could rejoice because he did not fear death. A few years before penning his Letter to the Philippians, he wrote to the congregations in Rome: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:35).
The knowledge that Christ has overcome death gave Paul this certainty. This is what Tillich had in mind when explaining: “Our ultimate concern is that which determines our being or not-being. Only those statements are theological which deal with their object in so far as it can become a matter of being or not-being for us” (Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology vol. 1, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1967, p. 12).
The focus on Christ, however, also has immediate ramifications for the here and now. Paul advises: “Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5). Paul expected that Christ’s return was imminent, and this would have consequences on how people who believed in him would behave. For instance, they would “not worry about anything” (verse 6a), referencing what Jesus had said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear” (Matthew 6:25). Instead, trust in God leads to prayer (v. 6b).
In addition, the theological and Christological focus help to overcome human disagreements.
Previously Paul had asked his audience to strive “side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). We may assume that such advice was necessary because different opinions prevailed among his audience. In 4:2, we now read (according to NRSV): “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.” (A brief comment on pronunciation: The Greek name of the first woman should be rendered “Euhodia;” it is composed of Greek eu --“well” and hodos -- “way, road”; thus euhodoo means “to go well, succeed.”)
This is proof that tensions in congregations are no modern problem. The focus on God is the best remedy when no longer ultimate, but preliminary concerns start to dominate our agendas. It alone guarantees “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (4:7) -- and hence empowers us to overcome human differences.
Gospel Mt 21:33-43
When people in authority challenged Jesus, he often responded to their challenges with a parable.
If those challenging him didn't get the first parable, he'd give them a second one. Today's Gospel is just such a second parable addressed to the challenge posed by the chief priests and elders about the source of Jesus' authority (21:23-27).
The parable begins with a situation that was business as usual in Roman-occupied Palestine. A landowner established a vineyard complete with a fence, a winepress, and even a watchtower. He then became an absentee landowner, returning to his own country as often happened in the far-flung territories of the Roman Empire. Tenants were in charge of overseeing the productivity of the vineyard and paying their rent to the owner at harvest time, in the form of a share of the produce. So far, so good: business was working as usual. Then everything came apart!
When the owner's slaves arrived to collect his share of the produce, the tenants attacked them, even beating one and killing another. The owner of the vineyard then simply sent another delegation of slaves to collect the rent. Hmm... this is not normal!
Those slaves were treated even worse than the first. Surely by now the owner would send in troops or some form of armed enforcement of his rights! But no, instead he sends his son, thinking by some logic that the thugs who have abused two delegations of slaves will respect the owner's son and heir. How foolish! In parallel folly the tenants reason that if they kill the son, they will get his inheritance. Apparently unaware of how ridiculous their notion is, they kill the son.
Are you still playing along with the parable? I hope so, because the punch line is almost here. Jesus asks his audience (the chief priests and elders), "Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" The answer is obvious, and the tenants offer it: "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time" (verse 41).
Whether the answer is given in a gloating voice or as a lament in fear and trembling depends on where those listening see themselves -- us -- in the story, and therein lays the catch. The chief priests and elders probably see themselves in the role of the landowner, caught in his own merciful response to those in his charge. They would be able to actually own land, and to have others manage it for them while they were busy with their administrative tasks in Jerusalem. They would see the servants as their subordinates and themselves as the real victims of the unscrupulous tenants, and they would be ready and even eager to pronounce judgment on them.
We who are Christians, on the other hand, have tended to read the parable seeing God as the landowner and the temple leaders as the thoroughly evil tenants who are defrauding God of the rightful fruits of God's covenant with Israel. In this allegory, the groups of servants are Israel's prophets and Jesus is the son.
We, in turn, are the "other tenants" to whom the "vineyard" will be given after it is taken from the Jerusalem leaders who have not managed it well (Isaiah 5:1-7). Seen as an allegory of salvation history from Matthew's perspective, even to the point of depicting Jesus, who would be crucified outside of Jerusalem, as the son who is killed outside of the vineyard, this parable becomes an opening salvo from Jesus himself, justifying our claims against the Jewish leaders and even against Judaism as a whole.
Before we buy either of the traditional readings, though, we need to step back and look at it again. Perhaps neither allegory is the best way to approach this parable.
Our confusion about how to read this parable is built into its role and place in Matthew's Gospel. This exchange between Jesus and the chief priests and elders is set in Jerusalem near the end of Jesus' ministry. This final section of the Gospel before the passion narrative gazes stereo-optically at Jesus' own life and ministry and at the church that will carry on his witness to God's reign after Jesus' approaching passion, death, and resurrection.
Jesus' collision with the Jerusalem leadership is a thread running through the whole Gospel, just as the church would later be in conflict with the synagogue as both communities attempted to deal with the consequences of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple. The arguments between them were most often not about religious practices, but about the temple leaders' collusion with exploitative economic and social policies of the Roman Empire, and later over different ways of negotiating life under that Empire in the church and the synagogue from which it was "called out" (ekklesia).
Jesus' citation of Psalm 118:22-23 (verse 42) does not rebut the verdict the leaders have pronounced on the tenants, but rather it refocuses the discussion. The issue is no longer the old "vineyard," but rather a totally new structure of which Jesus himself is the "cornerstone." That structure is God's reign or empire, which Jesus has been proclaiming from the beginning of his ministry and which the church will continue to proclaim in Jesus' name.
This parable does not use the story to set forth the surprising nature and qualities of God's reign, as do so many others in the Gospels. Its focus is rather on the futility of debates about, and maintenance programs for, the institutions of this age. Even the terms of God's relationship to God's own people are new. This puzzling parable pulls us forward toward that unknown future in which we will be both blessed and judged, and about which we know only that it is anchored in Jesus Christ.
Making the Connection
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Sunday October 1, 2017 Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 136
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 18:25-28
Thus says the LORD:
You say, "The LORD's way is not fair!"
Hear now, house of Israel:
Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?
When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies,
it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.
But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed,
he does what is right and just,
he shall preserve his life;
since he has turned away from all the sins that he has committed,
he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
R. (6a) Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
The sins of my youth and my frailties remember not;
in your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Reading 2 Phil 2:1-11
Brothers and sisters:
If there is any encouragement in Christ,
any solace in love,
any participation in the Spirit,
any compassion and mercy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love,
united in heart, thinking one thing.
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory;
rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves,
each looking out not for his own interests,
but also for those of others.
Have in you the same attitude
that is also in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel Mt 21:28-32
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people:
"What is your opinion?
A man had two sons.
He came to the first and said,
'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'
He said in reply, 'I will not, '
but afterwards changed his mind and went.
The man came to the other son and gave the same order.
He said in reply, 'Yes, sir, 'but did not go.
Which of the two did his father's will?"
They answered, "The first."
Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you,
tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the kingdom of God before you.
When John came to you in the way of righteousness,
you did not believe him;
but tax collectors and prostitutes did.
Yet even when you saw that,
you did not later change your minds and believe him."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 18:25-28
As you by now know I like to take in more than just the verses in the reading. I want to get the full picture so to speak.
The word that comes to the prophet Ezekiel in today’s lesson is an argument between God and the exiles.
Having listened in on the exiles’ talk, God asks Ezekiel what their use of a proverb might mean: “The parents have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” The exiles are “proverbing a proverb,” either applying an existing saying to their present situation, or creating a new one. Its meaning is clear: children suffer from their parents’ mistakes.
As proverbs go, this one is memorable if only because it rings so true. Who has not mourned a parent’s limitations, or struggled against some lingering psychic injury from childhood? What the exiles mean by applying it to themselves is the problem. Not only does it allow them to blame others for their current plight, it also obscures the particulars of the current emergency.
While it is certainly true that the Babylonian exile is the end result of a long series of rebellions (as Ezekiel will argue elsewhere), it is the current rebellion that now jeopardizes the kingdom of Judah. One is reminded of David’s blasé remark on learning the news of Uriah’s death in battle: (2 Samuel 11:25).
According to David, Uriah has died because war happens, not because David has had anything to do with it. Similarly, by identifying with the children in the proverb, the exiles cast themselves as innocent victims, as if Nebuchadnezzar’s deportation had not singled out those responsible for the rebellion. In the course of the argument, God urges the exiles to acknowledge their own guilt, repent, and live. The question to consider is how rejecting the proverb is a necessary step.
Commentators often draw connections between this proverb and the ancient Israelite understanding of intergenerational responsibility for guilt (see Exodus 34:7), and suggest that Ezekiel 18 marks a breakthrough to a supposedly higher understanding of individual moral responsibility. Although there are good reasons to challenge that reading, personal responsibility is nevertheless a key theme of the chapter.
It is first articulated in God’s initial rejoinder to the proverb, which establishes a close connection between guilt and punishment: “Only the one who sins shall die!” (18:4). This connection is developed in two stages. First, conventional assumptions about intergenerational guilt and punishment are carefully dismantled through the examination of the fates of the righteous father, the wicked son, and the righteous grandson. Neither guilt nor righteousness is carried from one generation to the next; only the wicked one dies (18:5-18).
In the second stage, the disputation examines the careers of righteous and wicked individuals. A righteous person can turn to wickedness and lose his life; conversely, a wicked person can turn to righteousness and live (18:19-24). Even within a single lifetime, then, one’s past doesn’t necessarily determine the future. If the generations are not bound to suffer because of the sins of the ancestors, neither does an individual’s past guilt condemn him to a life of punishment.
But if Ezekiel 18 is only about guilt and punishment, it’s worth asking why God emphatically declares ownership over all life “Know that all lives are mine; the live of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine” (18:4a). Is this declaration only for the sake of justifying God’s right to kill the wicked? This would seem not to be the case, since God emphatically repudiates any pleasure in the death of anyone, even sinners (verses 23, 32). Indeed, as the argument unfolds, the more pressing question is not who gets punished, but whether it is possible to imagine life after guilt. If God does not desire the death of anyone, not even the wicked (verse 32; cf. verse 23), then what are sinners to do?
They must let go of self-justifying but limiting ways of seeing themselves. In Ezekiel 18, this means letting go of the proverb. Remarkably, the exiles cling to it even after God establishes that only the wicked suffer for their sins (18:5-18). One would think this is good news; yet in v. 18 the exiles protest, “Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?”
Apparently identifying with the children of the proverb, the exiles would prefer to see themselves as victims than as moral agents capable of choosing their destiny. They object yet again when God declares that even the wicked may live by turning from their wickedness. They protest, “The way of the Lord doesn’t measure up”, “the way of the Lord is unfair”. The translation in suggests that the protest revolves around questions of divine justice; the exiles protest God’s unfathomability -- as if they prefer the tidiness of a self-limiting proverb to the mystery of God’s offer of new life.
The disputation makes God’s way perfectly clear. God values life above all else. Therefore God is open to human repentance and change. By contrast, the proverb relegates its users to an endless cycle of suffering by encouraging them to re-inscribe old patterns of guilt and blame. What God offers instead is life grounded in truth telling and responsibility. Mom and Dad may in fact have made a mess of things, but the children have eaten their fair share of sour grapes.
Somewhat paradoxically, accepting responsibility for guilt also makes it possible to let it go; this is conveyed quite literally in God’s challenge to the exiles to “cast away” their transgressions (verse 31). Repentance is not a matter of bearing guilt as a burden, neither is it the cultivation of remorse or regret. Instead, is the first step toward transformation -- what Ezekiel calls getting a new heart and a new spirit. Repentance is an active, deliberate step in a new direction. It is a step into the future, into life itself.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
As the first order, our psalmist (David) orients his entire being toward God (Psalm 25:1). This ancient poet’s posture parallels the picture of God, who is ever present in “the word of the Lord is very near” (Deuteronomy 30:14). The psalmist refers to himself as “[his] soul,” which is an idiomatic way in Hebrew of referring to oneself. The nucleus of the phrase is nefesh (“soul” or “living being”) that recalls the creation account of Genesis 1-2, where human beings and other creatures are called nefesh. Its Semitic root covers a wide range of meaning from soul to appetite. He lifts up his desire and life energy and directs them to the LORD.
The psalmist clearly recognizes the perils in life. He is confronted by “[his] enemies” (Psalm 25:2b). They could prevail and gloat over their victory to add insult to injury. Above all, he dreads the danger of “shame,” which constitutes a major concern in the biblical world. The loss of honor is a debilitating situation in antiquity as is the case in many parts of today’s world. In vv. 2-3, he mentions “shame” repeatedly with three words derived from the same root. From the psalmist’s perspective, God should prevent him from being humiliated. First, it affects adversely “those who wait for [God]” (v. 3). The Hebrew word that signifies waiting shares the same etymology with tiqvah (“hope”). The root originates from the practice of making thread by twisting fibers together. God cannot let down those who hope and wait for God’s intervention, anxiously wringing their hands.
In the security of confidence in the LORD, the psalmist wants to learn and follow God’s way (vv. 4-5). In the Hebrew text, these two verses are twins. They begin and end with words based on the root that refers to a “way,” as if he is saying, “I will KNOW your way. I will GO your way.” He is determined to do this, for he recognizes God as his salvation. The Hebrew word for “salvation” includes not only deliverance from the present dangers in life (as depicted in vv. 2-3) but also the well-being and prospering that accompany the observance of the law as referred to in Deuteronomy 30:10).
The psalmist has a good reason to count on God’s mercy and steadfast love, for these are some of the things that one can be sure will last forever -- “they have been from old” (Psalm 25:6). His petition that the LORD “be mindful” enlists a simple Hebrew word that means “remember.” This Hebrew verb is oriented not so much to the past as to the present. The psalmist is not merely asking God to recall something that could be forgotten. The psalmist petitions God to act based on the categories of mercy and steadfast love.
Mercy and steadfast love are linked together elsewhere in the book of Psalms (40:11; 103:4). Our psalmist conceptualizes the divine attributes as two sides of the coin. In the Greek Septuagint, they are translated with two synonyms that mean “compassion.” The Latin Vulgate uses miseratio and misericordia; the former may signify the emotion of pity, whereas the latter includes willingness to do something about it.
The latter of the pair (“steadfast love”; mentioned three times in 25:6, 7, 10) translates hesed, a Hebrew word that has vexed many generations of translators, for there is no suitable English word that can convey its meaning. The modern convention of rendering it as “steadfast love” is based on the observation that it portrays faithful compassion that never fails.
When the psalmist asks God to remember mercy and steadfast love, he prays that God may not “remember the sins of [his] youth or [his] transgressions” (v. 7a). Again, the psalmist prays that God may not base divine decision on the past. The petitioner cannot rule out the wrongs that he must have committed as a reckless youth. As a fallible human being, he makes his straightforward confession of sins (“transgressions”). He is neither able nor willing to claim innocence as the basis for God’s aid. He can only rely on God’s mercy and steadfast love (v. 7b).
He can be sure of God’s deliverance, for even sinners are granted the chance to be taught in the LORD’s way (v. 8). For the humble, God has a special arrangement (v. 9). In the Hebrew language, it is almost impossible to distinguish the humble from the oppressed poor. It is not always possible to keep them apart in today’s world, either, where power and privilege are poised to preempt the care for the powerless. The two halves of the verse make a reasonable pair, in which guidance and instruction are brought together. Yet, there is a subtle overtone that suggests that the first half recommends the humble walk in life, while the second underscores the importance of learning.
The psalmist’s confidence resides in God’s steadfast love that will endure “for those who keep his covenant and his decrees” (v. 10), which again recalls the first lesson from Deuteronomy 30:9-14. One needs not construe v. 10b as a prerequisite to the proposition presented in v. 10a. The psalmist has already established his helplessness in having himself saved for himself. The psalmist ponders the blessing reserved for those who live faithfully. They will witness God’s faithfulness.
Reading 2 Phil 2:1-11
The apostle proceeds in this chapter where he left off in the last, with further exhortations to Christian duties. He presses them largely to like-mindedness and lowly-mindedness, in conformity to the example of the Lord Jesus, the great pattern of humility and love. Here we may observe, the great gospel precept passed upon us; that is, to love one another. This is the law of Christ’s kingdom, the lesson of his school, the livery of his family. This he represents (v. 2) by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. We are of a like mind when we have the same love. Christians should be one in affection, whether they can be one in apprehension or not. This is always in their power, and always their duty, and is the likeliest way to bring them nearer in judgment. Having the same love. Observe, the same love that we are required to express to others, others are bound to express to us. Christian love ought to be mutual love. Love, and you shall be loved. Being of one accord, and of one mind; not crossing and thwarting, or driving on separate interests, but unanimously agreeing in the great things of God and keeping the unity of the Spirit in other differences. Here observe, the pressing of the duty. He is very importunate with them, knowing what an evidence it is of our sincerity, and what a means of the preservation and edification of the body of Christ. The inducements to brotherly love are these: "If there is any consolation in Christ. Have you experienced consolation in Christ? Evidence that experience by loving one another.’’ The sweetness we have found in the doctrine of Christ should sweeten our spirits. Do we expect consolation in Christ? If we would not be disappointed, we must love one another. If we have not consolation in Christ, where else can we expect it? Those who have an interest in Christ have consolation in him, strong and everlasting consolation. If we expect the benefit of God’s compassions to ourselves, then be compassionate one to another. If there is such a thing as mercy to be found among the followers of Christ, if all who are sanctified have a disposition to holy pity, make it appear this way, show it.
Fulfil the joy of your poor minister, who preached the gospel to you.’’ He proposes some means to promote it. Do nothing through strife and vain glory, There is no greater enemy to Christian love than pride and passion. If we do things in contradiction to our brethren, this is doing them through strife; if we do them through ostentation of ourselves, this is doing them through vain-glory: both are destructive of Christian love and kindle unchristian heats. Christ came to slay all enmities; therefore let there not be among Christians a spirit of opposition. Christ came to humble us, and therefore let there not be among us a spirit of pride.
Observe, Christians must be of Christ’s mind. We must bear a resemblance to his life, if we would have the benefit of his death. If we have not the Spirit of Christ, we are none of his, Rom. 8:9 . Now what was the mind of Christ? He was eminently humble, and this is what we are to learn of him. Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, Mt. 11:29 . If we were lowly-minded, we should be like-minded; and, if we were like Christ, we should be lowly-minded. We must walk in the same spirit and in the same steps with the Lord Jesus, who humbled himself to sufferings and death for us; not only to satisfy God’s justice, and pay the price of our redemption, but to set us an example, and that we might follow his steps.
Here are his two estates, of humiliation and exaltation. His estate of humiliation. He not only took upon him the likeness and fashion of a man, but the form of a servant, that is, a man of mean estate. He was not only God’s servant whom he had chosen, but he came to minister to men, and was among them as one who served in a mean and servile state. One would think that the Lord Jesus, if he would be a man, should have been a prince, and appeared in splendor. But quite the contrary: He took upon him the form of a servant. He was brought up probably working with his foster father at his trade. His whole life was a life of humiliation, meanness, poverty, and disgrace; he had nowhere to lay his head, lived upon alms, was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, did not appear with external pomp, or any marks of distinction from other men. This was the humiliation of his life. But the lowest step of his humiliation was his dying the death of the cross. He became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Even the death of the cross, a cursed, painful, and shameful death,—a death accursed by the law (Cursed is he that hangeth on a tree) —full of pain, the body nailed through the nervous parts (the hands and feet) and hanging with all its weight upon the cross,—and the death of a malefactor and a slave, not of a free-man,—exposed as a public spectacle. Such was the condescension of the blessed Jesus. His exaltation was the reward of his humiliation. Because he humbled himself, God exalted him; and he highly exalted him. to the dead as well as the living.—To the glory of God the Father. Observe, It is to the glory of God the Father to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; for it is his will that all men should honour the Son as they honor the Father, Jn. 5:23 . Whatever respect is paid to Christ redounds to the honor of the Father. He who receiveth me receiveth him who sent me,
Gospel Mt 21:28-32
If you remember we discussed the parables of Jesus not only explain truths but they also expose the heart and have a twist. This is another series of parables that Jesus taught. This parable is part of a series of three parables that Christ spoke at one time. Remember that Matthew writes primarily for a Jewish audience, (Vineyard is Israel and the Spirit is revealing through him that Jesus is King of kings. To understand this parable you must look at its context. Jesus had just triumphantly entered Jerusalem and had just overthrown the money tables in the Temple. The religious leaders were mad. They asked a question about His authority in verse 23.
Todays gospel might be called “My two sons”. The twist hits home to the Chief Priests and Pharisees when they agree that the first son who initially refused but then did his father’s wishes puts them on the spot. Jesus tells them outsiders, tax collectors and even Gentiles will enter the kingdom before them. In response Jesus tells this exposing parable. Think about what this parable might reveal about you?
I. The Illustration Christ Uses in the Parable (28-30)
A. The Illustration Reveals a Relationship {Father – Son} (28)
Israel – God’s chosen sons. Also, the Bible reveals that we too are the sons of God when we are born again.
B. The Illustration Reveals Responsibilities of Sons. (28, 30)
C. The Illustration Reveals the Responses of Sons Who are Asked to Serve (29, 30)
1. The response of the repentant – rebellious but repentant. Goodness of God led to repentance.
2. The response of the self-righteous – talked the talk, but did not walk the walk.
II. The Question That Christ Asked About The Parable. (31)
A. It Was An Easy Question.
B. It Was An Exposing Question.
III. The Application Christ Gives about This Parable (31b-32)
A. It Was A Personal Application. “For I say unto you…”
B. It Was Powerful Application.
1. The acceptance of the unaccepted was because of their repentance.
2. The rejection of the reputable was because of their lack of repentance.
3. The reason for both was a belief issue.
Conclusion: Although this parable is primarily about Israel it applies to each one today. Be careful that you just don’t have an outward form of righteousness and you are not really born again. Jesus said in Matthew 7:21; "Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Later He said in Matthew 12:50; “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother”.
Making the Connection
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Sunday September 24, 2017 Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 133
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 55:6-9
Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call him while he is near.
Let the scoundrel forsake his way,
and the wicked his thoughts;
let him turn to the LORD for mercy;
to our God, who is generous in forgiving.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18
R. (18a) The Lord is near to all who call upon him.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
R. The Lord is near to all who call upon him.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is near to all who call upon him.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R. The Lord is near to all who call upon him.
Reading 2 Phil 1:20c-24, 27a
Brothers and sisters:
Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.
If I go on living in the flesh,
that means fruitful labor for me.
And I do not know which I shall choose.
I am caught between the two.
I long to depart this life and be with Christ,
for that is far better.
Yet that I remain in the flesh
is more necessary for your benefit.
Only, conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Gospel Mt 20:1-16a
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.
Going out about nine o'clock,
the landowner saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard,
and I will give you what is just.'
So they went off.
And he went out again around noon,
and around three o'clock, and did likewise.
Going out about five o'clock,
the landowner found others standing around, and said to them,
'Why do you stand here idle all day?'
They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.'
He said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.'
When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,
'Summon the laborers and give them their pay,
beginning with the last and ending with the first.'
When those who had started about five o'clock came,
each received the usual daily wage.
So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more,
but each of them also got the usual wage.
And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
'These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day's burden and the heat.'
He said to one of them in reply,
'My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?'
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 55:6-9
As usual I’d like to review more than just the verses in todays reading. Isaiah 55:1-9 comprises most of the final hymn of the exilic portion of Isaiah (chapters 40-55, commonly called Second Isaiah), which invites exiles living outside of Judah in the sixth century, at the dawn of Persian rule, to uproot themselves, move to a land their generation never knew, and reclaim their ancestral home.
For more on the Babylonian exile and on Second Isaiah’s response to it see Isaiah 43:1-7.
Though a real event in an earthly world, the Babylonian exile of the Jews was portrayed in Scripture with such moving imagination that later readers saw in it much more than history. Poetry eloquently describing a pragmatic return from exile in spiritual terms soon came to be read as describing the spiritual journey of every believer from our various alienations to our home in God.
Second Isaiah constructs several bold arguments for this journey: to reclaim the legacy of Abraham and Sarah (Isaiah 41:8; 51:1-2); to reenact the exodus from Egypt so many centuries before (43:16-17; 51:9-10); to live out Israel’s role as God’s own creation (42:5-6; 43:1, 7, 15; 51:16). Here in chapter 55 the poet imagines repatriation as welcome to a bountiful feast of satisfying foods, hosted by none other than God.
The image of Judah’s land as one “flowing with milk and honey” (see Deuteronomy 26:9) is implicit in this invitation. In the book of Proverbs Wisdom employs food as a metaphor for wise teaching, here God’s banquet not only recalls the promise of the land’s fertility but also the spiritual richness of life before God.
The bold exhortation embedded in verse one’s thrice-repeated imperative verb “come … come … come” is to choose well. Come to the water; come to the banquet; come buy without money. In other words, don’t take what has value and waste it on nothing. Don’t settle for what doesn’t feed; take only what is good. This theme of choice permeates the whole passage. Soon the food imagery recedes, and returning to the land is merged with returning to God (verses 6-7). Clear distinction between seeking God’s ways and failing to seek them is made in verses 8-9. Because God’s ways are so radically different from human ways, because God’s thoughts are not human thoughts, they won’t be found by any other means than through this Godward journey.
The chapter’s final four verses, 10-13, return to the theme of nutrition, as God’s own words are compared to the rain and snow that bring food from the ground. Mountains, hills, and trees -- powerful figures of the natural world -- are imagined singing and clapping in celebration when the exiles return. Verdancy quickly follows as cypress and myrtle appear. Isaiah 55 beckons its audience to choose to position themselves as recipients of God’s bounty, both physical and spiritual.
In light of this passage, it’s worthwhile to consider the economics of food and water. In Lamentations 5:2-4, conquered people had complained of the high cost of what had once been available for free:
Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to aliens.
We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mothers are like widows.
We must pay for the water we drink;
the wood we get must be bought.
Those who lost their heritage to encroaching foreigners were forced to pay money even for natural resources freely found by those owning property. Not only fuel, but even water, had been commodified. This harsh reality faced by the generation of the conquered makes the offer of free water, milk, food, and wine all the more moving.
What of the choices in our world? On a spiritual, individual plane we can certainly speak of the invitation to make healthy choices for one’s own soul, to choose what gives life, rather than what does not nourish, and to meet our gracious and giving God in that place. On a more literal plane we can point to the growing health crisis in America born of poor choices both individual and social.
On a broader social scale, we might also examine what we are offering the world, a world where, as among the ancient Judeans, basic necessities, even water, have been increasingly commodified. Hunger advocates repeatedly state that we are growing enough food today to feed all seven billion of us, if we only distribute it fairly. Yet many subsistence communities abroad have been forced to give up farming, displaced by cash crops that feed richer nations, and instead to depend on expensive, nutrient-low imports. As Sojourners editor Jim Rice recently put it, “Poor families who in the past may have eaten a diet high in fruits and vegetables from local farms now rely mainly on starchy staples and ingest higher proportions of fats and sugars.”
What would happen if we were to take seriously the graceful cornucopia of this passage, offering nutritional gifts not just for ourselves, but for all for whom God cares?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18
Sometimes we praise God by talking so much that our words become hollow. Other times, we praise God as our heavenly Santa Claus who gives gifts we want. We also treat God as a street vendor with whom we can bargain: "I'll give you praise if you will do (fill-in-the-blank)..." As the bargainer, we may even decide to keep shopping until something better comes along. Praise is cheap and at times we cheapen our praise to God. How then, do we begin to claim Psalm 145 as our own when it commits us to voice our praise to God?
In the Psalter, Psalm 145 serves two structural functions. It is the final David psalm (Psalms 138-145), and it is the first psalm of praise in a series that ends the Psalter (Psalms 145-150). While Psalm 145 belongs to David and expresses David's personal commitment to worship Yahweh, the psalm is not primarily about one individual's praise. It has a universal scope that calls the whole of creation to "praise God's name forever and ever" (verse 2).
Two elements implicitly hint at Psalm 145's intended universality. The first of these is its acrostic structure. With the exception of a nûn (In Aramaic, nun means “fish.” The mem, the waters of the sea, is the natural medium of the nun, fish. The nun “swims” in the mem, covered by ...) line, each line is arranged sequentially by a letter of the alphabet. Thus, the entire alphabet is "marshalled in praise of God."
In addition to its acrostic structure, the psalmist indicates the broad scope of intended praise through four commitments to worship. The first commitment, made in verses 1-2, is individual ("I will extol you, my God and King"). Verse 4 expresses an intergenerational commitment to praise ("one generation ... to the next "), and verse 10 expresses two corporate commitments to praise. The first is from creation ("all your works") and the second from the Lord's followers ("your faithful"). In the final verse (21), both individual ("my mouth") and corporate ("all flesh") commitments are made with the assurance they will endure through time ("forever and ever").
The commitments in verses 1-2, 4, 10, and 21 are interspersed with specifics of The Lord’s greatness and goodness. Verses 3-6 and 11-13b illustrate the praise of The Lord’s greatness using bold language: might, glory, great, fame, and power. In contrast, verses 7-9 and 13c-20 capture the praise of The Lord’s goodness, depicted through tender language: gracious, merciful, compassionate, faithful, just, and kind. The cumulative picture presented in Psalm 145 is "a many-sided though overlapping account of the nature of worship, of The Lord’s greatness, goodness, and concrete positive involvement with humanity."3
The Goodness of God (verses 8-9)
The passages in this week's Lectionary text are embedded in Psalm 145's emphasis on the goodness of Yahweh as a touchstone for praise. Like Psalm 103 and others, Psalm 145:8 borrows language from The Lord’s self-revelation in Exodus 34:6. Yahweh is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and full of steadfast love. Repeated use of Yahweh in verses 8 and 9 ensures that all of these attributes point to the Lord, the curator of creation.
Verse 9 emphasizes The Lord’s goodness and compassion to all people. Here, the word "all" seems to be uniquely inclusive. Rather than expressing a defined totality such as the nation of Israel, this passage seems to indicate that the Psalm refers to all of humanity and all of creation. Moreover, verse 9 echoes verse 1 and captures Yahweh as THE king "over all he has made," not one king among many different kings. Walter Brueggemann suggests the rest of Psalm 145 is "best understood as an extrapolation from these verses to see how God's characteristic self-giving is experienced in the daily blessings of creation."4
God's Active Care (verses 14-21)
Although the second portion of the lectionary text begins with verse 14, it may be helpful to begin reading the Psalm at verse 13c. This phrase transitions from The Lord’s dominion and rule to The Lord’s nurture and care for those who are frail and needy. In other words, the transcendent and powerful God is also the immanent and strengthening God.
This transition in verse 13c may seem shocking because the powerful often ignore the weak. Yet, this is an abuse of power. "As wealth is granted in order to be shared, so power is granted in order to be exercised on behalf of the needy."5 Hence, we should not be taken aback by The Lord’s attention to the powerless and downtrodden.
In verse 14, the psalmist gives a picture of a pro-active God who both upholds the falling and raises those who have been bowed down. It is logical to wonder why a God who keeps people from falling would allow some to become "bowed down," but this term may be synonymous with being knocked over by someone or something. In such an instance, it is The Lord who will give rescue to all people. Therefore, the eyes of all will look to Yahweh who provides in due time (verse 15).
Verses 15-16 portray The Lord as the God who gives to all living things through an open hand rather than a clenched fist. The Lord is ready to show rather than withhold favor (verse 16), and in all things The Lord does, The Lord is just and kind (verse 17).
In 18b, the psalmist moves the otherwise inclusive nature of the Psalm to more specific terms. Anyone can call upon The Lord, no matter their state, as long as they call upon the Lord "in truth." Verse 19 continues the specificity of 18, acknowledging that The Lord fulfills desires for all - so long as they fear The Lord. Verse 20a follows 19, claiming The Lord will watch over those who love The Lord. After twenty verses affirming the greatness and goodness of The Lord, verse 20b provides a reality check that God will "destroy the faithless to stop them from acting oppressively."6
The final verse of Psalm 145 expresses the commitment of the psalmist and the universe to continue in praise of God. More importantly, it suggests this praise will have an everlasting, permanent quality.
Psalm 145 is a robust doxological assertion: the individual, the community, and the whole creation is to praise God for God's goodness and God's greatness. We are to participate in this praise, yet we know our praise is cheap and at times cheapens God.
Within this tension, this week's Psalm passages provide a glimpse of hope. They move us from generalized, hollow praise of God to recall specific and meaningful accounts of God's goodness in our lives. They remind us of God's ongoing tenderness towards us, the weak and needy, and they remind us that God's goodness - just like God's creation - is universal in scope (this week's Old and New Testament narratives are perfect examples of God's goodness). We are then called to invest in and proclaim the ongoing praise of our God the King whose selfless giving is manifest daily in each blessing of creation. Thanks be to God!
Reading 2 Phil 1:20c-24, 27a
The lectionary passage Philippians starts with an impressive statement about life and death.
The Apostle Paul wrote these lines during his imprisonment in Rome, probably some time between 61 and 63 AD. This specific situation is important to understand our text. Most likely, Paul’s imprisonment was rather a situation of house arrest under military custody that would have allowed him certain privileges, for instance visits of Timothy with whom he penned this letter.
It is nevertheless clear that Paul’s theological reflections are a response to the imminence of death, which was a potential outcome of this predicament. (His death in Rome just a few years later is the topic of the 2nd century apocryphal writing called Martyrdom of Paul). In our pericope, Paul provides an impressive reevaluation of death (Philippians 1:21–26) that leads to an exhortation of the congregation to suffer for Christ (1:27–30). The passage is followed by the famous hymn celebrating Christ’s humility until death (2:6–11), the lectionary text of the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
Our pericope starts with the following sentences: “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain. If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. And I do not know which I shall choose. I am caught between the two. I long to depart this life and be with Christ, [for] that is far better.” (Philippians 1:21–23). When hearing such a statement, some might be impressed by Paul’s religious enthusiasm. Others may feel uncomfortable or might even want to accuse the apostle of boasting. I feel compelled to ask, “Are you sure, Paul, you don’t hang on to life more than that?” What kind of principle is “dying is gain” anyway?
Most of our modern culture is dominated by countless efforts of making life more gratifying and fulfilling while eliminating the threat and experience of death. We tend to admire people who succeed in life or who live their lives to the fullest. There are not many role models for the idea that “dying is gain.”
So how could the Apostle Paul make such a statement some 2,000 years ago? We find the answer first in his situation of imprisonment mentioned above. It came with the potential of death, and thus it was only appropriate for Paul to reflect on death instead of adopting a state of denial. We encounter the result of his reflections in verse 23: “I long to depart this life and be with Christ, [for] that is far better.
Second, it is clear that Paul’s reflections hinge on the presence of Christ. Paul is absolutely certain that death is not a transition into a state of non-existence; hence, he is not afraid of it. Paul does not doubt at all that death can only be the moment when he will be united with Christ. This is a faith perspective the apostle has developed earlier: “ … we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord”.
The test of such faith comes in a situation of impending death, be it in the first century AD or more recently. In the spring of 1945, the last message written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer before his execution in a concentration camp in Nazi-Germany demonstrates a similar kind of confidence: “ … for me this is the end but also the beginning. With him (sc. the bishop of Chichester to whom this message was addressed) I believe in the principle of our Universal Christian brotherhood which rises above all national interests, and that our victory is certain.”
For our perspectives on death, the centeredness on the resurrected Christ can make a big difference. It turns typical human perspectives on life upside down. Attitudes of ‘living life to the fullest’ suddenly become questionable. The quest for more material possessions suddenly becomes vain. In the Letter to the Philippians, Paul turns his attention instead to the people who had gathered around him to hear the message of Christ. He wants to be their servant. He therefore makes a few recommendations on how followers of Christ should live (1:27–30). His words convey expectations of an endearing relationship between the members of the congregation in Philippi, who are to be “standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel” (1:27).
Again, I am not certain whether everybody feels comfortable with such a statement. These are high ideals for communal life. Yet do we not all know how divided our church congregations are today? Divisions because of worship styles, dogmatic issues, dress codes, or matters of life style are ubiquitous, leaving the ‘body of Christ’ separated into different denominations and sub-groups. It might help to reflect on the fact that this situation in the Christian Church is not recent; it probably existed already during Paul’s time.
If he reminded the congregation in Philippi to be unified, did this not imply that there were divisions? Were not the opening chapters of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians also dealing with the problem that people there followed Christ but declared they belonged to Paul or Apollos or Cephas (1:12)?
In the end, the crucial question is whether essential or secondary aspects determine corporate church identities. There can never be enough of a focus on Jesus Christ, that is, on the story of his life, suffering, and death, and on the gospel of salvation through faith in him (see, for example, Philippians 2:6–11). Only when we hear this gospel time and again will we be able to live our lives “in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (1:27). Those called “Christians” should always strive to learn more about the person after whom they are named.
Gospel Mt 20:1-16a
If you are anything like me you could re-read this parable a couple of times come up with a slightly different angle on it, depending on the word or phrase you use to summarize the story. This does not mean, of course, that the parable can mean anything, but that there is some complexity to the way the biblical text (and perhaps parables in particular) will strike us. Two things in particular jumped out at me as I read and re-read this parable. So, to answer my own question:
First, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard is about the 9th (and 10th) commandment. In a very real sense this parable is about coveting. While "covet" may not seem the most obvious word to describe what is going on here, it does fit both the emphasis of Jesus' teaching and the overarching emphasis in Matthew on the Law and Jesus' representation of it in a way that transforms our thinking and doing. Coveting lies at the heart of this parable in a couple of ways.
We covet what God chooses to give to others. A parable is essentially an elaborate allegory. We are invited to see ourselves in the story, and then apply it to ourselves. The wages at stake (even at the moment of Jesus' first telling of the parable) are not actual daily wages for vineyard-laborers, but forgiveness, life, and salvation for believers. We need not literally be laborers in a vineyard, as we are all of us co-workers in the kingdom (1 Corinthians 3:9).
And in relationship, one believer to another, covetousness is a problem. The point here isn't necessarily that other folks receive blessings from God that we don't -- that they get more or better or lovelier gifts from God. The problem is that they get the same as us; and they don't deserve it, do they? They are less worthy, or later arrivals, or just plain worse sinners. They don't deserve the same as we get, do they? Not nothing maybe, but certainly not the same. The parable's day laborers parallel perfectly with today's forgiven-sinners in both our pews and pulpits.
We have a tendency, as the parable aptly illustrates, to covet and to be resentful of what others receive from God. The owner of the vineyard asks those who have worked longest and (presumably) hardest for him, "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?" The point is that God's grace, mercy, and forgiveness are God's to give away as God sees fit.
As a direct result of this, we covet God's power to forgive and God's control over who is forgiven and how. This parable is perfectly matched in the lectionary to the parable of Jonah, who has run away to avoid delivering the message of forgiveness that God has sent him to proclaim. Jonah complains (complains!), "for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing," and surely this cannot be for them? It is ironic that Jonah, who had earlier declared that "deliverance belongs to the Lord" (2:9, a deliverance he himself has experienced), has rejected the good news of who God is for others.
The parable of the laborers in the vineyard is about coveting, about our frustration with the grace of God as it applies not to us, but to others.
Second, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard is about the first and the last. The parable itself displays a reversal of expectations -- "the last will be first and the first will be last"; this is not only the summary of the parable (20:16), but a critical aspect of New Testament theology.
Notice the flow of the narrative as the workers are compensated for their labors:
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, "Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first. When those hired about five o'clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. When the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.'"
The last are literally first in that they are paid first. And the first, who have labored longest, must also wait the longest to get theirs. But notice as well that the first who are now last do not receive nothing or less, they receive the same, as the laborers themselves say, "you have made them equal to us...." So perhaps it should be said that the last shall be first, and the first shall be the same.
This element of the parable is taken up in the other Gospels and in Revelation; this scandalous reversal of expectation, of our sense of justice, and even of our hopes, is a central piece of the New Testament. Whoever wants to be first must be last, and servant of all (Mark 9:35); so much for human ideas of greatness. Who is worthy to climb the holy hill, and enter the gate of God's kingdom? Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last (Luke 13:30). And it is Jesus, who is first and last (Revelation 1:17), who tells us that we need not fear; for in the one who is both first and last, the first and the last are brought together when we are called to lay down the burdens of our days and find our home with God.
The scandal of this parable is that we are all equal recipients of God's gifts. The scandal of our faith is that we are often covetous and jealous when God's gifts of forgiveness and life are given to other in equal measure. And the scandal of our preaching, if based on this parable, ought to encompass both.
Making the Connection
The message from our society sometimes leads us to overvalue success and achievement. Today's parable reminds us that while we owe everything to God, God owes us nothing.
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Sunday September 17, 2017 Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 130
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 27:30—28:7
Wrath and anger are hateful things,
yet the sinner hugs them tight.
The vengeful will suffer the LORD's vengeance,
for he remembers their sins in detail.
Forgive your neighbor's injustice;
then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.
Could anyone nourish anger against another
and expect healing from the LORD?
Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself,
can he seek pardon for his own sins?
If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath,
who will forgive his sins?
Remember your last days, set enmity aside;
remember death and decay, and cease from sin!
Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor;
remember the Most High's covenant, and overlook faults.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12
R. (8) The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
He will not always chide,
nor does he keep his wrath forever.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
Reading 2 Rom 14:7-9
Brothers and sisters:
None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.
For if we live, we live for the Lord,
and if we die, we die for the Lord;
so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
For this is why Christ died and came to life,
that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Gospel Mt 18:21-35
Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
"Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive?
As many as seven times?"
Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.'
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
'Pay back what you owe.'
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
But he refused.
Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?'
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 27:30—28:7
Sirach 27:16-28:11 forms the immediate context from which today’s reading is taken. The primary concern of these verses is to highlight the dangers to personal integrity and friendship. The betrayal of secrets can ruin a friendship, and very well might make reconciliation with the injured party impossible (Sir 27:16-21). Insincerity of conduct towards those you are having discourse with, and the twisting of their word into a meaning not intended by them, is reprehended by Sirach, and he insists that the Lord hates such a man (sir 27:22-24). In typical Old Testament fashion Sirach 27:25-29 speaks of the inexorable law of retribution: what goes around comes around. It is at this point that today’s reading, Sirach 27:30-28:7 begins.
Sir 27:30. Anger and wrath, these also are abominations, yet a sinner holds onto them.
Sir 28:1. The vengeful will face the Lord’s vengeance, indeed he remembers their sins in detail.
Anger and wrath are things directed towards other people. In spite of the fact that retribution will come upon the wicked eventually, they continue to maintain their hold on it.
The sinful man will possess them. The evil man may come to “possess” anger and wrath as a recipient of such things; either from men in this life, or from God at the judgment. The latter (from God) is more likely the meaning here in light of the explicit statement in 28:1, and the reference to his not knowing where retribution comes from in Sirach 27:27.
Sir 28:2 Forgive your neighbor the wrong done to you; then when you pray. Your own sins will be forgiven.
Sir 28:3 Does anyone nourish anger against another, and expect healing from the Lord?
Sir 28:4 Can one refuse mercy to a sinner like oneself, yet seek pardon for one’s own sins?
Sir 28:5 If a mere mortal cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins?
Verse 2 should certainly call to mind the sixth petition of the Lord’s prayer, and verses 3-5 serve as commentary, while at the same time highlighting the hypocrisy of seeking reconciliation with God when still at enmity with your neighbor. Betrayal of friends (Sir 27:16-21) and insincerity of conduct (Sir 27:22-23) are both examples of such hypocrisy. The end result of the evil man’s hypocrisy towards his fellow man is treating God in the same base fashion.
Sir 28:6 Remember your last days and set enmity aside;
remember death and decay, and cease from sin!
Sir 28:7 Remember the commandments, and do not be angry with your neighbor; remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook faults
Remember, though you may think you can get away with something during this life, at its end their will be a reckoning: the law of retribution mentioned in Sirach 27:25-29. (see Sir 7:36; do not be angry with your neighbor…overlook ignorance. Overlook the faults of your neighbor rather than bearing a grudge, for this is enshrined in the law (Lev 19:17-18; Ex 23:4-5).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12
Psalm 103 is classified as an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving, a psalm in which a single voice praises God for goodness to or on behalf of that individual, usually for deliverance from some trying situation.
Hermann Gunkel, one of the great fathers of psalm studies, describes hymns of thanksgiving in this way: “A person is saved out of great distress … and now with grateful heart he brings a thank offering to Yahweh; it was customary that at a certain point in the sacred ceremony he would offer a song in which he expresses his thanks.”
The psalmist begins the words of thanksgiving by addressing the nephesh, usually translated as “soul,” but better understood as “inmost being” -- the all of who a person is. (See the parallel “and all my being” in the second half of verse 1.) The opening and closing words of the psalm (verses 1 and 22) bring to mind the popular praise song by Andrae Crouch, “Bless the Lord, O my soul ... He has done great things.”
While Crouch’s song leaves the “great things” undefined, Psalm 103 outlines in detail just what God does for the psalmist’s nephesh. God forgives iniquity, heals diseases, redeems from the Pit (a reference to death), crowns with steadfast love and mercy, satisfies with good, and works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed (verses 3-6).
Verses 7 and 8 recall the time of the Wilderness Wanderings, when Israel repeatedly grumbled against and rejected God’s goodness, but God continued to provide for and guide them. Verse 8 brings to the mind of the hearer the golden calf incident in Exodus 32-34, which culminated in God’s self-declaration in Exodus 34:5-7: “The LORD came down in a cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name, “LORD.” So the LORD passed before him and proclaimed: The LORD, the LORD, a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity, continuing his love for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but bringing punishment for their parents’ wickedness on children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation!.”
The word translated “merciful” in Exodus 34:6 and Psalm 103:4 and 8 is particularly interesting. It is derived from the Hebrew verbal root raham, whose noun form rehem means “womb.” God's compassion is tied closely to the concept of “womb love,” the love a mother feels for her yet-to-be-born child. Over and over, the psalmists remember and call upon God's mercy, God's “womb love.” “Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love”; “Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me”; “The LORD is good to all, and his compassion (another word used to translate raham) is over all that he has made”. References to God’s mercy (or compassion) occurs no less than twenty-two times in the book of Psalms.
Psalm 22 takes the metaphor a step further and actually connects God's identification with “womb-love” to the physical referent for the metaphor. In verse 10 the psalmist cries to God, “Upon you I was cast from the rehem. Here God is intimately tied to the life-giving womb and is further pictured as midwife. Phyllis Trible, in God and Rhetoric of Sexuality, describes the image in this verse as a “semantic movement from a physical organ of the female body to a psychic mode of being.” In Ps 77:9 the psalmist asks “Has God in anger shut up his compassion?” The verb translated “shut up” (qapats) is used most often in the Hebrew text in reference to “shutting the mouth,” but one does not have to travel far metaphorically to connect “mouth” with “womb opening” in this poetic construction.
Another word in verses 4 and 8 of Psalm 103 is also found in God’s self-descriptive words in Exod 34:6 -- hesed. It is translated as “steadfast love.” Hesed is a difficult word to render into English; it has to do with the relationship between two parties of an agreement, a covenant in the context of the Old Testament. God made a covenant with Abraham in Gen 15:18, stating “To your descendants I give the land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.” In Exodus 19:4-5, God and the people of Israel entered into a covenant relationship at Mt. Sinai. God said to them, “You have seen how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you obey me completely and keep my covenant,* you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine. Now, therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples.”
God promised that the Israelites would be a treasured possession; they had only to keep God’s covenant stipulations. We might say that hesed is about covenant relationship or covenant promises. It has to do with the sacred agreement, the sacred relationship, between God and God’s people. Thus, Exodus 34 and Psalm 103 remind us that our God is a God of womb-love and a God of covenant promise.
The thanksgiving words of Psalm 103 stand in stark contrast to the lamenting words of Psalms 42 and 43, in which the psalm singer admonishes the nephesh, who is “cast down” and “disquieted,” to “hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God”. Words of quiet despair are transformed into words of thankful praise as the singer of Psalm 103 brings to mind all of God’s “benefits” (verse 2). The word translated “benefits” (gemul), though, actually has to do with receiving in return what one has earned -- what one should receive in return for one’s actions, words, and thoughts. The psalmist recognizes that, while God is not a God of retribution (note I said should above), we are called upon to respond to and embrace the mercy, the “womb-love,” of God and to uphold our human responsibilities of the steadfast love, the hesed, relationship.
Reading 2 Rom 14:7-9
We have to read more of the psalm to get the full impact of this reading.
This section of Romans makes it clear that divisions in the church go back to the earliest churches.
The "strong" who are mentioned here apparently eat everything, observe all days as the same, and perhaps drink wine. The "weak in faith," mentioned in the first verse of this reading apparently abstain from meat, observe one day as more sacred than others--this was probably the Sabbath--and abstain from wine. More significant than these differences in lifestyle, however, were the attitudes that were dividing the church. Paul's commands toward both groups make it pretty clear that the "strong" were despising the "weak," while the "weak" were judging or condemning the "strong."
The behavioral differences in view here are adiaphora, "indifferent things," or "things that don't matter." These behaviors are not explicitly prohibited or commanded by scripture. They lie in a moral zone where each person must exercise conscience to decide how to proceed.
Differences in how we follow our consciences always have the potential to threaten our fellowship as believers in Christ. A story about Ruth Graham, wife of the famous evangelist, illustrates how differences can threaten our unity. Mrs. Graham, dressed and made up as would seem fitting for any American woman in the 1970s, attended a luncheon with wives of conservative pastors in Germany. These German Christians had more conservative ideas regarding how women should look. They did not believe that married Christian women should wear makeup or clothing that made them look too much like the world. As a result, a German pastor's wife, sitting across from Ruth Graham, became very upset. She thought it was shameful that the wife of this famous evangelist looked so worldly. Why, Ruth Graham was even wearing mascara! The German pastor's wife became so angry that she started crying right into her beer. Meanwhile Ruth Graham couldn't understand why the woman was crying, although it bothered her that a self-respecting pastor's wife was drinking beer at a meeting to prepare for an evangelistic crusade where Christians come together as the unified body of Christ.
In this text and what follows, Paul shows no sign he recommends that people who are more liberated in conscience teach those with more sensitive consciences to change their positions. In fact, he sounds postmodern in 14:14 when he says that for the person who thinks a certain food is unclean, it is unclean. This leads him to say in the next verse, "I am not walking in love if what I do or eat causes a fellow believer to be grieved." Notice he makes no allowances for what I intend or don't intend to do. If I have a more robust conscience and a believer around me is grieved, then I have not been acting in love by first asking how my behavior will affect others around me.
One summer an evangelist went on a short missions trip to rural Guatemala. He knew that men weren't supposed to wear short pants, so on the first day at the ministry site--a Sunday--He was out in long pants, playing soccer with some village boys. His team leader came out and said, "Mark, there are some pastors here who are asking why you, a participant in this conference, are playing a competitive game like soccer on a Sunday." It turned out that the believers to whom we were ministering thought there was something wrong with competitive sports. They would not think of playing soccer on a Sunday! It was like Paul said here in 14:5--one person places one day above the others while another person views all days alike. On that Sunday in Guatemala, He had to respect the sensibilities of the pastors who were there and walked off the field.
Paul says that if both sides are doing their action "for the Lord," then both positions are valid and must be respected (14:6). Is Paul saying that I have to curtail my freedoms because of others' sensitivities? For relationships within the church, this is exactly what Paul is saying and confirmed by his words on verses 7-9, that we, like Christ, are not living for ourselves. We are here to live for the Lord.
Another reason Paul gives for respecting the behavior of others' in indifferent matters is that each believer will stand before God in judgment. It is not for us to judge other people. If they can perform their activities in good conscience for the Lord, then we can let them continue.
Indeed, the theme that God will finally judge is not just an idea that keeps us from taking revenge, as we see in Romans 12:19. God's judgment is also a powerful idea that keeps me from judging or despising those who live out their Christian convictions in ways different from how I live. Jesus said, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged". Paul is applying Jesus' words to differences within the church. His goal for our church is presented in his benediction in Romans 15:5-6, that instead of using our words to despise or judge others in our fellowship, we glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ "with one voice!"
Gospel Mt 18:21-35
The economy of forgiveness Jesus announces is congruent neither with the values and assumptions that govern human economies nor the relentless pursuit of power and privilege that drives our daily social relationships. The pursuit of unlimited forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-22) requires a definitive break from the tacit arrangements that govern everyday life, whether ancient or modern.
When Peter asks Jesus how many times he has to forgive a brother who sins repeatedly against him -- as many as seven times? -- Jesus explodes Peter’s magnanimous offer: not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Think about ourselves here for a moment. How many times would we forgive in todays world? I know I say “three strikes and you’re out.” Jesus’ number is not drawn from the air. It mirrors the boast of Cain’s descendant, Lamech, in Genesis 4:23-24, who brags that the mortal vengeance he has extracted against a young man who hurt him far exceeds God’s promise of seven-fold punishment against anyone who might kill Cain. Jesus is calling his community of disciples to participate in undoing the curse of Cain and Lamech that has kept their offspring trapped in spasms of envy, hatred, violence, and retribution across the generations to this day.
The parable of the unforgiving servant serves as a sobering counterpoint -- a sharp warning -- to those who might think forgiveness is possible on limited terms. The parable illustrates with painful clarity the difficulty of practicing forgiveness in a social system built for different purposes. It may also illustrate the power of “binding and loosing” (Matthew 18:18): even heaven has a hard time undoing the damage wrought by human choices and the intractable systems we build to sustain our places in the world of Cain and Lamech.
Despite the suggestion at the end of the parable that God will act as the king in the parable, we should resist the inclination to read the parable as a simple allegory, in which the power figure, in this case a king, represents God, and the servant who is forgiven much but refuses to forgive another stands for Israel or some other too easily vilified social group. Parables work best when they are read primarily as simple, integral stories, rather than as ciphers to be decoded in terms favorable to Christians. In any case, parables do not usually convey a simple moral point so much as they are meant to induce critical reflection and to pull the blinders from our eyes.
Although the figures in this parable are exaggerated, as so often is true in parables, the king and his slave represent and follow scripts that would have been familiar to ancient Mediterranean audiences. Kings used agents like the “unmerciful servant” to organize lower levels of agents, from tax-farmers to torturers (Matthew 18:34), who together made up a system that ensured the continuous flow of wealth, power, and honor to the top of the pyramid.
The unforgiving servant is apparently a manager of the highest level, effectively a CFO, with control over the movement of vast wealth. The astronomical “debt” or “loan” he owes may represent the income he is responsible for producing from those lower on the pyramid of patronage. In the Mediterranean economy, the goal was to pass a steady, acceptable flow of wealth further up the pyramid, while retaining as much as one could get away with for oneself, to be used to grease one’s own way further up the pyramid.
This slave, who works near or at the very top of the pyramid, may have taken too large a share for himself. The reckoning described early in the parable is meant to correct any wrongdoing on the part of the slave, but also to send a message to the whole system to limit such “honest graft.” In such a case, the only recourse on the servant’s part would be to beg for mercy, as this one does to good effect. Disciplining and then restoring such a slave might be a better move on the king’s part than finding a replacement. Although the king forgives the slave’s enormous “loan,” the slave’s obligation to the king is actually intensified. He is likely to be more loyal going forward than less.
The king’s stupendous act of mercy is, however, neither a private matter nor an act with consequences for this slave alone. Wiping this debt off the books has implications for everyone down the pyramid, a fact certainly noted by all the clients of this servant. The king effectively inaugurates a regime of financial amnesty, a jubilee, not only for one slave, but for everyone in his debt.
The economic revolution, however, makes it not much further than the door. The slave’s immediate encounter with one of his client-slaves, someone with a much smaller obligation, demonstrates that the forgiven slave intends to revert to business as usual. He gives no heed to the second slave’s appeal, although it is nearly identical to the one he had just given the king. His failure to carry on the forgiveness the king granted him not only halts the spread of financial amnesty in its tracks, it also mocks and dishonors the king himself. The king cannot ignore such an affront. The unforgiving slave binds himself not to the king’s mercy, but to the old system of wealth extraction and violence. He thus binds the king in turn to deal with him once again within the confines of this system.
Jesus seems to tell us that God’s forgiveness has necessary limits, but perhaps these are the limits we set. The unforgiving slave brings judgment on himself by treating his own forgiveness as a license to execute judgment on others. He thus transforms a merciful king into a vengeful judge. The problem lies not with the king, or even by analogy with God, but with the world the slave insists on constructing for himself, under which terms his fate is now set. With whom, and to what systems, do we bind ourselves each day?
Making the Connection
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Sunday Sept. 10, 2017 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 127
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 33:7-9
Thus says the LORD:
You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel;
when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me.
If I tell the wicked, "O wicked one, you shall surely die, "
and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way,
the wicked shall die for his guilt,
but I will hold you responsible for his death.
But if you warn the wicked,
trying to turn him from his way,
and he refuses to turn from his way,
he shall die for his guilt,
but you shall save yourself.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
R. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works."
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Reading 2 Rom 13:8-10
Brothers and sisters:
Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another;
for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery;
you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet, "
and whatever other commandment there may be,
are summed up in this saying, namely,
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Love does no evil to the neighbor;
hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.
Gospel Mt 18:15-20
Jesus said to his disciples:
"If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.
If he does not listen,
take one or two others along with you,
so that 'every fact may be established
on the testimony of two or three witnesses.'
If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.
If he refuses to listen even to the church,
then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.
Amen, I say to you,
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again, amen, I say to you,
if two of you agree on earth
about anything for which they are to pray,
it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 33:7-9
On the passage of the watchman. If the prophet has done his or job, then the demise of the people is their own fault.
An evangelist spoke about repenting which means a change of mind, like a 180 degree turn:
“They tell me I rub the fur the wrong way. I don’t. Let the cat turn around!”
Everybody falls at least venially, as Proverbs 24:16 says that even a righteous person may fall seven times, but he gets up again, but has a sense of mercy and integrity because the person seeks holiness.
e.g. One day a mother and her son went to visit Gandhi. The mother needed help from one of the world’s greatest leaders.
It turns out, the little boy had an obsession with sugar and she went to seek Gandhi’s help on how to break her son’s sweet addiction.
“Gandhi, my son consumes far too much sugar, will you please tell him it’s bad for his health?”
After listening to the mother’s plea patiently, Gandhi refused to give the boy advice and told her to return in two weeks.
The mother left somewhat disappointed at Gandhi’s request.
Two weeks later they returned.
Gandhi pulled the child aside and told him it would be best if he quit eating so much sugar. The boy did his best to cut back on sweets.
The mother then pulled Gandhi aside curious as to why he needed two weeks.
Gandhi smiled to her and said “Two weeks ago I had an obsession with sugar. I needed the time to see if I could cut back myself.”
The goal of fraternal concern for others spiritual and moral well-being is reconciliation of the person with God and the Christian community.
e.g. In Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation II, it says: “By the working of your power it comes about, O Lord, that hatred is overcome by love, revenge gives way to forgiveness, and discord is changed to mutual respect.”
Summary: Jesus is saying that we are not to be only concerned with someone’s material well- being but also for their moral and spiritual good. Hebrews 13:17 says to watch over souls as one who will have to give an account.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Psalm 95 begins with a reciprocal invitation to praise (Psalm 95:1). Yet praise must have focus. This is not just a chance for ‘a good-old sing-song’ - you can get that down the pub. This is serious worship, with its focus upon who the LORD is (the Rock), and who He is to us (the rock of our salvation).
We should be aware - even in ‘the praise part of our service’ - that we are coming into the presence of the true and living God. We draw near with the familiarity of “thanksgiving” and of “making a joyful noise” (Psalm 95:2), ‘boldly approaching the throne of grace’ (Hebrews 4:16). But we also come with a sense of awe at the presence of the LORD, the great God, the King over all (Psalm 95:3).
We celebrate Him as the One who sustains all things (Psalm 95:4). We acknowledge Him as Creator (Psalm 95:5). We worship, we bow down, we kneel in the presence of the LORD our Maker (Psalm 95:6).
Such awe is appropriate in those who have the LORD as “our God” (Psalm 95:7). We are “the people of his pasture, and the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7).
Praise gives way to Word: a word of exhortation, and a word of warning. ‘Anyone who has ears should listen’ (cf. Matthew 13:9). “Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart…” (Psalm 95:7-8).
We are taken back in time to an incident (Exodus 17:1-7), not long after the LORD had led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt (Exodus 13:3). The Red Sea had miraculously parted, and the first generation of freedmen had walked across dry-shod. Miriam’s song (Exodus 15:21) was still fresh in the memories of the people.
The people put the LORD to the test in the wilderness (Psalm 95:8-9). They chided with Moses, and he accused them of tempting the LORD (Exodus 17:2). After all the miracles of Egypt, the people questioned: ‘Is the LORD among us or not?’ (Exodus 17:7). How soon we forget past mercies!
It was at this point that “the Rock” (Psalm 95:1) was introduced (Exodus 17:6): ‘and that Rock was Christ’ (1 Corinthians 10:4). There came a breaking point in the relationship between the LORD and His people, and a whole generation were doomed to wander in the wilderness for forty years (Psalm 95:10), and failed to enter the promised land (Psalm 95:11). These things are written for our admonition, the Apostle Paul tells us: ‘therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall’ (1 Corinthians 10:11-12).
Reading 2 Rom 13:8-10
Those of us who grew up in the North Country often like to tell stories of our harsh winters. We tend to glory in the fact that we survived huge snowfalls, and some of the coldest temperatures ever recorded this side of Antarctica. Living as an adult, in the North, I was always amazed that the snowfalls were never as deep as they were when I was a child; the snow banks never quite so high. Then, it hit me. I was viewing winter from a different perspective. The snow banks look much higher when you’re only four feet tall instead of six feet, and the snow seems deeper when you’re making your way through it with 25 inch inseams rather than 32 inch.
A 26.2 mile marathon looks very different to the individual who is running it for the first time, as opposed to the veteran runner who has “been there, done that, and has the T-shirt.”
We Christians are invited to live our lives marching to the beat of a different drummer than other folks because we have a different perspective. We see life through the cross and eternity.
REMEMBER THE TIME
Two thousand years has shown that Paul was incorrect in his assumption that Jesus would return quickly. Still we have the promise that Jesus will return. When he does return, he will make all things new and will establish the kingdom of God—heaven—on earth. As children of God—people who have died with Christ in baptism so that we may live with him in his kingdom—we live in the reality of this promise, and the fact that we are eternal beings.
Teilhard de Chardin a French Jesuit philosopher, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience." Only the object and the subject have been changed in this observation, but the change in perspective is dramatic and dynamic!
For Paul, the fact that Christians are eternal beings makes a big difference in how we live our lives. We have broken free of the expectations, short-sighted goals, and self-centered interests of the world. He invites his readers to view possessions from a perspective beyond their physical lives. Jobs become vocations and ministries. Daily life is transformed from acquisition to a life of service. Grudges aren’t worth nursing, and relationships become valuable.
The other perspective that Paul has viewed life from and encourages his readers to do the same is the cross of Christ. Paul has written eleven chapters in this letter highlighting the steadfast love, overwhelming grace and unconditional forgiveness of God. It is God’s love and grace that inspires us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, and to live lives of love.
TRAVEL LIGHT
Working from his twin perspectives, Paul starts out his instructions on how to live in the reality of God’s love and grace by telling his readers to owe no one anything except to love one another. I think Paul is suggesting to us that we travel light.
Summary: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience." Only the object and the subject have been changed in this observation, but the change in perspective is dramatic. Paul shows us a better view of life.
Gospel Mt 18:15-20
Some have called our society litigious which means that people are ready to sue each other at the slightest provocation even the church in the United States has all kind of policies in place to protect people’s rights with processes to treat people's grievances. But did you know such policies are not new in the current church. In today's Gospel Jesus spells out a process to address the situation when one community member hurts another. Our Lord asked his followers to first get the problem private a one-to-one situation where no one who fended discusses the situation with the one who inflicted the injury. Only if that fails is a disciple to involve others as witnesses. The third step after failure is to tell the church, that is bring the issue before the whole community. If nothing persuades the sinful disciple to listen, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector Jesus said. Fr. John Withrop writes that this type treatment seems to treat them as “outcasts” but we should remember that Jesus calls such to be members of his inner circle or His wisest community. He goes on say that these now public sinners will become the focus of reconciliation. Matthew follows up this process with dealing with community problems with a reminder that the prayer and action of the Church is united with God's graciousness. When we act as Jesus has taught we are assured of the Father’s generosity and the presence of Jesus in our midst as we gather.
Making the Connection
Where there is hatred let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy
O divine master grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console
to be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it's in dying that we are born to eternal life
Amen
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Sunday Sept. 3 , 2017 Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 124
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 20:7-9
You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped;
you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.
All the day I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage is my message;
the word of the LORD has brought me
derision and reproach all the day.
I say to myself, I will not mention him,
I will speak in his name no more.
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
R. (2b) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
for your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Reading 2 Rom 12:1-2
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.
Gospel Mt 16:21-27
Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
"God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
He turned and said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
Then Jesus said to his disciples,
"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory,
and then he will repay all according to his conduct."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 20:7-9
Jeremiah had been put in the stocks - by the church governor, no less - for having the audacity to speak the Word of the LORD in church (Jeremiah 20:1-2)! Even then, there was no stopping Jeremiah telling it as it is, speaking forth the words of God. In this passage we are overhearing the praying prophet wrestling with God.
The prophet’s lament falls in line with others of the genre: both in his own writings, and in the rest of the Bible.
1. Address.
You duped me, O LORD, (Jeremiah 20:7) in the briefest of openings: but nevertheless, in his pain, Jeremiah is crying out to none other than the true and living God. A good place for any of us to begin.
2. Complaint.
The complaint commences with an expression of the occasional doubt of every preacher: that his words are perhaps not, after all, from God. Jeremiah fears that he may have been “duped” (Jeremiah 20:7) by the LORD (cf. 1 Kings 22:19-23), and consequently fallen foul of the law concerning false prophets (Ezekiel 14:9-10).
This fear arose from Jeremiah’s interpretation of the mocking (Jeremiah 20:7), reproach and derision (Jeremiah 20:8), and defaming (Jeremiah 20:10) which he was facing. The prophet took his eye off the ball. The persecuted preacher questions his own integrity when the LORD does not do things exactly as he thinks God should, and momentarily loses his assurance.
Jeremiah complains that he has been unfairly overpowered by the LORD (Jeremiah 20:7), but he has not the power to forbear from speaking His words (Jeremiah 20:9). Like Peter and John, he ‘cannot but speak’ the word of God (Acts 4:20). Like Paul, ‘necessity is laid upon me… woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel’ (1 Corinthians 9:16).
3. Trust.
Jeremiah’s enemies hoped that the prophet would prove to have been deceived, and that they would prevail (Jeremiah 20:10). But against this Jeremiah’s faith reasserts itself in the assurance that his enemies would not, ultimately, prevail (Jeremiah 20:11). It is God who will prevail.
4. Petition.
The prophet strengthens himself in the LORD (cf. 1 Samuel 30:6) - and his consequent imprecation is nothing more sinister than a plea to see things as God sees them (Jeremiah 20:12).
5. Praise.
Jeremiah emerged from his ordeal with an invitation to the faithful to join him in singing praise to the One who had delivered him (Jeremiah 20:13). Although his experience is very personal, and very real, Jeremiah also stands for all the people of God: both Israel (Jeremiah 15:5), and the wider Church (1 Peter 4:16). As well as this, Jeremiah is a type of Christ, and anticipates the coming of the suffering Saviour (Isaiah 53:3).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
Our Christian life, your Christian life began and begins with a search for God.
. We may not understand exactly what we are searching for but it all began with a search.
. The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem with one of the main computers. He dialed the employees home telephone number and was greeted with a child’s whispered, "Hello?"
The boss asked, "Is your Daddy home?"
"Yes," whispered the small voice.
"May I talk with him?" the man asked.
To the boss’ surprise, the small voice whispered, "No."
The boss persisted, "Is your Mommy there?"
"Yes," came the answer.
"May I talk with her?"
Again, the small voice whispered, "No."
“Well, is there someone else there I might talk to?" the boss asked the child.
"Yes," whispered the child, "a policeman."
"Well then, may I speak with the policeman?"
"No,” whispered the child “he is busy"
"Busy doing what?" asked the boss.
"Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the Fireman," came the whispered answer.
Now the boss was growing concerned and just then he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the ear piece on the phone, the boss asked, "What is that noise?"
"A hello-copper," answered the whispering voice.
Alarmed, the boss nearly shouted: "What is going on there?"
In an awed whispering voice, the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello-copper!"
"Why are they there?"
There was a muffled giggle as the child said, "They are looking for me!"
. We all search for something.
. We all start our Christian life with a search.
.Our Christian life began with our soul thirsting for something or someone to fill an emptiness that is inside all of mankind.
. Many of us tried all sorts of things to fill that void.
. We try to do it with relationships with spouses or friends and acquaintances.
. There is nothing wrong with these relationships but they will not fill the emptiness that creates this search in us.
. We try filling this void with activities and hobbies. Sports or partying.
. There is nothing wrong with a good party but that never fills the void that we are searching to fill.
. David, in this psalm, describes how our body, our soul, our very being longs to be filled.
. We long to be filled and God is the only thing that will fill this void.
. We hear of the drive that adopted children have to find their birth parents. This desire and drive is in them because there is something missing in their life that needs to be present.
. We are born separated from God through our sin. This separation creates a void in our lives that can only be filled as we reconcile ourselves to and with our creator.
. We do this through the belief in Jesus’ sacrifice for this sin that separates us from God.
. Your Christian life begins when you find God through the death of Jesus Christ.
. After you have searched and found God trough Jesus Christ, You worship and serve him.
. As you live this precious life that God has given you, you praise and worship him.
. Look at verses 3&4.
. 3 Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
4 for your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
. Lord I have seen your power and your glory in my life.
. Lord you have sustained me with your love and power as I have traveled this world.
. In good times and bad, you are there.
. Think back on your life, can you see the presence of the Lord in your life?
. I’m sure that most, if not all of you, have had your up’s and downs in life.
. Thank him that he has given you a place, a sanctuary to lift him up and praise him.
. In your Christian life you have searched and found God. You have seen him in all the circumstances of your life.
. Now, you must resolve to praise him here on this rock we call earth until you go home to be with Jesus for eternity.
. David writes that he will praise God as long as he lives.
. Folks, just because we are getting more mature in this life, it does not mean that we stop praising God.
. This sermon is title “this is your Christian life, from start to finish.”
. David says that he will finish his life praising God.
. How are you finishing folks?
. One day I watched a movie called “Money Ball”.
. This was a true story of a general manager of a baseball team that revolutionized the way they looked at baseball players. I’m not going to bore you with the story but; at the very end of the movie, he was talking to his assistant and they were reviewing the past year and the success that they had. He looked at his assistant and said, we did a lot of amazing things this year but we didn’t finish well.
. In the psalm, David writes that we need to finish well.
. We need to praise God for as long as we live. As long as we have breath, we are to praise God.
. My question to you this morning is how are you finishing?
. God wants us to finish well.
. He wants us to praise him for as long as we have breath in this body that He has given us.
. Are you finishing well?
. Just because we are getting older and maybe a little slower, doesn’t mean that we can’t praise God as long as we live.
. I challenge you this morning to finish well.
. God is not finished with you yet.
. As long as you have life in this frail body, you need to use it praising God.
. That way, when we stand before the master, we will hear the words recorded in Matthew 25:21.
. “…Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful …”
. Are you finishing your life well ?
Reading 2 Rom 12:1-2
To focus our thoughts today, listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:1-2,
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.
The Bible tells us that God, the Creator of the universe, knows you and wants to have a relationship with you.
God has a dream for your life!
God has a plan for your life and mine.
A perfect plan that brings honor and Glory to Him and blessing to us.
I think it’s true to say every parent has a dream for their child.
If you are a parent you have a dream for your children.
A dream that perhaps began before they were born.
If you are not a parent, the truth is your parents probably had a dream for you before you were born.
I’m not sure if moms dream more than dads.
Or if dads dream more than moms.
Or maybe we both dream as much as each other.
What will our baby be like?
What will they dream about becoming?
What will fill their thoughts?
Will they do well in school?
Will they be athletic or artistic or scientific?
Will they get a good job?
What is the destiny God has for them?
God has a dream for His children.
God has a destiny for His children.
God has a dream and a destiny for you.
Sometimes as human parents we can have unrealistic dreams for our children.
We may dream of our child being a pilot - that is possible.
An astronaut not so much.
Our heavenly Father has a dream for every one of His children, and God’s dream is to make you like His Son Jesus. Matthew 5:48 says, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
God’s dream for you and I is that we would be perfect. Perfect, that seems to be asking a lot, dreaming a lot, but when we come to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, when we repent and turn to Christ, God sees us as perfect.
Isaiah 61:10 says, I will rejoice heartily in the LORD,
my being exults in my God;
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation,
and wrapped me in a robe of justice,
Like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem,
as a bride adorns herself with her jewels
of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.
We could never be perfect in our own righteousness. When Jesus died on the cross, He did not just take away your sins. He also gave us His righteousness. God has clothed you and I with the robe of righteousness, which was paid for by Jesus’ blood.
In Romans 8, The Apostle Paul tells us how God uses every circumstance, every up, every down, every relationship, everything we ever go through to make us more like Jesus. God’s dream for you is about, the kind of person you are destined to become, the kind of relationship you will have with Him.
God calls each of us to be loving, kind, gentle, holy, God calls us to be people who live out our daily lives with integrity. God is with us every moment of every day. When you are driving your car, you can have a conversation with Him. When you are washing dishes, you can sing praise to Him. When you face a big decision in your life, you can ask your Heavenly Father to lead and to guide. God cares about the detail of your life, He wants to be in an intimate, loving, deep relationship with you.
Gospel Mt 16:21-27
At this time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. (Matthew 16:21)
Jesus was aware that He would be rejected and put to death at Jerusalem. All this was necessary to bring the church into existence as the spiritual form of the kingdom on earth. He could now talk about these things openly, since the disciple’s faith was now strong enough to bear it. So from this point on the Lord’s ministry takes on a somewhat different complexion as He seeks to prepare His followers for the suffering that awaited him and the disappointment which they must suffer. The Elders whom He refers to are the religious leaders; probably members of the Sanhedrin. The words, “killed and raised again the third day,” clearly indicate that He is aware of His earthly ministry and destiny. Predicting His death and rejection was human, but only the God-man could predict a supernatural resurrection.
Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” (Matthew 16:22)
I believe that Peter may have been a little puffed-up by the great things that Jesus had recently said to him, so he became bold enough to speak to Jesus in a harsh manner. It certainly was not becoming of him to take upon himself to advise his Master. God knows what He has to do, without our teaching. Romans 11:34 expresses this idea, “For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?”
Peter’s words are very passionate as he speaks against suffering and the offense of the cross. He said, “God forbid that you should suffer. We cannot bear the thought of it.” But he is mistaken, because we cannot measure Christ’s love and patience by our own.
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (Matthew 16:23)
Christ’s displeasure with Peter is evident. He turned upon Peter, I suppose with a frown, and said, “Get behind me, Satan.” He addressed Satan in the same manner when He was tempted by him.
Why did Christ resent so much Peter’s proposition, which seems not only harmless, but kind? There are two reasons given:
1. You are an offense to Me,-He is saying, “Peter you are a hindrance; you are in my way.” Christ was so intent upon the work of our salvation, which must be accomplished at Calvary, that He was very sensitive to anything that would divert Him from it. Our Lord Jesus preferred our salvation before His own comfort and safety, for we are told in Romans 15:3, “For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, “The insults of those who insult you fall upon me.” He didn’t come into the world to spare Himself, as Peter suggested, but to spend Himself.
So, why did He call Peter Satan? It was because when he made his suggestion to Jesus, he was standing in the way of our salvation, so Jesus looked upon him as coming from the devil. He is a sworn enemy to our salvation. The same Satan who entered into Judas was prompting Peter.
Those who are engaged in any good work must expect to meet hindrances from friends and foes, from within and without. Those who obstruct our progress must be thought of as an offence to us. When we are called by God, those who hinder us from doing our work are Satan’s servants.
2. “For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”-The things that are of God, that is, His will and glory, often clash and interfere with the things that are of men, that is, with our own wealth, pleasure and reputation.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. “ (Matthew 16:24-25)
Jesus has told his disciples that He must suffer, but now He shows them that they must suffer also, and they must be ready and willing. When Jesus first called His disciples the word was follow Me; now He is saying that to be a disciple of Christ you must follow Him. A disciple of Christ comes after Him, as a sheep after the shepherd, the servant after his master, the soldiers after their captain; he is one who pursues the same objectives that Christ did-the glory of God, and the glory of heaven: and one who walks in the same path that He did, is led by His Spirit, treads in His steps, submits to His conduct and follows the lamb, withersoever he goes. (Rev. 14:4)
Those who follow Christ must make a deliberate choice to do so, for He wants His people to be volunteers. And when they make the choice they must set down and consider the cost.
Jesus gives one of the conditions of following Him as denying himself. Peter had advised Christ to spare himself, but Christ tells them all that they must deny themselves. It was a hard lesson that Christ taught, for all of His acts of His birth, and life, and death, was all acts of self-denial. They were done so that we could observe them, and they were for both our redemption and instruction. All of the followers and Disciples of Christ must deny themselves. This is fundamental to our faith and one of the first lessons that we learn. We deny ourselves for Christ’s sake and for the brethren.
Jesus said, “Let him take up his cross.” The cross here refers to all our sufferings; persecutions for righteousness’ sake, and every trouble that happens to us. The troubles of Christians are called crosses in reference to Christ’s death on the cross. Every disciple of Christ has his cross, which is his special trouble to be endured. Crosses are the common lot of God’s children and every one of us must take up that cross which a wise God has given to us. But we must manage our troubles and afflictions so that they don’t become a stumbling block or a hindrance to our service to God. However, we are not to just take up our cross, but we must use it to an advantage in our work for Christ. When we rejoice in our afflictions, and glory in them, then we are taking up our cross.
Making the Connection
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Sunday August 27, 2017 Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 121
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 22:19-23
Thus says the LORD to Shebna, master of the palace:
"I will thrust you from your office
and pull you down from your station.
On that day I will summon my servant
Eliakim, son of Hilkiah;
I will clothe him with your robe,
and gird him with your sash,
and give over to him your authority.
He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and to the house of Judah.
I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim's shoulder;
when he opens, no one shall shut
when he shuts, no one shall open.
I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot,
to be a place of honor for his family."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8
R. (8bc) Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple.
R. Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
I will give thanks to your name,
because of your kindness and your truth:
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
The LORD is exalted, yet the lowly he sees,
and the proud he knows from afar.
Your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
R. Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
Reading 2 Rom 11:33-36
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!
For who has known the mind of the Lord
or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given the Lord anything
that he may be repaid?
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen.
Gospel Mt 16:13-20
Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and
he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter said in reply,
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus said to him in reply,
"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Then he strictly ordered his disciples
to tell no one that he was the Christ
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 22:19-23
We cannot resist the conclusion that far more is meant by these verses than the mere replacement of a corrupt and ineffective official by a faithful successor. Eliakim is a type of the "righteous remnant" who indeed were the glory of Judah, the heir of all the sacred promises to Abraham and who did indeed totally replace the great secular majority of Israel who correspond to Shebna. The ultimate fall of Eliakim is a reference to the rejection of the Messiah. This was indeed the "fall" of the righteous remnant in the racial sense. " you have hewn for yourself a tomb here" is far too strong as a reference to the fall of one man. This foretells the destruction of secular Israel by the armies of Vespasian and Titus in 70A.D.
The reference here to the "key of David" is of special interest. Many have pointed out that "opening and shutting" represent the making of decisions that no one but the king could change. Here is the background of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 16:19, "Suggesting that Jesus was appointing Peter to be steward over the household of God in the messianic kingdom." While true enough as far as it goes, this statement is fundamentally altered to extend the ownership of the key of David to all of the apostles of Christ (Matthew 18:18), and by no means restricting it merely to Peter. Besides that, "The ultimate authority is claimed in these very terms for Christ himself (Revelation 3:7,8)."
This reference to the key of David is all but proof of the proposition that there are indeed in this half of the chapter overtones of the messianic kingdom and the rejection of racial Israel as the chosen race.
How futile and pitiful are the plans of sinful men. Shebna was concerned about building himself an impressive tomb, high on a cliff; but he did not know that he would go into slavery under a foreign invader, suffer a shameful death, and have no impressive tomb whatever, if indeed, he had any at all. Jamieson has given us this sad comment on the death of Shebna:
"The mention of "thy magnificent chariots" does not mean that Shebna would have these in a foreign land, but that he would be borne thither in ignominy instead of in his magnificent chariots. The Jews say that he was tied to the tails of horses by the enemy, to whom he had designed to betray Jerusalem, as they thought he was mocking them; and so he died."
This message to Shebna is a reproof of his pride, vanity, and security; what vanity is all earthly grandeur, which death will so soon end! What will it avail, whether we are laid in a magnificent tomb, or covered with the green sod? Those who, when in power, turn and toss others, will be justly turned and tossed themselves. Eliakim should be put into Shebna's place. Those called to places of trust and power, should seek to God for grace to enable them to do their duty. Eliakim's advancement is described. Our Lord Jesus describes his own power as Mediator, Re 3:7, that he has the key of David. His power in the kingdom of heaven, and in ordering all the affairs of that kingdom, is absolute. Rulers should be fathers to those under their government; and the honor men bring unto their families, by their piety and usefulness, is more to be valued than what they derive from them by their names and titles. The glory of this world gives a man no real worth or excellence; it is but hung upon him, and it will soon drop from him. Eliakim was compared to a nail in a sure place; all his family are said to depend upon him. In eastern houses, rows of large spikes were built up in the walls. Upon these the moveables and utensils were hung. Our Lord Jesus is as a nail in a sure place. That soul cannot perish, nor that concern fall to the ground, which is by faith hung upon Christ. He will set before the believer an open door, which no man can shut, and bring both body and soul to eternal glory. But those who neglect so great salvation will find, that when he shuts none can open, whether it be shutting out from heaven, or shutting up in hell for ever.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8
It does not appear, nor is it material to enquire, upon what occasion David penned this psalm; but in it. He looks back with thankfulness upon the experiences he had had of God’s goodness to him (v. 1-3). He looks forward with comfort, in hopes. That others would go on to praise God like him (v. 4, v. 5). That God would go on to do good to him (v. 6-8). In singing this psalm we must in like manner devote ourselves to God’s praise and glory and repose ourselves in his power and goodness. A psalm of David.
Verses 1-5. How he would praise God, compare Ps. 111:1 . He will praise him with sincerity and zeal—"With my heart, with my whole heart, with that which is within me and with all that is within me, with uprightness of intention and fervency of affection, inward impressions agreeing with outward expressions.’’. With freedom and boldness: Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee, before the princes, and judges, and great men, either those of other nations that visited him or those of his own nation that attended on him, even in their presence. He will not only praise God with his heart, which we may do by pious ejaculations in any company, but will sing praise if there be occasion. Note, Praising God is work which the greatest of men need not be ashamed of; it is the work of angels, the work of heaven. Before the angels (so some understand it), that is, in religious assemblies, where there is a special presence of angels, 1 Co. 11:10 . In the way that God had appointed: I will worship towards thy holy temple. The priests alone went into the temple; the people, at the nearest, did but worship towards it, and that they might do at a distance. Christ is our temple, and towards him we must look with an eye of faith, as Mediator between us and God, in all our praises of him. Heaven is God’s holy temple, and thitherward we must lift up our eyes in all our addresses to God. Our Father in heaven. What he would praise God for. For the fountain of his comforts—for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth, for thy goodness and for thy promise, mercy hidden in thee and mercy revealed by thee, that God is a gracious God in himself and has engaged to be so to all those that trust in him. For thou hast magnified thy word (thy promise, which is truth) above all thy name. God has made himself known to us in many ways in creation and providence, but most clearly by his word. The judgments of his mouth are magnified even above those of his hand, and greater things are done by them. The wonders of grace exceed the wonders of nature; and what is discovered of God by revelation is much greater than what is discovered by reason. In what God had done for David his faithfulness to his work appeared more illustriously, and redounded more to his glory, than any other of his attributes. Some good interpreters understand it of Christ, the essential Word, and of his gospel, which are magnified above all the discoveries God had before made of himself to the fathers. He that magnified the law, and made that honorable, magnifies the gospel much more. For the streams flowing from that fountain, in which he himself had tasted that the Lord is gracious, v. 3. He had been in affliction, and he remembers, with thankfulness. The sweet communion he then had with God. He cried, he prayed, and prayed earnestly, and God answered him, gave him to understand that his prayer was accepted and should have a gracious return in due time. The intercourse between God and his saints is carried on by his promises and their prayers. The sweet communications he then had from God: Thou strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. This was the answer to his prayer, for God gives more than good words, Ps. 20:6 . Observe, It was a speedy answer: In the day when I cried. Note, Those that trade with heaven by prayer grow rich by quick returns. While we are yet speaking God hears, Isa. 65:24 . It was a spiritual answer. God gave him strength in his soul, and that is a real and valuable answer to the prayer of faith in the day of affliction. If God give us strength in our souls to bear the burdens, resist the temptations, and do the duties of an afflicted state, if he strengthen us to keep hold of himself by faith, to maintain the peace of our own minds and to wait with patience for the issue, we must own that he has answered us, and we are bound to be thankful. What influence he hoped that his praising God would have upon others, v. 4, v. 5. David was himself a king, and therefore he hoped that kings would be wrought upon by his experiences, and his example, to embrace religion; and, if kings became religious, their kingdoms would be every way better. Now, This may have reference to the kings that were neighbors to David, as Hiram and others. "They shall all praise thee.’’ When they visited David, and, after his death, when they sought the presence of Solomon (as all the kings of the earth are expressly said to have done, 2 Chr. 9:23 ), they readily joined in the worship of the God of Israel. It may look further, to the calling of the Gentiles and the discipling of all nations by the gospel of Christ, of whom it is said that all kings shall fall down before him, Ps. 72:11 . Now it is here foretold, (1.) That the kings of the earth shall hear the words of God. All that came near David should hear them from him, Ps. 119:46 . In the latter days the preachers of the gospel should be sent into all the world. That then they shall praise God, as all those have reason to do that hear his word, and receive it in the light and love of it, Acts. 13:48 . (3.) That they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, in the ways of his providence and grace towards them; they shall rejoice in God, and give glory to him, however he is pleased to deal with them in the ways of their duty and obedience to him. Note, Those that walk in the ways of the Lord have reason to sing in those ways, to go on in them with a great deal of cheerfulness, for they are ways of pleasantness, and it becomes us to be pleasant in them; and, if we are so, great is the glory of the Lord. It is very much for the honor of God that kings should walk in his ways, and that all those who walk in them should sing in them, and so proclaim to all the world that he is a good Master and his work its own wages.
Verses 6-8 David here comforts himself with three things: The favor God bears to his humble people (v. 6): Though the Lord be high, and neither needs any of his creatures nor can be benefited by them, yet has he respect unto the lowly, smiles upon them as well pleased with them, overlooks heaven and earth to cast a gracious look upon them (Isa. 57:15 Isa. 66:1 ), and, sooner or later, he will put honour upon them, while he knows the proud afar off, knows them, but disowns them and rejects them, how proudly soever they pretend to his favor. Dr. Hammond makes this to be the sum of that gospel which the kings of the earth shall hear and welcome—that penitent sinners shall be accepted of God, but the impenitent cast out; witness the instance of the Pharisee and the publican, Lu. 18. The care God takes of his afflicted oppressed people, v. 7. David, though a great and good man, expects to walk in the midst of trouble, but encourages himself with hope. That God would comfort him: "When my spirit is ready to sink and fail, thou shalt revive me, and make me easy and cheerful under my troubles.’’ Divine consolations have enough in them to revive us even when we walk in the midst of troubles and are ready to die away for fear. That he would protect him, and plead his cause: "Thou shalt stretch forth thy hand, though not against my enemies to destroy them, yet against the wrath of my enemies, to restrain that and set bounds to it.” That he would in due time work deliverance for him: Thy right hand shall save me. As he has one hand to stretch out against his enemies, so he has another to save his own people. Christ is the right hand of the Lord, that shall save all those who serve him. The assurance we have that whatever good work God has begun in and for his people he will perform it (v. 8): The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. That which is most needful for me; and he knows best what is so. We are careful and cumbered about many things that do not concern us, but he knows what are the things that really are of consequence to us (Mt. 6:32 ) and he will order them for the best. That which we are most concerned about. Every good man is most concerned about his duty to God and his happiness in God, that the former may be faithfully done and the latter effectually secured; and if indeed these are the things that our hearts are most upon, and concerning which we are most solicitous, there is a good work begun in us, and he that has begun it will perfect it, we may be confident he will, Phil. 1:6 . Observe, What ground the psalmist builds this confidence upon: Thy mercy, O Lord! endures for ever. This he had made very much the matter of his praise (Ps. 13:6 ), and therefore he could here with the more assurance make it the matter of his hope. For, if we give God the glory of his mercy, we may take to ourselves the comfort of it. Our hopes that we shall persevere must be founded, not upon our own strength, for that will fail us, but upon the mercy of God, for that will not fail. It is well pleaded, "Lord, thy mercy endures forever; let me be forever a monument of it.’’ What use he makes of this confidence; it does not supersede, but quicken prayer; he turns his expectation into a petition: "Forsake not, do not let go, the work of thy own hands. Lord, I am the work of thy own hands, my soul is so, do not forsake me; my concerns are so, do not lay by thy care of them.’’ Whatever good there is in us it is the work of God’s own hands; he works in us both to will and to do; it will fail if he forsake it; but his glory, as Jehovah, a perfecting God, is so much concerned in the progress of it to the end that we may in faith pray, "Lord, do not forsake it.’’ Whom he loves he loves to the end; and, as for God, his work is perfect.
Reading 2 Rom 11:33-36
Most people don't take the time to think much about God. We are busy with other things which seem to be more immediate, more exciting and entertaining. We seldom take the time to consider eternal realities and we may even resist any serious thought about ourselves and God. We need to take time to study and personally think about who God is, what God is like, how He is described in the Scriptures, what His plan is and then what our response will be.
There are many superb passages in the New Testament that communicate clearly to us about God. One is Romans 11:33-36.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord*
or who has been his counselor?
35* “Or who has given him anything
that he may be repaid?”
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen
Summary of Romans 1-11
Before we undertake a study of truths in this paragraph, we need to consider the context: the book of Romans. In the first eleven chapters of Romans, Paul gives a step by step presentation of God's plan, the gospel of Christ.
In the first three chapters, he begins with the sin of man. It is an ugly picture of how people know there is a God and they know what is right before Him, but they do what is wrong. Near the end of this section there is that statement of Paul: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (Rom. 3:23). The truth is, man has sinned, but God - in the riches of His love and grace - has given a remedy, the gospel of Christ (the power of God to save, Rom. 1:16).
In chapters four, five and six - Paul takes the next step in this journey. Though we have sinned, we can be forgiven; we can be justified "by faith" and enjoy peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The direction of that faith, the response and activity of it, the life of faith that responds to Christ and pleases God - all of that is developed in this section. And here, Paul clearly identifies the proper response of sinners to the gospel: we were buried with Him through baptism into death ... so we should walk in newness of life ... you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered ... and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. So, the problem is sin; God provides the remedy in Christ - the gospel tells of Christ as the remedy - but individual must respond (hearing, believing and obeying from the heart).
In chapter seven, Paul speaks to the Jews about their previous relationship with the law of Moses, now severed by their marriage to Christ. In chapter eight, the freedom, blessings and hope enjoyed by those whose faith responds to the gospel.
Now in chapters nine, ten and eleven - Paul deals with a particular, sensitive issue at that time, the Jews and their difficulty in accepting Gentiles. Because of their history, traditions and attitudes, it was enormously difficult for Jewish Christians to understand the change from the old covenant to the new. It was a special challenge for most of them to accept Gentiles as brethren, share with them and conquer all their prejudices. Part of the problem was, some Jews were mis-informed and confused by Paul's enemies - thinking that Paul was teaching that God had rejected every Israelite. The apostle addresses these sensitive questions in Romans nine, ten and eleven. And his argument is well expressed in the opening statement of chapter eleven: "I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew!"
So, there is the problem of sin; the solution God provides in Christ; man's necessary response of faith; also, in Romans, Paul deals with questions and issues about all of this. Romans is a step by step presentation of the gospel plan, written by the inspired apostle.
Beginning in chapter twelve, Paul teaches how we should live in view of all these marvelous truths. This is sometimes called "the practical section" of the book because of the focus on practice in daily life. However, before beginning this section - Paul stops at the end of chapter eleven and offers up this excellent statement of praise to God.
Here is what this is like.
If you are out in the forest, or climbing a mountain - there is the labor involved in the task (walking the trail, climbing the rocks). But from time to time you feel compelled to pause and look around, beholding the wonder and beauty of nature and praising the God who made it. This is like a traveler who has reached the summit of some great mountain. There, he stops to praise the beauty of the creation and the Creator.
Paul - in Romans chapters one through eleven - has given this account of what the problem is and what the solution is. Man has sinned. God sent His Son. We must respond to the gospel. Paul has tackled the difficulties of misrepresentations, issues between Jews and Gentiles, etc. Now at this point, at the end of chapter eleven, this is like a traveler or mountain climber who is compelled to pause and praise the One who made it all.
One thing we should learn from this is, we should never get so busy and involved in academics, arguments and apologetics that we forget the God who deserves all the glory! It was necessary for Paul to provide all this rich instruction about God's plan. It is important for us to read and understand it, then teach these things to others. But let us never become so involved in analysis and apologetics that we forget to praise the God whose plan we are teaching and following. The truth of the gospel should always provoke in us the desire to worship, praise and acknowledge Him.
But now back to the statement in Rom. 11:33-36. Let me make these four points:
1) This passage tells me how I can be enriched.
To be "enriched" is to add depth and meaning to your life. In some private and public schools there are "enrichment" programs, designed to give motivated students a fuller educational experience. In agriculture, when you enrich weak soil, you add good nutrients to it, in the hope of a better harvest. To be enriched is to have a deeper, fuller experience in life - anticipating a better eventual outcome. Now the devil tries to tell us that sin is the key to a better life. He is a liar! He promises what he cannot deliver, and he delivers what he does not promise. The God Paul describes in the above passage is capable of providing the enrichment we should seek, and in Christ He does that. If I will place my heart and life into the hands of God, submitting to His plan - the gospel - there is great and powerful enrichment that is mine in Christ.
2) It is ludicrous to imagine that we could ever teach God anything.
This is so obvious to anyone who has read the Scriptures and who knows anything at all about God. It is unlikely that you will hear anyone claim to take on the task of instructing or counseling God.
What would we teach Him? What would we say, to enlighten and inform Him? Does God suffer with some ignorance we could remedy by imparting to Him our wisdom?
His wisdom is infinite, unsearchable, incomparable and invincible. We, on the other hand, suffer with ignorance and the resulting sin. We must depend upon Christ, the divine remedy. We need help. We have to study, learn and repent. What counsel can we offer God?
He knows everything. Everything possible; everything actual; every event; every person and every thought in the mind of every person ... past, present and future! We need His counsel, and He provides it in Christ.
3) We are not God's creditors.
Think about this. What do we have that we could offer to God, that He needs, and that would put Him in eternal debt to us? What would that gift be? Does God suffer some insufficiency or lack that we could supply? (See Acts 17:25).
There is nothing we have to offer or give, that God needs and that would put Him in eternal debt to us! That's the point of verse 35: "Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?"
We should clarify this. There is reverence, worship, praise and obedience we ought to give God, because He is God and we are not. But this is not a matter of putting Him in debt to us. This is our response to Him who is “above all,” and worthy of our praise. {On pay day, do you consider your check a matter of grace or benevolence? No. You think of it as your due compensation for work done. We will never be able to stand before God and demand due compensation for work done... unless we want justice without mercy.}
4) “To Him be the glory forever.”
If I worked in such a perfect fashion all my life, that I earned the pay of eternal life as compensation equal to my performance, I might be justified in being proud of myself; and I might boast that “I did it all myself.”
Since salvation is a gift received; since we come into this as sinners needing the blood of Christ, to God be the glory! Abraham gave “glory to God,” (Rom. 4:20). This inclination to praise God was a result of his active faith. So every Christian should confess, " In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to boast in what pertains to God. " (Rom. 15:17).
Conclusion:
God is so great. Do we recognize that, think about it and respond to it? Man's response to God's greatness and God's plan for man in Christ should be to be buried with Christ in baptism and then walk in newness of life.
Gospel Mt 16:13-20
In today's Gospel Jesus asked his disciples who do you say that the Son of Man is? It is of course a key question for us personally and communally when we reflect on a story reminds us of prayer of St. Francis of Asissi. His secretary brother Leo once asked Francis to tell him the prayer that the saint prayed over our early life, Francis and said simply who are you my God and who am I? The answer to the first question is the same question Jesus asked his disciples, gave rise to St. Francis to ask the second question who am I? Francis understood that the way he responded would define his identity as a Christian. Think about Matthews community 2000 years or more ago, they had struggles internally as well as externally they had questions about how to structure their lives in a world that could be hostile to the good news Scripture scholars suggest that much of Matthews their reflects upon issues of their identity as a church. It's no different for us today, imagine Jesus confronting you or me this Sunday. He wants us to answer the question who do you say that the Son of Man is? Each of us must respond to that question then face St. Francis second question as well. How we respond will shape our personal identity as a Catholic and our parishes identity. Jesus is ready to offer us the responsibility, the vocation the keys to the kingdom power to bind and loose all the gifts we need plus the promise to be with us until the end of time. But be careful the answer to that question will challenge you to define who you are, as Peter will be forced to do in the very next passage which we will hear next Sunday. Following Jesus on the way of the cross.
Making the Connection
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Sunday August 20, 2017 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 118
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 56:1, 6-7
Thus says the LORD:
Observe what is right, do what is just;
for my salvation is about to come,
my justice, about to be revealed.
The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
ministering to him,
loving the name of the LORD,
and becoming his servants--
all who keep the sabbath free from profanation
and hold to my covenant,
them I will bring to my holy mountain
and make joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be acceptable on my altar,
for my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
R. (4) O God, let all the nations praise you!
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
Reading 2 Rom 11:13-15, 29-32
Brothers and sisters:
I am speaking to you Gentiles.
Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles,
I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous
and thus save some of them.
For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.
Just as you once disobeyed God
but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,
so they have now disobeyed in order that,
by virtue of the mercy shown to you,
they too may now receive mercy.
For God delivered all to disobedience,
that he might have mercy upon all.
Gospel Mt 15:21-28
At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
"Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon."
But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.
Jesus' disciples came and asked him,
"Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us."
He said in reply,
"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, "Lord, help me."
He said in reply,
"It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs."
She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters."
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
"O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish."
And the woman's daughter was healed from that hour.
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 56:1, 6-7
In the absence of God answering prayer, darkness is his only companion. Darkness pervades over the audience Isaiah addresses in Isaiah 58 for the very same reason. Their prayers have gone unanswered; God has been silent. Darkness is their only friend.
The historical backdrop for Isaiah 58 is likely the period of fasting that followed the exile. Zechariah 7:3-5 indicates that Israel fasted on the fifth and seventh months for seventy years following the destruction of Jerusalem. For seventy years Israel would fast at least twice a year commemorating the fact that they had lost their home and their king. They fasted and prayed seeking a response, an answer to their troubles.
This scenario matches the people’s outcry in 58:3, “‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’” The people are clearly fasting in order for their prayers to be answered. The city of Jerusalem seems to be in ruins (58:12) and thus an exilic, or possibly postexilic situation is likely.
The people are desperately seeking justice from God. In Isaiah 58:2 God observes that “they ask of me righteous judgments.” This term “righteous judgments” is a form of the words “justice” (mispat) and “righteousness” (tsedaqah), which feature prominently in the book of Isaiah.
Ever since Isaiah 40:27 Israel has been complaining, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right (mispat) is disregarded by my God.” Israel believes a great injustice has been done to them by Babylon. They held been held captive by foreign oppressors. Their city is in ruins. Their temple is destroyed. They have been abandoned by God.
Israel complains that God has deprived them of justice. God responds by demanding Israel to stop depriving those around them of justice and righteousness! Even though Israel has been attentive to the ritual ordinances of the Law, they have completely neglected the ethical demands of it. The people believe they are the victims, when in fact they are the victimizers.
They approach God in prayer as if they practice justice and righteousness: “Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness (tsedaqah) and did not forsake the ordinance (mispat) of their God”(Isaiah 58:2). But clearly they are not such a people.
Although they believe they are seeking God through their fasts, they forget that Isaiah had earlier clearly instructed that they were to “seek justice (mispat)), rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:17). To truly “seek the LORD” is to seek justice and righteousness for the poor and oppressed. They are willing to entrust their rituals and prayers to God, but not extend their faith commitment to the social and economic spheres of their lives. Because of their social and economic sins they remain in darkness.
To cease from oppressing others is not enough. To be a people of justice and righteousness means to be actively engaged in social and economic reform. Israel is to be an agent of liberation, generosity, and compassion for the poor and oppressed (58:6-7). Isaiah urges Israel, “pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted”(58:10, RSV). The phrase “pour yourself,” literally means to “pour out your soul.”
This is similar to the expression “humble oneself” or “afflict oneself” in 58:3, which there refers to fasting. By the use of this language Isaiah is calling for a full transformation of the soul of the community. Fasting, when done properly, is not a means of earning favor from God; it is a means of spiritual transformation.
Fasting is an attempt to align one’s priorities to the will of God. Isaiah is now calling for a fast, not from food, but from affluence, indifference, and privilege so that the community of faith might live in harmony with God, who “dwell[s] in the high and holy place, and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit”(Isaiah 57:15).
It is clear that the salvation God promises is conditioned upon the people’s response. All the promises of Isaiah 58:8-9 are introduced by the word “then”:
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
The promise in 58:10 comes in the form of an “If, then” clause:
If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
This conditional emphasis is an extension of the fundamental principle expressed earlier in 56:1: “Maintain justice (mispat), and do what is right (tsedaqah), for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.”
Isaiah 58 verses 8 and 10 promise that light will break forth and healing will appear. In the book of Isaiah, light is a symbol for salvation:
Based upon these passages, what is this light about to dawn? It is God’s eschatological promise of salvation. It is the goal, the end, the consummation of his kingdom promises. The light is none other than the Lord himself, who comes to liberate his people from darkness and establish a just and righteous kingdom.
Those who pour out themselves for the sake of justice and righteousness need not fear darkness or abandonment. The opposite is the case. It is to them the light of God’s salvation will shine.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
As the twice-repeated refrain (verses 3, 5) indicates, Psalm 67 is a song meant for public worship.
We can imagine a worship leader or choir singing the body of the psalm, with the congregation or a larger choir intoning the refrain:
May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us,
that your way may be known upon earth,
your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, has blessed us.
May God continue to bless us;
let all the ends of the earth revere him.
The theme of the psalm is blessing. The psalm begins with a request for blessing. The words of the Aaronic benediction normally close worship services:"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26). Here, those words are slightly tweaked and are used to open the psalm: "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us."
Blessing: God's Gracious Activity
The theological category of blessing is one of the most important in the Old Testament--a theme that is often underappreciated in protestant theology. The great theologian Claus Westermann contrasted two general aspects of God's merciful action towards humanity: God's saving activity and God's blessing activity.1 For good reason, protestant Old Testament theology has strongly emphasized God's saving activity--forgiving sin, rescuing from oppression, saving from death and the like. But the Old Testament consistently speaks of another sphere of God's mercy: the blessing activity of God--fruitful harvests, fertility, health, prosperity, and the like. Psalm 67 majors in an area in which the church has often minored--the longing request for God's blessing.
Like God's saving activity, God's blessing activity is available by grace alone. This is true in two senses. First, even though some blessing is made available through the law (and thus it may appear that blessing is conditional and comes as a result of works righteousness), the law itself is sheer gift--not something that was earned by Israel, but an unexpected, breathtaking, welcome gift of grace.
The law was bestowed as a gracious gift in order that life might thrive--as a sign that God has drawn near to the covenant people. As Moses says in Deuteronomy 4:7-8, "What other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?"
Second, God's blessing is by grace alone because God blesses whom God chooses, when God chooses, for the reasons God chooses. God's blessings are gracious, surprising, unexpected gifts. This is clear throughout the biblical narrative. One need think only of Sarah. God announces to Abraham in Genesis 17 that, "I will bless her and will surely give her a son by you" (verse 16). Abraham then laughs at God and counter-offers, "O that Ishmael might live in your sight" (verse 18). God does answer Abraham's prayer and blesses Ishmael, too. But God goes Abraham one better and saves the most surprising blessing for Sarah. A free gift of grace. Or, one might think of Mary. The unsuspected maiden whom all generations now called, "Blessed."
Blessing: Already and Still
In Psalm 67, the poet begins by asking for God's blessing in verse 1 and requests God's continued blessing in verse 7: "May God continue to bless us." But the poet also stands in the people's midst and announces God's blessing: "The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us" (verse 6). And this is often the role of the public, Christian leader: to ask the Lord to bless and even at the same time to remind God's people of how much God has already done.
In Psalm 67, the poet has the fruits of harvest in mind: "the earth has yielded its increase." The bounty of nature is not a bad place to start--the image of trees bearing fruit, fields yielding grain, and pastures teeming with livestock communicate blessing even today, when so little of the population is in direct contact with farming. But other images can be added: the beauty of nature, the birth of a new generation, the existence of good government and public servants, the love of parents and friends, good health and good medical care, music and joy. One could keep going.
Why must the Christian leader remind people of God's blessings? Because it is easy to forget. Recently, as I left a baseball stadium on an absolutely beautiful day, I heard one young man mumble to his friend, "What has God ever done for me?" The implication seemed to be both that God hadn't done anything and that everything the young man had in life was the result of his own hard work. It is good--even necessary--for the Christian leader to stand in front of the assembly and remind us of all our blessings. And it necessary--even good--for the Christian leader to stand in front of God and ask for the Lord's continued to blessings. God has blessed us richly. And we rely on God's continued blessings.
Blessing: Foundation of God's Mission
But the psalm has one more important lesson to teach about God's blessing activity--God blesses for the sake of mission. Indeed, God's blessing is the foundation of mission. Within the psalm, it is clear that the ultimate purpose of God's blessing is mission: "that your way be known on earth, your saving power among all nations" (verse 2). So that the peoples and nations might praise God.
This emphasis in the psalm is also the basis of Israel's identity. According to Genesis 12, the reason that God elected Israel in the first place was for the purpose of mission--that Israel would itself be a means of grace. God chose Abraham and Sarah and promised them descendants and also promised that "you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. . . and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (verses 2b-3).
The message is repeated in Exodus 19, when God renewed the covenant with the descendants of Abraham whom he had just rescued from Egypt. The Lord said, "you shall be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (verse 6). And what did the priest to do, other than be the channel of divine blessing? Israel was not chosen for its own sake, but was chosen for the sake of mission. And Israel was not blessed either because of who it was or for its own benefit. Israel was blessed so that all the families of the earth may be blessed through it.
When we pray with Psalm 67 that "God continue to bless us" or when we end the end of the worship service with the wish that "the Lord's face shine upon you," we do so for the sake of God's mission. In order that through God's people, all of the world might experience God's saving help
Reading 2 Rom 11:13-15, 29-32
Getting down to brass tacks, Paul poses the question bluntly in Romans 11:1: "Has God rejected his people?"
I like his equally blunt answer: "Hell, no!"
I know, your Bible probably says something more polite, like "By no means!" or "Absolutely not!" The expression is mē genoito, an emphatic denial Paul utters nine other times in Romans after posing a ludicrous theological question (such as, in 9:14, "Is there injustice with God?"). Although Paul treats the questions as preposterous, still he makes us consider them, just for a moment, so he can show how crucial is their denial.
I believe--but haven't been able to confirm--it was J. Christiaan Beker who took the liberty of translating Paul's answer as "Hell, no!" I think "No freaking way!" also works, for our day and age.
But we need to know why the question is so important, if we are to know why the emphatic denial is utterly crucial, for Christians and Jews alike.
The Faithfulness of God
As I mentioned in the commentary for two weeks ago, regarding Romans 9:1-5, Paul will have no part in a theology that implies God will not keep promises. If God will not prove faithful to promises made throughout Israel's history, Christians have no good reason to expect God will keep the ones made to us through Christ. The fidelity of God remains a bedrock of Paul's theology, something he learned early as a Jew and had confirmed through his encounter with Christ.
Paul poses his key question ("Has God rejected his people?") after having characterized the situation as similar to one described in Isaiah, where God waits patiently for a disobedient and unresponsive people.
Paul doesn't develop much of an argument in response to the question. It's pretty simple for him. God cannot have rejected the people "whom he foreknew" (11:2), simply because "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (11:29). That's how God rolls, as we say in our day and age.
As a result, Paul can confidently claim that "all Israel will be saved" (11:26) and will experience "full inclusion" (11:12) in God's salvation. Don't miss or undersell these important statements.
Admittedly, Paul's road to toward these confident assertions is winding, raising serious questions about what exactly he means by "Israel" (9:6-9), inclusion (11:12, 17-24), and the notion of a God who hardens hearts (9:18; 11:25). Tensions weave their way through Romans 9-11, tensions between strong claims about God's fidelity and less-than-satisfying arguments about the details of God's master plan concerning Jews who have not embraced Jesus Christ. Paul cannot neatly reconcile the tensions; today's preachers should avoid trying to do what Paul couldn't.
(I should note that today's gospel reading, from Matthew 15, includes its own share of tensions about Jews and gentiles. I recommend preachers avoid the temptation to collapse one passage too neatly into the other one. Best to preach on just one of these texts this Sunday.)
Living in the Tensions
The lectionary, perhaps attempting to protect people from the tough language of 11:25 and 11:28, does us no favors by omitting the first half of 11:25. There Paul counsels his readers against presuming they can figure out what God is up to, and he also calls the situation a "mystery."
"Mystery" here does not mean "enigma." It's something that's accessible or revealed only to those on the inside, with privileged access. It seems Paul is referring to something that makes no sense on the surface but will finally emerge with clarity in the end, when God's purposes have been worked out.
This mystery involves the "disobedience" in which, Paul believed, some of his contemporary Jews dwelled--"some," excepting those who were already in Christ. (On how Paul introduces this notion of "disobedience" in Romans 10:16, recall last week's commentary on 10:5-15.) But in 11:30-32 Paul quickly expands the set of those who dwell in disobedience. As those who remember Romans 1-3 know, all people dwell in disobedience. As a result, the salvation of all is predicated on God's mercy.
Paul's main emphasis, once again, is on God. The conclusion of the "arguments" set forth in Romans 9-11 comes in 11:32. However God works, and for whatever reasons God works, God works so that God "may be merciful to all" (11:32).
All the handwringing in these chapters, therefore, isn't just about figuring out "the status of the Jewish people"; it's about reaffirming that God calls people--all people--out of wrath, judgment, and sins. God does this to prove God's righteousness and loyalty (as we learned in Romans 3:21-26 ).
As I've said repeatedly about Romans 9-11 during this three-week run of lectionary readings, likewise again here we find a passage primarily about God's faithfulness, less about the successes and failures of people's faith. As Charles Cousar sagely said concerning these chapters: "Israel remains the object of God's love and retains a place in God's saving purposes. It is not because Israel has demonstrated or will demonstrate tenacious fidelity that it continues to be God's chosen people, but because God has demonstrated and will demonstrate such fidelity."1
It seems to me that Paul is making a move preachers should recognize well. Faced with difficult, unexplainable circumstances (in Paul's case, the apparent "hardening" of his Jewish kinfolk), Paul stumbles around with a little theological speculation about God's purposes but soon turns to something much more helpful: emphasizing a firmer foundation, something that makes more sense (in this case, God's mercy). Anyone who has presided over the funeral of a child or helped a community through a natural disaster knows how this works. We can't pretend to know all the answers, and we often make things worse by trying to explain things. But we can--we must!--trust that God will be merciful.
Why do we trust in this mercy? Because, finally, "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."
Mercy Wins
The last word in Paul's argument--really, it's the final word in the Greek sentence in 11:32--is "mercy." (He uses the verb eleeō, "show mercy.") In the end, God is merciful. We might not understand how everything will work out, but God will see to it. Faith rests on hopes like this.
Even though the flow of Romans 11 appears to give him several opportunities for making such a move, Paul stops short of explicitly saying that Christianity must be the means by which the Jewish people will experience their ultimate salvation. Many preachers will see wisdom in following Paul's lead and refusing to offer simplistic explanations where Paul finds it better to leave the details up to God. The primary impetus of anyone's salvation, in every case, is the mercy of God.
But we're wise to reaffirm the theological bedrock on which Paul repeatedly refuses to compromise (in claims such as "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable"). This bedrock, anchored in the faithfulness of God, should be the central movement of a sermon. There are plenty of other things that life throws our way to create dissonance with these claims, to make us doubt them. But we do ourselves no favors in trying to make theological sense of our circumstances and our future unless we have a God whose character rings true to statements like these.
What have we learned, then, over three weeks with Romans 9-11? The main point Paul returns to in his sometimes tortuous discussion is this: when it comes to accomplishing salvation, everything is in God's hands--not in the hands of the church, nor in those of "Israel."
We can learn a lot from the final movement of Paul's discussion (in Romans 11:33-36):
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" [derived from Isaiah 40:13 LXX]. "Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?" [derived from Job 41:11]. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
Paul concludes, not with persuasion or theological argumentation, but with doxology. This is where our reflections on God's faithfulness, God's mercy, and God's mysteries are supposed to take us.
Preachers would do well to add these verses to their readings, to remind us that humility and wonder should guide us when we consider salvation--ours or anyone else's. Theological reflection, rightly undertaken, demands such a posture.
Gospel Mt 15:21-28
Reversals and contrasts mark Matthew's wonderfully and intricately-woven story of a Canaanite woman's faith.
Unique to Matthew's narrative, Jesus in his preaching has challenged his hearers to learn the ways of God's mercy (see 9:13 and 12:7). Now in a favorite Matthean motif (see 14:13 and elsewhere), Jesus "withdraws" and enters territory in which the boundaries of God's mercy is tested.
Under Matthew's hand Mark's parallel story (7:24--30) has been completely transformed into a story of remarkable faith in an unexpected place. In Mark's story both the culminating reference to the faith of the woman and the disciples, who play so significant a role in this story, are completely absent. Here as characters and theme they join the central figures of Jesus and the Canaanite woman in an intense and weighty encounter.
Even the animals get into the story as the suggestive and provocative images and roles of sheep and dogs join these characters and permeate the tightly interlocking and contested dialog. One soon wonders just who in the end are meant to be the sheep and who the dogs in this story? And what of the "shepherd" who seems caught in the middle of this exchange? Largely lost in translations is the choral contest that Matthew has set up--with the woman on one side and the disciples (who do not even appear in Mark's narrative) on the other.
Identified as a foreigner, still this Canaanite woman has all the appropriate language of a true Israelite. She persistently cries out for God's mercy (the Greek imperfect underscores the repetition, while in her kyrie eleison one is certainly meant to hear the worship language of the faithful).
On the other side her pleas are matched by the shouts of the disciples, "get rid of her!" (in the original Greek their words are an alliterative and ironic echo of the woman's cry: apolyson). With dramatic effect the story sets before us a Jesus flanked by two competing choruses: on one side one lone creature crying "kyrie eleison," and on the other a band of bullies shouting her down with their "apolyson."
Checking IDs
So stretch your imaginations to entertain the scene. Gathered in one corner are those familiar disciples, for Matthew the true blue representatives of the faithful lost sheep of Israel, now leaping into the fray like so many ravenous beasts, as it were self-styled guarantors of the holy tradition, on their guard lest the mercies of God be wasted on the unworthy. Like a gang of watchdogs at the door they are about the checking of IDs and keeping out the non-pedigreed riffraff. On the other side of the gate stands this outsider, a woman no less, one lone representative of the dogs of religion, now become as it were a lost sheep plaintively pleading for the mercy of the master shepherd. No English translation can capture Matthew's careful orchestration of the painful choral refrain. "Lord, have mercy," the dog's solo bleating cry. "Get rid of her," the "lost-sheep chorus" barks back in reply.
And what of the master, the Messiah? Do our ears deceive us when this harbinger of good news now seems to join these "bouncers," not only refusing to answer her pleas, but even seeming to join in with a few sharp licks of his own. As Matthew's story makes clear, Jesus reply "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (15:24) is addressed not to the woman but to his disciples. And when not to be put off by Jesus' silence, she persists in her pleas for help, addressing him again as "Lord," still Jesus seems to add to the rejection.
Now he addresses her directly with a comment about the injustice of throwing to the "dogs" what belongs to the children (15:26). Not surprising that the resulting picture of Jesus and his response is so troubling that many interpreters have sought to soften or explain away the clear and direct language of the text.
Faith Stands its Ground
And here the stage is set for an astounding reversal. Surely here we meet the climactic focus of this story, that wondrously-strange and persistent faith that stands its ground against all opposition. This woman is not to be put off, and against all the signs of apparent hopelessness, doggedly stands her ground, persistently seeking the Lord's help, even if it is only to be in those meager crumbs that might fall from the "master's" table. And in the wonderful surprise that is the miracle of faith, she meets the gracious healing power of God's Messiah.
Matthew's Jesus has elsewhere chastised the "little faith" of these disciples (8:26; 14:31; 16:8), but here, in the only occurrence of this conjoined adjective in the whole New Testament, Jesus praises the "great faith" of this woman and commands that her plea be granted. No sooner are the words spoken than it is done. We are told that the woman's daughter is healed instantly (in contrast Mark's narrative delays the discovery until the woman returns home; 7:30). As if in response to this "great faith," in the verses that follow today's lesson, Jesus breaks out in healings that amaze the crowds and call forth the praises of God (15:29-31).
And what of us who hear this story? Can it be that its subtle reversals and surprises intend to work some transformation in our lives as well? To open us up to see the wondrously extravagant reaches of God's mercies? For surely this is the gospel's call for all Jesus' followers, constantly at risk as potential "unfaiths," not to assume the role of greedy bouncers at the door checking IDs, but to take our places on our knees as ones who cling for mercy with that same persistent faith that turns us around and plants us shoulder to shoulder with this woman, side by side with all the outcasts, the wounded, the hungry, the lonely, the homeless.
It seems hardly accidental that this story is placed within a framework of Jesus' Galilean ministry in Matthew that begins in 14:13-21 with the story of the feeding of the five thousand and is followed almost immediately by the story of the feeding of the four thousand (15:32-39). In these stories the compassionate mercy of God, the persistence of faith, and the gift of that bread which supplies our every need are all bound together. Elbow to elbow around the master's table, as we receive even a meager morsel, a few crumbs, by God's mercy they become for us the gift of finest wheat, a saving Word of hope and renewal and life.
The longer reading that includes verses 10-20 just preceding this story may be joined to this one by this common theme of bread and eating, but more likely should be linked around the themes of clean and unclean, and inside and outside. Much like the story of the Canaanite woman, Jesus' parable raises questions about the understanding of where the boundaries of God's mercies are to be located. Traditional ways of locating what is unclean or outside are called into question as Jesus calls for a new understanding and a new heart as the origin and center of God's ways among us.
Like the story of the woman who as an outsider experiences God's mercy and so challenges a too-narrow tradition that would want to restrict God's mercies to a chosen few, so these sayings invite a reexamination of our hearts and call us to a new appraisal of the expansive reach of God's mercies
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
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Sunday August 13,2017 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 115
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a
At the mountain of God, Horeb,
Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter.
Then the LORD said to him,
"Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD;
the LORD will be passing by."
A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains
and crushing rocks before the LORD--
but the LORD was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake--
but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake there was fire--
but the LORD was not in the fire.
After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.
When he heard this,
Elijah hid his face in his cloak
and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14
R. (8) Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD — for he proclaims peace.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and prepare the way of his steps.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Reading 2 Rom 9:1-5
Brothers and sisters:
I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie;
my conscience joins with the Holy Spirit in bearing me witness
that I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ
for the sake of my own people,
my kindred according to the flesh.
They are Israelites;
theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants,
the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;
theirs the patriarchs, and from them,
according to the flesh, is the Christ,
who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Gospel Mt 14:22-33
After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat
and precede him to the other side,
while he dismissed the crowds.
After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
When it was evening he was there alone.
Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore,
was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.
During the fourth watch of the night,
he came toward them walking on the sea.
When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.
"It is a ghost," they said, and they cried out in fear.
At once Jesus spoke to them, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid."
Peter said to him in reply,
"Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water."
He said, "Come."
Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.
But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened;
and, beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"
Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter,
and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"
After they got into the boat, the wind died down.
Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying,
"Truly, you are the Son of God."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a
Elijah has had a good run, literally and figuratively.
He has decimated Queen Jezebel's religious community by personally executing her four hundred prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18:40. That he neither executed nor challenged her four hundred and fifty prophets of Asherah, (see verse 19ff), points to a broader acceptance of the Asherah tradition.
While the prophets uniformly condemn the worship of Baal, many are silent on the worship of Asherah regarded as complimentary to and not as competitive with the God of Israel. Isaiah only has two references to her, while Jeremiah and Micah have just one reference each. (Compare that to Jeremiah's ten references against Baal worship.) Hosea and Zephaniah both mention Baal worship, but not Asherah worship. The prophets who do not condemn the worship of Asherah at all include Ezekiel, who condemns the worship of other deities in the temple, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
As a result Elijah's actions, to mix metaphors, Jezebel has demanded Elijah's head on a platter. Elijah has fled to where he imagines he will be beyond Jezebel's grasp. He is safe for the moment, but he is anything but secure. God has provided him divine comfort and companionship along his journey and actual, edible food and potable water with supernatural benefits, (1 Kings 19:5-8). Elijah is sustained by his meal(s) for an unimaginably long time. ("Forty days and forty nights" is a euphemism for "a really long time." It is no more a mathematical formula than is "a month of Sundays.")
Passing through Beer-Sheba, as the crow flies, the Kishon wadi, (the site of the execution) is some 300 miles northwest of the mountain range home to the "mountain of God" called Sinai in some traditions and Horeb in this story. Traveling twenty miles or so a day (or night) and avoiding anyone who might have turned him in would have taken weeks -- two at breakneck speed, likely more at his pace. Elijah's pace would also have been affected by whether or not he was mounted for all or part of the journey; the text suggests but does not specify that he was not. No mount is mentioned.
Sometime after Elijah falls asleep, God speaks to him, questioning him. What is he doing here? God is not always omniscient in the bible; that is a later theological claim. (God asks Adam, where he is and who told him he was naked and had he been eating the forbidden fruit in Genesis 2. In other places God knows what is in the human heart, see Genesis 6:5; 1 Kings 8:39; Psalm 44:21, etc.) As Elijah catches God up on recent events from his perspective, it is not immediately clear whether God's questions are informational or rhetorical. What Elijah does not say is that he is hiding from Jezebel or that he has come to seek God's help and protection.
God responds to Elijah's self-assessment with self-revelation. First God displayed historic and traditional signs of God's presence, a windstorm, an earthquake and fire (from heaven?). But God was not present among the usual suspects. Then there was a qol dammah daqah, a sound (or voice) of a fine silence. And that is where Elijah encountered God.
While Elijah encountered God-in-silence on a revered mountain, it strikes me that the setting was not necessary for the encounter. That was where Elijah was at the time. The divine appearance was not dependant on an indigenous feature, such as the bush that burned and was not consumed. Perhaps Elijah could have encountered God-in-silence at any point along his journey and even without taking a single step.
After his epiphany, God asks Elijah the same question that God asked him before. Now it is clear that this is a rhetorical question. Elijah gives essentially the same answer. His experience with God has not changed him. I think this is an important observation for contemporary readers and hearers of the scriptures who would like to imagine ourselves in the sacred stories. I know that I have thought how different my own faith story would have been had I been able to see, hear and experience what my spiritual ancestors saw, heard and experienced.
The story of Elijah says, not so fast. Elijah saw, heard and experienced God in fantastic ways. The power of God flowed through him to work miracles that were unequalled by anyone before him. Yet Elijah was essentially unchanged by this incredible encounter with God. And so God fired him, or at least announced his retirement. It is hard to know how Elijah heard the command to anoint another prophet to take his place in verse 16. It may have been quite troubling because the monarchs whom God was firing/retiring/replacing, Ben-Hadad of Aram and Ahab of Israel (who are not named in the text) were to be killed. There was no other retirement plan for kings.
God's last words to Elijah are that God does not need Elijah; God has untold thousands-upon-thousands (seven thousand is a figurative number) of faithful servants on whom God can depend. What is missing from the assigned lesson is Elijah's response. He accepts his assignment from God, knowing that his time as God's prophet is drawing to an end, not knowing what that end will be.
Elijah faithfully calls Elisha whom God has designated as his successor in the verses following the lesson. Hazael will assassinate Ben-Hadad in 2 Kings 8:15 and succeed him; it is not clear if Elijah (or Elisha) ever actually anointed him. And Elisha will complete Elijah's work and anoint Jehu in 2 Kings 9. (Ahab dies in battle, 1 Kings 22:20ff.) And along the way, God reveals a spectacular retirement plan for Elijah in 2 Kings 2:11, towards which Elijah journeys faithfully, not knowing the outcome.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14
Psalm 85 is a communal prayer for help and these verses express confidence that the help prayed for will indeed come.
Thus, the lectionary reading comprises the portion of the psalm that announces and describes the coming of salvation. It is set within the larger context of complaint and petition. At the beginning of the psalm the community remembers how in the past God turned from his “hot anger” (v. 3) and restored their fortunes. Now they pray that the Lord will restore them again (v. 4). They petition God with the questions of whether God will persist in wrath toward them (v. 5) or revive them (v. 6). The petition uses language common to the Psalter: “show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation” (v. 7; see Psalms 106:1; 107:1).
The prayer for help the community offers in verses 1-7 is generic. It could apply to nearly any situation of trouble the community experienced. For example, the prophet Haggai used the same verb as Psalm 85:1a (“showed favor;”) when he complained about the people’s failure to rebuild the temple. As in Haggai’s time, the ones who pray Psalm 85 remember being restored, but they are currently languishing. The language of petition in the psalm, however, could fit any number of experiences in Israel’s history. What is most certain is that the salvation prayed for in verses 1-7 is promised in verses 8-13.
Verse 8 marks a transition from complaint (vv. 1-7) to assurance that God will save (vv. 9-13). This verse likely represents the voice of a priest or prophet who served as part of the personnel of the worship place. After the prayer for help uttered by worshippers, this worship leader invites the hearing of God’s word and reminds worshippers of God’s certain response to their prayer. The promise is that God will “speak peace.” Peace here translates the Hebrew term shalom. The word in some contexts means peace in the sense of absence of conflict or war (Joshua 9:15). In this verse, however, shalom seems to connote something like “welfare” or “prosperity” or perhaps simply “goodness.” What the Lord will speak will be good news because it will promise salvation (v. 9). The announcement of salvation is similar to that in Isaiah 40-55, which declares to the people who have experienced defeat and humiliation that God’s deliverance is at hand.
Verses 9-13 further promise and describe what God’s salvation will be like. Verse 9 may be read as a continuation of verse 8 in that it declares that salvation is coming. It begins with an emphatic particle (“Surely;”) and the assurance that salvation is “at hand.” Salvation is available for “those who fear,” that is, those who humbly look to God for deliverance.
Salvation is portrayed as the work of four attributes of God’s presence, the powers are “steadfast love,” “faithfulness,” righteousness,” and “peace.” The first of these is the covenant love and faithfulness God shows to God’s people. Israel often cries for “steadfast love” in times of hardship and uncertainty (Psalms 89:49; 90:14). It is the ultimate sign of God’s favor and faithfulness, evidence that God is true to the promises he made to his people. “Faithfulness” is God’s reliability, which complements and defines further “steadfast love.” The love Israel knew in relationship with God was always faithful; they could rely on it.
The third and fourth terms form another pair that logically belongs together. “Righteousness” means more than simply “what is right.” It represents the essential character of God by which God created and maintains the world. Thus, Psalm 97:2 declares that “righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne,” and Psalm 5:8 asks to be led through trouble by God’s righteousness. “Peace” appeared in verse 8 as a label for what God would speak to the people in need of salvation. In verse 10, and paired with “steadfast love,” however, shalom seems to have the more common meaning of “wholeness” or “completeness.” Like steadfast love, shalom here represents the just order of the creation.
These “salvation powers” work together in dynamic fashion and have an impact on all realms of existence. The salvation they bring will be observed on the ground and in the sky (v. 11). It will be experienced as both a spiritual and physical realty. As a result of the Lord’s gift of “what is good” (v. 12), the earth will flourish and will yield food in abundance. The picture is one of complete harmony and fulfillment of what God intended the world to be (“righteousness and peace will kiss each other,” v. 10).
The salvation promised here is much more holistic than what many modern people envision. For many, salvation is experienced as inner contentment, as a spiritual reality. Psalm 85 suggests, however, that the salvation of human beings is part of God’s work to reconcile all of creation to God’s self. The full realization of such salvation can only be accomplished with the coming of God to bring the world to fruition. It is eschatological. It is not surprising therefore that the church has always seen the powers of salvation described here especially at work in Jesus Christ. The prologue to John’s gospel says it particularly well: “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Also, as the Apostle Paul declared, “in it (the gospel of Jesus Christ) the righteousness of God is revealed” (Romans 1:17).
Reading 2 Rom 9:1-5
The first few verses of Romans 9 are surprisingly self-referential.
Verse 1 contains a three-fold affirmation of Paul’s truthfulness, verse 2 contains a two-fold avowal of grief, and verse 3 expresses a desire to be cut off from Christ using the double self-reference, “I myself.”
Paul regularly inserts himself into the various arguments and assertions that comprise his letters. We should pause and ask why it happens here.
The opening salvo would seem to signal that Paul’s reputation is on the line. Later in Romans we will discover that Paul is somewhat nervous about his upcoming trip to Jerusalem. As he takes an offering from his churches to the saints there, he is worried about those who are disobedient and about whether this gift will be accepted (Romans 15:31).
Although Paul never says so explicitly, it appears that he hopes his mission to Jerusalem will help cement the place of his gentile converts as equal partners with their Jewish brothers and sisters.
But if the people who are marked out by the God-given law are not the people to whom one must belong to be part of God’s family, where does this leave those people?
Paul seems to be defending himself against the charge that his law-free mission to the Gentiles entails a callous rejection of his own people, of Israel. The three-fold defense tells us that this chapter about God’s election is not merely theological, it is also deeply personal.
Paul’s self-defense comes in his twofold repetition of the grief he feels: “great sorrow” and “unceasing anguish” (Romans 9:2).
It is difficult to imagine a more dramatic plunge from the heights of exaltation found in the end of chapter 8 to the depths of pain and agony expressed here (an agony that will work its way to another climactic moment of exaltation by the end of chapter 11). Paradoxically, the source of both is the same: God’s gracious fidelity to God’s people.
The backdrop of Romans includes not only the intramural Christian debates about circumcision and food laws, but also the stark reality that few of the people of Israel have accepted the idea that Jesus is God’s Messiah.
In chapter 8, the claim that God makes upon a people leads Paul to celebrate the surety of final salvation. But this creates the massive problem of what it might say about God that the people of Israel upon whom God had previously set God’s claim had rejected God’s work and were no longer defining the people of God.
This is the tragedy that breaks Paul’s heart and that propels the argument for the next three chapters of the letter (Romans 9-11).
The paradox entailed in Israel’s separation from Paul’s gospel is accented in the list of gifts that are Israel’s by rights. The first two blessings Paul mentions are adoption and glory. In chapter 8, these very things describe the present and future adoption of those who are in Christ by the Spirit (Romans 8:15, 23) as well as the glory that devolves upon such offspring (8:17, 18, 21, 30).
Similarly, when Paul mentions “the covenants” and “the patriarchs” he articulates Israel’s blessings in ideas that have been earlier applied to non-Jewish believers (Romans 4).
The “law” is an aspect of Israel’s story that Paul struggles to explain, as he attempts to guard his Gentile converts from being defined or bound by it, while at the same time he affirms that love of neighbor fulfills the law (Romans 13:9-10).
Ultimately, however, for Paul the law finds its meaning, and is read rightly, when it is read as a witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus (Romans 3:21). When Paul speaks of “the Law” and “the promises,” and affirm that “from them comes the Christ according to the flesh” (9:4-5), he is imagining three parts of the same whole.
In Romans 1:1-3 Paul says that his gospel is (1) promised beforehand by God; (2) about God’s son; and (3) born of David’s seed according to the flesh. Throughout these next three chapters Paul is directly engaging with the consequences of giving a Christological reframing to the hope, faith, and scriptures of Israel.
The fundamental tenant of Paul’s gospel is that the crucified Christ is the resurrected Lord over all. For Paul, it is God (the Father) who raises Jesus, through the Spirit. Paul’s defense of himself is ultimately linked with his defense of God: God is the one who acted both to send God’s Son and to raise that Son from the dead and enthrone him at God’s right hand.
Thus, this section concludes with a somewhat unexpected ejaculation of praise: “God blessed, forever!”
There is some debate over whether Paul intends to say, “Christ, who is over all, blessed forever” or, instead, “Christ who is over all – God blessed forever!” The second expression is more likely. Paul consistently treats Jesus (the Son) and God (the Father) as two distinct characters in the drama of salvation.
Moreover, the weight of so much of Romans is to direct glory to God for God’s work in sending and raising Jesus the Messiah. This paragraph fits that larger theme by ascribing all of Israel’s gifts to the God who is also the Father of Jesus Christ.
These first five verses of Rom 9 introduce the next three chapters of the letter, which are now widely recognized as the climax of the letter’s argument. The immediately following discussion will wrestle directly with the question of election.
But before he goes there, Paul lays out this basis for the argument: God is the one who has given Israel all its great gifts, God is the one who has fulfilled the promises in Christ, and so God is ultimately worthy of praise. Such will culminate the argument in chapter 11 as well.
Gospel Mt 14:22-33
In the Gospel reading this week, Jesus indeed calls to his disciples in the midst of the wild and restless sea, but he is not beckoning them away from the storm. Instead, his voice calls them into the tumult.
The text says that Jesus made the disciples get into the boat (14:22). A better translation of this main verb would be “to force” or “to compel.” Jesus did not give the disciples a choice. He compelled them to get into the boat and to leave him alone with the crowds.
Why did he not have the disciples stay and help him with these crowds? After all, the multitude is huge. There are 5,000 men and probably twice as many women and children (14:21). They followed Jesus out to this lonely place (14:13). It was the disciples who wanted Jesus to get rid of the crowds before the great miracle of the feeding (14:15). Only after feeding this multitude does Jesus send everyone away: the crowds and the disciples.
It is not insignificant that Jesus retreats to the mountain while he has sent his disciples out into the raging chaos of the sea. The mountain in Matthew’s Gospel is a place for encountering God and hearing the proclamation of God’s glorious kingdom (e.g., 5:1-7:29; 17:1-8). In Moses-like fashion, Jesus proves that he is both the leader of the crowds and the intercessor to the divine. He climbs alone to a mountain for his rendezvous with the Father.
Jesus stays on the mountain to pray. Twice the writer states that Jesus is by himself (verse 23). While Jesus is alone conversing with the Father, the disciples find themselves in a life-threatening situation.
The disciples are probably over a half mile from the land, and the boat is being beaten -- or, more literally, being tormented -- by the waves. The situation is reminiscent of Jesus’ calming of the sea in Matthew 8:23-27. In that story, Jesus led the disciples into the boat and stayed with them, even though he was asleep. When the storm arose and the waves covered the boat, the disciples cried out, “Lord, save us; we are perishing” (8:25). Jesus questions, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Then, he rebukes the wind, and the story ends with the disciples marveling, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and sea obey?” (8:27).
In our passage this week, though, the disciples do not have the luxury of awaking Jesus. Jesus is not there.
The disciples have been struggling to keep afloat for a while. The text says that it is not until the fourth watch of the night that Jesus decides to come to them in the middle of the sea. Thus, it is the early morning hours (3 a.m. to 6 a.m.), while it is still dark, that Jesus makes his appearance.
The disciples, though, do not initially recognize Jesus in the midst of the chaos. They have been alone with the threatening waves for hours. They are probably tired from being up all night. In the midst of this crisis when their energy reserves are spent, Jesus reveals himself to them.
In this exhausted state with the roar of the waves and the spray of the sea drenching their boat, they mistake the Lord of creation for a phantom. Given the common perception of the sea as the locus of evil and chaos, it is hard to blame them for initially mistaking the figure of Jesus for a specter of death. After all, it is they who have rowed into the middle of evil’s realm, and the waves are indeed attacking them.
Over their cries of fear, Jesus calls to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid” (15:27). Jesus reveals himself -- not simply as Jesus, their teacher, but as “I AM.” A more literal translation of this sentence would be, “Take courage, I am, do not be afraid.” This self-revelation is a disclosure of Jesus’ source of power. For Matthew’s Jewish Christian audience, Jesus’ words echo the divine name.
Jesus’ self-revelation moves beyond his words. His actions are also revealing. According to Job 9:8, God alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the Sea. In Psalm 89:10, the psalmist exalts the Lord, “You rule the raging sea; you still its swelling waves.” In the midst of the sea’s churning, Jesus does what only God can do. This is a theophany.
The last time Jesus revealed his power over the chaos of the sea he did so within the confines of the boat. Even then, his power confounded the disciples. Now, he is displaying his power in the death-defying stunt of walking on the sea.
When confronted with the inexplicable reality of a God who controls chaos with his toes, Peter does the inexplicable: he asks to meet Jesus in the tumult. The text does not say that Jesus calmed the seas to make Peter’s steps easier. In fact, it is the wind that frightens Peter and causes him to sink. It was only Jesus’ call that made it possible for Peter to make any strides in the first place.
At this point in our narrative, the story sounds remarkably like the previous miracle on the sea. There is a cry for the Lord’s salvation followed by Jesus’ question of faith, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (verses 30-31). This week’s text, however, ends by answering the question posed by the first narrative. The first time Jesus calmed the sea, the disciples were left wondering who Jesus is. This calming of the sea ends with a declaration, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (14:33).
In Matthew’s Gospel, this story is meant to reveal who Jesus is. But that revelation is only possible in the midst of the chaos. If Jesus had not forced the disciples to embark on this uncertain journey, they would have missed the opportunity to see God revealed in their midst.
Sunday August 6, 2017 Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
Lectionary: 614
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dn 7:9-10, 13-14
As I watched:
Thrones were set up
and the Ancient One took his throne.
His clothing was bright as snow,
and the hair on his head as white as wool;
his throne was flames of fire,
with wheels of burning fire.
A surging stream of fire
flowed out from where he sat;
Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him,
and myriads upon myriads attended him.
The court was convened and the books were opened.
As the visions during the night continued, I saw:
One like a Son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
When he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
The one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship;
all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 9
R. (1a and 9a) The Lord is king, the Most High over all the earth.
The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;
let the many islands be glad.
Clouds and darkness are round about him,
justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne.
R. The Lord is king, the Most High over all the earth.
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the LORD of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his justice,
and all peoples see his glory.
R. The Lord is king, the Most High over all the earth.
Because you, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth,
exalted far above all gods.
R. The Lord is king, the Most High over all the earth.
Reading 2 2 Pt 1:16-19
Beloved:
We did not follow cleverly devised myths
when we made known to you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received honor and glory from God the Father
when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory,
"This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven
while we were with him on the holy mountain.
Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable.
You will do well to be attentive to it,
as to a lamp shining in a dark place,
until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
Gospel Mt 17:1-9
Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother, John,
and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them;
his face shone like the sun
and his clothes became white as light.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them,
conversing with him.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
"Lord, it is good that we are here.
If you wish, I will make three tents here,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
While he was still speaking, behold,
a bright cloud cast a shadow over them,
then from the cloud came a voice that said,
"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased;
listen to him."
When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate
and were very much afraid.
But Jesus came and touched them, saying,
"Rise, and do not be afraid."
And when the disciples raised their eyes,
they saw no one else but Jesus alone.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
Jesus charged them,
"Do not tell the vision to anyone
until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Dn 7:9-10, 13-14
These verses from the Book of Daniel provide the reader with one of the most graphic depictions of God found in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (HB/OT) (cf. Isaiah 6; Ezekiel 1; Exodus 33:17-23).
In this passage, the God of Israel appears as the Ancient of Days (or “the Ancient One”); a figure clothed in brilliant white who has hair as pure as wool and a throne of fiery flames. Such theophanies, in which God appears in human form, are rare. Biblical writers were cautious about such portrayals, seemingly aware of the danger of making God too human-like.
More than Meets the Eye
Given this reluctance, the passage invites us to consider what’s at stake in this, and any, portrayal of God. A humorous and relevant example may be found in the cartoons of Gary Larsen who drew the popular strip “The Far Side” during the 1980’s and 1990’s. For him, God is an old man with long white hair and flowing beard and robes.
Larsen’s God is omnipotent and omniscient, but also comic and even a bit ridiculous, like always being a million points ahead of the other contenders on the trivia game show. In one strip, God cooks up the earth in his kitchen, shaking a bottle labeled “Jerks” over it while thinking to himself, “Just to make things interesting.” In another strip, God is sitting at the computer, preparing to hit the “smite” button, while watching a guy walk underneath a grand piano that is being lowered out of an upper story window.
This conventional depiction of God as an old man may seem a little unsophisticated, perhaps a little childish at best. At worst, God is petty and arbitrary in looking after human affairs, a little too much like his goofy human subjects. But for Daniel 7, the intention of the passage is to portray God as anything but! The writer of Daniel 7 is, in fact, trying to illuminate the deity’s justice, righteousness, and commitment to God’s people during a time when justice and righteousness seem to be up for grabs, especially when it comes to governing the world.
The claims, intentions, and activities of human kings are often the subject of suspicion in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament. This suspicion is front and center in the symbolic vision of Daniel 7, which reflects the events in Jerusalem in 167 BC when the Syrian Emperor Antiochus IV “Epiphanes” (so nicknamed because he thought he was a manifestation of the gods) outlawed the practice of Judaism and forbade the population from following the Torah.
This event raised important questions, such as, what is God’s response to such dire circumstances? Is God present in the midst of such things and, if so, how is God’s power to be seen? In answer, Daniel 7 shows the workings of the heavenly sphere, a part of reality typically unavailable to humans caught up in the chaos of the mundane world. These verses give the readers a glimpse of a divine courtroom in which angelic jurors (verse 10d) and the divine judge (verse 9) take their places. The divine court consults legal documents (verse 10e) -- the scrolls that contain records of past actions (see Psalm 40:7; 56:8) and/or future judgments (Psalm 69: 28) -- and renders judgment on Antiochus IV (“the little horn” of verse 11).
The Ancient of Days’ raiment and description are consistent with this courtroom imagery. In this scene, Daniel 7 may be taking a cue from the ancient Canaanite depictions of El, the creator god who presided over the divine courts of the Canaanite gods. El was called “The Father of Years” and “Judge El” and was described as having grey hair, a symbol of his wisdom and experience. Daniel 7 also emphasizes the wisdom and antiquity of the God of Israel, but then goes on to emphasize that God’s appearance is white not grey.
White is the color of purity and righteousness that the prophets associate with God’s actions and intentions (see Isaiah 1:16-18 and Zechariah 3:1-5). White hair and clothing are, so to speak, the God of Israel’s judge’s robes. These are visual cues that, despite appearances to the contrary down below on earth, God is indeed meting out judgment and justice against the despicable king.
In the verses that come before and after this lectionary passage, the text further contrasts God’s righteous rule with the brutal rule of Antiochus IV and other foreign kings and empires. The biblical writer does this skillfully by depicting these kingdoms as wild, fierce, and predatory animals with unnatural features. They have too many heads, or too many wings, or too many horns. But in contrast, the Ancient of Days resembles a human!
Not only this, but God’s angelic agent and viceroy is also humanlike. The passage describes “one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven” (verse 13) who will govern all peoples, nations, and languages with the Most High’s power. It is not possible to identify with certainty who the ancient Jewish writer had in mind when talking about this being on the clouds -- it may have been the archangel Michael, or it may have been a reference to the entire Jewish community. But what is significant is that God’s features and the humanlike one on the clouds are bound up together with humanity -- God has not abandoned the faithful community in Jerusalem, but is identified with and allied with the people.
Daniel 7 influenced the New Testament enormously. In the gospels, the grammatically indefinite phrase, “one like a human being” becomes the title the “Son of Man” and gives new meaning in the person of Jesus Christ. Though the Son of Man suffers now, he is also the chosen one of God who will come again in the future to usher in God’s eternal kingdom (Mark 8:38; 13:26; Matthew 13:24, 37; 16:28; 19:28; 24:30; Luke 12:8-9; see also Revelation 5:11-12). It is this connection that brings Daniel 7 into the lectionary on Christ the King Sunday. And yet as Christians prepare to celebrate Christ’s universal kingship, we do well to remember how the New Testament continues the Old Testament’s critique of kingship and oppressive power. Christ’s kingship is not to be understood in triumphalist terms, but in terms of his radical suffering and service to the outcast.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 9
There seems to be a close relationship between Psalms 96 and 97, which some call the "twin-psalms”.
Psalm 96 concludes with the announcement that God "is coming" (verse 13), and Psalm 97 seems to portray the effects of God's arrival. These effects involve "the earth" (verses 4-5), as the language and imagery of theophany (which means "God appearing") suggest in verses 3-5 (see similar descriptions in Exodus 13:21-22; 19:6-20; 20:18-21; 24:16-17; Psalms 18:7-15; 50:3; Micah 1:4; Hebrews 3:3-12). The storm-language -- "lightnings" and thunder ("the earth . . . trembles") -- bespeaks the awesome power of God, before which even the "mountains melt," an observation that connotes not destruction but yielding to God's sovereign claim.
The effects of God's arrival also involves the human community, as suggested by the mention of "righteousness and justice" in verse 2. This vocabulary also appears elsewhere in the enthronement collection (see Psalms 98:9; 99:4) -- in short, as monarchs, both human and divine, are supposed to do (see Psalms 72 and 82), God is coming to set things right in the world over which God is "the Lord" (verse 5).
Psalm 97 is the psalm not only for the seventh Sunday of Easter, but also for Christmas Eve/Day. Reflecting on the use of Psalm 97 at Christmas, Walter Brueggemann offers the following conclusion:
In Christmas the Church does not simply celebrate
the birth of a wondrous baby. Through that birth
we celebrate the cosmic reality that God has
entered the process of the world in a decisive
way that changes everything toward life. The
entry of God into the process of the world is the
premise of the poem in Psalm 97.
Brueggemann's mention of life suggests the appropriateness of Psalm 97 for the Easter season. Whatever else it might mean, the resurrection is a validation of what Jesus was born to do, what he lived to do, and what he was killed for doing -- that is, proclaiming and embodying the reign of God in a ministry aimed at setting the world right, at revealing the shape of life as God intends it.
The whole sequence of birth, life and ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection contains the recognition that Jesus' proclamation and embodiment of the reign of God did not go unopposed. Despite the affirmation that the cosmic elements respond positively to God's reign (see verse 4 where the "mountains melt" and verse 5 where "The heavens proclaim his righteousness"), and that "Zion hears and is glad" (verse 8), Psalm 97 also clearly recognizes that the reign of God does not go unopposed (and, of course, this is understandable if Psalm 97 is a response to the disruption and suffering of exile -- see above).
In particular, the concluding section of the psalm recognizes that there is "evil" in the world perpetrated by "the hand of the wicked," from which God's "faithful" will need to be rescued (verse 10). The first line of verse 10 is better translated as an admonition, as in the note "You who love the LORD hate evil." When heard as such, this admonition is capable of addressing the readers of Psalm 97 in every generation, including us.
More particularly, when heard during the season of Easter, we are reminded, in the language of Psalm 97, that the resurrection represents God's deliverance of Jesus from the power of evil, and God's shining of light into the darkness of a wicked world (verse 11; see Mark 16:2; John 1:4-5). As for us, the resurrection -- an affirmation of God's reign -- is what gives us the courage to hate and to oppose the evil that clearly still exists in our world, as an affirmation and manifestation of our love for God.
We might also say, "When the resurrection is proclaimed, the righteous take courage." Guatemalan poet Julia Esquivel describes the hope and courage of those in Guatemala who resisted the right-wing government and its death squads during the prolonged Guatemalan civil conflict by saying that they were "threatened . . . with Resurrection!" Her poem, entitled "They Have Threatened Us with Resurrection," ends with these words (see Threatened with Resurrection [Elgin, IL: Brethren Press, 1992], 63-65):
Join us in this vigil
and you will know what it is to dream!
Then you will know how marvelous it is
to live threatened with Resurrection!
To dream awake,
to keep watch asleep,
to live while dying,
and to know ourselves already
resurrected!
Such dreaming, such hope, such courage is why Brueggemann sees Psalm 97 as an invitation "to reflect on the transformation wrought by God and the ethical possibility offered us in that transformation."5 Such reflection that leads to courageous ethical action -- to justice and righteousness, to the life that God intends -- is certainly an appropriate conclusion to the season of Easter.
Reading 2 2 Pt 1:16-19
This is about authority, credibility, and trust. “We were not following cleverly reasoned myths…” (2 Peter 1:16). Read on to verse 21 to get the impact of these words.
The words provide clues to a situation of conflict in which both the message and the witness are subject to challenge. We may expect such differences to drive concerns in the public sector and in political debate, but we may not be so ready to expect or acknowledge their presence in faith communities or in the congregations we know and love.
Still it is no kept secret that our religious communities seem to have become more and more used to creating conflict and divisions and the fears and discomforts which accompany them. It may be small comfort, but it may be a helpful contribution toward a more hopeful outlook to be reminded that such divisions and conflict were also present in the early church -- such as the Christian community to which the second letter of Peter was addressed. When authority is in question, the confidence and hope of a community are in question -- then and now.
Worthy of note is that claims to credibility and authority are not founded first of all by reference to the name of Jesus, though such a claim would not have been unimportant. Attention is directed rather to the name that stands over this whole epistle, the name of a respected and revered apostolic leader, namely Peter.
Though this letter purports to have been written by Peter, that can hardly be the case. As 2 Peter 3:15-16 makes clear, by the time this letter is written, the letters of Paul have already been collected and are circulating in the Christian community as of equal standing with the “other scriptures.”
So, following a practice familiar in other ancient religious writings, an authoritative appeal is made to the name of one who was “there” at the beginning. This Peter had heard the words of Jesus and, where this day of Transfiguration is concerned, was there on the mountain when Jesus was revealed as Messiah and confirmed by the direct address of God. Whoever the writer, the words exhibit confidence that appeal to a revered and trusted leader from the earliest days of Jesus and his disciple community will be of sufficient weight and importance to sway a community at risk.
At the same time the author recognizes that no name, not even that of Peter, will ultimately be enough. Trust ultimately is fostered by and relies upon the word and promise of God. That promise resides in the “power and presence” of the Lord Jesus Christ that witness to the Transfiguration continues to dwell with the faith community (verse 16).
Though most translations construe the word parousia here as “coming” and hence to suggest a reference to the second coming or return of Jesus, the normal root sense of this word is “presence.” Given the context and the clear allusions to the event of the Transfiguration, the word here must rather refer to the authority and power that resides in the affirmation of the “presence” of the Lord Jesus Christ with his disciple community.
In the Transfiguration we celebrate, then and now, the confidence that the authority of God’s word and our hope for the future rest finally not in any intermediary authority, but in the promise of Jesus’ abiding presence with his faithful followers.
That presence of Jesus with each faithful community is continually confirmed by the presence and effectiveness of the “prophetic word.” When Paul includes the gift of “prophecy” among the diverse gifts of the Spirit, he is certainly not referring to the writings or witness of the prophets, but rather to the gift that resides in the ability to “interpret” with clarity and power the authoritative scriptures for a contemporary community (1 Corinthians 12.10).
It is that same gift of faithful interpretation of the scriptures to which the author now points. Now that neither Jesus nor the original apostles are present, either for that early Christian community or for us, it remains all the more important to have confidence that we can trust those who interpret and mediate the scriptures to us for this present day. That was true for the early church, and so it is true for us.
As the matter stands and as the writer’s argument acknowledges, interpretation always places us at risk. Can we trust the one who interprets? Will we get it right? Will we agree? The divisions and conflicts in our churches are not conducive to great confidence or assurance on this score. But the writer offers some direction in the concluding verses of today’s reading (1:20-21).
First, it is important to note that the comments here are not about the “writing” or “writers” of scripture, as frequently they are so taken. The term epilysis at the end of verse 20 is a technical term that refers not to the writing but rather to the task of “unlocking,” “deciphering,” or “explaining “ of a written text, as the translation of “interpretation” has accurately captured. Hence this means that once again (as in verse 19) the reference to “prophecy of scripture” is not to the “writing” but rather to the gift of clearly and accurately “unlocking” and witnessing to the message of scripture.
Experience has taught us to be appropriately on guard, to expect that there will always be problems of understanding which some may “twist” or “pervert” to their own ends. There will be disagreements about interpretation as there apparently are in the community to which this letter is addressed (see 2 Peter 3:16). There needs to be some further course of appeal.
That course of appeal lies ultimately for them and for us in the presence, testimony, and power of the Spirit. As for the Johannine community, who heard the promise of the Spirit as the confirmation of the abiding presence of the resurrected Jesus (see John 14-16), so here this community is reminded that the power for hope and confidence in a living witness resides in recognizing that interpretation is not just a matter of individual whim or competency.
We are invited to trust, and indeed that is the promise, that the power and the authority ultimately rests in God. The Spirit continues to move among us. In the Spirit’s presence, the glorified Jesus on the mountain is made present among us, the gift of prophecy for faithful interpreting of the scriptures is continually given, and the appeal of faithful witness is granted a hearing within faithful Christian communities who bear fruit in hopeful endurance and godly affection and love.
Gospel Mt 17:1-9
Epiphany is about light, about illumination, about revelation.
Across its Sundays we discover the significance of the Jesus whose birthday we just celebrated. We learn about how the babe born at Bethlehem is also the light of the world as well as about how we as his followers are also called to be light. We are drawn more deeply into an understanding of who and what the infant greeted by shepherds and magi is for us and for all the world and of our role to share what we have learned.
In this regard, think of the Christmas message as a tightly, even intricately packaged Christmas gift which takes us the whole of Epiphany to unwrap and discover. Transfiguration Sunday draws the season to a close, and Matthew's account provides the nearly perfect bookend to the story of Jesus' Baptism that we read on the first Sunday of Epiphany.
Make no mistake, "transfiguration" is a strange word, one that you almost never use in everyday speech. The relationship to the Baptism of our Lord, the first Sunday in the season, is clear, as we are again invited to listen with the crowds (at Jesus' Baptism) and disciples (at the Transfiguration) as a voice from heaven announces, "This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
At the same time, Transfiguration leans unmistakably into Lent, as Jesus comes down from the mountain to head to the death he speaks of during that very descent. The injunction to "listen to him" addressed to Peter, James, and John will become poignant, even painful in the weeks ahead as they regularly fail to do just that, or at least fail to understand what they are listening to. And those same words, when taken as addressed also to us as Jesus' latest disciples, orient us to listen and watch the Lord of Glory approach his destiny in Jerusalem so that we might more fully comprehend God's purposes and work in Jesus.
As if all this weren't enough, Transfiguration also foreshadows Easter. When the disciples fall to the ground in holy awe, the glorified and glowing Jesus comes to them, touches them (elsewhere in Matthew a sign of healing), and commands them not just to stand up but literally to "be raised!" Jesus then commands them not to speak of this event until he himself has been raised, this time from death. There is something about this day, this event, that can't be understood until after the resurrection.
Our confusion about the Transfiguration moves beyond both linguistic and liturgical considerations, as biblical scholars have also regularly failed to understand the role this scene plays in the larger gospel narratives. It comes somewhere out of nowhere, in each gospel playing to a greater or lesser degree a pivotal mark in the narrative (most noticeably in Luke), but not clearly connected to what comes immediately before or after. In Matthew's account, the Transfiguration occurs six days -- perhaps recalling the six days the cloud enveloped Mount Sinai before speaking to Moses -- after Jesus' first prediction of his passion and his rebuke of Peter (presumably) outside Caesarea Philippi (16:21-23). It is followed by more passion predictions and the continuing story of Jesus' ministry in and around Galilee and his impending journey to Jerusalem. Clearly a "mountain top experience," it is nevertheless challenging to see how the account contributes to or advances Matthew's story of Jesus. For this reason, we can probably focus with confidence primarily on the details of the account itself. Of these, two deserve particular attention.
First, Peter's reaction may seem odd to hearers, but some New Testament scholars suggest that it is the appropriate cultic response to what is, quite literally, an epiphany, a manifestation of divine presence. Peter wishes to make a booth, a tent, a tabernacle -- perhaps referencing the Jewish festival of Tabernacles -- by which to offer lodging for these historic and significant religious figures. Others see in Peter's suggestion less a cultic response and more the desire to preserve the event, to capture something of the magnificence of the moment. Still others -- and perhaps especially our hearers -- have been struck by this as characteristic of Peter and many of us: when encountered by something beyond our reckoning, our first inclination is to do something, anything! However you read the impetus for Peter's suggestion, it is notable that in Matthew the voice from heaven actually interrupts him, cutting him off in order first to pronounce Jesus blessed and then to command the attention of the disciples. Whatever Peter -- or we -- may have been thinking, that is, there is only one thing that is needful: to listen to him, the beloved One.
Second, when all is over -- when Moses and Elijah are gone, the voice is quiet, Jesus' face and clothing have returned to normal, and the disciples are left in holy awe -- all that is left is Jesus. Whatever all these signs and symbols may have meant, the disciples are once again with their Lord, their teacher, their friend. This is perhaps one of the signature characteristics of Matthew. Jesus, the one whose clothes and face shone like the sun, the one equal to Moses and Elijah, the one whom the very heavens proclaim as God's own beloved Son, will not leave them.
When all else fades -- and indeed, soon enough all will become dark indeed -- yet Jesus remains, reaching out in help and healing. At the very close of Matthew's account, he will gather with these and all of his disciples on another mountain, and promise that he will be with them even to the close of the age.
Most of us have had mountain top experiences and can testify to their importance to our lives. But all of us have also had to return to the valley. At both places, and all those in between, Jesus is there, reaching out to raise us to life again.
Sunday July 30, 2017 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 109
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12
The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night.
God said, "Ask something of me and I will give it to you."
Solomon answered:
"O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king
to succeed my father David;
but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act.
I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen,
a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted.
Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart
to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.
For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?"
The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request.
So God said to him:
"Because you have asked for this--
not for a long life for yourself,
nor for riches,
nor for the life of your enemies,
but for understanding so that you may know what is right--
I do as you requested.
I give you a heart so wise and understanding
that there has never been anyone like you up to now,
and after you there will come no one to equal you."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130
R. (97a) Lord, I love your commands.
I have said, O LORD, that my part
is to keep your words.
The law of your mouth is to me more precious
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
R. Lord, I love your commands.
Let your kindness comfort me
according to your promise to your servants.
Let your compassion come to me that I may live,
for your law is my delight.
R. Lord, I love your commands.
For I love your command
more than gold, however fine.
For in all your precepts I go forward;
every false way I hate.
R. Lord, I love your commands.
Wonderful are your decrees;
therefore I observe them.
The revelation of your words sheds light,
giving understanding to the simple.
R. Lord, I love your commands.
Reading 2 Rom 8:28-30
Brothers and sisters:
We know that all things work for good for those who love God,
who are called according to his purpose.
For those he foreknew he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his Son,
so that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers and sisters.
And those he predestined he also called;
and those he called he also justified;
and those he justified he also glorified.
Gospel Mt 13:44-52
Jesus said to his disciples:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
"Do you understand all these things?"
They answered, "Yes."
And he replied,
"Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household
who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old."
or Mt 13:44-46
Jesus said to his disciples:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12
GOD REGARDS WITH SPECIAL FAVOUR THOSE WHO HONOUR HIM. It is idle to speculate as to whether Solomon would not have received the same blessings if he had not sacrificed and prayed. The fact was, that sacrifice and prayer were the immediate antecedents of the blessings, and are represented as having direct relation to them. Such a fact is sufficient answer to all philosophical objections to prayer, and an emphatic rebuke to those who say it is nonsense to insist that God has any pleasure in our worship and formal expressions of homage.
II. WITH PROPER REGARD TO GOD'S WILL WE MAY PRAY FOR SPECIAL BLESSINGS. It was not presumption for Solomon to take God at His word. It would have been unpardonable unbelief had he replied to His offer of good that he could not presume to make mention of what was uppermost in his heart. God never trifles. His offers are never to be regarded as only general evidence of a willingness to do us good, but as real invitations that we make known our requests. There is proof enough that our Father is pleased to gratify the wishes of His children, and it is no pleasure to Him that they pray only in vague and indefinite generalities. The very idea of the relationship forbids such prayer; the idea of prayer itself is opposed to such expressions of desire.
III. WE MAY MAKE THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS A PLEA FOR GOOD TO BE GRANTED TO OURSELVES. Solomon made mention of David's life and reign as having been pleasing to God, and of God's great mercy to him, and urged this as proof that a purpose to. be upright may become a ground of hope since He who does not change will grant favour always when the required conditions are fulfilled. The faithfulness of God is the real stimulus to prayer.
IV. BLESSINGS INCOMPLETE IN THEIR NATURE MAY BE PRESSED AS AN ARGUMENT IN PRAYER FOR THEIR COMPLETION. In David's dying charge to his son he reminded him of God's declaration to himself: "If thy children take heed," etc. Solomon made this declaration the basis of his plea with God in this interview. A large part of Christian work is in progress, the execution of plans which require time and persistent toil. We need not fear lest God will weary of co-operation in such work.
V. CONSCIOUSNESS, AND EVEN CONFESSION OF INABILITY TO PERFORM DUTY MAY BECOME A FURTHER WARRANT FOR HELP FROM GOD WHEN THE DUTY IS CLEARLY ASSIGNED BY HIM. The same conviction oppresses many a Christian whom God has called to do work in the different departments of His service. This should not cause him to faint or despair or retire, but should rouse him to greater confidence in prayer while he resolves to stand in the place assigned him.
VI. GOD DOES NOT CONTENT HIMSELF WITH GRANTING SIMPLY WHAT WE ASK WHEN WE HAVE THE SPIRIT HE APPROVES. His answer to Solomon's prayer was: "Behold, I have done according to thy words."
VII. THANKSGIVING FOR ANSWER TO PRAYER SHOULD BE PROMINENT AND IN THE MOST POSITIVE FORM OF EXPRESSION
1. The address which God made to Solomon, when He said, "Ask what I shall give thee," He does in effect make to each of us, especially to the young. By erecting a throne of grace in heaven, opening the way to it, inviting us to come to Him with our requests, and promising to grant our petitions when they are agreeable to His will, He does in effect say to each of us, "Ask what I shall give thee."
2. Though we are not, like Solomon, kings; and therefore need not, as he did, qualifications requisite for that office; yet we all need spiritual wisdom and understanding, and may therefore all imitate his example in making our choice. Every parent, also, has reason to adopt the prayer of Solomon. Pro. lessors of religion have reason to imitate the example of Solomon.
3. That God is pleased with those who make the choice and sincerely offer up the prayer of Solomon.
(1) Because it is the effect of His grace. We are told that the Lord rejoices in His works, and with reason does Be rejoice in them; for they are all very good. If He rejoices in them, He must, of course, be pleased with them. But to induce persons to make the choice and offer up the prayer of Solomon, is always His work, the effect of His grace.
(2) He is pleased with it, because it indicates opinions and feelings similar to His own. In the opinion of Jehovah, spiritual wisdom, that wisdom of which the fear of God is the beginning, is the principal thing, the one thing needful, to creatures such as we are. Now those who make the choice which Solomon made, estimate objects according to their real value; that is, according to their value in the estimation of God. Their opinions and feelings in this respect correspond with His; and since all beings are necessarily pleased with those who resemble them, God cannot but be pleased with those who resemble Him in this respect.
(3) God is pleased with those who thus pray for a wise and understanding heart, because such prayers are indicative of humility.
(4) God is pleased with such characters, because their conduct evinces that they are actuated by a benevolent concern for His glory, and for the happiness of their fellow-creatures.
(5) God is pleased with those who imitate the examples of Solomon, because it actually and greatly tends to promote His glory.
4. All who make his choice, and adopt his prayer, shall certainly be favoured with a wise and understanding heart. That God will gratify the desires of those who thus pray for wisdom, is evident from His express promises. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth liberally to all men and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130
First, a few comments about Psalm 119 as a whole. As noted above, this wisdom psalm is by far the longest psalm in the Psalter. It is an alphabetic, acrostic psalm. Its 176 verses are divided into 22 stanzas. Each stanza is precisely eight verses long. Similar to the old song, "A, You're Adorable (The Alphabet Love Song," each verse in each given stanza begins with the appropriate letter from the Hebrew alphabet. In stanza 1 (verses 1-8), every verse begins with the Hebrew letter 'alef. In stanza 2 (verses 9-16), ever verse begins with the Hebrew letter bet.
And so on. The section assigned for this Sunday is the pe stanza. Each verse begins with a different pe word: "wonderful" (pila'ot), "unfolding" (petach), "my mouth" (pi), "turn" (pe'amay), "my steps" (pe'ami), "redeem" (pedeni), "your face" (paneyka), and "streams" (palgey). As a whole, the theological theme of the psalm is the Word of God--over and over, the psalm employs eight different synonyms for God's Instruction (Hebrew, torah): law, commandments, statutes, ordinances, decrees, words, precepts, and promises.
All eight occur in this stanza. The constraints forced on the poet by the acrostic structure probably explain why, at times, the psalm is so repetitious and shifts somewhat awkwardly between wisdom sayings ("Your decrees are wonderful," verse 129) and petitions asking for help ("Turn to me and be gracious," verse 132). The poem is not really a consecutive, linear argument. Rather it is a circular, repetitive meditation on God's Word and a prayer for God's guidance.
As noted above, the pe stanza of the poem has a theological theme (God's Word) and a poetic theme (the human body). The stanza can be described as having the following structure:
Verses 129-131 Wisdom-like statements about God's Word: "Your decrees are wonderful. . ."
Verse 57 - "Thou art my portion, O Lord." A broken sentence. The translators have mended it by insertions, but perhaps it had been better to have left it alone, and then it would have appeared as an exclamation, - "My portion, O Lord!" The poet is lost in wonder while he sees that the great and glorious God is all his own! Well might he be so, for there is no possession like Jehovah himself. The form of the sentence expresses joyous recognition and appropriation, - "My portion, O Jehovah!" David had often seen the prey divided, and heard the victors shouting over it; here he rejoices as one who seizes his share of the spoil; he chooses the Lord to be his part of the treasure. Like the Levites, he took God to be his portion, and left other matters to those who coveted them. This is a large and lasting heritage, for it includes all, and more than all, and it outlasts all; and yet no man chooses it for himself until God has chosen and renewed him. Who that is truly wise could hesitate for a moment when the infinitely blessed God is set before him to be the object of his choice?
God made us to serve him, and enjoy him; but by sin we have made ourselves unfit to serve him, and to enjoy him. We ought, therefore, continually to beseech him, by his Holy Spirit, to give us understanding. The comforts some have in God, should be matter of joy to others. But it is easy to own, that God's judgments are right, until it comes to be our own case. All supports under affliction must come from mercy and compassion. The mercies of God are tender mercies; the mercies of a father, the compassion of a mother to her son. They come to us when we are not able to go to them. Causeless reproach does not hurt, and should not move us. The psalmist could go on in the way of his duty, and find comfort in it. He valued the good will of saints, and was desirous to keep up his communion with them. Soundness of heart signifies sincerity in
Reading 2 Rom 8:28-30
The destiny toward which the Spirit is ushering us through its prayers is God’s plan for a new humanity. Romans 8:28-30 has been fodder for hundreds of years of theological debate over foreknowledge and predestination. But at the heart of these verses is the Father’s yearning for God’s people to be formed after the image of the Son.
This “image” language reaches deep into Israel’s story, back to the very beginning. Humans are created according to the image of God. This hints at the idea that salvation in Christ is a new creation project, one in which God is recreating humanity. Jesus is a second Adam figure (see 1 Corinthians 15:49, Colossians 3:10) who holds in himself the future that God has in store for us.
This new humanity comes about with Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. In Romans 1:4 Paul says that Jesus was appointed son of God by the Spirit of holiness. The word he uses in 1:4, horizo, is the same root as the word we translate “predestined” (proorizo) in 8:28. What God appointed for Jesus at his resurrection God also pre-appointed for the rest of us: being raised to divine likeness and “sonship.”
These verses weave together eternity-past and eternity-future: from God’s knowing in advance through our receiving the glory of God’s beloved children (8:17, 21). The loom of this tapestry is the resurrected Son, the firstborn of the new humanity, the first human justified by resurrection, the first human glorified with the glory of God’s children.
This integration into the family of God provides us with the bedrock reality that withstands and has the power to overcome all our fears, doubts, and insecurities: God is for us. God is on our side.
Once again, Paul propels his case with Christological force: we know the depth of God’s passion for us because God did not spare God’s own son (8:32). The verse echoes God’s praise of Abraham in Genesis 22, when the patriarch “did not spare” his own son, Isaac.
Abraham’s act was the very picture of human fidelity to God, but Romans 8:32 reverses the story: the offering of the Son becomes the very picture of God’s fidelity to humanity. The death of Jesus is the assurance for us that God will fulfill all God’s covenant promises, giving us “all things” (8:32).
Romans 8 piles up eschatological imagery: hope for future resurrection, visions of a restored cosmos, anticipation of full glorification. Another dimension of the coming future is the final judgment.
Here, too, God and Christ work in concert to ensure that this vision of the future is not one of foreboding, but of hopeful confidence. The power of the accuser has been undone by the idea that the judge has given up his own son so that he might freely justify rather than condemn (verses 33-34).
Moreover, the resurrected Jesus at God’s right hand ensures that final vindication is not some cold transaction completed through a deed in the far off past. The living Jesus (in addition to the Spirit) intercedes for us at God’s right hand.
Embodied at God’s right hand is not only the “price paid” for our salvation, but the goal God has in mind for us as well, the image to which God has planned to conform us, the first embodiment of the true humanity who will at last reign over this world as God desired from the beginning (Romans 5:17; Genesis 1:26-28).
Sitting at God’s right hand is the love that God has always dreamed that humanity would embody.
The love of Christ, which is nothing less than the love of God at work in Jesus the Messiah (8:39) undergirds the great victory that Paul anticipates in verses 35-39. Here he takes up his mantra that the Christian life entails suffering, not primarily because we must overcome our sin, but because the world is full of persecutions awaiting the faithful. It is for God’s sake that “we are put to death all day long, considered as sheep to be slaughtered” (verse 36).
Gospel Mt 13:44-52
Parables can have different interpretations if the interpretation matches the overall theme of the evangelists in the Gospel and is challenging to those in power and comforting to those who are afflicted. Their three parables in today's Gospel two of them have to do with discovery A man digs up a treasure in the field and a merchant seeks and finds a valuable pearl. A book on parables suggests that these are two ways we can discover the kingdom of God the kingdom of heaven. First treasure was found by accident the second by seeking. Both parables illustrate the total response we must make to God. We must caution here that the kingdom of heaven is not something that can be bought or possessed it is rather God's gift and with discovery brings us great joy. We should also note that the two individuals are not necessarily perfect the man who digs up the treasure in someone else's field would have dubious rights to his find that is on shaky moral ground. The pearl merchant could also could be greedy and possessive but it could be a redeemed rich man honestly seeking the kingdom of heaven. Both characters might show up in today's third parable of the dragnet gathering in the good and bad. To make easy judgments on others can bind us to the myth of both good and bad in person and in structure. The kingdom of heaven waits to welcome all those who seek it sincerely
What did the merchant do so that he could purchase the pearl of great price?
(He sold everything he had so that he could buy this pearl.) Jesus wants us to understand that the kingdom of heaven is the most important and valuable thing in our lives. We should do everything we can to find God and what he wants for us.
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Sunday July 23, 2017 Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 106
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 12:13, 16-19
There is no god besides you who have the care of all,
that you need show you have not unjustly condemned.
For your might is the source of justice;
your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.
For you show your might when the perfection of your power is disbelieved;
and in those who know you, you rebuke temerity.
But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency,
and with much lenience you govern us;
for power, whenever you will, attends you.
And you taught your people, by these deeds,
that those who are just must be kind;
and you gave your children good ground for hope
that you would permit repentance for their sins.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
R. (5a) Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
All the nations you have made shall come
and worship you, O LORD,
and glorify your name.
For you are great, and you do wondrous deeds;
you alone are God.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity.
Turn toward me, and have pity on me;
give your strength to your servant.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
Reading 2 Rom 8:26-27
Brothers and sisters:
The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.
And the one who searches hearts
knows what is the intention of the Spirit,
because he intercedes for the holy ones
according to God's will.
Gospel Mt 13:24-43
Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying:
"The kingdom of heaven may be likened
to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.
When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.
The slaves of the householder came to him and said,
'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where have the weeds come from?'
He answered, 'An enemy has done this.'
His slaves said to him,
'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
"First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn."'"
He proposed another parable to them.
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush,
and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'"
He spoke to them another parable.
"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened."
All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables,
to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:
I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation
of the world.
Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house.
His disciples approached him and said,
"Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
He said in reply, "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man,
the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom.
The weeds are the children of the evil one,
and the enemy who sows them is the devil.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire,
so will it be at the end of the age.
The Son of Man will send his angels,
and they will collect out of his kingdom
all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.
They will throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun
in the kingdom of their Father.
Whoever has ears ought to hear."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 12:13, 16-19
Responsorial Psalm Ps 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
Psalm 86 is classified by most scholars as a psalm of individual lament, in which an individual expresses the pain of his present condition and seeks relief from God.1
However, most of the elements of complaint are in the early part of the psalm, with only verse 14 and verse 17 from our selection expressing concern over the psalmist's circumstances, and even in those places there is no explicit mention of pain that has been experienced. Verses 11-17 thus on their own read more as an expression of commitment based on the experience of God's past help (verses 12-13, 17) and on the knowledge of God's character (verses 13, 15-16). The element of petition is still present, however, in the final two verses.
The opening petition, "Teach me your way, O LORD," expresses a common important sentiment in the psalms (see examples, 25:4 and 27:11). The tacit basis of the petition is that God's way is not necessarily obvious and hence requires teaching in order to know it. The line that follows, "that I may walk in your truth," is a statement of commitment. The psalmist and we desire to know God's way not out of curiosity but so that we may actually live it out. "Truth" is used in the second line not to mean anything different than God's way but to affirm that God's way is truth. We might well be reminded at this point of Christ's claim to be "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). The word "life" does not appear in the NRSV's translation in this passage, but life is certainly an issue in verse 13, and the Hebrew word translated as "soul" in verse 13 is translated "life" in verse 2 (nefesh).
The last line of verse 11 combines the elements of petition and commitment: "Give me an undivided heart to revere your name." The tacit basis of the petition is again important: Just as the psalmist recognizes that we are in need of teaching, so he recognizes that very often our hearts are divided and thus unable to walk in God's way. There is not the burden of sin here felt in Psalm 51:10's plea for God to "create in me a clean heart," but the sentiment is the same.
The psalmist does not dwell on the need for an undivided heart, for in the very next line he expresses thanks to God "with my whole heart" (verse 12). There is a simple confidence that his prayer for an undivided heart is answered. In fact, there is a bold magnification of the petition from verse 11, because whereas in verse 11 he had asked merely to "revere" God's name, here in verse 12 his claim is much stronger: "I will glorify your name forever." Not only has he moved from revering to glorifying, but the addition of "forever" makes the return of thanks all the more fervent. It is as strong a statement of commitment as one can imagine. Can we make the claim our own?
Verse 13 provides the foundation for the thanksgiving, petitions, and commitment expressed in verse 11-12: "For great is your steadfast love toward me." "Steadfast love" translates the single Hebrew word khesed. The Hebrew meaning is difficult to convey with any single English expression, and thus we see different English Bibles using a variety of translations in different contexts: steadfast love, lovingkindness, love, kindness, mercy, loyalty, favor, devotion, goodness, and still others. The range of translations gives a sense of the broad meaning of the word. For the psalmist here, it is a confession of and proclamation of his fundamental relationship with God, and especially of the blessing he has received from that relationship.
The second half of verse 13 expresses a very concrete benefit of God's khesed: "You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol." In the context of the overall psalm, this probably refers to a deliverance from physical death. Sheol is simply the "the grave" (as it is often translated). Many Christians will think here, however, and appropriately so, of the salvation from spiritual death that is the quintessential example of God's khesed in their lives. It is the life that walking in God's way and truth provides.
The reference to God's khesed is picked up in verse 15 and expanded. Beginning with the word "merciful," verse 15 is a quote of the fundamental self-revelation of God given to Moses at Mt. Sinai: "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6). This initial self-revelation expressed Israel's understanding of the basic nature of its relationship to God, and it is quoted and paraphrased frequently throughout the Old Testament (e.g. Numbers 14:18; Joel 2:13; Psalms 103:8, 145:8; Nehemiah 9:17). Here it forms the basis for the psalmist's appeal for grace, strength, and salvation in verse 16 and for why he need not fear his enemies referred to in verse 14.
When he appeals to God to "turn to me and be gracious to me" (verse 16), it is his knowledge of the gracious character of God mentioned in the Exodus quote of verse 15 that prompts his plea. Of course, the words "turn to me" also express his feeling of the present absence of God's grace, a feeling caused by the intentions of his enemies mentioned in verse 14. The feelings of divine absence and abandonment expressed in many of the psalms (in the present psalm, mostly in verses 1-7) often cause believers today a certain amount of discomfort, but they should remind us that it is pointless to hide our true feelings in addressing God -- and that there is no need to do so.
Verse 17 closes the psalm with a final petition, a request for a sign of God's favor. As in verse 16, the petition is based on knowledge of God's character, but here the psalmist expresses it in terms of his own experience: "because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me." In this sense the psalmist's petition may be a model for our own prayers to God: Our appeals arise out of our common understanding of God's character and out of our experience of God's steadfast love and faithfulness to us in the past.
Reading 2 Rom 8:26-27
Likewise the Spirit - This introduces a new source of consolation and support, what is derived from the Spirit. It is a continuation of the argument of the apostle, to show the sustaining power of the Christian religion. The "Spirit" here undoubtedly refers to the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, and who strengthens us.
Aid - This word properly means, to sustain with us; to aid us in supporting. It is applied usually to those who unite in supporting or carrying a burden. The meaning may be thus expressed: "he greatly assists or aids us."
Our infirmities - Assists us in our infirmities, or aids us to bear them. The word "infirmities" refers to the weaknesses to which we are subject, and to our various trials in this life. The Spirit helps us in this,
(1) By giving us strength to bear them;
(2) By exciting us to make efforts to sustain them;
(3) By ministering to us consolations, and truths, and views of our Christian privileges, that enable us to endure our trials.
For we know not ... - This is a specification of the aid which the Holy Spirit, renders us. The reasons why Christians do not know what to pray for may be,
(1) That they do not know what would be really best for them.
(2) they do not know what God might be willing to grant them.
(3) they are to a great extent ignorant of the character of God, the reason of his dealings, the principles of his government, and their own real needs.
(4) they are often in real, deep perplexity. They are encompassed with trials, exposed to temptations, feeble by disease, and subject to calamities. In these circumstances, if left alone, they would neither be able to bear their trials, nor know what to ask at the hand of God.
With groanings - With sighs, or that deep feeling and intense anxiety which exists in the oppressed and burdened heart of the Christian.
For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: one way whereby the Spirit helps us, is by teaching us to pray. Prayer doth greatly relieve us under the cross, and is a great refuge in trouble: but we knowing not how to pray.
Gospel Mt 13:24-43
• Last Sunday, we were introduced to Matthew 13 as a chapter of parables. This week we have three more parables, all with “growth” as a theme.
• Jesus tells another parable about a “sower”, this time one who has an enemy who secretly sows his field with weeds. This certain type of weed (called “tares” or “darnel” in some translations) contained a fungus that was poisonous to people and animals, causing severe nausea. This was sometimes done for revenge or maliciousness and the Romans had severe penalties to those caught committing such an act. These weeds look just like wheat in the early stages of growth thus making them almost impossible to remove without ruining the wheat.
• The owner of the field decides to let the wheat and the tares grow side by side until the harvest. In biblical terms, “the harvest” is often associated with a day of God’s judgment (Jeremiah 51:33; Joel 4:13; Hosea 6:11; Revelation 14:14-20).
After Jesus left the crowd and went indoors, his followers approached him with a request. "Explain the wheat and weeds parable to us in simple language" they said.
"The farmer who sowed the high quality wheat seed is the Son of Man. And the quality seed is everyone who follows God into his Kingdom," Jesus answered. "The field is the world. But the weeds are the evil people who reject God. And the enemy who put the evil people among the good is the devil. Now, the harvest is the end of time and the reapers are God's messengers. The end of time will be just like the harvest and burning of the weeds. The Son of Man will send out his messengers. They will gather together everyone who sins and causes others to sin. They will throw those people into a fiery furnace where they will cry out and grind their teeth. Then, the good people will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. If you can hear me, then listen!"
Like the parable of the sower and the seed, Jesus used parables to challenge his audience to think. The images and symbols in the stories allowed for various interpretations, depending upon the audience and their circumstances. Interpreting symbolic stories in this way is called allegory.
To help relieve anxiety among his persecuted followers, Jesus told this parable as an allegory of good and evil. Obviously, Jesus recognized good and evil lived together. But, when Jesus made that co-existence part of God's Kingdom, he must have shocked his own followers. How could God allow such evil in the world? Shouldn't God act to save his people? Why did he delay?
Jesus countered those questions with an observation. God allowed evil in the world for the greater good. First, he delayed the terrible day of wrath so the good works of Christians could take root. When a believer experienced God's Kingdom, he or she produced "fruit:" an ethical lifestyle that fed the needy and inspired faith (and repentance) in others. The believer's lifestyle helped build up the Christian community and multiply effects of the good "fruit."
To make this notion clear, Jesus interpreted the parable in Matthew 13:36-43. The Son of Man (i.e., Jesus) sowed the wheat seeds; Satan sowed the weeds. At the Final Judgment, the angels (i.e., messengers) will gather the good and the bad into separate camps. The evil will be punished while the good will "shine like the sun" (13:43, also see Daniel 12:3).
Early Christians had a vested interest in this interpretation. After all, they believed the messengers of the Son of Man were, in fact, Christian missionaries who spread the Good News. As the missionaries evangelized, they "gathered" God's people into community life. In other words, the harvest had begun, in spite of evil in the world. As long as Christians evangelized through word and acts of charity, they could tolerate evil.
However, people, even Christians, did not perform works of charity with the best of intentions. Sometimes, an evil end perverted the best of "fruit." (Even the young weeds looked like fresh wheat; only maturity allowed workers to distinguish between the two.) [13:26] Here, Jesus implied a second reason God delayed the Final Judgement: to allow evil to produce the greater good. The greatest sign of this belief was the cross. Evil men crucified the Lord. Yet, without their evil, believers could not experience the limitless benefits of his resurrection. Indeed, God's revealed his Kingdom on the cross.
How has the experience of evil in your life helped you produce good? How has it challenged you?
Catechism Themes: Providence and the Scandal of Evil (CCC 309-314)
Christianity can answer the question: why does evil exist in the world? The root of the answer lies in our free will. As God is free, so he chose to create us with freedom. Our freedom lies in a choice: to walk closer to the Lord, or to walk away from the Lord. The world functions as an arena for our choice.
To walk closer to the Lord involves the choice of love. We realize God loves us and we love him in return. In the choice of love, we extend our love to others. The world becomes the means to exercise love.
However, freely chosen love involves the risk of rejection. We can chose the self over all others. The world, then can become a means to reject others. We have seen this rejection many times over the past century in the suffering of the innocent.
God does not infringe on our free will. Indeed, to allow us the opportunity to repent, God gives us the chance and the choice to harden our hearts. But, God even uses our rejection as the opportunity for greater good, as he did with the death and resurrection of Jesus.
If we ask "why is there evil in the world?" we must also ask "why is there good in the world?" While we may not be able to answer the question of evil on a physical level, certainly we can answer it on a moral level. The moral and the immoral live in the same world, because God created the world as the means to exercise moral freedom. Evil may induce despair, but good inspires hope. Only hope based upon the choice of love can ultimately answer the scandal of evil in the world.
How does faith inspire you to face problem of evil? Are you optimistic about the problems of the world, or pessimistic? Why?
God gives us a choice. Are we the wheat or the weed? What sort of fruit do we produce? If the answers to those questions are less than clear, never fear. God gives us the chance and the means to change and walk closer to him. But the chance requires action. Inaction is not an option.
There are no right or wrong answers to the questions below, just think about them, maybe discuss with your friends.
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Sunday July 16, 2017 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 103
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 55:10-11
Thus says the LORD:
Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
and do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14
R. (Lk 8:8) The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
You have visited the land and watered it;
greatly have you enriched it.
God's watercourses are filled;
you have prepared the grain.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
Thus have you prepared the land: drenching its furrows,
breaking up its clods,
Softening it with showers,
blessing its yield.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
You have crowned the year with your bounty,
and your paths overflow with a rich harvest;
The untilled meadows overflow with it,
and rejoicing clothes the hills.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
The fields are garmented with flocks
and the valleys blanketed with grain.
They shout and sing for joy.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
Reading 2 Rom 8:18-23
Brothers and sisters:
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing
compared with the glory to be revealed for us.
For creation awaits with eager expectation
the revelation of the children of God;
for creation was made subject to futility,
not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it,
in hope that creation itself
would be set free from slavery to corruption
and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;
and not only that, but we ourselves,
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
we also groan within ourselves
as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
Gospel Mt 13:1-23
On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.
Such large crowds gathered around him
that he got into a boat and sat down,
and the whole crowd stood along the shore.
And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:
"A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear."
The disciples approached him and said,
"Why do you speak to them in parables?"
He said to them in reply,
"Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.
To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because
they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.
Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted,
and I heal them.
"But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
"Hear then the parable of the sower.
The seed sown on the path is the one
who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it,
and the evil one comes and steals away
what was sown in his heart.
The seed sown on rocky ground
is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy.
But he has no root and lasts only for a time.
When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
he immediately falls away.
The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word,
but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word
and it bears no fruit.
But the seed sown on rich soil
is the one who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 55:10-11
Rain and the snow come down from heaven (Vs. 10)
We know that rain and snow come from the atmosphere but it all comes from God
God’s Word has come down to us from heaven (from God)
* All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness,* 2 Timothy 3:16
“For no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God.” 2 Peter 1:21,
Snow and rains purpose is fulfilled on earth. Remember a time when there was a drought and look out on all that dirt and dust. In that dirt lies all kinds of potential. Those dusty fields have the potential for beauty and lushness. Those fields have the capacity to feed and help mankind. All that is needed is rain to transform those fields.
We see the power of God’s Word to transform a person’s life. From spiritual barrenness and death. “ For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another.” Titus 3:3), to spiritual abundance and life (may have life and have it more abundantly. John 10:10). God’s Word can transform lives that people consider worthless and hopeless.
Making it bud and flourish (Vs. 10). God’s Word can cause our lives to blossom out.
Yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater (Vs. 10).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14
Verses 9-13 maintain the focus on the earth, but the emphasis moves from God's might to God's bounty in the harvest, which is described in lavishly descriptive language. This lavishness might well be said to be the unifying force throughout the psalm. The descriptions of the earth are almost mythical sounding throughout. This mythical quality, combined with the exclusively beneficent description of God's dealings with humankind that pervade the psalm, gives the attentive reader or hearer an overwhelming sense of the life-giving presence of God.
The animated richness of nature provided by the divine presence dominates the psalm in verses 9-13. Verses 9-10 celebrate the gift of water, which provides people with grain, shapes the earth, and causes life to grow. For an ancient agrarian people living in a dry land, this blessing was no doubt better understood and more appreciated than it is for most Christians today. The personification trend continues in verse 11a, as the year is "crowned" with God's bounty.
Verse 11b will strike many readers as curious: "your wagon tracks overflow with richness." The exact nature of the symbolism here is debated -- it perhaps pictures God riding across the earth in a chariot -- but, whatever the case, the point is that where God goes, richness abounds. God's presence is life and abundance. Verses 12-13 close the psalm with a series of further personifications: The pastures, hills, meadows, and valleys all clothe themselves with appropriate bounty, and they all "shout and sing together for joy."
Psalm 65 thus depicts a world alive with the bounty and glory of God. While many scholars believe that its original use was for thanksgiving celebrations at harvest time, its possible applications today are many. With its wide-ranging portrayal of an undefiled, joyful creation, along with peoples delivered, at peace, and praising God, it provides a vision counter to what we tend to see in the world today.
Reading 2 Rom 8:18-23
Knowledge is simply specific information about something. The state or fact of knowing. Familiarity, awareness, or understanding gained through experience or study. We will discover today that as Christians some things are just obvious. An since things are obvious we should live according to what we know instead of acting like we don’t know or don’t have a clue.
Points of Emphasis
1. The First Thing We Should Know
You are not in this thing by yourself! Verses 18-23, in particular verse 22, tells us basically that everyone who is a believer is going through. You are not facing your trials alone. We are all waiting on the Lord for something... But they that wait on the Lord....
2. The Second Thing We Should Know
Is actually what we DON’T know. We have short comings, we don’t have all of the answers. We can’t express, in this frail human form, what we really need for God to accomplish in our lives. We don’t know what to pray for. Verses 24-27 But we do know, with the aid of The Holy Spirit, that if we can’t say it, He can see it!
3. The Third Thing We Should Know
Verse 28 It’s all good. When I love Him, it’s all good. When I hear His Word, it’s all good...
"When He was on the Cross, You were on His Mind”
Gospel Mt 13:1-23
This Sunday and for the following two Sundays we will hear parables. Fr. Greg Friedman OFM had the privilege of studying parables under Sr Barbara Reid. He shared her teaching on how Jesus parables worked.
Most parables start with something familiar, like todays with farming. The people of Jesus tie were very familiar with this and so would be attentive to the story. Next the parables have layers of meaning using comparisons and metaphor usually with a reference to the kingdom of heaven. Next, parables have an unexpected twist. The farmer’s generous scattering of the precious seed everywhere seems to indicate an extravagant God , even wasteful, but the parables are meant to elicit a response from the listeners.
Next there are many valid interpretations of the parables and it is up to the preacher to discern what the people need to hear. Very interesting discussion on this topic. What do you think?
Today’s Gospel marks the beginning of the third long discourse given by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Over the next few weeks, the Gospel readings will consist of the entire 13th Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, a lengthy teaching discourse.
Throughout this discourse, Jesus will offer several parables to illustrate for his listeners what he means by the kingdom of heaven. He begins with the parable of the sower, which appears rather straightforward—of course seeds grow best in good soil. Seeds that miss the soil, are sown on rocky ground, or are sown among other plants will not grow. The surprise in the parable is the enormous yield of the seed that is sown on good soil.
Jesus then explains his use of parables. Jesus seems to suggest that he uses parables to teach because the meanings of parables are not self-evident. The hearer must engage in some degree of reflection in order to comprehend the message of a parable. In this way, the medium—the parable—models the point of the parable of the sower. Those who are willing to engage themselves in the effort to understand will be rewarded by the discovery of the message and will bear fruit.
To bring home the point, Jesus interprets the parable of the sower to his disciples. The different types of soil in which the seeds are sown are metaphors for the disposition with which each individual hears the teaching about the kingdom of heaven. Some will be easily swayed away from the kingdom of heaven. Some will receive it for a time but will lose it when faced with difficulties. Some will hear the word but will then permit other cares to choke it out. Yet some will receive it well, and the seed will produce abundant fruit.
Jesus entered into a boat that he might be the less pressed, and be the better heard by the people. By this he teaches us in the outward circumstances of worship not to covet that which is stately, but to make the best of the conveniences God in his providence allots to us. Christ taught in parables. Thereby the things of God were made more plain and easy to those willing to be taught, and at the same time more difficult and obscure to those who were willingly ignorant. The parable of the sower is plain. The seed sown is the word of God. The sower is our Lord Jesus Christ, by himself, or by his ministers. Preaching to a multitude is sowing the corn; we know not where it will light. Some sort of ground, though we take ever so much pains with it, brings forth no fruit to purpose, while the good soil brings forth plentifully. So it is with the hearts of men, whose different characters are here described by four sorts of ground. Careless, trifling hearers, are an easy prey to Satan; who, as he is the great murderer of souls, so he is the great thief of sermons, and will be sure to rob us of the word, if we take not care to keep it. Hypocrites, like the stony ground, often get the start of true Christians in the shows of profession. Many are glad to hear a good sermon, who do not profit by it. They are told of free salvation, of the believer's privileges, and the happiness of heaven; and, without any change of heart, without any abiding conviction of their own depravity, their need of a Saviour, or the excellence of holiness, they soon profess an unwarranted assurance. But when some heavy trial threatens them, or some sinful advantage may be had, they give up or disguise their profession, or turn to some easier system. Worldly cares are fitly compared to thorns, for they came in with sin, and are a fruit of the curse; they are good in their place to stop a gap, but a man
must be well armed that has much to do with them; they are entangling, vexing, scratching, and their end is to be burned, Hebrews 6:8. Worldly cares are great hinderances to our profiting by the word of God. The deceitfulness of riches does the mischief; they cannot be said to deceive us unless we put our trust in them, then they choke the good seed. What distinguished the good ground was fruitfulness. By this true Christians are distinguished from hypocrites. Christ does not say that this good ground has no stones in it, or no thorns; but none that could hinder its fruitfulness. All are not alike; we should aim at the highest, to bring forth most fruit. The sense of hearing cannot be better employed than in hearing God's word; and let us look to ourselves that we may know what sort of hearers we are.
Pondering the Gospel
Sunday July 9, 2017 Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 100
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Zec 9:9-10
Thus says the LORD:
Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion,
shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king shall come to you;
a just savior is he,
meek, and riding on an ass,
on a colt, the foal of an ass.
He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim,
and the horse from Jerusalem;
the warrior's bow shall be banished,
and he shall proclaim peace to the nations.
His dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14
R. (cf. 1) I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will extol you, O my God and King,
and I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 Rom 8:9, 11-13
Brothers and sisters:
You are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Consequently, brothers and sisters,
we are not debtors to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die,
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.
Gospel Mt 11:25-30
At that time Jesus exclaimed:
"I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."
"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Zec 9:9-10
If we read a little further thru verse 12 we can set this in place.
We might wonder why we are being taken back to Palm Sunday after Pentecost, during ordinary time, when the lectionary focuses on the life of the church with such themes as discipleship, vocation, and mission.
Not only is the text out of season, its apparent militarism would not, on first glance, sit well with these themes of Christian discipleship. The militarism is readily explained in light of Zion theology, which maintained that God’s presence kept Jerusalem and its king safe from enemies (Psalms 2, 46, 47, 48); even so, it remains difficult to see how to relate this theme to Christian discipleship and mission.
More puzzling still is the characterization of the rescued prisoners of 9:11 as “prisoners of hope” in the parallel line in 9:12. This unusual expression suggests that Zion’s inhabitants endure a spiritual and psychological form of captivity, not a literal one. Therein lies the problem: how can hope be a prison? Hope is a good thing, isn’t it? Yet this phrase provides an important key to solving the puzzle of Zechariah 9:9-12.
The hope holding Zion’s inhabitants captive is precisely the ancient militarist hopes of Zion theology. A closer look at how the text reconfigures this militarist tradition will show that it presents a new way to know God’s saving presence and therefore establishes a new basis for hope. The text thus turns out to be perfectly suited for reflection on life in ordinary time, as it encourages us to live out our resurrection faith by breaking free from our prisons of old expectations.
While it’s certainly possible that the reference to hope in Zech 9:12 builds on other prophetic promises of hope (Hosea 2:15; Isaiah 8:17; Jeremiah 31:17)1, it remains difficult to explain why Zion’s inhabitants would be considered its prisoners. The solution to this puzzle is that hope is not always necessarily a good thing. The term tiqveh is rare in the prophetic tradition; it is used far more frequently in the wisdom literature, where it is often associated with false expectations or humanly conceived prospects not rooted in trust in God (Proverbs 10:28; 11:7, 23).
In fact, the word is often used with the verb “to dry up” in a richly alliterative phrase that gets lost in translation (Psalm 9:18; Ezekiel 19:5; 37:11; Job 8:13; Proverbs 10:28; 11:23). We catch a glimpse of this desiccated hope in Ezekiel 37. When the exiles complain, “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off.” (Ezekiel 37:11), Ezekiel visualizes them as so many dry bones. These once hopeful people are so far gone it is absurd to ask if they can live again.
One may suggest that Zechariah 9–11 was written to address false hopes, or at least to recast outmoded ones. The superscription of Zechariah 9–11 identifies it as a massa’ (English “An Oracle”), a scribal re-interpretation of older prophetic revelation to provide new revelation for a new situation.
While it remains an open question when this reinterpretation took place, it would have occurred either in the Persian or Hellenistic periods, well after the kingdom of Judah had ceased functioning as an autonomous, sovereign kingdom. One challenge these scribes would have faced was the lingering militarism of the older prophetic tradition. Much of Zechariah 9–11 consists of allusions older prophecies filled with mythic scenarios of the Divine Warrior coming to vanquish Israel’s enemies.
With its allusion to Zephaniah 3:14 and Zechariah 2:10, Zechariah 9:9-12 is a case in point, since both of these older prophetic texts command Zion to rejoice over God’s dealings with the enemies. For Jews living under Persian or Hellenistic control, any continued expectation that God would rescue them militarily could indeed become a prison. Locked in past ways of seeing the world and God’s ways in it, they would be incapable of seeing divine activity in their current circumstances.
How to release these prisoners of hope from old expectations? In effect, the scribes employ the older traditions to open new paths to peace. As in Zephaniah 3:14 and Zechariah 2:10, the audience is commanded to rejoice because of what God has done for Zion and its inhabitants. But where the older texts speak of enemies, Zechariah speaks of conditions that make for peace. The king is not the agent of deliverance but one who has himself been humbled yet declared righteous.
The fact that he is delivered but not the deliverer may explain his entry into Zion on a donkey. Donkeys do appear once elsewhere as the preferred mode of royal transport (Genesis 49:11), but it’s also the case that donkeys don’t go to war, horses do. In addition, verse 10 indicates that God (read “I” instead of “he”) banishes weapons and implements of war -- including warhorses -- from Ephraim and Judah. While one may infer that the banished weapons belong to the enemies, the verse does not make that claim. God’s presence secures the king and the kingdom, though not by any visibly military means. The scribes have thus subtly recast motifs associated with military victory to emphasize new ways of being at peace in the world.
By reshaping the older military traditions, the scribes have also subtly redefined the basis for hope. One is reminded of the enigmatic statement to Zerubabel in Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.” Hope remains grounded in the conviction of God’s presence; but once the people are released from the prison of old expectations, they are free to discover God at work in new and unexpected ways.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14
We give homage to so many things that our praise is cheap. Is it also accurate to say that our praise to God is cheap? Or, that it has at least been cheapened? Perhaps.
Sometimes we praise God by talking so much that our words become hollow. Other times, we praise God as our heavenly Santa Claus who gives gifts we want. We also treat God as a street vendor with whom we can bargain: "I'll give you praise if you will do (fill-in-the-blank)..." As the bargainer, we may even decide to keep shopping until something better comes along. Praise is cheap and at times we cheapen our praise to God. How then, do we begin to claim Psalm 145 as our own when it commits us to voice our praise to God?
Psalm 145: Function and Structure
In the Psalter, Psalm 145 serves two structural functions. It is the final David psalm (Psalms 138-145), and it is the first psalm of praise in a series that ends the Psalter (Psalms 145-150). While Psalm 145 belongs to David and expresses David's personal commitment to worship Yahweh, the psalm is not primarily about one individual's praise. It has a universal scope that calls the whole of creation to "praise God's name forever and ever" (verse 2).
Two elements implicitly hint at Psalm 145's intended universality. The first of these is its acrostic structure. With the exception of a nûn line, each line is arranged sequentially by a letter of the alphabet. Thus, the entire alphabet is "marshalled in praise of God."1
In addition to its acrostic structure, the psalmist indicates the broad scope of intended praise through four commitments to worship. The first commitment, made in verses 1-2, is individual ("I will extol you, my God and King"). Verse 4 expresses an intergenerational commitment to praise ("one generation ... to another"), and verse 10 expresses two corporate commitments to praise. The first is from creation ("all your works") and the second from Yahweh's followers ("all your faithful"). In the final verse (20), both individual ("my mouth") and corporate ("all flesh") commitments are made with the assurance they will endure through time ("forever and ever").
The commitments in verses 1-2, 4, 10, and 20 are interspersed with specifics of Yahweh's greatness and goodness. Verses 3-6 and 11-13b illustrate the praise of Yahweh's greatness using bold language: might, glory, great, fame, and power. In contrast, verses 7-9 and 13c-20 capture the praise of Yahweh's goodness, depicted through tender language: gracious, merciful, compassionate, faithful, just, and kind. The cumulative picture presented in Psalm 145 is "a many-sided though overlapping account of the nature of worship, of Yahweh's greatness, goodness, and concrete positive involvement with humanity."2
The Goodness of God (verses 8-9)
The passages in this week's Lectionary text are embedded in Psalm 145's emphasis on the goodness of Yahweh as a touchstone for praise. Like Psalm 103 and others, Psalm 145:8 borrows language from Yahweh's self-revelation in Exodus 34:6. Yahweh is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and full of steadfast love. Repeated use of Yahweh in verses 8 and 9 ensures that all of these attributes point to the Lord, the curator of creation.
Verse 9 emphasizes Yahweh's goodness and compassion to all people. Here, the word "all" seems to be uniquely inclusive. Rather than expressing a defined totality such as the nation of Israel, this passage seems to indicate that the Psalm refers to all of humanity and all of creation. Moreover, verse 9 echoes verse 1 and captures Yahweh as THE king "over all he has made," not one king among many different kings. Walter Brueggemann suggests the rest of Psalm 145 is "best understood as an extrapolation from these verses to see how God's characteristic self-giving is experienced in the daily blessings of creation."
Reading 2 Rom 8:9, 11-13
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
a. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you: Because the Holy Spirit is given to each believer when they are born again, every Christian has within themselves a principle higher and more powerful than the flesh.
i. "Many sincere people are yet spiritually under John the Baptist's ministry of repentance. Their state is practically that of the struggle of Romans Seven, where neither Christ nor the Holy Spirit is mentioned, but only a quickened but undelivered soul in struggle under a sense of 'duty,' not a sense of full acceptance in Christ and sealing by the Holy Spirit." (Newell)
b. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His: This means that every believer has the Holy Spirit. It is a misnomer to divide Christians among the "Spirit-filled" and the "non-Spirit-filled." If a person is not filled with the Holy Spirit, they are not a Christian at all.
i. However, many do miss out on living the Christian life in the constant fullness of the Spirit because they are not constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit as Paul commanded in Ephesians 5:18. They have no experience of what Jesus spoke about when He described rivers of living water flowing from the believer (John 7:37-39).
ii. How do I know that I have the Spirit? Ask these questions:
- Has the Spirit led you to Jesus?
- Has the Spirit put in you the desire to honor Jesus?
- Is the Spirit leading you to be more like Jesus?
- Is the Spirit at work in your heart?
c. And if the Spirit of Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin: Because Jesus lives in us, the old man (body) is dead, but the Spirit lives and reigns, and will live out His salvation even through our mortal bodies through resurrection.
i. Not only are we in Christ (Romans 8:1), but He also is in you, and because God cannot abide a sinful home, the body (old man) had to die when Jesus came in.
B. Our obligation: to live in the Spirit.
1. (Rom 8:12-13) Our debt is to the Spirit, not to the flesh.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors; not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
a. We are debtors - to the flesh, to live according to the flesh: The flesh (again, in the narrow sense of sinful flesh in rebellion against God) gave us nothing good. So we have no obligation to oblige or pamper it. Our debt is to the Lord, not to the flesh.
b. For if you live according to the flesh you will die: Paul constantly reminds us that living after the flesh ends in death and we need the reminder because we are often deceived into thinking that the flesh offers us life.
c. By the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body: When we put to death the deeds of the body (force the sinful flesh to submit to the Spirit), we must do it by the Spirit. Otherwise we will become Pharisees and spiritually proud.
i. Paul tells us that not only are we saved by the work of the Spirit, but also we must walk by the Spirit if want to grow and pursue holiness in the Lord. We cannot be like some among the Galatians who thought they could begin in the Spirit but then find spiritual perfection through the flesh (Galatians 3:3).
1. (Rom 8:12-13) Our debt is to the Spirit, not to the flesh.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors; not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
a. We are debtors - to the flesh, to live according to the flesh: The flesh (again, in the narrow sense of sinful flesh in rebellion against God) gave us nothing good. So we have no obligation to oblige or pamper it. Our debt is to the Lord, not to the flesh.
b. For if you live according to the flesh you will die: Paul constantly reminds us that living after the flesh ends in death and we need the reminder because we are often deceived into thinking that the flesh offers us life.
c. By the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body: When we put to death the deeds of the body (force the sinful flesh to submit to the Spirit), we must do it by the Spirit. Otherwise we will become Pharisees and spiritually proud.
i. Paul tells us that not only are we saved by the work of the Spirit, but also we must walk by the Spirit if want to grow and pursue holiness in the Lord. We cannot be like some among the Galatians who thought they could begin in the Spirit but then find spiritual perfection through the flesh (Galatians 3:3).
Gospel Mt 11:25-30
It becomes children to be grateful. When we come to God as a Father, we must remember that he is Lord of heaven and earth, which obliges us to come to him with reverence as to the sovereign Lord of all; yet with confidence, as one able to defend us from evil, and to supply us with all good. Our blessed Lord added a remarkable declaration, that the Father had delivered into his hands all power, authority, and judgment. We are indebted to Christ for all the revelation we have of God the Father's will and love, ever since Adam sinned. Our Savior has invited all that labor and are heavy-laden, to come unto him. In some senses all men are so. Worldly men burden themselves with fruitless cares for wealth and honors; the gay and the sensual labor in pursuit of pleasures; the slave of Satan and his own lusts, is the merest drudge on earth. Those who labor to establish their own righteousness also labor in vain. The convinced sinner is heavy-laden with guilt and terror; and the tempted and afflicted believer has labors and burdens. Christ invites all to come to him for rest to their souls. He alone gives this invitation; men come to him, when, feeling their guilt and misery, and believing his love and power to help, they seek him in fervent prayer. Thus it is the duty and interest of weary and heavy-laden sinners, to come to Jesus Christ. This is the gospel call; Whoever will, let him come. All who thus come will receive rest as Christ's gift, and obtain peace and comfort in their hearts. But in coming to him they must take his yoke, and submit to his authority. They must learn of him all things, as to their comfort and obedience. He accepts the willing servant, however imperfect the services. Here we may find rest for our souls, and here only. Nor need we fear his yoke. His commandments are holy, just, and good. It requires self-denial, and exposes to difficulties, but this is abundantly repaid, even in this world, by inward peace and joy. It is a yoke that is lined with love. So powerful are the assistances he gives us, so suitable the encouragements, and so strong the consolations to be found in the way of duty, that we may truly say, it is a yoke of pleasantness. The way of duty is the way of rest. The truths Christ teaches are such as we may venture our souls upon. Such is the Redeemer's mercy; and why should the laboring and burdened sinner seek for rest from any other quarter? Let us come to him daily, for deliverance from wrath and guilt, from sin and Satan, from all our cares, fears, and sorrows. But forced obedience, far from being easy and light, is a heavy burden. In vain do we draw near to Jesus with our lips, while the heart is far from Him. Then come to Jesus to find rest for your souls.
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Sunday July 2, 2017 Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 97
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a
One day Elisha came to Shunem,
where there was a woman of influence, who urged him to dine with her.
Afterward, whenever he passed by, he used to stop there to dine.
So she said to her husband, "I know that Elisha is a holy man of God.
Since he visits us often, let us arrange a little room on the roof
and furnish it for him with a bed, table, chair, and lamp,
so that when he comes to us he can stay there."
Sometime later Elisha arrived and stayed in the room overnight.
Later Elisha asked, "Can something be done for her?"
His servant Gehazi answered, "Yes!
She has no son, and her husband is getting on in years."
Elisha said, "Call her."
When the woman had been called and stood at the door,
Elisha promised, "This time next year
you will be fondling a baby son."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19
R. (2a) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
The promises of the LORD I will sing forever,
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, "My kindness is established forever;"
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O LORD, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day,
and through your justice they are exalted.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
You are the splendor of their strength,
and by your favor our horn is exalted.
For to the LORD belongs our shield,
and the Holy One of Israel, our king.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Reading 2 Rom 6:3-4, 8-11
Brothers and sisters:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more;
death no longer has power over him.
As to his death, he died to sin once and for all;
as to his life, he lives for God.
Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin
and living for God in Christ Jesus.
Gospel Mt 10:37-42
Jesus said to his apostles:
"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
"Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet's reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is a righteous man
will receive a righteous man's reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because the little one is a disciple--
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a
Elisha passed to Shunem. Shunem was a village of Galilee, situated in the territory assigned to Issachar (Joshua 19:18). It is reasonably identified with the modern Solam, at the south-eastern foot of the Gebel Duhy, or "Little Hermon," a "flourishing village encompassed by gardens", and "in the midst of the finest corn-fields in the world", on the edge of the Plain of Esdraelon. Elisha, in his progression to different parts of the northern kingdom, happened to come on one occasion to Shunem. Where was a great woman. Houbigant strangely translates, "a tan woman," maintaining that a woman would not be called "great" in the sense of "wealthy" during her husband's lifetime; but no other commentator has accepted this view. The meaning seems to be that she was a woman of substance, one well-to-do, perhaps one that had brought her husband the bulk of his wealth. And she constrained him to eat bread; i.e. she invited him in as he passed her house, and would take no denial. Compare Lot's pressing hospitality, as related in Genesis 19:1-3. And so it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in to her abode to eat bread. Elisha, it appears, had frequent occasion to pass through Shunem on his way from Carmel to visit the cities of Galilee, or versa. It became his habit, on these journeys, to eat his meals at the house of the rich Shunammite. Hence arose a kindly feeling on both sides and a close intimacy.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19
The true meaning seems to be, that the psalmist had said; that is, he had said in his mind; he had firmly believed; he had so received it as a truth that it might be spoken of as firmly settled, or as an indisputable reality. It was in his mind one of the things whose truthfulness did not admit of a doubt.
Mercy shall be built up for ever - The mercy referred to; the mercy manifested in the promise made to David. The idea is, that the promise would be fully carried out or verified. It would not be like the foundation of a building, which, after being laid, was abandoned; it would be as if the building, for which the foundation was designed, were carried up and completed. It would not be a forsaken, half-finished edifice, but an edifice fully erected.
Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish - In the matter referred to - the promise made to David.
In the very heavens - literally, "The heavens - thou wilt establish thy faithfulness in them." That is the heavens - the heavenly bodies - so regular, so fixed, so enduring, are looked upon as the emblem of stability. The psalmist brings them thus before his mind, and he says that God had, as it were, made his promise a part of the very heavens; he had given to his faithfulness a place among the most secure, and fixed, and settled objects in nature. The sun in its regular rising; the stars in their certain course; the constellations, the same from age to age, were an emblem of the stability and security of the promises of God. Compare Jeremiah 33:20-21.
Reading 2 Reading 2 Rom 6:3-4, 8-11
Baptism teaches the necessity of dying to sin, and being as it were buried from all ungodly and unholy pursuits, and of rising to walk with God in newness of life. Unholy professors may have had the outward sign of a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness, but they never passed from the family of Satan to that of God. The corrupt nature, called the old man, because derived from our first father Adam, is crucified with Christ, in every true believer, by the grace derived from the cross. It is weakened and in a dying state, though it yet struggles for life, and even for victory. But the whole body of sin, whatever is not according to the holy law of God, must be done away, so that the believer may no more be the slave of sin, but live to God, and find happiness in his service.
The strongest motives against sin, and to enforce holiness, are here stated. Being made free from the reign of sin, alive unto God, and having the prospect of eternal life, it becomes believers to be greatly concerned to advance thereto. But, as unholy lusts are not quite rooted out in this life, it must be the care of the Christian to resist their motions, earnestly striving, that, through Divine grace, they may not prevail in this mortal state. Let the thought that this state will soon be at an end, encourage the true Christian, as to the motions of lusts, which so often perplex and distress him. Let us present all our powers to God, as weapons or tools ready for the warfare, and work of righteousness, in his service. There is strength in the covenant of grace for us. Sin shall not have dominion. God's promises to us are more powerful and effectual for mortifying sin, than our promises to God. Sin may struggle in a real believer, and create him a great deal of trouble, but it shall not have dominion; it may vex him, but it shall not rule over him. Shall any take occasion from this encouraging doctrine to allow themselves in the practice of any sin? Far be such abominable thoughts, so contrary to the perfections of God, and the design of his gospel, so opposed to being under grace. What can be a stronger motive against sin than the love of Christ? Shall we sin against so much goodness, and such love?
Gospel Mt 10:37-42
Today’s Gospel is the conclusion of the instructions and consolations that we have heard Jesus offering to his disciples during the past few weeks. In this passage, Jesus summarizes both the costs of discipleship and its rewards. Once again our understanding of the Gospel is strengthened by considering the context in which it was written and the perspective of Matthew’s audience.
The conditions of discipleship outlined in Matthew’s Gospel may appear harsh. Yet they underline for us a truth—choosing anything with one’s whole heart has consequences. Choosing life with Christ means that every relationship we have must be understood from a new perspective. For many in Matthew’s community, this choice brought division to their family.
Matthew also outlines the reward of hospitality offered to Jesus’ followers. In today’s Gospel, Jesus explains the difficulties of discipleship, yet reveals that those who welcome the disciples have also welcomed him.
Today’s Gospel also highlights for us the importance of hospitality in the Christian life. To welcome another in Jesus’ name is to extend hospitality to Jesus himself. We have many opportunities in our daily life to reach out to others, to be a welcoming presence and a sign of God’s love.
He that loveth father or mother more than me,.... The design of these words, is not at all to lessen the due affection of children to their parents; or to detract from the respect and esteem, in which they are due by them: it is the duty of children, to love, honor, and, obey them (remember 4th commandment); who have been the means of bringing them into the world, and of bringing them up in it; nor do any of the doctrines of Christ break in upon the ties and obligations of nature, or in the least set aside any of the duties of natural religion: but the intent of this passage is, to show, that as Christ is infinitely above all creatures, he is to be loved above the nearest and dearest relations and friends; being God over all blessed for ever, and also the Savior and Redeemer; which itself, makes him more amiable and lovely than a common parent. That man therefore, that prefers father and mother to Christ, and their instructions, and orders, to the truths and ordinances of Christ: who, to please them, breaks the commands of Christ, rejects his Gospel, and either denies him, or does not confess him, our Lord says, is not worthy of me; or he is not , "fit for me": it is not fit and proper, that such a person should name the name of Christ, or be called by his name, and should be reckoned one of his disciples; he is not fit to be a member of the church of Christ on earth, nor for the kingdom of heaven, but deserves to be rejected by him, and everlastingly banished his presence: for otherwise no man, let him behave ever so well, is worthy of relation to Christ, and interest in him; or of his grace, righteousness, presence, kingdom and glory. The same is the sense of the following clause;
and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me: whoever, to gratify a child, drops the profession of Christ, renounces his Gospel, and neglects his commands, it is not proper and convenient that he should bear the name of Christ, be accounted one of his, or be treated as such, but all the reverse.
Pondering the Gospel
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Sunday June 25, 2017 Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 94
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 20:10-13
Jeremiah said:
"I hear the whisperings of many:
'Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!'
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
'Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him.'
But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
O LORD of hosts, you who test the just,
who probe mind and heart,
let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause.
Sing to the LORD,
praise the LORD,
for he has rescued the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked!"
Responsorial Psalm Ps 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35
R. (14c) Lord, in your great love, answer me.
For your sake I bear insult,
and shame covers my face.
I have become an outcast to my brothers,
a stranger to my children,
Because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
I pray to you, O LORD,
for the time of your favor, O God!
In your great kindness answer me
with your constant help.
Answer me, O LORD, for bounteous is your kindness;
in your great mercy turn toward me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.
Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
the seas and whatever moves in them!''
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
Reading 2 Rom 5:12-15
Brothers and sisters:
Through one man sin entered the world,
and through sin, death,
and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned--
for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world,
though sin is not accounted when there is no law.
But death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over those who did not sin
after the pattern of the trespass of Adam,
who is the type of the one who was to come.
But the gift is not like the transgression.
For if by the transgression of the one the many died,
how much more did the grace of God
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ
overflow for the many.
Gospel Mt 10:26-33
Jesus said to the Twelve:
"Fear no one.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 20:10-13
What "dark times" have you lived through? How did you live through these times?
Jeremiah felt misunderstood. As a holy man who prophesied just before the Babylonian exile, Jeremiah faced the wrath of the king's court. For he could see the coming calamity and the blindness of the king's advisors
Judah was nothing more than a city-state centered near Jerusalem, a mere speck in the eye of the regional powers at the time. Egypt to the south. Babylon to the north and east. Playing one against the other was an invitation to disaster. In the end, Judah played that game and was destroyed.
How did Jeremiah live life in the face of a hostile leadership? He toyed with despair, as he mimicked the machinations of his enemies. [20:10] But, in the end, he remembered the One who caused him to prophesy. And the One who would save him. Jeremiah's enemies would see their shame and fall! [20:11-13]
Jeremiah saw the bigger picture. The success of those who lie and steal, spread rumor and slander will not last. In the end, their secret plans will be known. And their character will be revealed. The good will see the light of day. God will do this!
Have you ever been the target of gossip, rumor, or character assassination? How has God helped you these times?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35
PaybackHave you ever prayed for revenge when you felt oppressed by others?
Payback. If there was ever a temptation in times of personal siege, it’s for payback, revenge, dark karma. We all are tempted to demand payback at one time or another, but are we honest and brazen enough to pray for it? In the light of the gospels, that thought is “a little tacky” at best, highly inappropriate at worst. But that didn’t stop the ancient Israelites to seek payback, even in prayer. In fact, they felt their honor demanded it.
Psalm 69 was a lament song that asked for divine retribution. This psalm can be divided into six parts: 1) opening prayer for salvation, 2) lament, 3) prayer for salvation, 4) lament, 5) curse of enemies, and 6) final doxology. Notice the repetition of themes seemed to heighten the core of the hymn: the curse of enemies.
Opening Prayer for Salvation
The opening petition of the psalm was surprisingly direct. “God, save me.” 69:1b-2 presented a flood analogy (cursed like the sinners in the time of Noah?), yet, 69:3 countered with the thirst of the psalmist because of tears. A modern equivalent to the opening might be: “Lord, save me. I’m up to my eye balls in trouble, but I’ve cried so much, my mouth is dry and I can’t see you.”
Lament
This lament, along with the opening prayer, echoed the same themes from Jeremiah. Like the prophet, the psalmist was hounded by close friends and family members (69:8), yet was fully known by God. His enemies were numerous and powerful. Despite, personal repentance for the nation, the psalmist gained little comfort. Even, the watchmen gossiped about the psalmist; he was the butt of jokes and the subject of drunkard songs. From the rich to the poor, the singer was reviled by all in society. Yet, the psalmist remained faithful and was willing to endure irrational reproach.
Prayer for Salvation
Notice how the prayer for salvation in 69:14-15 echoed the flood theme of 69:1-2. The psalmist feared sinking into the “mire” and the “depths” (the depths of the seas were considered to be the home of evil by many ancient peoples). This prayer to be saved from the sea was marked off by two bookend verses; both 69:13 & 16 invoked the reason for the covenant of Sinai: God’s loving kindness. The hymn reminded God of his promises; the psalmist saw the answering of his prayer as a way for God to renew his covenant, but on a far more personal level. The covenant also became a reason for hasten a positive response from God (69:17-18).
Lament
The psalmist stated his loneliness in stark terms. Only God knew the measure of his suffering. No one else cared or enemies openly derided the singer. He felt he was treated with utter disdain.
Curses
Ancient Israelites, like their Semitic cousins, were an intense people. They were known to bless and curse expressively, even out of proportion. The psalmist was no exception. Here, he cursed the mere associations of his enemies; he cursed them to the ravages of old age; he cursed them to a complete loss of honor and reputation; he cursed them to an existence of loneliness akin to exile, especially an exile from YHWH himself. The bile of the singer was palpable, his anger displayed before God and fellow worshipers in stark relief.
Closing Doxology
The doxology turned the psalmist from his lament and his curse. Now he placed his total focus upon God. The singer asked for salvation, then declared his song more pleasing to God than sacrificial offerings, for it was the hymn of the humble and the needy. (Does 69:33b indicate the psalm was written during the Babylonian exile? Or, was it written after the return, as 69:35-36 seem to suggest?) The psalm ended with a call to universal praise and a sure hope that the promise God made to Abraham for the land would be fulfilled.
As you read the psalm, you will notice phrases that sound familiar. They should, for the evangelists used the tone and snippets of the hymn for their Passion narratives. John 15:25 used 69:4; Matthew 27:34 used 69:21. Indeed, the psalm’s loneliness and lament became a backdrop for the Passion. The tone of the psalm dovetailed with the suffering of the Messiah.
It’s easy to want payback, especially when we have been wronged. If such a temptation rears its ugly head, maybe we should do what the psalmist did. Do not shy away, but put our feelings honestly before God. Sometimes, sharing the state of the heart with God is the first step toward justice and healing. It may not gain us payback, but it will achieve something much greater.
How have you placed your dark emotions before God? How has your honesty healed you?
Reading 2 Rom 5:12-15
How do you "connect the dots" in a problem? What logic or process do you use to get to the bottom of a problem?
Popular Translation
12 Sin came into the world through the first man. And, because he sinned, he died. Now all people sin, and, so, they, too, will all die. 13 There was sin in the world until the time God gave his people the Law, but there was no list of sins because there was no Law. 14 Still, death ruled the world from Adam the first man to Moses the Law-giver. And even those who did not sin had the face of the sinner Adam. But, he was a model for the one God would send.
15 The gift God offers us is not like sin. If everyone dies because one man sinned, how much greater will the grace of God and the gift of the man Jesus Christ will be for all people!
Literal Translation
12 Because of this, as through one man’s sin came into the world, and through sin death, so throughout all men passed death, with reference to which all sinned. 13 For until (there was) the Law, sin was in the world, but sin was not detailed since there was no Law, 14 but death reigned from Adam to Moses, and upon those not having sinned the likeness of transgression of Adam, who is a type of the ONE to come.
15 But the grace is thus not like the transgression. For if by the trespass of one (man) many died how much more the grace of God and the gift of the one man JESUS the CHRIST overflow for the many.
5:12 “Because of this” referred to the subject of reconciliation of humanity to God. In the following verses, Paul summed up salvation history: sin brought death into the world and all men die because all sin. But the death and resurrection of Christ brought an end to death, and, so, to sin.
5:13 “sin was not detailed” is literally “sin was not charged.” In other words, sin was in the cosmos as a reality, but was not detailed as an individual offense until God gave his Law to his people.
These verses sum up St. Paul's view of salvation. This is his world view and logic. He presumed the vision of Genesis: God made the world "good." The sorry state of the affairs in the world could be laid squarely at the feet of humanity. Evil existed because people sinned; they disobeyed the will of a benevolent Creator. Even when God gave his people the Law with its list of divinely ordained duties, people still said "NO!" The result of disobedience was death.
Notice Paul assumed a commonly held belief in the ancient world. Death was the ultimate evil and sin was the root cause of that evil. Evil was inescapable, to be sure, but the cause of evil was not fate or divine malevolence. The fault lies with people.
Also notice Paul's logic. Along with other ancient rabbis, he argued in dualistic terms. He separated his arguments into two camps: God and people, black and white, life and death, good and evil. In these verses, Paul separated God from evil by placing the blame on humanity's sin. But, he finishes his argument with another pairing: sin and grace. If sin caused death, what would grace achieve? If death was pervasive, how much greater would grace give life? This was the way Paul stated his rhetorical questions about God's gift.
One thing does lead to another. Yes, we sin, so, we will die. But, beyond death we will have an indescribable life. We will live with God, simply because of his freely given gift of grace.
How much greater is God in your life than evil, sin, and death? How do you experience his great power?
Gospel Mt 10:26-33
What causes people worry about their security and their future?
Worry, anxiety, fear. Americans seem to invite anxiety even in the best of times. Some people not only worry, they wallow in it. Fear becomes a lifestyle that demands some sort of therapy, some sort of drug, some sort of insurance. An atmosphere of extreme concern causes some to live indoors and in the shadows.
What can help people break out of fear, anxiety, and worry? A trust in something greater than themselves. When people lose themselves to fear, they realize they are not in control. They live in sheer chaos. When they realize that God is truly in control, and that all they need to do is to trust God, they can live without anxiety. They can live openly, in peace.
In Matthew's gospel, Jesus spoke to his front line, his Apostles, on fear and the need for faith.
Literal Translation
26 So, you should not fear them. For nothing is (now) covered which will not be uncovered and (now) hidden which will be known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear (secretly) in your ear, announce on the roof (tops).
26b was a proverb in the midst of commands. The proverb referred to daily existence in an extended family that lived in the same neighborhood for generations. In such a tightly knit community, nothing could be covered up or kept a secret forever. Indeed, in the time of Jesus, adults trained children to freely walk into others' apartments and houses so they could spy, for no one locked their houses up during the day!
On the one hand, people distrust the stranger and those who dodge an issue. But, since people need privacy, they raised lies, deception, and counter-rumors to an art form. On the other hand, knowledge of others' business did have a social benefit. People can trust others who have nothing to hide.
Jesus instructed his Apostles to reveal all and to live a transparent life in order to gain the trust of people. Beyond the issue of trust, however, remained the issue of symbol. The Apostles proclaimed the ministry of the Messiah, the coming of the end times. At the final judgement, God would reveal all secrets and the saints would live in transparent glory. To convince an audience, the Apostles would need to present themselves as if they already lived such a transparent life in the Kingdom! [10:27]
How hard is it to live a transparent life, a life without secrets? What part of life is "nobody's business?"
28 Do not fear the (ones) killing the body, but not being able to kill the soul. Fear more the (One) being able to destroy the body and soul in Gehenna.
10:28 "soul" means the essence of the self. The verse can be translated: "Don't be afraid of those who can destroy your body. They cannot destroy the real 'you.'"
Such a transparent life would be honest, but it would leave the Apostles vulnerable. Living honestly cast an unfavorable shadow on those who have a secret to keep or something to hide. The dishonest could become jealous and soon rage against the honest. The dishonest would use guile, ill wit, rumor, and even persecution to justify themselves against the honest. Yes, they could kill the body (both of the individual Apostles and the Christian community), but they could not kill the spirit.
Ultimately, the Christian should live as if the day of judgment had already arrived. They should live with everything uncovered before God, for God was the only thing that really mattered. Only he could condemn both body and soul.
Why do many Christians worry about what others think of them? How can you help them overcome such anxiety?
29 Are not two sparrows sold (for a small coin)? And one of them will not fall onto the ground without (the will of the) Father. 30 But even your hairs on (your) head, all have been counted. 31 So, do not be afraid. You have more worth than (a flock of) many sparrows.
10:29 "(for a small coin)" is literally "(for an) assarion." An assarion was a small copper coin worth one-sixteenth of a denarii, the coin of a day's wage. If someone earned $100 a day, an assarion would be worth $6.25.
"without (the will of the) Father" is literally "without the Father."
In the time of Jesus, "sparrow" was a common term used for many different types of small birds, not necessarily a particular species. Town merchants sold small birds in marketplaces as one of the few meat sources for the poor. The coin (an "assarion") used to pay for two birds was Roman in origin.
Jesus used the analogy of size to emphasize God's providence. Everything in the world depended upon God's will. The flight of a small bird and even something smaller, the hair on one's head. If he directed such things of small worth, how much more will God care for his people!
Three times, Jesus tells his audience not to worry (10:26, 28, 31) Don't worry to be open about faith, don't worry about powerful opponents, don't worry about one's fate. All three lay in God's hands.
How can you lay your personal daily needs before the Lord? How will such a daily offering help you?
32 So, anyone who acknowledges me in the presence of men, I will also acknowledge him in the presence of my Father, the One in heaven. 33 But, whoever should deny me in the presence of men, I will also deny him in the presence of my Father, the One in heaven.
Faith could have a high cost: loss of privacy, persecution, and a loss of self-determination. But a single benefit outweighed the cost: an advocate before God. At the time of Jesus, when some prophets cried out for God's judgment and the end seemed immanent, people asked themselves "Where do I stand before God?" The Sadducees hid behind Temple cult. The Pharisees held to observance of the Law as justification. But, the Christian took comfort in the words "I belong to Jesus." Unlike worship ritual or religious duty, the Christian had a personal mediator, a go-between who could plead the case of the follower. Jesus would advocate for the faithful, but reject the apostate.
How can I freely share my Christian commitment with others?
Catechism Theme: Morality and the Passions (CCC 1763-1770)
"Passions" are emotions that drive us to action or inaction when a moral dilemma faces us. Some passions like love focus on the good in life, while others like fear and hatred help us avert evil.
Passions are morally neutral; their morality depends upon their use. When we use them for a good end, we make them virtuous. When we use them for an evil end, we make them immoral. A feeling of love or ecstasy in itself does not make us good. In the same way, feelings of hatred or inadequacy do not make us evil or deficient.
We need passions such as the will to accomplish the moral good. But most of all, we need the movement of Spirit who empowers us toward the good.
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Sunday June 18, 2017 Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
Lectionary: 167
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a
Moses said to the people:
"Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God,
has directed all your journeying in the desert,
so as to test you by affliction
and find out whether or not it was your intention
to keep his commandments.
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger,
and then fed you with manna,
a food unknown to you and your fathers,
in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.
"Do not forget the LORD, your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
that place of slavery;
who guided you through the vast and terrible desert
with its saraph serpents and scorpions,
its parched and waterless ground;
who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock
and fed you in the desert with manna,
a food unknown to your fathers."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
R. (12) Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Cor 10:16-17
Brothers and sisters:
The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.
Gospel Jn 6:51-58
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a
In a long discourse/commentary on the Law, Moses used the language of parent and child to symbolize the Exodus experience. God cared for his people, as a father cared for his dependent children. In his wisdom, he provided everything the people needed for the long journey, including food. Yet, even this dependent relationship had a point: life required, not only food, but the Word of God. [8:2-3]
However, dependence was a two-edged sword. It could encourage trust. Or, it could spawn pride, resentment, and rebellion. Even in dependence, the people had a choice. So, Moses gave a brief history of God's initiative. "Remember," Moses said to the people, "remember how God cared for you!" In the end, the water from the rock and the manna from heaven were signs of God's compassion. But, even they were a means to an end: a relationship with God. [8:14b-16]
Eucharist is a sign of God's compassion. It reminds us what God has done and will do for us. But, it, too, is a means to an end. As the full presence of the risen Lord, it can bring us into a deep relationship with God. We only need to depend upon God, trust him as his child, to make it so.
When you receive Eucharist this Sunday, reflect on what God has done in your life.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
When do you stop in your daily routine to give God praise? Why do you praise the Lord?
If we bother to look, we can always find a reason to praise God. Despite evil in the world, open eyes and open hearts will glorify God for the smallest blessing. So, let us look and raise our voices in song to the Lord!
The psalms are full of praise. Psalm 147 was a combination of three different psalms that represented praise in different contexts. The first (147:1-6) praised God for comforting the poor and needy in Jerusalem after the Babylonian Exile. God was the one who rebuilt Jerusalem; those who returned were his instruments in the construction. God would also return those left in alien environs to the Promised Land. The God of the cosmos cared for the least significant, so great was his power.
The second song of praise (147:7-11) thanked God for his power, primarily shown in the rainy season. Through his gift, produce and livestock flourished. In the greater view, all (even the king) should remember that they rely on God for all good things (like the rain), not on national strength or the size of an army. The devout and humble pleased God, for they lived that reliance. (Notice the unspoken relationship between praise and an attitude of reliance on God for his many blessings.)
The third song (147:12-20) addressed Jerusalem which believed God’s word originated with his presence in the Temple then spread to the corners of the world. The city should praise God for his protection and his blessing. Both came from the word of God which swiftly commands nature’s rhythms and processes. This was the same word God gave to his people in the Law. Notice that the power that regulated nature also regulated the life of the people in the city. There was a sense God’s creative power and his Law were one and the same.
Let's dwell on that last point for just a moment. God’s Word controls the universe and guides our very lives. If there was any reason to praise God, this insight would be the reason. God’s power is so overwhelming that it holds the galaxies in their orbits, the sub-atomic particles in their space, and the fate of nations in his hands. Yet, the Lord has not forgotten me or you as individuals. When we are poor and needy, he sustains us. When we enjoy the produce of the land, he provides for us. When we see the good his will gives us, he blesses us. God takes care of us with all good things.
Praise God!
Take a few moments and look for reasons to praise God. Nothing is too small or too large. Make a list, if needed and praise the Lord!
Reading 2 1 Cor 10:16-17
10:16 “is it not communion with the blood of Christ?” The word “communion” in Greek is “koinonia,” a term that described community and fellowship. Koinonia meant an allegiance of two or more people with a common purpose; meal association defined the membership of the koinonia. In the context that surround these verses, Paul was concerned about Christians eating meat sacrificed to idols; pagan neighbors would invite Christians to banquets at temples where such meat was shared in a meal of communion. Paul argued against accepting such invitations, for participation in the meal meant a communion with the idol. How could someone claim to be a Christian when he was present at such a banquet? Did he worship Christ or the idol? Certainly scandal would follow.
Communion defines community. That statement might seem obvious, even trite, like Gertrude Stein’s famous phrase: “A rose is a rose is a rose.” But, because it is so obvious, its impact is overlooked. Humans define their social worlds with meals. Table mates are usually family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. These are people who share something in common: blood relations, geographic proximity, job environments, and shared values. Sometimes, the strongest bonds for meal fellowship transcend these factors. Sometimes, these bonds are far greater than the people involved.
Eucharist is a case in point. Christ defined his community at a simple meal; he defined it with his self-giving. His Body was himself and his Blood was his life. When believers share the meal, they become one with Christ. The loaf of bread, the Body of Christ, is the focal point. Those who eat the bread become one with the Body. Communion with the bread defines the community as the Body of Christ. The Church, then, is the people who are made one in the Body of Christ and share the life of Christ in common.
When Christ shared himself with us, he molded us into himself. Christ’s communion defines us as part of his community.
How important is Communion to you? Who shares Communion with you? How important are these people to you? Why or why not?
Gospel Jn 6:51-58
Habit or Commitment?Does Communion reflect a habit or a commitment?
At one point or another, every Christian says a prayer or receives communion without thought. Christian practice becomes second nature. And the Christian takes elements of a faith life for granted.
However, our post-Christian society will make such a lax attitude more difficult to sustain. The media tempts the Christian with the easy life. The need for economic gain invites the believer to cut corners with personal relationships. Even voices on the fringe have become rabidly anti-Christian. The Christian can no longer depend upon culture to maintain faith. The cacophony of voices from media, the stress of daily living, and even those on the edge ask one question: How strong is our commitment to Christ?
In John's gospel, Jesus debated this question with a hostile crowd. In doing so, Jesus taught them and John's readers the true meaning of Communion.
Jesus said to the crowd
51 "I AM the Living Bread, the (bread) having come down from heaven. If someone should eat of this bread, he will live into the age (of the Kingdom); but the bread which I will give is my flesh, on behalf of the life of the world."
6:51 "but the bread which I will give is my flesh, on behalf of the life of the world." John is trying to draw a parallel between the given bread (broken and shared at the Last Supper) and Jesus' flesh (given upon the cross). The thread that holds the parallel together is the verb "given." Jesus freely gave himself up on the cross for the world. Jesus freely gave bread at the Last Supper with the words, "This is my body." Setting aside the nitpicking difference between "flesh" and "body," John clearly wanted to see salvation on the cross celebrated in the bread shared in the Eucharist. Jesus freely gave himself to us on the cross. He freely gives himself to us in Communion. The gift in these two different events is the same.
Like last week's study, Jesus debated with a Jewish audience. In John 3:16-18, he discussed spiritual rebirth with Nicodemus. Now, he found himself in a fiery dialogue with a Jewish crowd. They traveled across the Sea of Galilee to see Jesus after they witnessed of a great miracle: the multiplication of the loaves and fish (see John 6:1-15). Jesus challenged their reason to seek him out. They wanted a prophet to follow. But Jesus offered them something more than food to feed their bellies. He offered them the feast of eternal life! And, so, the dialogue continued with the audience on the physical plane and with Jesus on the spiritual plane.
Jesus said to the crowd
51 I AM the Living Bread, the (bread) having come down from heaven. If someone should eat of this bread, he will live into the age (of the Kingdom); but the bread which I will give is my flesh, on behalf of the life of the world.
"I AM" has been emphasized, since John used the phrase to denote the divine presence within Jesus. As we have studied in the past, the phrase "I AM" hearkened back to the title God revealed to Moses at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 3:14-15). This title, YHWH in the Hebrew text, was connected with the verb "to be," not in the context of existence but activity ("to be doing something"). Jews believed their God lived because he actively intervened time and time again in their history. Unlike the dead idols of neighboring peoples, the Jews proudly called their God, the"living" God, the One that got the job done.
Jesus used the idea of the living God when he described himself as the "living" bread from heaven. He bridged the title "I AM" with bread. Unlike the manna God sent the Hebrews as they wandered the desert, Jesus came to feed people as the living bread (see John 6:30-32). Jesus, then, connected his identify (I AM, the living One, the divine presence) to his mission (bread from heaven to feed the world).
Jesus is the bread that "came down from heaven" in 6:51a, but he "will give" this bread (his flesh). Notice the shift in verb tense from the past to the future. The past refers to the Incarnation (see John 1:14); the future refers to his death on the cross. With this simple shift in time, Jesus again emphasized the thematic change from his identity to his mission.
John 6:51 created a controversy. The crowd began to grumble about Jesus' claim. How could Jesus give his flesh as food? Even though people complained to each other, the thrust of their argument went against Jesus.
Jesus responded emphatically. "Amen! Amen! I say to you!" Then, with an "if...then" statement, Jesus divided his audience into the spiritually dead and the spiritually living.
Those who do not eat and drink have no life, for they have no intimacy with the "Son of Man." Taken together as a Semitic phrase, the term "flesh and blood" referred to the entire person. The phrase, "Son of Man" flowed from a reference to everyone (like the phrase "G.I. Joe" referred to all American fighting men in World War II; see Psalm 8:4) to a reference to the Messiah (see Daniel 7:13). The phrase "Son of Man" made Jesus like everyone else. It also made him God's Chosen. With these two converging meanings, the phrase "Son of Man" amply described Jesus as God's unique instrument for universal salvation. Those who had direct intimate union with the Son of Man had eternal life, for they possessed God's very life. Those who did not existed as empty shells.
To drive the point home, John used an unusual verb in 6:54a: "The person eating my flesh..." This graphic image connected the eater to the food, the believer to the Master. The believer must not nibble the flesh of the Master. No, to feast on the bread of life required a full commitment from the believer!
John continued to use the verb "eating" in 6:54-58 to distinguish the believer from the non-believer.
55 For MY flesh is true food and MY blood is true drink. 56 The (person) eating MY flesh and drinking MY blood remains in me and I (remain) in him.
What did Jesus mean by "true food" and "true drink?" In the context of ancient times and the context of the verse, the word "true" meant "only." The body and blood of Christ, then, were the only food and drink that really mattered.
Remember our discussion of John 14:6 (Fifth Sunday in Easter) when Jesus stated "I AM the way, the Truth, and the Life." In this short phrase, Jesus connected he phrase "I AM" with the "Truth." In other words, the divine presence within Jesus ("I AM") was the only thing that mattered ("the Truth"). Everything else paled in comparison. In the same way, intimacy with Jesus (flesh and blood) was the only thing that really matter for the believer (eat true food...drink true drink).
Those who make such a strong commitment ("eating" his flesh) have the life of Christ within them, as they become part of Christ. The verb "stay" in 6:56 expresses intimate union between Christ and the believer. As a corollary, such intimacy unites believers with each other in Christ. St. Paul coined an analogy for the union of a believer with Christ and other Christians: the Body of Christ.
57 In the same way the Living Father sent me and I live through the Father, the (person) eating MY flesh will also live through me.
Verse 6:57 has two parts: Jesus' relationship with the Father and the believer's relationship with Jesus. In both relationships, one party depends on the other for life. Jesus lives because of the Father. And the believer lives because of Jesus.
The first relationship caused the second one. The mission of Jesus from the Father bridged the two relationships. The Father willed the Son to sacrifice himself so he could feed believers. In this sense, Jesus became the conduit for the Father's very life to the believer. Jesus has life through the Father. The believer has life through Jesus.
The title "living" for God the Father echoes the implications of Jesus' phrase "I AM" and his self-identification with the bread from heaven (see 6:51a above).
58 This is the bread having come down from heaven, unlike (the manna which our) ancestors ate and (then) died. The (person) eating this bread will enter into the age (of the Kingdom)."
6:58 summed up Jesus' discourse. Jesus used bread to compare believers and unbelievers. Believers eating the bread (the flesh of Jesus) that gives life. They shared a table fellowship centered on the Lord. And they became part of the Body they consumed.
Unbelievers (symbolized by the Jewish antagonists of Jesus) held they lived close to God, for their ancestors ate the manna bread from heaven (i.e., their ancestors based their lives solely upon God's providence). But there was a difference between one truly living close to God and believing one lived close to God because that person enjoyed a good life. Living close to God involved risks (being misunderstood and even persecuted for faith); enjoying God's favor merely meant a relatively comfortable life. The one who chose intimacy with God was spiritually alive. The one who simply paid lip service to God for his blessings was spiritually dying.
Questions and Answers
Why is Eucharist the high point of Christian life?
The Eucharist is the high point of Christian life because 1) Eucharist remembers and celebrates the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and 2) in the Communion, Jesus unites his followers with himself. (1407)
What are the two parts of Eucharist?
The two parts of Eucharist are 1) the Liturgy of the Word where the Bible is read and taught, and 2) the Liturgy of the Eucharist where God is thanked for all his gifts, the bread and wine are consecrated (changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus), and Jesus' followers share in his Body and Blood at Communion. (1408)
How is the risen Jesus active in the Eucharist?
Since the Eucharist celebrates the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the Jesus acts as high priest (by offering himself to God the Father) and victim (who died in our place). The ordained priest represents Christ as priest in the Mass; the consecrated bread and wine is Christ sharing himself with us. (1411)
What are the sacramental signs of Eucharist?
The sacramental signs of Eucharist are 1) the bread and wine, 2) the prayer asking for the blessing of the Holy Spirit and 3) the word of Consecration ("This is my body...this is my blood of the new covenant..."). (1412)
Is only part of Jesus present in Eucharist or all of Jesus?
All of Jesus is present in the consecrated bread and wine, not merely his Spirit. Jesus is present "Body, Blood, soul and divinity." (1413)
What is necessary in order to receive Eucharist?
In order to receive Eucharist, one must be forgiven of serious (or "mortal") sins. Someone with a serious sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before they receive Eucharist. (1415) Eucharist does forgive less serious (or "venial" sins) and strengthens one against serious sin. (1416)
How many times a year must a Catholic receive Eucharist?
A Catholic must receive Eucharist at least once a year, but all Catholics are encouraged to go every time they attend Mass. (1417)
Why does one genuflect in front of the tabernacle?
Since the tabernacle contains the consecrated bread (which is really Jesus), one shows honor to the consecrated hosts (known as the "Blessed Sacrament") by genuflecting or bowing. (1418)
Westerners, especially Americans, enjoy "the Good Life." Does this freedom from want help or hinder your commitment to Christ?
So many sparks fly from these few passages: the divinity of Christ, the gift of his sacrifice on the cross, his life offered to the believer (made explicit at Communion), the commitment of the believer in response. To continue the meal metaphor, the rich thematic fare Christ offered in John 6:51-58 can overwhelm us. But it should not numb us. Christ invites us to consume him in Word and Sacrament. He entreats us to constantly renew our commitment to his Lordship. The question that lies before us is simple. Do we take his invitation at its full value?
How can you help the Communion you receive on Sunday come alive this week?
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Sunday June 11, 2017 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Lectionary: 164
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9
Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai
as the LORD had commanded him,
taking along the two stone tablets.
Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there
and proclaimed his name, "LORD."
Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out,
"The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity."
Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.
Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord,
do come along in our company.
This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and receive us as your own."
Responsorial Psalm Dn 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
R. (52b) Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,
praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Reading 2 2 Cor 13:11-13
Brothers and sisters, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the holy ones greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Gospel Jn 3:16-18
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9
Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones: Remember Moses broke the first set of tablets of stone, the ones written with the finger of God (Exodus 32:19). He broke them because Israel broke the covenant.
The Lord descended by some open token of his presence and manifestation of his glory in a cloud, and thence proclaimed his NAME; that is, the perfections and character which are denoted by the name Lord.
The cloud mentioned was no doubt the cloud of God’s glory. It is thought his was the same cloud that:
- Covered Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16)
- Went with Israel by day (Exodus 13:21-22)
- Went to the tent of Moses (Exodus 33:9-10)
- Filled the temple with glory (2 Chronicles 7:2)
- Overshadowed Mary at the conception of Jesus (Luke 1:35)
- Was present at the transfiguration of Jesus (Luke 9:34-35)
- Will be present at the return of Jesus (Revelation 1:7)
The Lord God is merciful; ready to forgive the sinner, and to relieve the needy. Gracious; kind, and ready to bestow undeserved benefits. Long-suffering; slow to anger, giving time for repentance, only punishing when it is needful. He is abundant in goodness and truth; even sinners receive the riches of his bounty abundantly, though they abuse them. All he reveals is infallible truth, all he promises is in faithfulness. Keeping mercy for thousands; he continually shows mercy to sinners, and has treasures, which cannot be exhausted, to the end of time. Forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin; his mercy and goodness reach to the full and free forgiveness of sin. And will by no means clear the guilty; the holiness and justice of God are part of his goodness and love towards all his creatures. In Christ's sufferings, the Divine holiness and justice are fully shown, and the evil of sin is made known. God's forgiving mercy is always attended by his converting, sanctifying grace. None are pardoned but those who repent and forsake the allowed practice of every sin; nor shall any escape, who abuse, neglect, or despise this great salvation. Moses bowed down, and worshipped reverently. Every perfection in the name of God, the believer may plead with Him for the forgiveness of his sins, the making holy of his heart, and the enlargement of the Redeemer's kingdom.
Responsorial Psalm Dn 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
These verses began the brilliant hymn of praise to God. Read in its entirety, the prayer is praise and an imperative of praise by all creation. According to the story in Daniel 3, the words of the prayer were placed in the mouths of three Jews who served the court of Nebuchadnezzar (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), the Babylonian monarch who swept Judah’s elders into exile. These Jews refused to bow down to the golden statue that Nebuchadnezzar had erected as a focal point of worship. For their punishment, the three young men were condemned to death in a fiery furnace. Instead of dying, they walked in the furnace unscathed and blessed God. As an interesting side note, a fourth figure joined the men in the furnace. This figure appeared like “a son of God.”
Reading 2 2 Cor 13:11-13
1. What do you know about the Trinity from the last lines of this reading: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” God’s nature is love, and he has invited us to come along in his company. What are the implications for our communities?
2. We can all agree with and/or encourage each other in order to live in peace. How important is this to you? Do you encourage others? Is Paul talking about agreeing on everything or only on matters of faith?
Gospel Jn 3:16-18
This week we return to the liturgical season of Ordinary Time. This Sunday and next, however, are designated as solemnities—special days that call our attention to central mysteries of our faith. Today on Trinity Sunday we celebrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity, one God in three persons.
Today’s Gospel is from the beginning of John’s Gospel. The passage we read follows Jesus’ conversation with a Pharisee, Nicodemus, about what it means to be born of both water and the spirit. Nicodemus approaches Jesus at night and acknowledges Jesus as a teacher from God. Jesus tells him that only those who are born from above will see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus misunderstands and questions how a person can be born more than once. Jesus tells Nicodemus that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. Jesus is essentially explaining Baptism, which we celebrate as a sacrament today. Yet Nicodemus, we are told, still does not understand what Jesus is saying. Jesus continues by testifying to the need to be born from above so that one might have eternal life.
After the dialogue with Nicodemus, the author of the Gospel offers his own explanation of Jesus’ words. This is what we read in today’s Gospel, John 3:16-18.
In the context of today’s focus on the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the reading calls our attention to the action of God, who reveals himself in three persons: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God the Father, out of love for the world, sent his Son into the world in order to save it. Through the death and resurrection of the Son, we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. As three persons, God acts always as a God of love; he does not condemn the world but acts to save it.
The Gospel also calls attention to the response that is required of us. God’s love for us calls us to respond in faith by professing our belief in God’s son, Jesus, and the salvation that he has won for us. This profession of faith is a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
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So sorry my friends I published the incorrect study last week. I added it this week for review. Again my apologies.
Sunday June 4, 2017 - Pentecost Sunday - Mass during the day
Lectionary: 63
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:1-11
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.
At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
"Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?
We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
R. (cf. 30) Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
How manifold are your works, O Lord!
the earth is full of your creatures;
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD be glad in his works!
Pleasing to him be my theme;
I will be glad in the LORD.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13
Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Gospel Jn 20:19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:1-11
In my research almost all narrators mentioned that it is a shame that the Pentecost story in Acts 2:1-2:47 is cut in half. The whole of Acts 2 is a unit of Lukan thought that shouldn’t be divided they feel.
This story is a kind of summary of Luke's second volume. Luke's first volume led us from the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem to the climactic events of his life in Jerusalem. Acts, on the other hand, moves us from Pentecost in Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
To Jerusalem. From Jerusalem. That's Luke's outline.
Luke tells this story in three parts:
When Peter preaches on Pentecost he changes slightly the quotation from the prophet Joel. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, Joel says: "After these things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." (Septuagint, Joel 3:1) Luke, through Peter, makes clear that what is happening at Pentecost is the beginning of the great time when God brings all of human history to consummation--in Jesus Christ. "In the last days, it will be, God declares, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh."
The whole great drama of the two volume book--Luke and Acts--is the story of God's Spirit as the sign of the end of the times. At the beginning of his ministry Jesus stands in the synagogue and reads Isaiah 61. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor." Jesus' ministry begins with the gift of the Spirit, not for the sake of the church but for the sake of the world. The church's ministry begins with the gift of the Spirit, not for the sake of the church, but for the sake of the world.
Notice that at the beginning of both ministries, that of Jesus and that of the church, Luke shows us how deeply grounded the new covenant is in the old. Jesus cannot explain his ministry without turning to Isaiah. Peter cannot explain what Pentecost means without turning to Joel. The understanding of the relationship of the growing church to Judaism in Luke and Acts is a much disputed issue. What cannot be disputed is that neither Jesus nor church is comprehensible apart from Israel's story and Israel's hope.
Our text is often read and preached in connection with the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9. In that story we remember God confused and diversified human languages so that the whole earth no longer "had one language and the same words." Presumably this is God's punishment for the human pretension and pride that built the tower. Notice, however, that Pentecost does not really reverse Babel. It is not the case, that at the end of Pentecost all the earth--or even all believers--have one language and the same words. The miracle of Pentecost is that even though there are still many languages and diverse words people are able to understand each other. It is a misreading of the story to think that God's promise for the church is a kind of ecclesiastical Esperanto--a universal language we all can speak and understand. The apostles speak a variety of languages so that a variety of people can hear. God's promise for the church is that in our diversity, through our diversity, the Spirit still leads us forward in understanding. If Eden was a "happy fall" because it made possible our redemption, maybe Babel was a happy fall because it enriched our diversity--the languages in which we can preach the Gospel and praise God.
Professor Lamin Sanneh of Yale Divinity School grew up as a Muslim and converted to Christianity. He has great appreciation for both faiths, but he has pointed out that Christianity, unlike Islam, believes in the translation of our sacred texts. The Q'ran is really the Q'ran only in Arabic. The Bible is the Bible whether in Hebrew and Greek or in English or French or Hindi. That is a gift of the Spirit.
We also notice, though, that when the first believers speak in diverse languages but say the same thing, they do not deliver speeches praising diversity. Diversity is a blessed feature of the Christian life but it is not the center of that life. What they speak about is "God's deeds of power." (Acts 2:11) There is a tendency among American Christians to bring diverse people together to praise our diversity. The model we get in Acts is that we bring diverse people together to praise God.
When Peter preaches about the miracle that people have observed (trying to defend his friends against the accusation that they have been drinking too much) what he talks about is not the splendor of the congregation but the majesty of God. It is God's Spirit that makes this day possible. The day is not the church's day; it is "the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day."(Acts 2:20) The purpose of the day is not to congratulate each other but to repent and believe: "Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Acts 2:21)
This is not the last word on the spread of the Gospel in the book of Acts. Here we have the Gospel proclaimed and enacted among Jews from every nation and of every tongue. But the story goes on: in Acts 8, Philip interprets scripture to the Ethiopian eunuch. In Acts 9, a Jewish leader named Saul is overpowered on the road to Damascus and recruited--though he does not yet know it--to spread the Gospel to the Gentiles. In Acts 10, Peter's vision of God's vision grows enormously. When God gives him the compelling dream of the sheet filled with creatures of all kinds, Peter realizes that Pentecost is for people of all kinds. He has to rethink his own sermon on Joel. When God says "in the last days I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh," God means all flesh." The church grows and spreads and among all peoples serves the coming Reign of God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
Psalm 104 presents a glorious picture of God as creator and a sweeping view of the world God made.
The main subject of the psalm is the order of the world and the sovereignty of the God who created and maintains it. This subject in turn instills confidence that God can and will order the lives of those who seek God by keeping them in God’s purpose and away from evil.
Psalm 104 draws from theological ideas similar to those in the creation story in Genesis 1:1-2:4a and the flood story in Genesis 6-9. In Genesis 1:1-2:4a God creates the world by pushing back the waters that covered the earth so there is a place for plants to grow and animals, including humans, to flourish. The flood story states that when God saw that human beings were completely bent toward evil (6:5) God decided to reverse creation and start over (note in 7:11 the flood occurred when the waters were allowed to cross the boundaries God had made).
But after the flood God realized that humans were still inclined toward evil (8:21b). Nevertheless, God decided to allow the world to remain intact (8:21a). This promise is the most basic sign of God’s grace. God determined to be patient with human beings and not to punish them as they deserve to be punished.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13
Verses 1 thru 3. Now in regard to spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be unaware.
You know how, when you were pagans, you were constantly attracted and led away to mute idols.
Therefore, I tell you that nobody speaking by the spirit of God says, “Jesus be accursed.”
The apostle comes now to discuss spiritual gifts, which abounded in the church of Corinth, but were greatly abused. What these gifts were is at large told us in the body of the chapter; namely, extraordinary offices and powers, bestowed on ministers and Christians in the first ages, for conviction of unbelievers, and propagation of the gospel. Gifts and graces, charismata (Theology. a divinely conferred gift or power, also a spiritual power or personal quality that gives an individual influence or authority over large numbers of people.) and charis (Greek name for races), greatly differ. Both indeed were freely given of God. But where grace is given it is for the salvation of those who have it. Gifts are bestowed for the advantage and salvation of others. And there may be great gifts where there is not an iota of grace, but persons possessed of them are utterly out of the divine favor. They are great instances of divine benignity to men, but do not by themselves prove those who have them to be the objects of divine complacency. This church was rich in gifts, but there were many things scandalously out of order in it. Now concerning these spiritual gifts, that is, the extraordinary powers they had received from the Spirit. The apostle tells them he would not have them ignorant either of their origin or use. They came from God, and were to be used for him. It would lead them far astray if they were ignorant of one or the other of these. Note, Right information is of great use as to all religious practice. It is wretched work which gifted men make who either do not know or do not advert to the nature and right use of the gifts with which they are endowed. He puts them in the mind of the sad state out of which they had been recovered: You were Gentiles, carried away to dumb idols, even as you were led. While they were so, they could have no pretensions to be spiritual men, nor to have spiritual gifts. While they were under the conduct of the spirit of Gentilism, they could not be influenced by the Spirit of Christ. If they well understood their former condition, they could not but know that all true spiritual gifts were from God. Now concerning this, observe, 1. Their former character: they were Gentiles. Not God’s peculiar people, but of the nations whom he had in a manner abandoned. The Jews were, before, his chosen people, distinguished from the rest of the world by his favor. To them the knowledge and worship of the true God were in a manner confined. The rest of the world were strangers to the covenant of promise, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and in a manner without God, Eph. 2:12 . Such Gentiles were the body of the Corinthians, before their conversion to Christianity. What a change was here! Christian Corinthians were once Gentiles. Note, It is of great use to the Christian, and a proper consideration to stir him up both to duty and thankfulness, to think what once he was: You were Gentiles. 2. The conduct they were under: Carried away to these dumb idols, even as you were led. They were hurried upon the grossest idolatry, the worship even of stocks and stones, through the force of a vain imagination, and the fraud of their priests practicing on their ignorance, for, whatever were the sentiments of their philosophers, this was the practice of the herd. The body of the people paid their homage and worship to dumb idols, that had ears but could not hear, and mouths but could not speak,
Gospel Jn 20:19-23
We already heard today’s Gospel proclaimed on the Second Sunday of Easter this year (Lectionary Cycle A). That Gospel passage, however, also included the description of Jesus’ appearance to Thomas. In that context, we were led reflect on belief and unbelief.
In the context of the Feast of Pentecost, John 20:19-23 reminds us about the integral connection between the gifts of peace and forgiveness and the action of the Holy Spirit. Jesus greets his disciples with the gift of peace. Jesus then commissions his disciples to continue the work that he has begun, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He breathes the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and sends them to continue his work of reconciliation through the forgiveness of sins. Jesus’ act of breathing the Holy Spirit mirrors God’s act of breathing life into Adam at the time of Creation. In fact, both the Greek and Hebrew words for “spirit” can also be translated as “breath.”
This Gospel reminds us that the Church is called to be a reconciling presence in the world. The reconciling presence of Christ is celebrated in the Church’s sacramental life. In the Sacrament of Baptism, we are cleansed of sin and become a new creation in Christ. In the Sacrament of Penance, the Church celebrates the mercy of God through the forgiving of sins. This reconciling presence is also to be a way of life for Christians. In situations of conflict, we are to be agents of peace and harmony among people.
How is God's Spirit different from the Force in Star Wars?
The latest Star Wars movie was released in December 2015 (with more to come!). Children of all ages can now relive the saga of the most profitable series in movie history. They can root for the Light side of the Force, and boo the Dark Side.
The Holy Spirit found in Christianity does not mirror the dual nature of the impersonal Force. Why? The Holy Spirit brings us love and hope. Love and hope do not have a dark side. And, both love and hope begin with forgiveness.
The Holy Spirit we worship, the Holy Spirit we possess, is the Spirit of divine forgiveness.
Popular Translation
Late Sunday evening, the followers of Jesus locked the doors of the place where they met because they feared the Jewish leaders. Jesus appeared in the middle of them and said, "Peace be with you." After he spoke, Jesus showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They felt great joy when they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said to them, "Peace be with you. Just as the Father sent me, I am sending you." Then, Jesus breathed on them. "Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."
Jesus said.
"If you forgive someone's sins, their sins are and will ever be forgiven.
If you don't forgive their sins, their sins are not forgiven."
Like many other Resurrection stories, John divided this passage into two blocks: appearance of the Risen Lord and the commission of the disciples. For John, the breath of the Spirit was the sign and substance of the commission.
Literal Translation
Being evening in that first day of the week, and the doors having been locked where the disciples were because of fear of the (Jewish leaders.), Jesus came and stood in the middle (of them) and said "Peace to you." Having said this, he showed (his) hands and side to them. The disciples rejoiced, having seen the Lord.
"Evening in that first day of the week" is literally "evening in that day, the first one of the sabbaths." The use of the plural "sabbaths" indicates the time frame of a week.
"(Jewish leaders)" is literally "Jews." John used generic language to indicate specific groups within in the general culture. "Jews" were members of the Jewish leadership. "Greeks" were the non-Jewish populace (not people born in Greece).
The scene in the gospel opened with fear and apprehension on the part of Jesus' followers. John originally wrote "they feared the Jews." Clearly John referred to the Jewish leaders, especially the Pharisees. So the popular translation reflected the relationship between Jesus and the Pharisees.
We should also note the relationship between John's community and Jewish synagogues led by Pharisees. By the time John wrote his gospel, Jewish Christians had been excommunicated for their belief in the Messiah. Ostracized and socially persecuted, some Christians reacted in fear, while others boldly proclaimed the gospel. Early Christians needed as sense of stability, a sense of divine peace. Through the words of Jesus, "Peace" was John's prayer for his readers.
With the sight of Jesus, fear turned into great joy. Anxiety turned into relief. Desperation turned into vindication. Most important, a lack of spiritual direction turned into a sense of deep spiritual grounding. The divine presence stood close to them. And with the divine presence came divine peace.
On the one hand, Jesus already suffered for that particular sin and all the sins of the world. Hence, the declaration would be a proclamation of the Good News. (The current form of the Sacrament of Reconciliation stresses this proclamation. In the sacrament, we are to celebrate God's forgiveness, not our sinfulness.)
On the other hand, the implication of "pre-forgiveness" might lead to presumption on the part of the sinner or a sense of blessed predestination. Obviously the former sense is meant, not the latter. God holds everyone responsible for their actions, both of sin and of faith.
Jesus commissioned his followers to partake in his Messianic ministry. At the time of Jesus, Jews believed the Messiah mission at the end of time was universal. They held the Messiah would go out from Jerusalem to the known world, spread the Good News of salvation, and incite a massive pilgrimage to Palestine. As he gathered all Jews spread throughout the world home, he would call all peoples to Jerusalem so they, too, could worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Jerusalem, the Messiah would judge this massive throng in a Final Judgement, the Day of Yahweh.
The Resurrection appearance marked the starting point for this process. From Jerusalem, Jesus sent his followers out as missionaries to the known world. They would testify to the Risen Christ as the Good News of salvation. And the Good News would start the journey home for both Jews and Gentiles.
What happened to the Jerusalem pilgrimage? There were two possible answers. First, the Romans leveled Jerusalem in response to the Jewish revolt in 66 A.D. Both the city and the Christian mother church turned to rubble. The Jerusalem church could no longer commission missionaries.
Second, Christians spiritualized the pilgrimage. The return home always included the theme of repentance; the sinner who walked away from God's dwelling place turned around and journeyed back. For the Christian, a heavenly Jerusalem became an abode for God. The sinner could find earthly reflection of Jerusalem in the local church community. Hence, conversion and repentance were close to home.
So, the followers saw their vocation within God's plan of salvation. The Father sent the Son into the world to lead everyone back to the Father. Jesus would involve his followers in that same work. Since they witnessed Jesus risen, his followers would be a witness to others.
But Jesus gave them more than a witness. He gave them the Holy Spirit. The breath and command to "Receive the Holy Spirit" must be seen as two parts of the same action. "Them" (the followers) was the object of "Jesus breathed on" and the indirect object of "Jesus said." As Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit out, the text inferred, his follower would breathe it in, just as Jesus commanded.
We have already discussed the connection between breath and Spirit in past studies. The word for "Spirit" in both Greek ("pnema") and Hebrew ("ruah") was the same for breath or wind. Ancient people believed that any movement of air was the result of power. Breath was the result of an inner power, one's life force or spirit. Strong winds that caused death and destruction were the result of God's inner power judging sin. The breath of inner life and violent winds, Jews believed, came from one source, God. So, God's Spirit was a life-giving, and life-taking power. (See Genesis 1:1 and Acts 2:7).
Once the followers breathed in God's Spirit, they shared in the Messiah's power of judgement with the power to declare sins forgiven. John 20:23 referred to the followers' preaching of the Good News. Missionaries like the apostles and Paul, proclaimed a reconciliation of sinners to the Father through Christ; when sinners repented and converted to Christianity, they were cleansed in the waters of baptism. In the context of this verse, the process of reconciliation began with the proclamation of the Good News (declare sins forgiven) and continued through baptism (they are forgiven).
Notice the verb "are forgiven" is in the perfect tense. Forgiveness began in the past, continues into the present, and trails off into the indefinite future. In other words, once forgiven, always forgiven. But, does forgiveness begin with the preacher's declaration? No. The forgiveness of all sin began with Christ on the cross. The apostles and their successors proclaimed a forgiveness that flows from Christ's death and resurrection; the sinner partook in that forgiveness at the point of repentance, of turning one's life over to God.
We Catholics refer to John 20:23 as the basis for the Sacrament of Penance (also known as Reconciliation or Confession). In a Church that is an assembly of sinners, this insight makes perfect sense. Christ continually calls the Church to never ending conversion, just as the Christian life is a constant road back to God. The sacrament is a celebration of God's forgiveness in which the priest represents God and Church to the penitent. The priest proclaims the Good News of divine mercy to the penitent, advises him or her in spiritual counsel, and declares the penitent forgiven. In response, the penitent prays or performs an act of justice that symbolizes an openness of heart to God and neighbor (a so-called "penance"). In this way, the sacrament harkens back to Baptism (which is the original context for this verse) and, so, derives its power from Baptism. The Sacrament of Penance, then, continues the process of repentance Baptism put into place.
With the power of the Spirit revealed at Pentecost, the activity of the Trinity was made known. God the Father sent his Son to share his very life, his very Spirit, with his followers. Now, disciples would carry on the work of the Son. They would celebrate the Spirit in their daily lives as they followed in the footsteps of their Lord.
God calls everyone to repentance, even second chances. How do you respond to his call? How do you help others with their call to conversion?
Pentecost revealed the power of God's forgiveness, his Spirit. Unlike the Force of Star Wars, the Spirit of God is personal. The Spirit establishes a link between the believer and the person of the Father through the person of the Son. And the Spirit makes that link personal. It is a link of love, hope, and joy based upon personal forgiveness.
Let us rejoice in the Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.
How can you celebrate a life in the Spirit this week?
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Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Sunday May 28, 2017 Seventh Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 59
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 1:12-14
After Jesus had been taken up to heaven the apostles
returned to Jerusalem
from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem,
a sabbath day's journey away.
When they entered the city
they went to the upper room where they were staying,
Peter and John and James and Andrew,
Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew,
James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot,
and Judas son of James.
All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,
together with some women,
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 27:1, 4, 7-8
R. (13) I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life's refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek:
to dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD
and contemplate his temple.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear, O Lord, the sound of my call;
have pity on me, and answer me.
Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Pt 4:13-16
Beloved:
Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ,
so that when his glory is revealed
you may also rejoice exultantly.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you,
for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
But let no one among you be made to suffer
as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as an intriguer.
But whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed
but glorify God because of the name.
Gospel Jn 17:1-11a
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
"Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
"I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 1:12-14
The first verses 1 thru 11 discuss Jesus Ascension into heaven. These verses then discuss the disciples returning to Jerusalem. Verses 15 thru 26 discuss the choosing of Judas replacement, Matthias. Interesting mention of a Sabbaths day journey, approx. a mile, since according to the Jewish law travel on the Sabbath was limited to 2000 paces.
From Acts 1:4 onwards the last interview seems to be narrated. Probably it began in the city, and ended on the slopes of Olivet. There was a solemn summoning together of the Eleven, which is twice referred to {Acts 1:4, Acts 1:6}. What awe of expectancy would rest on the group as they gathered round Him, perhaps half suspecting that it was for the last time! His words would change the suspicion into certainty, for He proceeded to tell them what they were not to do and to do, when left alone. The tone of leave-taking is unmistakable.
Jesus told them they must remain in Jerusalem and await the Spirit.
The prohibition against leaving Jerusalem implies that they would have done so if left to themselves; and it would have been small wonder if they had been eager to hurry back to quiet Galilee, their home, and to shake from their feet the dust of the city where their Lord had been slain. Truly they would feel like sheep in the midst of wolves when He had gone, and Pharisees and priests and Roman officers ringed around them. No wonder if, like a shepherdless flock, they had broken and scattered! But the theocratic importance of Jerusalem and the fact that nowhere else could the Apostles secure such an audience for their witness, made their ‘beginning at Jerusalem’ necessary. So they were to ignore their natural longing to get back to Galilee, and to stay in their dangerous position. We all have to ask, not where we would be most at ease, but where we shall be most efficient as witnesses for Christ, and to remember that very often the presence of adversaries makes the door ‘great and effectual.’
These eleven poor men were not left by their Master with a hard task and no help. He bid them to ‘wait’ for the promised Holy Spirit, the coming of whom they had heard from Him when in the upper room He spoke to them of ‘the Comforter.’ They were too feeble to act alone, and silence and retirement were all that He enjoined till they had been plunged into the fiery baptism which should quicken, strengthen, and transform them.
The instructions then given are again referred to in Luke’s Gospel, and are there represented as principally directed to opening their minds ‘that they might understand the Scriptures.’ The main thing about the kingdom which they had then to learn, was that it was founded on the death of Christ, who had fulfilled all the Old Testament predictions. Much remained untaught, which after years were to bring to clear knowledge; but from the illumination shed during these fruitful days flowed the remarkable vigor and confidence of the Apostolic appeal to the prophets, in the first conflicts of the Church with the rulers. Christ is the King of the kingdom, and His Cross is His throne, these truths being grasped revolutionized the Apostles’ conceptions. They are also needed for us.
The founder tells his followers to spread the word across the entire face of the earth, but then he vanishes into the clouds, so the newly commissioned apostles just go back home, sit tight, and pray. Good luck with that, guys. (And girls: along with those “certain women,” we have here the last reference to Mary in the New Testament, other than Paul’s minimalistic “born of a woman” in Galatians 4.)
Furthermore, the question they ask -- now will you restore the kingdom to Israel? -- is proof that they still don’t get it, even after the resurrection. “Not getting it” is a distinguishing quality of Jesus’ disciples. Think of Peter’s constant stumbles, the disciples bickering about who is the greatest (not once but twice in Luke: chapters 9 and 22), or James and John asking to sit at Jesus’ left and right hands to demonstrate how well they’ve understood what he’s said about being mocked and flogged and spat upon.
So there’s been Jesus doing all this teaching, feeding, healing, dying, rising and raising, not to mention his relentless hammering on sin and the forgiveness thereof -- and what the excitable apostles distill from it all is that now is the time for the restoration of the kingdom. Apparently, they missed the “my kingdom is not of this world” memo. (Perhaps because it was only circulated among John’s readership.)
This is not an error likely to be made by twenty-first-century, probably Gentile Christians with the long burden of church history trailing behind them. But Jesus’ response is as timely as ever: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.”
Jesus betrays no hints about history’s course. What he gives us -- besides himself! -- is now and eternally. Now: you don’t know the pattern, the times, or the periods. You don’t need to. What you need to do now is get going as witnesses to the good news about God breaking into history. Eternally: God’s justice will be wrought on all sin and evil, God’s mercy will be poured abroad, the body will be raised up to live in a city without temple or lamp where God is all in all.
Stirring words. Stirring enough to send the happy disciples right back to where they started, a familiar place, to pray and hang out. It’s not a bad start. It’s not enough, either. But they don’t know what to do without the Holy Spirit egging them on. A little Pentecost fire, a handy martyrdom of Stephen, and they’ll start on that long road to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. In God’s time, not theirs. It is enough.
are as needful for us.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 27:1, 4, 7-8
As much as any psalm, Psalm 27 expresses trust in the lord and claims absolute dependence on God.
This is apparent in verse 1, which begins the reading: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
The psalm is a prayer for help. It presumes the psalmist is in some type of trouble (verses 7, 9, 12). Psalms of this type typically contain petition, complaint, and expressions of trust (see Psalm 13 as an example). Psalm 27 is unique in its heightened emphasis on trust.
The opening verse describes the Lord with language that suggests his presence is life-giving and protective. As James Luther Mays says, “The Lord is called ‘light’ because light drives darkness away.”1 Light is a basic category of order and stability that recalls the first act of creation (Gen 1:3; see Exodus 10:21). It is possible that the psalmist perceived and experienced God’s appearance and presence (God’s “face;” verse 8) via sunlight that shone into the temple and reflected off gold decorations (1 Kings 6:20). The reference to God as light (and to God’s face) thus makes the psalm particularly appropriate for the season of epiphany, the celebration of the manifestation of God’s presence.
Israel knew God as “salvation” and celebrated that identity in the aftermath of the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 15:2). “Stronghold” is a common description of God in the Psalms (Psalm 18:2). The metaphor derives from military situations in which a well-positioned fortress with strong walls provided safety from enemy assaults. These images suggest, therefore, that whatever trouble plagues the psalmist, the Lord’s protection is sufficient to protect the psalmist from it. In times of trouble the natural impulse is to flee to a place of safety (see Psalm 11:1-3 for an expression of that sentiment), but Psalm 27 declares the Lord is the “place.”
Verses 2-3 continue the statement of confidence that began in verse 1. The lectionary reading, however, skips to verse 4. The reason for omitting verses 2-3 is not clear, but verse 4 is certainly worthy of attention. It sums up the faith embedded in the psalm with the declaration, “One thing I asked of the lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the lord and to inquire in his temple.” Here the psalmist identifies the place of God’s protection and shelter as the central sanctuary in Jerusalem.
This identity is evident in the way verse 4 pairs the general expression, “house of the lord” (see also Psalm 23:6) with the specific term, “temple” (hekal). An additional expression “in his tent” here and in verse 6 has the same meaning. This is a poetic name for the temple that conjures images of both protection and intimacy. A tent does not have multiple rooms as permanent structures do. Therefore, the guest in the tent of another naturally participates in the life of those who dwell there (see Psalm 61:4).2
The terms “seek” and “inquire” suggest the presence of a prophet or other cultic official who gave oracles to worshippers who “sought” them. For the psalmist, this is no mere utilitarian practice; the word of God was not something sought simply to gain success in life (compare the kings seeking an oracle in 1 Kings 22:5, 7). Rather, the psalmist’s only desire is to be in God’s presence and to allow God’s word to direct his life.
This remarkable claim of singular desire for God’s presence is similar to the statement in Psalm 23:1b (“I shall not want”) to the effect that the lord’s guidance provides all that is needed for life. The psalm actually petitions God for more, namely for deliverance from an enemy’s false accusations (verse 12), but it suggests that such deliverance comes under the care of God’s sheltering protection. Psalm 27 thus invites the reader to live into such trust that is complete and comprehensive.
Verse 5 continues to express confidence in the Lord’s protection with further descriptions of the safety of the temple. The images continue and expand on the notion of God as stronghold. The psalmist speaks of safety in terms of being hidden, covered, and placed “high on a rock.” “Stronghold” (verse 1b), “shelter” (verse 5a), “cover of his tent” (verse 5a), and “rock” (verse 5b) are expressions related to the overarching notion of refuge that appears so often in the Psalms (Psalms 2:12; 16:1; 18:1-3[2-4]; 31:1[2]; 34:8[9]; 91:1-2; 142:5[6]). That is, the psalmist here and elsewhere speaks of God as a hiding place, a shelter from the storms of life. For other expressions of these images in the Psalms see especially Psalms 61:2b-4 and 63:7.
In verse 6 the psalmist declares the intention to worship with song and sacrifice in response to God’s salvation. But then the psalm turns to complaint and petition for the rest of the lectionary reading and for the rest of the psalm (verses 7-14). The sharp break between verses 6 and 7 has led some scholars to conclude that the two main portions of the psalm were originally separate psalms.
Nevertheless, verses 1-6 and 7-14 hold together around themes of salvation (verses 1, 9), enemies (verses 2-3, 12), trust (verses 3, 14) and seeking God (verses 4, 8). The psalm closes with petitions that draw upon the language of trust earlier in the psalm: “seek his face” (verse 8 [see verse 4]); “O God of my salvation” (verse 9; see verse 1). Thus, as Mays points out, “the two parts of the psalm are one more way in which the Psalter teaches how closely related are trust and need.”3
Reading 2 1 Pt 4:13-16
By patience and fortitude in suffering, by dependence on the promises of God, and keeping to the word the Holy Spirit has revealed, the Holy Spirit is glorified; but by the contempt and reproaches cast upon the believers, the Holy Spirit is evil spoken of, and is blasphemed. One would think such cautions as these were needless to Christians. But their enemies falsely charged them with foul crimes. And even the best of men need to be warned against the worst of sins. There is no comfort in sufferings, when we bring them upon ourselves by our own sin and folly. A time of universal calamity was at hand, as foretold by our Savior, Mt 24:9,10. And if such things befall in this life, how awful will the day of judgment be! It is true that the righteous are scarcely saved; even those who endeavor to walk uprightly in the ways of God. This does not mean that the purpose and performance of God are uncertain, but only the great difficulties and hard encounters in the way; that they go through so many temptations and tribulations, so many fightings without and fears within. Yet all outward difficulties would be as nothing, were it not for lusts and corruptions within. These are the worst clogs and troubles. And if the way of the righteous be so hard, then how hard shall be the end of the ungodly sinner, who walks in sin with delight, and thinks the righteous is a fool for all his pains! The only way to keep the soul well, is, to commit it to God by prayer, and patient perseverance in well-doing. He will overrule all to the final advantage of the believer.
Gospel Jn 17:1-11a
Today’s reading is a prayer, which appears at the conclusion of Jesus’ Last Supper discourse. At the end of the prayer, Jesus is arrested in the garden. The prayer might be read as Jesus’ final commendation of himself to the Father. In the prayer, Jesus also expresses care and concern for his disciples.
Jesus’ prayer reaffirms the complete union between Jesus and the Father. Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus has been presented as the Word, who pre-existed with the Father and was sent to do the Father’s work on earth. In this prayer we learn that Jesus’ life and ministry have been directed toward one purpose, revealing the Father. When this work is accomplished, Jesus is to return to the Father to be glorified. Regardless of what happens to Jesus, in John’s Gospel, Jesus and the Father are in charge. Even in the description of Jesus’ death, Jesus does not simply die but instead hands over his spirit.
In today’s Gospel we also note the distinction found in John’s Gospel between the world and the disciples. The disciples are in the world, but they are separate from it because they have been given to Jesus. They are chosen from the world to be in service to the world for its salvation. This salvation has been accomplished in Jesus because Jesus has revealed the Father to the world, but the disciples will be sent by Jesus to make both the Father and Jesus known to the world. Jesus’ prayer is for the disciples’ work in the world.
Gift giving at Christmas or birthdays can be a challenge, how to give the perfect gift. You may have had this experience with family, friends or co-workers. In todays gospel we hear about a truly remarkable gift. At the last supper Jesus
prays to His Father about his disciples. They belong to you and you gave them to me. A gift exchanged between God the Father and God the Son. This prayer is sometimes called the high priestly prayer of Jesus.
Imagine the setting, a well loved teacher sharing a final meal with His closest disciples. He tells them he is going to leave them, at least for a while. They are stunned, what will they do without Jesus? He patiently answers their fears as he explains what they have experienced together. In doing so Jesus sums up most of John’s gospel. He is the Word made flesh, from whom all things were created and the ultimate Word of love, God’s Son will reveal the total sign of love, His total gift of self.
If we change the setting to our time perhaps we can allow Him to answer our questions and fears over 2000 years later. God’s love from all eternity incudes you and me. We are a part of the gift. Let’s take deep comfort in the prayer of Jesus, I pray for them because they are yours and everything pf yours is mine and everything of mine is yours and I am glorified in death.
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Don't forget this Thursday is Ascension Thursday!
May 21, 2017
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 55
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.
Now when the apostles in Jerusalem
heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God,
they sent them Peter and John,
who went down and prayed for them,
that they might receive the Holy Spirit,
for it had not yet fallen upon any of them;
they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid hands on them
and they received the Holy Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, "How tremendous are your deeds!"
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
"Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!"
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Pt 3:15-18
Beloved:
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence,
keeping your conscience clear,
so that, when you are maligned,
those who defame your good conduct in Christ
may themselves be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing good,
if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.
For Christ also suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.
Gospel Jn 14:15-21
Jesus said to his disciples:
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Saul was persecuting the church, and “those who were scattered abroad went around preaching the word”. Philip went to the city of Samaria, where he proclaimed the Messiah and the crowds responded eagerly.
Philip the evangelist was one of the “seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom,” appointed earlier to relieve the apostles of routine church administrative tasks. He is remembered today primarily as the one who proclaimed the good news of Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch and, when the eunuch responded positively, baptized him (8:26-40). He will be mentioned later as Paul’s host in Caesarea (21:8).
But back to Samaria! Philip exorcised many unclean spirits and cured many people of their infirmities. Even Simon the magician, astounded by the miracles that Philip was working, became a believer and was baptized (8:13)—although his faith turned out to be quite immature (8:18-24). Many others were also baptized in that place (8:12).
ACTS 8:14. THE APOSTLES AT JERUSALEM SENT PETER AND JOHN
Samaria is the region located between Judea (to the south) and Galilee (to the north). To understand the relationship of Jerusalem and Samaria, we must first understand something of Samaria’s history. In the eighth century B.C., Assyria conquered Samaria and exiled most of its inhabitants, replacing them with people from Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim (2 Kings 17:24)—essentially repopulating the area with people other than Jews.
However, some Samaritans remained faithful to Yahweh (Jeremiah 41:5), and offered their assistance in rebuilding the temple to Zerubbabel after the Babylonian Exile. But Zerubbabel responded, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God” (Ezra 4:3)—thus antagonizing the Samaritans and initiating a period of antagonism between Samaria and Judea that was still present in New Testament times.
But Jesus wasn’t antagonistic to Samaritans. He made a Samaritan the hero of one of his most famous parables (Luke 10:29-37). While traveling through Samaria, he healed ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19). He spoke with a Samaritan woman and changed her life for the better (John 4:4-41). And he specified Samaria as the first place outside Jewish territory that the disciples were to go with the Gospel (Acts 1:8).
“They sent Peter and John to them“. The Jerusalem church is the mother church, and the apostles constitute its key leadership. Luke doesn’t specify the motive for sending Peter and John to Samaria, but there are at least three possible motives:
• First, they would want to verify that the new believers in Samaria were well-grounded in the faith.
• Second, they would want to render assistance, to the extent that assistance might be needed.
• Third, they would want to demonstrate their acceptance of the Samaritan believers as fellow-members of the church. The breach that had existed for centuries between Judea and Samaria must not be allowed to define the relationship between Christians in Judea and Christians in Samaria.
It is interesting that John would be one of the two apostles sent to Samaria. Earlier, he and his brother, James had been with Jesus as he traveled through Samaria toward Jerusalem. The Samaritans “didn’t receive him (Jesus), because he was traveling with his face set towards Jerusalem” (Luke 9:53). James and John responded by asking Jesus, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and destroy them, just as Elijah did?” (Luke 9:54)—an offer that drew a rebuke from Jesus (Luke 9:55).
We have seen Peter and John together on a number of occasions (3:1, 3-4, 11; 4:1, 13, 19), but this is the last time that they appear together in the Book of Acts.
ACTS 8:15-16. PETER AND JOHN PRAYED FOR THEM
We don’t know why these believers have not yet received the Holy Spirit. There is no suggestion here that there was anything wrong with Philip’s evangelism or that the Samaritans’ belief is defective. They have been “baptized in the name of Lord Jesus”—the usual way that people are baptized in the Book of Acts. Everything seems to be in order—with the exception that they have not received the Holy Spirit in spite of doing everything right.
Nor are we told how it is apparent that they have not received the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the apostles are looking for a confirming sign—possibly speaking in tongues.
But it seems possible that God withheld the Spirit to give these apostles from Jerusalem an opportunity to bring their personal ministry to bear upon these Samaritans, who until very recently would have been considered by the apostles to be a lower form of life.
“They had only been baptized in the name of Christ Jesus”. In that culture, people considered a person’s name to be more than a simple label to identify that person. They believed that something of the person’s identity was tied up in the name—that the name expressed something of the person’s identity. They also assumed that a name possessed something of the power of the one who wore that name.
ACTS 8:17. AND THEY RECEIVED THE HOLY SPIRIT
17Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
“Then they laid their hands on them“ (v. 17a). The Jewish people practiced the laying on of hands as a way of conveying authority or power. In the Old Testament, Moses laid hands on Joshua to commission him (Numbers 27:18-23). In the New Testament, the apostles laid hands on people to heal them (Matthew 9:18; Acts 28:8), to impart the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17; 19:6), and to ordain them for a particular work (Acts 6:6; 13:3; 2 Timothy 1:6).
In this instance, the laying on of hands has another very special connotation. It demonstrates that these apostles from Jerusalem regard these Samaritan believers as worthy of spiritual gifts.
“And they received the Holy Spirit“. We aren’t told how people knew that they had received the Holy Spirit, but it must have had a visible manifestation such as speaking in tongues. Simon, the magician, was sufficiently impressed that he offered the apostles money if they would give him the power to convey the Holy Spirit through the laying on of his hands—an offer that the apostles rejected soundly (8:18-24).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
On this Sunday, the church uses verses from Psalm 66 to respond to and echo Isaiah's call to rejoice as we summon the whole earth to "be joyful" and "sing the glory of God's name" (66:1, 2). "Psalm 66 recalls God's deliverance at the Exodus (verse 6), celebrated at the early harvest festival, for which the poet pledges appropriate thanksgiving sacrifices."1
The appointed verses appear to be a community hymn, the purpose of which is summarized in verse 8: "Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard." The psalmist calls all the earth to make a joyful noise to God (66:1) and declares, "All the earth praises you, they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name" (66:4). In the First Reading, Isaiah announces that God will extend prosperity to Jerusalem so that all may know that God's hand is with God's servants and God's indignation is against God's enemies (66:12, 14). Echoing this good news, the psalmist recalls God's "awesome deeds" and proclaims that God's great power keeps God's people among the living and causes enemies to cringe (66:3, 9).
Who are God's Enemies?
"Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you" (66:3). So who are God's enemies? Does God, in fact, have enemies, and how do we preach about them? We tend to look for some "other," for someone else to be God's enemies. We seem to find that someone in verse 7: "who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations—let the rebellious not exalt themselves." Yet, to name "the nations" or "the rebellious" as God's enemy is too simplistic. While "the nations" are mentioned this once, the reference to the Exodus in verse 6 reminds us of all the ways God's people doubted, complained, and rebelled against God as they wandered their way through the wilderness behind a pillar of cloud and fire.
This might be an occasion to preach about death and everything that causes God's people--us--to trip and fall as God's enemies. The preacher might dare to name all the ways we die and the ways we individually and congregationally--and on this Independence Day, perhaps nationally--doubt, complain, and rebel against God as we follow God through the wilderness of the world.
While the Fourth of July might tempt us to name "others" as God's enemies, a God-fearing people in a "Christian nation" witnesses to its faith by concretely naming and specifically confessing the ways our country functions as God's enemy. The preacher can then declare the good news that nevertheless, God "has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip."(66:9). Taking a cue from the Epistle reading, Paul might call these things that we name and confess "transgressions" and invite the preacher to "restore . . . in a spirit of gentleness" (Galatians 6:1).
See God's Awesome Deeds
Perhaps more appealing, the preacher might join the seventy sent by Jesus and use the psalm to proclaim God's awesome deeds of great power, so that the assembly might know, in Luke's words, that "the dominion of God has come near to you" (Luke 10:9). The psalmist declares, "Come now and see the works of God, how awesome are God's deeds toward all people" (verse 5). The psalmist recalls God's "awesome deeds" (verse 3) of transforming the sea into dry land and permitting God's people to cross the river into the Promised Land without getting their feet wet. These Exodus events, which bookend Israel's wilderness sojourn, provide a context or interpretive key for the psalmist's invitation for the people to thank God for a more recent rescue (66:8-9). The psalmist recalls the people at the sea rejoicing "there" (66:6-7) and calls the people to likewise bless God for keeping them alive and not allowing them to misstep.
Rather than explicitly and objectively naming God's awesome deeds in the individual or corporate lives of the congregation or nation, the appointed psalm gives us a perspective from which we can discover and name God's awesome deeds, or the ways the dominion of God has come near to us, for ourselves. After all, God's awesome deeds are not objective or obvious. Israel passing safely through the sea brought death upon Egypt and crossing the river meant warfare and occupation for the people living in Israel's Promised Land. When the church sings this psalm, it claims the Exodus as its own story and points to the fact that, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, God likewise rules over the nations and that, when it comes near to us, the dominion of God will bring destruction to the powers of this world. In humility we therefore name the ways God has kept us among the living and not let our feet slip (66:9).
Preaching Psalm 66:1-9
Whether the preacher chooses to name God's enemies or point to God's awesome deeds, the appointed psalm does not permit a self-congratulatory hooray for us, our church, or, especially on this day, our nation. Indeed, we are blessed. Yet, our blessings often mean suffering for others. More striking still, despite our blessings, we often end up as God's enemies. As the psalmist says, the praise on this day belongs to God who keeps us among the living in spite of ourselves and who does awesome deeds toward all people. The sermon should leave the assembly blessing God, singing the glory of God's name, and letting the sound of praise be heard.
Reading 2 1 Pt 3:15-18
Still referring to ( Isaiah 8:13 ) not by making him holy, which need not, nor cannot be, he being essentially, infinitely, and perfectly holy; but by declaring and proclaiming his holiness, as the seraphim in Isaiah's prophecy, and the four living creatures in the Revelation did; and by glorifying of him, praising and applauding all his perfections, and among the rest, this of his holiness, and giving thanks at the remembrance of it; which he has so much displayed in the works of creation, providence, redemption, and grace; hence the Arabic version renders it, bless the Lord God in your hearts: the Lord God is sanctified by his people externally, when they regard his commands, attend his ordinances, and call upon his name, and praise him; but here an internal sanctification of him, a sanctification of him in their hearts, is intended, and what is opposed to the fear of men, and unbelief, and lies in the exercise of the grace of fear upon him; see ( Isaiah 8:13 ) and which has for its object his goodness, and is a fruit of the covenant of his grace, and is a child like and godly fear; and in the exercise of faith upon him, upon his covenant and promises, his faithfulness, and power to help, assist, and preserve; whereby glory is given to him, a witness borne to his truth, and he is sanctified: some copies, as the Alexandrian, and one of Stephens's, read, sanctify the Lord Christ; and so read the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions; and certain it is that he is intended in ( Isaiah 8:13 ) as appears from ( 1 Peter 3:14 ) compared with ( Romans 9:33 ) ( 1 Peter 2:8 )
and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a
reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear;
by the hope that is in the saints, is not designed the grace of hope itself, which is given to them, and implanted in them in regeneration; the reason, ground, and foundation of which are, the love, grace, and mercy of God, through Christ, and his person, blood, righteousness, sacrifice, and redemption; but the Gospel, the whole Christian doctrine, the doctrine of faith, and which the Syriac version here calls the "hope of faith"; and the profession of Christianity, called in ( Hebrews 10:23 ) , the profession of hope; in which persons profess their hope of eternal life and happiness through Christ, as doctrine of the Gospel directs them to. Now, a "reason" of this is to be given; not that they are to account for the Gospel, upon the foot of carnal reason; for that is not of men, nor according to the carnal reason of men; nor is it to be thought that every Christian should be capable of defending the Gospel, either in whole, or in part, by arguments and reasons, in a disputatious way, or to give a reason and argument for every particular truth; but that he should be well acquainted with the ground and foundation of the Christian religion; at least, with the first principles of the oracles of God, and be conversant with the Scriptures, and be able to point out that in them, which is the reason of his holding this and the other truth, though he is not able to give a gainsayer satisfaction, or to stop his mouth: and this is to be done with meekness and fear; with meekness, before men; in an humble modest way; not with an haughty air, and in a morose and surly manner, which serves only to irritate and provoke: and with fear; either of God, and so the Ethiopic Version renders it, with the fear of the Lord; considering the subject of the argument, and the importance of it, and how much the honour of God is concerned in it; and taking care lest the answer should be delivered in a light, trifling, and negligent manner, and that no part of truth be dropped or concealed, in order to please men, and be screened from their resentments; or with all due reverence of, and respect to men, to superiors, to the civil magistrates, who may ask the reason; for they are to be treated with honour and esteem, and to be answered in an handsome and becoming manner, suitable to the dignity of their persons and office; as the sanhedrim was by Stephen; and as Felix, Festus, and Agrippa, by the Apostle Paul: and this answer, or reason, is to be given to every man; that has authority to ask, and that asks in a modest manner, and with a reverence suitable to the subject; for the phrases, "with meekness and fear", may respect him that asks the reason, as well as him that gives the answer; for that which is holy is not to be given to dogs, to impudent persons, mockers and scoffers, nor are pearls to be cast before swine, filthy and irreverent persons; see ( Matthew 7:6 ) the Alexandrian copy, and some others, and so the Vulgate Latin version, read, "but with meekness and fear"; for if it is not asked in such a way, there is no obligation to give an answer: and this is to be given "always"; whenever it is asked in such a manner, and by proper persons; when there is a necessity of it, and as opportunity offers: and saints should be always "ready to" give and therefore it becomes them daily and diligently to search the Scriptures, meditate on them, and get all the help and assistance they can, to lead them into an acquaintance with them, that they may be so; for though the apostles had extraordinary assistance promised them, and therefore were bid not to consider beforehand what they should say, when brought before kings and princes; yet this is not to be expected by ordinary persons, nor in ordinary cases. Agreeably to this is the advice of R. Eleazar
Gospel Jn 14:15-21
This passage picks up where last week's reading left off. Jesus continues to deliver his Farewell Discourse, preparing his disciples for his departure and their receipt of the Holy Spirit.
In this brief but powerful passage, Jesus reiterates his favorite theme: love. He also promises the Holy Spirit. Finally, Jesus emphasizes the intimate unity of Jesus, God, the Spirit, and the believer.
Love
Fifty-seven times Jesus uses love verbs (agapao, phileo). Add to that all of the occurrences of "friend" (which is the translation of philos) as well as the fact that the primary disciple in the Fourth Gospel is an unnamed character called "the beloved disciple," and we might accuse the author of touting a single issue. And why not, for is it not the case that "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life"?.
The passage begins and ends with love. In v. 15 Jesus declares that if his disciples love him, they will keep his commandments. The reader may ask, "What commandments?" Unlike, say, Matthew, nowhere in John does Jesus command us to go the second mile, turn the other cheek, render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. Famously, Jesus gives only a single commandment in John and it occurs in the chapter just before ours: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (13.34-35). He reiterates this in the chapter just after ours: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. (John 15:12-13). We see, then, the overwhelming, repetitive, circular emphasis on love. So, if the preacher is to preach this text, she will have to take up love. Perhaps John would have exulted to hear Bill Coffin's claim to his fellow Christians: "If we fail in love, we fail in all things else."
It's worth noting that love is tied to John's realized eschatology. Jesus gives one commandment: to love. Therefore, judgment and eternal life begin now. At the end of each day, and during each moment of each day, for John, there's only one question to ask yourself: "In what ways did I or did I not love today?" As you reflect upon that, judgment happens. Where you did not love, there lies judgment. But understand that for John judgment is merely diagnostic, not retributive. Jesus constantly asks the characters questions that help them understand their lives and motives more clearly. To the sick man in ch. 5:6: "Do you wish to be made well?"; to Martha in 11:26: "Do you believe this?". He asks questions not because he doesn't know the answers (since John 2:24-25 assures us that Jesus already knew everything); rather, he asks so that we might know, and therefore move forward with clear vision into the truth, light, glory, love, abundant for which God has created us. It's all of a piece.
The Holy Spirit
Admittedly, John's pneumatology is unusual compared to other NT texts. In contrast to Luke, who depicts the Holy Spirit as heavily active in the lives of characters from the beginning of his Gospel until the end of Acts, John insists that the Holy Spirit will come only after Jesus himself departs. Why is this? A clue lies in Jesus' referring to the Holy Spirit not as The Paraclete, but rather as Another Paraclete. Jesus was the first; for the Spirit to be active among them while Jesus was there would have been redundant since they each serve the same revelatory function. What appeared to be bad news to the disciples, namely Jesus' departure from them, turned out to be the best of news for both them and us. While Jesus walked the earth, his ministry was limited to one locale and one person, himself. Upon his departure, his disciples are given the Spirit and moved from apprentices to full, mature revealers of God's love. And this happens not just to the first disciples, but all those who would come later, those who never saw the historical Jesus. You see, the evangelist insists that present believers have no disadvantage in comparison to the first believers. Everything they were taught and they experienced is available to the same degree and with equally rich texture to us.
The word parakletos presents notorious translational difficulty because it has a range of meanings in the Greek, all of which are meant by the author. English translations variously translate it Comforter, Advocate, Counselor, and Helper; perhaps it would be best to keep it in its transliterated form, Paraclete, so as to catch the attention of the hearer with the strangeness; after all, it's strange among biblical authors, too. It appears only five times: four times in John 14-16 and once in 1 John 2:1. It's also best not to shut down possible meaning for the listener by narrowing the word to one meaning. The Holy Spirit is specifically said to do the following: teach, remind (14:26), abide (14:16), and testify about Jesus (15:26). Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit deals in truth.
The Quattrinity
Christians are familiar with the Trinity, but perhaps the most stunning feature of the Fourth Gospel is what I have termed the Quattrinity. In John, Jesus insists that the intimate relationship that exists between him, God, and the Spirit also includes believers. The believer does not stand close by admiring the majesty of the Trinity; rather, she is an equal part of it. John tries to push at this by grabbing hold of a number of terms and repeating them: abide, love, the language of being "in" (14:17 and 20), and later in the Discourse, an emphasis on "one-ness" (cf. 17:21-23). Johannine believers don't "imitate" Jesus; they participate in him wholly. If the passage is read aloud and preached, the reading should go through v. 23, the pinnacle of the passage: "Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." If God and Christ have made their home with us (recall 1:14), how can we imagine there to be any distance between us and God? This, in turn, affects our eschatology. Everything that matters, that is, ultimate intimacy with God and Christ, is available now. What might one hope for beyond that? God is not currently holding out on us in any way--life, abundant life, is available for living from this moment into eternity.
No right or wrong answers to the below, just things to ponder.
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May 14, 2017
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 52
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 6:1-7
As the number of disciples continued to grow,
the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews
because their widows
were being neglected in the daily distribution.
So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said,
"It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.
Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men,
filled with the Spirit and wisdom,
whom we shall appoint to this task,
whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer
and to the ministry of the word."
The proposal was acceptable to the whole community,
so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit,
also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas,
and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
They presented these men to the apostles
who prayed and laid hands on them.
The word of God continued to spread,
and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly;
even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Exult, you just, in the LORD;
praise from the upright is fitting.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Pt 2:4-9
Beloved:
Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings
but chosen and precious in the sight of God,
and, like living stones,
let yourselves be built into a spiritual house
to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For it says in Scripture:
Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion,
a cornerstone, chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame.
Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone, and
A stone that will make people stumble,
and a rock that will make them fall.
They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny.
You are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people of his own,
so that you may announce the praises" of him
who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Gospel Jn 14:1-12
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled.
You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you to myself,
so that where I am you also may be.
Where I am going you know the way."
Thomas said to him,
"Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?"
Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him."
Philip said to him,
"Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 acts 6:1-7
Luke notes the church's continued numerical growth as the apostles faithfully teach and evangelize (5:42). This success leads to an overload for the apostles in their administration of the common fund for the poor (4:35, 37; 5:1; compare Deut 1:9-10). As a result, the Grecian Jewish widows are being overlooked in the daily food distribution. The resulting complaints (compare Num 17:5) threaten to destroy the church's unity.
The fact that it is Grecian Jews (Hellenistoi; Longenecker 1981:327-29 for a cogent discussion of the options for understanding this term) who complain against Hebraic believers (Hebraioi; see Longenecker 1981:332) shows that cultural tensions probably lie behind the oversight. Pious widows, having been removed from the temple dole--the weekly quppah, or poor basket of foodstuffs (m. Pe'a 8:7)--are now dependent on the church's daily distribution (NIV specifies it more precisely than the Greek by adding of food; see Kistemaker 1990:221). But the apostles, Hebraic Jews, are not making sure the Grecian widows receive their share.
Hebraic Jews had a prejudicial sense of superiority over Grecian Jews, because of their own birthplace and language. Lack of communication between the groups also fostered suspicion. In fact, human diversity will always bring with it opportunities for prejudicial division and injustice.
Facing the problem immediately and openly, the Twelve gather the congregation (plethos; see 4:32 for comment) and point out another threat: distraction from their calling, the ministry of the word of God. This activity is essential for church vitality and growth (see 6:7). The apostles are facing the decisions that come to leaders of a movement that is growing in numbers and complexity.The Church Resolves the Problem (6:3-6)
The Twelve instruct the congregation to choose seven men to take over this responsibility. That the diaconate is a function and not an office is clear from Luke's wording. He never uses the noun "deacon" (compare Phil 1:1; 1 Tim 3:8-13), though a noun and verb to describe the function are present (diakonia, Acts 6:1; diakoneo, 6:2; contrast 1:25). This passage probably did contribute, however, to the origin of the office (Coppens 1979:421). Luke stresses that this physical/social ministry has equal validity with the apostles' evangelism/edification ministry, for he uses diakonia to describe both (6:1, 4). The church must exercise both, and neither to the exclusion of the other (see Lk 10:38-42).
This division of labor is accompanied by a reiteration of the apostles' commitment to their calling: prayer and ministry of the Word of God. The apostles determine to be "busily engaged in, devoted to" these things, so that realistically they will take up all their time (Bruce 1990:183; compare 1:14; 2:42, 46). Prayer (literally, "the prayer") may have to do with leading the community's prayer services (Bruce 1990:183), or the apostles' intercession for the welfare of the community or effectiveness in preaching, whether individually or as a group (10:9; 13:3; Haenchen 1971:263; Stott 1990:121), or both. Prayer is central to the church's vitality and advance, as it was in Jesus' ministry (Lk 5:16; 6:12; 9:18, 28; 11:1; 22:41; see 18:1). The ministry of the Word "[sees] to it that the Word of God is communicated in power and in continuity with the apostles' teaching as its norm" (Krodel 1986:134). In the summary statement on growth, the necessity of this ministry is articulated for a third time (6:7; compare 6:2).
The proposed solution reveals the values that guided the decision: commitment to unity, to a holistic ministry and to growth by means of preaching and teaching. The decision-making process reflects equally important values for church order. It is participatory, because of the church's spiritual equality (1:16; 2:17; 4:33; 6:3; 15:23). It involves distinct roles for leaders and congregation. The leaders (note it is collegial leadership) propose a solution and the criteria for implementing it. They also confirm the congregation's implementation (6:6). The congregation must "own" the proposed solution and do their assigned part (6:5).
If unity and growth are to be promoted, then, structures in the church must be flexible. Decision-making must be participatory, with distinctive roles for leaders and congregation.
The Twelve instruct the congregation to find seven men with a good reputation. The word order in the Greek makes it unlikely that the reputation is limited to being Spirit-filled, as the NIV suggests. The spiritual qualification full of the Spirit applies to those who have so fully given themselves to following Christ that God's saving, sanctifying and edifying grace is clearly and continuously manifest in their lives (6:5; 7:55; 11:24). The final qualification is wisdom--that skill in administration and business which will bring efficient and effective accomplishment of a task. Moral, spiritual, practical-- these should be the hallmarks of all who sit on church boards. Only with such leadership will the real work of the church be done.
The whole congregation took ownership of the proposal, and unity was restored (6:5; compare 4:32). They brought forward names of seven men who may well have already been exercising leadership in the Grecian Jewish segment of the church. Except for Stephen and Philip (see 6:9--7:60; 8:4-40; 21:8), Scripture tells us no more of these men. Stephen's spiritual quality is particularly noted. Being full of faith and of the Holy Spirit probably points not to his working of miracles (as Haenchen 1971:263; see v. 9) but to his extraordinary depth of faith, as well as his singular life in the Spirit.
The leaders confirm the congregation's work by praying over and laying hands on these men. Though grammatically one could understand the people as doing this, Luke probably intends us to understand the apostles as the commissioners (compare 6:3). "The laying on of hands" is used in Old Testament passages with the "choice of supplementary leadership" form. Hebrew samak, used in Numbers 27:18, means "to lean the hand on, exercise some force at the base of the hand at the joint" and has the significance of to "pour your personality--or a quality of yours relevant at this moment--into him" (Daube 1976:162; compare Num 27:20). What the apostles pass on to the Seven through the laying on of hands is not the Spirit, for the Seven already have the Spirit (Acts 6:3). Rather, they receive authority to work as the apostles' representatives in a specific task (Parratt 1969:213).The Church, Restored, Continues to Grow (6:7)
Having weathered the threat, the church returns to its normal condition: growth. So integral to growth is the Word of God, the message of salvation, that Luke uses personification, saying literally, "The word of God grew" (see 12:24; 19:20). As the seed possesses the power of growth, so "the word has in itself the power of life. . . . This independent force of the word of God makes it the preeminent instrument of salvation" (Kodell 1974:506; Acts 10:36; 13:26; 14:3; 16:32; compare 4:4; 11:1; 13:49; Lk 8:11). Luke's combination of spread (grew) and increased (multiplied) echoes the Old Testament command "Be fruitful and multiply," which was incorporated into covenant promises about the people of God (Lev 26:9; Jer 3:16; 23:3; compare Gen 1:28).
From among the priests, the core of the church's opposition (Acts 4:1; 5:17), a large number become obedient to the faith. The social gulf between the ordinary priests and the upper-class chief priests, who oppressed them economically, may explain the regular priests' openness to the gospel (Longenecker 1981:333). Still, the response of the priesthood reflects the total triumph of the church's mission. No segment of Jewish society was beyond the reach of the gospel. And today our churches should be marked by the same conviction--that the ministry of the Word is essential for growth and that growth is the normal condition of the church
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
1- 1-2
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! This unattributed Psalm begins with a call for God’s righteous to rejoice and praise. The Psalmist’s first sense was those among God’s people who walked rightly, those who are righteous among men in a relative sense.
“Psalm 32 ended by calling on the righteous to sing praises to God. This note is picked up on in Psalm 33, almost as if its first three verses were written as an elaboration of Psalm 32:11.”
Rejoice in the Lord: “Calling upon the saints to be cheerful; and indeed there is hardly any duty more pressed in the Old and New Testament, or less practiced.”
God’s people are called to rejoice in the Lord, and in nothing else. “To rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly.”
Under the New Covenant we may extend this to those declared righteous through faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-26). Those who are righteous by God’s decree have an even greater responsibility to rejoice and praise.
For praise from the upright is beautiful: God regards worship from His people (both upright in a relative sense and declared to be upright) as beautiful. It pleases Him and creates the sense of appreciation for beauty. God appreciates our praise.
“It is apparently meant for liturgical use…the opening summons to praise takes us far away from the solitary wrestlings and communings in former psalms.”
“Take away the Christian’s power of praising God, and you make him a poor earth-worm, bound here with doubts, and fears, and cares; but let him but kindle in his soul the flame that burns in heaven of seraphic love to God, and away he mounts.” (Spurgeon)
“An upright person is one without deception (Psalm 32:2) full of integrity of heart, and the opposite of the perverse (Proverbs 8:8).”
“Praise in the mouth of a sinner is like an oracle in the mouth of a fool; how uncomely is it for him to praise God, whose whole life is a dishonouring of God? It is as indecent for a wicked man to praise God, who goes on in sinful practices, as it is for an usurer to talk of living by faith, or for the devil to quote Scripture.” Praise the Lord with the harp; make melody with an instrument of ten strings: God also declared His satisfaction with worship through music and musical instruments. This can please God, the Creator of music and the Great Musician.
“Experts tell us that the kinnor (harp) and nebel (psaltery) were both stringed instruments, differing in the position of the sounding board, which was below in the former and above in the latter, and also in the covering of the strings.”
The Psalmist clearly exhorted God’s people to praise Him with the accompaniment of musical instruments. Strangely, some have thought that such musical accompaniment belonged only to the Old Covenant and not to the New.
Nevertheless, the most important instrument is the heart. “Music, both vocal and instrumental, is of eminent use in setting forth the praises of God; but there is no instrument like the rational soul, and no melody like that of well-tuned affections.”
Sing to Him a new song: God loves to receiving the rejoicing and praise of His people expressed in song, especially the new song.
“‘New song’ simply means that every praise song should emerge from a fresh awareness of God’s grace.” (Boice)
“As God gives you fresh occasions, so do not you content yourselves with the old songs or psalms, made by the holy men of God, but make new ones suited to the occasions.” (Poole)
“Put off oldness ye know the new song. A new man, a New Testament, a new song. A new song belongeth not to men that are old; none learn that but new men, renewed through grace from oldness, and belonging now to the New Testament, which is the kingdom of heaven.” (Augustine, cited in Spurgeon)
Play skillfully with a shout of joy: Skillful musicianship and enthusiasm fitting for the joy of God’s people are other ways God is honored with praise.
A shout of joy: “Heartiness should be conspicuous in divine worship. Well–bred whispers are disreputable here. It is not that the Lord cannot hear us, but that it is natural for great exultation to express itself in the loudest manner. Men shout at the sight of their kings: shall we offer no loud hosannahs to the Son of David?”
“Note the call in that verse for freshness and skill as well as fervour; three qualities rarely found together in religious music.”
2. (4-5) The greatness of God expressed in His character, who He is.
For the word of the Lord is right,
And all His work is done in truth.
He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth: The goodness and truth of God’s word is a further reason for praise. In addition, God does His work in truth – not with deceit or manipulation.
“His word and His work are inseparable, for His words are never empty.”
“In all this we find the true secret of our confidence, and so of our joy. The word and the work of God are ever one. His word never returns to Him empty – it accomplishes that which He pleases.”
He loves righteousness and justice: The Psalmist kept thinking of the greatness of God’s character – His love for righteousness and justice and His goodness spread all over the earth. The Psalmist rightly rejoiced that Yahweh, the God who is really there, is not amoral or without goodness. He is what we who are made in His image would understand as “good.”
“The Psalmist means that there is no spot in it where the traces and footprints of God’s love may not be discerned, if only the eyes ad the heart are opened.”
“The Lord’s love (hesed) is evident in his works on earth. With respect to the rest of creation, he shows the same loyalty, constancy, and love that has found particular expression in the covenant relationship with his people.”
“He might, if he had pleased, have made everything we tasted bitter, everything we saw loathsome, everything we touched a sting, every smell a stench, every sound a discord.” (Paley, cited in Spurgeon)
“Earth might have been as full of terror as of grace, but instead thereof it teems and overflows with kindness….If earth be full of mercy, what must heaven be where goodness concentrates its beams?” (Spurgeon)
4. (18-19) The care of God for the individual.
The eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him: The Psalmist continues to think both of God’s hand in world-shaking events (such as the battles of kings), and His most minute care for the individual.
Jesus told us that God cares for the smallest of birds (Matthew 6:26); surely He will care for those who honor Him, who are made in His image.
“They who fear God need not fear anything else; let them fix their eye of faith on him, and his eye of love will always rest upon them.”
On those who hope in His mercy: Those who truly fear the Lord find their hope in His mercy, not in their own goodness or righteousness.
To deliver their soul: “Freedom from troubles he promiseth not; but deliverance in due time he assureth them.”
Reading 2 1 Pt 2:4-9
Peter writes to the Christians who were scattered throughout Asia Minor, the area that is today called Turkey. And he knows problems are going to come to them, just like they come into our lives today. Peter encourages them in chapter 1 that because God is with us, and because he loves us and protects us, God wants to use the trials we face to be a source of joy and growth in our lives. We need to choose to respond to trials with hope!
And then in chapter 2, Peter goes on to remind us of who we are. He starts chapter 2 by reminding us that we are all children in the same family. And as such, we need to all get along. Too many families face “sibling rivalry” - brothers and sisters who need to get along. I’ve done funerals before where two brothers have walked in, shook hands, and then walked to separate corners of the funeral home, not talking to each other the whole time there. But far too often in the church, we need to be reminded that we all need to get along. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul even had to write to the church at Philippi and encourage them to get involved in promoting reconciliation between some members who had difficulty getting along. He says, I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, loyal followers, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel. One of the ways we show our identity with Christ is by loving one another. Psalm 133 - How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! As Jesus met with his disciples the last night before the crucifixion, he tells them, By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Then Peter goes on to tell us that we are all stones in the same building in 2:5. When you look at an old stone house or church - In PA they were all over the place - each stone is different from the stone beside it, but each works together with all the other stones to makes the walls. Our goal in the church is not uniformity - we don’t need to try to be just like every other Christian in the church - rather our goal is unity - to agree on the essentials. Paul writes in Ephesians 3 - Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Then Paul goes on to mention the different gifts given to Christians. We each have differing gifts, but we all use them to build up the body of Christ. And in that same passage Paul goes on to explain their purpose - so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment; and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly; and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction,[d] making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
Gospel Jn 14:1-12
The readings for the last few Sundays have been about the Resurrection, but today’s Gospel takes us back in time to an event in Jesus’ life before his Passion. Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house. He promises that where he is going, his disciples will be able to follow. Thomas, who will later doubt the disciples’ reports that they have seen the Risen Lord, contradicts Jesus by saying that the disciples don’t know where Jesus is going or how to get there. Jesus explains that he himself is the way, the truth, and the life. In knowing and loving Jesus, the disciples now love God the Father.
Philip then makes a request that challenges Jesus’ words. Philip wants Jesus to show the Father to the disciples. Recall that Jesus has just told his disciples, “If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” As a good teacher, Jesus responds to Philip by repeating and elaborating on what he has just told the disciples: they have seen and known Jesus, so they have seen and known the Father. Then Jesus offers another reassurance about his departure: because of faith in God and in Jesus, the disciples will do the work that Jesus has done and more.
The connection between Jesus and his Father, between Jesus’ work and the work of the Father, is made clear in today’s Gospel. Jesus is in the Father, and God the Father is in Jesus. As God spoke his name to Moses, “I am,” so too Jesus speaks his name to his disciples: “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
The revelation of the Trinity is completed in the passage that follows today’s reading, and it is the Gospel for next Sunday. Because Jesus goes away, the Father will send in Jesus’ name the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who will continue the work of the Father and of Jesus.
May 7, 2017
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 49
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
"Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified."
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart,
and they asked Peter and the other apostles,
"What are we to do, my brothers?"
Peter said to them,
"Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is made to you and to your children
and to all those far off,
whomever the Lord our God will call."
He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them,
"Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."
Those who accepted his message were baptized,
and about three thousand persons were added that day.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Pt 2:20b-25
Beloved:
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good,
this is a grace before God.
For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.
He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.
When he was insulted, he returned no insult;
when he suffered, he did not threaten;
instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,
so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed.
For you had gone astray like sheep,
but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
Gospel Jn 10:1-10
Jesus said:
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.
But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him,
because they do not recognize the voice of strangers."
Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.
So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Luke has kept us waiting so long for the fulfillment of this plot point that we may have forgotten we were waiting for it at all.
So, let’s start by backing up and rediscovering the seed that was planted so long ago.
It all started in Luke 3. John the Baptist, whose miraculous birth we’ve heard all about, has burst onto the scene as a full-grown adult with curious habits of attire and nutrition. He does not pull any of his punches. He has a lot to say about repentance -- and a lot to say to those who don’t repent. But for those who do, he has something to offer: baptism.
Baptism is so exceedingly familiar to Christians that we rarely catch how unutterably bizarre and novel John’s baptism was. Of course, there were plenty of ablutions and immersions in the religious practice of Israel. Using water for cleansings both physical and symbolic is hardly an innovative idea. But in Israel, all these immersions were performed solo, by and on one’s own self. No one else immersed you.
As far as we know, John was the first one to come along and immerse others. Getting a dunking by John in the Jordan was public testimony to one’s repentance, aligning oneself with repentant Israel. It was odd enough to attract crowds of people to the wilderness, including tax collectors and soldiers.
Compelling as it is, John’s baptism centered on repentance is limited in its scope. It’s not clear whether Luke thinks John’s baptism could also forgive the sins of the repentant; the Evangelist seems to be trying to distance himself from that inference inherited from Mark. But there is an even more important curtailment of John’s power that Mark, Luke, and all the rest agree on: John cannot baptize with the Holy Spirit. Instead, one is coming, John prophesies, who will indeed baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. And that one is so far above John that John isn’t even worthy to untie his sandals.
The proof: Jesus himself is the first to have the Spirit descend upon him at baptism. John’s Gospel records John the Baptist’s astonishment at the sight, and Matthew’s Gospel reports a kind of quarrel the two men had over whether the one should receive baptism from the other, which is followed by the startling descent of the Spirit. Luke actually detaches John the Baptist from Jesus’ baptism altogether, by interpolating the account of his beheading and keeping the act of baptism in the passive voice. One way or another, Luke wants to make it very clear that John’s baptism can’t bestow the Spirit.
Then twenty-one more chapters of Luke’s Gospel ensue, with a lot of exciting and distracting things like miracles, exorcisms, a crucifixion and a resurrection, so we may easily lose track of baptism and the Spirit along the way.
Fortunately, Peter, filled with the long-promised Holy Spirit, is here to make amends. All righteousness has been fulfilled: the Holy One of Israel was killed, but his faithful Father raised him up again to new life and through him grants the Holy Spirit. So, all those who are still carrying burdens of repentance can come to the promised deliverance. Come and be baptized, and two extraordinary promises will be fulfilled: in the name of Jesus Christ your sins will be forgiven, and you will receive the Holy Spirit. This is baptism 2.0, new and improved and better than ever!
The long list of the gathered nations on the day of Pentecost often obscures the fact that the people gathered to hear Peter’s sermon are all Jews -- diaspora Jews, in the main. They’re back in Jerusalem for the festival, but they’ve so acclimated themselves to their new homelands (after the example of Esther or the instructions of Jeremiah) that they’ve forgotten the mother tongue, which is why the Spirit has to effect a linguistic miracle before Peter can be heard. But repatriation is not a problem. This gift of baptism with forgiveness and the Spirit is for them, for their children, and for all those however faraway they may be. In fact, the gift is for anyone the Lord calls to Himself: that’s the only prerequisite.
The rest of Acts is the Lord’s calling more and more people to receive His gift: first Samaritans, then a Jewish proselyte in the form of the Ethiopian eunuch, next Gentiles starting with Cornelius, and finally John’s disciples still stuck at baptism 1.0. But in the end the Lord claims them all, every community if not yet every individual member thereof. Sins will be forgiven and the Spirit will be poured out on all flesh.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm Ps 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6
Many of us can only hear the first line of the Psalm “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” With a simple metaphor in a concise and elegant line, this verse expresses the message of the entire psalm: Yahweh satisfied every need. The images shift throughout the poem, but that central idea remains constant.
Indeed, Psalm 23 delivers some of the most beautiful and deeply comforting images in the whole Bible. As such, this psalm is a favorite -- indeed, the favorite -- of many. But the imagery in this psalm is also full of surprises. So our reading and discussion of this text should not be sentimental, but bold, always keeping in mind the ways that its radical claims confront our experiences of suffering, fear, enmity, and alienation.
The enduring appeal of Psalm 23
The pastoral metaphor at the outset of Psalm 23 resonates so deeply with Christians because of texts like John 10 (the Gospel reading for this Sunday) and John 21:15-17. The history of Christian art has played its part as well, reinforcing and developing this image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd through countless iterations. Having encountered all of these images of Jesus holding and caring for sheep, it’s hard for us not to associate Jesus as the shepherd in v. 1.
We can also attribute the psalm’s popularity to its happy ending. With rhetorical flourish, the psalm describes a blessed present and a blessed future, filled with the enjoyment of God’s presence: “Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;” and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come. We have to be careful because sentimentalism can easily supplant exegesis. When that happens, our well-worn readings tend to mute the fresh word from God to the contemporary community.
The journey of the Psalmist
The pastoral images that dominate the beginning of the psalm (shepherd, the verdant fields, and the waters of repose) actually work together to describe a journey that Yahweh oversees and guides. The rest in green pastures is in fact but a temporary repose. This psalmist is on the go, walking beside the water, along paths, and through valleys.
Thus the journey does not end at the end of the psalm. Rather, seeking after God’s presence is a lifelong enterprise, a long-term journey.
Jesus as shepherd and trailblazer
As Christians who read and discuss this text, we must consider Jesus not only as the good shepherd of John 10, but also as the trailblazer of the paths of righteousness (see Hebrews 12:1-2). Jesus tends us and guides us into right relationships with each other and with God. In the psalm, the paths of righteousness do not lead directly from the green pastures to the house of the Lord. No, those righteous ruts go through the very darkest valley. In Jesus’s case, the paths of righteousness lead all the way to the cross. Jesus has shown us that way (see especially 1 John 3:16-24, and calls us to follow him. The good news of Psalm 23 is that when we walk these paths of righteousness, we walk with God.
Reading 2 1 Pt 2:20b-25
As he concluded this passage, Peter once more alluded to Isaiah 53, “We had all gone astray like sheep, all following our own way;
But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.”
If God had not determined that all believers’ sins should fall on Jesus, there would be no shepherd to bring God’s flock into the fold.
The phrase, were continually straying like sheep describes by analogy the wayward, purposeless, dangerous, and helpless wandering of lost sinners, whom Jesus described as “sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36). The verb rendered have returned, carries the connotation of repentance, a turning from sin and in faith a turning toward Jesus Christ. But Peter’s readers had trusted in Christ’s substitutionary death and turned to Him for salvation. Like the prodigal son in Luke 15:11–32, they had turned away from the misery of their former sinful life (cf. Eph. 2:1–7; 4:17–24; Col. 3:1–7; 1 Thess. 1:2–10) and received new life in Christ (cf. Eph. 5:15–21; Col. 3:8–17; 1 Thess. 2:13–14). All who are saved come under the perfect care, provision, and protection of the Shepherd and Guardian of their souls.
The analogy of God as shepherd is a familiar and rich theme in Scripture (cf. 5:4; Ps. 23:1; Ezek. 34:23–24; 37:24). Jesus identified Himself as God when He took the divine title and named Himself the “good shepherd” (John 10:11, 14). Shepherd is an apt title for the Savior since it conveys His role as feeder, leader, protector, cleanser, and restorer of His flock. And believers as sheep, is also an apt analogy because sheep are stupid, gullible (a sheep called the “Judas sheep” in modern times leads the other sheep to slaughter), dirty (the lanolin in sheep’s wool collects all kinds of dirt), and defenseless (they have no natural defensive capabilities).
Shepherd: the Shepherd leads and shepherds the sheep. He loves them as His own; therefore He must lead them to the green pastures and still waters. He must see that they are nourished and protected and given the very best care possible. (See note—Mk. 6:34 for more discussion, what happens to sheep without a Shepherd.)
1. He feeds the sheep even if He has to gather them in His arms and carry them to the feeding pasture. Isaiah 40:11
2. He guides the sheep to the pasture and away from the rough places and precipices. Psalms 23:1-4
3. He seeks and saves the sheep who get lost. Matthew 18:11-12
4. He protects the sheep. He even sacrifices His life for the sheep. John 10:11 / Hebrews 13:20
5. He restores the sheep who go astray and return. I Peter 2:25
6. He rewards the sheep for obedience and faithfulness. I Peter 5:4
7. He shall keep the sheep separate from the goats. Matthew 25:32-33
II. Like Sheep we hear Jesus’ Voice, John 10:3
Jesus began this discourse by identifying Himself as the true Shepherd, in sharp contrast to all false shepherds. Each village in the sheepherding regions of Palestine had a fold where sheep were kept at night. The shepherds would graze their flocks in the surrounding countryside during the day, and then lead them back to the communal sheepfold in the evening. There the shepherds would stop each sheep at the entrance with their rods and carefully inspect it before allowing it to enter the fold (cf. Ezek. 20:37–38). Once in the fold, the sheep were in the care of the doorkeeper (a hired undershepherd; v. 12), who would keep watch over them during the night. He would give only the shepherds access to the sheepfold; therefore anyone who could not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbed up some other way, was a thief and a robber. Since the doorkeeper obviously would not let strangers in, would-be rustlers had to climb the wall of the sheepfold to get at the sheep. Only the one who entered by the door was a shepherd of the sheep.
Each of those common elements of everyday life had a symbolic meaning in the Lord’s metaphor. Though some argue that the sheepfold represents the church or heaven, the context (cf. v. 16) indicates that it represents Israel. In addition, it is hard to see how thieves could break into either the church or heaven and steal sheep (cf. vv. 27–29). The door is Jesus Himself (vv. 7, 9), who alone has the authority to lead out of Israel’s fold His own elect sheep. The thieves and robbers represent the self-appointed (cf. Matt. 23:2) Jewish religious leaders, who, doing the work of the devil, not God, climbed the walls of the sheepfold to spiritually fleece and slaughter the people.
III. Like Sheep we all need a Shepard or we would Scattered , Mark 6:34
“And Jesus, when he came out, saw many people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.”
Given the indefatigable persistence of the crowds that constantly surrounded Jesus and His disciples, it is not surprising that as they pushed out into the lake, the people saw them going, and many recognized them. They watched Jesus and His disciples leave in the boat and began traversing the shore on foot in order to follow them. As John writes, the “A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.” (John 6:2). Most of those in the crowd were thrill seekers, motivated out of a desire to witness and perhaps personally experience miracles. Those who were sick wished to be healed, and those who were well wanted to be entertained. Some were also fueled by political ambitions, hoping to press Jesus into becoming their political deliverer (cf. John 6:14–15). Noting the direction the boat was headed, the people assessed its general destination and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them.
When Jesus and His disciples reached their destination, the swarming crowd was already there waiting. When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd that had already gathered. Though they violated His privacy, Jesus responded by “welcoming them” (Luke 9:11). The Lord could have ignored them or sent them away; He could have gotten back in the boat and sailed to a different location. Instead, He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. Jesus was deeply moved by genuine concern for these people because, spiritually speaking, they were wandering as lost sheep without a shepherd for their souls.
As was His usual pattern, Jesus not only taught the people, He also healed them. As Matthew 14:14 explains, “When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.” The Lord’s compassion extended beyond the spiritual needs of people to include their physical infirmities as well. Jesus’ ability to heal them from temporal ailments was evidence of His ability to offer them spiritual help: salvation not just from the debilitating effects of sin in this life but from the eternal effect of sin itself. The physical healing He provided was limited to this life only, but the eternal life He offered abounds with blessings and benefits both for this life and the next.
Gospel Jn 10:1-10
So the Gospel continues the theme of the good shepherd.
In an agrarian (cultivated land) society, where sheep were a mainstay of agricultural life, the serious dangers faced by sheep without a shepherd would have been immediately understood. Without help and guidance, sheep are defenseless, unable to clean themselves, and prone to getting lost. In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was sometimes pictured as a flock with no shepherd (Num. 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; 2 Chron. 18:16; Ezek. 34:5). The metaphor depicted the nation as being spiritually vulnerable to deadly enemies and malnourished, threatened by error and sin, and lacking in faithful caretakers and spiritual protectors. As “the good shepherd” (John 10:11), Jesus was willing to feed, cleanse, and protect these lost sheep (cf. Matt. 10:6), and lead them into eternal safety in the fold of salvation. Thus He began to teach them many things. According to Luke 9:11, He was “speaking to them about the kingdom of God” (i.e., the realm of salvation), which was the primary theme of His preaching (cf. Mark 1:15; 4:11, 26–32; Luke 4:43; 6:20; 8:1; 11:20; 17:20–21; 18:24–25; John 3:3; Acts 1:3).
Even today outside of Jerusalem Bedouin shepherds guide their flocks in the hills. It is only thru Jesus that we have life and have it more abundantly.
Admittedly, the image of Jesus as shepherd makes for a far more natural comparison than comparing Jesus to a gate. And how can Jesus be both at the same time? These two images are part of a richly layered, extended metaphor that speaks of sheep, shepherd, gate, gatekeeper, strangers, thieves, bandits, and wolves. All of these except for the wolves are introduced in the first ten verses, and all of the elements of this extended metaphor contribute to understanding who Jesus is, and who we are in relation to him.
Jesus begins by describing who he is not. Those who climb into the sheepfold in a furtive way are thieves and bandits who do not care about the sheep but only about their own gain. By contrast, the shepherd enters the sheepfold openly, by means of the gate. He is recognized immediately by both the gatekeeper, who opens the gate for him, and by the sheep, who know his voice. When he calls his sheep by name, they follow him, and he leads them out to pasture. The sheep will not follow a stranger but instead will flee from one whose voice they do not recognize.
At this point the narrator comments that those listening did not understand the figure of speech that Jesus was using. Rather than change tactics, Jesus “doubles down” on this figure of speech, saying to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep” (10:7). He describes all who came before him as thieves and bandits to whom the sheep did not listen (10:8). Again Jesus says, “I am the gate,” and then adds: “Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture” (10:9). Whereas “the thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy,” Jesus says, “I came so that they might have life, and have it more abundantly” (10:10).
The function of the gate is to keep the sheep together in the sheepfold during the night, safe from thieves and predators. During the day the gate is opened so that the sheep can go out, following their shepherd, to find pasture. The gate and the shepherd work together for the well-being of the sheep, so that the flock thrives. Jesus is both the gate and the shepherd at the same time; he guards and protects his sheep from danger, and he provides for their nourishment, for their life in abundance.
Though chapter divisions might obscure the fact, there is no break after Jesus’ comments to the Pharisees in 9:41. Rather, Jesus launches immediately into this discourse about sheep and gates and shepherds. The shepherd discourse, then, interprets the sign that he has enacted in restoring sight to the blind man.
Although there is no one-to-one correspondence between elements of the metaphor and the narrative it follows, certain associations are hard to miss. The Pharisees who have interrogated the blind man in John 9 are supposed to be the shepherds of Israel, those who care for, protect, and nourish the people. Instead, they expel the healed blind man from their community, refusing to believe that Jesus and his healing work come from God. They are more concerned about guarding their power and authority than about the well-being of the people.
Having already restored the sight of the man, Jesus seeks him out again after his expulsion from the synagogue and brings him into the community of his followers (9:35-38). For the blind man, salvation is not only receiving his physical sight but also spiritual sight, recognizing who Jesus is, believing in him, and becoming part of his community. He followed the voice of Jesus before he could see him, and it led to new life. His days of isolation are over; he now knows himself to be a valued member of Jesus’ flock, cared for and protected.
One direction for reflection on this text might be to ask: What does it mean for us as followers of Jesus today, in our context, to be protected by the gate and the shepherd, to be “saved,” to have life in abundance?
It is important to note that the metaphor of the gate is not one of exclusion, not a license to think of ourselves as Jesus’ true sheep and others as outsiders. (If we use it that way, we become like the Pharisees who expelled the blind man from their community.) The purpose of the gate is not to keep out other sheep. Indeed, Jesus says in verse 16, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
It goes without saying that there are many thieves and bandits in our world who seek to steal and kill and destroy. There are also “wolves in sheep’s (or shepherd’s) clothing”.
What, then, is the life in abundance that Jesus promises? The whole of John’s Gospel is focused on this gift of life:
Much has been written about how sheep are rather unintelligent animals. It is true that without a shepherd, they will not necessarily be able to find food or water, and that they will easily get lost and not be able to find their way home. However, the thing that Jesus emphasizes about sheep is that they know the voice of their shepherd. Whatever else one can say about the mental capacities of sheep, they have this in their favor: they recognize the voice of the one who cares for them. They follow their shepherd, but will not follow a stranger whose voice they do not know.
What about us? Do we recognize the voice of the good shepherd over all the other voices promising abundance? How might you as a preacher help us to recognize that voice?
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April 30, 2017
Third Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 46
Review of some items from last week.
Distance from Egypt to the Promised Land 250 miles in a straight Line but that would take them thru the Philistines who were a warring group. God did not want to scare the Israelites so he sent them in a round about direction.
Approximately 2 million people were travelling and of that number only two of that original group made it to the Promised Land Joshua and Caleb. Children under age 19 and under born on the way also made it.
The trip should have taken 11 days but because the scouts sent out by Moses for 40 days to observe came back and reported the armies were huge men and many in number they told the people they should not go, even though God told them he would protect them Since they chose not to go, God said you shall wander for one year for each day you spent on the mountain, hence the 40 years of wandering
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:14, 22-33
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
"You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem.
Let this be known to you, and listen to my words.
You who are Israelites, hear these words.
Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God
with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs,
which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God,
you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death,
because it was impossible for him to be held by it.
For David says of him:
I saw the Lord ever before me,
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted;
my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.
"My brothers, one can confidently say to you
about the patriarch David that he died and was buried,
and his tomb is in our midst to this day.
But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him
that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne,
he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,
that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld
nor did his flesh see corruption.
God raised this Jesus;
of this we are all witnesses.
Exalted at the right hand of God,
he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father
and poured him forth, as you see and hear."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
R. (11a) Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, "My Lord are you."
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R. Alleluia.
You will show me the path to life,
abounding joy in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2
Reading 2 1 Pt 1:17-21
Beloved:
If you invoke as Father him who judges impartially
according to each one's works,
conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning,
realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct,
handed on by your ancestors,
not with perishable things like silver or gold
but with the precious blood of Christ
as of a spotless unblemished lamb.
He was known before the foundation of the world
but revealed in the final time for you,
who through him believe in God
who raised him from the dead and gave him glory,
so that your faith and hope are in God.
Gospel
Gospel Lk 24:13-35
That very day, the first day of the week,
two of Jesus' disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
"What are you discussing as you walk along?"
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
"Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?"
And he replied to them, "What sort of things?"
They said to him,
"The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see."
And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?"
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, "Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over."
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
"Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?"
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the eleven and those with them who were saying,
"The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!"
Then the two recounted
what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:14, 22-33
Here, as in the Gospels, Peter is represented as the chief of the Apostles and head of the Church. What a change has come over him who before was so timid and weak! Now filled with the spirit of God, and with the gift of tongues on his lips, he fearlessly proclaims to all the miracle of Christ’s Resurrection.
The discourse of Peter was artfully arranged, so as to carry its point and win the assent of his hearers. He did not at first assert the divinity and Messiahship of Jesus, lest this should antagonize the Jews, but began by appealing to the ancient prophecy which foretold the present wonderful happenings, and was a sign of the inauguration of the Messianic reign. Now he proceeds to call attention to ” Jesus of Nazareth ” as a man sent by God and approved of by God through many miracles wrought publicly in the presence of those who were now listening. And the death of this same Jesus, he goes on to say (verse 23), was foreseen and decreed by God from all eternity as a means for man’s salvation (John 3:16; 14:31; 18:11). But God’s foreknowledge and decree of the Passion and death of Jesus did not in any way excuse or palliate the wickedness of the Jews, who, as St. Peter here affirms, were really responsible for these crimes, and used the Romans as mere agents of their malevolence.
In the following verse (24) St. Peter observes that God did not suffer Jesus to remain in the tomb, but raised Him up, as the Psalmist (Ps 16:8-11) had long before announced.
Having loosed the sorrows of hell. The word for “sorrows” in the Hebrew of the Psalm is cords, bonds; and the Greek MSS. have death instead of “hell.” Hell or “death” means here the grave, the abode of the dead (Heb., sheol).
David in the Psalm 16:8-11 introduces the Messiah as speaking to God, who is always before him, as Protector, who will give ” hope ” of resurrection to His ” flesh ” in the grave, and who will ” not leave His soul in sheol,” nor permit His body ” to see the corruption of the grave,” but will restore Him again to ” the ways of life ” through the Resurrection, and fill Him in heaven ” with the joy of His presence.”
St. Peter calls attention to the fact that the words of the Psalmist could not apply to David himself, since he was dead, and his grave in the Holy City was known, but that, having received from God a promise that he should have a successor, the Messiah, in whom these predictions should be verified, and being himself a prophet, he foresaw in prophecy the Resurrection of Christ, the Messiah, of which St. Peter and all were witnesses.
Peter now gives the real explanation of the miracle of the gift of tongues: This Jesus, this Christ of whom he had been speaking and of whom David prophesied, has been raised by God to the throne of the Divinity, and has just now sent the Holy Spirit on the disciples, as He had promised before being assumed into heaven (John 15:26; 16:7).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
Psalm 16 is ordinarily classified as a psalm of trust/assurance/confidence. In fact, a major form critic, labels Psalm 16 not only a “Song of Confidence,” but also a “Confession of Faith.” “The psalm can be compared in its function with the Apostles’ Creed in Christian worship.”
The Apostles’ Creed, of course, is a foundational Christian creed. If Psalm 16 is really comparable, it may be helpful to think about Psalm 16 as something like a poetic expression of and elaboration upon the faith affirmed in the first of the Ten Commandments -- “no other gods” (Exodus 20:3) -- and in the pivotally important Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
In short, Psalm 16 is a lovely and eloquent poetic rendering of Israel’s radical monotheism. Each of its sections -- verses 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-11 -- offers a variation on the theme of “no other gods” or “the LORD alone.”
Verse 1 features the major psalmic concept of “refuge,” which is introduced in Psalm 2:12 and appears frequently, especially in Book I (Psalms 1-41; see 5:11; 7:1; 11:1; 14:6; and more). To “take refuge” in God means to trust God unreservedly. This, in turn, means to submit the self fully to God, as the psalmist indicates that she or he has done by addressing God as “my Lord” in verse 2.
The theme of “the LORD alone” culminates in the conclusion to verse 2. The word “good” refers to the resources, material and otherwise, that make life possible; so the psalmist affirms that his or her life derives from and depends solely upon God.
Verses 3-4 are notoriously difficult, and translations vary considerably. According to most interpretations the psalmist expresses exclusive loyalty to God by honoring those who honor God (verse 3), as well as by avoiding every semblance of idolatry (verse 4).
In contrast to those who drink idolatrous offerings (verse 4), the LORD is the psalmist’s only “cup” (verse 5). But the real unifying feature of verses 5-6 is the language of land-settlement that is drawn from the book of Joshua -- “”portion” (Joshua 19:9), “lot” (18:6, 8), and “heritage”). Because land represented access to life, the affirmation again is that the psalmist’s life derives from and depends solely upon God.
The affirmation “I will bless the LORD” (Psalm 16:7) reinforces the psalmist’s submission to God (see verse 2), since “bless” seems originally to have meant something like to “kneel in obeisance to.” The mention of “counsel” and round-the-clock instruction recalls Psalm 1 (see “advice” in 1:1 and “night” in 1:2), which opens the Psalter by orienting readers exclusively to God and God’s will, as a matter of life and death. Verse 8 continues the focus on the constancy of God’s presence, which proves to be the psalmist’s sole source of stability (see 15:5, and compare 13:4 where “shaken” represents the same Hebrew root).
Not surprisingly, “the path of life” is mentioned explicitly in verse 11. This verse serves well as a culmination, since its vocabulary recalls earlier sections of the poem -- see “pleasures” and “pleasant places” (verses 6, 11), “right hand” (verses 8, 11), and “joy”/”rejoices” (verses 9, 11). The repetition summarizes and reinforces the message of the whole; that is, the psalmist’s joyful affirmation that his or her life derives from and is dependent upon “the LORD alone.”
The appearance of Psalm 16 in the lectionary is an opportunity both to appreciate its artistic beauty and to open ourselves to the challenge of Israel’s radical monotheism. In our pervasively self-centered context, for instance, what difference might it make if we entertained the conviction that life is not something we achieve, but rather something we receive as a gift from God? What difference might it make if we viewed the life-sustaining resources that most of us enjoy not as something we have earned or deserve, but rather as evidence of God’s goodness? Might a pervasive sense of entitlement begin to be replaced by a posture of humility and gratitude?
“What is the chief end of humankind? The chief end of humankind is to glorify God and enjoy God forever.” What difference might it make if we began to try to ground our pleasure and joy not in self nor in stuff but in God? It’s worth a try!
Reading 2 1 Pt 1:17-21
On the Second Sunday after Easter the given text was I Peter 1.3-9 This week's assigned text covers another part of I Peter 1, i.e. vv. 17-21. In my discussion I will consider all the remaining verses of I Peter 1, which includes vv. 10-16 and vv. 24, 25.
Many interpreters of this epistle see vv. 3-9 as the indicative of the gospel and vv. 13-25 as the imperatives of the gospel. It may be clearer to say that when Peter calls on his readers to take up the life of the baptized he majors in making the indicative known. The imperatives of Christian living are almost drowned out by his emphasis on the indicatives of grace.
Vv. 13-25 have been called "the charge to the baptized." It is a section of I Peter where indicative and imperative are completely comingled with each other. So what dos this mean? Let’s think of a person who was in position to get a promotion and a hefty salary raise at her place of work. There was much consternation in the office on the day that the indication of who would receive this advancement was to be announced. The candidates filed into the bosses' office one by one. Finally Pam went in. She was afraid. And then she heard the word announced over her: "Pam, congratulations. The promotion is yours." This word does what it says. With the sound of a few words a big chunk of Pam's world changed.
The indicative words of grace in the text today are in vv. 15, 18, 21, 23. Are powerful indicative words for us. God speaks words over us and it is so! Our world is changed. We are new people.
And then we move to the imperatives of the reading: 13, 14, 22. The call to neighbor love in v. 22 is probably the most important of the imperatives. Being a Christian is all about being loved by God as the empowering action that enables us to love our neighbor. New people do new things. That's the message here. As some have put it, we are called to become who we are. The Christian doesn't seek to live out the imperatives of the gospel to become a Christian. The Christian lives out the imperatives because she/he is a Christian. Through the living sacrifice of our lives for our neighbors we continually become who we are.
We should match the good news of God's announcement with several aspects of the human condition. To give just one example let’s think of our mortality. We hear challenging messages from the world around us: "You have only one life so why not live it up." "You are a nobody in this universe and you are on a one way track to death." "You are a nobody." Words like these seek to define our lives. They are powerful and seductive.
But there is another word! "That word is the good news that was announced to you." V. 25. You are born anew as a new being through the preaching of the word. You are born anew in baptism and your new life will never perish. You are born anew through the bread and wine and words of the Lord's Supper. You are born anew through the life giving power of the words of scripture. Thanks be to God for God's life-giving word!
Gospel Lk 24:13-35
Our reading is the story called "The Walk to Emmaus." It occurs right after the Easter narrative in the Gospel of Luke (24:1-12), and it takes place later in the day on Easter Sunday. The story is found only in Luke's Gospel. The location of Emmaus has never been identified with certainty, but it was near the city of first-century Jerusalem, which was smaller than the city is today.
The story begins abruptly with the words "two of them" who are on the road to Emmaus. Did you ever think who are those persons? There is no clear reference to "them" in 24:1-12. They are clearly not part of the eleven within the original circle of the Twelve, since the story ends with them going to report to "the eleven" what had happened (24:33). Yet they are part of a "group" of disciples (24:9) to which the women also belong who had gone to the tomb, and three of whose names are provided at 24:10 ("Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women"). In addition to the women, some of this "group" also visited the tomb on Easter morning (24:24) subsequently "and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him," the risen Christ. We are given the name of one of the two on the road to Emmaus. His name is Cleopas (24:18), but he shows up nowhere else in the New Testament.
In the first part of the story (24:13-27) these two persons (presumably men) have no idea who Jesus was when he approached them. He must have had normal human features (not superhuman), and they do not even catch on to his identity when he interpreted "Moses and all the prophets" concerning himself (24:27). They are aware, however, of recent events in Jerusalem. They recite to Jesus a brief summary of his earthly career ("a prophet mighty in word and deed"), his passion, and his death (24:19-20). They also know the essential Easter story. What they say in 24:22-24 is a brief recounting of the Easter narrative in 24:1-12.
It is in the second part of the story (24:28-35) that the identity and significance of the stranger becomes known to the travelers on the road. They are gathered at the table, and their guest "took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them" (24:30). The words are almost identical to those in 22:19 at the Last Supper ("he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them"). Surely the eucharistic symbolism is intentional. In fact, interpreters have often pointed out that worship practices in the early church have affected the telling of the story. The event is on a Sunday, and it involves the interpreting of Scripture, proclamation, and sacrament. It is in that event that the two disciples understand who the stranger is. They now know it is Jesus, who vanishes from them. Then too they recall that their hearts burned within them while he had been teaching them concerning the Messiah on the road to Emmaus (24:32).
The story ends with the two men going to Jerusalem to report what had happened. But before they can do that, they hear the testimony of the eleven who say that Jesus had been raised and had appeared to Simon (Peter, 24:34). The statement functions to place Peter as the first believer in the risen Christ, the first apostle.
The story has theological and homiletical significance on three levels. First, like the lesson from last Sunday, it demonstrates that belief in Jesus as risen Lord was not self-evident to his earliest followers, even after his crucifixion and resurrection. The reason why people back then came to believe in him was that he appeared to them. In other words, it took divine revelation for them to believe. That was true for Peter (24:34), and it was true for the men who traveled on the road to Emmaus.
Why is it that some believe, and others do not? Martin Luther explained we cannot believe by our own reason or strength; it is by the Holy Spirit that one comes to believe.
Second, the setting for most persons to come to faith is Christian worship, which includes Scripture, proclamation, and sacrament. That is also where the faith of all is sustained. It is the place where Jesus continues to reveal himself. The Christian faith is born and nurtured where people share in worship through word, gesture, and earthly means, such as water, bread, wine, and tactile expressions of mutual care--the smile, the clasp of another's hand, perhaps even an embrace.
And, finally, the story for today is one of movement. It contains at least nine verbs describing movement. The two men "are going" (24:13), Jesus "came near and went with them" (24:15), they "came near" Emmaus (24:28), Jesus "walked ahead of them" (24:28), "he went in to stay with them" (24:29), "he vanished from their sight" (24:31), and "they got up and returned to Jerusalem" (24:33). Some of the verbs tell of movements made by Jesus; others tell of the two men. Either way, both Jesus and his followers are on the move. But it is not movement for its own sake. The moves being made have a purpose, and that is to tell the story of Jesus, to interpret it, to have fellowship (communion) with Jesus and others, and to share it all with others. That is what it means to be the church.
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April 23, 2017
Second Sunday of Easter (or Sunday of Divine Mercy)
Lectionary: 43
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves
to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life,
to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
Awe came upon everyone,
and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
All who believed were together and had all things in common;
they would sell their property and possessions
and divide them among all according to each one's need.
Every day they devoted themselves
to meeting together in the temple area
and to breaking bread in their homes.
They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart,
praising God and enjoying favor with all the people.
And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
R. (1) Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let the house of Aaron say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let those who fear the LORD say,
"His mercy endures forever."
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I was hard pressed and was falling,
but the LORD helped me.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just:
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Pt 1:3-9
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,
kept in heaven for you
who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith,
to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.
In this you rejoice, although now for a little while
you may have to suffer through various trials,
so that the genuineness of your faith,
more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire,
may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Although you have not seen him you love him;
even though you do not see him now yet believe in him,
you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Gospel Jn 20:19-31
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord."
But he said to them,
"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."
Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe."
Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:42-47
In these verses we have the history of the truly primitive church, of the first days of it; its state of infancy indeed, the state of its greatest innocence. They kept close to holy ordinances, and abounded in piety and devotion; for Christianity, when admitted in the power of it, will dispose the soul to communion with God in all those ways wherein he has appointed us to meet him, and has promised to meet us. The greatness of the event raised them above the world, and the Holy Ghost filled them with such love, doing away selfishness, and causing charity. And God who moved them to it, knew that they were quickly to be driven from their possessions in Judea. The Lord, from day to day, inclined the hearts of more to embrace the gospel; not merely teachers, but actually being brought into a state of acceptance with God, being made partakers of regenerating grace. Those whom God has designed for eternal salvation, shall be effectually brought to Christ, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of his glory.
All who believed were together and had all things in common;
they would sell their property and possessions
and divide them among all according to each one's need.
The challenge of course, is getting communities of faith to believe this about themselves--and about God. Congregations are easily frustrated in their attempts to build a community that functions as an authentic expression of the gospel, even if it must remain a flawed expression. But it is an empowering thing to realize that Christians are not left to their own devices in creating such an environment. The ministry of God's reign that Jesus inaugurated during his life and secured by his death, resurrection, and glorification is not merely a thing of the past or a faint hope for future days; it continues, sometimes barely perceptibly, in the corporate life of communities of faith. It is important to underscore that Acts 2:42-47 describes a community of faith that operates in the power of God's Spirit. The virtues of justice, worship, and mutuality are not accomplishments of extraordinary folk; they are signs of the Spirit within a community of people who understand themselves as united in purpose and identity--not a dispersed collection of individual churchgoers. This is not to say that the members of a community of faith bear no responsibility for living in a way that displays God's reconciliation. The audacious claims of a resurrection faith demand such boldness from us.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
On Easter Sunday, the church proclaims, "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love is everlasting" (Psalm 118:1).
Jesus Christ is risen. And in Christ, we too shall rise. God's steadfast love endures forever! The words of Psalm 118 have long been used to herald Easter. "This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad!" (118:24).
In its ancient Jewish context, scripture studiers believe Psalm 118 was most likely an entrance liturgy to the Temple, used at the festival of Passover. It proclaimed God's deliverance from Egypt and, later on, from the Exile. The Psalm was a liturgical script, complete with speaking parts for leaders and congregation. One can hear the jubilant call and response in 118:2-4:
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let the house of Aaron say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let those who fear the LORD say,
"His mercy endures forever."
With this Psalm on their lips, the priests and people processed into the Temple. The approach to the Temple culminates in verse 19, "Open the gates of righteousness..." and the condition for entrance is given in verse 20, “This is the LORD’s own gate,
through it the righteous enter.”
The physical movement begins outside the Temple, progressing inside and all the way to the altar. The people express their faith that since God has saved them in the past, he can be trusted in the future (verse 25).1
Since New Testament times, Psalm 118 evokes for Christians the story of Easter.
In danger I called on the LORD;
the LORD answered me and set me free.
The LORD is with me; I am not afraid;
what can mortals do against me? (118:5-6).
New Testament writers used Psalm 118 "as a means of understanding and articulating the significance of Jesus."3 (See Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7.) Christians have long read this Psalm with Jesus in mind.
*The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
iBy the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it. (Psalm 118: 22-24).
The ancient church relied on the words of the New Testament writers, and during the Middle Ages, Psalm 118 continued to inspire Christian worship.
Just as the Psalmist was delivered by God, so now Christ empowers us, comforts us, and snatches us out of the realm of death.
Reading 2 1 PEtER 1:3-9
The First Letter of Peter is addressed to the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. One commentator suggests that geographically speaking this would be 300,000 square miles! That’s about the size of Texas plus Maine.
The major purpose of the letter appears to be an appeal to Christian believers not to turn away from the gospel they have heard proclaimed. A very interesting theory of the usage of the letter is that it was a letter intended to be read at a baptismal service with the purpose of strengthening the faith of the baptized as they find themselves living as exiles in an alien culture. We note, e.g., that I Peter 1.3 refers to new birth.
A description of the audience for this letter of I Peter would include the fact that they were relative newcomers to Christianity [1.4; 1.17; 1.25; 2.2]. They were an immature group of believers who were encountering a hostile environment. They were foreigners in their own country because of their election [1.2], their worship of God [4.14-15], their origin [1.3, 23; 2.2], their lifestyle [2.16], and their innocent suffering [2.12; 3.13, 16]. They needed guidance on their way. One interpreter of this letter sees, therefore, a two-fold purpose for its writing: 1] It is a call to young Christians to hold fast their faith. "Become who you are," might summarize Peter's message on this point. 2] It is a description for how young believers can be Christians in a hostile cultural environment. This message is fashioned for those who have suffered much for their new faith. The role of suffering, the suffering of Jesus and the suffering of his followers pervades the epistle.
This text from I Peter is appointed for the First Sunday after Easter. Verses 3-5 are a flourish of praise for baptism; new birth! Note how the hope of new birth is dominated by images of the resurrection. Our salvation here is pointed toward the end of history! As Easter people we live between the NOW and the NOT YET. Easter people live between the times!
Remember these folks live in a hostile faith environment.
One of the basic themes of this epistle is counsel on the way to be a Christian in a hostile cultural environment. Peter continually cites the suffering of Christ as the great hope for the beleaguered believer: 2.21-23; 3.18-23; 4.1-2, 13f. [Some interpreters identify the theme of suffering and hope as the key themes in I Peter.] In these texts Peter gives expression to a profound theology of the cross. There is much wise guidance here for us.
Gospel Jn 20:19-31
The Gospels tell us that Jesus appeared to the disciples on several occasions after they discovered that his tomb was empty. Part of the mystery of Jesus' Resurrection is that he appeared to his disciples not as a spirit but in bodily form. The bodily form was not one that the disciples recognized though. In John's Gospel, Mary of Magdala does not recognize that the figure standing before her is Jesus until he speaks to her. In Luke's Gospel the disciples who meet Jesus on the road to Emmaus do not recognize him until he breaks bread with them. The resurrected Jesus had a physical presence, but the disciples couldn't recognize Jesus unless he allowed them to. His resurrected body, nonetheless, showed the marks of his crucifixion.
From readings such as today's Gospel, we also see that in his resurrected body, Jesus seems to be free of physical constraints. He appears to the disciples despite the fact that the doors were locked.
Jesus greets his disciples with the gift of peace and the gift of the Holy Spirit. In doing so, Jesus commissions his disciples to continue the work that he has begun: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” During the meeting, Jesus also shows the integral connection between forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The story of Thomas illustrates our Christian experience today: We are called to believe without seeing. In fact, all Christians after the first witnesses have been called to believe without seeing. Thomas's doubt is hardly surprising; the news of Jesus' appearance was incredible to the disciples who had seen him crucified and buried. Thomas's human nature compelled him to want hard evidence that the Jesus who appeared to the disciples after his death was indeed the same Jesus who had been crucified. Thomas is given the opportunity to act on that desire. He is our witness that Jesus is really risen.
Our faith is based on the witness of the Church that has preceded us, beginning with Thomas and the first disciples. Through Baptism we receive the same Holy Spirit that Jesus brought to the first disciples. We are among those who are “blessed” because we believe without having seen.
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April 16, 2017 HE IS RISEN ALLELUIA
The Resurrection of the Lord
Sunday The Mass of Easter Day
Lectionary: 42
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Peter proceeded to speak and said:
"You know what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.
We are witnesses of all that he did
both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commissioned us to preach to the people
and testify that he is the one appointed by God
as judge of the living and the dead.
To him all the prophets bear witness,
that everyone who believes in him
will receive forgiveness of sins through his name."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
R. (24) This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.
"The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD."
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 Col 3:1-4
Brothers and sisters:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
Gospel Jn 20:1-9
On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
"They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don't know where they put him."
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead.
After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning,
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
And behold, there was a great earthquake;
for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven,
approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.
His appearance was like lightning
and his clothing was white as snow.
The guards were shaken with fear of him
and became like dead men.
Then the angel said to the women in reply,
"Do not be afraid!
I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified.
He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.
Come and see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples,
'He has been raised from the dead,
and he is going before you to Galilee;
there you will see him.'
Behold, I have told you."
Then they went away quickly from the tomb,
fearful yet overjoyed,
and ran to announce this to his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.
They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.
Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid.
Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee,
and there they will see me."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Our text begins with Peter addressing a most unlikely audience.
He is speaking to the household and friends of Cornelius, a notable leader of Roman soldiers who is nevertheless described as "God-fearing" (10:2, 22). This means that he helped the poor and was also known for his regular prayer life (10:2, 32). Peter's "sermon" is startling and even destabilizing. He announces God's radical love is on the move, breaking down cherished and long-held borders and categories.
Peter begins by saying that "God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" (10:34). God shows no partiality! Think of how that statement challenges and undermines our tendency to confine God to the comfortable categories of our own "religions." In Peter's day, the inclusion of Gentiles in God's mission was profoundly controversial. Many of the original followers of Jesus could not conceive of a messiah meant for non-Jews, even though God's promises to Israel have always had universal trajectory (Genesis 12:3).
We are not that different. We tend to build our own "private" faiths, drawing lines around who is "in" and who is "out." And we get upset when people mess with our religion. No Partiality--Because Of Jesus
The idea that God shows no partiality has sometimes been misunderstood. This is not an affirmation of a superficial universalism. Peter is hardly claiming the modern creed of many in the West who say that God is all-loving and therefore is far above all human religions. But let's be careful about turning Peter into some kind of Deist. The reason that Peter makes the claim that God is not partial is because of the way that God has revealed himself in the concrete and particular life of Jesus of Nazareth. As Acts 10:40-43 demonstrates, Jesus' resurrection means that he is a messiah for Jews and Gentiles. And the fact that he is returning to judge all people means that all of human history is headed towards him. Ironically, only the life and ministry of the Jew named Jesus allows Peter to say that God shows no partiality!
Most commentators on this text agree that Peter's speech in Acts 10:38-43 is something like an early Christian creed. At the center of this preaching is the fact that this one "anointed" by God (the messiah) dies on a tree (10:38-39). But according to Jewish law anyone who dies this way is "cursed," literally cut off from the people of God (Deuteronomy 21:23). So early Christian preaching has God most fully revealed in the most unthinkable of places-in the execution of a criminal on a cross. By whatever measurement-religious, social, cultural--the death of the Jew named Jesus was hideous, shameful, and offensive. But because he bore the sin of the world, the cross becomes a place of forgiveness and reconciliation (I Corinthians 5:21).
God's love is now at loose in the world--this is what animates early Christian preaching. It is a wild and unruly force, winning over the hearts of centurions like Cornelius. It reverses conventional categories of who is "in" and who is "out." It eats with sinners and upholds love of enemies as a new norm. Let us be cautious about all human attempts to corral and control this power. The Holy One of Israel has a way of eluding human attempts to hold him tight.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
When testifying one first narrates what one has seen and heard [e.g., "the Lord did not give me over to death" verse 18] and then declares what one believes about what has been seen and heard [e.g., "The Lord has become my salvation," verse 14, and "I shall not die, but I shall live," verse 17].
The celebrant could be any one of us who has born witness to God's mighty act of delivering us from bondage when we cannot free ourselves.
Imagine how this Psalm picks up where the shorter ending of the Gospel of Mark leaves off; that is, break the silence of the women who first witnessed the empty tomb by proclaiming, "He is risen!" In doing so we encourage others do the same. Let the "Alleluias" return.
Finally, it is worth focusing a bit on verse 22 ("The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."). Architecturally, the cornerstone is key; it is key for the stability of the structure and, additionally, as a kind of capstone that points to the architectural plan's perfect execution.
The Psalm suggests that what has become the cornerstone was once a stone that the builders rejected. For whatever reason, it was once of no use but now, unexpectedly, has become the cornerstone. It is possible that the Psalmist has moved from a place of rejection to restoration and is now celebrating God's role in this. Could it be that when we testify as the Psalmist did we, too, are rejoicing at the unexpectedness of now being the one to testify!
Talk about unexpected . . . whoever imagined a baby from Bethlehem would grow up, die an untimely death and rise from his own tomb! Because the leap has already been made from cornerstone as inanimate object to cornerstone as metaphor for a person, it is no surprise that the leap is made in the New Testament to identify Jesus as the cornerstone. [Note that this Psalm (this verse) is one of the most often quoted in the New Testament. (See, for example, Matthew 21:41, Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:6-7, Ephesians 2:20.)]
The essence of this psalm might be that one "cannot encounter God and not talk about it." The news that God has defeated death must be proclaimed on this day that the Lord has made. Rejoice! Alleluia!
Reading 2 Col 3:1-4
Chapter 3 begins the advice-giving section of the letter. The theme of the whole section (3:1-4:6) is stated in 3:1, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." The implications of what it means to "seek the things that are above" are drawn out in the succeeding verses.
Why is Col 3:1-4 read on Easter Sunday? The answer is as brief as the reading:
*the text refers to the resurrection of Jesus,
*it connects believers to it, and
*it outlines a basic ethical response that the author hopes will guide believers.
The text does refer to the resurrection of Jesus. He has been raised, and he is currently to be found "above," "seated at the right hand of God." One of the characteristics of Colossians, Ephesians, and the post-Paul era in general is that the time categories used by Paul, such as "this age" and "the age of ages," are now transformed into spatial categories of above and below--or, as in v. 2, "above" and "on earth." In that "above" realm, Christ is seated at God's right hand. The right hand is the hand of power and judgment; the reference to being seated at the right hand has its origin in Ps 110:1,
The Colossians text helps us to connect the wonderful good news of Easter to our lives today. When Jesus is killed and when he is raised, in some way we are killed and we are raised with him. And his past-tense resurrection and our past-tense-but-still-future resurrection help us to lift our eyes to the heavens above, both to see the resurrected Christ and to orient our lives to him.
Gospel Jn 20:1-9
Today we begin the Easter Season, our 50-day meditation on the mystery of Christ's Resurrection. Our Gospel today tells us about the disciples' discovery of the empty tomb. It concludes by telling us that they did not yet understand that Jesus had risen from the dead. Thus, the details provided are not necessarily meant to offer proof of the Resurrection. The details invite us to reflect upon a most amazing gift, that is faith in Jesus and his Resurrection.
Each of the four Gospels tells us that Jesus' empty tomb was first discovered by women. This is notable because in first-century Jewish society women could not serve as legal witnesses. In the case of John's Gospel, the only woman attending the tomb is Mary of Magdala. Unlike the Synoptic accounts, John's Gospel does not describe an appearance of angels at the tomb. Instead, Mary is simply said to have observed that the stone that had sealed the tomb had been moved, and she runs to alert Simon Peter and the beloved disciple. Her statement to them is telling. She assumes that Jesus' body has been removed, perhaps stolen. She does not consider that Jesus has been raised from the dead.
Simon Peter and the beloved disciple race to the tomb, presumably to verify Mary's report. The beloved disciple arrives first but does not enter the tomb until after Simon Peter. This detail paints a vivid picture, as does the detail provided about the burial cloths. Some scholars believe that the presence of the burial cloths in the tomb offers evidence to the listener that Jesus' body had not been stolen (it is understood that grave robbers would have taken the burial cloths together with the body).
The Gospel passage concludes, however, that even having seen the empty tomb and the burial cloths, the disciples do not yet understand about the Resurrection. In the passage that follows, Mary of Magdala meets Jesus but mistakes him for the gardener. In the weeks ahead, the Gospel readings from our liturgy will show us how the disciples came to believe in Jesus' Resurrection through his appearances to them. Our Easter faith is based on their witness to both the empty tomb and their continuing relationship with Jesus—in his appearances and in his gift of the Holy Spirit.
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April 9, 2017
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
Lectionary: 37 and 38
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 50:4-7
The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
R. (2a) My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
All who see me scoff at me;
they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads:
"He relied on the LORD; let him deliver him,
let him rescue him, if he loves him."
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Indeed, many dogs surround me,
a pack of evildoers closes in upon me;
They have pierced my hands and my feet;
I can count all my bones.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
They divide my garments among them,
and for my vesture they cast lots.
But you, O LORD, be not far from me;
O my help, hasten to aid me.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:
"You who fear the LORD, praise him;
all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him;
revere him, all you descendants of Israel!"
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Reading 2 Phil 2:6-11
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel Mt 26:14—27:66
One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
"What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?"
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity
to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples approached Jesus and said,
"Where do you want us to prepare
for you to eat the Passover?"
He said,
"Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,
'The teacher says, "My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples."'"
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,
and prepared the Passover.
When it was evening,
he reclined at table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said,
"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
"Surely it is not I, Lord?"
He said in reply,
"He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born."
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,
"Surely it is not I, Rabbi?"
He answered, "You have said so."
While they were eating,
Jesus took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and giving it to his disciples said,
"Take and eat; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
"Drink from it, all of you,
for this is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed on behalf of many
for the forgiveness of sins.
I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it with you new
in the kingdom of my Father."
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Then Jesus said to them,
"This night all of you will have your faith in me shaken,
for it is written:
I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed;
but after I have been raised up,
I shall go before you to Galilee."
Peter said to him in reply,
"Though all may have their faith in you shaken,
mine will never be."
Jesus said to him,
"Amen, I say to you,
this very night before the cock crows,
you will deny me three times."
Peter said to him,
"Even though I should have to die with you,
I will not deny you."
And all the disciples spoke likewise.
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane,
and he said to his disciples,
"Sit here while I go over there and pray."
He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee,
and began to feel sorrow and distress.
Then he said to them,
"My soul is sorrowful even to death.
Remain here and keep watch with me."
He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying,
"My Father, if it is possible,
let this cup pass from me;
yet, not as I will, but as you will."
When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep.
He said to Peter,
"So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?
Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Withdrawing a second time, he prayed again,
"My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass
without my drinking it, your will be done!"
Then he returned once more and found them asleep,
for they could not keep their eyes open.
He left them and withdrew again and prayed a third time,
saying the same thing again.
Then he returned to his disciples and said to them,
"Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
Behold, the hour is at hand
when the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.
Get up, let us go.
Look, my betrayer is at hand."
While he was still speaking,
Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived,
accompanied by a large crowd, with swords and clubs,
who had come from the chief priests and the elders
of the people.
His betrayer had arranged a sign with them, saying,
"The man I shall kiss is the one; arrest him."
Immediately he went over to Jesus and said,
"Hail, Rabbi!" and he kissed him.
Jesus answered him,
"Friend, do what you have come for."
Then stepping forward they laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.
And behold, one of those who accompanied Jesus
put his hand to his sword, drew it,
and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his ear.
Then Jesus said to him,
"Put your sword back into its sheath,
for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
Do you think that I cannot call upon my Father
and he will not provide me at this moment
with more than twelve legions of angels?
But then how would the Scriptures be fulfilled
which say that it must come to pass in this way?"
At that hour Jesus said to the crowds,
"Have you come out as against a robber,
with swords and clubs to seize me?
Day after day I sat teaching in the temple area,
yet you did not arrest me.
But all this has come to pass
that the writings of the prophets may be fulfilled."
Then all the disciples left him and fled.
Those who had arrested Jesus led him away
to Caiaphas the high priest,
where the scribes and the elders were assembled.
Peter was following him at a distance
as far as the high priest's courtyard,
and going inside he sat down with the servants
to see the outcome.
The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin
kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus
in order to put him to death,
but they found none,
though many false witnesses came forward.
Finally two came forward who stated,
"This man said, 'I can destroy the temple of God
and within three days rebuild it.'"
The high priest rose and addressed him,
"Have you no answer?
What are these men testifying against you?"
But Jesus was silent.
Then the high priest said to him,
"I order you to tell us under oath before the living God
whether you are the Christ, the Son of God."
Jesus said to him in reply,
"You have said so.
But I tell you:
From now on you will see 'the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of the Power'
and 'coming on the clouds of heaven.'"
Then the high priest tore his robes and said,
"He has blasphemed!
What further need have we of witnesses?
You have now heard the blasphemy;
what is your opinion?"
They said in reply,
"He deserves to die!"
Then they spat in his face and struck him,
while some slapped him, saying,
"Prophesy for us, Christ: who is it that struck you?"
Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard.
One of the maids came over to him and said,
"You too were with Jesus the Galilean."
But he denied it in front of everyone, saying,
"I do not know what you are talking about!"
As he went out to the gate, another girl saw him
and said to those who were there,
"This man was with Jesus the Nazorean."
Again he denied it with an oath,
"I do not know the man!"
A little later the bystanders came over and said to Peter,
"Surely you too are one of them;
even your speech gives you away."
At that he began to curse and to swear,
"I do not know the man."
And immediately a cock crowed.
Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken:
"Before the cock crows you will deny me three times."
He went out and began to weep bitterly.
When it was morning,
all the chief priests and the elders of the people
took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.
They bound him, led him away,
and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.
Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned,
deeply regretted what he had done.
He returned the thirty pieces of silver
to the chief priests and elders, saying,
"I have sinned in betraying innocent blood."
They said,
"What is that to us?
Look to it yourself."
Flinging the money into the temple,
he departed and went off and hanged himself.
The chief priests gathered up the money, but said,
"It is not lawful to deposit this in the temple treasury,
for it is the price of blood."
After consultation, they used it to buy the potter's field
as a burial place for foreigners.
That is why that field even today is called the Field of Blood.
Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah
the prophet,
And they took the thirty pieces of silver,
the value of a man with a price on his head,
a price set by some of the Israelites,
and they paid it out for the potter's field
just as the Lord had commanded me.
Now Jesus stood before the governor, and he questioned him,
"Are you the king of the Jews?"
Jesus said, "You say so."
And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders,
he made no answer.
Then Pilate said to him,
"Do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you?"
But he did not answer him one word,
so that the governor was greatly amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast
the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd
one prisoner whom they wished.
And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
So when they had assembled, Pilate said to them,
"Which one do you want me to release to you,
Barabbas, or Jesus called Christ?"
For he knew that it was out of envy
that they had handed him over.
While he was still seated on the bench,
his wife sent him a message,
"Have nothing to do with that righteous man.
I suffered much in a dream today because of him."
The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds
to ask for Barabbas but to destroy Jesus.
The governor said to them in reply,
"Which of the two do you want me to release to you?"
They answered, "Barabbas!"
Pilate said to them,
"Then what shall I do with Jesus called Christ?"
They all said,
"Let him be crucified!"
But he said,
"Why? What evil has he done?"
They only shouted the louder,
"Let him be crucified!"
When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all,
but that a riot was breaking out instead,
he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd,
saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood.
Look to it yourselves."
And the whole people said in reply,
"His blood be upon us and upon our children."
Then he released Barabbas to them,
but after he had Jesus scourged,
he handed him over to be crucified.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium
and gathered the whole cohort around him.
They stripped off his clothes
and threw a scarlet military cloak about him.
Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head,
and a reed in his right hand.
And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying,
"Hail, King of the Jews!"
They spat upon him and took the reed
and kept striking him on the head.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him off to crucify him.
As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon;
this man they pressed into service
to carry his cross.
And when they came to a place called Golgotha
—which means Place of the Skull —,
they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall.
But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink.
After they had crucified him,
they divided his garments by casting lots;
then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
And they placed over his head the written charge against him:
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
Two revolutionaries were crucified with him,
one on his right and the other on his left.
Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying,
"You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself, if you are the Son of God,
and come down from the cross!"
Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said,
"He saved others; he cannot save himself.
So he is the king of Israel!
Let him come down from the cross now,
and we will believe in him.
He trusted in God;
let him deliver him now if he wants him.
For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"
The revolutionaries who were crucified with him
also kept abusing him in the same way.
From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And about three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?"
which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
"This one is calling for Elijah."
Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge;
he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed,
gave it to him to drink.
But the rest said,
"Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him."
But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice,
and gave up his spirit.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
And behold, the veil of the sanctuary
was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened,
and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection,
they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
The centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus
feared greatly when they saw the earthquake
and all that was happening, and they said,
"Truly, this was the Son of God!"
There were many women there, looking on from a distance,
who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him.
Among them were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph,
and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
When it was evening,
there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph,
who was himself a disciple of Jesus.
He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus;
then Pilate ordered it to be handed over.
Taking the body, Joseph wrapped it in clean linen
and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock.
Then he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the tomb
and departed.
But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
remained sitting there, facing the tomb.
The next day, the one following the day of preparation,
the chief priests and the Pharisees
gathered before Pilate and said,
"Sir, we remember that this impostor while still alive said,
'After three days I will be raised up.’
Give orders, then, that the grave be secured until the third day,
lest his disciples come and steal him and say to the people,
'He has been raised from the dead.'
This last imposture would be worse than the first."
Pilate said to them,
"The guard is yours;
go, secure it as best you can."
So they went and secured the tomb
by fixing a seal to the stone and setting the guard.
------------------------------ REFLE
July 3, 2016 - The Lord God is like a sun and shield; the Lord gives us kindness and honor. He does not hold back anything good from those whose lives are innocent. Psalms 84:11
So we have concluded the review of:
THE BLESSED CURÉ OF ARS IN HIS CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTIONS
Saint John Vianney
I hope that it was educational and incite full. Also I hope it gave you an understanding of this simple man who took God’s gifts and made the best of them. We too must do the same. God Bless.
A look back at where we started.
"THERE IS no doubt, " says Pere Gratry, "that, through purity of heart, innocence, either preserved or recovered by virtue, faith, and religion, there are in man capabilities and resources of mind, of body, and of heart which most people would not suspect. To this order of resources belongs what theology calls infused science, the intellectual virtues which the Divine Word inspires into our minds when He dwells in us by faith and love."
And Pere Gratry quotes with enthusiasm, excusing himself for not translating them better, these magnificent words of a saint who lived in the eleventh century in one of the mystic monasteries on the banks of the Rhine: "This is what purifies the eye of the heart, and enables it to raise itself to the true light: contempt of worldly cares, mortification of the body, contrition of heart, abundance of tears . . . meditation on the admirable Essence of God and on His chaste Truth, fervent and pure prayer, joy in God, ardent desire for Heaven. Embrace all this, " adds the saint, "and continue in it. Advance towards the light which offers itself to you as to its sons, and descends of itself into your hearts. Take your hearts out of your breasts, and give them to Him who speaks to you, and He will fill them with deific splendour, and you will be sons of light and angels of God. "
The description we have just read seems to have been traced from the very life of the Curé of Ars. Every detail recalls him, every feature harmonises marvellously with his. Who has ever carried further "contempt of worldly cares, mortification of the body, abundance of tears?" He was always bathed in tears. And then, "meditation on the admirable Essence of God and on His chaste Truth, and fervent and pure prayer, joy in God, ardent desire for Heaven" - how characteristic is this! "He had advanced towards the light, and the light had descended of itself into his heart. . . . He had taken his heart from his breast, and given it to Him who spoke to him; and He who spoke to him, " who is the Divine, uncreated Word of God, "filled him with deific splendour. " No one could doubt it who has had the happiness of assisting at any of the catechisms of Ars; of hearing that extraordinary language, which was like no human language; who has seen the irresistible effect produced upon hearers of all classes by that voice, that emotion, that intuition, that fire, and the signal beauty of that unpolished and almost vulgar French, which was transfigured and penetrated by his holy energy, even to the form, the arrangement, and the harmony of its words and syllables. And yet the Curé of Ars did not speak words: true eloquence consists in speaking things; he spoke things, and in a most wonderful manner. He poured out his whole soul into the souls of the crowds who listened to him, that he might make them believe, love, and hope like himself. That is the aim and the triumph of evangelical eloquence.
How could this man, who had nearly been refused admittance into the great seminary because of his ignorance, and who had, since his promotion to the priesthood, been solely employed in prayer and in the labours of the confessional - how could he have attained to the power of teaching like one of the Fathers of the Church? Whence did he derive his astonishing knowledge of God, of nature, and of the history of the soul? How was it that his thoughts and expressions so often coincided with those of the greatest Christian geniuses, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa?
For example, we have often heard him say that the heart of the saints was liquid. We were much struck with this energetic expression, without suspecting that it was so theologically accurate; and we were surprised and touched to find, in turning over the pages of the Summa, that the angelical doctor assigns to love four immediate effects, of which the first is the liquefaction of the heart. M. Vianney had certainly never read St. Thomas, which makes this coincidence the more remarkable; and, indeed, it is inexplicable to those who are ignorant of the workings of grace, and who do not comprehend those words of the Divine Master: "Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. " [Matt. 11:25].
The Spirit of God had been pleased to engrave on the heart of this holy priest all that he was to know and to teach to others; and it was the more deeply engraved, as that heart was the more pure, the more detached, and empty of the vain science of men; like a clean and polished block of marble, ready for the tool of the sculptor.
The faith of the Curé of Ars was his whole science; his book was Our Lord Jesus Christ. He sought for wisdom nowhere but in Jesus Christ, in His death and in His Cross. To him no other wisdom was true, no other wisdom useful. He sought it not amid the dust of libraries, not in the schools of the learned, but in prayer, on his knees, at his Master's Feet, covering His Divine Feet with tears and kisses. In the presence of the Blessed Sacrament where he passed his days and nights before the crowd of pilgrims had yet deprived him of liberty day and night, he had learnt it all----------------------------------------------------------
June 26, 2016 - The Lord does not listen to the wicked, but he hears the prayers of those who do right. Proverbs 15:29
CHAPTER 16 : On Paradise
"Blessed, O Lord, are those who dwell in Thy house: they shall praise Thee for ever and ever."
To DWELL in the house of the good God, to enjoy the presence of the good God, to be happy with the happiness of the good God - oh, what happiness, my children! Who can understand all the joy and consolation with which the saints are inebriated in Paradise? St. Paul, who was taken up into the third heaven, tells us that there are things above which he cannot reveal to us, and which we cannot comprehend.... Indeed, my children, we can never form a true idea of Heaven till we shall be there. It is a hidden treasure, an abundance of secret sweetness, a plenitude of joy, which may be felt, but which our poor tongue cannot explain. What can we imagine greater? The good God Himself will be our recompense: Ego merces tua magna nimis - I am thy reward exceeding great. O God! the happiness Thou promisest us is such that the eyes of man cannot see it, his ears cannot hear it, nor his heart conceive it.
Yes, my children, the happiness of Heaven is incomprehensible; it is the last effort of the good God, who wishes to reward us. God, being admirable in all His works, will be so too when He recompenses the good Christians who have made all their happiness consist in the possession of Heaven. This possession contains all good, and excludes all evil; sin being far from Heaven, all the pains and miseries which are the consequences of sin are also banished from it. No more death! The good God will be in us the Principle of everlasting life. No more sickness, no more sadness, no more pains, no more grief. You who are afflicted, rejoice! Your fears and your weeping will not extend beyond the grave. . . . The good God will Himself wipe away your tears! Rejoice, O you whom the world persecutes! your sorrows will soon be over, and for a moment of tribulation, you will have in Heaven an immense weight of glory. Rejoice! for you possess all good things in one - the source of all good, the good God Himself.
Can anyone be unhappy when he is with the good God; when he is happy with the happiness of the good God, of the good God Himself; when he sees the good God as he sees himself? As St. Paul says, my children, we shall see God face to face, because then there will be no veil between Him and us. We shall possess Him without uneasiness, for we shall no longer fear to lose Him. We shall love Him with an uninterrupted and undivided love, because He alone will occupy our whole heart. We shall enjoy Him without weariness, because we shall discover in Him ever new perfections; and in proportion as we penetrate into that immense abyss of wisdom, of goodness, of mercy, of justice, of grandeur, and of holiness, we shall plunge ourselves in it with fresh eagerness. If an interior consolation, if a grace from the good God, gives us so much pleasure in this world that it diminishes our troubles, that it helps us to bear our crosses, that it gives to so many martyrs strength to suffer the most cruel torments - what will be the happiness of Heaven, where consolations and delights are given, not drop by drop, but by torrents!
Let us represent to ourselves, my children, an everlasting day always new, a day always serene, always calm; the most delicious, the most perfect society. What joy, what happiness, if we could possess on earth, only for a few minutes, the angels, the Blessed Virgin, Jesus Christi In Heaven we shall eternally see, not only the Blessed Virgin and Jesus Christ, we shall see the good God Himself! We shall see Him no longer through the darkness of faith, but in the light of day, in all His Majesty! What happiness thus to see the good God! The angels have contemplated Him since the beginning of the world, and they are not satiated; it would be the greatest misfortune to them to be deprived of Him for a single moment. The possession of Heaven, my children, can never weary us; we possess the good God, the Author of all perfections. See, the more we possess God, the more He pleases; the more we know Him, the more attractions and charms we find in the knowledge of Him. We shall always see Him and shall always desire to see Him; we shall always taste the pleasure there is in enjoying the good God, and we shall never be satiated with it. The blessed will be enveloped in the Divine Immensity, they will revel in delights and be all surrounded with them, and, as it were, inebriated. Such is the happiness which the good God destines for us.
We can all, my children, acquire this happiness. The good God wills the salvation of the whole world; He has merited Heaven for us by His death, and by the effusion of all His Blood. What a happiness to be able to say, "Jesus Christ died for me; He has opened Heaven for me; it is my inheritance. . . . Jesus has prepared a place for me; it only depends on me to go and occupy it. Vado vobis parare locum - I go to prepare a place for you. The good God has given us faith, and with this virtue we can attain to eternal life. For, though the good God wills the salvation of all men, He particularly wills that of the Christians who believe in Him: Qui credit, habeat vitam aeternam - He that believeth hath life everlasting. Let us, then, thank the good God, my children; let us rejoice - our names are written in Heaven, like those of the Apostles. Yes, they are written in the Book of Life: if we choose, they will be there forever, since we have the means of reaching Heaven.
The happiness of Heaven, my children, is easy to acquire; the good God has furnished us with so many means of doing it! See, there is not a single creature which does not furnish us with the means of attaining to the good God; if any of them become an obstacle, it is only by our abuse of them. The goods and the miseries of this life, even the chastisements made use of by the good God to punish our infidelities, serve to our salvation. The good God, as St. Paul says, makes all things turn to the good of His elect; even our very faults may be useful to us; even bad examples and temptations. Job was saved in the midst of an idolatrous people. All the saints have been tempted. If these things are, in the hands of God, an assistance in reaching Heaven, what will happen if we have recourse to the Sacraments, to that never-failing source of all good, to that fountain of grace supplied by the good God Himself! It was easy for the disciples of Jesus to be saved, having the Divine Saviour constantly with them. Is it more difficult for us to secure our salvation, having Him constantly with us? They were happy in obtaining whatever they wished for, whatever they chose; are we less so? We possess Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; He is continually with us, He is ready to grant us whatever we ask, He is waiting for us; we have only to ask. O my children! the poor know how to express their wants to the rich; we have only our indifference, then, to accuse, if assistance and graces are wanting to us. If an ambitious or a covetous man had as ample means of enriching himself, would he hesitate a moment, would he let so favourable an opportunity escape? Alas! we do everything for this world, and nothing for the other? What labor, what trouble, what cares, what sorrows, in order to gather up a little fortune! See, my children, of what use are our perishable goods? Solomon, the greatest, the richest, the most fortunate of kings, said, in the height of the most brilliant fortune: "I have seen all things that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. " And these are the goods to acquire which we labor so much, whilst we never think of the goods of Heaven! How shameful for us not to labor to acquire it, and to neglect so many means of reaching it! If the fig tree was cast into the fire for not having profited by the care that had been taken to render it fertile; if the unprofitable servant was reproved for having hidden the talent that he had received, what fate awaits us, who have so often abused the aids which might have taken us to Heaven? If we have abused the graces that the good God has given us, let us make haste to repair the past by great fidelity, and let us endeavour to acquire merits worthy of eternal life.
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June 19, 2016 - Teach them to obey everything that I have taught you, and I will be with you always, even until the end of this age. Matthew 28:20
CHAPTER 15 : On the Love of God
"If you love Me, keep My Commandments."
NOTHING IS so common among Christians as to say, "O my God; I love Thee," and nothing more rare, perhaps, than the love of the good God. Satisfied with making outward acts I of love, in which our poor heart often has no share, we think we have fulfilled the whole of the precept. An error, an illusion; for see, my children, St. John says that we must not love the good God in word, but in deed. Our Lord Jesus Christ also says, "If anyone love Me he will keep My Word:' If we judge by this rule, there are very few Christians who truly love God, since there are so few who keep His Commandments. Yet nothing is more essential than the love of God. It is the first of all virtues, a virtue so necessary, that without it we shall never get to Heaven; and it is in order to love God that we are on the earth. Even if the good God did not command it, this feeling is so natural to us, that our heart should be drawn to it of its own accord.
But the misfortune is that we lavish our love upon objects unworthy of it, and refuse it to Him alone who deserves to be infinitely loved. Thus, my children, one person will love riches, another will love pleasures; and both will offer to the good God nothing but the languishing remains of a heart worn out in the service of the world. From thence comes insufficient love, divided love, which is for that very reason unworthy of the good God; for He alone, being infinitely above all created good, deserves that we should love Him above all things: more than our possessions, because they are earthly; more than our friends, because they are mortal; more than our life, because it is perishable; more than ourselves, because we belong to Him. Our love, my children, if it is true, must be without limit, and must influence our conduct....
If the Saviour of the world, addressing Himself to each one of us separately, were now to ask us the same question that He formerly asked St. Peter: "Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me?" could we answer with as much confidence as that great Apostle, "Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee"? Domine, tu scis quia amo te. We have perhaps pronounced these words without taking in their meaning and extent; for, my children, to love the good God is not merely to say with the mouth, "O my God! I love Thee!" Oh, no! where is the sinner who does not sometimes use this language?
To love the good God is not only to feel from time to time some emotions of tenderness towards God; this sensible devotion is not always in our own power. To love the good God is not to be faithful in fulfilling part of our duties and to neglect the rest. The good God will have no division: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength:' This shows the strength of the Commandment to love God. To love God with our whole heart is to prefer Him to everything, so as to be ready to lose all our possessions, our honour, our life, rather than offend this good Master. To love God with our whole heart is to love nothing that is incompatible with the love of God; it is to love nothing that can share our heart with the good God: it is to renounce all our passions, all our ill-regulated desires. Is it thus, my children, that we love the good God?
To love the good God with our whole mind is to make the sacrifice to Him of our knowledge and our reason, and to believe all that He has taught. To love the good God with our whole mind is to think of Him often, and to make it our principal study to know Him well. To love the good God with our whole strength is to employ our possessions, our health, and our talents, in serving Him and glorifying Him. It is to refer all our actions to Him, as our last end. Once more, is it thus that we love the good God? Judging by this invariable rule, how few Christians truly love God!
Do those bad Christians love the good God, who are the slaves of their passions? Do those worldly persons love the good God, who seek only to gratify their body and to please the world? Is God loved by the miser, who sacrifices Him for a vile gain? Is He loved by that voluptuary, who abandons himself to vices the most opposite to divine love? Is He loved by that man who thinks of nothing but wine and good cheer? Is He loved by that other man, who cherishes an aversion to his neighbour, and will not forgive him? Is He loved by that young girl, who loves nothing but pleasures, and thinks of nothing but indulgence and vanity? No, no, my children, none of these persons love the good God; for we must love Him with a love of preference, with an active love!
If we had rather offend the good God than deprive ourselves of a passing satisfaction, than renounce those guilty meetings, those shameful passions, we do not love the good God with a love of preference, since we love our pleasures, our passions, better than the good God Himself. Let us go down into our own souls; let us question our hearts, my children, and see if we do not love some creature more than the good God. We are permitted to love our relations, our possessions, our health, our reputation; but this love must be subordinate to the love we should have for God, so that we may be ready to make the sacrifice of it if He should require it....
Can you suppose that you are in these dispositions - you who look upon mortal sin as a trifle, who keep it quietly on your conscience for months, for years, though you know that you are in a state most displeasing to the good God? Can you suppose that you love the good God? Can you suppose that you love the good God - you who make no efforts to correct yourselves; you who will deprive yourselves of nothing; you who offend the Creator every time that you find opportunity? Yes, my children, what the miser loves with his whole heart is money; what the drunkard loves with his whole heart is wine; what the libertine loves with his whole heart is the object of his passion. You, young girls, you who had rather offend God than give up your finery and your vanities, you say that you love God; say rather that you love yourselves.
No, no, my children; it is not thus that the good God is to be loved, for we must love Him not only with a love of preference, but also with an active love. "Love," says St. Augustine, "cannot remain without the constant action of the soul: Non potest vacare amor in anima amantis. Yes," says this great saint, "seek for a love that does not manifest itself in works, and you will find none:' What! could it be, O my God, that Thy love alone should be barren, and that the Divine fire, which ought to enkindle the whole world, should be without activity and without strength?
When you love a person, you show him the more or less affection according as the ardour of your love for him is more or less great. See, my children, what the saints were like, who were all filled with the love of the good God: nothing cost them too much; they joyfully made the greatest sacrifices; they distributed their goods to the poor, rendered services to their enemies, led a hard and penitential life; tore themselves from the pleasures of the world, from the conveniences of life, to bury themselves alive in solitude; they hastened to torments and to death, as people hasten to a feast. Such were the effects which the love of the good God produced in the saints; such ought it to produce in us. But, my children, we are not penetrated with the love of God; we do not love the good God. Can anyone say, indeed, that he loves the good God, who is so easily frightened, and who is repulsed by the least difficulty? Alas! what would have become of us if Jesus Christ had loved us only as we love Him? But, no. Triumphing over the agonies of the Cross, the bitterness of death, the shame of the most ignominious tortures, nothing costs Him too dear when He has to prove that He loves us. That is our only model. If our love is active, it will manifest itself by the works which are the effects of love, because the love of the good God is not only a love of preference, but a pious affection, a love of obedience, which makes us practice His Commandments; an active love, which makes us fulfil all the duties of a good Christian. Such is the love, my children, which God requires from us, to which He has so many titles, which He has purchased by so many benefits heaped upon us by His death for us upon the Cross. What happiness, my children, to love the good God! There is no joy, no happiness, no peace, in the heart of those who do not love the good God on earth. We desire Heaven, we aspire to it; but, that we may be sure to attain to it, let us begin to love the good God here below, in order to be able to love Him, to possess Him eternally in His holy Paradise.
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June 12, 2016 - So do not lose the courage you had in the past, which has a great reward. You must hold on, so you can do what God wants and receive what he has promised. Hebrews 10:35-36
CHAPTER 14 : On Prayer
OUR CATECHISM teaches us, my children, that prayer is an elevation, an application of our mind and of our heart to God, to make known to Him our wants and to ask for His assistance. We do not see the good God, my children, but He sees us, He hears us, He wills that we should raise towards Him what is most noble in us - our mind and our heart. When we pray with attention, with humility of mind and of heart, we quit the earth, we rise to Heaven, we penetrate into the Bosom of God, we go and converse with the angels and the saints. It was by prayer that the saints reached Heaven: and by prayer we too shall reach it. Yes, my children, prayer is the source of all graces, the mother of all virtues, the efficacious and universal way by which God wills that we should come to Him. He says to us: "Ask, and you shall receive. " None but God could make such promises and keep them. See, the good God does not say to us, "Ask such and such a thing, and I will grant it;" but He says in general: "If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you. " O my children! ought not this promise to fill us with confidence, and to make us pray fervently all the days of our poor life? Ought we not to be ashamed of our idleness, of our indifference to prayer, when our Divine Saviour, the Dispenser of all graces, has given us such touching examples of it? For you know that the Gospel tells us He prayed often, I and even passed the night in prayer? Are we as just, as holy, as this Divine Saviour? Have we no graces to ask for? Let us enter into ourselves; let us consider. Do not the continual needs of our | soul and of our body warn us to have recourse to Him who alone can supply them? How many enemies to vanquish - the devil, the world, and ourselves. How many bad habits to overcome, how many passions to subdue, how many sins to efface! In so frightful and painful a situation, what remains to us, my children? The armour of the | saints: prayer, that necessary virtue, indispensable to good as well as to bad Christians. . . .
Within the reach of the ignorant as well as the learned, enjoined to the simple and to the enlightened, it is the virtue of all mankind; it is the science of all the faithful! Everyone on the earth who has a heart, everyone who has the use of reason ought to love and pray to God; to have recourse to Him when He is irritated; to thank Him when He confers favours; to humble themselves when He strikes.
See, my children, we are poor people who have been taught to beg spiritually, and we do not beg. We are sick people, to whom a cure has been Promised, and we do not ask for it. The good God does not require of us fine prayers, but prayers which come from the bottom of our heart.
St. Ignatius was once travelling with several of his companions; they each carried on their shoulders a little bag, containing what was most necessary for them on the journey. A good Christian, seeing that they were fatigued, was interiorly excited to relieve them; he asked them as a favour to let him help them to carry their burdens. They yielded to his entreaties. When they had arrived at the inn, this man who had followed them, seeing that the Fathers knelt down at a little distance from each other to pray, knelt down also. When the Fathers rose again, they were astonished to see that this man had remained prostrate all the time they were praying: they expressed to him their surprise, and asked him what he had been doing. His answer edified them very much, for he said: "I did nothing but say, Those who pray so devoutly are saints: I am their beast of burden: O Lord! I have the intention of doing what they do: I say to Thee whatever they say. " These were afterwards his ordinary words, and he arrived by means of this at a sublime degree of prayer. Thus, my children, you see that there is no one who cannot pray - and pray at all times, and in all places; by night or by day; amid the most severe labours, or in repose; in the country, at home, in travelling. The good God is everywhere ready to hear your prayers, provided you address them to Him with faith and humility.
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June 5, 2016 - The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? Psalms 27:1
CHAPTER 13 : On Grace
CAN WE, of our own strength, avoid sin, and practice virtue? No, my children, we can do nothing without the grace of God: that is an article of faith; Jesus Christ Himself taught it to us. See, the Church thinks, and all the saints have thought with her, that grace is absolutely necessary to us, and that without it we can neither believe, nor hope, nor love, nor do penance for our sins. St. Paul, whose piety was not counterfeit, assures us, on his part, that we cannot of ourselves even pronounce the name of Jesus in a manner that can gain merit for Heaven. As the earth can produce nothing unless it is fertilised by the sun, so we can do no good without the grace of the good God. Grace, my children, is a supernatural assistance which leads us to good; for example, there is a sinner who goes into a church and hears an instruction: the preacher speaks of Hell, of the severity of the judgments of God; he feels himself interiorly urged to be converted; this interior impulse is what is called grace. See, my children, it is the good God taking that sinner by the hand, and wishing to teach him to walk. We are like little children: we do not know how to walk on the road to Heaven; we stagger, we fall, unless the hand of the good God is always ready to support us. O my children! how good is the good God! If we would think of all that He has done, of all that He still does every day for us, we should not be able to offend Him - we should love Him with all our heart; but we do not think of it, that is the reason. . . . The angels sin, and are cast into Hell. Man sins, and God promises him a Deliverer. What have we done to deserve this favour? What have we done to deserve to be born in the Catholic religion, while so many souls are every day lost in other religions? What have we done to deserve to be baptised, while so many little children in France, as well as in China and America, die without Baptism? What have we done to deserve the pardon of all the sins that we commit after the age of reason, while so many are deprived of the Sacrament of Penance?
O my children! St. Augustine says, and it is very true, that God seeks in us what deserves that He should abandon us, and finds it; and that He seeks what would make us worthy of His gifts, and finds nothing, because, in fact, there is nothing in us - we are nothing but ashes and sin. All our merit, my children, consists in cooperating with grace. See, my children, a beautiful flower has no beauty nor brilliancy without the sun; for during the night it is all withered and drooping. When the sun rises in the morning, it suddenly revives and expands. It is the same with our soul, in regard to Jesus Christ, the true Sun of justice; it has no interior beauty but through sanctifying grace. In order to receive this grace, my children, our soul must turn to the good God by a sincere conversion: we must open our hearts to Him by an act of faith and love. As the sun alone cannot make a flower expand if it is already dead, so the grace of the good God cannot bring us back to life if we will not abandon sin.
God speaks to us, without ceasing, by His good inspirations; He sends us good thoughts, good desires. In youth, in old age, in all the misfortunes of life, He exhorts us to receive His grace, and what use do we make of His warnings? At this moment, even, are we cooperating rightly with grace? Are we not shutting the door of our heart against it? Consider that the good God will one day call you to account for what you have heard today; woe to you, if you stifle the cry that is rising from the depths of your conscience! We are in prosperity, we live in the midst of pleasures, all puffed up with pride; our heart is of ice towards the good God. It is a ball of copper, which the waters of grace cannot penetrate; it is a tree which receives the gentle dew, and bears no more fruit. . . . Let us be on our guard, my children; let us take care not to be unfaithful to grace. The good God leaves us free to choose life or death; if we choose death, we shall be cast into the fire, and we must burn forever with the devils. Let us ask pardon of God for having hitherto abused the graces He has given us, and let us humbly pray Him to grant us more.
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May 29, 2016 - The Lord shows his true love every day. At night I have a song, and I pray to my living God. Psalms 42:8
CHAPTER 12 : On Sloth
Sloth is a kind of cowardice and disgust, which makes us neglect and omit our duties, rather than do violence to ourselves.
ALAS, MY CHILDREN, how many slothful people there are on this earth: how many are cowardly, how many are indolent in the service of the good God! We neglect, we omit our duties of piety, just as easily as we should take a glass of wine. We will not do violence to ourselves; we will not put ourselves to any inconvenience. Everything wearies, everything disgusts the slothful man. Prayer, the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which do so much good to pious souls, are a torture to him. He is weary and dissatisfied in church, at the foot of the altar, in the presence of the good God. At first he feels only dislike and indifference towards everything that is commanded by religion. Soon after, you can no longer speak to him either of Confession or Communion; he has no time to think of those things.
O my children! how miserable we are in losing, in this way, the time that we might so usefully employ in gaining Heaven, in preparing ourselves for eternity! How many moments are lost in doing nothing, or in doing wrong, in listening to the suggestions of the devil, in obeying him! Does not that make us tremble? If one of the lost had only a day or an hour to spend for his salvation, to what profit would he turn it! What haste he would make to save his soul, to reconcile himself with the good God! And we, my children, who have days and years to think of our salvation, to save our souls - we remain there with our arms crossed, like that man spoken of in the Gospel. We neglect, we lose our souls. When death shall come, what shall we have to present to Our Lord? Ah! my children, hear how the good God threatens the idle: "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. " "Take that unprofitable servant, and cast him out into the exterior darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. "
Idleness is the mother of all vices. Look at the idle; they think of nothing but eating, drinking, and sleeping. They are no longer men, but stupid beasts, giving up to all their passions; they drag themselves through the mire like very swine. They are filthy, both within and without. They feed their soul only upon impure thoughts and desires. They never open their mouth but to slander their neighbour, or to speak immodest words. Their eyes, their ears, are open only to criminal objects. . . . O my children! that we may resist idleness, let us imitate the saints. Let us watch continually over ourselves; like them, let us be very zealous in fulfilling all our duties; let the devil never find us doing nothing, lest we should yield to temptation. Let us prepare ourselves for a good death, for eternity. Let us not lose our time in lukewarmness, in negligence, in our habitual infidelities. Death is advancing: tomorrow we must, perhaps, quit our relations, our friends. Let us make haste to merit the reward promised in Paradise to the faithful servant in the Gospel!
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May 22, 2016 - The right word spoken at the right time is as beautiful as gold apples in a silver bowl. Proverbs 25:11
CHAPTER 11 : On Anger
Anger is an emotion of the soul, which leads us violently to repel whatever hurts or displeases us.
THIS EMOTION, my children, comes from the devil: it shows that we are in his hands; that he is the master of our heart; that he holds all the strings of it, and makes us dance as he pleases. See, a person who puts himself in a passion is like a puppet; he knows neither what he says, nor what he does; the devil guides him entirely. He strikes right and left; his hair stands up like the bristles of a hedgehog; his eyes start out of his head - he is a scorpion, a furious lion. . . . Why do we, my children, put ourselves into such a state? Is it not pitiable? It is, mind, because we do not love the good God. Our heart is given up to the demon of pride, who is angry when he thinks himself despised; to the demon of avarice, who is irritated when he suffers any loss; I to the demon of luxury, who is indignant when his pleasures are interfered with. . . . How unhappy we are, my children, thus to be the sport of demons? They do whatever they please with us; they suggest to us evil-speaking, calumny, hatred, vengeance: they even drive us so far as to put our neighbour to death. See, Cain killed his brother Abel out of jealousy; Saul wished to take away the life of David; Theodosius caused the massacre of the inhabitants of Thessalonica, to revenge a personal affront. . . . If we do not put our neighbour to death, we are angry with him, we curse him, we give him to the devil, we wish for his death, we wish for our own. In our fury, we blaspheme the holy Name of God, we accuse His Providence. . . . What fury, what impiety! And what is still more deplorable, my children, we are carried to these excesses for a trifle, for a word, for the least injustice! Where is our faith! Where is our reason? We say in excuse that it is anger that makes us swear; but one sin cannot excuse another sin. The good God equally condemns anger, and the excesses that are its consequences. . . . How we sadden our guardian angel! He is always there at our side to send us good thoughts, and he sees us do nothing but evil. . . . If we did like St. Remigius, we should never be angry. See, this saint, being questioned by a Father of the desert how he managed to be always in an even temper, replied, "I often consider that my guardian angel is always by my side, who assists me in all my needs, who tells me what I ought to do and what I ought to say, and who writes down, after each of my actions, the way in which I have done it. "
Philip II, King of Spain, having passed several hours of the night in writing a long letter to the Pope, gave it to his secretary to fold up and seal. He, being half asleep, made a mistake; when he meant to put sand on the letter, he took the ink bottle and covered all the paper with ink. While he was ashamed and inconsolable, the king said, quite calmly, "No very great harm is done; there is another sheet of paper"; and he took it, and employed the rest of the night in writing a second letter, without showing the least displeasure with his secretary.
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May 15, 2016 - This God is our God forever and ever. He will guide us from now on. Psalms 48:14
CHAPTER 10 : On Gluttony
Gluttony is an inordinate love of eating and drinking.
WE ARE GLUTTONOUS, my children, when we take food in excess, more than is required for the support of our poor body; when we drink beyond what is necessary, so as even to lose our senses and our reason. . . . Oh, how shameful is this vice! How it degrades us! See, it puts us below the brutes: the animals never drink more than to satisfy their thirst: they content themselves with eating enough; and we, when we have satisfied our appetite, when our body can bear no more, we still have recourse to all sorts of little delicacies; we take wine and liquors to repletion! Is it not pitiful? We can no longer keep upon our legs; we fall, we roll into the ditch and into the mud, we become the laughing stock of everyone, even the sport of little children. . . .
If death were to surprise us in this state, my children, we should not have time to recollect ourselves; we should fall in that state into the hands of the good God. What a misfortune, my children! How would our soul be surprised! How would it be astonished! We should shudder with horror at seeing the lost who are in Hell. . . . Do not let us be led by our appetite; we shall ruin our health, we shall lose our soul. . . . See, my children, intemperance and debauchery are the support of doctors; that lets them live, and gives them a great deal of practice. . . . We hear every day, such a one was drunk, and falling down he broke his leg; another, passing a river on a plank, fell into the water and was drowned. . . . Intemperance and drunkenness are the companions of the wicked rich man. . . . A moment of pleasure in this world will cost us very dear in the other. There they will be tormented by a raging hunger and a devouring thirst; they will not even have a drop of water to refresh themselves; their tongue and their body will be consumed by the flames for a whole eternity. . . .
O my children! we do not think about it; and yet that will not fail to happen to some amongst us, perhaps even before the end of the year! St. Paul said that those who give themselves to excess in eating and drinking shall not possess the kingdom of God. Let us reflect on these words! Look at the saints: they pass their life in penance, and we would pass ours in the midst of enjoyments and pleasures. St. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal, fasted all Advent, and also from St. John Baptist's day to the Assumption. Soon after, she began another Lent, which lasted till the feast of St. Michael. She lived upon bread and water only on Fridays and Saturdays, and on the vigils of the feasts of the Blessed Virgin and of the Apostles. They say that St. Bernard drank oil for wine. St. Isidore never ate without shedding tears! If we were good Christians, we should do as the saints have done.
We should gain a great deal for Heaven at our meals; we should deprive ourselves of many little things which, without being hurtful to our body, would be very pleasing to the good God; but we choose rather to satisfy our taste than to please God; we drown, we stifle our soul in wine and food. My children, God will not say to us at the Day of Judgment, "Give Me an account of thy body"; but, "Give Me an account of thy soul; what hast thou done with it?" . . . What shall we answer Him? Do we take as much care of our soul as of our body? O my children! let us no longer live for the pleasure of eating; let us live as the saints have done; let us mortify ourselves as they were mortified. The saints never indulged themselves in the pleasures of good cheer. Their pleasure was to feed on Jesus Christ! Let us follow their footsteps on this earth, and we shall gain the crown which they have in Heaven.
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May 8, 2016 - Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalms 27:14
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MARY AND HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL OUR MOTHERS!!
CHAPTER 9 : On Envy
Envy is a sadness which we feel on account of the good that happens to our neighbour.
ENVY, my children, follows pride; whoever is envious is proud. See, envy comes to us from Hell; the devils having sinned through pride, sinned also through envy, envying our glory, our happiness. Why do we envy the happiness and the goods of others? Because we are proud; we should like to be the sole possessors of talents, riches, of the esteem and love of all the world! We hate our equals, because they are our equals; our inferiors, from the fear that they may equal us; our superiors, because they are above us. In the same way, my children, that the devil after his fall felt, and still feels, extreme anger at seeing us the heirs of the glory of the good God, so the envious man feels sadness at seeing the spiritual and temporal prosperity of his neighbour.
We walk, my children, in the footsteps of the devil; like him, we are vexed at good, and rejoice at evil. If our neighbour loses anything, if his affairs go wrong, if he is humbled, if he is unfortunate, we are joyful. . . we triumph! The devil, too, is full of joy and triumph when we fall, when he can make us fall as low as himself. What does he gain by it? Nothing. Shall we be richer, because our neighbour is poorer? Shall we be greater, because he is less? Shall we be happier, because he is more unhappy? O my children! how much we are to be pitied for being like this! St. Cyprian said that other evils had limits, but that envy had none. In fact, my children, the envious man invents all sorts of wickedness; he has recourse to evil speaking, to calumny, to cunning, in order to blacken his neighbour; he repeats what he knows, and what he does not know he invents, he exaggerates. . . .
Through the envy of the devil, death entered into the world; and also through envy we kill our neighbour; by dint of malice, of falsehood, we make him lose his reputation, his place. . . . Good Christians, my children, do not do so; they envy no one; they love their neighbour; they rejoice at the good that happens to him, and they weep with him if any misfortune comes upon him. How happy should we be if we were good Christians. Ah! my children, let us, then, be good Christians and we shall no more envy the good fortune of our neighbour; we shall never speak evil of him; we shall enjoy a sweet peace; our soul will be calm; we shall find paradise on earth.
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May 1, 2016 - With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished." Genesis 19:15
CHAPTER 8 : On Lust
the love of the pleasures that are contrary to purity.
NO SINS, my children, ruin and destroy a soul so quickly as this shameful sin; it snatches us out of the hands of the good God and hurls us like a stone into an abyss of mire and corruption. Once plunged in this mire, we cannot get out, we make a deeper hole in it every day, we sink lower and lower. Then we lose the faith, we laugh at the truths of religion, we no longer see Heaven, we do not fear Hell. O my children! how much are they to be pitied who give way to this passion! How wretched they are! Their soul, which was so beautiful, which attracted the eyes of the good God, over which He leant as one leans over a perfumed rose, has become like a rotten carcass, of which the pestilential door rises even to His throne. . . .
See, my children! Jesus Christ endured patiently, among His Apostles, men who were proud, ambitious, greedy - even one who betrayed Him; but He could not bear the least stain of impurity in any of them; it is of all vices that which He has most in abhorrence: "My Spirit does not dwell in you," the Lord says, "if you are nothing but flesh and corruption. " God gives up the impure to all the wicked inclinations of his heart. He lets him wallow, like the vile swine, in the mire, and does not even let him smell its offensive exhalations. . . . The immodest man is odious to everyone, and is not aware of it. God has set the mark of ignominy on his forehead, and he is not ashamed; he has a face of brass and a heart of bronze; it is in vain you talk to him of honour, of virtue; he is full of arrogance and pride. The eternal truths, death, judgment, Paradise, Hell - nothing terrifies him, nothing can move him. So, my children, of all sins, that of impurity is the most difficult to eradicate. Other sins forge for us chains of iron, but this one makes them of bull's hide, which can be neither broken nor rent; it is a fire, a furnace, which consumes even to the most advanced old age. See those two infamous old men who attempted the purity of the chaste Susannah; they had kept the fire of their youth even till they were decrepit. When the body is worn out with debauchery, when they can no longer satisfy their passions, they supply the place of it, oh, sham! by infamous desires and memories.
With one foot in the grave, they still speak the language of passion, till their last breath; they die as they have lived, impenitent; for what penance can be done by the impure, what sacrifice can be imposed on himself at his death, who during his life has always given way to his passions? Can one at the last moment expect a good confession, a good Communion, from him who has concealed one of these shameful sins, perhaps, from his earliest youth - who has heaped sacrilege on sacrilege? Will the tongue, which has been silent up to this day, be unloosed at the last moment? No, no, my children; God has abandoned him; many sheets of lead already weigh upon him; he will add another, and it will be the last . . .
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April 24, 2016 - With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished." Genesis 19:15
CHAPTER 7 : On Avarice
Avarice is an inordinate love of the goods of this world.
YES, MY CHILDREN, it is an ill-regulated love, a fatal love, which makes us forget the good God, prayer, the Sacraments, that we may love the goods of this world - gold and silver and lands. The avaricious man is like a pig, which seeks its food in the mud, without caring where it comes from. Stooping towards the earth, he thinks of nothing but the earth; he no longer looks towards Heaven, his happiness is no longer there. The avaricious man does no good till after his death. See, how greedily he gathers up wealth, how anxiously he keeps it, how afflicted he is if he loses it. In the midst of riches, he does not enjoy them; he is, as it were, plunged in a river, and is dying of thirst; lying on a heap of corn, he is dying of hunger; he has everything, my children, and dares not touch anything; his gold is a sacred thing to him, he makes it his divinity, he adores it. . . .
O my children! how many there are in these days who are idolators! how many there are who think more of making a fortune than of serving the good God! They steal, they defraud, they go to law with their neighbour; they do not even respect the laws of God. They work on Sundays and holydays: nothing comes amiss to their greedy and rapacious hands. Good Christians, my children, do not think of their body, which must end in corruption; they think only of their soul, which is immortal. While they are on the earth, they occupy themselves with their soul alone. So you see how assiduous they are at the Offices of the Church, with what fervour they pray before the good God, how they sanctify the Sunday, how recollected they are at holy Mass, how happy they are! The days, the months, the years are nothing to them; they pass them in loving the good God, with their eyes fixed on their eternity. . . .
Seeing us so indifferent to our salvation, and so occupied in gathering up a little mud, would not anyone say that we were never to die? Indeed, my children, we are like people who, during the summer, should make an ample provision of gourds, of melons, for a long journey; after the winter, what would remain of it? Nothing. In the same way, my children, what remains to the avaricious man of all his wealth when death comes upon him unawares? A poor covering, a few planks, and the despair of not being able to carry his gold away with him. Misers generally die in this sort of despair, and pay eternally to the devil for their insatiable thirst for riches. Misers, my children are sometimes punished even in this world.
Once St. Hilarion, followed by a great number of his disciples, going to visit the monasteries under his rule, came to the abode of an avaricious solitary. On their approach, they found watchers in all parts of the vineyard, who threw stones and clods of earth at them to prevent their touching the grapes. This miser was well punished, for he gathered that year much fewer grapes than usual, and his wine turned into vinegar. Another solitary, named Sabbas, begged him, on the contrary, to come into his vineyard, and eat the fruit. St. Hilarion blessed it, and sent in to it his religious, to the number of three thousand, who all satisfied their hunger; and twenty days after, the vineyard yielded three hundred measures of wine, instead of the usual quantity of ten. Let us follow the example of Sabbas, and be disinterested; the good God will bless us, and after having blessed us in this world, He will also reward us in the other.
April 17, 2016 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
CHAPTER 6 : On Pride
Pride is an untrue opinion of ourselves, an untrue idea of what we are not.
THE PROUD MAN is always disparaging himself, that people may praise him the more. The more the proud man lowers himself, the more he seeks to raise his miserable nothingness. He relates what he has done, and what he has not done; he feeds his imagination with what has been said in praise of him, and seeks by all possible means for more; he is never satisfied with praise See, my children, if you only show some little displeasure against a man given up to self-love, he gets angry, and accuses you of ignorance or injustice towards him. . . . My children, we are in reality only what we are in the eyes of God, and nothing more. Is it not quite clear and evident that we are nothing, that we can do nothing, that we are very miserable? Can we lose sight of our sins, and cease to humble ourselves?
If we were to consider well what we are, humility would be easy to us, and the demon of pride would no longer have any room in our heart. See, our days are like grass - like the grass which now flourishes in the meadows, and will presently be withered; like an ear of corn which is fresh only for a moment, and is parched by the sun. In fact, my children, today we are full of life, full of health; and tomorrow, death will perhaps come to reap us and mow us down, as you reap your corn and mow your meadows. . . . Whatever appears vigorous, whatever shines, whatever is beautiful, is of short duration. . . . The glory of this world, youth, honours, riches, all pass away quickly, as quickly as the flower of grass, as the flower of the field. . . . Let us reflect that so we shall one day be reduced to dust; that we shall be thrown into the fire like dry grass, if we do not fear the good God.
Good Christians know this very well, my children; therefore they do not occupy themselves with their body; they despise the affairs of this world; they consider only their soul and how to unite it to God. Can we be proud in the face of the examples of lowliness, of humiliations, that Our Lord has given us, and is still giving us every day? Jesus Christ came upon earth, became incarnate, was born poor, lived in poverty, died on a gibbet, between two thieves. . . . He instituted an admirable Sacrament, in which He communicates Himself to us under the Eucharistic veil; and in this Sacrament He undergoes the most extraordinary humiliations. Residing continually in our tabernacles, He is deserted, misunderstood by ungrateful men; and yet He continues to love us, to serve us in the Sacrament of the Altar.
O my children! what an example of humiliation does the good Jesus give us! Behold Him on the Cross to which our sins have fastened Him; behold Him: He calls us, and says to us, "Come to Me, and learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart. " How well the saints understood this invitation, my children! Therefore, they all sought humiliations and sufferings. After their example, then, let us not be afraid of being humbled and despised. St. John of God, at the beginning of his conversion, counterfeited madness, ran about the streets, and was followed by the populace, who threw stones at him; he always came in covered with mud and with blood. He was shut up as a madman; the most violent remedies were employed to cure him of his pretended illness; and he bore it all in the spirit of penance, and in expiation of his past sins. The good God, my children, does not require of us extraordinary things. He wills that we should be gentle, humble, and modest; then we shall always be pleasing to Him; we shall be like little children; and He will grant us the grace to come to Him and to enjoy the happiness of the saints.
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April 10, 2016 - The wise people will shine like the brightness of the sky. Those who teach others to live right will shine like stars forever and ever. Daniel 12:3
CHAPTER 5 : On Temptations
WE ARE all inclined to sin, my children; we are idle, greedy, sensual, given to the pleasures of the flesh. We want to know everything, to learn everything, to see everything; we must watch over our mind, over our heart, and over our senses, for these are the gates by which the devil penetrates. See, he prowls round us incessantly; his only occupation in this world is to seek companions for himself. All our life he will lay snares for us, he will try to make us yield to temptations; we must, on our side, do all we can to defeat and resist him. We can do nothing by ourselves, my children; but we can do everything with the help of the good God; let us pray Him to deliver us from this enemy of our salvation, or to give strength to fight against him. With the Name of Jesus we shall overthrow the demons; we shall put them to flight. With this Name, if they sometimes dare to attack us, our battles will be victories, and our victories will be crowns for Heaven, all brilliant with precious stones.
See, my children, the good God refuses nothing to those who pray to Him from the bottom of their heart. St. Teresa, being one day in prayer, and desiring to see the good God, Jesus Christ showed to the eyes of her soul His Divine hands; then, another day, when she was again in prayer, He showed her His face. Lastly, some days after, He showed her the whole of His Sacred Humanity. The good God who granted the desire of St. Teresa will also grant our prayers. If we ask of Him the grace to resist temptations, He will grant it to us; for He wishes to save us all, He shed His Blood for us all, He died for us all, He is waiting for us all in Heaven. We are two or three hundred here: shall we all be saved, shall we all go to Heaven? Alas! my children, we know nothing about it; but I tremble when I see so many souls lost in these days.
See, they fall into Hell as the leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter. We shall fall like the rest, my children, if we do not avoid temptations, if, when we cannot avoid them, we do not fight generously, with the help of the good God - if we do not invoke His Name during the strife, like St. Antony in the desert.
This saint having retired into an old sepulchre, the devil came to attack him; he tried at first to terrify him with a horrible noise; he even beat him so cruelly that he left him half dead and covered with wounds. "Well," said St. Antony, "here I am, ready to fight again; no, thou shalt not be able to separate me from Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God. " The spirits of darkness redoubled their efforts, and uttered frightful cries. St. Antony remained unmoved, because he put all his confidence in God. After the example of this saint, my children, let us be always ready for the combat; let us put our confidence in God; let us fast and pray; and the devil will not be able to separate us from Jesus Christ, either in this world or the next.
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April 3, 2016 - Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. Matthew 7:24
CHAPTER 4 : On Sin
Sin is a thought, a word, an action, contrary to the law of God.
BY SIN, my children, we rebel against the good God, we despise His justice, we tread under foot His blessings. From being children of God, we become the executioner and assassin of our soul, the offspring of Hell, the horror of Heaven, the murderer of Jesus Christ, the capital enemy of the good God. O my children! if we thought of this, if we reflected on the injury which sin offers to the good God, we should hold it in abhorrence, we should be unable to commit it; but we never think of it, we like to live at our ease, we slumber in sin. If the good God sends us remorse, we quickly stifle it, by thinking that we have done no harm to anybody, that God is good, and that He did not place us on the earth to make us suffer.
Indeed, my children, the good God did not place us on the earth to suffer and endure, but to work out our salvation. See, He wills that we should work today and tomorrow; and after that, an eternity of joy, of happiness, awaits us in Heaven. . . . 0 my children! how ungrateful we are! The good God calls us to Himself; He wishes to make us happy forever, and we are deaf to His word, we will not share His happiness; He enjoins us to love Him, and we give our heart to the devil. . . . The good God commands all nature as its Master; He makes the winds and the storms obey Him; the angels tremble at His adorable will: man alone dares to resist Him. See, God forbids us that action, that criminal pleasure, that revenge, that injustice; no matter, we are bent upon satisfying ourselves; we had rather renounce the happiness of Heaven, than deprive ourselves of a moment's pleasure, or give up a sinful habit, or change our life. What are we, then, that we dare thus to resist God? Dust and ashes, which He could annihilate with a single look. . . .
By sin, my children, we despise the good God. We renew His Death and Passion; we do as much evil as all the Jews together did, in fastening Him to the Cross. Therefore, my children, if we were to ask those who work without necessity on Sunday: "What are you doing there?" and they were to answer truly, they would say, "We are crucifying the good God. " Ask the idle, the gluttonous, the immodest, what they do every day. If they answer you according to what they are really doing, they will say, "We are crucifying the good God. " O my children! it is very ungrateful to offend a God who has never done us any harm; but is it not the height of ingratitude - to offend a God who has done us nothing but good?
It is He who created us, who watches over us. He holds us in His hands; if He chose, He could cast us into the nothingness out of which He took us. He has given us His Son, to redeem us from the slavery of the devil; He Himself gave Him up to death that He might restore us to life; He has adopted us as His children, and ceases not to lavish His graces upon us. Notwithstanding all this, what use do we make of our mind, of our memory, of our health, of those limbs which He gave us to serve Him with? We employ them, perhaps, in committing crimes.
The good God, my children, has given us eyes to enlighten us, to see Heaven, and we use them to look at criminal and dangerous objects; He has given us a tongue to praise Him, and to express our thoughts, and we make it an instrument of iniquity - we swear, we blaspheme, we speak ill of our neighbour, we slander him; we abuse the supernatural graces, we stifle the salutary remorse by which God would convert us. . . . we reject the inspirations of our good guardian angel. We despise good thoughts, we neglect prayer and the Sacraments. What account do we make even of the Word of God? Do we not listen to it with disgust? How miserable we are! How much we are to be pitied! We employ the time that the good God has given us for our salvation, in losing our souls. We make war upon Him with the means He has given us to serve Him; we turn His own gifts against Him! Let us cast our eyes, my children, upon Jesus fastened to the Cross. and let us say to ourselves, "This is what it has cost my Saviour to repair the injury my sins have done to God. "
A God coming down to the earth to be the victim of our sins! A God suffering, a God dying, a God enduring every torment, because He has put on the semblance of sin, and has chosen to bear the weight of our iniquities! Ah, my children! at the sight of that Cross, let us conceive once for all the malice of sin, and the abhorrence in which we should hold it. . . . Let us enter into ourselves, and see what we ought to do to repair our past sins; let us implore the clemency of the good God, and let us all together say to Him, from the bottom of our heart, "O Lord, who art here crucified for us, have mercy upon us! Thou comest down from Heaven to cure souls of sin; cure us, we beseech Thee; cause our souls to be purified by approaching the tribunal of penance; yes, O God! make us look upon sin as the greatest of all evils, and by our zeal in avoiding it, and in repairing those we have had the misfortune to commit, let us one day attain to the happiness of the saints."
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March 27, 2016 - Wait for the Lord's help and follow him. He will honor you and give you the land, and you will see the wicked sent away. Psalms 37:34
HAPPY EASTER!! He is risen, Alleluia!!!
CHAPTER 3 : On the Last Judgment
OUR CATECHISM tells us, my children, that all men will undergo a particular judgment on the day of their death. No sooner shall we have breathed our last sigh than our soul, without leaving the place where it has expired, will be presented before the tribunal of God. Wherever we may die, God is there to exercise His justice. The good God, my children, has measured out our years, and of those years that He has resolved to leave us on this earth, He has marked out one which shall be our last; one day which we shall not see succeeded by other days; one hour after which there will be for us no more time. What distance is there between that moment and this - the space of an instant. Life, my children, is a smoke, a light vapour; it disappears more quickly than a bird that darts through the air, or a ship that sails on the sea, and leaves no trace of its course!
When shall we die? Alas! will it be in a year, in a month? Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps today! May not that happen to us which happens to so many others? It may be that at a moment when you are thinking of nothing but amusing yourself, you may be summoned to the judgment of God, like the impious Baltassar. What will then be the astonishment of that soul entering on its eternity? Surprised, bewildered, separated thenceforth from its relations and friends, and, as it were, surrounded with Divine light, it will find in its Creator no longer a merciful Father, but an inflexible Judge. Imagine to yourselves, my children, a soul at its departure from this life. It is going to appear before the tribunal of its Judge, alone with God; there is Heaven on one side, Hell on the other. What object presents itself before it? The picture of its whole life! All its thoughts, all its words, all its actions, are examined.
This examination will be terrible, my children, because nothing is hidden from God. His infinite wisdom knows our most inmost thoughts; it penetrates to the bottom of our hearts, and lays open their innermost folds. In vain sinners avoid the light of day that they may sin more freely; they spare themselves a little sham in the eyes of men, but it will be of no advantage to them at the day of judgment; God will make light the darkness under cover of which they thought to sin with impunity. The Holy Ghost, my children, says that we shall be examined on our words, our thoughts, our actions; we shall be examined even on the good we ought to have done, and have not done, on the sins of others of which we have been the cause. Alas! so many thoughts to which we abandon ourselves - to which the mind gives itself up; how many in one day! in a week! in a month! in a year! How many in the whole course of our life! Not one of this infinite number will escape the knowledge of our Judge.
The proud man must give an account of all his thoughts of presumption, of vanity, of ambition; the impure of all his evil thoughts, and of the criminal desires with which he has fed his imagination. Those young people who are incessantly occupied with their dress, who are seeking to please, to distinguish themselves, to attract attention and praise, and who dare not make themselves known in the tribunal of Penance, will they be able still to hide themselves at the day of the judgment of God? No, no! They will appear there such as they have been during their life, before Him who makes known all that is most secret in the heart of man.
We shall give an account, my children, of our oaths, of our imprecations, of our curses. God hears our slanders, our calumnies, our free conversations, our worldly and licentious songs; He hears also the discourse of the impious. This is not all, my children; God will also examine our actions. He will bring to light all our unfaithfulness in His service, our forgetfulness of His Commandments, our transgression of His law, the profanation of His churches, the attachment to the world, the ill-regulated love of pleasure and of the perishable goods of earth. All, my children, will be unveiled; those thefts, that injustice, that usury, that intemperance, that anger, those disputes, that tyranny, that revenge, those criminal liberties, those abominations that cannot be named without blushes....
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March 20, 2016 - So I tell you to believe that you have received the things you ask for in prayer, and God will give them to you. Mark 11:24
CHAPTER 2 : On Death
A DAY WILL come, perhaps it is not far off, when we must bid adieu to life, adieu to the world, adieu to our relations, adieu to our friends. When shall we return, my children? Never. We appear upon this earth, we disappear, and we return no more; our poor body, that we take such care of, goes away into dust, and our soul, all trembling, goes to appear before the good God. When we quit this world, where we shall appear no more, when our last breath of life escapes, and we say our last adieu, we shall wish to have passed our life in solitude, in the depths of a desert, far from the world and its pleasures. We have these examples of repentance before our eyes every day, my children, and we remain always the same. We pass our life gaily, without ever troubling ourselves about eternity. By our indifference to the service of the good God, one would think we were never going to die.
See, my children, some people pass their whole life without thinking of death. It comes, and behold! they have nothing; faith, hope, and love, all are already dead within them. When death shall come upon us, of what use will three-quarters of our life have been to us? With what are we occupied the greatest part of our time? Are we thinking of the good God, of our salvation, of our soul? O my children! what folly is the world! We come into it, we go out of it, without knowing why. The good God places us in it to serve Him, to try if we will love Him and be faithful to His law; and after this short moment of trial, He promises us a recompense. Is it not just that He should reward the faithful servant and punish the wicked one? Should the Trappist, who has passed his life in lamenting and weeping over his sins, be treated the same as the bad Christian, who has lived in abundance in the midst of all the enjoyments of life? No; certainly not. We are on earth not to enjoy its pleasures, but to labor for our salvation.
Let us prepare ourselves for death; we have not a minute to lose: it will come upon us at the moment when we least expect it; it will take us by surprise. Look at the saints, my children, who were pure; they were always trembling, they pined away with fear; and we, who so often offend the good God - we have no fears. Life is given us that we may learn to die well, and we never think of it. We occupy ourselves with everything else. The idea of it often occurs to us, and we always reject it; we put it off to the last moment. O my children! this last moment, how much it is to be feared! Yet the good God does not wish us to despair; He shows us the good thief, touched with repentance, dying near Him on the cross; but he is the only one; and then see, he dies near the good God. Can we hope to be near Him at our last moment - we who have been far from Him all our life? What have we done to deserve that favour? A great deal of evil, and no good.
There was once a good Trappist Father, who was trembling all over at perceiving the approach of death. Someone said to him, "Father, of what then are you afraid?" "Of the judgment of God," he said. "Ah! if you dread the judgment - you who have done so much penance, you who love God so much, who have been so long preparing for death - what will become of me?" See, my children, to die well we must live well; to live well, we must seriously examine ourselves: every evening think over what we have done during the day; at the end of each week review what we have done during the week; at the end of each month review what we have done during the month; at the end of the year, what we have done during the year. By this means, my children, we cannot fail to correct ourselves, and to become fervent Christians in a short time. Then, when death comes, we are quite ready; we are happy to go to Heaven.
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March 13, 2016 - Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. Genesis 4:7
PART II : EXPLANATIONS AND EXHORTATIONS
Sixteen Exhortations of the Holy Curé of Ars
CHAPTER 1 : On Salvation
THE HAPPINESS of man on earth, my children, is to be very good; those who are very good bless the good God, they love Him, they glorify Him, and do all their works with joy and love, because they know that we are in this world for no other end than to serve and love the good God.
Look at bad Christians; they do everything with trouble and disgust; and why, my children? because they do not love the good God, because their soul is not pure, and their hopes are no longer in Heaven, but on earth. Their heart is an impure source which poisons all their actions, and prevents them from rising to God; so they come to die without having thought of death, destitute of good works for Heaven, and loaded with crimes for Hell: this is the way they are lost forever, my children. People say it is too much trouble to save one's soul; but, my children, is it not trouble to acquire glory or fortune? Do you stay in bed when you have to go and plough, or mow, or reap? No. Well, then, why should you be more idle when you have to lay up an immense fortune which will never perish - when you have to strive for eternal glory?
See, my children, if we really wish to be saved we must determine, once for all, to labor in earnest for our salvation; our soul is like a garden in which the weeds are ever ready to choke the good plants and flowers that have been sown in it. If the gardener who has charge of this garden neglects it, if he is not continually using the spade and the hoe, the flowers and plants will soon disappear. Thus, my children, do the virtues with which God has been pleased to adorn our soul disappear under our vices if we neglect to cultivate them. As a vigilant gardener labours from morning till night to destroy the weeds in his garden, and to ornament it with flowers, so let us labor every day to extirpate the vices of our soul and to adorn it with virtues. See, my children, a gardener never lets the weeds take root, because he knows that then he would never be able to destroy them. Neither let us allow our vices to take root, or we shall not be able to conquer them.
One day, an anchorite being in a forest with a companion, showed him four cypresses to be pulled up one after the other; the young man, who did not very well know why he told him to do this, took hold of the first tree, which was quite small, and pulled it up with one hand without trouble; the second, which was a little bigger and had some roots, made him pull harder, but yet he pulled it up with one hand; the third, being still bigger, offered so much resistance, that he was obliged to take both hands and to use all his strength; the fourth, which was grown into a tree, had such deep roots, that he exhausted himself in vain efforts. The saint then said to him, "With a little vigilance and mortification, we succeed in repressing our passions, and we triumph over them when they are only springing up; but when they have taken deep root, nothing is more difficult; the thing is even impossible without a miracle. "
Let us not reckon on a miracle of Providence, my children; let us not put off till the end of our life the care that we ought daily to take of our soul; let us labor while there is yet time - later it will no longer be within our power; let us lay our hands to the work; let us watch over ourselves; above all, let us pray to the good God - with His assistance we shall always have power over our passions. Man sins, my children; but if he has not in this first moment lost the faith, he runs, he hastens, he flies, to seek a remedy for his ill; he cannot soon enough find the tribunal of penance, where he can recover his happiness. That is the way we should conduct ourselves if we were good Christians. Yes, my children, we could not remain one moment under the empire of the devil; we should be ashamed of being his slaves. A good Christian watches continually, sword in hand, the devil can do nothing against him, for he resists him like a warrior in full armour; he does not fear him, because he has rejected from his heart all that is impure. Bad Christians are idle and lazy, and stand hanging their heads; and you see how they give way at the first assault: the devil does what he pleases with them; he presents pleasures to them, he makes them taste pleasure, and then, to drown the cries of their conscience, he whispers to them in a gentle voice, "Thou wilt sin no more. " And when the occasion presents itself, they fall again, and more easily than the first time. If they go to confession he makes them ashamed, they speak only in half-words, they lower their voice, they explain away their sins, and, what is more miserable, they perhaps conceal some. The good Christian, on the contrary, groans and weeps over his sins, and reaches the tribunal of Penance already half justified.
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March 6, 2016 - The Lord is my strength and defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. Exodus 15:2
CHAPTER 20 : Catechism on the Cardinal Virtues
PRUDENCE SHOWS us what is most pleasing to God, and most useful to the salvation of our soul. We must always choose the most perfect. Two good works present themselves to be done, one in favour of a person we love, the other in favour of a person who has done us some harm; well, we must give the preference to the latter. There is no merit in doing good, when a natural feeling leads us to do it. A lady, wishing to have a widow to live with her to take care of, asked St. Athanasius to find her one among the poor. Afterwards, meeting the Bishop, she reproached him that he had treated her ill, because this person was too good, and gave her nothing to do by which she could gain Heaven; and she begged him to give her another. The saint chose the worst he could find; of a cross, grumbling temper, never satisfied with what was done for her. This is the way we must act, for there is no great merit in doing good to one who values it, who thanks us and is grateful.
There are some persons who think they are never treated well enough; they seem as if they had a right to everything. They are never pleased with what is done for them: they repay everybody with ingratitude. . . . Well! those are the people to whom we should do good by preference. We must be prudent in all our actions, and seek not our own taste, but what is most pleasing to the good God. Suppose you have a franc that you intend to give for a Mass; you see a poor family in distress, in want of bread: it is better to give your money to these wretched people, because the Holy Sacrifice will still be offered; the priest will not fail to say Holy Mass; while these poor people may die of hunger. . . . You would wish to pray to the good God, to pass your whole day in the church; but you think it would be very useful to work for some poor people that you know, who are in great need; that is much more pleasing to God than your day passed before the holy tabernacle.
Temperance is another cardinal virtue: we can be temperate in the use of our imagination, by not letting it gallop as fast as it would wish; we can be temperate with our eyes, temperate with our mouth - some people constantly have something sweet and pleasant in their mouth; we can be temperate with our ears, not allowing them to listen to useless songs and conversation; temperate in smelling - some people perfume themselves to such a degree as to make those about them sick; temperate with the hands - some people are always washing them when it is hot, and handling things that are soft to the touch. . . . In short, we can practice temperance with our whole body, this poor machine, by not letting it run away like a horse without bit or bridle, but checking it and keeping it down. Some people lie buried there, in their beds; they are glad not to sleep, that they may the better feel how comfortable they are. The saints were not like that. I do not know how we are ever to get where they are. . . . Well! if we are saved, we shall stay infinitely long in Purgatory, while they will fly straight to Heaven to see the good God.
That great saint, St. Charles Borromeo, had in his apartment a fine cardinal's bed, which everybody saw; but, besides that, there was one which nobody could see, made of bundles of wood; and that was the one he made use of. He never warmed himself; when people came to see him, they remarked that he placed himself so as not to feel the fire. That is what the saints were like. They lived for Heaven, and not for earth; they were all heavenly; and as for us, we are all earthly. Oh, how I like those little mortifications that are seen by nobody, such as rising a quarter of an hour sooner, rising for a little while in the night to pray! but some people think of nothing but sleeping. There was once a solitary who had built himself a royal palace in the trunk of an oak tree; he had placed thorns inside of it, and he had fastened three stones over his head, so that when he raised himself or turned over he might feel the stones or the thorns. And we, we think of nothing but finding good beds, that we may sleep at our ease.
We may refrain from warming ourselves; if we are sitting uncomfortably, we need not try to place ourselves better; if we are walking in our garden, we may deprive ourselves of some fruit that we should like; in preparing the food, we need not eat the little bits that offer themselves; we may deprive ourselves of seeing something pretty, which attracts our eyes, especially in the streets of great towns. There is a gentleman who sometimes comes here. He wears two pairs of spectacles, that he may see nothing. . . . But some heads are always in motion, some eyes are always looking about. . . . When we are going along the streets, let us fix our eyes on Our Lord carrying His Cross before us; on the Blessed Virgin, who is looking at us; on our guardian angel, who is by our side. How beautiful is this interior life! It unites us with the good God. . . . Therefore, when the devil sees a soul that is seeking to attain to it, he tries to turn him aside from it by filling his imagination with a thousand fancies. A good Christian does not listen to that; he goes always forward in perfection, like a fish plunging into the depths of the sea. . . . As for us, Alas! we drag ourselves along like a leech in the mud.
There were two saints in the desert who had sewed thorns into all their clothes; and we seek for nothing but comfort! Yet we wish to go to Heaven, but with all our luxuries, without having any annoyance; that is not the way the saints acted. They sought every way of mortifying themselves, and in the midst of all their privations they tasted infinite sweetness. How happy are those who love the good God! They do not lose a single opportunity of doing good; misers employ all the means in their power to increase their treasure; they do the same for the riches of Heaven - they are always heaping up. We shall be surprised at the Day of Judgment to see souls so rich!
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February 28, 2016 - The Lord saves good people; he is their strength in times of trouble. The Lord helps them and saves them; he saves them from the wicked, because they trust in him for protection. Psalms 37:39-40
CHAPTER 19 : Catechism on Hope
MY CHILDREN, we are going to speak of hope: that is what makes the happiness of man on earth. Some people in this world hope too much, and others do not hope enough. Some say, "I am going to commit this sin again. It will not cost me more to confess four than three. " It is like a child saying to his father, "I am going to give you four blows; it will cost me no more than to give you one: I shall only have to ask your pardon. "
That is the way men behave towards the good God. They say, "This year I shall amuse myself again; I shall go to dances and to the alehouse, and next year I will be converted. The good God will be sure to receive me, when I choose to return to Him. He is not so cruel as the priests tell us. " No, the good God is not cruel, but He is just. Do you think He will adapt Himself in everything to your will? Do you think that He will embrace you, after you have despised Him all your life? Oh no, indeed! There is a certain measure of grace and of sin after which God withdraws Himself. What would you say of a father who should treat a good child, and one not so the same, the father is not just. Well! God would not be just if He made no difference between those who serve Him and those who offend Him. My children, there is so little faith now in the world that people either hope too much, or they despair. Some say, "I have done too much evil; the good God cannot pardon me:' My children, this is a great blasphemy; it is putting a limit to the mercy of God, which has no limit - it is infinite. You may have done evil enough to lose the souls of a whole parish, and if you confess, if you are sorry for having done this evil, and resolve not to do it again, the good God will have pardoned you.
A priest was once preaching on hope, and on ; the mercy of the good God. He reassured others, but he himself despaired. After the sermon, a young man presented himself, saying, "Father, I am come to confess to you:' The priest answered, "I am willing to hear your confession:' The other recounted his sins, after which he added, "Father, I have done much evil; I am lost!" "What do you say, my friend! We must never despair:' The young man rose, saying, "Father, you wish me not to despair, and what do you do?" This was a ray of light; the priest, all astonishment, drove away that thought of despair, became a religious and a great saint. . . . The good God had sent him an angel under the form of a young man, to show him that we must never despair. The good God is as prompt to grant us pardon when we ask it of Him as a mother is to snatch her child out of the fire.
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February 21, 2016 - The Lord says, "I will make you wise and show you where to go. I will guide you and watch over you." Psalms 32:8
CHAPTER 18 : Catechism on Suffering
WHETHER WE will or not, we must suffer. There are some who suffer like the good thief, and others like the bad thief. They both suffered equally. But one knew how to make his sufferings meritorious, he accepted them in the spirit of reparation, and turning towards Jesus crucified, he received from His mouth these beautiful words: "This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise. " The other, on the contrary, cried out, uttered imprecations and blasphemies, and expired in the most frightful despair. There are two ways of suffering - to suffer with love, and to suffer without love. The saints suffered everything with joy, patience, and perseverance, because they loved. As for us, we suffer with anger, vexation, and weariness, because we do not love. If we loved God, we should love crosses, we should wish for them, we should take pleasure in them. . . . We should be happy to be able to suffer for the love of Him who lovingly suffered for us. Of what do we complain? Alas! the poor infidels, who have not the happiness of knowing God and His infinite loveliness, have the same crosses that we have; but they have not the same consolations. You say it is hard? No, it is easy, it is consoling, it is sweet; it is happiness. Only we must love while we suffer, and suffer while we love.
On the Way of the Cross, you see, my children, only the first step is painful. Our greatest cross is the fear of crosses. . . . We have not the courage to carry our cross, and we are very much mistaken; for, whatever we do, the cross holds us tight - we cannot escape from it. What, then, have we to lose? Why not love our crosses and make use of them to take us to Heaven? But, on the contrary, most men turn their backs upon crosses, and fly before them. The more they run, the more the cross pursues them, the more it strikes and crushes them with burdens. . . . If you were wise, you would go to meet it like St. Andrew, who said, when he saw the cross prepared for him and raised up into the air, "Hail O good cross! O admirable cross! O desirable cross! receive me into thine arms, withdraw me from among men, and restore me to my Master, who redeemed me through thee. "
Listen attentively to this, my children: He who goes to meet the cross, goes in the opposite direction to crosses; he meets them, perhaps, but he is pleased to meet them; he loves them; he carries them courageously. They unite him to Our Lord; they purify him; they detach him from this world; they remove all obstacles from his heart; they help him to pass through life, as a bridge helps us to pass over water. . . . Look at the saints; when they were not persecuted. they persecuted themselves. A good religious complained one day to Our Lord that he was persecuted. He said, "O Lord, what have I done to be treated thus?" Our Lord answered him, "And I, what had I done when I was led to Calvary?" Then the religious understood; he wept, he asked pardon, and dared not complain any more. Worldly people are miserable when they have crosses, and good Christians are miserable when they have none. The Christian lives in the midst of crosses, as the fish lives in the sea.
Look at St. Catherine; she has two crowns, that of purity and that of martyrdom: how happy she is, that dear little saint, to have chosen to suffer rather than to consent to sin! There was once a religious who loved suffering so much that he had fastened the rope from a well round his body; this cord had rubbed off the skin, and had by degrees buried itself in the flesh, out of which worms came. His brethren asked that he should be sent out of the community. He went away happy and pleased, to hide himself in a rocky cavern. But the same night the Superior heard Our Lord saying to him: "Thou hast lost the treasure of thy house. " Then they went to fetch back this good saint, and they wanted to see from whence these worms came. The Superior had the cord taken off, which was done by turning back the flesh. At last he got well.
Very near this, in a neighbouring parish, there was a little boy in bed, covered with sores, very ill, and very miserable; I said to him, "My poor little child, you are suffering very much!" He answered me, "No, sir; today I do not feel the pain I had yesterday, and tomorrow I shall not suffer from the pain I have now:' "You would like to get well?" "No; I was naughty before I was ill, and I might be so again. I am very well as I am. " We do not understand that, because we are too earthly. Children in whom the Holy Ghost dwells put us to shame.
If the good God sends us crosses, we resist, we complain, we murmur; we are so averse to whatever contradicts us, that we want to be always in a box of cotton: but we ought to be put into a box of thorns. It is by the Cross that we go to Heaven. Illnesses, temptations, troubles, are so many crosses which take us to Heaven. All this will soon be over. . . . Look at the saints, who have arrived there before us. . . . The good God does not require of us the martyrdom of the body; He requires only the martyrdom of the heart, and of the will. . . . Our Lord is our model; let us take up our cross, and follow Him. Let us do like the soldiers of Napoleon. They had to cross a bridge under the fire of grapeshot; no one dared to pass it. Napoleon took the colours, marched over first, and they all followed. Let us do the same; let us follow Our Lord, who has gone before us.
A soldier was telling me one day that during a battle he had marched for half an hour over dead bodies; there was hardly space to tread upon; the ground was all dyed with blood. Thus on the road of life we must walk over crosses and troubles to reach our true country. The cross is the ladder to Heaven. . . . How consoling it is to suffer under the eyes of God, and to be able to say in the evening, at our examination of conscience: "Come, my soul! thou hast had today two or three hours of resemblance to Jesus Christ. Thou hast been scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified with Him!" Oh what a treasure for the hour of death! How sweet it is to die, when we have lived on the cross! We ought to run after crosses as the miser runs after money. . . . Nothing but crosses will reassure us at the Day of Judgment. When that day shall come, we shall be happy in our misfortunes, proud of our humiliations, and rich in our sacrifices!
If someone said to you, "I should like to become rich; what must I do?" you would answer him, "You must labor:' Well, in order to get to Heaven, we must suffer. Our Lord shows us the way in the person of Simon the Cyrenian; He calls His friends to carry His Cross after Him. The good God wishes us never to lose sight of the Cross, therefore it is placed everywhere; by the roadside, on the heights, in the public squares - in order that at the sight of it we may say, "See how God has loved us!" The Cross embraces the world; it is planted at the four corners of the world; there is a share of it for all. Crosses are on the road to Heaven like a fine bridge of stone over a river, by which to pass it. Christians who do not suffer pass this river by a frail bridge, a bridge of wire, always ready to give way under their feet.
He who does not love the Cross may indeed be saved, but with great difficulty: he will be a little star in the firmament. He who shall have suffered and fought for his God will shine like a beautiful sun. Crosses, transformed by the flames of love, are like a bundle of thorns thrown into the fire, and reduced by the fire to ashes. The thorns are hard, but the ashes are soft. Oh, how much sweetness do souls experience that are all for God in suffering! It is like a mixture into which one puts a great deal of oil: the vinegar remains vinegar; but the oil corrects its bitterness, and it can scarcely be perceived.
If you put fine grapes into the wine press, there will come out a delicious juice: our soul, in the wine press of the Cross, gives out a juice that nourishes and strengthens it. When we have no crosses, we are arid: if we bear them with resignation, we feel a joy, a happiness, a sweetness! . . . it is the beginning of Heaven. The good God, the Blessed Virgin, the angels, and the saints, surround us; they are by our side, and see us. The passage to the other life of the good Christian tried by affliction, is like that of a person being carried on a bed of roses. Thorns give out a perfume, and the Cross breathes forth sweetness. But we must squeeze the thorns in our hands, and press the Cross to our heart, that they may give out the juice they contain.
The Cross gave peace to the world; and it must bring peace to our hearts. All our miseries come from not loving it. The fear of crosses increases them. A cross carried simply, and without those returns of self-love which exaggerate troubles, is no longer a cross. Peaceable suffering is no longer suffering. We complain of suffering! We should have much more reason to complain of not suffering, since nothing makes us more like Our Lord than carrying His Cross. Oh, what a beautiful union of the soul with Our Lord Jesus Christ by the love and the virtue of His Cross! I do not understand how a Christian can dislike the Cross, and fly from it! Does he not at the same time fly from Him who has deigned to be fastened to it, and to die for us?
Contradictions bring us to the foot of the Cross, and the Cross to the gate of Heaven. That we may get there, we must be trodden upon, we must be set at naught, despised, crushed. . . . There are no happy people in this world but those who enjoy calmness of mind in the midst of the troubles of life: they taste the joys of the children of God. . . . All pains are sweet when we suffer in union with Our Lord. . . . To suffer! what does it signify? It is only a moment. If we could go and pass a week in Heaven, we should understand the value of this moment of suffering. We should find no cross heavy enough, no trial bitter enough. . . . The Cross is the gift that God makes to His friends.
How beautiful it is to offer ourselves every morning in sacrifice to the good God, and to accept everything in expiation of our sins! We must ask for the love of crosses; then they become sweet.
I tried it for four or five years. I was well calumniated, well contradicted, well knocked about. Oh, I had crosses indeed! I had almost more than I could carry! Then I took to asking for love of crosses, and I was happy. I said to myself, truly there is no happiness but in this! We must never think from whence crosses come: they come from God. It is always God who gives us this way of proving our love to Him.
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February 14, 2016 - Through these he gave us the very great and precious promises. With these gifts you can share in being like God, and the world will not ruin you with its evil desires. 2 Peter 1:4
CHAPTER 17 : Catechism on Confession
MY CHILDREN, as soon as ever you have a little spot upon your soul, you must do like a person who has a fine globe of glass, which he keeps very carefully. If this globe has a little dust on it, he wipes it with a sponge the moment he perceives it, and there is the globe clear and brilliant. In the same way, as soon as you perceive a little stain on your soul, take some holy water with respect, do one of those good works to which the remission of venial sins is attached - an alms, a genuflection to the Blessed Sacrament, hearing a Mass. My children, it is like a person who has a slight illness; he need not go and see a doctor, he may cure himself without. If he has a headache, he need only go to bed; if he is hungry, he has only to eat. But if it is a serious illness, if it is a dangerous wound, he must have the doctor; after the doctor come the remedies. In the same way, when we have fallen into any grievous sin, we must have recourse to the doctor, that is the priest; and to the remedy, that is confession.
My children, we cannot comprehend the goodness of God towards us in instituting this great Sacrament of Penance. If we had had a favour to ask of Our Lord, we should never have thought of asking Him that. But He foresaw our frailty and our inconstancy in well-doing, and His love induced Him to do what we should not have dared to ask. If one said to those poor lost souls that have been so long in Hell, "We are going to place a priest at the gate of Hell: all those who wish to confess have only to go out, " do you think, my children, that a single one would remain? The most guilty would not be afraid of telling their sins, nor even of telling them before all the world. Oh, how soon Hell would be a desert, and how Heaven would be peopled! Well, we have the time and the means, which those poor lost souls have not. And I am quite sure that those wretched ones say in Hell, "O accursed priest! if I had never known you, I should not be so guilty!"
It is a beautiful thought, my children, that we have a Sacrament which heals the wounds of our soul! But we must receive it with good dispositions. Otherwise we make new wounds upon the old ones. What would you say of a man covered with wounds who is advised to go to the hospital to show himself to the surgeon? The surgeon cures him by giving him remedies. But, behold! this man takes his knife, gives himself great blows with it and makes himself worse than he was before. Well, that is what you often do after leaving the confessional.
My children, some people make bad confessions without taking any notice of it. These persons say, "I do not know what is the matter with me:' . . . They are tormented, and they do not know why. They have not that agility which makes one go straight to the good God; they have something heavy and weary about them which fatigues them. My children, that is because of sins that remain, often even venial sins, for which one has some affection. There are some people who, indeed, tell everything, but they have no repentance; and they go at once to Holy Communion. Thus the Blood of Our Lord is profaned! They go to the Holy Table with a sort of weariness. They say, "Yet, I accused myself of all my sins. . . I do not know what is the matter with me. " There is an unworthy Communion, and they were hardly aware of it!
My children, some people again profane the Sacraments in another manner. They have concealed mortal sins for ten years, for twenty years. They are always uneasy; their sin is always present to their mind; they are always thinking of confessing it, and always putting it off; it is a Hell. When these people feel this, they will ask to make a general confession, and they will tell their sins as if they had just committed them: they will not confess that they have hidden them during ten years - twenty years. That is a bad confession! They ought to say, besides, that they had given up the practice of their religion, that they no longer felt the pleasure they had formerly in serving the good God.
My children, we run the risk again of profaning the Sacrament if we seize the moment when there is a noise round the confessional to tell the sins quickly which give us most pain. We quiet ourselves by saying, "I accused myself properly; so much the worse if the confessor did not hear. " So much the worse for you who acted cunningly! At other times we speak quickly, profiting by the moment when the priest is not very attentive to get over the great sins. Take a house which has been for a long time very dirty and neglected - it is in vain to sweep out, there will always be a nasty smell. It is the same with our soul after confession; it requires tears to purify it. My children, we must ask earnestly for repentance. After confession, we must plant a thorn in our heart, and never lose sight of our sins. We must do as the angel did to St. Francis of Assisi; he fixed in him five darts, which never came out again.
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February 7, 2016 - Those who are careful about what they say keep themselves out of trouble. Proverbs 21:23
CHAPTER 16 : Catechism on Impurity
THAT WE MAY understand how horrible and detestable is this sin, which the demons make us commit, but which they do not commit themselves, we must consider what a Christian is. A Christian, created in the image of God, redeemed by the Blood of a God! a Christian, the child of God, the brother of a God, the heir of a God! a Christian, whose body is the temple of the Holy Ghost; that is what sin dishonours. We are created to reign one day in Heaven, and if we have the misfortune to commit this sin, we become the den of the devils. Our Lord said that nothing impure should enter into His kingdom. Indeed, how could a soul that has rolled itself in this filth go to appear before so pure and so holy a God?
We are all like little mirrors, in which God contemplates Himself. How can you expect that God should recognize His likeness in an impure soul? There are some souls so dead, so rotten, that they lie in their defilement without perceiving it, and can no longer clear themselves from it; everything leads them to evil, everything reminds them of evil, even the most holy things; they always have these abominations before their eyes; like the unclean animal that is accustomed to live in filth, that is happy in it, that rolls itself and goes to sleep in it, that grunts in the mud; these persons are an object of horror in the eyes of God and of the holy angels. See, my children, Our Lord was crowned with thorns to expiate our sins of pride; but for this accursed sin, He was scourged and torn to pieces, since He said Himself that after his flagellation all His bones might be counted.
O my children, if there were not some pure souls here and there, to make amends to the good God, and disarm His justice, you would see how we should be punished! For now, this crime is so common in the world, that it is enough to make one tremble. One may say, my children, that Hell vomits forth its abominations upon the earth, as the chimneys of the steam engine vomit forth smoke. The devil does all he can to defile our soul, and yet our soul is everything. . . our body is only a heap of corruption: go to the cemetery to see what you love, when you love your body. As I have often told you, there is nothing so vile as the impure soul. There was once a saint, who had asked the good God to show him one; and he saw that poor soul like a dead beast that has been dragged through the streets in the hot sun for a week.
By only looking at a person, we know if he is pure. His eyes have an air of candour and modesty which leads you to the good God. Some people, on the contrary, look quite inflamed with passion. . . Satan places himself in their eyes to make others fall and to lead them to evil. Those who have lost their purity are like a piece of cloth stained with oil; you may wash it and dry it, and the stain always appears again: so it requires a miracle to cleanse the impure soul.
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January 31, 2016 - Train children to live the right way, and when they are old, they will not stray from it. Proverbs 22:6
CHAPTER 15 : Catechism on Pride
PRIDE IS that accursed sin which drove the angels out of paradise, and hurled them into Hell. This sin began with the world. See, my children, we sin by pride in many ways. A person may be proud in his clothes, in his language, in his gestures, even in his manner of walking. Some persons, when they are in the streets, walk along proudly, and seem to say to the people they meet, "Look how tall, how upright I am, how well I walk!" Others, when they have done any good action, are never tired of talking of it; and if they fail in anything, they are miserable because they think people will have a bad opinion of them . . . others are sorry to be seen with the poor, if they meet with anybody of consequence; they are always seeking the company of the rich. . . if by chance, they are noticed by the great people of the world, they boast and are vain of it. Others take pride in speaking. If they go to see rich people, they consider what they are going to say, they study fine language; and if they make a mistake of a word, they are very much vexed, because they are afraid of being laughed at. But, my children, with a humble person it is not so. . . whether he is laughed at or esteemed, or praised, or blamed, whether he is honoured or despised, whether people pay attention to him or pass him by, it is all the same to him.
My children, there are again people who give great alms, that they may be well thought of - that will not do These people will reap no fruit from their good works. On the contrary, their alms will turn into sins. We put pride into everything like salt. We like to see that our good works are known. If our virtues are seen, we are pleased; if our faults are perceived, we are sad. I remark that in a great many people; if one says anything to them, it disturbs them, it annoys them. The saints were not like that - they were vexed if their virtues were known, and pleased that their imperfections should be seen. A proud person thinks everything he does is well done; he wants to domineer over all those who have to do with him; he is always right, he always thinks his own opinion better than that of others. That will not do! A humble and well-taught person, if he is asked his opinion, gives it at once, and then lets others speak. Whether they are right, or whether they are wrong, he says nothing more.
When St. Aloysius Gonzaga was a student, he never sought to excuse himself when he was reproached with anything; he said what he thought, and troubled himself no further about what others might think; if he was wrong, he was wrong; if he was right, he said to himself, "I have certainly been wrong some other time. " My children, the saints were so completely dead to themselves, that they cared very little whether others agreed with them. People in the world say, "Oh, the saints were simpletons!" Yes, they were simpletons in worldly things; but in the things of God they were very wise. They understood nothing about worldly matters, to be sure, because they thought them of so little importance, that they paid no attention to them.
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January 24, 2016 - Whoever does not care for his own relatives, especially his own family members, has turned against the faith and is worse than someone who does not believe in God. 1 Timothy 5:8
CHAPTER 14 :Catechism on Sin
SIN IS the executioner of the good God, and the assassin of the soul. It snatches us away from Heaven to precipitate us into Hell. And we love it! What folly! If we thought seriously about it, we should have such a lively horror of sin that we could not commit it. O my children, how ungrateful we are! The good God wishes to make us happy; that is very certain; He gave us His Law for no other end. The Law of God is great; it is broad. King David said that he found his delight in it, and that it was a treasure more precious to him than the greatest riches. He said also that he walked at large, because he had sought after the Commandments of the Lord. The good God wishes, then, to make us happy, and we do not wish to be so. We turn away from Him, and give ourselves to the devil! We fly from our Friend, and we seek after our murderer! We commit sin; we plunge ourselves into the mire. Once sunk in this mire, we know not how to get out. If our fortune were in the case, we should soon find out how to get out of the difficulty; but because it only concerns our soul, we stay where we are.
We come to confession quite preoccupied with the shame that we shall feel. We accuse ourselves by steam. It is said that many confess, and few are converted. I believe it is so, my children, because few confess with tears of repentance. See, the misfortune is, that people do not reflect. If one said to those who work on Sundays, to a young person who had been dancing for two or three hours, to a man coming out of an alehouse drunk, "What have you been doing? You have been crucifying Our Lord!" they would be quite astonished, because they do not think of it. My children, if we thought of it, we should be seized with horror; it would be impossible for us to do evil. For what has the good God done to us that we should grieve Him thus, and put Him to death afresh - Him, who has redeemed us from Hell? It would be well if all sinners, when they are going to their guilty pleasures, could, like St. Peter, meet Our Lord on the way, who would say to them, "I am going to that place where thou art going thyself, to be there crucified afresh. " Perhaps that might make them reflect.
The saints understood how great an outrage sin is against God. Some of them passed their lives in weeping for their sins. St. Peter wept all his life; he was still weeping at his death. St. Bernard used to say, "Lord! Lord! it is I who fastened Thee to the Cross!" By sin we despise the good God, we crucify the good God! What a pity it is to lose our souls, which have cost Our Lord so many sufferings! What harm has Our Lord done us, that we should treat Him so? If the poor lost souls could come back to the earth! if they were in our place! Oh, how senseless we are! the good God calls us to Him, and we fly from Him! He wishes to make us happy, and we will not have His happiness. He commands us to love Him, and we give our hearts to the devil. We employ in ruining ourselves the time He gives us to save our souls. We make war upon Him with the means He gave us to serve Him.
When we offend the good God, if we were to look at our crucifix, we should hear Our Lord saying to us in the depths of our soul, "Wilt thou too, then, take the side of My enemies? Wilt thou crucify Me afresh?" Cast your eyes on Our Lord fastened to the Cross, and say to yourself, "That is what it cost my Saviour to repair the injury my sins have done to God!" A God coming down to earth to be the victim of our sins, a God suffering, a God dying, a God enduring every torment, because He would bear the weight of our crimes! At the sight of the Cross, let us understand the malice of sin, and the hatred we ought to feel for it. Let us enter into ourselves; let us see what we can do to make amends for our poor life.
"What a pity it is!" the good God will say to us at our death; "why hast thou offended Me - Me, who loved thee so much?" To offend the good God, who has never done us anything but good; to please the devil, who can never do us anything but evil! What folly! Is it not real folly to choose to make ourselves worthy of Hell by attaching ourselves to the devil. when we might taste the joys of Heaven, even in this life, by uniting ourselves to God by love? One cannot understand this folly; it cannot be enough lamented. Poor sinners seem as if they could not wait for the sentence which will condemn them to the society of the devils; they condemn themselves to it. There is a sort of foretaste in this life of Paradise, of Hell, and of Purgatory. Purgatory is in those souls that are not dead to themselves; Hell is in the heart of the impious; Paradise in that of the perfect, who are closely united to Our Lord.
He who lives in sin takes up the habits and the appearance of the beasts. The beast, which has not reason, knows nothing but its appetites. So the man who makes himself like the beasts loses his reason, and lets himself be guided by the inclinations of his body. He takes his pleasure in good eating and drinking, and in enjoying the vanities of the world, which pass away like the wind. I pity the poor wretches who run after that wind; they gain very little, they live a great deal for very little profit - they live their eternity for the miserable smoke of the world.
My children, how sad it is! when a soul is in a state of sin, it may die in that state; and even now, whatever it can do is without merit before God. That is the reason why the devil is so pleased when a soul is in sin, and perseveres in it, because he thinks that it is working for him, and if it were to die he would have possession of it. When we are in sin, our soul is all diseased, all rotten; it is pitiful. The thought that the good God sees it ought to make it enter into itself. And then, what pleasure is there in sin? None at all. We have frightful dreams that the devil is carrying us away, that we are falling over precipices. Put yourself on good terms with God; have recourse to the Sacrament of Penance; you will sleep as quietly as an angel. You will be glad to waken in the night, to pray to God; you will have nothing but thanksgivings on your lips; you will rise I towards Heaven with great facility, as an eagle soars through the air.
See, my children, how sin degrades man; of an angel created to love God, it makes a demon who will curse Him for eternity. Ah! if Adam, our first father, had not sinned, and if we did not sin every day, how happy we should be! we should be as happy as the saints in Heaven. There would be no more unhappy people on the earth. Oh, how beautiful it would be! In fact, my children, it is sin that brings upon us all calamities, all scourges, war, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, fires, frost, hail, storms - all that afflicts us, all that makes us miserable. See, my children, a person who is in a state of sin is always sad. Whatever he does, he is weary and disgusted with everything; while he who is at peace with God is always happy, always joyous. . . . Oh, beautiful life! Oh, beautiful death!
My children, we are afraid of death; I can well believe it. It is sin that makes us afraid of death; it is sin that renders death frightful, formidable; it is sin that terrifies the wicked at the hour of the fearful passage. Alas! O God! there is reason enough to be terrified, to think that one is accursed - accursed of God! It makes one tremble. Accursed of God! and why? for what do men expose themselves to be accursed of God? For a blasphemy, for a bad thought, for a bottle of wine, for two minutes of pleasure! For two minutes of pleasure to lose God, one's soul, Heaven forever! We shall see going up to Heaven, in body and soul, that father, that mother, that sister, that neighbour, who were here with us, with whom we have lived, but whom we have not imitated; while we shall go down body and soul to burn in Hell. The devils will rush to overwhelm us. All the devils whose advice we followed will come to torment us.
My children, if you saw a man prepare a great pile of wood, heaping up fagots one upon another, and when you asked him what he was doing, he were to answer you, "I am preparing the fire that is to burn me, " what would you think? And if you saw this same man set fire to the pile, and when it was lighted throw himself upon it, what would you say? This is what we do when we commit sin. It is not God who casts us into Hell; we cast ourselves into it by our sins. The lost souls will say, "I have lost God, my soul, and Heaven; it is through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault!" He will raise himself out of the fire only to fall back into it. He will always feel the desire of rising because he was created for God, the greatest, the highest of beings, the Most High . . . as a bird shut up in a room flies to the ceiling, and falls down again, the justice of God is the ceiling which keeps down the lost.
There is no need to prove the existence of Hell. Our Lord Himself speaks of it, when He relates the history of the wicked rich man who cried out, "Lazarus! Lazarus!" We know very well that there is a Hell, but we live as if there were not; we sell our souls for a few pieces of money. We put off our conversion till the hour of death; but who can assure us that we shall have time or strength at that formidable moment, which has been feared by all the saints - when Hell will gather itself up for a last assault upon us, seeing that it is the decisive moment? There are many people who lose the faith, and never see Hell till they enter it. The Sacraments are administered to them; but ask them if they have committed such a sin, and they will answer you, "Oh! settle that as you please. "
Some people offend the good God every moment; their heart is an anthill of sins: it is like a spoilt piece of meat, half-eaten by worms. . . . No, indeed; if sinners were to think of eternity - of that terrible forever - they would be converted instantly.
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January 17, 2016 - We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. They are in the people he called, because that was his plan. Romans 8:28
CHAPTER 13 :Catechism on Frequent Communion
MY CHILDREN, all beings in creation require to be fed, that they may live; for this purpose God has made trees and plants grow; it is a well-served table, to which all animals come and take the food which suits each one. But the soul also must be fed. Where, then, is its food? My brethren, the food of the soul is God. Ah! what a beautiful thought! The soul can feed on nothing but God. Only God can suffice for it; only God can fill it; only God can satiate its hunger; it absolutely requires its God! There is in all houses a place where the provisions of the family are kept; it is the store-room. The church is the home of souls; it is the house belonging to us, who are Christians. Well, in this house there is a store-room. Do you see the tabernacle? If the souls of Christians were asked, "What is that?" your souls would answer, "It is the store-room. "
There is nothing so great, my children, as the Eucharist! Put all the good works in the world against one good Communion; they will be like a grain of dust beside a mountain. Make a prayer when you have the good God in your heart; the good God will not be able to refuse you anything, if you offer Him His Son, and the merits of His holy death and Passion. My children, if we understood the value of Holy Communion, we should avoid the least faults, that we might have the happiness of making it oftener. We should keep our souls always pure in the eyes of God. My children, I suppose that you have been to confession today, and you will watch over yourselves; you will be happy in the thought that tomorrow you will have the joy of receiving the good God into your heart. Neither can you offend the good God tomorrow; your soul will be all embalmed with the precious Blood of Our Lord. Oh, beautiful life!
O my children, how beautiful will a soul be in eternity that has worthily and often received the good God! The Body of Our Lord will shine through our body, His adorable Blood through our blood; our soul will be united to the Soul of Our Lord during all eternity. There it will enjoy pure and perfect happiness. My children, when the soul of a Christian who has received Our Lord enters paradise, it augments the joy of Heaven. The Angels and the Queen of Angels come to meet it, because they recognize the Son of God in that soul. Then will that soul be rewarded for the pains and sacrifices it will have endured in its life on earth. My children, we know when a soul has worthily received the Sacrament of the Eucharist, it is so drowned in love, so penetrated and changed, that it is no longer to be recognised in its words or its actions. . . . It is humble, it is gentle, it is mortified, charitable, and modest; it is at peace with everyone. It is a soul capable of the greatest sacrifices; in short, you would not know it again.
Go, then, to Communion, my children; go to Jesus with love and confidence; go and live upon Him, in order to live for Him! Do not say that you have too much to do. Has not the Divine Saviour said, "Come to Me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you"? Can you resist an invitation so full of love and tenderness? Do not say that you are not worthy of it. It is true, you are not worthy of it; but you are in need of it. If Our Lord had regarded our worthiness, He would never have instituted His beautiful Sacrament of love: for no one in the world is worthy of it, neither the saints, nor the angels, nor the archangels, nor the Blessed Virgin; but He had in view our needs, and we are all in need of it. Do not say that you are sinners, that you are too miserable, and for that reason you do not dare to approach it. I would as soon hear you say that you are very ill, and therefore you will not take any remedy, nor send for the physician.
All the prayers of the Mass are a preparation for Communion; and all the life of a Christian ought to be a preparation for that great action. We ought to labor to deserve to receive Our Lord every day. How humbled we ought to feel when we see others going to the holy table, and we remain motionless in our place! How happy is a guardian angel who leads a beautiful soul to the holy table! In the primitive Church they communicated every day. When Christians had grown cold, they substituted blessed bread for the Body of Our Lord; this is both a consolation and a humiliation. It is indeed blessed bread; but it is not the Body and Blood of Our Lord!
There are some who make a spiritual communion every day with blessed bread. If we are deprived of Sacramental Communion, let us replace it, as far as we can, by spiritual communion, which we can make every moment; for we ought to have always a burning desire to receive the good God. Communion is to the soul like blowing a fire that is beginning to go out, but that has still plenty of hot embers; we blow, and the fire burns again. After the reception of the Sacraments, when we feel ourselves slacken in the love of God, let us have recourse at once to spiritual communion. When we cannot come to church, let us turn towards the tabernacle: a wall cannot separate us from the good God; let us say five Patres and five Aves to make a spiritual communion. We can receive the good God only once a day; a soul on fire with love supplies for this by the desire to receive Him every moment. O man, how great thou art! fed with the Body and Blood of a God! Oh, how sweet a life is this life of union with the good God! It is Heaven upon earth; there are no more troubles, no more crosses! When you have the happiness of having received the good God, you feel a joy, a sweetness in your heart for some moments. Pure souls feel it always, and in this union consists their strength and their happiness.
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January 10, 2016 - Be careful that no one fails to receive God's grace and begins to cause trouble among you. A person like that can ruin many of you. Hebrews 12:15
CHAPTER 12 : Catechism on Communion
TO SUSTAIN the soul in the pilgrimage of life, God looked over creation, and found nothing that was worthy of it. He then turned to Himself, and resolved to give Himself. O my soul, how great thou art, since nothing less than God can satisfy thee! The food of the soul is the Body and Blood of God! Oh, admirable Food! If we considered it, it would make us lose ourselves in that abyss of love for all eternity! How happy are the pure souls that have the happiness of being united to Our Lord by Communion! They will shine like beautiful diamonds in Heaven, because God will be seen in them.
Our Lord has said, Whatever you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. We should never have thought of asking of God His own Son. But God has done what man could not have imagined. What man cannot express nor conceive, and what he never would have dared to desire, God in His love has said, has conceived, and has executed. Should we ever have dared to ask of God to put His Son to death for us, to give us His Flesh to eat and His Blood to drink? If all this were not true, then man might have imagined things that God cannot do; he would have gone further than God in inventions of love! That is impossible. Without the Holy Eucharist there would be no happiness in this world; life would be insupportable. When we receive Holy Communion, we receive our joy and our happiness. The good God, wishing to give Himself to us in the Sacrament of His love, gave us a vast and great desire, which He alone can satisfy. In the presence of this beautiful Sacrament, we are like a person dying of thirst by the side of a river - he would only need to bend his head; like a person still remaining poor, close to a great treasure - he need only stretch out his hand. He who communicates loses himself in God like a drop of water in the ocean. They can no more be separated.
At the Day of Judgment we shall see the Flesh of Our Lord shine through the glorified body of those who have received Him worthily on earth, as we see gold shine in copper, or silver in lead. When we have just communicated, if we were asked, "What are you carrying away to your home?" we might answer, "I am carrying away Heaven. " A saint said that we were Christ-bearers. It is very true; but we have not enough faith. We do not comprehend our dignity. When we leave the holy banquet, we are as happy as the Wise Men would have been, if they could have carried away the Infant Jesus. Take a vessel full of liquor, and cork it well - you will keep the liquor as long as you please. So if you were to keep Our Lord well and recollectedly, after Communion, you would long feel that devouring fire which would inspire your heart with an inclination to good and a repugnance to evil. When we have the good God in our heart, it ought to be very burning. The heart of the disciples of Emmaus burnt within them from merely listening to His voice.
I do not like people to begin to read directly when they come from the holy table. Oh no! what is the use of the words of men when God is speaking? We must do as one who is very curious, and listens at the door. We must listen to all that God says at the door of our heart. When you have received Our Lord, you feel your soul purified, because it bathes itself in the love of God. When we go to Holy Communion, we feel something extraordinary, a comfort which pervades the whole body, and penetrates to the extremities. What is this comfort? It is Our Lord, who communicates Himself to all parts of our bodies, and makes them thrill. We are obliged to say, like St. John, "It is the Lord!" Those who feel absolutely nothing are very much to be pitied.
SOMETHING TO PONDER
A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks right to the top, rocks about 2" diameter.
He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them in to the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.
The students laughed.
He asked his students again if the jar was full?
They agreed that yes, it was.
The professor then picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
"Now," said the professor, "I want you to recognize that this is your life.
The rocks are the important things - your family, your partner, your health, your children - anything that is so important to you that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed.
The pebbles are the other things in life that matter but on a smaller scale. The pebbles represent things like your job, your house, your car.
The sand is everything else - the small stuff.
If you put the sand or the pebbles into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, material things, you will never have room for the things that are truly most important.
Pay attention to the things that are critical in your life.
Play with your children.
Take your partner out dancing.
There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner
party and fix the disposal."
Take care of the rocks first -the things that really matter. Set your
priorities. The rest is just pebbles and sand.
* May there always be work for your hands to do;
* May your purse always hold a coin or two;
* May the sun always shine on your windowpane;
* May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain;
* May the hand of a friend always be near you;
* May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
Have a blessed day!
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January 3, 2016 - Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. So if the Son makes you free, you will be truly free. John 8:32-36
CHAPTER 11 : Catechism on the Real Presence
OUR LORD is hidden there, waiting for us to come and visit Him, and make our request to Him. See how good He is! He accommodates Himself to our weakness. In Heaven, where we shall be glorious and triumphant, we shall see him in all His glory. If He had presented Himself before us in that glory now, we should not have dared to approach Him; but He hides Himself, like a person in a prison, who might say to us, "You do not see me, but that is no matter; ask of me all you wish and I will grant it. " He is there in the Sacrament of His love, sighing and interceding incessantly with His Father for sinners. To what outrages does He not expose Himself, that He may remain in the midst of us! He is there to console us; and therefore we ought often to visit Him. How pleasing to Him is the short quarter of an hour that we steal from our occupations, from something of no use, to come and pray to Him, to visit Him, to console Him for all the outrages He receives! When He sees pure souls coming eagerly to Him, He smiles upon them. They come with that simplicity which pleases Him so much, to ask His pardon for all sinners, for the outrages of so many ungrateful men. What happiness do we not feel in the presence of God, when we find ourselves alone at His feet before the holy tabernacles! "Come, my soul, redouble thy fervour; thou art alone adoring thy God. His eyes rest upon thee alone. " This good Saviour is so full of love for us that He seeks us out everywhere.
Ah! if we had the eyes of angels with which to see Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is here present on this altar, and who is looking at us, how we should love Him! We should never more wish to part from Him. We should wish to remain always at His feet; it would be a foretaste of Heaven: all else would become insipid to us. But see, it is faith we want. We are poor blind people; we have a mist before our eyes. Faith alone can dispel this mist. Presently, my children, when I shall hold Our Lord in my hands, when the good God blesses you, ask Him then to open the eyes of your heart; say to Him like the blind man of Jericho, "O Lord, make me to see!" If you say to Him sincerely, "Make me to see!" you will certainly obtain what you desire, because He wishes nothing but your happiness. He has His hands full of graces, seeking to whom to distribute them; Alas! and no one will have them. . . . Oh, indifference! Oh, ingratitude! My children, we are most unhappy that we do not understand these things! We shall understand them well one day; but it will then be too late!
Our Lord is there as a Victim; and a prayer that is very pleasing to God is to ask the Blessed Virgin to offer to the Eternal Father her Divine Son, all bleeding, all torn, for the conversion of sinners; it is the best prayer we can make, since, indeed, all prayers are made in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ. We must also thank God for all those indulgences that purify us from our sins. . . but we pay no attention to them. We tread upon indulgences, one might say, as we tread upon the sheaves of corn after the harvest. See, there are seven years and seven quarantines for hearing the catechism, three hundred days for reciting the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, the Salve Regina, the Angelus. In short, the good God multiplies His graces upon us; and how sorry we shall be at the end of our lives that we did not profit by them!
When we are before the Blessed Sacrament, instead of looking about, let us shut our eyes and our mouth; let us open our heart: our good God will open His; we shall go to Him, He will come to us, the one to ask, the other to receive; it will be like a breath from one to the other. What sweetness do we not find in forgetting ourselves in order to seek God! The saints lost sight of themselves that they might see nothing but God, and labor for Him alone; they forgot all created objects in order to find Him alone. This is the way to reach Heaven.
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December 27, 2015 - The Lord shall judge the peoples; Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, And according to my integrity within me. Psalms 7:8
MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!
CHAPTER 10 : Catechism on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
ALL GOOD WORKS together are not of equal value with the sacrifice of the Mass, because they are the works of men, and the holy Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison; it is the sacrifice that man makes of his life to God; the Mass is the sacrifice that God makes to man of His Body and of His Blood. Oh, how great is a priest! if he understood himself he would die. . . . God obeys him; he speaks two words, and Our Lord comes down from Heaven at his voice, and shuts Himself up in a little Host. God looks upon the altar. "That is My well-beloved Son, " He says, "in whom I am well-pleased. " He can refuse nothing to the merits of the offering of this Victim. If we had faith, we should see God hidden in the priest like a light behind a glass, like wine mingled with water.
After the Consecration, when I hold in my hands the most holy Body of Our Lord, and when I am in discouragement, seeing myself worthy of nothing but Hell, I say to myself, "Ah, if I could at least take Him with me! Hell would be sweet with Him; I could be content to remain suffering there for all eternity, if we were together. But then there would be no more Hell; the flames of love would extinguish those of justice. " How beautiful it is. After the Consecration, the good God is there as He is in Heaven. If man well understood this mystery, he would die of love. God spares us because of our weakness. A priest once, after the Consecration, had some little doubt whether his few words could have made Our Lord descend upon the Altar; at the same moment he saw the Host all red, and the corporal tinged with blood.
If someone said to us, "At such an hour a dead person is to be raised to life, " we should run very quickly to see it. But is not the Consecration, which changes bread and wine into the Body and Blood of God, a much greater miracle than to raise a dead person to life? We ought always to devote at least a quarter of an hour to preparing ourselves to hear Mass well; we ought to annihilate ourselves before God, after the example of His profound annihilation in the Sacrament of the Eucharist; and we should make our examination of conscience, for we must be in a state of grace to be able to assist properly at Mass. If we knew the value of the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, or rather if we had faith, we should be much more zealous to assist at it.
My children, you remember the story I have told you already of that holy priest who was praying for his friend; God had, it appears, made known to him that he was in Purgatory; it came into his mind that he could do nothing better than to offer the holy Sacrifice of the Mass for his soul. When he came to the moment of Consecration, he took the Host in his hands and said, "O Holy and Eternal Father, let us make an exchange. Thou hast the soul of my friend who is in Purgatory, and I have the Body of Thy Son, Who is in my hands; well, do Thou deliver my friend, and I offer Thee Thy Son, with all the merits of His Death and Passion. " In fact, at the moment of the elevation, he saw the soul of his friend rising to Heaven, all radiant with glory. Well, my children, when we want to obtain anything from the good God, let us do the same; after Holy Communion, let us offer Him His well-beloved Son, with all the merits of His death and His Passion. He will not be able to refuse us anything.
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December 22, 2015 - The power of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord supports those who do right. The Lord watches over the lives of the innocent, and their reward will last forever. They will not be ashamed when trouble comes. They will be full in times of hunger. Psalms 37:17-19
CHAPTER 9 : Catechism on the Priesthood
MY CHILDREN, we have come to the Sacrament of Orders. It is a Sacrament which seems to relate to no one among you, and which yet relates to everyone. This Sacrament raises man up to God. What is a priest! A man who holds the place of God - a man who is invested with all the powers of God. "Go, " said Our Lord to the priest; "as My Father sent Me, I send you. All power has been given Me in Heaven and on earth. Go then, teach all nations. . . . He who listens to you, listens to Me; he who despises you despises Me. " When the priest remits sins, he does not say, "God pardons you"; he says, "I absolve you. " At the Consecration, he does not say, "This is the Body of Our Lord;" he says, "This is My Body. "St. Bernard tells us that everything has come to us through Mary; and we may also say that everything has come to us through the priest; yes, all happiness, all graces, all heavenly gifts. If we had not the Sacrament of Orders, we should not have Our Lord. Who placed Him there, in that tabernacle? It was the priest. Who was it that received your soul, on its entrance into life? The priest. Who nourishes it, to give it strength to make its pilgrimage? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, by washing that soul, for the last time, in the blood of Jesus Christ? The priest - always the priest. And if that soul comes to the point of death, who will raise it up, who will restore it to calmness and peace? Again the priest. You cannot recall one single blessing from God without finding, side by side with this recollection, the image of the priest.
Go to confession to the Blessed Virgin, or to an angel; will they absolve you? No. Will they give you the Body and Blood of Our Lord? No. The Holy Virgin cannot make her Divine Son descend into the Host. You might have two hundred angels there, but they could not absolve you. A priest, however simple he may be, can do it; he can say to you, "Go in peace; I pardon you. " Oh, how great is a priest! The priest will not understand the greatness of his office till he is in Heaven. If he understood it on earth, he would die, not of fear, but of love. The other benefits of God would be of no avail to us without the priest. What would be the use of a house full of gold, if you had nobody to open you the door! The priest has the key of the heavenly treasures; it is he who opens the door; he is the steward of the good God, the distributor of His wealth. Without the priest, the Death and Passion of Our Lord would be of no avail. Look at the heathens: what has it availed them that Our Lord has died? Alas! they can have no share in the blessings of Redemption, while they have no priests to apply His Blood to their souls!
The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you. After God, the priest is everything. Leave a parish twenty years without priests; they will worship beasts. If the missionary Father and I were to go away, you would say, "What can we do in this church? there is no Mass; Our Lord is no longer there: we may as well pray at home. " When people wish to destroy religion, they begin by attacking the priest, because where there is no longer any priest there is no sacrifice, and where there is no longer any sacrifice there is no religion.
When the bell calls you to church, if you were asked, "Where are you going?" you might answer, "I am going to feed my soul. " If someone were to ask you, pointing to the tabernacle, "What is that golden door?" "That is our storehouse, where the true Food of our souls is kept. " "Who has the key? Who lays in the provisions? Who makes ready the feast, and who serves the table?" "The priest. " "And what is the Food?" "The precious Body and Blood of Our Lord. " O God! O God! how Thou hast loved us! See the power of the priest; out of a piece of bread the word of a priest makes a God. It is more than creating the world. . . . Someone said, "Does St. Philomena, then, obey the Curé of Ars?" Indeed, she may well obey him, since God obeys him.
If I were to meet a priest and an angel, I should salute the priest before I saluted the angel. The latter is the friend of God; but the priest holds His place. St. Teresa kissed the ground where a priest had passed. When you see a priest, you should say, "There is he who made me a child of God, and opened Heaven to me by holy Baptism; he who purified me after I had sinned; who gives nourishment to my soul. " At the sight of a church tower, you may say, "What is there in that place?" "The Body of Our Lord. " "Why is He there?" "Because a priest has been there, and has said holy Mass. "
What joy did the Apostles feel after the Resurrection of Our Lord, at seeing the Master whom they had loved so much! The priest must feel the same joy, at seeing Our Lord whom he holds in his hands. Great value is attached to objects which have been laid in the drinking cup of the Blessed Virgin and of the Child Jesus, at Loretto. But the fingers of the priest, that have touched the adorable Flesh of Jesus Christ, that have been plunged into the chalice which contained His Blood, into the pyx where His Body has lain, are they not still more precious? The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus. When you see the priest, think of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
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December 13, 2015 - Even if I walk through a very dark valley, I will not be afraid, because you are with me. Your rod and your shepherd's staff comfort me. Psalms 23:4
CHAPTER 7 : Catechism on the Sanctification of Sunday
YOU LABOR, you labor, my children; but what you earn ruins your body and your soul. If one ask those who work on Sunday, "What have you been doing?" they might answer, "I have been selling my soul to the devil, crucifying Our Lord, and renouncing my Baptism. I am going to Hell; I shall have to weep for all eternity in vain. " When I see people driving carts on Sunday, I think I see them carrying their souls to Hell.
Oh, how mistaken in his calculations is he who labours hard on Sunday, thinking that he will earn more money or do more work! Can two or three shillings ever make up for the harm he does himself by violating the law of the good God? You imagine that everything depends on your working; but there comes an illness, an accident. . . . so little is required! a tempest, a hailstorm, a frost. The good God holds everything in His hand; He can avenge Himself when He will, and as He will; the means are not wanting to Him. Is He not always the strongest? Must not He be the master in the end?
There was once a woman who came to her priest to ask leave to get in her hay on Sunday. "But, " said the priest, "it is not necessary; your hay will run no risk. " The woman insisted, saying, "Then you want me to let my crop be lost?" She herself died that very evening; she was more in danger than her crop of hay. "Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting. " [Jn. 6:27].
What will remain to you of your Sunday work? You leave the earth just as it is; when you go away, you carry nothing with you. Ah! when we are attached to the earth, we are not willing to go! Our first end is to go to God; we are on the earth for no other purpose. My brethren, we should die on Sunday, and rise again on Monday.
Sunday is the property of our good God; it is His own day, the Lord's day. He made all the days of the week: He might have kept them all; He has given you six, and has reserved only the seventh for Himself. What right have you to meddle with what does not belong to you? You know very well that stolen goods never bring any profit. Nor will the day that you steal from Our Lord profit you either. I know two very certain ways of becoming poor: they are working on Sunday and taking other people's property.
CHAPTER 8 : Catechism on Prayer
SEE MY children; the treasure of a Christian is not on the earth, it is in Heaven. Well, our thoughts ought to be where our treasure is. Man has a beautiful office, that of praying and loving. You pray, you love - that is the happiness of man upon the earth. Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When our heart is pure and united to God, we feel within ourselves a joy, a sweetness that inebriates, a light that dazzles us. In this intimate union God and the soul are like two pieces of wax melted together; they cannot be separated. This union of God with His little creature is a most beautiful thing. It is a happiness that we cannot understand.
We have not deserved to pray; but God, in His goodness, has permitted us to speak to Him. Our prayer is an incense which He receives with extreme pleasure. My children, your heart is poor and narrow; but prayer enlarges it, and renders it capable of loving God. Prayer is a foretaste of Heaven, an overflow of paradise. It never leaves us without sweetness. It is like honey descending into the soul and sweetening everything. Troubles melt away before a fervent prayer like snow before the sun. Prayer makes time pass away very quickly, and so pleasantly that one does not perceive how it passes. Do you know, when I was running up and down the country, at the time that almost all the poor priests were ill, I was praying to the good God all along the road. I assure you, the time did not seem long to me.
We see some persons who lose themselves in prayer like a fish in the water, because they are all for God. There is not division in their heart. Oh, how I love those generous souls! St. Francis of Assisi and St. Colette saw Our Lord and spoke to Him as we talk to each other. While we, how often we come to church without knowing what we come for, or what we are going to ask! And yet, when we go to one's house, we know very well what we are going for. Some people seem to say to God, "I am going to say two words to Thee, to get rid of Thee. " I often think that when we come to adore Our Lord, we should obtain all we wish, if we would ask it with very lively faith, and a very pure heart. But, alas! we have no faith, no hope, no desire, no love!
There are two cries in man, the cry of the angel and the cry of the beast. The cry of the angel is prayer; the cry of the beast is sin. Those who do not pray, stoop towards the earth, like a mole trying to make a hole to hide itself in. They are all earthly, all brutish, and think of nothing but temporal things, . . . like that miser who was receiving the last Sacraments the other day; when they gave him a silver crucifix to kiss, he said, "That cross weighs full ten ounces. " If there could be one day without worship, it would no longer be Heaven; and if the poor lost souls, notwithstanding their sufferings, could worship, there would be no more Hell. Alas! they had a heart to love God with, a tongue to bless Him with; that was their destiny. And now they are condemned to curse Him through all eternity. If they could hope that they would once pray only for one minute, they would watch for that minute with such impatience that it would lessen their torments.
"Our Father who art in Heaven!" Oh, how beautiful it is, my children, to have a father in Heaven! "Thy kingdom come. " If I make the good God reign in my heart, He will make me reign with Him in His glory. "Thy will be done. " There is nothing so sweet, and nothing so perfect, as to do the will of God. In order to do things well, we must do them as God wills, in all conformity with His designs. "Give us this day our daily bread. " We are composed of two parts, the soul and the body. We ask the good God to feed our poor body, and He answers by making the earth produce all that is necessary for our support. . . . But we ask Him to feed our soul, which is the best part of ourselves; and the earth is too small to furnish enough to satisfy it; it hungers for God, and nothing but God can satiate it. Therefore the good God thought He did not do too much, in dwelling upon the earth and assuming a body, in order that this Body might become the Food of our souls. "My Flesh, " said Our Lord, "is meat indeed. . . . The bread that I will give is my Flesh, for the life of the world:' The bread of souls is in the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the storehouse of Christians. . . . Oh, how beautiful it is, my children! When the priest presents the Host, and shows it to you, your soul may say, "There is my food. " O my children, we are too happy! . . . We shall never comprehend it till we are in Heaven. What a pity that is!
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December 6, 2015 - The words of the Lord are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. Psalms 12:6
CHAPTER 6 : Catechism on the Prerogatives of the Pure Soul
NOTHING IS so beautiful as a pure soul. If we understood this, we could not lose our purity. The pure soul is disengaged from matter, from earthly things, and from itself. . . . That is why the saints ill-treated their body, that is why they did not grant it what it required, not even to rise five minutes later, to warm themselves, to eat anything that gave them pleasure. . . . For what the body loses the soul gains, and what the body gains the soul loses.
Purity comes from Heaven; we must ask for it from God. If we ask for it, we shall obtain it. We must take great care not to lose it. We must shut our heart against pride, against sensuality, and all the other passions, as one shuts the doors and windows that nobody may be able to get in. What joy is it to the guardian angel to conduct a pure soul! My children, when a soul is pure, all Heaven looks upon it with love! Pure souls will form the circle round Our Lord. The more pure we have been on earth, the nearer we shall be to Him in Heaven. When the heart is pure, it cannot help loving, because it has found the source of love, which is God. "Happy, " says Our Lord, "are the pure in heart, because they shall see God!"
My children, we cannot comprehend the power that a pure soul has over the good God. It is not he who does the will of God, it is God who does his will. Look at Moses, that very pure soul. When God would punish the Jewish people, He said to him: Do not pray for them, because My anger must fall upon this people. Nevertheless, Moses prayed, and God spared His people; He let Himself be entreated; He could not resist the prayer of that pure soul. O my children, a soul that has never been stained by that accursed sin obtains from God whatever it wishes!
Three things are wanted to preserve purity - the presence of God, prayer, and the Sacraments. Another means is the reading of holy books, which nourishes the soul. How beautiful is a pure soul! Our Lord showed one to St. Catherine; she thought it so beautiful that she said, "O Lord, if I did not know that there is only one God, I should think it was one. " The image of God is reflected in a pure soul, like the sun in the water. A pure soul is the admiration of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. The Father contemplates His work: There is My creature! . . . The Son, the price of His Blood: the beauty of an object is shown by the price it has cost. . . . The Holy Spirit dwells in it, as in a temple.
We also know the value of our soul by the efforts the devil makes to ruin it. Hell is leagued against it - Heaven for it. Oh, how great it must be! In order to have an idea of our dignity, we must often think of Heaven, Calvary, and Hell. If we could understand what it is to be the child of God, we could not do evil - we should be like angels on earth. To be children of God, oh, what a dignity!
It is a beautiful thing to have a heart, and, little as it is, to be able to make use of it in loving God. How shameful it is that man should descend so low, when God has placed him so high! When the angels had revolted against God, this God who is so good, seeing that they could no longer enjoy the happiness for which He had created them, made man, and this little world that we see to nourish his body. But his soul required to be nourished also; and as nothing created can feed the soul, which is a spirit, God willed to give Himself for its Food. But the great misfortune is that we neglect to have recourse to this divine Food, in crossing the desert of this life. Like people who die of hunger within sight of a well-provided table, there are some who remain fifty, sixty years, without feeding their souls.
Oh, if Christians could understand the language of Our Lord, who says to them, "Notwithstanding thy misery, I wish to see near Me that beautiful soul which I created for Myself. I made it so great, that nothing can fill it but Myself. I made it so pure, that nothing but My Body can nourish it. "
Our Lord has always distinguished Pure souls. Look at St. John, the well-beloved disciple, who reposed upon His breast. St. Catherine was pure, and she was often transported into Paradise. When she died, angels took up her body, and carried it to Mount Sinai, where Moses had received the Commandments of the law. God has shown by this prodigy that a soul is so agreeable to Him, that it deserves that even the body which has participated in its purity should be buried by angels.
God contemplates a pure soul with love; He grants it all it desires. How could He refuse anything to a soul that lives only for Him, by Him, and in Him? It seeks God, and He shows Himself to it; it calls Him, and God comes; it is one with Him; it captivates His will. A pure soul is all-powerful with the gracious Heart of Our Lord. A pure soul with God is like a child with its mother. It caresses her, it embraces her, and its mother returns its caresses and embraces.
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November 29, 2015 - The soverign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments. Habakkuk 3:19
CHAPTER 5 : Catechism on The Word of God
MY CHILDREN, the Word of God is of no little importance! These were Our Lord's first words to His Apostles: "Go and teach" . . to show us that instruction is before everything.
My children, what has taught us our religion? The instructions we have heard. What gives us a horror of sin? What makes us alive to the beauty of virtue, inspires us with the desire of Heaven? Instructions. What teaches fathers and mothers the duties they have to fulfil towards their children and children the duties they have to fulfil towards their parents? Instructions.
My children, why are people so blind and so ignorant? Because they make so little account of the Word of God. There are some who do not even say a Pater and an Ave to beg of the good God the grace to listen to it attentively, and to profit well by it. I believe, my children, that a person who does not hear the Word of God as he ought, will not be saved; he will not know what to do to be saved. But with a well-instructed person there is always some resource. He may wander in all sorts of evil ways; there is still hope that he will return sooner or later to the good God, even if it were only at the hour of death. Instead of which a person who has never been instructed is like a sick person - like one in his agony who is no longer conscious: he knows neither the greatness of sin nor the value of virtue; he drags himself from sin to sin, like a rag that is dragged in the mud.
See, my children, the esteem in which Our Lord holds the Word of God; to the woman who cries, "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps that gave Thee suck!" He answers, "Yea, rather blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it!" Our Lord, who is Truth itself, puts no less value on His Word than on His Body. I do not know whether it is worse to have distractions during Mass than during the instructions; I see no difference. During Mass we lose the merits of the Death and Passion of Our Lord, and during the instructions we lose His Word, which is Himself. St. Augustine says that it is as bad as to take the chalice after the Consecration and to trample it underfoot.
My children, you make a scruple of missing holy Mass, because you commit a great sin in missing it by your own fault; but you have no scruple in missing an instruction. You never consider that in this way you may greatly offend God. At the Day of Judgment, when you will all be there around me, and the good God will say to you, "Give Me an account of the instructions and the catechisms which you have heard and which you might have heard, " you will think very differently.
My children, you go out during the instructions, you amuse yourselves with laughing, you do not listen, you think yourselves too clever to come to the catechism . . . do you think, my children, that things will be allowed to go on so? Oh no, certainly not! God will arrange matters very differently. How sad it is! We see fathers and mothers stay outside during the instruction; yet they are under obligation to instruct their children; but how can they teach them? They are not instructed themselves. . . . All this leads straight to Hell. . . . It is a pity!
My children, I have remarked that there is no moment when people are more inclined to sleep than during the instructions. . . . You will say, I am so very sleepy. . . . If I were to take up a fiddle, nobody would think of sleeping; everybody would be roused, everybody would be on the alert. My children, you listen when you like the preacher; but if the preacher does not suit you, you turn him into ridicule. . . . We must not think so much about the man. It is not the body that we must attend to. Whatever the priest may be, he is still the instrument that the good God makes use of to distribute His holy Word. You pour liquor through a funnel; whether it be made of gold or of copper, if the liquor is good it will still be good.
There are some who go about repeating everywhere, "Priests say just what they please. " No, my children, priests do not say what they please; they say what is in the Gospel. The priests who came before us said what we say; those who shall come after us will say the same thing. If we were to say things that are not true, the Bishop would very soon forbid us to preach. We say only what Our Lord has taught.
My children, I will give you an example of what it is not to believe what priests tell you. There were two soldiers passing through a place where a mission was being given; one of the soldiers proposed to his comrade to go and hear the sermon, and they went. The missionary preached upon Hell. "Do you believe all that this priest says?" asked the least wicked of the two. "Oh, no!" replied the other, "I believe it is all nonsense, invented to frighten people. " "Well, for my part, I believe it; and to prove to you that I believe it, I shall give up being a soldier, and go into a convent. " "Go where you please; I shall continue my journey. " But while he was on his journey, he fell ill and died. The other, who was in the convent, heard of his death, and began to pray that God would show him in what state his companion had died. One day, as he was praying, his companion appeared to him; he recognised him, and asked him, "Where are you?" "In Hell; I am lost!" "O wretched man! do you now believe what the missionary said?" "Yes, I believe it. Missionaries are wrong only in one respect; they do not tell you a hundredth part of what is suffered here. "
My children, I often think that most of the Christians who are lost for want of instruction - they do not know their religion well. For example, here is a person who has to go and do his day's work. This person has a desire to do great penances, to pass half the night in prayer; if he is well instructed, he will say, "No, I must not do that, because then I could not fulfil my duty tomorrow; I should be sleepy, and the least thing would put me out of patience; I should be weary all the day, and I should not do half as much work as if I had rested at night; that must not be done. "
Again, my children, a servant may have a desire to fast, but he is obliged to pass the whole day in digging and ploughing, or whatever you please. Well, if this servant is well instructed, he will think, "But if I do this, I shall not be able to satisfy my master. " Well, what will he do? He will eat his breakfast, and mortify himself in some other way. That is what we must do - we must always act in the way that will give most glory to the good God.
A person knows that another is in distress, and takes from his parents what will relieve that distress. He would certainly do much better to ask than to take it. If his parents refuse to give it, he will pray to God to inspire a rich person to give the alms instead of him. A well-instructed person always has two guides leading the way before him - good counsel and obedience.
November 22, 2015 - They are blessed who are persecuted for doing good, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Matthew 5:10-12
CHAPTER 4 : Catechism on the Blessed Virgin
THE FATHER takes pleasure in looking upon the heart of the most Holy Virgin Mary, as the masterpiece of His hands; for we always like our own work, especially when it is well done. The Son takes pleasure in it as the heart of His Mother, the source from which He drew the Blood that has ransomed us; the Holy Ghost as His temple. The Prophets published the glory of Mary before her birth; they compared her to the sun. Indeed, the apparition of the Holy Virgin may well be compared to a beautiful gleam of sun on a foggy day.
Before her coming, the anger of God was hanging over our heads like a sword ready to strike us. As soon as the Holy Virgin appeared upon the earth, His anger was appeased. . . . She did not know that she was to be the Mother of God, and when she was a little child she used to say, "When shall I then see that beautiful creature who is to be the Mother of God?" The Holy Virgin has brought us forth twice, in the Incarnation and at the foot of the Cross; she is then doubly our Mother. The Holy Virgin is often compared to a mother, but she is much better still than the best of mothers; for the best of mothers sometimes punishes her child when it displeases her, and even beats it: she thinks she is doing right. But the Holy Virgin does not so; she is so good that she treats us with love, and never punishes us.
The heart of this good Mother is all love and mercy; she desires only to see us happy. We have only to turn to her to be heard. The Son has His justice, the Mother has nothing but her love. God has loved us so much as to die for us; but in the heart of Our Lord there is justice, which is an attribute of God; in that of the most Holy Virgin there is nothing but mercy. Her Son being ready to punish a sinner, Mary interposes, checks the sword, implores pardon for the poor criminal. "Mother, " Our Lord says to her, "I can refuse you nothing. If Hell could repent, you would obtain its pardon. "
The most Holy Virgin places herself between her Son and us. The greater sinners we are, the more tenderness and compassion does she feel for us. The child that has cost its mother most tears is the dearest to her heart. Does not a mother always run to the help of the weakest and the most exposed to danger? Is not a physician in the hospital most attentive to those who are most seriously ill? The Heart of Mary is so tender towards us, that those of all the mothers in the world put together are like a piece of ice in comparison to hers. See how good the Holy Virgin is! Her great servant St. Bernard used often to say to her, "I salute thee, Mary. " One day this good Mother answered him, "I salute thee, my son Bernard. "
The Ave Maria is a prayer that is never wearisome. The devotion to the Holy Virgin is delicious, sweet, nourishing. When we talk on earthly subjects or politics, we grow weary; but when we talk of the Holy Virgin, it is always new. All the saints have a great devotion to Our Lady; no grace comes from Heaven without passing through her hands. We cannot go into a house without speaking to the porter; well, the Holy Virgin is the portress of Heaven.
When we have to offer anything to a great personage, we get it presented by the person he likes best, in order that the homage may be agreeable to him. So our prayers have quite a different sort of merit when they are presented by the Blessed Virgin, because she is the only creature who has never offended God. The Blessed Virgin alone has fulfilled the first Commandment - to adore God only, and love Him perfectly. She fulfilled it completely.
All that the Son asks of the Father is granted Him. All that the Mother asks of the Son is in like manner granted to her. When we have handled something fragrant, our hands perfume whatever they touch: let our prayers pass through the hands of the Holy Virgin; she will perfume them. I think that at the end of the world the Blessed Virgin will be very tranquil; but while the world lasts, we drag her in all directions. . . . The Holy Virgin is like a mother who has a great many children - she is continually occupied in going from one to the other.
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November 15, 2015 - This is what the Lord says: "Stand where the roads cross and look. Ask where the old way is, where the good way is, and walk on it. If you do, you will find rest for yourselves. But they have said, 'We will not walk on the good way.'" Jeremiah 6:16
I just finished reading a simplified version of a spiritual diary written by Elizabeth Kindelmann. In it she is told to write down certain things Jesus and Mary say to her, particularly about the Flame of Love. What struck me is something we can all do right now. In November of 1965 Our Lady said, “If at any moment, someone prays three Hail Mary’s in my honor, while referring to the Flame of Love, they will free a soul from purgatory. During November, one Hail Mary will free ten souls.”
So think about it, if we say a rosary each day and on the Hail Mary’s we refer to the Flame of Love 530 souls will be freed each day. Mary was specific on the reference to the Flame of Love. Say this special prayer, “Spread the effect of grace of Thy Flame of Love over all of humanity”, and say it in the Hail Mary following “pray for us sinners.”
Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed are thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners
Spread the effect of grace of Thy Flame of Love over all of humanity
now and at the hour of my death. Amen.
Thanks you just freed 10 souls. Ask them to now pray for you.
CHAPTER 3 : Catechism on The Holy Spirit
O my CHILDREN, how beautiful it is! The Father is our Creator, the Son is our Redeemer, and the Holy Ghost is our Guide. . . . Man by himself is nothing, but with the Holy Spirit he is very great. Man is all earthly and all animal; nothing but the Holy Spirit can elevate his mind, and raise it on high. Why were the saints so detached from the earth? Because they let themselves be led by the Holy Spirit. Those who are led by the Holy Spirit have true ideas; that is the reason why so many ignorant people are wiser than the learned. When we are led by a God of strength and light, we cannot go astray.
The Holy Spirit is light and strength. He teaches us to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and between good and evil. Like glasses that magnify objects, the Holy Spirit shows us good and evil on a large scale. With the Holy Spirit we see everything in its true proportions; we see the greatness of the least actions done for God, and the greatness of the least faults. As a watchmaker with his glasses distinguishes the most minute wheels of a watch, so we, with the light of the Holy Ghost, distinguish all the details of our poor life. Then the smallest imperfections appear very great, the least sins inspire us with horror. That is the reason why the most Holy Virgin never sinned. The Holy Ghost made her understand the hideousness of sin; she shuddered with terror at the least fault.
Those who have the Holy Spirit cannot endure themselves, so well do they know their poor misery. The proud are those who have not the Holy Spirit.
Worldly people have not the Holy Spirit, or if they have, it is only for a moment. He does not remain with them; the noise of the world drives Him away. A Christian who is led by the Holy Spirit has no difficulty in leaving the goods of this world, to run after those of Heaven; he knows the difference between them. The eyes of the world see no further than this life, as mine see no further than this wall when the church door is shut. The eyes of the Christian see deep into eternity. To the man who gives himself up to the guidance of the Holy Ghost, there seems to be no world; to the world there seems to be no God. . . . We must therefore find out by whom we are led. If it is not by the Holy Ghost, we labor in vain; there is no substance nor savour in anything we do. If it is by the Holy Ghost, we taste a delicious sweetness . . . it is enough to make us die of pleasure!
Those who are led by the Holy Spirit experience all sorts of happiness in themselves, while bad Christians roll themselves on thorns and flints. A soul in which the Holy Spirit dwells is never weary in the presence of God; his heart gives forth a breath of love. Without the Holy Ghost we are like the stones on the road. . . . Take in one hand a sponge full of water, and in the other a little pebble; press them equally. Nothing will come out of the pebble, but out of the sponge will come abundance of water. The sponge is the soul filled with the Holy Spirit, and the stone is the cold and hard heart which is not inhabited by the Holy Spirit.
A soul that possesses the Holy Spirit tastes such sweetness in prayer, that it finds the time always too short; it never loses the holy presence of God. Such a heart, before our good Saviour in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, is a bunch of grapes under the wine press. The Holy Spirit forms thoughts and suggests words in the hearts of the just. . . . Those who have the Holy Spirit produce nothing bad; all the fruits of the Holy Spirit are good. Without the Holy Spirit all is cold; therefore, when we feel we are losing our fervour, we must instantly make a novena to the Holy Spirit to ask for faith and love. . . . See, when we have made a retreat or a jubilee, we are full of good desires: these good desires are the breath of the Holy Ghost, which has passed over our souls, and has renewed everything, like the warm wind which melts the ice and brings back the spring. . . . You who are not great saints, you still have many moments when you taste the sweetness of prayer and of the presence of God: these are visits of the Holy Spirit. When we have the Holy Spirit, the heart expands - bathes itself in divine love. A fish never complains of having too much water, neither does a good Christian ever complain of being too long with the good God. There are some people who find religion wearisome, and it is because they have not the Holy Spirit.
If the damned were asked: Why are you in Hell? they would answer: For having resisted the Holy Spirit. And if the saints were asked, Why are you in Heaven? they would answer: For having listened to the Holy Spirit. When good thoughts come into our minds, it is the Holy Spirit who is visiting us. The Holy Spirit is a power. The Holy Spirit supported St. Simeon on his column; He sustained the martyrs. Without the Holy Spirit, the martyrs would have fallen like the leaves from the trees. When the fires were lighted under them, the Holy Spirit extinguished the heat of the fire by the heat of divine love. The good God, in sending us the Holy Spirit, has treated us like a great king who should send his minister to guide one of his subjects, saying, "You will accompany this man everywhere, and you will bring him back to me safe and sound. " How beautiful it is, my children, to be accompanied by the Holy Spirit! He is indeed a good Guide; and to think that there are some who will not follow Him. The Holy Spirit is like a man with a carriage and horse, who should want to take us to Pans. We should only have to say "yes, " and to get into it. It is indeed an easy matter to say "yes"!. . . Well, the Holy Spirit wants to take us to Heaven; we have only to say "yes, " and to let Him take us there.
The Holy Spirit is like a gardener cultivating our souls. . . . The Holy Spirit is our servant. . . . There is a gun; well you load it, but someone must fire it and make it go off. . . . In the same way, we have in ourselves the power of doing good. . . when the Holy Spirit gives the impulse, good works are produced. The Holy Spirit reposes in just souls like the dove in her nest. He brings out good desires in a pure soul, as the dove hatches her young ones. The Holy Spirit leads us as a mother leads by the hand her child of two years old, as a person who can see leads one who is blind.
The Sacraments which Our Lord instituted would not have saved us without the Holy Spirit. Even the death of Our Lord would have been useless to us without Him. Therefore Our Lord said to His Apostles, "It is good for you that I should go away; for if I did not go, the Consoler would not come. " The descent of the Holy Ghost was required, to render fruitful that harvest of graces. It is like a grain of wheat - you cast it into the ground; yes, but it must have sun and rain to make it grow and come into ear. We should say every morning, "O God, send me Thy Spirit to teach me what I am and what Thou art. "
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November 8, 2015 - They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. 2 Samuel 22:19
CHAPTER 2 : Catechism on The Love of God
OUR BODY is a vessel of corruption; it is meant for death and for the worms, nothing morel And yet we devote ourselves to satisfying it, rather than to enriching our soul, which is so great that we can conceive nothing greater - no, nothing, nothing! For we see that God, urged by the ardour of His charity, would not create us like the animals; He has created us in His own image and likeness, do you see? Oh, how great is man?
Man, being created by love, cannot live without love: either he loves God, or he loves himself and he loves the world. See, my children, it is faith that we want. . . . When we have not faith, we are blind. He who does not see, does not know; he who does not know does not love; he who does not love God loves himself, and at the same time loves his pleasures. He fixes his heart on things which pass away like smoke. He cannot know the truth, nor any good thing; he can know nothing but falsehood, because he has no light; he is in a mist. If he had light, he would see plainly that all that he loves can give him nothing but eternal death; it is a foretaste of Hell.
Do you see, my children, except God, nothing is solid - nothing, nothing! If it is life, it passes away; if it is a fortune, it crumbles away; if it is health, it is destroyed; if it is reputation, it is attacked. We are scattered like the wind. . . . Everything is passing away full speed, everything is going to ruin. O God! O God! how much those are to be pitied, then, who set their hearts on all these things! They set their hearts on them because they love themselves too much; but they do not love themselves with a reasonable love - they love themselves with a love that seeks themselves and the world, that seeks creatures more than God. That is the reason why they are never satisfied, never quiet; they are always uneasy, always tormented, always upset. See, my children, the good Christian runs his course in this world mounted on a fine triumphal chariot; this chariot is borne by angels, and conducted by Our Lord Himself, while the poor sinner is harnessed to the chariot of this life, and the devil who drives it forces him to go on with great strokes of the whip.
My children, the three acts of faith, hope and charity contain all the happiness of man upon the earth. By faith, we believe what God has promised us: we believe that we shall one day see Him, that we shall possess Him, that we shall be eternally happy with Him in Heaven. By hope, we expect the fulfilment of these promises: we hope that we shall be rewarded for all our good actions, for all our good thoughts, for all our good desires; for God takes into account even our good desires. What more do we want to make us happy?
In Heaven, faith and hope will exist no more, for the mist which obscures our reason will be dispelled; our mind will be able to understand the things that are hidden from it here below. We shall no longer hope for anything, because we shall have everything. We do not hope to acquire a treasure which we already possess. . . . But love; oh, we shall be inebriated with it! we shall be drowned, lost in that ocean of divine love, annihilated in that immense charity of the Heart of Jesus! so that charity is a foretaste of Heaven. Oh, how happy should we be if we knew how to understand it, to feel it, to taste it! What makes us unhappy is that we do not love God.
When we say, "My God, I believe, I believe firmly, " that is, without the least doubt, without the least hesitation. . . Oh, if we were penetrated with these words: "I firmly believe that Thou art present everywhere, that Thou seest me, that I am under Thine eyes, that one day I myself shall see Thee clearly, that I shall enjoy all the good things Thou hast promised me! O my God, I hope that Thou wilt reward me for all that I have done to please Thee! O my God, I love Thee; my heart is made to love Thee!" Oh, this act of faith, which is also an act of love, would suffice for everything! If we understood our own happiness in I being able to love God, we should remain motionless in ecstasy. . . .
If a prince, an emperor, were to cause one of his subjects to appear before him, and should say to him, "I wish to make you happy; stay with me, enjoy all my possessions, but be careful not to give me any just cause of displeasure, " with what care, with what ardour, would not that subject endeavour to satisfy his prince! Well, God makes the same proposals to us . . . and we do not care for His friendship, we make no account of His promises. . . . What a pity!
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November 1, 2015 - Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:4
PART 1 : INSTRUCTIONS ON THE CATECHISM
CHAPTER 1 : Catechism on Salvation
There are many Christians who do not even know why they are in the world. "Oh my God, why hast Thou sent me into the world?" "To save your soul. " "And why dost Thou wish me to be saved?" "Because I love you. " The good God has created us and sent us into the world because He loves us; He wishes to save us because He loves us. . . . To be saved, we must know, love and serve God. Oh, what a beautiful life! How good, how great a thing it is to know, to love and serve God! We have nothing else to do in this world. All that we do besides is lost time. We must act only for God, and put our works into His hands. . . . We should say, on awaking, "I desire to do everything today for Thee, O my God! I will submit to all that Thou shalt send me, as coming from Thee. I offer myself as a sacrifice to Thee But, O God, I can do nothing without Thee. Do Thou help me!"
Oh, how bitterly shall we regret at the hour of death the time we have given to pleasures, to useless conversations, to repose, instead of having employed it in mortification, in prayer, in good works, in thinking of our poor misery, in weeping over our poor sins; then we shall see that we have done nothing for Heaven. Oh, my children, how sad it is! Three-quarters of those who are Christians labor for nothing but to satisfy this body, which will soon be buried and corrupted, while they do not give a thought to their poor soul, which must be happy or miserable for all eternity. They have neither sense nor reason: it makes one tremble.
Look at that man, who is so active and restless, who makes a noise in the world, who wants to govern everybody, who thinks himself of consequence, who seems as if he would like to say to the sun, "Go away, and let me enlighten the world instead of you." Some day this proud man will be reduced at the utmost to a little handful of dust, which will be swept away from river to river, from Saone to Saone, and at last into the sea.
See my children, I often think that we are like those little heaps of sand that the wind raises on the road, which whirl round for a moment, and are scattered directly. . . . We have brothers and sisters who are dead. Well, they are reduced to that little handful of dust of which I was speaking. Worldly people say, it is too difficult to save one's soul. Yet nothing is easier. To observe the Commandments of God and the Church, and to avoid the seven capital sins; or if you like to put it so, to do good and avoid evil: that is all. Good Christians, who labor to save their souls and to work out their salvation, are always happy and contented; they enjoy beforehand the happiness of Heaven: they will be happy for all eternity. While bad Christians, who lose their souls, are always to be pitied; they murmur, they are sad, they are as miserable as stones; and they will be so for all eternity. See what a difference!
This is a good rule of conduct, to do nothing but what we can offer to the good God. Now, we cannot offer to Him slanders, calumnies, injustice, anger, blasphemy, impurity, theatres, dancing; yet that is all that people do in the world. Speaking of dances, St. Francis of Sales used to say that "they were like mushrooms, the best were good for nothing. " Mothers are apt to say indeed, "Oh, I watch over my daughters. " They watch over their attire, but they cannot watch over their hearts. Those who have dances in their houses load themselves with a terrible responsibility before God; they are answerable for all the evil that is done - for the bad thoughts, the slanders, the jealousies, the hatred, the revenge. . . . Ah, if they well understood this responsibility they would never have any dances. Just like those who make bad pictures and statues, or write bad books, they will have to answer for all the harm that these things will do during all the time they last. . . . Oh that makes one tremble!
See, my children, we must reflect that we have a soul to save, and an eternity that awaits us. The world, its riches, pleasures, and honours will pass away. Let us take care, then. The saints did not all begin well; but they all ended well. We have begun badly; let us end well, and we shall go one day and meet them in Heaven.
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October 25, 2015 -
To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. Ecclesiastes 2:25-26
"In the morning, we must do like the little child in its cradle. The moment it opens its eyes, it looks round the house for its mother. When it sees her, it begins to smile; if it does not see her, it cries. " Speaking of the priest, he made use of this touching simile:
"The priest is like a mother to you, like a nurse to a child of a few months old. She feeds it - it has only to open its mouth. The mother says to her child, 'Here my little one, eat. ' The priest says to you, 'Take and eat; this is the Body of Jesus Christ. May it keep you, and lead you to life eternal. ' Oh, beautiful words! 'A child struggles against anyone who keeps it back; it opens its little mouth, and stretches out its little arms to embrace her. Your soul, in the presence of the priest, naturally springs towards him; it runs to meet him; but it is held back by the bonds of the flesh, in men who give everything to the senses, who live only for their body.
"Our soul is swathed in our body, like a baby in its swaddling - clothes; we can see nothing but its face. " Everyone will be struck with the truth and aptitude of this last simile. Besides these touching comparisons, some of M. Vianney's were original and energetic. To exalt the benefits of the Sacrament of Penance, he made use of metaphors and parables: "A furious wolf once came into our country, devouring everything. Finding on his way a child of two years old, he seized it in his mouth, and carried it off; but some men, who were pruning a vineyard, ran to attack him, and snatched his prey from him. It is thus that the Sacrament of Penance snatches us from the claws of the devil. "
When he had to draw a parallel between Christians and worldly people, he said, "I think none so much to be pitied as those poor worldly people. They wear a cloak lined with thorns - they cannot move without pricking themselves; while good Christians have a cloak lined with soft fur. The good Christian sets no value on the goods of this world. He escapes from them like a rat out of the water.
"Unhappily, our hearts are not sufficiently pure and free from all earthly affections. If you take a very clean and very dry sponge, and soak it in water, it will be filled to overflowing; but if it is not dry and clean, it will take up nothing. In like manner, when the heart is not free and disengaged from the things of the earth, it is in vain that we steep it in prayer; it will absorb nothing.
"The heart of the wicked swarms with sins like an anthill with ants. It is like a piece of bad meat full of worms. When we abandon ourselves to our passions, we interweave thorns around our heart. We are like moles a week old; no sooner do we see the light, than we bury ourselves in the ground. The devil amuses us till the last moment, as a poor man is kept amused while the soldiers are coming to take him. When they come, he cries and struggles in vain, for they will not release him.
"When men die, they are often like a very rusty bar of iron, that must be put into the fire. Poor sinners are stupefied like snakes in winter. The slanderer is like the snail, which crawling over flowers, leaves its slime upon them and defiles them. What would you say of a man who should plough his neighbour's field, and leave his own uncultivated? Well, that is what you do. You are always at work on the consciences of others, and you leave your own untilled. Oh, when death comes, how we shall regret having thought so much of others, and so little of ourselves; for we shall have to give an account of ourselves, and not of others! Let us think of ourselves, of our own conscience, which we ought always to examine, as we examine our hands to see if they are clean.
"We always have two secretaries: the devil, who writes down our bad actions, to accuse us of them; and our good angel, who writes down our good ones, to justify us at the Day of Judgment. When all our actions shall be brought before us, how few will be pleasing to God, even among the best of them! So many imperfections, so many thoughts of self-love, human satisfactions, sensual pleasures, self-complacency, will be found mingled with them all! They appear good, but it is only appearance, like those fruits which seem yellow and ripe because they have been pierced by insects. "
We see by these fragments that M. Vianney was one of those contemplatives who do not disdain to soften the austerity of their ideas by simple graces of expression, whether out of compassionate kindness to their disciples, or from the natural attraction felt by those who are good for what is beautiful. He found in beautiful creatures Him who is supremely beautiful; he disdained not the least of them. At peace with all things, and having returned in a manner to the primitive innocence and condition of Eden, when Adam beheld creatures in the divine light, and loved them with fraternal charity, his heart overflowed with love, not only for men, but also for all beings visible and invisible. His words breathed an affectionate sympathy for the whole of creation, which no doubt appeared to him in its original dignity and purity. He looked upon it as a sister, who expressed the same thoughts and the same love as himself in another manner. This is shown in his apostrophe to the little birds. Where other eyes perceived nothing but perishable beauties, he discovered, as with a sort of second sight, the holy harmony and the eternal relations which connect the physical with the moral order - the mysteries of nature with those of faith. He did the same in the region of history. Ages, events, and men were to him only symbols and allegories, prophecies and their accomplishment. \ Nothing could be more beautiful, touching, and pathetic, than the application that he made of the legend of St. Alexis to the Real Presence of Our Lord. At the moment when the mother of St. Alexis recognises her son in the lifeless body of the beggar, who has lived thirty years under the staircase of her palace, she cries out, "O my son, why have I known thee so late?" . . The soul, on quitting this life, will see Him whom it possessed in the Holy Eucharist; and at the sight of the consolations, of the beauty, of the riches that it failed to recognize, it also will cry out, "O Jesus! O my God! why have I known Thee so late.
The Curé of Ars sometimes made edifying reflections on recent events and circumstances which had made an impression upon himself; and, though he did it with reserve, we have in this way gained some valuable information, which would otherwise have been lost. "Because Our Lord does not show Himself in the most Holy Sacrament in all His majesty you behave without respect in His Presence; but, nevertheless, He Himself is there He is in the midst of you. . . . So, when that good bishop was here the other day, everybody was pushing against him . . . Ah, if they had known he was a bishop! . . .
"We give our youth to the devil, and the remains of our life to the Good God, who is so good that He deigns to be content with even that. . . but, happily, everyone does not do so. A great lady has been here, of one of the first families in France; she went away this morning. She is scarcely three-and-twenty, and she is rich - very rich indeed. . . . She has offered herself in sacrifice to the good God for the expiation of sins, and for the conversion of sinners. She wears a girdle all armed with iron points; she mortifies herself in a thousand ways; and her parents know nothing of it. She is white as a sheet of paper. Hers is a beautiful soul, very pleasing to the good God, such as are still to be found now and then in the world, and they prevent the world from coming to an end.
"One day, two Protestant ministers came here, who did not believe in the Real Presence of Our Lord. I said to them, 'Do you think that a piece of bread could detach itself, and go, of its own accord, to place itself on the tongue of a person who came near to receive it?' 'No. ' 'Then it is not bread. ' There was a man who had doubts about the Real Presence, and he said, 'What do we know about it? It is not certain. What is consecration? What happens on the altar at that moment?' But he wished to believe, and he prayed the Blessed Virgin to obtain faith for him. Listen attentively to this. I do not say that this happened somewhere, but I say that it happened to myself. At the moment when this man came up to receive Holy Communion, the Sacred Host detached Itself from my fingers while I was still a good way Off, and went off Itself and placed Itself upon the tongue of that man. "
We will not undertake to give a consecutive view of the teaching of the Curé of Ars. There was indeed a sort of connection between the parts of it, but it would be impossible to describe the sudden inspirations that burst forth and ran through it like rays of light. His Catechisms in general defied analysis; and we should be afraid of disfiguring them by reducing them to the formality of a theological system. We shall therefore confine ourselves to offering to our readers an abridgment of some of the most remarkable discourses.
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"In the morning, we must do like the little child in its cradle. The moment it opens its eyes, it looks round the house for its mother. When it sees her, it begins to smile; if it does not see her, it cries. " Speaking of the priest, he made use of this touching simile:
"The priest is like a mother to you, like a nurse to a child of a few months old. She feeds it - it has only to open its mouth. The mother says to her child, 'Here my little one, eat. ' The priest says to you, 'Take and eat; this is the Body of Jesus Christ. May it keep you, and lead you to life eternal. ' Oh, beautiful words! 'A child struggles against anyone who keeps it back; it opens its little mouth, and stretches out its little arms to embrace her. Your soul, in the presence of the priest, naturally springs towards him; it runs to meet him; but it is held back by the bonds of the flesh, in men who give everything to the senses, who live only for their body.
"Our soul is swathed in our body, like a baby in its swaddling - clothes; we can see nothing but its face. " Everyone will be struck with the truth and aptitude of this last simile. Besides these touching comparisons, some of M. Vianney's were original and energetic. To exalt the benefits of the Sacrament of Penance, he made use of metaphors and parables: "A furious wolf once came into our country, devouring everything. Finding on his way a child of two years old, he seized it in his mouth, and carried it off; but some men, who were pruning a vineyard, ran to attack him, and snatched his prey from him. It is thus that the Sacrament of Penance snatches us from the claws of the devil. "
When he had to draw a parallel between Christians and worldly people, he said, "I think none so much to be pitied as those poor worldly people. They wear a cloak lined with thorns - they cannot move without pricking themselves; while good Christians have a cloak lined with soft fur. The good Christian sets no value on the goods of this world. He escapes from them like a rat out of the water.
"Unhappily, our hearts are not sufficiently pure and free from all earthly affections. If you take a very clean and very dry sponge, and soak it in water, it will be filled to overflowing; but if it is not dry and clean, it will take up nothing. In like manner, when the heart is not free and disengaged from the things of the earth, it is in vain that we steep it in prayer; it will absorb nothing.
"The heart of the wicked swarms with sins like an anthill with ants. It is like a piece of bad meat full of worms. When we abandon ourselves to our passions, we interweave thorns around our heart. We are like moles a week old; no sooner do we see the light, than we bury ourselves in the ground. The devil amuses us till the last moment, as a poor man is kept amused while the soldiers are coming to take him. When they come, he cries and struggles in vain, for they will not release him.
"When men die, they are often like a very rusty bar of iron, that must be put into the fire. Poor sinners are stupefied like snakes in winter. The slanderer is like the snail, which crawling over flowers, leaves its slime upon them and defiles them. What would you say of a man who should plough his neighbour's field, and leave his own uncultivated? Well, that is what you do. You are always at work on the consciences of others, and you leave your own untilled. Oh, when death comes, how we shall regret having thought so much of others, and so little of ourselves; for we shall have to give an account of ourselves, and not of others! Let us think of ourselves, of our own conscience, which we ought always to examine, as we examine our hands to see if they are clean.
"We always have two secretaries: the devil, who writes down our bad actions, to accuse us of them; and our good angel, who writes down our good ones, to justify us at the Day of Judgment. When all our actions shall be brought before us, how few will be pleasing to God, even among the best of them! So many imperfections, so many thoughts of self-love, human satisfactions, sensual pleasures, self-complacency, will be found mingled with them all! They appear good, but it is only appearance, like those fruits which seem yellow and ripe because they have been pierced by insects. "
We see by these fragments that M. Vianney was one of those contemplatives who do not disdain to soften the austerity of their ideas by simple graces of expression, whether out of compassionate kindness to their disciples, or from the natural attraction felt by those who are good for what is beautiful. He found in beautiful creatures Him who is supremely beautiful; he disdained not the least of them. At peace with all things, and having returned in a manner to the primitive innocence and condition of Eden, when Adam beheld creatures in the divine light, and loved them with fraternal charity, his heart overflowed with love, not only for men, but also for all beings visible and invisible. His words breathed an affectionate sympathy for the whole of creation, which no doubt appeared to him in its original dignity and purity. He looked upon it as a sister, who expressed the same thoughts and the same love as himself in another manner. This is shown in his apostrophe to the little birds. Where other eyes perceived nothing but perishable beauties, he discovered, as with a sort of second sight, the holy harmony and the eternal relations which connect the physical with the moral order - the mysteries of nature with those of faith. He did the same in the region of history. Ages, events, and men were to him only symbols and allegories, prophecies and their accomplishment. \ Nothing could be more beautiful, touching, and pathetic, than the application that he made of the legend of St. Alexis to the Real Presence of Our Lord. At the moment when the mother of St. Alexis recognises her son in the lifeless body of the beggar, who has lived thirty years under the staircase of her palace, she cries out, "O my son, why have I known thee so late?" . . The soul, on quitting this life, will see Him whom it possessed in the Holy Eucharist; and at the sight of the consolations, of the beauty, of the riches that it failed to recognize, it also will cry out, "O Jesus! O my God! why have I known Thee so late.
The Curé of Ars sometimes made edifying reflections on recent events and circumstances which had made an impression upon himself; and, though he did it with reserve, we have in this way gained some valuable information, which would otherwise have been lost. "Because Our Lord does not show Himself in the most Holy Sacrament in all His majesty you behave without respect in His Presence; but, nevertheless, He Himself is there He is in the midst of you. . . . So, when that good bishop was here the other day, everybody was pushing against him . . . Ah, if they had known he was a bishop! . . .
"We give our youth to the devil, and the remains of our life to the Good God, who is so good that He deigns to be content with even that. . . but, happily, everyone does not do so. A great lady has been here, of one of the first families in France; she went away this morning. She is scarcely three-and-twenty, and she is rich - very rich indeed. . . . She has offered herself in sacrifice to the good God for the expiation of sins, and for the conversion of sinners. She wears a girdle all armed with iron points; she mortifies herself in a thousand ways; and her parents know nothing of it. She is white as a sheet of paper. Hers is a beautiful soul, very pleasing to the good God, such as are still to be found now and then in the world, and they prevent the world from coming to an end.
"One day, two Protestant ministers came here, who did not believe in the Real Presence of Our Lord. I said to them, 'Do you think that a piece of bread could detach itself, and go, of its own accord, to place itself on the tongue of a person who came near to receive it?' 'No. ' 'Then it is not bread. ' There was a man who had doubts about the Real Presence, and he said, 'What do we know about it? It is not certain. What is consecration? What happens on the altar at that moment?' But he wished to believe, and he prayed the Blessed Virgin to obtain faith for him. Listen attentively to this. I do not say that this happened somewhere, but I say that it happened to myself. At the moment when this man came up to receive Holy Communion, the Sacred Host detached Itself from my fingers while I was still a good way Off, and went off Itself and placed Itself upon the tongue of that man. "
We will not undertake to give a consecutive view of the teaching of the Curé of Ars. There was indeed a sort of connection between the parts of it, but it would be impossible to describe the sudden inspirations that burst forth and ran through it like rays of light. His Catechisms in general defied analysis; and we should be afraid of disfiguring them by reducing them to the formality of a theological system. We shall therefore confine ourselves to offering to our readers an abridgment of some of the most remarkable discourses.
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October 18, 2015 - Trust the Lord and do good. Live in the land and feed on truth. Psalms 37:3
"What happiness will it be for the just, at the end of the world, when the soul, perfumed with the odours of Heaven, shall be reunited to its body, and enjoy God for all eternity! Then our bodies will come out of the ground like linen that has been bleached. . . . The bodies of the just will shine in Heaven like fine diamonds, like globes of love! What a cry of joy when the soul shall come to unite itself to its glorified body - to that body which will never more be to it an instrument of sin, nor a cause of suffering! It will revel in the sweetness of love, as the bee revels in flowers. . . . Thus the soul will be embalmed for eternity!"
We see that the Curé of Ars was a poet, in the highest sense of the word; his heart was endowed with exquisite sensibility, and he gave expression to it in the simplest and truest manner.
"One day in spring, " he said, "I was going to see a sick person; the bushes were full of little birds that were singing with all their might. I took pleasure in listening to them, and I said to myself, 'Poor little birds, you know not what you are doing! What a pity that is! You are singing the praises of God. " Does not this recall St. Francis of Assisi?
"Our holy Curé, " writes one of his most intelligent hearers, "is always equally admirable in his life, his works, and his words. This may perhaps surprise you, but it is perfectly true. There is something astonishing in the satisfaction, or rather the enthusiasm, with which the crowd of all classes presses in to hear his so - called catechisms. I have heard distinguished ecclesiastics, men of the world, learned men, and artists, declare that nothing had ever touched them so much as that expansion of a heart that is contemplating, loving, and adoring. A collection might almost be made of the Fioretti of the Curé of Ars. Nothing could be more graceful and brilliant than the picture he drew, a few days ago, of spring. "
A few lines further on, he added, "Yesterday, our old St. Francis of Assisi was more poetical than ever, in the midst of his tears and of his bursts of love. Speaking of the soul of man, which ought to aspire to God alone, he cried out, 'Does the fish seek the trees and the fields? No; it darts through the water. Does the bird remain on the earth? No; it flies in the air. . . . And man, who is created to love God, to possess God, to contain God, what will he do with all the powers that have been given to him for that end?'"
He liked to relate the simple and poetic legend of St. Maur, who, when he was one day carrying St. Benedict his dinner, found a large serpent. He took it up, put it in the fold of his habit, and showed it to St. Benedict, saying, "See, Father, what I have found:' When the holy patriarch and all the religious were assembled, the serpent began to hiss, and tried to bite them. Then St. Benedict said, "My child, go back and put it where you found it. " And when St. Maur was gone, he added, "My brethren, do you know why that animal is so gentle with that child? It is because he has kept his baptismal innocence. "
He also repeated with great pleasure the anecdote of St. Francis of Assisi preaching to the fishes. "One day, " he said, "St. Francis of Assisi was preaching in a province where there were a great many heretics. These miscreants stopped their ears to avoid hearing him. The saint then led the people to the seashore, and called the fishes to come and listen to the Word of God, since men rejected it. The fishes came to the edge of the water, the large ones behind the little ones. St. Francis asked them this question, 'Are you grateful to the good God for saving you from the deluge?' The fishes bowed their heads. Then St. Francis said to the people, 'See, these fishes are grateful for the benefits of God, and you are so ungrateful as to despise them!'"
M. Vianney mingled with his discourses some happy reminiscenses of his shepherd's life: "We ought to do like shepherds who are in the fields in winter - life is indeed a long winter. They kindle a fire, but from time to time they run about in all directions to look for wood to keep it up. If we, like the shepherds, were always to keep up the fire of the love of God in our hearts by prayers and good works, it would never go out. If you have not the love of God, you are very poor. You are like a tree without flowers or fruit. It is always springtime in a soul united to God. " When he spoke of prayer, the most pleasing and ingenious comparisons fell abundantly from his lips: "Prayer is a fragrant dew; but we must pray with a pure heart to feel this dew. There flows from prayer a delicious sweetness like the juice of very ripe grapes. Prayer disengages our soul from matter; it raises it on high, like the fire that inflates a balloon.
"The more we pray, the more we wish to pray. Like a fish which at first swims on the surface of the water, and afterwards plunges down, and is always going deeper, the soul plunges, dives, and loses itself in the sweetness of conversing with God. Time never seems long in prayer. I know not whether we can even wish for Heaven? Oh, yes!. . . The fish swimming in a little rivulet is well off, because it is in its element; but it is still better in the sea. When we pray, we should open our heart to God, like a fish when it sees the wave coming. The good God has no need of us. He commands us to pray only because He wills our happiness, and our happiness can be found only in prayer. When He sees us coming, He bends His heart down very low towards His little creature, as a father bends down to listen to his little child when it speaks to him.
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October 11, 2015 - Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you. Jeremiah 31:3
"A dying man was asked what should be put on his tomb. He answered, 'You shall put, Here lies a fool, who went out of this world without knowing how he came into it.' If the poor lost souls had the time that we waste, what good use they would make of it! If they had only half - an hour, that half - hour would depopulate Hell. In dying, we make restitution; we restore to the earth what it gave us - a little pinch of dust, the size of a nut; that is what we shall become. There is, indeed, much to be proud of in that! For our body, death is only a cleansing. In this world we must labor, we must fight. We shall have plenty of time to rest in all eternity.
"If we understood our happiness aright, we might almost say that we are happier than the saints in Heaven. They live upon their income; they can earn no more, while we can augment our treasure every moment. The Commandments of God are the guides which God gives us to show us the road to Heaven, like the names written up at the corners of the streets and on guideposts, to point out the way. The grace of God helps us to walk and supports us. He is as necessary to us as crutches are to a lame man.
"When we go to confession, we ought to understand what we are going to do. It might be said that we are going to unfasten Our Lord from the Cross. When you have made a good confession, you have chained up the devil. The sins that we conceal will all come to light.
"In order to conceal our sins effectually, we must confess them thoroughly. Our faults are like a grain of sand beside the great mountain of the mercies of the good God."
M. Vianney made great use of comparisons and similes in his teachings; he borrowed them from nature, which was known and loved by the crowd whom he addressed, from the beauties of the country, from the emotions of rural life. The recollections of his childhood had kept all their freshness, and in his old age he could not resist the innocent pleasure of recalling for a moment the lively sympathies of his youth. This return of the thoughts to the brightest days of life is like an anticipation of the Resurrection. After the manner of Our Lord, he used the most well known events, the most common facts, the incidents that came before him as figures of the spiritual life, and made them the theme of his instructions. The Gospel is full of symbols and figures, fitted to lead the soul to the comprehension of eternal truths by a comparison with what is more evident to the senses. In like manner, allusions, metaphors, parables and figures colored all the discourses of the Curé of Ars. His mind had acquired the habit of raising itself, by means of visible things, to God and to the invisible. There was not one of his catechisms in which he did not often speak of rivulets, forests, trees, birds, flowers, dew, lilies, balm, perfume and honey. All contemplatives love this language, and the innocence of their thoughts attaches itself by predilection to all the beautiful and pure things with which the Author of creation has embellished His work. A good man, Our Lord says, brings forth good things out of the good treasures of his heart. The sweet writings of St. Francis of Sales are a model of this style, dear to all mystics; and we are not surprised to find these graces of language and this exquisite taste in the Bishop of Geneva. But where had this poor country curé learnt his flowers of eloquence? Who had taught him to use them with such delicate tact and ingenuity? Let us listen:
"Like a beautiful white dove rising from the midst of the waters, and coming to shake her wings over the earth, the Holy Spirit issues from the infinite ocean of the Divine perfections, and hovers over pure souls, to pour into them the balm of love. The Holy Spirit reposes in a pure soul as on a bed of roses. There comes forth from a soul in which the Holy Spirit resides a sweet door, like that of the vine when it is in flower.
"He who has preserved his baptismal innocence is like a child who has never disobeyed his father. . . . One who has kept his innocence feels himself lifted up on high by love, as a bird is carried up by its wings. Those who have pure souls are like eagles and swallows, which fly in the air. . . . A Christian who is pure is upon earth like a bird that is kept fastened down by a string. Poor little bird! it only waits for the moment when the string is cut to fly away.
"Good Christians are like those birds that have large wings and small feet, and which never light upon the ground, because they could not rise again and would be caught. They make their nests, too, upon the points of rocks, on the roofs of houses, in high places. So the Christian ought to be always on the heights. As soon as we lower our thoughts towards the earth, we are taken captive.
"A pure soul is like a fine pearl. As long as it is hidden in the shell, at the bottom of the sea, no one thinks of admiring it. But if you bring it into the sunshine, this pearl will shine and attract all eyes. Thus, the pure soul, which is hidden from the eyes of the world, will one day shine before the angels in the sunshine of eternity. The pure soul is a beautiful rose, and the Three Divine Persons descend from Heaven to inhale its fragrance.
"The mercy of God is like an overflowing torrent - it carries away hearts with it as it passes. The good God will pardon a repentant sinner more quickly than a mother would snatch her child out of the fire. The elect are like the ears of corn that are left by the reapers, and like the bunches of grapes after the vintage. Imagine a poor mother obliged to let fall the blade of the guillotine upon the head of her child: such is the good God when He condemns a sinner.
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October 4, 2015 - Wise people are careful and stay out of trouble, but fools are careless and quick to act. Someone with a quick temper does foolish things, but someone with understanding remains calm. Proverbs 14:16-17
Prayer helps us a little, because prayer is the elevation of the soul to Heaven. . . . The more we know men, the less we love them. It is the reverse with God; the more we know Him, the more we love Him. This knowledge inflames the soul with such a love, that it can no longer love or desire anything from God. . . . Man was created by love; therefore he is so disposed to love. On the other hand, he is so great that nothing on the earth can satisfy him. He can be satisfied only when he turns towards God. . . . Take a fish out of the water, and it will not live. Well, such is man without God.
"There are some who do not love the good God, who do not pray to Him, and who prosper; that is a bad sign. They have done a little good in the midst of a great deal of evil. The good God rewards them in this life.
"This earth is a bridge to cross the water; it serves only to support our steps. . . . We are in this world, but we are not of this world, since we say every day, 'Our Father, Who art in Heaven. ' We must wait, then, for our reward till we are at home, in our Father's house. This is the reason why good Christians suffer crosses, contradictions, adversities, contempt, calumnies - so much the better! . . . But people are astonished at this. They seem to think that because we love the good God a little, we ought to have nothing to contradict us, nothing to make us suffer. . . . We say, 'There is a person who is not good, and yet everything goes well with him; but with me, it is of no use doing my best; everything goes wrong. It is because we do not understand the value and the happiness of crosses. We say sometimes that God chastises those whom He loves. That is not true. Trials are not chastisements; they are graces to those whom God loves. . . . We must not consider the labor, but the recompense. A merchant does not consider the trouble he undergoes in his commerce, but the profit he gains by it. . . . What are twenty years, thirty years, compared to eternity? What, then, have we to suffer? A few humiliations, a few annoyances, a few sharp words; that will not kill us.
"It is glorious to be able to please God, so little as we are! Our tongue should be employed only in praying, our heart in loving, our eyes in weeping. We are great, and we are nothing. . . . There is nothing greater than man, and nothing less. Nothing is greater, if we consider his soul; nothing is less, if we look at his body. . . . We occupy ourselves with the body, as if we had it alone to take care of; we have, on the contrary, it alone to despise. . . . We are the work of a God. . . . one always loves one's own work. . . . It is easy enough to understand that we are the work of a God; but that the crucifixion of a God should be our work! that is incomprehensible.
"Some people attribute a hard heart to the Eternal Father. Oh, how mistaken they are! The Eternal Father, to disarm His own justice, gave to His Son an excessively tender heart; no one can give what he does not possess. Our Lord said to His Father: 'Father, do not punish them!' . . . Our Lord suffered more than was necessary to redeem us. But what would have satisfied the justice of I His Father would not have satisfied His love. With - I out Our Lord's death, all mankind together could not expiate a single little lie.
"In the world, people hide Heaven and Hell: Heaven, because if we knew its beauty, we should wish to go there at all costs - we should, indeed, leave the world alone; Hell, because if we knew the torments that are endured there, we should do all we could to avoid going there.
"The Sign of the Cross is formidable to the devil, because by the Cross we escape from him. We should make the Sign of the Cross with great respect. We begin with the forehead: it is the head, creation - the Father; then the heart: love, life, redemption - the Son; then the shoulders: strength - the Holy Ghost. Everything reminds us of the Cross. We ourselves are made in the form of a cross. In Heaven we shall be nourished by the breath of God. . . . The good God will place us as an architect places the stones of a building - each one in the spot to which it is adapted. The soul of the saints contained the foundations of Heaven. They felt an emanation from Heaven, in which they bathed and lost themselves. . . . As the disciples on Mount Thabor saw nothing but Jesus alone, so interior souls, on the Thabor of their hearts no longer see anything but Our Lord. They are two friends, who are never tired of each other. . . .
"There are some who lose the faith, and never see Hell till they enter it. The lost will be enveloped in the wrath of God, as the fish are in the water. It is not God who condemns us to Hell; it is we ourselves who do it by our sins. The lost do not accuse God; they accuse themselves. They say, 'I have lost God, my soul, and Heaven by my own fault. ' No one was ever lost for having done too much evil; but many are in Hell for a single mortal sin of which they would not repent. If a lost soul could say once, 'O my God I love Thee!' there would be no more Hell for him . . . but, alas, poor soul! it has lost the power of loving which it had received, and of which it made no use. Its heart is dried up like grapes that have passed through the winepress. No more joy in that soul, no more peace, because there is no more love. . . . Hell has its origin in the goodness of God. The lost will say, 'Oh, if at least God had not loved us so much, we should suffer less! Hell would be endurable. . . . But to have been so much loved! what grief!"
Besides these deep thoughts, he had some that were forcible and startling. He called the cemetery, the home of all; Purgatory, the infirmary of the good God; the earth, a warehouse. "We are on the earth, " he said, "only as in a warehouse, for a very little moment. . . . We seem not to move, and we are going toward eternity as if by steam.
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September 27 2015 - When you pray, you should go into your room and close the door and pray to your Father who cannot be seen. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and he will reward you. Matthew 6:6
The holy Curé spoke without any other preparation than his continual union with God; he passed without any interval or delay from the confessional to the pulpit; and yet he showed an imperturbable confidence, which sprang from complete and absolute forgetfulness of himself. Besides, no one was tempted to criticise him. People generally criticise those who are not indifferent to their opinion of them. Those who heard the Curé of Ars had something else to do - they had to pass judgment on themselves.
M. Vianney cared nothing for what might be said or thought of him. Of whomsoever his audience might consist, though bishops and other illustrious personages often mingled with the crowd that surrounded his pulpit, he never betrayed the least emotion, nor the least embarrassment proceeding from human respect. He, who was so timid and so humble, was no longer the same person when he passed through the compact mass that filled the church at the hour of catechism; he wore an air of triumph, he carried his head high, his face was lighted up, and his eyes cast brilliant glances.
He was asked one day if he had never been afraid of his audience. "No, " he answered; "on the contrary, the more people there are, the better I am pleased. " Then, to impose on us, he added, "A proud man always thinks he does well. " If he had had the pope, the cardinals, and kings around his pulpit, he would have said neither more nor less, for he thought only of souls, and made them think only of God. This real power of his word supplied in him the want of talent and rhetoric; it gave a singular majesty and an irresistible authority to the most simple things that issued from that venerable mouth.
The power of his word was also increased by the high opinion the pilgrims entertained of his sanctity. "The first quality of the man called to the perilous honour of instructing the people, " says St. Isidore, "is to be holy and irreproachable. He whose mission it is to deter others from sin must be a stranger to sin; he whose task it is to lead model of perfection. " In the holy catechist of Ars, virtue was preaching truth. When he spoke of the love of God, of humility, gentleness, patience, mortification, sacrifice, poverty, or the desire of suffering, his example gave immense weight to his words; for a man who practices what he teaches is very powerful in convincing and persuading others.
He used to put his ideas into the most simple and transparent form, letting them suggest the expression that best suited them. He could bring truths of the highest order within the reach of every intellect; he clothed them in familiar language; his simplicity touched the heart, and his doctrine delighted the mind. That science which is not sought for is abundant; it flows like the fountain of living water, which the Samaritan woman knew not, and of which the Saviour taught her the virtue. Thus, his considerations on sin, on the offence it is against God, and the evil it inflicts on man, were the painful result of his thoughts. They penetrated him, they overwhelmed him; they were like a burning arrow piercing his breast; he relieved his pain by giving utterance to it.
It was a wonderful thing that this man, so ready to proclaim his own ignorance, had by nature a great attraction for the higher faculties of the mind. The greatest praise that he could give anyone was to say that he was clever. When the good qualities of any great person, whether an ecclesiastic or a layman, were enumerated before him, he seldom failed to complete the panegyric in these words: "What pleases me most is that he is learned. "
M. Vianney appreciated the gift of eloquence in others; he blessed God, who for His own glory gives such privileges to man, but he disdained them for himself. He had no scruple in utterly neglecting grammar and syntax in his discourses; he seemed to do it on purpose, out of humility, for there were faults in them that he might easily have avoided. But this incorrect language penetrated the souls of his hearers, enlightened and converted them. "A polished discourse, " says St. Jerome, "only gratifies the ears; one which is not so makes its way to the heart. "
His manner of speaking was sudden and impetuous; he loosed his words like arrows from a bow, and his whole soul seemed to fly with them. In these effusions the pathetic, the profound, the sublime, was often side by side with the simple and vulgar. They had all the freedom and irregularity, but also all the originality and power of an improvisation. We have sometimes tried to write down what we had just heard, but it was impossible to recall the things that had most moved us and to put them into form. What is most divine in the heart of man cannot be expressed in writing. We have, however, set down a few words, in which we find more than a remembrance. We find the Curé of Ars himself, the simple expression of his heart and of his soul. These are some of his lofty and deep thoughts:
"To love God! oh how beautiful it is! We must be in Heaven to comprehend love. . .
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September 20, 2015 - A friend loves you all the time, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.
Proverbs 17:17
When persons have heard him discourse upon Heaven, on the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord, on His dolorous Passion, His Real Presence in the most Holy Sacrament of our altars, on the Blessed Virgin Mary, her attractions and her greatness, on the happiness of the saints, the purity of the angels, the beauty of souls, the dignity of man - on all those subjects which were familiar to him - it often happened to them to come out from the discourse quite convinced that the good father saw the things of which he had spoken with such fullness of heart, with such eloquent emotion, in such passionate accents, with such abundance of tears; and indeed his words were then impressed with a character of divine tenderness, of sweet gentleness, and of penetrating unction, which was beyond all comparison. There was so extraordinary a majesty, so marvellous a power, in his voice, in his gestures, in his looks, in his transfigured countenance, that it was impossible to listen to him and remain cold and unmoved.
Views and thoughts imparted by a divine light have quite a different bearing from those acquired by study. Doubt was dispelled from the most rebellious hearts, and the admirable clearness of faith took its place before so absolute a certainty, an exposition at once so luminous and so simple.
The word of the Curé of Ars was the more efficacious because he preached with his whole being. His mere presence was a manifestation of the Truth; and of him it might well be said that he would have moved and convinced men even he would have moved and convinced men even by his silence. When there appeared in the pulpit that pale, thin, and transparent face; when you heard that shrill, piercing voice, like a cry, giving out to the crowd sublime thoughts clothed in simple and popular language, you fancied yourself in the presence of one of those great characters of the Bible, speaking to men in the language of the prophets. You were already filled with respect and confidence, and disposed to listen, not for enjoyment, but for profit.
Before he began, the venerable catechist used to cast a glance over his hearers, which prepared the way for his word. Sometimes this glance became fixed on someone; it seemed to be searching into the depths of some soul which the saint had suddenly seen through, and in which one would have thought he was looking for the text of his discourse. How many have thought he was speaking to them alone! How many have recognised themselves in the picture he drew of their weaknesses! How many have listened to the secret history of their failings, of their temptations, of their combats, of their uneasiness, and of their remorse!
To those to whom it was given to assist at these catechisms, two things were equally remarkable - the preacher and the hearer. It was not words that the preacher gave forth, it was more than words; it was a soul, a holy soul, all filled with faith and love, that poured itself out before you, of which you felt in your own soul the immediate contact and the warmth. As for the hearer, he was no longer on the earth, he was transported into those pure regions from which dogmas and mysteries descend. As the saint spoke, new and clear views opened to the mind: Heaven and earth, the present and the future life, the things of time and of eternity, appeared in a light that you had never before perceived.
When a man, coming fresh from the world, and bringing with him worldly ideas, feelings, and impressions, sat down to listen to this doctrine, it stunned and amazed him; it set so utterly at defiance the world, and all that the world believes, loves and extols. At first he was astonished and thunderstruck; then by degrees he was touched, and surprised into weeping like the rest. No eloquence has drawn forth more tears, or penetrated deeper into the hearts of men. His words opened a way before them like flames, and the most hardened hearts melted like wax before the fire. They were burning, radiating, triumphant; they did more than charm the mind, they subdued the whole soul and brought it back to God, not by the long and difficult way of argument, but by the paths of emotion which lead shortly and directly to the desired end.
M. Vianney was listened to as a new apostle, sent by Jesus Christ to His Church, to renew in Her the holiness and fervour of His Divine Spirit, in an age whose corruption had so effaced them from the souls of most men. And it is a great marvel that, proposing, like the apostles, a doctrine incomprehensible to human reason, and very bitter to the depraved taste of the world - speaking of nothing but crosses, humiliations, poverty, and penance - his doctrine was so well received. Those who had not yet received it into their hearts were glad to feed their minds upon it. If they had not courage to make it the rule of their conduct, they could not help admiring and wishing to follow it.
It is not less remarkable that, though he spoke only in the incorrect and common French natural to the people brought up in the country, one might say of him as of the Apostles, that he was heard by all the nations of the world, and that his voice resounded through all the earth. He was the oracle that people went to consult, that they might learn to know Jesus Christ. Not only the simple but the learned, not only the fervent but the indifferent, found in it a divine unction which penetrated them and made them long to hear it again. The more they heard, the more they wished to hear; and they always came back with love to the foot of that pulpit, as to a place where they had found beauty and truth. Nothing more clearly showed that the Curé of Ars was full of the Spirit of God, who alone is greater than our heart; we may draw from His depths without ever exhausting them, and the divine satiety which He gives only excites a greater appetite.
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September 13, 2015 - "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." Mark 12:29
THE BLESSED CURÉ OF ARS IN HIS CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTIONS
Saint John Vianney
EXPLANATIONS AND EXHORTATIONS
1. CHAPTER 1 : On Salvation
2. CHAPTER 2 : On Death
3. CHAPTER 3 : On the Last Judgment
4. CHAPTER 4 : On Sin
5. CHAPTER 5 : On Temptations
6. CHAPTER 6 : On Pride
7. CHAPTER 7 : On Avarice
8. CHAPTER 8 : On Lust
9. CHAPTER 9 : On Envy
10. CHAPTER 10 : On Gluttony
11. CHAPTER 11 : On Anger
12. CHAPTER 12 : On Sloth
13. CHAPTER 13 : On Grace
14. CHAPTER 14 : On Prayer
15. CHAPTER 15 : On the Love of God
16. CHAPTER 16 : On Paradise
"THERE IS no doubt, " says Pere Gratry, "that, through purity of heart, innocence, either preserved or recovered by virtue, faith, and religion, there are in man capabilities and resources of mind, of body, and of heart which most people would not suspect. To this order of resources belongs what theology calls infused science, the intellectual virtues which the Divine Word inspires into our minds when He dwells in us by faith and love."
And Pere Gratry quotes with enthusiasm, excusing himself for not translating them better, these magnificent words of a saint who lived in the eleventh century in one of the mystic monasteries on the banks of the Rhine: "This is what purifies the eye of the heart, and enables it to raise itself to the true light: contempt of worldly cares, mortification of the body, contrition of heart, abundance of tears . . . meditation on the admirable Essence of God and on His chaste Truth, fervent and pure prayer, joy in God, ardent desire for Heaven. Embrace all this, " adds the saint, "and continue in it. Advance towards the light which offers itself to you as to its sons, and descends of itself into your hearts. Take your hearts out of your breasts, and give them to Him who speaks to you, and He will fill them with deific splendour, and you will be sons of light and angels of God. "
The description we have just read seems to have been traced from the very life of the Curé of Ars. Every detail recalls him, every feature harmonises marvellously with his. Who has ever carried further "contempt of worldly cares, mortification of the body, abundance of tears?" He was always bathed in tears. And then, "meditation on the admirable Essence of God and on His chaste Truth, and fervent and pure prayer, joy in God, ardent desire for Heaven" - how characteristic is this! "He had advanced towards the light, and the light had descended of itself into his heart. . . . He had taken his heart from his breast, and given it to Him who spoke to him; and He who spoke to him, " who is the Divine, uncreated Word of God, "filled him with deific splendour. " No one could doubt it who has had the happiness of assisting at any of the catechisms of Ars; of hearing that extraordinary language, which was like no human language; who has seen the irresistible effect produced upon hearers of all classes by that voice, that emotion, that intuition, that fire, and the signal beauty of that unpolished and almost vulgar French, which was transfigured and penetrated by his holy energy, even to the form, the arrangement, and the harmony of its words and syllables. And yet the Curé of Ars did not speak words: true eloquence consists in speaking things; he spoke things, and in a most wonderful manner. He poured out his whole soul into the souls of the crowds who listened to him, that he might make them believe, love, and hope like himself. That is the aim and the triumph of evangelical eloquence.
How could this man, who had nearly been refused admittance into the great seminary because of his ignorance, and who had, since his promotion to the priesthood, been solely employed in prayer and in the labours of the confessional - how could he have attained to the power of teaching like one of the Fathers of the Church? Whence did he derive his astonishing knowledge of God, of nature, and of the history of the soul? How was it that his thoughts and expressions so often coincided with those of the greatest Christian geniuses, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa?
For example, we have often heard him say that the heart of the saints was liquid. We were much struck with this energetic expression, without suspecting that it was so theologically accurate; and we were surprised and touched to find, in turning over the pages of the Summa, that the angelical doctor assigns to love four immediate effects, of which the first is the liquefaction of the heart. M. Vianney had certainly never read St. Thomas, which makes this coincidence the more remarkable; and, indeed, it is inexplicable to those who are ignorant of the workings of grace, and who do not comprehend those words of the Divine Master: "Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. " [Matt. 11:25].
The Spirit of God had been pleased to engrave on the heart of this holy priest all that he was to know and to teach to others; and it was the more deeply engraved, as that heart was the more pure, the more detached, and empty of the vain science of men; like a clean and polished block of marble, ready for the tool of the sculptor.
The faith of the Curé of Ars was his whole science; his book was Our Lord Jesus Christ. He sought for wisdom nowhere but in Jesus Christ, in His death and in His Cross. To him no other wisdom was true, no other wisdom useful. He sought it not amid the dust of libraries, not in the schools of the learned, but in prayer, on his knees, at his Master's Feet, covering His Divine Feet with tears and kisses. In the presence of the Blessed Sacrament where he passed his days and nights before the crowd of pilgrims had yet deprived him of liberty day and night, he had learnt it all.
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September 6, 2015 - We ask you, brothers and sisters, to warn those who do not work. Encourage the people who are afraid. Help those who are weak. Be patient with everyone. 1 Thessalonians 5:14
CONGRATULATIONS!!! You have completed studying and reviewing the new catechism. I hope it has been an enlightening and rewarding experience. God bless all you faithful visitors to this site.
During the weeks leading up this event Jesus provided me with a new opportunity. So we will continue our catechism study by reviewing the wonderful catechetical work of St. John Vienney, BLESSED CURÉ OF ARS IN HIS CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTIONS.
Have a wonderful Labor Day holiday and I look forward to our new journey.
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August 30, 2015 - For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
153 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 4 Pg 754
Article 4 The Final Doxology
The final doxology, "For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever," takes up again, by inclusion, the first three petitions to our Father: the glorification of his name, the coming of his reign, and the power of his saving will. But these prayers are now proclaimed as adoration and thanksgiving, as in the liturgy of heaven. The ruler of this world has mendaciously attributed to himself to three titles of kingship, power, and glory. Christ, the Lord, restores them to his Father and our Father, until he hands over the kingdom to him when the mystery of salvation will be brought to its completion and God will be all in all.
"Then after the prayer is over you say ‘Amen,’ which means ‘So be it,’ thus ratifying with our ‘Amen,’ what is contained in the prayer that God has taught us."
In the Our Father, the object of the first three petitions is the glory of the Father: the sanctification of his name, the coming of the kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will. The four others present or wants to him: -- that our lives be nourished, healed of sin, and made victorious in the struggle of good over evil.
By asking "hallowed be thy name" we enter into God's plan, the sanctification of his name -- -- revealed first to Moses and then in Jesus -- -- by us and in us, in every nation and each man.
By the second petition, the Church looks first to Christ's return and the final coming of the Reign of God. It also prays for the growth of the Kingdom of God in the "today" our own lives.
In the third petition, we ask our Father to unite our wills to that of his Son, so as to fulfill his plan of salvation in the life of the world.
In the fourth petition, by saying "give us," we express in communion with our brethren our filial trust in our heavenly Father. "Our daily bread" refers to the earthly nourishment necessary to everyone for subsistence, and also to the Bread of Life: the Word of God and the Body of Christ. It is received in God's "today," as the indispensable, (super-) essential nourishment of the feast of the coming Kingdom anticipated in the Eucharist.
The fifth of petition begs God's mercy for our offenses, mercy which can penetrate our hearts only if we have learned to forgive our enemies, wit the example and help of Christ.
When we say "lead us not into temptation" we are asking God not to allow us to take the path that leads to sin. This petition implores the Spirit of discernment and strength; it requests the grace of vigilance and final perseverance."
In the last petition, "but deliver us from evil," Christians pray to God with the Church to show forth the victory, already won by Christ, over the "ruler of this world," Satan, the angel personally opposed to God and to his plan of salvation.
By the final "Amen," we express our “fiat” concerning the seven petitions: "So be it."
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August 23, 2015 - I will praise the Lord at all times; his praise is always on my lips. My whole being praises the Lord. The poor will hear and be glad. Glorify the Lord with me, and let us praise his name together. Psalms 34:1-3
152 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section VI VII Pg 751
VI – “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation”
This petition goes to the root of the preceding one, for our sins result from our consenting to temptation; we therefore ask our Father not to "feed" us into temptation. It is difficult to translate the Greek verb used by a single English word: the Greek means both "do not allow us to enter into temptation" and "do not let us yield to temptation." "God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one"; on the contrary, he wants to set us free from evil. We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. We are engaged in the battle "between flesh and spirit"; this petition implored the Spirit of discernment and strength.
The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and temptation, which leads to sin and death. We must also discern between being tempted and consenting to temptation. Finally, discernment unmasks the lie of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a "delight to the eyes" and desirable, when in reality its fruit is death.
God does not want to impose the good, but wants free beings... There is a certain usefulness to temptation. No one but God knows what our soul has received from him, not even we ourselves. But temptation reveals it in order to teach us to know ourselves, and in this way we discover our evil inclinations and are obliged to give thanks for the goods that temptation has revealed to us.
"Lead us not into temptation" implies a decision of the heart: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also... No one can serve two masters." “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." In this assent to the Holy Spirit the Father gives us strength. "No testing has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it."
Such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer. It is by his prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter, both at the outset of his public mission in the ultimate struggle of his agony. In this petition to our heavenly Father, Christ unites us to his battle and his agony. He urges us to vigilance of the heart in communion with his own. Vigilance is "custody of the heart," and Jesus prayed for us to the Father: "Keep them in your name." The Holy Spirit constantly seeks to awaken us to keep watch. Finally, this petition takes on all its dramatic meaning in relation to the last temptation of our earthly battles; it asks for final perseverance. "Lo, I am coming like a theif; Blessed is he who is awake."
VII – But Deliver Us From Evil”
The last petition to our Father is also included in Jesus' prayer: "I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one." It touches each of us personally, but it is always "we" who pray, in communion with whole Church, for the deliverance of the whole human family. The Lord's Prayer continually opens us to the range of Gods economy of salvation. Our interdependence in the drama of sin and death is turned into solidarity in the Body of Christ, the "communion of saints."
In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil (dia-bolos) is the one who “throws himself across" God's plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ.
"A murderer from the beginning... a liar and the father of lies," Satan is "the deceiver of the whole world." Through him sin and death entered the world and by his definitive defeat all creation will be "freed from the corruption of sin and death." Now "we know that anyone born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and even one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one."
The Lord who has taken away your sin and pardoned your faults also protects you and keeps you from the wiles of your adversary the devil, so that the enemy, who is accustomed to leading into sin, may not surprise you. One who entrusts himself to God does not dread the devil. "if God is for us, who is against us?"
Victory over the "prince of this world" was won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely gave himself up to death to give us his life. This is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world is "cast out." "He pursued the woman" but had no hold on her: the new Eve, "full of grace" of the Holy Spirit, is preserved from sin and the corruption of death (the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God, Mary, ever Virgin). "Then the dragon was angry with a woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring." Therefore the Spirit and the Church pray: "Come, Lord Jesus," since his coming will deliver us from the Evil One. When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the author or instigator. In this final petition, the Church brings before the Father all the distress of the world. Along with deliverance from the evils that overwhelm humanity, she implores the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance in expectation of Christ's return. By praying in this way, she anticipates in humility of faith the gathering together of everyone and everything in him who has "the keys of Death and Hades," who "is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
Deliver us, Lord, we beseech you, from every evil and grant us peace in our day, so that aided by your mercy we might be ever free from sin and protected from all anxiety, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
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August 16, 2015 - If you remain in me and follow my teachings, you can ask anything you want, and it will be given to you. John 15:7
151 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section V Pg 748
V – “And Forgive Us Our Trespasses, As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us”
This petition is astonishing. If it consisted only of the first phrase, "And forgive us our trespasses," it might have been included, implicitly, in the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer, since Christ's sacrifice is "that sins may be forgiven." But, according to the second phrase, our petition will not be heard unless we have first met a strict requirement. Our petition looks to the future, but our response must come first, for the two parts are joined by the single word "as."
And forgive us our trespasses...
With bold confidence, we begin praying to our Father. In begging him that his name be hallowed, we were in fact asking him that we ourselves might be always made more holy. But though we are clothed with the baptismal garment, we do not cease to sin, turn away from God. Now, in this new petition, we return to him like the prodigal son and, like the tax collector, recognize that we are sinners before him. Our petition begins with a "confession" of our wretchedness in his mercy. Our hope is firm because, his Son, "we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." We find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his Church.
Now -- -- and this is daunting -- -- this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us. Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible; we cannot love God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see. In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father's merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.
This petition is so important that it is the only one to which the Lord returns and which he develops explicitly in the Sermon on the Mount. This crucial requirement of the covenant mystery is impossible for man. But "with God all things are possible."
... As we forgive those who trespass against us
This "as" is not unique in Jesus' teaching: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect"; "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful"; "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." It is impossible to keep the Lord’s commandment by imitating the divine model from outside; there has to be a vital participation, coming from the depths of the heart, in the holiness and the mercy and love of our God. Only the spirit by whom we live can make "ours" the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. Then the unity of forgiveness becomes possible and we find ourselves "forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave" us.
Thus the Lord's words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end, become a living reality. The parable of the merciless servant, which crowns the Lord's teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words: "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." It is there, in fact, "in the depths of the heart," that everything is bound and loosed. It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.
Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies, transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his Master. Forgiveness is a high-point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God's compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin. The martyrs of yesterday and today bear this witness to Jesus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another.
There is no limit or measure to this essentially divine forgiveness, whether one speaks of "sins" as in Luke (11:4), or "debt's" as in Matthew (6:12). We are always debtors: "Owe no one anything, except to love one another." The communion of the Holy Trinity is the source and criterion of truth in every relationship. It is lived out in prayer, above all in the Eucharist.
God does not accept the sacrifice of a sewer of disunion, but commands that he depart from the altar so that he may first be reconciled with his brother. For God can be appeased only by prayers that make peace. To God, the better offering is peace, brotherly concord, and a people made one in the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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August 09, 2015 - Let us hold firmly to the hope that we have confessed, because we can trust God to do what he promised. Hebrews 10:23
150 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section IV Pg 745
IV – “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
"Give us": The trust of children who look to their Father for everything is beautiful. "He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." He gives to all the living "their food in due season." Jesus teaches us this petition, because it glorifies our Father by acknowledging how good he is, beyond all goodness.
"Give us" also expresses the covenant. We are his and he is ours, for our sake. But this "us" also recognizes him as the Father of all men and we pray to him for them all, in solidarity with their needs and sufferings.
"Our bread": The Father who gives us life cannot but give us the nourishment life requires -- -- all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists on the filial trust that cooperates with our Father's providence. He is not inviting us to idleness, but wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation. Such is the fuel surrender of the children of God:
To those who seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he has promised to give all else besides. Since everything indeed belongs to God, he who possesses God wants for nothing, if he himself is not found wanting before God.
But the presence of those who hunger because they lack bread opens up another profound meaning of this petition. The drama of hunger in the world calls Christians who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility toward their brethren, both in their personal behavior and in their solidarity with the human family. This petition of the Lord's Prayer cannot be isolated from the parables of the poor man Lazarus and of the Last Judgment.
As leaven is the dough, the newness of the kingdom should make the earth "rise" by the Spirit of Christ. This must be shown by the establishment of justice in personal and social, economic and international relations, without ever forgetting that there are no just structures without people who want to be just.
"Our" bread is the "one" loaf for the "many." In the Beatitudes "poverty" is the virtue of sharing: it calls us to communicate and share both material and spiritual goods, not by coercion but out of love, so that the abundance of some may remedy the needs of others.
"Pray and work. “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you." Even when we have done our work, the food we receive is still a gift from our Father; it is good to ask him for it and to thank him, as Christian families do when saying grace at meals.
This petition, with the responsibility it involves also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing: "Man does not live by bread alone, but... by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God," that is, by the Word he speaks and the sSpirit he breathes forth. Christians must make every effort "to proclaim the good news to the poor." There is a famine on earth, "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." For this reason the specifically Christian sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: the Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist.
" This day" is also an expression of trust taught us by the Lord, which we would never have resumed to invent. Since it refers above all to his Word and to the Body of his Son, this "today" is not only that of our mortal time, but also the "today" of God.
If you receive the bread each day, each day is today for you. Christ is yours today, he rises for you every day. How can this be? "You are my Son, today I have begotten you." Therefore, "today" is when Christ rises.
"Daily" (epiousios) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition of "this day," to confirm us in trust "without reservation." Taken in the qualitative sense, it signifies what is necessary for life, and more broadly every good thing sufficient for subsistence. Taken literally (epi-ousios: "super-essential"), it refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the "medicine of immortality," without which we have no life within us. Finally in this connection, its heavenly meaning is evident: "this day" is the Day of the Lord, the day of the feast of the kingdom, anticipated in the Eucharist that is already the foretaste of the kingdom to come. For this reason it is fitting for the Eucharistic liturgy to be celebrated each day.
The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive... This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage.
The Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sewn in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven.
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August 02, 2015 - Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not get upset with others. Love does not count up wrongs that have been done. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
149 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section II III Pg 742
II – Thy Kingdom Come
In the New Testament, the word basileia can be translated by “kingship” (abstract noun), “kingdom” (concrete noun) or “reign” (action noun). The Kingdom of God lies ahead of us. It is brought near in the Word incarnate, it is proclaimed throughout the whole Gospel, and it has come in Christ’s death and Resurrection. The Kingdom of God has been coming since the Last Supper and, in the Eucharist, it is in or midst. The kingdom will come in glory when Christ hands it over to his Father:
It may even be...that the Kingdom of God means Christ himself, whom we daily desire to come, and whose coming we wish to have manifested quickly to us. For as he is our resurrection, since in him we rise, so he can also be understood as the Kingdom of God, for in him we shall reign.
This petition is "Marana tha,” the cry of the Spirit and the Bride: "Come, Lord Jesus."
Even if it had not been prescribed to pray for the coming of the kingdom, we would willingly have brought forth this speech, eager to embrace our hope. In indignation the souls of the martyrs under the altar cry out to the Lord: "O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?" For their retribution is ordained for the end of the world. Indeed, as soon as possible, Lord, may your kingdom come!
In the Lord’s Prayer, "thy Kingdom come" refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ's return. But, far from distracting the Church from her mission in this present world, this desire commits her to it all the more strongly. Since Pentecost, the coming of that Reign is the work of the Spirit of the Lord who "completes his work on earth and brings us to the fullness of grace." "The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." The end-time in which we live is the age of the outpouring of the Spirit. Ever since Pentecost, a decisive battle has been joined between "the flesh" and the Spirit.
Only a pure soul can boldly say: "Thy Kingdom come." One who has heard Paul say, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies," and has pacified himself in action, thought, and word to say to God: "Thy Kingdom come!"
By a discernment according to the Spirit, Christians have to distinguish between the growth of the Reign of God and the progress of the culture and society in which they are involved. This distinction is not a separation. Man's vocation to eternal life does not suppress, but actually reinforces, his duty to put into action in this world the energies ad means received from the Creator to serve justice and peace.
This petition is taken up and granted in the prayer of Jesus which is present and effective in the Eucharist; it bears its fruit in new life in keeping with the Beatitudes.
III - – “Thy Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven”
Our Father "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." He “is for bearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish." His commandment is "that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." This commandment summarizes all the others and expresses his entire will.
"He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ... to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will." We ask insistently for this loving plan to be fully realized on earth as it is already in heaven.
In Christ, and through his human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once for all. Jesus said when entering into this world: "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God." Only Jesus can say: "I always do what is pleasing to him." In the prayer of his agony, he consents totally to this will: "not my will, but yours be done." For this reason Jesus "gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
"Although he was a Son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered." How much more reason have we sinful creatures to learn obedience -- -- we who in him have become children of adoption. We ask our Father to unite our will to his Son’s, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of salvation for the life of the world. We are radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and with the power of his Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his Son has always chosen: to do what is pleasing to the Father.
In committing ourselves to [Christ], we can become one spirit with him, and thereby accomplish his will, in such wise that it will be perfect on earth as it is in heaven.
Consider how [Jesus Christ] teaches us to be humble, by making us see that our virtue does not depend on our work alone but on grace from on high. He commands each of the faithful who prays to do so universally, for the whole world. He did not say "thy will be done in me or in us," but "on earth," the whole earth, so that error may be banished from it, truth takes root in it, all vice be destroyed on it, virtue flourish on it, then earth no longer differ from heaven.
By prayer we can discern "what is the will of God" and obtain the endurance to do it. Jesus teaches us that one enters the kingdom of heaven not by speaking words, but by doing "the will of my Father in heaven."
"If anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him." Such is the power of the Church's prayer in the name of her Lord, above all in the Eucharist. Her prayer is also a communion of intercession with the all-holy Mother of God and all the saints who have been pleasing to the Lord because they willed his will alone:
It would not be inconsistent with the truth to understand the words, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," to mean: "in the Church as in our Lord Jesus Christ himself"; or "in the Bride who has been betrothed, just as in the Bridegroom who has accomplished the will of the Father."
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July 26, 2015 - Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
148 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section I Pg 739
I – “Hallowed Be Thy Name”
The term "to hallow" is to be understood here not primarily in its causative sense (only God hallows, makes holy), but above all in an evaluative sense: to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way. And so, in adoration, this invocation is sometimes understood as praise and thanksgiving. But this petition is here taught to us by Jesus as an optative: a petition, a desire, and an expectation in which God and man are involved. Beginning with this first petition to our Father, we are immersed in the innermost mystery of his Godhead and the drama of the salvation of our humanity. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws us into his plan of loving kindness for the fullness of time, "according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ," that we might "be holy and blameless before him in love."
In the decisive moments of his economy God reveals his name, but he does so by accomplishing his work. This work, then, is realized for us and in us only if his name is hallowed by us and in us.
The holiness of God is the inaccessible center of this eternal mystery. What is revealed of it in creation and history, Scripture calls "glory," the radiance of his majesty. In making man in his image and likeness, God "crowned him with glory and honor," but by sinning, men fall "short of the glory of God." From that time on, God was to manifest his holiness by revealing and giving his name, in order to restore man to the image of his Creator.
In the promise to Abraham and the oath that accompanied it, God commits himself but without disclosing his name. He begins to reveal it to Moses and makes it known clearly before the eyes of the whole people when he saves them from the Egyptians: "he has triumphed gloriously." From the covenant of Sinai onwards, this people is "his own" it is to be a "holy (or "consecrated": the same word is used for both in Hebrew) nation, because the name of God dwells in it.
In spite of the holy Law that again and again their Holy God give them -- -- "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" -- -- and although the Lord shows patience for the sake of his name, the people turn away from the Holy One of Israel and profane his name among the nations. For this reason the just ones of the old covenant, the poor survivors returned from exile, and the prophets burned with passion for the name.
Finally, in Jesus the name of the Holy God is revealed and given to us, in the flesh, as Savior, revealed by what he is, by his word, and by his sacrifice. This is the heart of his priestly prayer: "Holy Father... for their sake I consecrate myself, but that they also may be consecrated in truth." Because he "sanctifies" his own name, Jesus reveals to us the name of the Father. At the end of Christ's Passover, the Father gives him the name that is above all names: "Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
In the waters of Baptism we have been washed... sanctified... justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." Our Father calls us to holiness in the whole of our life, and since "he is the source of [our] life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God and... sanctification.," both his glory and our life depend on the following of his name in us and by us. Such is the urgency of our first petition.
By whom is God hallowed, since he is the one who hallows? But since he said, "You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy," we seek and ask that we who were sanctified in Baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be. And we ask this daily, for we need sanctification daily, that we who fail daily may cleanse away our sins by being sanctified continually... We pray that this sanctification may remain in us.
The sanctification of his name among the nations depends inseparably on our life and our prayer:
We ask God to hallow his name, which by its own holiness saves and makes holy all creation... It is this name that gives salvation to a lost world. But we ask that this name of God should be hallowed in us through our actions. For God's name is blessed when we live well, but is blasphemed when we live wickedly. As the Apostle says: "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” We ask then just as the name of God is holy so we may obtain his Holiness in our souls.
When we say "hallowed be thy name," we ask that it should be hallowed in us, who are in him; but also in others whom God's grace still awaits, that we may obey the precept that obliges us to pray for everyone, even our enemies. That is why we do not say expressly "hallowed be thy name ’ in us,’ “ for we ask that it be so in all men.
This petition embodies all the others. Like the six petitions that follow, it is fulfilled by the prayer of Christ. Prayer to her Father is our prayer, if it is prayed in the name of Jesus. In his priestly prayer, Jesus asks "Holy Father, protect in your name those whom you have given me.”
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July 19, 2015 - These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. Isaiah 56:7
147 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 2 Section III IV Pg 734
III – “Our” Father
"Our" Father refers to God. The adjective, as used by us, does not express possession, but an entirely new relationship with God.
When we say "our" Father, we recognize first that all his promises of love announced by the prophets are fulfilled in the new and eternal covenant in his Christ: we have become "his" people and he is henceforth "our" God. The new relationship is the purely gratuitous gift of belonging to each other: we are to respond to "grace and truth" given us in Jesus Christ with love and faithfulness.
Since the Lord's Prayer is that of his people in the "endtime," this "our" also expresses the certitude of our hope in God's ultimate promise: in the new Jerusalem he will say to the victor, "I will be his God and he shall be my son."
When we pray to "our" Father, we personally address the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By doing so we do not divide the Godhead, since the Father is its "source and origin," but rather confess that the Son is eternally begotten by him and the Holy Spirit proceeds from him. We are not confusing the persons, for we confess our communion is with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, in their one Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is consubstantial and indivisible. When we pray to the Father, we adore and glorify him together and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Grammatically, "our" qualifies a reality common to more than one person. There is only one God, and he is recognized as Father by those who, through faith in his only Son, are reborn of them by water and the Spirit. The Church is this new communion of God and Man. United with the only Son, who has become "the firstborn among many brethren," she is in communion with one and the same Father in one and the same Holy Spirit. In praying "our" Father, each of the baptized is praying in this communion. "The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul.”
For this reason, in spite of the divisions among Christians, this power to "our" Father remains our common patrimony and an urgent summons for all the baptized. In Communion by faith in Christ and by baptism, they ought to join in Jesus' prayer for the unity of his disciples.
Finally if we pray the our Father sincerely, we leave individualism behind, because the love that we receive frees us from it. The "our" at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, like the "us" of the last four partitions, excludes no one. If we are to say it truthfully, our divisions and oppositions have to become overcome.
The baptized cannot pray to "our" Father without bringing before him all those for whom he gave his beloved Son. God's love has no bounds, neither should our prayer. Praying "our" Father opens to us the dimensions of his love revealed in Christ: praying with and for all who do not yet know him,." God's care for all men and for the whole of creation has inspired all the great practitioners of prayer; it should extend our prayer to the full breadth of love whenever we dare to say "our" Father.
IV – “Who Art In Heaven”
This biblical expression does not mean a place (“space"), but a way of being; it does not mean that God is distant, but majestic. Our Father is not "elsewhere": he transcends everything we can conceive of his holiness. It is precisely because he is thrice holy that he is so close to the humble and contrite heart.
"Our Father who art in heaven" is rightly understood to mean that God is in the hearts of the just, as in his holy temple. At the same time, it means that those who pray should desire the one they invoke to dwell in them.
"Heaven" could also be those who bear the image of the heavenly world, and in whom God dwells and tarries.
The symbol of the heavens refers back to the mystery of the covenant we are living when we pray to our Father. He is in heaven, his dwelling place; the Father's house is our homeland. Sin has exiled us from the land of the covenant, but conversion of heart enables us to return to the Father, to heaven. In Christ then, heaven and earth are reconciled, for the Son alone "descended from heaven" and causes us to ascend there with him, by his Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension.
When the Church prays "our Father who art in heaven," she is professing that we are the People of God already seated "with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" and "hidden with Christ in God;" yet at the same time, "here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling."
[Christians] are in the flesh, but do not live according to the flesh. They spend their lives on earth, but are citizens of heaven.
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July 12, 2015 - Those who go to God Most High for safety will be protected by the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, "You are my place of safety and protection. You are my God and I trust you." God will save you from hidden traps and from deadly diseases. Psalms 91:1-3
146 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 2 Section I II Pg 731
I – “We Dare To Say”
In the Roman liturgy, the Eucharistic assembly is invited to pray to our heavenly Father with filial boldness; the Eastern liturgies develop and use similar expressions: "dare in all confidence,” "make us worthy of..." From the burning bush Moses heard a voice saying to him, "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." Only Jesus could cross that threshold of divine holiness, for "when he had made purification for sins," he brought us into the Father's presence: "Here am I, and the children God has given me."
Our awareness of our status as slaves would make us sink into the ground and our earthly condition would dissolve into dust, if the authority of our Father himself and the Spirit of his Son had not impelled us to this cry...’Abba, Father!’… When would a mortal dare call God ‘Father,’ if man's innermost being were not animated by power from on high?"
This power of the Spirit who introduces us to the Lord's Prayer is expressed in the liturgies of East and West by the beautiful, characteristically Christian expression: parrhesia, straightforward simplicity, filial trust, joyous assurance, humble boldness, the certainty of being loved.
II – “Father”
Before we make our own this first exclamation of the Lord's Prayer, we must humbly cleanse our hearts of certain false images drawn "from this world." Humility makes us recognize that "no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him," that is, "to little children." The purification of our hearts has to do with paternal or maternal images, stemming from our personal and cultural history, and influencing our relationship with God. God our Father transcends the categories of the created world. To impose our own ideas in this area "upon him" would be to fabricate idols to adore or pull down. To pray to the Father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as the Son has revealed him to us.
The expression God the Father had never been revealed to anyone. When Moses himself asked God who he was, he heard another name. The Fathers’ name had been revealed to us in the Son, for the name "Son" implies the new name "Father."
We can invoke God as "Father" because he is revealed to us by his Son become man and because his Spirit makes him known to us. The personal relation of the Son to the Father is something that man cannot conceive of nor the angelic powers even dimly see: and yet, the Spirit of the Son grants a participation in that very relation to us who believe that Jesus is the Christ and that we are born of God.
When we pray to the Father, we are in communion with him and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Then we know and recognize him with an ever new sense of wonder. The first phrase of the Our Father is a blessing of adoration before it is a supplication. For it is the glory of God that we should recognize him as "Father," the true God. We give him thanks for having revealed his name to us, for the gift of believing in it, and for the indwelling of his Presence in us.
We can adore the Father because he has caused us to be reborn to his life by adopting us as his children and his only Son: by Baptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his Christ; through the anointing of his Spirit who flows from the head to its members, he makes us other "Christs."
God, indeed, who has predestined us to adoption as his sons, has confirmed us to the glorious Body of Christ. So then you who have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called "Christs."
The new man, reborn and restored to his God by grace, says first of all, "Father!" because he has now begun to be a son.”
Thus the Lord's Prayer reveals us to ourselves at the same time that it reveals the Father to us.
O man, you did not dare to raise your face to heaven, you lowered your eyes to the earth, and suddenly you have received the grace of Christ: all your sins have been forgiven. From being a wicked servant you have become a good son... Then raise your eyes to the Father who has begotten you through Baptism, to the Father who has redeemed you through his Son, and say "Our Father..." But do not claim any privilege. He is the Father in a special way only of Christ, but he is the common Father of us all, because while he has begotten only Christ, he has created us. Then also say by his grace, "Our Father," so that you may merit being his own.
The free gift of adoption requires on our part continual conversion and new life. Praying to our Father should develop us two fundamental dispositions:
First, the desire to become like him: though created in his image, we are restored to his likeness by grace; we must respond to this grace.
We must remember... and know that when we call God "our Father" we ought to behave as sons of God.
You cannot call the God of all kindness your Father if you preserve a cruel and inhuman heart; for in this case you no longer have in you the marks of the heavenly Father's kindness.
We must contemplate the beauty of the Father without ceasing and adorn our own souls accordingly.
Second, a humble and trusting heart that enables us "to turn and become like children": for it is to "little children" that the Father is revealed.
[The prayer is accomplished] by the contemplation of God alone, and by the warmth of love, through which the soul, molded and directed to love them, speaks very familiarly to God as to its own Father with special devotion.
Our Father at this name love is aroused in us... and the confidence of obtaining what we are about to ask... What would he not give to his children who ask, since he has already granted them the gift of being his children?
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July 5, 2015 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. Colossians 3:23
145 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 1 Section I II III Pg 727
I - At The Center Of The Scriptures
After showing how the psalms are the principal food of Christian prayer and flew together in the petitions of the Our Father, St. Augustine concludes:
Run through all the words of the holy prayers [in Scripture], and I do not think that you will find anything in them but not contained and included in the Lord's prayer.
All the Scriptures -- -- the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms -- -- are fulfilled in Christ. The Gospel is this "Good News." Its first proclamation is summarized by St. Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount; the prayer to our Father is at the center of this proclamation. It is in this context that each petition bequethed to us by the Lord is illuminated:
The Lord's prayer is the most perfect of prayers.… In it we ask, not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. This prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them.
The Sermon on the Mount is teaching for life, the Our Father is a prayer; but in both the one and the other the Spirit of the Lord gives new form to our desires, those inner movements that animate our lives. Jesus teaches us this by his words; he teaches us to ask for it by our prayer. The rightness or life in him will depend on the rightness of our prayer.
II – “The Lord’s Prayer”
The traditional expression "the Lord's prayer" -- --oratio Dominica -- -- means that the prayer to our Father is taught and given to us by the Lord Jesus. The prayer that comes to us from Jesus is truly unique: it is "of the Lord." On the other hand, in the words of this prayer the only Son gives us the words the Father gave him: he is the master of our prayer. On the other, as Word incarnate, he knows in his human heart the needs of his human brothers and sisters and reveals them to us: he is the model of our prayer.
But Jesus does not give us a formula to repeat mechanically. As in every vocal prayer, it is through the Word of God that the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God to pray to their Father. Jesus not only gives us the words of our filial prayer; at the same time he gives us the Spirit by whom these words become in us "spirit and life." Even more, the proof and possibility of our filial prayer is that the Father "sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ “Since our prayer sets forth our desires before God, it is again the Father, "he who searches the hearts of men," who "knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the Saints according to the will of God." The prayer to our Father is inserted into the mysterious mission of the Son and of the Spirit.
III – The Prayer OF The Church
This indivisible gift of the Lord's words and of the Holy Spirit who gives life to them in the hearts of believers has been received and lived by the Church from the beginning. The first communities prayed the Lord's prayer three times a day, in place of the Eighteen Benedictions" customary in Jewish piety. According to the apostolic tradition, the Lord's prayer is essentially rooted in liturgical prayer:
[the Lord] teaches us to make prayer in common for all our brethren. For he did not say "my Father" who art in heaven, but "our" Father, offering petitions for the common body.
In all the liturgical traditions, the Lord's prayer is an integral part of the major hours of the Divine Office. In the three sacraments of Christian initiation its ecclesial character is especially in evidence:
In Baptism and Confirmation, the handing on (traditio) of the Lord's prayer signifies new birth into the divine life. Since Christian prayer is our speaking to God with the very word of God, those who are "born anew... through the living and abiding word of God" learn to invoke their Father by the one Word he always hears. They can henceforth do so, for the seal of the Holy Spirit’s anointing is indelibly placed on their hearts, ears, lips, indeed their whole filial being. This is why most of the patristic commentaries on the Our Father are addressed to catechumens and neophytes. When the Church prays the Lord's prayer, it is always the people made up of the "new born" who pray and obtain mercy.
In the Eucharistic liturgy the Lord's prayer appears as the prayer of the whole Church and there reveals its full meaning and efficacy. Placed between the anaphora (the Eucharistic prayer) and the Communion, the Lord's prayer sums up on the one hand all the petitions and intercessions expressed in the movement of the epiclesis and, on the other, knocks at the door of the Banquet of the kingdom which sacramental communion anticipates.
In the Eucharist, the Lord's prayer also reveals the eschatological character of its petitions. It is the proper prayer of "the end --time," the time of salvation that began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and will be fulfilled with the Lord's return. The petitions addressed to our Father, as distinct from the prayers of the old covenant, rely on the mystery of salvation already accomplished, once for all, in Christ crucified and risen.
From this unshakable faith springs forth the hope that sustains each of the seven petitions, which express the groanings of the present age, this time of patients and expectation during which "it does not yet appear what we shall be." The Eucharist and the Lord's prayer look eagerly for the Lord's return, "until he comes."
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June 28, 2015 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
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I Objections To Prayer
In the battle of prayer, we must face in ourselves and around those erroneous notions of prayer. Some people view prayer as a simple psychological activity, others as an effort of concentration to reach a mental void. Still others reduce prayer to virtual words and postures. Many Christians unconsciously regard prayer as an occupation that is incompatible with all the other things they have to do: they "don't have the time." Those who seek God by prayer are quickly discouraged because they do not know the prayer comes also from the Holy Spirit and not from themselves alone.
We must also face the fact that certain attitudes deriving from the mentality of "this present world" can penetrate our lives if we are not vigilant. For example, some would have it that only that is true which can be verified by reason and science; yet prayer is a mystery that overflows both our conscious and unconscious lives. Others overly prize production and profit; thus prayer, being unproductive, is useless. Still others exalt sensuality and comfort as the criteria of the true, the good, and the beautiful; whereas prayer, the "love of beauty" (philokalia), is caught up in the glory of the living and true God. Finally, some see prayer as a flight from the world in reaction against activism; but in fact, Christian prayer is neither an escape from reality nor a divorce from life.
Finally, our battle has to confront what we experience as failure in prayer: discouragement during periods of dryness; sadness that, because we have "great possessions," we have not given all to the Lord; disappointment over not being heard according to our own will; wounded pride, stiffened by the indignity that is ours as sinners; our resistance to the idea that prayer is a free and unmerited gift; and so forth. The conclusion is always the same: what good does it do to pray? To overcome these obstacles, we must battle to gain humility trust and perseverance.
II Humble Vigilance Of Heart
Facing difficulties in prayer
The habitual difficulty in prayer is distraction. It can affect words and their meaning in vocal prayer; it can concern, more profoundly, him to whom we are praying, and vocal prayer (liturgical or personal), meditation, and contemplative prayer. To set about hunting down distractions would be to fall into their trap, when all that is necessary is to turn back to our heart: for a distraction reveals to us what we are attached to, and this humble awareness before the Lord should awaken our preferential love for him and lead us resolutely to offer him our heart to be purified. Therein lies the battle, the choice of which master to serve.
In positive terms, the battle against the possessive and dominating self requires vigilance, sobriety of heart. When Jesus insists on vigilance, he always relates it to himself, to his coming on the last day and every day: today. The bridegroom comes in the middle of the night; the light that must not be extinguished is that of faith: “Come”, my heart says, “seek his face!”
Another difficulty, especially for those who sincerely want to pray, is dryness. Dryness belongs to contemplative prayer when the heart is separated from God, with no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones. This is a moment of sheer faith clinging faithfully to Jesus in his agony and in his tomb. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." If dryness is due to lack of roots, because the word has fallen on rocky soil, the battle requires conversion.
Facing temptations in prayer
The most common yet most hidden temptation is our lack of faith. It expresses itself less by declared incredulity than by our actual preferences. When we begin to pray, a thousand labors or cares thought to be urgent vie for priority; once again, it is the moment of truth for the heart: what is its real love? Sometimes we turn to the Lord as a last resort, but do we really believe he is? Sometimes we enlist the Lord as an ally, but our heart remains presumptuous. In each case our lack of faith reveals that we do not yet share in the disposition of a humble heart: "Apart from me, you can do nothing."
Another temptation, to which presumption opens the gate, is acedia. The spiritual writers understand by this a form of depression due to lax ascetical practice, decreasing vigilance, carelessness of the heart. "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." The greater the height, the harder the fall. Painful as discouragement is, it is the reverse of presumption. The humble are not surprised by their distress; it leads them to trust more, to hold fast in constancy.
III Filial Trust
Filial trust is tested -- -- it proves itself -- -- in tribulations. The principal difficulty concerns the prayer of petition, for oneself or for others in intercession. Some even stop praying because they think their petition is not heard. Here two questions should be asked: Why do we think our petition has not been heard? How is our prayer heard, how is it “efficacious"?
Why do we complain of not being heard?
In the first place, we ought to be astonished by this fact: when we praise God or give him thanks for his benefits in general, we are not particularly concerned whether or not our prayer is acceptable to him. On the other hand, we demand to see the results of our petitions. What is the image of God that motivates our prayer: an instrument to be used? or the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Are we convinced that "we do not know how to pray as we ought"? Are we asking God for "what is good for us"? Our Father knows what we need before we ask him, but he awaits our petition because the dignity of his children lies in their freedom. We must pray, then, with his Spirit of freedom, to be able truly to know what he wants.
"You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." If we ask with a divided heart, we are "adulterers"; God cannot answer us for a desire of our well-being our life. "Or do you suppose that it is in vain that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us?" That our God is "jealous" for us is the sign of how true his love is. If we enter into the desire of his Spirit, we shall be heard.
Do not be troubled if you do not immediately receive from God what you ask him; for he desires to do something even greater for you, while you claim to him in prayer."
God wills that our desires should be exercised in prayer, that we may be able to receive what he is prepared to give.
How is our prayer efficacious?
The revelation of prayer in the economy of salvation teaches us that faith rests on God's action in history. Our filial trust is enkindled by his supreme act: the Passion and Resurrection of his Son. Christian prayer is cooperation with his providence, his plans of love for men.
For St. Paul, this trust is bold, founded on the prayer of the Spirit in us and on the faithful love of the Father who has given us his only Son. Transformation of the praying hert is the first response to our petition.
The prayer of Jesus makes Christian prayer an efficacious petitione. He is its model, he prays in us and with us. Since the heart of the Son seeks only what pleases the Father how could the prayer of the children of adoption be centered on the gifts rather than the Giver?
Jesus also prays for us--in our place and on our behalf. All our petitions were gathered up once for all in his cry on the Cross and, in his Resurrection, heard by the Father. This is why he never ceases to intercede for us with the Father. If our prayer is resolutely united with that of Jesus, in trust and boldness as children, we obtain all that we ask in his name, even more than any particular thing: the Holy Spirit himself, who contains all gifts.
IV Persevering in Love
"Pray constantly... always and for everything, giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father." St. Paul adds, "Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplications for all the saints." For "we have not been commanded to work, to keep watch and to fast constantly, but it has been laid down that we are to pray without ceasing." This tireless fervor can come only from love. Against our dullness and laziness, the battle of prayer is that of humble, trusting, and persevering love. This love opens our hearts to three enlightning and life-giving fax of faith about prayer.
It is always possible to pray: The time of the Christian is that of the risen Christ who is with us always, no matter what tempests may arise. Our time is in the hands of God:
It is possible to offer fervent prayer even while walking in public or strolling along, or seated in your shop,... while buying or selling,... or even while cooking.
Prayer is a vital necessity. Proof from the contrary is no less convincing: if we do not allow the Spirit to lead us, we fall back into the slavery of sin. How can the Holy Spirit be our life if our heart is far from him?
Nothing is equal to prayer; for what is impossible it makes possible, what is difficult, easy... For it is impossible, utterly impossible, for the man who prays eagerly and invokes God ceaselessly ever to sin.
Those who pray are certainly saved; those who do not pray are certainly damned.
Prayer and Christian life are inseparable, for they concern the same love and the same renunciation, proceeding from love; the same filial and loving conformity with the Father’s plan of love; the same transforming union in the Holy Spirit who conforms us more and more to Christ Jesus; the same love for all men, the love with which Jesus has loved us. "Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he [will] give it to you. This I command you, to love one another."
He "prays without ceasing" who unites prayer to works and good works to prayer. Only in this way can we consider as realizable the principle of praying without ceasing.
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June 21, 2015 - I leave you peace; my peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world does. So don't let your hearts be troubled or afraid. John 14:27
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I Vocal Prayer
Though his Word, God speaks to man. By words, mental or vocal, our prayer takes flesh. Yet it is most important that the heart should be present to him to whom we are speaking in prayer: "Whether or not our prayer is heard depends not on the number of words, but on the fervor of our souls."
Vocal prayer is an essential element of the Christian life. To his disciples, drawn by their Masters silent prayer, Jesus teaches a vocal prayer, the Our Father. He not only prayed aloud the liturgical prayers of the synagogue but, as the Gospels show, he raised his voice to express his personal prayer, from exultant blessing of the Father to the agony of Gethsemane.
The need to involve the senses in interior prayer corresponds to a requirement of our human nature. We are body and spirit, and we experience the need to translate our feelings externally. We must pray with our whole being to give all power possible to our supplication.
This need also corresponds to a divine requirement. God seeks worshipers in Spirit and in Truth, and consequently living prayer that rises from the depths of the soul. He also wants the external expression that associates the body with interior prayers, for it renders him that perfect homage which is his due.
Because it is external and so thoroughly human, vocal prayer is the form of prayer most readily accessible to groups. Even interior prayer, however, cannot neglect vocal prayer. Prayer is interalized to the extent that we become aware of him "to whom we speak." Thus vocal prayer becomes an initial form of contemplative prayer.
II Meditation
Meditation is above all a quest. The mind that seeks to understand the why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking. The required attentiveness is difficult to sustain. We are usually helped by books, and Christians do not want for them: the Sacred Scriptures, particularly the Gospels, holy icons, liturgical texts of the day or season, writings of the spiritual fathers, works of spirituality, the great book of creation, and of history -- -- the page on which the "today" of God is written.
To meditate on what we read helps us to make it our own b by confronting it with ourselves. Here, another book is opened: the book of life. We pass from thoughts to reality. To the extent that we are humble and faithful, we discover in meditation the movements that stir the heart and we are able to discern them. It is a question of acting truthfully in order to come into the light: "Lord, what do you want me to do?"
There are as many and varied methods of meditation as there are spiritual masters. Christians owe it to themselves to develop the desire to meditate regularly, lest they come to resemble the three first kinds of soil in the parable of the sewer. B>ut a method is only a guide; the important thing is to advance, with the Holy Spirit, along one way of prayer: Christ Jesus
Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith prompt the coversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayers should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him.
III Contemplative Prayer
What is contemplative prayer? St. Teresa answers: "Contemplative prayer [oracion mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us."
Contemplative prayer seeks him "whom my soul loves." It is Jesus, and in him, the Father. We seek him, because to desire him is always the beginning of love, and we seek him in that pure faith which causes us to be born of him and to live in him. In this inner prayer we can still meditate, but our attention is fixed on the Lord himself.
The choice of the time and duration of the prayer arises from a determined will, revealing the secrets of the heart. One does not undertake contemplative prayer only when one has the time: one makes time for the Lord, with a firm determination not to give up, no matter what trials and dryness one may encounter. One cannot always meditate, but one can always enter into inner prayer, independently of the conditions of health, work, or emotional state. The heart is the place of this quest and encounter, in poverty and in faith.
Entering into contemplative prayer is like entering into the Eucharistic liturgy: we "gather up" the heart, recollect our whole being under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, abide in the dwelling place of the Lord which we are, awaken our faith in order to enter into the presence of him who awaits us. We let our masks fall and turn our hearts back to the Lord who loves us, so as to hand ourselves over to him as an offering to be purified and transformed.
Contemplative prayer is the prayer of the child of God, of the forgiven sinner who agrees to welcome the love by which is loved and who wants to respond to it by loving even more. He knows that the love he is returning is poured out by the Spirit in his heart, for everything is grace from God. Contemplative prayer is the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the Father in even deeper union with his beloved Son.
Contemplative prayer is the simplest expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gift, a grace; it can be accepted only in humility and poverty. Contemplative prayer is a covenant relationship established by God within our hearts. Contemplative prayer is a communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God, "to his likeness."
Contemplative prayer is also the pre-eminently intense time of prayer. In it the Father strengthens our inner being with power through his Spirit "that Christ may dwell in [our] hearts through faith" and we may be "grounded in love."
Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus. "I look at him and he looks at me"; this is what a certain peasant of Ars in the time of his holy cure used to say while praying before the current tabernacle. This focus on Jesus is a renunciation of self. His gaze purifies our heart; the light of the countenance of Jesus illumines the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of his truth and his compassion for all men. Contemplation also turns its gaze on the mysteries of the life of Christ. Thus it learns the "interior knowledge of our Lord," the more to love him and follow him."
Contemplative prayer is hearing the word of God. Far from being passive, such attentiveness is the obedience of faith, the unconditional acceptance of a servant, and the loving commitment of a child. It participates in the "Yes" of the Son become servant and the Fiat of God's lowly handmaid,
Contemplative prayer is silence, the "symbol of the world to come" or "silent love." Words in this kind of prayer are not speeches; they are like kindling that feeds the fire of love. In this silence, unbearable to the "outer" man, the Father speaks to us his incarnate Word, who suffered, died, and rose; in this silence the spirit of adoption enables us to share in the prayer of Jesus.
Contemplative prayer is a union with the prayer of Christ insofar as it makes us participate in his mystery. The mystery of Christ is celebrated by the Church in the Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit makes it come alive in contemplative prayer so that our charity will manifest it in our acts.
Contemplative prayer is a communion of love bearing life for the multitude, to the extent that it consents to abide in the night of faith. The Paschal night of the Resurrection passes through the night of the agony and the tomb -- -- the three intense moments of the Hour of Jesus which his Spirit (and not "the flesh [which] is weak") brings to life in prayer. We must be willing to "keep watch with [him] one hour."
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June 14, 2015 - Your word is like a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. I will do what I have promised and obey your fair laws. Psalms 119:105-106
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6UIDES FOR PRAYER
A cloud of witnesses
The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, sharing the living tradition of prayer by the examples of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today. They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their master, they were "put in charge of many things." Their intercession uttermost exulted service to God's plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.
In the communion of saints, many and varied spiritualties have been developed throughout the history of the churches. The personal charism of some witnesses to God's love for man has been handed on, like "the spirit" of Elijah to Elisha and John the Baptist, so that their followers may have a share in this spirit. A distinct spirituality can also arise at the point of convergence of liturgical and theological currents, bearing witness to the integration of the faith into a particular human environment in its history. The different schools of Christian spirituality share in the living tradition of prayer and are essential guides for the faithful. In their rich diversity they are refractions of the one pure light of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit is truly the dwelling of the saints and the saints are for the Spirit a place where he dwells as in his own home, since they offer themselves as a dwelling place for God and are called his temple.
Servants of prayer
The Christian family is the first place of education in prayer. Based on the sacrament of marriage, the family is the "domestic Church" where God's children learn to pray "as the Church" and to persevere in prayer. For young children in particular, daily family prayer is the first witness of the Church's living memory as awakened patiently by the Holy Spirit.
Ordained ministers are also responsible for the formation of prayer of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Servants of the good Shepherd, they are named to lead the people of God to the living waters of prayer: the Word of God, the liturgy, the theological life (the life of faith, hope, and charity), and the Today of God in concrete situations.
Many religious have consecrated their whole lives to prayer. Hermits, monks, nuns since the time of the desert fathers have devoted their time to praising God and interceding for his people. The consecrated life cannot be sustained or spread without prayer; it is one of the living sources of contemplation and the spiritual life of the Church.
The catechesis of children, young people, and adults aims at teaching them to meditate on the Word of God in personal prayer, practicing it in liturgical prayer, internalizing it at all times in order to bear fruit in a new life. Catechesis is also a time for the discernment and education of popular piety. The memorization of basic prayers offers as essential support to the life of prayer, but it is important to to help learners savor their meaning.
Prayer groups, indeed "schools of prayer," are today one of the signs and one of the driving forces of renewal of prayer in the Church, provided they drink from authentic wellsprings of Christian prayer. Concern for ecclesial communion is a sign of true prayer and the Church.
The Holy Spirit gives to certain of the faithful the gifts of wisdom, faith and discernment for the sake of this common good which is prayer (spiritual direction). Men and women endowed are true servants of the living tradition of prayer.
According to St. John of the Cross, the person wishing to advance toward perfection should "take care into whose hands he entrusts himself, for as the master is, so will the disciple be, as the father is so will be the son." And further: "In addition to being learned and discrete a director should be experienced... if the spiritual director has no experience of the spiritual life he will be incapable of leading into it the souls whom God is calling to it, and he will not even understand them."
Places favorable for prayer
The church, the house of God, is the proper place for the liturgical prayer of the parish community. It is also the privileged place for adoration of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. The choice of a favorable place is not a matter of indifference for true prayer.
-- -- For personal prayer, this can be a "prayer corner" with the Sacred Scriptures and icons, in order to be there, in secret, before our Father. In a Christian family, this kind of little oratory fosters prayer in common.
-- -- In regions where monasteries exist, the vocation of these communities is to further the participation of the faithful in the Liturgy of the Hours and to provide necessary solitude for more intense personal prayer.
-- Pilgrimages evoke our earthly journey toward heaven and are traditionally very special occasions for renewal in prayer. For pilgrims seeking living water, shrines are special places for living the forms of Christian prayer "in Church"
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June 7, 2015 - But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31
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THE WAY OF PRAYER
In the living tradition of prayer, each Church proposes to its faithful, according to its historic, social, and cultural context, a language for prayer: words, melodies, gestures, iconography. The Magisterium of the Church has the task of discerning the fidelity of these ways of praying to the tradition of apostolic faith; it is for pastors and catechists to explain their meaning, always in relation to Jesus Christ.
Prayer to the Father
There is no other way of Christian prayer than Christ. Whether our prayer is communal or personal, vocal or interior, it has access to the Father only if we pray "in the name" of Jesus. The sacred humanity of Jesus is therefore the way by which the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray to God our Father.
Prayer to Jesus
The prayer of the Church, nourished by the Word of God and the celebration of the liturgy, teaches us to pray to the Lord Jesus. Even though her prayer is addressed above all to the Father, it includes in all the liturgical traditions forms of prayer addressed to Christ. Certain psalms, given their use in the Prayer of the Church, and the New Testament place on our lips and engrave in our prayer to Christ in the form of invocations: Son of God, Word of God, Lord, Savior, Lamb of God, King, Beloved Son, Son of the Virgin, Good Shepherd, our
Life, our Light, our Hope, our Resurrection, Friend of mankind...
But the one name that contains everything is the one that the Son of God received in his incarnation: JESUS. The divine name may not be spoken by human lips, but by assuming our humanity "The Word of God hands it over to us and we can invoke it: "Jesus," "YHWH saves." The name "Jesus" contains all: God and man and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray "Jesus" is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him.
This simple invocation of faith developed in the tradition of prayer under many forms in East and West. The most usual formulation, transmitted by the spiritual writers of the Sinai, Syria, and Mt. Athos, is the invocation, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners." It combines the Christological hymn of Philippians 2:6 -- 11 with the cry of the publican and the blind man begging for light. By it the heart is opened to human wretchedness and the Savior's mercy.
The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the word and "brings forth fruit with patience." This prayer is possible "at all times" because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus.
The prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Heart of Jesus just as it invokes his most holy name. It adores the incarnate Word and his Heart which, out of love for men, he allowed to be pierced by our sins. Christian prayer loves to follow the Way of the Cross in the Savior's steps. The stations from the Praetoria\um to Golgatha and the tomb trace the way of Jesus, who by his holy Cross has redeemed the world.
"Come Holy Spirit"
"No one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit." Every time we begin to pray to Jesus is the Holy Spirit who draws us on the way of prayer by his prevenient
grace. Since he teaches us to pray by recalling Christ how could we not pray to the Spirit too? That is why the Church invites us to call upon the Holy Spirit every day, especially at the beginning and the end of every important action.
If the spirit should not be worshiped, how can he divinize me through Baptism? If he should be worshiped, should he not be the object of that adoration?
The traditional form of petition to the Holy Spirit is to invoke the Father through Christ our Lord to give us the Consoler Spirit. Jesus insist on this petition to be made in his name at the very moment when he promises the gift of the Spirit of Truth. But the simplest and most direct prayer is also traditional, "Come Holy Spirit," and every liturgical tradition has developed it in antiphon's and hymns.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.
Heavenly King, Consoler Spirit, Spirit of Truth, present everywhere and filling all things, treasure of all good source of all life, come dwell in us,, cleanse and save us, you who are All-Good.
The Holy Spirit whose anointing permeates our whole being, is the interior Master of Christian prayer. He is the artesian of the living tradition of prayer. To be sure, there are as many paths of prayer as there are persons who pray but it is the same Spirit acting in all and with all. It is in the communion of the Holy Spirit that Christian prayer is prayer in the Church.
In communion with the Holy Mother of God
In prayer the Holy Spirit unites us to the person of the only Son, in his glorified humanity, through which and in which our filial prayer unites us in the Church with the Mother of Jesus.
Mary gave her consent in faith at the Annunciation and maintained it without hesitation at the foot of the Cross. Ever since, her motherhood has extended to the brothers and sisters of her Son "who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties." Jesus, the only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, his mother and ours, is wholly transparent to him: she shows the away" (hodigitria) and is herself "the Sign" of the way, according to the traditional iconography of the East and West.
Beginning with Mary's unique cooperation with the working of the Holy Spirit, the Churches developed their prayer to the Holy Mother of God, centering it on the person of Christ manifested in his mysteries. In countless hymns and antiphons expressing this prayer, two movements usually alternate with one another: the first "magnifies" the Lord for the "great things" he did for his lowly servant and through her for all human beings; the second entrusts the supplications and praises of the children of God to the mother of Jesus, because she now knows the humanity which, in her, the Son of God espoused.
The twofold movement of prayer to Mary has found a privileged expression in the Ave Maria:
Hail Mary [or Rejoice, Mary]: the greeting of the angel Gabriel opens this prayer. It is God himself who, through his angel as intermediary, greets Mary. Our prayer dares to take up this greeting to Mary with the regard God had for the lowliness of his humble servant and to exalt in the joy he finds in her.
Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee: These two phrases of the angel’s greeting shed light on one another. Mary is full of Grace because the Lord is with her. The grace with which she is filled is the presence of him who is the source of all grace. "Rejoice... O daughter of Jerusalem... the Lord your God is in your midst." Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is "the dwelling of God... with men." Full of Grace, Mary is wholly given over to him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world.
Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. After the angel’s greeting, we make Elizabeth's greeting her own "Filled with the Holy Spirit," Elizabeth is the first in a long succession of generations who have called Mary "blessed," "Blessed is she who believed..." Mary is "blessed among women" because she believed in the fulfillment of the Lord's word. Abraham, because of his faith, became a blessing for all the nations of the earth. Mary, because of her faith, became the mother of believers, through whom all nations of the earth receive him who is God's own blessing: Jesus, the "fruit of thy womb."
Holy Mary, Mother of God: With Elizabeth we marvel, "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Because she gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: "Let it be to me according to your word." By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: "Thy will be done."
Pray for us sinners, now at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the "Mother of Mercy," the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender "the hour of our death" wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son's death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, and paradise.
Medieval piety in the West developed the prayer of the rosary as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours. In the East, the litany called the Akathistos and the Paraclesis remained closer to the choral office in the Byzantine churches, while the Armenian, Coptic, and Syriac traditions preferred popular hymns and songs to the Mother of God. But in the Ave Maria, the theotokia , the hymns of St. Ephrem or St. Gregory of Narek, the tradition of prayer is basically the same.
Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er), a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who sends his Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple we welcome Jesus’ mother into our homes, for she has become the mother of all the living. We can pray with and to her. The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it and hope.
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May 31, 2015 - You, Lord, give true peace to those who depend on you, because they trust you. So, trust the Lord always, because he is our Rock forever. Isaiah 26:3-4
Hope you enjoy this one also.
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THE WELLSPRING OF PRAYER
The Holy Spirit is the living water "welling up to eternal life" in the heart that prays. It is he who teaches us to accept it at its source: Christ. Indeed in the Christian life there are several wellsprings where Christ awaits us to enable us to drink the Holy Spirit.
The Word Of God
The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful... to learn “the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:8) by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures... Let them remember, however, that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that a dialogue takes place between God and man. For “we speak to him when we pray; we listen to him when we read the divine oracles.”
The spiritual writers, paraphrasing Matthew 7:7, summarized in this way the dispositions of the heart nourished by the word of God in prayer "Seek in reading and you will find in meditating; knock in mental prayer and it will be opened to you by contemplation."
The Liturgy of the Church
In the sacramental liturgy of the Church, the mission of Christ and of the Holy Spirit proclaims, makes present, and communicates the mystery of salvation which is continued in the heart that prays. The spiritual writers sometimes compare the heart to an altar. Prayer internalizes and assimilates the liturgy during and after its celebration. Even when it is lived out "in secret," prayer is always prayer of the Church it is a communion with the Holy Trinity.
The theological virtues
One enters into prayer as one enters into liturgy by the narrow gate of faith. Through the signs of his presence, it is the Face of the Lord that we seek and desire; it is his word that we want to hear and keep.
The Holy Spirit, who instructs us to celebrate the liturgy in expectation of Christ's return, teaches us to pray in hope. Conversely, the prayer of the Church and personal prayer nourish hope in us. The psalms especially, with their concrete and varied language, teach us to fix our hope in God: "I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry." As St. Paul prayed: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."
"Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Prayer, formed by the liturgical life, draws everything into the love by which we are loved in Christ and which enables us to respond to him by loving as he has loved us. Love is the source of prayer; whoever draws from it reaches the summit of prayer. In the words of the Cure of Arts:
I love you, O my God, and my only desire is to love you until the last breath of my life. I love you, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving you, then live without loving you. I love you, Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love you eternally... My God, if my tongue cannot say every moment that I love you, I want my heart to repeat it to you as often as I draw breath.
"Today"
We learn to pray at certain moments by hearing the Word of the Lord and sharing in his Paschal mystery, but his Spirit is offered us at all times, in the events of each day, to make prayer spring up from us. Jesus’ teaching about praying to our Father is in the same vein as his teaching about providence: time is in the Father's hands; it is in the present that we encounter him, not yesterday not tomorrow, but today: "O that today you would hearken to his voice! Harden not your hearts."
Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to "Little children," to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the Beatitudes. It is right and good to pray so that the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence the march of history, but it is just as important to bring the help of prayer into humble, everyday situations; all forms of prayer can be the leaven to which the Lord compares the kingdom.
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May 24, 2015 - You are joined together with peace through the Spirit, so make every effort to continue together in this way. Ephesians 4:2-3
Part 4 Sec 1 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section IV V Pg 696
IV – Prayer of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving characterizes the prayer of the Church which, in celebrating the Eucharist, reveals and becomes more fully what she is. Indeed, in the work of salvation, Christ sets creation free from sin and death to consecrate it anew and make it a return to the Father, for his glory. The thanksgiving of the members of the Body participates in that of their Head.
As in the prayer of petition, every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving. The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving, and the Lord Jesus is always present in it: "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you"; "Continued steadfastly in prayer, being watchful and it with thanksgiving."
V – Prayer Of Praise
Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God. It lauds God for his own sake and gives him glory, quite beyond what he does, but simply because HE IS. It shares in the blessed happiness of the pure of heart who love God in faith before seeing him in glory. By praise, the Spirit is joined to our spirits to bear witness that we are children of God, testifying to the only Son in whom we are adopted and by whom we glorify the Father. Praise embraces the other forms of prayer and carries them toward him who is its source and goal: the "one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist."
St. Luke in his gospel often expresses wonder and praise that the marvels of Christ and in his Acts of the Apostles stresses them as actions of the Holy Spirit: the community of Jerusalem, the invalid healed by Peter and John, the crowd that gives glory to God for that, and the pagans of Pisidia who "were glad and glorified the word of God."
"[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." Like the inspired writers of the New Testament, the first Christian communities read the book of Psalms in a new way, singing in it the mystery of Christ. In the newness of the Spirit, they also compose hymns and canticles in the light of the unheard-of event that God accomplished in his Son: his Incarnation, his death which conquered death, his Resurrection, and Ascension to the right hand of the Father. Doxology, the praise of God, arises from this "marvelous work" of the whole economy of salvation.
The Revelation of “what must soon take place," the Apocalypse, is borne along by the songs of the heavenly liturgy but also by the intercession of the "witnesses" (martyrs). The prophets and the saints, all those who were slain on earth for their witness to Jesus, the vast throng of those who, having come through the great tribulation, have gone before us into the Kingdom, all sing the praise and glory of him who sits on the throne, and of the Lamb. In communion with them, the Church on earth also sings these songs with faith in the midst of trial. By means of petition and intercession, faith hopes against all hope and gives thanks to "Father of lights," from whom "every perfect gift" comes down. Thus faith is pure praise.
The Eucharist contains and expresses all forms of prayer: it is "the pure offering" of the whole Body of Christ to the glory of God's name and, according to the traditions of East and West, it is the "sacrifice of praise."
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May 17, 2015 - And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8
Part 4 Sec 1 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section I II III Pg 693
I – Blessing And Adoration
Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God's gift and man's acceptance of it are united in dialogue with each other. The prayer of blessing is man’s response to God's gifts: because God blesses, the human heart can in return bless the One who is the source of every blessing.
Two fundamental forms express this movement our prayer ascends in the Holy Spirit through Christ to the Father -- -- we bless him for having blessed us; it implores the grace of the Holy Spirit that descends through Christ from the Father -- -- he blesses us.
Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us and the almighty power of the Savior who sets us free from evil. Adoration is homage of the Spirit to the "King of glory," respectful silence in the presence of the "ever greater" God. Adoration of the thrice-holy and sovereign God of love blends with humility and gives assurance to our supplications.
II – Prayer Of Petition
The vocabulary of supplication in the New Testament is rich in shades of meaning: ask, beseech, plead, invoke, intreat, cry out, even "struggle in prayer." Its most usual form, because the most spontaneous, is petition: by prayer of petition we express awareness of our relationship with God. We are creatures who are not our own beginning, not the masters of adversity, not our own last end. We are sinners who as Christians know that we have turned away from our Father. Our petition is already a turning back to him.
The New Testament contains scarcely any prayers of lamentation, so frequent in the Old Testament. And there was a Christ the Church’s petition is buoyed by hope, even if we still wait in a state of expectation and must be converted anew every day. Christian petition, what St. Paul calls "groaning," arises from another depth, that of creation "in labor pains" and that of ourselves "as we wait for the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved." In the end, however, "with sighs too deep for words" the Holy Spirit "helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words."
The first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness, like the tax collector in the parable "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" It is a prerequisite for righteousness and pure prayer. A trusting humility brings us back into the light of communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and with one another, so that "we receive from him whatever we ask." Asking forgiveness is the prerequisite for both the Eucharistic liturgy and personal prayer.
Christian petition is centered on the desire and search for the Kingdom to come, in keeping with the teaching of Christ. There is a hierarchy in these petitions: we pray first for the Kingdom, then for what is necessary to welcome it and cooperate with its coming. This collaboration with the mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit, which is now that of the Church, is the object of the prayer of the apostolic community. It is the prayer of Paul, the apostle par excellence, which reveals to us how the divine solicitude for all the churches ought to inspire Christian prayer. By prayer every baptized person works for the coming of the Kingdom.
When we share in God's saving love, we understand that every need can become the object of petition. Christ, who assumed all things in order to redeem all things, is glorified by what we asked the Father in his name. It is with this confidence that St. James and St. Paul exhorted us to pray at all times.
III – Prayer Of Intercession
Intercession is a prayer of petition which leads us to pray as Jesus did. He is the one intercessor with the Father on behalf of all men, especially sinners. He is "able for all time to save those who draw near to God for him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." The Holy Spirit "himself intercedes for us... and intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."
Since Abraham, intercession -- -- asking on behalf of another -- -- has been characteristic of a heart attuned to God's mercy. In the age of the Church, Christian intercession participates in Christ's, as an expression of the communion of saints. In intercession, he who prays looks "not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others," even to the point of praying for those who do him harm.
The first Christian communities lived this form of fellowship intensely. Thus the Apostle Paul gives them a share in his ministry of preaching the Gospel but also intercedes for them. The intercession of Christians recognizes no boundaries: "for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions," for persecutors, for the salvation of those who reject the Gospel.
Words by gifted song writer and musician Don Moen:
“God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength
For each new day
He will make a way
He will make a way.”
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May 10, 2015 - Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4
Part 4 Sec 1 Chapter 1 Article 2 Part 2 Pg 687
Jesus teaches us how to pray
When Jesus prays he is already teaching us how to pray. His prayer to his Father is the theologal path (the path of faith, hope, and charity) of our prayer to God. But the gospel also gives us Jesus’ explicit teaching on prayer. A wise teacher he takes hold of us where we are and leads us progressively toward the Father. Addressing the crowds following him, Jesus builds on what they already know of prayer from the Old Covenant and opens to them the newness of the coming Kingdom. Then he reveals this newness to them in parables. Finally, he will speak openly of the Father and the Holy Spirit to his disciples who will be the teachers of prayer his Church.
From the Sermon on the Mount onwards, Jesus insists on conversion of the heart: reconciliation with one's brother before presenting an offering on the altar, love of enemies, and prayer for persecutors, prayer to the Father in secret, not heaping up empty phrases, prayerful forgiveness from the depths of the heart, purity of heart, and seeking the Kingdom before all else. This filial conversion is entirely directed to the Father.
Once committed to conversion, the heart learns to pray in faith. Faith is a filial adherence to God beyond what we feel and understand. It is possible because the beloved Son gives us access to the Father. He can ask us to "seek" and to "knock" since he himself is the door and the way.
Just as Jesus prays to the Father and gives banks before receiving his gifts, so he teaches us a filial boldness: "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will." Such is the power of prayer and of faith that does not doubt: "all things are possible to him who believes." Jesus is as saddened by the "lack of faith" of his own neighbors and the "little faith" of his own disciples as he is struck with admiration at the great faith of the Roman centurion and the Canaanite woman.
The prayer of faith consists not only of saying "Lord, Lord," but in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father. Jesus calls his disciples to bring into their prayer this concern for cooperating with underlying plan.
In Jesus "the Kingdom of God is at hand." He calls his hearers to conversion and faith, but also to watchfulness. In prayer the disciple keeps watch, attentive to Him Who Is in Him Who Comes, in memory of his first coming in the lowliness of the flesh, and in the hope of his second coming in glory. In communion with their Master, the disciples’ prayer is a battle; only by keeping watch in prayer can one avoid falling into temptation.
Three principal parables on prayer are transmitted to us by St. Luke:
-- -- The first, "the importunate friend," invites us to urgent prayer: ",Knock, and it will be opened to you." To the one who prays like this, the heavenly Father will "give whatever he needs," and above all the Holy Spirit contains all gifts.
-- -- The second, " the importunate widow," is centered on one of the qualities of prayer: it is necessary to pray always without ceasing and what the patients of faith. "And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
-- -- Third parable, "the Pharisee and the tax collector," concerns the humility of the heart that prays. "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" The Church continues to make this prayer its own: Kyrie eleison!
When Jesus openly entrusts to his disciples the mystery of prayer to the Father, he reveals to them what their prayer and ours must be, once he has returned to the Father in his glorified humanity. What is new is to "ask in his name." Faith in the Son introduces the disciples into the knowledge of the Father, because Jesus is "the way, and the truth, and the life." Faith bears its fruit in love: it means keeping the word and the commandments of Jesus, it means abiding with him in the Father who, in him, so loves us that he abides with us. In this new covenant the certitude that our petitions will be heard is founded on the prayer of Jesus.
Even more, what the Father gives us when our prayer is united with that of Jesus is "another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth." This new dimension of prayer and of its circumstances is displayed throughout the farewell discourse. In the Holy Spirit, Christian prayer is a communion of love with the Father, not only through Christ but also in him: "Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you' will receive, that your joy may be full."
Jesus hears our prayer
Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the lyper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief) or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman).urgent request of the blind men, "have mercy on us, Son of David" or "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” has been renewed in the traditional prayer to Jesus known as the Jesus prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith: "Your faith has made you well; go in peace."
St. Augustine wonderfully summarizes the three dimensions of Jesus’ prayer: "He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us as our God. Therefore let us
Acknowledge our voice in him and his in us.."
The prayer of the Virgin Mary
Mary's prayer is revealed to us at the dawning of the fullness of time. Before the incarnation of the Son of God, and before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, her prayer cooperates in a unique way with the Father's plan of loving kindness: at the Annunciation, for Christ's conception; at Pentecost, for the formation of the Church, his Body. In the faith of his humble handmaid, the Gift of God found the acceptance he had awaited from the beginning of time. She whom the Almighty made "full of grace" responds by offering her whole being: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word." "Fiat”: this is Christian prayer: to be wholly God’s, because he is wholly ours.
The Gospel reveals to us how Mary prays and intercedes in faith. At Cana the mother of Jesus asks her Son for the needs of the wedding feast; this is the sign of another feast -- -- that of the wedding of the Lamb where he gives his body and blood at the request of the Church, his Bride. It is at the hour of the New Covenant, at the foot of the cross, Mary is heard as the Woman, the new Eve, the true "Mother of all the living."
That is why the Canticle of Mary, the Magnificat (Latin) or Megalynei (Byzantine) is the song both of the Mother of God and of the Church; the song of the Daughter of Zion and of the new People of God; the song of thanksgiving for the fullness of graces poured out in the economy of salvation and the song of the "poor" whose hope is met by the fulfillment of the promises made to our ancestors, "to Abraham and to his posterity forever."
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One simple carpenter - E-Water
May 3, 2015 - And God can give you more blessings than you need. Then you will always have plenty of everything- enough to give to every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8
Part 4 Sec 1 Chapter 1 Article 2 Part 1 Pg 684
Article 2 – In The Fullness of Time
The drama of prayer is fully revealed to us in the Word who became flesh and dwells among us. To seek to understand his prayer through what his witness proclaim to us in the Gospel is to approach the holy Lord Jesus as Moses approached the burning bush: first to contemplative him in prayer, then to hear how he teaches us to pray, in order to know how he hears our prayer.
Jesus prays
The Son of God who became Son of the Virgin also learned to pray according to his human heart. He learns the formulas of prayer from his mother, who could kept in her heart and meditated upon all the "great things" done by the Almighty. He learns to pray in words and rhythms of the prayer of his people, in a synagogue at Nazareth and the Temple at Jerusalem. But his prayer springs from an otherwise secret source, as he intimates at the age of 12: "I must be in my Father's house." Here the newness of prayer in the fullness of time begins to be revealed: his filial prayer, which the Father awaits from his children, is finally going to be lived out by the only Son in his humanity, with and for men.
The Gospel according to St. Luke emphasizes the action of the Holy Spirit in the meaning of prayer in Christ’s ministries. Jesus prays before the decisive moments of his mission: before his Father's witness to him during his baptism and Transfiguration, and before his own fulfillment of the Father's plan of love by his Passion. He also prays before the decisive moments involving the mission of his apostles: at his election and called of the 12, before Peter's confession of him as "the Christ of God," and again that the faith of the chief of the Apostles may not fail when tempted. Jesus’ prayer before the events of salvation that the Father has asked him to fulfill is a humble and trusting commitment to his human will to the loving will of the Father.
"He was praying in a certain place and when he had ceased, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray." In seeing the Master at prayer disciple of Christ who also wants to pray. By contemplating and hearing the Son, the master of prayer, the children learn to pray to the Father.
Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude, on a mountain, preferably at night. He Includes all men in his prayer, for he has taken on humanity in his incarnation, and he offers them to the Father when he offers himself. Jesus, the Word who has become flesh, shares by his human prayer in all that "his brethren" experience; he sympathizes with their weaknesses in order to free them. It was for this that the Father sent him. His words and works are the visible manifestation of his prayer in secret.
The evangelists have preserved two more explicit prayers offered by Christ during his public ministry. Each begins with thanksgiving. In the first, Jesus confesses the Father, acknowledges, and blesses him because he has hidden the mysteries of the Kingdom from those who think themselves learned and has revealed them to infants, the poor of the Beatitudes. His exclamation, "Yes, Father!" expresses the depth of his heart, his adherence to the Father's "good pleasure," echoing his mother’s Fiat at the time of his conception and prefiguring what he would say to the Father in his agony. The whole prayer of Jesus is contained in his loving adherence of his human heart to the mystery of the will of the Father.
The second prayer, before the raising of Lazarus is recorded by St. John. Thanksgiving precedes the event: "Father, I thank you for having heard me," which implies that the Father always hears his petitions. Jesus immediately adds: "I know that you always hear me," which implies that Jesus, on his part, constantly made such petitions. Jesus’ prayer, characterized by thanksgiving, reveals to us how to ask: before the gift is given, Jesus commits himself to the One who in giving gives himself. The Giver is more precious than the gift; he is the "treasure"; in him abides his Son's heart; the gift is given "as well."
The priestly prayer of Jesus holds a unique place in the economy of salvation. A meditation on it will conclude Section 1. It reveals the ever present prayer of our high Priest and, at the same time, contains what he teaches us about our prayer to our Father, which will be developed in Section 2.
When the hour had come for him to fulfill the Father's plan of love, Jesus allows a glimpse of the boundless depth of his filial prayer, not only before he freely delivered himself up ("Abba… not my will, but yours."), but even in his last words on the Cross, were prayer and the gift of self are but one: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"; "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise"; "Woman, behold your son" -- -- "behold your mother"; "I thirst."; "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"; "It is finished"; "father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" Until the "loud cry" as he expires, giving up his spirit.
All the troubles, for all time, of humanity enslaved by sin and death, all the petitions and intercession of salvation history are summed up in this cry of the incarnate Word. Here the Father accepts them and, beyond all hope, answers them by raising his Son. Thus is fulfilled and brought to completion the drama of prayer in the economy of creation and salvation. The Psalter gives us the key to prayer in Christ. In the "today" of the Resurrection the Father says: "you are my Son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession."
The letter to the Hebrews expresses in dramatic terms how the prayer of Jesus accomplished the victory of salvation: "in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him."
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April 26, 2015 - Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city. Proverbs 16:32
Part 4 Sec 1 Chapter 1 Article 1 Part 2 Pg 679
David and the prayer of the king
The prayer of the People of God flourishes in the shadow of God’s dwelling place, first the ark of the covenant and later the Temple. At first the leaders of the people -- -- the shepherds and the prophets -- -- teach them to pray. The infant Samuel must have learned from his mother Hannah how "to stand before the LORD" and from the priest Eli how to listen to his word: "speak, LORD, for your servant is listening." Later, he will also know the cost and consequences of intercession: "Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you; and I will instruct you in the good and the right way."
David is par excellence the king "after God's own heart," the shepherd who prays for his people prays in their name. His submission to the will of God, his praise, and his repentance, will be a model for the prayer of the people. His prayer, the prayer of God's Anointed, is a faithful adherence to the divine promise and expresses a loving and joyful trust in God, the only King and Lord. In the Psalms of David, inspired by the Holy Spirit is the first prophet of Jewish and Christian prayer. The prayer of Christ, the true Messiah and Son of David, will reveal and fulfill the meaning of this prayer.
The Temple of Jerusalem, the house of prayer that David wanted to build, will be the work of his son, Solomon. The prayer at the dedication of the Temple relies on God's promise and covenant, on the active presence of his name among his People, recalling his mighty deeds at the Exodus. The king lifts his hands toward heaven and begs the Lord, on his own behalf, on behalf of the entire people, and of the generations yet to come, for the forgiveness of their sins and for their daily needs, so that the nations may know that He is the only God and that the heart of his people may belong wholly and entirely to him.
Elijah, the prophets and conversion of heart
For the people of God, the Temple was to be the place of their education and prayer: pilgrimages, feasts and sacrifices, the evening offering, the incense, and the bread of the presence ("shewbread")-- all these signs of the holiness and glory of God Most High and Most Near were appeals to and ways of prayer. But ritualism often encouraged an excessively external worship. The people needed education in faith and conversion of heart; this was the mission of the prophets, both before and after the Exile.
Elijah is the "father" of the prophets, "the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob." Elijah's name, "the Lord is my God," foretells the people’s cry in response to his prayer on Mt. Carmel. St. James refers to Elijah in order to encourage us to pray: "The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective."
After Elijah had learned mercy during his retreat at the Wadi Cherith, he teaches the widow of Zarephath to believe in the Word of God and confirms her faith by his urgent prayer: God brings the widow’s child back to life.
The sacrifice on Mt. Carmel is a decisive test for the faith of the People of God. In response to Elijah's plea, "Answer me, O LORD, answer me," the Lord's fire consumes the holocaust, at the time of the evening oblation. The Eastern liturgies repeat Elijah's plea in the Eucharistic epiclesis.
Finally, taking the desert road that leads to the place where the living and true God reveals himself to his people, Elijah, like Moses before him, hides "in a cleft of the rock" until the mysterious presence of God has passed by. But only on the mountain of the Transfiguration will Moses and Elijah behold the unveiled face of him whom they sought; "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God [shines] in the face of Christ," crucified and risen.
In their "one-to-one" encounters with God, the prophets draw light and strength for their mission. Their prayer is not flight from this unfaithful world, or rather attentiveness to the Word of God. At times their prayer is an argument or a complaint, but it is always an intercession that awaits and prepares for the intervention of the Savior God, the Lord of history.
The Psalms, the prayer of the assembly
From the time of David to the coming of the Messiah texts appearing in these sacred books show a deepening in prayer for oneself and in prayer for others. Thus the psalms were gradually collected into the five books of the Psalter (or "Praises"), the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament.
The Psalms both nourished and expressed the prayer of the People of God gathered during the great feasts at Jerusalem and each Sabbath in the synagogues. Their prayer is inseparably personal and communal; it concerns both those who are praying and all men. The Psalms arose from the communities of the holy land and the Diaspora, but embrace all creation. Their prayer recalls the saving events of the past, yet extends into the future, even to the end of history; it commemorates the promises God has already kept, and awaits the Messiah who will fulfill them definitively. Prayed by Christ and fulfilled in him, the Psalms remain essential to the prayer of the Church.
The Psalter is the book in which the Word of God becomes man's prayer. in other books of the Old Testament, "the words proclaim [God's] works and bring to light the mystery they contain." The words of the Psalmist, sung for God, both express and acclaimed the Lord's saving works; the same Spirit inspires both God's work and man's response. Christ will unite the two. In him, the psalms continue to teach us how to pray.
The Psalter's many forms of prayer take shape both in the liturgy of the Temple and in the human heart. Whether hymns or prayers of lamentation or Thanksgiving, whether individual or communal, whether royal chants, songs of pilgrimage or wisdom meditations, the Psalms are a mirror of God's marvelous deeds in the history of his people, as well as reflections of the human experience of the Psalmist. Though a given psalm may reflect an event of the past, it still possesses such direct simplicity that it can be prayed in truth by men of all times and conditions.
Certain constant characteristics appear throughout the Psalms: simplicity and spontaneity of prayer; the desire for God himself through and with all that is good in his creation; the distraught situation of the believer who, in his preferential love for the Lord, is exposed to a host of enemies and temptations, but who waits upon what the faithful God will do, in the certitude of his love and in submission to his will. The prayer of the psalms is always sustained by praise; that is why the title of this collection as handed down to us is so fitting: "The Praises. Collected for the assemblies worship, the Psalter both sounds the call to prayer and sings the response to that call: Hallelu-Yah (“Alleluia”), "praise the Lord!"
What is more pleasing than a psalm? David expresses it well: "Praise the Lord, for a psalm is good: let there be praise of our God with gladness and grace!" Yes, a psalm is a blessing on the lips of the people, praise of God, the assembly's homage, a general acclamation, a word that speaks for all, the voice of the Church, a confession of faith in song."
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April 19, 2015 - Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
Part 4 Sec 1 Chapter 1 Article 1 Pg 676
Article 1 – In The Old Testament
In the Old Testament, the revelation of prayer comes between the fall and the restoration of man, that is, between God's sorrowful call to his first children: "Where are you?... What is this that you have done?" and the response of God's only son on coming into the world: "Lo, I have come to do your will, oh God." Prayer is bound up with human history, for it is a relationship with God and historical events.
Creation – source of prayer
Prayer is lived in the first place beginning with realities of creation. The first nine chapters of Genesis described his relationship with God as an offering of the first-born of Abel’s flock, as the invocation of the divine name at the time of Enosh, and as "walking with God." Noah’s offering is pleasing to God, who blesses him and through him all creation, because his heart was upright and undivided; Noah, like Enoch before him, "walks with God." This kind of prayer is lived by many righteous people in all religions.
In his indefectible covenant with every living creature, God has always called people to prayer. But it is above all beginning with our father Abraham that prayer is revealed in the Old Testament.
God’s promise and the prayer of Faith
When God calls him, Abraham goes forth "as the Lord had told him"; Abraham's heart is entirely submissive to the Word and so he obeys. Such attentiveness of the heart, whose decisions are made according to God's will, is essential to prayer, while the words used, count only in relation to it. Abraham's prayer is expressed first by deeds: a man of silence, he constructs an altar to the Lord at each stage of his journey. Only later does Abraham's first prayer in words appear: a veiled complaint reminding God of his promises which seem unfulfilled. Thus one aspect of the drama of prayer appears from the beginning: the test of faith in the fidelity of God.
Because Abraham believed in God and walked in his presence and in covenant with him, the patriarch is ready to welcome a mysterious Guest into his tent. Abraham's remarkable hospitality at Mamre foreshadows the annunciation of the true Son of the promise. After that, once God had confided his plan, Abraham's heart is attuned to his Lord's compassion for men and he dares to intercede for them with bold confidence.
As a final stage in the purification of his faith, Abraham, "who had received the promises," is asked to sacrifice the son God had given him. Abraham’s faith does not weaken ("God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering."), for he "considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead." And so the father of believers is conformed to the likeness of the Father who will not spare his own son but will deliver him up for us all. Prayer restores man to God's likeness and enables him to share in the power of God's love that saves the multitude.
God renews his promise to Jacob, the ancestor of the 12 tribes of Israel. Before confronting his older brother Esau, Jacob wrestles all night with a mysterious figure refuses to reveal his name, but who blesses him before leaving him at dawn. From this account, the spiritual tradition of the Church has retained the symbol of prayer as a battle of faith and as a triumph of perseverance.
Moses and the prayer of the mediator
Once the promise begins to be fulfilled (Passover, the Exodus, the gift of the Law, and the ratification of the covenant), the prayer of Moses becomes the most striking example of intercessory prayer, which will be fulfilled in "the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
Here again the initiative is God. From the midst of the burning bush he calls Moses. This event will remain one of the primordial images of prayer in the spiritual tradition of Jews and Christians alike. When "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob" calls Moses to be his servant, it is because he is the living God who wants men to live. God reveals himself in order to save them, though he does not do this alone or despite them: he calls Moses to be his messenger, an associate in his compassion, his work of salvation. There is something of a divine plea in this mission, and only after long debate does Moses attune his own will to that of the Savior God. But in the dialogue in which God confides in him, Moses also learns how to pray: he balks, makes excuses, above all questions: it is in response to his question that the Lord confides his ineffable name, which will be revealed through his mighty deeds.
"Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." Moses prayer is characteristic of contemplative prayer by which God's servant remains faithful to his mission. Moses converses with God often and at length, climbing the mountain to hear and entreat him and coming down to the people to repeat the words of his God for their guidance. Moses "is entrusted with all my house. With him I speak face-to-face, clearly, not in riddles," for "Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth."
From this intimacy with the faithful God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, Moses drew strength and determination for his intercession. He does not pray for himself but for the people whom God made his own. Moses already intercedes for them during the battle with the Amalekites and prays to obtain the healing for Miriam. But it is chiefly after their apostasy that Moses "stands in the breech" before God in order to save the people. The arguments of his prayer -- for intercession is also a mysterious battle -- -- will inspire the boldness of the great intercessors among the Jewish people in the Church: God is love; he is therefore righteous and faithful; he cannot contradict himself; he must remember his marvelous deeds, since his glory is at stake, and he cannot forsake his people that bears his name.
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April 12, 2015 - Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers, making the most of every opportunity. When you talk, you should always be kind and pleasant so you will be able to answer everyone in the way you should. Colossians 4:5-6
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 10 Section II III IV Pg 669
II – The Desires Of The Spirit
the economy of law and grace turns men's hearts away from avarice and envy. It initiates them into desire for the Sovereign Good; it instructs them in the desires of the Holy Spirit who satisfies man's heart.
The God of the promises always warned man against seduction by what from the beginning has seemed "good for food... a delight to the eyes... to be desired to make one wise."
The law entrusted to Israel never sufficed to justify those subject to it; it even became the instrument of "lust." The gap between wanting and doing points to the conflict between God's law which is the "law of my mind," and another law "making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members."
"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." Henceforth, Christ's faithful "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires"; they are led by the spirit and follow the desires of the Spirit.
III – Poverty Of Heart
Jesus enjoins his disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone, and bids them "renounce all that [they have]" for his sake and that of the Gospel. Shortly before his passion he gave them the example of the poor widow of Jerusalem, out of her poverty, gave all that she had to live on. The precept of detachment from riches is obligatory for entrance into the Kingdom of heaven.
All Christ's faithful are to "direct their affections rightly, lest they be hindered in their pursuit of perfect charity but the use of worldly things and by an adherence to riches which is contrary to the spirit of evangelical poverty."
"Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The Beatitudes reveal order of happiness and grace, of beauty and peace. Jesus celebrates the joy of the poor, to whom the Kingdom already belongs:
The Word speaks of voluntary humility as "poverty of spirit"; the Apostle gives an example of God's poverty when he says: "For your sakes he became poor."
The Lord grieves over the rich, because they find their consolation in the abundance of goods. "Let the proud seek and love earthly kingdoms, but blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." Abandonment to the providence of the Father in heaven frees us from anxiety about tomorrow. Trust in God is a preparation for the blessedness of the poor. They shall see God.
IV- “I Want to See God”
Desire for true happiness frees man from his immoderate attachment to the goods of this world so that he can find his fulfillment in the vision and beatitude of God. "The promise [of seeing God] surpasses all beatitude... In Scripture, to see is to possess... Whoever sees God has obtained all the goods of which he can conceive."
It remains for the holy people to struggle, with grace from on high, to obtain the good things God promises. In order to possess and contemplate God, Christ's faithful mortify their cravings and, with the grace of God, prevail over the seductions of pleasure and power.
On this way of perfection, the spirit and the Bride call whoever hears them to perfect communion with God:
There will true glory be, where no one will be praised by mistake or flattery; true honor will not be refused to the worthy, nor granted to the unworthy; likewise, no one unworthy will pretend to be worthy, where only those who are worthy will be admitted. There true peace will reign, where no one will experience opposition either from self or others. God himself will be virtue’s reward; he gives virtue and has promised to give himself as the best and greatest reward could exist... "I shall be their God and they will be my people..." This is also the meaning of the Apostle’s words: "So that God may be all in all. " God himself will be the goal of our desires; we shall contemplate him without end, love him without surfeit, praise him without weariness. This gift, this state, this act, like eternal life itself, will assuredly be common to all.
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April 5, 2015 - Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the Lord. Psalms 31:24
Easter Sunday is a cause for great joy. Christians rejoice because Our Lord Jesus Christ truly is risen from the dead. There is no doubt about it. His victory is our victory! The forty days of Lent bring us renewed hope and joy because of the expectation
of Our Lord’s Resurrection. Our days of penance, fasts, and sacrifices, offered for our sins and the sins of the whole world, yield us more faithful in our conversion towards Christ So on this day we exclaim, HE is risen, Hallelujah!!
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 10 Section I Pg 667
Article 10 The Tenth Commandment
You shall not covet anything that is your neighbors …
I – The Disorder of Covetous Desires
The sensitive appetite leads us to desire pleasant things we do not have, e.g., the desire to eat when we are hungry or to warm ourselves when we are cold. These desires are good in themselves; but often they exceed the limits of reason and drive us to covet unjustly what is not ours and belongs to another or is owed to him.
The 10th Commandment forbids greed and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit. It forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. It also forbids the desire to commit injustice by harming our neighbor in his temporal goods:
When the Law says, "You shall not covet," these words mean that we should banish our desires for whatever does not belong to us. Our thirst for another's goods is immense, infinite, and never quenched. Thus it is written: "He who loves money never has money enough."
It is not a violation of this Commandment to desire to obtain things that belong to one's neighbor, provided this is done by just means. Traditional catechesis realistically mentions "those who have a harder struggle against their criminal desires" and so who "must be urged the more to keep this commandment":
... merchants who desire scarcity and rising prices, who cannot bear not to be the only ones buying and selling so that they themselves can sell more dearly and buy more cheaply; those who hope that their peers will be impoverished, in order to realize a profit either by selling to them or buying from them... physicians who wish disease to spread; lawyers who are eager for many important cases and trials.
The 10th commandment requires that envy be banished from the human heart. When the prophet Nathan wants to spur King David to repentance, he told him the story about the poor man who had only one ewe lamb that he treated like his own daughter and the rich man who, despite the great number of his flock, envied the poor man and ended by stealing his lamb. Envy can lead to the worst crimes. "Through the devil’s envy death entered the world":
We fight one another, and envy arms us against one another... If everyone strives to unsettle the Body of Christ, where shall we end up? We are engaged in making Christ Body a corpse... We declare ourselves members of one and the same organism, yet we devour one another like beasts.
Envy is a capital sin. It refers to the sadness at the sight of another's goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly. When it wishes great harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin:
St. Augustine saw envy as "the diabolical sin." "From envy are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by his prosperity."
Envy represents a form of sadness and therefore a refusal of charity; the baptized person should struggle against it by exercising goodwill. Envy often comes from pride; the baptized person should train himself to living in humility:
Would you like to see God glorified by you? Then rejoice in your brother's progress and you will immediately give glory to God. Because his servant could conquer envy by rejoicing in the merits of others, God will be praised.
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March 29, 2015 - At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 2 Timothy 4:16
There is not another person like you. ‘You are rare, precious and fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:14). You are God’s masterpiece, (Ephesians 2:10). You are “His treasured possession”, (Deuteronomy 14:2)
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Section I II Pg. 663
Article 9 The Ninth Commandment
I – Purification Of The Heart
The heart Is the seat of moral personality: "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery fornication..." the struggle against carnal covetousness entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance:
Remain simple and innocent, and you will be like little children who do not know the evil that destroys man's life.
The sixth beatitude proclaims, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." "Pure in heart" refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith. There is a connection between purity of heart, of body, and of faith:
The faithful must believe the articles of the Creed "so that by believing they may obey God, by obeying may live well, by living well may purify their hearts, and with pure hearts may understand what they believe."
The "pure in heart" are promised that they will see God face to face and be like him. Purity of heart is the precondition of the vision of God. Even now it enables us to see according to God, to accept others as "neighbors"; it lets us receive the human body -- -- ours and our neighbors -- -- as a temple of the Holy Spirit a manifestation of divine beauty.
II – The Battle For Purity
Baptism confers on its recipient the grace of purification from all sins. But the baptized must continue to struggle against concupiscence of the flesh and disordered desires. With God's grace he will prevail:
--- by the virtue and gift of chastity, for chastity lets us love with upright and undivided heart;
-- --by purity of intention which consists in seeking the true end of man: with simplicity of vision, the baptized person seeks to find and to fulfill God's will in everything;
-----by purity of vision, external and internal; by discipline of feelings and imagination; by refusing all complicity in impure thoughts that incline us to turn aside from the path of God's commandments: "Appearance arouses yearning in fools";
-- -- by prayer:
I thought that continence arose from one's own powers, which I did not recognize in myself. I was foolish enough not to know -- -- -- that no one can be continent unless you grant it. For you would truly have granted it if my inner groaning had reached your ears and I, with firm faith had cast my cares on you.
Purity requires modesty, an integral part of temperance. Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden. It is ordered to chastity to whose sensitivity it bears witness. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their solidarity.
Modesty protects the mystery of persons and their love. It encourages patience and moderation in loving relationships; it requires that the conditions for the definitive gaming and commitment of man and woman to one another be fulfilled. Modesty is decency. It inspires one's choice of clothing. It keeps silence or reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity. It is discreet.
There is modesty of the feelings as well as of the body. It protests, for example, against the voyeuristic explorations of the human body in certain advertisements, or against the solicitations of certain media that go too far in the exhibition of intimate things. Modesty inspires a way of life which makes it possible to resist the allurements of fashion and the pressures of prevailing ideologies.
The forms taken by modesty vary from one culture to another. Everywhere, however, modesty exists as an intuition of the spiritual dignity proper to man. It is born with the awakening consciousness of being a subject. Teaching modesty to children and adolescents means awakening in them respect for the human person.
Christian purity requires a purification of the social climate. It requires of the communications media that their presentations show concern for respect and restraint. Purity of heart brings freedom from widespread eroticism and avoids entertainment inclined to voyeurism and illusion.
So-called moral permissiveness rests on an erroneous conception of human freedom; the necessary precondition for the development of true freedom is to let oneself be educated in the moral law. Those in charge of education can reasonably be expected to give young people instruction respectful of the truth, the qualities of the heart, and the moral and spiritual dignity of man.
"The good news of Christ continually renews the life and cultural of fallen man; it combats and remove the error and evil which flow from the ever present attraction of sin. It never ceases to purify and elevate the morality of peoples. It takes the spiritual qualities and endowments of every age and nation, and with supernatural riches it causes them to blossom, as it were, from within; it fortifies, completes, and restores them in Christ."
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March 22, 2015 - But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. 1 Corinthians 12:11
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section IV Pg 657
IV – Respect For The Truth
The right to the communication of the truth is not unconditional. Everyone must conform his life to the Gospel precept of fraternal love. This requires us in concrete situations to judge whether or not it is appropriate to reveal the truth to someone who asks for it..
Charity and respect for the truth should dictate the response to a request for information or communication. The good and safety of others, respect for privacy, and the common good are sufficient reasons for being silent about what ought not to be known or for making use of a discrete language. The duty to avoid scandal often commands strict discretion. No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have the right to know it.
The secret of the Sacrament of reconciliation is sacred, and cannot be violated under any pretext. "The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore, it is a crime for a confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or any other manner or for any reason."
Professional secrets -- for example, those of political office holders, soldiers, physicians, and lawyers -- -- or confidential information given under the seal of secrecy must be kept, save in exceptional cases were keeping the secret is bound to cause very grave harm to the one who confided it, the one who received it or to a third party, and where the very grave harm can be avoided only by divulging the truth. Even if not confided under the seal of secrecy, private information prejudicial to another is not to be divulged without a grave and proportionate reason.
Everyone should observe an appropriate reserve concerning persons’ private lives. Those in charge of communications should maintain a fair balance between the requirements of the common good and respect for individual rights. Interference by the media in the private lives of persons engaged in political or public activity is to be condemned to the extent that it infringes upon their privacy and freedom.
V The Use Of The Social Communication Media
Within modern society the communications media play a major role in information, cultural promotion, and information. This role is increasing, as a result of technological progress, the extent and diversity of the news transmitted, and the influence exercised on public opinion.
The information provided by the media is at the service of the common good. Society has a right to information based on truth, freedom, justice, and solidarity:
The proper exercise of this right demands that the content of the communication be true and -- -- within the limits set by justice and charity -- -- complete. Further, it should be communicated honestly and properly. This means that in the gathering and in the publication of news, the moral law and the legitimate rights and dignity of man should be upheld.
"It is necessary that all members of society meet the demands of justice and charity in this domain. They should help, through the means of social communication, in the formation and diffusion of sound public opinion." Solidarity is a consequence of genuine and right communication and the free circulation of ideas that further knowledge and respect for others.
The means of social communication (especially the mass media) can give rise to a certain passivity among users, making them less than vigilant consumers of what is said or shown. Users should practice moderation and discipline in their approach to the mass media. They will want to form enlightened and correct consciences for the more easily to resist unwholesome influences.
By the very nature of their profession, journalists have an obligation to serve the truth and not offend against charity in disseminating information. They should strive to respect, with equal care, the nature of the facts and the limits of critical judgment concerning individuals. They should not stoop to defamation.
"Civil authorities have particular responsibilities in this field because of the common good... it is for the civil authority... to defend and safeguard a true and just freedom of information." By promulgating laws and overseeing their application, public authority should ensure that "public moraleity and social progress are not gravely endangered" through misuse of the media. Civil authority should punish any violation of the rights of individuals to their reputation and privacy. They should give timely and reliable reports concerning the general good or respond to well-founded concerns of the people. Nothing can justify recourse to disinformation for manipulating public opinion through the media. Interventions by public authority should avoid injuring the freedom of individuals or groups.
Moral judgment must condemn the plague of totalitarian states which systematically falsify the truth, exercise political control of opinion through the media, manipulate defendants and witnesses at public trials, and imagine that they secure their tyranny by strangling and repressing everything they consider "thought crimes."
VI – Truth, Beauty, and Sacred Art
The practice of goodness is accompanied by spontaneous spiritual joy and moral beauty. Likewise, truth carries with it the joy and splendor of spiritual beauty. Truth is beautiful in itself. Truth in words, the rational expression of the knowledge of created and uncreated reality, is necessary to man, who is endowed with intellect. But truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, above all when it is a matter of invoking what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart, the exalations of the soul, the mystery of God. Even before revealing himself to man in words of truth, God reveals himself to him through the universal language of creation, the work of his Word, of his wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos -- -- which both the child and the scientist discover -- -- "from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator," "the author of beauty created them."
[Wisdom] is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. For [wisdom] is more beautiful than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is found to be superior, for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail. I became enamored of her beauty.
Created "in the image of God," man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works. Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expression; beyond the search for the necessities of life which is common to all living creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human beings inner riches. Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man's own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing. To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God's activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art is not an absolute end in itself, but is ordered and ennobled by the ultimate end of man.
Sacred art is true and beautiful when it's form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in faith and narration, the transcendent mystery of God -- -- the surpassing invisible beauty of truth and love visible in Christ, who "reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature," in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." This spiritual beauty of God is reflected in the most Holy Virgin Mother of God, the angels, and the saints. Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer, and for the love of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and Sanctifier.
For this reason bishops, personally or through delegates, should see to the promotion of sacred art, old and new, in all its forms and, with the same religious care, remove from the liturgy and from places of worship everything which is not in conformity with the truth of faith and the authentic beauty of sacred art.
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March 15, 2015 But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. Hebrews 10:38
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section II Pg 653
II – To Bear Witness To The Truth
Before Pilate, Christ proclaims that he "has come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” The Christian is not to "be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord." In situations that require witness to the faith, the Christian must profess it without equivocation, after the example of St. Paul before his judges. We must keep “a clear conscience toward God and toward men.”
The duty of Christians to take part in the life of the Church impels them to act as witnesses of the Gospel and of the obligations that flow from it. This witness is a transmission of the faith in words and deeds. Witness is an act of justice that establishes the truth or makes it known.
All Christians by the example of their lives and the witness of their word, wherever they live, have an obligation to manifest the new man which they have put on in Baptism and to reveal the power of the Holy Spirit by whom they were strengthened at Confirmation.
Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity. He bears witness to the truth of the faith and of Christian doctrine. He endures death through an act of fortitude. "Let me become the food of the beasts through whom it will be given me to reach God."
The Church has painstakingly collected the records of those who persevered to the end in witnessing to their faith. These are the acts of the Martyrs. They form the archives of truth written letters of blood:
Neither the pleasures of the world nor the kingdoms of this age will be of any use to me. It is better for me to die [in order to unite myself] to Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. I see Ken who died for us; I desire him who rose for us. My birth is approaching...
I bless you for having judged me worthy from this day and this hour to be counted among your martyrs... You have kept your promise, God of faithfulness and truth. For this reason and for everything, I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. Through him, who is with you and the Holy Spirit, may glory be given to you, now and in the ages to come. Amen.
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III – Offenses Against Truth
Christ's disciples have "put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." By "putting away falsehood," they are to "put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander."
False witness and perjury, when it is made publicly, a statement contrary to the truth takes on a particular gravity. In court it becomes false witness. When it is under oath, it is perjury. Acts such as these contribute to condemnation of the innocent, exoneration of guilty, or the increased punishment of the accused. They gravely compromise the exercise of justice and fairness of judicial decisions.
Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury. He becomes guilty:
-- -- Of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor;
-- -- Of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another's faults and failings to persons who did not know them;
--- Of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.
To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor’s thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way.
Every good Christian ought to be more ready to give a favorable interpretation to another’s statement than to condemn it. But if he cannot do so, let him ask how the other understands it. And if the latter understands it badly, let the former correct him with love. If that does not suffice, let the Christian try all suitable ways to bring the other to a correct interpretation so that he may be saved.
Detraction and calumny destroy the reputation and honor of one’s neighbor. Honor is the social witness given to human dignity and everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name and reputation and to respect. Thus detraction and calumny offend against the virtues of justice and charity.
Every word or attitude is forbidden which by flattery, adulation, or complaisance encourages and confirms another in malicious acts and perverse conduct. Adulation is a grave fault if it makes one an accomplice in another's vices or grave sins. Neither the desire to be of service nor friendship justifies duplicitous speech. Adulation is a venial sin when it only seeks to be agreeable, to avoid evil, to meet a need, or to obtain legitimate advantages
Boasting or bragging is an offense against truth. So is irony aimed at disparaging someone by maliciously caricaturing some aspect of his behavior.
"A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving." The Lord denounces lying as the work of the devil: “You are of your father the devil,…there is no truth in him, When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead someone into error. By injuring man’s relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.
The gravity of a lie is measured against the nature of the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims. If a lie in itself only constitutes a venial sin, it becomes mortal when it does grave injury to the virtues of justice and charity.
By its very nature, lying is to be condemned. It is a profanation of speech, whereas the purpose of speech is to communicate known truth to others. The deliberate intention of leading a neighbor into error by saying things contrary to the truth constitutes a failure in justice and charity. The culpability is greater when the intention of deceiving entails the risk of deadly consequences for those who are led astray.
Since it violates the virtue of truthfulness, a lie does real violence to another. It affects his ability to know, which is a condition of every judgment and decision. It contains the seed of discord and all consequent evils. Lying is destructive of society; it undermines trust among men and tears apart the fabric of social relationships.
Every offense committed against justice and truth entails the duty of reparation, even if its author has been forgiven. When it is impossible publicly to make reparation for a wrong, it must be made secretly. If someone who has suffered harm cannot be directly compensated, he must be given moral satisfaction in the name of charity. This duty of reparation also concerns offenses against another’s reputation. This reparation, moral and sometimes material, must be evaluated in terms of the extent of the damage inflicted. It obliges in conscience.
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March 8, 2015 - Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. Matthew 21:21
Section 130 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section I Pg 651
I – Living In The Truth
The Old Testament attests that God is the source of all truth. His word is truth. His law is truth. His "faithfulness endures to all generations." Since God is "true," the members of his people are called to live in the truth.
In Jesus Christ, the whole of God's truth has been made manifest. "Full of grace and truth,” he came as a "light of the world," he is the Truth. "Whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness." The disciple of Jesus continues in his word so as to know "the truth [that] will make you free" and that sanctifies. To follow Jesus is to live in "the Spirit of truth," whom the Father sends in his name and who leads "into all the truth." To his disciples Jesus teaches the unconditional love of truth: "Let what you say be simply ‘Yes or No. ‘ "
Man tends by nature toward the truth. He is obliged to honor and bear witness to it: "it is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons... are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct their lives in accordance with the demands of truth."
Truth as uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.
"Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another." The virtue of truth gives another his just due. Truthfulness keeps to the just mean between what ought to be expressed and what ought to be kept secret: it entails honesty and discretion. In justice, "as a matter of honor, one man owes it to another to manifest the truth."
The disciple of Christ consents to "live in the truth," that is, in the simplicity of a life in conformity with the Lord's example, abiding in his truth. "If we say we have fellowship with him but we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth."
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March 1, 2015 - It is by faith we understand that the whole world was made by God's command so what we see was made by something that cannot be seen. Hebrews 11:3
Section 129 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 7 Section VI Pg 646
VI – Love For The Poor
God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them: "Give to him who begs from you, do not refuse him who would borrow from you"; "you received without pay, give without pay." It is by what they have done for the poor that Jesus Christ recognized his chosen ones when "the poor have the good news preached to them," it is the sign of Christ's presence.
"The Church’s love for the poor... is a part of her constant tradition." This love is inspired by the Gospel of the Beatitudes, of the poverty of Jesus, and of his concern for the poor. Love for the poor is even one of the motives for the duty of working so as to "be able to give to those in need." It extends not only to material poverty but also to the many forms of cultural and religious poverty.
Love for the poor is incompatible with immoderate love of riches and their selfish use:
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you.
St. John Christendom vigorously recalls this: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs." The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity":
When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy we're paying a debt of justice.
The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor and his spiritual and bodily necessities. Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God:
He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food must do likewise. But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you. If a brother or sister is ill-clad and a lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?
“In its various forms---material deprivation, unjust oppression, physical and psychological illness and death—human misery is the obvious sign of the inherited condition of frailty and need for salvation in which man finds himself as a consequence of original sin. This misery elicited the compassion of Christ the Savior, who willingly took it upon himself and identified himself with the least of his brethren. Hence, those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church which, since her origin and in spite of the failings of many of her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defense, and liberation through numerous works of charity which remain indispensable always and everywhere.
Beginning with the Old Testament, all kinds 0f juridical measures (the jubilee year of forgiveness of debts, prohibition of loans at interest and the keeping of collateral, the obligations to tithe, the daily payment of the day-laborer, the right to glean vines and fields) answer the exhortation of Deuteronomy: “For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in the land.’ “Jesus makes these words his own: “The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” In so doing he does not soften the vehemence of former oracles against “buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals---,” but invites us to recognize his own presence in the poor who are his brethren:
When her mother reproached her for caring for the poor and the sick at home, St. Rose of Lima said to her: “When we serve the poor and the sick, we serve Jesus. We must not fail to help our neighbors, because in them we serve Jesus.”
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February 22, 2015 - And to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:7-8
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 7 Section V VI Pg 645
V – Justice And Solidarity Amog Nations
On the international level, inequality of resources and economic capability is such that it creates a real "gap" between nations. On one side there are those nations possessing and developing the means of growth and, on the other, those accumulating debts.
Various causes of a religious, political, economic, and financial nature today give "the social question a worldwide dimension." There must be solidarity among nations which are already politically independent. It is even more essential when it is a question of dismantling the "perverse mechanisms" that impede the development of the less advanced countries. In place of abusive if not usurious financials systems, iniquitous commercial relations among nations, and the arms race, there must be substituted a common effort to mobilize resources toward objectives of moral, cultural, and economic development, "redefining the priorities and hierarchies of values."
Rich nations have a grave moral responsibility towards those which are unable to ensure the means of their development by themselves or have been prevented from doing so by tragic historical events. It is a duty in solidarity and charity; it is also an obligation in justice if the prosperity of the rich nations has come from resources that have not been paid for fairly.
Direct aid is an appropriate response to immediate, extraordinary needs caused by natural catastrophes, epidemics, and the like. But it does not suffice to repair the grave damage resulting from destitution or to provide a lasting solution to a country's needs. Ii is also necessary to reform international economic and financial institutions so that they will better promote equitable relationships with less advanced countries. The efforts of poor countries working for growth and liberation must be supported. This doctrine must be applied especially in the area of agricultural labor. Peasants, especially in the Third World, form the overwhelming majority of the poor.
An increased sense of God and increased self-awareness are fundamental to any full development of human society. This development multiplies material goods and puts them at the service of the person and his freedom. It reduces dire poverty and economic exploitation. It makes for growth and respect for cultural identities and openness to the transcendent.
It is not the role of the Pastors of the Church to intervene directly in the political structuring and organization of social life. This task is part of the vocation of the lay faithful, acting on their own initiative with their fellow citizens. Social action can assume various concrete forms. It should always have the common good in view and be in conformity with the message of the Gospel and the teaching of the Church. It is the role of the laity "to animate temporal realities with Christian commitment, by which they show that they are witnesses and agents of peace and justice."
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February 15, 2015 - When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? Psalms 56:3-4
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 7 Section III IV Pg 640
III - The Social Doctrine of the Church
“Christian revelation... promotes deeper understanding of the laws of social living." The Church receives from the Gospel the full revelation of the truth about man. When she fulfills her mission of proclaiming the Gospel, she bears witness to man, in the name of Christ, to his dignity and his vocation to the communion of persons. She teaches him the demands of justice and peace in conformity with divine wisdom.
The Church makes a moral judgment about economic and social matters, "when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls requires it." In the moral order she bears a mission distinct from that of political authorities: the Church is concerned with the temporal aspects of the common good because they are ordered by the sovereign Good, our ultimate end. She strives to inspire right attitudes with respect to earthly goods and in socio-economic relationships.
The social doctrine of the Church developed in the 19th century when the Gospel encountered modern industrial society with its new structures for the production of consumer goods, its new concept of society, the state and authority, and its new forms of labor and ownership. The development of the doctrine of the Church on economic and social matters attests the permanent value of the Church is teaching at the same time as it attests the true meaning of her Tradition, always living and active.
The Church’s social teaching comprises a body of doctrine, which is articulated as the Church interprets events in the course of history, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, in light of the whole of what has been revealed by Jesus Christ. This teaching can be more easily accepted by men of good will, the more the faithful let themselves be guided by it.
The Church's social teaching proposes principles for reflection; it provides criteria for judgment; it gives guidelines for action:
Any system in which social relationships are determined entirely by economic factors is contrary to the nature of the human person and his acts.
A theory that makes profit the exclusive norm and ultimate end of economic activity is morally unacceptable. The disordered desire for money cannot but produce perverse effects. It is one of the causes of the many conflicts which disturb the social order.
A system that "subordinates the basic rights of individuals and groups to the collective organization of production" is contrary to human dignity. Every practice that reduces persons to nothing more than a means of profit enslaves man, leads to idolizing money, and contributes to the spread of atheism. "You cannot serve God and mammon."
The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modern times with "communism" or "socialism." She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of "capitalism," individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor. Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails social justice, for "there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market." Reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended.
IV- Economic Activity and Social Justice
The development of economic activity and growth in production are meant to provide for the needs of human beings. Economic life is not meant solely to multiply goods produced and increase profit or power; it is ordered first of all to the service of persons, of the whole man, of the entire human community. Economic activity, conducted according to its own proper methods, is to be exercised within the limits of the moral order, in keeping with social justice so as to correspond to God's plan for man.
Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another. Hence work is a duty: "if anyone will not work, let him not eat." Work honors the Creators many gifts and the talents received from him. It can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the son of God and his redemptive work. He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish. Work can be a means of sanctification in a way it of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ.
In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature. The primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary. Work is for man, not man for work.
Everyone should be able to draw from work the means of providing for his life and that of his family, and of serving the human community.
Everyone has the right of economic initiative; everyone should make legitimate use of his talents to contribute to the abundance that will benefit all and to harvested the just fruits of his labor. He should seek to observe regulations issued by legitimate authority for the sake of the common good.
Economic life brings into play different interests, often opposed to one another. This explains why the conflicts that characterize it arise. Efforts should be made to reduce these conflicts by negotiation that respects the rights and the desires of each social partner: those responsible for business enterprises, representatives of wage earners (for example, trade unions), and public authorities when appropriate.
The responsibility of the state. "Economic activity, especially the activity of a market economy, cannot be conducted in an institutional, juridical or political vacuum. On the contrary, it presupposes sure guarantees of individual freedom and private property, as well as a stable currency and efficient public services. Hence the principal task of the state is to guarantee this security, so that those who work and produce can enjoy the fruits of their labors and thus feel encouraged to work efficiently and honestly... Another task of the state is that of overseeing and directing the exercise of human rights in the economic sector. However, primary responsibility in this area belongs not to the state but to individuals and to the various groups and associations which make up society."
Those responsible for business enterprises are responsible to society for the economic and ecological effects of their operations. They have an obligation to consider the good of persons and not only the increase of profits. Profits are necessary, however. They make possible the investments to assure the future of business and they guarantee employment.
Access to employment and to professions must be open to all without unjust discrimination: men and women, healthy and disabled, natives and immigrants. For its part society should, according to circumstances, help citizens find work and employment
A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withold it can be a grave injustice. In determining fair pay both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account. "Remuneration for work should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural, and spiritual level, taking into account the role and the productivity of each, the state of the business, and the common good." Agreement between the parties is not sufficient to justify morally the amount to be received in wages.
Recourse to a strike is morally legitimate and when it cannot be avoided, or at least when it is necessary to obtain a proportionate benefit. It becomes morally unacceptable when accompanied by violence or when objectives are included that are not directly linked to working conditions or contrary to the common good.
It is unjust not to pay the social security contributions required by legitimate authority. Unemployment almost always wounds its victim’s dignity and threatens the equilibrium of his life. Besides the harm done to him personally, it entails many risks for his family.
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February 8, 2015 - Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 1 John 3:21
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 7 Section I II Pg 636
I - The Universal Destination and the Private Ownership of Goods
In the beginning God entrusted the earth and their resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and/or their fruits. Those of creation are destined for the whole human race. However, the earth is divided up among men to ensure the security of their lives, endangered and by violence. It is your property is legitimate for guaranteeing the freedom and beauty of persons and for helping each of them to meet their basic needs and the needs of those in his charge. It should allow free natural solidarity to develop between men.
The right to private property, acquired or received in a just way, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of mankind. The universal destination of goods remains primordial, even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property and its exercise.
"In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as himself." The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it through full and communicating its benefits to others, first of all his family.
Goods of production -- -- material or immaterial -- -- such as land, factories, practical or artistic skills, oblige their possessors to employ them in ways that will benefit the greatest number. Those who hold goods for use and consumption should use them with moderation, reserving the better part for guest, for the sick and the poor.
Political authority has the right and duty to regulate the legitimate exercise of the right to ownership for the sake of the common good.
II - Respect for Persons and Their Goods
In economic matters, respect for human dignity requires the practice of the virtue of temperance, so as to moderate attachment to this world's goods; the practice of the virtue of justice, to preserve our neighbors rights and render him what is his dues; and the practice of solidarity, in accordance with the Golden rule and in keeping with the generosity of the Lord, who "though he was rich, yet for your sake... became poorer so that by his poverty, you might become rich."
Respect for the good of others
The seventh commandment forbids theft, that is, usurping another's property against the reasonable will of the owner. There is no theft if consent can be presumed where free fuse low is contrary to reason and the universal destination of goods. This is the case in obvious and urgent necessity when the only way to provide for immediate, essential needs (food, shelter, clothing...) is to put that one's disposal and use the property of others.
Even if it does not contradict the provisions of civil law, any form of unjustly taking in keeping the property of others is against the seventh commandment: bus, delivered retention of goods lent or of objects lost; business fraud; change unjust wages; forcing up prices by taking advantage of the ignorance and hardship of another.
The following are also morally illicit; speculation in which one contrives to manipulate the price of goods artificially in order to gain an advantage to the detriment of others; corruption and with one influences the judgment of those who must make decisions according to law; appropriation and use for private purposes of the common goods of an enterprise; work poorly done; tax evasion; forgery of checks and invoices; excessive expense and waste. Willfully damaging private or public property is contrary to the moral law and requires reparation.
Promises must be kept and contract strictly observed to the extent that the commitments made in them or morally just. A significant part of economic and social life depends on the honoring of contracts between physical or moral persons -- -- commercial contracts of purchase or sale, rental or label contracts. All contracts must be agreed to and executed in good faith.
Contracts are subject to communicative justice which regulates exchanges between persons and between institutions in accordance with a strict respect for the rights. Commutative justice obliges strictly; it requires safeguarding property rights, pain meds, and fulfilling obligations freely contracted. Without communicative justice, no other form of justice is possible. One distinguishes communicative justice from legal justice which concerns what the citizen oaths in fairness to the community, and from distributive justice which regulates what the community owes its citizens in proportion to their contributions and needs.
In virtue of communicative justice, reparation for injustice committed requires the restitution of stolen goods to their owner:
Jesus blesses Zacchaeus for his pledge: "if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restored for full." Those who, directly or indirectly, have taken possession of the goods of another, or obliged to make restitution of them, or to return the equivalent in-kind or in money, if the goods have disappeared, as well as the profit or advantages their owner would have legitimately obtained from them. Likewise, all in some manner have taken part in a theft or who have knowingly benefited from it -- -- for example, those who ordered it, assisted in it, or received the stolen goods -- -- or obliged to make restitution in proportion to their responsibility to their share of always taking.
Games of chance (card games, etc.) Or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming enslavement. Unfair wagers and cheating games constitute grave matter, unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who severs it cannot reasonably considered significant.
The seventh commandment forbids acts or enterprises that for any reason -- -- selfless or ideological, commercial, or totalitarian -- -- lead to the enslavement of human beings, they're being bought, sold and exchanged like merchandise, and disregard for their personal dignity. It is a sin against the dignity of persons and their fundamental rights to reduce them by violence to their productive value her to a source of profit per St. Paul directed a Christian master to treat his Christian slave "no longer is a slave of more than a slave, as a beloved brother, both in the flesh and in the Lord."
Respect for the integrity of creation
The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plans and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity. Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Man whose dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation.
Animals are God's creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assissi or St. Philip Neri treated animals,
God entrusted animals to the stewardship of those whom he created in his image. Hence it is legitimate to use animals for food and clothing. They may be domesticated to help manage his work and leisure. Medical and scientific experimentation on animals is a morally acceptable practice if it remains within reasonable limits and contributes to caring for her saving human lives.
It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly. It is likewise unworthy to spend money on them that should as a priority go to the relief of human misery. One can love animals; one should not direct to them the affection due only to persons.
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February 01, 2015 - But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. 1 Timothy 5:4
It is crucial for us to remember there are no “second –rate” people in the Church, as if being a faithful lay person is somehow or other less worthy than the fidelity of a priest or consecrated religious. Each of us has a place in God’s love and mercy. All of us have the same basic calling, which involves responding to Christ as best we can by living lives of love for God and neighbor carried out in service to both.Two quotations about service come to mind. One is a warning and the other an encouragement. First the warning: “Some people are willing to serve God, but only as His consultant.” Now the encouragement: “”Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position. prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, character and service.” Fr. Leonard Peterson
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 6 Section IV Pg 632
IV - Offenses Against the Dignity of Marriage
Adultery refers to marital infidelity. When two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have sexual relations -- -- even transient ones -- -- they commit adultery. Christ condemns even adultery of mere desire. The sixth Commandment and the New Testament forbid adultery absolutely. The prophets denounce the gravity of adultery; they see it as an image of the sin of idolatry.
Adultery is an injustice. He who commits adultery fails in his commitment. He does injury to the sign of the covenant which the marriage bond is, transgresses the rights of the other spouse, and undermines the institution of marriage by breaking a contract on which it is based. He compromises the good of human generation and the welfare of children who need their parents’ stable union.
Divorce
The Lord Jesus insisted on the original intention of the Creator who willed that marriage be indissoluble. He abrogates the accommodations that had slipped into the old Law.
Between the baptized, "a ratified and consummated marriage cannot be dissolved by human power or for any reason other than death."
The separation of spouses while maintaining the marriage bond can be legitimate in certain cases provided for by canon law.
If civil divorce remains the only possible way of ensuring certain legal rights, the care of the children, or the protection of inheritance, it can be tolerated and does not constitute a moral offense.
Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death. Divorce does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign. Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery:
If a husband, separated from his wife, approaches another woman, he is an adulterer because he makes that woman commit adultery; and the woman who lives with him as an adulteress, because she has drawn another's husband to herself.
Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.
It can happen that one of the spouses is the innocent victim of a divorce decreed by civil law; this spouse therefore has not contravened the moral law. There is a considerable difference between a spouse who has sincerely tried to be faithful to the sacrament of marriage and is unjustly abandoned, and one who through his own grave fault destroys a canonically valid marriage.
Other offenses against the dignity of marriage
The predicament of a man who, desiring to convert to the Gospel, is obliged to repudiate one or more wives with whom he has shared years of conjugal life, is understandable. However polygamy is not in accord with the moral law. "[Conjugal] communion is radically contradicted by polygamy; this, in fact, directly negates the plan of God which was revealed from the beginning, because it is contrary to the equal personal dignity of men and women who in matrimony give themselves with a love that is total and therefore unique and exclusive." The Christian who has previously live in polygamy has a grave duty in justice to honor the obligations contracted in regard to his former wives and children.
Incest designates intimate relations between relatives or in-laws within a degree that prohibits marriage between them. St. Paul stigmatizes this especially grave offense: "it is actually reported that there is immorality among you... for a man is living with his father's wife... in the name of the Lord Jesus... you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh..."
Incest corrupts family relationships and marks a regression toward animality.
Connected to incest is any sexual abuse perpetrated by adults on children or adolescents entrusted to their care. The offense is compounded by the scandalous harm done to the physical and moral integrity of the young, who will remain scarred by it all their lives; and the violation of responsibility for their upbringing.
In a so-called free union, a man and a woman refuse to give juridical and public form to a liaison involving sexual intimacy.
The expression "free union" is fallacious: what can "union" mean when the partners make no commitment to one another, each exhibiting a lack of trust in the other, in himself, or in the future?
The expression covers a number of different situations: concubinage, rejection of marriage as such, or an ability to make long-term commitments. All these situations offend against the dignity of marriage; they destroy the very idea of the family; they weaken the sense of fidelity. They are contrary to the moral law. The sexual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion.
Some today claim a "right to a trial marriage" where there is an intention of getting married later. However firm the purpose of those who engage in premature sexual relations may be, "the fact is that such liaisons can scarcely ensure mutual sincerity and fidelity in a relationship between a man and a woman, nor, especially, can they protect it from inconstancy of desires or whim." Carnal union is morally legitimate only when a definitive community of life between a man and a woman has been established. Human love does not tolerate "trial marriages." It demands a total and definitive gift of persons to one another.
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January 25, 2015 - But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 6 Section III Pg 626
III - The Love of Husband and Wife
Sexuality is ordered to the conjugal love of man and woman. In marriage the physical intimacy of the spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual communion. Marriage bonds between baptized persons are sanctified by the sacrament.
"Sexuality, by means of which man and woman give themselves to one another through the acts which are proper and exclusive to spouses, is not something simply biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human persons as such. It is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and a woman commit themselves totally to one another until death."
Tobias got out of bed and said to Sarah, "Sister get up, let us pray and implore our Lord that he grant us mercy and safety." So she got up, and they began to pray and implore that they might be kept safe. Tobias began by saying, "Blessed are you, O God of our fathers... You made Adam, and for him you made his wife Eve as a helper and support. From the two of them the race of mankind has sprung. You said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; let us make a helper for him like himself." I now am taking this kinswoman of mine, not because of lust, but with sincerity. Grant that she and I may find mercy and that we may grow old together." And they both said, "Amen, Amen." Then they went to sleep for the night.
"The acts in marriage by which the intimate and chaste union of the spouses takes place are noble and honorable; the truly human performance of these acts fosters the self-giving they signify and enriches the spouses in joy and gratitude." Sexuality is a source of joy and pleasure:
The Creator himself... established that in the (generative) function, spouses should experience pleasure and enjoyment of body and spirit. Therefore, the spouses do nothing evil in seeking this pleasure and enjoyment. They accept what the Creator has intended for them. At the same time, spouses should know how to keep themselves within the limits of just moderation.
The spouses union achieves the twofold end of marriage: the good of the spouses themselves and the transmission of life. These two meanings or values of marriage cannot be separated without altering the couples spiritual life and compromising the goods of marriage and the future of the family.
The conjugal love of man and woman thus stands under the twofold obligation of fidelity and fecundity.
Conjugal fidelity
The married couple forms "the intimate worship of life and love established by the Creator and governed by his laws; it is rooted in the conjugal covenant, that is, in their irrevocable personal consent." Both give themselves definitively and totally to one another. There are no longer two; from now on they form one flesh. The covenant they freely contracted imposes on the spouses the obligation to preserve it as unique and indissoluble. "What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
Fidelity expresses constancy in keeping one's a given word. God is faithful. The sacrament of matrimony enables man and woman to enter into Christ's fidelity for his Church. Through conjugal chastity, they bear witness to this mystery before the world.
St. John Chrysostom suggests that young husbands shuld say to their wives: I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us... I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.
The fecundity of marriage
Fecundity is a gift, an end of marriage, for conjugal love naturally seeks to be fruitful. A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment. So the Church, which "is on the side of life”, teaches that "it is necessary that each and every marriage act remain ordered per se to the procreation of human life." "This particular doctrine, expounded on numerous occasions by the Magisterium, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act."
Called to give life, spouses share in the creative power and fatherhood of God. "Married couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to educate their children; they should realize that they are thereby cooperating with the love of God the Creator and are, in a certain sense, its interpreters. They will fulfill this duty with a sense of human and Christian responsibility."
A particular aspect of this responsibility concerns the regulation of procreation. For just reasons, spouses may wish to space the birth of their children. It is their duty to make certain that their desire is not motivated by selfishness but is in conformity with the generosity appropriate to responsible parenthood. Moreover they should confirm their behavior to the objective criteria of morality:
When it is a question of harmonizing married love with the responsible transmission of life, the morality of the behavior does not depend on sincere intention and evaluation of motives alone; but it must be determined by objective criteria, criteria drawn from the nature of the person and his act, criteria that respect the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love; this is possible only if the virtue of married chastity is practiced with sincerity of heart.
"By safeguarding both these essential aspects, the unitive and the procreative, the conjugal act preserves in its fullness the sense of true mutual love and its orientation towards man's exalted vocation to parenthood."
Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observations and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality. These methods respect the bodies of their spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, "every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or it's accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible" is intrinsically evil:
Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality... The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle... involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality.
"Let all be convinced that human life and the duty of transmitting it are not limited by the horizons of this life only: their true evaluation and full significance can be understood only in reference to man's eternal destiny
The state has a responsibility for its citizen’s well-being. In this capacity it is legitimate for it to intervene to orient the demography of the population. This can be done by means of objective and respectful information, but certainly not by authoritarian, coercive measures.
The state cannot legitimately usurp the initiative of spouses, who have the primary responsibility for the procreation and education of their children. In this area it is not authorized to employ means contrary to the moral law.
The gift of a child
Sacred Scripture and the Church's traditional practice see in large families a sign of God's blessing and the parents’ generosity.
Couples who discover that they are sterile suffer greatly. "What will you give me," asked Abraham of God, "for I continue childless?" And Rachel cries to her husband Jacob, "give me children, or I shall die!"
Research aimed at reducing human sterility is to be encouraged, on condition that it is placed "at the service of the human person, of his inalienable rights, and his true and integral good according to the design and will of God."
Techniques that entail the disassociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses "right to become a father and a mother only through each other."
Techniques involving only the married couple (homologous artificial insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain morally unacceptable. They dissociate the sexual act from the procreative act. The act which brings the child until existence is no longer an act by which two persons give themselves to one another but one that "entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity and quality that must be common to parents and children." "Under the moral aspect procreation is deprived of its proper perfection when it is not willed as the fruit of the conjugal act, that is to say, of the specific act of the spouses union... Only respect for the link between the meanings of the conjugal act and respect for the unity of the human being make possible procreation in conformity with the dignity of that person.”
A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. The "supreme gift of marriage" is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property an idea to which an alleged "right to a child" would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right "to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents," and "the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception."
The Gospel shows that physical sterility is not an absolute evil. Spouses who still suffer from infertility after exhausting legitimate medical procedures should unite themselves with the Lord's Cross, the source of all spiritual fecundity. They can give expression to their generosity by adopting abandoned children are performing demanding services for others.
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January 18, 2015 - But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 6 Section I II Pg 619
I – “Male and Female he created them”
"God is love and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image..., God described in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion."
"God created man in his own image... male and female he created them"; he blessed them and said, "be fruitful and multiply"; "when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created."
Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others.
Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out.
"In creating men", ‘male and female, ‘God gives man and woman an equal personal dignity." "Man is a person, man and women equally so, since both were created in the image and likeness of the personal God."
Each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way. The union of man and woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator’s generosity and fecundity; "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh." All human generations proceed from this union.
Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins. In the Sermon on the Mount, he interprets God's plan strictly: "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.
The tradition of the Church has understood the sixth commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality.
II - The Vocation to Chastity
Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man and his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man’s belonging to the body and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, and the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman.
The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift.
The integrity of the person
The chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.
Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy. "Man's dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what is good and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end."
Whoever wants to remain faithful to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of an ascesis adapted to the situations that confront him, obedience to God's commandments, exercise of the moral virtues, and fidelity to prayer. “Indeed it is through chastity that we are gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were fragmented into multiplicity.”
The virtue of chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions and appetites of the senses with reason.
Self-mastery is a long and exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It pre-supposes renewed effort at all stages of life. The effort required can be more intense in certain period, such as when the personality is being formed during childhood and adolescence.
Chastity has laws of growth which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin. “Man…day by day builds himself up through his free decisions; and so he knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by stages of growth.”
Chastity represents an eminently personal task; it also involves a cultural effort, for there is “an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of society.” Chastity presupposes respect for the rights of the person, in particular the right to receive information and an education that respect the moral and spiritual dimensions of human life.
Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort. The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ.
The integrality of the gift of self
Charity is the form of all the virtues. Under its influence, chastity appears as a school of the gift of the person. Self-mastery is ordered to the gift of self. Chastity leads him who practices it to become a witness to his neighbor of God's fidelity and loving kindness.
The virtue of chastity blossoms in friendship. It shows the disciple how to follow and imitate him who has chosen us as his friends, who has given himself totally to us and allows us to participate in his divine estate. Chastity is a promise of immortality.
Chastity is expressed notably in friendship with one's neighbor. Whether it develops between persons of the same or opposite sex, friendship represents a great good for all. It leads to spiritual communion
The various forms of chastity
All the baptized are called to chastity. The Christian has "put on Christ," the model for all chastity. All Christ's faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life. At the moment of his Baptism, the Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity.
"People should cultivate [chastity] in the way that is suited to their state of life. Some profess virginity or consecrated celibacy which enables them to give themselves to God alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable manner. Others live in the way prescribed for all by the moral law, whether they are married or single." Married people are called to live conjugal chastity; others practice chastity in continence:
There are three forms of the virtue of chastity: the first is that of spouses, the second from that of widows, and the third that of virgins. We do not praise any one of them to the exclusion of the others... This is what makes for the richness of the discipline of the Church.
Those who are engaged to marry are called to live chastity in continence. They should see in this time of testing a discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another from God. They should reserve for marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married love. They will help each other grow and chastity.
Offenses against chastity
Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purses.
By Masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. "Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action." "The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose." For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of "the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved."
To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral actions, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that can lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.
Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.
Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.
Prostitution does injury to the dignity of the person who engages in it, reducing the person to an instrument of sexual pleasure. The one who pays sins gravely against himself: he violates the chastity to which his Baptism pledged him and defiles his body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Prostitution is a social scourge. It usually involves women, but also men, children, and adolescents (the latter two cases involve the added sin of scandal.). While it is always gravely sinful to engage in prostitution, the imputability of the offense can be attenuated by destitution, blackmail, or social pressure.
Rape is the formal violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply wounds to respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act. Graver still is the rape of children committed by parents (incest) o those responsible for the education of the children entrusted to them.
Chastity and homosexuality
Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
The number of men and women who have deep-seeded homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtue of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
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January 11, 2015 - Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. Psalms 1:1-2
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 5 Section III Pg 613
III - Safeguarding Peace
Peace
By recalling the commandment, "You shall not kill," our Lord asked for peace of heart and denounced murderous anger and hatred as immoral.
Anger is a desire for revenge. "To desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit," but it is praiseworthy to impose restitution "to correct vices and maintain justice." If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin. The Lord says, "Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment."
Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him the evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."
Respect for and development of human life require peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is "the tranquility of order." Peace is the work of justice and effect of charity.
Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic "Prince of Peace." By the blood of his Cross, "in his own person he killed the hostility," he reconciled men with God and made his Church the sacrament of the unity of the human race and of its union with God. "He is our peace." He has declared: "Blessed are the peacemakers."
Those who renounce violence and bloodshed and, in order to safeguard human rights, make use of those means of defense available to the weakest, bear witness to evangelical charity, provided they do so without harming the rights and obligations of other men and societies. They bear legitimate witness to the gravity of the physical and moral risks of recourse to violence, with all its destruction and death.
Avoiding war
The fifth commandment forbids the intentional destruction of human life. Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war.
All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war.
However, "as long as the danger of war persists there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed."
The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:
-- -- the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
-- -- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
-- -- there must be serious prospects of success;
-- -- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the "just war" doctrine.
The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.
Public authorities, in this case, have the right and duty to impose on citizens the obligations necessary for national defense.
Those who are sworn to serve their country in the armed forces are servants of the security and freedom of nations. If they carry out their duty honorably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace.
Public authorities should make equitable provision for those who for reasons of conscience refuse to bear arms; these are nonetheless obliged to serve the human community and some other way.
The Church and human reason both assert the permanent validity of the moral law during armed conflict. "The mere fact that war has regrettably broken out does not mean that everything becomes licit between the warring parties."
Non-combatants, wounded soldiers, and prisoners must be respected and treated humanely.
Actions deliberately contrary to the law of nations and to its universal principles are crimes, as are the orders that command such actions. Blind obedience does not suffice to excuse those who carry them out. Thus the extermination of a people, nation, or ethnic minority must be condemned as a mortal sin. One is morally bound to resist orders that command genocide.
“Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation." A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons -- -- especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons -- -- to commit such crimes.
The accumulation of arms strikes many as a paradoxically suitable way of deterring potential adversaries from war. They see as the most effective means of ensuring peace among nations. This method of deterence gives rise to strong moral reservations. The arms race does not ensure peace. Far from eliminating the causes of war, it risks aggravating them. Spending enormous sums to produce ever new types of weapons impedes efforts to aid needy populations; it thwarts development of peoples. Over-armament multiplies reasons for conflict and increases the dangers of escalation.
The production and sale of arms affect the common good of nations and of the international community. Hence public authorities have the right and ability to regulate them. The short-term pursuit of private or collective interests cannot legitimate undertakings that promote violence and conflict among nations and compromise the international juridical order.
Injustice, excessive economic or social inequalities, envy, distrust, and pride raging among men and nations constantly threaten peace and cause wars. Everything done to overcome these disorders contributes to building up peace and avoiding war:
Insofar as men are sinners, the threat of war hangs over them and will so continue until Christ comes again; but insofar as they can vanquish sin by coming together in charity, violence itself will be vanquished and these words will be fulfilled: "they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."
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January 4, 2015- Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations. Psalms 145:13
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 5 Section II Pg 609
II - Respect For The Dignity of Persons
Respect for the souls of others: scandal
Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.
Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to honor this curse: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep's clothing.
Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion.
Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to "social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible." This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger, or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.
Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. "Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!"
Respect for health
Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take responsible care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good.
Concern for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living- conditions that allow them to grow and reach maturity: food and clothing, housing, health care, basic education, employment, and social assistance.
If morality requires respect for the life of the body, it does not make it an absolute value. It rejects a neo-pagan notion that tends to promote the cult of the body, to sacrifice everything for its sake, to idolize physical perfection and success at sports. By its selective preference of the strong over the weak, such a conception can lead to the perversion of human relationships.
The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobaccoo, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others' safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.
The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense. Clandestine production of and trafficking in drugs are scandalous practices. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law.
Respect for the person and scientific research
Scientific, medical, or psychological experiments on human individuals or groups can contribute to healing the sick and the advancement of public health.
Basic scientific research, as well as applied research, is a significant expression of man's dominion over creation. Science and technology are precious resources when placed at the service of man and promote his integral development for the benefit of all. By themselves however they cannot disclose the meaning of existence and of human progress. Science and technology are ordered to man, from whom they take their origin and development; hence they find in the person and in his moral values both evidence of their purpose and awareness of their limits.
It is an illusion to claim moral neutrality in scientific research and its applications. On the other hand guiding principles cannot be inferred from simple technical efficiency, or from the usefulness accruing to some at the expense of others or, even worse, from prevailing ideologies. Science and technology by their very nature require unconditional respect for fundamental moral criteria. They must be at the service of the human person, of his inalienable rights, of his true and integral good, in conformity with the will of God.
Research or experimentation on the human being cannot legitimate acts that are in themselves contrary to the dignity of persons or to the moral law. The subjects’ potential consent does not justify such acts. Experimentation on human beings is not really legitimate if it exposes the subject’s life or physical and psychological integrity to disproportionate or avoidable risks. Experimentation on human beings does not conform to the dignity of the person if it takes place without the informed consent of the subject or those who legitimately speak for him.
Organ transplants are in conformity with the moral law if the physical and psychological dangers and risks to the donor are proportionate to the good that is sought for the recipient. Organ donation after death is a noble and meritorious act is to be encouraged as an expression of generous solidarity. It is not morally acceptable if the donor or his proxy is not given explicit consent. Moreover, it is not morally admissible directly to bring about the disabling mutilation or death of a human being, even in order to delay the death of other persons.
Respect for bodily integrity
Kidnapping and hostage taking bring on a reign of terror; by means of threats they subject their victims to intolerable pressures. They are morally wrong. Terrorism threatens, wounds, and kills indiscriminately is gravely against justice and charity. Torture which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity. Except when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reasons, directly intended amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent persons are against the moral law.
In times past, cruel practices were commonly used by legitimate governments to maintain law and order, often without protest from the Pastors of the Church, who themselves adopted in their own tribunals prescriptions of Roman law concerning torture. Regrettable as these facts are, the Church always taught the duty of clemency and mercy. She forbade clerics to shed blood. In recent times it has become evident that these cruel practices were neither necessary for public order, nor in conformity with the legitimate rights of the human person. On the contrary, these practices lead to ones even more degrading. It is necessary to work for their abolition. We must pray for the victims and their tormentors.
Respect for the dead
The dying should be given attention and care to help them live their last moments in dignity and peace. They will be helped by the prayer of their relatives, who must see to it that the sick receive at the proper time the sacraments to prepare them to meet the living God.
The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the Resurrection. The burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy; it honors the children of God, who are temples of the Holy Spirit.
Autopsies can be permitted legal inquest were scientific research. The free gift of organs after death is legitimate and can be meritorious.
The church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body.
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Hope you all had a Blessed, Joyous and Merry Christmas!!!
December 27, 2014 - I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you. John 13:34
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 5 Section I Pg 602
I - Respect for Human Life
The witness of sacred history
In the account of Abel's murder of his brother Cain, Scripture reveals the presence of anger and envy in man, consequences of original sin, from the beginning of human history. Man has become the enemy of his fellow man. God declares the wickedness of this fratricide: "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand."
The covenant between God and mankind is interwoven with reminders of God's gift of human life and man's murderous violence:
For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning.... Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; God made man in his own image.
The Old Testament always considered blood a sacred side of life. This teaching remains necessary for all time.
Scripture specifies the prohibition contained in the fifth commandment: "Do not slay the innocent and the righteous." The deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule, and to the holiness of the Creator. The law forbidding it is universally valid: it obliges each and every one, always and everywhere.
In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord recalls the commandment, "You shall not kill," and adds to it the proscription of anger, hatred, and vengeance. Going further, Christ asks his disciples to turn the other cheek, to love their enemies. He did not defend himself and told Peter to leave his sword in its sheath.
Legitimate defense
The legitimate defense of persons and societies is not an exception to the prohibition against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing. "The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one's own life; and the killing of the aggressor... The one is intended, the other is not."
Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow:
If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he retells force with moderation, his defense will be lawful.... Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one's own life that of another's.
Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility.
The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people's rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and the duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense. When it is willingly accepted by the guilty party, it assumes the value of expiation. Punishment then, in addition to defending public order and protecting people's safety, has a medicinal purpose: as far as possible, it must contribute to the correction of the guilty party.
Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.
If, however non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human process.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm -- -- without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself -- -- the cases in which the exception of the offender is an absolute necessity "are rare, if not practically nonexistent."
Intentional homicide
The fifth commandment forbids direct and intentional killing as gravely sinful. The murderer and those who cooperate voluntarily in murder commit a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance.
Infanticide, fratricide, parricide, and the murder of a spouse are especially grave crimes by reason of the natural bonds which they break. Concern for eugenics or public health cannot justify any murder, even if commanded by public authority.
The fifth commandment forbids doing anything with the intention of indirectly bringing about a person's death. The moral law prohibits exposing someone to mortal danger without grave reason, as well as refusing assistance to a person in danger.
The acceptance by human society of murderous famines, without efforts to remedy them, is a scandalous injustice and a grave offense. Those whose usurious avaricious dealings lead to the hunger and death of their brethren in the human family indirectly commit homicide, which is imputable to them.
Unintentional killing is not morally imputable. But one is not exonerated from grave offense if, without proportionate reasons, he has acted in a way that brings about someone's death, even without the intention to do so.
Abortion
Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person -- -- among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I consecrated you.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.
Since the first century of the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to man the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.
Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,” "by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation:
"The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death."
"The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined... As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights."
Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.
Parental diagnosis is morally licit, "if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward safeguarding or healing as an individual... It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence."
"One must hold as licit procedures carried out on the human embryo which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it, but are directed toward its healing, the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival."
"It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material."
"Certain attempts to influence chromosomic or genetic inheritance are not therapeutic but are aimed at producing human beings selected according to sex or other predetermined qualities. Such manipulations are contrary to the personal dignity of the human being and his integrity and identity" which are unique and unrepeatable.
Euthanasia
Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible.
Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.
Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.
Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of "overzealous" treatment. Hence one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decision should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.
Even if death is thought imminent, the extraordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable. Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.
Suicide
Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.
Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.
If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.
Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.
We should not despair of the eternal solvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.
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December 21, 2014 - I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. John 16:33
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 4 Section IV Pg 596
IV - The Family And The Kingdom
Family ties are important but not absolute. Just as the child grows to maturity and human and spiritual autonomy, so his unique vocation which comes from God asserts itself more clearly and forcefully. Parents should respect this call and encourage their children to follow it. They must be convinced that the first vocation of the Christian is to follow Jesus "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
Becoming a disciple of Jesus means accepting the invitation to belong to God's family, to live in conformity with His way of life: "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother."
Parents should welcome and respect with joy and thanksgiving the Lords a call to one of their children to follow him in virginity for the sake of the Kingdom in the consecrated life or in priestly ministry.
V - The Authorities In Civil Society
God's fourth amendment also enjoins us to honor all who for our good have received authority in society from God. It clarifies the duties of those who exercise authority as well as those who benefit from it.
Duties of civil authorities
Those who exercise authority should do so as a service. "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant." The exercise of authority is measured morally in terms of its divine origin, its reasonable nature and its specific object. No man can command or establish what is contrary to the dignity of persons and the natural law.
The exercise of authority is meant to give outward expression to a just hierarchy of values in order to facilitate the exercise of freedom and responsibility by all. Those in authority should practice distributive justice wisely, taking account of the needs and contribution of each, with a view to harmony and peace. They should take care that the regulations and measures they adopt are not a source of temptation by setting personal interest against that of the community.
Political authorities are obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person. They will dispense justice humanely by respecting the rights of everyone, especially of families and the disadvantaged.
The political rights attached to citizenship can and should be granted according to the requirements of the common good. They cannot be suspended by public authorities without legitimate and proportionate reasons. Political rights are meant to be exercised for the common good of the nation and the human community.
The duties of citizens
Those subject to authority should regard those in authority as representatives of God, who has made them stewards of his gift; "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution... Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God." Their loyal collaboration includes the right, and at times the duty, to voice their just criticisms of that which seems harmful to the dignity of persons and to the good of the community.
It is the duty of citizens to contribute along with the civil authorities to the good of society in the spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom. The love and service of one's country follow from the duty of gratitude to belong to the order of charity. Submission to legitimate authorities and service of the common good requires citizens to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community.
Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one's country:
Pay to all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due."
[Christians] reside in their own nations, but as resident aliens. They participate in all things as citizens and/or all things as foreigners... They obey the established laws and their way of life surpasses the laws... so noble is the position to which God has assigned them that they are not allowed to desert it."
The apostle exhorts us to offer prayers and thanksgiving for kings and all who exercise authority, "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way."
The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under production of those who receive him.
Political authorities for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various judicial conditions especially with regard to the immigrant's duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.
The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community. "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." “We must obey God rather than men"
When citizens are under the oppression of a public authority which oversteps its competence, they should still not refuse to give or to do what is objectively demanded of them by the common good; but it is legitimate for them to defend their own rights and those of their fellow citizens against the abuse of this authority within limits of the natural law and the law of the Gospel.
Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate, unless all the following conditions are met: 1) there is certain, grave, and prolonged violation of fundamental rights; 2) all other means of redress have been exhausted; 3) such resistance will not provoke worse disorders; 4) there is well-founded hope of success; and 5) it is impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution.
The political community and the Church
Every institution is inspired, at least implicitly, by a vision of man and his destiny, from which it derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its line of conduct. Most societies have formed their institutions in the recognition of a certain preeminence of man over things. Only the divinely revealed religion has clearly recognized man's origin and destiny in God, the Creator and Redeemer. The Church invites political authority to measure their judgments and decisions against this inspired truth about God and man:
Societies not recognizing this vision or rejecting it in the name of their independence from God are brought to seek their criteria and goal in themselves or to borrow them from some ideology. Since they do not admit that one can defend an objective criterion of good and evil, they arrogate to themselves an explicit or implicit totalitarian power over man and his destiny, as history shows.
The Church, because of her commission and competence, is not to be confused in any way with the political community. She is both the sign and the safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person. "The Church respects and encourages the political freedom and responsibility of the citizen."
It is a part of the Church's mission "to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it. The means, the only means, she may use are those which are in accord with the Gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and circumstances."
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December 14, 2014 - I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. Proverbs 8:17
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 4 Section III Pg 592
III – The Duties of Family Members
The duties of children
The divine fatherhood is the source of human fatherhood; this is the foundation of the honor code to parents. The respect of children, whether minors or adults, for their father and mother is nourished by the natural affection born of the bond uniting them. It is required by God's commandment.
Respect for parents (filial piety) derives from gratitude toward those who, by the gift of life, their love and their work, have brought their children into the world and enabled them to grow in stature, wisdom, and grace. "With all your heart honor your father, and do not forget the birth pains of your mother. Remember that through your parents you were born; what can you give back to them that equals their gift to you?"
Filial respect is shown by true docility and obedience. "My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching... When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you." A wise son hears his father's instructions, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke."
As long as a child lives at home with his parents, the child should obey his parents and all that they ask of him when it is for his good or that of the family. “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord." Children should also obey the reasonable directions of their teachers and all to whom their parents have entrusted them. But if a child is convinced in conscience that it would be morally wrong to obey a particular order, he must not do so.
As they grow up, children should continue to respect their parents. They should anticipate their wishes, willingly seek their advice, and accept their just admonitions. Obedience towards parents ceases with the emancipation of the children; not so respect, which is always owed to them. This respect has its roots in the fear of God, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The fourth commandment reminds grown children of their responsibilities towards their parents. As much as they can, they must give them the material and moral support in old age and in times of illness, loneliness, or distress. Jesus recalls this duty of gratitude.
For the Lord honored the father above the children, and he confirmed the right of the mother over her sons. Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and whoever glorifies his mother is like one who has duties of a treasure. Whoever honors his father will be gladdened by his own children, and when he prays he will be heard. Whoever glorifies his father will have long life, and whoever obeys the Lord will refresh his mother.
O son, help your father in his old age, and do not grieve him as long as he lives; even if he is lacking in understanding, show forbearance; in all your strength do not despise them... Whoever forsakes his father is like a blasphemer, and whoever angers his mother is cursed by the Lord.
Filial respect promotes harmony in all of family life; it also concerns relationships between brothers and sisters. Respect toward parents fills the home with light and warmth. "Grandchildren are the crown of the aged." "With all humility and meekness, with patience, [support] one another in charity."
For Christians a special gratitude is due to those from whom they have received the gift of faith, the grace of Baptism, and life in the Church. These may include parents, grandparents, other members of the family, pastors, catechists, and other teachers or friends. "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you."
The duties of parents
The fecundity of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of children, but must extend to their moral education and their spiritual formation. "The role of parents in education is of such importance that it also impossible to provide an adequate substitute." The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable.
Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons. Showing themselves obedient to the will of the Father in heaven they educate their children to fulfill God's law.
Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well-suited for education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery -- -- the preconditions of all true freedom. Parents should teach their children to subordinate the "material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones." Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. By knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, parents will be better able to guide and correct them:
He who loves his son will not spare the rod... He who disciplines his son will profit by him. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
The home is the natural environment for initiating a human being into solidarity and communal responsibilities. Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies.
Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are the "first herald's" for their children. They should associate them from their tenderest years with the life of the Church. A wholesome family life can foster interior dispositions that are a genuine preparation for a living faith and remain a support for it throughout one's life.
Education in the faith by the parents should begin in the child's earliest years. This already happens when family members help one another to grow in faith by the witness of a Christian life in keeping with the Gospel. Family catechisms precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the faith. Parents have the mission of teaching their children to pray and to discover their vocation as children of God. The parish is the Eucharistic community and the heart of the liturgical life of Christian families; it is a privileged place for the catechesis of children and parents.
Children in turn contribute to the growth in holiness of their parents. Each and every one should be generous and tireless and forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels, injustices, and neglect. Mutual affection suggests this. The charity of Christ demands it.
Parents respect and affection are expressed by the care and attention they devote to bringing up their young children and providing for their physical and spiritual needs. As the children grow up the same respect and devotion lead parents to educate them in the right use of their reason and freedom.
As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. As far as possible parents have the duty of choosing schools that will best help them in their task as Christian educators. Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise.
When they become adults, children have the right and duty to choose their profession and state of life. They should assume their new responsibilities within a trusting relationship with their parents, willingly asking and receiving their advice and counsel. Parents should be careful not to exert pressure on their children either in the choice of a profession or in that of a spouse. This necessary restraint does not prevent them -- -- quite the contrary -- -- from giving their children judicious advice, particularly when they are planning to start a family.
Some forgo marriage in order to care for their parents or brothers and sisters, to give themselves more completely to a profession, or to serve other honorable ends. They can contribute greatly to the good of the human family.
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December 7, 2014 - I pray that the God who gives hope will fill you with much joy and peace while you trust in him. Then your hope will overflow by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 4 Section I Pg 587
I – Fourth Commandment The Family in God’s Plan
The nature of the family
The conjugal community is established upon the consent of the spouses. Marriage and the family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children. The love of the spouses and the begetting of children create among members of the same family personal relationships and primordial responsibilities.
A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize. It should be considered the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated.
In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in dignity. For the common good of its members and of society, the family necessarily has manifold responsibilities, rights, and duties.
The Christian family
"The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church." It is a community of faith, hope, and charity; it assumes singular importance in the Church, as is evident in the New Testament.
The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it reflects the Father's work of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task.
The relationships within the family bring an affinity of feelings, affections and interest, arising above all from the members’ respect for one another. The family is a privileged community called to achieve a "sharing of thought and common deliberation by the spouses as well as their eager cooperation as parents in their children's upbringing."
II - The Family and Society
The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.
The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, handicapped, and the poor. There are many families who are at times incapable of providing this help. It devolves then on other persons, other families, and, in a subsidiary way, society to provide for their needs: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world."
The family must be helped and defended by appropriate social measures. Where families cannot fulfill their responsibilities, other social bodies have the duty of helping them and of supporting the institution of the family. Following the principle of subsidiarity, larger communities should take care not to usurp the family’s prerogatives or interfere in its life.
The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family. Civil authority should consider it a grave duty "to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity."
The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially:
-- -- The freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family's own moral and religious connections;
-- -- The protection of the stability of the marriage bond in the institution of the family;
-- -- The freedom to profess one's faith, too hand it on, and raise one's children in it, with the necessary means and institutions;
-- -- The right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work in housing, and the right to emigrate;
-- -- In keeping with the country's institutions the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family benefits;
-- -- The protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography, alcoholism, etc.;
-- -- The freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation before civil authority.
The fourth commandment illuminates other relationships in society. In our brothers and sisters we see the children of our parents; in our cousins, the descendants of our ancestors; in our fellow citizens, the children of our country; in the baptized, the children of our mother the Church; in every human person, a son or daughter of the One who wants to be called "our Father." In this way our relationships with our neighbors are recognized as personal in character. The neighbor is not a "unit" in the human collective; he is "someone" who by his known origins deserves particular attention and respect.
Human communities are made up of persons. Governing them well is not limited to guaranteeing rights and fulfilling duties such as honoring contracts. Right relations between employers and employees, between those who govern and citizens, presuppose a natural good will in keeping with the dignity of human persons concerned for justice and fraternity.
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November 30, 2014 - I wait for the Lord to help me, and I trust his word. Psalms 130:5
116 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 3 Section I II Pg 580
I - The Sabbath Day
The third commandment of the Decalogue recalls the holiness of the Sabbath: The seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord."
In speaking of the Sabbath Scripture recalls creation: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."
Scripture also reveals in the Lord's Day a memorial of Israel's liberation from bondage in Egypt: "You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Lord your God brought you out thence with mighty hand and outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day."
God entrusted the sabbath to Israel to keep as a sign of the irrevocable covenant. The Sabbath is for the Lord, holy and set apart for the praise of God, his work of creation, and his saving actions on behalf of Israel.
God's action is the model for human action. If God "rested and was refreshed" on the seventh day, man too ought to "rest" and should let others, especially the poor, "be refreshed." The sabbath brings everyday work to a halt and provides a respite. It is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money.
The Gospel reports many incidents when Jesus was accused of violating the sabbath law. But Jesus never fails to respect the holiness of this day. He gives this law its authentic and authoritative interpretation: "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." With compassion, Christ declares the sabbath for doing good rather than harm, for saving life rather than killing. The sabbath is the day of the Lord of mercies and a day to honor God. "The Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath."
II - The Lord's Day
This is the day which the Lord has made; ley us rejoice and be glad in it.
The day of the Resurrection: the new creation
Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week." Because it is the "first day," the day of Christ's resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the "eight day" following the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, but first of all feasts, the Lord's Day (he kuriake hemera, dies dominica)—Sunday:
We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on the same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.
Sunday -- -- Fulfillment of the sabbath
Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man’s eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ:
Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the sabbath, but the Lord's Day, in which our life is blessed by him and by his death.
The celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, visible, public, and regular worship "as a sign of his universal beneficence to all." Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the Old Covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit in the weekly celebration of the Creator and Redeemer of his people.
The Sunday Eucharist
The Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life. "Sunday is the day on which the paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church."
"Also to be observed are the day of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the Ascension of Christ, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, the feast of Mary the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her Assumption, the feast of St. Joseph, the feast of the Apostles St. Peter and Paul, and the feast of All Saints."
This practice of the Christian assembly dates from the beginnings of the apostolic age. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds the faithful "not to neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but to encourage one another,
Tradition preserves the memory of an ever-timely exhortation: Come to Church early, approach the Lord, and confess your sins, repent in prayer... Be present at the sacred and divine liturgy, conclude its prayer and do not leave before the dismissal... We have often said: "This day is given to you for prayer and rest. This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."
"A parish is a definite community of the Christian faithful established on a stable basis within a particular church; the pastoral care of the parish is entrusted to a pastor as its own shepherd under the authority of the diocesan bishop." It is the place where all the faithful can be gathered together for the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist. The parish initiates the Christian people into the ordinary expression of the liturgical life: it gathers them together in this celebration; it teaches Christ's saving doctrine; it practices the charity of the Lord in good works and brotherly love:
You cannot pray at home as at Church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests.
The Sunday obligation
The precept of the Church specifies the law of the Lord more precisely: "On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass." "The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day on the evening of the preceding day."
The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.
Participation in the communal celebration of the Sunday Eucharist is a testimony of belonging and of being faithful to Christ and to his Church. The faithful give witness to this by their communion in faith and charity. Together they testify to God's holiness and their hope of salvation. They strengthen one another under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
"If because of lack of a sacred minister or for other great cause participation in the celebration of the Eucharist is impossible, it is specially recommended that the faithful take part in the Liturgy of the Word if it is celebrated in the parish Church or in another sacred place according to the prescriptions of the diocesan bishop, or engage in prayer for an appropriate amount of time personally or in a family or, as occasion offers, in groups of families."
A day of grace and rest from work
Just as God "rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done," human life has a rhythm of work and rest. The institution of the Lord's Day helps everyone enjoy adequate rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social, and religious lives.
On Sundays and other days of obligation the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord's Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body. Family needs or important social service can legitimately excuse one from the obligation of Sunday rest. The faithful should see to it that legitimate excuses do not lead to habits prejudicial to religion, family life, and health.
The charity of truth seeks holy leisure; the necessity of charity accepts just work.
Those Christians who have leisure should be mindful of their brethren who have the same needs and the same rights, yet cannot rest from work because of poverty and misery. Sunday is traditionally consecrated by Christian piety to good works and humble service of the sick, the infirm, and the elderly. Christians will also sanctify Sunday by devoting time and care to their families and relatives, often difficult to do on other days of the week. Sunday is a time for reflection, silence, cultivation of the mind, and meditation which furthers the growth of the Christian interior life.
Sanctifying Sundays and holy days requires a common effort. Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands of others that would hinder them from observing the Lord's Day. Traditional activities (sport, restaurants, etc.), and social necessities (public services, etc.), require some people to work on Sundays, but everyone should still take care to set aside sufficient time for leisure. With temperance and charity the faithful will see to it they avoid the excesses and violence sometimes associated with popular leisure activities. In spite of economic constraints, public authorities should ensure citizens a time intended for rest and divine worship. Employers have a similar obligation toward their employees.
In respecting religious liberty and the common good of all, Christians should seek recognition of Sundays and the Church’s holy days as legal holidays. They have to give everyone a public example of prayer, respect, and joy and defend their traditions as a precious contribution to the spiritual life of society. If a country's legislation or other reasons require work on Sunday, the day should nevertheless be lived as the day of our deliverance which lets us share in this "festal gathering," this "assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven."
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This Thursday is Thanksgiving. Catherine Galasso-Vigorito, a syndicated religious columnist, recommends to get into a place of reflection and thankfulness by keeping a "Gratitude Journal". Keep a notepad or tape recorder by your bed and each night before retiring jot down one or two things about the day which were nice or for which you are grateful. Don't have to do it every day, but it helps, then thank God for each blessing. So one day when you're feeling anxious or worried or upset pick up the journal and read about your blessings. It will be a great picker upper. As the old song says "accentuate the positive"! God bless and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
November 23, 2014 - He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20
115 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section II III Pg 577
II - Taking The Name Of The Lord In Vain
The second commandment forbids false oaths, Taking an oath or swearing is to take God as witness to what one affirms. It is to invoke the divine truthfulness as a pledge of one's own truthfulness. And ohath engages the Lord's name. "You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve him, and swear by his name."
Rejection of false oaths is a duty toward God. As Creator and Lord, God is the norm of all truth. Human speech is either in accord with or in opposition to God's truth itself. When it is truthful and legitimate, an oath highlights the relationship of human speech with God's truth. A false oath calls on God to be witness to lie.
A person commits perjury when he makes a promise under oath with no intention of keeping it, or when after promising on oath he does not keep it. Perjury is a grave lack of respect for the Lord of all speech. Pledging oneself by oath to commit an evil deed is contrary to the holiness of the divine name.
In the Sermon on the mount, Jesus explained the second commandment: "You have heard that it was said to the men of old," You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn." I say to you, do not swear at all... Let what you say be simply "Yes" or "No"; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” Jesus teaches that every oath involves a reference to God and that God's presence and his truth must be honored in all speech. Discretion and calling upon God is allied with a respectful awareness of his presence, which all our assertions either witness to or mock.
Following St. Paul, the tradition of the Church has understood Jesus' words as not excluding oaths made for grave or right reasons (for example, in court). "An oath, that is the invocation of the divine name as a witness to truth, cannot be taken unless in truth, in judgment, and in justice."
The holiness of the divine name demands that we neither use it for trivial matters, nor take an oath which on the basis of the circumstances could be interpreted as approval of an authority unjustly requiring it. When an oath is required by illegitimate civil authorities, it may be refused. It must be refused when it is required for purposes contrary to the dignity of persons or to ecclesial communion.
III - The Christian Name
The sacrament of Baptism is conferred "in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." In Baptism, the Lord's name sanctifies man, and the Christian receives his name in the Church. This can be the name of a saint, that is, of a disciple who has lived a life of exemplary fidelity to the Lord. The patron saint provides a model of charity; we are assured of his intersession. The "baptismal name" can also express a Christian mystery or Christian virtue. "Parents, sponsors, and the pastor are to see that a name is not given which is foreign to Christian sentiment."
The Christian begins his day, his prayers, and his activities with the Sign of the Cross: "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit . Amen." The baptized person dedicates the day to the glory of God and calls on the Savior's grace which lets him act in the spirit as a child of the Father. The sign of the cross strengthens us in temptations and difficulties.
God calls each one by name. Everyone's name is sacred. The name is the icon of the person. It demands respect as a sign of the dignity of the one who bears it.
The name one receives is a name for eternity. In the kingdom, the mysterious and unique character of each person marked with God's name will shine forth in splendor. "To him who conquers... I will give a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it." Then I looked and Lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”
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November 16, 2014 - Happy are those who respect the Lord and obey him. You will enjoy what you work for, and you will be blessed with good things. Psalms 128:1-2
114 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section I Pg 575
I - The Name Of The Lord Is Holy
The second commandment prescribes respect for the Lord's name. Like the first commandment, it belongs to the virtue of religion and more particularly it governs our use of speech in sacred matters.
Among all the words of Revelation, there is one which is unique: the revealed name of God. God confides his name to those who believe in him; he reveals himself to them in his personal mystery. The gift of a name belongs to the order of trust and intimacy. "The Lord's name is holy." For this reason man must not abuse it. He must keep it in mind in silent, loving narration. He will not introduce it into his own speech except to bless, praise, and glorify it.
Respect for his name is an expression of the respect owed to the mystery of God himself and to the whole sacred reality it evokes. The sense of the sacred is part of the virtue of religion:
Are these feelings of fear and awe Christian feelings or not?... I say this, then, which I think no one can reasonably dispute. They are the class of feelings we should have -- -- yes, have to an intense degree -- -- if we literally had the sight of Almighty God; therefore they are the class of feelings which we shall have, if we realize His presence. In proportion as we believe that He is present, we shall have them; and not to have been, is not to realize, not to believe that He is present.
The faithful should bear witness to the Lord's name by confessing the faith without giving way to fear. Preaching and catechizing should be permeated with adoration and respect for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The second commandment forbids the abuse of God's name, I.E., every improper use of the names of God, Jesus Christ, but also of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.
Promises made to others in God's name engage the divine honor, fidelity, truthfulness, and authority. They must be respected in justice. To be unfaithful to them is to misuse God's name and in some way to make God out to be a liar.
Blasphemy is directly opposed to the s second commandment. It consists in uttering against God -- -- inwardly or outwardly -- -- words of hatred, reproach, or defiance; in speaking ill of God; in failing in respect toward him in one's speech; in misusing God's name. St. James condemns those "who blaspheme that honorable name [of Jesus] by which you were called." The prohibition of blasphemy extends to language against Christ's Church, the saints, and sacred things. It is also blasphemous to make use of God's name to cover up criminal practices, to reduce peoples to servitude, to torture persons or put them to death. The misuse of God's name to commit a crime can provoke others to repudiate religion.
Blasphemy is contrary to the respect due God and his holy name. It is in itself a grave sin.
Oaths which misuse God's name, though without the intention of blasphemy, show lack of respect for the Lord. The second commandment also forbids magical use of the divine name.
[Gods] name is great and spoken with respect for the greatness of his Majesty. God's name is holy when said with adoration and fear of offending him.
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My dear friends in Jesus Christ. My original assignment from Jesus was to make the catechism available to everyone who wished to study it. Now He has asked me to attempt to keep His name in front of the public. How can I do that, I asked? His answer was so simple I am still dumbfounded. He said, “How many people every day ask ‘How are you?’ ” They usually say ‘Good morning’ or ‘Hello’ and then add ‘How are you?’ So what He said was to answer as you usually do, but add “thank Jesus”. I am amazed how many times I say this every day. So give it a try.
November 9, 2014 - I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13
113 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section IV Pg573
IV - You Shall Not Make For Yourself a Graven Image...
The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: "Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure..." It is the absolutely transcendent God who revealed himself to Israel. "He is the all," but at the same time "he is greater than all his works." He is "the author of beauty."
Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward solvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim.
Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons -- -- of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new "economy" of images.
The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype,” and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it." The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone:
Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends towards that whose image it is.
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My friends, good news! Apparently our call to act as disciples for Jesus has been answered by some of you. The number of visits to this site has doubled since that request. God Bless you all and keep up God's work.
November 2, 2014 - God is the Father who is full of mercy and all comfort. He comforts us every time we have trouble, so when others have trouble, we can comfort them with the same comfort God gives us. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
112 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section III TBD 568
III You Shall Have No Other God Before Me
Superstition
Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.
Idolatry
The first Commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, [of] silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths but do not speak; eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make their worshipers empty: "Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them." God, however, is the "living God" who gives life and intervenes in history.
Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon." Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast" refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.
Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate religious sense. An idolater is someone who "transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God."
Divination and magic
God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.
All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others -- -- even if this were for the sake of restoring their health -- -- are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity.
Irreligion
God's first Commandment condemns the main symptoms of irreligion: tempting God, in words or deeds, sacrilege, and simony.
Tempting God consists in putting his goodness and almighty power to the test by word or deed. Thus Satan tried to induce Jesus to throw himself down from the Temple and, by this gesture, force God to act. Jesus opposed Satan with the word of God: "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." The challenge contained in such tempting of God wounds the respect and trust we owe our Creator and Lord. It always harbors doubt about his love, his providence, and his power.
Sacrilege consists in profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons, things, or places consecrated to God. Sacrilege is a grave sin especially when committed against the Eucharist, for in this sacrament the true Body of Christ is made substantially present for us.
Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things. To Simon the magician, who wanted to buy the spiritual power he saw at work in the apostles, St. Peter responded: "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God's gift with money!" Peter thus held to the words of Jesus: "You received without pay, give without pay." It is impossible to appropriate to oneself spiritual goods and behave toward them as their owner or master, for they have their source in God. One can receive them only from him, without payment.
"The minister should ask nothing for the administration of the sacraments beyond the offering defined by the competent authority, always being careful that the needy are not deprived of the help of the sacraments because of their poverty." The competent authority determines these "offerings" in accordance with the principle that the Christian people ought to contribute to the support of the Church's ministers. "The laborer deserves his food."
Atheism
"Many... of our contemporaries either do not at all perceive, or explicitly reject, this intimate and vital bond of man to God. Atheism must therefore be regarded as one of the most serious problems of our time."
The name "atheism" covers many very different phenomena. One common form is the practical materialism which restricts its needs and aspirations to space and time. Atheistic humanism falsely considers man to be "an end to himself, and the sole maker, with supreme control, of his own history." Another form of contemporary atheism looks for the liberation of man through economic and social liberation. "It holds their religion, of its very nature, thwarts such emancipation by raising man's hopes in a future life, thus both deceiving him and discouraging him from working for a better form of life on earth."
Since it rejects or denies the existence of God atheism is a sin against the virtue of religion. The imputability of this offense can be significantly diminished in virtue of the intentions and the circumstances. "Believers can have more than a little to do with the rise of atheism. To the extent that they are careless about their instruction in the faith, or present its teachings falsely, or even fail and their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than to reveal the true nature of God and of religion."
Atheism is often based on a false conception of human autonomy, exaggerated to the point of refusing any dependence on God. Yet, "to acknowledge God is in no way to oppose the dignity of man, since such dignity is grounded and brought to perfection in God..." "For the Church knows full well that our message is in harmony with the most secret desires of the human heart."
Agnosticism
Agnosticism assumes a number of forms. In certain cases the agnostic refrains from denying God; instead he postulates the existence of a transcendent being which is incapable of revealing itself, and about which nothing can be said. In other cases, the agnostic makes no judgment about God's existence, declaring it impossible to prove, or even to affirm or deny.
Agnosticism can sometimes include a certain search for God, but it can equally express
indifferentism, a flight from the ultimate question of existence, and a sluggish moral conscience. Agnosticism is all too often equivalent to practical atheism.
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October 26, 2014 - For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. Psalms 91:11
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section II pg 564
II - "Him Only Shall You Serve"
The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity inform and give life to the moral virtues. Thus charity leads us to render to God what we as creatures all him in all justice. The virtue or religion disposes us to have this attitude.
Adoration
Adoration is the first act of the virtue of religion. To adore God is acknowledge him as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exists, as infinite and merciful love. "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve," says Jesus, citing Deuteronomy.
To adore God is to acknowledge, in respect and absolute submission, the "nothingness of the creature" who would not exist but for God. To adore God is to praise and exalt him and to humble oneself, as Mary did in the Magnificat, confessing with gratitude that he has done great things and holy is his name. The worship of the one God sets man free from turning in on himself, from the slavery of sin and the idolatry of the world.
Prayer
The acts of faith, hope, and charity enjoined by the first commandment are accomplished in prayer. Lifting up the mind toward God is an expression of our adoration of God: prayer of praise and thanksgiving, intercession and petition. Prayer is an indispensable condition for being able to obey God's commandments. "We ought always to pray and not lose heart."
Sacrifice
It is right to offer sacrifice to God as a sign of adoration and gratitude, supplication and communion: "Every action done so as to cling to God in communion of holiness, and thus achieve blessedness, is a true sacrifice."
Outward sacrifice, to be genuine, must be the expression of spiritual sacrifice: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit..." the prophets of the Old Covenant often denounced sacrifices that were not from the heart were not coupled with love of neighbor. Jesus recalls the words of the prophet Hosea: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." The only perfect sacrifice is the one that Christ offered on the cross as a total offering to the Father's love and for our salvation. By uniting ourselves with his sacrifice we can make our lives a sacrifice to God.
Promises and Vows
In many circumstances, the Christian is called to make promises to God. Baptism and Confirmation, Matrimony and Holy Orders always entail promises. Out of personal devotion, the Christian may also promise to God this action, that prayer, this almsgiving, that pilgrimage, and so forth. Fidelity to promises made to God is a sign of the respect owed to the divine majesty and of love for a faithful God.
"A vow is a deliberate and free promise made to God concerning a possible and better goods which must be fulfilled by reason of virtue of religion." A vow is an act of devotion in which the Christian dedicates himself to God or promises him some good work. By fulfilling his vows he renders to God what has been promised and consecrated to Him. The Acts of the Apostles shows us St. Paul concerned to fulfill the vows he had made.
The Church recognizes an exemplary value in the vows to practice the evangelical counsels:
Mother Church rejoices that she has within herself many men and women who pursue the Savior's self-emptying more closely and show it forth more clearly, by undertaking poverty with the freedom of the children of God, and renouncing their own will: they submit themselves to man for the sake of God, thus going beyond what is of precept in the matter of perfection, so as to conform themselves more fully to the obedient Christ.
The Church can, in certain cases and for proportionate reasons, dispense from vows and promises.
The social duty of religion and the right to religious freedom
"All men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and his Church, and to embrace it and hold on to it as they come to know it." This duty derives from "the very dignity of the human person." It does not contradict a "sincere respect" for different religions which frequently "reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men," nor the requirement of charity, which urges Christians "to treat with love, prudence and patience those who are in error or ignorance with regard to the faith."
The duty of offering God genuine worship concerns man both individually and socially. This is "the traditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals and societies towards the true religion and the one Church of Christ." By constantly evangelizing men, the Church works towards enabling them "to infuse the Christian spirit into the mentality and mores, laws and structures of the communities in which they live." The social duty of Christians is to respect and awaken in man the love of the true and the good. It requires them to make known the worship of the one true religion which subsist in the Catholic and apostolic Church. Christians are called to be the light of the world. Thus, the church shows forth the kingship of Christ over all creation and in particular over human societies.
"Nobody may be forced to act against his convictions, nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience in religious matters in private or in public, alone or in association with others, without due limits." This right is based on the very nature of the human person, whose dignity enables him freely to assent to the divine truth which transcends the temporal order. For this reason it "continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth adhering to it."
"If because of the circumstances of a particular people special civil recognition is given to one religious community in the constitutional organizations of a state, the right of all citizens and religious communities to religious freedom must be recognized and respected as well."
The right to religious liberty is neither a moral license to adhere to error, nor a supported right to error, but rather a natural right of the human person to civil liberty, I.E., immunity, within just limits, from external constraint in religious matters by political authorities. This natural right ought to be acknowledged in the judicial order of society in such a way that it constitutes a civil right.
The right to religious liberty can itself be neither unlimited nor limited only by a "public order" conceived in a positivist or naturalist manner. The "due limits" which are inherent in it must be determined for each social situation by political prudence, according to the requirements of the common good, and ratified by the civil authority in accordance with "legal principles which are in conformity with the objective moral order."
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October 19, 2014 - God, your love is so precious! You protect people in the shadow of your wings. Psalms 36:7
110 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section I pg 561
I - "You Shall Worship The Lord Your God and Him Only Shall You Serve”
God makes himself known by recalling his all-powerful, loving, and liberating action in the history of the one he addresses: "I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." The first word contains the first commandment of law: "You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve him... you shall not go after other gods." God's first call and just demand is that man except him and worship him.
The one and true God first reveals his glory to Israel. The revelation of the vocation and truth of man is linked to the revelation of God. Man’s vocation is to make God manifest by acting in conformity with his creation "in the image and likeness of God":
There will never be another God, Trypho, and there has been no other since the world began... than he who made and ordered the universe. We do not think that our God is different from yours. He is the same who brought your fathers out of Egypt "by his powerful hand and his outstretched arm." We do not place our hope in some other god, for there is none, but in the same God as you do: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
"The first commandment embraces faith, hope, and charity. When we say "God" we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the same, faithful and just, without any evil. It follows that we must necessarily accept his words and have complete faith in him and acknowledge his authority. He is almighty, merciful, and infinitely beneficent… Who could not place all hope in him? Who could not love him when contemplating the treasures of goodness and love he has poured out on us? Hence the formula guide employees in the Scripture at the beginning and end of his commandments: "I am the Lord."
Faith
Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us. St. Paul speaks of the “obedience of faith" as our first obligation. He shows that “ignorance of God" is the principal and explanation of all moral deviations. Our duty toward God is to believe in him and to bear witness to him.
The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith:
Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.
Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the church subject to him."
Hope
When God reveals Himself and calls him, man cannot fully respond to the divine love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give them the capacity to love him in return and to act in conformity with the commandments of charity. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and a beatific vision of God; it is also the fear of offending God's love and of incurring punishment.
The first commandment is also concerned with sins against hope, namely, despair and presumption:
By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God's goodness, to his justice -- -- for the Lord is faithful to his promises -- -- and to his mercy
There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).
Charity
Faith in God's love encompasses the call and the obligation to respond with sincere love to divine charity. The first commandment enjoins us to love God above everything and all creatures for him because of him.
One can sin against God's love in various ways:
- -- Indifference neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power.
-- -- Ingratitude fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to return to him love for love.
-- -- lukewarmness is hesitation or negligence in responding to divine love; it can imply
refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of charity.
-- -- acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness.
-- -- hatred of God comes from pride. It is contrary to love of God, whose goodness it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids sins and inflicts punishments.
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October 12, 2014 - Do all things without complaining and disputing. Philippians 2:14
109 Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section II pg 548
II – The Precepts Of The Church
The precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life bound to and nourished by liturgical life. The obligatory character of these positive laws decreed by the pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the faithful the very necessary minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor:
The first precept ("You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor") requires the faithful to sanctify the day commemorating the Resurrection of the Lord's as well as the principal liturgical feasts honoring the mysteries of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints; in the first place by participating in the Eucharistic celebration, in which the Christian community is gathered and by resting from those works and activities which could impede such as segregation of these days.
The second precept (“You shall confess your sins at least once a year.") ensures preparation for the Eucharist by the reception of the sacrament of reconciliation, which continues Baptism’s work of conversion and forgiveness.
The third precept (“You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season.") guarantees as a minimum the reception of the Lord's Body and Blood in connection with the Paschal feasts, the origin and center of Christian liturgy.
The fourth precept (“You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church”) ensures the times of ascesis and tenants which prepares us for the liturgical feasts and helps us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart.
The fifth precept (”You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church rate quote) means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.
III Moral Life and Missionary Witness-
The fidelity of the baptized is a primordial condition for the proclamation of the Gospel and for the Church's mission in the world. In order that the message of salvation can show the power of its truth and radiance before man, it must be authenticated by the witness of the life of Christians. "The witness of a Christian life and good works done in a supernatural spirit have great power to draw men to the faith and to God."
Because they are members of the body whose head is Christ, Christians contribute to building up the Church by the constancy of their convictions and their moral lives. The Church increases, grows, and develops through the holiness of her faithful, until "we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."
By living with the mind of Christ, Christians hasten the coming of the Reign of God, "a kingdom of justice, love, and peace." They do not, for all that, abandon their earthly tasks; faithful to their master, they fulfill them with uprightness, patience, and love.
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October 5, 2014 - Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
108 Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section I pg 546
I - Moral Life and The Magisterium of The Church
The Church, the "pillar and bulwark of the truth," "has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth." "To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls."
The Magisterium of the Pastors of the Church in moral matters is ordinarily exercised in catechesis and preaching, with the help of the works of theologians and spiritual authors. Thus from generation to generation, under the aegis and vigilance of the pastors, the "deposit" of Christian moral teaching has been handed on, a deposit composed of a characteristic body of rules, commandments, and virtues proceeding from faith in Christ and animated by charity. Alongside the Creed and the Our Father, the basis for this catechesis has traditionally been the Decalogue which sets out the principles of the moral life valid for all men.
The Roman Pontiff and the bishops are "authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach the faith to the people entrusted to them, the faith to be believed and put into practice." The ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Pope and the bishops in communion with him teach the faithful the truth to believe, the charity to practice, the beatitudes to hope for.
The supreme degree of participation in the authority of Christ is ensured by the charism of infallibility. This infallibility extends as far as does the deposit of divine Revelation; it also extends to all those elements of doctrine, including morals, without which the saving truths of the faith cannot be preserved, explained, or observed.
The authority of the Magisterium extends also to the specific precepts of the natural law, because their observance, demanded by the Creator, is necessary for salvation. In recalling the prescriptions of the natural law, the Magisterium of the Church exercises an essential part of its prophetic office of proclaiming to men what they truly are and reminding them of what they should be before God.
The law of God entrusted to the Church is taught to the faithful as the way of life and truth. The faithful therefore have the right to be instructed in the divine saving precepts that purify judgment and, with grace, heal wounded human reason. They have the duty of observing the constitutions and decrees conveyed by the legitimate authority of the Church. Even if they concerned disciplinary matters, these determinations call for docility in charity.
In the work of teaching and applying Christian morality, the Church needs the dedication of pastors, the knowledge of theologians, and the contribution of all Christians and men of goodwill. Faith and the practice of the Gospel provide each person with an experience of life "in Christ," who enlightens him and makes him able to evaluate the divine and human realities according to the Spirit of God. Thus the Holy Spirit can use the humblest to enlighten the learned and those in the highest positions.
Ministries should be exercised in a spirit of fraternal service and dedication to the Church, in the name of the Lord. At the same time the conscience of each person should avoid confirming itself to individualistic considerations in its moral judgments of the person’s own acts. As far as possible conscience should take account of the good of all as expressed in the moral law, natural and revealed, and consequently in the law of the Church and in the authoritative teaching of the Magisterium on moral questions. Personal conscience and reason should not be set in opposition to the moral law or the Magisterium of the Church.
Thus a true filial spirit toward the Church can develop among Christians. It is the normal flowering of the baptismal grace which has begotten us in the womb of the Church and made us members of the Body of Christ. In her motherly care, the Church grants us the mercy of God which prevails over all our sins and is especially at work in the sacrament of reconciliation. With a mother's foresight, she also lavishes on us day after day in her liturgy the nourishment of the Word and Eucharist of the Lord.
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September 28, 2014 - Delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:4
107 Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 2 Section III IV pg 541
III – Merit
You are glorified in the assembly of your Holy Ones, for in crowning their merits you are crowning your own gifts.
The term "merit" refers in general to the recompense owed by a community or a society for the action of one of its members, experienced either as beneficial or harmful, deserving reward or punishment. Merit is relative to the virtue of justice, in conformity with the principle of equality which governs it.
With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received everything from him, our Creator.
The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man's free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man's merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit.
Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God's gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us "co-heirs" with Christ and worthy of obtaining "the promised inheritance of eternal life." The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness. "Grace has gone before us; now we are given what is due... Our merits are God’s gifts."
Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God's wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions.
The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God. Grace, by uniting us to Christ in active love, ensures the supernatural quality of our acts and consequently their merit before God and before men. The saints have always had a lively awareness that their merits were pure grace.
After earth's exile, I hope to go and enjoy you in the fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for your love alone... in the evening of this life; I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord, to come my works. All our justice is blemished in your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in your own justice and to receive from your love eternal possession of yourself.
IV – Christian Holiness
"We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him... For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified."
"All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity." All are called to holiness: "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
In order to reach this perfection the faithful should use the strength dealt out to them by Christ's gift, so that... doing the will of the Father in everything, they made wholeheartedly devote themselves to the glory of God and to the service of their neighbor. Thus the holiness of the People of God will grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly shown in the history of the Church through the lives of so many saints.
Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called "mystical" because it participates in the mystery of Christ through the sacraments -- -- -- "the holy mysteries" -- -- -- and, in him, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God calls us all to this intimate union with him, even if the special graces are extraordinary signs of this mystical life are granted only to some for the sake of manifesting the gratuitous gift given to all.
The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes:
He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows.
The children of our holy mother the Church rightly hope for the grace of final perseverance and the recompense of God their Father for the good works accomplished with his grace in communion with Jesus. Keeping the same rule of life, believers share the "blessed hope" of those whom the divine mercy gathers into the "holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."
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September 21, 2014 - Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God's child and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8
Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 2 Section II pg 538
II = Grace
Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.
Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an "adopted son" he can henceforth call God "Father," in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity and to him and who forms the Church.
This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God's gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect, as that of every other creature.
The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism It is in us the source of the work of sanctification:
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.
Sanctifying grace is a habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God’s call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.
The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through charity. God brings to completion in us what he has begun, "since he who completes his work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might will it: “
Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing.
God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into a communion of love. Guiding immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. The promises of “eternal life" respond, beyond all hope, to this desire:
If at the end of your very good works... you rested on the seventh day, it was to foretell by the voice of your book that at the end of our works, which are indeed "very good" since you have given them to us, we shall also rest in you on the Sabbath of eternal life.
Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But Grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit." Whatever their character -- -- -- sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues -- -- -- charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church.
Among the special graces ought to be mentioned the graces of state that accompany the exercise of the responsibilities of the Christian life and of the ministries within the Church:
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith, if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved. However according to the Lord's words -- -- "Thus you will know them by their fruits" -- -- reflection on God's blessings in our life and in the lives of the saints offers us a guarantee that grace is at work in us that spurs us on to an ever greater faith and an attitude of trustful poverty.
A pleasing illustration of this attitude is found in the reply of St. Joan of Arc to a question posed as a trap by her ecclesiastical judges: "Asked if she knew that she was in God's grace, she replied: ‘If I am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I am, it please God to keep me there.’ "
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September 14, 2014 - Continue to do those things; give your life to doing them so your progress may be seen by everyone. 1 Timothy 4:15
Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 2 Section I - Pg 535
I – Justification
The grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to justify us, that is, to cleanse us from our sins and to communicate to us "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ" and through baptism:
But we have died with Christ; we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ's passion by dying to sin: and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is himself:
God gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit we become communicants in the divine nature... For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized.
The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance with Jesus’ proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high. "Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man."
Justification detaches man from sin which contradicts the love of God, and purifies his heart of sin. Justification follows upon God's merciful initiative of offering forgiveness. It reconciles man with God. It frees from the enslavement to sin, and in heals.
Justification is at the same time the acceptance of God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Righteousness (or "justice") here means the rectitude of divine love. With justification, faith, hope, and charity are poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is granted us.
Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men. Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Its purpose is the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.
Justification establishes cooperation between God's grace and man's freedom. On man's part it is expressed by the assent of faith to the Word of God, which invites him to conversion, and in the cooperation of charity with the prompting of the Holy Spirit who precedes and preserves his assent:
When God touches man's heart through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, man himself is not inactive while receiving an inspiration, since he could reject it; and yet, without God's grace, he cannot by his own free will move himself toward justice in God's sight.
Justification is the most excellent work of God's love made manifest in Christ Jesus and granted by the Holy Spirit. It is the opinion of St. Augustine that "the justification of the wicked is a greater work than the creation of heaven and earth. Because "heaven and earth will pass away but the salvation and justification of the elect... will not pass away." He holds also that the justification of sinners surpasses the creation of the angels in justice, in that it bears witness to a greater mercy.
The Holy Spirit is the master of the interior life. By giving birth to the "inner man," justification entails the sanctification of his whole being;
Just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.... But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is the sanctification and its end, eternal life.
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Sorry I was away and missed last weeks update. God Bless!
September 7, 2014 - To which of the angels did God ever say, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"? Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? Hebrews 1:13-14
104 Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 1 Section I Pg527
I – THE NATURAL MORAL LAW
Man participates in the wisdom and goodness of the Creator who gives him mastery over his acts and the ability to cover himself with a view to the true and the good. The natural law expresses the original moral sense which enables man to discern by reason of good and evil, the truth and a lie:
The natural law is written and engraved in the soul of each and every man, because it is human reason ordaining him to do good and forbidding him to sin... But this command of human reason would not have the force of law if it were not the voice and interpreter of a higher reason to which our spirit and our freedom must be submitted.
The "divine and natural" law shows a man the way to follow Celeste to practice the good and attain his end. The natural law states the first and essential precepts which govern the moral life. It hinges upon the desire for God and submission to him, who is the source and judge of all that is good, as well as upon the sense that the other is one's equal. Its principal precepts are expressed in the Decalogue. This law is called "natural," not in reference to the nature of irrational beings, but because reason which decrees it properly belongs to human nature:
Where then are these rules written, if not in the book of that light we call the truth? In it is written every just law; from it the law passes into the heart of the man who does justice, not that it migrates into it, but that it places its imprint on it, like a seal on a ring that passes onto wax, without leaving the ring.
The natural law is nothing other than the light of understanding placed in us by God; through it we know what we must do and what we must avoid. God has given this light or law at the creation.
The natural law, present in the heart of each man and established by reason, is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all men. It expresses the dignity of the person and determines the basis for his fundamental rights and duties:
For there is a true law: right reason. It is in conformity with nature, is diffused among all men, and is immutable and eternal; its orders summon to duty; its prohibitions turn away from offense... To replace it with a contrary law is a sacrilege; failure to apply even one of its provisions is forbidden; no one can abrogate it entirely.
Application of the natural law varies greatly; it can demand reflection that takes account of various conditions of life according to places, times, and circumstances. Nevertheless, the diversity of cultures, the natural law remains as a rule that binds men among themselves and imposes on them, beyond the inevitable differences, common principles.
The natural law is immutable and permanent throughout the variations of history; it subsists under the flux of ideas and customs and supports their progress. The rules that express it remain substantially valid. Even when it is rejected and is very principles, it cannot be destroyed or removed from the heart of man. It always rises again in the life of individuals and societies: Theft is surely punished by your law, O Lord, and by the law that is written in the human heart, the law that iniquity itself does not efface.
The natural law, the Creator’s very good work, provides the solid foundation on which man can build the structure of moral rules to guide his choices. It also provides the indispensable moral foundation for building the human community. Finally, it provides the necessary basis for the civil law with which it is connected, whether by a reflection that draws conclusions from its principles, or by additions of a positive and juridical nature,
The precepts of natural law are not perceived by everyone clearly and immediately. In the present situation sinful man needs grace and revelation so moral or religious truths may be known "by everyone with facility, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error." The natural law provides revealed law and grace with a foundation prepared by God in accordance with the work of the Spirit.
104 Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 1 Section II Pg 529
II – THE OLDLAW
God, our Creator and Redeemer, chose Israel for himself to be his people and revealed his Law to them, thus preparing for the coming of Christ. The Law of Moses expresses many truths naturally accessible to reason. These are stated at authenticated within the covenant of salvation.
The Old law is the first stage of revealed Law. Its moral prescriptions are summed up in the 10 Commandments. The precepts of the Decalogue lay the foundations for the vocation of man fashioned in the image of God; they prohibit what is contrary to the love of God and neighbor and prescribe what is essential to it. The Decalogue is a light offered to the conscience of every man to make God's call and ways known to him and to protect him against evil: God wrote on the tables of Law what men did not read in their hearts.
According to Christian tradition, the Law is holy, spiritual, and good, yet still imperfect. Like a tutor it shows what must be done, but does not of itself give the strength, the grace of the Spirit, to fulfill it. Because of sin, which it cannot remove, it remains a law of bondage. According to St. Paul, its special function is to denounce and disclose sin, which constitutes a "law of concupiscence" in the human heart.
However, the Law remains the first stage on the way to the kingdom. It prepares and disposes the chosen people and each Christian for conversion and faith in the Savior God. It provides a teaching which it endures forever, like the Word of God.
The Old Law is a preparation for the Gospel. "The Law is a pedagogy and a prophecy of things to come." It prophesies and presages the work of liberation from sin which will be fulfilled in Christ: it provides the New Testament with images, "types," and symbols for expressing the life according to the Spirit. Finally, the wall is completed by the teaching of the sapiential books and the prophets which set its course toward the New Covenant and the Kingdom of heaven.
There were... under the regimen of the Old Covenant, people who possessed the charity and grace of the Holy Spirit and longed above all for the spiritual and eternal promises by which they were associated with the New Law. Conversely, there exist carnal men under the New Covenant, still distanced from the perfection of the New Law: the fear of punishment and certain temporal promises have been necessary, even under the New Covenant, to incite them to virtuous works. In any case, even though the Old Law prescribed charity, it did not give the Holy Spirit, through whom "God is a charity has been poured into our hearts."
104 Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 1 Section III Pg 531
III – THE NEW LAW OR THE LAW OF THE GOSPEL
The new law or the Law of the Gospel is the perfection here on earth of the divine law, natural and revealed. It is the work of Christ and is expressed particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. It is also the work of the Holy Spirit and through him it becomes the interior law of charity: "I will establish a New Covenant with the house of Israel... I'll put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
The New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit given to the faithful through faith in Christ. It works through charity; it uses the Sermon on the Mount to teach us what must be done and makes use of the sacraments to give us the grace to do it:
if anyone should meditate with devotion and perspicacity on the sermon our Lord gave on the Mount, as we read in the Gospel of St. Matthew, he will doubtless find there... the perfect way of the Christian life... This sermon contains... all the precepts needed to shape one's life.
The Law of the Gospel "fulfills," refines, surpasses, and leads the Old Law to its perfection. In the Beatitudes, the New Law fulfills the divine promises by elevating and orientating them toward the "kingdom of heaven." It is addressed to those open to accepting this new hope with faith -- -- -- the poor, the humble, the afflicted, the pure of heart, those persecuted on account of Christ -- -- -- and so marks out the surprising ways of the Kingdom.
The Law of the Gospel fulfills the Commandments of the Law. The Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, far from abolishing or devaluing the moral prescriptions of the Old Law, releases their hidden potential and has new demands arise from them: it reveals their entire divine and human truth. It does not add new external precepts, but proceeds to reform the heart, the root of human acts, where man chooses between the pure and impure, where faith, hope, and charity are formed and with them the other virtues. The Gospel thus brings the Law to its fullness through imitation of the perfection of the heavenly Father, through forgiveness of enemies and prayer for persecutors, and emulation of the divine generosity.
The New Law practices the acts of religion: almsgiving, prayer and fasting, directing them to the "Father who sees in secret," in contrast with the desire to "be seen by men." Its prayer is the Our Father.
The Law of the Gospel requires us to make a decisive choice between "the two ways" and to put into practice the words of the Lord. It is summed up in the Golden Rule, "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; this is the law and the prophets. The entire law of the Gospel is contained in the "new commandment" of Jesus, to love one another as he has loved us.
To the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount it is fitting to add the moral catechesis of the apostolic teachings, such as Romans 12 -- 15, 1 Corinthians 12 -- 13, Colossians 3 – 4, Ephesians 4-5 etc.
This doctrine hands on the Lord's teaching with the authority of the apostles, particularly in the presentation of the virtues that flow from faith in Christ and are animated by charity, the principal gift of the Holy Spirit. "Let charity be genuine.... Love one another with brotherly affection... Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality." The catechesis also teaches us to deal with cases of conscience in the light of our relationship to Christ and to the Church.
The New Law is called the law of love because it makes us act out of the love infused by the Holy Spirit, rather than from fear; a law of grace, because it confers the strength of grace to act, by means of faith and the sacraments; a law of freedom, because it sets us free from the ritual and juridical observances of the Old Law, inclines us to act spontaneously by the prompting of charity and, finally lets us pass from the condition of a servant who "does not know what his master is doing" to that of a friend of Christ -- -- "For all that I have heard from my father I have made known to you" -- -- or even to the status of son and heir.
Besides its precepts, the New Law also includes evangelical counsels. The traditional distinction between God's commandments and the evangelical counsels is drawn in relation to charity, the perfection of Christian life. The precepts are intended to remove whatever is incompatible with charity. The aim of the counsels is to remove whatever might hinder the development of charity, even if it is not contrary to it.
The evangelical counsels manifest the living fullness of charity, which is never satisfied with not giving more. They attest its vitality and call forth our spiritual readiness. The perfection of the New Law consists essentially in the precepts of love of God and neighbor. The counsels point out the more direct ways, the readier means, and are to be practiced in keeping with the vocation of each: God does not want each person to keep all the counsels, but only those appropriate to the diversity of persons, times, opportunities, and strengths, as charity requires; for it is charity, as queen of all virtues, all commandments, all counsels, and, in short, of all laws and all Christian actions, that gives to all of them their rank, order, time, and value.
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August 31, 2014 - A gentle answer will calm a person's anger, but an unkind answer will cause more anger. Proverbs 15:1
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 3 Section I Pg 521
I = RESPECT FOR THE HUMAN PERSON
Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent dignity of man. The person represents the ultimate and of society, which is ordered to him:
What is at stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly and that.
Respect for the human person entails respect for the rights that flow from his dignity as a creature. These rights are prior to society and must be recognized by it. They are the basis of the moral legitimacy of every authority by flouting them, or refusing to recognize them in its positive legislation, a society undermines its own moral legitimacy. If it does not respect them, authority can rely only on force or violence to obtain obedience from its subjects. It is the Church’s role to remind men of good will of these rights and to distinguish them from unwarranted or false claims.
Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that "everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as "another self," above all bearing in mind his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity." No legislation could by itself totally do awy with the fears, prejudices, and attitudes of pride and selfishness which obstruct the establishment of truly fraternal societies. Such behavior will cease only through the charity that finds in every man a "neighbor," a brother.
The duty of making oneself a neighbor to others and actively serving them becomes even more urgent when it involves the disadvantaged, in whatever area this may be. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."
The same duty extends to those who think or act differently from us. The teaching of Christ goes so far as to require the forgiveness of offenses. He extends the commandment of love, which is that of the New Law, to all enemies. Liberation in the spirit of the Gospel is incompatible with hatred of one's enemy as a person, but not with hatred of the evil that he does as an enemy.
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 3 Section II Pg 522
II – EQUALITY AND DIFFERENCES AMONG MEN
Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature in the same order. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity.
The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it:
Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design.
On coming into the world, man is not equipped with everything he needs for developing his bodily and spiritual life. He needs others. Differences appear tied to age, physical abilities, intellectual or moral aptitudes, the benefits derived from social commerce, and the distribution of wealth. The "talents" are not distributed equally.
These differences belong to God's plan, who wills that each receive what he needs from others, and that those endowed with particular "talents" share the benefits with those who need them. These differences encourage and often oblige persons to practice generosity, kindness, and sharing of goods; they foster the mutual enrichment of cultures:
I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others... I shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a living faith to that one... and so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another... I have willed that one should need a mother and all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me.
There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel:
Their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one human race as a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international peace.
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 3 Section III Pg 524
III – HUMAN SOLIDARITY
The principle of solidarity, also articulated in terms of "friendship" or "social charity," is a direct demand of human and Christian brotherhood.
An error, "today abundantly widespread, is disregard for the law of human solidarity and charity, dictated and imposed both by our common origins and by the equality and rational nature all men, whatever nation they belong to. This law is sealed by the sacrifice of redemption offered by Jesus Christ on the altar of the Cross to his heavenly Father, on behalf of sinful humanity."
Solidarity is manifested in the first place by the distribution of goods and remuneration for work. It also presupposes the effort for a more just social order where tensions are better able to be reduced and conflicts more readily settled by negotiation.
Socio-economic problems can be resolved only with the help of all the forms of solidarity: solidarity of the poor among themselves, between rich and poor, of workers among themselves, between employers and employees in a business, solidarity among nations and peoples. International solidarity is a requirement of the moral order; world peace depends in part upon this.
The virtue of solidarity goes beyond material goods. In spreading the spiritual goods of the faith, the Church has promoted, and often opened new paths for, the development of temporal goods as well. And so throughout the centuries has the Lord’s saying been verified: "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well":
For 2000 years this sentiment has lived in the soul of the Church, impelling souls then and now to the heroic charity of monastic farmers, liberators of slaves, healers of the sick, and messengers of faith, civilization, and science to all generations and all peoples for the sake of creating the social conditions capable of offering to everyone possible a life worthy of man and of a Christian.
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August 24, 2014 - But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done. 1 John 1:9
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 2 Section I Pg 515
I - Authority
Human society can be neither a well ordered nor prosperous unless it has some people invested with legitimate authority to preserve its institutions and to devote themselves as far as is necessary to work and care for the good of all.”
By "Authority" one means the quality by virtue of which persons or institutions make laws and give orders to men and expect obedience from them.
Every human community needs an authority to govern it. The foundation of such authority lies in human nature. It is necessary for the unity of the state. Its role is to ensure as far as possible the common good of the society.
The authority required by the moral order derives from God: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
The duty of obedience requires all to give due honor to authority and to treat those who are charged to exercise it with respect, and, in so far as it is deserved with gratitude and goodwill.
Pope St. Clement of Rome provides the Church’s most ancient prayer for political authorities:
"Grant to them Lord health, peace, concord, and stability, so that they may exercise within offense the sovereignty you have given them. Master, heavenly King of the ages, you give glory, honor, and power over the things of earth to the sons of men. Direct, Lord, their counsel, following what is pleasing and acceptable in your sight, so that by exercising with devotion and in peace and gentleness and power that you have given to them, they may find favor with you."
If authority belongs to the order established by God, "the choice of the political regime and the appointment of rulers are left to the free decision of the citizens."
The diversity of political regimes is morally acceptable, provided they serve a legitimate good of the communities that adopt them. Regimes whose nature is contrary to the natural law, to the public order, and to the fundamental rights of persons cannot achieve the common good of the nations on which they have been imposed.
Authority does not derive its moral legitimacy from itself. It must not believe in a despotic manner, but must act for the common good as a "moral force based on freedom and a sense of responsibility":
A human law has the character of law to the extent that it accords with right reason, and thus derives from the eternal aw. Insofar as it falls short of right reason it is said to be an unjust law, and thus has not so much the nature of law as of a kind of violence.
Authority is exercised legitimately only when it seeks the common good of the group concerned and if it employs morally licit means to attain it. If rulers were to enact unjust laws or take measures contrary to the moral order, such arrangements would not be binding in conscience. In such a case, "authority breaks down completely and results in shameful abuse."
"It is preferable that each power be balanced by other powers and by other spheres of responsibility which keep it within proper bounds. This is the principle of the "rule of law," in which the wall is sovereign and not the arbitrary will of men."
3 Chapter 2 Article 2 Section II pg 517
II - The Common Good
In keeping with the social nature of man, the good of each individual is necessarily related to the common good, which in turn can be defined only in reference to the human person:
Do not live entirely isolated, having retreated into yourselves, as if you were already justified, but gather instead to seek the common good together.
By common good is to be understood "the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily." The common good concerns the life of all. It calls for prudence from each, and even more from those who exercise the office of authority. It consists of three essential elements:
First, the common good presupposes respect for the person has such. In the name of the common good, public authorities are bound to respect the fundamental and inalienable rights of the human person. Society should permit each of its members to fulfill his vocation. In particular, the common good resides in the conditions for the exercise of the natural freedoms indispensable for the development of the human vocations, such as "the right to act according to a sound norm of conscience and to safeguard... privacy, and rightful freedom also in matters of religion.
Second, the common good requires the social well-being and development of the group itself. Development is the epitome of all social duties. Certainly, it is the proper function of authority to arbitrate, in the name of the common good between various particular interests; but it should make accessible to each what is needed to lead a truly human life: food, clothing, health, work, education and culture, suitable information, the right to establish a family, and so on.
Finally, the common good requires peace, that is, the stability and security of a just order. It presupposes that authority should ensure by morally acceptable means the security of society and its members. It is the basis of the right to legitimate personal and collective defense.
Each human community possesses a common good which permits it to be recognized as such; it is in the political community that its most complete realization is found. It is the role of the state to defend and promote the common good of civil society, its citizens, and intermediate bodies.
Human interdependence is increasing and gradually spreading throughout the world. The unity of the human family, embracing people who enjoy equal natural dignity, implies a universal common good. This good calls for an organization of the community of nations able to "provide for the different needs of men; this will involve the sphere of social life to which belong questions of food, hygiene, education,... and certain situations arising here and there, as for example... alleviating the miseries of refugees dispersed throughout the world, and assisting migrants and their families."
The common good is always oriented towards the progress of persons: "The order of things must be subordinate to the order of persons, and not the other way around." This order is founded on truth, built-up injustice, and animated by love.
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 2 Section III Pg 519
III - Responsibility And Participation
"Participation" is the voluntary and generous engagement of a person in social interchange. It is necessary that all participate, each according to his position and role, in promoting the common good. This obligation is inherent in the dignity of the human person.
Participation is achieved first of all by taking charge of the areas for which one assumes personal responsibility: by the care taken for the education of his family, by conscientious work, and so forth, man participates in the good of others and of society.
As far as possible citizens should take an active part in public life. The manner of this participation may vary from one country or culture to another. "One must pay tribute to those nations who systems permit the largest possible number of the citizens to take part in public life in a climate of genuine freedom."
As with any ethical obligation, the participation of all in realizing the common good calls for a continually renewed conversion of the social partners. Fraud and other subterfuges, by which some people evade the constraints of the law and the prescriptions of societal obligation, must be firmly condemned because they are incompatible with the requirements of justice. Much care should be taken to promote institutions and improved conditions of human life.
It is incumbent on those who exercise authority to strengthen and to inspire confidence of the members of the group and encourage them to put themselves at the service of others. Participation begins with education and culture. "One is entitled to think that the future of humanity is in the hands of those who are capable of providing the generations to come up with reasons for life and optimism."
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CALLING ALL DISCIPLES – Jesus wants us to be disciples’. How can we do that?
Very simple every day acts like helping someone who needs it cross a
street. Helping someone carry their packages. Offering someone a
ride to church or the store. Any act of kindness is acting like a disciple of Jesus.
August 17, 2014 - But from there you will seek the Lord
your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all
your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 1 Section I pg 511
I - The Communal Character Of The Human Vocation
All men are called to the same end; God himself. There is a
certain resemblance between the unity of the divine persons and the fraternity
that men are to establish among themselves in truth and love. Love of neighbor
is inseparable from love for God.
The human person needs to live in society. Society is not for
him an extraneous addition but a requirement of his nature. Through the exchange
with others, mutual service and dialogue with his brethren, man develops his
potential; he thus responds to his vocation.
A society is a group of persons bound together organically by a
principle of unity that goes beyond each one of them. As an assembly that is at
once visible and spiritual, a society endures through time: it gathers up the
past and prepares for the future. By means of society, each man is established
as an “heir" and receive certain "talents" that enrich his destiny and whose
fruits he must develop. He rightly owes loyalty to the communities of which he
is part and respect to those in authority who have charge of the common good.
Each community is defined by its purpose and consequently obeys
specific rules; but "the human person... is and ought to be the principle, the
subject and the end of all social institutions."
Certain societies, such as the family and the state, correspond
more directly to the nature of man; they are necessary to him. To promote the
participation of the greatest number in the life of a society, the creation of
voluntary associations and institutions must be encouraged "on both national and
international levels, which relate to economic and social goals, to cultural and
recreational activities, to sport, to various professions, and to political
affairs." This "socialization" also expresses the natural tendency for human
beings to associate with one another for the sake of attaining objectives that
exceed individual capacities. It develops the qualities of the person,
especially the sense of initiative and responsibility, and helps guarantee his rights.
Socialization also presents dangers. Excessive intervention by
the state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. The teaching of the
Church has elaborated the principles of subsidiarity, according to which "a
community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a
community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather
should support it in case of need and help to coordinate its activity with the
activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good."
God has not willed to reserve to himself all exercise of
power. He f nature. This mode of
entrusts to every creature the functions it is capable of performing, according
to the capacities of its own nature.
This mode of governance ought to be followed in social life. The way God
acts in governing the world, which bears witness to such great regard for human
freedom, shoud inspire the wisdom of those who govern human communities. They
should behave as ministers of divine
providence.
The principle of subsidiarity is opposed to all forms of
collectivism. It sets limits for
state intervention. It aims at harmonizing the relationships between individuals
and societies. It tends towards the establishment of true international
order.
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 1 Section II pg 513
II - Conversion And Society
Society is essential to the fulfillment of the human vocation.
To attain this aim, respect must be accorded to the just hierarchy of values,
which "subordinates physical and instinctual dimensions to interior and
spiritual ones:"
Human Society must primarily be considered something pertaining
to the spiritual. Through it, in the bright light of truth, men should share
their knowledge, be able to exercise their rights and fulfill their obligations,
be inspired to seek spiritual values; mutually derive genuine pleasure from the
beautiful, of whatever order it be; always be readily disposed to pass on to
others the best of their own cultural heritage; and eagerly strive to make their
own the spiritual achievements of others. These benefits not only influence, but
at the same time give aim and scope to all that has bearing on cultural
expressions, economic, and social institutions, political movements and forms,
laws, and all other structures by which society is outwardly established and
constantly developed.
The inversion of means and ends, which results in giving the
value of ultimate end to what is only a means for attaining it, or in viewing
persons as mere means to that end, engenders unjust structures which "make
Christian conduct in keeping the commandments of the divine Law-giver difficult
and almost impossible."
It is necessary, then, to appeal to the spiritual and moral
capacities of the human person and to the permanent need for his inner
conversion, so as to obtain social changes that will really serve him. The
acknowledged priority of the conversion of heart in no way eliminates but on
the contrary imposes the obligation of bringing the appropriate remedies to
institutions and living conditions when they are an inducement to sin, so that
they conform to the norms of justice and advance the good rather than hinder
it.
Without the help of grace, men would not know how "to discern
the often narrow path between the cowardice which gives into evil, and the
violence which under the illusion of fighting evil only makes it worse." This is
the path of charity, that is, of the love of God and of neighbor. Charity is the
greatest social commandment. It respects others and their rights. It requires
the practice of justice and it alone makes us capable of it.
Charity inspires a life of self-giving: "Whoever seeks to gain his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve
it."
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August 9, 2014 - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 8 Section IV pg 506
IV - The Gravity Of Sin: The Mortal and Venial Sin
Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity. The
distinction between moral and venial sin, already evident in Scripture, became
part of the tradition of the Church. It is corroborated by human experience.
Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave
violation of God's law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and
his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him. Venial sin allows charity
to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.
Mortal sin, by attacking the vital principle within us -- --
that is, charity -- -- necessitates a new initiative of God's mercy and a
conversion of heart which is normally accomplished within the setting of the
sacrament of reconciliation:
When the will sets itself upon something that is of its nature
incompatible with the charity that orients man towards his ultimate end, then
the sin is mortal by its very object... whether it contradicts the love of God,
such as blasphemy or perjury, was love for neighbor, such as homicide or
adultery... but when the sinner’s will is set upon something that of its nature
involves a disorder, but is not opposed to the love God and neighbor, such as
thoughtless chatter or immoderate laughter and the like, such sins are venial.
For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met:
"Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with
full knowledge and deliberate consent."
Grave matter as specified by the 10 Commandments, corresponding
to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: "Do not kill.
Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not
defraud, Honor your father and mother." The gravity of sins is more or less
great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is
wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a
stranger.
Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It
presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to
God's law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal
choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather
increase, the voluntary character of a sin.
Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the
capability of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the
principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man.
The promptings of feelings and passion can also diminish the voluntary and free
character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders.
Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest.
Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love
itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying
grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and
God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal
death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no
turning back. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave
offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God.
One commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does
not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the
moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete
consent.
Venial sin weakens charity; it manifests a disordered affection
for created goods; it impedes the soul’s progress in the exercise of the virtues
and the practice of the moral good; it merits temporal punishment. Deliberate
and unrepentant venial sins dispose us little by little to commit mortal sin.
However venial sin does not break the covenant with God. With God's grace it is
humanly reparable. "Venial sin does not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace,
friendship with God, charity, and consequently eternal
happiness."
While he is in the flesh, man cannot help but have at least some
light sins. But do not despise these sins which we call "light"; if you take
them for light when you weigh them, tremble when you count them. A number of
light objects makes a great mass; a number of drops fills a river; a number of
grains makes a heap What then is our hope? Above all, confession...
"Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven
men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven." There are no
limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his
mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation
offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence
and eternal loss.
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 8 Section V p 509
V - The Proliferation Of Sin
Sin creates a proclivity to sin; it engenders vice by repetition
of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations which cloud conscience
and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus sin tends to reproduce
itself and reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense at its
root.
Vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose, or
also be linked to the capital sins which Christian experience has distinguished,
following St. John Cassain and St. Gregory the Great.
They are called "capital" because they engender other sins, other vices.
They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, sloth or acedia.
The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are "sins
that cry to heaven": the blood of Abel, the sin of the Sodomites, the cry of the
people oppressed in Egypt, the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan,
injustice to the wage earner.
Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for
the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:
-- by participating directly in voluntarily in them;
-- by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;
-- by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an
obligation to do so;
-- by protecting evil-doers.
Thus sin makes us accomplices of one another and causes
concupiscence, violence, and injustice to reign among them. Sins give rise to
social situations and institutions that are contrary to the divine goodness.
"Structures of sin" are the expression and effect of personal sins. They lead
their victims to do evil in their turn. In an analogous sense, they constitute a
"social sin."
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August 2, 2014 - Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to
God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 8 Section I pg 504
I - Mercy and Sin
The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God's mercy to
sinners. The angel announced to Joseph: "You shall call his name Jesus, for he
will save his people from their sins." The same is true of the Eucharist, the
sacrament of redemption: "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out
for many for the forgiveness of sins."
"God created us without us: but he did not will to save us
without us." To receive his mercy, we must admit our faults.
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
enough. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our
sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
As St. Paul affirms, "Where sin increased, grace abounded all
the more." But to do its work grace must uncover sin so as to convert our hearts
and bestow on us "righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Like a physician who probes the wound before treating it, God, by his word by
his Spirit, cast a living light on sin:
Conversion requires convincing of sin; it includes the interior
judgment of conscience, and this, being a proof of the action of the Spirit of
truth in man’s inmost being, becomes at the same time the start of a new grant
of grace and love: "Receive the Holy Spirit." Thus in this "convincing
concerning sin" we discover a double gift: the gift of the truth of conscience
and the gift of the certainty of redemption. The Spirit of truth is the Consoler.
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 8 Section II pg 505
II - The Definition Of Sin
Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience;
it is failure and genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse
attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human
solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary
to the eternal law."
Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I
sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight." Sin sets itself against
God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is
disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become "like gods,"
knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love of oneself even to
contempt of God." In his proud self-exultation, sin is diametrically opposed to
the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.
It is precisely in the Passion, when the mercy of Christ is
about to vanquish it, that sin most clearly manifests its violence and its many
forms: unbelief, murderous hatred, shunning and mockery by the leaders and the
people, Pilate’s cowardice and the cruelty of the soldiers, Judas's betrayal --
-- so bitter to Jesus, Peter's denial and the disciples’ flight. However, at the
very hour of darkness, the hour of the prince of this world, the sacrifice of
Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness of our sins will
pour forth it exhaustively.
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 8 Section III pg 506
III - The Different Kinds Of Sins
They are a great many kinds of sins. Scripture provides several
lists of them. The Letter to the Galatians contrast the works of the flesh with
the fruit of the Spirit: "Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication,
impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger,
selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I
warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not
inherit the Kingdom of God.
Sin can be distinguished according to their objects, as can
every human act; or according to the virtues they oppose, but excess or defect;
or according to the commandments they violate. They can also be classed
according to whether they concern God, neighbor, or oneself; they can be
divided into spiritual and carnal sins, or again as sins in thought, word,
deed, or omission. The root of sin is in the heart of man, and his free will,
according to the teaching of the Lord: "For out of the heart come evil
thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These
are what defile a man." But in the heart also resides charity, the source of
the good and pure works, which sin wounds.
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July 26, 2014 - And we know that all things work together for
good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His
purpose. Romans 8:28
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 7 Section II III Pg 498
II. The Theological Virtues
The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which
adapt man's faculties for participation in the divine nature: for the
theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in
a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for
their origin, motive, and object.
The theological virtues are the foundations of Christian moral
activity; they animate and give it its special character. They inform and give
life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the
faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal
life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the
faculties of the human being. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope,
and charity.
Faith
Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and
believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes
for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his
entire self to God." For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's
will. "The righteous shall live by faith." Living faith "work[s] through charity."
The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it.
But "faith apart from works is dead": when it is deprived of hope and love,
faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living
member of his Body.
The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on
it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: "All
however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along
the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks."
Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: "So everyone
who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is
in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father
who is in heaven."
Hope
Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of
heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises
and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy
Spirit. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he
who promised is faithful." "The
Holy Spirit... he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so
that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life."
The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which
God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire
men's activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven;
it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment;
it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he
is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity.
Christian hope takes up and fulfills the hope of the chosen
people which has its origin and model in the hope of Abraham, who was blessed
abundantly by the promises of God fulfilled in Isaac, and who was purified by
the test of the sacrifice. "Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became
the father of many nations."
Christian hope unfolds from the beginning of Jesus' preaching in
the proclamation of the beatitudes. The beatitudes raise our hope toward heaven
as the new Promised Land; they trace a path that leads through the trials that
await the disciples of Jesus. But through the merits of Jesus Christ ad of his
Passion, God keeps us in the "hope that does not disappoint." Hope is the "sure
and steadfast anchor of the soul... that enters... where Jesus has gone as a
forerunner on our behalf." Hope is also a weapon that protects us in the
struggle of salvation: "Let us... put on the breastplate of faith and charity,
and for a helmet the hope of salvation." It affords us joy even under trial:
"Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation." Hope is expressed and
nourished in prayer, especially in the Our Father, the summary of everything
that hope leads us to desire.
We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to
those who love him and do his will.
In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God,
to persevere "to the end" and to obtain the joy of having, as God’s eternal
reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ. In hope, the
Church prays for "all men to be saved." She longs to be united with Christ, her
Bridegroom, in the glory of heaven:
Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither yhe day nor the hour.
Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience
makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one.
Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your
God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and
rapture that can never end.
Charity
Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all
things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
Jesus makes charity the new commandment. By loving his own “to
the end," he makes manifest the Father's love which he receives. By loving one
another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves received.
Whence Jesus says: "Ss the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my
love." And again: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you."
Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the
commandments of God and his Christ: "Abide in my love. If you keep my
commandments, you will abide in my love."
Christ died out of love for us, while we were still "enemies."
The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the
neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ
himself.
The apostle Paul has given an incomparable depiction of charity: "charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not
arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or
resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
"If I... have not charity." Says the Apostle, "I am nothing."
Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, "if I... have not charity, I
gain nothing." Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the
theological virtues: "so faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the
greatest of these is charity."
The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by
charity, which "binds everything together in perfect harmony"; it is the form of
the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source
and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human
ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.
The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the
Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God.
He no longer stands before God as a slave, and servile fear, or as a
mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who
"first loved us":
If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in
the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages,... we resemble
mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love
for him who commands... we are in the position of children.
The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands
beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity
and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion:
Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the
goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, we shall find
rest.
III. The Gifts And 2
Fruits Of The Holy Spirit
The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the
Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions and make man docile in following
the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding,
counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their
fullness to Christ, son of David. They complete and perfect the virtues of those
who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations.
Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God... If
children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit
forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church
lists 12 of them: "Charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity."
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July 19, 2014 - And now abide
faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.1 Corinthians 13:13
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 7 Section I Pg 495
I. The Human Virtues
Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual
perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions,
and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease,
self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who
freely practices the good.
The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the
fruit and seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human
being for communion with divine love.
The cardinal virtues.
Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called
"cardinal"; all the others are grouped around them. They are "prudence, justice,
fortitude, and temperance. "If
anyone loves righteousness, [Wisdom’s] labors are virtues; for she teaches
temperance and prudence, justice, and courage." These virtues are praised under
other names in many passages of Scripture.
Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern
our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving
it; "the prudent man looks where he is going." "Keep sane and sober for your prayers."
Prudence is "right reason in action," writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following
Aristotle. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is
called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other
virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the
judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in
accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral
principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good
to achieve an evil to avoid.
Justice is the moral virtue that consist in the constant and
firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Justice towards God is called
the "virtual religion." Justice towards men disposes one to respect the rights
of each ad to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity
with regard to persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in
the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right-thinking and the
uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor. "You shall not be partial to the
poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your
neighbor." "Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also
have a Master in heaven."
Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness of
difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the
resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The
virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to
face trials nd persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his
life in defense of a just cause. "The Lord is my strength and my soul." "In the
world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the
world."
Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of
pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the wills
mastety over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable.
The temperate person directs the sensitive appetite towards what is good and
maintains a healthy discretion:
"Do not follow your inclinations and strength, walking according to the
desires of your heart." Temperance is often praised in the Old Testament: "Do
not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites." In the New Testament
it is called "moderation" or "sobriety." We ought "to live sober, upright, and
godly lives in this world."
To live well is nothing other than to love God with all one's
heart, with all one's soul and with all one's efforts; from this it comes about
that love is kept whole and uncorrupted (through temperance). No misfortune can
disturb it (and this is fortitude). It obeys only God (and this is justice), and
is careful in discerning things, so as not to be surprised by deceit or trickery
(and this is prudence).
The virtues and grace
Human virtues acquired by education, by deliberate acts and by a
perseverance ever-renewed in repeated efforts are purified and elevated by
divine grace. With God’s help, they forge character and give facility to the
practice of the good. The virtuous man is happy to practice them.
It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain moral
balance. Christ's gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere
in the pursuit of the virtues. Everyone should always ask for this grace of
light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit,
and follow his calls to love what is good and shunned
evil.
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July 12, 2014 – A student is not better than the teacher, but the student who
has been fully trained will be like the teacher. Luke 6:40
Based on todays Gospel a little seed sowing before the normal study unit. Enjoy!
It's spring and time to plant
How to Plant Your Garden...no dirt required!!
How To Plant Your Garden
First, you Come to the garden alone,
while the dew is still on the roses.
FOR THE GARDEN OF YOUR DAILY LIVING,
PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS
1. Peace of mind
2. Peace of heart
3. Peace of soul
PLANT FOUR ROWS OF SQUASH:
1. Squash gossip
2. Squash indifference
3. Squash grumbling
4. Squash selfishness
PLANT FOUR ROWS OF LETTUCE:
1. Lettuce be faithful
2. Lettuce be kind
3. Lettuce be patient
4. Lettuce really love one another
NO GARDEN IS WITHOUT TURNIPS:
1.Turnip for meetings
2.Turnip for service
3.Turnip to help one another
TO CONCLUDE OUR GARDEN YOU MUST HAVE THYME:
1.Thyme for God
2.Thyme for each other
3.Thyme for family
4.Thyme for friends
WATER FREELY WITH PATIENCE AND CULTIVATE WITH LOVE.
THERE IS MUCH FRUIT IN YOUR GARDEN BECAUSE YOU REAP WHAT YOU
SOW.
"IN GOD WE TRUST"
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 6 Section I II III pg 490
I. The Judgment Of Conscience
Moral conscience, present at the heart of the person enjoins him
at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil.
It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and
announcing those that are evil. It bears witness to the authority of truth in
reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it
welcomes the commandments. When he
listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.
Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person
recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that is going to perform, is in
the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does,
man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by
the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the
prescriptions of the divine law:
Conscience is a law of the mind; yet [Christians] would not
grant that it is nothing more; I mean that it was not a dictate, nor conveyed
the notion of responsibility, of duty, of a threat and a promise... [Conscience]
is a messenger of him, who, both in nature and grace, speaks to us behind a
veil, and teaches and rules us by his representatives. Conscience is the
aboriginal Vicar of Christ.
It is important for every person to be sufficiently present to
himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience. This
requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as life often distracts us
from any reflection, self-examination or introspection:
Return to your conscience, question it... turn inward, breheren,
and in everything you do, see God as your witness.
The dignity of the human person implies and requires uprightness
of moral conscience. Conscience includes the perception of the principles of
morality (synderesis); their
application in the given circumstances by practical discernment of reasons and
goods; and finally judgment about concrete acts yet to be performed or already
performed. The truth about the moral good, stated in the law of reason, is
recognized practically and concretely by the prudent judgment of conscience. We
called that man prudent who chooses in conformity with this judgment.
Conscience enables one to assume responsibility for the acts
performed. If man commits evil, the just judgment of conscience can remain
within him as the witness to the universal truth of the good, and at the same
time as the evil of his particular choice. The verdict of the judgment of
conscience remains a pledge of hope and mercy. In attesting to the fault
committed, it calls to mind he forgiveness that must be asked, the good that
must still be practiced, and the virtue that must be constantly cultivated with
the grace of God:
We shall... reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts
condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as
personally to make moral decisions. "He must not be forced to act contrary to
his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his
conscience, especially in religious matters."
II. The Formation of Conscience
Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A
well-formed conscience is upright
and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity
with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of
conscience is indispensable for human beings were subjected to negative
influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject
authoritative teachings.
The education of the conscience is a lifelong task. From the
earliest years, it awakens the child to the knowledge and practice of the
interior law recognized by conscience. Prudent education teaches virtue; it
prevents or cures fear, selfishness and pride, resentment arising from guilt,
and feelings of complacency, human weakness and faults. The education of
conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of the heart.
In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for
our path, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We
must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by
the authoritative teaching of the Church.
III. To Choose In Accord With Conscience
Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right
judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the contrary, an
erroneous judgment that departs from them.
Man is sometimes confronted by situations that make moral
judgments less assured and decision difficult. But he must always seriously
seek what is right and good and discern the will of God expressed in divine
law.
To this purpose, man strives to interpret the data of experience
and the signs of the times assisted by the virtue of prudence, by the advice of
competent people, and by the help of the Holy Spirit and his gifts.
Some rules apply in every case:
-- -- One may never do evil so that good may result from it;
-- -- the Golden rule: "whatever you wish that men would do to
you, do so to them."
-- -- Charity always proceeds by way of respect for one's
neighbor and his conscience: "Thus sinning against your brethren and wounding
their conscience... you sin against Christ." Therefore "it is right not to... do
anything that makes your brother stumble."
IV. Erroneous Judgment
A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his
conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself.
Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous
judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.
This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility.
This is the case when a man" takes little trouble to find out what is true and
good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of
committing sin." In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.
Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others,
enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of
conscience, rejection of the Church’s authority and her teaching, lack of
conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment and
moral conduct.
If -- -- on the contrary -- -- the ignorance is invincible, or
the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil
committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a
privation, a disorder. One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral
conscience.
A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith, for
charity proceeds at the same time "from a pure heart and a good conscience and
sincere faith."
The more a correct conscience prevails, the more do persons and
groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by objective standards
of moral conduct.
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July 06, 2014 - All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 5 Section I II Pg 487
I. Passions
The term "passions" belongs to the Christian patrimony. Feelings
or passions re emotions or movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us
to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil.
The passions are natural components of the human psyche; they
form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses and
the life of the mind. Our Lord called man's heart the source from which the
passions spring.
There are many passions. The most fundamental passion is love,
aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good
and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and
joy of the good possessed. The apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and
fear of the impending evil; this movement and sadness at some present evil, or
in the anger that resists it.
"To love is to will the good of another." All other affections
have their source in this first movement of the human heart toward the good.
Only the good can be loved. Passions "are evil if love is evil and good if it is good."
II. Passions And Moral Life
In themselves passions are neither good nor evil. They are
morally qualified only to the extent that they effectively engage reason and
will. Passions are said to be voluntary, "either because they are commanded by
the will or because the will does not place obstacles in their way." It belongs
to the perfection of the moral or human good that the passions be governed by reason.
Strong feelings are not decisive for the morality or the
holiness of persons; they are simply the inexhaustible reservoir of images and
affections in which the moral life is expressed. Passions are morally good when
they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case. The upright will
orders the movements of the senses it appropriates to the good and to
beatitude; an evil will succombs to disordered passions and exacerbates them.
Emotions and feelings can be taken up into the virtues or perverted by the vices.
In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit himself accomplishes his
work by mobilizing the whole being, with all its sorrows, fears and sadness, as
is visible in the Lord's agony and passion. In Christ human feelings are able to
reach their consummation and charity and divine beatitude.
Moral perfection consists in a man's being moved to the good up
by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of the
psalm: "My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living
God.”
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June 29, 2014 - When a person's steps follow the Lord, God is
pleased with his ways. If he stumbles, he will not fall, because the Lord holds
his hand. Psalms 37:23-24
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 4 Section I II Pg 485
I. The Sources Of Morality
The morality of human acts depends on:
-- -- the object chosen;
-- -- the end in view or the intention;
-- -- the circumstances of the action.
The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the
"sources," or constitutive elements, of the morality of human acts.
The object chosen is a good toward which the will deliberately
directs itself. It is the matter of a human act. The object chosen morally
specifies the act of the will, insofar as reason recognizes and judges it to be
or not to be in conformity with the true good. Objective norms of morality
express the rational order of good and evil, attested to by
conscience.
In contrast to the object, the intention resides in the acting
subject. Because it lies at the voluntary source of an action and determines it
by its end, intention is an element essential to the moral evaluation of action.
The end is the first goal of the intention and indicates the purpose pursued in
the action. The intention is a movement of the will toward the end: it is
concerned with the goal of the activity. It aims at the good anticipated for the
action undertaken. Intention is not limited to directing individual actions, but
can guide several actions towards one and the same purpose; it can orient one's
whole life towards its ultimate end. For example, a service done with the end of
helping one's neighbor can at the same time be inspired by the love of God as
the ultimate end of all our actions. One and the same action can also be
inspired by several intentions, such as performing a service in order to obtain
a favor or to boast about it.
A good intention (for example, that of helping one's neighbor)
does not make behavior that is intrinsically disordered, such as lying
and calumny, good or just. The end does not justify the means. Thus the
condemnation of an innocent person cannot be justified as a legitimate means of
saving the nation. On the other hand, an added bad intention (such as vainglory)
makes an act evil that, in and of itself, can be good (such as alms giving).
The circumstances, including the consequences, are secondary
elements of a moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral
goodness or evil human acts (for example, the amount of a theft). They can also
diminish or increase the agent's responsibility (such as acting out of a fear of
death). Circumstances of themselves cannot change the moral quality of acts
themselves; they can make neither good nor write an action that is in itself evil.
II. Good Acts And Evil Acts
A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the
end, and of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action, even if
the object is good in itself (such as praying and fasting) "in order to be seen
by men").
The object of choice can by itself vitiate an act in its
entirety. There are some concrete
acts-- -- such as fornication -- -- that it is always wrong to choose, because
choosing them entails a disorder of the will, that is, a moral evil.
It is therefore an error to judge the morality of human acts by
considering only the intention that inspires them or the circumstances
environment, social pressure, duress or emergency, etc.) which supply their
context. There are acts which, in and of themselves, independently of
circumstances and intentions, are always gravely illicit a reason of their
object; such as blasphemy and perjury, murder and adultery. One may not do evil
so that good may result from it.
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June 22, 2014 - "The mountains may disappear, and the hills may
come to an end, but my love will never disappear; my promise of peace will not
come to an end," says the Lord who shows mercy to you. Isaiah 54:10
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 3 Section I II pg 481
I. Freedom and Responsibility
Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not
to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own
responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force
for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when
directed toward God, or beatitude.
As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its
ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good
and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This
freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame,
merit or reproach.
The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is
no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to
disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin."
Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that
they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis
enhance the mastery of the will over its acts.
Imputability and responsibility for action can be diminished or
even nullified by ignorance,
inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other
psychological or social factors.
Every act directly willed is imputable to its author:
Thus the Lord asked Eve after the sin in the garden:“What is
this that you have done?" He asked Cain the same question. The prophet Nathan
questioned David in the same way after he committed adultery with the wife of
Uriah and had him murdered.
An action can be indirectly voluntary when it results from
negligence regarding something that one should have known or done: for example,
an accident arising from ignorance of traffic laws.
An effect can be tolerated without being willed by its agent;
for instance, a mother's exhaustion from tending her sick child. A bad effect is
not imputable if it was not willed either as an end or as a means of an action,
e.g. a death a person incurs in aiding someone in danger. For a bad effect to be
imputable it must be foreseeable and the agent must have the possibility of
avoiding it, as in the case of manslaughter caused by a drunken
driver.
Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings.
Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be
recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of
respect. The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious
matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This
right must be recognized and protected by civil authorities within the limits of
the common good and public order.
II. Human Freedom In The Economy Of Salvation
Freedom and sin. Man's freedom is limited and fallible. In fact,
man failed. He freely sinned. By refusing God’s plan of love, he deceived
himself and became a slave to sin. This first alienation engendered a multitude
of others. From its outset, human history attests the wretchedness and
oppression born of the human heart and consequence of the abuse of freedom.
Threats to freedom. The exercise of freedom does not imply a
right to say or do anything. It is false to maintain that man, "the subject of
this freedom," is "an individual who is fully self-sufficient and whose finality
is the satisfaction of his own interest in the enjoyment of earthly goods."
Moreover, the economic, social, political, and cultural conditions that are
needed for a just exercise of freedom are too often disregarded or violated.
Such situations of blindness and injustice injure the moral life and involve the
strong as well as the weak in the temptation to sin against charity. Buy
deviating from the moral law man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned
within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine truth.
Liberation and salvation. By his glorious Cross Christ has won
salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage.
"For freedom Christ has set us free." In him we have communion with the "truth
that makes us free." The Holy Spirit has been given to us and, as the Apostle
teaches, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Already we glory
in the "liberty of the children of God."
Freedom and grace. The grace of Christ is not in the slightest
way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the true
and the good that God has put in the human heart. On the contrary, as Christian
experience attests especially in prayer, the more docile we are in the
promptings of grace, the more we grow in inner freedom and confidence during
trials, such as those we face in the pressures and constraints of the outer
world. By the working of grace the Holy Spirit educates us in spiritual freedom
in order to make us free collaborators in his work in the church and in the world:
Almighty and merciful God, in your goodness take away from us all that is harmful,
so that, made ready both in mind and body, we may freely accomplish your will.
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June 15, 2014 - We must not become tired of doing good. We will
receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time if we do not give
up. Galatians 6:9
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section I II III Pg 477
I. The Beatitudes
The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus’ preaching. They take
up the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. The Beatitudes fulfill
the promises by ordering them no longer merely to the possession of the
territory, but to the Kingdom of heaven:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for
they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of
God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter
all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven.
The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and
portray his charity. They express vocation of the faithful associated with the
glory of his Passion and Resurrection; they shed light on the actions and
attitudes characteristic of the Christian life; they are the paradoxical
promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations; they proclaim the
blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ's disciples
they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.
II. The Desire For Happiness
The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This
desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to
draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it:
We all want to live happily; in the whole human race there is no
one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is fully
articulated.
How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord?
Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so
that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws
life from you.
God alone satisfies.
The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate
end of human acts:
God calls us to his own beatitude. This vocation is addressed to
each individual personally, also to the Church as a whole, the new people made
up of those who have accepted the promise of live from it in faith.
III. Christian Beatitude
The New Testament uses several expressions to characterize the
beatitude to which Christ calls man:
-- -- the coming of the Kingdom of God;
-- -- the vision of God: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God";
-- -- entering into the joy of the Lord;
-- -- entering into God's rest:
There we shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall
love and praise. Behold what will be at the end without end. For what other end
do we have, if not to reach the kingdom which has no
end?
God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and
soon to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature"
and of eternal life. With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ and
into the joy of the Trinitarian life.
Such beatitude surpasses the understanding and powers of man. It
comes from an entirely free gift of God: whence it is called supernatural, as is
the grace that disposes man to enter into the divine joy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." It is
true, because of the greatness and inexpressible glory of God, that "man shall
not see me and live," for the Father cannot be grasped. But because of God's
love and goodness towards us, and because he can do all things, he goes so far
as to grant those who love him the privilege of seeing him….for "what is
impossible for men is possible for God."
The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral
choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the
love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in
riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement -- --
however beneficial and may be -- -- such as science, technology, and art, or
indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all
love:
All bow down before wealth. Wealth is that to which the
multitude of men pay an instinctive homage. They measure happiness by wealth;
and by wealth they measure respectability... It is a homage resulting from a
profound faith... that with wealth he may do all things. Wealth is one idol of
the day and notoriety is a second…Notoriety or the making of a noise in the
world -- -- it may be called "newspaper fame" -- -- has come to be considered a
great good in itself, and a ground of
veneration.
The Decalogue, the Sermon on the Mount, and the apostolic
catechesis describe for us the paths that lead to the Kingdom of heaven.
Sustained by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we tread them, step-by-step, by
everyday acts. By the working of the Word of Christ, we slowly bear fruit in
the Church to the glory of God.
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June 8, 2014 - When you are praying, if you are angry with someone, forgive him so that your Father in heaven will also forgive your sins. Mark 11:25
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 1 pg 474
Chapter 1 - The Dignity Of the Human Person
The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the
image and likeness of God (article 1); it is fulfilled in his vocation to divine
beatitude (article 2). It is
essential to a human being freely to direct himself to this fulfillment
(article 3). By his deliberate actions (article 4), the human person does, or
does not, conform to the good promised by God and attested by moral conscience
(article 5). Human beings make their own contributions to their interior
growth; they make their whole sentiment and spiritual lives into means of this
growth (article 6). With the help of grace they grow in virtue (article 7),
avoid sin, and if they sin they trust themselves as did the prodigal son to the
mercy of our Father in heaven (article 8). In this way they attain to the
perfection of charity.
Article 1 - Man: The Image Of God
"Christ,... in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father
and of his love, makes man fully manifest to himself and brings to light his
exalted vocation." It is in Christ, "the image of the invisible God," that man
has been created "in the image and likeness" of the Creator. It is in Christ,
Redeemer and Savior, that the divine image, disfigured in man by the first sin,
has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of
God.
The divine image is present in every man. It shines forth in the
communion of persons, in the likeness of the unity of the divine persons among
themselves (cf chapter two).
Endowed with "a spiritual and immortal" soul the human person is
"the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake." From his
conception, he is destined for eternal
beatitude.
The human person participates in the light and power of the
divine Spirit. By his reason, he is capable of understanding the order of things
established by the Creator. By free will, he is capable of directing himself
toward his true good. He finds his perfection "in seeking and loving what is
true and good."
By virtue of his soul and his personal powers of intellect and
will, man is endowed with freedom, an "outstanding manifestation of the divine
image."
By his reason man recognizes the voice of God which urges him
"to do what is good and avoid what is evil." Everyone is obliged to follow this
law, which makes itself heard in conscience and is fulfilled in the love of God
and of neighbor. Living a moral life bears witness to the dignity of the
person.
"Man, enticed by the Evil One, abused his freedom at the very
beginning of history." He succumbed to temptation and did what was evil. He
still desires the good, but his nature bears the wound of original sin. He is
now inclined to evil is subject to error:
Man is divided in himself. As a result, the whole life of men,
both individual and social, shows itself to be a struggle, and a dramatic one,
between good and evil, between light and
darkness.
By his passion, Christ delivered us from Satan and from sin. He
merited for us the new life in the Holy Spirit. His grace restores what sin had
damaged in us. He who believes in Christ becomes a son of God. This filial
adoption transforms him by giving him the ability to follow the example of
Christ. It makes him capable of acting rightly and doing good. In union with his
Savior, the disciple attains the perfection of charity which is holiness. Having
matured in grace, the moral life blossoms into eternal life in the glory of
heaven.
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June 1, 2014 - When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say
what people need- words that will help others become stronger. Then what you say
will do good to those who listen to you. Ephesians 4:29
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 4 Article 2 Sec I II pg 467
I. The Christian’s Last Passover
The Christian’ meaning of death is revealed in the light of the
Paschal mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ in whom resides our only
hope. The Christian who dies in Christ Jesus is "away from the body and at home
with the Lord."
For the Christian day of death inaugurates, at the end of his
sacramental life, the fulfillment of his new birth begun at Baptism, the
definitive "conformity" to "the image of the Son" conferred by the anointing of
the Holy Spirit, and participation in the feast of the Kingdom which was
anticipated in the Eucharist -- -- even if final purifications are still
necessary for him in order to be closed with the nuptial word.
The Church who, as Mother, has borne the Christian sacramentally
in her womb during his earthly pilgrimage, accompanies him at his journey's end,
in order to surrender him "into the Father's hands." She offers to the Father,
in Christ, the child of his grace, and she commits to earth, in hope, the seed
of the body that will rise in glory. This offering is fully celebrated in the
Eucharistic sacrifice; the blessings before and after Mass are sacramentals.
II. The Celebration Of Funerals
The Christian funeral is a liturgical celebration of the Church.
The ministry of the Church in this instance aims at expressing efficacious
communion with the deceased, at the participation in that communion of the
community gathered for the funeral, and at the proclamation of eternal life to
the community.
The different funeral rites express the Paschal character of
Christian death and are in keeping with the situations and traditions of each
region, even as to the color of the liturgical vestments worn.
The Order of Christian Funerals (Ordo exsequiarum) of the Roman
liturgy gives three types of funeral celebrations, corresponding to the three
places in which they are conducted (the home, the Church, and the cemetery), and
according to the importance attached to them by the family, local customs,
culture, and popular piety. This order of celebration is common to all the
liturgical traditions and comprises four principal elements:
The greeting of the community. A greeting of faith begins the
celebration. Relatives and friends of the deceased are welcomed with a word of
"consolation" (in the New Testament sense of the Holy Spirit's power in hope).
The community assembling in prayer also awaits the "words of eternal life." The
death of a member of the community (or the anniversary of the death, or the
seventh or 13th day after death) is an event that should lead beyond the
perspectives of "this world" and should draw the faithful into the true
perspective of faith in the risen Christ.
The liturgy of the Word during funerals demands very careful
preparation because the assembly present for the funeral may include some
faithful who rarely attend the liturgy, and friends of the deceased who are not
Christians. The homily in particular must "avoid the literary genre of funeral
eulogy" and illumine the mystery of Christian death in the light of the risen
Christ.
The Eucharistic sacrifice. When the celebration takes place in
church, the Eucharist is the heart of the Paschal reality of Christian death. In
the Eucharist, the Church expresses her efficacious communion with the departed:
offering to the Father in the Holy Spirit the sacrifice of the death and
resurrection of Christ, she asked to purify his child of his sins and their
consequences, and to admit him to the Paschal fullness of the table of the
Kingdom. It is by the Eucharist thus celebrated that the community of the
faithful, especially the family of the deceased, learn to live in communion
with the one who "has fallen asleep in the Lord," by communicating in the Body
of Christ of which he is a living member and, then, by praying for him and with
him.
A farewell to the deceased is his final "commendation to God" by
the Church. It is "the last farewell by which the Christian community greets one
of its members before his body is brought to its tomb. "The Byzantine tradition
expresses this by the kiss of farewell to the deceased: By this final greeting
"we sing for his departure from this life and separation from us, but because
there is a communion and a reunion. For even dead, we are not at all separated
from one another, because we all run the same course and we will find one
another again in the same place. We shall never be separated, for we live for
Christ, and now we are united with Christ as we go toward him... we shall be
together in Christ."
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May 25, 2014 - When you are in distress, and all these things
come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey
His voice Deuteronomy 4:30
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 4 Article 1 pg 464
Article 1 Sacramentals
"Holy Mother Church has, moreover, instituted sacramental. These
are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify
effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the
intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect
of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy."
The characteristics of Sacramentals
Sacramentals are instituted for the sanctification of certain
ministries of the Church, certain states of life, a great variety of
circumstances in Christian life, and the use of many things helpful to man. In
accordance with bishops’ pastoral decisions, they can also respond to the
needs, culture, and special history of the Christian people of a particular
region or time. They always include a prayer, often accompanied by specific
sign, such as the laying on of hands, the sign of the cross, or the sprinkling
of holy water (which recalls baptism).
Sacramentals derive from the baptismal priesthood: every
baptized person is called to be a "blessing," and to bless. Hence lay people
may preside at certain blessings; the more a blessing concerns ecclesial
sacramental life, the more is its administration reserved to the ordained
ministry (bishops, priests, or deacons).
Sacramentals do not confer grace of the Holy Spirit in the way
that the sacraments do, but by the Church’s prayer, they prepare us to receive
grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. "For well- disposed members of the
faithful, the liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals sanctifies almost every
event of their lives with the grace which flows from the Paschal mystery of the
Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. From this source all sacraments and
sacramentals draw their power. There is scarcely any proper use of material
things which cannot be thus directed toward the sanctification of men and the
praise of God."
Various forms of sacramental
Among sacramentals blessings (of persons, meals, objects, and
places) come first. Every blessing praises God and prays for his gifts. In
Christ, Christians are blessed by God the father "with every spiritual
blessing." This is why the Church imparts blessings by invoking the name of
Jesus, usually while making the holy sign of the cross of Christ.
Certain blessings have a lasting importance because they
consecrate persons to God, or reserve objects and places for liturgical use.
Among those blessings which are intended for the persons -- -- not to be
confused with sacramental ordination -- -- are the blessing of the abbot or
abbess of a monastery, the consecration of virgins and widows, the rite of
religious profession and the blessing of certain ministries of the Church
(readers, acolytes, catechists, etc.). The dedication or blessing of a church or
an altar, the blessing of holy oils, vessels, and vestments, bells, etc., can be
mentioned as examples of blessings that concern objects.
When the Church asks publicly and afford to flee in the name of
Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the power of the Evil
One and withdrawn from his dominion, it is called exorcism. Jesus performed
exorcisms and from him the Church has received the power and office of
exorcizing. In a simple form,
exorcism is performed at the celebration of Baptism. The solemn exorcism, called
"a major exorcism," can be performed only by a priest and with the permission of
the bishop. The priest must proceed with prudence, strictly observing the rules
established by the Church. Exorcism is directed at the expulsion of demons or to
the liberation from demonic possession through the spiritual authority which
Jesus entrusted to his Church. Illness, especially psychological illness, is a
very different matter; treating this is the concern of medical science.
Therefore, before an exorcism is performed, it is important to ascertain that
one is dealing with the presence of the Evil One, and not an illness.
Popular piety
Besides sacramental liturgy and sacramentals, catechesis must
take into account the forms of piety and popular devotions among the faithful.
The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in
various forms of piety surrounding the Church's sacramental life, such as the
veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the
stations of the Cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals, etc.
These expressions of piety extend the liturgical life of the
Church, but do not replace it. They "should be so drawn up that they harmonize
with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some way
derived from it and lead the people to it, since in fact the liturgy by its very
nature is far superior to any of them."
Pastoral discernment is needed to sustain and support popular
piety and, if necessary, to purify and correct the religious sense which
underlies these emotions so that the faithful may advance in knowledge of the
mystery of Christ. Their exercise is subject to the care and judgment of the
bishops and to the general norms of the Church.
At its core the piety of the people is a storehouse of values
that offers answers of Christian wisdom to the great questions of life. The
Catholic wisdom of the people is capable of fashioning a vital synthesis.... It
creatively combines the divine and human, Christ and Mary, spirit and body,
communion and institution, person and community, faith and homeland,
intelligence and emotion. This wisdom is a Christian humanism that radically
affirms the dignity of every person as a child of God, establishes a basic
fraternity, teaches people to encounter nature and understand work, provides
reasons for joy and humor even in the midst of a very hard life. For the people
this wisdom is also a principle of discernment and an evangelical instinct
through which they spontaneously sense when the Gospel is served in the Church
and when it is emptied of its content and stifled by other
interests.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 18, 2014 - It is by faith we understand that the whole world
was made by God's command so what we see was made by something that cannot be
seen. Hebrews 11:3
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 7 Sec IV pg 456
IV - The Effects of The Sacrament Of Matrimony
"From a valid marriage arises a bond between the spouses which
by its very nature is perpetual and exclusive; furthermore, in a Christian
marriage the spouses are strengthened and, as it were, consecrated for the
duties and the dignity of their state by a special sacrament."
The marriage bond
The content by which the spouses mutually give and receive one
another is sealed by God himself. From their covenant arises "an institution,
confirmed by the divine law,... even in the eyes of society." The covenant
between the spouses is integrated into God's covenant with man: "Authentic
married love is caught up in the divine love."
Thus marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a
way that a marriage concluded and consummated between baptized persons can never
be dissolved. This bond, which results from the free human act of the spouses
and their consummation of the marriage, is a reality, henceforth irrevocable,
and gives rise to a covenant guaranteed by God's fidelity. The Church does not
have the power to contravene this disposition of divine wisdom.
The grace of the sacrament of Matrimony
"By reason of their state in life and of their order, [Christian
spouses] have their own special gifts in the People of God." This grace proper
to the sacrament of matrimony is intended to perfect the couple's love and to
strengthen their indissoluble unity. By this grace they "help one another to
attain holiness in their married life and welcoming and educating their children."
Christ is the source of this grace. "Just as of old God
encountered his people with a covenant of love and fidelity, so our Savior, the
spouse of the Church, now counters Christian spouses through the sacrament of
matrimony." Christ dwells with them, gives them the strength to take up their
crosses and so follow him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one
another, to bear one another's burdens, to "be subject to one another out of
reverence for Christ," and to love one another with supernatural, tender, and
fruitful love. In the joys of their love and family life he gives them here on
earth a foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb:
How can I ever express the happiness of a marriage joined by the
Church, strengthened by an offering, sealed by blessing, announced by angels,
and ratified by the Father?... How wonderful the bond between two believers, now
one in hope, one in desire, one in discipline, one in the same service! They are
both children of one Father and servants of the same Master, undivided in Spirit
and flesh, truly two in one flesh. Where the flesh is one, one also is the spirit.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 7 Sec V pg 458
V – The Goods and Requirements Of Conjugal Love
"Conjugal love involves a totality, in which all the elements of
the person enter -- -- appeal of the body and instinct, power of feeling and
affectivity, aspiration of the spirit and of will. It aims at a deeply personal
unity, a unity that, beyond union in one flush, leads to forming one heart and
soul; it demands indissolubility and faithfulness and definitive mutual giving;
and it is open to fertility. In a word it is a question of the normal
characteristics of all natural conjugal love, but with a new significance which
not only purifies and strengthens them, but raises them to the extent of making
them the expression of specifically Christian values."
The unity and indissolubility of marriage
The love of the spouses requires, of its very nature, the unity
and indissolubility of the spouses community of persons, which embraces their
entire life: "so they are no longer two, but one flesh." They "are called to
grow continually in their communion through day-to-day fidelity to their
marriage promise of total mutual self-giving." This human communion is confirmed,
purified, and completed by communion in Jesus Christ, given through the
sacrament of matrimony. It is deepened by lives of the common faith and by the
Eucharist received together.
"The unity of marriage, distinctly recognized by our Lord, is
made clear in the equal personal dignity which must be accorded to man and wife
in mutual and unreserved affection." Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love which
is undivided and exclusive.
The fidelity of conjugal love
By its very nature conjugal love requires the inviolable
fidelity of the spouses. This is the consequence of the gift of themselves
which they make to each other. Love seeks to be definitive; it cannot be an
arrangement "until further notice." The "intimate union of marriage, as a
mutual giving of two persons, and the good of the children, demand total
fidelity from the spouses and require an unbreakable union between them."
The deepest reason is found in the fidelity of God to his
covenant, in that of Christ to his Church. Through the sacrament of Matrimony
the spouses are enabled to represent their fidelity and witness to it. Through
the sacrament, the indissolubility of marriage receives a new and deeper
meaning.
It can seem difficult, even impossible, to bind oneself for life
to another human being. This makes it all the more important to proclaim the
good news that God loves us with a definitive and irrevocable love, that married
couples share in this love, that it supports and sustains them, and that by
their own faithfulness they can be witnesses to God's faithful love. Spouses who
with God's grace give this witness, often in very difficult conditions, deserve
the gratitude and support of the ecclesial
community.
Yet there are some situations in which living together becomes
practically impossible for a variety of reasons. In such cases the church
permits the physical separation of the couple and their living apart. The
spouses do not cease to be husband and wife before God and so are not free to
contract a new union. In this difficult situation, the best solution would be,
if possible, reconciliation. The Christian community is called to help these
persons about the situation in a Christian manner and fidelity to their marriage
bond which remains indissoluble.
Today there are numerous Catholics in many countries who have
recourse to civil divorce and contract new civil unions. And fidelity to the
words of Jesus Christ -- -- "whoever divorces his wife and marries another,
commits adultery against her; if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery" -- -- the church maintains that a new union cannot be
recognized as valid, if the first marriage was. If the divorced are remarried
civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God's
law. Consequently, they cannot receive Eucharistic communion as long as this
situation persist. For the same
reason, they cannot exercise certain ecclesial responsibilities. Reconciliation
through the sacrament of Penance can be granted only to those who have repented
for having violated the sign of the covenant and of fidelity to Christ, and who
are committed to living in complete continence.
Toward Christians who live in this situation, and who often keep
the faith and desire to bring up their children in a Christian manner, priests
and the whole community must manifest an attentive solicitude, so that they do
not consider themselves separated from the Church, in whose life they can and
must participate s baptized persons:
They should be encouraged to listen to the Word of God, to
attend the Sacrifice of the Mass., to persevere in prayer, to contribute to
works of charity and to community efforts for justice, to bring up their
children in the Christian faith, to cultivate the spirit and practice of
penance and thus implore, day by day, God's
grace.
The openness to fertility
"By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love
is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them
that it finds its crowning glory." Children are the supreme gift of marriage and
contribute greatly to the good of the parents themselves. God himself said: "it
is not good that man should be alone," and "from the beginning [he] made them
male and female"; wishing to associate them in a special way in his own creative
work, God blessed the man and woman with the words: "be fruitful and multiply."
Hence, true married love and the whole structure of family life which results
from it, without diminishment of the other ends of the marriage, are directed to
disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and
Savior, who through them will increase and enrich his family from day to
day.
The fruitfulness of conjugal love extends to the fruits of the
moral, spiritual and supernatural life that parents hand on their children by
education. Parents are the principal first educators of their children. In this
sense the fundamental task of marriage and family is to be at the service of
life.
Spouses to whom God has not granted children can nevertheless
have a conjugal life full of meaning, in both human and Christian terms. Their
marriage can radiate a fruitfulness of charity, of hospitality, and of
sacrifice.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 7 Sec VI pg 461
VI - The Domestic Church
Christ chose to be born and grow up in the bosom of the holy
family of Joseph and Mary. The Church is nothing other than "the family of God."
From the beginning, the core of the Church was often constituted by those who
had become believers "together with all [their] household." When they were
converted, they desired that "their whole households" should also be saved.
These families who became believers were islands of Christian life in an
unbelieving world.
In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to
faith, believing families are of primary importance as centers of living,
radiant faith. For this reason the Second Vatican Council, using an ancient
expression, calls the family the Ecclesia domestica.
It is in the bosom of the family that parents are "by word and example...
the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children. They should
encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each child, fostering with
special care any religious vocation."
It is here that the father of the family, the mother, children,
and all members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a
privileged way "by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the
witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity." Thus the home is
the first school of Christian life and "a school for human enrichment." Here one
learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous -- -- even
repeated -- -- forgiveness, and above all divine worship and prayer and the
offering of one's life.
We must also remember the great number of single persons who,
because of the particular circumstances in which they have to live -- --often
not of their own choosing -- -- are especially close to Jesus’ heart and
therefore deserve the special affection and active solicitude of the Church,
especially of pastors. Many remain without a human family, often due to
conditions of poverty. Some live their situation in the spirit of the
Beatitudes, serving God and neighbor in exemplary fashion. The doors of homes,
the "domestic churches," and of the great family which is the Church must be
open to all of them. "No one is without a family in this world: the Church is a
home and family for everyone, especially those who ‘labor and are heavy laden.’ "
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May 11, 2014 - I leave you peace; my peace I give you. I do not
give it to you as the world does. So don't let your hearts be troubled or
afraid. John 14:27
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 7 Sec II pg 452
II – The Celebration of Marriage
In the Latin Rite the celebration of marriage between two
Catholic faithful normally takes place during Holy Mass, because of the
connection of all the sacraments with the Paschal mystery of Christ. In the
Eucharist the memorial of the new covenant is realized, the new covenant in
which Christ has united himself forever to the Church, his beloved bride for
whom he gave himself up. It is therefore fitting that the spouses should seal
their consent to give themselves to each other through the offering of their
own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church made present
in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and by receiving the Eucharist so that,
communicating in the same Body and the same Blood of Christ, they may form but
"one body" in Christ.
"Inasmuch as it is a sacramental action of sanctification, the
liturgical celebration of marriage... must be, per se, valid, worthy, and
fruitful." It is therefore appropriate for the bride and groom to prepare
themselves for the celebration of their marriage by receiving the sacrament of
penance.
According to the Latin tradition, the spouses as ministers of
Christ's grace usually confer upon each other at the sacrament of Matrimony by
expressing their consent before the Church. In the tradition of the Eastern
Churches, the priest (bishops or presbyters) are witnesses to the mutual consent
given by the spouses, but for the validity of the sacrament their blessing is
also necessary.
The various liturgies abound in prayers of blessing and
epiclesis asking God's grace and blessing on the new couple, especially the
bride. In the epiclesis of the sacrament the spouses receive the Holy Spirit as
the communion of love of Christ and the Church. The Holy Spirit is the seal of
their covenant, the ever available source of their love and the strength to
renew their fidelity.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 7 Sec IIIpg 453
III – Matrimonial Consent
The parties to a marriage covenant are a baptized man and woman,
free to contract marriage, who freely express their consent; "to be free"
means:
-- -- not being under constraint;
-- -- not impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law
The Church holds the exchange of consent between the spouses to
be the indispensable element that "makes the marriage." If consent is lacking
there is no marriage.
The consent consists in a "human act by which the partners
mutually give themselves to each other": "I take you to be my wife" -- -- "I
take you to be my husband." This consent that binds the spouses to each other
finds its fulfillment in the two "becoming one
flesh."
The consent must be an act of will of each of the contracting
partners, free of coercion or grave external fear. No human power can substitute
for this consent. If this freedom is lacking the marriage is
invalid.
For this reason (or for other reasons that render the marriage
null and void) the Church, after an examination of the situation by the
competent ecclesiastical tribunal, can declare the nullity of a marriage, i.e.,
that the marriage never existed. In this case the contracting parties are free
to marry, provided the natural obligations of the previous union are
discharged.
The priest (or deacon) who assists at the celebration of a
marriage receives the consent of the spouses in the name of the Church and give
the blessing of the Church. The presence of the Church's minister (and also of
the witnesses) visibly expresses the fact that marriage is an ecclesial
reality.
This is the reason why the Church normally requires that the
faithful contract marriage according to the ecclesiastical form. Several reasons
converge to explain this requirement:
-- -- Sacramental marriage is a liturgical act. It is therefore
appropriate that it should be celebrated in the public liturgy of the
Church;
-- -- Marriage introduces one into an ecclesial order, and
creates rights and duties in the Church between the spouses and towards their
children;
-- -- Since marriage is a state of life in the Church, certainty
about it is necessary (hence the obligation to have
witnesses);
-- -- The public character of the consent protects the "I do"
once given that helps the spouses remain faithful to it.
So that the "I do" of the spouses may be a free and responsible
act and so that the marriage covenant may have solid and lasting human and
Christian foundations, preparation for marriage is of prime
importance.
The example and teaching given by parents and families remain a
special form of this preparation.
The role of pastors and of the Christian community as the
"family of God" is indispensable for the transmission of the human and
Christian values of marriage and family, and much more so in our era when many
young people experience broken homes which no longer sufficiently assure this
initiation:
It is imperative to give suitable and timely instruction to
young people, above all in the heart of their own families, about the dignity of
married love, its role and its exercise, so that, having learned the value of
chastity, they will be able at a suitable age to engage in honorable courtship
and entering upon a marriage of their own.
Mixed marriages and disparity of cult
In many countries the situation of a mixed marriage (marriage
between a Catholic and a baptized non-Catholic) often arises. It requires
particular attention on the part of couples and their pastors. A case of
marriage with disparity of cult (between a Catholic and a non-baptized person)
requires even greater circumspection.
Difference of confession between the spouses does not constitute
an insurmountable obstacle for marriage, when they succeed in placing in common
what they have received from their respective communities, and learn from each
other the way in which each lives in fidelity to Christ. But the difficulties of
mixed marriages must not be underestimated. They arise from the fact that the
separation of Christians has not yet been overcome. The spouses risk
experiencing the tragedy of Christian disunity even in the heart of their own
home. Disparity of cult can further aggravate these difficulties. Differences
about faith and the very notion of marriage, but also different religious
mentalities, can become sources of tension in marriage, especially as regards
the education of children. The temptation to religious indifference can
arise.
According to law in force in the Latin Church, a mixed marriage
needs for liceity the express permission of ecclesiastical authority. In case of
disparity of cult an express dispensation from this impediment is required for
the validity of the marriage. This permission or dispensation presupposes that
both parties know and do not exclude the essential ends and properties of
marriage; and furthermore that the Catholic party confirms the obligations,
which have been made known to the non-Catholic party, of preserving his or her
own faith and ensuring the baptism and education of the children in the Catholic
Church.
Through ecumenical dialogue Christian communities in many
regions have been able to put into effect a common pastoral practice for mixed
marriages. Its task is to help such couples live out their particular situation
in the light of faith, overcome the tensions between the couples obligations to
each other and towards their ecclesial communities, and encouraged the
flowering of what is common to them in faith and respect for what separates
them.
In marriages with disparity of cult the Catholic spouse has a
particular task: "For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife,
and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband." It is a great joy
for the Christian spouse and for the Church if this "consecration" should lead
to the free conversion of the other spouse to the Christian faith. Sincere
married love, the humble and patient practice of the family virtues, and
perseverance in prayer can prepare the non=believing spouse to accept the grace
of conversion.
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May 4, 2014 - Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you
will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 7 Sec I pg 446
The Sacrament of Matrimony
I – Marriage In God’s Plan
Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and woman in
the image and likeness of God and concludes with a vision of "the wedding feast
of the Lamb." Scripture speaks throughout of marriage and its "mystery," its
institution and the meaning God has given it, its origin and its end, its
various realizations throughout the history of salvation, the difficulties
arising from sin and its renewal "in the Lord" in the New Covenant of Christ and
the Church.
Marriage in the order of creation
"The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the
married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its
own proper laws.... Got himself is the author of marriage." The vocation to
marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the
hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many
variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures,
social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause
us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of
this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, some sense
of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. "The
well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is
closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family
life."
God who created man out of love also calls him to love -- -- the
fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the
image and likeness of God who is himself love. Since God created him men and
women, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love
with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. And this
love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the
common work of watching over creation: ‘And God blessed them, and God said to
them: "be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.‘ "
Holy Scripture affirms that men and women were created for one
another:" It is not good that man should be alone." The woman, "flesh of his
flesh," as equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a
"helpmate"; she thus represents God from whom comes our help. "Therefore a man
leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one
flesh." The Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their
two lives by recalling what the plan of the Creator had been "in the beginning":
"So they are no longer two, but one flesh."
Marriage under the regime of sin
Every man experiences evil around him and within himself. This
experience makes itself felt in the relationships between man and woman. Their
union has always been threatened by discord, a spirit of domination, infidelity,
jealousy, and conflicts that can escalate into hatred and separation. This
disorder can manifest itself more or less acutely, and can be more or less
overcome according to the circumstances of cultures, eras, and individuals, but
it does seem to have a universal character.
According to faith the disorder we notice so painfully does not
stem from the nature of man and woman, nor from the nature of their relations,
but from sin. As a break with God, the first sin had for its first consequences
of rupture of the original communion between man and woman. Their relations were
distorted by mutual recriminations; their mutual attraction, the creators own
good, changed into a relationship of domination and lust; and the beautiful
vocation of man and woman to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth was
burdened by the pain of childbirth and the toil of
work.
Nevertheless, the order of creation persists, though seriously
disturbed. To heal the wounds of sin, man and woman need the help of the grace
that God in his infinite mercy never refuses them. Without his help man and
woman cannot achieve the union of their lives for which God created them "in the
beginning."
Marriage under the pedagogy of the Law
In his mercy God has not forsaken sinful man. The punishments
consequent upon sin, "pain in childbearing" and toil "in the sweat of your
brow," also embody remedies that limit the damaging effects of sin. After the
fall, marriage helps to overcome self-absorption, egoism, pursuit of one's own
pleasure, and to open oneself to the other, to mutual aid and to
self-giving.
Moral conscience concerning the unity and indissolubility of
marriage developed under the pedagogy of the old law. In the Old Testament the
polygamy of patriarchs and kings is not yet explicitly rejected. Nevertheless,
the law given to Moses aims at protecting the wife from arbitrary domination by
the husband, even though according to the Lord's words it still carries traces
of man's "hardness of heart" which was the reason Moses permitted men to divorce
their wives.
Seeing God's covenant with Israel and the image of exclusive and
faithful married love, the prophets prepared the chosen people's conscience for
a deepened understanding of the unity and indissolubility of marriage. The books
of Ruth and Tobit bear moving witness to an elevated sense of marriage and to
the fidelity and tenderness of spouses. Tradition has always seen in the song of
Solomon a unique expression of human love, insofar as it is a reflection of
God's love -- -- a love "strong as death" that "many waters cannot
quench."
Marriage in the Lord
The nuptial covenant between God and his people Israel had
prepared the way for the new and everlasting covenant in which the Son of God,
by becoming incarnate and giving his life, has united to himself in a certain
way all mankind saved by him, thus preparing for "the wedding feast of the
Lamb."
On the threshold of his public life Jesus performed his first
sign -- -- at his mother's request -- -- during a wedding feast. The Church
attaches great importance to Jesus’ presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in
it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that
thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ's
presence.
In his preaching Jesus unequivocally taught the original meaning
of the union of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the beginning
"permission given by Moses to divorce one's wife was a concession to the
hardness of heart. The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble: God
himself has determined it:" what therefore God has joined together, let no man
put asunder."
This unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the
marriage bond may have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand
impossible to realize. However, Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden
impossible to bear, or too heavy -- -- heavier than the Law of Moses. By coming
to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives
the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of
God. It is by following Christ,
renouncing themselves, and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to
"receive" the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ.
This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ's cross, the source of all
Christian life.
This is what the apostle Paul made clear when he says:
"husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for
her, that he might sanctify her," adding at once: "for this reason a man shall
leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become
one. This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the
Church."
The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of
Christ and the Church. Already Baptism, the entry into the People of God, is a
nuptial mystery; it is so to speak the nuptial bath which precedes the wedding
feast, the Eucharist. Christian marriage in its turn becomes an efficacious
sign, the sacrament of the covenant of Christ and the Church. Since it signifies
and communicates grace, marriage between baptized persons is a true sacrament of
the New Covenant.
Virginity for the sake of the Kingdom
Christ is the center of all personal life. The bond with him
takes precedence over all other bonds, familial or social. From the very
beginning of the Church there have been men and women who have renounced the
great good of marriage to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, to be intent on the
things of the Lord, to seek to please him, and to go out to meet the bridegroom
who is coming. Christ himself has invited certain persons to follow him in this
way of life, of which he remains the model:
"For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there
are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have
made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to
receive this, let him receive it."
Virginity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven is an unfolding
of baptismal grace, a powerful sign of the supremacy of the bond with Christ and
of the ardent expectation of his return, a sign which also recalls that marriage
is a reality of this present age which is passing
away.
Both the sacrament of Matrimony and virginity for the Kingdom of
God come from the Lord himself. It is he who gives them meaning and grants them
the grace which is indispensable for living them out in conformity with his
will. Esteem of virginity for the sake of the kingdom and the Christian
understanding of marriage are inseparable, and they reinforce each
other:
Whoever denigrates marriage also diminishes the glory of
virginity. Whoever praises it
makes virginity more admirable and resplendent. What appears good only in
comparison with evil would not be truly good. The most excellent good is
something even better than what is admitted to be
good.
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April 27, 2014 - But when you ask, you must believe and not
doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by
the wind. James 1:6
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec VII pg 441
VII - The Effects Of The Sacrament Of Holy
Orders
The indelible character
The Sacrament configures the recipient to Christ by a special
grace of the Holy Spirit, so that he may serve as Christ's instrument for his
Church. By ordination one is enabled to act as a representative of Christ, Head
of the Church, in his triple office of priest, prophet, and
King.
As in the case of Baptism and Confirmation that they share in
Christ's office is granted once for all. The sacrament of Holy Orders, like the
other two, confers an indelible spiritual character and cannot be repeated or
conferred temporarily.
It is true that someone validly ordained can, for grave reasons,
be discharged from the obligations and functions linked to ordination, or can be
forbidden to exercise them; but he cannot become a layman again in the strict
sense, because the character imprinted by ordination is forever. The vocation
and mission received on the day of his ordination mark him
permanently.
Since it is ultimately Christ who acts and effects salvation
through the ordained minister, the unworthiness of the latter does not prevent
Christ from acting. St. Augustine states this
forcefully:
As for the proud minister, he is to be ranked with the devil.
Christ’s gift is not thereby profaned: what flows through him keeps its purity,
and what passes through him remains clear and reaches the fertile earth... The
spiritual power of the sacrament is indeed comparable to light: those to be
enlightened receive it in its purity, and if it should pass through defiled
beings, it is not itself defiled.
The grace of the Holy Spirit
The grace of the Holy Spirit proper to this sacrament is
configuration to Christ as Priest, Teacher, Pastor, of whom the ordained is
made a minister.
For the bishop, this is first of all a grace of strength ("the
governing spirit": prayer of Episcopal Consecration in the Latin rite): the
grace to guide and defend his Church with strength and prudence as a father and
pastor, with gratuitous love for all and a peferential love for the poor, the
sick, and the needy. This grace impells him to proclaim the Gospel to all, to be
the model for his flock, to go before it on the way of sanctification by
identifying himself in the Eucharist with Christ the priest and victim, not
fearing to give his life for his sheep:
Father, you know all hearts. You have chosen your servant for
the office of bishop. May he be a shepherd to your holy flock, and a high priest
blameless in your sight, ministering to you night and day; may he always gain
the blessing of your favor and offer the gifts of your holy Church. Through the
Spirit who gives the grace of high priesthood grant him the power to forgive
sins as you have commanded, to assign ministries as you have decreed, and to
loose from every bond by the authority which you gave your apostles. May he be
pleasing to you by his gentleness and purity of heart, presenting a fragrant
offering to you, through Jesus Christ, your
Son...
The spiritual gift conferred by the presbyteral ordination is
expressed by this prayer of the Byzantine Rite. The bishop, while laying on his hand,
says among other things: Lord, fill with the gift of the Holy Spirit him whom
you have deigned to raise the rank of the priesthood, that he may be worthy to
stand without reproach before your altar, to proclaim the Gospel of your
kingdom, to fulfill the ministry of your word of truth, to offer you spiritual
gifts and sacrifices, to renew your people by the bath of rebirth; so that he
may go out to meet our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, your only Son, on the
day of his second coming, and may receive from your vast goodness to recompense
for a fateful administration of his order.
With regard to deacons, "strengthened by sacramental grace they
are dedicated to the People of God, in conjunction with the bishop and his body
of priests, in the service (diakonia) of the liturgy, of the Gospel, and of
works of charity."
Before the grandeur of the priestly grace and office, the holy
doctors felt an urgent call to conversion in order to conform their whole lives
to him whose sacrament had made them ministers. Thus St. Gregory of Nazianzus,
as a very young priest, exclaimed:
We must begin by purifying ourselves before purifying others; we
must be instructed to be able to instruct, become light to illuminate, draw
close to God to bring them close to others, be sanctified as to sanctify, lead
by the hand and counsel prudently. I know whose ministers we are, where we find
ourselves and to where we arrived. I know God's greatness and man's weakness,
but also his potential. [Who then is the priest? He is] the defender of truth,
who stands with angels, gives glory with archangels, causes sacrifices to rise
to the altar on high, shares Christ's priesthood, refashions creation, restores
it in God's image, re-creates it for the world on high and, even greater, is
divinized and divnizes.
And the holy Cure’ of Ars: "The priest continues the work of
redemption on earth... If we really understood the priest on earth, we would die
not of fright but of love... the Priesthood is the love of the heart of
Jesus."
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HE IS RISEN – ALLELULIA
April 20, 2014 - Careless words stab like a sword, but wise
words bring healing. The Lord hates those who tell lies but is pleased with
those who keep their promises.
Proverbs 12:18-22
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec IV pg 438
IV - The Celebration Of This Sacrament
Given the importance that the ordination of a bishop, a priest,
or a deacon has for the life of the particular Church, its celebration calls for
as many of the faithful as possible to take part.
It should take place preferably on Sunday, in the cathedral, with
solemnity appropriate to the occasion. All three ordinations, of the Bishop, of
the priest, and of the deacon, follow the same movement. Their proper place is
within the Eucharistic liturgy.
The essential rite of the sacrament of Holy Orders for all three
degrees consists in the bishop's imposition of hands on the head of the ordinand
and in the bishop's specific consecratory prayer asking God for the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit and his gifts proper to the ministry to which the candidate
is being ordained.
As in all the sacraments additional rites surround the
celebration. Varying greatly among the different liturgical traditions, these
rites have in common the expression of the multiple aspects of the sacramental
grace. Thus in the Latin Church, the initial rites -- -- presentation and
election of the ordinand, instruction by the bishop, examination of the
candidate, litany of the saints -- -- attest that the choice of the candidate
is made in keeping with the practice of the Church and prepare for the solemn
act of consecration, after which several rites symbolically express and
complete the mystery accomplished: for bishop and priest, an anointing with
holy chrism, a sign of the special anointing of the Holy Spirit who makes their
ministry fruitful; giving the book of the Gospels, the ring, the miter, and a
crosier to the bishop as a sign of his apostolic mission to proclaim the Word
of God, of his fidelity to the Church, the bride of Christ, and his office as
shepherd of the Lord's flock; presentation to the priest of the paten and
chalice, "the offering of the holy people" which he is called to present to
God; giving the book of the Gospels to the deacon who has just received the
mission to proclaim the Gospel of Christ.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec V pg 439
V - Who Can Confer This Sacrament?
Christ himself chose the apostles and gave them a share in his
mission and authority. Raised to the Father's right hand, he has not forsaken
his flock but he keeps it under his constant protection through the apostles,
and guides it still through the same pastors who continue his work today. Thus,
it is Christ whose gift is that some be apostles, others pastors. He continues
to act for the bishops.
Since the sacrament of Holy Orders is the sacrament of the
apostolic ministry, it is for the bishops as the successors of the apostles to
hand on the "gift of the Spirit," the "apostolic line." Validly ordained
bishops, i.e., those who are in the line of apostolic succession, validly confer
the three degrees of the sacrament of Holy Orders.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec VI pg 439
VI - Who Can Receive This Sacrament?
"Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination."
The Lord Jesus chose men (viri) to form the college of the 12 apostles, and the
apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their
ministry. The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the
priesthood, makes the college of the 12 an ever present and ever active reality
until Christ's return. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice
made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not
possible.
No one has a right to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders.
Indeed no one claims this office for himself; he is called by God. Anyone who
thinks he recognizes the signs of God's call to the ordained ministry must
humbly submit a desire to the authority of the Church, who has the
responsibility and right to call someone to receive orders. Like every grace
this sacrament can be received only as an unmerited gift.
All the ordained ministers of the Latin Church, with the
exception of permanent deacons, are normally chosen from among men of faith who
live a celibate life and who intend to remain celibate "for the sake of the
kingdom of heaven." Called to consecrate themselves with undivided heart to the
Lord and to "the affairs of the Lord," they give themselves entirely to God and
to men. Celibacy is a sign of this new life to the service of which the Church's
minister is consecrated; accepted with a joyous heart celibacy radiantly
proclaims the Reign of God.
In the Eastern Churches a different discipline has been in force
for many centuries: while bishops are chosen solely from among celibates,
married men can be ordained as deacons and priests. This practice has long been
considered legitimate; these priests exercise a fruitful ministry within their
communities. Moreover, priestly celibacy is held in great honor and the Eastern
Churches and many priests have freely chosen it for the sake of the Kingdom of
God. In the East as in the West a man who has already received the sacrament of
Holy Orders can no longer marry.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 13, 2014 - And without faith it is impossible to please
God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he
rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec III p 433
III - The Three Degrees Of The Sacrament Of Holy Orders
"The divinely instituted ecclesiastical ministry is exercised in
different degrees by those who even from ancient times have been called bishops,
priests, and deacons." Catholic doctrine, expressed in the liturgy, the
Magisterium, and the constant practice of the Church, recognizes that there are
two degrees of ministerial participation in the priesthood of Christ: the
episcopacy and the presbyterate. The diaconate is intended to help and serve
them. For this reason the term sacerdos in current usage denotes bishops and
priests but not deacons. Yet Catholic doctrine teaches that the degrees of
priestly participation (a episcopate and presbyterate) and the degree of service
(diaconate) are all three conferred by a sacramental act called "ordination,"
that is, by the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
Let everyone revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, the bishop as
the image of the Father, and to presbyters as the senate of God and the assembly
of the apostles. For without them one cannot speak of the Church.
Episcopal ordination -- -- fullness of the Sacrament of Holy Orders
"Amongst those various offices which have been exercised in the
Church from the earliest times the chief place, according to the witness of
tradition, is held by the function of those who, through their appointment to
the dignity and responsibility of bishop, and in virtue consequently of the
unbroken succession going back to the beginning, are regarded as transmitters of
the apostolic line."
To fulfill their exalted mission, "the apostles were endowed by
Christ with a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit coming upon them, and by the
imposition of hands they passed on to their auxiliaries the give of the Spirit,
which is transmitted down to our day through episcopal consecration."
The second Vatican Council "teaches... that the fullness of the
Sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred by epicopal consecration, that fullness
namely which, both in the liturgical tradition of the Church and the language of
the Fathers of the Church, is called the high priesthood, the acme (summa) of
the sacred ministry."
"Episcopal consecration confers, together with the office of
sanctifying, also the offices of teaching and ruling... in fact... by the
imposition of hands and through the words of the consecration, the grace of the
Holy Spirit is given, and a sacred character is impressed in such wise that
bishops, in an eminent and visible manner take the place of Christ himself
teacher shepherd, and priest, and act as his representative (in Eius persona
agant)." "By virtue, therefore, of the Holy Spirit who has been given to them,
bishops have been constituted true and authentic teachers of the faith and have
been made pontiffs and pastors."
"One is constituted a member of the episcopal body in virtue of
the sacramental consecration and by the hierarchical communion with the head and
members of the college." The character and collegial nature of the episcopal
order are evidenced among other ways by the Church's ancient practice which
calls for several bishops to participate in the consecration of a new bishop. In
our day, the lawful ordination of bishop requires a special intervention of the
Bishop of Rome, because he is the supreme visible bond of the communion of the
particular Churches in the one Church and the guarantor of their freedom.
As Christ’s vicar, each bishop has the pastoral care of the
particular Church entrusted to him, but at the same time he bears collegially
with all his brothers in the episcopacy the solitude for all the Churches:
"Though each bishop is the lawful pastor only of the portion of the flock
entrusted to his care, as a legitimate successor of the apostles he is, by
divine institution and precert, responsible with the other bishops for the
apostolic mission of the Church."
The above considerations explain why the Eucharist celebrated by
the bishop has a quite special significance as an expression of the Church
gathered around the altar, with the one who represents Christ, the Good Shepherd
and Head of his Church, presiding.
The ordination of priests -- -- coworkers of the bishops
"Christ, whom the Father hallowed and sent into the world, has,
through his apostles, made their successors, the bishops namely, sharers in his
consecration and mission; and these, in their turn, duly entrusted in varying
degrees various members of the Church with the office of the ministry." "The
function of the bishops ministry was handed over in a subordinate degree to
priests so that they might be appointed in the order of priesthood and
co-workers of the episcopal order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic
mission that had been entrusted to it by Christ."
"Because it is joined with the episcopal order the office of
priests and sharers in the authority by which Christ himself builds up and
sanctifies and rules his Body.
Hence the priesthood of priests, while presupposing sacraments of
initiation, is nevertheless conferred by its own particular sacrament. Through
that sacrament priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit are signed with a
special character and so are configured to Christ the priest in such a way that
they are able to act in the person of Christ the
head."
"Whilst not having the supreme degree of the pontifical office,
and notwithstanding the fact that they depend on the bishops in the exercise of
their own proper power, the priests for for all that associated with them by
reason of their sacerdotal dignity; and in virtue of the Sacrament of Holy
Orders, after the image of Christ, the supreme eternal priest, they are
concentrated in order to preach the Gospel and shepherd the faithful as well as
to celebrate divine worship as true priests of the New
Testament."
Through the Sacrament of Holy Orders priests share in the
universal dimensions of the mission that Christ entrusted to the apostles. The
spiritual gift they have received in ordination prepares them, not for a
limited and restricted mission, "but for the fullest, in fact the universal
mission of salvation "to the end of the earth,’ " "prepared in spirit to preach
the Gospel everywhere."
"It is in the Eucharistic cult or in the Eucharistic assembly of
the faithful (synaxis) that they exercise in a supreme degree their sacred
office; there, acting in the person of Christ and proclaiming his mystery, they
unite the votive offerings of the faithful to the sacrifice of Christ their
head, and in the sacrifice of the Mass they may make present again and apply,
until the coming of the Lord, the unique sacrifice of the New Testament, that
namely of Christ offering himself once for all a spotless victim to the
Father." From this unique sacrifice their whole priestly ministry draws its
strength.
"The priests, prudent cooperators of the episcopal college and
its support and instrument, called to the service of the People of God,
constitute, together with their bishop, a unique sacerdotal college
(presbyterium) dedicated, it is true, to a variety of distinct duties. In each
local assembly of the faithful they represent, in a certain sense, the bishop,
with whom they are associated in all trust and generosity; in part they take
upon themselves his duties and solicitude and in their daily toils discharge
them." Priests can exercise their ministry only in dependence on the bishop and
in communion with him. The promise of obedience they make to the bishop at the
moment of ordination and the kiss of peace from him at the end of the ordination
liturgy mean that the bishop considers them his coworkers, his sons, his
brothers and his friends, and that they in return owe him love and obedience.
"All priests, who are constituted in the order of priesthood by
the Sacrament of Order, are bound together by an intimate sacramental
brotherhood, but in a special way they form one priestly body in the diocese to
which they are attached under their own bishop..." The unity of the presbyterium
finds liturgical expression in the costume of the presbyters imposing hands,
after the mission, during the rite of ordination.
The ordination of the deacons -- -- "in order to serve"
“At a lower level of the hierarchy are to be found deacons, who
receive the imposition of hands ‘not unto the priesthood, but into the
ministry.’ " At an ordination to the diaconate only the bishop lays hands on the candidate,
thus signifying the deacons’ special attachment to the bishop and the tasks of his
"diakonia._
Deacons share in Christ's mission and grace in a special way.
The Sacrament of Holy Orders marks them with an imprint ("character") which
cannot be removed and which configures them to Christ, who made himself the
"deacon" or servant of all. Among other tasks, it is the task of deacons to
assist the bishops and priests in the celebration of the divine mysteries, above
all the Eucharist, in the distribution of Holy Communion, in assisting at and
blessing marriages, in the proclamation of the Gospel and preaching, in
presiding over funerals, and in dedicating themselves to the various ministries
of charity.
Since the second Vatican Council the Latin Church has restored
the diaconate "as a proper and permanent rank of the hierarchy,”while the
Churches of the East had always maintained it. This permanent diaconate, which
can be conferred on married men, constitutes an important enrichment for the
Church's mission. Indeed it is appropriate and useful that men who carry out a
truly diaconal ministry in the Church, whether in its liturgical and pastoral
life or whether in its social and charitable works, should "be strengthened by
the imposition of hands which has come down from the apostles. They would be
more closely bound to the altar and their ministry would be made more fruitful
for the sacramental grace of the diaconate."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 06, 2014 - Being respected is more important than having
great riches. To be well thought of is better than silver or gold. Proverbs 22:1
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec I p 427
I - Why Is This Sacrament Called "Orders"?
The word order and Roman antiquity designated an established
civil body, especially a governing body. Ordinatio means incorporation into an
ordo. In the Church there are established bodies which Tradition, not without a
basis in Sacred Scripture, has since ancient times called taxeis (Greek) or
ordines. And so the liturgy speaks of the ordo episcoporum , the ordo
presbyterorum, the ordo diaconorum.
Other groups also receive this name of ordo: catechumens, virgins,
spouses, widows ….
Integration into one of these bodies in the Church was
accomplished by a rite called ordinatio, a religious and liturgical act which
was a consecration, a blessing or a Sacrament. Today the word "ordination" is
reserved for the sacramental act which integrates a man into the order of
bishops, presbyters, or deacons, and goes beyond a simple election, designation,
delegation, or institution by the community, for it confers a gift of the Holy
Spirit that permits the exercise of a “sacred power”(sacra potestas) which can
come only from Christ himself through his Church. Ordination is also called
consecratio, for it is a setting apart and an investiture by Christ himself for
his Church.
The Laying on of hands by the bishop, with the consecratory
prayer, constitutes the visible sign of this
ordination.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec II p 428
II - The Sacrament Of Holy Orders In The Economy Of Salvation
The priesthood of the Old Covenant
The chosen people was constituted by God as "a kingdom of
priests and a holy nation." But within the people of Israel, God chose one of
the 12 tribes, that of Levi, and set it apart for liturgical service; God
himself is its inheritance. A special rite concentrated the beginnings of the
priesthood of the Old Covenant. The priests are "appointed to act on behalf of
men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins."
Instituted to proclaim the Word of God and to restore communion
with God by sacrifices and prayer, this priesthood nevertheless remains
powerless to bring about salvation, needing to repeat its sacrifices ceaselessly
and being unable to achieve a definitive sanctification, which only the
sacrifice of Christ would accomplish.
The liturgy of the Church, however, sees in the priesthood of
Aaron and the service of the Levites, as in the institution of the 70 elders, a
prefiguring of the ordained ministry of the New Covenant. Thus in the Latin Rite
the Church prays in the concecratory preface of the ordination of
bishops:
God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ,...
by your gracious word
you have established the plan of your Church.
From the beginning, you chose the descendants of Abraham
to be your holy nation.
You established rulers and priests,
and did not leave your sanctuary without ministers to serve you...
At the ordination of priests, the Church prays:
Lord, holy Father,...
when you had appointed high priests to rule your people,
you chose other men next to them in rank and dignity
to be with them and to help them in their task...
you extended the spirit of Moses to 70 wise man...
You shared among the sons of Aaron the fullness of their father’s power.
In the consecratory prayer for ordination of deacons, the Church
confesses:
Almighty God...,
You make the Church, Christ’s body,
grow to its full stature as a new and greater temple.
You enrich it with every kind of grace
and perfect it with a diversity of members
to serve the whole body and a wonderful pattern of unity
You established a threefold ministry of worship and service,
for the glory of your name.
As ministers of your tabernacle you chose the sons of
Levi and gave them your blessing as their everlasting inheritance.
The one priesthood of Christ
Everything that the priesthood of the Old Covenant prefigured
finds its fulfillment in Christ Jesus, the "one mediator between God and men."
The Christian tradition considers Melchizedek, "priest of God Most High," as a
prefiguration of the priesthood of Christ, the unique "high priest after the
order of Melchizedek”; "holy,
blameless, unstained," "by a single offering he has perfected for all time those
who are sanctified," that is, by the unique sacrifice of the cross.
The redemptive sacrifice of Christ is unique, accomplished once
for all; yet it is made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Church. The
same is true of the one priesthood of Christ; it is made present through the
ministerial priesthood without diminishing the uniqueness of Christ's
priesthood: "Only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his
ministers."
Two participations in the one priesthood of Christ
Christ, high priest and unique mediator, has made of the Church
"a kingdom, priests for his God and Father." The whole community of believers
is, as such, priestley. The faithful exercise their baptismal priesthood through
their participation, each according to his own vocation, in Christ's mission as
priest, prophet, and king. Through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation
the faithful are "consecrated to be... a holy priesthood."
The ministerial or hierarchical priesthood of bishops and
priests, and the common priesthood of all the faithful participate, "each in
its own proper way, in the one priesthood of Christ." While being "ordered one
to another," they differ essentially. In what sense? While the common priesthood
of the faithful is exercised by the unfolding of baptismal grace -- -- a life of
faith, hope, and charity, and life according to the Spirit -- --, the
ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood. It is
directed at the unfolding of the baptismal grace of all Christians. The
ministerial priesthood is a means by which Christ unceasingly builds up and
leads his Church. For this reason it is transmitted by its own sacrament, the
Sacrament of Holy Orders.
In the person of Christ the Head...
In the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ
himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his flock,
high priest of the redemptive sacrifice, Teacher of Truth.
This is what the Church means by saying that the priest, by virtue of the
sacrament of Holy Orders, acts in persona Christi Capitis:
It is the same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred
person his minister truly represents. Now the minister, by
reason of the sacerdotal consecration which he has
received, is truly made like to the high priest and possesses the
authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ himself
(virtute ac persona ipsius Christi).
Christ is the source of all priesthood: the priest of the old
law was a figure of Christ, and the priest of the new law acts in the person of
Christ.
Through the ordained ministry, especially that of bishops and
priests, the presence of Christ as head of the Church is made visible in the
midst of the community of believers. In the beautiful expression of St. Ignatius
of Antioch, the bishop is typos tou Patros: he is like the living image of God
the Father.
This presence of Christ in the minister is not to be understood
as if the latter were preserved from all human weaknesses, the spirit of
domination, error, even sin. The power of the Holy Spirit does not guarantee all
acts of ministers in the same way. While this guarantee extends to the
sacraments, so that even the ministers send cannot impede the fruit of grace, in
many other acts the minister leaves human traces that are not always signs of
fidelity to the Gospel and consequently can harm the apostolic fruitfulness of
the Church.
This priesthood is ministerial. "That office... which the Lord
committed to the pastors of his people, is in the strict sense of the term a
service." It is entirely related to Christ and to men. It depends entirely on
Christ and on his unique priesthood; it has been instituted for the good of men
and the communion of the Church. The Sacrament of holy orders communicates a
"sacred power" which is none other than that of Christ. The exercise of this
authority must therefore be measured against the model of Christ, whom by love
made himself the least and the servant of all. The Lord said clearly that
concern for his flock was proof of love for him."
... "In the name of the whole Church"
The ministerial priesthood has the task not only of representing
Christ -- -- Head of the Church -- -- before the assembly of the faithful, but
also of acting in the name of the whole Church when presenting to God the prayer
of the Church, and above all when offering the Eucharistic
sacrifice.
"In the name of the whole Church" does not mean that priest are
the delegates of the community. The prayer and offering of the Church are
inseparable from the prayer and offering of Christ, her head; it is always the
case that Christ worships in and through his Church. The whole Church, the body
of Christ, prays and offers herself "through him, with him, in him," in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, to God the Father. The whole body, caput et membra,
prays and offers itself, and therefore those who in the Body are especially his
ministers are called ministers not only of Christ, but also of the Church. It is
because the ministerial priesthood represents Christ that it can represent the
Church.
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March 30, 2014 - Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial,
because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that
the Lord has promised to those who love him. James 1:12
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 5 Sec II P 421
II – Who Receives and Who Administers This Sacrament?
In case of grave illness...
The Anointing of the Sick "is not a sacrament for those only who
are at the point of death. Hence, as soon as any one of the faithful begins to
be in danger of death from sickness or old age, the fitting time for him to
receive this sacrament has certainly already arrived."
If a sick person who received this anointing recovers his
health, he can in the case of another grave illness receive the sacrament
again. If during the same illness the person's condition becomes more serious,
the sacrament may be repeated. It is fitting to receive the Anointing of the
ick just prior to a serious operation. The same holds for the elderly whose
frailty becomes more pronounced.
"... Let him call for the presbyters of theChurch"
Only priests (bishops and presbyters) are ministers of the
Anointing of the Sick. It is the duty of pastors to instruct the faithful on the
benefits of this sacrament. The faithful should encourage the sick to call for a
priest to receive the sacrament. The sick should prepare themselves to receive
it with good dispositions, assisted by their pastor and the whole ecclesial
community, which is invited to surround the sick in a special way through their
prayers and fraternal attention.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 5 Sec III P 421
III - How Is This Sacrament Celebrated?
Like all the sacraments the Anointing of the Sick is a
liturgical and communal celebration, whether it takes place in the family home,
hospital or church, for a single sick person or a whole group of sick persons.
It is very fitting to celebrate it within the Eucharist, the memorial of the
Lord’s Passover. If circumstances suggest it, the celebration of the sacrament
can be preceded by the sacrament of Penance and followed by the sacrament of the
Eucharist. As the sacrament of Christ's Passover the Eucharist should always be
the last sacrament of the earthly journey, the "viaticum" for "passing over" to
eternal life.
Word and Sacrament form an indivisible whole. The Liturgy of the
Word, preceded by an act of repentance, opens the celebration. The words of
Christ, the witness of the apostles, awaken the faith of the sick person and of
the community to ask the Lord for the strength of his
Spirit.
The celebration of the sacrament includes the following
principal elements: the "priests of the Church" -- -- in silence -- -- lay hands
on the sick; they pray over them in the faith of the Church -- -- this is the
epiclesis proper to this sacrament; they then anoint them with the oil blessed,
if possible, by the bishop.
These liturgical actions indicate what grace this sacrament
confers upon the sick.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 5 Sec IV P 421
IV - The Effects Of The Celebration Of his Sacrament
A particular gift of the Holy Spirit. The first grace of this
sacrament is one of strengthening, peace and courage to overcome the
difficulties that go with the condition of serious illness or the frailty of
old age. This grace is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews trust and faith in
God and strengthens against the temptations of the evil one, the temptation to
discouragement and anguish in the face of death. This assistance from the Lord
by the power of his Spirit is meant to lead the sick person to healing of the
soul, but also of the body if such is God's will. Furthermore, "if he has
committed sins, he will be forgiven."
Union with the passion of Christ. By the grace of the sacrament
the sick person receives the strength and the gift of uniting himself more
closely to Christ's Passion: in a certain way he is consecrated to bear fruit by
configuration to the Savior’s redemptive Passion. Suffering, a consequence of
original sin, acquires a new meaning; it becomes a participation in the saving
work of Jesus.
An ecclesial grace. The sick who receive this Sacrament, "by
freely uniting themselves to the passion and death of Christ," "contribute to
the good of the People of God." By celebrating this sacrament the Church, in the
communion of saints, intercedes for the benefit of the sick person, and he, for
his part, through the grace of this sacrament, contributes to the sanctification
of the Church and to the good of all men for whom the Church suffers and offers
herself through Christ to God the Father.
A preparation for the final journey. If the sacrament of
Anointing of the Sick is given to all who suffer from serious illness and
infirmity, even more rightly is it given to those at the point of departing
this life; so it is also called sacramentum exeuntium (the sacrament of those
departing). The Anointing of the Sick completes our conformity to the death and
Resurrection of Christ, just as Baptism began it.: It completes the holy
anointings that mark the whole Christian life: that of Baptism which sealed the
new life in us, and that of Confirmation which strengthened us for the combat
of this life. This last anointing fortifies the end of our earthly life like a
solid rampart for the final struggles before entering the Father's house.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 5 Sec V P 421
V – Viaticum, The Last Sacrament Of The Christian
In addition to the Anointing of the Sick, the Church offers
those who are about to leave this life the Eucharist as viaticum.
Communion in the body and blood of Christ, received at this moment of
"passing over" to the Father, has a particular significance and importance. It
is the seed of eternal life and the power of resurrection, according to the
words of the Lord: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day." The sacrament of Christ once dead and
now risen, the Eucharist is here the sacrament of passing over from death to
life, from this world to the Father.
Thus, just as the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the
Eucharist form a unity called "the sacraments of Christian initiation," so too
it can be said that Penance, the Anointing of the Sick and the Eucharist as
viaticum constitute at the end of Christian life "the sacraments that prepare
for our heavenly homeland" or the sacraments that complete the earthly
pilgrimage.
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March 23, 2014 - And now abide faith, hope, love, these three;
but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 5 Sec I pg 417
"By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the
priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and
glorified Lord, that he may raise them up and save them. And indeed she exhorts
them to contribute to the good of the People of God by freely uniting
themselves to the Passion and death of Christ."
I - Its Foundations in the Economy of Salvation
Illness in human life
Illness and suffering have always been among the gravest
problems confronted in human life. In illness, man experiences his
powerlessness, his limitations, and his finitude. Every illness can make us
glimpse death.
Illness can lead to anguish, self-absorption, sometimes even
despair and revolt against God. It can also make a person more mature, helping
him discern in his life what is not essential so that he can turn toward that
which is. Very often illness provokes a search for God and a return to him.
The sick person before God
The man of the Old Testament lives his sickness in the presence
of God. It is before God that he laments his illness, and it is of God, Master
of life and death, that he implores healing. Illness becomes a way to
conversion; God's forgiveness initiates the healing. It is the experience of
Israel that illness is mysteriously linked to sin and evil, and that
faithfulness to God according to his law restores life: "For I am the Lord,
your healer." The prophet intuits that suffering can also have a redemptive
meaning for the sins of others. Finally Isaiah announces that God will usher in
a time for Zion when he will pardon every offense and heal every illness.
Christ the physician
Christ's compassion toward the sick and his many healings of
every kind of infirmity are a resplendent sign that "God has visited his people"
and that the Kingdom of God is close at hand. Jesus has the power not only to
heal, but also to forgive sins; he has come to heal the whole man, soul and
body; he is the physician the sick have need of. His compassion toward all who
suffer goes so far that he identifies himself with them: "I was sick and you
visited me." His preferential love for the sick has not ceased through the
centuries to draw the very special attention of Christians toward all those who
suffer in body and soul. It is the source of tireless efforts to comfort them.
Often Jesus asked the sick to believe. He makes use of signs to
heal: spittle and the laying on of hands, mud and washing. The sick try to touch
him, "for power came forth from him and healed them all." And so in the
sacraments Christ continues to "touch" us in order to heal us.
Moved by so much suffering Christ not only allows himself to be
touched by the sick, but he makes their miseries his own: "He took our
infirmities and bore our diseases." But he did not heal all of the sick. His
healings were signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God. They announced a more
radical healing: the victory over sin and death through his Passover. On the
cross Christ took upon himself the whole weight of evil and took away the "sin
of the world," of which illness is only a consequence. By his passion and death
on the cross Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth
configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion.
"Heal the sick..."
Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their
cross in their turn. By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and
the sick. Jesus associates them with his own life of poverty and service. He
makes them share in his ministry of compassion and healing: "So they went out
and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed
with oil many that were sick and healed them."
The risen Lord renews his mission ("in my name... they lay their
hands on the sick, and they will recover.") And confirms it through the signs
that the Church performs by invoking his name. These signs demonstrate in a
special way that Jesus is truly "God who
saves."
The Holy Spirit gives to some a special charism of healing /to
make manifest the power of the grace of the risen Lord. But even the most
intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses. Thus St. Paul
must learn from the Lord that "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is
made perfect in weakness," and
that the sufferings to be in the word can mean that "in my flesh I complete what
is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church."
" Heal the sick!" The Church has received this charge from the
Lord and strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick as well as by
accompanying them with her prayer of intercession. She believes in the
life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies. This presence
is particularly active through the sacraments, and in an altogether special way
through the Eucharist, the bread that gives eternal life and that St. Paul
suggests is connected with bodily health.
However, the apostolic church has its own rite for the sick,
attested to by St. James: "is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders
[presbyters| of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil on
the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the
Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven."
Tradition has recognized in this rite one of the seven
sacraments.
A sacrament of the sick
The Church believes and confesses that among the seven
sacraments there is one especially intended to strengthen those who are being
tried by illness, the Anointing of the Sick:
This sacred anointing of the sick was instituted by Christ our
Lord as a true and proper sacrament of the New Testament. It is alluded to
indeed by Mark, but is recommended to the faithful and promulgated by James the
apostle and brother of the Lord.
From ancient times in the liturgical traditions of both East and
West, we have testimonies to the practice of anointing of the sick with blessed
oil. Over the centuries the Anointing of the Sick was conferred more and more
exclusively on those at the point of death. Because of this it received the name
"Extreme Unction." Notwithstanding
this evolution the liturgy has never failed to beg the Lord that the sick person
may recover his health if it would be conducive to
salvation.
The Apostolic Constitution Sacram unctionem infirmorum,
following upon the Second Vatican Council, established that henceforth, in the
Roman Rite, the following be observed:
The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is given to those who are
seriously ill by anointing them on the forehead and hands with duly blessed oil
-- -- pressed from olives or from other plants -- -- saying, only once: "Through
this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace
of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you
up."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 16, 2014 - Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry: for anger rests in the bosom of fools. Ecclesiastes 7:9
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec IX pg 409
IX – The Effects of This Sacrament
"The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in
restoring us to God's grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship."
Reconciliation with God is thus the purpose and effect of this sacrament. For
those who receive the sacrament of Penance with contrite heart and religious
disposition, reconciliation "is usually followed by peace and serenity of
conscience with strong spiritual consolation." Indeed the sacrament of
Reconciliation with God brings about a true "spiritual resurrection,"
restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, of
which the most precious his friendship with God.
This sacrament reconciles us what the Church. Sin damages or
even breaks fraternal communion. The sacrament of Penance repairs or restores
it. In this sense it does not simply heal the one restored to ecclesial communion, but has also a
revitalizing effect on the life of the Church which suffered from the sin of
one or her members. Re-established or strengthened in the communion of saints,
the sinner is made stronger by the exchange of spiritual goods among all the
living members of the Body of Christ, whether still on pilgrimage or already in
the heavenly homeland:
It must be recalled that... this reconciliation with God leads,
as it were, to other reconciliations, which repair the other breaches caused by
sin. The forgiven penitent is reconciled with himself in his inmost being, where
he regains his innermost truth. He is reconciled with his brethren whom he hasin
some way offended and wounded. He is reconciled with the Church. He is
reconciled with all creation.
In this sacrament, the sinner, placing himself before the
merciful judgment of God, anticipates in a certain way the judgment to which he
will be subjected at the end of his earthly life. For it is now, in this life,
that we are offered the choice between life and death, and it is only by the
road of conversion that we can enter the Kingdom, from which one is excluded by
grave sin. In converting to Christ through penance and faith, the sinner passes
from death to life and "does not come into judgment."
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec X pg 411
X - Indulgences
The doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are
closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of
Penance.
What is an indulgence?
"An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal
punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful
Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through
the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and
applies with authority the treasury of the satisfaction of Christ and the
saints."
“An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes
either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin." The faithful can gain
indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead.
The punishments of sin
To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is
necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us
of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the
privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin. On the other hand
every sin, even venial, entails aa uhealthy attachment to creatures, which must
be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory.
This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of
sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance
inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A
conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete
purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.
The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God
entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment
of sin remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and,
when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept
this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy
and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put
off completely the "old man" and to put on the "new man."
In the Communion of Saints
The Christian who seeks to purify himself of his sin and to
become holy with the help of God's grace is not alone. "The life of each of
God's children is joined in Christ and through Christ in a wonderful way to the
life of all the other Christian brethren and in the supernatural unity of the
Mystical Body of Christ, as in a single mystical person."
In the communion of saints, "a perennial link of charity exists
between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are
expiating their sins in Purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth.
Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things." In this
wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm
that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints
lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the
punishments for sin.
We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints
the Church’s treasury, which is "not the sum total of the material goods which
have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the
"treasury of the Church" is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted,
which Christ's merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of
mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In
Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption
exist and find their efficacy.
"This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of
the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine
in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works
of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the
Lord and by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission the
Father entrusted to them. In this way they attained their own salvation and at
the same time cooperated in saving their brothers and the unity of the Mystical
Body."
Obtaining indulgence from God through the Church
An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of
the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in
favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of
Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the
temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply to
come to the aid of these Christians but also to spur them to works of devotion,
penance, and charity.
Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members
of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain
indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may
be remitted.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec XI pg 413
XI - The Celebration of the Sacrament of Penance
Like all the sacraments, Penance is a liturgical action. The
elements of the celebration are ordinarily these: a greeting and blessing from
the priest, reading the word of God to illuminate the conscience and elicit
contrition, and an exhortation to repentance; the confession, which acknowledges
sins and makes them known to the priest; the imposition and acceptance of the
penance; the priest’s absolution; a prayer of thanksgiving and praise and
dismissal with the blessing of the priest.
The Byzantine Liturgy recognizes several formulas of absolution,
in the form of invocation, which admirably express the mystery of forgiveness:
"May the same God, who through the Prophet Nathan forgave David when he
confessed his sins, who forgave Peter when he wept bitterly, the prostitute when
she washed his feet with her tears, the publican, and the prodigal son, through
me, a sinner, forgive you both in this life and in the next and enable you to
appear before his awe inspiring tribunal without condemnation, he who is blessed
forever. Amen."
The Sacrament of Penance can also take place in the framework of
a communal celebration in which we prepare ourselves together for confession and
give thanks together for the forgiveness received. Here, the personal confession
of sins and individual absolution are inserted into a liturgy of the Word of God
with readings and a homily, an examination of conscience conducted in common, a
communal request for forgiveness, the Our Father and a thanksgiving in common.
This communal celebration expresses more clearly the ecclesial character of
penance. However regardless of its manner of celebration the sacrament of
Penance is always by its very nature, a liturgical action, and therefore an
ecclesial and public action.
In case of grave necessity recourse may be had to a communal
celebration of reconciliation with the general confession and general
absolution. Grave necessity of this sort can arise when there is imminent
danger of death without sufficient time for the priest or priests to hear each
penitent’s confession. Grave necessity can also exist when given the number of
penitents there are not enough confessors to hear individual confessions
properly in a reasonable time so that the penitents through no fault of their
own would be deprived of sacramental grace or Holy Communion for a long
time. In this case, or for the
absolution to be valid the faithful must have the intention of individually
confessing their grave sins in the time required. The diocesan bishop is the
judge of whether or not the conditions required for general absolution exist. A
large gathering of the faithful on the occasion of major feast or pilgrimages
does not constitute a case of grave
necessity.
"Individual, integral confession and absolution remain the only
ordinary way for the faithful to reconcile themselves with God and the Church,
unless physical or moral impossibility excuses from this kind of confession."
There are profound reasons for this. Christ is at work in each of the
sacraments. He personally addresses every sinner: "My son, your sins are
forgiven." He is the physician tending each one of the sick who need him to cure
them. He raises them up and re-integrates them into fraternal communion.
Personal confession is thus the form most expressive of reconciliation with God
and and with the Church.
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March 9, 2014 - But if any of you needs wisdom, you should ask
God for it. He is generous to everyone and will give you wisdom without
criticizing you. James 1:5
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec VII pg 404
VII – The Acts of the Penitent
"Penance requires... the sinner to endure all things willingly,
be contrite of heart, confess with the lips, and practice complete humility and
fruitful satisfaction."
Contrition
Among the penitent's acts contrition occupies first place. Contrition is "sorrow of the soul and
detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin
again."
When it arises from a love by which God is loved above all else,
contrition is called "perfect" (contrition of charity). Such contrition remits
venial sins; it also obtains forgiveness of mortal sins if it includes the firm
resolution to have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as
possible.
The contrition called "imperfect" (or "attrition") is also a
gift of God, a prompting of the Holy Spirit. It is born of the consideration of
sin’s ugliness or the fear of eternal damnation and the other penalties
threatening the sinner (contrition of fear). Such a stirring of conscience can
initiate an interior process which, under the prompting of grace, will be
brought to completion by sacramental absolution. By itself however, imperfect
contrition cannot obtain the forgiveness of grave sins, but it disposes one to
obtain forgiveness and the Sacrament of Penance.
The reception of this sacrament ought to be prepared for by an
examination of conscience made in the light of the Word of God. The passages
best suited to this can be found in the 10 Commandments, the moral catechesis of
the Gospels and the apostolic Letters, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the
apostolic teachings.
The confession of sins
The confession (or disclosure) of sins, even from a simply human
point of view, frees us and facilitates our reconciliation with others. Through
such an admission man looks squarely at the sins he is guilty of, takes
responsibility for them, and thereby opens himself again to God and to the
communion of the Church in order to make a new future possible.
Confession to a priest is an essential part of the Sacrament of
Penance: "All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination
are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most
secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue;
for these sins sometimes wound the soul more greviously and are more dangerous
than those which are committed openly."
When Christ’s faithful strive to confess all the sins that they
can remember, they undoubtedly place all of them before the divine mercy for
pardon. But those who fail to do so knowingly withhold some, place nothing
before the divine goodness for remission through the mediation of the priest,
"for if the sick person is too ashamed to show his wound to the doctor, the
medicine cannot heal what it does not know."
According to the Church's command, "after having attained the
age of discretion, each of the faithful is bound by an obligation faithfully to
confess serious sins at least once a year." Anyone who is aware of having
committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion, even if he experiences
deep contrition, without having first received sacramental absolution, unless he
has a great reason for receiving Communion and there is no possibility of going
to confession. Children must go to the Sacrament of Penance before receiving
Holy Communion for the first time.
Without being strictly necessary, confession of everyday faults
(venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church. Indeed the
regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience, fight
against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the
life of the Spirit. By receiving more frequently through this sacrament the
gift of the Father's mercy, we are spurred to be merciful as he is
merciful:
Whoever confesses his sins... is already working with God. God
indicts your sins; if you also indict them, you are joined with God. Man and
sinner are, so to speak, two realities: when you hear "man"-- -- this is what
God has made; when you hear "sinner" -- -- this is what man himself has made.
Destroy what you have made, so that God may save what he has made... When you
begin to abhor what you have made, it is then that your good works are
beginning, since you are accusing yourself of your evil works. The beginning of
good works is the confession of evil works. You do the truth and come to the
light.
Satisfaction
Many sins wrong our neighbor. One must do what is possible in
order to repair the harm (E.G., return stolen goods, restore the reputation of
someone slandered, pay compensation for injuries). Simple justice requires as
much. But since also injures and weakens the sinner himself, as well as his
relationships with God and neighbor. Absolution takes away sin, but it does not
remedy all the disorders sin has caused. Raised up from sin, the sinner must
still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends
for the sin: he must "make satisfaction for" or "expiate" his sins. This
satisfaction is also called "penance".
The penance the confessor imposes must take into account the
penitence personal situation and must seek his spiritual good. It must
correspond as for as possible with the gravity and nature of the sins
committed. It can consist of prayer, an offering, works of mercy, service of
neighbor, voluntary self-denial, sacrifices, and above all the patient
acceptance of the cross we must bear. Such penances help configure us to
Christ, who alone expiated our sins once for all. They allow us to become
co-heirs with the risen Christ, "provided we suffer with
him."
The satisfaction that we make for our sins, however, is not so
much ours as though it were not done through Jesus Christ. We who can do nothing
ourselves, as if just by ourselves, can do all things with the cooperation of
"him we make satisfaction who strengthens" us. Thus man has nothing of which to
boast, but all our boasting is in Christ... in whom we make satisfaction by
bringing forth "fruits that befit repentance." These fruits have their efficacy
from him, by him they are offered to the Father, and through him they are
accepted by the Father.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec VIII pg 408
VIII - The Minister of This Sacrament
Since Christ entrusted to his apostles the ministry of
reconciliation, bishops who are their successors, and priest, the bishops
collaborators, continue to exercise his ministry. Indeed bishops and priests,
by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, have the power to forgive all sins
"in the name of the Father, ad of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit."
Forgiveness of sins brings reconciliation with God, but also
with the Church. Since ancient times the bishop, visible head of a particular
Church, as thus rightfully been considered to be the one who principally has the
power and ministry of reconciliation: he is the moderator of the penitential
discipline. Priests, his collaborators, exercise it to the extent that they have
received the commission either from their bishop (or religious superior) or the
Pope, according to the law of the Church.
Certain particularly grave sins incur excommunication, the most
severe ecclesiastical penalty, which impedes the reception of the sacraments and
the exercise of certain ecclesiastical acts, and for which absolution
consequently cannot be granted, according to canon law, except by the Pope, the
bishop of the place or priests authorized by them. In danger of death any
priest, even if deprived of faculties for hearing confessions, can absolve from
every sin and excommunication.
Priests must encourage the faithful to come to the sacrament of
Penance and must make themselves available to celebrate this sacrament each time
Christians reasonably ask for it.
When he celebrates the sacrament of Penance, the priest is
fulfilling the ministry of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep, of the
Good Samaritan who binds up wpinds, of the Father who awaits the prodigal son
and welcomes him on his return, and of the just and impartial judge whose
judgment is both just and merciful.
The priest is the sign and the instrument of God’s merciful love for the
sinner.
The confessor is not the master of God's forgiveness, but it's
servant. The minister of this sacrament should unite himself to the intention
and charity of Christ. He should have a proven knowledge of Christian behavior,
experience of human affairs, respect and sensitivity toward the one who has
fallen; he must love the truth, be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church,
and lead the penitent with patience towards healing and full maturity.
He must pray and do penance for his penitent, entrusting him to the Lord's mercy.
Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the
respect due to persons, the Church declares that every priest who hears
confession is bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy
regarding the sins his penitents Have confessed to him. He can make no use of
knowledge that confession gives him about penitents’ lives. This secret, which
admits of no exceptions, is called the "sacramental seal," because what the
penitent has made known to the priest remains "sealed" by the
sacrament.
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March 2, 2014 - But the people who trust the Lord will become strong again. They will rise up as an eagle in the sky; they will run and not need rest; they will walk and not become tired. Isaiah 40:31
On retreat this weekend at Malvern Retreat House in Malvern, PA. Weekend with Jesus.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec V pg400
V - The Many Forms of Penance In Christian Life
The interior penance of the Christian can be expressed in many and various ways. Scripture and the Fathers
insist above all on three forms, fasting, prayer, and alms giving, which express conversion in relation to
oneself, to God, and to others. Alongside the radical purification brought about by Baptism or martyrdom
they cite as means of obtaining forgiveness of sins: efforts at reconciliation with one's neighbor, tears of repentance,
concern for the salvation of one's neighbor, the intercession of the saints, and the practice of charity "which covers
a multitude of sins."
Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the exercise and defense of justice and right, by the admission of faults to one's bretheren, fraternal correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one's cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance.
Eucharist and Penance. Daily conversion and penance find their source and nourishment in the Eucharist, for in it is made present the sacrifice of Christ which has reconciled us with God. Through the Eucharist those who live from the life of Christ are fed and strengthened. "It is a remedy to free us from our daily faults and to preserve us from mortal sins."
Reading Sacred Scripture, praying the Liturgy of the Hours and the Our Father -- -- every sincere act of worship or devotion revives the spirit of conversion and repentance within us and contributes to the forgiveness of our sins.
The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Churches penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and alms giving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).
The process of conversion and repentance was described by Jesus in the parable of the prodigal son, the center of which is the merciful father: the fascination of illusionary freedom, the abandonment of the father's house; the extreme misery in which the son finds himself after squandering his fortune; his deep humiliation at finding himself obliged to feed swine, and still worse, and wanting to feed on the husks the pigs ate; his reflection on all he has lost; his repentance and decision to declare himself guilty before his father; the journey back; the father’s generous welcome; the father's joy -- -- all these are characteristic of the process of conversion. The beautiful robe, the ring, and the festive banquet are symbols of that new life -- -- pure, worthy, and joyful -- -- of anyone who returns to God and to the bosom of his family, which is the Church. Only the heart of Christ who knows the depths of his Father's love could reveal to us the abyss of his mercy in so simple and beautiful a way.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec VI pg 401
VI - The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation
Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of communion with him. At the same time it damages communion with the Church. For this reason conversion entails both God's forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, which are expressed and accomplished liturgically by the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.
Only God forgives sin
Only God forgives sins. Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, "the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" and exercises this divine power: "Your sins are forgiven." Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name Christ Christ has willed that in her prayer and life and action his whole Church should be the sign and instrument of the forgiveness and reconciliation that he acquired for us at the price of his blood. But he entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry which he charged with the "ministry of reconciliation." The apostle is sent out "on behalf of Christ" with "God making his appeal" through him and pleading: "Be reconciled to God."
Reconciliation with the Church
During his public life Jesus not only forgave sins, but also made plain the effect of this forgiveness: he re-integrated forgiven sinners into the community of the People of God from which sin had alienated or even excluded them. A remarkable sign of this is the fact that Jesus receives sinners at his table, a gesture that expresses in an astonishing way both God's forgiveness and a return to the bosom of the People of God.
In imparting to his apostles his own power to forgive sins the Lord also gives them the authority to reconcile sinners with the Church. This ecclesial dimension of their task is expressed most notably in Christ's solemn words to Simon Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of the apostles united to his head."
The words bind and loose mean: whomever you exclude from your communion, will be excluded from communion with God;
whomever you receive anew into your communion, God will welcome back into his. Reconciliation with the
Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God.
The Sacrament of forgiveness -
Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as "the second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace."
Over the centuries the concrete form in which the Church has exercised this power received from the Lord has varied considerably.
During the first centuries the reconciliation of Christians who had committed particularly grave sins after their Baptism (for example, idolatry, murder, or adultery) was tied to a very rigorous discipline, according to which penitents had to do public penance for their sins, often for years, before receiving reconciliation. To this "order of penitents" (which concerned only certain grave sins), one was only rarely admitted and in certain regions only once-in-a-lifetime. During the seventh century Irish missionaries,
inspired by the Eastern monastic tradition took to continental Europe the "private" practice of penance, which does not require public and prolonged completion of penitential works before reconciliation with the Church. From that time on, the sacrament has been performed in secret between penitent and priest. This new practice envisioned the possibility of repetition and so opened the way to a regular frequenting of this sacrament. It allowed the forgiveness of grave sins and venial sins to be integrated into one sacramental celebration. In its main lines this is the form of penance that the church has practiced down to our day.
Beneath the changes in discipline and celebration that this sacrament has undergone over the centuries, the same fundamental structure is to be discerned. It comprises two equally essential elements: on the one hand, the acts of the man who undergoes conversion through the action of the Holy Spirit: namely, contrition, confession, and satisfaction; on the other, God's action through the intervention of the Church. The Church, who through the bishop and his priests forgives sins in the name of Jesus Christ and determines the manner of satisfaction, also prays for the sinner and does penance with him. Thus the sinner is healed and re-established in ecclesial communion.
The formula of absolution used in the Latin Church expresses the essential elements of this sacrament: the Father of mercies is the source of all forgiveness. He effects the reconciliation of all sinners through the Passover of his Son and the gift of the Spirit, through the prayer and ministry of the Church:
God the father of mercies,
through the death and the resurrection of his Son
has reconciled the world to himself
and sent the Holy Spirit among us
for the forgiveness of sins;
through the ministry of the Church
may God give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit.
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February 23, 2014 - But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our
sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all
the wrongs we have done. 1 John 1:9
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec I p 396
I - What Is This Sacrament Called?
It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes
sacramentally present Jesus’ call to conversion, the first step in returning to
the Father from whom one has strayed by sin.
It is called the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the
Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and
satisfaction.
It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure
or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In
a profound sense it is also a "confession" -- --acknowledgment and praise -- --
of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man.
It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest's
sacramental absolution God grants
the penitent "pardon and peace."
It is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts
to the sinner the love of God who reconciles: "Be reconciled to God." He who
lives by God’s merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord's call: "Go; first
be reconciled to your brother."
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec II p 397
II - Why A Sacrament of Reconciliation After Baptism?
"You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." One must appreciate
the magnitude of the gift God has given us in the sacraments of Christian
initiation in order to grasp the degree to which sin is excluded for him who has
"put on Christ." But the apostle
John also says: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us." And the Lord himself taught us to pray: "Forgive us our
trespasses," linking our forgiveness of one another's offenses to the
forgiveness of our sins that God will grant us.
Conversion to Christ, the new birth of Baptism, the gift of the
Holy Spirit in the Body and Blood of Christ received as food have made us "holy
and without blemish," just as the Church herself, the Bride of Christ, is "holy
and without blemish." Nevertheless the new life received in Christian initiation
has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination
to sin that tradition calls concupiscence, which remains in the baptized such
that with the help of the grace of Christ they may prove themselves in the
struggle of Christian life. This is the struggle of conversion directed toward
holiness and eternal life to which the Lord never ceases to call us.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec
III - The Conversion of the Baptized
Jesus calls us to conversion. This call is a central part of the
proclamation of the kingdom: "the time is fulfilled columns and the kingdom of
God is ahead; repent, and believe in the gospel buried" in the churches
preaching this call is addressed first to those who do not yet know Christ and
his Gospel. Also, baptism is the principal place for the first and fundamental
conversion. It is by faith in the gospel and my baptism that one renounces evil
and gain salvation, that is, the forgiveness of all sins and the gift of new
life.
Christ's call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of
Christians. The second conversion is an honor to task for the whole Church who,
"clasping sinners to her bosom. Is that once holy and always in need of
purification, and follows constantly the path of penance and renewal." This
endeavor of conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a
"contrite heart," drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of
God who loved us first.
St. Peter's conversion after he had denied the Masters three
times bears witness to this. Jesus look of infinite mercy drew tears of
repentance from Peter and, after the Lord's resurrection, a threefold
affirmation of love for him. The second conversion also has a communitarian
dimension, as is clear in the Lord's call to a whole Church:
"Repent!"
St. Ambrose says of the two conversions that, in the church,
"there are water and tears: the water of baptism and the tears of
repentance."
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec IV p 399
IV – Interior Penance
Jesus’ call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets
before him, does not aim first at outward works, "sack cloth and ashes," fasting
and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion.
Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior
conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of
penance.
Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole
life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning
away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At
the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with
hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart
is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi
cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of
heart).
The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new
heart. Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our
hearts return to him: "Restore us to thyself, O Lord, that we may be restored!"
God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of
God's love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins
to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. The human heart is
converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced:
Let us fix our eyes on Christ's blood and understand how
precious it is to his Father, for, poured out for our salvation, it has brought
to the whole world the grace of repentance.
Since Easter, the Holy Spirit has proved "the world wrong about
sin," I.E., proved that the world has not believed in him whom the Father has
sent. But this same Spirit who brings sin to light is also the Counselor who
gives the human heart grace for repentance and
conversion.
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February 16, 2014 - A gentle answer will calm a person's anger, but an unkind answer will cause more
anger. Proverbs 15:1
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec VII p 392
VII - The Eucharist-- -- "Pledge of the Glory to Come"
In an ancient prayer the Church acclaims the mystery of the
Eucharist: "O sacred banquet in which Christ is received as food, the memory of
his Passion is renewed, the soul is filled with grace and a pledge of the life
to come is given to us." If the Eucharist is the memorial of the Passover of the
Lord Jesus, if by our communion at the altar we are filled "with every heavenly
blessing and grace," then the Eucharist is also an anticipation of the heavenly
glory.
At the Last Supper the Lord himself directed his disciples’
attention toward the fulfillment of the Passover in the kingdom of God: "I tell
you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I
drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Whenever the Church celebrates
the Eucharist she remembers this promise and turns her gaze "to him who is to
come." In her prayer she calls for his coming: “Marana tha!”
"Come, Lord Jesus!" "May your grace come and this world pass
away!"
The Church knows that the Lord comes even now in his Eucharist
and that he is there in our midst. However, his presence is veiled. Therefore we
celebrate the Eucharist "awaiting the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior,
Jesus Christ," asking "to share in your glory when every tear will be wiped
away. On that day we shall see you, our God, as you are. We shall become like
you and praise you forever through Christ our
Lord."
There is no surer pledge or clearer sign of this great hope in
the new heaven and new earth "in which righteousness dwells," then the
Eucharist. Every time this mystery is celebrated, "the work of our redemption is
carried on" and we "break the one bread that provides the medicine of
immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live forever in
Jesus Christ."
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February 9, 2014 - But the Lord is faithful and will give you strength and will protect you from the
Evil One. 2 Thessalonians 3:3
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec VI p 386
VI – The Paschal Banquet
The Mass is at the same time, and inseparably, the sacrificial
memorial in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated in the sacred
banquet of communion with the Lord's body and blood. But the celebration of the
Eucharistic sacrifice is only directed toward the intimate union of the faithful
with Christ through communion. To receive communion is to receive Christ himself
who has offered himself for us.
The altar, around which the Church is gathered in celebration of
the Eucharist, represents the two aspects of the same mystery: the altar of the
sacrifice and the table of the Lord. This is all the more so since the Christian
altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly of
his faithful, both as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food from
heaven who is giving himself to us. "For what is the altar of Christ if not the
image of the Body of Christ?" asks St. Ambrose. He says elsewhere, "The altar
represents the body of Christ and the Body of Christ is on the altar." The
liturgy expresses this unity of sacrifice and communion in many prayers. Thus
the Roman Church prays in its anaphora:
We entreat you, almighty God, that by the hands of your holy
Angel this offering may be borne to your altar in heaven in the sight of your
divine Majesty, so that as we receive in communion at this altar the most holy
Body and Blood of your Son we may be filled with every heavenly blessing and
grace.
"Take this and eat it, all of you":
Communion
The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him
in the sacrament of the Eucharist: "Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."
To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so
great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience:
"Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an
unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let
a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any
one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment
upon himself." Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of
Reconciliation before coming to communion.
Before so great a sacrament, the faithful can only echo humbly
and with ardent faith the words of the Centurian: ”Domine, non sum dingus ut
inters sub tecum meum, sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea”(Lord, I am
not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my
soul will be healed."). And in the
Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom the faithful pray in the same spirit:
O Son of God, bring me into Communion today with your mystical
supper. I shall not tell your enemies the secret, nor kiss you with Judas’ kiss.
But like the good thief I cry, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingdom."
To prepare for worthy reception of this sacrament, the faithful
should observe the fast required in their Church. Bodily demeanor (gestures,
clothing) ought to convey the respect, solemnity, and joy of this moment when
Christ becomes our guest.
It is in keeping with the very meaning of the Eucharist that the
faithful, if they have the required dispositions, receive communion when they
participate in the Mass. As the Second Vatican Council says:
"That more perfect form of participation in the Mass whereby the
faithful, after the priest's communion, receive the Lord’s Body from the same
sacrifice, is warmly recommended."
The Church obliges the faithful to take part in the Divine
Liturgy on Sundays and feast days and, prepared by the sacrament of
Reconciliation, to receive the Eucharist at least once a year, if possible
during the Easter season. But the Church strongly encourages the faithful to
receive the holy Eucharist on Sundays and feast days, or more often still, even
daily.
Since Christ is sacramentally present under each of the species,
communion under the species of bread alone makes it possible to receive all the
fruit of Eucharistic grace. For pastoral reasons this manner of receiving
Communion has been legitimately established as the most common form in the Latin
rite. But "the sign of communion is more complete when given under both kinds,
since in that form the sign of the Eucharistic meal appears more clearly." This
is the usual form of receiving Communion in the Eastern rites.
The Fruits of Holy Communion
Holy Communion augments our union with Christ. The principal
fruit of receiving the Eucharist in Holy Communion is an intimate union with
Christ Jesus. Indeed, the Lord said: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
abides in me, and I in him." Life in Christ has its foundation in the
Eucharistic banquet: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the
Father, so he who eats me will live because of me."
On the feasts of the Lord, when the faithful receive the Body of
the Son, they proclaim to one another the Good News that the first fruits of
life have been given, as when the angel said to Mary Magdalene, "Christ is
risen!" Now too are life and resurrection conferred on whoever receives
Christ.
What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion
wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the
risen Christ, a flesh "given life and giving life through the Holy Spirit,"
preserves, increases, and renews the life of grace received at Baptism. This
growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the
bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us
as viaticum.
Holy Communion separates us from sin. The body of Christ we
receive in Holy Communion is "given up for us," and the blood we drink "shed for
the many for the forgiveness of sins." For this reason the Eucharist cannot
unite us to Christ without at the same time cleansing us from past sins and
preserving us from future sins:
For as often as we eat this bread and drink the cup, we proclaim
the death of the Lord. If we proclaim the Lord's death, we proclaim the
forgiveness of sins. If, as often as his blood is poured out, it is poured for
the forgiveness of sins, I should always receive it, so that it may always
forgive my sins. Because I always sin, I should always have a remedy.
As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist
strengthens our charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life; and this
living charity wipes away venial sins. By giving himself to us Christ revives
our love and enables us to break our disordered attachments to creatures and
root ourselves in him:
Since Christ died for us out of love, when we celebrate the
memorial of his death at the moment of sacrifice we ask that love may be granted
to us by the coming of the Holy Spirit. We humbly pray that in the strength of
this love by which Christ willed to die for us, we, by receiving the gift of the
Holy Spirit, may be able to consider the world as crucified for us, and to be
ourselves as crucified to the world... Having received the gift of love, let us
die to sin and live for God.
By the same charity that it enkindles in us, the Eucharist
preserves us from future mortal sins. The more we share the life of Christ and
progress in his friendship, the more difficult it is to break away from him by
mortal sin. The Eucharist is not ordered to the forgiveness of mortal sins -- --
that is proper to the sacrament of Reconciliation. The Eucharist is properly the
sacrament of those who are in full communion with the Church.
The unity of the Mystical Body: the Eucharist makes the Church.
Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. Through it
Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body --the Church.
Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the
Church, already achieved by Baptism.
In Baptism we have been called to form the one body.
The Eucharist fulfills this call: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is
it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it
not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who
are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread:"
If you are the body and members of Christ, then it is your
sacrament that is placed on the table of the Lord; it is your sacrament that you
receive. To that which you are to respond "Amen" ("yes, it is true!") And by
responding to it you assent to it. For you hear the words "the Body of Christ"
and respond “Amen”. Be then a member of the Body of Christ that your Amen may be true.
The Eucharist commits us to the poor. To receive in truth the
Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the
poorest, his brethren:
You have tasted the Blood of the Lord, yet you do not recognize
your brother,... you dishonor this table when you do not judge worthy of sharing
your food someone judged worthy to take part in this meal… God freed you from
all your sins and invited you here, but you have not become more
merciful.
The Eucharist and the unity of Christians. Before the greatness
of this mystery St. Augustine explains, "Oh Sacrament of devotion! O sign of unity!
O bond of charity!" The more painful the experience of the
divisions in the Church, which break the common participation in the table of
the Lord, the more urgent are our prayers to the Lord that the time of complete
unity among all who believe in a return.
The Eastern churches that are not in full communion with the
Catholic Church celebrate the Eucharistic with great love. "These churches,
although separated from us, yet possess true sacraments, above all -- -- by
apostolic succession -- -- the priesthood and the Eucharist, whereby they are
still joined to us in closest intimacy." A certain communion in sacris, and so
in the Eucharist, "given suitable circumstances and the approval of Church
authority, is not merely possible but is encouraged."
Ecclesial communities derived from the Reformation and separated
from the Catholic Church, "have not preserved the proper reality of the
Eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the
sacrament of Holy Orders." It is for this reason that, for the Catholic Church,
Eucharistic intercommunion with these communities is not possible. However these
ecclesial communities, "when they commemorate the Lord's death and resurrection
in the Holy Supper... profess that it signifies life in communion with
Christ and await his coming in glory."
When, in the Ordinary’s judgment, a grave necessity arises,
Catholic ministers may give the sacraments of the Eucharist, Penance, and
Anointing of the Sick to other Christians not in full communion with the
Catholic Church, who ask for them of their own free will, provided they give
evidence of holding the Catholic faith regarding these sacraments and possess
the required dispositions.
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February 2, 2014 - Do to others what you would want them to do to you. Luke 6:31
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec V cont.
The presence of Christ by the power of his word and the Holy Spirit
"Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who
is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us," is present in many
ways to his Church: in his word, in his Church's prayer, "where two or three are
gathered in my name," in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned, in the
sacraments of which he is the author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the
person of the minister. But "he is present... most especially in the Eucharistic
species."
The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is
unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of
the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend." In the most
blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul
and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is
truly, really, and substantially contained." "This presence is called "real" --
-- by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they
could not be "real" too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that
is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes
himself wholly and entirely present."
It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ's body
and blood that Christ becomes present in this sacrament. The Church fathers
strongly affirmed the faith of the Church in the efficacy of the Word of Christ
and of the action of the Holy Spirit to bring about this conversion.
Thus St. John Chrysostom declares:
It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body
and Blood of Christ, but he who was crucified for us, Christ himself. The
priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace
are God’s. This is my body, he says. This word transforms the things offered.
And St. Ambrose says about this conversion:
Be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what
the blessing has consecrated. The power of the blessing prevails over that of
nature, because by the blessing nature itself is changed... Could not Christ’s
word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things
into what they were not before? It is no less a feat to give things their
original nature than to change their nature.
The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring:
"Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was
offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the
Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the
consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole
substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of
the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the
holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation."
The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the
consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist.
Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and
entire in each of their parts, and such a way that the breaking of the bread
does not divide Christ.
Worship of the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the Mass we express
our faith in the real presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine by,
among other ways, genuflecting or bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the
Lord. "The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers to the sacrament
of the Eucharist the cult of adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside
of it, reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to
the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession."
The tabernacle was first intended for the reservation of the
Eucharist in a worthy place so that it could be brought to the sick and those
absent, outside of Mass. As faith in the real presence of Christ in his
Eucharist deepened, the Church became conscious of the meaning of silent
adoration of the Lord present under the Eucharistic species. It is for this
reason that the tabernacle should be located an especially worthy place in the
church and should be constructed in such a way that it emphasizes and manifests
the truth of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain
present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his
departure from his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental
presence; since he was about to offer himself on the cross to save us, he wanted
us to have the memorial of the love with which he loved us "to the end," even to
the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in
our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself up for us, and he remains
under signs that express and communicate this
love:
The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic
worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time
to go to meet him in adoration, and contemplation full of faith, and open to
making amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our
adoration never cease.
"That in this sacrament are the true Body of Christ and his true
Blood is something that "cannot be apprehended by the senses," says St. Thomas,
"but only by faith, which relies on divine authority." For this reason, and a
commentary on Luke 22:19 ("This is my body which is given for you."), St. Cyril
says: "Do not doubt whether this is true, but rather receive the words of the
Savior in faith, for since he is the truth, he cannot lie."
Godhead here in hiding, who I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.
Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;
How says trusty hearing? That shall be believed;
What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly where there’s nothing true.
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January 26, 2014 - Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God's child and
knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec V pg 378
V. The Sacramental Sacrifice: Thanksgiving, Memorial, Presence
If from the beginning Christians have celebrated the Eucharist
and in a form whose substance has not changed despite the great diversity of
times and liturgies, it is because we know ourselves to be bound by the command
the Lord gave on the eve of his Passion: "Do this in remembrance of me."
We carry out this command of the Lord by celebrating the
memorial of his sacrifice. In so doing, we offer to the Father what he has
himself given us: the gifts of his creation, bread and wine which, by the power
of the Holy Spirit and by the words of Christ, have become the body and blood
of Christ. Christ is thus really and mysteriously made present.
We must therefore consider the Eucharist as:
-- -- Thanksgiving and praise to the Father;
-- -- the sacrificial memorial of Christ and his Body;
-- -- the presence of Christ by the power of his word and of his Spirit.
Thanksgiving and praise to the Father
The Eucharist, the sacrament of our salvation accomplished by
Christ on the cross, is also a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for the work
of creation. In the Eucharistic sacrifice the whole of creation loved by God is
presented to the Father through the death and the Resurrection of Christ.
Through Christ the Church can offer the sacrifice of praise in thanksgiving for
all that God has made good, beautiful, and just in creation and in humanity.
The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father, a blessing by
which the Church expresses her gratitude to God for all his benefits, for all
that he has accomplished through creation, redemption, and
sanctification. Eucharist means first of all "thanksgiving."
The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of praise to which the
Church sings the glory of God in the name of all creation. This sacrifice of
praise is possible only through Christ: he unites the faithful to his person, to
his praise, and to his intercession, so that the sacrifice of praise to the
Father is offered through Christ and with him, to be accepted in him.
The Sacrificial memorial of Christ and of his Body, the Church
The Eucharist is
the memorial of Christ's Passover, the making present and the sacramental
offspring of his unique sacrifice, and the liturgy of the Church which is his
Body. In all the Eucharistic prayers we find after the words of institution a
prayer called the anamnesis or
memorial.
In the sense of Sacred Scripture the memorial is not merely the
recollection of past events but the proclamation of the mighty works wrought by
God for men. In the liturgical celebration of these events, they become in a
certain way present and real. This is how Israel understands its liberation from
Egypt: every time Passover is celebrated, the Exodus events are made present to
the memory of believers so that they may conform their lives to
them.
In the New Testament, the memorial takes on new meaning. When
the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ's Passover, and it
is made present: the sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross remains
ever present. "As often as the sacrifice of the Cross by which "Christ our Pasch
has been sacrificed" is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is
carried out."
Because it is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the Eucharist
is also a sacrifice. The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in
the very words of institution: "This is my body which is given for you" and
"This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood." In the
Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which he gave up for us on the cross,
very blood which he "poured out for many for the forgiveness of
sins."
The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes
present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it
applies its fruit:
[Christ], our Lord and God, what was once and for all to offer
himself to God the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish
there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with
his death, at the Last Supper "on the night when he was betrayed," [he wanted]
to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as the nature of
man demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for
all on the cross would be re-presented, it's memory perpetuated until the end of
the world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of sins we daily
commit.
The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are
one single sacrifice: "The victim is one and the same: the same now offers
through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only a
manner of offering is different." "And since in this divine sacrifice which is
celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody
manner on the altar of the cross is contained in offered in an unbloody
manner... this sacrifice is truly
propitiatory."
The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church. The Church
which is the Body of Christ participates in the offering of her Head. With him,
she herself is offered whole and entire. She unites herself to his intercession
with the Father for all men. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes
also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of the faithful, their
praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with
his total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ's sacrifice present on
the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with
his offering.
In the catacombs the Church is often represented as a woman in
prayer, arms outstretched in the praying position. Like Christ who stretched out
his arms on the cross, through him, with him, and in him, she offers herself and
intercedes for all men.
The whole Church is united with the offering and intercession of
Christ. Since he has the ministry of Peter in the Church, the Pope is associated
with every celebration of the Eucharist, wherein he is named as the sign of
servant of the unity of the universal Church. The bishop of the place is always
responsible for the Eucharist, even when a priest presides; the bishop's name is
mentioned to signify his presidency over the particular Church, in the midst of
his presbyterium and with the assistance of deacons. The community intercedes
also for all ministers who, for it and with it, offer the Eucharistic
sacrifice:
Let only that Eucharist be regarded as legitimate which is
celebrated under [the presidency of] the bishop or him to whom he has entrusted
it.
Through the ministry of priests the spiritual sacrifice of the
faithful is completed in union with the sacrifice of Christ the only Mediator,
which in the Eucharist is offered through the priest's hands in the name of the
whole Church in an unbloody and sacramental manner until the Lord himself
comes.
To the offering of Christ are united not only the members of
still here on earth, but also those already in the glory of heaven. In communion
with and commemorating the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the Church
offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. In the Eucharist the Church is as it were at
the foot of the cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of
Christ.
The Eucharistic sacrifice is also offered for the faithful
departed who "have died in Christ but are not yet wholly purified," so that they
may be able to enter into the light and peace of Christ:
Put this body anywhere! Don't trouble yourselves about it! I
simply ask you to remember me at the Lord’s altar wherever you are. Then, we
pray [in the anaphora] for the holy fathers and bishops who have fallen asleep,
and in general for all who have fallen asleep before us, in the belief that it
is a great benefit to the souls on whose behalf the supplication is offered,
while the holy and tremendous Victim is present...... By offering to God our
supplications for those who have fallen asleep, if they have sinned, we... offer
Christ sacrificed for the sins of all, and so render favorable, for them and for
us, the God who loves me.
St. Augustine admirably summed up this doctrine that moves us to
ever more complete participation in our Redeemer's sacrifice which we celebrate
in the Eucharist:
This wholly redeemed city, the assembly and society of the
saints, is offered to God as a universal sacrifice by the high priest who in the
form of a slave went so for as to offer himself for us in his Passion, to make
us the Body of so great a head …Such is the sacrifice of Christians: "we who are
many are one Body in Christ." The Church continues to reproduce this sacrifice
in the sacrament of the altar so well-known to believers wherein it is evident
to them that in what she offers she herself is
offered.
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January 19, 2014 - Don't ever forget kindness and truth. Wear them like a necklace. Write them on your
heart as if on a tablet. Then you will be respected and will please both God
and people. Proverbs 3:3-4
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec IV pg 374
IV. The Liturgical Celebration of the Eucharist
The Mass of all ages
As early as the second century we have the witness of St. Justin
Martyr for the basic lines of the order of the Eucharistic celebration. They
have stayed the same until our own day for all the great liturgical families.
St. Justin wrote the pagan emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) around the year 155,
explaining what Christians did:
On the day we call the day of the sun, all who dwell in the city
or country gather in the same place.
The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are
read, as much as time permits.
When the reader has finished, he who presides over those
gathered admonishes and challenges them to imitate these beautiful
things.
Then we all rise together and offer prayers for ourselves... and
for all others, wherever they may be, so that we may be found righteous by our
life and actions, and faithful to the commandments, so as to obtain eternal
salvation.
When the prayers are concluded we exchange the kiss.
Then someone brings bread and a cup of water and wine mixed
together to him who presides over the
brethren.
He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the
universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and for a
considerable time he gives thanks (in Greek: eucharistian) that we have been
judged worthy of these gifts.
When he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all present
give voice to an acclimation by saying:
"Amen."
When he who presides has given thanks and the people have
responded, those whom we call deacons give to those present the “eucharisted”
bread, wine and water and take them to those who are absent.
The liturgy of the Eucharist unfolds according to a fundamental
structure which has been preserved throughout the centuries down to our own day.
It displays two great parts that form a fundamental unity:
-- the gathering, the liturgy of the Word, with readings,
homily, and general intercessions;
-- the liturgy of the Eucharist, with the presentation of the
bread and wine, the consecratory thanksgiving, and
communion.
The liturgy of the Word and liturgy of the Eucharist together
form "one single act of worship"; the Eucharistic table set for us in the table
both of the Word of God and of the Body of the
Lord.
Is this not the same movement as the Paschal meal of the risen
Jesus with his disciples? Walking with them he explained the Scriptures to them;
sitting with them at table "he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to
them."
The movement of the celebration
All gather together. Christians come together in one place for
the Eucharistic assembly. At its head is Christ himself, the principal agent of
the Eucharist. He is high priest of the New Covenant; it is he himself who
presides invisibly over every Eucharistic celebration. It is in representing him
that the bishop or priest acting in the person of Christ the head (in persona
Christi capitis) presides over the assembly, speaks after the readings, receives
the offerings, and says the Eucharistic Prayer. All have their own active parts
to play in the celebration, each in his own way: readers, those who bring up the
offerings, those who give communion, and the whole people whose "Amen" manifests
their participation.
The Liturgy of the Word includes "the writings of the prophets,"
that is, the Old Testament, and "the memoirs of the apostles" (their letters and
the Gospels). After the homily, which is an exhortation to accept this Word as
what it truly is, the Word of God, and to put into practice, come the
intercessions for all men, according to the Apostle's words: "I urge that
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men,
for kings, and all who are in high
positions."
The presentation of the offerings (the Offertory). Then,
sometimes in procession, the bread and wine are brought to the altar; they will
be offered by the priest in the name of Christ in the Eucharistic sacrifice in
which they will become his body and blood. It is the very action of Christ at
the Last Supper -- -- "taking the bread and a cup." "The Church alone offers
this pure oblation to the Creator, when she offers what comes forth from his
creation but thanksgiving." The presentation of the offerings at the altar takes
up the gesture of Melchizedek and commits the Creator's gifts into the hands of
Christ who, in his sacrifice, brings to perfection all human attempts to offer
sacrifices.
From the very beginning Christians have brought, along with the
bread and wine for the Eucharist, gifts to share with those in need. This custom
of the collection, ever appropriate, is inspired by the example of Christ who
became poor to make us rich:
Those who are well off, and who are also willing, give as each
chooses. What is gathered is given to him who presides to assist orphans and
widows, those whom illness or any other cause has deprived of resources,
prisoners, immigrants and, in a word, all who are in need.
The anaphora: with the Eucharistic Prayer -- -- the prayer of
thanksgiving and consecration -- -- we come to the heart and summit of the
celebration:
In the preface, the church gives thanks to the Father, through
Christ, in the Holy Spirit, for all his works: creation, redemption, and
sanctification. The whole community thus joins in the unending praise that the
Church in heaven, the angels and all the saints, sing to the thrice-holy
God.
In the epiclesis, the Church asks the Father to send his Holy
Spirit (or the power of his blessing) on the bread and wine, so that by his
power they may become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and so that those who
take part in the Eucharist may be one body and one spirit (some liturgical
traditions put the epiclesis after the
anamnesis).
In the institution narrative, the power of the words in the
action of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, make sacramentally present
under the species of bread and wine Christ's body and blood, his sacrifice
offered on the cross once for all.
In the anamnesis that follows, the Church calls to mind the
Passion, resurrection, and glorious return of Christ Jesus; she presents to the
Father the offering of his Son which reconciles us with
him.
In the intercessions, the Church indicates that the Eucharist is
celebrated in communion with the whole Church in heaven and on earth, the living
and the dead, and in communion with the pastors of the church, the Pope, the
diocesan bishop, his presbyterium and his deacons, and all the bishops of the
whole world together with their Churches.
In the communion, preceded by the Lord's prayer and the breaking
of the bread, the faithful receive "the bread of heaven" and "the cup of
salvation," the body and blood of Christ who offered himself "for the life of
the world":
Because this bread and wine have been made Eucharist
("eucharisted," according to an ancient expression), "we call this food
Eucharist, and no one may take part in it unless he believes that what we teach
is true, has received baptism for the forgiveness of sins and new birth, and
lives in keeping with what Christ taught."
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January 12, 2014 - Each person should judge his own actions and not compare himself with others. Then he
can be proud for what he himself has done. Galatians 6:4
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec III pg 371
III. The Eucharist in the Economy of Salvation
The signs of bread and wine
At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and
wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become
Christ's Body and Blood. Faithful to the Lord's command the Church continues to
do, in his memory and until his glorious return, what he did on the eve of his
Passion: "He took bread…." "He took the cup filled with wine….” The signs of
bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of
Christ; they continue also to signify the goodness of creation. Thus in the
Offertory we give thanks to the creator for bread and wine, fruit of the "work
of human hands," but above all as "fruit of the earth" and "of the vine”--
gifts of the Creator. The Church sees in the gesture of the king-priest
Melchizedek, who "brought out bread and wine," a prefiguring of her own
offering.
In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice
among the first fruits of the earth as a sign of grateful acknowledgment to the
Creator. But they also received a new significance in the context of the Exodus:
the unleavened bread that Israel eats every year at Passover commemorates the
haste of the departure that liberated them from Egypt; the remembrance of the
manna in the desert will always recall to Israel that it lives by the bread of
the Word of God; their daily bread is the fruit of the promised land, the pledge
of God's faithfulness to his promises. The "cup of blessing" at the end of the
Jewish Passover meal adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological
dimension: the messianic expectation of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. When Jesus
instituted the Eucharist, he gave a new and definitive meaning to the blessing
of the bread and the cup.
The miracles of the multiplication of the loaves, what the Lord
says the blessing, brakes and distributes the loaves through his disciples to
feed the multitude, prefigure the superabundance of this unique bread of his
Eucharist. The sign of water turned into wine at Cana already announces the Hour
of Jesus's glorification. It makes
manifest the fulfillment of the wedding feast in the Father's kingdom, where the
faithful will drink the new wine that has become the Blood of
Christ.
The first announcement of the Eucharist divided the disciples,
just as the announcement of the Passion scandalized them: "This is a hard
saying; who can listen to it?" The Eucharist and the Cross are stumbling blocks.
It is the same mystery and it never ceases to be an occasion of division. "Will
you also go away?": The Lord's question echoes through the ages,
as a loving invitation to discover that only
he has "the words of eternal life" and that to receive in faith the gift of his
Eucharist is to receive the Lord himself.
The institution of the Eucharist
The Lord, having loved those who were his own, loved them to the
end. Knowing that the hour had come to leave this world a return to the Father,
in the course of a meal he washed their feet and gave them a commandment to
love. In order to leave them a pledge of his love, in order never to depart from
his own and to make them sharers in his Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as
the memorial of his death and Resurrection and commanded his apostles to
celebrate it until his return; "thereby he constituted them priests of the New
Testament."
The three synoptic Gospels and St. Paul have handed on to us the
account of the institution of the Eucharist; St. John for his part, reports the
words of Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum that prepare for the institution of
the Eucharist: Christ calls himself the bread of life, come down from
heaven.
Jesus chose the time of Passover to fulfill what he had
announced at Capernaum: giving his disciples his Body and his
Blood:
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the passover
lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare
the passover meal for us, that we may eat it….” They went... and prepared the
passover. And when the hour came, he sat at table, and the apostles with him.
And he said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you
before I suffer; for I tell you I shall not eat it again until it is fulfilled
in the kingdom of God."... And he took bread, and when he and given thanks he
broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body which is given up for
you. Do this in remembrance of me." And likewise the cup after supper saying,
“This cup which is poured out for you in the New Covenant in my blood."
By celebrating the Last Supper with his apostles in the course
of the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning.
Jesus’ passing over to his father by his death and Resurrection, the new
Passover, is anticipated in the supper and celebrated in the Eucharist; which
fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church
and the glory of the kingdom.
“Do this in memory of me”
The command of Jesus to repeat his actions and words "until he
comes" does not only ask us to remember Jesus and what he did. It is directed at
the liturgical celebration, by the apostles and their successors, of the
memorial of Christ, of his life, of his death, of his Resurrection, and of his
intercession in the presence of the Father.
From the beginning the Church has been faithful to the Lord's
command. Of the Church of Jerusalem is written:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers... Day by day attending
the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food
with glad and generous hearts.
It was above all on "the first day of the week," Sunday, the day
of Jesus' resurrection, that the Christians meant "to break bread." From that
time on down to our own day the celebration of the Eucharist has been continued
so that today we encounter it everywhere in the Church with the same fundamental
structure. It remains the center of the Church's life.
Thus from celebration to celebration, as they proclaim the
Paschal mystery of Jesus "until he comes," the pilgrim People of God advances,
"following the narrow Way of the Cross," toward the heavenly banquet, when all
the elect will be seated at the table of the kingdom.
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January 5, 2014 - Always be humble, gentle, and patient, accepting each other in love. Ephesians 4:2
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec I pg 368
I. The Eucharist –Source and Summit of Ecclesial Life
The Eucharist is "source and summit of the Christian life." "The
other sacraments, indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the
apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is
contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our
Pasch."
"The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that
communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the
Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God's action sanctifying
the world in Christ and of the worship men offered to Christ and through him to
the Father and the Holy Spirit."
Finally, I the Eucharistic celebration we already unite
ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will
be all in all.
In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith:
"our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn
confirms our way of thinking."
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec II
II. What Is This Sacrament Called?
The inexhaustible richness of this sacrament is expressed in the
different names we give it. Each name evokes aspects of it. It is
called:
Eucharist, because it is an action of thanksgiving to God. The
Greek words eucharistein and eulogein recall the Jewish blessings that proclaim
-- -- especially during a meal
-- -- God's works: creation, redemption, and sanctification.
The Lord’s supper, because of its connection with the supper
which the Lord took with his disciples on the eve of his Passion and because it
anticipates the wedding feast of the Lamb in the heavenly
Jerusalem.
The Breaking of Bread, because Jesus used this rite, part of a
Jewish meal, when as master of the table he blessed and distributed the bread,
above all at the Last Supper. It is by this action that his disciples will
recognize him after his Resurrection, and it is this expression that the first
Christians will use to designate their Eucharistic assemblies; by doing so they
signified that all who eat the one broken bread, Christ, enter into communion
with him and form but one body in him.
The Eucharistic assembly (synaxis), because the Eucharist is
celebrated amid the assembly of the faithful, the visible expression of the
Church.
The memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection.
The Holy Sacrifice, because it makes present the one sacrifice
of Christ the Savior and includes the Churches offering. The terms holy
sacrifice of the Mass, "sacrifice of praise," spiritual sacrifice, pure and holy
sacrifice are also used, since it completes and surpasses all the sacrifices of
the Old Covenant.
The Holy and Divine Liturgy, because the Church’s whole liturgy
finds its center and most intense expression in the celebration of this
sacrament; in the same sense we also call its celebration the Sacred Mysteries.
We speak of the Most Blessed Sacrament because it is the Sacrament of
sacraments. The Eucharistic species reserved in the tabernacle are designated
by the same name.
Holy Communion, because by this sacrament we unite ourselves to
Christ, who makes us sharers in his Body and Blood to form a single body. We
also call it: the holy things (ta hagia; sancta) -- -- the first meaning of the
phrase "communion of saints" in the Apostles Creed -- -- the bread of Angels,
bread from heaven, medicine of immortality,
viaticum….
Holy Mass (Missa), because the liturgy in which the mystery of
salvation is accomplished concludes with the sending forth (missio) of the
faithful, so that they may fulfill God's will in their daily
lives.
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December 29, 2013 - In the same way, you should be a light for other people. Live so that they will
see the good things you do and will praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
Hope you had a Merry and Joyous Christmas and I wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 2 Sec IV pg 364
Who Can Receive the Sacrament
Every baptized person not yet confirmed can and should receive the sacrament of
Confirmation. Since Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist form a unity, it
follows that "the faithful are obliged to receive this sacrament at the
appropriate time," for without Confirmation and Eucharist, Baptism is certainly
valid and efficacious, but Christian initiation remains incomplete.
For centuries, Latin custom has indicated "the age of discretion" as the reference
point for receiving Confirmation. But in danger of death children should be
confirmed even if they have not yet attained the age of discretion.
Although Confirmation is sometimes called the "sacrament of Christian maturity," we must
not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth, nor forget that
the baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited election and does not need
"ratification" to become effective. St. Thomas reminds us of this:
Age of body does not determine age of soul. Even in childhood man can attain
spiritual maturity: as the book of Wisdom says: "For old age is not honored for
length of time, or measured by number of years." Many children, through the
strength of the Holy Spirit they have received, have bravely fought for Christ
even to the shedding of their blood.
Preparation for Confirmation should aim at leading the Christian toward a more intimate
union with Christ a more lively familiarity with the Holy Spirit -- -- his
actions, his gifts, and his biddings-- -- in order to be more capable of
assuming the apostolic responsibilities of Christian life. To this end
catechesis for Confirmation should strive to awaken a sense of belonging to the
Church of Jesus Christ, the universal Church as well as the parish community.
The latter bears special responsibility for the preparation of confirmands.
To receive Confirmation one must be in a state of grace. One should receive the
sacrament of Penance in order to be cleansed for the gift of the Holy
Spirit. More intense prayer should prepare one to receive the strength and graces
of the Holy Spirit with docility and readiness to act.
Candidates for Confirmation, as for Baptism, fittingly seek spiritual help of a sponsor. To
emphasize the unity of the two sacraments, it is appropriate that this will be
one of the baptismal godparents.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 2 Sec V pg 366
V. The Minister of Confirmation
The original minister of Confirmation is the bishop.
In the East, ordinarily the priest who baptizes also immediately confers
Confirmation in one and the same celebration. But he does so with sacred chrism
consecrated by the patriarch or the bishop, thus expressing the apostolic unity
of the Church whose bonds are strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation. In
the Latin Church, the same discipline applies to the Baptism of adults or to the
reception into full communion with the Church of a person baptized in another
Christian community that does not have a valid Confirmation.
In the Latin Rite, the ordinary minister of Confirmation is the bishop. If the need
arises the bishop may grant the faculty of administering Confirmation to
priests, although it is fitting that he confer it himself, mindful that the
celebration of Confirmation has been temporally separated from Baptism for this
reason. Bishops are the successors of the apostles. They have received the
fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders. The administration of this sacrament
by them demonstrates clearly that its effect is to unite those who receive it
more closely to the Church, to her apostolic origins, and to her mission of
bearing witness to Christ.
If a Christian is in danger of death, any priest can give Confirmation. Indeed the
Church desires that none of her children, even the youngest, should depart this
world without having been perfected by the Holy Spirit with the gift of Christ's
fullness.
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December 22, 2013 - If
any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and
without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 2 Sec II III p360
II - The Signs and the Rite of Confirmation
In treating the rite of Confirmation, it is fitting to consider the sign of
anointing and what it signifies and imprints: a spiritual seal.
Anointing, in Biblical and other ancient symbolism, is rich in meaning: oil is a sign of
abundance and joy; it cleanses (anointing before and after a bath) and limbers
(the anointing of athletes and wrestlers); oil is a sign of healing, since it is
soothing to bruises and wounds; and it makes radiant with beauty, health, and
strength.
Anointing with oil has all these meanings in the sacramental life. The pre-baptismal
anointing with the oil of catechumens signifies cleansing and strengthening; the
anointing of the sick expresses healing and comfort. The post-baptismal
anointing with sacred chrism in Confirmation and ordination is the sign of
consecration. By Confirmation Christians, that is, those who are anointed, share
more completely in the mission of Jesus Christ and the fullness of the Holy
Spirit with which he is filled, so that their lives may give off "the aroma of
Christ."By this anointing the confirmed receives the "mark," the seal of the
Holy Spirit. A seal is a symbol
of a person, a sign of personal authority, or ownership of an object. Hence
soldiers were marked with their leader’s seal and slaves with their master’s. A
seal authenticates a juridical act or document and occasionally makes it secret.
Christ himself declared that he was marked with his Fathers seal. Christians are also
marked with a seal: "It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has
commissioned us; he has put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts
as a guarantee." This seal on the Holy Spirit marks our total belonging to
Christ, our enrollment in his service forever, as well as the promise of divine
protection in the great eschatological trial.
The celebration of confirmation
The consecration of the sacred chrism is an important action that precedes the
celebration of Confirmation, but is in a certain way a part of it. It is the
bishop who, in the course of the Chrism Mass of Holy Thursday, consecrates the
sacred chrism for his whole diocese. In some Eastern Churches this consecration
is even reserved to the patriarch:
The liturgy of Antioch expresses the epiclesis for the consecration of the sacred
chrism (myron) in this way: "[Father... send your Holy Spirit] on us and on this
oil which is before us and consecrate it, so that it may be for all who are
anointed and marked with it holy myron, priestly myron, royal myron, anointing
with gladness, clothing with light, a cloak of salvation, a spiritual gift, the
sanctification of souls and bodies, imperishable happiness, the indelible seal,
a buckler of faith, and a fearsome helmet against all the works of the adversary."
When Confirmation is celebrated separately from baptism, as is the case in the Roman
Rite, the Liturgy of Confirmation begins with the renewal of baptismal promises
and the profession of faith by the confirmands. This clearly shows that Confirmation
follows Baptism. When adults are baptized, they immediately receive Confirmation
and participate in the Eucharist.
In the Roman Rite the bishop extends his hands over the whole group of the
confirmands. Since the time of the apostles this gesture has signified the gift
of the Spirit. The bishop invokes the outpouring of the Spirit in these words:
All-powerful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by water and the Holy Spirit you freed
your sons and daughters from sin and gave them new life. Send your Holy Spirit
upon them to be their helper and guide. Give them the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge
and reverence. Fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence. We
ask this through Christ our Lord.
The essential right of the sacrament follows. In the Latin rite, "the sacrament of
Confirmation is conferred through the anointing with chrism on the forehead,
which is done by the laying on of hand, and through the words: ‘Accipe
signaculum doni Spiritus Sancti’ [Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.]."
In the Eastern Churches of Byzantine rite after a prayer of epiclesis, the more
significant parts of the body are anointed with myron: forehead, eyes, nose,
ears, lips, chest, back, hands, and feet. Each anointing is accompanied by the
formula Signaculum doni Spiritus Sancti’: "the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit"
The sign of peace that concludes the right of the sacrament signifies and
demonstrates ecclesial communion with the bishop and with all the faithful.
III - The Effects of Confirmation
It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of
Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to
the apostles on the day of Pentecost.
From this fact, Confirmation brings an increase in deepening of baptismal grace:
---- It roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, "Abba! Father!";
---- It unites us more firmly to Christ;
---- it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us;
---- it renders our bond with the Church more perfect;
---- it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the
faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of
Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross:
Recall then that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge
and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God's presence. Guard what you have
received. God the Father has marked you with his sign; Christ the Lord has
confirmed you and has placed his pledge, the Spirit, in your hearts.
Like Baptism which it completes, Confirmation is given only once, for it too imprints
on the soul an indelible spiritual mark, the "character," which is the sign that
Jesus Christ has marked a Christian with the seal of his Spirit by clothing him
with power from on high so that he may be his witness.
This "character" perfects the common priesthood of the faithful, received in Baptism,
and "the confirmed person receives the power to profess faith in Christ publicly
and as it were officially (quasi ex officio)."
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December 15, 2013 - It is you who bless the upright, Yahweh, you surround them with favour as with a
shield. Psalms 5:12
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 2 Sec I p358
The Sacrament of Confirmation
I - Confirmation in the economy of salvation
In the Old Testament prophets announced the Spirit of the Lord would rest on the
hoped-for Messiah for his saving mission. The descent of the Holy Spirit on
Jesus at his baptism by John was the sign that this was he who was to come, the
Messiah, the Son of God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit; his whole life and
his whole mission are carried out in total communion with the Holy Spirit and
the father gives him "without measure."
This fullness of the Spirit was not to remain uniquely the Messiah’s, but was to be
communicated to the whole messianic people. On several occasions Christ promised
this outpouring of the Spirit, a promise which he fulfilled first on Easter
Sunday and then more strikingly at Pentecost. Filled with the Holy Spirit the
apostles began to proclaim again “the mighty works of God," and Peter declared
this outpouring of the Spirit to be the sign of the messianic age. Those who
believed in the apostolic preaching and were baptized received the gift of the
Holy Spirit in their turn.
"From that time on the apostles, in fulfillment of Christ's will, imparted to the
newly baptized by the laying on of hands the gift of the Spirit that completes
the grace of Baptism. For this reason in the Letter to the Hebrews the doctrine
concerning Baptism and the laying on of hands is listed among the first elements
of Christian instruction. The imposition of hands is rightly recognized by the
Catholic tradition as the origin of the Sacrament of Confirmation, which in a
certain way perpetuates the grace of Pentecost in the Church."
Very early, the better to signify the gift of the Holy Spirit, an anointing with
perfumed oil (chrism) was added to the laying on of hands. This anointing
highlights the name "Christian," which means "anointed" and derives from that of
Christ himself whom God "anointed with the Holy Spirit." This rite of anointing
has continued ever since, in both East and West. For this reason the Eastern
Churches called this Sacrament Chrismation, anointing with chrism, or myron
which means "chrism." In the West, the term Confirmation suggests that this Sacrament both confirms baptism
strengthens baptismal grace.
Two traditions: East and West
In the first centuries Confirmation generally comprised one single celebration with
Baptism, forming with it a "double sacrament," according to the expression of
St. Cyprian. Among other reasons, the multiplication of infant baptisms all through the year, the increase of
rural parishes, and the growth of dioceses often prevented the bishop from being
present at all baptismal celebrations. In the West the desire to reserve the
completion of Baptism to the bishop caused the temporal separation of the two
sacraments. The East has kept them united, so that Confirmation is conferred by
the priest who baptizes. But he can do so only with the "myron” consecrated by a bishop.
A custom of the Roman Catholic facilitated the development of the Western
practice: a double anointing with sacred chrism after Baptism. The first
anointing of the neophyte coming out of the baptismal bath was performed by the
priest; it was completed by a second anointing on the forehead of the newly
baptized by the bishop. The first anointing with sacred chrism, by the priest,
has remained attached to the baptismal rite; it signifies the participation of
the one baptized in the prophetic, priestly, and kingly offices of Christ. If
baptism is conferred on an adult, there is only one post-baptismal anointing,
that of Confirmation.
The practice of the Eastern Churches gives greater emphasis to the unity of
Christian initiation. That of the Latin Church more clearly expresses the
communion of the new Christian with the bishop as guarantor and servant of the
unity, catholicity and apostolicity of his Church, and hence the connection with
the apostolic origins of Christ's church.
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December 8, 2013 - Yahweh will do all things for me. Yahweh, your faithful love endures for ever, do not
abandon what you have made. Psalms 138:8
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 1 Sec VI VII p352
VI - The Necessity of Baptism
The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands
his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism
is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and
who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not
know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude
this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the
Lord to see that all who can be baptized are "reborn of water and the Spirit."
God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound
by his sacraments.
The Church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the
sake of the faith without having received Baptism are baptized by their death
for and with Christ. This Baptism of blood, like the desire for Baptism, brings
about the fruits of Baptism without being a sacrament.
For catechumens who die before their Baptism, their explicit desire to receive it,
together with repentance for their sins, and charity, assures them the salvation
that they were not able to receive through the sacrament.
“Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the the
same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all
the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal
mystery."
Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the
truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can
be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism
explicitly if they had known its necessity.
As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them
to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them.
Indeed,
the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved,
and Jesus’ tenderness toward children which caused him to say: "Let the children
come to me, do not hinder them," allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation
for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the
Church's call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift
of holy Baptism.
VII – The Grace of Baptism
The different effects of Baptism are signified by the perceptible elements of the
sacramental rite. Immersion in water symbolizes not only death and purification,
but also regeneration and renewal. Thus the two principal effects are
purification from sins and new birth in the Holy Spirit.
For the forgiveness of sins...
By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as
all punishment for sin. In those who have been reborn nothing remains that would
impede their entry into the kingdom of God, neither Adam’s sin, nor personal
sin, nor the consequences of sin, the greatest of which is separation from
God.
Yet certain temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized, such as suffering,
illness, death, and such frailties inherent in life as weaknesses of character,
and so on, as well as an inclination to sin that Tradition calls concupiscence,
or metaphorically, "the tinder for sin" (fomes peccati); since concupiscence "is
left for us to wrestle with, it cannot harm those who do not consent but
manfully resist it by the grace of Jesus Christ." Indeed, "an athlete is not
crowned unless he competes according to the rules."
"A new creature"
Baptism not only purifies us from all sins, but also makes neophyte "a new creature, "an
adopted son of God, who has become a "partaker of the divine nature," member of
Christ" and co-heir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit.
The most Holy Trinity gives the baptized sanctifying grace, the grace of
justification:
-- -- enabling them to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him through the theological virtues;
---- giving them the power to live and act under the prompting of the Holy Spirit through
the gifts of the Holy Spirit;
---- allowing them to grow in goodness through the moral virtues.
Thus the whole organism of the Christian's supernatural life has its roots in Baptism.
Incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ
Baptism makes us members of the Body of Christ: "Therefore... we are members one of
another."
Baptism incorporates us into the Church.
From the baptismal fonts is born the one People of God of the New
Covenant, which transcends all the natural or human limits of nations, cultures,
races, and sexes: "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body."
The baptized have become "living stones" to be "built into a spiritual house, to be
a holy priesthood." By Baptism they share in the priesthood of Christ, in his
prophetic and royal mission. They are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, God's own people, that [they] may declare the wonderful deeds of him who
called [them] out of darkness into his marvelous light." Baptism gives a share
in the common priesthood of all believers.
Having become a member of the Church, the person baptized belongs no longer to himself,
but to him who died and rose for us. From now on, he is called to be subject to
others, to serve them in the communion of the Church, and to "obey and submit"
to the Church's leaders, holding them in respect and affection. Just as Baptism
is the source of responsibilities and duties, the baptized person also enjoys
rights within the Church: to receive the sacraments, to be nourished with the
Word of God and to be sustained by the other spiritual helps of the Church.
"Reborn as sons of God, [the baptized] must profess before men the faith they have
received from God through the Church” and participate in the apostolic and
missionary activity of the People of God.
The sacramental bond of the unity of Christians
Baptism constitutes the foundation of communion among all Christians, including those
who are not yet in full communion with the Catholic Church: "For men who believe
in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in some, though imperfect,
communion with the Catholic Church. Justified by faith in Baptism, [they] are
incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians,
and with good reason are accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic
Church."
"Baptism therefore constitutes the sacramental bond of unity existing among
all who through it are reborn."
An indelible spiritual mark...
Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, the person baptized is configured to Christ. Baptism
seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his
belonging to Christ. No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents Baptism
from bearing the fruits of salvation. Given once for all, Baptism cannot be repeated.
Incorporated into the Church by Baptism, the faithful have received the sacramental character
that consecrates them for Christian religious worship. The baptismal seal
enables and commits Christians to serve God by a vital participation in the holy
liturgy of the Church and to exercise their baptismal priesthood by the witness
of holy lives and practical charity.
The Holy Spirit has marked us with the seal of the Lord ("Dominicus character") “for
the day of redemption." "Baptism indeed is the seal of eternal life."
The faithful Christian who has "kept the seal" until the end, remaining faithful to the
demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life "marked with the sign of faith," with his baptismal
faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God -- -- the consummation of faith
-- -- and in the hope of resurrection.
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December 1, 2013 - Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful
or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not
take offense or store up grievances. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 1:6
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 1 Sec IV, V p349
IV - Who can receive baptism?
"Every person not yet baptized and only such person is able to be baptized."
The Baptism of adults
Since the beginning of the Church, adult baptism is the common practice where the
proclamation of the Gospel is still new. The catechumenate (preparation for
Baptism) therefore occupies an important place. This initiation into Christian
faith and life should dispose the catechumen to receive the gift of God in
Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist.
The catechumenate, or formation of catechumens, aims at bringing their conversion
and faith to maturity, in response to the divine initiative and in union with an ecclesial
community. The catechumenate is to be "a formation in the whole
Christian life... during which the disciples will be joined to Christ their teacher.
The catechumens should be properly initiated into the mystery of salvation
and the practice of the evangelical virtues, and they should be introduced
into the life of faith, liturgy, and charity of the People of God by
successive sacred rites."
Catechumens "are already joined to the Church, they are already of the household of Christ,
and are quite frequently already living a life of faith, hope, and charity."
"With love and solicitude mother Church already embraces them as her own.”
The Baptism of infants
Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need
of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought
into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called.
The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly
manifest in infant Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the
priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism
shortly after birth.
Christian parents will recognize that this practice also accords with their role as
nurturers of the life that God has entrusted to them.
The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church.
There is explicit testimony to this practice from the second century on,
and it is quite possible that, from the beginning of the apostolic preaching,
when whole "households" received baptism, infants may also have been
baptized.
Faith and Baptism
Baptism is the sacrament of faith. But faith needs the community of believers. It is
only within the faith of the Church that each of the faithful can believe. The faith
required for Baptism is not a perfect and mature faith, but a beginning
that is called to develop. The catechumen or the godparent is asked: "what do
you ask of God's church?: The response is:
"Faith"
For all the baptized, children or adults, faith must grow after Baptism. For this
reason the Church celebrates each year at the Easter Vigil the renewal of
baptismal promises. Reparation for Baptism leads only to the threshold of life.
Baptism is the source of that new life in Christ from which the entire Christian
life springs forth.
For the grace of Baptism to unfold, the parents help is important. So too is the
role of the Godfather and godmother, who must be firm believers, able and ready
to help the newly baptized -- -- child or adult -- --on the road of Christian life.
Their task is a truly ecclesial function (officium).
The whole ecclesial community bears some responsibility for the
development and safeguarding of the grace given at Baptism.
V - Who can Baptize?
The ordinary ministers of Baptism are the bishop and priest and, in the Latin
Church, also the deacons. In case of necessity, anyone, even a non-baptized
person, with the required intention, can baptize, by using the Trinitarian
baptismal formula. The intention
required is to will to do what the Church does when she baptizes. The Church
finds the reason for this possibility in the universal saving will of God and
the necessity of Baptism for salvation.
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November 24, 2013 - Then since the gifts that we have differ according to the grace that was given to each of us:
if it is a gift of prophecy, we should prophesy as much as our faith tells us; Romans 12:6
Christian Initiation
From the time of the apostles, becoming a Christian has been accomplished by a
journey and initiation in several stages. This journey can be covered rapidly or
slowly, but certain essential elements will always have to be present:
proclamation of the Word, acceptance of the Gospel entailing conversion,
profession of faith, Baptism itself, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and
admission to Eucharistic communion.
This initiation has varied greatly through the centuries according to circumstances.
In the first centuries of the Church, Christian initiation saw considerable
development.
A long period of catechumenate included a series of preparatory
rites, which were liturgical landmarks along the path of catechumenal
preparation and culminated in the celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation.
Where infant Baptism has become the form in which the Sacrament is usually celebrated,
it has become a single act encapsulating the preparatory stages of Christian
initiation in a very abridged way. By its very nature infant Baptism requires a
post-baptismal catechumenate. Not only is there a need for instruction after
Baptism, but also for the necessary flowering of baptismal grace in personal growth.
The catechism has its proper place here.
The second Vatican Council restored for the Latin Church "the catechumenate for
adults, comprising several distinct steps." The rites for these stages are to
be found in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The Council
also gives permission that: "In mission countries, in addition to what is furnished
by the Christian tradition, those elements of initiation rites may be admitted
which are already in use among some peoples insofar as they can be adapted to
the Christian ritual."
Today and all the rights, Latin and Eastern, the Christian initiation of adults begins
with their entry into the catechumenate and reaches its culmination in a single celebration
of the three sacraments of initiation: Baptism, Confirmation,
and the Eucharist. In the Eastern rites the Christian initiation of infants
also begins with Baptism followed immediately by Confirmation and the
Eucharist,while in the Roman rite it is followed by years of catechesis before being
completed later by Confirmation and the Eucharist, the summit of their
Christian initiation.
The mystagogy of the celebration
The meaning and grace of the sacrament of Baptism are clearly seen in the rites of
its celebration. By following the gestures and words of this celebration with
attentive participation, the faithful are initiated into the riches this
sacrament signifies and actually brings about in each newly baptized person.
The sign of the cross, on the threshold of celebration, marks with the imprint of
Christ the one who is going to belong to him signifies the grace of the redemption
Christ won for us by his cross.
The proclamation of the Word of God enlightens the candidates and the assembly with
the revealed truth and elicits the response of faith, which is inseparable from Baptism.
Indeed Baptism is "the sacrament of faith" in a particular way, since
it is the sacramental entry into the life of faith.
Since Baptism signifies liberation from sin and from its instigator the devil, one or
more exorcisms are pronounced over the candidate. The celebrant then anoints him
with the oil of catechumens, or lays his hands on him, and he explicitly
renounces Satan. Thus prepared, he is able to confess the faith of the Church,
to which he will be "entrusted” by Baptism.
The baptismal water is consecrated by a prayer of epiclesis (either at this moment
or at the Easter Vigil). The Church asks God that through his Son the power of the
Holy Spirit may be sent upon the water, so that those who will baptized in
it may be "born of water and the Spirit."
The essential rite of the sacrament follows "Baptism properly speaking. It signifies
and actually brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the Most holy
Trinity through configuration to the Paschal mystery of Christ. Baptism is
performed in the most expressive way by triple immersion in the baptismal
water.
However, from ancient times it has also been able to be conferred by
pouring the water three times over the candidate’s head.
In the Latin Church this triple infusion is accompanied by the minister's words:
“N., I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
In the Eastern liturgies the catechumen turns toward the East and the
priest says: "The servant of God, N., is baptized in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." At the invocation of each person with
theMost Holy Trinity, the priest immerses the candidate in the water and
raises him up again.
The anointing with sacred chrism, perfumed oil consecrated by the bishop, signifies
the gift of the Holy Spirit to the newly baptized, who has become a Christian,
that is, one anointed" by the Holy Spirit, incorporated into Christ who is
anointed priest, prophet, and king.
In the liturgy of the Eastern churches, the post-baptismal anointing is the
sacrament of Chrismation (confirmation). In the Roman liturgy the post-baptismal
anointing announces a second anointing with sacred chrism to be conferred later
by the Bishop -- --Confirmation, which will as it were "confirm" and complete
the baptismal anointing.
The white garment symbolizes that the person baptized has "put on Christ," has
risenwith Christ. The candle, lit from the Easter candle, signifies that Christ
hasenlightened the neophyte. In him the baptized are "the light of the world."
The newly baptized is now, in the only Son, a child of God entitled to say the
prayer of the children of God: "Our Father."
First Holy Communion. Having become a child of God clothed with the wedding garment,
the neophyte is admitted "to the marriage supper of the Lamb" and receives the
food of the new life, the body and blood of Christ. The Eastern Churches
maintain a lively awareness of the unity of Christian initiation by giving Holy
Communion to all the newly baptized and confirmed, even little children,
recalling the Lord's words: "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them."
The Latin Church, which reserves admission to Holy Communion to those who
have
attained
the age of reason, expresses the orientation of Baptism to
the
Eucharist
by having the newly baptized child brought the altar for the
praying
of
the Our Father.
The solemn blessing concludes the celebration of Baptism. At the Baptism of newborns
the blessing of the mother occupies a special place.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November
17, 2013
- And my God will fulfill
all your needs out of the riches of his glory
in
Christ
Jesus. Phillippians
4:19
Part
2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 1 Sec II pg
343
II.
Baptism in the Economy of Salvation
Prefigurations
of Baptism in the Old Covenant
In
the liturgy of the Easter Vigil, during the blessing of the baptismal water, the
Church
solemnly commemorates the great events in salvation history that already
prefigured
the mystery of Baptism:
Father,
you give us grace through sacramental signs, which tell us of the wonders of
your
unseen power. In Baptism we use your gift of water, which you have made a
rich
symbol of the grace you give us in the sacrament.
Since
the beginning of the world, water, so humble and wonderful a creature, has been
the
source of life and fruitfulness. Sacred Scripture sees it as "overshadowed"
by
the Spirit of God:
At
the very dawn of creation your spirit breathed on the waters, making them the
wellspring
of all holiness.
The
Church has seen in Noah’s ark a prefiguring of salvation by Baptism, for by it
"a
few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water":
The
waters of the great flood you made a sign of the waters of Baptism, that make an
end
of sin and a new beginning of goodness.
If
water springing up from the earth symbolizes life, the water of the sea is a
symbol
of death and so can represent the mystery of the cross. By this symbolism
baptism
signifies communion with Christ to death.
But
above all, the crossing of the Red Sea, literally the liberation of Israel from
the
slavery of Egypt, announces the liberation wrought by
Baptism:
You
freed the children of Abraham from the slavery of Pharaoh, bringing them
dry-shod
through the waters of the Red Sea, to be an image of the people set
free
in Baptism.
Finally,
Baptism is prefigured in the crossing of the Jordan River by which the People of
God
received the gift of the land promised to Abraham's descendants, an image of
eternal
life. The promise of this blessed inheritance is fulfilled in the New
Covenant.
Christ's
baptism
All
the Old Covenant prefigurations find their fulfillment in Christ Jesus. He
begins
his public life after having himself baptized by St. John the Baptist in
the
Jordan. After his resurrection Christ gives this mission to his apostles:
"Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that
I have commanded you."
Our
Lord voluntarily submitted himself to the baptism of St. John, intended for
sinners,
in order to "fulfill all righteousness." Jesus' gesture is a
manifestation
of his self-emptying. The spirit who had hovered over the waters
of
the first creation descended then on Christ as a prelude of the new creation,
and
the Father revealed Jesus as his "beloved Son."
In
his Passover Christ opened to all men the fountain of Baptism. He had already
spoken
of his Passion, which he was about to suffer in Jerusalem, as a "Baptism"
with
which he had to be baptized. The blood and water that flowed from the
pierced
side of the crucified Jesus are types of Baptism and the Eucharist, the
sacraments
of new life. From then on, it is possible "to be born of water and
the
Spirit" in order to enter the kingdom of God.
See
where you are baptized, see where Baptism comes from, if not from the cross of
Christ,
from his death. There is the whole mystery: he died for you. In him you
are
redeemed, in him you are saved.
Baptism
in the Church
From
the very day of Pentecost the Church has celebrated and administered holy
Baptism.
Indeed St. Peter declares to the crowd astounded by his preaching:
"Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness
of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
The
apostles and their collaborators offer Baptism to anyone who believed in
Jesus:
Jews, the God-fearing, pagans. Always, Baptism is seen as connected with
faith:
"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your
household,"
St. Paul declared to his jailer in Philippi.
And
the narrative continues, the jailer "was baptized at once, with all
his
family."
According
to the Apostle Paul, the believer enters through Baptism into communion with
Christ's
death, is buried with him, and rises with him:
Do
you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized
into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into
death,
so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we
too
might walk in newness of life.
The
baptized have "put on Christ." Through the Holy Spirit, Baptism is a bath that
purifies,
justifies, and sanctifies.
Hence
Baptism is a bath of water in which the "imperishable seed" of the Word of God
produces
its life -- giving effect. St. Augustine says of Baptism: "The word is
brought
to the material element, and it becomes a sacrament."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November
10, 2013
- 'Scripture says: Human beings live not on bread alone but on every word that
comes from the mouth of God.' Matthew
4:4
Part
2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 1 Sec I pg 341
Section
Two – The Seven Sacraments of the Church
Christ
instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven: Baptism,
Confirmation,
the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders,
and
Matrimony. The seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important
moments
of Christian life: they give birth and increase, healing and mission to
the
Christian's life of faith. There is thus a certain resemblance between the
stages
of natural life and the stages of spiritual life.
Following
this analogy, the first chapter will expound the three sacraments of Christian
initiation;
the second, the sacraments of healing; and the third, the sacraments
at
the service of communion and mission of the faithful. This order, while not
the
only one possible, does allow one to see that the sacraments form an organic
whole
in which each particular sacrament has its own vital place. In this
organic
whole, the Eucharist occupies a unique place as the "Sacrament of
sacraments":
"all the other sacraments are ordered to it as to their
end."
Chapter
One – The Sacraments of Christian Initiation
The
sacraments of Christian initiation -- --Baptism, Confirmation, and the
Eucharist
-- -- lay the foundations of every Christian life. "The sharing in the
divine
nature given to men through the grace of Christ bears a certain likeness
to
the origin, development, and nourishing of natural life. The faithful are
born
anew by Baptism, strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation, and receive
in
the Eucharist the food of eternal life. By means of these sacraments of
Christian
initiation, they thus receive in increasing measure the treasures of
the
divine life and advanced toward the perfection of
charity."
Article
1. The Sacrament of Baptism
Holy
Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the
Spirit
(vitae spiritualis ianua), and the door which gives access to the other
sacraments.
Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we
become
members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in
her
mission: "Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the
word."
I.
What is this Sacrament Called?
This
sacrament is called Baptism, after the central rite by which it is carried out:
to
baptize (Greek baptizein) means to "plunge" or "immerse"; the "plunge" into
the
water symbolizes the catechumen’s burial into Christ's death, from which
he
rises
up by resurrection with him, as "a new creature."
This
sacrament is also called "the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy
Spirit,"
for it signifies that actually brings about the birth of water and the
Spirit
without which no one "can enter the kingdom of God."
"This
bath is called enlightenment, because those who receive this [catechetical]
instruction
are enlightened in their understanding..." Having received in
Baptism
the Word, "the true light that enlightens every man," the person
baptized
has been "enlightened," he becomes a "son of light," indeed, he becomes
"light"
himself:
Baptism
is God's most beautiful and magnificent gift.... We call it gift, grace,
anointing,
enlightenment, garment of immortality, bath of rebirth, seal, and
most
precious gift. It is called gift because it is conferred on those who bring
nothing
of their own; grace since it is given even to the guilty; Baptism
because
sin is buried in the water; anointing for it is priestly and royal as
are
those who are anointed; enlightenment because it radiates light; clothing
since
it veils our shame; bath because it washes; and seal as it is our guard
and
the sign of God's Lordship.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 3, 2013 - “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; do not be alarmed, for I am your
God. I give you strength, truly I help you, truly I hold you firm with my saving
right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 pg 338
Article 2. Liturgical Diversity and the Unity of the Mystery
Liturgical traditions and the catholicity of the Church
From the first community of Jerusalem until the parousia, it is the same Paschal
mystery that the Churches of God, faithful to the apostolic faith, celebrate in
every place. The mystery celebrated in the liturgy is one, but the forms of
celebration or diverse.
The mystery of Christ is so unfathomably rich that it cannot be exhausted by its
expression in any single liturgical tradition. The history of the blossoming and
development of these rites witnesses to a remarkable complementarity. When the
Churches lived their respective liturgical traditions in the communion of the
faith and the sacraments of the faith, they enriched one another and grew in
fidelity to Tradition and to the common mission of the whole church.
The diverse liturgical traditions have arisen by very reason of the Church's
mission.
Churches of the same geographical and cultural area came to celebrate
the mystery of Christ through particular expressions characterize by the
culture: in the tradition of the "deposit of faith," in liturgical symbolism, in
the organization of fraternal communion, in the theological understanding of the
mysteries, and in various forms of holiness. Through the liturgical life of a
local church, Christ, the light and salvation of all peoples, is made manifest
to the particular people and culture to which that Church is sent and in which
she is rooted. The Church is catholic, capable of integrating into her unity,
while purifying them, all the authentic riches of cultures.
The liturgical traditions or rites presently in use in the Church are the Latin
(principally the Roman rite, but also the rites of certain local churches, such
as the Ambrosian rite, or those of certain religious orders) and the Byzantine,
Alexandrian or Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite, and Chaldean rites. In "faithful
obedience to tradition, the sacred Council declares that Holy Mother Church
holds all lawfully recognized rites to be of equal right and dignity, and that she wishes to
preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way."
Liturgy and culture
The celebration of the liturgy, therefore, should correspond to the genius and
culture of the different peoples. In order that the mystery of Christ be "made
known to all the nations... to bring about the obedience of faith," it must be
proclaimed, celebrated, and lived in all cultures in such a way that they
themselves are not abolished by it, but redeemed and fulfilled: it is with and
through their own human culture, assumed and transfigured by Christ, that the
multitudes of God's children has access to the Father, in order to glorify him
in the one Spirit.
"In the liturgy, above all that of the sacraments, there is an immutable part, a
part that is divinely instituted and of which the Church is the guardian, and
parts that can be changed, which the Church has the power and on occasion also
the duty to adapt to the cultures of recently evangelized peoples."
"Liturgical diversity can be a source of enrichment, but it can also provoke tensions,
mutual misunderstandings, and even schisms. In this matter it is clear that
diversity must not damage unity. It must express only fidelity to the common
faith, to the sacramental signs that the Church has received from Christ, and to
hierarchical communion. Cultural adaptation also requires a conversion of heart
and even, where necessary, a breaking with ancestral customs incompatible with
the Catholic faith."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 27, 2013
- Yahweh is good to those who trust him, to all who search for him. It is good
to wait in silence for Yahweh to save. Lamentations 3:25-26
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 1 Section IV pg 334
IV. Where is the Liturgy Celebrated?
The worship "in spirit and in truth" of the New Covenant is not tied exclusively to
any one place. The whole earth is sacred and entrusted to the children of men.
What matters above all is that, when the faithful assemble in the same place,
they are the "living stones," gathered to be "built into a spiritual house." For
the body of the risen Christ is the spiritual temple from which the source of
living water springs forth: incorporated into Christ by the Holy Spirit, "we are
the temple of the living God."
When the exercise of religious liberty is not thwarted, Christians construct
buildings for divine worship. These visible churches are not simply gathering
places but signify and make visible the Church living in this place, the
dwelling of God with men reconciled and united in Christ.
A church," a house of prayer in which the Eucharist is celebrated and reserved,
where the faithful assemble, and where is worshiped the presence of the Son of
God our Savior, offered for us on the sacrificial altar for the hope and
consolation of the faithful -- -- this house ought to be in good taste and a
worthy place for prayer and sacred ceremonial." In this "house of God" the truth
and the harmony of the signs that make it up should show Christ to be present
and active in this place.
The altar of the New Covenant is the Lord's Cross, from which the sacraments of the
Paschal mystery flow. On the altar, which is the center of the church, the
sacrifice of the cross is made present under sacramental signs. The altar is
also the table of the Lord, to which the People of God are invited.
In certain Eastern liturgies the altar is also the symbol of the tomb
(Christ truly died and is truly risen).
The tabernacle is to be situated "in churches in a most worthy place with the
greatest honor." The dignity, placing, and security of the Eucharistic
tabernacle should foster adoration before the Lord really present in the Blessed
Sacrament of the altar.
The sacred chrism (myron), used in anointings as the sacramental sign of the seal of
the gift of the Holy Spirit, is traditionally reserved and venerated in a secure
place in the sanctuary. The oil of catechumens and the oil of the sick may also
be placed there.
The chair of the Bishop (cathedral) or that of the priest "should express his office
of presiding over the assembly and of directing prayer."
The lectern (ambo): "The dignity of the Word of God requires the church to have a
suitable place for announcing his message so that the attention of the people
may be easily directed to that place during the liturgy of the Word."
The gathering of the People of God begins with Baptism; a church must have a place
for the celebration of Baptism (bapistry) and for fostering remembrance of the
baptismal promises (holy water font).
The renewal of the baptismal life requires penance. A church then, must lend itself
to the expression of repentance and the reception of forgiveness, which requires
an appropriate place to receive penitents.
A church must also be a space that invites us to the recollection and silent
prayer that extend and internalize the great prayer of the Eucharist.
Finally, the church has an eschatological significance. To enter into the house of God,
we must cross a threshold, which symbolizes passing from the world wounded by
sin to the world of the new Life to which all men are called. The visible church
is a symbol of the Father's house toward which the People of God is journeying
and were the father "will wipe every tear from their eyes." Also for this
reason, the church is the house of all God's children, open and
welcoming.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 20, 2013 - ‘And teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with
you always; yes, to the end of time.' Matthew 28:20
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 1 Section III pg 329
III. When is the Liturgy Celebrated?
Liturgical seasons
"Holy Mother Church believes that she should celebrate the saving work of her divine
Spouse in a sacred commemoration on certain days throughout the course of th
year.
Once each week, on the day which she has called the Lord’s Day, she keeps
the memory of the Lord's resurrection. She also celebrates it once every year,
together with his blessed Passion, at Easter, that most solemn of all feasts. In
the course of the year, moreover, she unfolds the whole mystery of Christ...
Thus recalling the mysteries of the redemption, she opens up to the faithful the
riches of her Lord’s powers and merits, so that these are in some way made
present in every age; the faithful lay hold of them and are filled with saving
grace."
From the time of the Mosaic law, the People of God have observed fixed feasts,
beginning with Passover, to commemorate the astounding actions of the Savior
God, to give him thanks for them, to perpetuate their remembrance, and to teach
new generations to conform their conduct to them. In the age of the church,
between the Passover of Christ already accomplished once for all, and its
consummation in the kingdom of God, the liturgy celebrated on fixed days bears
the imprint of the newness of the mystery of Christ.
When the Church celebrates the mystery of Christ, there is a word that marks her
prayer:
"Today!" -- -- A word echoing the prayer her Lord taught her and the
call of the Holy Spirit. This "today"
of the living God which man is called to enter is "the hour" of Jesus'
Passover, which reaches across and underlies all history:
Life extends over all beings and fills them with unlimited light; the Orient of
orients pervades the universe, and he who was "before the daystar" and before
the heavenly bodies, immortal and vast, the great Christ, shines over all beings
more brightly than the sun. Therefore a day of long, eternal light is ushered in
for us who believe in him, a day which is never blotted out: the mystical
Passover.
The Lord's Day
"By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very
day of Christ's Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every
seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord’s Day or Sunday.” The day
of Christ’s Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the
first day of creation, and
the "eighth day," on which Christ after his "rest" on the great sabbath
inaugurates the "day that the Lord has made," the "day that knows no evening."
The Lord's Supper is its center, for there the whole community of the faithful
encounters the risen Lord who invites them to his banquet:
The Lord's Day, the day of Resurrection, the day of Christians, is our day. It is
called the Lord’s day because on it the Lord rose victorious to the Father. If
pagans call it the "day of the sun," we willingly agree, for today the light of
the world is raised, today is revealed the sun of justice with healing in his
rays.
Sunday is the pre-eminent day for the liturgical assembly, when the faithful gather "to
listen to the word of God and take part in the Eucharist, thus calling to mind
the Passion, Resurrection, and glory of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God who
"has begotten them again, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’
onto a living hope":
When we ponder, O Christ, the marvels accomplished on this day, the Sunday of your
holy resurrection, we say: "Blessed is Sunday, for on it began creation... the
worlds salvation... the renewal of the human race... On Sunday heaven and earth
rejoiced and the whole universe was filled with light. Blessed is Sunday, for on
it were opened the gates of paradise so that Adam and all the exiles might enter
it without fear.
The liturgical year
Beginning with the Easter Triduum as its source of light, the new age of the Resurrection
fills the whole liturgical year with its brilliance. Gradually, on either side
of the source, the year is transfigured by the liturgy. It really is a "year of
the Lord's favor." The economy of salvation is at work within the framework of
time, but since its fulfillment is the Passover of Jesus and the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit, the culmination of history is anticipated "as a foretaste," and
the kingdom of God enters into our time.
Therefore Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the "Feast of feasts," the
"Solemnity of solemnities," just as the Eucharist is the "Sacrament of
sacraments" (the Great Sacrament). St. Athanasius calls Easter "the Great
Sunday" and the Eastern churches call Holy Week "the Great Week." The mystery of
the Resurrection, in which Christ crushed death, permeates with its powerful
energy our old time, until all is subjected to him.
At the Council of Nicaea in 325, all the Churches agreed that Easter, the Christian
Passover, should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon (14
Nisan) after the vernal equinox. Because of different methods of calculating the
14th day of the month of Nisan the date of Easter and the Western and Eastern
churches is not always the same. For this reason, the Churches are currently
seeking an agreement in order once again to celebrate the day of the Lord's
resurrection on a common date.
In the liturgical year the various aspects of the one Paschal mystery unfolds. This
is also the case with the cycle of feasts surrounding the mystery of the
incarnation (Annunciation, Christmas,Epiphany). They commemorate the beginning
of our salvation and communicate to us the first fruits of the Paschal
mystery.
The sanctoral in the liturgical year
"In celebrating this annual cycle of the mysteries of Christ, Holy Church honors the
Blessed Mary, Mother of God, with a special love. She is inseparably linked with
the saving work of her Son. In her the Church admires and exalts the most
excellent fruit of redemption and
joyfully contemplates, as in a faultless image, that which she herself desires
and hopes wholly to be."
When the Church keeps the memorials of martyrs and other saints during the annual
cycle, she proclaims the Paschal mystery in those "who have suffered and have
been glorified with Christ. She proposes them to the faithful as examples who
draw all men to the Father through Christ, and through their merits she begs for
God's favors."
The Liturgy of the Hours
The mystery of Christ, his incarnation and Passover, which we celebrate in the
Eucharist especially at the Sunday assembly, permeates and transfigures the time
of each day, through the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, "the divine
office."
This celebration, faithful to the apostolic exhortations to "pray
constantly," is "so devised that the whole course of the day and night is made
holy by the praise of God." In this "public prayer of the Church," the
faithfu (clergy, religious, and lay people) exercise the royal priesthood of
the baptized. Celebrated in "the form approved" by the Church, the Liturgy of the
Hours "is truly the voice of the Bride herself addressed to her Bridegroom. It
is the very prayer which Christ himself together with his Body addresses to the
Father."
The Liturgy of the Hours is intended to become the prayer of the whole People of
God. In it Christ himself "continues his priestly work through his Church." His
members participate according to their own place in the Church and the
circumstances of their lives: priests devoted to the pastoral ministry, because
they are called to remain diligent in prayer and the service of the word;
religious, by the charism of their consecrated lives; all the faithful as much
as possible: "Pastors of souls should see to it that the principal hours
especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and on the
more solemn feasts. The laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office,
either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually."
Thecelebration of the Liturgy of the Hours demands not only harmonizing the voice
with the praying heart, but also a deeper "understanding of the liturgy and of
the Bible, especially of the Psalms."
The hymns and litanies of the Liturgy of the Hours integrate the prayer of the
psalms into the age of the Church, expressing the symbolism of the time of day,
the liturgical season, or the feast being celebrated. Moreover, the reading from
the Word of God at each hour (with the subsequent responses or troparia) and
readings from the Fathers and spiritual masters at certain Hours, reveal more
deeply the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, assist in understanding the
psalms, and prepare for silent prayer. The lectio divina, where the Word of God
is so read and meditated that it becomes prayer, is thus rooted in the
liturgical celebration.
The Liturgy of the Hours, which is like an extension of the Eucharistic celebration,
does not exclude but rather in a complementary way calls forth the various
devotions of the People of God, especially adoration and worship of the Blessed
Sacrament.
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October 13, 2013 - Since the whole of the Law is summarized in the one commandment: You must love your neighbour as yourself. If you go snapping at one another and tearing one another to
pieces, take care:you will be eaten up by one another. Galatians 5:14-15
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 1 Section II. How is the Liturgy Celebrated? Pg324
Signs and symbols
A sacramental celebration is woven from signs and symbols. In keeping with the
divine pedagogy of salvation, their meaning is rooted in the work of creation
and in human culture, specified by the events of the Old Covenant and fully
revealed in the person and work of Christ.
Signs of the human world. In human life, signs and symbols occupy an important place.
As
a being at once body and spirit, man expresses and perceives spiritual
realities
through physical signs and symbols. As a social being, man needs signs
and
symbols to communicate with others, through language, gestures, and actions.
The
same holds true for his relationship with
God.
God
speaks to man through the visible creation. The material cosmos is so presented
to
man's intelligence that he can read there traces of its Creator. Light and
darkness,
wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God
and
symbolize both his greatness and his
nearness.
Inasmuch
as they are creatures, these perceptible realities can become means of
expressing
the actions of God who sanctifies men, and the action of men who
offer
worship to God. The same is true of signs and symbols taken from the
social
life of man: washing and anointing, breaking bread and sharing the cup
can
express the sanctifying presence of God and man's gratitude toward his
Creator.
The
great religions of mankind witness, often impressively, to this cosmic and
symbolic
meaning of religious rites. The liturgy of the Church presupposes,
integrates
and sanctifies elements from creation and human culture, conferring
on
them the dignity of signs of grace, of the new creation in Jesus
Christ.
Signs
of the covenant. The chosen people received from God distinctive signs and
symbols
that marked its liturgical life. These are no longer solely celebrations
of
cosmic cycles and social gestures, but signs of the covenant, symbols of
God's
mighty deeds for his people. Among these liturgical signs from the Old
Covenant
are circumcision, anointing and consecration of kings and priests,
laying
on of hands, sacrifices, and above all the Passover. The Church sees in
these
signs a prefiguring of the sacraments of the New
Covenant.
Signs
taken up by Christ. It his preaching the Lord Jesus often makes use of the signs
of
creation to make known the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. He performs
healings
and illustrates his preaching with physical signs or symbolic gestures.
He
gives new meaning to the deeds and signs of the Old Covenant, above all to
the
Exodus and the Passover, for he himself is the meaning of all these
signs.
Sacramental
signs. Since Pentecost, it is through the sacramental signs of his Church that
the
Holy Spirit carries on the work of sanctification. The sacraments of the
Church
do not abolish but purify and integrate all the richness of the signs and
symbols
of the cosmos and of social life. Further, they fulfill the types and
figures
of the Old Covenant, signify and make actively present the salvation
wrought
by Christ, and prefigure and anticipate the glory of
heaven.
Words
and actions
A
sacramental celebration is a meeting of God's children with their Father, in
Christ
and the Holy Spirit; this meeting takes the form of a dialogue, through
actions
and words. Admittedly, the symbolic actions are already a language, but
the
word of God and the response of faith have to accompany and give life to
them,
so that the seed of the Kingdom can bear its fruit in good soil. The
liturgical
actions signify what the Word of God expresses: both his free
initiative
and his people's response of faith.
The
liturgy of the Word is an integral part of sacramental celebrations. To nourish
the
faith of believers, the signs which accompany the Word of God should be
emphasized:
the book of the Word (a lectionary or a book of the Gospels), its
veneration
(procession, incense, candles), the place of its proclamation
(lecturn
or ambo), it's audible and intelligible reading, the minister's homily
which
extends its proclamation, and the responses of the assembly (acclamations,
meditation
psalms, litanies, and profession of
faith).
The
liturgical word and action are inseparable both insofar as they are signs and
instruction
and insofar as they accomplish what they signify. When the Holy
Spirit
awakens faith, he not only gives an understanding of the word of God, but
through
the sacraments also makes present the "wonders" of God which it
proclaims.
The Spirit makes present and communicates the Fathers work, fulfilled
by
the beloved Son.
Singing
and music
"The
musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value,
greater
even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence
is
that, as a combination of sacred music and words, it forms a necessary or
integral
part of solemn liturgy." The composition and singing of inspired
psalms,
often accompanied by musical instruments, were already closely linked to
the
liturgical celebrations of the Old Covenant. The Church continues and
develops
this tradition: "Address... one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual
songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." "He
who
sings prays twice."
Song
and music fulfill their function as signs in a manner all the more significant
when
they are "more closely connected... what the liturgical action," according
to
three principal criteria beauty expressive of prayer, the unanimous
participation
of the assembly at the designated moments, and the solemn
character
of the celebration. In this way they participate in the purpose of the
liturgical
words and actions: the glory of God and the sanctification of the
fatithul:
How
I wept deeply moved by your hymns, songs, and the voices that echoed through
your
Church! What emotion I
experienced
in them! Those sounds flowed into my ears, distilling the truth in
my
heart. A feeling of devotion surged within me, and tears streamed down my
face
-- -- tears that did me good.
The
harmony of signs (song, music, words, and actions) is all the more expressive
and
fruitful when expressed in the cultural richness of the People of God who
celebrate.
Hence "religious singing by the faithful is to be intelligently
fostered
so that in devotions and sacred exercises as well as in liturgical
services,"
in conformity with the Church's norms, "the voices of the faithful
may
be heard." But "the texts intended to be sung must always be in conformity
with
Catholic doctrine. Indeed they should not be drawn chiefly from the Sacred
Scripture
and from liturgical sources."
Holy
images
The
sacred image, the liturgical icon, principally represents Christ. It cannot
represent
the invisible and incomprehensible God, but the incarnation of the Son
of
God has ushered in a new "economy" of
images:
Previously
God, who has neither a body nor a face, absolutely could not be represented by
an
image. But now that he has made himself visible in the flesh and has lived
with
men, I can make an image of what I have seen of God... and contemplate the
glory
of God, his face unveiled.
Christian
iconography expresses in images the same gospel message that Scripture
communicates
by words. Image and word illuminate each other: We declare that we
preserve
intact all the written and unwritten traditions of the Church which
have
been entrusted to us. One of these traditions consists in the production of
representational
artwork, which accords with the history of the preaching of the
Gospel.
For it confirms that the incarnation of the Word of God was real and not
imaginary,
and to our benefit as well, for realities that illustrate each other
undoubtedly
reflect each other's meaning.
All
the signs and the liturgical celebrations are related to Christ: as are sacred
images
of the holy Mother of God and of the saints as well. They truly signify Christ,
who is glorified in them. They make manifest the "cloud of witnesses" who
continue to participate in
the
salvation of the world and to whom we are united, above all in sacramental
celebrations.
Through their icons, it is man "in the image of God," finally
transfigured
"into his likeness," who is revealed to our faith. So too are
the
angels,
who also are recapitulated in Christ:
Following
the divinely inspired teachings of our holy Fathers is in the tradition of the
Catholic
Church (for we know that this tradition comes from the Holy Spirit who
dwells
in her) we rightly define with full certainty and correctness that, like
the
figure of the precious and life-giving cross, venerable and holy images of
our
Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, our inviolate Lady, the holy Mother
of
God, and the venerated angels, all the saints and the just, whether painted
or
made of mosaic or another suitable material, are to be exhibited in the holy
churches
of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, walls and panels, and houses
and
on streets.
"The
beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow delights the eyes
and
subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God." Similarly, the contemplation
of
sacred icons, united with meditation on the Word of God and the singing of
liturgical
hymns, enters into the harmony of the signs of celebration so that
the
mystery celebrated is imprinted in the heart’s memory and is then expressed
in
the new life of the faithful.
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October
6, 2013 - Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:9
Part
2 Chapter 2 Article 1 Section I – Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy pg
321
I. Who
celebrates?
Liturgy
is an "action" of the whole Christ (Christus totus). Those who even now
celebrate it without signs are already in the heavenly liturgy, where
celebration is wholly communion and feast.
The
celebrants of the heavenly liturgy
The
book of Revelation of St. John, read in the Church's liturgy, first reveals to
us, "A throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne": "the Lord God."
It then shows the Lamb, "standing, as though it had been slain": Christ
crucified and risen, the one high priest of the true sanctuary, the same one
"who offers and is offered, who gives it is given." Finally it presents "the
river of the water of life... flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb,"
one of the most beautiful symbols of the Holy Spirit.
"Recapitulated
in Christ," these are the ones who take part in the service of the praise of
God and the fulfillment of his plan: the heavenly powers, all creation (the four
living beings), the servants of the Old and New Covenants (the 24 elders), the
new People of God (the 144,000), especially the orders "slain for the word of
God," and the all-holy Mother of God (the Woman), the Bride of the Lamb, and
finally "a great multitude which no one could number, from every nation, from
all tribes, and peoples and tongues."
It
is in this eternal liturgy that the Spirit and the Church enable us to
participate whenever we celebrate the mystery of salvation and the
sacraments.
The
celebrants of the sacramental liturgy
It
is the whole community, the Body of Christ united with its Head, that
celebrates. "Liturgical services are not private functions but are celebrations
of the Church which is ‘the sacrament of unity,’ namely, the holy people united
and organized under the authority of the bishops. Therefore, liturgical services
pertain to the whole Body of the Church. They manifest it, and have effects
upon it. But they touch individual members of the Church in different ways,
depending on their orders, their role in the liturgical services, and their
actual participation in them." For this reason, "rites which are meant to be
celebrated in common, with the faithful present and actively participating,
should as far as possible be celebrated in that way rather than by an
individual and quasi-privately."
The
celebrating assembly is the community of the baptized who," by regeneration and
the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a
holy priesthood, that through all the works of Christian men they may offer
spiritual sacrifices." This "common priesthood" is that of Christ the sole
priest, in which all his members participate:
Mother
Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that full,
conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded
by the very nature of the liturgy, and to which the Christian people, "a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people," have a right and
an obligation by reason of their Baptism.
But
"the members do not all have the same function." Certain members are called by
God, in and through the Church, to a special service of the community. These
servents are chosen and consecrated by the sacrament of Holy Orders, by which
the Holy Spirit enables them to act in the person of Christ the head, for the
service of all the members of the Church. The ordained minister is, as it were,
an “icon”of Christ the priest. Since it is in the Eucharist that the sacrament
of the Church is made fully visible, it is in his presiding at the Eucharist
that the bishop’s ministry is most evident, as well as, in communion with him,
the ministry of priests and deacons.
For
the purpose of assisting the work of the common priesthood of the faithful,
other particular ministries also exist, not concentrated by the sacrament of
Holy Orders; their functions are determined by the bishops, in accord with
liturgical traditions and pastoral needs. "Servers, readers, commentators, and
members of the choir also exercise a genuine liturgical
function."
In
the celebration of the sacraments it is thus the whole assembly that is
leitourgos, each according to his function, but in the "unity of the Spirit" who
acts in all. "In liturgical celebrations each person, minister or layman, who
has an office to perform, should carry out all and only those parts which
pertain to his office by the nature of the rite and the norms of the
liturgy."
September
29, 2013 - Go
round Zion, walk right
through her, count her bastions, admire her walls, examine her palaces, to tell
future generations that such is God; our God
for ever and ever, he is our guide!
Psalms 48:12-14
Part
2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section III - The Sacraments of Faith 317
Christ
sent his apostles so that "repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached
in his name to all nations." "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
The mission to baptize, and so the sacramental mission, is implied in the
mission to evangelize, because the sacrament is prepared for by the word of God
and by the faith which is assent to this word:
The
People of God is formed into one in the first place by the Word of the living
God... The preaching of the Word is required for the sacramental ministry
itself, since the sacraments are sacraments of faith, drawing their origin and
nourishment from the Word.
"The
purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the Body of Christ
and, finally to give worship to God. Because they are signs they also instruct.
They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish,
strengthen, and express it. That is why they are called ‘sacraments of
faith.’
The
Church's faith precedes the faith of the believer who is invited to adhere to
it. When the Church celebrates the sacraments, she confesses the faith received
from the apostles -- -- whence the ancient saying: lex orandi, lex credendi (or:
legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi, , according to Prosper of Aquitaine [5th
century]). The law of prayer is the law of faith: the Church believes as she
prays. Liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy living
Tradition.
For
this reason no sacramental rite may be modified or manipulated at the will of
the minister or the community. Even the supreme authority in the Church may not
change the liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with
religious respect for the mystery of liturgy.
Likewise,
since the sacraments express and develop the communion of faith in the Church,
the lex orandi is one of the essential criteria of the dialogue that seeks to
restore the unity of Christians.
Part
2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section IV - The Sacraments of Salvation
319
Celebrated
worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify. They are
efficacious because in them Christ himself is at work: it is he who baptizes, he
who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament
signifies. The Father always hears the prayer of his Son’s Church which, in the
epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith in the power of the Spirit. As
fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms
into the divine life whatever is subjected to his
power.
This
is the meaning of the Church’s affirmation that the sacraments act ex opere
operato (literally: "by the very fact of the action’s being performed"), i.e.,
by virtue of the saving work of Christ, accomplished once for all. It follows
that "the sacrament is not wrought by the righteousness of either the celebrant
or the recipient, but by the power of God." From the moment that a sacrament is
celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ
and his Spirit acts in and through it, independently of the personal holiness of
the minister. Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the
disposition of the one who receives them.
The
Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are
necessary for salvation. "Sacramental grace" is the grace of the Holy Spirit,
given by Christ and proper to each sacrament. The Spirit heals and transforms
those who receive them by conforming them to the Son of God. The fruit of the
sacramental life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in
the divine nature by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the
Savior.
Part
2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section V- The Sacraments of Eternal Life
320
The
Church celebrates the mystery of her Lord "until he comes," when God will be
"everything to everyone." Since the apostolic age the liturgy has been drawn
toward its goal by the Spirit’s groaning in the Church: Marana tha!
The liturgy thus shares in Jesus' desire: "I have earnestly desired to
eat this Passover with you... until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." In
the sacraments of Christ the Church already receives the guarantee of her
inheritance and even now shares in everlasting life, while "awaiting our
blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ
Jesus." The "Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come... Come, Lord Jesus!’
"
St.
Thomas sums up the various aspects of sacramental signs "Therefore a sacrament
is a sign that commemorates what precedes it-- -- Christ’s Passion; demonstrates
what is accomplished in us through Christ passion -- -- grace; and prefigures
what that Passion pledges to us -- --future glory."
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September 22, 2013 - So give encouragement to each other, and keep strengthening one another, as you do already. 1 Thessalonians 5:11
Part 2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section I The Paschal Mystery in the Church's Sacraments pg 315 The whole liturgical life of the Church revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments. There are seven sacraments of the Church: Baptism, Confirmation (orChrismatio), Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. This article will discuss what is common to the Church's seven sacraments from a doctrinal point of view. What is common to them in terms of their celebration will be presented in the second chapter, and what is distinctive about each will be the topic of the Section 2.
I. the Sacraments of Christ
"Adhering to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, to the apostolic traditions, and to the consensus... of the Fathers," we profess that "the sacraments of the new law were... all instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord."
Jesus' words and actions during his hidden life and public ministry were already salvific, for they anticipated the power of his Paschal mystery. They announced and prepared what he was going to give the Church when all was accomplished. The mysteries of Christ life are the foundations of what he would henceforth dispense in the sacraments, through the ministers of his Church, for "what was visible in our Savior has passed over into his mysteries."
Sacraments are "powers that comes forth" from the body of Christ, which is ever living and life-giving. They are actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his Body, the Church. They are "the masterworks of God" in the new and everlasting covenant.
Part 2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section II - The Sacraments of the Church pg 316
As she has done for the canon of Sacred Scripture and for the doctrine of the faith, the Church, by the power of the Spirit who guides her "into all truth," has gradually recognized this treasurer received from Christ and, as the faithful steward of God's mysteries, has determined its "dispensation." Thus the church has discerned over the centuries that among liturgical celebrations there are seven that are, in the strict sense of the term, sacraments instituted by the Lord.
The sacraments are "of the Church" in the old sense that they are "by herer" and "for her." They are "by the Church," for she is the sacrament of Christ’s action at work in her through the mission of the Holy Spirit. They are "for the Church" in the sense that "the sacraments make the Church," since they manifest and communicate to men, above all in the Eucharist, the mystery of communion with the God who is love, one in three persons.
Forming "as it were, one mystical person" with Christ the head, the Church acts in the sacraments as "an organically structured priestly community." Through Baptism and Confirmation the priestly people is enabled to celebrate the liturgy, while those of the faithful "who have received Holy Orders, are appointed to nourish the church with the word grace of God in the name of Christ."
The ordained ministry or ministerial priesthood is at the service of the baptismal priesthood. The ordained priesthood guarantees that it really is Christ who acts in the sacraments through the Holy Spirit for the Church. The saving mission entrusted by the Father to his incarnate Son was committed to the apostles and through them to their successors: they received the Spirit of Jesus to act in his name and in his person. The ordained minister is the sacramental bond that ties the liturgical action to what the apostles said and did and, through them, to the words and actions of Christ, the source and foundation of the sacraments.
The three sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders confer, in addition to grace, a sacramental character or "seal" by which the Christian shares in Christ's priesthood and is made a member of the church according to different states and functions. This configuration to Christ and to the Church, brought about by the Spirit, is indelible; it remains for ever in the Christian as a positive disposition for grace, a promise and guarantee of divine protection, and as a vocation to divine worship and to the service of the Church. Therefore the sacraments can never be repeated.
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September 15, 2013 - They pass away but you remain; they all wear out like a garment, like outworn clothes you change them Psalms 102:26
Part 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section III – The Holy Spirit and the Church in the Liturgy pg 309 In the liturgy the Holy Spirit is teacher of the faith of the People of God and artisan of "God's masterpieces," the sacraments of the New Covenant. The desire and work of the Spirit in the heart of the Church is that we may live the life of the risen Christ. When the Spirit encounters in us the response of faith which he has aroused us, he brings about genuine cooperation. Through it, the liturgy becomes a common work of the Holy Spirit and the Church.
In this sacramental dispensation of Christ’s mysteries the Holy Spirit acts in the same way as at other times in the economy of salvation: he prepares the Church to counter her Lord; he recalls a big Christ manifested the fate of the assembly. By his transforming power, he makes the mystery of Christ present here and now. Finally the Spirit of communion unites the Church to the life and mission of Christ.
The Holy Spirit prepares for the reception of Christ
In the sacramental economy the Holy Spirit fulfills what was prefigured in the Old Covenant. Since Christ’s Church was "prepared in the marvelous fashion in the history of the people of Israel and in the Old Covenant," the Church's liturgy has retained certain elements of the worship of the Old Covenant as integral and irreplaceable, adopted him as her own:
-- -- notably, reading the Old Testament;
-- -- praying the Psalms;
-- -- above all, recalling the saving events and significant realities which have found their fulfillment in the mystery of Christ (promise and covenant, Exodus and Passover, kingdom and temple, exile and return).
It is on this harmony of the two Testaments that the Paschal catechesis of the Lord is built, and then, that the Apostles of the Fathers of the Church. This catechesis unveils what lay hidden under the letter of the Old Testament: the mystery of Christ. It is called "typological" because it reveals the newness of Christ on the basis of the "figures" (types) which announce him in the deeds, words, and symbols of the first covenant. By this re-reading in the Spirit of Truth, starting from Christ, the figures are unveiled. Thus the flood and Noah's ark prefigured salvation by Baptism, as did the cloud and the crossing of the Red Sea. Water from the rock was the figure of the spiritual gifts of Christ, and manna in the desert prefigured the Eucharist, "the true bread from heaven."
For this reason the Church, especially during Advent and Lent and above all at the Easter Vigil, re-reads and re-lives the great events of salvation history in the "today" of her liturgy. But this also demands that catechesis help the faithful to open themselves to this spiritual understanding of the economy of salvation as the Church's liturgy reveals it and enables us to live it.
Jewish liturgy and Christian liturgy. A better knowledge of the Jewish people's faith and religious life as professed and lived even now can help our better understanding of certain aspects of Christian liturgy. For both Jews and Christians Sacred Scripture is an essential part of their respective liturgies: in the proclamation of the Word of God, the response to this word, prayer of praise and intercession for the living and the dead, invocation of God's mercy. In its characteristic structure the Liturgy of the Word originates in Jewish prayer. The liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical texts and formularies, as well as those of our most venerable prayers, including the Lord's Prayer, has parallels in Jewish prayer. The Eucharistic Prayers also draw their inspiration from the Jewish tradition. The relationship between Jewish liturgy and Christian liturgy, but also their differences in content, are particularly evident in the great feasts of the liturgical year, such as Passover. Christians and Jews both celebrate the Passover. For Jews, it is the Passover of history, tending toward the future; for Christians, it is the Passover fulfilled in the death and Resurrection of Christ, though always in expectation of its definitive consummation.
In the liturgy of the New Covenant every liturgical action, especially the celebration of the Eucharist and the sacraments, is an encounter between Christ and the Church. The liturgical assembly derives its unity from "communion of the Holy Spirit" who gathers the children of God into the one Body of Christ. This assembly transcends racial, cultural, social -- -- indeed, all human affinities.
The assembly should prepare itself to encounter its Lord and to become "a people well disposed." The preparation of hearts is the joint work of the Holy Spirit and the assembly, especially of its ministers. The grace of the Holy Spirit seeks to awaken faith, conversion of heart, and adherence to the Father's will. These dispositions are the precondition both for the reception of other graces conferred in the celebration itself and the fruits of new life which the celebration is intended to produce afterward.
The Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ
The Spirit and the Church cooperate to manifest Christ and his work of salvation in the liturgy. Primarily in the Eucharist, and by analogy in the other sacraments, the liturgy is the memorial of the mystery of salvation. The Holy Spirit is the Church's living memory.
The Word of God. The Holy Spirit first recalls a meeting of the salvation event to the liturgical assembly by giving life to the Word of God, which is proclaimed so that it may be received and lived:
In the celebration of the liturgy, Sacred Scripture is extremely important. From it comes the lessons that are read and explained in the homily and the psalms that are sung. It is from the Scriptures that the prayers, collects, and hymns draw their inspiration and their force, and that actions and signs derive their meaning.
The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual understanding of the Word of God to those who read or hear it, according to the dispositions of their hearts. By means of the words, actions, and symbols that form the structure of a celebration, the Spirit puts both the faithful and the ministers into a living relationship with Christ, the Word and Image of the Father, so that they can live out the meaning of what they hear, contemplate, and do in the celebration.
By the saving word of God, faith... is nourished in the hearts of believers. By this faith then the congregation of the faithful begins and grows." The proclamation does not stop with a teaching; it elicits the response of faith as consent and commitment, directed at the covenant between God and his people. Once again it is the Holy Spirit who gives the grace of faith, strengthens it and makes it grow in the community. The liturgical assembly is first of all a communion and faith.
Anamnesis. The liturgical celebration always refers to God's saving interventions in history. "The economy of Revelation is realized by deeds and words which are intrinsically bound up with each other... The words for their part proclaim the works and bring to light the mystery they contain." In the liturgy of the Word the Holy Spirit "recalls" to the assembly all that Christ has done for us. In keeping with the nature of liturgical actions and the ritual traditions of the churches, the celebration "makes a remembrance" of the marvelous works of God in an anamnesis which may be more or less developed. The Holy Spirit who thus awakens the memory of the Church then inspires thanksgiving and praise (doxology).
The Holy Spirit makes present the mystery of Christ
Christian liturgy not only recalls the events that saved us but actualizes them, makes them present. The Paschal mystery of Christ is celebrated, not repeated. It is the celebrations that are repeated, and in each celebration there is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that makes the unique mystery present.
The Epiclesis ("invocation upon") is the intercession in which the priest begs the Father to send the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, so that the offerings may become the body and blood of Christ and that the faithful, by receiving them, may themselves become a living offering to God.
Together with the anamnesis, the epiclesis is at the heart of the sacramental celebration, most especially of the Eucharist:
You ask how the bread becomes the Body of Christ, and the wine... the Blood of Christ. I shall tell you: the Holy Spirit comes upon them and accomplishes what surpasses every word and thought... Let it be enough for you to understand that it is by the Holy Spirit, just as it was of the Holy Virgin and by the Holy Spirit of the Lord, through and it himself, took flesh.
The Holy Spirit's transforming power in the liturgy hastens the coming of the kingdom and the consummation of the mystery of salvation. While we wait in hope he causes us really to anticipate the fullness of communion with the Holy Trinity. Sent by the Father who hears the epiclesis of the Church, the Spirit gives life to those who accept him and is, even now, the "guarantee" of their inheritance..
The communion of the Holy Spirit
In every liturgical action the Holy Spirit is sent in order to bring us into communion with Christ and so to form his Body. The Holy Spirit is like the sap of the Father's vine which bears fruit on its branches. The most intimate cooperation of the Holy Spirit and the Church is achieved in the liturgy. The Spirit, who is the Spirit of communion, abides indefectibly in the Church. For this reason the Church is the great sacrament of divine communion which gathers God’s scattered children together. Communion with the Holy Trinity and fraternal communion are inseparably the fruit of the Spirit and the liturgy.
The epiclesis is also a prayer for the full effect of the assembly's communion with the mystery of Christ. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit" have to remain with us always and bear fruit beyond the Eucharistic celebration. The Church therefore asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit to make the lives of the faithful a living sacrifice to God by their spiritual transformation into the image of Christ, by concern for the Church's unity, and by taking part in her mission through the witness and service of charity.
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September 8, 2013- ‘Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, the wine
runs out, and the skins are lost. No; they put new wine in fresh skins and both are preserved.' Matthew 9:17
Part 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section I – The Liturgy – Work of the Holy Trinity pg 305
I. The Father –Source and Goal of the Liturgy
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before
him. He destined us before him in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ,
according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which
he freely bestowed on us in the beloved."
Blessing is a divine and life-giving action, the source of which is the Father; his
blessing is both word and gift. When applied to man, the word "blessing" means
adoration and surrender to his Creator in
thanksgiving.
From the beginning until the end of time the whole of God's work is a blessing. From
the liturgical poem of the first creation to the canticles of the heavenly
Jerusalem, the inspired authors proclaim the plan of salvation as one vast
divine blessing.
From the very beginning God blessed all living beings, especially man and woman. The
covenant with Noah and with all living things renewed this blessing of
fruitfulness despite man's sin which had brought a curse on the ground. But with
Abraham, the divine blessing entered into human history which was moving towards
death, to redirect it toward life, toward its source. By the faith of "the
father of all believers," who embraced the blessing, the history of salvation is
inaugurated.
The divine blessings were made manifest in astonishing and saving events: the birth
of Isaac, the escape from Egypt (Passover and Exodus), the gift of the promised
land, the election of David, the presence of God in the Temple, the purifying
exile, and return of a "small remnant." The Law, the prophets, and the Psalms,
interwoven in the liturgy of the Chosen People, recall these divine blessings
and at the same time respond to them the blessings of praise and thanksgiving.
In the Church's liturgy the divine blessing is fully revealed and communicated. The
Father is acknowledged and adored as the source and the end of all the blessings
of creation and salvation. In his Word who became incarnate, died, and rose for
us, he fills us with his blessings. Through his Word, he pours into our hearts
the Gift that contains all gifts, the Holy Spirit.
The dual dimension of the Christian liturgy as a response of faith and love to the
spiritual blessings the Father bestows on us is thus evident. On the one hand,
the Church, united with her Lord and "in the Holy Spirit blesses the Father “for
his inexpressible gift” in her adoration, praise, and thanksgiving.
On the other hand, until the consummation of God’s plan, the Church never
ceases to present to the Father the offering of his own gifts and to beg him to
send the Holt Spirit upon that offering, upon herself, upon the faithful, and
upon the whole world, so that through communion in the death and resurrection of
Christ the Priest, and by the power of the Spirit, these divine blessings will
bring forth the fruits of life "to the praise of his glorious grace."
Part 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section II – Christ’s Work in the Liturgy pg 307
Christ glorified...
"Seated at the right hand of Father" and pouring out the Holy Spirit on his body which
is the Church, Christ now acts through the sacraments he instituted to
communicate his grace. The sacraments are perceptible signs (words and actions)
accessible to our human nature. By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit they make
present efficaciously the grace that they signify.
In the liturgy of the Church, it is principally his own Paschal mystery that Christ
signifies and makes present. During his earthly life Jesus announced his Paschal
mystery by his teaching and anticipated by his actions. When his Hour comes, he
lives out the unique event of history which does not pass away: Jesus dies, is
buried, rises from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father "once
for all." His Paschal mystery is a real event that occurred in our history, but
it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and then they pass away,
swallowed up in the past. The Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot
remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed death, and all that
Christ is -- -- all that he did and suffered for all men -- participates in the
divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them
all. The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward
life.
... From the time of the Church of the Apostles...
"Accordingly, just as Christ was sent by the Father so also he sent the apostles, filled with
the Holy Spirit. This he did so that they might preach the Gospel to every
creature and proclaim that the Son of God by his death and resurrection has
freed us from the power of Satan and from death and brought us into the Kingdom
of his Father. But he also willed that the work of salvation which they preached
should be set in train through the sacrifice and sacraments around which the
entire liturgical life revolves."
Thus the risen Christ, by giving the Holy Spirit to the apostles, entrusted to them
his power of sanctifying: they became sacramental signs of Christ. By the power
of the same Holy Spirit they entrusted his power to their successors. This
"apostolic succession" structures the whole liturgical life of the Church and is
itself sacramental, handed on by the sacrament of Holy Orders.
... Is present in the earthly liturgy..
"To accomplish so great a work" -- -- the dispensation or communication of his work
of salvation -- -- "Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her
liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass not only in
the person of his minister,‘the same now offering, through the ministry of
priests, who formally offered himself on the cross,’ but especially in the
Eucharistic species. By his power he is present in the sacraments so that when
anybody baptizes, it is really Christ himself who baptizes. He is present in his
word since it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the
Church. Lastly, he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he has
promised ‘where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the
midst of them.’ "
"Christ, indeed, always associates the Church with himself in this great work in which
God is perfectly glorified and men are sanctified. The Church is his beloved
Bride who calls to her Lord and through him offers worship to the eternal
father."
... Which participates in the liturgy of heaven
"In the earthly liturgy we share in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is
celebrated in The Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims,
where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, Minister of the sanctuary and
of the true tabernacle. With all the warriors of the heavenly army we sing a
hymn of glory to the Lord; venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for
some part and fellowship with them; we eagerly await a Savior, our Lord Jesus
Christ, until he, our life, shall appear and we too will appear with him in glory."
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Today at Mass I received a message from Our Lord Jesus. He wants us to be diciples of faith. So please try to talk to family, friends and neighbors and ask them to consider turning or returning to Christ. You do not have to be a Crusader, just mention opportunities if the situation allows. God bless you.
September 1, 2013 - Whatever your work is, put your heart into it as done for the Lord and not for human beings, Colossians 3:23
Part 2 Section I The celebration Of The Christian Mystery
Why the liturgy?
In the Symbol of the faith the Cuurch confesses the mystery of the Holy Trinity and
of the plan of God's "good pleasure" for all creation: the Father, accomplishes
the "mystery of his will" by giving his beloved Son and his Holy Spirit for the
salvation of the world and for the glory of his name. Such is the mystery of
Christ, revealed and fulfilled in history according to the wisely ordered plan
that St. Paul calls the "plan of the mystery" and the patristic tradition will
call the "economy of the Word incarnate" or the "economy of salvation."
"The wonderful works of God among the people of the Old Testament were but a prelude
to the work of Christ the Lord in redeeming mankind and giving perfect glory to
God. He accomplished this work principally by the Paschal mystery of his blessed
Passion, Resurrection from the dead, and glorious Ascension, whereby ‘dying he
destroyed our death, rising he restored our life." For it was from the side of
Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth "the
wondrous sacrament of the whole Cuurch." For this reason, the Cuurch celebrates
in the liturgy above all the Paschal mystery by which Christ accomplished the
work of our salvation.
It is this mystery of Christ that the Cuurch proclaims and celebrates her liturgy
so that the faithful may live from it and bear witness to it in the world:
For it is in the liturgy, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, that
"the work of our redemption is accomplished," and it is through the liturgy
especially that the faithful are enabled to express in their lives and manifest
to others the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Cuurch."
Section 1 – The Sacramental Economy
The Cuurch was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the
"dispensation of the mystery" -- -- the age of the Church, during which Christ
manifests, makes present, and communicate his work of salvation through liturgy
of his Church, "until he comes." In this age of the Church Christ now lives in
acts in and with his Church, in a new way appropriate to this new age. He acts
through the sacraments in what the common Traditions of the East and the West
calls "the sacramental economy"; this is the communication (or "dispensation")
of the fruits of Christ's Paschal mystery in the celebration of the Church’s
"sacramental” liturgy.
It is therefore important first to explain this "sacramental dispensation" (chapter
1). The nature and essential features of liturgical celebration will then
appear more clearly (chapter 2).
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Dear readers and schloars. Very sorry about last week. Not exactly sure what happened. I think the pubish failed and I did not notice. This week has two lessons.
August 25, 2013 - For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.2 Timothy 1:7
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 12 Section V – pg 293
The Last Judgment
The resurrection of all the dead, "of both the just and the unjust," will precede
the Last Judgment. This will be "the hour when all who are in the tombs will
hear [the Son of man's] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the
resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of
judgment." Then Christ will come "in his glory, and all the angels with him...
Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from
another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, they will place the
sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left... And they will go away
into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man's
relationship with God will be laid bare. The Last Judgment will reveal even to
its furtherest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during
his earthly life:
All that the wicked do is recorded, and they do not know. When "our God comes, he
does not keep silence."... he will turn toward those at his left hand:... "I
placed my poor little ones on earth for you. I as ther head was seated in
heaven at the right hand of my Father -- -- but on earth my members were
suffering, by members on earth were in need. If you gave anything to my
members, what you gave would reach their Head. Would that you had known that my
little ones were in need when I place them on earth for you and appointed them
your stewards to bring your good works into my treasury. But you have placed
nothing in their hands; therefore you have found nothing in my presence."
The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the
day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his
Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know
the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of
salvation and understand the marvellous ways by which his Providence led
everything towards its final end. The Last Judgment will reveal that God's
justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that
God's love is stronger than death.
The message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving
them "the acceptable time... on the day of salvation." It inspires a holy fear
of God and commits them to the justice of the Kingdom of God. It proclaims the
"blessed hope" of the Lord's return, when he will come "to be glorified in his
saints, and to be marvelled at it in all who have believed."
VI. The Hope of the New Heaven and the New Earth
At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the
universal judgment the righteous will reign forever with Christ, glorified in
body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed:
The Church... will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, when will
come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human
race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains
its destiny through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ.
Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal, which will transform humanity and the
world, "new heavens and a new earth." It will be the definitive realization of
God's plan to bring under a single head "all things in [Christ], things in
heaven and things on earth."
In this new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem, God will have his dwelling among men.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more,
neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former
things have passed away."
For man, this consummation will be the final realization of the unity of the human
race, which God willed from creation and of which the pilgrim Church has been
"in the nature of sacrament." Those were united with Christ will form the
community of the redeemed, "the holy city" of God, "the Bride, the wife of the
Lamb." She will not be wounded any longer by sin, stains, self-love, that
destroy or wound the earthly community. The beatific vision, in which God opens
himself in an inexhaustible way to the elect, will be the ever-flowing
well-spring of happiness, peace, and mutual
communion.
For the cosmos, Revelation affirms the profound common destiny of the material world
and man: For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons
of God... in hope because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage
to decay…. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together
until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first
fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the
redemption of our bodies.
The visible universe, then, is itself destined to be transformed, "so that the world
itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be
at the service of the just," sharing their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ.
We know neither the moment of the consummation of the earth and of man, nor the way
in which the universe will be transformed. The form of this world, distorted by
sin, is passing away, and we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling and
a new earth in which righteousness dwells, in which happiness will fill and
surpass all the desires of peace arising in the hearts of
men."
"Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the expectancy of a new
earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new human family
grows, foreshadowing in some way the age which is to come. That is why, although
we must be careful to distinguish earthly progress clearly from the increase of
the kingdom of God, such progress is of vital concern to the kingdom of God, in
so far as it could contribute to the better ordering of human
society."
When we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and our enterprise... according
to the command of the Lord and in his Spirit, we will find them once again,
cleansed this time from the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured, when
Christ presents to his Father an eternal and universal kingdom." God will then
be "all in all" in eternal life:
True and subsistent life consists in this: the Father, through the Son and in the
Holy Spirit, pouring out his heavenly gifts of all things without exception.
Thanks to his mercy, we too, men that we are, have received the inalienable
promise of eternal life.
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August 18, 2013 - Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:17
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 12 Section III IV – The Final Purification, or Purgatory pg 291
All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are
indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo
purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of
heaven.
The church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which
is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated
her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and
Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture,
speaks of a cleansing fire:
As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment,
there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to
come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in
this age, but certain others in the age to come.
This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned
in Sacred Scripture: "therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead,
that they might be delivered from their sin." From the beginning the Church has
honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above
all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the
beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and
works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:
Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father’s
sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some
consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our
prayers for them.
IV Hell
We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot
love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against
ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother
is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."
Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the
serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. To die in
mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining
separated from him forever our own free choice. This state of definitive
self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."
Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna," of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to
the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and
body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and
they will gather... all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire," and
that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the
eternal fire!"
The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity.
Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin
descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."
The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man
can possess to life and happiness for which he was created for which he longs.
The affirmations of sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject
of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his
freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call
to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is
easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the
gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it
are few."
Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord
and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is
completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be
numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be
ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will
weep and gnash their teeth."
God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a
mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the
Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church
implores the mercy of God, who does not want " any to perish, but all to come to
repentance":
Father, accept this offering from your whole family. Grant us your peace in this life,
save us from final damnation, and count us among those you have chosen.
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August 11, 2013 - For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor
powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any
other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 12 Section I – The Particular Judgment pg 288
I -
Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or
rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ. The New Testament speaks of
judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his
second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded
immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith. The parable of
the poor man Lazarus in the words of Christ on the cross to the good thief, as
well as other New Testament texts speak of a final destiny of the soul -- -- a
destiny which can be different for some and for others.
Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of
his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either
entrance into the blessedness of heaven -- -- through a purification or
immediately, -- -- or immediate and everlasting damnation.
At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 12 Section II – Heaven pg 289
Those who die in God's grace and friendship are perfectly purified live forever with
Christ. They are like God forever, for they "see him as he is, it"
face-to-face:
By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the
general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints... and other faithful
who died after receiving Christ’s holy Baptism (provided they were not in need
of purification when they died,... or, if they then did or will need some
purification, when they have been purified after death,...) already before they
take up their bodies again and before the general judgment -- -- -- and this
since the Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into heaven -- -- --
have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial
paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the
Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and do see
the divine essence with an intuitive vision, and even face-to-face, without the
mediation of any creature.
This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity -- -- this communion of life and love
with the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed -- -- is
called "heaven." Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human
longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.
To live in heaven is "to be with Christ." The elect live "in Christ," but they
retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name.
For life is to be with Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom.
By his death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has "opened" heaven to us. The life of
the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession of the fruits of the
redemption accomplished by Christ. He makes partners in his heavenly
glorification those who have believed in him and remained faithful to his will.
Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into
Christ.
This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all
understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it as images: life, light,
peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father's house, the heavenly
Jerusalem, paradise: "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man
conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him."
Because of this transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up
his mystery to man’s immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it.
The church calls this contemplation of God and his heavenly glory "the beatific
vision":
how great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be honored
with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with Christ your Lord and
God,... to delight in the joy of immortality in the Kingdom of heaven with the
righteous and God's friends.
In the glory of heaven the blessed continue joyfully to fulfill God's will in
relation to other men and to all creation. Already they reign with Christ;
within "they shall reign forever and ever."
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August 4, 2013 - Everyword of God is true. He guards those who come to him for safety. Proverbs 30:5
Section II Dying in Christ Jesus
To rise with Christ, we must die with Christ: we must "be away from the body and at
home with the Lord." In that "departure" which is death the soul is separated
from the body. It will be reunited with the body on the day of resurrection of
the dead.
Death
"It is in regard to death that man's condition is most shrouded in doubt." In a
sense bodily death is natural, but for faith it is in fact "the wages of sin."
For those who die in Christ’s grace it is a participation in the death of the
Lord, so that they can also share his
Resurrection.
Death is the end of earthly life. Our lives are measured by time, in the course of
which we change, grow old and, as with all living beings on earth, death seems
like the normal end of life. That aspect of death lends urgency to our lives:
remembering our mortality helps us realize that we have only a limited time in
which to bring our lives to fulfillment:
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth,... before the dust returns to the
earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Death is a consequence of sin. The churches Magisterium, as authentic interpreter of
the affirmations of Scripture and Tradition, teaches that death entered the
world on account of man's sin. Even though man's nature is mortal, God had
destined him not to die. Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the
Creator and entered the world as a consequence of sin. "Bodily death, from which
man would have been immune had he not sinned” is thus "the last enemy" of man
left to be conquered.
Death is transformed by Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death
that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death,
he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father's will.
The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a
blessing.
The meaning of Christian death
Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning: "For to me to live in Christ,
and to die is gain." “The saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also
live with him." What is essentially new about Christian death is this: through
Baptism, the Christian has already "died with Christ" sacramentally, in order to
live a new life; and if we die in Christ’s grace, physical death completes this
"dying with Christ" and so completes our incorporation into him and his
redeeming act:
It is better for me to die in (eis) Christ Jesus and to reign over the ends of the
earth. Him it is I seek -- -- -- who died for us. Him it is I desire -- -- --
who rose for us. I am on the point of giving birth... Let me receive pure light;
when I shall have arrived there, then shall I be a man.
In death, God calls man to himself. Therefore the Christian can experience a desire
for death like St. Paul's: "My desire is to depart and be with Christ." He can
transform his own death into an act of obedience and love towards the Father,
after the example of Christ:
My earthly desire has been crucified;...there is no living water in me, water that
murrmurs and says within me: Come to the Father.
I want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die. I am not dying; I am
entering life.
The Christian vision of death receives privileged expression in the liturgy of the
Church.
Lord, for your faithful people life is changed, not ended.
When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death we gain an
everlasting dwelling place in heaven.
Death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God
offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan,
and to decide his ultimate destiny. When "the single course of our earthly life"
is completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives; "it is appointed for
men to die once." There is no "reincarnation" after death.
The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of death. In the ancient
litany of the Saints, for instance, she has us pray: "From a sudden and
unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord"; to ask the Mother of God to intercede for
us "at the hour of our death" in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves to St.
Joseph, the patron of a happy death.
Every action of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before
the day is out. Death should have
no great terrors for you if you had a quiet conscience...Then why not keep clear
of sin instead of running away from death? If you aren't fit to face death
today, it's very unlikely you will be tomorrow... Praised are you, my Lord, for
our sister bodily Death, from whom no living man can escape. Woe on those who
will die in mortal sin! Blessed are they who will be found in your most holy
will, for the second death will not harm them.
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July 28, 2013 - But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your
reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to
the unthankful and evil. Luke 6:35
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 11– I Believe In The Resurrection Of The Body pg 279
Section I Christ’s Resurrection and Ours
The progressive revelation of the Resurrection
God revealed the Resurrection of the dead to his people progressively. Hope in the
bodily resurrection of the dead established itself as a consequence intrinsic to
faith in God as creator of the whole man, soul and body. The Creator of heaven
and earth is also the one who faithfully maintains his covenant with Abraham and
his posterity. It was at this double perspective that faith in the resurrection
came to be expressed. In their trials, the Maccabean martyrs confessed:
The King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because
we have died for his laws. One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and
to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him.
The Pharisees and many of the Lord's contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. Jesus teaches it firmly. To the
Sadducees who deny it he answers," Is not this why you are wrong, that you know
neither the scriptures nor the power of God?" Faith in the resurrection rests on
the faith in God who "is not God of the dead, but of living."
But there is more. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: "I am
the Resurrection and the life." It is Jesus himself who on the last day will
raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body in drunk his
blood. Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of this by
restoring some of the dead to life, announcing thereby his own Resurrection,
though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the
"sign of Jonah," the sign of the temple: he announces that he will be put to
death but rise on the third day.
To be a witness to Christ is to be a "witness to his Resurrection," to "have eaten
and drunk with him after he rose from the dead." Encounters with the risen
Christ characterized Christian hope of resurrection. We shall rise like Christ,
with him, and through him.
From the beginning, Christian faith in the resurrection has met with incomprehension
and opposition. “On no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition
than on the resurrection of the body." It is very commonly accepted that the
life of the human person continues in a spiritual fashion after death. But how
can we believe that this body, so clearly mortal, could rise to everlasting
life?
How do the dead rise?
What is "rising"?
In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body
decays and soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified
body. God, in his Almighty power, will definitely grant incorruptible life for
bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus'
Ressurection.
Who will rise?
All the dead will rise, "those who have done good, to the
resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of
judgment."
How?
Christ is raised with his own body: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I
myself"; but he did not return to earthly life. So, in him, "all of them will
rise again with their own bodies which they now bear," but Christ "will change
our lowly body to be like his glorious body," into a "spiritual body":
But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they
come?" You foolish man! What you
sew does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which
is to be, a bare kernel... What is sown is perishable, what is raised is
imperishable…The dead will be raised imperishable….For this perishable nature
must be put on the imperishable and his mortal nature must be put on immortality.
This "how" exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is accessible only to faith.
Yet our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ's
transfiguration of our bodies:
Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God's blessing has been invoked upon
it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one
earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the
Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection.
When?
Definitely "at the last day," "at the end of the world." Indeed, the
resurrection of the dead is closely associated with Christ’s
Parousia:
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a cry of command, with the
archangels call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in
Christ will rise first.
Risen with Christ
Christ will raise us up "on the last day"; but it is also true that, in a certain way,
we have already risen with Christ. For, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, Christian
life is already now on earth a participation in the death and Resurrection of
Christ:
And you were buried with him in Baptism, in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead... If then you
have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God.
United with Christ by Baptism, believers already truly participate in the heavenly life
of the risen Christ, but his life remains "hidden with Christ in God." The
Father has already "raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Nourished with his body in the Eucharist, we
already belong to the body of Christ. When we rise on the last day we "also will
appear with him in glory."
In expectation of that day, the believer's body and soul already participate in the
dignity of belonging to Christ. This dignity entails the demand that he should
treat with respect his own body, but also the body of every other person,
especially the suffering:
The body is meant for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord
and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are
members of Christ?... You are not your own; ... So glorify God in your body.
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July 21, 2013 - This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.
No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends, if you do what I command you.
I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master's business; I call
you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and
to bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name.
My command to you is to love one another. John 15:12-17
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 10 Section I II – “I Believe In The Forgiveness Of Sins” pg 276
One Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
Our Lord tied the forgiveness of sins to faith and Baptism: "Go into all the world
and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized
will be saved." Baptism is the first and chief sacrament of forgiveness of sins
because it unites us with Christ, who died for our sins and rose for our
justification, so that "we too might walk in newness of life."
"When we made our first profession of faith while receiving the holy Baptism that
cleansed us, the forgiveness we received then was so full and complete that
there remained in us absolutely nothing left to efface, neither original sin nor
offenses committed by our own will, nor was there left any penalty to suffer in
order to expiate them... Yet the grace of Baptism delivers no one from all the
weaknesses of nature. On the contrary, we must still combat the movements of
concupiscence that never cease leading us into evil."
In this battle against our inclination towards evil, who could be brave and
watchful enough to escape every wound of sin? "If the Church has the power to
forgive sins, then Baptism cannot be her only means of using the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven received from Jesus Christ. The Church must be able to forgive
all penitents their offenses, if they should sin until the last moment of their
lives."
It is through the Sacrament of Penance that the baptized can be reconciled with God
and with the Church:
Penance has rightly been called by the holy Fathers "a laborious kind of baptism." This
Sacrament of Penance is necessary for salvation for those who have fallen after
Baptism, just as Baptism is necessary for salvation for those who have not yet
been reborn.
II THE POWER OF THE KEYS
After his Resurrection, Christ sent his apostles "so that repentance and forgiveness
of sins should be preached in his name to all nations."
The apostles and their successors carry out this "ministry of
reconciliation," not only by announcing to men God's forgiveness merited for us
by Christ, and calling them to conversion and faith; but also by communicating
to them the forgiveness of sins in Baptism, and reconciling them with God and
with the Church through the power of the keys, received from Christ.
The church has received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven so that, in her, sins may
be forgiven through Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit's action. In this Church,
the soul dead through sin comes back to life in order to live with Christ, whose
grace has saved us.
There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive. "There is no
one, however wicked and guilty, who may not confidently hope for forgiveness,
provided his repentance is honest." Christ died for all men desires that in his
Church the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away
from sin.
Catechesis strives to awaken and nourish in the faithful faith in the incomparable
greatness of the risen Christ’s gift to his Church: the mission and the power to
forgive sins through the ministry of the apostles and their successors:
The Lord wills that his disciples possess a tremendous power: that his lowly
servants accomplish in his name all that he did when he was on earth.
Priests have received from God a power that he has given neither to angels nor to
archangels... God above confirms what priests do here below.
Were there no forgiveness of sins in the Church, there would be no hope of life to
come or eternal liberation. Let us thank God who has given his Church such a
gift.
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July 14, 2013 - And he said: "I tell you the truth, you must change and become like little
children. Otherwise, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 6 Section I – Mary’s Motherhood with regard to the Church –p 273
Wholly united with her son...
Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly
from it. "This union of the mother with a Son in the work of salvation is made
manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death"; it is
made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:
Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully
persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping
with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his
suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and
lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given,
by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with
these words: "Woman, behold your son."
After her Son's Ascension, Mary "aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers."
In her association with the apostles and several women, "we also see Mary by her
prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in
the Annunciation."
... Also in her Assumption
"Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the
course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into
heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she
might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of
sin and death." The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation
in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other
Christians:
In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the
world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the
living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.
... She is our Mother in the order of grace
By her complete adherence to the Father's will, to her Son's redemptive work, and
to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of
faith and charity. Thus she is a "preeminent and... wholly unique member of the
Church"; indeed, she is the "exemplary realization" (typus) of the Church.
Her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes still further. "In a
wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning
charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this
reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace."
"This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the
consent which he loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained
without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the
elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her
manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation...
Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of
Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."
"Mary's function as mother of men in no way obscures and diminishes this unique
mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin’s
salutary influence on men... flows forth from the superabundance of the merits
of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its
power from it." "No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word
and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways
both by his ministers of the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is
radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of
the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation
which is but a sharing in this one source."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 6 Section II – Devotion to the Blessed Virgin p 275
"All generations will call me blessed": "The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin
is intrinsic to Christian worship." The Church rightly honors "the Blessed
Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has
been honored with the title of ‘Mother of God,’ to whose protection the faithful
fly in all their dangers and needs... This very special devotion….differs
essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally
to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration." The
liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the
rosary, an "epitome of the whole Gospel," expresses this devotion to the Virgin Mary.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 6 Section III – Mary—Eschatological Icon of the Church – p 275
After speaking of the Church, her origin, mission, destiny, we can find no better way
to conclude than by looking to Mary. In her we contemplate what the Church
already is in her mystery on her own "pilgrimage of faith," and what she will be
in the homeland at the end of her journey. There, "in the glory of the Most Holy
and Undivided Trinity," “in the communion of all the saints," the Church is
awaited the one she venerates as Mother of her Lord and as her own mother.
In the meantime the Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and
soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be
protected in the world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth, until the
day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim
people of God.
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July 7, 2013 - As a tree gives fruit, healing words give life; but dishonest words crush the spirit. Proverbs 15:4
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 5 Section I – Communion in Spiritual Goods pg 269
In the primitive community of Jerusalem, the disciples "devoted themselves to the
apostles’teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers"
Communion in the faith. The faith of the faithful is the faith of the Church, received
from the apostles. Faith is a treasure of life which is enriched by being shared.
Communion of the sacraments. "The fruit of all the sacraments belongs to all the faithful.
All the sacraments are sacred links uniting the faithful with one another and
binding them to Jesus Christ, and above all Baptism, the gate by which we enter
into the Church. The communion of saints must be understood as the communion of
the sacraments... but the name ‘Communion’ can be applied to all of them, for
they unite us to God...... But this name is better suited to the Eucharist that
brings this communion about."
Communion of charisms. Within the communion
of the Church, the Holy Spirit "distributes special graces among the faithful of
every rank" for the building up of the Church. Now, "to each is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."
"They had everything in common." "Everything the true Christian has is to be regarded
as a good possessed in common with everyone else. All Christians should be ready
and eager to come to the help of the needy... and of their neighbors in want." A
Christian is a steward of the Lord's goods.
Communion in charity. In the sanctorum communio, "None of us lives to himself, and none of
us dies to himself." "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member
is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and
individually members of it." "Charity does not insist on its own way." In this
solidarity with all men, living or dead, which is founded on the communion of
saints, the least of our acts done in charity rebounds to the profit of all.
Every sin harms this communion.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 5 Section II – The Communion of the Church of heaven and Earth pg 270
The three states of the Church. "When the Lord comes in glory, and all his angels
with him, death will be no more and all things will be subject to him. But at
the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died
and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating ‘in full
light, God himself triune and one, exactly as he is’ ":
All of us, however, in varying degrees and in different ways share in the same
charity towards God and our neighbors, and we all sing the one hymn of glory to
our God. All, indeed, who are of Christ and who have his Spirit form one Church
and in Christ cleave together.
"So it is that the union of the wayfarers with the brethren who sleep in peace of
Christ is in no way interrupted, but on the contrary, according to the constant
faith of the Church, this union is reinforced by an exchange of spiritual goods."
The intercession of the saints. "Being more closely united to Christ, those who
dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly and holiness... They do not
cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they
acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus....
So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped."
Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you
then more effectively than during my life.
I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth.
Communion with the saints. "It is not merely by the title of example that we cherish the
memory of those in heaven; we seek, rather, that by this devotion to the
exercise of fraternal charity the union of the whole Church and the spirit may
be strengthened. Exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings
us closer to Christ, so our communion with the saints joins us to Christ, from
whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace, and the life of the People
of God itself":
We worship Christ as God's son; we love the martyrs as the Lord's disciples and
imitators, and rightly so because of their matchless devotion towards their king
and master. May we also be their companions and fellow disciples!
Communion with the dead. "In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical
Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members, from the very earliest
days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the
dead; and ‘because it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead
that they may be loosed from their sins’ she offers her suffrages for them." Our
prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their
intercession for us effective.
In the one family of God. "For if we continue to love one another and to join in
praising the Most Holy Trinity -- -- all of us who are sons of God and form one
family in Christ -- -- we will be faithful to the deepest vocation to church."
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June 30, 2013 - Be joyful because you have hope. Be patient when trouble comes, and pray at all
times. Romans 12:12
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 4 Section III – The Consecrated Life pg 262
"The state of life which is constituted by the profession of the evangelical
counsels, while not entering into the hierarchical structure of the Church,
belongs undeniably to her life and holiness."
Evangelical counsels, consecrated life
Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple.
The perfection of charity, to which all the faithful are called, entails for
those who freely follow the call to consecrated life the obligation of
practicing chastity in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, poverty and
obedience. It is the profession of these counsels, within a permanent state of
life recognized by the Church, that characterizes the life consecrated to God.
The state of consecrated life is thus one way of experiencing a "more intimate"
consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God. In the
consecrated life, Christ's faithful, moved by the Holy Spirit, propose to
follow Christ more nearly, to give themselves to God who is loved above all
and, pursuing the perfection of charity in the service of the Kingdom, to
signify and proclaim in the Church the glory of the world to come.
One great tree, with many branches
"From the God-given seed of the counsels, a wonderful and wide-spreading tree has
grown up in the field of the Lord, branching out into various forms of the
religious life lived in solitude or in community. Different religious families
have come into existence in which spiritual resources are multiplied for the
progress in holiness of their members and for the good of the entire body of
Christ."
From the very beginning of the Church there were men and women who set out to follow
Christ with greater liberty, and to imitate him more closely, by practicing the
evangelical counsels. They led lives dedicated to God, each in his own way.
Many of them, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became hermits or
founded religious families. These the church, by virtue of her authority,
gladly accepted and approved.
Bishops will always strive to discern the gifts of consecrated life granted to the
Church by the Holy Spirit; the approval of new forms of consecrated life is
reserved to the Apostolic See.
The eremitic life
Without always professing the three evangelical counsels publicly, hermits "devote their
life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter
separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and
penance."
They manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church, that is,
personal intimacy with Christ. Hidden from the eyes of men, the life of a hermit
is a silent preaching of the Lord, to whom he has surrendered his life simply
because he is everything to him. Here is a particular call to find in the
desert, in the thick of spiritual battle, the glory of the Crucified One.
Consecrated virgins of widows
From apostolic times Christian virgins and widows, called by the Lord to cling only
to him with greater freedom of heart, body, and spirit, have decided with the
Church's approval to live in the respective states of viginity or perpetual
chastity "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven."
"Virgins who, committed to the holy plan of following Christ more closely, are
consecrated to God by the diocesan Bishop according to the approved liturgical
right, are betrothed mystically to Christ, the Son of God, and are dedicated to
the service of the Church." By the solemn rite (Consecratio Virginum), the
Virgin is "constituted... a sacred person, a transcendent sign of the Church's
love for Christ, and an eschatological image of this heavenly Bride of Christ
and of the life to come."
"As with other forms of consecrated life," the order of virgins establishes the
woman living in the world (or the nun) in prayer, penance, service of her
brethren, and apostolic activity, according to the state of life and spiritual
gifts given to her. Consecrated virgins can form themselves into association to
observe their commitment more faithfully.
Religious life
Religious life was born in the East during the first centuries of Christianity. Lived
within institutes canonically erected by the Church, it is distinguished from
other forms of consecrated life by its liturgical character, public profession
of the evangelical counsels, fraternal life led in common, and witness given to
the union of Christ with the Church.
Religious life derives from the ministry of the Church. It is a gift she has received from
her Lord, a gift she offers as a stable way of life to the faithful called by
God to profess the counsels. Thus,
the Church can both show forth Christ and acknowledge herself to be the Savior's
bride. Religious life in its various forms is called to signify the very
charity of God in the language of our time.
All religious, whether exempt or not, take their place among the collaborators of
the diocesan bishop in his pastoral duty. From the outset of the work of
evangelization, the missionary "planting" and expansion of the church require
the presence of the religious life in all its forms. "History witnesses to the
outstanding service rendered by religious families in the propagation of the
faith and in the formation of new Churches: from the ancient monastic
institutions to the medieval orders, all the way to the more recent
congregations."
Secular institutes
"A secular institute is an Institute of consecrated life in which the Christian
faithful living in the world strive for the perfection of charity and work for
the sacification of the world especially from within."
By a "life perfectly and entirely consecrated to [such] sanctification," the
members of these institutes share in the Church's task of evangelization, "in
the world and from whithn the world," where their presence acts as "leaven in
the world." "Their witness of a Christian life" aims "to order temporal things
according to God and inform the world with the power of the gospel." They commit
themselves to the evangelical counsels by sacred bonds and observe among
themselves the communion and fellowship appropriate to their "particular secular
way of life."
Societies of apostolic life
Alongside the different forms of consecrated life are "societies of apostolic life whose
members without religious vows pursue the particular apostolic purpose of their
society, and lead a life as brothers or sisters in common according to a
particular manner of life, strive for the perfection of charity through the
observance of the constitutions.
Among these there are societies in which the members embrace the
evangelical counsels" according to their constitutions.
Consecration and mission: proclaiming the King who is coming
Already dedicated to him through Baptism, the person who surrenders himself to the God
he loves above all else thereby consecrate himself more intimately to God
service and to the good of the Church. By this state of life consecrated to God,
the Church manifests Christ and shows us how the Holy Spirit acts so wonderfully
in her. And so the first mission of those who profess the evangelical counsels
is to live out their consecration.
Moreover, "since members of institutes of consecrated life dedicate
themselves through their consecration to the service of the Church they are
obliged in a special manner to engage in missionary work, in accord with the
character of the Institute."
In the Church, which is like the sacrament -- -- the sign and instrument -- -- of
God’s own life, the consecrated life is seen as a special sign of the mystery of
redemption. To follow and imitate Christ more nearly and to manifest more
clearly his self-emptying is to be more deeply present to one's contemporaries,
in the heart of Christ. For those who are on this "narrower" path encourage
their brethren by their example, and bear striking witness "that the world
cannot be transfigured and offered to God without the spirit of the Beatitudes."
Whether their witness is public, as in the religious state, are less public, or in
secret, Christ’s coming remains for all those consecrated both the origin and
rising sun of their life:
For the people of God has here no lasting city,... [and this state] reveals more
clearly to all believers the heavenly goods which are already present in this
age, witnessing to the new and eternal life which we have acquired through the
redemptive work of Christ and preluding our future resurrection and the glory of
the heavenly kingdom.
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June 23, 2013 - Being respected is more important than having great riches. To be well thought of is
better than silver or gold. Proverbs 22:1
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 4 Section I – The Hierarchical Constitution of the Church (cont)
"The individual bishops are the visible source and foundation of unity in their own
particular Churches." As such, they "exercise their pastoral office over the
portion of the People of God assigned to them," assisted by priests and deacons.
But, as a member of the episcopal college, each bishop shares of the concern for
all the Churches. The bishops exercise this care first "by ruling well their own
Churches as portions of the universal Church," and so contributing "to the
welfare of the whole Mystical Body, which, from another point of view, is a
corporate body of Churches." They extend it especially to the poor, to those
persecuted for the faith, as well as to missionaries who are working throughout
the world.
Neighboring particular Churches who share the same culture form ecclesiastical provinces or
larger groupings called patriarchates or regions. The bishops of these groupings
can meet in synods or provincial councils. "In a like fashion, the episcopal
conferences at the present time are in a position to contribute in many and
fruitful ways to the concrete realization of the collegiate spirit."
The teaching office
Bishops, with priests as co-workers, have as their first task "to preach the Gospel of
God to all men," in keeping with the Lord's command. They are "heralds of faith,
who draw new disciples to Christ; they are authentic teachers" of the apostolic
faith "endowed with the authority of Christ."
In order to preserve the church in the purity of the faith handed on by the
apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own
infallibility. By a "supernatural sense of faith" the People of God, under the
guidance of the Church's living Magisterium, "unfailingly adheres to this faith."
The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant
established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium’s task to
preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the
objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the
pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God
abides in the truth that liberates.
To fulfill this service, God endowed the Church’s shepherds with the
charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. The exercise of this
charism takes several forms:
"The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in
virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful --
-- -- who confirms his brethren in the faith -- -- -- he proclaims by a
definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals.
... The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops
when, together with Peter’s successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium,"
above all in an Ecumenical Council. When the Church through its supreme
Magisterium proposes a doctrine "for belief as being divinely revealed," and as
the teaching of Christ, the definitions "must be adhered to with the observance
of faith." This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.
Divine assistance is also given to the successors of the apostles, teaching in
communion with the successor of Peter, and, in a particular way, the bishop of
Rome, pastor of the whole Church, when, without arriving at an infallible
definition and without pronouncing in a "definitive manner," they propose in the
exercise of the ordinary Magisterium a teaching that leads to better
understanding of Revelation in matters of faith and morals. To this ordinary
teaching the faithful "are to adhere to it with religious assent" which, though
distinct from the assent of faith, is nontheless an extension of it.
The sanctifying office
The bishop is “the steward of the grace of the supreme priesthood,” especially in
the Eucharist which he offers personally or whose offering he assures through
the priests, his co-workers. The Eucharist is the center of the life of the
particular Church. The bishop and priests sanctify the Church by their prayer at
work, by their ministry of the word and of the sacraments. They sanctify her by
their example, "not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples
to the flock." Thus, "together with the flock entrusted to them, they may attain
eternal life."
The governing office
"The bishops, as vicars and legates of Christ, govern the particular Churches
assigned to them by their counsels, exhortations, an example, but over and above
that also by the authority and sacred power" which indeed they ought to exercise
so as to edify, in their spirit of service which is that of their Master.
"The power which they exercise personally in the name of Christ, is proper, ordinary,
and immediate, although its exercise is ultimately controlled by the supreme
authority of the Church." But the bishops should not be thought of as vicars of
the Pope. His ordinary and immediate authority over the whole Church does not
annul, but on the contrary confirms and defends that of the bishops.
Their authority must be exercised in communion with the Church under the
guidance of the Pope.
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June 16, 2013 - Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. John 20:29
HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL OUR FATHERS
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 4 Section I – The Hierarchical Constitution of
the Church (cont)
"The individual bishops are the visible source and foundation of unity in their own
particular Churches." As such, they "exercise their pastoral office over the
portion of the People of God assigned to them," assisted by priests and deacons.
But, as a member of the episcopal college, each bishop shares of the concern for
all the Churches. The bishops exercise this care first "by ruling well their own
Churches as portions of the universal Church," and so contributing "to the
welfare of the whole Mystical Body, which, from another point of view, is a
corporate body of Churches." They extend it especially to the poor, to those
persecuted for the faith, as well as to missionaries who are working throughout
the world.
Neighboring particular Churches who share the same culture form ecclesiastical provinces or
larger groupings called patriarchates or regions. The bishops of these groupings
can meet in synods or provincial councils. "In a like fashion, the episcopal
conferences at the present time are in a position to contribute in many and
fruitful ways to the concrete realization of the collegiate spirit."
The teaching office
Bishops, with priests as co-workers, have as their first task "to preach the Gospel of
God to all men," in keeping with the Lord's command. They are "heralds of faith,
who draw new disciples to Christ; they are authentic teachers" of the apostolic
faith "endowed with the authority of Christ."
In order to preserve the church in the purity of the faith handed on by the
apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own
infallibility. By a "supernatural sense of faith" the People of God, under the
guidance of the Church's living Magisterium, "unfailingly adheres to this faith."
The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant
established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium’s task to
preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the
objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the
pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God
abides in the truth that liberates.
To fulfill this service, God endowed the Church’s shepherds with the
charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. The exercise of this
charism takes several forms:
"The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in
virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful --
-- -- who confirms his brethren in the faith -- -- -- he proclaims by a
definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals.
... The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops
when, together with Peter’s successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium,"
above all in an Ecumenical Council. When the Church through its supreme
Magisterium proposes a doctrine "for belief as being divinely revealed," and as
the teaching of Christ, the definitions "must be adhered to with the observance
of faith." This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.
Divine assistance is also given to the successors of the apostles, teaching in
communion with the successor of Peter, and, in a particular way, the bishop of
Rome, pastor of the whole Church, when, without arriving at an infallible
definition and without pronouncing in a "definitive manner," they propose in the
exercise of the ordinary Magisterium a teaching that leads to better
understanding of Revelation in matters of faith and morals. To this ordinary
teaching the faithful "are to adhere to it with religious assent" which, though
distinct from the assent of faith, is nontheless an extension of it.
The sanctifying office
The bishop is “the steward of the grace of the supreme priesthood,” especially in
the Eucharist which he offers personally or whose offering he assures through
the priests, his co-workers. The Eucharist is the center of the life of the
particular Church. The bishop and priests sanctify the Church by their prayer at
work, by their ministry of the word and of the sacraments. They sanctify her by
their example, "not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples
to the flock." Thus, "together with the flock entrusted to them, they may attain
eternal life."
The governing office
"The bishops, as vicars and legates of Christ, govern the particular Churches
assigned to them by their counsels, exhortations, an example, but over and above
that also by the authority and sacred power" which indeed they ought to exercise
so as to edify, in their spirit of service which is that of their Master.
"The power which they exercise personally in the name of Christ, is proper, ordinary,
and immediate, although its exercise is ultimately controlled by the supreme
authority of the Church." But the bishops should not be thought of as vicars of
the Pope. His ordinary and immediate authority over the whole Church does not
annul, but on the contrary confirms and defends that of the bishops.
Their authority must be exercised in communion with the Church under the
guidance of the Pope.
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June 9, 2013 – But if we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share fellowship with
each other. Then the blood of Jesus, God's Son, cleanses us from every sin. 1 John 1:7
After reviewing todays section, check out the photo gallery.
A friend of mine sent me the slides and I so enjoyed them I thought I’d
share them with you. To start the show click on Play, you can click pause if you want to stop on a slide. To end the show just close the tab or exit the site as you normally do.
God bless!
Section
2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 4 Section I – The Hierarchical Constitution of
the Church pg 252
Why the ecclesial ministry?
Christ is himself the source of ministry in the Church. He instituted the Church. He
gave her authority and mission, orientation and goal;
In order to shepherd the People of God and to increase its numbers without cease,
Christ the Lord set up in his Church a variety of offices which aim at the good
of the whole body.
The holders of office, who are invested with a sacred power, are, in fact, dedicated
to promoting the interests of their brethren, so that all belong to the People
of God... may attain to salvation. "How are they to believe in him of whom they
have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men
preach unless they are sent?" No one-- -- no individual and no community -- --
can proclaim the Gospel to himself: "Faith comes from what is heard." No one can
give himself the mandate and mission to proclaim the Gospel. The one sent by the
Lord does not speak and act on his own authority, but by virtue of Christ's
authority; not as a member of the community, but speaking to it in the name of
Christ. No one can bestow grace on himself; it must be given and offered. This
fact presupposes ministers of grace, authorized and empowered by Christ. From
him, bishops and priests receive the mission and faculty ("the sacred power") to
act in persona Christi Capitis; deacons receive the strength to serve the people
of God in the diaconia of liturgy, word, and charity, in communion with the
Bishop and his presbyterate. The ministry in which Christ's emissaries do and give by God's grace what they
cannot do and give by their own powers, is called a "sacrament" by the churches
tradition. Indeed, the ministry of the Church is conferred by a special sacrament.
Intrinsically linked to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry is its character as
service. Entirely dependent on Christ who gives mission authority, ministers are
truly "slaves of Christ," in the image of him who freely took "the form of a
slave" for us. Because the word and grace of which there are ministers are not
their own, but are given to them by Christ for the sake of others they must
freely become the slaves of all.
Likewise, it belongs to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry that it have a
collegial character. In fact, from the beginning of his ministry, the Lord Jesus
instituted the Twelve as "the seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of the
sacred hierarchy.” Chosen together, they were also sent out together, and their
fraternal unity would be at the service of the fraternal communion of all the
faithful; they would reflect and witness to the communion of the divine persons.
For this reason every Bishop exercises his ministry from within the episcopal
college, in communion with the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter and
head of the college. So also priests exercise their ministry from within the
presbyterium of the diocese, under the direction of their bishop.
Finally, it belongs to the sacramental nature of the ecclesial ministry that it have a
personal character. Although Christ's ministers act in communion with one
another, they also always act in a personal way. Each one is called personally:
"You, follow me" in order to be a personal witness within the common mission, to
bear personal responsibility before him who gives the mission, acting "in his
person" and for other persons: "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit...";
"I absolve you... "
Sacramental ministry in the Church, then, is a service exercised in the name of Christ. It
has a personal character and a collegial form. This is evidenced by the bonds
between the episcopal college and its head, the successor of St. Peter, and the
relationship between the bishop’s pastoral responsibility for his particular
church and the common solicitude of the episcopal college for the universal
Church.
The episcopal college and its head, the Pope
When Christ instituted the Twelve, "he constituted [them] in the form of a college or
permanent assembly, at the head of which he placed Peter, chosen from among
them." Just as "by the Lord's institution, St. Peter and the rest of the
apostles constitute a single apostolic college, so in like fashion the Roman
Pontiff, Peter’s successor, and the bishops, the successors of the apostles, are
related with that united to one another."
The Lord made Simon alone, whom he named Peter, the "rock" of his Church. He gave
him the keys to his Church and instituted him shepherd of the whole flock. "The
office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the
college of apostles united to its head." This pastoral office of Peter and the
other apostles belongs to the Church’s very foundation and is continued by the
bishops on the primacy of the Pope.
The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, "is the perpetual and visible source
and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the
faithful." "For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ,
and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over
the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered."
"The college or body of bishops has no authority unless united with the Roman
Pontiff, Peter’s successor, as its head." As such, this college has "supreme and
full authority over the universal Church; but this power cannot be exercised
without the agreement of the Roman Pontiff."
"The college of bishops exercises power over the universal church in a solemn matter
in an ecumenical council." But "there never is an ecumenical council which is
not confirmed or at least recognized as such by Peter’s successor."
"This college, in so far as it is composed of many members, is the expression of the
variety and universality of the People of God; and of the unity of the flock of
Christ, in so far as it is assembled under one head."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 2, 2013 - But I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. Matthew 5:44
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section III – The Church is Catholic
Missionary paths. The Holy Spirit is the protagonist, "the principal agent of the whole of
the Church's mission." It is he who leads the Church on her missionary paths.
"This mission continues and, in the course of history, unfolds the mission of
Christ, who was sent to evangelize the poor; so the Church, urged on by the
Spirit of Christ must walk the road, Christ himself walked, a way of poverty
and obedience, of service and self-sacrifice even to death, a death from which
he emerged victorious by his resurrection." So it is that "the blood of martyrs
is the seed of Christians."
On her pilgrimage, the Church has also experienced the "discrepancy existing
between the message she proclaims and the human weakness of those to whom the
Gospel has been entrusted." Only by taking the "way of penance and renewal," the
"narrow way of the cross," can the People of God extend Christ's reign. For
"just as Christ carried out the work of redemption in poverty and oppression, so
the Church is called to follow the same path if she is to communicate the fruits
of salvation to men."
By her very mission, "the Church... travels the same journey as all humanity and
shares the same earthly lot with the world: she is to be a leaven and, as it
were, the soul of human society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into
the family of God." Missionary endeavor requires patience. It begins with the
proclamation of the Gospel to peoples and groups who do not yet believe in
Christ, continues with the establishment of Christian communities that are "a
sign of God's presence in the world," and leads to the foundation of local
churches. It must involve a process of inculturation if the Gospel is to take
flesh and each people's culture. There will be times of defeat. "With regard to
individuals, groups, and peoples it is only by degrees that [the Church] touches
and penetrates them, and so receives them into a fullness which is
Catholic."
The Church's mission stimulates efforts towards Christian unity. Indeed, "divisions
among Christians prevent the Church from realizing in practice the fullness of
catholicity proper to her in those of her sons who, though joined to her by
Baptism, are yet separated from full communion with her. Furthermore, the
Church herself finds it more difficult to express in actual life for full
catholicity in all its aspects."
The missionary task implies a respectful dialogue with those who do not yet accept
the Gospel. Believers can profit from this dialogue by learning to appreciate
better "those elements of truth and grace which are found among peoples, and
which are, as it were, a secret presence of God." They proclaim the Good News
to those who do not know it, in order to consolidate, complete, and raise up the
truth and goodness that God has distributed among men and nations, and to purify
them from error and evil "for the glory of God, the confusion of the demon, and
happiness of man."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section IV – The Church is Apostolic pg 247
The church is apostolic because she is having on the apostles, and three
ways:
-- she was and remains built on "the foundation of the Apostles," the witnesses
chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself;
-- with the help of the Spirit dwelling in her, the Church keeps and hands on
the teaching, the "good deposit," the salutary words she has heard from the
apostles;
-- she continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles until
Christ's return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college of
bishops, "assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter, the
Church's supreme pastor":
You are the eternal Shepherd who never leaves his flock untended. Through the
apostles you watch over us and protect us always. You made them shepherds of the
flock to share in the work of your Son...
The Apostles’ mission
Jesus is the Father's Emissary. From the beginning of his ministry, he "called to him
those whom he desired;.... And he appointed twelve, whom also he named apostles,
to be with him, and to be sent out to preach." From then on, they would also be
his "emissaries" (Greek apostoloi). In them, Christ continues his own mission:
"As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." The apostles’ ministry is the
continuation of his mission; Jesus said to the Twelve: "he who receives you
receives me."
Jesus unites them to the mission he received from the Father. As "the Son can do
nothing of his own accord," but receives everything from the Father who sent
him, so those whom Jesus sends can do nothing apart from him, from whom they
received both the mandate for their mission and the power to carry out. Christ's
apostles knew that they were called by God as "ministers of a new covenant,"
"servants of God," "ambassadors for Christ," "servants of Christ and stewards of
the mysteries of God."
In the office of the apostles there is one aspect that cannot be transmitted: to be
the chosen witnesses of the Lord's Resurrection and so the foundation stones of
the Church. But their office also has a permanent aspect. Christ promised to
remain with them always. The divine mission entrusted by Jesus to them "will
continue to the end of time, since the Gospel they handed on is the lasting
source of all life for the Church. Therefore,... the apostles took care to
appoint successors."
The bishops -- -- successors of the apostles
"In order that the mission entrusted to them might be continued after their death,
[the apostles] consigned, by will and testament, as it were, to their immediate
collaborators the duty of completing and consolidating the work they had begun,
urging them to tend to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit had appointed
them to shepherd the Church of God. They accordingly designated such men and
then made the ruling that likewise on their death other proven men should take
over their ministry area"
"Just as the office which the Lord confided to Peter alone, as first of the apostles,
destined to be transmitted to his successors, is a permanent one, so also
endures the office, which the apostles received, of shepherding the Church, a
charge destined to be exercised without interruption by the sacred order of the
bishops." Hence the Church teaches that "the bishops have by divine institution
taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that
whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them
despises Christ and him who sent Christ."
The apostolate
The whole Church is apostolic, in that she remains, through the successors of St.
Peter and the other apostles, in communion of faith and life with her origin:
and in that she is "sent out" into the whole world. All members of the church
share in this mission, though in various ways. "The Christian vocation is, of
its nature, a vocation to the apostolate as well." Indeed, we call an
apostolate "every activity of the Mystical Body" that aims "to spread the
Kingdom of Christ over all the earth."
"Christ, sent by the Father, is the source of the church's whole apostolate"; thus the
fruitfullness of apostolate ordained ministers as well as for lay people
clearly depends on their vital union with Christ. In keeping with their
vocations, the demands of the times and the various gifts of the Holy Spirit,
the apostolate assumes the most varied forms. But charity, drawn from the
Eucharist above all, is always "as it were, the soul of the whole apostolate."
The church is ultimately one, holy, catholic, apostolic in her deepest and ultimate
identity, because it is in her that "the Kingdom of heaven," the "Reign of God,"
already exists and will be fulfilled at the end of time. The kingdom has come in
the person of Christ and grows mysteriously in the hearts of those incorporated
into him, until its full eschatological manifestation. Then all those he has
redeemed and made "holy and blameless before him in love," will be gathered
together as the one People of God, the "Bride of the Lamb," the holy city
Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God." For "the
wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the
twelve apostles of the Lamb."
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May 26, 2013 - But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is
like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. James 1:6
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section III – The Church is Catholic
The Church's bond with non-Christian religions is in the first place the common
origin and end of the human race:
All nations form but one community. This is so because all stem from the one stock
which God created to people the entire earth, and also because all share a
common destiny, namely God. His providence, evident goodness, and saving designs
extend to all against the day when the elect are gathered together in the holy
city...
The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and
images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and
all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all
goodness and truth found in these religions as "a preparation for the Gospel and
given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life."
In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that
disfigure the image of God in them:
Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasoning, and
have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than
the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are
exposed to ultimate despair.
To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to
call the whole of humanity together into his Son's Church. The Church is the
place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is "the
world reconciled." She is that bark which "in the full sail of the Lord's cross,
by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world." According to
another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah's Ark, which
alone saves from the flood.
"Outside the Church there is no salvation"
How are we to understand this affirmation often repeated by the Church Fathers?
Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head
through the church which is his Body:
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a
pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator
in the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He
himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby
affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through
Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the
Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse
either to enter it or to remain in it.
This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not
know Christ and his Church:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his
Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and moved by his
grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates
of their conscience -- -- those too may achieve eternal salvation.
"Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own,
are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to
please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to
evangelize all men."
Mission -- --requirement of the churches catholicity
The missionary mandate. "Having been divinely sent to the nations that she might be
"the universal sacrament of salvation," the Church, in obedience to the command
of her founder and because it is demanded by her own essential universality,
strives to preach the Gospel to all men": Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and Lo, I am
with you always, until the close of the age."
The origin and purpose of mission. The Lord's missionary mandate is ultimately
grounded in the eternal law of the Most Holy Trinity: "The Church on earth is by
her nature missionary since, according to the plan of the Father, she has as her
origin the mission of the Son and Holy Spirit." The ultimate purpose of mission
is none other than to make men share in the communion between the Father and
the Son in their Spirit of Love.
Missionary motivation.
It is from God's love for all men that the Church in every age
receives both the obligation and the vigor of her missionary dynamism, "for the
love of Christ urges us on." Indeed, God "desires all men to be saved and to
come to the knowledge of the truth"; that is, God wills the salvation of
everyone through the knowledge of the truth. Salvation is found in the truth.
Those who obey the prompting of the Spirit of truth are already on the way of
salvation. But the Church, to whom this truth has been entrusted, must go out to
meet their desire, so as to bring them the truth. Because she believes in God’s
universal plan of salvation, the church must be
missionary.
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May 19, 2013 - Depend on the Lord in whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section III – The Church is Catholic pg 240 (cont)
Each particular Church is “catholic”
"The Church of Christ is really present in all legitimately organized local groups of
the faithful, which, in so far as they are united to their pastors, are also
quite appropriately called Churches in the New Testament... In them the faithful
are gathered together through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and the
mystery of the Lord's Supper is celebrated….In these communities, though they
may often be small and poor, or existing in the dispora, Christ is present,
through whose power and influence the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church is
constituted."
The phrase "particular church," which is first of all the diocese (or eparchy),
refers to a community of the Christian faithful in communion of faith and
sacraments with their bishop ordained in apostolic succession. These particular
Churches "are constituted after the model of the universal Church; it is in
these and formed out of them that the one and unique Catholic Church exists."
Particular Churches are fully catholic through their communion with one of them, the Church
of Rome "which presides in charity. "For with this church, by reason of its
pre-eminence, the whole Church, that is the faithful everywhere, must
necessarily be in accord." Indeed, "from the incarnate Word's descent to us,
all Christian churches everywhere have held and hold the great Church that is
here [at Rome] to be their only basis and foundation since, according to the
Savior's promise, the gates of hell have never prevailed against her."
"Let us be very careful not to conceive of the universal Church as the simple sum,
or... the more or less anomalous federation of essentially different particular
churches. In the mind of the Lord the Church is universal by vocation and
mission, when she puts down her roots in a variety of cultural, social, and
human terrains, she takes on different external expressions and appearances in
each part of the world." The rich variety of ecclesiastical discipline,
liturgical rites, and theological and spiritual heritages proper to the local
churches "unified in a common effort, shows all the more resplendently
catholicity of the undivided Church."
Who belongs to the Catholic Church?
"All men are called to this catholic unity of the People of God... And to it, in
different ways, belong or are ordered: the Catholic faithful, others who believe
in Christ, and finally all mankind, called by God's grace to
salvation."
"Fully incorporated into the society of the Church are those who, possessing the
Spirit of Christ, accept all the means of salvation given to the Church
together with her entire organization, and who -- -- by the bonds constituted
by the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and
communion -- -- are joined in the visible structure of the Church of Christ,
who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff, and the bishops. Even though
incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is
not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but "in body" not "in
heart.’ "
"The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by
the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or
have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter." Those "who
believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although
imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church." With the Orthodox Churches, this
communion is so profound "that it lacks a little to attain the fullness that
would permit a common celebration of the Lord’s
Eucharist.”
The Church and non-Christians
"Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various
ways.”The relationship of the Church with the Jewish people. When she delves
into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant,
discovers her link with the Jewish People, "the first to hear the Word of God."
The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to
God's revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews "belong the sonship, the
glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to
them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the
Christ"; for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable."
And when one considers the future, God's people of the Old Covenant and the new
People of God tend towards similar goals: expectation of the coming (or the
return) of the Messiah. But one awaits the return of the Messiah who died and
rose from the dead and is recognized as Lord and Son of God; the other awaits
the coming of a Messiah whose features remain hidden until the end of time; and
the latter waiting is accompanied by the drama of not knowing or of
misunderstanding Christ Jesus.
The Church's relationship with the Muslims.
"The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first
place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham,
and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the
last day."
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May 12, 2013 - Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God Philippians 4:6
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section II – The Church is Holy
"The Church... is held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because
Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as "alone
holy," loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to
sanctify her; he joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the
gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God." The Church, then, is "the holy
People of God," and her members are called "saints."
United with Christ, the Church is sanctified by him; through him and with him she
becomes sanctifying. "All the activities of the Church are directed, as toward
their end, to the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of
God." It is in the Church that "the fullness of the means of salvation" has
been deposited. It is in her that "by the grace of God we acquire
holiness."
"The Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real though
imperfect." In her members perfect holiness is something yet to be acquired:
"Strengthened by so many and such great means of salvation, all the faithful,
whatever their condition or state -- -- though each in his own way -- -- are
called by the Lord to that perfection of sanctity by which the Father himself is
perfect."
Charity is the soul of the holiness to which all are callee: it "governs, shapes, and
perfects all the means of sanctification."
If the Church was a body composed of different members, it couldn't lack the
noblest of all; it must have a Heart and a Heart BURNING WITH LOVE.
And I realize that this love alone was the true motive force which
enabled the other members of the Church to act; if it ceased to function, the
Apostles would forget to preach the gospel, the Martyrs would refuse to shed
their blood. LOVE IN FACT, IS THE VOCATION WHICH INCLUDES ALL OTHERS; IT’S A
UNIVERSE OF ITS OWN, COMPRISING ALL TIME AND SPACE—IT’S
ETERNAL!
"Christ, ‘holy, innocent, and undefiled,’ knew nothing of sin, but came only to expiate
the sins of the people. The Church, however, clasping sinners to her bosom, at
once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of
penance and renewal." All members of the Church, including her ministers, must
acknowledge that they are sinners. In everyone, the weeds of sin will still be
mixed with a good wheat of the Gospel until the end of time. Hence the Church
gathers sinners already caught up in Christ's salvation but still on the way to
holiness:
The Church is therefore holly, though having sinners in her midst, because she
herself has no other life but the life of grace. If they live her life, her
members are sanctified; if they move away from her life, they fall into sins and
disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she suffers
and does penance for those offenses, of which she has the power to free her
children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
By canonizing some of the faithful, I.E., by solemnly proclaiming that they
practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace, the Church
recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope
of believers by proposing the saints to them as models and intercessors. The
saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult
moments in the Church's history." Indeed, "holiness is the hidden source and
infallible measure of her apostolic activity and missionary zeal."
"But while in the most Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection
whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle, the faithful still strive is to
conquer sin and increase in holiness.
And so they turn their eyes to Mary": in her, the Church is already the "all --holy."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section III – The Church is Catholic
What does “catholic”mean?
The word "catholic" means "universal," in the sense of "according to the totality"
or "in keeping with the whole." The Church is catholic in a double sense:
First, the Church is catholic because Christ is present in her. "Where there is Christ
Jesus, there is the Catholic Church." In her subsists the fullness of Christ's
body united with its head; this implies that she receives from him "the
fullness of the means of salvation" which he has willed: correct and complete
confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic
succession. The Church was, in this fundamental sense, catholic on the day of
Pentecost and will always be so until the day of the Parousia.
Secondly, the Church is catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to
the whole of the human race: All men are called to belong to the new People of
God. This People, therefore, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread
throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God's
will may be fulfilled: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed
that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as
one... The character of universality which adorns the People of God is a gift
from the Lord himself whereby the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously
seeks for the return of all humanity and all its goods, under Christ the Head in
the unity of the Spirit.
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May 5, 2013 - Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalms 23:4
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section I – The Church is One pg 233
The Church is one because of her source: "the highest exemplar and source of this
mystery is the unity, and the Trinity of Persons, of one God, the Father and Son
in the Holy Spirit." The Church is one because of her founder: for "the Word
made flesh, the Prince of peace, reconciled all men to God by the cross,...
restoring the unity of all in one people and one body." The Church is one
because of her "soul": "It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling in those who believe and
pervading and ruling over the entire Church, who brings about that wonderful
communion of the faithful and joins them together so intimately in Christ that
he is the principal of the Church's unity." Unity is of the essence of the
Church:
What an outstanding mystery! There's one Father of the universe, one Logos of the
universe, and also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same; there is also
one virgin become mother, and I should like to call her
"Church."
From the beginning, this one Church has been marked by a great diversity which comes
from both the variety of God's gifts and the diversity of those who received
them. Within the unity of the People of God, a multiplicity of peoples and
cultures is gathered together. Among the Church's members, there are different
gifts, offices, conditions, and ways of life. "Holding a rightful place in the
communion of the Church there are also particular Churches that retain their own
traditions." The great richness of such diversity is not opposed to the Church’s
unity. Yet sin and the burden of its consequences constantly threaten the gift
of unity. And so the Apostle has to exhort Christians to "maintain the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace"
What are these bonds of unity? Above all, charity "binds everything together in
perfect harmony." But the unity of the pilgrim Church is also assured by visible
bonds of communion:
-- -- profession of one faith received from the Apostles;
-- -- common celebration of divine worship, especially of the sacraments;
-- -- apostolic succession through the sacrament of Holy Orders, maintaining the
fraternal concord of God's family.
"The sole Church of Christ [is that] which our Savior, after his Resurrection,
entrusted to Peter's pastoral care, commissioning him and the other apostles to
extend and rule it....This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the
present world, subsists in (subsistit in) the Catholic Church, which is governed
by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him."
The Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism explains: "For it is through
Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation,
that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the
apostolic college alone, of which Pe6ter is the head, that we believe that our
Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on
earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated
who belong in any way to the People of God."
Wounds to unity
In fact, "in this one and only Church of God from its very beginnings there arose
certain riffs, which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable. But in
subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large
communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church -- --
for which often enough, men of both sides were to blame." The ruptures that
wound the unity of Christ's Body -- -- here we must distinguish heresy,
apostasy, and schism -- -- do not occur without human sin:
Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies, and disputes. Where
there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity, from which arise the
one heart and one soul for all believers.
“However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born
into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are
brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with
respect and affection of his brothers... All who have been justified by faith in
Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called
Christians, and with good reason or accepted as brothers in the Lord by the
children of the Catholic Church."
"Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth" are found outside the visible
confines of the Catholic Church: "the written Word of God; the life of grace;
faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as
well as visible elements." Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial
communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of
grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these
blessings come from Christ and lead to him and are in themselves calls to
"Catholic unity."
Toward unity
"Christ bestowed unity on his Church from the beginning. This unity, we believe,
subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose, and we hope
that it will continue to increase until the end of time." Christ always gives
his Church the gift of unity, but the Church must always pray and work to
maintain, reinforce, and perfect the unity that Christ wills for her. This is
why Jesus himself prayed at the hour of his Passion, and does not cease praying
to his Father, for the unity of his disciples: "That they may all be one. As
you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one of us,... so that
the world may know that you have sent me." The desire to recover the unity of
all Christians is a gift of Christ and a call of the Holy Spirit.
Certain things are required in order to respond adequately to this call:
-- -- a permanent renewal of the Church in greater fidelity to her vocation; such
renewal is the driving force of the movement toward unity;
-- -- conversion of heart as the faithful "try to live holier lives according to
the Gospel"; for it is the unfaithfulness of the members to Christ's gift which
causes divisions;
-- -- prayer is common, because “change of heart and holiness of life, along with
public and private prayer for the unity of Christians, should be regarded as the
soul of the whole ecumenical movement, and merits the name “spiritual ecumenism; "
-- -- fraternal knowledge of each other;
-- -- ecumenical formation of the faithful and especially of priests;
-- -- dialogue among theologians and meetings among Christians of the different
churches and communities;
-- -- collaboration among Christians in various areas of service to mankind. "Human
service" is the idiomatic phrase.
Concern for achieving unity "involves the whole Church, faithful and clergy alike." But
we must realize "that this holy objective -- -- the reconciliation of all
Christians in the unity of the one and only Church of Christ -- -- transcends
human powers and gifts." That is why we place all our hope "in the prayer of
Christ for the Church, in the love of the Father for us, and in the power of the
Holy Spirit."
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April 28, 2013 - Don't wear yourself out trying to get rich; be wise enough to control yourself.
Wealth can vanish in the wink of an eye. It can seem to grow wings and fly away
like an eagle. Proverbs 23:4-5
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 2 Section II – The Church – Body of Christ pg 226
From the beginning, Jesus associated his disciples with his own life, revealed the
mystery of the Kingdom to them, and gave them a share in his mission, joy, and
sufferings. Jesus spoke of a still more intimate communion between him and those who would follow him:
“Abide in me, and I in you….I am the vine, you are the branches. And he proclaimed a myserious and real
communion between his own body and ours:”He wo eats my flesh and drinks my blood
abides in me, and I in him.”
When his visible presence was taken from them, Jesus did not leave his disciples
orphans. He promised to remain
with them until the end of time; he sent them his Spirit, As
a result communion with Jesus has become, in a way, more intense:
“By communicating his Spirit, Christ mystically constitutes as his body
those brothers of his who are called together from every nation.”
The comparison of the Church with the body casts light on the intimate bond between
Christ and his Church. Not only is she gathered around him; she I united in him, in his body.
Three aspects of the Church as the Body of Christ are to be more
specifically noted: the unity of all her members with each other as a result of
their union with Christ; Christ as head of the Body; and the Church as bride of Christ.
“One Body”
Believers who respond to God’s word and become members of Christ’s Body, become intimately
united with him: “In that body the
life of Christ is communicated to those who believe, and who, through the
sacraments, are united in a hidden and real way to Christ in his Passion and
glorification.” This is especially
true pf Baptism, wich unites us to Christ’s death and Resurrection, and the
Eucharist, by which “really sharing in the body of the Lord…we are taken up into
communion with him and with on another.”
The body’s unity does not do away with the diversity of its members: “In the
building up of Christ’s Body there is engaged a diversity of members and
functions. There is only one Spirit who, according to his own richness and the
needs of the ministries, gives his different gifts for the welfare of the Church.”
The unity of the Mystical Body produces and stimulates charity among the
faithful: “From this it follows that if one member suffers anything, all the
members suffer with him, and if one member is honored, all the members together
rejoice.” Finally, the unity of the
Mystical Body triumphs over all human divisions: “For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
“Christ is the Head of this Body”
Christ “is head of the body, the Church. ”He is the principle of creation and
redemption. Raised in the Father’s glory, “in everything he [is] preeminent,”
especially in the Churc, through whom he extends his reign over all things.
Christ unites us with his Passover: all his members mu strive to resemble him, “until
Christ be formed” in them. “For
this reason we …are taken up into the mysteries of his life….associated with his
sufferings as the body with its head, suffering with him, that with him we may
be glorified.”
Christ provides for our growth; to make us grow toward him, our head, he provides in
his Body, the Church, the gifts and assistance by which we help one another
along the way of salvation.
Christ and his Church thus together make up the “whole Christ” (Christus totus). The Church is one with Christ. The saints are acutely aware of this unity:
Let us rejoice then and give thanks that we have become not only Christians, but
Christ himself. Do you understand and grasp, brethren, God’s grace toward
us? Marvel and rejoice: we have become Christ.
For if he is the head, we are the members; he and we together are the
whole man…The fullness of Christ then is the head and the members.
But what does “head and members” mean? Christ and the Church.
Our redeemer has shown himself to be one person with the holy Church whom he has taken to himself.
Head and members form as it were one and the same mystical person.
A reply of St. Joan of Arc to her judges sums up the faith of the holy doctors and
the good sense of the believer: “About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply
know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.”
The Church is the Bride of Christ
The unity of Christ and the Church, head and members of one Body, also implies the
distinction of the two within a personal relationship.
This aspect is often expressed by the image of bridegroom and bride. The theme of Christ as Bridegroom of
the Church was prepared for by the prophets and announced by John the
Baptist. The Lord referred to
himself as the “bridegroom.” The Apostle speaks of the whole Church and each of
the faithful, members of his Body, as a bride “betrothed” to Christ the Lord so
as to become but one spirit with him.
The Church is the spotless bride of the spotless Lamb.
“Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might
sanctify her.” He has joined her
with himself in an everlasting covenant and never stops caring for her as for
his own body:
This is the whole Christ, head and body. .one formed from many…whether the head or
members speak, it is Christ who speaks.
He speaks in his role as head (ex persona capitis) and in his role as
body (ex persona corporis). What does this mean? “The two will become one flesh. This is a great
mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the Church.”
And the Lord himself says in the Gosel: “So they are no longer two, but
one flesh.” They are, in fact, two
different persons, yet they are one in the conjugal union….as head, he calls
himself the bridegroom, as body, he calls himself “bride.”
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 2 Section III – The Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit pg 230
“What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which
is the Church.” “To this Spirit of Christ, as an invisible principle, is to be
ascribed the fact that all parts of the body are joined one with the other and
with their exalted head; for the whole Spirit of Christ is in the head, the
whole Spirit is in the body, and the whole Spirit is in each of the
members.” The Holy Spirit makes the Church “the temple of the living God”:
Indeed, it is to the Church herself that the “Gift of God” has been entrusted….In it is
in her that communion with Christ has been deposited, that is to say: the Holy
Spirit, the pledge of incorruptibility, the strengthening of our faith and the
ladder of our ascent to God….For where the Church is, there also is God’s
Spirit; where God’s Spirit is, there is the Church and every grace.
The Holy Spirit is“the principle of every vital and truly saving action in each part
of the Body.” He works in many ways to build up the whole Body in charity: by God’s Word“which is able to build
you up”: by Baptism, through which he forms Christ’s Body; by the sacraments,
which give growth and healing to Christ’s members; by“the grace of the apostles,
which holds first place among his gifts”; by the virtues, which make us act
according to what is good; finally by the many graces (called “charisms”),by
which he makes the faithful “fit and ready to undertake vrious tasks and offices
for the renewal and building up of the Church.
Charisms
Whether extraordinary or simple and humble, charisms are graces of the Holy Spirit which
directly or indirectly benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building
up, to the good of men, and to the needs of the world.
Charisms are to be accepted with gratitude by the person who receives them and by all
members of the Church as well.
They are a wonderfully rich grace for the apostolic vitality and for the
holiness of the entire Body of Christ, provided they really are genuine gifts of
the Holy Spirit and re used in full conformity with authentic promptings of this
same Spirit, that is, in keeping with charity, the true measure of all
charisms.
It is in this sense that discernment of charisms is always necessary.
No charism is exempt from being referred and submitted to the Church’s
shepherds. “Their office [is] not indeed to extinguish the Spirit, but to test
all things and hold fast to what is good,”so that all the diverse and
complementary charisms work together “for the common good.”
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April 21, 2013 - Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always
giving thanks. And God's peace, which is so great we cannot understand it, will
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 2 Section I –
The Church – People of God, Body of Christ, Temple of the Holy Spirit pg 224
“At all times, and in every race, anyone who fears God and does what is right has
been acceptable to him. He was,
however, willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any
bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might
acknowledge him and serve him in holiness. He therefor chose the Israelite race to
be his own people and established a covenant with it.
He gradually instructed this people….All these things, however, happened
as a preparation for and figure of that new and perfect covenant which was to be
ratified in Christ…the New Covenant in his blood;
he called together a race made up of Jews and Gentiles which would be
one, not according to the flesh, but in the Spirit.
Characteristics of the People f God
The People of God is marked by chracteristics that clearly distinguish it from all other religious, ethnic, political, or cultural groups found in
history:
It is the People of God: God is not
the property of any one people.
But he acquired a people for himself from those who previously were not a
people: “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
One becomes a member of this people not by physical birth, but by being “born anew,”
a birth “of water and the spirit,”
that is, by faith in Christ, and Baptim.
This People has for its Head Jesus the Christ (the anointed, the Messiah). Because the same anointing, the Holy
Spirit, flows from the head into the body, this is “the messianic people.”
“The status of this people is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons of God, in
whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as n a temple.”
“Its law is the new commandment to love as Christ loved us.”
This is the “new” law of the Holy Spirit.
Its mission is to be salt of the earth and light of the world.
This people is “a most sure seed of unity, hope, and salvation for the
whole human race.”
Its destiny, finally,“is the Kingdom of God which has been begun by God himself on
earth and which must be further extended until it has been brought to perfection
by him at the end of time.”
A priestly, prophetic, and royal people
Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit nd established
as priest, prophet, and king. The
whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the
responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them.
On entering the People of God through faith and Baptism, one receives a share in
this people’s unique, priestly vocation:
“Christ the Lord, high priest taken from among men, has made this new
people ‘a kingdom of priests to God, his Father.’
The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are
consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood.”
“The holy People of God shares also in Chrst’s prophetic office,” above all in the
supernatural sense of faith that belongs to the whole People, lay and clergy,
when it “unfailingly adheres to this faith…once for all delivered to the
saints,” and when it deepens its understanding and beomes Christ’s witness in
the midst of this world.
Finally, the People of God shares in the royal office of Christ.
He exercises his kingship by drawing all men to himself through his death
and Resurrection. Christ, King and
Lord of the universe, made himself the servant of all, forhe came “not to be
served but to serve, and to give his life as ransom for many.”
For the Christian, “to reign is to serve him,”particulary whenwhenn
serving “the poor and the suffering, in whom the Church recognizes the image of
her poor and suffering founder.”
The People of God fulfills its royal dignity by a life in keeping with
its vocation to serve with Christ.
The sign of the cross makes kings of all those reborn in Christ and the anointing of
the Holy Spirit consecrates them as priests, so that, apart from the particular
service of our ministry, all spiritual and rational Christians are recognized as
members of this royal race and sharers in Christ’s priestly office.
What, indeed, is as royal for a soul as to govern the body in obedience
to God? And what is as priestly as
to dedicate a pure conscience to the Lord and to offer spotless offerings of
devotion on the altar of the heart?
April 14, 2013 - Don't ever forget kindness and truth. Wear them like a necklace. Write them on your
heart as if on a tablet. Then you will be respected and will please both God and people. Proverbs 3:3-4
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 1 Section III – The Mystery of the Church
The Church is in history, but at the same time she transcends it. It is only "with
the eyes of faith" that one can see her in her visible reality and at the same
time in her spiritual reality as bearer of divine life.
The Church --- both visible and spiritual
"The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy
Church, the community of faith, hope, and charity, as the visible organization
through which he communicates truth and grace to all men." The Church is at
the same time:
-- -- -- a "society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ;
-- -- -- the visible society and the spiritual community;
-- -- -- the earthly God and the Church endowed with heavenly riches."
These dimensions together constitute "one complex reality which comes together from a
human and a divine element"
The Church is essentially both human and divine visible but endowed with invisible
realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the
world, but as a pilgrim, so constituted that in her the human is directed toward
and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to
contemplation, and this present world to that city yet to come, the object of
our quest.
Oh humility!" O sublimity! Both
tabernacle of cedar and sanctuary of God; earthly dwelling and celestial palace;
House of clay and royal hall; body of death and temple of light; and at last
both object of scorn to the proud and bride of Christ! She is black but
beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, for even if the labor and pain of her long
exile may have discolored her, yet heaven’s beauty have adorned her.
The Church --- mystery of men’s union with God
It is in the Church that Christ fulfills and reveals his own mystery as the purpose
of God's plan: "to unite all things in him." St. Paul calls the nuptial union of
Christ and the Church "a great mystery." Because she is united to Christ as to
her bridegroom, she becomes a mystery in her own. Contemplating this mystery in
her, Paul exclaims: "Christ in you, the hope of glory."
In the Church this communion of men with God, in the "love that never ends," is the
purpose which governs everything in her that is a sacramental means, tied to
this passing world. "The Church’s structure is totally ordered to the holiness
of Christ's members. And holiness is measured according to the "great mystery"
in which the Bride responds with the gift of love to the gift of the
Bridegroom." Mary goes before us all in the holiness that is the Church's
mystery as "the bride without spot or wrinkle." That is why the "Marian"
dimension of the Church precedes the "Petrine."
The universal Sacrament of Salvation
the Greek word mysterion was translated into Latin by two terms: mysterium and
sacramentum. In later usage the
term sacramentum emphasizes the visible sign of the hidden reality of salvation
which was indicated by the term mysterium. In this sense, Christ himself is the
mystery of salvation: "For there is no other mystery of God, except Christ." The
saving work of his holy and sanctifying humanity is the sacrament of salvation,
which is revealed and active in the Church's sacraments (which the Eastern
Churches also call "the holy mysteries"). The seven sacraments are the signs and
instruments by which the Holy Spirit spreads the grace of Christ the head
throughout the Church which is his Body. The Church, then, both contains and
communicates the invisible grace she signifies. It is in this analogical sense,
that the Church is called a "sacrament."
"The Church, in Christ, like a sacrament -- -- a sign and instrument, that is, of
communion with God and of unity among all men." The Church's first purpose is to
be the sacrament of the inner union of men with God. Because men's communion
with one another is rooted in a union with God, the Church is also the sacrament
of the unity of the human race. In her, this unity is already begun, since she
gathers men "from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues"; at the
same time, the Church is the "sign and instrument" of the full realization of
the unity yet to come.
As sacrament, the Church is Christ's instrument. "She is taken up by him also as
the instrument for the salvation of all," "the universal sacrament of
salvation," by which Christ is "at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery
of God's love for men." The Church "is the visible plan of God's love for
humanity," because God desires "that the whole human race may become one People
of God, form one body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit."
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April 7, 2013 - Freely you have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 1 Section II (cont) –
The Church – foreshadowed from the world’s beginning
Christians of the first centuries said "The world was created for the sake of the Church.”
God created the world for the sake of communion with his divine life, a
communion brought about by the "convocation" of men in Christ, and this
"convocation" is the Church. The Church is the goal of all things, and God
permitted such painful upheavals as the angels’ fall and man’s sin only as
occasions and means for displaying all the power of his arm and the whole
measure of love he would to give the world:
Just as God's will is creation and is called "the world," so his intention is the
salvation of men, and it is called "the Church."
The Church – prepared for the Old Covenant
The gathering together of the People of God began at the moment when sin destroyed
the communion of men with God, and that of men among themselves. The gathering
together of the Church is, as it were, God’s reaction to the chaos provoked by
sin. This reunification is achieved secretly in the heart of all peoples: "In
every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable" to God.
The remote preparation for this gathering together of the People of God begins when
he calls Abraham and promises that he will become the Father of a great people.
It's immediate preparation begins with Israel's election as the People of God.
By this election, Israel is to be the sign of the future gathering of all
nations. But the prophets accuse Israel of breaking the covenant and behaving
like a prostitute. They announce a new and eternal covenant. "Christ instituted
this new Covenant."
The Church ---instituted by Christ Jesus
It was the Son’s task to accomplish the Father's plan of salvation in the fullness
of time. Its accomplishment was the reason for his being sent. "The Lord Jesus
inaugurated his Church by preaching the Good News, that is, the coming of the
Reign of God, promised over the ages in the Scriptures." To fulfill the Father's
will, Christ ushered in the Kingdom of heaven on earth. The Church "is the Reign
of Christ already present in mystery."
"This Kingdom shines out before men in the word, in the works and in the presence of
Christ." To welcome Jesus' word is to welcome "the Kingdom itself." The seed and
beginning of the Kingdom are the "little flock" of those whom Jesus came to
gather around him, the flock who shepherd he is. They form Jesus’ true family.
To those whom he thus gathered around him, he taught a new "way of acting" and a
prayer of their own.
The Lord Jesus endowed his community with a structure that will remain until the
Kingdom is fully achieved. Before all else there is the choice of the 12 with
Peter as their head. Representing the 12 tribes of Israel, they are the
foundation stones of the new Jerusalem. The 12 and the other disciples share in
Christ's mission and his power, but also in his lot. By all his actions, Christ
preparers and builds his Church.
The Church is born primarily of Christ's total self-giving for our salvation,
anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross. "The
origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which
flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus."
“For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon
the cross that there came forth the ‘wondrous sacrament of the Church.’ " As Eve
was formed from the sleeping house side, so the Church was born from the pierced
heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross.
The Church ---revealed by the Holy Spirit
"When the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth was accomplished, the Holy
Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that he might continually
sanctify the Church." Then "the Church was openly displayed to the crowds
and the spread of the Gospel among the nations, through preaching, was begun."
As the "convocation" of all men for
salvation, the Church in her very nature is missionary, sent by Christ to all
the nations to make disciples of them.
So that she can fulfill her mission, the Holy Spirit "bestows upon the Church
varied hierarchic and charismatic gifts, and in this way he directs her."
"Henceforward the Church, endowed with the gifts of her founder and faithfully
observing his precepts of charity, humility and self-denial, receives the
mission of proclaiming and establishing among all peoples the Kingdom of Christ
and of God, and she is on earth the seed and the beginning of that kingdom."
The Church ---perfected in glory
"The church... will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven," at the time
of Christ's glorious return. Until that day, "the Church progresses on her
pilgrimage amidst this world’s persecutions and God's consolations." Here below
she knows that she is in exile far from the Lord, and longs for the full coming
of the Kingdom, when she will "be united in glory with her king." The Church,
and thru her the world, will not be perfected in glory without great trials.
Only then will "all the just from the time of Adam, ‘from Able, the just one, to
the last of the elect,’... be gathered together in the universal Church in the
Father's presence."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
March 31, 2013 – He is risen – Alleluia. HAPPY EASTER!
Tradition holds that Jesus walked from Pilate’s praetorium to Golgotha (The Place of the
skull) The devotion known as “the
way”,or Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis), originated with pilgrims who walked
the Via Dolorosa (the “way of tears”) in Jerusalem.
In 2001, the Congregation for the Discipline of the Scriptures issued a
Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (DPPL) and, when referring to this
devotion, stated that “In the Via Crucis, various strands of Christian piety
coalesce: the idea of life as
being journey or pilgrimage; as a passage from earthly exile to our true home in
Heaven; the deep desire to be conformed to the Passion of Christ, which imply
that his disciples must follow behind their Master daily carrying their own
crosses (cf. Luke 9,23)” (DPPL 133)
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 1 Section I –
Names Images of the Church
The word "Church" (Latin ecclesia, from the Greek ek-ka-lein, to “call out of”))
means convocation or an assembly. It designates the assemblies of the people,
usually for a religious purpose. Ekklesia is used frequently in the Greek Old
Testament for the assembly of the Chosen People before God, above all for their
assembly on Mount Sinai where Israel received the Law and was established by God
as his holy people. By calling itself "Church," the first community of Christian
believers recognized itself as heir to that assembly. In the Church, God is
"calling together" his people from all the ends of the earth. The equivalent
Greek term Kyriake, for which the English word Church and the German Kirche are
devised, means "what belongs to the Lord."
In Christian usage, the word "church" designates the liturgical assembly, but also
the local community or the whole universal community of believers. These three
meetings are inseparable. "The Church" is the People that God gathers in the
whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical,
above all a Eucharistic, assembly. She draws her life from the word and the Body
of Christ and so herself becomes Christ's body.
Symbols of the Church
In Scripture, we find a host of interrelated images and figures through which
Revelation speaks of the inexhaustible mystery of the Church. The images taken
from the Old Testament are variations on a profound theme: the People of God. In
the New Testament, all these images find a new center because Christ has become
the head of his people, which henceforth is his Body. Around this center are
grouped images taken “for the life of the shepherd or from cultivation of the
land, from the art of building or from family life and marriage."
“The church is, accordingly, a sheepfold, the sole and necessary gateway to which is
Christ. It is also the flock of which God himself foretold that he would be the
shepherd, and whose sheep, even though governed by human shepherds, are
unfailingly nourished and led by Christ himself, the Good Shepherd and the
Prince of Shepherds, who gave his life for his sheep.
"The Church is a cultivated field”, the tillage of God. On that land the ancient
olive tree grows whose holy roots were the prophets and in which the
reconciliation of the Jews and Gentiles has been brought about and will be
brought about again. That land, like a choice vineyard, has been planted by the
heavenly cultivator. Yet the true vine is Christ who gives life and fruitfulness
to the branches, that is, to us, who through the Church remain in Christ,
without whom we can do nothing.
"Often, too, the Church is called the building of God. The Lord compared himself to the
stone which the builders rejected, but which was made into the cornerstone. On
this foundation the Church is built by the apostles and from it the Church
receives solidarity and unity. This edifice has many names to describe it: the
house of God in which his family dwells; the household of God in the Spirit; the
dwelling-place of God among men; and, especially the holy temple. This temple,
symbolized in places of worship built out of stone, is praised by the Fathers
and, not without reason, is compared in the liturgy to the Holy City, the New
Jerusalem. As living stones we here on earth are built into it. It is this holy
city that is seen by John as it comes down out of heaven from God when the
world is made anew, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
"The Church, further, which is called ‘that Jerusalem which is above’ and ‘our
mother’, is described as the spotless spouse of the spotless lamb. It is she
whom Christ‘loved and for whom he delivered himself up that he might sanctify
her.’ It is she who he unites to himself by an unbreakable alliance, and whom he
constantly ‘nourishes and churches.’ "
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 1 Section II – The Church’s Origin, Foundation, and Mission
We began our investigation of the Church's mystery by meditating on her origin in
the Holy Trinity's plan and her progressive realization in history.
A plan is born in the Father’s heart
"The eternal Father, in accordance with the utterly gratuitous and mysterious design
of his wisdom and goodness, created the whole universe and chose to raise up men
to share in his own divine life," to which he calls all men in his Son. "The
Father... determined to call together in a holy Church those who should believe
in Christ." This "family of God"
is gradually formed and takes shape during the stages of human history, in
keeping with the Father’s plan. In fact, "already present in figure at the
beginning of the world, this Church was prepared in marvelous fashion in the
history of the people of Israel and the old Alliance. Established in this last
age of the world and made manifest in the outpouring of the Spirit, it will be
brought to glorious completion at the end of time."
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March 24, 2013 - For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Luke 14:11
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section V – The Spirit and the Church in the Last Days Pentecost
On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter come to an end, Christ
passed over is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested,
given, and communicated as a divine person: of his fullness, Christ, the Lord,
pours out the Spirit in abundance.
On that day, the holy Trinity is fully revealed. Since that day, the kingdom
announced by Christ has been open to those who believe in him: and the humility
of the flesh and in faith, they already share in the communion of the holy
Trinity. By his coming, which never ceases, the Holy Spirit causes the world to
enter into the "last days," the time of the church, the kingdom already
inherited though not yet consummated. We have seen the true light, we have
received the heavenly spirit, we have found the true faith: we adore the
indefeasible Trinity, who has saved us.
The Holy Spirit----God’s gift
"God is love" and love is his first gift, containing all others. "God's love has been
poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
Because we are dead or at least wanted to send, the first effect of the gift of love is
the forgiveness of our sins. The communion of the Holy Spirit in the Church
restores to baptize the final item is lost through sin.
He, then, gives us the "pledge" or "first fruits" of our inheritance: the very life
of the Holy Trinity, which is to love us as "God [has] loved us." This love (the
"charity" 01COR 13) is the source of the new life in Christ, made possible
because we have received "power" from the Holy Spirit.
By this power of the Spirit, God's children can bear much fruit. He who has grafted
us onto the true vine will make a spare "the fruit of the Spirit;... love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."
"We live by the Spirit"; the more renounce ourselves, the more we "wall by the
Spirit." Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led back to the
kingdom of heaven, and adopted as children, given confidence to call God
"father" and to share in Christ's grace, called children of light and given a
share of eternal glory."
The Holy Spirit and the Church
The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church,
which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. This joint
mission henceforth brings Christ's faithful to share in his communion with the
Father and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit prepares men and goes out to them with
his grace, in order to draw them to Christ. The Spirit manifests the risen Lord
to them, recalls his word to them and opens their minds to the understanding of
his Death and Resurrection. He makes present the mystery of Christ supremely in
the Eucharist in order to reconcile them, to bring them into communion with God,
that they may "bear much fruit."
Thus the Church's mission is not an addition to that of Christ and the Holy Spirit,
but is its sacrament: in her whole being and in all her members, the Church is
sent to announce, bear witness, make present, and spread the mystery of the
communion of the Holy Trinity (the topic of the next article):
All of us who have received one and the same Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, are
in a sense blended together with one another and with God. For if Christ,
together with the Father's and his own Spirit, comes to dwell in each of us,
though we are many, still the Spirit is one and undivided. He binds together the
spirits of each and every one of us and makes all appear as one in him. For just
as the power of Christ's sacred flesh unites those in whom it dwells into one
body, I think that in the same way the one and undivided Spirit of God, who
dwells in all, leads all into spiritual unity.
Because the Holy Spirit is the anointing of Christ, it is Christ, as the head of the
Body, pours out the Spirit among his members to nourish, heal, and organize them
in their mutual functions, to give them life, send them to bear witness, and
associate them to his self-offering to the Father and to his intercession for
the whole world. Through the Church's sacraments, Christ communicates his Holy
and sanctifying Spirit to the members of his Body. (This will be the topic of
Part Two of the Catechism.)
These "mighty works of God," offered to believers in the sacraments of the Church,
bear their fruit in the new life in Christ, according to the Spirit. (This will
be the topic of part three.)
"The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but
the Spirit himself intercedes with sighs too deep for words." The Holy Spirit,
the artisan of God's works, is the master of prayer.
(This will be the topic of Part Four).
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March 17, 2013 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues
through all generations. Psalms 100:5
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section IV – The Spirit of Christ in the Fullness of Time
John, precursor, prophet, and baptist
"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John" John was "filled with the Holy
Spirit even from his mother's womb" by Christ himself, whom the Virgin Mary had
just conceived by the Holy Spirit. Mary's visitation to Elizabeth thus became a
visit from God to his people.
John is "Elijah [who] must come." The fire of the Spirit dwells in him and makes him
the forerunner of the coming Lord. In John, the precursor, the Holy Spirit
completes the work of " [making] ready a people prepared for the Lord."
John the Baptist is "more than a prophet." In him, the Holy Spirit concludes his
speaking through the prophets. John completes the cycle of prophets begun by
Elijah. He proclaims the imminence of the consolation of Israel; he is the
"voice" of the Counselor who is coming. As the Spirit of truth will also do,
John "came to bear witness to the light." In John's sight, the Spirit thus
brings to completion the careful search of the prophets and fulfills the longing
of the Angels. He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who
baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this
is the Son of God... Behold, the Lamb of God."
Finally, with John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the restoration to man of "the
divine likeness," prefiguring what he would achieve with and in Christ. John's
baptism was for repentance; baptism in water and the Spirit will be a new birth.
“Rejoice, you who are full of grace”
Mary, the all-holy-ever-virgin Mother of God, is the masterwork of the mission of the
Son and the Spirit in the foremost of time. For the first time in the plan of
salvation and because his spirit had prepared her, the Father found the dwelling
place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among men. In this sense the
Church's Tradition has often read the most beautiful texts of wisdom in relation
to Mary. Mary is acclaimed and represented in the liturgy has the "Seat of
wisdom." In her, the "wonders of God" that the Spirit was to fulfill in Christ
and the Church began to be manifested:
The Holy Spirit prepared Mary by his grace. It was fitting that the mother of him in
whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" should herself be "full of
grace." She was, by sheer grace, conceived without sin as the most humble of
creatures, the most capable of welcoming the inexpressible gift of the Almighty.
It was quite correct for the angel Gabriel to greet her as the "order of Zion":
"Rejoice." It is the thanksgiving of the whole People of God, and thus of the
Church, which Mary in her Canticle lifts up to the Father in the Holy Spirit
while carrying within her the eternal Son.
In Mary, the Holy Spirit fulfills the plan of the Father's loving goodness. Through
the Holy Spirit, the Virgin conceives and gives birth to the Son of God. By the
Holy Spirit's power and her faith, her virginity became uniquely fruitful.
In Mary, the Holy Spirit manifests the Son of the Father, now become the Son of the
Virgin. She is the burning bush of the definitive theophany. Filled with the
Holy Spirit she makes the Word visible in the humility of his flesh. It is to
the poor and the first representatives of the gentiles that she makes him known.
Finally, through Mary, the Holy Spirit begins to bring men, the object of God's merciful
love, into communion with Christ. And the humble are always the first to accept
him: shepherds, magi, Simeon and Anna, the bride and groom at Cana, and the
first disciples
At the end of this mission of the Spirit, Mary became the Woman, the new Eve
(“mother of the living"), the mother of the "whole Christ." As such, she was
present with the Twelve, who "with one accord devoted themselves to prayer," at
the dawn of the "end time" which the Spirit was to inaugurate on the morning of
the Pentecost with the manifestation of the Church.
Christ Jesus
The entire mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the fullness of time, is
contained in this: that the Son is the one anointed by the Father's Spirit since
his incarnation -- -- Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. Everything in the second
chapter of the Creed is to be read in this light. Christ’s whole work
is in fact a joint mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here, we shall
mention only what has to do with Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit in the gift
of him by the glorified Lord.
Jesus does not reveal the Holy Spirit fully, until he himself has been glorified
through his Death and Resurrection. Nevertheless, little by little he alludes to
him even in his teaching of the multitudes, as when he reveals that his own
flesh, will be food for the life of the world. He also alludes to the Spirit in
speaking to Nicodemus, to the Samaritan woman, and to those who take part in the
feast of Tabernacles. To his disciples he speaks openly of the Spirit in
connection with prayer and with the witness they will have to
bear.
Only when the hour has arrived for his glorification does Jesus promise the coming of
the Holy Spirit, since his Death and Resurrection will fulfill the promise made
to fathers. The Spirit of truth, the other Paraclete, will be given by the
father in answer to Jesus' prayer; he will be sent by the Father in Jesus' name;
and Jesus will send him from the Father's side, since he comes from the Father.
The Holy Spirit will come and we shall know him; he will be with us forever; he
will remain with us. The Spirit will teach us everything, remind us of all that
Christ said to us and bear witness to him. The Holy Spirit will lead us into all
truth and will glorify Christ. He will prove the world wrong about sin,
righteousness, and judgment.
At last Jesus’ hour arrived: he commends his spirit into the Father's hands at the
very moment when by his death he conquers death, so that, "raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father," he might immediately give the Holy Spirit by
"breathing" on his disciples. From this hour onward the mission of Christ and
the Spirit becomes the mission of the Church: "As the Father has sent me, even
so I send you."
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March 10, 2013 I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he
shall live. John 11:25
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section III – God’s Spirit and Word in the Time of the inaugurates
the economy of salvation, at the culmination of which the Son himself will
assume the “image” and restore it in the Father’s“likeness” by giving it again
its Glory, the Spirit who is “the life.”
Against all human hope God promises descendants to Abraham, as the fruit of faith and of
the power of the Holy Spirit. In Abraham's progeny all the nations of the earth
will be blessed. This progeny will be Christ himself, in whom the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit will "gather into one the children of God were scattered
abroad." God commits himself by his own solemn oath to giving his beloved Son
and "the promised Holy Spirit... [who is] the guarantee of our inheritance until
we acquire possession of it."
In Theophanies and the Law
Theophanies (manifestations of God) light up the way of the promise, from the patriarchs to
Moses and from Joshua to the visions that inaugurated the missions of the great
prophets. Christian tradition has always recognized that God's Word allowed
himself to be seen and heard in these theophanies, in which the cloud of the
Holy Spirit both revealed him and concealed him m in its
shadow.
This divine pedagogy appears especially in the gift of he Law. God gave the Law as a
"Pedagogy" to lead his people towards Christ. But the Law's powerlessness to
save man deprived of the divine "likeness," along with a growing awareness of
sin that it imparts, enkindles a desire for the Holy Spirit. The lamentations of
the Psalms are witness to this.
In the Kingdom and the Exile
The Law, the sign of God's promise and covenant, ought to have governed the hearts
and institutions of that people to whom Abraham's faith gave birth. "If you will
obey my voice and keep my covenant,,... you shall be to me a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation." But after David, Israel gave into the temptation of becoming
a kingdom like other nations. The Kingdom, however, the object of the promise
made to David, would be the work of the Holy Spirit; it would belong to the poor
according to the Spirit.
The forgetting of the Law and the infidelity to the covenant end in death: it is the
Exile, apparently the failure of the promises, which is in fact the mysterious
fidelity of the Savior God and the beginning of a promised restoration, but
according to the Spirit. The People of God had to suffer this purification. In
God's plan, the Exile already stands in the shadow of the Cross, and a Remnant
of the poor that returns from the Exile is one of the most transparent
prefigurations of the Church.
Expectation of the Messiah and his Spirit
"Behold, I am doing a new thing." Two prophetic lines were to develop, one leading to the
expectation of the Messiah, the other pointing to the announcement of a new
Spirit. They converge in the small Remnant, the people of the poor, who await in
hope the "consolation of Israel" and "the redemption of Jerusalem.” We have seen
earlier how Jesus fulfills the prophecies concerning himself. We limit ourselves
here to those in which the relationship of the Messiah and his Spirit appears
more clearly.
The characteristics of the awaited Messiah begin to appear in the "book of Emmanuel"
("Isaiah said this when he saw his glory," speaking of Christ), especially in
the first two verses of Isaiah 11:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
The Messiah's characteristics are revealed above all in the "Servant songs." These
songs proclaim the meaning of Jesus’Passion and show how he will pour out the
Holy Spirit to give life to the many: not as an outsider, but by embracing our
"form as slave." Taking our death upon himself, he can communicate to us his own
Spirit of life.
This is why Christ inaugurates the proclamation of the Good News by making his own
the following passage from Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me o bring good tidings to the afflicted;
he has sent me to build up the broken hearted,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lords favor.
The prophetic texts that directly concern the sending of the Holy Spirit are oracles
by which God speaks to the heart of his people in the language of the promise,
with the accents of "love and fidelity." St. Peter will proclaim their
fulfillment on the morning of Pentecost. According to these promises, at the
"end times" the Lord’s Spirit will renew the hearts of men, engraving a new law
in them. He will gather and reconcile the scattered and divided peoples; he will
transform the first creation, and God will dwell there with men in peace.
The People of the "poor" -- -- those who, humble and meek, rely solely on their
God's mysterious plans, who await the justice, not of men but of the Messiah --
-- are in the end the great achievement of the Holy Spirit's hidden mission
during the time of the promises that prepare for Christ's coming. It is this
quality of heart, purified and enlightened by the Spirit, which is expressed in
the Psalms. In these poor, the Spirit is making ready "a people prepared for the Lord."
March 3, 2013 His anger lasts only a moment, but his kindness lasts for a lifetime. Crying may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalms 30:5
Sorry this week’s publication is a little late but I attended a weekend retreat at the
Malvern Retreat House (www.malvernretreatcom). If you have never attended a retreat you
should consider it. It is a wonderful chance to get closer to Jesus.
There are conferences on faith and many special events.
I especially enjoy the private adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Those moments alone with just you and
Jesus are very special.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section II – (cont)
Symbols of the Holy Spirit pg 199
Water. The symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit’s action in Baptism since after
the invocation of the Holy Spirit becomes the efficacious sacramental sign of
new birth: just as the gestation of our first birth took place in water, so the
water of Baptism truly signifies that our birth into the divine life is given
to us in the Holy Spirit. As "by one Spirit we were all baptized," so we are
also "made to drink of one Spirit." Thus the Spirit is also personally the
living water welling up from Christ crucified as its source and welling up in us
to eternal life.
Anointing. The symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit, to the point
of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. In Christian initiation, anointing is
the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called "Chrismation" in the Churches of
the East. Its full force can be grasped only in relation to the primary
anointing accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew
"Messiah") means the one "anointed" by God's Spirit. There were several anointed
ones of the Lord in the Old Covenant, pre-eminently King David. But Jesus is
God's Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely
anointed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit established him as "Christ." The
Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the angel,
proclaimed him the Christ at his birth, and prompted Simeon to come to the
temple to see the Christ of the Lord. The Spirit filled Christ and the power of
the Spirit went out from him in his acts of healing and of saving. Finally, it
was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. Now, fully established as
"Christ" in his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit
abundantly until "the saints” constitute-- -- in their union with the humanity
of the Son of God -- -- that perfect man "to the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ": "the whole Christ," in St. Augustine's
expression.
Fire. While water signifies birth and the fruitfulness of life given in the Holy Spirit, fire symbolizes the transforming
energy of the Holy Spirit's actions. The prayer of the prophet Elijah, who
"arose like fire" and whose "word burned like a torch," brought down fire from
heaven on the sacrifice on Mount Carmel. This event was a "figure" of the fire
of the Holy Spirit, who transforms what he touches. John the Baptist, who goes
"before [the Lord] in the spirit and power of Elijah," proclaims Christ as the
one who "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." Jesus will say of
the Spirit: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already
kindled!" In the form of tongues "as of fire," the Holy Spirit rests on the
disciples on the morning of Pentecost and fills them with himself. The spiritual
tradition has retained this symbolism of fire is one of the most expressive
images of the Holy Spirit's actions. "Do not quench the Spirit."
Cloud and light. These two images occur together in the manifestations of the Holy
Spirit. In the theophanies of the Old Testament, the cloud, now obscure, now
luminous, reveals the living and saving God, while veiling the transcendence of
his glory -- -- with Moses on Mount Sinai, at the tent of meeting, and during
the wandering in the desert, and with Solomon at the dedication of the Temple.
In the Holy Spirit, Christ fulfills these figures. The Spirit comes upon the
Virgin Mary and "overshadows" her, so that she might conceive and give birth to
Jesus. On the mountain of Transfiguration, the Spirit in the "cloud came and
overshadowed" Jesus, Moses and Elijah, Peter, James and John, and "a voice came
out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’ “Finally,
the cloud took Jesus out of sight of the disciples on the day of his ascension
and will reveal him as Son of man in glory on the day of his final
coming.”
The seal is a symbol close to that of anointing. "The Father has set his seal" on
Christ and also seals us in him. Because this seal indicates the indelible
effect of the anointing with Holy Spirit in the sacraments of Baptism,
Confirmation, and Holy Orders, the image of the seal (sphragis) has been used in
some theological traditions to express the indelible "character" imprinted by
these three unrepeatable sacraments.
The hand. Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by laying hands on them.
In his name the apostles will do the same. Even more pointedly, it is by the
apostles imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is given. The Letter to the
Hebrews lists the imposition of hands among the "fundamental elements" of its
teaching. The Church has kept this sign of the all-powerful outpouring of the
Holy Spirit in its sacramental epiclesis.
The finger. "It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out demons." If God's law
was written on tablets of stone "by the finger of God," then the "letter from
Christ" entrusted to the care of the apostles, is written "with the Spirit of
the living God, not on tablets of stone, on tablets of human hearts." The hymn
Veni Creator Spritus invokes the Holy Spirit as the "finger of the Father's
right hand."
The dove. At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove
released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign
that the earth was again habitable? When Christ comes up from the water of his
baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove comes down upon him and remains
with him. The Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of the
baptized. In certain churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a medical receptacle
in the form of the (columbarium) suspended above the altar. Christian
iconography traditionally uses the dove to suggest the Spirit.
Dear friends in Christ. My apologies for last week. I am not sure exactly what happened but apparently the weekly update was not saved to the web site. I have included it in this weeks udate.
February 24, 2013 He protects those who are loyal to him, but evil people will be silenced in darkness. Power is not the key to success. 1 Samuel 2:9
Section 2 Chapter 3 Article 8 Section I – The Joint Mission of the Son and the Spirit
The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, the Spirit of his Son, is truly
God. Consubstantial with the Father and the Son, the Spirit is inseparable from
them, in both the inner life of the Trinity and his gift of love for the world.
in adoring the Holy Trinity, life-giving, consubstantial, and indivisible, the
Church's faith also professes the distinction of persons. When the Father sends
his Word, he always sends his Breath. In their joint mission, the Son and the
Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen,
the visible image of the invisible God, but it is a spirit who reveals him.
Jesus Christ, "anointed," because the Spirit is his anointing, and everything that
occurs from the Incarnation on derives from his fullness. When Christ is
finally glorified, he can in turn send the spirit from his place with the
Father to those who believe in him: he communicates to them his glory, that is,
the Holy Spirit who glorifies him. From that time on, this joint mission will
be manifested in the children adopted by the Father in the Body of his Son: the
mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite them to Christ and make them live
in him:
The notion of anointing suggests... that there is no distance between the Son and
the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body and the anointing
with oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any intermediary, so the
contact of the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who would make
contact with the Son by faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact
there is no part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the
confession of the Son’s Lordship is made in Holy Spirit by those who receive
him, the Spirit coming from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section II – The Name, Titles, and Symbols of the Holy Spirit
The proper name of the Holy Spirit
"Holy Spirit" is the proper name of the one whom we adore and glorify with the Father
and a Son. The Church has received this name from the Lord and professes it in
the Baptism of her children. The term "Spirit" translates the Hebrew word ruah,
which, in its primary sense, means breath, air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the
sensory image of the wind to suggest to Nicodemus the transcendent newness of
him who is personally God’s breath, the divine Spirit. On the other hand,
"Spirit" and "Holy" are divine attributes common to the three divine persons. By
joining the two terms, Scripture, liturgy, and theological language designates
the inexpressible person of the Holy Spirit, without any possible equivocation
with other uses of the terms "spirit" and "holy.”
Titles of the Holy Spirit
When he proclaims and promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus calls him the
"Paraclete,” literally, "he was called to one’s side, " ad-vocatus. "Paraclete"
is commonly translated by "consoler," and Jesus is the first consoler. The Lord
also called the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of truth." Besides the proper name of
"Holy Spirit," which is most frequently used in the Acts of the Apostles and
the Epistles, we also find in St. Paul the titles "the Spirit of the promise,
the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, and the
Spirit of God -- -- and, in Saint Peter, the Spirit of glory.
February17, 2013 - God does not see the same way people see. People look at the outside of a person,
but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 6:7
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 7 Section I – He Will Come Again in Glory
"Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living."
Christ's Ascension into heaven signifies his participation, in his humanity, in
God's power and authority. Jesus Christ is Lord: he possesses all power in
heaven and on earth. He is "far above all rule and authority and power and
dominion," for the Father "has put all things under his feet." Christ is Lord
of the cosmos and of history. In him human history and indeed all creation are
"set forth" and transcendentally fulfilled.
As Lord, Christ is also head of the Church, which is his Body. Taken up to heaven
and glorified after he had thus fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on
earth in his church. The redemption is the source of the authority that Christ,
by virtue of the Holy Spirit, exercises over the Church. "The kingdom of Christ
is already present in mystery," "on earth, the seed and the beginning of the
kingdom."
Since the Ascension God's plan has entered into his fulfillment. We are already at
"the last hour." "Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal
of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now anticipated in a certain
real way, for the Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is
real but imperfect." Christ's kingdom already manifests its presence through the
miraculous signs that attend its proclamation by the Church.
Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be
fulfilled "with power and great glory" by the king's return to earth. This reign
is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated
definitively by Christ's Passover. Until everything is subject to him, "until
there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the
pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present
age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her
place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation
of the sons of God." That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to
hasten Christ's return by saying to him: Marana tha! "Our Lord,come!"
Before his Ascension Christ affirmed that the hour had not yet come for the glorious
establishment of the messianic kingdom awaited by Israel which, according to the
prophets, was t bring all men the definitive order of justice, love, and peace.
According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of
witness, but also a time still marked by "distress" and the trial of evil which
does not spare the Church and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a
time of waiting and watching.
Since the Ascension Christ’s coming in glory has been imminent, even though "it is not
for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own
authority." This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment, even
if both it and the final trial that will precede it or "delayed."
The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his
recognition by "all Israel," for "a hardening has come upon part of Israel" in
their "unbelief" toward Jesus. St. Peter says to the Jews in Jerusalem after
Pentecost: "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,
that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may
send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the
time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from
of old." St. Paul echoes him: "For if their rejection means a reconciliation of
the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" The "full
inclusion" of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake of "the full
number of the Gentiles," will enable the People of God to achieve "the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ," in which "God may be all in all."
Before Christ's second coming to Church must pass through a final trial that will shake
the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on
earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception
offering men and apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy
from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a
pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his
Messiah come in the flesh.
The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the
claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be
realized beyond history through the eschatalogical judgment. The Church has
rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under
the name of millenarianism especially the "intrinsically perverse" political
form of secular messianism
The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover,
which she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will
be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the church through a
progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of
evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God's triumph over
the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final
cosmic upheaval of this passing world.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 7 Section II – To Judge the Living and the Dead
Following in the steps of the prophets of John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgment
the Last Day in his preachung. Then will the conduct of each one and the
secrets of hearts be brought to light. Then will the culpable unbelief that
counted the offer of God's grace as nothing to be condemned. Our attitude about
her neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love. On
the last day Jesus will say: "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the
least of these my brethren, you did it to me."
Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works of
hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. He "acquired" this right
by his cross. The Father has given "all judgment to the Son." Yet the Son did
not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself. By
rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to
one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the
Spirit of love.
February 10, 2013 - God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same. Romans 3:22
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 6 –
He Ascended into Heaven and is Seated at the Right Hand of the Father
"So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God." Christ's body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the new supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently enjoys. But during the 40 days when eats and drinks familiarly with his disciples and teaches them about the kingdom, his glory remains veiled under the appearance of ordinary humanity. Jesus' final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God's right hand. Only in a wholly exceptional and unique way wold Jesus show himself to Paul "as to one untimely born," in a last apparition that established him as an apostle. The veiled character of the glory of the Risen One during this time is intimated in his mysterious words to Mary Magdalene: "I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." This indicates a difference in manifestation between the glory of the risen Christ and of the Christ exalted to the Father’s right hand, a transition marked by the historical and transcendent event of the Ascension.
This final stage stays closely linked to the first, that is, his descent from heaven in the incarnation. Only the one who "came from the Father" can return to the Father: Christ Jesus. “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man." Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the “Father's house”, to God’s life and happiness. Only Christ can open to a man such access that we, as members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us. "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." The lifting up of Jesus on the cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his Ascension into heaven, and indeed begins it. Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and eternal Covenant, "entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands... but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf." There Christ permanently exercises his priesthood, for he "always lives to make intercession" for "those who draw near to God through him." As "high priest of the good things to come" he is the center and the principal actor of the liturgy that honors the Father in heaven.
Henceforth Christ is seated at the right hand Father: " By ‘the Father's right hand’ we understand the glory and honor of divinity, where he who exists as Son of God before all ages, indeed as God, of one being with the Father, is seated bodily after he became incarnate and his flesh was glorified."
Being seated at the Father's right hand signifies the inauguration of the Messiah's kingdom, the fulfillment of the prophet Daniel's vision concerning the Son of Man: "To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." After this event the apostle became witnesses of the "kingdom that will have no end."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 5 Paragraph 2 Section II –The Resurrection – A Work of the Holy Trinity
Christ's Resurrection is an object of faith in that it is a transcendent intervention of God himself in creation and history. In it the three divine persons act together as one, and manifest their own proper characteristics. The Father's power "raised up" Christ the Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son's humanity, including his body, into the Trinity. Jesus is conclusively revealed as "Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead." St. Paul insists on the manifestation of God's power through the working of the Spirit who gave life to Jesus’ dead humanity and called it to the glorious state of Lordship.
As for the Son, he effects his own Resurrection by virtue of his divine power. Jesus announces that the Son of Man will have to suffer much, die, and then rise. Elsewhere he affirms explicitly: "I lay down my life, that I may take it again... I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." "We believe that Jesus died and rose again."
The Fathers contemplate the Resurrection from the perspective of the divine person of Christ who remained united to his soul and body, even when these were separated from each other by death: "By the unity of the divine nature, which remains present in each of the two components of man, these are reunited. For as death is produced by the separation of the human components, so Resurrection is achieved by union of the two."
February 10, 2013 - God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is
true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same. Romans 3:22
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 6 – He Ascended into Heaven4 and is Seated at the Right Hand of the Father
"So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and
sat down at the right hand of God." Christ's body was glorified at the moment of
his Resurrection, as proved by the new supernatural properties it subsequently
and permanently enjoys. But during the 40 days when eats and drinks familiarly
with his disciples and teaches them about the kingdom, his glory remains veiled
under the appearance of ordinary humanity. Jesus' final apparition ends with
the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the
cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God's right
hand. Only in a wholly exceptional and unique way wold Jesus show himself to
Paul "as to one untimely born," in a last apparition that established him as an apostle.
The veiled character of the glory of the Risen One during this time is intimated in his mysterious words to Mary
Magdalene: "I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say
to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."
This indicates a difference in manifestation between the glory of the risen
Christ and of the Christ exalted to the Father’s right hand, a transition marked
by the historical and transcendent event of the Ascension.
This final stage stays closely linked to the first, that is, his descent from heaven
in the incarnation. Only the one who "came from the Father" can return to the
Father: Christ Jesus. “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from
heaven, the Son of Man." Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the “Father's house”,
to God’s life and happiness. Only Christ can open to a man such access that we, as
members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our
Source, has preceded us.
"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." The lifting
up of Jesus on the cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his Ascension
into heaven, and indeed begins it. Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and
eternal Covenant, "entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands... but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf." There Christ
permanently exercises his priesthood, for he "always lives to make
intercession" for "those who draw near to God through him." As "high priest of
the good things to come" he is the center and the principal actor of the liturgy
that honors the Father in heaven.
Henceforth Christ is seated at the right hand Father: " By ‘the Father's right hand’ we
understand the glory and honor of divinity, where he who exists as Son of God
before all ages, indeed as God, of one being with the Father, is seated bodily
after he became incarnate and his flesh was glorified."
Being seated at the Father's right hand signifies the inauguration of the Messiah's
kingdom, the fulfillment of the prophet Daniel's vision concerning the Son of
Man: "To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples,
nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."
After this event the apostle became witnesses of the "kingdom that will have no
end."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 5 Paragraph 2 Section II –The Resurrection – A Work of the
Holy Trinity
Christ's Resurrection is an object of faith in that it is a transcendent intervention of
God himself in creation and history. In it the three divine persons act together
as one, and manifest their own proper characteristics. The Father's power
"raised up" Christ the Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son's
humanity, including his body, into the Trinity. Jesus is conclusively revealed
as "Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection
from the dead." St. Paul insists on the manifestation of God's power through the
working of the Spirit who gave life to Jesus’ dead humanity and called it to the
glorious state of Lordship.
As for the Son, he effects his own Resurrection by virtue of his divine power.
Jesus announces that the Son of Man will have to suffer much, die, and then
rise. Elsewhere he affirms explicitly: "I lay down my life, that I may take it
again... I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." "We
believe that Jesus died and rose again."
The Fathers contemplate the Resurrection from the perspective of the divine person
of Christ who remained united to his soul and body, even when these were
separated from each other by death: "By the unity of the divine nature, which
remains present in each of the two components of man, these are reunited. For as
death is produced by the separation of the human components, so Resurrection is
achieved by union of the two."
ASH WEDNESDAY 2/13/2013
The first day of Lent, a preparation for the celebration of Easter. On this day the pastor or priest blesses us
and makes the sign of the cross in ashes on each of our forehead's. It is meant to remind us of our sins
and the need for constant repentance. Wearing the ashes reminds us to be humble and recommit ourselves
to living a better life. Some of you may give up something for Lent, I choose to attend mass each day during Lent.
Whatever you choose do it with love of our Lord.
________________________________________________________
February 3, 2013 - All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Romans 8:1
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 5 Paragraph 2 Section I – The Historical and Transcendent Event
The mystery of Christ's resurrection is a real event, with manifestations that were
historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness. In about a.d. 56,
St. Paul could already write to the Corinthians: "I delivered to you as of first
importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance
with the scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the
12..." the Apostle speaks here of the living tradition of the Resurrection which
he had learned after his conversion at the gates of Damascus.
The empty tomb
"Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." The first
element we encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty tomb.
It itself is not direct proof of resurrection; the absence of Christ's body
from the tomb could be explained otherwise. Nonetheless the empty tomb was
still an essential sign for all.
Its discovery by the disciples was the first step toward recognizing the
very fact of the Resurrection. This was the case, first with holy women, and
then with Peter. The disciple "whom Jesus loved" affirmed that when he entered
the empty tomb and discovered "the linen cloths lying there," "he saw and
believed." This suggests that he realized from the empty tomb's condition that
the absence of Jesus' body could not have been of human doing and that Jesus had
not simply returned to earthly life as had been the case with Lazarus.
The appearances of the Risen One
Mary Magdalen and the holy women who came to finish anointing the body of Jesus,
which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began on the evening of Good
Friday, were the first to encounter the risen one. Thus the women were the first
messengers of Christ's Resurrection for the apostles themselves. They were the
next to whom Jesus appears: first Peter, then the 12. Peter had been called to
strengthen the faith of his brothers, and so sees the Risen One before them; it
is on the basis of his testimony that the community exclaims: "The Lord has
risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"
Everything that happened during those Paschal days involves each of the apostles -- -- and
Peter in particular -- -- in the building of the new era begun on Easter
morning. As witnesses of the Risen One, they remain the foundation stones of
his Church. The faith of the first community of believers is based on the
witness of concrete men known to the Christians and for the most part still
living among them. Peter and the 12 are the primary "witnesses to his
Resurrection," but they are not the only ones -- Paul speaks clearly of more
than 500 persons to whom Jesus appeared on a single occasion and also James and
of all the apostles.
Given all these testimonies, Christ’s Resurrection cannot be interpreted as something
outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an
historical fact. It is clear from the facts that the disciples’ faith was
drastically put to the test by their master's Passion and death on the cross,
which he had foretold. The shock provoked by the Passion was so great that at
least some of the disciples did not at once believe in in the news of the
Resurrection. Far from showing us a community seized by a mystical exaltation,
the Gospels present us with disciples demoralized ("looking sad") and
frightened. For they had not believed the holy women returning from the tomb and
had regarded their words as an "idle tale." When Jesus reveals himself to the 11
on Easter evening, "he unbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart,
because they had not believed him those who saw him after he had risen."
Even when faced with the reality of the risen Jesus the disciples are still doubtful,
so impossible did the thing seem: they thought they were seeing a ghost. "In
their joy they were still disbelieving and still wondering." Thomas will also
experience the test of doubt and St. Matthew relates that during the risen
Lord's last appearance in Galilee "some doubted." Therefore the hypothesis that
the resurrection was produced by the apostles faith (or credulity) will not hold
up. On the contrary their faith in the Resurrection was born, under the action
of divine grace, from their direct experience with the reality of the risen Jesus.
The condition of Christ’s risen humanity
By means of touch and the sharing of a meal, the risen Jesus establishes direct
will contact with his disciples. He invites them in this way to recognize that
he is not a ghost and above all to verify that the risen body in which he
appears to them is the same body that had been tortured and crucified, for it
still bears the traces of his passion. Yet at the same time this authentic, real
body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and
time but able to be present how and when he wills; for Christ’ humanity can no
longer be confined to earth and belongs henceforth only to the Father's divine
realm. For this reason too the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign freedom of
appearing as he wishes: in the guise of a gardener or in other forms familiar to
his disciples, precisely to awaken their faith.
Christ's resurrection was not a return to earthly life, as was the case with the raisings
from the dead that he had performed before Easter: Jarius' daughter, the young
man of Naim, Lazarus. These actions were miraculous events, but the persons
miraculously raised returned by Jesus’ power to ordinary earthly life. At some
particular moment they would die again. Christ's Resurrection is essentially
different. In his risen body he passes from the state of death to another life
beyond time and space. At Jesus' Resurrection his body is filled with the power
of the Holy Spirit: he shares the divine life and his glorious state, so that
St. Paul can say that Christ is "the man of heaven."
The Resurrection as transcendent event
O truly blessed Night, sings the Exsultet of the Easter Vigil, which alone
deserved to know the time and the hour when Christ rose from the realm of the
dead! But no one was an eyewitness
to Christ’s Resurrection and no evangelist describes it. No one can say how it
came about physically. Still less was its innermost essence, his passing over to
another life, perceptible to the senses. Although the Resurrection was an
historical event that could be verified by the sign of the empty tomb and by the
reality of the apostles encounters with the risen Christ, still it remains at
the very heart of the mystery of faith as something that transcends and
surpasses history. This is why the risen Christ does not reveal himself to the
world, but to his disciples, "to those who came up with him from Galilee to
Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people."
January 27, 2013 Enjoy serving the Lord, and he will give you what you want. Depend on the Lord; trust him, and he will take care of you. Psalms 37:4-5
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 1 – Christ Descended into Hell
The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was "raised from the dead"
presuppose that the crucified one sojourned into the realm of the dead prior to
his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to
Christ's descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in
his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as
Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits in prison there.
Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, "hell" -- --
Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek -- -- because those who are there are deprived
of the vision of God. Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or
righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is
identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was
received into "Abraham's bosom": "it is precisely these holy souls, who awaited
their Savior in Abraham's bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he
descended into hell." Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned,
nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who hadgone before him.
“The gospel was preached even to the dead." The descent into hell brings the Gospel
message of salvation to complete fulfillment. This is the last phase of Jesus's
messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real
significance: the spread of Christ's redemptive work to all men of all times and
all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.
Christ went down into the depths of death so that “the dead will hear the voice
of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Jesus, "the author of life,"
by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and
delivered all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage."
Henceforth to resent Christ holds "the keys of death and Hades," so that "in the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth."
Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great
silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God
has fall asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since
the world began... He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, and for a
lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the
shadow of death, he hass gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve,
captive with him -- -- He who is both their God and the son of Eve... "I am your
God, who for your sake have become your son... I order you, O sleeper, to awake.
I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Ise from the dead, for I am the life of
the dead."
January 20, 2013 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Ephesians 4:29
Jesus substitutes his obedience for our disobedience
"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's
disobedience many were being made righteous." But his obedience unto death,
Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering servant, who "makes himself
an offering for sin," when "he bore the sin of many," and who "shall make many
to be accounted righteous," for "he shall bear their antiquities." Jesus atoned
for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the father.
Jesus consummates his sacrifice on the Cross
It is love "to the end" that confers on
Christ's sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and
satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life.
Now "the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one
has died for all; therefore all have died." No man, not even the holiest, was
ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself ats A
sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who
at once surpasses and embraces all human persons and constitutes himself as the
Head of all mankind makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all.
The Council of Trent emphasizes the unique character of Christ's sacrifice as "the
source of eternal salvation" and teaches that "his most holy Passion on the wood
of the cross merited justification for us." And the Church venerates his cross
as it sings: "Hail, O Cross, our only hope."
Our participation in Christ’s sacrifice
The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the "one mediator between God and men."
But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to
every man, "the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in
the paschal mystery" is offered to all men. He calls his disciples to "take up
their cross and follow him," for "Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an
example so that we should follow in his steps." In fact Jesus desires to
associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be his first
beneficiaries. This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was
associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his
redemptive suffering.
Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.
Paragraph 3 - Jesus Christ Was Buried
"By the Grace of God" Jesus tasted death "for everyone." In his plan of salvation,
God ordained that his Son should not only "die for our sins" but should also
"taste death," experience the condition of death, the separation of the soul
from his body, between the time he expired on the cross and the time he was
raised from the dead. The state of the dead Christ is the mystery of the tomb
and the descent into hell. It is the mystery of Holy Saturday, when Christ,
lying in the tomb, reveals God’s great Sabbath rest after the fulfillment of
man's salvation, which brings peace to the whole universe.
Christ in the tomb in his body
Christ's stay in the tomb constitutes the real link between his passible state before
Easter and his glorious and risen state today. The same person of the "Living
One" can say, "I died, and behold I am alive for evermore": God the Son did not
impede death from separating his soul from his body according to the necessary
order of nature, but has reunited them to one another in the Resurrection, so
that he himself might be, in his person, the meeting point for death and life,
by arresting in himself the decomposition of nature produced by death and so
becoming the source of reunion for the separated parts.
Since the "Author of life" who was killed is the same "living one [who has] risen,"
the divine person of the Son of God necessarily continued to possess his human
soul and body, separated from each other by death:
By the fact that at Christ's death his soul was separated from his flesh, his one
person is not itself divided into two persons; for the human body and soul of
Christ existed in the same way from beginning of his earthly existence, in the
divine person of the Word; and in death, although separated from each other,
both remained with one and the same person of the Word.
“You will not let your Holy One see corruption"
Christ’s death was a real death in that it put an end to his earthly human existence. But
because of the union which the person of the Son retained with his body, his was
not a mortal corpse like others, for "it was not possible for death to hold
them" and therefore "divine power preserved Christ's body from corruption." Both
of these statements can be said of Christ: "He was cut off out of the land of
the living," and "My flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul
to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption." Jesus' Resurrection "on the
third day" was a sign of this, also because bodily decay was held to begin on
the fourth day after death.
”Buried with Christ…”
Baptism, the original and full sign of which is immersion, efficaciously signifies the
descent into the tomb by the Christian who dies to sin with Christ in order to
live a new life. "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so
that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might
walk in newness of life."
January 13, 2013 But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth. Psalms 86:15
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 2 Section III – Christ Offered Himself to His Father for Our Sins
Christ’s whole life is an offering to the Father
The Son of God, who came down "from heaven, not to do his own will, but the will of
him who sent him," said on coming into the world, "Lo, I have come to do your
will, O God." "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once and for all." From the first moment of his
Incarnation the Son embraces the Father's plan of divine salvation in his
redemptive mission: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to
accomplish his work." The sacrifice of Jesus "for the sins of the whole world"
expresses his loving communion with his Father. "The Father loves me, because I
lay down my life," said the Lord, "for I do as the Father has commanded me, so
that the world may know that I love the Father." The desire to embrace his
Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus’ whole life, for his redemptive
passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. And so he asked, "And what
shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come
to this hour." And again, "Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given
me?" From the cross just before "It is finished," he said "I thirst."
“The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world”
After agreeing to baptize him along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus
and pointed him out as the "Lamb of God, who comes to takes away the sin of the
world." By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering
Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the
sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel's
redemption at the first Passover Christ’s whole life expresses his mission: "to
serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Jesus freely embraced the Father’s redeeming love
By embracing in his human heart the Father's love for men, Jesus "loved them to the
end," for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends." In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect
instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men. Indeed, of
love for his father and for men, whom the father wants to save, Jesus freely
accepted his Passion and death: "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it
down of my own accord." Hence the sovereign freedom of God's son as he went out
to his death
At the Last Supper Jesus anticipated the free offering of his life
Jesus gave the supreme expression of his free offering of himself at the meal shared
with the 12 apostles "on the night he was betrayed." On the eve of his Passion,
while still free, Jesus transformed this Last Supper with the apostles into the
memorial of his voluntary offering to the Father for the salvation of men: "This
is my body which is given for you." "This is my blood of the covenant, which is
poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
The Eucharist that Christ institutes at that moment will be the memorial of his
sacrifice. Jesus includes the apostles in his own suffering and bids them
perpetuate it By doing so, the
Lord Institutes his apostles as priests of the New Covenant: "For their sakes I
sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."
The agony at Gethsemani
The cup of the New Covenant, which Jesus anticipated when he offered himself at the
Last Supper, is afterwards accepted by him from his Father's hands in his agony
in the garden of Gethsemani,”, making himself "obedient unto death." Jesus
prays: "My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me..." Thus he
expresses the horror that death represented for his human nature. Like ours, his
human nature is destined for eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly
exempt from sin, the cause of death. Above all, his human nature has been
assumed by the divine person of the "Author of life," the "Living One." By
accepting in his human that the Father's will be done, he accepts his death as
redemptive, for "he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree."
Christ’s death is the unique and definitive sacrifice
Christ's death is both the Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption
of men, through "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," and the
sacrifice of the New Covenant, which restores man to communion with God by
reconciling him to God through the "blood of the covenant, which was poured out
for many for the forgiveness of sins."
This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrafices.
First, it is a gift from God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son
over to sinners in order to reconcile us with himself very at the same time it
is the offering of the son of God made man, who in freedom and low offered his
life to his father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for
disobedience.
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January 6, 2013 Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord
your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 2 Section I –
The Trial of Jesus among the religious authorities of Jerusalem, not only were the
Pharisee Nicodemus and the prominent Joseph of Arimathea both secret disciples
of Jesus, but there was also a long-standing dissension about him, so much so
that St. John says of these authorities on the very eve of Christ's Passion,
"many... believed in him," though very imperfectly. This is not surprising, if
one recalls on the day after Pentecost "a great many of the priests were
obedient to the faith" and "some believers... belong to the party of the
Pharisees," to the point that St. James could tell St. Paul, "How many
thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed; and they are all
zealous for the Law."
The religious authorities in Jerusalem were not unanimous about
what stance to take towards Jesus. The Pharisees threatened to excommunicate his
and followers. To those who feared that "everyone will believe in him, and the
Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation," the high
priest Caiaphas replied by prophesying: "It is expedient for you that one man
should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish." The
Sanhedrin, having declared Jesus deserving of death as a blasphemer but having
lost the right to put anyone to death, hands him over to the Romans, accusing
him of political revolt, a charge that puts him in the same category as Barabbas
who had been accused of sedition. The high priests also threatened Pilate
politically said that he would condemn Jesus to death.
Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus’ death.
The historical complexity of Jesus’ trial is apparent in the
Gospel accounts. The personal sins of the participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin,
Pilate) is known to God alone. Hence we cannot lay responsibility for the trial
on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole, despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd
and the global reproaches contained in the apostles’ calls to conversion after
Pentecost. Jesus himself, in forgiving them on the cross, and Peter in following
suit, both accept "the ignorance" of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their
leaders. Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different
times and places, based merely on the crowd’s cry: "His blood be on us and our
children!" a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence. As the church declared
at the Second Vatican Council:...-Nether all Jews indiscriminately at that time,
nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his Passion...
The Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed
from holy Scripture.
All sinners were the authors of Christ’s Passion.
In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of
her saints, the Church has never forgotten that "sinners were the authors and
the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured." Taking
into account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself, the Church does not
hesitate to impute to Christians the greatest responsibility for the torments
inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often
burdened the Jews alone:
We must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into
their sins. Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross,
those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God
anew in their hearts (for he is in them) and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen that our crime in
this case is greater in us than the Jews. As for them, according to the witness
of the Apostle, "None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they
had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."
We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our deeds, we
in some way seem to lay violent hands on him. Nor did demons crucify him; it is you
who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and
sins.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 2 Section II – Christ’s Redemptive Death in God’s Plan of Salvation
“Jesus handed over according to the definite plan of God”
Jesus’ violent death was not the result of chance in an
unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's
plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on
Pentecost: "This Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God." This Biblical language does not mean that those who
handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God.
To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When
therefore he establishes his eternal plan of "predestination," he includes in it
each person's free response to his grace: "In this city, in fact, both Herod and
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together
against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and
your plan had predestined to take place." For the sake of accomplishing his plan
of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.
“He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.”
The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation
through the putting to death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of
universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the
slavery of sin. Citing a confession of faith that he himself had "received," St.
Paul professes that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the
scriptures." In particular Jesus’ redemptive death fulfills Isaiah's prophecy of
the suffering Servant. Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life
and death in the light of God suffering Servant. After his Resurrection he gave
this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles.
“For our sake God made him to be sin.”
Consequently, St. Peter can formulate the apostolic faith in the
divine plan of salvation in this way: "You were ransomed from the futile ways
inherited from your fathers... with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a
lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world
but was made that we might be "reconciled to God by the death of his Son."
God takes the initiative of universal redeeming love.
By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his
plan for us is one of benevolent love,, prior to any merit of our part: "In this
is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the
expiation for our sins." God "shows his love for us in that while we were yet
sinners Christ died for us."
At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that
God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in
heaven that one of these little ones should perish." He affirms that he came "to
give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but
contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who
handed himself over to save us. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that
Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and
never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer."
Lectionary: 24
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 26:4-10
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
"The priest shall receive the basket from you
and shall set it in front of the altar of the LORD, your God.
Then you shall declare before the Lord, your God,
'My father was a wandering Aramean
who went down to Egypt with a small household
and lived there as an alien.
But there he became a nation
great, strong, and numerous.
When the Egyptians maltreated and oppressed us,
imposing hard labor upon us,
we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers,
and he heard our cry
and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression.
He brought us out of Egypt
with his strong hand and outstretched arm,
with terrifying power, with signs and wonders;
and bringing us into this country,
he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey.
Therefore, I have now brought you the firstfruits
of the products of the soil
which you, O LORD, have given me.'
And having set them before the Lord, your God,
you shall bow down in his presence."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
You who dwell in the shelter of the Most High,
who abide in the shadow of the Almighty,
say to the LORD, "My refuge and fortress,
my God in whom I trust."
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
No evil shall befall you,
nor shall affliction come near your tent,
For to his angels he has given command about you,
that they guard you in all your ways.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Upon their hands they shall bear you up,
lest you dash your foot against a stone.
You shall tread upon the asp and the viper;
you shall trample down the lion and the dragon.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Because he clings to me, I will deliver him;
I will set him on high because he acknowledges my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in distress;
I will deliver him and glorify him.
R. Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble.
Reading 2 Rom 10:8-13
Brothers and sisters:
What does Scripture say?
The word is near you,
in your mouth and in your heart
—that is, the word of faith that we preach—,
for, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you will be saved.
For one believes with the heart and so is justified,
and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.
For the Scripture says,
No one who believes in him will be put to shame.
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek;
the same Lord is Lord of all,
enriching all who call upon him.
For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Gospel Lk 4:1-13
Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan
and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days,
to be tempted by the devil.
He ate nothing during those days,
and when they were over he was hungry.
The devil said to him,
"If you are the Son of God,
command this stone to become bread."
Jesus answered him,
"It is written, One does not live on bread alone."
Then he took him up and showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in a single instant.
The devil said to him,
"I shall give to you all this power and glory;
for it has been handed over to me,
and I may give it to whomever I wish.
All this will be yours, if you worship me."
Jesus said to him in reply,
"It is written:
You shall worship the Lord, your God,
and him alone shall you serve."
Then he led him to Jerusalem,
made him stand on the parapet of the temple, and said to him,
"If you are the Son of God,
throw yourself down from here, for it is written:
He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,
and:
With their hands they will support you,
lest you dash your foot against a stone."
Jesus said to him in reply,
"It also says,
You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test."
When the devil had finished every temptation,
he departed from him for a time.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 26:4-10
The book of Deuteronomy records the orations Moses declared to the Israelites on the last day of his life.
His speeches tend to dwell upon: 1) the covenant that God had established with the Israelites in the wilderness; 2) the laws of that covenant, and 3) the emphatic necessity of obedience to those laws as the condition for enjoying the benefits of the covenant.
Today’s lesson is found near the end of the longest of these speeches (chapters 5-26). Here Moses revisits instructions for the celebration of the Feast of Weeks, which he first announced in chapters 16:9-12. The Israelites were to celebrate the first harvest in June “by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the Lord your God has given you” (16:10 NRSV). Now, in chapter 26, Moses provides the actual liturgy for that first-fruits celebration ritual.
As a liturgy, our lesson includes instructions for certain prescribed actions and words specific to this annual ritual occasion.
Actions: We can picture here the worshiping Israelite standing in the Yahweh-sanctuary, holding a basket filled with yield from the harvest. As the priest receives the basket and lays it down in front of the altar, we can hear the worshiping Israelite offer the liturgical recitation along with the first fruits.
Words: The recitation reviews the saving actions of God, reaching back through the story of the ancestors:
- their initial homelessness (“A wandering Aramean was my father”);
- their migration to Egypt (“lived there as an alien”);
- their suffering there (“treated us harshly and afflicted us”);
- their cry to God for redemption (“we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors”);
- their redemption out of enslavement (“the Lord brought us out of Egypt”);
- their settling into a fertile land (“flowing with milk and honey”).
During this first-fruits ritual the worshiping Israelite holds the first-fruits of the bountiful land upon which he stands in worship. In that physical stance the worshiping Israelite is a living testimony that God has been faithful to the promise made from the very first divine encounter with the ancestors: “Go to a land I will show you, and there I will bless you” (Genesis 12:1-3). Redemption from homelessness and oppression has happened because God did what he said he was going to do (“I will deliver them from the power of the Egyptians” (Exodus 3:8).
During this ritual the worshiping Israelite identifies with the ancestors conspicuously not according to any power or glory attributed to them, but rather in their powerlessness (“afflicted us, heard our cry, brought us out”). More than anything else God does, the liturgy celebrates the faithfulness of God as it is manifest in the rescue of the powerless.
All told, our lesson offers us a vision of imitatio Dei, the imitation of God. We confess that God has acted on behalf of the powerless and blesses them with abundance. But God acts toward a further purpose: that the redeemed might themselves act on behalf of the powerless in the same way that God has acted, blessing them with abundance. In short, God continues to redeem the powerless, but through the agency of the people of God when they choose to be faithful.
Responsorial 91:1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15.
Psalm 91 is the second psalm in Book Four of the Psalter.
It is classified as an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving, in which an individual praises God for goodness to or on behalf of that individual, usually for a deliverance from some trying situation. We are called to read Psalm 91, therefore, in the context of a worshiper’s grateful praise for deliverance.
The opening verses of the psalm are filled with rich imagery, rich metaphor. The Bible attempts to describe the nature and character of God with words, words that are crafted by our ancestors in the faith as they sought to depict the creator, sustainer, ever-present God. We read in the Old Testament that God is judge, king, lover, holy, and so forth. How do each of us -- how do you? -- understand the concepts of judge, king, lover, holy being?
Readers often bring a “narrow lens” of understanding to the biblical text through no fault of their own, but rather by way of the interpretations of their faith communities. As we study scripture we “widen our lens,” so we can discover new ways of reading the biblical text that enrich our understanding of who God is and who we are in relationship to God and to others. One metaphor for God will not do. The beauty of metaphoric imagery for God in the biblical text is that it allows for a multiplicity of conceptualizations, or as one scholar states, "a vast collection of interwoven images." To achieve a full understanding of God, we must tune our ears and focus our eyes to hear and see other images, other metaphors than to ones we have always seen and heard.
The opening verses of Psalm 91 speak of God’s presence with and protection of the psalm singer as “the shelter … the shadow … my refuge … fortress” and uses four names for God -- “Most High -- Elyon,” “Almighty -- Shaddai,” “LORD -- Yahweh,” and “God -- Elohim.” Elyon and Shaddai were common epithets for God in the Old Testament. Elyon appears eight times in the Pentateuch and nineteen times in the book of Psalms. Its root is the Hebrew verb ‘alah, and means “to go up, to ascend.” God is the great God, transcending all other devotions.
In verse 2, we read that God is “my refuge” and “my fortress.” While these words are most often interpreted as having to do with “fleeing from an enemy” and “safe haven under attack,” if we read them as the words of protection and safe haven that a mother (or a parent) provides, we “bring the words down to earth -- down to everyday life,” so to speak. The basic meaning of the word that is translated as “refuge” is “to cover, to hide” (Hebrew chasah), and fits well with verse 4, that states, “God will cover you with pinions and under God’s wings you will find refuge.” Recall also that in Matthew 23:37, Jesus lamented, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings!”
With this metaphoric image -- God as the parental figure feeding and protecting his children -- in mind, let us move to verses 9-16 of Psalm 91. Here we read that God will provide extraordinary protection to the one who seeks refuge in God. Verse 11, of course, was taken up by the composers of the gospels of Matthew and Luke (Matthew 4:6; Luke 4:10-11) as a reference to Jesus, but in the greater context of Psalm 91, we may interpret these words as the caring protection a parent gives to a child whom they have conceived, born, and nurtured.
The closing words of Psalm 91 are rich with promise to those who love the parent who has nurtured them. The mother (and father) God will bless, protect, answer, be present in times of trouble, rescue, honor, and grant long life and salvation.
The season of Lent is a preparation of hearts, minds, and bodies for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the embodiment of God in this world. We are called to give our best, as the Lectionary reading from Deuteronomy 24 emphasizes. How do we do that? We must remember in this time of sacrifice that God is ever-present, manifesting Godself as mother, father, brother, sister, and yet holy other. Embrace the nurturing mother image of God as solid refuge in this season of preparation.
Reading 2 Rom 10:8-13
Our passage follows directly on the heels of a bold statement: "For Christ is the end [Greek: telos] of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4). (Actually, a better translation is: "For the end of the law is Christ....") Whether telos refers to the Mosaic law's termination or to its consummation/goal occasions no small debate. The statement's basic emphasis is much clearer, however: Christ is the agent through whom God's righteousness is actualized. Even the law aimed toward Christ. Christ is the means of righteousness for everyone who has faith.
To unpack the claims of 10:4, Paul offers in 10:5-13 a series of references to scripture. Trying to follow his point can make our heads hurt.
As is usually the case when Paul refers to scripture, scholarship on verses 5-13 has generated deep debates about Paul's method and purpose. What we discover in these verses is not a scriptural "proof" meant to convince us. Rather, Paul collects biblical voices to provide resonance for his theological assertions. As a skilled midrashic deejay, he remixes a scriptural conversation for the Roman churches to hear, a conversation in which -- in Paul's arrangement -- Christ sits at the center of the voices. All the words gravitate around him, thus acquiring new meaning as they express God's work through Christ. (The relevant texts are Leviticus 18:5; Deuteronomy 30:11-14; Isaiah 28:16; Joel 2:32.)
Paul finds in Moses' discourse about the law (Deuteronomy 30:11-14) affirmation that God's word (Greek: rhēma) -- the life that the law promised -- is very close to the people of God who received the law through Moses (see Romans 10:8). Just as near is Christ (the law's telos), according to Paul's christological rereading of Deuteronomy. Christ himself came "down" to humanity and enfleshed the law's ultimate purpose (taking telos in Romans 10:4 as consummation), which is to give life. Christ accomplished what the law could not, hampered as it was by the power of sin (recall Romans 7:8-12). There's no need, then, for us to go up to heaven to seek Christ; he already came to us. Nor do we descend into the grave to find him; he's not there.
Concerning the nearness of the law, Moses spoke of "the word" being in the "mouth" (NRSV: "lips") and the "heart" of the people of Israel (Romans 10:8a). Paul rereads this in verse 8b as "the word (Greek: rhēma) about faith" that he now preaches as an apostle of Christ.
That is, Paul proclaims Christ, good news about Christ's faithfulness and a message that in turn elicits faith in its hearers. In intimate ways, a believer interacts with Jesus: She confesses his Lordship in her "mouth" (NRSV: "lips") and expresses faith in her "heart." This way of confession and faith is the way of
God's salvation is available to all. This is a bold statement. We err if we hear it as anthropology, as a claim that all people are about the same, or as a maxim that "a person's a person, no matter how small" (that's not Paul, but Horton Hears a Who!). Rather, Paul makes a statement about God: God has made salvation near to all.
Gospel Lk 4:1-13
In each of the three Synoptic Gospels, after his baptism, Jesus is reported to have spent forty days in the desert, fasting and praying. In Luke and in Matthew, the devil presents three temptations to Jesus. The devil tempts Jesus to use his power to appease his hunger, he offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if Jesus will worship him, and he tempts Jesus to put God's promise of protection to the test. In each case, Jesus resists, citing words from Scripture to rebuke the devil's temptation.
Each temptation that Jesus faces offers insight into the spirituality we hope to develop as we keep the forty days of the Season of Lent. We can trust God to provide for our material needs. We worship God because God alone has dominion over us and our world. We can trust God to be faithful to his promises. Jesus' rejection of the devil's temptations shows that he will not put God to the test. Grounding himself on the Word and authority of Scripture, Jesus rebukes the devil by his confidence in God's protection and faithfulness.
This Gospel highlights for us one of the central themes of the Season of Lent. We are dependent upon God for all that we have and all that we are. Anything that leads us to reject this dependency or to distrust its sufficiency, is a temptation from the devil.
Luke ends his report of Jesus' temptation in the desert by noting that the devil departs for a time. The implication is that the devil will return. Jesus knows that he will be tempted again in the Garden of Gethsemane. The depth of Jesus' trust in God is shown most fully when Jesus rejects the temptation to turn away from the task God has given to him. Jesus' final rebuke of the devil is his sacrifice on the Cross.
Jesus' responses to the temptations of the devil teach us how we can respond to temptation. As we start our journey through Lent, this Sunday's Gospel calls us to adopt the same confidence that Jesus had in the face of temptation: God's word alone will suffice, God's promise of protection can be trusted, and God alone is God.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- It is easy for us to confuse our needs and our wants. Many of the things we need are provided to us so readily that we seldom think about these things; we take them for granted. We sometimes wish for more than we need and are easily tempted to confuse things we want for things we need.
- Take a piece of paper or a computer screen and enter two columns. Title one column “Things I Need” and the second column “Things I Want.” Identify two or three things for each column.
- On the first Sunday of Lent, we hear about how Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert. One way to think about the temptations described in this Gospel is to describe them as temptations to want more than we need. Review carefully this reading and think about how the devil tempted Jesus and how Jesus responded.
- What were the three things that the devil tempted Jesus to do? What did the devil say that Jesus would show or receive if he gave in to each temptation? (turn stone to bread to prove he was the Son of God; worship the devil and so receive power and glory; jump off a high place to test God) Did Jesus need to show or receive any of the things the devil proposed? (no)
- Jesus didn't need to prove that he was the Son of God, he didn't need power and glory, and he didn't need to test God. Jesus knew that God would give him all he really needed. Jesus wants us to know this, too. During Lent we can practice resisting the temptation to think that we need more than we have been given. Our Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving help us to correct our perceptions about the things we “need” and the things we “want.” They remind us of our dependence on God and they help us to remember that God gives us everything we need.
- When Jesus rebuked the devil he quoted Scripture. Each of these Scripture quotations was about having trust in God. Is there a word or phrase that you can use to remind yourself to trust God in all things? Try to identify a word or phrase that will help you remember to trust God to give you everything that you need. Try to use this word or phrase as a prayer during Lent.
- When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we ask for God's help to resist temptation in our lives. We say, “Lead us not into temptation.” Pray this prayer remembering that God gives us everything we really need. Pray the Lord's Prayer.
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Sunday March 3, 2019 Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 84
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 27:4-7
When a sieve is shaken, the husks appear;
so do one's faults when one speaks.
As the test of what the potter molds is in the furnace,
so in tribulation is the test of the just.
The fruit of a tree shows the care it has had;
so too does one's speech disclose the bent of one's mind.
Praise no one before he speaks,
for it is then that people are tested.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
To proclaim your kindness at dawn
and your faithfulness throughout the night.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
They shall bear fruit even in old age;
vigorous and sturdy shall they be,
Declaring how just is the LORD,
my rock, in whom there is no wrong.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:54-58
Brothers and sisters:
When this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility
and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality,
then the word that is written shall come about:
Death is swallowed up in victory.
Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?
The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters,
be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord,
knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Gospel Lk 6:39-45
Jesus told his disciples a parable,
"Can a blind person guide a blind person?
Will not both fall into a pit?
No disciple is superior to the teacher;
but when fully trained,
every disciple will be like his teacher.
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother's eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own?
How can you say to your brother,
'Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,'
when you do not even notice the wooden beam in your own eye?
You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from your eye first;
then you will see clearly
to remove the splinter in your brother's eye.
"A good tree does not bear rotten fruit,
nor does a rotten tree bear good fruit.
For every tree is known by its own fruit.
For people do not pick figs from thornbushes,
nor do they gather grapes from brambles.
A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good,
but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil;
for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 27:4-7
The book of Sirach (also known as "Ecclesiasticus" from the Latin Vulgate) was written by Jeshua ben Eleazar ben Sira in the early second century, BC. Jeshua wrote in Alexandria, Egypt, where a large Jewish population lived. Because the Jewish population was native (second generation and beyond), they had lost Hebrew and adopted Greek as a native language. While the book was originally written in Hebrew, it was quickly translated into Greek and found its way into the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the Old Testament.
The book is a collection of wise sayings useful for teaching ethics to the young. Written in the first person, the book extolled the Hebrew traditions. These factors indicate the writing was possibly used as a text book in religious schools found in the Jewish quarter of Alexandria.
In this passage, Sirach encouraged a small dose of skepticism, akin to “don’t judge a book by its cover.” He counseled his students to see beyond the good looks, the fancy clothes, the smooth flow of speech or the alluring ring of rhetoric; the wise person should peer into the mind and the heart. Only then, Sirach insisted, could you find the person’s true character. The one seeking righteous friends should test them to find out if they were truly worthy.
Sirach was honored in the early Church as a guide to life. It still has that power.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16
The opening verses of the text assert that the praise of the Lord is a positive good. This may seem self-evident, but it is worthwhile to reflect on further.
Far too often the worship of the church is carried out as if it were solely a matter of obligation. Perhaps you've been a part of a congregation in which the hymns are merely endured, in which the liturgy is something to be slogged through on the way to coffee hour, or in which the prayers of the church are more or less a sleep-inducing drone. For these congregations, the claim "it is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High!" (Psalm 92:1) can come as a much-needed shock to the system.
The claim here is that the worship of God's people springs forth from the deep gladness brought on by a recognition of God's mighty and manifold works. Praise that is rooted in this ground will be lively and flourishing.
The closing verses offer the rich image of the righteous person as a tree. At one level, the symbolism is fairly straightforward. Trees are symbolic of enduring life and fertility. They are long-lived, in contrast to the grasses and plants of the field. Fittingly then, this text declares that those who are right with God will enjoy a similar long and fruitful life.
We should not fail, however, to notice that the trees described by the Psalmist do not spring up just anywhere: "They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the courts of our God" (Psalm 92:13).
These long-lived, fruitful trees are planted and cultivated. They are deliberately placed, nourished, and protected. Because of this care, they are able to flourish.
This observation leads to many possible avenues of exposition, touching on the sovereignty of God (who plants where he wills), God's providence (who else is the source of water, nourishment, and protection?), or, finally, on the reasons for lively praise as recommended in the beginning of the Psalm.
Ultimately, it is because God does such things for God's people that they ought to praise God with glad enthusiasm.
As noted, the praise called for in verses 1-4 is based on the works of God. In the middle segment, the reader learns which aspect of God's many works the Psalmist has in mind.
First, the reality is acknowledged that the wicked -- those who oppose God, who do not give him praise and honor, and who prey upon his people -- often seem to prosper. It should not be difficult for any congregation to draw connections here to their own observations and experiences. The question then arises, "If this is so, what grounds have we for praise?"
The answer, the central reality of the Psalm, comes quickly.
The prosperity of the wicked is like that of the grass: short-lived and ephemeral, without endurance. By contrast, the sovereign rule of God is eternal: "you, O Lord, are on high forever" (Psalm 92:8).
This is the pivot point, on which the Psalm and the questions it raises both turn. Because God reigns eternally, it is a given that eventually, all opposing God's reign will be expunged. The enemies of God (and, not incidentally, of the Psalmist) will certainly not prevail, just as the grass will certainly wither and die once its season is over.
Such a reminder of God's enduring rule, and its inevitable consequences for the wicked, adds depth and context to the Psalm's closing observations about the righteous. The tree-like endurance and long, fruitful life they will enjoy under God's providence stands in contrast to the cheap and flimsy present prosperity of the wicked, just as the mighty cedars of Lebanon stand in contrast to a clump of grass.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:54-58
All the saints should not die, but all would be changed. In the gospel, many truths, before hidden in mystery, are made known. Death never shall appear in the regions to which our Lord will bear his risen saints. Therefore let us seek the full assurance of faith and hope, that in the midst of pain, and in the prospect of death, we may think calmly on the horrors of the tomb; assured that our bodies will there sleep, and in the mean time our souls will be present with the Redeemer. Sin gives death all its hurtful power. The sting of death is sin; but Christ, by dying, has taken out this sting; he has made atonement for sin, he has obtained remission of it. The strength of sin is the law. None can answer its demands, endure its curse, or do away his own transgressions. Hence terror and anguish. And hence death is terrible to the unbelieving and the impenitent. Death may seize a believer, but it cannot hold him in its power. How many springs of joy to the saints, and of thanksgiving to God, are opened by the death and resurrection, the sufferings and conquests of the Redeemer! In verse 58, we have an exhortation, that believers should be steadfast, firm in the faith of that gospel which the apostle preached, and they received. Also, to be unmovable in their hope and expectation of this great privilege, of being raised incorruptible and immortal. And to abound in the work of the Lord, always doing the Lord's service, and obeying the Lord's commands. May Christ give us faith, and increase our faith, that we may not only be safe, but joyful and triumphant.
Gospel Lk 6:39-45
The third and final section of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain begins: And he told them a parable. There are actually four parables, three of which we read today. They are all about how to be a good disciple.
The blind cannot lead the blind. And a disciple cannot be a good disciple unless he or she has learned from the teacher. Everyone who is fully trained is like the teacher who knows how to cure the blind. Before you can be a good disciple and teach others you must take care of yourself. Do not try to take a speck out of your brother’s eye until you have taken the board out of your own. Finally, only when you have purified yourself can you produce the good works that the teacher requires. Discipleship asks us to produce good deeds. But to produce them requires the integrity and purity of heart found in the teacher. When people see your good deeds they will know that this is because you have a good heart.
The final parable, which we do not read today, is about building on the solid foundation of rock and not on sand. This is the only way to face the difficulties a disciple will encounter and survive
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
The third and final section of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain begins: And he told them a parable. There are actually four parables, three of which we read today. They are all about how to be a good disciple.
The blind cannot lead the blind. And a disciple cannot be a good disciple unless he or she has learned from the teacher. Everyone who is fully trained is like the teacher who knows how to cure the blind. Before you can be a good disciple and teach others you must take care of yourself. Do not try to take a speck out of your brother’s eye until you have taken the board out of your own. Finally, only when you have purified yourself can you produce the good works that the teacher requires. Discipleship asks us to produce good deeds. But to produce them requires the integrity and purity of heart found in the teacher. When people see your good deeds they will know that this is because you have a good heart.
The final parable, which we do not read today, is about building on the solid foundation of rock and not on sand. This is the only way to face the difficulties a disciple will encounter and survive
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Look an apple. Is this apple a good or rotten piece of fruit? How do you know? (It’s good. It’s shiny and doesn’t have bruises.) Do you think this apple comes from a good, strong tree or from a rotten tree? (a good, strong tree)
- In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells three parables to teach us about being his disciples, or followers. One parable is called A Tree Known by Its Fruit. We are Jesus’ disciples. Let’s listen carefully to what he has to tell us.
- Jesus says, “Every tree is known by its own fruit.” We know the apple tree was good and strong because the apple is shiny. In the same way, people are known by their deeds. When we do good deeds, we show others that we have the good, loving heart of a disciple. Being a disciple of Jesus means that we show our love for God in what we say and do. What will you do and say today to show others that you have the heart of a disciple?
- Pray the Lord’s Prayer.
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Sunday February 24 2019 Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 81
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Sm 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23
In those days, Saul went down to the desert of Ziph
with three thousand picked men of Israel,
to search for David in the desert of Ziph.
So David and Abishai went among Saul’s soldiers by night
and found Saul lying asleep within the barricade,
with his spear thrust into the ground at his head
and Abner and his men sleeping around him.
Abishai whispered to David:
“God has delivered your enemy into your grasp this day.
Let me nail him to the ground with one thrust of the spear;
I will not need a second thrust!”
But David said to Abishai, “Do not harm him,
for who can lay hands on the LORD’s anointed and remain unpunished?”
So David took the spear and the water jug from their place at Saul’s head,
and they got away without anyone’s seeing or knowing or awakening.
All remained asleep,
because the LORD had put them into a deep slumber.
Going across to an opposite slope,
David stood on a remote hilltop
at a great distance from Abner, son of Ner, and the troops.
He said: “Here is the king’s spear.
Let an attendant come over to get it.
The LORD will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness.
Today, though the LORD delivered you into my grasp,
I would not harm the LORD’s anointed.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:45-49
Brothers and sisters:
It is written, The first man, Adam, became a living being,
the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
But the spiritual was not first;
rather the natural and then the spiritual.
The first man was from the earth, earthly;
the second man, from heaven.
As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly,
and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.
Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.
Gospel Lk 6:27-38
Jesus said to his disciples:
“To you who hear I say,
love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well,
and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.
Give to everyone who asks of you,
and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
For if you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners do the same.
If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners,
and get back the same amount.
But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High,
for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give, and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you measure
will in return be measured out to you.”
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Sm 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23
David’s troubles from Saul here begin again; and the clouds return after the rain, when one would have hoped the storm had blown over, and the sky had cleared upon that side; but after Saul had owned up to his fault in persecuting David, and acknowledged David’s title to the crown, yet here he revives the persecution, so perfectly lost was he to all sense of honor and virtue. The Ziphites informed him where David was, and he marched out with a considerable force in quest of him. David gained intelligence of his motions, and took a view of his camp. He and one of his men ventured into his camp in the night and found him and all his guards fast asleep. David, though much urged to it by his companions, would not take away Saul’s life, but only carried off his spear and his cruse of water. He produced these as a further witness for him that he did not design any ill to Saul, and reasoned with him upon his conduct. Saul was hereby convinced of his error, and once more desisted from persecuting David. The story is much like that which we had earlier in chapter 24. In that both David is delivered out of Saul’s hand, and Saul out of David’s.
Here is, David’s bold adventure into Saul’s camp in the night, accompanied only by his kinsman Abishai, the son of Zeruiah. He proposed it to him and to another of his confidants, but the other either declined it as too dangerous an enterprise, or at least was content that Abishai, who was forward to it, should run the risk of it rather than himself. Whether David was prompted to do this by his own courage, or by an extraordinary impression upon his spirits, or by the oracle, does not appear; but, like Gideon, he ventured through the guards, with a special assurance of the divine protection. The posture he found the camp in Saul lay sleeping in the trench, or, as some read it, in his chariot, and in the midst of his carriages, with his spear stuck in the ground by him, to be ready if his quarters should by beaten up and all the soldiers, even those that were appointed to stand sentinel, were fast asleep. Thus were their eyes closed and their hands bound, for a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them; something extraordinary there was in it that they should all be asleep together, and so fast asleep that David and Abishai walked and talked among them, and yet none of them stirred. Abishai’s request to David for a commission to dispatch Saul with the spear that stuck at his bolster. He would not urge David to kill him, because he had declined doing this before when he had a similar opportunity; but he begged earnestly that David would give him leave to do it, pleading that he was his enemy, not only cruel and implacable, but false and perfidious, whom no reason would rule nor kindness work upon, and that God had now delivered him into his hand, and did in effect bid him strike. The last advantage he had of this kind was indeed but accidental, when Saul happened to be in the cave with him at the same time. But in this there was something extraordinary; the deep sleep that had fallen on Saul and all his guards was manifestly from the Lord, so that it was a special providence which gave him this opportunity; he ought not therefore to let it slip. David’s generous refusal to allow any harm to be done to Saul, and in it a resolute adherence to his principles of loyalty. David charged Abishai not to destroy him, would not only not do it himself, but not permit another to do it. And he gave two reasons for it. It would be a sinful affront to God’s ordinance. Saul was the Lord’s anointed, king of Israel by the special appointment and nomination of the God of Israel, the power that was, and to resist him was to resist the ordinance of God, Rom. 13:2 . No man could do it and be guiltless. The thing he feared was guilt and his concern respected his innocence more than his safety. 2. It would be a sinful anticipation of God’s providence. God had sufficiently shown him, in Nabal’s case, that, if he left it to him to avenge him, he would do it in due time. Encouraged therefore by his experience in that instance, he resolves to wait till God shall think fit to avenge him on Saul, and he will by no means avenge himself. The temptation indeed was very strong; but, if he should yield, he would sin against God, and therefore he will resist the temptation with the utmost resolution. He and Abishai carried away the spear and cruse of water which Saul had by his bed-side (v. 12), and, which was very strange, none of all the guards were aware of it. If a physician had given them the strongest opiate or stupifying dose, they could not have been faster locked up with sleep. Saul’s spear which he had by him for defense, and his cup of water which he had for his refreshment, were both stolen from him while he slept. Thus do we lose our strength and our comfort when we are careless, and secure, and off our watch.
David reminds Saul again of the proof he had now given of his respect to him from a principle of loyalty: I would not stretch forth my hand against the Lord’s anointed, intimating to Saul that the anointing oil was his protection, for which he was indebted to the Lord and ought to express his gratitude to him (had he been a common person David would not have been so tender of him), perhaps with this further implication, that Saul knew, or had reason to think, David was the Lord’s anointed too, and therefore, by the same rule, Saul ought to be as tender of David’s life as David had been of his. Therefore, David went on his way. And, after this parting, it does not appear that Saul and David ever saw one another again.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13
What are the contours of praise for God?
How do we know it if we are actually engaged in it? Is it simply a matter of the emotions somehow reaching out to the creator of life in some message of thanksgiving? Is it more than emotions? Is the body involved in ways that transcend the mind to give forth something of gratitude to the God of all that is, ever was, and ever will be? If someone asked you to pick up a pencil and draw on paper a picture of praise, what would it look like and why? I think the very request to praise God invokes something deep within sinew and bone, molecule and atom that desires to express recognition for life caused by a power greater than what we can evoke or manufacture.
In Psalm 103, the writer contends that praise is something to be called forth from the people. It is an invitation to all who would listen to join with the writer in offering praise to the living God. But, what is praise? Of what does it consist? Is it something that only people can offer? Can animals and even plants offer praise? Do they have a capacity to render praise to God for life? Do we run the risk of anthropomorphizing everything if we even ask the question? Yet, there is something about the essence of praise that tugs at one’s skin, moves beneath the surface like blood through veins, and touches the sparks that travel along our brain’s axon and dendrite trails.
The question of an animal’s capacity to feel and think has long been debated. Some would contend that animals dream and thereby share something in common with humans. So what does this have to do with Psalm 103? I think it has everything and nothing to do with it. The psalms were written as poetic exhalations or inhalations that disclose something of the writer’s emotions and thinking at the time of their composition. They display something about the human capacity to reflect and imagine the greatness of God as one who is as intimate as breath and as distant as the farthest galaxy from human experience. God is both known and unknown at the same time. There is both an intimacy that transcends language and a distance that escapes human abilities to discern.
We share something with animals in this regard. Neither of us can determine the exact contours of God, nor can we discern the depth of God’s activity within and among us. Perhaps we can see glimpses, hear fleeting notes, or plumb the depths of imagination and critical reflection to discover something about God. However, all of human musings ought to be subject to careful examination and reflection. People also have a great capacity to believe what they want to believe regardless of what may be discernable or particularly evident in the facts spread before them. They choose at any moment to claim various degrees of certitude, but language breaks down quickly as it cannot carry the breadth nor depth of what draws forth praise from the living.
Psalm 103 inhales and exhales praise. It is a reflection on the contours of human capacities to know God and to exclaim that God has done and that God continues to do amazing things. Where is one’s inmost being? Is it lodged within sinew and bone or does it reside somewhere less material? Does it rest uneasily at some place in the mind where the past, present, and future are continually colliding to declare and dismiss at the same time the activity and presence of God?
Psalm 103 can be read like a reflecting pool that shows the clouds overhead and distant stars so that we might reach down and touch them. They are not the actual objects, but reflections of them. As such we are able to grasp something of their essence and as such they can push inward reflection on what they may mean. The Psalmist recounts the various activities of God and invites people to reflection about them.
God heals diseases, redeems people from pits, crowns people with love and compassion, gives good things for human desires, renews one’s youth like the eagles, and works righteousness and aims toward justice for all of the oppressed. This image of God is one that comprises a theology of hope in the midst of hardships. It is a perception of God that provides courage to face the trials of the day be they war, disease, despair, loneliness, unjust systems of oppression, or anything that would cause human life to be diminished in some way.
The Psalmist in these verses provides a type of heat to the waters of personal experience and declares to those who would hear something about a God that is not only worthy of praise, but who can and does meet people in the contexts of life to provide solace, comfort, and strength. This recognition alone when coupled with personal experience draws forth from people something deep within and expels it outward into the sky as activities of praise.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:45-49
Gospel Lk 6:27-38
Today's gospel reading is a continuation of the teaching that began in last Sunday's gospel. We continue to hear Jesus' Sermon on the Plain. Recall that in Luke's Gospel, this teaching is addressed to Jesus' disciples. This is in contrast to the parallel found in Matthew's Gospel, the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus' words are addressed to both the disciples and to the crowds.
These words from Jesus' teaching are familiar to us. They constitute the crux and the challenge of what it means to be a disciple: Love your enemies, turn the other cheek, give to those who ask, do unto others, lend without expecting repayment, judge not lest you be judged.
There are several similarities between Luke's and Matthew's report of Jesus' great teaching. Both begin with the Beatitudes. Matthew includes nearly all the content that Luke does; the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew's Gospel is longer than Luke's Sermon on the Plain. There are, however, differences in language and nuance. For example, Matthew presents this portion of the teaching as a contrast between Jesus' teaching and the teachings of the law and the prophets. This is in keeping with Matthew's concern to address his predominantly Jewish audience. It is likely that Luke omits this contrast because it was unnecessary for the Gentile believers for whom Luke is writing.
Another point of contrast between Matthew and Luke's presentation is the terminology. In Luke, Jesus contrasts the behavior of his followers with the behavior of “sinners.” In Matthew, Jesus contrasts the behavior desired with the behavior of tax collectors and Gentiles. Matthew concludes the teaching about love of enemies with the admonition to be perfect as God is perfect; Luke concludes by emphasizing God's mercy.
In both Gospels, Jesus' words challenge those who would follow him to be more like God. God loves us beyond our expectations, beyond anything we can possibly imagine. In response to God's love, we are to love as God loves, beyond expectations and with a depth beyond imagining.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Identify some things that are expected of you every day such as going to work on time, completing household chores. Is it easy to live up to these expectations? Why or why not?
- Have you ever heard the phrase “go the extra mile”? What does it mean? (to do more than expected) What would it mean to go the extra mile in regard to the expectations we identified? Try to identify specific examples of what it would mean to exceed expectations in the tasks you named. (Examples: Doing an extra task at work or at home, doing a household chore ahead of schedule.)
- In the Gospel, Jesus describes how we are to behave toward one another. He tells us how to make good choices. What he says may sound like what we mean by the phrase “going the extra mile.”
- How does Jesus say that we should behave with one another? (Do good even to those who hurt you. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Forgive and you will be forgiven.) Are these the responses that people expect? (No.)
- In the Gospel, Jesus says that we are to make choices based on God's standard. God doesn't just forgive us one time. God forgives us over and over again. God doesn't show love to us just one time; God shows love all the time. God goes the extra mile for us. Jesus tells us that we are to go the extra mile for others.
- Pray the Prayer of St. Francis
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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Sunday February 17 2019 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 78
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 17:5-8
Thus says the LORD:
Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a barren bush in the desert
that enjoys no change of season,
but stands in a lava waste,
a salt and empty earth.
Blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
it fears not the heat when it comes;
its leaves stay green;
in the year of drought it shows no distress,
but still bears fruit.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Blessed the man who follows not
the counsel of the wicked,
nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
but delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on his law day and night.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
He is like a tree
planted near running water,
that yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade.
Whatever he does, prospers.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Not so the wicked, not so;
they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
For the LORD watches over the way of the just,
but the way of the wicked vanishes.
R. Blessed are they who hope in the Lord.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:12, 16-20
Brothers and sisters:
If Christ is preached as raised from the dead,
how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised,
and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain;
you are still in your sins.
Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
If for this life only we have hoped in Christ,
we are the most pitiable people of all.
But now Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Gospel Lk 6:17, 20-26
Jesus came down with the twelve
and stood on a stretch of level ground
with a great crowd of his disciples
and a large number of the people
from all Judea and Jerusalem
and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon.
And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:
“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.
Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.
Rejoice and leap for joy on that day!
Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.
For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.
But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.
Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false
prophets in this way.”
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 17:5-8
The divided heart. Thi seems to be the condition of most of the Christian world at the present time.
Jeremiah kept telling the people of Judah that God's judgment was coming, but the people just wouldn't listen. They had a divided heart. They wanted to hold on to God with one hand, but they wanted to hold on to the sinful things of the world with the other hand.
God said that they had written their sin in such a way that it wasn't going to be erased. It was engraved, not in stone, but even worse: it was engraved on the tablets of their hearts! That means they were fully satisfied with their sin and had no plans to change.
What's sad is that these folks would have argued that they were worshippers of Jehovah God, but in the practical everyday living of their lives, there was not much to prove it.
Jeremiah kept preaching, and they kept not listening. As a matter of fact, when you come to chapter 26, the people had become very tired of Jeremiah's preaching, and in essence said, "It's time for us to get ourselves another preacher, but first we've got to get rid of this one." Do you think that ever happens in this modern day in which we live? They tried to kill Jeremiah, but God delivered him.
In v5, God speaks to these people. They bring a curse on themselves. It is a curse that is a result of their own doings. They're conducting their lives like people who know nothing about God, and their hearts are departed from all they've been taught.
Will God just let this go? V6, answers that question. They will be like a "barren bush in the desert." Some of the more modern translations say, "a shrub in the desert." The Hebrew word literally says "naked, or destitute." They do not have any real help in their times of trouble.
Why will God not help them? He would, if they would humble themselves, and pray, and seek His face, but they won't do it, and He will not bless sinfulness.
A person who really knows God, but has come to have a departed heart, is in a very dangerous position.
Look at this! It's like finding a gardenia in a garbage can! In the midst of all these people who seemed to have no fear of God, there are some who do, and God says that they are "blessed."
They trust in the Lord. If God's word says it, then as far as they're concerned that's the way it is. For them, every man is a liar when compared to God.
Their hope is in the Lord. They confidently look forward to what God has said, through the eyes of faith. If they see an unfavorable stock market report, they don't panic, because they stock market is not their source, God is their source.
If the doctor says, "It's really bad, they don't give up, because their hope is not in the doctor, their hope is in the Great Physician, and they are fully persuaded that God has the last word.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 1:1-2, 3, 4 and 6
This deceptively simple psalm serves as the introduction to the Psalter and sets before us, the readers, a vision of life as a journey marked by bifurcating paths: turn one way, happiness (1:1), another, destruction (1:6).
Our psalmist, to entice us to choose the happy trail, paints the happy life with images stolen from paradise -- verdant with plant life, nourished by gentle waters, seasonably fruitful, and unfailingly prosperous (1:3). The psalmist invites us to the royal garden, perhaps atop the Mountain of God, Eden-like. In contrast, he likens the fate of those who choose to turn at the forks of life’s journey time and again toward destruction, not simply to chaff, but to chaff that the discerning wind drives out of the garden into judgment (1:4-5).
The choice would appear clear: reject the path that leads to destruction and choose the other path, the happy life. But where might we find this path to the garden? Dutifully, the psalmist announces:
Happy is the one … [whose] delight is in the law of the LORD,
and [who] on his law meditates day and night.
One mystery remains: What is “the law of the LORD,” and what does it require?
The Law of the LORD as the Pentateuch
The Jewish Bible is organized differently from the Christian Old Testament and is comprised of three parts: in order, the Torah (the Pentateuch), the Neviim (most of the historical and prophetic books of the Christian Old Testament), and the Ketuvim (which begins with Psalms and concludes with Chronicles).
In the first chapter of Joshua, the first book of the Neviim, God tells Joshua: “[Act] in accordance with all the law that my servant Moses commanded you … This book of the law … you shall meditate on it day and night … For then you shall make your way prosperous” (Joshua 1:7, 8). In this passage, “this book of the law” refers to Deuteronomy and more expansively to the entire Pentateuch, the Torah. And, if the “way” of Joshua and the nation he now leads is to “prosper,” Joshua will need to “mediate … day and night” on the Torah, the law of the LORD.
The beginning of the Ketuvim, namely Psalm 1, echoes the beginning of the Neviim and likewise highlights the priority and vital importance of the Torah. Repeating words from Joshua, our psalmist proclaims: “Happy is the one … [whose] delight is in the law of the LORD, / and [who] on his law meditates day and night … In all that he does, he will prosper” (1:1, 2, 3 author’s translation). If we are right that Psalm 1 alludes to Joshua 1, then the psalmist’s “law of the LORD” refers to “the law that my servant Moses commanded you … this book of the law,” namely, the Torah.
When we identify the “law of the LORD” with the Torah, we transform Psalm 1 into an interpretative key to the Torah and the Neviim, and vice versa. Our psalm, with Joshua 1, exhorts us to mediate for teaching that leads to happiness and, correspondingly, to read the Neviim, the stories of Joshua to Kings and the prophecies of Isaiah to Malachi, as the arena in which the psalmist’s claim that “Happy is the one … ” plays out. How do you learn not to walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers? Meditate on the Scripture. How happy is a tree planted by streams of water and how miserable the fate of the wicked?
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:12, 16-20
First Corinthians 15 is a great way to open discussions about the historical shape of early Christian confession and faith. There are other verses in here which are not in verses shown but I think they some continuity of thought.
This Pauline letter is one of earliest writings in the New Testament, alongside his Thessalonian correspondence. It predates the writing of the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation by decades. Moreover, it is one of the earliest writings to follow on the heels of the Christ event (e.g., life, ministry, death, resurrection) some twenty to twenty-five years later.
The passage is an interesting window into the theological imagination and confessional life of the early Church as well as Paul. It is striking how Paul refers to the authority of a tradition that predates him in a letter where he is busy asserting his own authority and perspective in the present moment. Repeatedly, Paul makes statements such as, “I laid the foundation, and someone else builds” , “To the rest I say -- I and not the Lord…” In each instance, Paul stands flat-footed on his own theological and leadership laurels and he makes demands on the lives of the Corinthians.
Although Paul makes demands based on his own perspective, he, nonetheless, leverages the confessional traditions and history of those who precede him. He says in 1 Cor 15:3, “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures…” Paul discloses that the content of his Gospel, not necessarily his ethical advice, comes from elsewhere. The proclamation of Christ’s death is not an invention but a recollection. Paul rehearses the traditions of the community as a way to unify the divisive Corinthians around one banner -- namely their shared experience of belief in Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:11).
According to Paul, this passing of tradition from one person to another is an essential characteristic of the Christian experience. Several times in this letter he reminds the congregation that he is handing onto them (paradidomi) what he already received (1 Cor 11:2, 23; 15:3). The proper way for them to practice Christian confession and faith is to continue the tradition of information sharing: “I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions just as I handed them on to you” (1 Cor 11:2). In so many words, Paul tells them to duplicate his actions, linking remembrance with active communication (1 Cor 4:16; 11:1).
One useful way for understanding the literary shape of this section is as a creedal story.
These verses are full of creedal language and resonances. In these creedal statements one can undoubtedly hear a precursor to the Apostle’s Creed (1 Corinthians 15:3b-5a): “…Christ died for our sins…he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day…and that he appeared…” Paul’s creedal statement here balances the idea that Christ died and was raised with the language that Christ was also seen, repeatedly.
The opening verses to chapter 15 in 1 Corinthians call us to remember the words of faith that have encouraged us. They invite readers to engage in the spiritual practice of personal recollection and group confession. We are reminded that a “great cloud of witnesses” from the past and present surround us (Heb 11:1). In terms of the future, we are called to be witnesses to future generations of this living hope. It is an invitation to boldly state what we believe together, and in that way truly become connected confessional people.
Gospel Lk 6:17, 20-26
Last Sunday we heard Jesus call Peter to be his disciple. Jesus then travels with Peter and the other disciples. Luke reports acts of healing (a person with leprosy and a paralytic man) and the call of Levi, the tax collector. Jesus also replies to questions from the Pharisees regarding fasting and the observance of the Sabbath. In the verses immediately before today's gospel reading, Jesus is reported to have chosen 12 men from among his disciples to be apostles. Apostle is a Greek word that means “one who is sent.”
Today's gospel reading is the beginning of what is often called the Sermon on the Plain. We find a parallel to this passage in Matthew 5:1-7,11 that is often called the Sermon on the Mount. As these titles suggest, there are differences and similarities between these gospel readings.
When spoken from the mountaintop in Matthew's Gospel, we can't miss the impression that Jesus is speaking with the authority and voice of God. The mountaintop is a symbol of closeness to God. Those who ascend the mountain see God and speak for God; recall the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments. As Luke introduces the location of Jesus' teaching, Jesus teaches on level ground, alongside the disciples and the crowd. Luke presents Jesus' authority in a different light. He is God among us.
Another distinction found in Luke's version is the audience. Luke's Sermon on the Plain is addressed to Jesus' disciples, although in the presence of the crowd; Matthew's Sermon on the Mount is addressed to the crowd. In keeping with this style, the Beatitudes in Luke's Gospel sound more personal than those in Matthew's Gospel—Luke uses the article “you” whereas Matthew uses “they” or “those.” There is also a difference in number: Matthew describes eight beatitudes; Luke presents just four, each of which has a parallel warning.
The form of the Beatitudes found in Luke's and Matthew's Gospel is not unique to Jesus. Beatitudes are found in the Old Testament, such as in the Psalms and in Wisdom literature. They are a way to teach about who will find favor with God. The word blessed in this context might be translated as “happy,” “fortunate,” or “favored.”
As we listen to this Gospel, the Beatitudes jar our sensibilities. Those who are poor, hungry, weeping, or persecuted are called blessed. This is, indeed, a Gospel of reversals. Those often thought to have been forgotten by God are called blessed. In the list of “woes,” those whom we might ordinarily describe as blessed by God are warned about their peril. Riches, possessions, laughter, reputation . . . these are not things that we can depend upon as sources of eternal happiness. They not only fail to deliver on their promise; our misplaced trust in them will lead to our demise. The ultimate peril is in misidentifying the source of our eternal happiness.
The Beatitudes are often described as a framework for Christian living. Our vocation as Christians is not to be first in this world, but rather to be first in the eyes of God. We are challenged to examine our present situation in the context of our ultimate horizon, the Kingdom of God.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Look at the picture above. It is a successful person! What defines a person as a success in our society. Write them down. (An example might be showing concern for others.) (It is OK if some examples are not consistent with Catholic values.)
- Reflect on Jesus' description of blessedness in the Kingdom of God. Who are the people that Jesus describes as blessed and happy? (those who are poor, those who are hungry, those who are sad, and those who are hated by others) Who are the people to whom Jesus directs his warnings? (those who are rich, those who have plenty to eat and those who are spoken well of.)
- Is this teaching of Jesus surprising to you? challenging? Why or why not? What is the measure of success in the Kingdom of God? (dependence on God, rather than on material possessions; willingness to witness to God even when others ridicule or reject us)
- Look again at the stick figure and the elements of success in our society that you identified. Circle the elements of success that are consistent with Jesus' teaching in the Beatitudes. Cross out the elements of success that are not consistent with the Beatitudes.
- Pray that we will learn to be people who define success by the values of Jesus and the Kingdom of God. Pray the Prayer of St. Francis. One of my favorite prayers.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen
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Sunday February 10 2019 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 75
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 6:1-2a, 3-8
In the year King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne,
with the train of his garment filling the temple.
Seraphim were stationed above.
They cried one to the other,
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!
All the earth is filled with his glory!"
At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook
and the house was filled with smoke.
Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips;
yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
Then one of the seraphim flew to me,
holding an ember that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
He touched my mouth with it, and said,
"See, now that this has touched your lips,
your wickedness is removed, your sin purged."
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
"Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?"
"Here I am," I said; "send me!"
Responsorial Psalm Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple
and give thanks to your name.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Because of your kindness and your truth;
for you have made great above all things
your name and your promise.
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
All the kings of the earth shall give thanks to you, O LORD,
when they hear the words of your mouth;
and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD:
"Great is the glory of the LORD."
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Your right hand saves me.
The LORD will complete what he has done for me;
your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands
R. In the sight of the angels I will sing your praises, Lord.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:1-11
I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he was buried;
that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures;
that he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve.
After that, Christ appeared to more
than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living,
though some have fallen asleep.
After that he appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one born abnormally,
he appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles,
not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God.
But by the grace of God I am what I am,
and his grace to me has not been ineffective.
Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them;
not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.
Therefore, whether it be I or they,
so we preach and so you believed.
Gospel Lk 5:1-11
While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening
to the word of God,
he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake;
the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon,
he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore.
Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
"Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch."
Simon said in reply,
"Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets."
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come to help them.
They came and filled both boats
so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
"Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men."
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 6:1-2a, 3-8
The opening verse brings comfort in that although the earthly kingship is under transition, the heavenly kingship is secure with the Lord sitting on a throne described as “high and lofty” (Isaiah 6:1). This throne is flanked by seraphs, likely some sort of winged serpent (see also Numbers 21:6; Deuteronomy 8:15; Isaiah 14:29; 30:6.)
Isaiah then moves to a puzzling image to address this military crisis. The passage emphasizes the holiness of God, and not his might. The seraphs, or angels, flank the Lord, and declare to each other:
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts;
The whole earth is full of his glory (Isaiah 6:3).
Isaiah uses the appropriate title of the Lord of Hosts, drawing on the theme of YHWH as our warrior, fighting for us. But such fighting does not depend on traditional military categories of weaponry, troops, or strategies. The Assyrians were vastly superior to Judah in all of these categories. Rather, Isaiah chooses to emphasize the grand holiness of God, expansive to the ends of the earth. Together, the passage makes two assumptions: (1) holiness, and not military might, will protect the people; (2) the glory of the Lord goes far beyond the borders of the vast Assyrian empire.
The holiness of God then confronts Isaiah to look at his own lack. For although God is great and holy, the prophet realizes his meagerness. He justly worries over his presence before the grandeur of the Lord (Exodus 33:20).
He expresses his own despair in that he is “lost” and that both him and his people have “unclean lips.” The verbal declarations of praise did not match the heart of unfaithfulness. It is remarkable that Isaiah would be called to a spoken prophetic ministry with such lips.
But at this point, the seraph approaches with a live coal. Apparently, the coal was too hot to touch even for a seraph so Isaiah 6:6 mentions a “pair of tongs.” Imagine the biting pain placing such coal on the lips of Isaiah. Fire has a cleansing, atoning purpose, but the pain must have been brutal. The cleansing of sin is not easy. But the touching of the coal to the lips cleanses the prophet, and prepares him for a life of prophecy. As it turns out, the sanctioned words of a fierce prophet prove more powerful and enduring than any military leader. Isaiah’s ministry pushes God’s people to lives of holiness, that they may be set apart from the other nations.
From Isaiah 6:8, the Lord asks the question and the prophet delivers a powerful response, “Here am I, send me.”
The voice continues to ask us. In a broken world, with injustice all over the world, and brokenness in our own homes, who will speak for the Lord. God asks, what will we say? By ourselves, we are so inadequate. We literally deserve death in the presence of God.
But through God’s grace, we may stand and be his lips, confident on his power (not ours) that we too can express, “Here am I. Send Me.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8
In eight brief verses, the singer of Psalm 138 gives thanks to God in the presence of three groups: the gods (verses 1-3); the kings of the earth (verses 4-6); and enemies (verses 7-8). Second-person pronouns abound in verses 1-3, occurring eleven times as the psalmist addresses God directly.
In verse 1, the psalmist gives thanks to God, making music in the presence of the gods. Psalms 135 and 136 also mention “the gods.” In Psalm 135:5 the singer declares “great is the LORD, our God, our Lord, more than all the gods.” And in Psalm 136:2-3, the psalmist says, “Give thanks to the god of gods … give thanks to the lord of lords.” Such phrases are common in the Old Testament, expressing God’s sovereignty over any claimants to the appellation “god.”
In verse 2 of Psalm 138, the psalm singer continues the words of thanks, this time to the “name (shem)” of god, because of God’s “steadfast love (hesed) and faithfulness (‘emeth).” “Name” was an important concept in the ancient Near East. Names reflected the natures and characters of the person who bore them and were conceptually equal to the essence of ones being. The name “Jacob” means “he usurps,” because he grabs Esau’s heel at the birth, attempting to be the first-born twin (Genesis 25:26). He indeed usurps Esau later in life when he coerces Esau into selling to him his birthright and when he tricks Isaac into giving him the blessing.
After wrestling at the Jabbok, God changes Jacob’s name to “Israel,” which means “he has struggled with God” (Genesis 32:28). During Moses’ encounter with God at the burning bush in Exodus 3, Moses replies to God’s command to return to Egypt with a seemingly simple request. “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I tell them?” (3:13).
Moses asks for God’s name in order to fully understand and then convey to the Israelites who this God was. In Exodus 20, God commanded the Israelites that they not “make wrongful use of” God’s name. And the book of Deuteronomy tells us that God’s name will dwell in the place of God’s choosing in the promised land (Deuteronomy 12:5; 14:23-24; 16:2).
The word “steadfast love (hesed)” occurs some 245 times in the Old Testament, 127 times in the book of Psalms. One Jewish scholar defines hesed as “a free-flowing love that knows no bounds.” Hesed is most closely connected conceptually with the covenant relationship between God and children of Israel. Genesis 17 records these words of God to Abram, “I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now alien … and I will be their God” (verses 7-8).
In verse 3, the psalm singer states what has prompted these words of thanks to God. The first begins in most English translations with the words “On the day that I called,” suggesting a particular point in time when the psalmist cried out. In Hebrew, however, the phrase has a broader temporal frame of reference, best understood as “whenever.” Thus, the psalmist thanks God for answering whenever the psalmist cries out.
In verse 4, the venue of thanks and singing to God shifts from the realm of the gods (verse 1) to the earthly realm of kings. The reason that kings ought to join the psalm singer in giving thanks and singing to God is three-fold: 1) The kings have heard the words (verse 4b; 2b); 2) The glory of the Lord is great (verse 5b); and the Lord is exalted, seeing and knowing the states of the lowly and the haughty alike (verse 6).
God stretches out a hand (verse 7); God’s hand delivers (verse 7); and the psalmist asks God not to “forsake” the “work of your hands” (verse 8). The word translated “forsake” is rapah and means “be slack, be loosened, be weak.” The psalmist has experienced God’s upholding hands over and over in the past and petitions God to continue to uphold and protect.
Psalm 138 celebrates the name, the steadfast love, the faithfulness, and the intimate care of God in the myriad places in which we find ourselves in life -- our sanctuaries of safety; our chaotic social, political, and economic world; our daily trials and troubles. The psalm singer reminds the faithful that their God is a God who remembers and cares; that their God is a God worthy of thanks and worship; and that their God is a God above all gods
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:1-11
The entirety of this chapter is the eloquent center of Paul's primary argument for the Resurrection.
As a result, these first eleven verses should be considered as a prologue to what is laid out in the remainder of the chapter. Paul introduces himself in relationship to the Resurrection as an apostle, though one with a mixed and questionable lineage. The God-given authority of his apostleship is the rationale for proclaiming the Resurrection and for his witness to be accepted among the Corinthians.
Rhetorically, the question of ethos (personal image and credibility) is a major feature of these eleven verses. Paul was not among the original group of apostles who experienced the historical Jesus directly. He came to belief through the bitter avenue of his personal persecutions of believers and so he admits in verse 9 that "For I am the least of the apostles...."
By claiming apostleship, he deftly alters the historical meaning of an apostle -- one who experienced Jesus in his earthly life -- to include one who also experienced him at other levels of reality. Paul alludes to this encounter in verse 8 where "he appeared also to me."
This text can be divided into these four sections: Paul's rationale for why his message should be accepted (verses 1-3); the content of Paul's message concerning Jesus (verses 3, 4); the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus (verses 5-8) and a reiteration of the type of apostle which Paul considers himself to be in relationship to proclaiming the gospel.
Paul starts his discussion of the Resurrection by reminding the Corinthians that they heard it from him. He affirms that this message means "you are being saved" (verse 2) and that they have a responsibility for this salvation "if you hold firmly to the message that I have proclaimed" (verse 2). Paul combines remembrance of his Corinthian relationships with admonition and a reminder of the salvific benefits of the Gospel.
Paul then describes the content of his message, creedal in form. Jesus died for our sins "in accordance with the scriptures" (verse 3). He was then raised and again Paul reiterates the phrase here "in accordance with scriptures" (verse 4). This two-fold repetition is significant! Proclaimers should remember that this reference might be lost on contemporary listeners, who can miss the fact that "scriptures" meant Hebrew Scriptures only.
In the third part of this text, Paul lists the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. He notes that "he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve" (verse 5). At this point, Paul's list omits the most obvious part of all the gospel resurrection narratives, when his account is set next to them -- where are the women? Paul's writings precede the writing of the Gospels. It is historically impossible to know what kind of information Paul received from others about the resurrection. As with all accounts, his list is partial. No witness has the entire story!
Paul continues his list with Jesus' appearance to hundreds of men and women, to Jesus' brother James, and "all the apostles," (verse 7). This reference seems to indicate far more people than the original twelve. The final section, verses 9 -11, is a splendid combination of personal confession and assertion of Paul as an apostle, with his short comings and the gift of his apostleship.
He confesses he was late to his work -- "one untimely born" (verse 8) -- and actually "unfit to be called an apostle" (verse 9). He states clearly that he is undeserving of what he is doing for one simple reason: "because I persecuted the church of God." (verse 9). The phrasing is interesting here because he ascribes the church to God, a will that laid its foundations prior to Jesus' appearance.
Paul continues to show what undergirds his work (including his boast that "I worked harder than any of them" verse 10b). In verse 10 he mentions "the grace of God" -- twice. God's grace is what supports Paul in terms of his self-understanding "I am what I am" (verse 10) as well as his work. In both personality and deeds, Paul senses God's presence and grace.
Paul concludes this introduction by admitting that it doesn't make any difference --really -- from whom the Corinthians heard the gospel. The most important thing is "you have come to believe." (verse 11). This is a generous statement in view of the jealousy Church leader's exhibit over taking credit for their deeds!
Gospel Lk 5:1-11
Last Sunday, we heard how Jesus was rejected in his hometown of Nazareth. In the verses that follow, Jesus travels to the town of Capernaum and begins his ministry of teaching and healing. While in Capernaum, Jesus cures a man possessed with a demon and heals Simon's mother-in-law. After spending some time there, Jesus prepares to preach in other places. The fact that Jesus had previously been in Simon's home and healed his mother-in-law suggests that this encounter is not the first between Jesus and Simon Peter. We can read today's Gospel, therefore, as a description of the developing relationship between Jesus and Simon Peter.
In today's Gospel, Jesus teaches from Simon's boat. Jesus turns to Simon and instructs him about where to lower the fishing nets. Simon and others have been fishing throughout the night and have not caught anything. Simon protests, claiming that such an effort would be futile. Simon ultimately obeys Jesus and lowers his nets into the deeper water as directed. Notice here that Peter calls Jesus by the title “master.” He already recognizes Jesus as a person of authority. They catch so many fish that the nets begin to tear; Jesus' presence has created abundance out of scarcity, just as it did at the wedding feast at Cana, which we heard at Mass just a few weeks ago.
Simon Peter becomes a follower of Jesus immediately. He calls Jesus “Lord”—the title given to Jesus after his Resurrection—and protests his worthiness to be in Jesus' presence. Today's Gospel, therefore, marks a turning point in the relationship between Jesus and Peter.
Two of Simon's partners are also named as witnesses to the event described in today's Gospel: Zebedee's sons, James and John. Yet Jesus' words are addressed only to Simon. Jesus gives Simon a new job, telling him that he will become a different kind of fisherman. No longer will he catch fish; instead he will catch people. In these words, we hear the beginning of the leadership role that Peter will have within the community of disciples. Peter was chosen for this role. His task will be to bring others to Jesus. Already he is doing so; the Gospel tells us that all the fishermen with Peter also left their nets and followed Jesus.
We continue to speak of Peter's leadership and influence in the Church today when we call the pope the “successor of Peter.” We participate in the mission of the Church when we bring people to Christ through the example and positive influence of our lives.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about people you like to be with. What are some of the qualities of these people? Like (kind, generous, interesting, and so on)
- How do people who have these qualities influence us? Is it a positive influence?
- In today's Gospel, we hear Jesus call Simon Peter to be a leader among the disciples. He gives him a special job.
- What evidence is there that Simon Peter was a leader even before Jesus chose him to be a leader among the disciples? (Jesus chose his boat to teach from, he spoke for all the fishermen, and the other fisherman responded to his directions.) To whom was Jesus speaking when he spoke about “catching men?” (Simon Peter) Is Simon Peter the only one who followed Jesus? (No. Simon Peter's partners, James and John, and all the fishermen put aside their nets and followed Jesus.) What does Jesus say will be Simon Peter's new job? (Jesus told him that he would now catch people.) Already we see Simon Peter doing this: Jesus called Simon Peter, and all the fishermen chose to become Jesus' followers as well.
- Simon Peter was a leader, a person of influence among his friends. Jesus chose him to be a leader among the disciples. We know that he continued to be a leader in the early Christian community. His influence led many people to become followers of Jesus.
- In what ways can we have a positive influence on others? (through kindness, by setting an example, by showing care, etc.) Our job as disciples of Jesus is to influence others in positive ways and to lead them to Jesus.
- Pray that we will be an example to others and will lead them to choose to be disciples of Jesus. Pray the Prayer for Christlikeness.
Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance everywhere I go;
Flood my soul with your spirit and life;
Penetrate and possess my whole being so completely
That all my life may be only a radiance of yours;
Shine through me and be so in me
That everyone with whom I come into contact
May feel your presence within me.
Let them look up and see no longer me—but only Jesus.
Amen.
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Sunday February 3 2019 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 72
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 1:4-5, 17-19
The word of the LORD came to me, saying:
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I dedicated you,
a prophet to the nations I appointed you.
But do you gird your loins;
stand up and tell them
all that I command you.
Be not crushed on their account,
as though I would leave you crushed before them;
for it is I this day
who have made you a fortified city,
a pillar of iron, a wall of brass,
against the whole land:
against Judah's kings and princes,
against its priests and people.
They will fight against you but not prevail over you,
for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 71:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15-17
R. I will sing of your salvation.
In you, O LORD, I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame.
In your justice rescue me, and deliver me;
incline your ear to me, and save me.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
Be my rock of refuge,
a stronghold to give me safety,
for you are my rock and my fortress.
O my God, rescue me from the hand of the wicked.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
For you are my hope, O Lord;
my trust, O God, from my youth.
On you I depend from birth;
from my mother's womb you are my strength.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
My mouth shall declare your justice,
day by day your salvation.
O God, you have taught me from my youth,
and till the present I proclaim your wondrous deeds.
R. I will sing of your salvation.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:31—13:13
Brothers and sisters:
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.
But I shall show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in human and angelic tongues,
but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy,
and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own,
and if I hand my body over so that I may boast,
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind.
It is not jealous, it is not pompous,
It is not inflated, it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing
but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease;
if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
Gospel Lk 4:21-30
Jesus began speaking in the synagogue, saying:
"Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.
They also asked, "Isn't this the son of Joseph?"
He said to them, "Surely you will quote me this proverb,
'Physician, cure yourself,' and say,
'Do here in your native place
the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'"
And he said, "Amen, I say to you,
no prophet is accepted in his own native place.
Indeed, I tell you,
there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah
when the sky was closed for three and a half years
and a severe famine spread over the entire land.
It was to none of these that Elijah was sent,
but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon.
Again, there were many lepers in Israel
during the time of Elisha the prophet;
yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
When the people in the synagogue heard this,
they were all filled with fury.
They rose up, drove him out of the town,
and led him to the brow of the hill
on which their town had been built,
to hurl him down headlong.
But Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 1:4-5, 17-19
The Lectioner has chosen some specific verses from Chapter 1 for today’s reading. It is helpful to review the “in between” verses to get a fuller understanding of the reading.
In this chapter we have, I. The general inscription or title of this book, with the time of the continuance of Jeremiah’s public ministry (v. 1-3). II. The call of Jeremiah to the prophetic office, his modest objection against it answered, and an ample commission given him for the execution of it (v. 4-10). III. The visions of an almond-rod and a seething-pot, signifying the approaching ruin of Judah and Jerusalem by the Chaldeans (v. 11-16). IV. Encouragement given to the prophet to go on undauntedly in his work, in an assurance of God’s presence with him (v. 17-19). Thus is he set to work by one that will be sure to bear him out.
Verses 1-3 We have here as much as it was thought fit we should know of the genealogy of this prophet and the chronology of this prophecy. 1. We are told what family the prophet was of. He was the son of Hilkiah, not that Hilkiah, it is supposed, who was high priest in Josiah’s time (for then he would have been called so, and not, as here, one of the priests that were in Anathoth), but another of the same name. Jeremiah signifies one raised up by the Lord. It is said of Christ that he is a prophet whom the Lord our God raised up unto us, Deu. 18:15, Deu. 18:18 . He was of the priests, and, as a priest, was authorized and appointed to teach the people; but to that authority and appointment God added the extraordinary commission of a prophet.
Verses 4-10 Here is, I. Jeremiah’s early designation to the work and office of a prophet, which God gives him notice of as a reason for his early application to that business (v. 4, v. 5): The word of the Lord came to him, with a satisfying assurance to himself that it was the word of the Lord and not a delusion; and God told him, 1. That he had ordained him a prophet to the nations, or against the nations, the nation of the Jews in the first place, who are now reckoned among the nations because they had learned their works and mingled with them in their idolatries, for otherwise they would not have been numbered with them, Num. 23:9 . Yet he was given to be a prophet, not to the Jews only, but to the neighboring nations, to whom he was to send yokes ch. 27:2, ch. 27:3 ) and whom he must make to drink of the cup of the Lord’s anger, ch. 25:17 .
With this trust Jeremiah has a charge given him (v. 17): "Thou, therefore, gird up thy loins; free thyself from all those things that would unfit thee for or hinder thee in this service; buckle to it with readiness and resolution, and be not entangled with doubts about it.’’ He must be quick: Arise, and lose no time. He must be busy: Arise, and speak unto them in season, out of season. He must be bold: Be not dismayed at their faces, as before, v. 8. In a word, he must be faithful; it is required of ambassadors that they be so. In two things he must be faithful:—(1.) He must speak all that he is charged with: Speak all that I command thee. He must forget nothing as minute, or foreign, or not worth mentioning; every word of God is weighty. He must conceal nothing for fear of offending; he must alter nothing under pretense of making it more fashionable or more palatable, but, without addition or diminution, declare the whole counsel of God. He must speak to all that he is charged against; he must not whisper it in a corner to a few particular friends that will take it well, but he must appear against the kings of Judah, if they be wicked kings, and bear his testimony against the sins even of the princes thereof; for the greatest of men are not exempt from the judgments either of God’s hand or of his mouth.
Nay, he must not spare the priests thereof; though he himself was a priest, and was concerned to maintain the dignity of his order, yet he must not therefore flatter them in their sins. Because he had no reason to fear the wrath of men if he were faithful; for the God whom he served would protect him, and bear him out, so that they should neither sink his spirits nor drive him off from his work, should neither stop his mouth nor take away his life, till he had finished his testimony, v. 18. This young stripling of a prophet is made by the power of God as an impregnable city, fortified with iron pillars and surrounded with walls of brass; he sallies out upon the enemy in reproofs and threats, and keeps them in awe. They set upon him on every side; the kings and princes batter him with their power, the priests thunder against him with their church-censures, and the people of the land shoot their arrows at him, even slanderous and bitter words; but he shall keep his ground and make his part good with them; he shall still be a curb upon them (v. 19): They shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail to destroy thee, for I am with thee to deliver thee out of their hands; nor shall they prevail to defeat the word that God sends them by Jeremiah, nor to deliver themselves; it shall take hold of them, for God is against them to destroy them. Note, Those who are sure that they have God with them (as he is if they be with him) need not, ought not, to be afraid, whoever is against them.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 71:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 15-17
It may not be a stretch to claim this Psalm as such, particularly since it borrows lines from other Psalms with frequency (e.g.: Psalm 22, 31, and 38). And, like so many other Psalms in the Psalter, Psalm 71 makes use of the familiar prayer pattern that moves from petition to declaration.
Though construed as a prayer, this Psalm is primarily a declaration of an individual’s trust and hope in God that can be voiced in various life stages: birth (v. 6), youth (vv. 5, 17), and old age (vv. 9, 18). No matter when it is voiced, one thing is sure: the Psalm’s message of trusting and hoping in a faithful God is capable of enduring throughout the long-haul of life.
Compared to its predecessor Psalm 70, Psalm 71 is a less urgent plea for help and a more sturdy statement of hope and trust. While the suppliant is not immediately apparent, it may be that the Psalm is voiced from the perspective of an individual in a later stage of life capable of reflecting on all stages. That individual could be David in old age shortly after Absalom’s revolt, or more likely a member of the Rechabite community in exile (see Jeremiah 35). Verse 21 suggests the author of the psalm could have been a leader.
A psalm of hope
The verses laid out in this week’s lectionary passage introduce a structure that will be maintained throughout the remainder of Psalm 71. The Psalmist issues an opening statement requesting help (v. 1-4), and follows with a statement of trust (v. 5-8). This pattern repeats itself in verses 9-13 and 14-17, as well as in verse 18 and 19-24.
From the opening four verses, it is clear that the Psalmist is entirely dependent on God (v. 1) because of God’s righteousness (v. 2). In contrast to other passages of scripture that speak metaphorically of YHWH as a high cliff or ask to be taken away to Zion, this Psalmist claims YHWH is an abode under which to take refuge (v. 3). Perhaps a victim of some sort, the Psalmist trusts that God has the ability and the power to set the wicked, the unjust, and the cruel right (v. 4). Here, the Psalmist is making an eschatological statement that even in the midst of powerful opposition, God will rule and prevail over that which is unjust in both the short-term as well as the long-term (v. 3-4).
Verses 5 and 6 make clear that any strength the Psalmist will have does not reside in self, but in God. How does the Psalmist know this? By experiencing YHWH’s protection and deliverance throughout a lifetime. In other words, from the womb until old age, the Psalmist has always, and will always belong to God (v. 5-6a). Praise, then, is the most appropriate expression to God. This praise is not a once-in-a-while liturgical action, but an action that imitates God’s care over the Psalmist’s lifetime. Thus, praise becomes an ongoing, continual action of living a sacrificial life of worship (v. 6b).
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:31—13:13
What I find interesting about the Corinthians is that they challenged Paul; they offered their own ideas about his gospel and defended their interpretations at least as passionately as Paul argued for his own. Thus, the relationship between the Corinthians and Paul can serve as a healthy model for integrating dispute and disagreement into the modern, post-modern, or emergent church which still thinks about what it should become and how it should behave in the world.
In this particular installment of the disagreement between the Corinthians and Paul, Paul is reflecting upon the diversity of gifts at play in the community at Corinth. Apparently, their house churches had plenty of people feeling like they brought something special to the life of the church: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment of spirits, tongues, and interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:8-10). Because of that diversity of gifts, there seemed to have been some talk among the Corinthians about whose gift was best.
So Paul tells them I shall show you a still more excellent way.
Paul's answer begins with the spirit. In the passage directly after this one, he will use the metaphor of the body to strengthen his argument (1 Corinthians 12:12-31) and bring the discussion to a temporary close in chapter 13, with the famous reflection on love. Paul's answer begins with the spirit. In the passage directly after this one, he will use the metaphor of the body to strengthen his argument (1
Corinthians 12:12-31) and bring the discussion to a temporary close in chapter 13, with the famous reflection on love.
In his love poem, Paul makes a decisive shift, diminishing the allure of spiritual gifts and functions. Tongues, prophesy, knowledge, miracles, servanthood to the point of death are important, but they still do not qualify as the “more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31). Love is the key.
The problem of the Corinthian community seemed to have been that there were too many people claiming the special value of their own particular gifts, too many people wanting to be involved and participate in the life of the community, and thinking that their involvement was better than that of their neighbor. Paul needed to level the playing the field and bring unity where there was division.
Because of the popularity of 1 Corinthians 13 in our modern context, it is easy to miss the flexibility Paul exercises concerning the triad of faith, hope, and love (1 Corinthians 13:13). Most people think Paul’s list is fixed with faith first, love as the bookend, and hope as the middle. Actually, Paul uses this triad elsewhere and in a different configuration.
He tailors the triad to fit the community he addresses. For example, in the Letter of 1 Thessalonians the triad appears twice, In both instances, the order Paul rehearses is faith, love, and hope (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 5:8). Paul shifts the order because the Thessalonian church excels in faith and love but struggles with hope (1 Thessalonians 1:8; 3:6), especially hope for the future (1 Thessalonians 2:19, 4:13).
Accordingly, Paul underscores the primacy of love in 1 Corinthians 13 because it is the spiritual resource the Corinthians lacks most. Paul describes “the work of love”. Paul says love is: patient, kind, and selfless. It involves truth-telling, fortitude, constancy, and tolerance (1 Corinthians 13:4-5,7).
Gospel Lk 4:21-30
This Sunday we read from the Gospel of Luke, continuing immediately from last week's Gospel. Recall that in last Sunday's Gospel, Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah and announced that this Scripture was now fulfilled. In today's Gospel, we learn that the people of Nazareth are impressed by Jesus' words, and yet they seem surprised. They still think of Jesus as merely Joseph's son. They do not expect such words from someone they believe that they know.
This Gospel is about who Jesus is and who people believe him to be. The story of Jesus' preaching and rejection at Nazareth is found in each of the Synoptic Gospels. In Luke's Gospel, this incident is told in a way that foretells Jesus' passion and death and helps explain the inclusion of the Gentiles in the promise of salvation. In Luke's Gospel this incident appears at the beginning of Jesus' ministry; in Matthew and Mark, this event is placed considerably later, after Jesus has preached and taught elsewhere. Only Luke identifies the content of Jesus' teaching in any detail, telling us that Jesus read from the book of the prophet Isaiah in the synagogue. In Mark and Matthew's Gospels, Jesus teaches in the synagogue in Nazareth, and the townspeople take offense because Jesus is only the son of a carpenter. They reject his authority to teach them. In Matthew and Mark, it is only after Jesus is rejected that he observes times when Israel has rejected prophets.
In Luke's Gospel, the people are surprised but not immediately offended by Jesus' words in the synagogue. It is the words that follow his reading from the prophet Isaiah that seem to offend them. Jesus challenges and provokes the people of Nazareth by referring to examples in which Israel rejected the prophets. He also challenges them to respond to his message, the message of a prophet, in a way that is different from their ancestors. This call for a new response leads to his rejection.
It is helpful to consider the historical context of Luke's Gospel. Luke has witnessed the acceptance of the gospel message among many Gentiles. He endeavors to explain why the Good News of Jesus has not been as well-received by his Jewish contemporaries. Luke's report interprets the cause of Jesus' rejection at Nazareth in the context of this later Christian history. Just as the people at Nazareth did not welcome the Good News that Jesus announced, so too many among the people of Israel will not accept the preaching of the gospel.
After Jesus' words of challenge, Luke reports that there was a movement to kill Jesus by throwing him over a cliff. This differs from the reports found in Mark and Matthew's Gospels, where Jesus is said to be unable to perform miracles in Nazareth because of the people's lack of faith. Luke says that Jesus walks away from the crowd that intended to kill him; it is not yet his time. The animosity of the people of Nazareth prefigures and prepares the reader of Luke's Gospel for the cross. Luke wants all to understand that it is through his death on the cross that Jesus offers God's salvation to all.
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Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Observe that the same statement can sound different to us depending on who is speaking. Sometimes we are more likely to listen to an outside expert than we are to a person who knows us well. For example, we might be more likely to follow our coach's suggestion about soccer than a suggestion from our parents. Why? (We might think that our coach knows more about soccer.) Can you think of any other examples?
- What was the first response of the people of Nazareth to Jesus' words? (Their first response was favorable. They spoke highly of Jesus, and they were amazed. They also discussed Jesus' identity.) What do they want to do to Jesus at the end of the Gospel? (drive him out of town; kill him) What happened in between? (Jesus challenged them to respond to him differently than their ancestors responded to the prophets)
- Observe that the people who knew Jesus best did not accept his words to them; they were not persuaded by him. Why not? (He challenged them to act in a different way.) Jesus spoke challenging words to the people of Nazareth. He wanted them to respond to him differently from the ways others had responded to the prophets. But they wouldn't let his words lead them to change, or even to see a different perspective.
- Sometimes we can be like the people of Nazareth; we don't want to trust Jesus' message because we find his words challenging. We don't want to do what he says. But we can trust his words to us and can rely on his guidance in our lives.
- Pray for guidance when deciding how to act. Pray the Prayer to the Holy Spirit.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Sunday January 27 2019 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 69
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly,
which consisted of men, women,
and those children old enough to understand.
Standing at one end of the open place that was before the Water Gate,
he read out of the book from daybreak till midday,
in the presence of the men, the women,
and those children old enough to understand;
and all the people listened attentively to the book of the law.
Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform
that had been made for the occasion.
He opened the scroll
so that all the people might see it
— for he was standing higher up than any of the people —;
and, as he opened it, all the people rose.
Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God,
and all the people, their hands raised high, answered,
"Amen, amen!"
Then they bowed down and prostrated themselves before the LORD,
their faces to the ground.
Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God,
interpreting it so that all could understand what was read.
Then Nehemiah, that is, His Excellency, and Ezra the priest-scribe
and the Levites who were instructing the people
said to all the people:
"Today is holy to the LORD your God.
Do not be sad, and do not weep"--
for all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the law.
He said further: "Go, eat rich foods and drink sweet drinks,
and allot portions to those who had nothing prepared;
for today is holy to our LORD.
Do not be saddened this day,
for rejoicing in the LORD must be your strength!"
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 15
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
The command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
The ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
Let the words of my mouth and the thought of my heart
find favor before you,
O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.
R. Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:12-30
Brothers and sisters:
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Now the body is not a single part, but many.
If a foot should say,
"Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body, "
it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.
Or if an ear should say,
"Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body, "
it does not for this reason belong any less to the body.
If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?
If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?
But as it is, God placed the parts,
each one of them, in the body as he intended.
If they were all one part, where would the body be?
But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I do not need you, "
nor again the head to the feet, "I do not need you."
Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker
are all the more necessary,
and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable
we surround with greater honor,
and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety,
whereas our more presentable parts do not need this.
But God has so constructed the body
as to give greater honor to a part that is without it,
so that there may be no division in the body,
but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.
If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it;
if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.
Now you are Christ's body, and individually parts of it.
Some people God has designated in the church
to be, first, apostles; second, prophets; third, teachers;
then, mighty deeds;
then gifts of healing, assistance, administration,
and varieties of tongues.
Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers?
Do all work mighty deeds? Do all have gifts of healing?
Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?
Gospel Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21
Since many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the events
that have been fulfilled among us,
just as those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning
and ministers of the word have handed them down to us,
I too have decided,
after investigating everything accurately anew,
to write it down in an orderly sequence for you,
most excellent Theophilus,
so that you may realize the certainty of the teachings
you have received.
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit,
and news of him spread throughout the whole region.
He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all.
He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up,
and went according to his custom
into the synagogue on the sabbath day.
He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah.
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down,
and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
"Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Neh 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10
The two figures Ezra and Nehemiah are both leaders of the Judean community and representatives of the Persian rulers, who sent them to provide spiritual and political leadership for the struggling Jerusalem community. Ezra and Nehemiah rarely appear together, and there is some speculation that they may have been active at differing times. Nehemiah makes only a cameo appearance in verse 9 here, and the singular verb vayomer (“said”) suggests that both he and the Levites may have been added secondarily to a verse in which originally only Ezra spoke (see also the beginning of verse 10).
Ezra first appears in Ezra 7, when he sets out from Babylon to Jerusalem during the reign of Artaxerxes of Persia. He is described as “Ezra the priest-scribe, the scribe versed in matters concerning the LORD’s commandments and statutes for Israel: (7:11). He is sent with money from the emperor and others for offerings in the temple. He comes to teach the law of the Judean God and of the king. Beginning in verse 27, the story is told by Ezra himself. In Ezra 9, in a scene reminiscent of some of the darker texts of the Pentateuch, he receives the disturbing news that the people have intermarried with the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, and all the other “ites” in the land. His reaction shows how deeply steeped he is in the ancient story he has come to convey.
Fortunately, however, what follows, while drastic and unsettling, is at least not the mass murder usually associated in the Pentateuch with these prior inhabitants of Canaan. The book of Ezra ends with the returned exiles painfully dismissing their foreign wives and children, revealing the depth of concern in this community for maintaining identity and boundaries.
The story then turns to Nehemiah, and Ezra does not reappear again until this chapter, Nehemiah 8. Here we see him in a new role that looks both innovative and strangely familiar: reading and expounding upon Scripture. The passage emphasizes that this occasion includes not just the priests, Levites, or even just the men, but all the people, men and women. It also asserts that Ezra read at the request of the people themselves.
They gather on the first day of the seventh month, which today is Rosh Hashanah (the fall new year), which is followed by Yom Kippur and the Festival of Sukkot, or Booths. They gather not at the temple but at the Water Gate, where all are admitted. The location of this gate is uncertain, but its name suggests proximity to the Gihon spring, Jerusalem’s only natural water source, on the eastern side of the city (cf. Neh 3:26; 12:37). The Babylonian Talmud (Sukkah 4) would later place the Water Gate on the way to the pool of Siloam, and would associate it with a joyous water-drawing ritual during the week of Sukkot (see verses 14-18).
The narrative does not specify which parts of the Torah Ezra read, nor can we know for sure whether it was already in the form that became canonical. In fact, variation between the pentateuchal prescriptions for the festival that follows (Leviticus 23:33-43; Numbers 29:12-38; Deuteronomy 16:13-15) and the festival as described in Nehemiah 8:14-18 may suggest some differences. But more important than the specifics, perhaps, is the practice that Ezra institutes of reading Scripture to others as authoritative directives from God, and interpreting so all understand. The reading evidently continues throughout the week of the festival (verse 18).
For later followers within this tradition, this early glimpse, within Scripture itself, of the faithful reading Scripture, carries a picture-within-a-picture quality. It’s like finding an ancestral village or grave, a marker of the place from which we came, an early precedent for scriptural interpretation. Jesus’ reading from the prophet Isaiah in this week’s Gospel passage echoes Ezra even as it too provides a glimpse of precedent.
The occasion could have been marked by dismay, as it was for King Josiah, when he first heard the words from the law book found in the temple and tore his clothes in mourning, recognizing the nation’s neglect of divine commands and fearing God’s wrath (2 Kings 22:11-13). Instead, however, when the people begin to weep, Ezra and others tell them instead to rejoice, because “this day is holy to the Lord” (verse 9). Rather than fasting, they are told to feast and share their food, because “the joy of the Lord is your strength” (verse 10).
The grammar of this final assertion is intriguing. Translations and commentators disagree over whether it is more properly rendered, “[your] joy in the Lord is your strength,” or “the Lord’s joy is your strength.” Either way, the point of cheerful trust in God is clear. Psalm 19 likewise reflects this position, as the wonders of God’s two great creations, the sky that wordlessly pours forth God’s glory and the Torah that is sweeter than honey, inspire the psalmist’s own grateful commitment.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 15
Psalm 19 offers a unique opportunity to direct the church’s attention to the nature and function of scripture.
There are reasons for thinking that Psalm 19:1-6 existed as a separate poem or was written by the author of vv. 7-14 based on an earlier (perhaps) non-Israelite hymn about nature or its gods. However, many scholars feel that Psalm 19 is best interpreted as a poetic unity. So, while the lectionary offers us an opportunity to focus on half of the psalm, the meaning of vv. 8-15 eventually relates to the whole poem. First, the Bible is a book that speaks on many levels. We're talking about how Psalm 19 addresses every aspect of our being through six descriptive phrases (e.g., “the law of the Lord is perfect”) with their accompanying effects (e.g., “reviving the soul”). The parallel pattern demonstrates an underlying unity in their function for our lives, while the different items indicate the variety of effects in our lives. To paraphrase a religious scholar, the six aspects increase our vigor, wisdom, joy, truth, reverence, and righteousness. New and life-long students of the Bible will be blessed by the realization that the Bible cannot be classified under one purpose. It is not primarily a moral code book, though it contains laws and ethical principles. It’s not merely a source of doctrine or history, though all of these can be discerned in its pages. It is not just a drama of redemption, because within the overarching narrative structure are several other literary forms. To sum it up, the Bible’s unity and diversity, its continuity and discontinuity exist in a healthy tension. Psalm 19 witnesses to the vibrant nature of the Bible.
Second, the Bible is a book that claims, comforts, and convicts us. The prayer in vv. 11-14 dispels any notion that Bible reading is solely an intellectual activity. To be sure, our prayerful engagement with its message enables us to “love God with all our mind,” but the prayer moves us from the nature of God’s word to its claim upon our lives. Through repetitions, the psalmist displays the close connection between the Word and our prayers: “heart” (vv. 8, 14); “perfect/blameless” (vv. 7, 13), and “much/great” (vv. 10, 11, 13). The second half of the psalm moves from describing the Bible to responding to its truth. And through an echo of the first half of the psalm, our “hidden faults” (v. 12) are revealed by the light of God’s word analogous to the sun revealing what is hidden in nature (v. 6). Verses 11-13 depict a vigorous process of conviction, confession, and growth by means of eight verbal forms, laid out in two groups that end with the same Hebrew root, nqh (“clear,” “be innocent”).
Third, the Bible is a book that helps us connect nature’s wonders with God’s mercy, and both of them to us. This point integrates the psalm on its own terms and connects creation and redemption through some very interesting parallels with the language and plot of Genesis 2. In its canonical unity, the poem declares that God’s revelation doesn’t lead “to awe and fear of natural powers, [or] to legalistic religion, but to a relationship so personal and cherished that one’s desire is simply to be pleasing in the Lord’s sight.”
We experience God not “as a cosmic enforcer but as a forgiving next of kin.” The Bible reveals the true and living God to us through its witness to his creative, redemptive, and restorative activity through Israel’s Messiah on behalf of the cosmos and every human soul.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:12-30
The lectionary text for this second Sunday of Epiphany finishes out this chapter in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.
It is clear that this section continues many of the arguments stated in the first half of the chapter, and the themes and issues discussed in last week's commentary are still very present in this discussion. Paul persists in working out the unity that is present and possible because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. One issue that comes to the surface in working with these texts from 1 Corinthians is how quickly, after the extraordinary unity, community, and fellowship we experience during the season of Christ's birth, we succumb to the divisions to which we have become accustomed and with which, more often than not, we feel more comfortable.
Paul moves into one of his most well-known, memorable, and effective metaphors of Christian community, the image of the body. The word that is translated in the NRSV-CE (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition) as "member" can also be translated as "part" or "limb." While the term "member" makes sense in the context of Paul's argument for and support of the meaning of community and the church of Christ, I do wonder if most hearers of this text equate Paul's terminology with their voluntary church membership and are not aware of Paul's radical claim in using this metaphor.
Being a member of the body of Christ means an absolute, out-and-out conjoining of one with the other, a sister or brother in Christ. To exist in division, to see only difference and not the unity we are able to profess because of Christ, to demand conformity without celebration of difference, is to entertain the notion of dismemberment. We will find ourselves cut off from the very source of our life, our existence, and in a way, our ability to be most fully who we are. To what extent are we able to live out fully our callings when we are not able to rely on and give support to others to live out theirs? Is it not true that who we are called to be necessitates our fellow members of the body of Christ to embrace and embody their callings?
Once again, we are reminded of our interconnectedness as a community of Christ. It is tempting to spiritualize Paul's words in this passage, but the call is to a far-reaching communal ethic and a need that transcends any and all differences that we try to put in place. While our tendency is to elevate certain spiritual gifts over others, Paul's words here are a deliberate claim of evenhandedness, even giftedness, when it comes to how and in what ways God chooses to work in and through our calls to faithful living.
Another issue that this text raises is how we associate certain criteria with the presence of the Holy Spirit. The tendency to equate certain manifestations of the Spirit at work, while eschewed by some believers, is much more assumed than we want to admit. The real challenge of this text is to celebrate difference that is possible because of the radical claim of Christian unity. To celebrate difference finds its necessity in the history of human existence. How we reject, negotiate, and accept difference has been a constant of our collective experience.
On a practical level, this is a call just to be: to be who you are, to be who you are in the moment, to be who you are called to be; never to compare yourself to anyone but yourself. The reality is such that this is something that humans need to practice. The propensity to measure our worth up against the standards of others' societal perceptions is the condition that creates the need to hear God's gospel word in these words from Paul. Sadly, we need to discipline ourselves to such frank and open acceptance of ourselves, when the truth is God knows us intimately, thoroughly, and still calls us to service.
On a theological, cultural, historical level, one cannot help but hear this portion of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians without thinking that when we operate from a place and perspective that sees difference as primarily negative, to what extent does the criteria for difference become an unending search for the need to find difference? In the extreme think about the holocaust! While this may sound like a hyperbolic example, the propensity of humanity to think in categories of incongruities, irregularities, and inconsistencies exposes our extraordinary need for abundant forgiveness and our need to claim over and over again our unity in Christ
Gospel Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21
Today's Gospel reading combines two separate passages taken from the Gospel of Luke. First we hear the opening verses where Luke establishes the purpose of his Gospel. His style is typical of polished Greek and Roman literature. In this passage, we learn that Luke may have written to a specific person, Theophilus; but the word Theophilus may also be a general reference, functioning as the phrase “Dear Reader” might in contemporary writing. In Greek, the word Theophilus translates as “lover of God.”
Today's Gospel reading then skips several chapters in which one would find the Infancy Narratives, Jesus' baptism by John, the temptations Jesus faced in the desert, and the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. In chapter four of Luke's Gospel, we hear that Jesus is in his hometown of Nazareth, attending the synagogue on the Sabbath, which is said to be his custom. In this account, we find another important clue that Jesus lived as a faithful, observant Jew. We will continue to read from Luke's Gospel in sequence for the next two Sundays.
As Jesus stands in the synagogue, he reads from the scroll handed to him; it contains the words of the prophet Isaiah. At this early moment in his ministry, Jesus announces his mission in continuity with Israel's prophetic tradition. This reading from Isaiah defines Jesus' ministry. We will find more evidence of this as we continue to read from Luke's Gospel throughout the year. Jesus' ministry will include bringing glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, healing to the sick, freedom to the oppressed, and proclaiming a year acceptable to the Lord.
Through this text from Isaiah, Jesus announces God's salvation. The “year acceptable to the Lord” is a reference to the Jewish tradition of Sabbath years and jubilee. The Sabbath year was observed every seventh year. It was a year of rest when land was left fallow and food stores were to be shared equally with all. A year of Jubilee was celebrated every fiftieth year, the conclusion of seven cycles of Sabbath years. It was a year of renewal in which debts were forgiven and slaves were freed.
This tradition of Jubilee is the framework for God's promise of salvation. And yet in Jesus, something new begins. Jesus not only announces God's salvation, he brings this salvation about in his person. Jesus is Yahweh's Anointed One, filled with the Spirit of God. The Kingdom of God is now at hand. It is made present in Jesus, in his life, death, and Resurrection. Jesus will send the Holy Spirit so that the Kingdom of God can be fulfilled.
The Holy Spirit is Jesus' gift to the Church. The Holy Spirit enables the Church to continue the mission of Jesus. When we do what Jesus did—bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, healing to the sick, and freedom to the oppressed—we serve the Kingdom of God.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Describe what you imagine God wants for the world. Write them down.
- God intends these kinds of things for us and even more. Long ago, God promised through the prophets that he would establish such a society among us. This promise was kept alive through the ages. Jesus knew this promise. In today's Gospel, Jesus recalls this promise and tells us something new.
- How does Jesus describe the vision of the world that God promised? (a world in which the poor hear glad tidings; a world in which captives are set free; a world in which those who are blind can see; a world in which those who are oppressed are freed)
- At this point, Jesus is reading the text of the prophet Isaiah. After he sits down, Jesus says something new.
- What does Jesus say? (that this reading, the promise of this vision of the world, is fulfilled now) What do you think Jesus means by this? (Jesus, himself, is the one who will do these things in the world.) What examples from Jesus' ministry can you name that show that he did these things? (Jesus healed the sick, he forgave sinners, and so on.) Jesus established the Kingdom of God through his life, death, and Resurrection.
- The work of Jesus continues in our world today. This reading gives us a clue about how this happens. The reading from the prophet Isaiah promised these things would be accomplished through the Spirit of the Lord. Jesus has given his Spirit to us.
- When did we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit? (at our Baptism; this gift is strengthened at Confirmation.) What does the Holy Spirit help us do? (serve the Kingdom of God)
- Try to identify one action that you might take to serve the Kingdom of God. Through prayer we ask the Holy Spirit to help us share in the mission that Jesus gave to the Church. Pray the Prayer to the Holy Spirit.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Sunday January 20 2019 Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 66
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 62:1-5
For Zion's sake I will not be silent,
for Jerusalem's sake I will not be quiet,
until her vindication shines forth like the dawn
and her victory like a burning torch.
Nations shall behold your vindication,
and all the kings your glory;
you shall be called by a new name
pronounced by the mouth of the LORD.
You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD,
a royal diadem held by your God.
No more shall people call you "Forsaken, "
or your land "Desolate, "
but you shall be called "My Delight, "
and your land "Espoused."
For the LORD delights in you
and makes your land his spouse.
As a young man marries a virgin,
your Builder shall marry you;
and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride
so shall your God rejoice in you.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 9-10
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Sing to the LORD; bless his name.
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Announce his salvation, day after day.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Give to the LORD, you families of nations,
give to the LORD glory and praise;
give to the LORD the glory due his name!
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Worship the LORD in holy attire.
Tremble before him, all the earth;
Say among the nations: The LORD is king.
He governs the peoples with equity.
R. Proclaim his marvelous deeds to all the nations.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:4-11
Brothers and sisters:
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.
To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom;
to another, the expression of knowledge according to the
same Spirit;
to another, faith by the same Spirit;
to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit;
to another, mighty deeds;
to another, prophecy;
to another, discernment of spirits;
to another, varieties of tongues;
to another, interpretation of tongues.
But one and the same Spirit produces all of these,
distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.
Gospel Jn 2:1-11
There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
When the wine ran short,
the mother of Jesus said to him,
"They have no wine."
And Jesus said to her,
"Woman, how does your concern affect me?
My hour has not yet come."
His mother said to the servers,
"Do whatever he tells you."
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings,
each holding twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus told the them,
"Fill the jars with water."
So they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them,
"Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter."
So they took it.
And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine,
without knowing where it came from
— although the servers who had drawn the water knew —,
the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him,
"Everyone serves good wine first,
and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one;
but you have kept the good wine until now."
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee
and so revealed his glory,
and his disciples began to believe in him.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 62:1-5
I. Will. Not. Keep. Silent.
It will not be possible to make me shut up. I will talk and not stop talking, proclaim and not stop proclaiming, preach and not stop preaching. I will shake the skies with my voice. I will not pause. I will not rest, for the sake of the precious city God loved and left, and I will keep this up until every nation and king can see that Jerusalem has been declared innocent and lifted up to a place of glory and honor.
Who is speaking in this passage? There are two ways to read Isaiah 62:1-5, and there are solid arguments and first-rate scholars on both sides of the fence.
Some hold that the prophet speaks in the voice of God, vowing God's unceasing speaking and acting on behalf of God's beloved city. Others hold that the prophet does not speak in God's voice but instead vows to act as intercessor for Jerusalem.
In light of the other lectionary readings for this period it seems that the latter is more likely. God made extravagant promises to God's exiled people. Earlier in the book of Isaiah, God promised to build up the barren and forsaken city of Jerusalem with foundations of sapphires, ruby towers, gates and walls of precious jewels (54:12). God promised to bring the exiled people home, and promised them the richest of feasts (56:2). Indeed, they did come home. Around the year 539 Cyrus, king of Persia, proclaimed an end to the exile, allowing Judeans to return home to their native land, returning to them the sacred vessels and other objects from the plundered temple in Jerusalem, and even encouraging them to rebuild the temple with funds from the royal treasury of Persia.
However, the reality people returned to was far from glorious. The land seemed to them like a desert. It was true that the land was not empty: people had remained in Judah during the years of exile, and others had moved into the area, making a life for themselves in Jerusalem and in the surrounding countryside. But none were able to undo the damage done by Nebuchadnezzar and his army some sixty and fifty years before. And when the exiles returned, it was all they could do to secure homesteads for themselves and try to grow crops to feed their families. Times were difficult, and people were hungry (the book of Haggai gives an excellent picture of the challenges they faced). When prophets finally convinced them to rebuild the temple, it was clear that its glory could not match the glory of former days. Where were the glittering jewels? Where was the abundant feast? The land still felt like a desert. The city seemed forsaken, bereft of God's sustaining presence. What could be the reason? Was Jerusalem still shadowed by God's just punishment?
The prophet knows this is not true. The prophet knows that God has declared Jerusalem innocent. God said to Zion, yes, I left you, but now I return to you (54:7), and my love will never leave you (54:10). So now the prophet vows to hold God to God's promises. The prophet will pick up right where God seems to have left off and make sure that God gets no rest until Jerusalem is built up, filled with her children, surrounded by fruitful fields, and shining with the continuous light of God's presence.
The prophet promises newness, transformation, and new names signaling joyful union for Jerusalem and all the land around her. The prophet can only make these promises because God has made them. So now imagine the prophet standing before God and gathered people to remind all who are present -- including God -- of God's promises. The prophet has an opportunity to meet the people where they feel God's absence most keenly, where they most worry that God might not come through. And the prophet has an opportunity to call on God -- out loud and without stopping -- to do everything God has promised.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 9-10
This is part of the enthronement psalms (93; 95-99) and calls the people to praise God (verses 1-3, 7-10a, 11-12a) and gives reasons why God is worthy of praise (verses 4-6, 10b, 12b-13). Taken together these veraea “describe the nature and consequences of God’s rule.”1
God’s reign gets spectators involved and awakens sleepers. No wonder the Psalm brims with imperatives: three times we are told to sing, and after that to bless, tell, declare, ascribe and worship. This Psalm is motivational. It moves people to proclaim God’s mercy and might.
In Part 1 (verses 1-3) God’s people get their marching orders. First we are to “sing a new song” (verse 1). But what exactly is that new song? It might be a response to some event in the story of God’s people, such as “the return of the exiles from Babylonian captivity” or it could be a song looking toward the future, or one that combines past, present and future.
After three calls to sing, the Psalm moves to another imperative: the call to bless God’s name (verse 2). Of course God does not need our blessing. But in worship, to bless God is to tell of God’s saving deeds…to extol God’s mercy, might and compassion. Ancient worshippers in the Temple used Psalm 96 (and others like it) to bless God, and they may also have knelt and lifted up their hands. Worship is between the worshipper and God, yet it moves outward with another imperative: we are to tell others of God’s salvation. This is not just preaching to the choir, but to all the world. The Psalmist says we are to declare God’s glory “among the nations” God’s marvelous works “to all the people.” So Psalm 96 has been called a “missionary psalm.”
Part 2 (verses 4-6) tells why God is to be praised. God is great above the heavens. But down here on earth where there are many gods, the one true God outshines them all. The Psalmist dismisses those other gods-with-a-small-‘g’- as mere idols. They are things we made up, in contrast to the creator who made us, and the heavens (verse 5). We praise God as Creator, and we also praise God’s character.
Perhaps the most famous description of God’s character appears in Psalm 103:8 (and elsewhere): God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” The description of God’s character found in Psalm 96: 6 has a different emphasis: God’s “honor and majesty are before him, his strength and beauty fill the sanctuary.” This points to God’s sovereignty and holiness, an important theme in scripture though often neglected today.
Part 3 (verses 7-10) returns to the imperative mood once more, in a worship setting. Three times we are told to ascribe to glory to God. To “ascribe” is to name a quality that belongs to a person or thing. To a deer we ascribe speed and grace and to an artist or composer we ascribe creative genius. To God we ascribe glory and strength -- especially when looking at creation. To express our gratitude and dependence on God, we are told to bring an offering, come into God’s courts (verse 8) worship the Lord, and tremble before God (verse 9). In verse 10 we are to say to the nations that the Lord is King.
Part 4 (verses 11-13) is not included in the lectionary, perhaps because of the judgment theme. These verses proclaim that God comes to judge the nations in righteousness. Yet this judgment evokes more joy than dread, for the whole world, both nations and nature, will rejoice -- even the trees will sing.
The church is more than a social network or a cultural artifact. So why worship? Because we are created to be in relationship with God. And because God calls us to worship.
Consider three basic questions: First, whom we do worship? (see 1 Thessalonians 1: 3,10 and Psalm 96: 4-6). Second, why do we worship? (Because God our creator calls us to be in relationship. That is what Psalm 96 does.) And finally how we do we worship (Psalm 96: 1-3 and 7-9). There is great variety in how we worship, but proclamation is at the heart of it.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:4-11
This text is about spirituality.
For Paul spirituality entails the ongoing reality and work of the Holy Spirit in believers’ lives both individually and corporately. The problem is that some spiritual elitists have really messed this up. They have regarded their gifts of the Spirit as making them superior to other members of the Corinthian community. This text introduces the extended section of 1 Corinthians 12-14 wherein Paul is presenting the proper and improper uses of spiritual gifts. In this introduction Paul emphasizes unified divine action, which empowers diverse human activity for the common benefit of all.
Paul’s opening words in 1 Corinthians 12:1, “Now concerning” introduces the new topic at hand parallel to how he introduces new topics in 7:1; 8:1; 16:1. While almost every English translation presents Paul as introducing spiritual gifts in 12:1, Paul does not use his typical word for spiritual gifts. Instead, the Greek word Paul intentionally uses would better be rendered “matters related to the Spirit.” Spiritual gifts are a particular subset Paul will discuss under the broader topic of matters related to the Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 12:2-3 Paul presents a contrast between the Corinthians’ former and current spiritual realities. Formerly as pagans they were misled to worship speechless idols (v. 2). Now, however, their Spirit-inspired speech is quite different (v. 3). God’s Spirit would never empower anyone to declare, “May Jesus be damned.” Rather, the Spirit empowers the saving confession, “Jesus is Lord!” In this way, Paul reminds his Corinthian audience that the primary work of the Holy Spirit is to create faith whose principal pronouncement is the lordship of Jesus. Hence no believer should feel that the Holy Spirit is not at work in them. One cannot believe apart from the direct, empowering work of the Holy Spirit.
In 1 Corinthians 12:4-6 Paul constructs three parallel sentences highlighting allotted diversity flowing out of divine unity. Each verse opens with the same Greek word meaning “varied allotments” as he emphasizes how the triune God works in multiple ways. The first diverse allotments of the Spirit involve gifts. Here the Greek word which Paul uses is almost non-existent beyond the Pauline epistles. It is the word charismata (from which comes our English word, charismatic), typically translated as “gifts.” It is important to note, however, that this rare word is a cognate of the Greek word, charis, meaning “grace.” Thus for Paul these diverse gifts flow directly out of God’s grace. Thus one cannot claim them as their own possession or a product of their own innate talents. They always remain divine grace-gifts.
In verse 5 Paul notes that Jesus allots various ministries. Whereas in verse 6, it is God who activates various activities (Paul’s play on words) in everyone. In light of the spiritual elitists in Corinth, Paul is letting them know that not only did the Spirit create faith in everyone, the triune God is at work in and through everyone. No one is ignored or left out. Every single one of them is a charismatic Christian. The implication is also that no one is spiritually superior to others.
Paul emphatically bookends his next section, 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, with the fundamental point that it is the Spirit which works in every single Christian as the Spirit so choses. Likewise, the Spirit works in each Christian not so much for the benefit of any individual Christian but for the benefit of the entire community. Thus the Spirit’s activity is quite diverse; no single Christian receives all the Spirit’s gifts. Yet each Christian is empowered by the Spirit for ministry which builds up the whole community.
In vv. 8-10 Paul elucidates the Spirit’s activity by presenting nine gifts, which the Spirit manifests in the lives of various Christians. The fact that Paul opens his list with the Spirit giving an utterance of wisdom (12:8a) is contextually significant. In 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16 Paul countered the relishing of wisdom by some Corinthians with the foolishness of the cross. Thus an utterance of wisdom involves the epistemology of the cross and an ability to interpret God’s hidden plan as revealed in Christ-crucified as the center of God’s salvific activity.
In this context “an utterance of knowledge” (12:8b) most likely refers to theological discernment for communal benefit (recalling 1:5). This Spirit-imparted knowledge stands in stark contrast to the arrogant knowledge displayed by some Corinthians which lacks theological discernment regarding how one’s actions may be harming one’s fellow Christian (Paul’s argument in chapter 8).
The reference to the Spirit allotting faith to someone (12:9a) is a bit deceptive. Here faith does not relate to core Christian faith since Paul is highlighting varied grace-gifts given distinctively and diversely by the Spirit (opposite of how he highlights the unified confession of faith worked by the Spirit in v. 3). Rather, it refers to a grace-gift empowering one to do some type of miraculous work (as it will also be used in 13:2).
The Spirit’s empowerment of another with grace gifts for healing (12:9b) is a counter-cultural claim. In Corinth (as well as throughout the Greco-Roman world), gifts for healings were deeply linked with the god (and cult) of Asclepius, a son of Apollo. While there was a significant temple to Asclepius in Corinth, Paul is telling Christians in Corinth that true healing does not occur there but here in the midst of their own community as a result of the Spirit’s gifting activity.
The references to the allotment of prophecies and discernment of spirits (12:10a) are interrelated. Prophecy does not involve predicting the future but speaking a message originating with God. Discerning spirits involves determining whether or not the person speaking a prophecy has actually been energized by the Spirit or not. Likewise speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues (12:10b) are also interrelated. Here tongues (the gift of glossolalia) involves the Spirit empowering one to speak in an unknown, heavenly language. Since it is unknown, the Spirit also needs to empower another to interpret the message which has been spoken.
Gospel Jn 2:1-11
This Sunday we begin the liturgical season of Ordinary Time. For many Sundays in this lectionary cycle (Cycle C), our readings will be taken from the Gospel of Luke. Occasionally, however, we will read from John's Gospel. This is true of today's Gospel reading, which describes the beginning of Jesus' ministry and his first miracle.
To situate today's reading within the context of John's Gospel, we note that John's report of this event follows Jesus' call of his first disciples. John tells us that Jesus and his disciples were invited to this wedding at Cana, as was Jesus' mother, Mary. There is no parallel report of this miracle at Cana in the Synoptic Gospels.
In the Church's liturgical history, the wedding feast of Cana is closely associated with the baptism of the Lord and the adoration of the infant Jesus by the Wise Men. In this context, the sign Jesus performs at the wedding feast is celebrated as an epiphany or a manifestation of Jesus' divinity.
Yet awareness of Jesus' impending passion and death is ever present in John's Gospel. Even in this report of Jesus' first sign, the language used anticipates Jesus' passion. When Jesus says to his mother that his hour has not yet come, he protests against her wishes in language that John will use again when reporting Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples. When introducing the story of Jesus washing his disciples' feet, John writes that Jesus knew that his hour had come. In John's Gospel, Jesus is very much in command and aware of all that is to happen to him.
Here, as elsewhere in John's Gospel, Mary is not mentioned by name, but is referred to instead as the mother of Jesus. Mary is influential in Jesus' first sign. She will also be present at his Crucifixion, a witness to the final manifestation of his divinity.
John's Gospel describes seven signs that indicate Jesus' identity to his disciples. John never speaks of these signs as miracles because their importance is not in the deed that Jesus performs but in what these deeds indicate about Jesus' identity. Here, as when John describes the other signs, the disciples are said to begin to believe, but no mention is made as to whether the other wedding guests are even aware of what has happened.
Marriage and wedding feasts are metaphors used in Scripture to describe God's salvation and the Kingdom of God. Here at the beginning of Jesus' public ministry, John's Gospel seeks to establish that Jesus is going to re-interpret and fulfill Yahweh's promise to Israel. Jesus establishes the New Covenant. A hint about what this New Covenant will be like is made evident in the deed that Jesus performs. Asked to do something to address the awkward situation that the absence of wine at a wedding feast would create, Jesus' miracle produces vast quantities of wine—six jars holding thirty gallons each are filled to overflowing with choice wine.
This lavish response to a simple human need is a vision for us of the abundance of God's kingdom. It challenges us to respond generously when confronted with human need today. We respond as best we can, fully confident that God can transform our efforts, bringing the Kingdom of God to fulfillment among us.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- What's missing or what's wrong in the above picture? Answer below in step 8.
- What skills are required to do this exercise well? (observation, attention to detail, the ability to imagine the whole picture)
- In today's Gospel, we hear about a time when Jesus' mother, Mary, noticed that something was wrong and asked Jesus to help address the need.
- What detail did Mary notice? (that there was no more wine to serve to the wedding guests) What did Mary do to respond to the problem she noticed? (She brought the concern to Jesus.) Why did Mary bring the problem to Jesus? (She knew that Jesus could do something to address the situation.) How did Jesus respond to the situation? (He changed the water into wine; he provided a tremendous amount of wine.)
- Mary brought the need she saw to Jesus because she believed that Jesus could make the situation better. Jesus not only made things better for the hosts at the wedding feast. He used this as an opportunity to show us that God will respond to our needs and to the needs of our world in ways beyond our imagining.
- What situations of need do we observe in our lives today? What would make these situations better? How might we respond to the needs we see? How might God respond to make these situations better?
- Bring your needs to God in prayer and ask God to help you respond to others' needs with generosity. Observe that God acts in our world in ways we can only begin to imagine. Conclude by praying Saint Ignatius' Prayer for Generosity.
- (Man has no hammer).
Eternal Word, only begotten Son of God,
Teach me true generosity.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve.
To give without counting the cost,
To fight heedless of wounds,
To labor without seeking rest,
To sacrifice myself without thought of any reward
Save the knowledge that I have done your will.
Amen.
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Sunday January 13 2019 The Baptism of the Lord
Lectionary: 21
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 42:1-4, 6-7
Thus says the LORD:
Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
upon whom I have put my spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
a bruised reed he shall not break,
and a smoldering wick he shall not quench,
until he establishes justice on the earth;
the coastlands will wait for his teaching.
I, the LORD, have called you for the victory of justice,
I have grasped you by the hand;
I formed you, and set you
as a covenant of the people,
a light for the nations,
to open the eyes of the blind,
to bring out prisoners from confinement,
and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10.
R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
Give to the LORD, you sons of God,
give to the LORD glory and praise,
Give to the LORD the glory due his name;
adore the LORD in holy attire.
R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The voice of the LORD is over the waters,
the LORD, over vast waters.
The voice of the LORD is mighty;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.
R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
The God of glory thunders,
and in his temple all say, "Glory!"
The LORD is enthroned above the flood;
the LORD is enthroned as king forever.
R. The Lord will bless his people with peace.
Reading 2 Acts 10:34-38
Peter proceeded to speak to those gathered
in the house of Cornelius, saying:
"In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.
Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly
is acceptable to him.
You know the word that he sent to the Israelites
as he proclaimed peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all,
what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him."
Gospel Lk 3:15-16, 21-22
The people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
"I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
After all the people had been baptized
and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him
in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven,
"You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 42:1-4, 6-7
In Isaiah 42, the divine speaker announces the presence of a servant who is chosen by God and a source of delight for God. God will place God’s spirit upon this servant so that the servant is able to bring forth justice to the nations, to be a light, to open blind eyes and bring out prisoners.
The role of these individuals is as God’s earthly representatives, as God’s chosen ones, as workers of justice in the world. What is their mission and role? Why are they divinely chosen? Why do they need the spirit of God? And is this a role for individuals and/or communities?
And how might we, as God’s people today, fashion our actions and demeanors into ones fitting for us as servants of God, ones in whom God delights? Are we God’s servants, establishing justice on earth as it is in heaven?
How do we take up the mission of the servant and live out our baptismal vows?
To answer some of these questions, let’s focus more on this servant figure in Isaiah 42.
The servant of Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55) is spoken of in four different passages -- Isaiah 42:1-4; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:13-53:12. Scholars typically extract these four passages from their surrounding literary contexts in order to interpret them with reference to each other; yet, these “servant songs” -- actually the passages are poetic as is the surrounding Isaiah material -- are part of an exilic prophetic announcement about the near future. So, they are best read within the confines of Second Isaiah’s overall message as presented in the middle section of the prophetic book of Isaiah.
The kingdom of Judah finds itself in exile with the temple in ruins and kingship at an end. Zion in all its splendor has been diminished, and some of the Judahites are forced exiles in the foreign land of Babylonia. Without a temple and a Davidic leader, the future of the people is greatly in peril. They need assurance, assistance, and a new vision.
Into this difficult political and religious situation, the prophet of Isaiah 42 introduces a servant figure. Interpreters spend much of their energy debating the precise identity of the servant. Is it the prophet himself? Or a ruler whether foreign such as Cyrus or native such as a Davidic kingly figure? The later Christian tradition of course develops the identity of the servant Christologically. The exact historical referent for the servant is perhaps tangential to the passage’s principal concerns.
One fundamental and fruitful tension in the biblical text centers on whether the figure represents an individual or a community, the servant as a historical person or all of Israel. Personal or communal. The figure is spoken of in individual terms obviously but this fact does not preclude a collective interpretation. In fact, Isaiah 49:3 explicitly names the servant as Israel: “And [God] said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified”.
Christians have typically seen the servant in individual terms and associated clearly with Jesus -- his life and ministry, but especially his death and resurrection. Jews have understandably gravitated toward the communal interpretation and viewed Israel as called to be a servant to the world, a light to other people.
We might venture the same sort of communal/individual tension within the interpretation of the baptism of Jesus in Matthew. On one (historical and literary) level, Matthew is clearly presenting a narrative about an individual. Jesus is baptized. He is the Beloved, God’s son, the one in whom God is well pleased. On another (theological) level, Christian readers are invited to see themselves in this baptism experience, to see the Christian community as baptized like Jesus into faith, into the beloved community. We are together the daughters and sons of God. God is well pleased with us.
When we hold the tension between communal and individual readings of Isaiah 42 and Matthew, our response to these readings become clearer. We have individual models of servanthood as examples. Second Isaiah’s servant and Jesus point us toward our important work. They demonstrate that relationship with God is possible. They lay out the types of ministry possible when we are led my God’s spirit. But we -- as a community -- also participate in this work of justice together as communities of faith. As churches, not just as individuals, we are God’s servants to the world. We participate in God’s new thing (Isaiah 42:9), God’s new exodus out of exile and brokenness. God’s community is God’s servant.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10.
Psalm 29 is classified as a Community Hymn, but is often considered an Enthronement psalm because of its striking similarities with Psalms 93-99.
Enthronement psalms are those that celebrate God’s sovereign reign over the world, and a cursory reading of Psalm 29 (see especially verse 10) reveals the reasons why such a designation may be appropriate.
Many scholars indicate that Psalm 29 is one of the earliest Hebrew psalm compositions, an adaptation and/or incorporation of various elements of hymns to Baal, the Canaanite fertility and weather god. But Psalm 29 borrows those elements and “turns them on their heads.” The message of Psalm 29 is that The Lord, not Baal, is the God whom the Israelites can rely on to rule over creation and provide peace (better, well-being) for the land and the people. How, then, does the singer of Psalm 29 present the case for The Lord?
In the first two verses of the Psalm, the word “give” occurs three times. The Hebrew word is yahab and means “give,” suggesting perhaps a better translation of “acknowledge.” The psalmist calls upon hearers to acknowledge the Lord, the Lord’s glory and strength, and the glory of the Lord’s name. The hearers who are called to acknowledge the Lord in verse 1 are “heavenly beings”, in Hebrew beney ‘elohim (children of god). The identity of this group is open to question and interpretation.
Some maintain that the words refer to a “divine, heavenly council” (see Job 1:6). Others, and in the context of Psalm 29, very plausibly, assert that the call issued in verse 1 is to Canaanite gods and goddesses to recognize Yahweh as the true god. And yet others suggest that the call is to a “heavenly choir,” who then will lead the “earthly congregation” in praise of the sovereign God.
Verses 3-9 speak of the “voice of the Lord” (qol yhwh) as sovereign over or emanating out of the waters and mighty waters, the lightning and thunder, the cedars of Lebanon, the flames of fire, the earthquake, and the mighty wind, as we see also in the Enthronement Psalms 93-99. All of these natural phenomena are elements of theophany experiences (appearances of the presence of God) in the Old Testament such as we see in Genesis 15, Exodus 3 and 19, 1 Kings 19, and Ezekiel 1.
These passages tell us that God is present in all of the magnificent, awe-inspiring, and sometimes terrifying elements of creation. But as we see in the story of Elijah’s encounter with God in 1 Kings 19, sometimes God is present in “a sheer silence”, what some of us have learned as a “still small voice.” The central message of Psalm 29, thus, is that God is sovereign and that God’s reign extends to all creation in all its manifestations.
Verse 10 announces, that The Lord “sits enthroned” over the flood, that The Lord “sits enthroned” as king forever. The word translated “sits enthroned” is yashab in Hebrew and means simply to sit, to dwell, to settle down, to occupy. God sits or dwells over the earth and dwells or settles down in the midst of the people as sovereign. The first and only mention of humankind in Psalm 29 is in verse 11 -- “May the LORD bless his people with peace (shalom).” As with so many of the Enthronement Psalms, humanity is not the focus; rather the focus is on God’s sovereignty.
While Psalm 29 may have been a call to the Canaanite gods and goddesses, particularly Baal, to observe and acknowledge God’s sovereignty over all creation, it is also a sober reminder to humanity of our place within the created order. In Genesis 1, God says to the first humans, “Be fruitful and multiply ... subdue the earth ... have dominion ... ” And the ever-enduring, ever-present question is, “Should we interpret these words as permission to do with creation as we like, to use it for the sole good of humanity? Or do the words give humanity a special responsibility to care for creation as God would care for it?
The Enthronement Psalms in general and Psalm 29 in particular ought to make us stop and consider, remind us of God’s sovereignty over God’s good creation, and indeed, invoke in us a little “cosmic humility.” The message of Psalm 29 may best be summed up in the closing words of the Lord’s Prayer. “For thine is the kingdom and the power and glory forever. Amen.”
Reading 2 Acts 10:34-38
The first Easter drastically changed how Christians understand God’s activity in the world.
Today’s first reading features a similar paradigm shift in Christians’ understanding, regarding how wide-reaching God’s favor truly is.
I. The literary context: Acts 10:1-11:18
Our reading occurs within the larger narrative episode surrounding Cornelius (10:1-11:18). The extensive length of the story and its surprising number of repetitions (e.g., 10:28-29, 30-32, 11:4-17) both imply the profound significance of the episode. The central discovery of the episode is stated at its close: “God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life” (11:18). Despite the particular issues of table fellowship (10:28; 11:3), baptism (10:47-48), and circumcision (11:3), the Spirit’s manifestation confirms the overall point: God has accepted Gentiles alongside Jewish believers (10:45-47; 11:18).
II. The text at hand: Acts 10:34-38 (43)
Today’s reading features Peter’s message to the gathered household of Cornelius. After opening exchanges (10:24-33), Peter addresses directly the context at hand:
“I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (10:34b-35).
The Greek is bolder about God’s lack of partiality: “God is not a partiality-shower (lit. ‘face-taker,’ prosopolemptes).” The concept appears elsewhere in Scripture regarding God’s lack of favoritism toward the rich and powerful (Deuteronomy 10:17; Lev 19:15; 2 Chronicles 9:17; Psalm 82:2; Sirach 35:15-16; Colossians 3:25; Ephesians 6:9; James 2:1, 9), but applying this same language to Jew-Gentile distinctions is quite new (also in Romans 2:11). The next verse only accentuates this meaning: “in every nation anyone who fears ... is acceptable to him” (v. 35). The language of “acceptable” (dektos) is rare in Luke-Acts, and first occurs to describe the nature of Jesus’ ministry as “the year of the Lord’s acceptance (dektos).” As these factors show, Peter’s message opens with one of the boldest declarations in Luke-Acts about the nature of God’s favor toward non-Jews.
Due to convoluted phrasing, translations render verses 36-37 in various ways. But two focal points in the text clearly emerge: God’s message entails “preaching peace by Jesus Christ,” and this Jesus “is Lord of all” (v. 36). Both points would have sound spoken loudly to hearers within the Roman Empire. The phrase “preaching peace” (euangelizomenos eirenen, lit. “proclaiming the good news of peace”) uses language employed elsewhere in association with Roman emperors (“good news” and “peace” regarding Augustus’s birth, OGIS 2:458; cf. Luke 2:14). Even more, the phrase “Lord of all” implies the inferiority of all rival lords, both human and divine (Epictetus calls Caesar “lord of all” in Discourses 4.1.12. This parallel would be striking to a centurion of a leading cohort in the Roman army (Acts 10:1). However, Roman rulers are not the only rivals on the horizon: Peter’s speech later recalls how Jesus’ ministry confronted the oppressive power of the devil (Acts 10:38), a cosmic foe still at large in Acts (13:8-13; 26:18; cf. 19:11-20).2
The rest of Peter’s message (Acts 10:37-43) summarizes Jesus’ ministry, passion, and resurrection (vv. 37-38, 39b-41). Peter also emphasizes how Jesus’ followers are now witnesses (vv. 39, 41) called to testify -- with ancient prophets -- that he is both judge of all and source of forgiveness for believers (vv. 42-43). In fact, verses 37-43 spotlight major themes from Luke-Acts: John’s baptism, the Spirit’s presence, the devil’s oppression, the apostles’ testimony, Jesus’ resurrection, and the fulfillment of scripture. These verses summarize the highlights of Luke’s story about Jesus so that the audience in Cornelius’s home may hear the story authentically.
Gospel Lk 3:15-16, 21-22
Today we celebrate the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. In today's Gospel, as in the other Gospel accounts of Jesus' baptism, we hear John the Baptist address the confusion of the people who thought that John might be the Messiah. In response, John contrasts the baptism that he performs with the Baptism that Jesus will inaugurate. John the Baptist says that he has baptized with water, but that someone will come and baptize with the Holy Spirit. The type of baptism that John performed was not yet a Christian Baptism; it was a preparation for Christian Baptism through which sins are forgiven and the gift of the Holy Spirit is received.
The baptism of Jesus is reported in each of the three Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Clearly, it was an event of great significance for Jesus and for the early Christian community. The Evangelists Mark and Luke report the story from Jesus' perspective; the voice from heaven is addressed to Jesus. Compare this to Matthew's Gospel in which the voice from heaven speaks to everyone. In Luke, however, the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus during his time of prayer after his baptism. Through his Gospel, Luke will show Jesus to be a person of prayer who withdraws regularly from the crowds and his disciples to pray to his Father.
The baptism of Jesus is considered a manifestation of God in Jesus, another “epiphany.” On this, the last day of the Christmas season, our Gospel reveals to us Jesus' relation to God: the son of Mary and Joseph is also God's own Son. In Luke's Gospel, all three members of the Trinity are manifested here: God the Father in the voice, the Holy Spirit descending, and Jesus the Son. At the beginning of his Gospel, Luke is communicating to us important information about the identity of Jesus. In the verses that follow, Luke lists the genealogy of Jesus, tracing Jesus' ancestry back to the first person, Adam, who is also identified as the son of God. We, the children of Adam and Eve, are again made children of God through Baptism.
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings.
Making the Connection
- See how many different ways you can name Jesus. Son of Mary, foster child of Joseph, the carpenter, the Christ, the Messiah, Son of God, any others?.
- In today's Gospel, we hear the name that Jesus was given by the voice from heaven after his baptism.
- What did the voice from heaven name Jesus? (God's beloved Son) What was Jesus doing when this voice was heard? (praying after his baptism)
- When we were baptized in Jesus' name, we were called by our baptismal name, and each of us was also named a “child of God.” These names ought to be included on your list of names for yourself: “brother or sister of Jesus” and “child of God.” Just as Jesus learned what this meant in his life through prayer, so our prayer helps us learn what it means to be a child of God.
- Pray that we will learn through our prayer how to be faithful to our identity as children of God. Pray the Lord's Prayer.
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Sunday January 6 2019 The Epiphany of the Lord
Lectionary: 20
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 60:1-6
Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples;
but upon you the LORD shines,
and over you appears his glory.
Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you:
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.
Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
your heart shall throb and overflow,
for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,
the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come
bearing gold and frankincense,
and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king's son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Reading 2 Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6
Brothers and sisters:
You have heard of the stewardship of God's grace
that was given to me for your benefit,
namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.
It was not made known to people in other generations
as it has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Gospel Mt 2:1-12
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
"Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage."
When King Herod heard this,
he was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it has been written through the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel."
Then Herod called the magi secretly
and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
"Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word,
that I too may go and do him homage."
After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed for their country by another way.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 60:1-6
Isaiah 60:1-6 is a piece of poetry brimming with energy and hope.
Due to the fact that Hebrew distinguishes between a male and a female second person, we can see that the prophet is addressing a feminine “you.” Thus, scholars identify the poem as belonging to a group of poems within Isaiah 40-66, which are written to Zion, who is personified as a human female (see also 49:14-26; 51:17-52:12; 54:1-17; 62:1-12). “Arise! Shine!” the prophet calls to her, summoning Zion to bear witness both to the wonder of God’s sudden appearance as well as to her own renewal and restoration.
The original recipients of this prophetic word were Jews living in Judah -- now the Persian province of Jehud -- in the period following the Babylonian exile. Living in reduced circumstances amidst the rubble of a wealthier time, the people’s historical visions of a glorious Zion might have seemed a distant fantasy. Zion, both the geographical locale as well the idea of a sacred bond between people, place, and God, was in ruins. The Zion poems of Isaiah 40-66 represent an attempt to rebuild the idea of Zion and to infuse her with a new vigor. This effort is not simply to make people feel better nor to reclaim a theological idea for its own sake. The purpose of the rehabilitation of Zion is to inspire and empower the people to help make this glorious vision a reality. Isaiah 60:1-6 is, thus, not a simplistic prediction of a new age but contains a call, an imperative, to be a part of the restoration of Zion.
The imperatives are what drive Isaiah 60:1-6. The reader is propelled through the poetic unit by the two imperative pairs that occur at v. 1 and v. 4: “Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem!” and “Raise your eyes and look about;” Following these commands, the prophet describes the scene before Zion using verbs in the prophetic present and so adds persuasive force to them: “Your light has come, and the glory of the Lord shines upon you!” The upshot is something like: “Look up! Something is happening right now! Don’t miss it!” If Zion doesn’t look up, she’ll miss the events that are taking place even as the prophet speaks.
Imagery provides the poetic force in vv. 2-3 and vv. 5-6. In vv. 2-3, the prophet describes the light of God in terms so vivid one can almost feel the warmth emanating from the page and uses the image of thick clouds and darkness to powerful effect in the description of the experience of the other nations. Thick clouds connote not just darkness but potentially destructive weather patterns, and, thus, suggest a looming threat to the more powerful nations. In the future, the prophet promises that security and warmth will be the new normal for Zion. The other nations will face insecurity and darkness and so will flood to Zion, seeking to enjoy the benefits of God’s presence just as Zion does.
In vv. 5-6, the imagery of light continues -- “Then you shall see and be radiant,” v. 5 -- but the source of the brightness is not divine but is the result of joyful reunions and a renewed prosperity. The imagery in v. 5 is very tender; the missing children of Zion will be carried gently home to her. The absence of those who remained in the Diaspora is clearly still a source of pain for the community, but it will be felt no longer, the prophet promises. Nor does the restoration end with reunions. Poverty will be replaced by plenty. The power of v. 6 lies in the sheer volume of the wealth the prophet describes streaming to Zion. By land and by sea, all the wealth of the nations will make its way to Zion, replacing her poverty with what sounds like a suffocating quantity of riches: “Caravans of camels shall fill you, … ”
The vision of Isaiah 60:1-6 and of the other Zion poems of Isaiah 40-66 is one of complete restoration. The tone is triumphant and tender, and it can be difficult for a contemporary audience with some knowledge of history to reconcile it with the reality of the period; a period that did not see a dramatic reversal of fortune for Zion. It’s important to remember, however, that biblical prophecy is not a flat prediction but is, rather, an invitation to change, to be empowered, and, sometimes, to repent. Within Zion’s call to witness in Isaiah 60:1-6 is also a call to the community to believe in the vision, to endure the present hardship, and, with God, to bring the vision into reality.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13.
Psalm 72 is an expansive, generic enthronement hymn that was likely a staple of coronations in ancient Israel/Judah.
In the verses omitted by the lectionary, there are mentions of Tarshish, Seba, and Sheba (the latter, perhaps giving rise to the epigraph, “Of Solomon”), but for the most part the psalm -- certainly as it will be heard in Christian worship today -- floats free of specific historical context.
In that way, the psalm serves a purpose similar to that of the “charges” that are part of our baptism, confirmation, or commissioning liturgies where the community rehearses what it believes are God’s mission priorities for the life and ministry of the person being set apart.
Verse 1 sets the tone and contains the only petitions voiced to God in the imperative (with emphasis added through the parallel structure): “Give the king your justice … [and] the king’s son your righteousness.” Saving justice is a trademark of God’s reign and must be embodied by God’s agent in the world.
The rest of the psalm is organized around a long series of petitions that being with, “May he …” The psalm asks that God grant the king -- and the people, through the king’s reign -- righteousness, justice, prosperity, protection (from oppressors), a name that endures, shalom (well-being), political dominion (through which all the world is blessed), and -- as a spontaneous response to these missional priorities -- the tribute and admiration of the nations.
The petitions could be in order of priority, but the effect of the psalm when read aloud is of an intensifying spiraling and overlapping of attributes. If we also read verses 18 and 19 they seem to have been added to the main body of the psalm; they are a benediction to God, a doxology that closes out Book II of Psalms.
In the psalm’s historical context, the monarch enjoys a divinely ordained blood lineage. In our context, heroic assets and the “right to rule” are attained by or projected onto leaders in more secular ways. But still, today’s hearers can identify with the ancient singers of this psalm whose hopes for justice soar at the installation of each new leader, even as they lament the ways those same hopes were dashed or unfilled by the old one.
Is Jesus the “king” of Psalm72? Most hearers in worship will understand “king” to refer to Jesus (thus tracking with New Testament writers and the bulk of the church’s history of interpretation!).
But if we decide that Psalm 72 is “about Jesus,” and we declare that, “yep, Jesus is the one who fulfills (or fills full) this messianic description,” then to whom, how, and when does the promised justice come? Inside the church, we find comfort in the internal-spiritual or eschatological venues of fulfillment.
But the compelling power of this psalm’s petitions lie in applying them to the real world of politics and economics. If we are unable to articulate how Jesus’s reign effects concrete change for the nations, we run the risk of making Jesus as distant and irrelevant to today as are Solomon or Hezekiah!
Saving justice is a trademark of God’s reign and must be embodied by God’s agent in the world. And John the Baptist knows that justice and righteousness do not appear by magic or without cost; they involve winnowing, purifying, and comeuppance.
What if rather than spiritualizing the petitions and sticking with the biblical default referent for “king” (whether Solomon or Jesus), we took the petitions at their real-world face value and ask God to deliver justice and righteousness to the world through a new, surprising referent, a tangible contemporary entity ordained into leadership by God: the church (the Body of Christ) or even our secular representative republic.
Reading 2 Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6
Mystery" is the term that runs throughout this passage from Ephesians. It fits the day in the liturgical year because an "epiphany" is a manifestation of something. And in this case what is revealed has been a mystery.
The term "mystery" appears several times in just a few verses, helping to catch the attention of readers. After all, many of us find it hard to resist a good mystery. Paul says that a mystery has been made known to him (3:3). And it is a mystery about Jesus (3:4). No one has really understood this mystery before. It has been hidden through the ages (3:9). So those who listen in will come to know the mystery. Thus far the passage has all the makings of a new version of a bestselling novel. We might even give it a title like "The Jesus Code." Apparently God also knows that we like a good mystery.
Traditional mysteries often follow a set form. The classic mysteries are set in a manor house in Scotland with a small cast of characters: an elderly widow, a servant with peculiar habits, and a distant relative who has inexplicably shown up for a visit after many years. The usual event is a tragic death, which turns out to be a murder. As the detective investigates the case, he often finds that there is intrigue going on over who is to receive a sizable inheritance. The clues in the case are assembled. The police are confused and follow the wrong track. But eventually the master detective solves the case and shows how the pieces of the story fit together. In the final pages, the mystery is solved. The meaning is made known to the readers. The story is over.
The mystery that Paul speaks will depart from the standard patterns of a mystery story in at least three ways: first, the heart of the story is not something tragic, like theft and murder, but something magnificent, namely a gift. To be sure, this is an inheritance case. Paul is speaking about the Gentiles coming into the inheritance of salvation. But in a typical mystery story, one of the heirs to an estate usually plots to seize the whole inheritance. The idea is to exclude others from the gift, so that one heir can have it all.
In Ephesians, however, the mystery revolves around God giving the inheritance away too freely. What is so mysterious is that God has written a whole new group of heirs into his will. This does not shortchange those who were heirs before, because there are "boundless riches" in Christ (3:8). There is plenty to go around. So the mystery in this case is the mystery of grace. Second, Paul does not work with a small cast of characters but speaks in cosmic terms about what God is doing. This is a story that has to do with the vast group known as the Gentiles. The scale of the story does not fit into the classic manor house. It takes up the whole world. To be sure, the Gentiles are an unlikely group for God to be including in the inheritance. Traditionally, Gentiles were those who worshiped other gods. They were not the devotees of the God of Israel.
The key to the inheritance is that through Christ, God has called the Gentiles to faith in a new way. It is through faith in Christ (3:12) that the Gentiles are brought into relationship with God and given an inheritance in his grace. The mystery that was revealed to Paul was that God was not content to let the Gentiles be separated from him. Instead, God has acted to bring them into a new relationship with him. And Christ was the way God did that. Note that the inheritance theme was sounded early in Ephesians (Eph 1:14, 18). The letter recognizes that sin separates all people from God. Therefore, all people-Jews and Gentiles-have the same need of grace. No one has an inborn right to be an heir of God's grace. People become heirs by the mercy of God. Moreover, all people are called to the same faith. To be a child of God is to relate to God in faith. And faith has a future. The mercy and gift of the Spirit that people have already received is an assurance of this. People are God's children now, in faith. And faith has a future through the promise of resurrection.
Third, this means that the revelation of the mystery is not the end of the story. It creates a new beginning of a story. The usual pattern is that once the mystery is revealed, we can close the book. The case is solved. The suspense is over. But for Paul, the revelation of the mystery is just the beginning. If God has extended the promise of an inheritance to the Gentiles, this opens up a vast new chapter. Paul is in the business of making the news of what God has done public (3:7-10).
Public interest in real-life mysteries-like the mysteries in the detective novels-usually continues as long as the solution remains unknown. Once a case has been solved, it has a place in the newspaper for a few days, then, the story fades as other issues dominate the front page. For Paul, the pattern is the opposite. The disclosure of the mystery of grace remains the heart of his story. It is the news that has its proper place at the forefront of his work. He is not bashful about saying so. To know what God has done in Christ is to have the "boldness and confidence" that come from such faith (3:12).
Gospel Mt 2:1-12
The visit of the Magi occurs directly before the story of the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt. Matthew’s Gospel tells a version of Jesus’ birth that is different than the one in Luke. Of the actual birth of Jesus, Matthew tells us little more than, “When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod . . . ” The story of the census is found only in Luke’s Gospel, but we hear about the visit of the Magi only in Matthew’s Gospel.
We know little about the Magi. They come from the East and journey to Bethlehem, following an astrological sign, so we believe them to be astrologers. We assume that there were three Magi based upon the naming of their three gifts. The Gospel does not say how many Magi paid homage to Jesus. In Matthew’s Gospel, they represent the Gentiles’ search for a savior. Because the Magi represent the entire world, they also represent our search for Jesus.
We have come to consider the gifts they bring as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ role in salvation. We believe the meaning of the gifts to be Christological. Gold is presented as representative of Jesus’ kingship. Frankincense is a symbol of his divinity because priests burned the substance in the Temple. Myrrh, which was used to prepare the dead for burial, is offered in anticipation of Jesus’ death.
The word Epiphany means “manifestation” or “showing forth.” Historically several moments in Christ’s early life and ministry have been celebrated as “epiphanies,” including his birth in Bethlehem, the visit of the Magi, his baptism by John, and his first miracle at Cana.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think of the best gift you ever received. What was it? What made it special? Was it the gift itself, the thought that went into it, or the person who gave it to you?
- Many people around the world give gifts on the feast of the Epiphany instead of giving gifts on Christmas. Review today’s Gospel, it will become clear why that is.
- What gifts were given to Jesus by the Magi? (gold, frankincense, and myrrh)
- Let me tell you a bit about each of these. Gold is familiar to most of us. We associate gold with wealth and royalty. Frankincense was often used by priests for worship in the Temple. Myrrh is a perfume and was used to prepare a body after death. We often understand this gift to foretell Jesus’ suffering and death.
- What made these gifts special? These gifts showed that the Magi truly recognized the infant Jesus for who he would be for them and for us: Savior.
- We too are called this season to offer our gifts to Jesus. What might we offer to show that we recognize who Jesus is? Special prayer. Extra Rosary. Special meditation.
- Say or sing “We Three Kings.”
Bearing gifts we traverse afar,
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.
Refrain:
O star of wonder, star of night,
Star with royal beauty bright,
Westward leading, still proceeding,
Guide us to thy perfect light.
Born a King on Bethlehem’s plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again,
King forever, ceasing never,
Over us all to reign.
Frankincense to offer have I;
Incense owns a Deity nigh;
Prayer and praising, voices raising,
Worshiping God on high.
Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom;
Sorr’wing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone cold tomb.
Glorious now behold Him arise;
King and God and sacrifice;
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Sounds through the earth and skies.
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Sunday December 30, 2018 Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Lectionary: 17
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14
God sets a father in honor over his children;
a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.
Whoever honors his father atones for sins,
and preserves himself from them.
When he prays, he is heard;
he stores up riches who reveres his mother.
Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,
and, when he prays, is heard.
Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;
he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.
My son, take care of your father when he is old;
grieve him not as long as he lives.
Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him;
revile him not all the days of his life;
kindness to a father will not be forgotten,
firmly planted against the debt of your sins
—a house raised in justice to you.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Reading 2 Col 3:12-21
Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another,
if one has a grievance against another;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
And over all these put on love,
that is, the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,
the peace into which you were also called in one body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Wives, be subordinate to your husbands,
as is proper in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives,
and avoid any bitterness toward them.
Children, obey your parents in everything,
for this is pleasing to the Lord.
Fathers, do not provoke your children,
so they may not become discouraged.
Gospel Lk 2:41-52
Each year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the feast
of Passover,
and when he was twelve years old,
they went up according to festival custom.
After they had completed its days, as they were returning,
the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem,
but his parents did not know it.
Thinking that he was in the caravan,
they journeyed for a day
and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances,
but not finding him,
they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.
After three days they found him in the temple,
sitting in the midst of the teachers,
listening to them and asking them questions,
and all who heard him were astounded
at his understanding and his answers.
When his parents saw him,
they were astonished,
and his mother said to him,
“Son, why have you done this to us?
Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
And he said to them,
“Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
But they did not understand what he said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was obedient to them;
and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor
before God and man.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14
The book of Sirach [also known as Ecclesiasticus] is part of the Wisdom literature in the Old Testament. It was compiled by Jesus Ben Sirach in the period between 195-180 BC. The fundamental question discussed in Wisdom literature is: “what promotes human well-being?” The passage for reflection this week is parental counsel to growing children. Honor your parents, blessings will come upon you! The commandment to honor parents is derived from ‘fear of the Lord’. ‘Fear of the Lord’ is respectful listening to the word of God and obeying his laws. Honoring parents implies respectful and obedient listening to them and care for their needs! It is also addressed to all ‘you who need instructions’. Those who observe the commandments of the Lord are the ones who possess wisdom. Sirach was concerned about the stability of family in changing social situations, the rise of conflicts between grown children and aging parents. Intimate family ties are necessary for harmony in society. Sirach emphasizes on parents’ authority over children as a divine gift rather than a social convention. One who is good to parents also would try to do good for others. Kindness toward parents is rewarded by a peaceful life. The prayer of one who honors his/her parents is heard. Sirach also notices that in old age, parents might lose control of their physical, emotional and intellectual faculties. With affection Sirach speaks to all children that in such circumstances maintain your calm, reasoned judgment, respect and kindness toward your parents.
Flor McArthy, in his commentary on today’s readings, adds that this second element has greater relevance today. Because of the pace of modern life, he states, the elderly tend to be pushed to the margins, if not out of the picture altogether. In our strength it is easy to forget those who are
weak and perhaps a little senile. Under God, we owe everything to our parents. The author of Ecclesiasticus asserts that kindness to parents is especially pleasing to God. That kindness even takes on a deep spiritual meaning, as atonement for one’s sins.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5.
God intends that men bear the greater responsibility to protect those in need and to lead those we protect, especially as it relates to the life of marriage and family. Providing an Old Testament echo of the Christ-redeemed husband in Ephesians 5:25-33, Psalm 128 provides a picture of the man the Lord blesses.
Psalm 128 is a wisdom psalm and a companion to Psalm 127. As songs of ascent (Psalm 120-134) they were sung by families as they left home on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship Yahweh in the holy city. Interesting the psalm begins with a blessing and closes with a prayer. Four times in the psalm we see the word ―blessed (v. 1, 2, 4, 5). Utilizing two different but related Hebrew words, the psalm describes the man the Lord blesses and what some of those blessings look like.
While the writer includes all who fear the Lord (v.1), the psalm is addressed especially to the man of the house (v.3). Be clear about who you trust, Psalm 128 begins on the same note as Psalm 1. The phrase ―everyone informs us that all are blessed who
1) fear the Lord and 2) walk in His ways. ―Blessed‖ carries the idea of ―happy, fortunate.
Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389) also knows as Gregory the Theologian was a church father who helped defend and define biblical and orthodox Christology. He also spoke eloquently to Christian marriage calling it ―true companionship. With the imagery of a fruitful vine and olive plants scattered all around the table the psalmist emphases both growth and fruitfulness for the man who fears the Lord. (cf. Mic. 4:4; Zech. 3:10).
Because this man walks with God his wife flourishes like a fruitful vine in or beside the house. He sets her free to soar as a woman of God for the glory of God! Located rightly in the center of the home, she fulfills the calling of a Proverbs 31 lady because of the man of God who stands tall at her side! Fruitful and sexually charming (see Song of Solomon 7:8-12), she is unlike the unfaithful women of Proverbs 7:11 whose ―feet would not stay at home. No, she knows her man is her’s and she is his! Her attractiveness goes hand-in-hand with her faithfulness. Redeemed by grace from the curse of Genesis 3, her husband loves her and knows her (Eph. 5:25-33; 1 Peter 3:7), and she submits to him and respects him (Eph. 5:21-24, 33). Together they seek to educate and encourage their children (Eph. 6:1-4), and later their grandchildren to love and serve the Lord. Be a blessing to your children.
A man can bless his children in many ways. He can bless them by loving Jesus and teaching them to love Jesus. He can bless them by loving his wife, by loving their mother as he promised, ―til death do us part. The olive tree flourishes in a home with a godly dad and mom who are committed to each other. It would point to both longevity and productivity made possible because of the household of faith in which they, the children, were nurtured. They are not like the grass that withers and the flower that fades. No, these are the arrows of Psalm 127 who challenge their father’s enemies in the gate! Be concerned with where you live 128:5-6 The blessed life must be a life that reaches out to extend and share the blessings of God to others. This man will be concerned for his city and nation, his children and his grandchildren. He will recognize, as we must, that the family’s future is bound up in health and welfare of the nation. From marriage to being grandparents in only 6 verses!
At least 3 times in the psalms of ascent (120-134) the psalmists pray for the ―shalom, the peace, of their nation (Psalm 122:6-7; 125:5). Indeed many of the psalms end with a prayer for the land and the city (14:7; 25:22; 72:18-19; 106:48; 122:6-7; 125:5; 130:7-8; 131:3; 134:3; 135:21; 148:14). This may be a concise or ―Readers Digest version of the great Aaronic benediction found in Numbers 6:24-26. We should pray for our nation and her leaders (1Timothy 2). We should be active in promoting righteous and moral policies that invite the blessing of God on our land. If good and godly men do nothing evil will prevail.
Reading 2 Col 3:12-21
The Letter to the Colossians combines large segments of theological/doctrinal and practical/ethical materials.
At times, however, it is nearly impossible to determine which kind of issue one is dealing with. The passage for this first Sunday after Christmas has the flavor of both theological and ethical concerns. Interpreters in general, however, regard these verses as belonging to the more doctrinal portion of the epistle -- though they still admit that there are prominent ethical features to the text.
It is important to locate verses 12-17 of chapter 3 in their immediate literary context. Colossians 3:1-17 is a recognizable section of the letter. First, in verses 1-4 readers are admonished to seek heavenly ways because they have been raised with Christ. Second, verses 5-17 elaborate the meaning of this exhortation. Here, there are a pair of passages, one negatively focused (verses 5-11) and one positively oriented (verses 12-17).
Colossians 3:5-11 contains two lists of five negative items Christians are to shun. Then, in 3:12-17 there are a series of admonitions, including another list of five items, this time positive items that Christians are to embrace. Our text for this Sunday contains the more positively expressed set of verses.
The verses of our lesson begin with the word "therefore" in Greek--though this is often translated "then" and placed somehow as something other than the first word of the sentence. The "therefore," however, reaches back to the material in 3:1-4 and recognizes that whatever actions the Christians take are taken because of what God has done -- that is, Christian life is the consequence of the gospel. The verses of this lesson (verses 12-17) focus on Christian virtue, defining and describing Christian character while speaking to the community of believers.
The previous section of the letter (verses 5-11) with its concern with vices is now left behind. Now, the letter presents the positive dimensions of life in Christ as actions. Christians are to "put on" certain characteristics so that they live these qualities, they do not merely "have" them. Not merely traits, but actions define Christian living. As Christ lived, so the Christians are to live.
The list of five virtues in verse 12 ("compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience") are found elsewhere in the Pauline epistles to designate actions/characteristics of God or Christ. These "virtues" describe the character of active Christian living as God's chosen people who are called out of the ordinary realm of human existence to be especially dedicated to God as/because God loves them. The Christian community lives as it embodies the very gospel by which it was called and that it now proclaims.
The passage tells us that virtue exists, love prevails -- why? Because "the Lord has forgiven you." Thus, that which the community experiences, the community is called to live out -- and here, it is crucial to see that the "you"s of these verses are consistently in plural forms; that is, the author addresses the community, not merely the pious individual. The gospel is personal, but it is not -- based upon these verses -- to be made private. The text of Colossians envisions a community in action.
In light of the admonition, "Above all these put on love," the rest of this passage registers imperatives that may be considered for forming and directing the life of a Christian community. Other than to put on (and live out) the five virtues that are given in verse 12, the passage states a variety of directions: Verse 13 tells the recipients of the letter that they must forgive exactly as the Lord has forgiven -- a very high standard indeed. Verse 14 itself is the admonition to put on love, which seems to supersede and epitomize the other virtues and directions given in this passage. Verse 15 seems to speak of the results of following the directives to love and to forgive -- that is, the Colossians are both to let the peace of Christ reign in their hearts and to be thankful to God for the peace and forgiveness that they experience.
Verse 16 focuses on the life of the community in quite concrete terms: The Colossians are to "let the word of Christ dwell in [them] richly, which means teaching and admonishing, and singing. Thus we see education, exhortation, and worshipful expression. Finally, in verse 17, the author tells the Colossians to do whatever they do -- be it in word or in deed -- in the name of the Lord, all the while giving thanks to God through him. Thus, all of life is to be devoted to the Lord and lived in accordance with the gospel of God's grace and love at work in Jesus Christ.
In essence, all of Colossians celebrates the gift of God through Jesus Christ to the community of faith. That gift is a new context ("Christ") and a new power ("love") for living. As we clothe ourselves in Christ (take on his way of life) we are transformed, not merely by our own actions, but above all by God's own love at work in the gospel of God's grace at work in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Gospel Lk 2:41-52
Today we celebrate the feast of the Holy Family. This feast is part of the Christmas season, and we should place today's Gospel in the context of what Luke's Gospel tells us about the birth of Jesus. Luke has been answering the question “Who is Jesus?” through his stories of the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. Today's Gospel reading continues this theme. It has no parallel in the other Gospels and is the conclusion of Luke's Infancy Narrative.
Mary, Joseph, and Jesus are presented in this Gospel as a faithful Jewish family. They are participating in the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, an event shared each year with family and friends. When Jesus is found, Luke describes him as seated in the Temple in the midst of the Jewish teachers. Although he is young, Jesus seems not to need teaching about his Jewish tradition. In his dialogue with these learned teachers, Jesus astounds them with his insight and understanding. Jesus is a child of Israel. His Father is God.
The dialogue between Mary and Jesus contains many references to family relationships. In fact, in this Gospel reading Mary and Joseph are never identified by name. Instead they are referred to by their relationship to Jesus. Ultimately, this emphasizes Luke's point about the identity of Jesus. When Mary and Joseph find Jesus in the Temple, they question Jesus and express their anxiety. Jesus replies in words that many have thought to be disrespectful. Jesus says that he was never lost; he was at home. Jesus is God's Son, and he is in his Father's house. Luke will continue to suggest that faith in Jesus establishes new family relationships as he describes Jesus' public ministry.
In Luke's Gospel, Mary's importance is even greater than her role as Jesus' mother. Mary is the first disciple and will be present with Jesus' disciples after his Resurrection at Pentecost.
The link below has a video about today’s gospel. It gave me a new perspective on Jesus words in the text. It reads kind of kind of disrespectful in the text but the video gives it new meaning, at least it did for me. You may have to cut and paste it into another session of explorer. God Bless and Happy New Year.
Joel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJJo0Fksivk
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about a time when you were denied permission to do something by your parents. What did you ask to do? How did you ask? Why was permission denied? How did you respond?
- Situations such as these are common in young people's lives. Your desire for independence has the potential to create conflicts between you and your parents. God wants us to respect and honor our parents by obeying them, even when we disagree with their decisions.
- In today's Gospel we hear about a situation of anxiety and even conflict in the family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. In today’s Gospel let’s try to learn how we might handle disagreements in our own families.
- What did Mary and Joseph do when they discovered that Jesus was not with them as they were returning from Jerusalem? (Mary and Joseph returned to Jerusalem to look for Jesus.) What happened when they found Jesus? (There was a misunderstanding between Jesus and Mary.) What did Jesus do? (He returned to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph and remained obedient to them.)
- What might we learn from the example of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph about how to handle misunderstandings and disagreements with our parents? When we find it difficult to honor and obey our parents, we can remember that Jesus showed his parents honor and respect, and we can ask Jesus to help us do the same.
- Pray asking God to help us respect and honor our parents, especially at those times when we disagree with them. Pray the Lord's Prayer.
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MERRY CHRISTMAS fellow scripture readers!!! I added the readings and a reflection on just the Gospel for Christmas day at the end of this weeks scripturers. Just a little extra reading this week. Enjoy and God bless you all!!
Sunday December 23, 2018 Fourth Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 12
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Mi 5:1-4a
Thus says the LORD:
You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah
too small to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel;
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient times.
Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time
when she who is to give birth has borne,
and the rest of his kindred shall return
to the children of Israel.
He shall stand firm and shepherd his flock
by the strength of the LORD,
in the majestic name of the LORD, his God;
and they shall remain, for now his greatness
shall reach to the ends of the earth;
he shall be peace.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
O shepherd of Israel, hearken,
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power,
and come to save us.
R Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
May your help be with the man of your right hand,
with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Reading 2 Heb 10:5-10
Brothers and sisters:
When Christ came into the world, he said:
"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
in holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, 'As is written of me in the scroll,
behold, I come to do your will, O God.'"
First he says, "Sacrifices and offerings,
holocausts and sin offerings,
you neither desired nor delighted in."
These are offered according to the law.
Then he says, :Behold, I come to do your will."
He takes away the first to establish the second.
By this "will," we have been consecrated
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Gospel Lk 1:39-45
Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Mi 5:1-4a
In order to understand the benevolent image in today's reading of the coming ruler who it is necessary to fill in the landscape in which this savior will bestow nourishment and salvation.
At the outset, it is also important to suspend the notion that this is a foretelling of the coming Jesus of Nazareth. Doing so will help you first to see Micah's own times and hear his own voice before layering onto it the Christological lens so familiar to Christian preachers.
If we think only in terms of this coming one as Jesus, we miss Micah's message to his own people. We lose scripture's assertion -- and the proclamation of the prophet -- that LORD speaks in each moment of history to that particular time. If we think of Micah's words only as foretelling a future savior, the LORD's concern for the present is lost.
The speeches of the prophet we know as Micah are believed to refer to events around the eighth century BCE, a time of great unrest and turmoil for the northern kingdom and Jerusalem because of the domineering strength of the Assyrian nation. The people to whom Micah's words were directed had no chance to match the warring might of their neighbors. Micah insisted that the only hope for them was to trust in the LORD's power by remaining faithful.
Micah's prophecy rails against the social and moral abuse rampant in the land. We know the situation by looking at the book of Micah as a whole. Those with power have taken away from the poor their land and inheritances (2:1-5), evicted widows from their homes (2:9), fixed the scales and weights to cheat customers (6:10-11), taken bribes (7:3), and more. The language is as graphic (3:1-3) as the butchery of Sweeney Todd, so horribly do the "haves" treat those who have less. Baal worship is officially endorsed by the rulers (6:16). The LORD will not tolerate this disobedience.
But the LORD's wrath is not just against the political rulers and the wealthy, it is also against the prophets and religious authorities whose words serve only themselves: "who cry 'Peace' when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths" (3:5). There is no hope for them, for "the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them..." (3:6). Micah declares the ruin of the holy city Jerusalem.
From out of the devastation, however, the day will come when righteousness and peace will be restored. Micah's familiar image of swords being beaten into plowshares forms part of this portrait of a coming peace when, once again, everyone will sit under vines and fig trees on land they own (4:3).
The seven chapters in Micah can be outlined as collections of speeches containing oracles of punishment and then prophecies of salvation. Chapter 5 includes the first promise of restoration. The people will have their land back. Because land is vital to survival, identity, and a future, retrieving a place on which to fashion a life means salvation. Much of the language here is about protecting the land from the Assyrians, the great power menacing the little nations around it.
The reading for today proclaims that out of one of those little nations will come the one who brings security. That savior is, of course, interpreted in the Christian scriptures as Jesus, making it natural that we should immediately think of him. Matthew 2:5-6 gives us the scene in which the wise men ask King Herod how they are to find the child who is the king of the Jews. The suddenly alarmed king calls his advisors into the situation room and asks where this Messiah was to be born. The advisors remind Herod of the scripture that addresses Bethlehem: "for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel." (2:6b)
The verses from Micah are also recalled in John 7:32-43: “Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David’s family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” (7:42). Another interpretation might see the promised salvation as a social, political, or economic arrangement that creates justice for all and whose origin is not known for dominance over others.
By pondering the image that Micah sets out rather than leaping to the assumption that this coming savior is the Christian Christ, we can look for the correspondence between disparate ages of human history with divergent needs, all being saved by a God who is justice, kindness, and humility itself. Faith in God and joy in the coming incarnation is not dependent on the prophet's accurate future predictions. That would be proving a point. The power of Micah's image is not in its foretelling but in its truthfulness. The God who cared for "the little clans of Judah" still cares for the faithful needy ones. And we are everywhere.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19.
This very touching and beautiful psalm purports also to be a psalm of Asaph. Compare the notes at the title to Psalm 60:1-12. The word rendered eduth, which means testimony, may have been used here with reference to the contents of the psalm as a public testimony in regard to the dealings of God with his people. But it is not possible now to determine with certainty the meaning of these titles.
The psalm, in its design, has a strong resemblance to Psalm 79:1-13, and was probably composed on the same occasion. It has been generally supposed to have reference to the time of the Babylonian captivity. Some have referred it, however, to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes; and others regard it as a prayer of the ten tribes which had been carried away to Assyria.
The first part is a prayer, addressed to God as a shepherd - as one who had led his people like a flock - that he would again shine forth on them now that they were in trouble, and that he would stir up his strength, and come and save them, Psalm 80:1-3.
The second is a prayer, also - founded on the troubles of his people; a people fed with their tears; a strife to their neighbors; and an occasion of laughter or mirth to their foes, Psalm 80:4-7.
The third is also a prayer - founded on the former dealings of God with his people, on his care for them in ancient times, and on the fact that they were now desolate; their state being represented under the image of a vine brought from abroad; planted with care; attentively nurtured until it sent out its branches in every direction, so that it filled the land; and then broken down - torn - rent - trampled on - by a wild boar out of the wood, Psalm 80:8-19. In view of this desolation the psalmist prays that God would interpose, and he pledges the assurance that if this were done for them, the people would no more go back from God.
Reading 2 Heb 10:5-10
Christ was obedient not only in his death, but from the moment of his coming into the world.
This is the message of today's reading. The author's declaration here is close to Paul's statement in Romans 3:25, where he speaks of God putting forward Jesus "as an expiation through faith in his blood." Yet, it is not Paul that the author of Hebrews has in mind.
What we find here is a positive explanation of Christ's priestly act. What is said about Christ is in reply to the inability of the priestly or Levitical sacrificial system to perfect the individual's conscience. The author said in 9:14 that the perfection of conscience was the goal of worship. The speaker here is Christ. In fact, it is only the second time in book that Jesus himself speaks. More importantly, these words are ascribed to Christ "when [he] came into the world" (Hebrews 10:5). Thus, the complete obedience that is the essence of Christ's priesthood is also expressive of his character. One may clearly see this in his faithful and obedient sacrifice on the cross, but the author wants us to understand that Christ was faithful at the moment of his coming into existence. Jesus is the son who "learned obedience through what he suffered", and did so from the beginning.
Christ enters the world reciting the words of Psalm 40:6-8. The two statements express Jesus' priestly role, his mediation between humanity and God. Earlier in Hebrew 2:12-13, Jesus speaks of his complete solidarity with his brothers and sisters. In today's passage, he declares his utter commitment to God's will (10:5). The choice of this psalm has been called inspired by some scholars. A psalm of David, which makes it eminently appropriate for the messiah, the psalm expresses confidence and hope in God even in circumstances of persecution. Placed in Hebrews, it expresses the contrast between the sacrifices of the first covenant, which was external, and the response of faithful obedience to God's will, which is internal. It is this internal transformation that the author regards as the essence of the true worship of God.
The actual verses quoted from the psalm come from the Septuagint (i.e., the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) rather than the Hebrew. This is most evident in the use of the term "body," which does not appear in the Hebrew rendition. (It has "ear.") The point appears to be that Jesus was committed entirely to God, including his body.
By contrast, the quotation that appears in 10:7 presents something of a problem. Outside of the grammar, which is challenging, the meaning of "in the scroll of the book" is unclear. Since this is a psalm of David, the author appears to be making a connection between the ideal king, who has the will of God written in his heart, and the messiah's analogous dedication to the divine will. The messiah is completely and utterly committed to doing what the Lord desires.
The purpose of the priestly sacrificial system was the sanctification of the people. Yet, the author says that it could not accomplish what it desired, setting the people apart as a kingdom of priests mediating God's will to the nations (see e.g., Exodus 19:6). This is highlighted by the statement, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired . . . in burnt-offerings and sin-offerings you have taken no pleasure" (Hebrews 10:5-6).
Some have taken this language as supersessionist, the idea that the covenant with Israel has been voided by God and replaced by a new one with Christians. It does not appear that the author's statement is that strong. There is no outright rejection of the Torah here. In fact, the author's use of "the scroll of the book" mitigates against such an understanding. Nevertheless, Hebrews is saying that the access to God claimed by the proponents of the priestly system is untrue. What God desires is faithful obedience, which places this claim in Hebrews in the same vein as those made by the prophets. The sort of obedience that Hebrews understands as perfecting the conscience is not found in such ritual observances.
Jesus declares, "I have come to do your will, O God" (10:7). It was through a single-minded obedience of Christ's will and -- most pointedly -- body, says Hebrews, that our sanctification through God's will has come about. The author wants us to see that the incarnation is explained by the atonement, but the atonement would never have come about without Christ's faithful obedience.
Gospel
On this the last Sunday before Christmas, our Gospel reading prepares us to witness Christ's birth by showing us how Jesus was recognized as Israel's long-awaited Messiah even before his birth. The Gospel turns our attention from the ministry of John the Baptist to the events that preceded John the Baptist's birth. The story of John the Baptist and his parents, Elizabeth and Zechariah, are reported only in Luke's Gospel. Luke pairs the birth of John the Baptist and Jesus, establishing John's early connection to the Messiah.
Our Gospel reading recalls Mary's actions after the announcement of Jesus' birth by the angel Gabriel. Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, her cousin, who is also with child. Elizabeth greets Mary with full recognition of the roles that they and their unborn children will play in God's plan for salvation. If we were to continue to read the verses that follow in Luke's Gospel, we would hear Mary respond to Elizabeth's greeting with her song of praise, the Magnificat. Both women recall and echo God's history of showing favor upon the people of Israel.
In Luke's Gospel the Holy Spirit helps reveal Jesus' identity as God to those who believe. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and sings Mary's praise because she bears the Lord. We sing these words of praise to Mary in the Hail Mary. Even John the Baptist, the unborn child in Elizabeth's womb, is said to recognize the presence of the Lord and leaps for joy.
It is appropriate in this season of Advent that we consider the role of Mary in God's plan of salvation. Elizabeth describes Mary as the first disciple, as the one who believed that God's word to her would be fulfilled. Mary's faith enabled her to recognize the work of God in her people's history and in her own life. Her openness to God allowed God to work through her so that salvation might come to everyone. Because of this, Mary is a model and symbol of the Church. May we be like Mary, open and cooperative in God's plan for salvation.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about a word search puzzle. Have you ever done this kind of puzzle before. Did you find it easy? Have you ever gotten stuck when trying to do these kinds of puzzles? Is it easier to work on these puzzles alone or with others?
- Sometimes finding God in our lives can feel like doing a word search or hidden-picture puzzle. Our faith tells us that God is present in our lives, but we may not readily see God or God's actions. When that happens, we may need help to find God. Often we can find that help from other people. In today's Gospel, we hear about Mary's visit to her cousin, Elizabeth. These women helped one another see God working in their lives. Let's listen to this Gospel.
- Invite one or more volunteers to read today's Gospel, Luke 1:39-45.
- Do you remember what led Mary to visit Elizabeth? (The angel Gabriel told her that her cousin, Elizabeth, was with child.) What was this a sign of? (that Mary herself was to bear a child; that nothing is impossible with God) What did Elizabeth say happened at the sound of Mary's greeting? (Elizabeth's child leapt for joy.) Note that this child was John the Baptist.
- Mary traveled to see Elizabeth because Elizabeth's pregnancy was a sign that everything the angel told Mary would truly happen. Elizabeth and Mary rejoiced together at the wonderful things God was doing in their lives. We too are blessed when we have people who help us recognize God's action in our lives. Think now if there are people in your life who help you in this way. This is one of the things people try to do for one another in our Church community.
- Pray thanking God for people who help us recognize God's presence and action in our lives. Pray the Prayer to the Holy Spirit.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
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December 25, 2018 - The Nativity of the Lord – Christmas - Mass at Dawn
Lectionary: 15
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 62:11-12
See, the LORD proclaims
to the ends of the earth:
say to daughter Zion,
your savior comes!
Here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
They shall be called the holy people,
the redeemed of the LORD,
and you shall be called "Frequented,"
a city that is not forsaken.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 97:1, 6, 11-12.
R. A light will shine on us this day: the Lord is born for us.
The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;
let the many isles be glad.
The heavens proclaim his justice,
and all peoples see his glory.
R. A light will shine on us this day: the Lord is born for us.
Light dawns for the just;
and gladness, for the upright of heart.
Be glad in the LORD, you just,
and give thanks to his holy name.
R. A light will shine on us this day: the Lord is born for us.
Reading 2 Ti 3:4-7
Beloved:
When the kindness and generous love
of God our savior appeared,
not because of any righteous deeds we had done
but because of his mercy,
He saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he richly poured out on us
through Jesus Christ our savior,
so that we might be justified by his grace
and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
Gospel Lk 2:15-20
When the angels went away from them to heaven,
the shepherds said to one another,
"Let us go, then, to Bethlehem
to see this thing that has taken place,
which the Lord has made known to us."
So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph,
and the infant lying in the manger.
When they saw this,
they made known the message
that had been told them about this child.
All who heard it were amazed
by what had been told them by the shepherds.
And Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart.
Then the shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God
for all they had heard and seen,
just as it had been told to them
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Gospel Lk 2:15-20
There are four Masses that are celebrated for the feast of Christmas, and each is given its own set of readings to help us contemplate Christ's birth. The Gospel for the Vigil Mass on Christmas Eve is taken from the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, the genealogy of Jesus and the angel's announcement of the birth to Joseph. The Mass at midnight proclaims the birth of Jesus through the angels' announcement to the shepherds in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 2:15-20 is the reading for the mass at dawn on Christmas morning. It continues the story of the birth of Jesus as found in Luke's Gospel with the shepherds' visit to the infant Jesus. Finally, the Gospel for Christmas Mass during the day is taken from the beginning of John's Gospel. It is not an Infancy Narrative like those found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Instead, John's Gospel starts at the very beginning of time and presents Creation as the framework for announcing the Incarnation. John's opening words echo the first verse in the Book of Genesis, “In the beginning was the Word.”
The story of Jesus' birth, which begins with a reference to Caesar Augustus, concludes with the shepherds, people looked down on by most of society, visiting the infant. As the angels return to heaven, the shepherds decide to go see “this thing” that has happened in Bethlehem. Their visit confirms everything the angels had told them about the birth of the Savior and Messiah. They then spoke publicly about all they had seen, to the great astonishment of all who heard. Mary ponders all this in her heart, and the shepherds return to their fields praising God. What had been told to them really happened. This account does not tell us very much about the infant Jesus because Luke's concern is that God's action of sending a savior be publicly proclaimed. As Paul says before King Agrippa in Acts of the Apostles 26:26, “None of this was done in a corner.” The picture is simple, two parents and an infant in a stable. But the reality is great, God's salvation offered to all.
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Sunday December 16, 2018 Third Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 9
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Zep 3:14-18a
Shout for joy, O daughter Zion!
Sing joyfully, O Israel!
Be glad and exult with all your heart,
O daughter Jerusalem!
The LORD has removed the judgment against you
he has turned away your enemies;
the King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst,
you have no further misfortune to fear.
On that day, it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged!
The LORD, your God, is in your midst,
a mighty savior;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
and renew you in his love,
he will sing joyfully because of you,
as one sings at festivals.
Responsorial Psalm Is 12:2-3, 4, 5-6.
R. Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
God indeed is my savior;
I am confident and unafraid.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
With joy you will draw water
at the fountain of salvation.
R. Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
Give thanks to the LORD, acclaim his name;
among the nations make known his deeds,
proclaim how exalted is his name.
R. Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
Sing praise to the LORD for his glorious achievement;
let this be known throughout all the earth.
Shout with exultation, O city of Zion,
for great in your midst
is the Holy One of Israel!
R. Cry out with joy and gladness: for among you is the great and Holy One of Israel.
Reading 2 Phil 4:4-7
Brothers and sisters:
Rejoice in the Lord always.
I shall say it again: rejoice!
Your kindness should be known to all.
The Lord is near.
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Gospel Lk 3:10-18
The crowds asked John the Baptist,
“What should we do?”
He said to them in reply,
“Whoever has two cloaks
should share with the person who has none.
And whoever has food should do likewise.”
Even tax collectors came to be baptized and they said to him,
“Teacher, what should we do?”
He answered them,
“Stop collecting more than what is prescribed.”
Soldiers also asked him,
“And what is it that we should do?”
He told them,
“Do not practice extortion,
do not falsely accuse anyone,
and be satisfied with your wages.”
Now the people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
“I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fan is in his hand to clear his threshing floor
and to gather the wheat into his barn,
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
Exhorting them in many other ways,
he preached good news to the people.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Zep 3:14-18a
The third Sunday of Advent traditionally has a focus on joy. And, indeed, almost all the texts for this Sunday speak of joy.
Our reading from Zephaniah sets the tone: Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! (3:14). The prophet piles on the exhortations to joy: exult, rejoice, sing, shout!
Why this invitation to sing the Hallelujah Chorus? Because the LORD has issued a pardon and commuted Israel's sentence. The judgments against Judah and Jerusalem are turned aside, and the nation (or at least a remnant thereof) is set free (see Zephaniah 3:12-13).
According to the superscription of the book (Zephaniah 1:1), Zephaniah prophesied during the reign of King Josiah (640-609 BCE), before the Babylonian exile. The passage chosen as the reading for today, however, may have been added after the exile. It differs markedly in tone from the earlier parts of the book (which are largely about judgment) and it speaks of "gathering" the outcasts (3:19-20).
Whether the passage is exilic (period of exile) or pre-exilic, the message is clear: God is for Israel. God has forgiven her iniquities, which are detailed earlier in the book--complacency (1:12); corrupt leaders (3:3-4); injustice (3:1, 5). And not only is "daughter Zion" forgiven, but the LORD himself is with her. Therefore, says the prophet, "Fear not!" (3:16). It is the injunction spoken to everyone who encounters the near presence of the LORD, or the LORD's angel, a presence gracious but nonetheless terrifying. In this Advent season, Zechariah and Mary both hear those words: Fear not!
Fear not. Do not be afraid. Why? Because "the king of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst" (3:15). If this oracle is indeed exilic, it is addressing the loss of a Davidic monarch. Israel has no need of a descendant of David, the prophet seems to say; the LORD himself is Israel's king. And this king will not leave. He dwells in the midst of his people so that they need not fear disaster anymore.
The image shifts, from God as pardoning judge and king, to God as savior and warrior, one who rescues Israel from all her enemies. It is striking that in this verse (verse 17), some of the same words for "rejoicing" come up again; but this time, it is the LORD who is the subject of the verbs! Human beings are not the only ones who are filled with joy; God, too, bursts into song! Why? Because the relationship is restored. The love between God and Israel is renewed. We hear in verse 17 strong echoes of the biblical metaphor that pictures the relationship between God and Israel as a love affair, a marriage.
In the last few verses, the image shifts one more time, to God as shepherd, gathering the lame and the ones who have strayed, and bringing them home again. The LORD will give them a "name" (renown) and change their shame into praise, in the sight of "all the peoples of the earth" (3:19-20).
We are accustomed to images of God as judge. (Indeed, much of Zephaniah uses such imagery.) We are accustomed to images of God as shepherd, gathering the flock into the fold. But how often do we imagine God as one who rejoices? One who sings? Yet here, in our text, God and God's people alike are caught up in a joy that overflows into song, a joy that springs from love renewed, relationship restored.
This joy is not one-sided. It is not simply God's people who rejoice because God has forgiven and restored them. That is an altogether understandable reaction to God's redemption. It is not simply God's people who rejoice. God, too, sings and shouts with joy over this love restored. The divine heart overflows with jubilation!.
This Sunday, we speak of joy, the joy of a people redeemed and restored, but also the joy of a God who is deeply invested in the life of the world. God sings. God shouts. God rejoices. And we, we who are wondrously and inexplicably God's beloved, join in the celebration.
Responsorial Psalm Is 12:2-3, 4, 5-6.
Chapter 12 provides a transition between Isaiah’s narrative of Judah’s history, marked by periods of obedience and disobedience to God’s will, and oracles of judgment against the nations. The chapter reflects the context of chapters 1-39, with Judah living under the grip of Assyria’s domination, and it points to the theme of God’s comfort for those returned from Babylonian exile in chapters 40-66.
It also points toward the day of God’s judgment and salvation -- a day of joy, exaltation, and praise. That day, which is referred to twice in chapter 12, is described gloriously in 2:2-4: the peoples of the world will stream to the mountain of the Lord, where God will instruct and judge, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. The day of which Isaiah 12 sings is the day when the peace of God will finally be established upon the earth, and the nations of the world will wage war no more.
Two distinct voices can be heard in Isaiah 12, possibly reflecting the linkage of two hymns for the purposes of communal worship. The chapter begins with an individual’s song of thanks for God’s anger being turned away (verse 1), and of praise for God’s salvation (verse 2). In this verse an almost exact echo of the song of Moses following the deliverance of the people of Israel from Pharaoh’s army is heard: “The Lord is my strength and my might, and he has become my salvation” (Exodus 15:4).
The speaker demonstrates that God continues to provide deliverance of God’s people from all that may enslave them. In verse four, the song continues in a communal voice, praising God’s glorious acts of salvation and calling on the people to make that glory known through all the earth (verses 4 and 5). The singer calls upon the people to live in expectation of the day of salvation and, in so doing, to make the kingdom of God known here and now.
Zion is exalted because the ineffable and majestic God, the “holy one of Israel” (verse 6), has actually chosen to live in her midst. The two parts of the song are linked by verse three. The verse is a promise to the people that on the day of judgment they will know in abundance the joy of God’s salvation.
Water is a common motif in the Hebrew Scriptures. There are narratives of God’s miraculous provision of water for desperate persons (Genesis 21:19) and communities (Exodus 17:1-7). Water is often used as a metaphor for salvation (Isaiah 35:6-7 and 55:1; Ezekiel 47:1-12). And water represents the very presence of God with individuals (Psalm 42:1 and 63:1) and with communities (Isaiah 44:3).
Here in Isaiah 12:3, the “wells of salvation” from which the people will draw seem to reflect both salvation and divine presence, as the reference to God’s indwelling with Israel suggests.
The wells of salvation, the water of God’s gracious presence, are bottomless, endless. These are the waters that give life, restoring vibrancy to a world that is dying of thirst, and seeking wholeness for those overwhelmed by the floods of destruction.
The water of forgiveness, of liberation from all that holds us in captivity, of refreshment of souls that are parched for grace, is the same water of which Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman at the well: “but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14). The water of salvation that flows with the very presence of God is coming again to the world in endless supply for our deepest need.
Reading 2 Phil 4:4-7
It's an exclamation we've heard time and time again, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice" (Philippians 4:4).
The two-fold expression to rejoice echoes what the apostle said in 3:1, "Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord." Rejoicing is a keynote of this letter. The inclusion of the pantote, translated as "always," can also be rendered "at all times." The statement calls for an ongoing activity, one not based upon the particular circumstances of the apostle's readers. In one way, this adverb points to the future and its possible trials. The idea then is to keep on rejoicing in the Lord at all times, regardless of what may come upon you.
At this point, it is important to remember that Paul wrote this from prison. As portrayed in Acts, Paul and Silas, although beaten and in prison, sang hymns and prayed (Acts 16:25). Thus, the apostle has already demonstrated to his congregation what it means to rejoice in adversity. (At 2 Corinthians 6:10 Paul speaks of himself as "sorrowful yet always rejoicing.")
The key to understanding Paul's exhortation to rejoice is that it is "in the Lord." This signifies that the Lord is either the object of our rejoicing or its grounding, the one in whom our joy thrives. This continuous rejoicing in the Lord is a very important concept for Paul. It is a distinguishing mark for Christians (see Romans 12:12) and a characteristic of life in the kingdom of God (14:17). It is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). It becomes evident during times of suffering and trial (Romans 5:3-4; 2 Corinthians 6:10; 8:2-3).
In the third short sentence, the term to epieikes "gentleness") is tricky to translate. Its use in the Greek language includes "what is fitting," "magnanimity," and "reasonableness." It can also be understood to describe the clemency of a ruler. Undoubtedly, the Philippians would have been aware of the purported benevolence of the Roman emperors. If the Christian life is to be characterized by joy it is also distinguished by a gentleness that is known to all. It is akin to being merciful.
In a world where strict adherence to the letter of the law would lead to injustice, epieikeia knew how to act with fairness. The treatment of Jesus highlights for Paul what this gentleness is all about (see 2 Corinthians 10:1). Thus, the gentleness he describes is the response of a person who has suffered injustice and disgrace.
The "gentleness" that Christians have is to be made "known to all sorts of people" (Philippians 4:5). This idea harkens back to something Paul says earlier in the letter, "Only live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ" (1:27). Politeuesthe "live your life") denotes life as a citizen. And so, the idea of living in two communities -- the church and the civic community -- is intoned with this exhortation to gentleness. It reminds us that the church should not be too preoccupied with its own interests.
The shortest sentence is the fourth: kurios eggus ("the Lord is near"). It combines ethics and eschatology, although its meaning is not entirely clear because of the ambiguity surrounding how eggus is supposed to be understood. Like its English counterpart, eggus can be understood spatially or temporally. Spatially, it means "near" or "close at hand." If this is true, then "near" here signifies that the Lord is close to or present with the Philippians. Thus, the Lord is aware of their conduct as well as a ready source for their aid. Temporally, it means the Jesus' second coming is imminent. The early Christians often would say, Marana tha ("Come, O Lord"). Thus, this statement would be a parallel to such exclamations (see 1 Corinthians 16:22; Revelation 22:20), and fits well with what the apostle says in 3:20-21 about the readers eagerly awaiting Jesus' return from heaven. The truth may be that both understandings are correct. Paul may have intended to include both ideas of time and space in his use of eggus: the Lord whose return is imminent is also continually near his people to guide them.
Why place this admonition here? Well, it could serve to connect what was said earlier about gentleness to what is said afterwards about anxiety. In other words, as he exhorts them to rejoice, the apostle commands them to let their gentleness to be known to all, and not to be anxious.
We are not only urged to stop worrying about anything, but also exhorted in every situation to make our requests known to God. In 4:6 three synonyms for prayer are heaped together. The Philippians are urged, as a corrective to their anxiety, to let their specific requests be made known to God. Paul is echoing Jesus' words in the Sermon on the Mount, "your heavenly Father knows that you need them." Paul may be urging Christians to cast all of our cares upon God (cf. 1 Peter 5:7). In doing so, we acknowledge our total dependence upon God.
The longest sentence is the last. Paul tells us that the result of laying out our cares to God is that God's peace, which is more wonderful than anyone can imagine, will stand guard over our hearts and minds. While we are still vulnerable, we are also assured of God's concern and protection.
Gospel Lk 3:10-18
This Sunday's Gospel continues last week's focus on John the Baptist and his role in preparing the way for Christ. Recall that last week's reading described John's appearance in the desert and established his connection with the prophetic tradition of Israel. If we were to read Luke's Gospel continuously, we would learn about John the Baptist challenging the crowds who came to him and calling upon them to show evidence of their repentance. John tells his listeners that they cannot rely on their lineage as Israelites because children of Abraham can be raised up from stones. Repentance, rather, must be observable in one's actions. Here, Luke is continuing to set up two important themes of his Gospel message: the Christian faith is expressed in one's actions, and the call to salvation is extended to everyone, Jews and Gentiles.
In today's Gospel reading, the crowds ask John the Baptist for specifics. What evidence of repentance is required? John replies by naming concrete actions: crowds should share their food and cloaks; tax collectors should be just; soldiers should act fairly. The concern for justice is a hallmark of Luke's Gospel.
When the crowd begins to wonder if John the Baptist might be the Messiah, John interprets his baptism and makes it clear that his ministry is in preparation for the Messiah. John the Baptist knows his place and role in God's plan of salvation. By encouraging the crowd to act similarly in accordance with their stations in life, John's teaching suggests that each person has a role to play in God's salvation. It is the great mystery of our salvation that God permits and even asks for human cooperation in his divine plans.
The third Sunday of Advent is also called Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is a Latin word that means “rejoice.” This name is taken from the entrance antiphon for Sunday's Mass, which is also echoed in today's second reading from the Paul's letter to the Philippians. Some people mark this Sunday by lighting a pink candle instead of a purple one on their Advent wreath. It is a reminder that the Advent season is a season of joy because our salvation is already at hand.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- There are many situations that occur in our lives where we might have to apologize to someone or another person might have to apologize to us. Which apology sounds more sincere: when a person says, “I'm sorry” or when a person says, “I'm sorry I called you a name. I know that this hurt your feelings, and I'll try not to do it again.”: (The second one since it is more specific.)
- Apologies often sound more sincere when we can be specific about what we are sorry about and then identify specific changes we will try to make to act differently in the future. In today's Gospel, we heard people ask John the Baptist what is needed for their repentance.
- Which groups question John? (the crowds, the tax collectors, the soldiers) How does John respond? (To the crowds, he says share what you have with others. To the tax collectors, he says be just. To the soldiers, he says be fair.)
- John makes specific, concrete suggestions for each of the groups who question him. Our desire to make ready for Jesus will be more sincere if we can identify one specific change we might make in our lives to prepare the way of the Lord.
- What is one specific change you might make during Advent to prepare for Jesus?
- Pray asking God to help us in our commitment to make this one specific change in our lives. Pray Act of Contrition.
I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong
and failing to do good,
I have sinned against you
whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with your help,
to do penance,
to sin no more,
and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.
Our Savior Jesus Christ
suffered and died for us.
In his name, my God, have mercy.
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Sunday December 9, 2018 Second Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 6
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Bar 5:1-9
Jerusalem, take off your robe of mourning and misery;
put on the splendor of glory from God forever:
wrapped in the cloak of justice from God,
bear on your head the mitre
that displays the glory of the eternal name.
For God will show all the earth your splendor:
you will be named by God forever
the peace of justice, the glory of God’s worship.
Up, Jerusalem! stand upon the heights;
look to the east and see your children
gathered from the east and the west
at the word of the Holy One,
rejoicing that they are remembered by God.
Led away on foot by their enemies they left you:
but God will bring them back to you
borne aloft in glory as on royal thrones.
For God has commanded
that every lofty mountain be made low,
and that the age-old depths and gorges
be filled to level ground,
that Israel may advance secure in the glory of God.
The forests and every fragrant kind of tree
have overshadowed Israel at God’s command;
for God is leading Israel in joy
by the light of his glory,
with his mercy and justice for company..
Responsorial Psalm Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
"The LORD has done great things for them."
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those who sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Reading 2 Phil 1:4-6, 8-11
Brothers and sisters:
I pray always with joy in my every prayer for all of you,
because of your partnership for the gospel
from the first day until now.
I am confident of this,
that the one who began a good work in you
will continue to complete it
until the day of Christ Jesus.
God is my witness,
how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer:
that your love may increase ever more and more
in knowledge and every kind of perception,
to discern what is of value,
so that you may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
filled with the fruit of righteousness
that comes through Jesus Christ
for the glory and praise of God.
Gospel Lk 3:1-6
In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Bar 5:1-9
Put off, O Jerusalem. Earlier in the book Jerusalem was personified as a mother mourning for her exiled children: For she saw the wrath of God coming upon you, and she said: Give ear, all you that dwell near Sion, for God hath brought upon me great mourning: For I have seen the captivity of my people, of my sons, and my daughters, which the Eternal hath brought upon them. For I nourished them with joy: but I sent them away with weeping and mourning (Bar 4:9-11). It was a common practice of the time to put on simple clothing for the act of mourning (Joel 1:13), and this Mother Jerusalem did: I have put off the robe of peace, and have put upon me the sackcloth of supplication, and I will cry to the most High in my days (Bar 4:20).
And put on the beauty, and honor of that everlasting glory. A change of clothing (“and put on”) meant a change in status, and in the Bible often signifies divine blessings. Joseph’s status (for example) is closely associated with clothing. His status as his father’s favorite was symbolized by a tunic (Gen 37:3-4). His jealous brother’s stripped him of the tunic when they sought to rid themselves of him (Gen 37:23). Later, Pharaoh showed him favor by placing him in charge of all Egypt and bestowing upon him a fine linen robe (Gen 41:39-42). All of this related to the divine plan (Gen 45:4-5). The long naked Gerasene demoniac was found fully clothed after being healed by Jesus (Luke 8:26-39, esp. verse 35). The repentant son in the Parable of the Prodigal is clothed with his father’s finest robe (Luke 15:11-32, esp. verse 22). See also Revelation 3:4-5, Gal 3:27; Eph 4:24, Eph 6:11, etc).
Garment of justice. Reverses the guilt and shame mentioned in their confession of sin: To the Lord our God belongs justice: but to us, and to our fathers confusion (shame) of face, as at this day (Bar 2:6).
Will set a crown on thy head. Reversing the situation of punishment that resulted because of their sins. The kingdom centered in Jerusalem had fell into abeyance and the children of the kingdom scattered to serve pagan monarchs: And he hath delivered them up to be under the hand of all the kings that are round about us, to be a reproach, and desolation among all the people, among whom the Lord hath scattered us (Bar 2:4).
To every one under heaven. Those Gentile peoples who were bidden by Mother Jerusalem to witness the exile (Bar 4:14) are now called upon to witness its end. For as the neighbors of Sion have now seen your captivity from God: so shall they also shortly see your salvation from God, which shall come upon you with great honor, and everlasting glory (Bar 4:24).
The repentant, having appealed to the name of God will themselves be given a name: Remember not the iniquities of our fathers, but think upon thy hand, and upon thy name at this time: For thou art the Lord our God, and we will praise thee, O Lord: Because for this end thou hast put thy fear in our hearts, to the intent that we should call upon thy name, and praise thee in our captivity, for we are converted from the iniquity of our fathers, who sinned before thee (Bar 3:5-7).
Like clothing, a new name indicates a change in status (Gen 17:5; Matt 16:17-19; Isa 62:2; Rev 2:17, etc.). “The conferring of a name in a context such as the present one involves not only the giving of the name, but the bestowal of the attributes indicated” (Jerome Biblical Commentary 37:20).
Arise…stand on high. A reversal of their exile: And we are brought low, and are not raised up: because we have sinned against the Lord our God, by not obeying his voice (Bar 2:5).
And behold thy children gathered together. Mother Jerusalem, who saw the captivity of her children (Bar 4:10) is bidden to witness their being gathered together, reversing the punishment of exile and bring the relief for which they had prayed (Bar 2:4, Bar 2:13).
Some translations, such as the RSV and NAB speak of the return in this fashion: “but God will bring them back to you, carried in glory, as on a royal throne, ” thus emphasizing the contrast and reversal of their situation: led out on foot by enemies, carried back on thrones by God.
See Isaiah 40:3-4 and Luke 3:4-6 (part of today’s Gospel reading). A kingly people carried on thrones deserves a king’s welcome. In ancient times, when a king or royal figure was traveling to a city in the kingdom, it was expected that the roads be put into good repair before his arrival, such is the underlying imagery here. God has decreed that all the obstacles for his people’s return be removed. High mountains were often an image of (or associated with) arrogance and opposition to God (Jer 51:24-25; Zech 4:7; Isa 2:11-15; Isa 37:24), perhaps because they were often associated with pagan worship (Hosea 4:13). Valleys, ravines, etc., also were associated with sin (Isa 57:5; 2 Kings 23:10). It’s not hard to understand how the image came to be associated with repentance; human pride and sin must be brought down before one can return to God.
God will bring Israel with joy. Thus is reversed the prophecy of Jeremiah 7:34 which was quoted in Baruch 2:23: And I will take away from you the voice of mirth, and the voice of joy, and the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, and all the land shall be without any footstep of inhabitants. God’s punishment having had it desired effect-opening his people to the grace of repentence-God’s mercy now comes to the fore.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6.
The theme of restoration that began with Psalm 80 in Advent 1, and Psalm 85 in Advent 2, is continued this week in Psalm 126.
In this psalm, the theological theme of restoration is knitted together with the theme of rejoicing. The product is one of the grandest, most eloquent lyrical prayers in the Psalter.
Psalm 126 is one of a collection of poems (Psalms 120-134) known as the "Songs of Ascents." These most likely did not all originate from a single source or for some unified purpose, but were rather collected together for some common use While interpreters cannot be one-hundred percent sure, the best guess is that the psalms of ascents were collected together in order for the faithful to use when they made pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Although one should not press the metaphor, one can make an analogy between the ancient pilgrimages that Israelites made to Jerusalem and the modern preparations that Christians make during Advent for Christmas.
The psalm has two stanzas (vv. 1-3; 4-6). Similar to the way in which Psalm 85 begins, the first stanza of Psalm 126 recalls God's past acts of restoration (v. 1) and the emotions of joy and celebration of laughter that accompanied those saving acts. The temporal clause with which the psalm begins, "When the Lord restores the fortunes of Zion," most likely has in mind the return of the people to the land following the Babylonian exile. But within the broader biblical narrative, the phrase calls many divine restorations to mind:
- the restoration of Sarah to Abraham
- the restoration of Joseph to Jacob and his brothers
- the restoration of the people to the land after the Exodus
- the restoration of the ark to the people after the Philistines captured it
- the birth of the Messiah; the restoration of Jesus to his parents
- the resurrection
The first stanza contains a most surprising testimony concerning God's gracious deeds in the entire Old Testament. The nations--that is, the people who worship other gods and often threaten Israel (cf. Psalm 124:2)--praised God. The very people who, during the years in Babylon, looked upon God's people and "were astonished at him−so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals−these very nations witnessed the restoration of the people to their land and to their God and they said, "The Lord has done great things for them!" Thinking ahead to the New Testament, one is reminded of the non-Israelite magi coming to worship the one who was born "King of the Jews," or the Roman centurion who announced, "Truly this man was God's Son!"
Even more surprising, the nations' testimony to God's deeds inspires Israel to respond with its own testimony, repeating the words of the nations verbatim: "The Lord has done great things for us" (v. 3). Often in the psalms, the enemies' words are quoted as reason for God to punish them (see, for example, Psalm 10:12-14 or the ending of Psalm 137). Here, the words of the nations are quoted approvingly. Even more shockingly, the people of God then repeat the words of the nations. Why? Because God's gracious and faithful acts of restoration are so self-evident, even the blind nations can see them. And because the blind nations see those acts, the often-even-more blind people of God can see them, too.
The second stanza develops the themes introduced in the first stanza and rephrases them in the form of renewed appeals for restoration (this is similar to the structure of Psalm 85, lacking only the set of promises with which Psalm 85 culminates). The people ask God restore them once again, in order that they may rejoice yet again.
It should be emphasized that the closing verses of the psalm are an appeal couched in the form of imaginative wishes: "May those who...." The Advent people who approach Christmas recall God's restorative acts in the past. They recall the testimony of the nations to God's deliverance. They recall their own joy. And they know that until the Son of God comes again, we will be in constant and everlasting need of God's continued restoration.
In this psalm, the theological theme of restoration is knitted together with the theme of rejoicing. The product is one of the grandest, most eloquent lyrical prayers in the Psalter.
Psalm 126 is one of a collection of poems (Psalms 120-134) known as the "Songs of Ascents." These most likely did not all originate from a single source or for some unified purpose, but were rather collected together for some common use While interpreters cannot be one-hundred percent sure, the best guess is that the psalms of ascents were collected together in order for the faithful to use when they made pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Although one should not press the metaphor, one can make an analogy between the ancient pilgrimages that Israelites made to Jerusalem and the modern preparations that Christians make during Advent for Christmas.
Reading 2 Phil 1:4-6, 8-11
What difference does it make that Paul is writing his letters to an entire community, the ecclesia (assembly) in Philippi? He could have addressed his letter just to the elders there. He could have written directly to the bishop, telling him what to say to his flock and what to do next. He could have exercised a “chain of command” understood both in the Roman household and the Roman Empire that recognizes authority in specific leaders who then require those beneath them to carry out the wishes of those at the top. There is efficiency and quality control in the top-down system.
But he doesn’t. Paul writes “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi” (verse 1). And this matters! He and Timothy are in jail, a condition of vulnerability in the ancient that relies on friends outside for basic needs like food and blankets. He and his partner Timothy reach out to more partners beyond the prison walls. Paul’s whole ministry is one of partnerships, sometimes with fellow missionaries (for example Barnabas, Timothy, Silas) traveling alongside him, and sometimes empowering local leaders such as Lydia or Priscilla. So, while Paul seems like a pretty big personality, he was not a lone ranger. Paul’s letter is clear that the whole community of brothers and sisters in Christ share “in the defense and confirmation of the gospel”.
The claim that we all “share in the gospel” is a key narrative for Christian life, especially when so much Christian culture seems to focus on individual salvation. The good news of Jesus, our experience of God’s love and grace, is not an individual possession but a communal reality that God is enacting all the time and in which we are invited to participate. Instead of focusing on individuals, Paul calls attention to the community, “all the saints,” who, together as a community, share in the gospel. This means sharing alike in the joys and in the sufferings of our common life on behalf of God’s love for the world.
Gospel Lk 3:1-6
This week and next, our Gospel readings invite us to consider John the Baptist and his relationship to Jesus. John the Baptist appears in the tradition of the great prophets, preaching repentance and reform to the people of Israel. To affirm this, Luke quotes at length from the prophet Isaiah. John baptizes for repentance and for forgiveness of sins, preparing the way for God's salvation.
The three Synoptic Gospels—Mark, Matthew, and Luke—attest to the importance of the baptism of John in preparing for Jesus. Only the Gospel of Luke, however, extends the connection between these two men to their birth. The first two chapters of Luke's Gospel contain the Infancy Narrative, which tells about the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. These stories set the stage for the beginning of Jesus' public ministry in chapter 3.
The evangelist Luke is the author of the Gospel that bears his name, and he also wrote the Acts of the Apostles as a continuation of the story of Jesus and the Church. In these two works, Luke's sense of time and history emerges. He identifies three epochs of salvation history: the time before Christ, the time of Christ, and the time of the Church and the Holy Spirit. In today's Gospel reading, as elsewhere, John the Baptist is presented as the figure who bridges the time before Christ and prepares the way for Christ's own ministry.
In today's Gospel we also note Luke's attention to political and historical detail. Luke shows that salvation is for all people and situated in world events. Therefore, Luke lists the political and religious leaders at the time of John's appearance in the desert. Salvation is understood as God's breaking into this political and social history.
John's preaching of the coming of the Lord is a key theme of the Advent season. As John's message prepared the way for Jesus, we too are called to prepare ourselves for Jesus' coming. We respond to John's message by repentance and reform of our lives. We are also called to be prophets of Christ, who announce by our lives the coming of the Lord, as John did.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- There are many messages sent to us in our society. Many of these are advertising messages that seek to get our attention in order to sell a product. Are there other people or organizations that have messages for us today? Think about some.
- In today's Gospel, we hear about John the Baptist, a messenger who appeared before Jesus. After we listen to this Gospel, we'll identify the message John the Baptist announced?
- What message is John the Baptist announcing? (Repent of your sins.) Is this message still relevant today? (Yes.) Are there voices today that continue to announce this message? Think about some!
- During the season of Advent, the message of John the Baptist is particularly appropriate. During Advent, we seek forgiveness of our sins as we prepare for Jesus' coming. To help us hear better John's message, let's try to be advertisers and write the message of John the Baptist in the form of a slogan so that people might better hear this message today.
- Try to prepare slogans for the season of Advent that echo the message of John the Baptist.
- Conclude in prayer asking God to help us hear and respond to the message of John the Baptist calling us to repentance. Pray together the Act of Contrition.
My God,
I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong
and failing to do good,
I have sinned against you
whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with your help,
to do penance,
to sin no more,
and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.
Our Savior Jesus Christ
suffered and died for us.
In his name, my God, have mercy.
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Sunday December 2, 2018 First Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 3
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 33:14-16
The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will fulfill the promise
I made to the house of Israel and Judah.
In those days, in that time,
I will raise up for David a just shoot ;
he shall do what is right and just in the land.
In those days Judah shall be safe
and Jerusalem shall dwell secure;
this is what they shall call her:
“The LORD our justice.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior,
and for you I wait all the day.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
All the paths of the LORD are kindness and constancy
toward those who keep his covenant and his decrees.
The friendship of the LORD is with those who fear him,
and his covenant, for their instruction.
R. To you, O Lord, I lift my soul.
Reading 2 1 Thes 3:12—4:2
Brothers and sisters:
May the Lord make you increase and abound in love
for one another and for all,
just as we have for you,
so as to strengthen your hearts,
to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father
at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen.
Finally, brothers and sisters,
we earnestly ask and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that,
as you received from us
how you should conduct yourselves to please God
and as you are conducting yourselves
you do so even more.
For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
Gospel Lk 21:25-28, 34-36
Jesus said to his disciples:
“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars,
and on earth nations will be in dismay,
perplexed by the roaring of the sea and the waves.
People will die of fright
in anticipation of what is coming upon the world,
for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
And then they will see the Son of Man
coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
But when these signs begin to happen,
stand erect and raise your heads
because your redemption is at hand.
“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy
from carousing and drunkenness
and the anxieties of daily life,
and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.
For that day will assault everyone
who lives on the face of the earth.
Be vigilant at all times
and pray that you have the strength
to escape the tribulations that are imminent
and to stand before the Son of Man.”
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 33:14-16
It seems likely that this particular section of Jeremiah's prophecy is a later addition, in its current literary context, the promises are spoken to address a dire situation. The armies of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, are advancing on Jerusalem. The streets of Jerusalem will soon be filled with the corpses of her people (33:4-5), and the prophet Jeremiah himself is imprisoned by King Zedekiah (33:1).
The worst has not yet happened, but it is inevitable. Any reasonable person can see that the city is doomed. Jeremiah's many prophecies of judgment--prophecies that have landed him in prison--are coming true. Yet now, in the midst of catastrophe, the prophet finally speaks words of promise! In the previous chapter, he has purchased a piece of land, a foolish thing to do in a country soon to be conquered by invading armies. Nevertheless, he has purchased the land as a pledge, as earnest of God's redemption: "For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land" (32:15). In the midst of impending doom, a sign of hope is enacted.
Similarly, in chapter 33, the prophet speaks of the coming restoration, the restoration of normal, everyday life. There will come a time in the land of Judah when "there shall once more be heard the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride" (33:10-11).
And now, in this passage, Jeremiah speaks of the restoration not simply of daily life (as momentous as that is), but also of one of the chief signs of God's favor, the restoration of the Davidic line. A righteous Branch will sprout from the line of David. A similar image is found in Isaiah 11:1 The image is one of hope and unexpected joy: new life springing up from what looks like a dead stump.
One of the chief tragedies of the Babylonian Exile, of course, was the end of the Davidic dynasty. For nearly four hundred years, descendants of David had occupied the throne of Judah, and God had promised that it would always be so (2 Samuel 7; Psalm 89). But the Babylonians destroyed David's city, burned Solomon's temple, and took David's heirs into exile. The promises of God seemed to have come to an end.
To a people devastated by loss, Jeremiah's prophecy offered hope: "The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah" (33:14). All might seem lost, but God still is faithful. The house of David might be cut down, but God is able to bring life out of death. A branch will sprout.
Historically, of course, the Davidic line did not return to the throne, so passages like this (and its parallel, Jeremiah 23:5-6), were in time interpreted to be speaking about the coming ideal ruler, the Messiah. That is certainly the reason this passage is one of the lectionary readings for the first Sunday in Advent. The descendant of David who will "execute justice and righteousness in the land" is the one for whom we wait in this Advent season. And his salvation encompasses not just Judah and Jerusalem, but the whole world.
A righteous Branch will spring up. It is a word of hope, but not naïve hope. Jeremiah is not someone who looks at the world through rose-colored glasses. Far from it! This is a prophet imprisoned by his own government because he keeps prophesying doom.
A righteous Branch will spring up. Maybe so, but that saving act of God is not readily apparent in Jeremiah's or Judah's current situation, dreading the imminent arrival of enemy armies.
A righteous Branch will spring up. This word of tenacious hope is spoken to counteract all of the life-sapping, despair-inducing evidence to the contrary. And that is its power.
The same proclamation is given today to us, inheritors of Jeremiah's task. We are called to speak a word of hope and promise in a world often filled with fear and uncertainty, even despair. Especially in this season of Advent, we speak words of hope. In the midst of darkness, light is about to break in. In the midst of despair, hope erupts. After long waiting, a branch will sprout. The complete fulfillment of God's promises has not yet happened, but it is coming. Such is Advent faith, and Advent hope.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
In the first lesson (Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32) Israel argues with God, accusing God of unfairness. No, says Ezekiel; the problem is that Israel needs to “get a new heart and a new spirit!” Israel must become teachable. The second lesson (Philippians 2:1-13) is the famous hymn to Christ. It invites us to have this mind among yourselves. To learn from Christ. Not because we are good enough, or because having the mind of Christ is an achievement, but because Jesus has “humbled himself and became like a servant.”
It is God’s work and not our ability that changes us. In the Gospel, (Matthew 21:23-32) the chief priests and elders interrogate Jesus; showing themselves to be anything but teachable. Jesus tells them that “the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” Why? Because these sinners were teachable: they believed John’s testimony. But as for the chief priests and elders, those know-it-alls did not change their minds when they heard John’s testimony about Jesus.
In all of these texts, God teaches us humility, trust and joy in the presence of God. Learning nice little moral lessons, or memorizing factoids about God is not the point. Instead God invites us to be changed by divine mercy and love. The work of Psalm 25 is to express receptivity, or even to make us receptive. The Psalm can be used as a refrain to support the other texts, as a theme for prayer, or the focus of an entire sermon.
Originally, this Psalm was a Hebrew acrostic; that is, it began with the first letter of the alphabet, and ended with the last. But this is more than a word game. It is about God’s A- Z mercy in your life, even when you feel abandoned. Taken as a whole, Psalm 25 is a prayer for help, growing more intense as it progresses: “I am lonely and afflicted. Relieve the troubles of my heart, and bring me out of my distress. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins. Consider how many are my foes, and with what violent hatred they hate me” (25:16-19). And the last petition is for the whole people of God: “Redeem Israel, O God, out of all its troubles.”
Through it all, Psalm 25 speaks of God’s character. “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his decrees” (25:10). The New Interpreter’s Bible finds the Psalm’s theological center here, in God’s “steadfast love and faithfulness.”
Repeatedly the Psalmist asks to be taught God’s ways. “Make me to know your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths” (verse 4). “Lead me in your truth, and teach me” (verse 5). “God instructs sinners in the way…and teaches the humble” (verses 5-6). To know about God is a starting point, but the Psalmist wants something more. The Psalmist wants to be with God, to walk in God’s path.
People want to be instantly gratified, but if we really need something we will wait for it. “For you I wait all day long” (verse 5). Waiting was hard for the Psalmist, who was in desperate need of help. Enemies were seeking to inflict harm. It seems that the enemies were external -- the “wantonly treacherous ones” who put the Psalmist to shame (verses 2-3). Shame comes from outside and is inflicted by individuals or groups. But “enemies” may also be within us, for example, guilt or regret for the “sins of my youth or my transgressions” (verse 7). Pride can make us unteachable, but so can guilt and shame. Then we can’t move forward, can’t hear God’s voice of wisdom, or receive blessing and forgiveness.
And yet we may become most teachable when we are vulnerable, when our illusions of superiority and self-sufficiency have been stripped away (verses 16-19). So the Psalmist who implores God, “lead me in your truth and teach me.”
This is a relationship with God, a two-way communication in which the Psalmist both receives God’s teaching and dares to instruct God. The Psalmist tells God what to remember: steadfast love and mercy (verse 6). And the Psalmist tells God what to forget: “the sins of my youth” (verse 7).
Reading 2 1 Thes 3:12—4:2
For a newly converted Thessalonian, the gathered community of disciples was their new home, family, and support network. Relationships mattered more now than ever as they sought to work out together what it meant to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. Additionally, we should note that the Thessalonians’ are continuing to relate well to Paul and Silas (1 Thessalonians 3:6), and this is in spite of the shame that would no doubt be associated with Paul and Silas’ suffering.
This reaction by the broader population against those Thessalonians who have begun to follow Jesus is a key aspect in the context of our verses. If we sneak a peek at the verses that are prior to our passage we note there that Paul refers to persecution and suffering on three occasions in just eight verses. It is clear that Paul and Silas are suffering persecution (1 Thessalonians 3:7), but also that the Thessalonians themselves are in the midst of persecution for their faith (3:3). The Thessalonian believers have begun to follow a new King, and are seeking to adopt a set of values and an ethos rooted in Jesus. Consequently, they have begun to turn away from and reject some of the norms of their immediate society. So, how might this all begin to resonate with us?
First, we are reminded here of the joy of knowing that we are loved when life is tough.
The joy and thankfulness that is expressed in 1 Thessalonians 3:9 comes across to us as sheer delight and even with a hint of relief. The reason for this is twofold: First, because in spite of everything that is set against the fledgling Thessalonian community they are continuing in their faith. But second, I think that Paul and Silas’ exuberant thankfulness relates to the fact that the Thessalonians have maintained their commitment to relationship with Paul and Silas. They have not disowned Paul and Silas. The Thessalonians are suffering; Paul and Silas are suffering. Nothing would be easier than to call the whole thing off and to desert each other. But this is not what has happened. They continue to love, and support, and encourage one another. Relationships matter, and particularly when life is tough -- which it most often is -- relationships matter. To know that you are loved, prayed for and supported in the midst of suffering is a wonderful and joyous experience.
Second, that the key to Christian discipleship is love.
That love is central to Thessalonians is evident throughout the letter (1 Thessalonians 1:3), but Paul and Silas’ prayer here is that “the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all” (1 Thessalonians 3:12). This apprentice Christian community have rooted themselves and their relationships in love. And it is love that will ensure their survival in the midst of suffering persecution. Paul elsewhere made that radical claim that without love we are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2), and the Apostle John is emphatic is his assertion that love, rooted in the life and example of the Lord Jesus, is to be demonstrated in practical ways amongst the community (1 John 3:16-17). Indeed, Jesus himself, made clear that the only thing that mattered is to love God, and to love one’s neighbor as you loved yourself (Luke 10:27-28). To be rooted in love and to practice love ensures not just the survival of faith in the midst of difficulty, but the growth and increase of faith.
Third, there is the prayer that the Thessalonians may be strengthened in holiness (1 Thessalonians 3:13).
In some ways holiness is similar to love. Both are expressions of the reality of God. God is love and those who encountered God speak of his holiness. To live a holy life is to live as a living and breathing expression of the love, life, and reality of God. This reality has already been seen in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. However, to live in holiness is not to make life any easier. The trials and persecutions experienced by the Thessalonians will not subside once they intensify their imitation of the life, love, and reality of the Lord Jesus. But rather, Paul turns the Thessalonians attention to a higher and more glorious goal, that of the coming of the Lord Jesus (1 Thessalonians 3:13).
Gospel Lk 21:25-28, 34-36
Today is the first Sunday of Advent, which is also the first Sunday of the new liturgical year. The Advent season includes the four Sundays that precede Christmas. Advent is a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord. In this season, we recall two central elements of our faith: the final coming of the Lord in glory and the incarnation of the Lord in the birth of Jesus. The key themes of the Advent season are watchful waiting, preparation, and justice.
In this new liturgical year, the Gospel of Luke will be the primary Gospel proclaimed (Lectionary Cycle C). Today's Gospel is taken from the last chapter before the passion narrative in which Jesus is teaching in the Temple. We hear Jesus speak to his disciples about the need for vigilance and prayer as they wait for the coming of the Son of Man in glory. This passage marks the conclusion of a lengthy dialogue in which Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, warns about the persecution and tribulations to follow, and identifies the signs that will signal the coming of the Son of Man in glory.
The community for whom Luke wrote his Gospel may have believed that they were already experiencing some of the events Jesus described. Most scholars believe that Luke's Gospel was written after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D. At the time, many Christians interpreted this event as an indication that Jesus' second coming was near.
Though Jesus predicts a time of destruction and fear, Jesus indicates that others will be frightened; Jesus' disciples are not to fear, but are to stand tall. Yet Jesus does not promise deliverance from anxiety or tribulations. He encourages his disciples to pray for strength. The early Christian communities did not find consolation in the promise of a utopia, nor should we. Instead, we find in our Christian faith the means by which we witness to God's unfailing love for us in all circumstances.
Jesus' predictions about the end times may sound dire, but in the next paragraph Luke tells us that people woke early to listen to Jesus' teaching in the Temple area. In his person and in his message, those who heard Jesus found strength and consolation. Like the first Christians, we may encounter events and circumstances that could lead us to despair. Through prayer, however, we find strength and consolation in Jesus' words and in his continuing presence with us to endure all things and to witness to the action of God in our world.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- As we get older, we sometimes experience a new and difficult emotion: worry. Our choices become more difficult, and we worry about making the right decisions. We are aware of more of what is going on around us in the lives of our friends and families and in our world, and we worry if everything will turn out okay. The first step to learning to cope with this emotion is to name the things that worry us. Let's take some quiet time to think about some things we find ourselves worrying about. You may want to write them down.
- In today's Gospel, Jesus talks to his disciples about times and circumstances that many people will find troubling. But he tells his disciples that they are not to be frightened by these things.
- Why does Jesus say that his disciples should not be frightened by the signs he describes? (because these signs indicate that their redemption is near) What does Jesus say that his disciples should do to prepare for these times? (Be vigilant and pray for strength to endure.)
- We don't need to be fearful about difficult things or about changes in our lives either. We can bring these things to God in our prayers, and God will give us the strength to face everything and anything that might happen in our lives.
- Say a prayer asking God for the strength to handle the things that worry us.
St. Therese of Liseux Prayer from “Story of A Soul”
May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.
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Sunday November 25, 2018 The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Lectionary: 161
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dn 7:13-14
As the visions during the night continued, I saw
one like a Son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
when he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
the one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship;
all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 93:1, 1-2, 5
R. The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty.
The LORD is king, in splendor robed;
robed is the LORD and girt about with strength.
R. The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty.
And he has made the world firm,
not to be moved.
Your throne stands firm from of old;
from everlasting you are, O LORD.
R. The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty.
Your decrees are worthy of trust indeed;
holiness befits your house,
O LORD, for length of days.
R. The LORD is king; he is robed in majesty.
Reading 2 Rv 1:5-8
Jesus Christ is the faithful witness,
the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father,
to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
Behold, he is coming amid the clouds,
and every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him.
All the peoples of the earth will lament him.
Yes. Amen.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, " says the Lord God,
"the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty."
Gospel Jn 18:33b-37
Pilate said to Jesus,
"Are you the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?"
Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?"
Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here."
So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?"
Jesus answered, "You say I am a king.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dn 7:13-14
The selection of Daniel 7:13-14 as a lectionary passage for the Feast of Christ the King reflects nearly two millennia of interpretation that identifies Jesus with the “one like a human being” in Daniel 7.
Jesus himself quotes this passage in Mark’s and Matthew’s gospels, foretelling that his disciples “‘will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming with the clouds of heaven’” (Mark 14:62) and, in Matthew, that “all the tribes of the earth … will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30). For Christian audiences, Jesus’s quotation and reinterpretation of Daniel 7:13-14 casts the passage in a Christological light. But to understand the significance of Jesus’s identification with the one like a human being in Daniel seven, it is necessary first to understand the passage in its earlier, Jewish context.
Daniel 7:9-10 and 13-14 shine a spotlight first on the kingship of God, who is portrayed in Daniel’s vision as “an Ancient One,” and second on the eternal kingship that is given to the one like a human being. Kingship and sovereignty are thus central themes in this passage. Heavenly kingship -- and a heavenly kingdom -- are not divorced from earthly kingship. The book of Daniel thematizes the relationship between earthly and heavenly rule, emphasizing that the sovereign authority of earthly kings depends upon the will of God (e.g., Daniel 2:21, 5:32).
Within the book of Daniel, these verses are part of a longer vision report that takes place toward the beginning of the reign of the fictional King Belshazzar (Daniel 7:1). The chronology provides context for Daniel’s vision. Through most of the book, years are reckoned according to the reigns of earthly kings. This way of reckoning time was common throughout the ancient Near East, and is found also in the biblical books of Kings and Chronicles. For the audience of Daniel, this system of dating calls attention to the historical reality that, after Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest of Judah in 587 BCE (Daniel 1:1-2), Judah no longer had its own earthly king. Ruled instead by the Babylonian empire, Judeans were now subject to the whims of kings who neither respected their autonomy as a people nor recognized the power and authority of their God. The stories in Daniel portray the kings of Babylon commanding the worship of idols (chapter 3) and imagining themselves in the place of God (chapters 4, 6).
Readers learn at the conclusion of chapter 5 that the arrogant impiety of King Belshazzar prompts God to bring an end to Belshazzar’s kingship (Daniel 5:26-28). But Judeans still are not free. A new king, Darius the Mede, “receives the kingdom” immediately upon Belshazzar’s death (5:30). This narrative reflects the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus in 539 BCE. At this time, former subjects of the Babylonian Empire, including the Judeans in captivity and at home, became subjects of the Persian Empire.
Daniel’s vision in chapter seven reveals that, in time, yet another empire would follow that of Darius, and the Judean people would continue to suffer under foreign rule. The Macedonian general Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire, including Judea, in 333-332 BCE. After his death, his successors fought to establish their own kingdoms. His generals Ptolemy and Seleukus each founded an empire, the Ptolemaic empire with its capital in Alexandria, Egypt, and the Seleukid Empire with its capitals in Seleukia in Mesopotamia and Antioch in Syria. Judeans were subject first to Ptolemaic rule, then to Seleukid rule.
Between the years 167 and 164 BCE, the Seleukid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes persecuted his Judean subjects, profaned the temple in Jerusalem, halted the regular sacrifices to Yaweh, and established a Seleukid military garrison in Jerusalem. The biblical books Daniel and 1 and 2 Maccabees (the latter two books are considered part of the Apocrypha by Protestants and deuterocanonical by Catholics) provide our main literary sources for the persecution. They describe a program of state terror, murder, and enslavement and the outlawing of Jewish identity, scriptures, and worship.
Daniel seven received its final form during the persecution of Judean Jews by Antiochus IV Epiphanes. The vision of the one like a human being offered hope to Jews who had been subject to foreign rule for over four centuries and now were victims of state terror and persecution. Even as they saw their houses burned, their loved ones tortured and slaughtered, and their temple profaned by an “abomination that desolates” (Daniel 9:27, 11:31, 12:11), Daniel’s vision allowed them to see something else: the end of empires, the sovereign power of God, and their own future kingdom. The king who persecuted them would soon pass away. His kingdom, portrayed as a monstrous, mutated beast (7:7-8), would perish (7:11), just as the kingdoms before it had done (7:12). In its place God would establish a new and everlasting kingdom that would not pass away (7:14, 18, 27). It would be given not only to the one like a human being, but also “to the people of the holy ones of the Most High” (7:27).
The other kingdoms were characterized by violence, destruction, exploitation, and oppression. The final, eternal kingdom would be oriented toward justice (Daniel 7:10, 22, 26). It has its origin at the very throne of God.
In this week’s Gospel lection, Jesus declares, “my kingdom is not from this world” (John 18:36). It is from heaven. This statement describes its origin, not its scope. Do not imagine Christ’s kingship in abstraction from earthly politics. In the here and now, many still suffer political domination, state terror, and persecution. Others exercise authority and participate willingly in political systems. God gave sovereignty to this Human One in response to the evil perpetrated by empires and the suffering of God’s people. In so doing, God sought to free and empower the oppressed and inaugurate just rule on earth as in heaven.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 93:1, 1-2, 5
The interpretation of Psalm 93, apart from the vexing problems of setting and context, is straightforward. Declarations of the eternal nature of Yahweh's reign ("from everlasting" verse 2; "forevermore," literally "for length of days" verse 5), as well as its stability ("established" verse 1 and "never be moved" verse 2 are the same word in Hebrew; "very sure" verse 5) frame two verses employing watery imagery, whether of a mythological or natural quality (3), to reassert the supreme majesty of Yahweh (4). Thus, Psalm 93 serves as a hymn that praises Yahweh's kingship. That kingly power is illustrated in three ways:
1. Verses 1-2 announce the stability the world enjoys as a direct result of God's rule.
2. Verses 3-4 attest God's defeat of the chaos represented by the watery abyss. Their power is indicated through the device of "staircase" parallelism in which the scheme is ABC, ABD, ABE where A is the "flood," B is the verb "lift up," and C, D, and E move to a climax after the repeated initial subject and verb. Nevertheless, Yahweh is "more majestic" than even this most powerful and unpredictably chaotic force.
3. Verse 5 subtly shifts from creation to governance. Yahweh's "decrees" match his reign in stability as they are "very sure."
Regardless of what one thinks about such matters, there are two moments in the history of the universe when one can literally say Yahweh malak: at the creation of the universe and at the end of history. The Sunday of Christ the King liturgically celebrates the latter of these as the church year comes to an end. Daniel 7:14 announces "to him was given dominion and glory and kingship." Does our psalm, emphasizing the former, say anything less?
Reading 2 Rv 1:5-8
And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood.
Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness ... There is a powerful New Testament emphasis upon the faith of Jesus Christ, as in Paul's writings, especially in Galatians 2:16,20; 3:22; Romans 3:22,26; Ephesians 3:12; Philippians 3:9; etc. There is a false impression that since Christ was deity incarnate he did not need to have faith; but in our Lord's humiliation as a man, faith in the Father was his predominate characteristic. All hope of salvation rests ultimately in the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the faithful witness in the sense of delivering accurately to mankind the word and the commandment which the Father gave him on behalf of humanity.
The firstborn from the dead ... The New Testament records the resurrection of Dorcas, the daughter of Jairus, Eutychus, the widow's son at Nain, and that of Lazarus in addition to the resurrection of Christ. In addition, there were "many of the saints" who came out of their graves following the resurrection of Christ (seven resurrections). In what sense, then, is Christ the firstborn from the dead? He alone came back from death never to die again; and besides this, there is the inherent significance of his being the first of many to triumph over death. As Beckwith put it: "The language implies the future resurrection of the saints."[15]
The ruler of the kings of the earth ... Christ is here spoken of as the possessor of all power and authority, fully in keeping with the Saviour's words, "All authority in heaven and upon earth has been given unto me" (Matthew 28:18). It should be noted that this authority belongs to Christ in the present time and perpetually. He is not planning to start ruling at some future time; he rules now! A great deal of the misunderstanding of this prophecy, as well as of the whole New Testament, derives from a failure to take account of this tremendous truth. Many have difficulty believing that Christ rules now; because, as they say, the world is in such a dreadful mess. However, the world was in a dreadful condition in the days of Nebuchadnezzar, who had to eat grass with the beasts of the field for seven years to learn that "The Most High rules in the kingdom of men" (Daniel 4:25). As for the reason why God's rule permits such atrocious wickedness on earth, it is clear enough that God permits it because it is in keeping with his purpose. The reign of Christ now in this present time will be more extensively treated under the "thousand years" interpretation (Revelation 20:2). There is no way in which this student of the Lord's word can accept such a declaration as that of Hal Lindsey, who wrote: "Even though Christ has the right to rule the earth, he isn't exercising this authority over kings and kingdoms at this time."[16] If Christ is not exercising his authority, how can the church receive his promise that Christ will be with us "even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:18-20)? Yes, despite the inability of some to see and recognize it, Christ is ruling now and will continue to rule until the last enemy is destroyed (1 Corinthians 15:25).
Unto him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by his blood ... Of significance are the present tense (loveth) and past tense (loosed), showing that Christ's love is continuous, and that the redemption mentioned is a past accomplishment. Since it is an undeniable truth that Christ keeps on saving the saved until at last they are saved eternally in heaven, it is evident that the initial salvation in conversion is the redemption that John had in view here; therefore, the KJV rendition of this as "washed us" is likewise correct. On what the scholars consider sufficient textual evidence, this was changed to "loosed us" in subsequent versions. The Greek words for these two expressions are almost identical in appearance; and, furthermore, it is immaterial exactly which is the original reading. As Hinds said:
Both words state true facts. That Christ washes us, cleanses us, through the merits of his blood is unquestionably true, as stated in Revelation 7:14. But by Christ's blood we are loosed from our sins also.[17]
The passage in Revelation 7:14, as well as the overtones of the whole context, incline us to accept the opinion of Carpenter: "The general tone of thought would lead us to prefer "washed" as the true reading."[18] The slavish following of certain preferred manuscripts is not necessarily an infallible method of determining accuracy.
Gospel Jn 18:33b-37
This Sunday is the last Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year. On this Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. Each year we set aside this Sunday to reflect upon this title that we have given to Jesus. In Lectionary Cycle C, we read a portion of the passion from the Gospel of John, which is also part of the Gospel reading proclaimed each year on Good Friday.
In John’s Gospel, Pilate is shown in a more favorable light than in the other Gospels. In today’s reading, we hear one of two dialogues between Jesus and Pilate that are reported in John’s Gospel. Pilate questions Jesus about the charges brought against him. Caiaphas and the high priests have charged Jesus with a political crime, one that would require a punishment of death. Pilate distances himself from the Jewish leaders who accuse Jesus; he is not a Jew, and he seems to want little to do with this Jewish affair.
In his responses to Pilate’s questions, Jesus distinguishes his kingdom from the political powers of this world. King and kingdom may be appropriate terms for Jesus’ mission and promise, but only by analogy. Jesus is king, but not the kind of king we imagine or expect. He was certainly not the kind of king Pilate feared he might be.
Jesus refers to a kingdom that does not belong to this world. This has been mentioned earlier in John’s Gospel. Recall that in his prayer during the Last Supper discourse (see John 17:6-18), Jesus prayed for his disciples who are in the world but do not belong to the world. Yet like Jesus, they are sent into the world for the world’s salvation. In today’s reading, we see Jesus identify the final proof that his kingdom is not of this world: If his kingdom were of this world, then there would be people fighting to save him. Again we hear echoes of John’s theme—salvation is worked out through a cosmic battle. It is helpful to return to the first chapter of John’s Gospel to understand the context for Jesus’ words to Pilate. Jesus came into the world, but the world did not know him. In John’s language, the world prefers the darkness, and yet the light will not be overcome by the darkness.
Truth has been another important theme in John’s Gospel. We see it emphasized in the conclusion of the dialogue between Jesus and Pilate. Those who know the truth will recognize Jesus as king and will know how to interpret this insight. Yet Jesus’ kingship was hidden from many of his contemporaries. Only those chosen, those who have the eyes of faith, are able to see. As modern disciples of Jesus, we also struggle at times to recognize Jesus as king. Today’s Gospel invites us to see with eyes of faith that we might recognize that Jesus, through his crucifixion and death, is indeed king and Savior of all.
Making the Connection
- When you were younger, did you ever pretend to be a prince or princess, a king or queen? What did you do? (dressed up in special clothes, told other people what to do, protected your kingdom from enemies) Why do people pretend to be royalty? (because it makes us feel special, because it is fun)
- Today is the feast of Christ the King. Was Jesus a king in the way that you imagined when you pretended to be a king or queen? (No.) Jesus was and is a very different kind of king. But we can use what we imagined about earthly kings and queens to understand what we mean when we call Jesus our King.
- Why does Pilate think that Jesus might be a king? (That is the accusation made against Jesus by the Jewish authorities.) Does Pilate treat Jesus as if he believes he is royalty? (No.) What does Jesus say about his kingdom? (It does not belong to this world; those who know the truth will recognize Jesus as a king.)
- We believe that Jesus is our king, but his kingdom is heaven. He is a heavenly king who shows us how to live. All who believe in him want to obey him because they know he teaches us how to be truly happy.
- How is Jesus like the royalty we pretended to be? (He is powerful; he protects us from enemies; he can help us when we are in need; he wants us to obey him.) How is Jesus different from the royalty we pretended to be? (He served others rather than making others serve him.) How do we show that we honor Jesus as king? (We ask Jesus to help us, as subjects ask for help from a king; we obey Jesus; we thank him for the protection and love he shows us; we don’t let anything or anyone have more importance in our lives than Jesus.)
- Conclude in prayer that we will always believe that Jesus is king and that we will follow him in all we say and do. Pray the Lord’s Prayer.
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Sunday November 18, 2018 Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 158
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dn 12:1-3
In those days, I Daniel,
heard this word of the Lord:
"At that time there shall arise
Michael, the great prince,
guardian of your people;
it shall be a time unsurpassed in distress
since nations began until that time.
At that time your people shall escape,
everyone who is found written in the book.
"Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake;
some shall live forever,
others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.
"But the wise shall shine brightly
like the splendor of the firmament,
and those who lead the many to justice
shall be like the stars forever."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord!
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord!
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord!
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. You are my inheritance, O Lord!
Reading 2 Heb 10:11-14, 18
Brothers and sisters:
Every priest stands daily at his ministry,
offering frequently those same sacrifices
that can never take away sins.
But this one offered one sacrifice for sins,
and took his seat forever at the right hand of God;
now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool.
For by one offering
he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated.
Where there is forgiveness of these,
there is no longer offering for sin.
Gospel Mk 13:24-32
Jesus said to his disciples:
"In those days after that tribulation
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
"And then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in the clouds'
with great power and glory,
and then he will send out the angels
and gather his elect from the four winds,
from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.
"Learn a lesson from the fig tree.
When its branch becomes tender and sprouts leaves,
you know that summer is near.
In the same way, when you see these things happening,
know that he is near, at the gates.
Amen, I say to you,
this generation will not pass away
until all these things have taken place.
Heaven and earth will pass away,
but my words will not pass away.
"But of that day or hour, no one knows,
neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dn 12:1-3
“At that time”. This phrase connects this verse to the tumultuous events of chapter 11. When those terrible things take place, God has a plan to save his people.
“there shall arise Michael, the great prince, guardian of your people” . We first heard of Michael in 10:13, when “a man clothed in linen”—presumably an angel (10:5)—sought to reassure Daniel. He said that the prince of the kingdom of Persia had opposed him, but Michael dealt with that dark prince. He then said, there is none who holds with me against these, but Michael your prince (10:21). In the New Testament, Michael is portrayed as fighting Satan (Jude 1:9; Revelation 12:7).
Jewish tradition speaks of seven archangels, four of whom—Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel—were allowed to stand in God’s presence. While the duties of the archangels are not clearly delineated, the idea seems to be that God placed them in command of the great host of God’s angels to do God’s bidding. It shall be a time unsurpassed in distress since the nation began until that time.
This time of anguish would be when Antiochus IV tried to “profane the sanctuary, even the fortress, and shall take away the continual burnt offering. He will defeat Egypt and “go forth with great fury to destroy and utterly to sweep away many”.
At that time your people shall escape.
This is the point. In spite of this bad king’s power and wealth, “he shall come to his end, and none will help him”. His power and wealth will not protect him against the justice of God, who will deliver his people. Judas Maccabeus and his family will defeat Antiochus and his armies—a true David-and-Goliath kind of victory.
“everyone who is found written in the book”. This would be the Book of Life (a phrase that is used in Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27). That is a book in which God records the names of the righteous. It is “a list of those who belong to God’s people, the citizen list of the true Jerusalem”.
It is these people—those whose names are written in the Book of Life—who shall be delivered.
“Many (rab·bim) of those”. This Hebrew word, rab·bim, means “many.” Some scholars interpret rab·bim in this context to emphasize the selectiveness of those who will awake to everlasting life. Other scholars feel that the emphasis is on the large number rather than the selectiveness.
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, others to reproach and everlasting disgrace”. In the Old Testament, “sleep” is sometimes used as a metaphor for “death” (Job 14:12; Psalm 13:3; Jeremiah 51:39, 57).
This is one of only a few references to resurrection in the Old Testament—although the word “resurrection” doesn’t appear until the New Testament. Other allusions to resurrection in the Old Testament include:
• Isaiah 25:8 (“He will destroy death forever, The Lord will wipe away tears from all faces”).
• Isaiah 26:19 (“But your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise!”).
• Ezekiel 37:12-14 “Therefore, prophesy and say to them: Thus says the Lord GOD: Look! I am going to open your graves; I will make you come up out of your graves, my people, and bring you back to the land of Israel. You shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and make you come up out of them, my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may come to life, and I will settle you in your land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD. I have spoken; I will do it—oracle of the LORD.
• Hosea 6:2 (“He will revive us after two days. On the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence”).
But, for the most part, Old Testament Jews tended to think of living on through their children rather than living eternally in heaven.
In the New Testament, the Jewish people were divided on the subject of resurrection. Pharisees believed in resurrection, but Sadducees did not (Matthew 22:23; Mark 12:18).
“But those with insight shall shine brightly”. In this verse, “Those who are wise” stands parallel to “those who turn many to righteousness”—which suggests that wise people are righteous people. It takes a wise person to lead people to wisdom and a righteous person to lead people to righteousness.
However, we should not hear this to mean that “those who are wise” constitute an exclusive elite. Spiritual wisdom isn’t limited to those few people who enjoy a high IQ, but is a characteristic of every faithful believer. Spiritual wisdom isn’t manifested in mental gymnastics, but in a life lived faithfully for God.
“like the splendor of the firmament and those who lead the many to justice shall be like stars forever”. People have been fascinated by the bright lights of the sky—the sun, moon, and stars—from the beginning of time. Many ancients worshiped the stars, although Jewish law forbade such practice (Deuteronomy 4:19; 17:2-5).
Those of us who live and work indoors, surrounded at night by bright light, can barely fathom the impact that the moon and stars had on primitive people. Their nights would take on a quality of darkness that most people today never experience. On a clear night, they would see millions of stars—most of which would never show through our light-pollution.
The stars were not only beautiful; they were useful too. The ancients found their way around the darkness by moonlight and starlight. They learned early that they could use stars for navigation. Stars might seem to move across the night sky, but the ancients knew that the stars were never out of place. If they seemed out of place, it was only because the observer didn’t understand them—or because the observer was out of place.
Now, Daniel’s vision promises that the faithful shall shine like those stars—beautiful—dependable—useful—eternal. People would admire them. They would learn to guide by the light of their faithful mentors. Faithful people would bless all those who observed their lives, just as we are all blessed by the lights that God has placed in the sky.
Surely with this verse in mind, Jesus concluded his Parable of the Weeds by saying: “Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Matthew 13:43).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 16:5, 8, 9-10, 11
Psalm 16 is a lovely and eloquent poetic rendering of Israel’s radical monotheism. Each of its sections offers a variation on the theme of “no other gods” or “the LORD alone.”
Verse 1 features the major psalmic concept of “refuge,” which is introduced in Psalm 2:12 and appears frequently, especially in Book I (Psalms 1-41; see 5:11; 7:1; 11:1; 14:6; and more). To “take refuge” in God means to trust God unreservedly. This, in turn, means to submit the self fully to God, as the psalmist indicates that she or he has done by addressing God as “my Lord” in verse 2.
The theme of “the LORD alone” culminates in the conclusion to verse 2. The word “good” refers to the resources, material and other things, that make life possible; so the psalmist affirms that his or her life derives from and depends solely upon God.
Verses 3-4 are notoriously difficult, and translations vary considerably. But general acceptance is that the psalmist expresses exclusive loyalty to God by honoring those who honor God (verse 3), as well as by avoiding every semblance of idolatry (verse 4).
In contrast to those who drink idolatrous offerings (verse 4), the LORD is the psalmist’s only “cup” (verse 5). But the real unifying feature of verses 5-6 is the language of land-settlement that is drawn from the book of Joshua -- “”portion” (Joshua 19:9), “lot” (18:6, 8), “boundary lines” (17:5, “portions” and “heritage” (14:3; 17:6; “inheritance”. Because land represented access to life, the affirmation again is that the psalmist’s life derives from and depends solely upon God.
The affirmation “I bless the LORD” (Psalm 16:7) reinforces the psalmist’s submission to God (see verse 2), since “bless” seems originally to have meant something like to “kneel in obeisance to.” The mention of “counsel” and round-the-clock instruction recalls Psalm 1 (see “advice” in 1:1 and “night” in 1:2), which opens the Psalter by orienting readers exclusively to God and God’s will, as a matter of life and death. Verse 8 continues the focus on the constancy of God’s presence, which proves to be the psalmist’s sole source of stability (see 15:5, and compare 13:4 where “shaken” represents the same Hebrew root).
The variation on the theme of “the LORD alone” involves anthropological language in verse 9: “heart,” “soul” (more literally “glory”), and “body.” The psalmist’s whole being is involved in the unreserved commitment to God. So the psalmist does what all Israel does in 14:7 in responses to God’s life-giving presence: “is glad” and “rejoices.” The Hebrew root underlying “secure” (verse 9) is ordinarily translated “trust,” reinforcing the opening affirmation of refuge found in God. The result is life (verse 10; “Sheol” and “the Pit” are names for the realm of the dead).
Not surprisingly, “the path of life” is mentioned explicitly in verse 11. This verse serves well as a culmination, since its vocabulary recalls earlier sections of the poem -- see “pleasures” and “pleasant places” (verses 6, 11), “right hand” (verses 8, 11), and “joy”/”rejoices” (verses 9, 11). The repetition summarizes and reinforces the message of the whole; that is, the psalmist’s joyful affirmation that his or her life derives from and is dependent upon “the LORD alone.”
The appearance of Psalm 16 in the lectionary is an opportunity both to appreciate its artistic beauty and to open ourselves to the challenge of Israel’s radical monotheism. In our pervasively self-centered context, for instance, what difference might it make if we entertained the conviction that life is not something we achieve, but rather something we receive as a gift from God? What difference might it make if we viewed the life-sustaining resources that most of us enjoy not as something we have earned or deserve, but rather as evidence of God’s goodness? Might a pervasive sense of entitlement begin to be replaced by a posture of humility and gratitude?
Reading 2 Heb 10:11-14, 18
Read in the context of post-modernism, Hebrews 10, seems to call into question our assumptions around the so-called means of grace practices that all Christians engage in during times of worship. The sharp contrast between the repeated sacrifices done by the Jewish priest and the once-and-for-all sacrifice that Jesus did serves as a reminder of the true nature of the identity of Jesus as the one who establishes a new covenant. As partakers of Holy Communion, Christians are reminded of the presence of Jesus Christ in the bread and wine elements.
The preacher of Hebrews returns once again to the basic text, which is Psalm 110:1-4 of which an eternal priest like Melchizedek was to remain seated until his enemies were put down. Having already offered his once-for-all sacrifice, he sits in the rightful place, “at the right hand of God,” (Hebrews 10:12a). What then should Christians do or what are the implications of what the Hebrew preacher is saying in these verses? There seems to be three elements that can assist us to interpret these verses in a practical way. First, sacrifices are meaningful when they give people what they need, rather than what they want. Since Jesus came as a high Priest, he came as John claims, to “have life and have it abundantly.” It is crucial to remember the presence of Jesus Christ in all that we do and say. Second, we must prepare ourselves to receive, be it the effects of baptism or Holy Communion, and we can only do this after prayer. Prayer is absolutely necessary for spiritual and faith transformation and without prayer, all that we do in our churches slides into meaningless and powerless rituals. Third, people must pray for Holiness (Psalm 51:1-2). The problem in our postmodern era and in some parts of the world is that there are some Christians who believe that there is nothing to confess while they live in sin, yet God commands us to “be perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
The following verses of Hebrews 10:15-18 are probably problematic to most Christians because the mention of the “Holy Spirit” as the one that testifies about what God through Jesus says, tends to be difficult for people to wrestle with. Yet, the power of the written word and Jesus’ power is manifested in the work of the Holy Spirit, which is the cornerstone of biblical interpretation, worship, and all that takes place in the Church. Like Christians, Jewish preachers and writers attributed the inspiration of Scripture to the “Holy Spirit,” who in ancient Judaism was viewed as the Spirit of prophecy (Jeremiah 31:31-34).
Hebrews 10 reminds us to always remember that Jesus is more superior to any other priest, be it a Levitical or modern day priest.
The theological notion that Jesus is a high priest before God leads interpreters to wrestle with the idea of a heavenly tabernacle of which Jesus Christ is the embodiment (Exodus 25:9; 40; 26:30). While the notion of colonization and decolonization do not appear in Hebrews, readers may be intrigued to notice how verses 15-18, are a call to be decolonized from colonial powers of culture, religion, and empires. The promise of verse 18 is that the new covenant established by Jesus Christ, the eternal priest, was first and foremost for the forgiveness of sins, and one’s sins will never be remembered because of the ‘atonement’ that was made by Jesus. In the postmodern period, the gospel of Jesus Christ has one goal in mind, simply to decolonize families, individuals, churches, and world communities from religious, cultural, and imperial colonization. Hebrews has one goal in mind and that goal is to rescue souls from spiritual death; restoring and nourishing believers to eternal life through Jesus Christ. Thus, being a believer is equal to being a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). The problem for our time is that there are many Christians who do not believe in what Jesus Christ did, and consequently their faith in Jesus is not well established.
The theology of Hebrews is that forgiveness is for everyone no matter how wicked one is. The key is simply to confess and believe in what Jesus did. The message that Jesus has compassion for everyone is profoundly important for readers and interpreters of Hebrews. Hebrews summons Christians to a life of constant spiritual alertness, engagement, and striving to be Holy and perfect (Hebrews 12:2).
Hebrews 10:19-25 are indisputably a call to a new form of worshiping God, one in which faith in Jesus allows believers to have access to God without waiting for a priest. The superiority of Jesus’ sacrifice opened a new door for believers to have obedience in both death and resurrection of the messiah. In verse 21, there is an allusion to Jesus’ superiority over Moses and this helps interpreters to appreciate the magnitude of the ‘Christ event.’ Of theological depth is the language of “Drawing near,” which signals an invitation to enter into a relationship with God (Hebrews 7:19), as well as availing oneself in the presence of God (Hebrews 10:19-20).
Gospel Mk 13:24-32
This Sunday is the second to last Sunday of our liturgical year. As we approach the end of the Church year, our Gospel invites us to consider Jesus’ predictions and teaching about the end of the world. In the context of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ words about this are spoken to his disciples as he prepares them for his passion and death.
Before we consider Jesus’ words, it is important to note the political backdrop against which many think Mark’s Gospel was written. Most scholars concur that Mark wrote his Gospel for Christians living in or near Rome about 30 to 40 years after the death of Jesus. This was a time of political turmoil in Rome. Some Christians experienced persecution by the Romans during the reign of the emperor Nero (about 64 A.D.). Jewish revolutionaries rebelled against the Romans, which led the Romans to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. In this time of political turmoil and persecution, many in Mark’s community might have wondered if the end times predicted by Jesus were in fact quite near.
Last Sunday we heard Jesus’ observation about the contributions being made to the temple treasury and the example of sacrificial giving that he saw in the poor widow’s offering. If we had been reading Mark’s Gospel continuously, we would have heard Jesus predict the destruction of the Temple, his teaching about the costs of discipleship, and the woes that will accompany the end times. Finally, we would have heard Jesus instruct his disciples about the need for watchfulness so that they will not be caught unprepared for this final day of judgment.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues this teaching by offering his disciples signs to look for that will indicate that the coming of the Son of Man is near. His words and images draw upon Old Testament imagery, especially images found in the Book of Daniel. Next, Jesus offers the lesson of the fig tree, a parable that teaches that if one knows how to read the signs, one can be prepared for the end times. Jesus also teaches, however, that no one knows when the end time will come, except the Father. In the verses that follow this reading in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus continues to warn his disciples to be on watch for this end time.
Jesus’ words are not spoken to frighten his disciples, nor should they frighten us. Rather, they are offered to prepare us for the changes we will experience during our lifetimes and at the end times. Our consolation and hope is found in the lasting nature of Jesus’ words and God’s never-ending love for us.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- When predicting the weather, what signs are used? (temperature, wind direction, clouds, and so on) What do you predict the weather will be tomorrow? Are your predictions likely to be accurate? Why or why not? (They might be accurate because we heard a forecaster give the weather report; they might not be accurate because we don’t know how to interpret the signs; and so on.)
- We can make a guess about what the weather will be tomorrow, but we’re not really making a weather prediction. Without the help of trained meteorologists, it is unlikely that our predictions will be accurate. If they are, it is because we have read the forecast of others very well.
- Just as signs help meteorologists predict the weather, Jesus told us there will be signs that will indicate that the end of the world is near. Think about this Gospel.
- What signs does Jesus say will signal the end times? (the sun darkening, stars falling, the coming of the Son of Man, and so on) Do you think we will be able to predict the end times? Who does Jesus say knows when these things will happen? (only God)
- We don’t know when the things that Jesus talks about will happen, but we know that they will happen. Why? (because we can trust Jesus’ words to us)
- Jesus does not want us to be frightened by these signs, nor does he want us to be fearful about the fact that the world will one day come to an end. Many things in the world may change, but Jesus’ words to us and God’s love for us will never change.
- Let’s end by thanking God for the great, unending love he showed to us by sending us Jesus. Pray together the Glory Be to the Father
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
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Sunday November 11, 2018 Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 155
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 17:10-16
In those days, Elijah the prophet went to Zarephath.
As he arrived at the entrance of the city,
a widow was gathering sticks there; he called out to her,
"Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink."
She left to get it, and he called out after her,
"Please bring along a bit of bread."
She answered, "As the LORD, your God, lives,
I have nothing baked; there is only a handful of flour in my jar
and a little oil in my jug.
Just now I was collecting a couple of sticks,
to go in and prepare something for myself and my son;
when we have eaten it, we shall die."
Elijah said to her, "Do not be afraid.
Go and do as you propose.
But first make me a little cake and bring it to me.
Then you can prepare something for yourself and your son.
For the LORD, the God of Israel, says,
'The jar of flour shall not go empty,
nor the jug of oil run dry,
until the day when the LORD sends rain upon the earth.'"
She left and did as Elijah had said.
She was able to eat for a year, and he and her son as well;
the jar of flour did not go empty,
nor the jug of oil run dry,
as the LORD had foretold through Elijah.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia
The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
the LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia
The fatherless and the widow he sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia
Reading 2 Heb 9:24-28
Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands,
a copy of the true one, but heaven itself,
that he might now appear before God on our behalf.
Not that he might offer himself repeatedly,
as the high priest enters each year into the sanctuary
with blood that is not his own;
if that were so, he would have had to suffer repeatedly
from the foundation of the world.
But now once for all he has appeared at the end of the ages
to take away sin by his sacrifice.
Just as it is appointed that human beings die once,
and after this the judgment, so also Christ,
offered once to take away the sins of many,
will appear a second time, not to take away sin
but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him.
Gospel Mk 12:38-44
In the course of his teaching Jesus said to the crowds,
"Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes
and accept greetings in the marketplaces,
seats of honor in synagogues,
and places of honor at banquets.
They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext
recite lengthy prayers.
They will receive a very severe condemnation."
He sat down opposite the treasury
and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury.
Many rich people put in large sums.
A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.
Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them,
"Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more
than all the other contributors to the treasury.
For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth,
but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had,
her whole livelihood."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 17:10-16
On the surface, 1 Kings 17:10-16 tells a familiar story of a prophet who performs miracles.
A widow and her son, on the brink of starvation, are provided with an oil jug that will not run dry and a stash of grain that will never be empty. Such a surface reading misses the import of the specific details of this text, details that provide surprising hooks into the contemporary world.
This passage is part of the introduction of the prophet, Elijah, into the books of Kings. The first cycle of Elijah stories (1 Kings 17:1–19:18) centers on the nation’s economic collapse as the result of a severe drought that ruins crops and decimates the population. In the opening verse of the cycle, the reader is told that Israel’s God, Yahweh, has sent the drought.
Images of food and water permeate these chapters. The cycle is framed by two scenes where God feeds Elijah (17:4-7 and 19:5-9). The cycle depicts the interplay of religion and politics during national crisis. The drought is the result of the religious policies of Ahab, and it is prolonged by a lengthy government-sponsored contest between prophets of competing religions. This contest with the prophets of Baal in chapter 18 is won, not when Elijah calls fire down from heaven, but when clouds appear on the horizon (18:44-45).
The story of the widow of Zarephath precedes this contest. The story illustrates the severity of the drought, while the woman’s plight humanizes the casualties of this tragic interplay of politics and religion. The Elijah narrative then commences with a clear focus on those most vulnerable: a widow and her child.
In today’s world, the statistics on women and children in situations of famine are sobering. Human rights organizations note that the effects of natural disaster, including climate change, are felt most acutely by women and children. Oxfam International’s film, “Sisters on the Planet,” includes the story of a Ugandan woman named Martina during a time of severe drought (http://www.oxfam.org/en/campaigns/climatechange/sisters-planet).
Her story eerily echoes the passage from 1 Kings. Both stories open with the women gathering sticks to cook what meager food they can find. Both stories hint that the drought might be the result of a prophetic curse. In both narratives, the audience experiences the severity of the drought through the heartbreak of women unable to adequately feed their children.
Both stories require the audience to have compassion for the ways decisions in our homeland affect women in other parts of the world. One of the important details of the story in 1 Kings is that this woman is a Phoenician. Phoenicia was a rich country just north of Israel. Elijah is sent by God to this one woman. The effects of the drought are felt beyond the borders of Israel.
The story of the Phoenician widow sets up an ironic contrast with the other female figure who appears later in the cycle, Ahab’s queen, Jezebel, was also Phoenician and whose religious fervor for her native gods (Baal and Asherah) led to Ahab’s religious policies. The story of a poor widow from Phoenicia becomes a fitting contrast to the damaging effects of the workings of a rich Phoenician wife.
Although the story seems to be about Elijah, his actions are rather problematic on their own. His command to the woman to feed him the last of her grain is shocking. Why would she acquiesce? Did she feel threatened by him? She was, after all, alone and vulnerable. Or was she simply convinced that his prophetic promise of food (17:14) was authentic? The text does not say.
- Saving a Phoenician woman demonstrates God’s care for the world. Although God will judge the Phoenician Jezebel, this is not a judgment on all Phoenicians.
- In this story about competing religious claims, Yahweh’s ability both to commence and to end drought undercuts the claim of both Israelites and foreigners that Baal is the only effective weather god, not only in Israel, but also across the globe.
- This is a story about the effects of economic injustice. The powerful, like Ahab and Jezebel are not starving, although they live in the same drought-stricken area. While they claim that the gods are on their side, the story reveals that God is on the side of those ignored by policy-makers.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 146:7, 8-9, 9-10
Worship is obviously an appropriate concept to anchor Psalm 146, the first of the concluding five "hallelujah" psalms and a fine example of the "hymn" genre.
Providence and Praise
The call to praise is reinforced by the abundant references to the covenant name of the Lord throughout the psalm. The saturation of God's name is itself a testament to the ubiquitous providence of God. While it is true that many psalms praise God for specific, miraculous acts of individual and national deliverance, the argument here is precisely that these divine acts are not special interventions, not extraordinary instances of divine compassion, but rather Israel's characteristic language of Yahweh's providential presence in the world.
Yahweh is the one "who made heaven and earth . . . who keeps faith forever . . ." (verse 6). Scholars are therefore correct to suggest some influence on this psalm from the biblical wisdom traditions, for they contributed to Israel's theology of creation and providence. Hence, one can see why this psalm would become part of Judaism's "daily morning prayers."
What should be emphasized with equal seriousness is that God's characteristic involvement with creation and history has a certain focus in this psalm, namely the oppressed and hungry, the prisoners (verse 7), the blind, and those who are bowed down (verse 8), and the stranger, orphan, and widow (verse 9). Israel's law and prophets called the nation to account for its treatment of the most vulnerable members of society, and a Christian reading of this psalm rightly sees a connection with Jesus' programmatic Nazareth sermon (Luke 4:16-29). God's providence is praised not only in Jesus' miracles, which are the first fruits of the restoration; it is also profoundly united to our understanding of the incarnation and crucifixion, in Jesus' complete identification with humankind and his complete self-giving. We can think of the way the motion picture, Seven Pounds, vividly portrays Ben Thomas (Will Smith) as a Christ-figure who gives himself -- literally -- to create healing and restoration in others.
The Infinite King and Finite Princes
Psalm 146 provides energy to the theme of God's providential involvement by linking it to God's righteous rule from Zion (verse 10) and presenting a stark contrast between this king who "will reign forever" and "princes . . . mortals in whom there is no hope" (v. 3; see also Psalm 118:9).
"Princes" come under particular indictment because, as nobles, they were in a position to effect change for the poor and oppressed. The prophets often laid responsibility for Israel's woes at the feet of its various leaders (Isaiah 3:14; Jeremiah 23; Ezekiel 34; Hosea 5:1). Yahweh's royal office is highlighted, therefore, because he alone enacts true justice within history.
However, translating this judgment into our socio-political system, apart from a fully developed biblical theology of leadership, might lead to unwarranted applications. The hymn does not say that leaders are unnecessary or that they are not useful. It does warn against trusting them for salvation.
Reading 2 Heb 9:24-28
The letter to the Hebrews paints a series of contrasts between Jesus, our great high priest, and the sacrificial system of atonement that pre-figured his redeeming work.
Today's lesson sums up these contrasts with an image of Christ's heavenly, final and effective intercession for us sinners, resulting in the tremendous good news of God's complete and lasting forgiveness.
In order to get to this good news, we need to wrestle a bit with the author's language of blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins (9:22, 25-26), of the earthly realm as a copy of heavenly realities (8:5; 9:23-24; 10:1), of the end of the age (9:26), and of the second coming of Christ (9:28). These ideas are not part of the currency of our everyday conversation. They assume an understanding of ancient Israel's atonement ritual during the Exodus, even prior to the building of the Temple under David.
At that time, the place of worship was a tent with an inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 9:1-5; Exodus 25-30), where the high priest entered once a year to offer sacrifices for himself and for the sins of the people (Hebrews 9:6-10). Drawing on Exodus 25:40, the author of Hebrews says that this sanctuary, and the sacrificial system that went with it, was a copy of a heavenly reality (Hebrews 8:5); drawing on Greek Platonic philosophy, Hebrews adds that the copy was inferior to the reality towards which it points. That reality is Christ's self-offering on our behalf (Hebrews 8:7), as the one who is both priest and sacrificial victim (Hebrews 9:23-24).
This vivid picture of the ultimate reality towards which the Jewish system of atonement points lies behind today's text, which makes four points about Christ:
- Christ has entered into heaven to intercede for all humanity through his own self-offering.
- Christ's action is "once-for-all," unique, unrepeatable and fully effective.
- Christ's first appearance and self-offering signal "the end of the age."
- Christ will come a second time to save those who eagerly await him.
The idea of Christ's bloody sacrifice is offensive to many modern sensibilities; we may feel that we have advanced culturally beyond such rituals. Yet a moment's thought will illuminate the many ways in which we still sacrifice each other, using other people as scapegoats for our own wrong and guilt. This happens in families and communities, when one member or group becomes the outcast whose expulsion makes everyone else heave a sigh of relief.
For example, in Ian McEwan's novel (later movie), Atonement, a young handy man bears the guilt for a rape committed by a member of the upper class. In Toni Morrison's novel, The Bluest Eye, a helpless young African-American girl becomes the scapegoat of the family and the community. Our sacrificial systems are subtle, but nonetheless real and destructive. Christ's final self-offering on the cross means we have place to put our guilt without sacrificing each other.
We also encounter the contrast between imitation and reality in relationship to matters of faith. The popularity of books and movies such as The Da Vinci Code testify to a widespread fear of being "taken in" by religious beliefs, sold a bill of goods by the church. Hebrews tells us that it is crucial to distinguish rightly between imitation and reality, which means, ultimately, listening to the lonely night questions about what really matters. What really matters, says Hebrews, is what Christ does in the presence of God, reconciling us to the divine presence. Only God can really deliver on God's promises. There is room here for both appropriate cynicism about human pretensions, and boundless faith in God.
Christ's once-for-all redemption, contrasted with the repeated sacrifices of the old system of atonement, removes the church from the business of mediating between God and humanity. This means that the church is not a system of atonement. A human system of dealing with sin has to be repetitive because, as a mere imitation of divine reality, it cannot have any lasting effects. But since Christ has effected forgiveness once-for-all, such a system is now obsolete, superfluous and misleading.
What a difference it makes to experience the church as a community of forgiven sinners, who don't need to sacrifice each other, whose consciences are cleansed "from dead works to worship the living God" (9:14). When it comes to Christian community, this is the real deal.
Gospel Mk 12:38-44
The context for today’s Gospel continues to be mounting tension between Jesus and the Jewish authorities. Mark reports some of Jesus’ teaching in the Temple area in today’s reading and in the preceding verses not included in our Lectionary sequence. In the first part of today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus warn the crowds not to follow the example of the scribes in seeking honor and attention from others. It is important to recall that Mark indicates that Jesus taught these things while in the vicinity of the Temple in Jerusalem. Mark is setting the stage for Jesus’ passion.
Jesus then observes how Jewish pilgrims are making their contributions to the temple treasury. The Temple in Jerusalem was the center of Jewish worship in the time of Jesus. It was expected that observant Jews would make pilgrimages to the Temple to offer prayer and sacrifices. Pilgrims were also expected to make a financial contribution to the temple treasury.
As we would expect to be the case, Jesus observes that those who were rich contributed large sums to the treasury. Those with less means made smaller contributions. A similar situation exists in most of our parishes as well. Jesus calls attention, however, to a poor widow who makes the smallest of contributions—two coins of little value. Jesus upholds the poor widow’s offering for his disciples’ consideration, commending her because her small offering was an act of profound generosity, giving from her livelihood rather than her surplus.
To give from our livelihood is not only an act of generosity, it is also an act of trust in God. We can only give from our need if we trust that God will provide for us. Jesus himself demonstrates the ultimate act of generosity and trust in God as he gives his life for us on the cross.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Which would be more difficult: giving away a shirt you have outgrown or giving away your favorite shirt while it still fits you? (Giving away something that no longer fits us, while difficult, is usually easier.) Which is a more generous gift: giving away something that no longer fits or giving away your favorite shirt even when you can still wear it? (giving away your favorite shirt)
- One way we judge generosity is by the sacrifice required to make the gift. It is much more difficult to give away a piece of clothing we like very much and still fits. It requires us to make a sacrifice, to give up something we like in order to share with another person.
- What does Jesus notice about the people putting money into the collection box? (The rich people put in large amounts of money; a poor widow put in two small coins.) What does Jesus say about the poor widow? (that she gave more than all the others because she shared all that she had)
- Jesus acknowledges the generosity of the poor widow, even though she gave a lesser amount to the treasury. Her small coins required a greater sacrifice than the large amounts contributed by those who were rich. In order to be generous like the poor widow, we must have trust that God will take care of us, even if we share all that we have with others.
- Conclude in prayer asking God to teach us to trust him so that we can be generous like the poor widow in today’s Gospel. Pray the Peace Prayer of St. Francis.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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Sunday November 4, 2018 Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 152
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 6:2-6
Moses spoke to the people, saying:
"Fear the LORD, your God,
and keep, throughout the days of your lives,
all his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you,
and thus have long life.
Hear then, Israel, and be careful to observe them,
that you may grow and prosper the more,
in keeping with the promise of the LORD, the God of your fathers,
to give you a land flowing with milk and honey.
"Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!
Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God,
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength.
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD lives! And blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
Reading 2 Heb 7:23-28
Brothers and sisters:
The levitical priests were many
because they were prevented by death from remaining in office,
but Jesus, because he remains forever,
has a priesthood that does not pass away.
Therefore, he is always able to save those who approach God through him,
since he lives forever to make intercession for them.
It was fitting that we should have such a high priest:
holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners,
higher than the heavens.
He has no need, as did the high priests,
to offer sacrifice day after day,
first for his own sins and then for those of the people;
he did that once for all when he offered himself.
For the law appoints men subject to weakness to be high priests,
but the word of the oath, which was taken after the law,
appoints a son,
who has been made perfect forever.
Gospel Mk 12:28b-34
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
"Which is the first of all the commandments?"
Jesus replied, "The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these."
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher.
You are right in saying,
'He is One and there is no other than he.'
And 'to love him with all your heart,
with all your understanding,
with all your strength,
and to love your neighbor as yourself'
is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices."
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding,
he said to him,
"You are not far from the kingdom of God."
And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 6:2-6
Chapter 6 begins a new unit in Deuteronomy that runs until 11:32.
As a prelude to the reading, Chapters 1-4 of the book set the stage by recounting key moments in Israel's journey from Mount Horeb (Sinai) to the plains of Moab, across the Jordan from the long-promised land. Chapter 5 then re-presents the Decalogue (5:6-21; cf. Exodus 20:1-17) and discusses some of the events that transpired when the Ten Commandments were given (Deut 5:22-33).
Now the commandments are very much still the subject in 6:1-11:32. Or, as 6:1a puts it, perhaps it is the commandment (singular!) that is the point of this larger unit since many commentators believe it to be an extended exhortation or sermon based on the first commandment. Indeed, 6:5 can be seen as the positive (re)articulation of the prohibition against other gods (see further below).
Undoubtedly, Deuteronomy from verse 6:4 onward are the most famous verses in this Sunday's lection. But 6:1-3 should not be passed over too quickly. Note, first, that despite the singular "commandment" of 6:1a, Moses (who preaches Deuteronomy as his valedictory address) immediately glosses that singular with plural subjects: "statutes and ordinances." These many "statutes and ordinances" can nevertheless be glossed as a singular "commandment," and the singular "commandment" can be understood as many and various "statutes and ordinances"--which in Deuteronomy almost certainly refers to the detailed legislation in 12:1-26:15.
That bewildering amount of material is a singular entity: a commandment. This commandment, and these statutes and ordinances, are specifically for life in the land that Israel is entering (Deuteronomy 6:1b; see also 12:1). Life there will be different than it is in the wilderness; there, Israel will face new challenges and temptations (see, e.g., 7:1, 17; 8:7-20). Since Moses will not accompany Israel into Canaan (see 3:23-39), he is at pains to stress what is important before he dies. What he leaves ringing in Israel's ears and written before Israel's eyes for future reading and hearing (see Deuteronomy 31:10, 19, 24, 30; 32:44-45) is the importance of the Lord's instruction, command, statutes and ordinances--in a word, the Lord's Torah (see 1:5).
Moses proceeds to emphasize that this instruction is not only necessary, it is beneficial: it results in proper obedience, even into future generations, and eventuates in long life (6:2). Of course, things don't always work out that way. The life of one of Israel's greatest kings, Josiah, who is the only person in the entire Old Testament to incarnate, as it were, the words of Deuteronomy 6:5 (see 2 Kings 23:25), is tragically cut short (2 Kings 23:29; cf. 22:20).
But Moses is preaching right now. Moses is mid-sermon right now. He can't be bothered by exceptions to the rule. And the rule, for Israel--especially for Israel in the land--is to keep the Lord's Torah. If they do, good things (of whatever and various sorts) will happen (see Deuteronomy 6:3). If they don't, all is, quite literally, lost (cf. 28:47-68; 29:18-28).
The first thing Israel must do, for things to go well, is "to hear" (6:3, 4). "To hear" means "to listen," but also, in Deuteronomy's idiom, it means to obey. The Hebrew imperative "Listen up!" or "Hear this!" is sema (pronounced sh'ma) and 6:4-9 is famously known as the Shema, after the first word of 6:4. Faithful Jews recite it at least twice a day, in the morning and at night, in compliance with the Shema itself (6:7b).
Verse 6:4 is notoriously difficult to translate (see the notes in virtually any English translation). The rendition "The LORD is our God, the LORD alone" is perfectly acceptable and connects with the exclusive worship that Deuteronomy, the Decalogue, and the Shema itself repeatedly emphasize (cf. 4:35, 39; 5:7-10; 6:5; 32:39). The other common translation--"The LORD our God is one LORD"--while perhaps not as felicitous in context, nevertheless captures aspects of God's integrity and unity (cf. 1 John 1:5).
"Loving God with everything".
The "everything" is defined (in English, at least) as the "heart" (which in Hebrew anthropology corresponds mostly to our "mind"), the "soul" (perhaps better, in our understanding, the "self"), and the "might" (which could be taken, with the rabbis, as implying the love of God with one's "stuff" or property as much as with one's strength or capacity). However, the terms are translated, it is clear that complete devotion is commended--better yet: commanded.
The emphasis here on obedience, even an obedience that can be dictated, should chasten overly-romantic notions of what it means to "love" God. One demonstrates love for God by what one does and what one does not do--that is, how they do or do not obey--not merely by how one does or does not feel.
It comes as no surprise, then, to learn that "love"-language was widely used throughout the ancient Near East in political treaties and covenants to mark the proper attitude and behavior of parties toward each other, especially vassal subjects to their overlords. Nevertheless, we (and Deuteronomy) are still talking about love, not cold, hard, unfeeling obedience.
If 6:4 is the undergirding proposition, with 6:5 a positive (re)articulation, then 6:6-9 comprise a blueprint for proper enactment. As important as love with the heart is (and it truly is!), there are words to consider. "These words" (6:6a) refer, at one level, to the entire book of Deuteronomy itself, the name of which, in Hebrew, is debarim ("words"). These words must be "on the heart"--or, in our parlance, "on the mind"--presumably that means always.
In a word (or is it commandment?), Deuteronomy 6:4-9 indicates that all parts of the Israelite body, Israelite family, Israelite time and activity, and Israelite domestic and civic space are to be dominated by "these words" that Moses speaks and preaches. And, again, those words are, at one very important level, the entire book of Deuteronomy itself.
Readers will have to keep reading Deuteronomy to know what all these words comprise if they are to obey the Shema. Preachers will have to keep preaching Deuteronomy if they are to assist in that same process. Both acts are imperative, at least if Jesus is to be believed. He is the Reader of Israel's Scripture and the Preacher like Moses who told us that on the Shema and the love of neighbor "hang all the law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:40).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
The first words, I love you, Lord, my strength, are the scope and contents of the psalm. Those that truly love God, may triumph in him as their Rock and Refuge, may with confidence call upon him. It is good for us to observe all the circumstances of a mercy which magnify the power of God and his goodness to us in it. David was a praying man, and God was found a prayer-hearing God. If we pray as he did, we shall speed as he did. It is not possible to apply to the history of the son of Jesse those awful, majestic, and stupendous words which are used through this description of the Divine manifestation. Every part of so solemn a scene of terrors tells us, a greater than David is here. God will not only deliver his people out of their troubles in due time, but he will bear them up under their troubles in the mean time. Can we forget that it was in the hour of Christ's deepest calamity, when Judas betrayed, when his friends forsook, when the multitude derided him, and the smiles of his Father's love were withheld, that the powers of darkness prevented him? The sorrows of death surrounded him, in his distress he prayed, Heb 5:7. God made the earth to shake and tremble, and the rocks to cleave, and brought him out, in his resurrection, because he delighted in him and in his undertaking.
Reading 2 Heb 7:23-28
Hebrews 7:23-28 occurs in the middle of a larger argument about Jesus being a heavenly high priest.
This is one of the central ideas of Hebrews, and it is a unique contribution in the New Testament to our understanding of Jesus. Our passage has two main points: 1) Because Jesus is not subject to death, in contrast to the earthly priests, as the heavenly high priest he is able to serve and offer salvation perpetually; 2) Jesus only had to sacrifice himself once for all people, in contrast to the repeated sacrifices made by the earthly priests.
Christ is first identified as high priest in Hebrews 2:17, and the basic points are summarized in 4:14-16. The detailed discussion of the designation occupies 5:1-10 and chapters 7-10. In the argument of Hebrews, Christ's identity as the heavenly high priest is what enables him to offer eternal salvation -- so it is a point of tremendous importance! A basic understanding of the argument will provide valuable context for understanding our passage.
The argument is complex, but it may be summarized as follows: Priests in Judaism must be from the tribe of Levi, but as the Messiah, Jesus is from the tribe of Judah (David's tribe). Thus Jesus could not be in the traditional Jewish priesthood. However, Psalm 110, a psalm recognized as a messianic prophecy in the Judaism of the time, contains the line, "You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek" (verse 4). Melchizedek is an obscure character from the story of Abraham (Genesis 14:17-20), a "priest of God Most High." Psalm 110:4 thus provides a way for Jesus as the Messiah to be a priest, indeed a priest "forever." This last point becomes the basis for the contrast between the eternal priesthood of Jesus and the limited priesthood of the earthly priests.
This contrast is the subject of verses 23-25 in our passage. Earthly priests obviously die, so their priesthood is of limited duration (verse 23), but because of his resurrection and exaltation to God's right hand, Jesus' priesthood will have no end (verse 24). This eternal status thus provides a different order of salvation than that available through the traditional priesthood -- the salvation offered by Jesus is eternal, because his intercession on our behalf will never cease (verse 25). A similar point can be seen in Romans 8:34.
Verses 26-28 provide further contrasts between Jesus and the earthly high priests. While verse 26's adjectives "holy," "blameless," and "undefiled" can be used in a variety of contexts, together with the following phrase, "separated from sinners," they emphasize Jesus' sinlessness, a point made elsewhere in Hebrews (4:15) and by other New Testament writers (e.g. 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5).
Verse 27 adds the contrast between the once-for-all nature of Christ's sacrifice and the perpetually repeated sacrifices offered by the earthly priests. This contrast will be greatly elaborated in chapters 9 and 10, especially 10:1-14. The fact that the earthly sacrifices have to be performed repeatedly points to the fact that they cannot take away sins in the first place; otherwise they would cease (10:1-4, 11).
These sacrifices cleanse only "the flesh", being unable to "perfect the conscience of the worshiper". Christ's sacrifice, on the other hand, was "a single sacrifice for sins" "offered for all time", penetrating into our innermost being, cleansing our conscience, having "perfected for all time those who are sanctified". The resulting covenant is thus one of the inside, of the heart and mind, as attested by the Holy Spirit, with the result that other sacrifices are needed no more.
Verse 28 adds yet two more contrasts between Jesus and the earthly priests. First, the weakness of the earthly high priests contrasts with the perfection of Jesus. The language of Jesus having "been made perfect" often surprises readers. It is not a claim, however, about the intrinsic character of Jesus -- after all, Jesus' sinlessness is a key assertion of Hebrews, as discussed above -- but about his having been fitted perfectly to his role.
The second contrast is that Jesus was appointed high priest with an oath, unlike the earthly priests. "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind." The author of Hebrews sees this formula as underscoring the eternal nature of Christ's priesthood.
Gospel Mk 12:28b-34
As we continue to read from Mark’s Gospel, our Lectionary skips a chapter that helps set the context for today’s reading. If we were to read the sections skipped (chapter 11 and part of chapter 12), we would hear about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, his cleansing of the Temple, and the questioning of Jesus’ authority by the chief priests, scribes, and elders. The context, therefore, for this Gospel is Jesus’ growing exposure before the Jewish authorities. Jesus is being questioned and tested by the Jewish authorities, yet the scribe who addresses Jesus in today’s Gospel seems to be an admirer; he is not testing Jesus.
The question posed in today’s Gospel requires Jesus to interpret the Law of Moses. The Mosaic Law consists of the Ten Commandments and many additional commandments, numbering into the hundreds. For a devout Jew, adherence to the Mosaic Law is an expression of faithfulness to God’s covenant with Israel. The ranking of these commandments was regularly debated among the teachers of the Law.
Jesus was not the only Jewish religious teacher to connect these two commandments, love of God and love of neighbor. Both of these commandments were central elements of the religious tradition that Jesus learned from his Jewish community. Indeed, these commandments continue to be central aspects of contemporary Jewish religious understanding. Jesus’ response to his questioners proposed an integral connection between these two aspects of the Jewish Law. Love of God finds its expression in our love for our neighbor. Many believe, however, that this connection was heard in a new and fresh way when spoken by Jesus.
The scribe who questions Jesus in today’s Gospel engages in a positive dialogue with Jesus. He agrees with Jesus’ teaching that the commandments to love God and love neighbor stand above the commandment to offer worship and sacrifice in the Temple. With this dialogue, Jesus appears to close the debate with the Jewish authorities. Mark reports that no one dared to question Jesus further.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about a tripod. Will the tripod stand with just one leg? (No); with two? (No.) All three legs of the tripod are required to make it stand.
- Think about the tripod without setting the legs to equal lengths. If one or more of the legs of the tripod is shorter than the others, will the tripod stand straight? (No.) Will this tripod work well if it isn’t straight? (No.) Of course not. In order to make this stand up straight and balanced, all three legs must work together.
- Jesus is asked a question in today’s Gospel about which of the God’s commandments is greatest. His answer reminds me of this tripod, which needs three legs to be balanced. Many of us will find this Gospel very familiar.
- Which of the commandments does Jesus say is the greatest? (to love God) But what does Jesus add to this? (He adds that we should love our neighbors as ourselves.)
- How are Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel like the tripod we discussed earlier? (God wants us to learn to balance three kinds of love: love of God, love of ourselves, and love of our neighbor.)
- Jesus teaches us that the key to the Kingdom of God is found in balancing our love for God, our love for ourselves, and our love for our neighbors.
- Ask God to help us keep balance in our lives by loving God, loving ourselves, and loving our neighbors. Pray the Act of Love.
O my God, I love you above all things with my whole heart and soul, because you are all good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me and I ask pardon of those whom I have injured.
Amen.
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Sunday October 28, 2018 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 149
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 31:7-9
Thus says the LORD:
Shout with joy for Jacob,
exult at the head of the nations;
proclaim your praise and say:
The LORD has delivered his people,
the remnant of Israel.
Behold, I will bring them back
from the land of the north;
I will gather them from the ends of the world,
with the blind and the lame in their midst,
the mothers and those with child;
they shall return as an immense throng.
They departed in tears,
but I will console them and guide them;
I will lead them to brooks of water,
on a level road, so that none shall stumble.
For I am a father to Israel,
Ephraim is my first-born.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
When the LORD brought back the captives of Zion,
we were like men dreaming.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Then they said among the nations,
"The LORD has done great things for them."
The LORD has done great things for us;
we are glad indeed.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Restore our fortunes, O LORD,
like the torrents in the southern desert.
Those that sow in tears
shall reap rejoicing.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
R. The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.
Reading 2 Heb 5:1-6
Brothers and sisters:
Every high priest is taken from among men
and made their representative before God,
to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
He is able to deal patiently with the ignorant and erring,
for he himself is beset by weakness
and so, for this reason, must make sin offerings for himself
as well as for the people.
No one takes this honor upon himself
but only when called by God,
just as Aaron was.
In the same way,
it was not Christ who glorified himself in becoming high priest,
but rather the one who said to him:
You are my son:
this day I have begotten you;
just as he says in another place:
You are a priest forever
according to the order of Melchizedek.
Gospel Mk 10:46-52
As Jesus was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd,
Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus,
sat by the roadside begging.
On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say,
"Jesus, son of David, have pity on me."
And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent.
But he kept calling out all the more,
"Son of David, have pity on me."
Jesus stopped and said, "Call him."
So they called the blind man, saying to him,
"Take courage; get up, Jesus is calling you."
He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.
Jesus said to him in reply, "What do you want me to do for you?"
The blind man replied to him, "Master, I want to see."
Jesus told him, "Go your way; your faith has saved you."
Immediately he received his sight
and followed him on the way.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 31:7-9
When return seems impossible, the prophet sees a way home that will accommodate their different, but limited, human abilities and life stages. God makes it possible for all to walk a straight and smooth path. Finally, the oracle answers the pain of displacement, loss, and alienation with the intimacy of life as a family.
The prophet himself is not in exile, but in Judah, land of promise. His oracle thus speaks to multiple audiences. Most directly, he speaks to those who remain in Judah and Israel, whose children, parents, brothers and sisters, friends, neighbors, extended families, and neighboring tribes have been taken from them, first by Assyria over a century before and most recently by Babylon. He also speaks to those now in exile, the people of Israel and Judah who had been deported from their homeland against their will. Some, those deported from Judah in 597 BCE, could be traced to Babylonia. Others, the deported tribes of Israel or Ephraim, had been lost in place and time, and were connected now only in memory, tradition, and hope. The oracle focuses especially on this remnant of Israel, lost to their brothers and sisters in Judah and Samaria, scattered to the corners of the earth. Only God can know where they have been taken. Only God
The first verse of this passage is a loud one. Jeremiah’s audience is breaking a silence imposed throughout the earlier chapters of the book. Earlier, the prophet had been told not to pray or cry out on behalf of the people (Jeremiah 7:16, 11:14, 14:11). God refused to hear the laments of the people and promises to end the sound of their celebrations (7:16,29,31; 16:9; 25:10). The people too had been instructed to refrain from mourning their dead and from feasting in gladness (16:5-9; cf. 25:33). But Jeremiah and his people were not completely silent. Despite the injunction God placed on them, we hear repeated weeping, wailing, mourning, and lament (9:1,10; 13:17; 14:17). The command to keep silent is an impossible one. The people’s pain at their woundedness, the desolation of the land, and the loss of their kin kept breaking through the silence (31:9).
Now God wants the amplifier to be dialed up to eleven, and the song is one not of sorrow but of joy. The first word of the Lord’s speech is a command to the people: “shout joyfully” (Jeremiah 31:7). The verb is a favorite of the psalmists, and occurs many times in Isaiah. But it has not occurred in Jeremiah prior to this moment. The entire book has changed keys. The minor chords of chapters 1-29 gave voice to judgment, anger, exile, and death. Chapter 30 marked a shift: God would answer the sound of distress (30:4-7) with salvation (30:8-11), cure the incurable wound (30:12-17), and restore Jacob’s tents, city, children, and ruler (18-21). Chapter 31 continues in this new key, picking up strains of gladness foretold in 30:19.
The glad shouts here in 31:7 are for Jacob, in response to the good news of restoration and salvation for those who have been lost for so long. They are also to be shouted “for the chief of the nations” (New Revised Standard Version) or “at the head of the nations” (New American Bible). The exact meaning of this latter phrase is less obvious: it may paint a moment of triumph, when captives are finally free to look their captors in the eye and say, “you didn’t win, after all.” Gloating is dangerous, as the prophets so frequently remind us, but so is quiet acquiescence to empires and injustice. The other possible meaning of this phrase is to interpret the chief or head of the nations as referring to God. The passage culminates in the restoration of the familial relationship between God and Jacob; this journey home is a celebration for them both.
The company the Lord will gather from the North and from the corners of the earth includes the blind and the lame, pregnant women, and women in labor (Jeremiah 31:8). A multitude will return and they will walk on a straight path alongside brooks of water (31:8-9). None will stumble (31:9). God does not promise to change the bodies of blind and lame. Yet God ensures that the path home includes and accommodates them as they are. God does not ask the women among them to postpone their pregnancies or deliveries or postpone their travel so as not to slow down the pace of the company. This party will travel as slowly as it needs to, and they will have the water they need to sustain them at every step.
Those whom God intends to bring back to you will come to you at their own pace, and they will bring new life into your midst. They are the firstborn, returning to their ancestral home.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 126:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
In this psalm, the theological theme of restoration is knitted together with the theme of rejoicing. The product is one of the grandest, most eloquent lyrical prayers in the Psalter.
Psalm 126 is one of a collection of poems (Psalms 120-134) known as the "Songs of Ascents." These most likely did not all originate from a single source or for some unified purpose, but were rather collected together for some common use While interpreters cannot be one-hundred percent sure, the best guess is that the psalms of ascents were collected together in order for the faithful to use when they made pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Although one should not press the metaphor, one can make an analogy between the ancient pilgrimages that Israelites made to Jerusalem and the modern preparations that Christians make during Advent for Christmas.
The psalm has two stanzas (vv. 1-3; 4-6). Similar to the way in which Psalm 85 begins, the first stanza of Psalm 126 recalls God's past acts of restoration (v. 1) and the emotions of joy and celebration of laughter that accompanied those saving acts. The temporal clause with which the psalm begins, "When the Lord restores the fortunes of Zion," most likely has in mind the return of the people to the land following the Babylonian exile. But within the broader biblical narrative, the phrase calls many divine restorations to mind:
- the restoration of Sarah to Abraham
- the restoration of Joseph to Jacob and his brothers
- the restoration of the people to the land after the Exodus
- the restoration of the ark to the people after the Philistines captured it
- the birth of the Messiah; the restoration of Jesus to his parents
- the resurrection
The first stanza also contains what is considered to be perhaps the most surprising testimony concerning God's gracious deeds in the entire Old Testament. The nations--that is, the people who worship other gods and often threaten Israel (cf. Psalm 124:2)--praised God. The very people who, during the years in Babylon, looked upon God's people and "were astonished at him−so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of mortals−these very nations witnessed the restoration of the people to their land and to their God and they said, "The Lord has done great things for them!" Thinking ahead to the New Testament, one is reminded of the non-Israelite magi coming to worship the one who was born "King of the Jews," or the Roman centurion who announced, "Truly this man was God's Son!"
Even more surprising, the nations' testimony to God's deeds inspires Israel to respond with its own testimony, repeating the words of the nations verbatim: "The Lord has done great things for us" (v. 3). Often in the psalms, the enemies' words are quoted as reason for God to punish them (see, for example, Psalm 10:12-14 or the ending of Psalm 137). Here, the words of the nations are quoted approvingly. Even more shockingly, the people of God then repeat the words of the nations. Why? Because God's gracious and faithful acts of restoration are so self-evident, even the blind nations can see them. And because the blind nations see those acts, the often-even-more blind people of God can see them, too.
The second stanza develops the themes introduced in the first stanza and rephrases them in the form of renewed appeals for restoration (this is similar to the structure of Psalm 85, lacking only the set of promises with which Psalm 85 culminates). The people ask God to restore them once again, in order that they may rejoice yet again.
The psalm paints bountiful images:
- Dry river beds coursing with torrents of water
- Farmers weeping as they plant because they did not expect a harvest
- Those same farmers singing joyfully as they harvest, because creation has produced an unlooked-for bounty
- Those same farmers bearing heavy sheaves of produce as they return home from the fields
It should be emphasized that the closing verses of the psalm are an appeal couched in the form of imaginative wishes: "May those who...." The Advent people who approach Christmas recall God's restorative acts in the past. They recall the testimony of the nations to God's deliverance. They recall their own joy. And they know that until the Son of God comes again, we will be in constant and everlasting need of God's continued restoration.
Reading 2 Heb 5:1-6
Christ was first identified as high priest in 2:17, and 4:14-16, part of a previous lectionary text, which presented the basic idea and implications of Jesus being high priest.
But it is not until today's passage that Hebrews begins to really make the case for Jesus being high priest. After a brief digression, the argument is picked up again in chapter 7 and continues from there through chapter 10. Our passage has two sections to it: Verses 1-4 give the definition of and criteria for being a priest and verses 5-10 show how Christ meets these criteria.
The first verse gives the defining function of a high priest, offering sacrifices for sin. While the Jewish high priest played other roles, too, this function is the only one of real concern in Hebrews. Hebrews especially focuses throughout on the high priestly activities on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), the annual ritual where the high priest would atone for the sins of the Jewish people (see Leviticus 16).
Verses 2-3 emphasize a high priest's solidarity with sinners. Verse 2 gives the positive side that a high priest can sympathize with sinners because he himself has experienced weakness. This aspect of Jesus' character was presented in 2:9-18 (especially verses 17-18), revisited in 4:15-16, and will be elaborated later in our passage, verses 7-9. Verse 3 gives the negative side, that because a high priest is himself a sinner he must atone "for his own sins as well as for those of the people" (Leviticus 16:6 covers this requirement). This negative side will provide a key contrast with the sinless Jesus, a point already mentioned in 4:15 and to be elaborated in 7:26-28.
Verse 4 specifies an important prerequisite for anyone to take on the role of high priest: The high priest must be called by God. The original high priest Aaron is the quintessential example, whose calling is recounted in detail in the Old Testament (see Exodus 28:1, 40:12-15; Leviticus 8:1-12; Numbers 18:1-20), and to whom the story of the false claimant Korah and company provides a key counter-example (Numbers 16:1-35).
In actuality, the history of the high priesthood was an inglorious one, the office having become highly politicized, especially in the Maccabean and Roman periods that led into the time of Jesus. Opposition to the corrupt priesthood was one of the factors that led to the formation of the dissident Qumran community, locus of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Christ's divine appointment to the high priesthood is explained briefly in verses 5-6 (and at much greater length in chapter 7). To twenty-first century readers, the passage's explanation will likely be baffling. The author simply quotes verses from the middle of two different psalms and viola -- we have Jesus as high priest!
The key for the original audience was that both psalms, Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, were widely recognized as messianic prophecies, so it would have been natural for the audience to apply these two verses to Jesus (see Mark 12:35-37 for an important application of Psalm 110; in Hebrews Psalm 110 has been used already in 1:13). The first quote (Psalm 2:7) establishes the Messiah as God's Son; Hebrews already quoted the verse for this very purpose in 1:5. The second quote (Psalm 110:4) is where the priesthood comes in explicitly.
To fully explain how Hebrews applies Psalm 110:4 to Jesus' status as high priest would require a full study of chapter 7, but to summarize briefly: Jesus could not be a regular Jewish priest because, as the Messiah, he is from the tribe of Judah, whereas priests must come from the tribe of Levi. The character of Melchizedek, however, provides an alternative priesthood.
Melchizedek is an obscure figure who appears in the story of Abraham in Genesis 14:17-20. He is said to be both a king and a "priest of God Most High." He appears nowhere else in scripture until his name shows up in this psalm, where the addressee of the psalm -- understood by Jews of this period to be the Messiah -- is said to be a priest in his order. Hence we have the basis for the Messiah to be identified as a high priest, despite the non-Levite ancestry. Particularly important for Hebrews is that he is said in the verse to be a priest "forever," which connects nicely to Christ's immortal post-resurrection status, and which provides a contrast with the mortality of the Levitical priests.
That Jesus' cries to be saved from death were "heard" refers to the resurrection -- he was saved, but only after experiencing death first! Language about Jesus learning obedience and being made perfect (verse 9) often surprises readers today, but the author clearly does not see this as compromising Jesus' sinlessness (see 4:15).
Rather, his being "made perfect" refers to the fact that in order for Jesus to be a high priest, he had to share in the experiences of those he represented -- hence he had to suffer. Being perfected means being fitted properly to the role of high priest, and this required suffering. This was described in 2:5-11. The ultimate purpose of Jesus becoming high priest is given at the end of verse 9: "He became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him." It takes an eternal high priest to bestow eternal salvation!
Gospel Mk 10:46-52
Today we continue to read from Mark’s Gospel. In this Gospel, we find evidence of Jesus’ fame in the sizable crowd that accompanies him as he journeys to Jerusalem. Jesus’ reputation as a healer has preceded him. When the blind man, Bartimaeus, hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, he calls out to him, asking for his pity.
When Bartimaeus calls out to Jesus, the crowd around him tries to silence him. Yet Bartimaeus persists, calling out more loudly and with greater urgency. He will not be silenced or deterred from getting Jesus’ attention. We notice how quickly the crowd’s reaction changes when Jesus calls for Bartimaeus. Those who sought to quiet him now encourage him.
When Jesus restores Bartimaeus’s sight, no elaborate action is required. (In other healing stories in Mark’s Gospel, actions accompany Jesus’ words). In this instance, Jesus simply says that Bartimaeus’s faith has saved him. Throughout Mark’s Gospel, the success of Jesus’ healing power has often been correlated with the faith of the person requesting Jesus’ help. For example, it is because of her faith that the woman with the hemorrhage is healed. When faith is absent, Jesus is unable to heal; we see this after his rejection in Nazareth.
Once his sight has been restored, Bartimaeus follows Jesus on his way to Jerusalem. In Mark’s Gospel, Bartimaeus is the last disciple called by Jesus before he enters Jerusalem. Bartimaeus hears that Jesus of Nazareth is passing by, but he calls out to Jesus using words of faith—“Son of David.” Many in Jesus’ time believed that the anticipated Jewish Messiah would be a descendent of King David. Bartimaeus’s words prepare us for the final episodes of Mark’s Gospel, which begin with Jesus’ preparation for the Passover and his triumphant entry into Jerusalem. As Mark has shown us in our readings over the past few Sundays, however, Jesus will be the Messiah in a way that will be difficult for many to accept. Jesus will show himself to be the Messiah through his suffering and death.
Cut and paste the below link to see a video of the healing of Bartimaeus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_00PM3bdCME
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think back to when you were a young person what is something you might have asked your parents to do for you? (to drive you to a dance or sporting event, permission to meet your friends, and so on) When you want your parents to help you in these ways, how many times did you ask? If the first answer was no, did you ask again? Why or why not? (Why do we keep asking? (because asking works, because we know that our parents care about us and want to make us happy, and so on)
- We were very persistent with our parents, especially when we wanted them to do something for us. We continue to ask because we know how much our parents love us and they want us to be happy. In today’s Gospel, we hear how a blind man’s persistence in asking Jesus for help was rewarded.
- What does Bartimaeus do when he hears that Jesus was passing by? (He calls out, asking Jesus to have pity on him.) Why must he be persistent in calling out to Jesus? (Some people in the crowd are telling him to be quiet.) What does Bartimaeus do? (He calls out to Jesus all the more.) When Jesus stops and calls for him, what does Jesus do and say? (He restores Bartimaeus’s sight; Jesus tells Bartimaeus that his faith has saved him.)
- Bartimaeus continues to call out to Jesus because he believes that Jesus will heal him. Jesus' words to Bartimaeus tell us that our persistence in prayer is a sign of our faith that God wants to save us.
- What do you think this might teach us about prayer? (We should be persistent in our prayer, continuing to bring our needs to God; we should pray with confidence, trusting that God wants to help us.)
- Say some prayers of petition and they say “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on us.” Conclude with the Glory Be to the Father.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
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Sunday October 21, 2018 Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 146
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 53:10-11
The LORD was pleased
to crush him in infirmity.
If he gives his life as an offering for sin,
he shall see his descendants in a long life,
and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.
Because of his affliction
he shall see the light in fullness
of days;
through his suffering, my servant shall justify many,
and their guilt he shall bear.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
Reading 2 Heb 4:14-16
Brothers and sisters:
Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
Jesus, the Son of God,
let us hold fast to our confession.
For we do not have a high priest
who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,
but one who has similarly been tested in every way,
yet without sin.
So let us confidently approach the throne of grace
to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.
Gospel Mk 10:35-45
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and said to him,
"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."
He replied, "What do you wish me to do for you?"
They answered him, "Grant that in your glory
we may sit one at your right and the other at your left."
Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking.
Can you drink the cup that I drink
or be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
They said to him, "We can."
Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink, you will drink,
and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;
but to sit at my right or at my left is not mine to give
but is for those for whom it has been prepared."
When the ten heard this, they became indignant at James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them,
"You know that those who are recognized as rulers over the Gentiles
lord it over them,
and their great ones make their authority over them felt.
But it shall not be so among you.
Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 53:10-11
The central movement of the Suffering Servant poem in Isaiah 53:4-12 is from humiliation to exaltation, from shame to honor, from weakness to greatness.
From Weakness to Greatness: Individual Servants
This movement is a recurring pattern in the ways of God throughout Scripture. God chose a humble elderly immigrant and his barren wife to be the primary vehicle of God's blessing "to all the families of the earth" (Genesis 12:1-3). God regularly chose the younger and less likely sibling over the usually preferred elder brother as God's specially chosen and exalted servant: Isaac over Ishmael (Genesis 17:15-19), Jacob over Esau (Genesis 25:22-26), Joseph over the other sons of Jacob (Genesis 37:1-11; 50:15-21), Judah over the first-born Reuben (Genesis 49:3-4, 8), young David over the other sons of Jesse (1 Samuel 16:10-13), King Solomon over his older brother Adonijah (1 Kings 1:22-40).
God was in the habit of raising up the weak and unlikely to lead God's cause against the strong. God called a humble and reluctant shepherd named Moses (Exodus 3:1-11; Numbers 12:3; Deuteronomy 34:10-12). God tapped Gideon, the weakest member of Israel's weakest clan, to save Israel from its oppressors (Judges 6:11-16). God appointed an insecure teenager named Jeremiah to be "a prophet to the nations" (Jeremiah 1:1-10).
God's appointment and use of these many unlikely individuals and servants stands against the backdrop of the most unlikely choice of all in the Old Testament: God's selection of the people of Israel as God's own special people and "treasured possession" among all the nations (Deuteronomy 7:6). Israel was the most unlikely of candidates for this exalted vocation. Lowly Israel was the "fewest of all peoples" (Deuteronomy 7:7). Many other nations could claim much older and grander pedigrees as powerful and venerable empires with deep roots in history: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia and Greece. Each of these empires considered Israel an insignificant outpost, a weak province to be plundered, a humble upstart who needed to be crushed and taught a lesson from time to time.
The Servant of Isaiah 53: Individual or Collective?
All of this is important background to the suffering servant poem of Isaiah 53:4-12. Scholars debate the identity of the humiliated, marred, sick, and suffering servant who is then dramatically exalted by God. Some say the "servant" could be an individual. The suffering servant could be an anonymous and persecuted prophet of Israel. Or could the servant be Cyrus the Persian who elsewhere is called God's anointed "messiah" and "shepherd" and who overthrew Babylon and freed Israel from its exile (Isaiah 44:28, 45:1, 13)?
Others argue for a collective interpretation. The suffering servant is the whole people of Israel who suffered in exile. In exile, they were despised by the nations, but then God exalted them by freeing them from exile and returning them to their home in Jerusalem. Evidence for this position is that the people of Israel or Jacob are often called God's "servant" throughout Isaiah 40-55 (Isaiah 41:8-9; 44:1-2, 21; 45:4; 49:3). At other points in Isaiah 40-55, the "servant" seems to be an individual or a sub-group within Israel, perhaps a persecuted disciple or group of disciples of a prophet, who work to redeem and restore Israel (Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-6; 50:4-9).
We are not sure why the lectioner chose only verses 10 and 11 but I think we need the background of the previous verses to understand these two. The servant will be rewarded if only he keeps the faith.
The world may wonder how much real effect the ministry of Jesus and his community can have. What good is it to preach the gospel, sing a hymn, pour water over a baby, offer a bit of bread and a sip of wine, hold a hand, speak a forgiving word, stock a food shelf, fold hands in prayer, fold clothes for the homeless, visit the sick, comfort the grieving, negotiate a conflict, advocate for the poor, carry out a daily vocation with integrity, all in the name of Christ?
The nations may scorn and despise these seemingly humble and weak ministries of Christ's church. Yet Scripture testifies that it is through such seemingly weak and foolish means that God chooses to do God's work (1 Corinthians 1:27-31). For the long and unbroken chain of God's quiet, humble and faithful servants stretching from ancient Israel to all the hidden corners of the world today, we give thee thanks and praise.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
One of the table prayers we have used in our family has been "God is great, God is good, and we thank him for our food." This prayer summarizes the pattern of the psalms of praise in the Bible: it expresses praise and thanks and gives two reasons for praise and thanks: God's greatness and God's goodness.
I suggest that Psalm 33 is a psalm of praise with imperative plurals calling to praise (verses 1-3, "Rejoice, Praise, Sing") followed by reasons for praise, including God's greatness (verses 4-12) and God's goodness (verses 13-19). The psalm is then rounded off with an affirmation of trust (verses 20-21) and a request addressed to the Lord in "you" form (verse 22).
The Same Old Songs? (verses 1-3)
The three imperative plural verbs are addressed to the congregation: "rejoice, praise, sing." These three verses provide thought for a worship committee:
1. Worship should be joyful! (verse 1)
2. Worship may include the use of musical instruments, mentioned here for the first time in the psalms; a modern-day writer would have spoken of trumpets, trombones, guitars, harps.
3. Worship of the Creator ought to be marked by creativity. In other words, let us have a few new songs in the language and melodies of our own age! (verse 3)
4. Those leading worship ought to be well trained so that they "play skillfully." Let us worship God with the best musicians and poets we have! After all, we are following in the tradition of Johann Sebastian Bach!
5. Worship ought to be enthusiastic, even with the volume turned up! (verse 3)
Why Praise? God is Great! (verses 4-12)
Now the psalm gives some reasons for praising God. The first word of verses 4 and 9 is "for," bracketing that section as a unit. Why praise God? Because God created the whole cosmos and especially our "blue planet" with its deep blue seas. How did God do this? The psalmist picks up the notion of creation through the word. God said "let there be"—and there it was! (Genesis 1).
The "God is great" theme continues in verses 10-12 when the writer reflects on God's work in history. As the prophets make clear, God was concerned not only with what was happening in Israel and Judah! God was also involved with the great nations of their day, in the actions of Assyria, Babylon, Persian and Greece (see Amos 9:7-8, Isaiah 13-23, Jeremiah 46-51). And while God may be moving in mysterious ways in our own time, we may assume that God is also concerned about what happens in the nations of our time, Iraq or Afghanistan, Africa or Antarctica, the United Kingdom or the United States. Psalm 32 had things to say about individual happiness (32:1-2, 11). Psalm 33:12 asserts that a people whose God is the Lord -- will be blessed.
Why Praise? The Lord is Good! (verses 13-19)
I recall touring a Greek Orthodox church where there was, front and center, near the ceiling, a painting of a huge eye, with a brown iris and black pupil. Our guide explained: "That painting represents the eye of God. Walk around anyplace in our sanctuary, look back and you will see that the eye of God is watching you!" Verses 13-15 declare that the Lord looks down at what is happening on our planet. Verses 18-19 promise that the Lord "keeps an eye on us." Children, as we know, love to have their parents and grandparents "keeping an eye" on them. They like be watched and praised for their accomplishments. But I think they also like the sense that someone who loves them is watching, protecting, in case anything should go wrong!
God is great, says this psalm, and God is also good. That goodness is expressed in the declaration of God's steadfast love (Hebrew, hesed; verses 5, 18). The prophet Isaiah had said that the earth was filled with the glory of God (Isaiah 6:3). This psalm says that the earth is filled -- with God's steadfast love (hesed, verse 5). Thus, we ought not locate God only high in the heavens...but think of God in terms of a cloud of amazing grace, spread throughout the entire planet! The fact that God has an eye on us is reason for fear and trust in God's steadfast love (hesed, verse 18).
In the Meantime (20-22)
The writer catches our mood as we live out our days. We can be glad because we can trust.
Finally, we can pray (and here is the third hesed) "Let your steadfast love be upon us, as we live in hope."
Reading 2 Heb 4:14-16
Last week we had HEB 4:12-13 and I had added 14-16. So not much new to add so I just repeated last week’s message.
In "Glory Days," Bruce Springsteen sings of that high school baseball player who "could throw that speedball by you.
Make you look like a fool boy." So the image with which this lectionary reading from Hebrews begins--with a disturbing image, not of a speedball, but of the word of God that slices us open for inspection. The opening two verses (4:12-13) describe the power of God's word.
The writer lists several characteristics of that word. First, it is "living and active" (4:12). The writer frequently describes God as "the living God" (3:12; 9:14; 10:31; 12:22), and here he uses the same adjective to describe God's word as one that acts and accomplishes the divine will.
Secondly, the divine word penetrates. The writer pictures the word as a sword (compare Isaiah 49:2; Wisdom of Solomon 7:22, 24; 18:15-16; Ephesians 6:17; Revelation 1:16; 2:12; 19:15). No matter how sharp a knife or dagger one might wield, the word of God cuts with even more precision as it reaches our innermost being.
Third, as the word penetrates, it judges our hearts. The role of the heart is a central feature in the sermon against unbelief (3:7--4:13). The writer quotes the psalmist's warning against hard hearts (3:8, 15; 4:7), for God laments that the wilderness generation went astray in their hearts (3:10). Since our hearts represent who we are as a whole, the condition of our hearts marks our openness to or rejection of God's voice. Thus the divine word unmasks and makes clear our faithfulness or unbelief.
The following sentence (4:13) also focuses on judgment, but the focus shifts from the divine word that judges to those of us who are judged. Nothing is hidden from the Creator whose scrutiny encompasses all of creation. God sees and knows all, and we stand accountable before God for our response to the divine word. The term "laid bare" comes from the verb "to grip in a neck-hold," an image that conveys vulnerability and peril. This stress on our exposure and accountability provides a solemn warning for all of us who hear the word of God.
Given this uncomfortable picture of our nakedness before God, we may rightly ask, "Where is the good news in this passage?" Thankfully, the text does not end here. Instead, the writer affirms Jesus' high priestly ministry to us in our need (4:14-16). That affirmation transforms the warning of the first section. Even though the word of God penetrates and exposes the deepest recesses of our hearts, we should not despair. We must give an account, a word that responds to the divine word. But in our efforts to speak, we are not left alone. There is one who has come to help us, to be our "merciful and faithful high priest" (2:17).
As the Exalted One seated at God's right hand (1:3, 13), Jesus has passed through the heavens to occupy a place of honor and glory. That status inspires us in moments of discouragement to hold on to our confession, our hope, and our confidence in God and Jesus (3:1; 10:23). We have an advocate in God's court.
Gospel Mk 10:35-45
In this Sunday’s Gospel, we continue to read from the section of Mark’s Gospel that reports Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. Last Sunday we heard Jesus lament the particular challenges those with many possessions face in order to enter the Kingdom of God. Jesus then predicts his passion to the Twelve, who are amazed and afraid. In this part of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ words to his closest disciples seem to be intended to prepare them for the events that will occur in Jerusalem.
In today’s Gospel, James and John ask to be given seats of honor when Jesus enters into his glory. Once again, the disciples seem to be selective in what they hear Jesus say. They want to share Jesus’ glory, but do not appear to understand that his glory will be preceded by his suffering. Jesus notes their lack of understanding and predicts the suffering they will endure for the sake of the Gospel. Jesus says that the honor they seek is not his to give. When the other ten hear what James and John have asked, Mark reports that they are indignant. Jesus takes the opportunity to teach them.
Jesus explains the importance of service and sacrifice in the life of a disciple. In particular, he seems to be preparing the Twelve for their leadership roles in the emerging Christian community. Echoing the Gospel we heard several weeks ago (on the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Mark 9:33-37), Jesus acknowledges that his teaching is countercultural. In today’s Gospel, Jesus contrasts the dynamics within the community of disciples with those shown by the rulers of the Gentiles.
Following Jesus’ example of sacrificial love continues to be countercultural in our day as well. We might take this opportunity to consider our models of authority and examine our own exercise of authority. On whose example do we model our leadership?
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- What honors do young people you know (nieces, nephews, cousins) sometimes earn for their activities and achievements? (honor roll, trophies for sports programs, prizes for contests) What symbols might we be given for these honors? (public recognition, trophies, ribbons, prizes)
- In today’s Gospel, James and John seek a place of honor in the Kingdom of God. What is the symbol of this place of honor?
- What is the symbol of the honor that James and John seek? (a seat at Jesus’ side when he comes in glory) What does Jesus say will be required of the people who will receive such an honor? (to suffer in the same way that Jesus will suffer) What is Jesus’ answer to James and John? (that Jesus cannot give them the honor that they seek)
- In the words that follow, Jesus teaches his disciples what it will take to be great in the Kingdom of God. What does Jesus say? (that those who wish to be first in God’s kingdom must be the servants of others)
- What are some honors that are given to those who serve others? (Think of St. Teresa, Soldiers etc) Do you think that people serve others in order to win prizes? (Probably not.) Then why do you think people spend their lives serving the needs of others?
- Pray that we may receive honor in God’s eyes by learning to serve others in love.
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Sunday October 14, 2018 Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 143
Reading 1 Wis 7:7-11
I prayed, and prudence was given me;
I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
I preferred her to scepter and throne,
and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her,
nor did I liken any priceless gem to her;
because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand,
and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.
Beyond health and comeliness I loved her,
and I chose to have her rather than the light,
because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.
Yet all good things together came to me in her company,
and countless riches at her hands.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 90:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
Make us glad, for the days when you afflicted us,
for the years when we saw evil.
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Let your work be seen by your servants
and your glory by their children;
and may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Reading 2 Heb 4:12-13
Brothers and sisters:
Indeed the word of God is living and effective,
sharper than any two-edged sword,
penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow,
and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
No creature is concealed from him,
but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him
to whom we must render an account.
Gospel Mk 10:17-30
As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up,
knelt down before him, and asked him,
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
you shall not defraud;
honor your father and your mother."
He replied and said to him,
"Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,
"You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
At that statement his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
"How hard it is for those who have wealth
to enter the kingdom of God!"
The disciples were amazed at his words.
So Jesus again said to them in reply,
"Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,
"Then who can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said,
"For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God."
Peter began to say to him,
"We have given up everything and followed you."
Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 7:7-11
The Book of Wisdom, written in the 1st century B.C. is known to us only in the Greek. It is generally held certain that Greek was the original language. For this reason, it is not contained in the Hebrew Bible; nor is it in the Protestant Bible, having been discarded by Martin Luther around A.D. 1520. Because it is known that Jesus and the apostles used the Greek (Septuagint) translation of the Old Testament, Wisdom has always been considered canonical by the Catholic Church. In fact, the Muratorian Fragment (A.D. 155-200), the earliest known list of writings approved as Scripture for use in the Church at Rome, and which gives a fairly orderly treatment to the titles contained in the New Testament, includes Wisdom as a New Testament book.
The book is divided into 3 parts: 1) Wisdom & Human Destiny (chapters 1-5), 2) Solomon & The Quest For Wisdom (chapters 6-9), and 3) Wisdom At Work In History (chapters 10-19).
Today’s reading comes from the second part and describes Solomon’s (or at least the authors who borrowed his name) praying and the riches that came to him.
I prayed,
Solomon’s prayer is given in 1 Kings 3:7-9 and 2 Chronicles 1:8-10. The author’s version of this prayer is given in Wisdom 9.
and prudence was given me;
Prudence is understanding. The author develops a parallelism: Prayer – pleaded; prudence – wisdom. Solomon preferred wisdom over power, riches, health, comeliness, and light. Solomon prayed for wisdom and it came to him along with all these good things. I pleaded and the spirit of Wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepter and throne, and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her, nor did I liken any priceless gem to her; Because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver is to be accounted mire. Beyond health and comeliness I loved her, And I chose to have her rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.
God was pleased with Solomon’s humble request, to be given wisdom to lead his people rather than riches.
Wisdom never ceases to exist (see Wisdom 7:29-30).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 90:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
Psalm 90 has often been categorized as a wisdom psalm, which, like the book of Ecclesiastes (see 3:19-20; 7:2), is very much in touch with human finitude and the brevity of human life (see also Psalms 39:4-6; 49:10-12, 16-20).
While this interpretive approach is helpful, it has often overlooked the facts that Psalm 90 is consistently addressed to God, that it is the only psalm attributed to Moses, and that it opens Book IV of the Psalter.
These facts do not imply that Moses is the author of Psalm 90, but rather that the editors of the Psalter invite readers to hear Psalm 90 as a prayer offered by Moses on behalf of the people in response to the crisis of exile that is articulated in the concluding psalm of Book III (see Psalm 89:38-51). For instance, the plea for God to "Turn" (verse 13) recalls Moses' request for God to "Turn" in Exodus 32:12 (note also that "compassion" in verse 13 represents the same Hebrew root as "change your mind" in Exodus 32:12). In short, as Moses interceded for the people in the face of God's anger over their creation of the golden calf (Exodus 32:1-6), so Psalm 90 portrays Moses as intercessor in the face of God's anger expressed in verses 7-11.
These two interpretive approaches are not mutually exclusive; and in fact, they can even be seen as complementary. In any case, Psalm 90 features the concept of time (see words or phrases related to time in verses 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16); and one of the most startling aspects of Moses' life is that, in effect, he ran out of time -- that is, he died before entering the land of promise, because God was angry with him (Deuteronomy 3:26).
Before our lection picks up at verse 12, the contrast between humanity's limited time and God's enduring time has been drawn very sharply (see verses 3-6). But Psalm 90 is not over at verse 10. Even though verse 11 repeats "anger" and "wrath" from verse 7, its mention of "the fear that is due you" hints at something more positive.
The possible wisdom orientation of Psalm 90 reminds us that, according to the sages, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom" (Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 9:10; see Proverbs 1:7; Job 28:28). Thus, verse 11 anticipates verse 12, which marks the transition from the thoroughly depressing verses 3-11 to the much more hopeful verses 13-17.
But what is it that constitutes a "wise heart"? "To count our days" is an accurate literal translation; but what good would derive from simply keeping track of one toilsome, wrath-filled day after another? In this case, a more paraphrastic rendering is helpful. "Lord, teach us to make each day count, to reflect on the fact that we must die, and so become wise."
In other words, "a wise heart" involves the disavowal of autonomy; and it means the entrusting of life and future fully to God. Such "fear of the LORD" offers the courage and energy to live each day to the fullest, quite literally, for God's sake!
Such disavowal of autonomy in favor of daily dependence upon God recalls another Mosaic connection -- namely, Exodus 16 and God's daily provision of manna in the wilderness. In this regard, it may not be coincidental that the three consonants in the Hebrew word for "count" are the same ones that compose the word "manna."
In any case, daily dependence upon God is capable of transforming the human perception and experience of the passage of time. When we entrust life and future to God, then we can experience the passage of time as something other than an oppressive reality to be endured.
The concluding verses of Psalm 90 reinforce this conclusion. The "morning" can bring the fulfilling and joyful experience of God's love (verse 14; compare verses 5-6 and Psalm 89:49). Our "days" and "years" can bring gladness (verse 15; compare verse 9), not merely "toil and trouble" (verse 11). Entrusted to God, even our human "work" (twice in verse 17) can endure, insofar as it contributes to God's "work" (verse 16).
By way of God's "compassion" (verse 13) and "steadfast love" (verse 14), human time partakes of eternity. In short, when life and future are entrusted to God, there is hope. For the psalmist, the recognition of human finitude and fallibility is not finally cause for despair, but rather an occasion for prayer. And in humble, honest, faithful prayer, the psalmist arrives at the good news that the hope of the world is grounded in God's "compassion" and "steadfast love" (verses 13-14).
Reading 2 Heb 4:12-13
In "Glory Days," Bruce Springsteen sings of that high school baseball player who "could throw that speedball by you.
Make you look like a fool boy." So the image with which this lectionary reading from Hebrews begins--with a disturbing image, not of a speedball, but of the word of God that slices us open for inspection. The opening two verses (4:12-13) describe the power of God's word.
The writer lists several characteristics of that word. First, it is "living and active" (4:12). The writer frequently describes God as "the living God" (3:12; 9:14; 10:31; 12:22), and here he uses the same adjective to describe God's word as one that acts and accomplishes the divine will.
Secondly, the divine word penetrates. The writer pictures the word as a sword (compare Isaiah 49:2; Wisdom of Solomon 7:22, 24; 18:15-16; Ephesians 6:17; Revelation 1:16; 2:12; 19:15). No matter how sharp a knife or dagger one might wield, the word of God cuts with even more precision as it reaches our innermost being.
Third, as the word penetrates, it judges our hearts. The role of the heart is a central feature in the sermon against unbelief (3:7--4:13). The writer quotes the psalmist's warning against hard hearts (3:8, 15; 4:7), for God laments that the wilderness generation went astray in their hearts (3:10). Since our hearts represent who we are as a whole, the condition of our hearts marks our openness to or rejection of God's voice. Thus the divine word unmasks and makes clear our faithfulness or unbelief.
The following sentence (4:13) also focuses on judgment, but the focus shifts from the divine word that judges to those of us who are judged. Nothing is hidden from the Creator whose scrutiny encompasses all of creation. God sees and knows all, and we stand accountable before God for our response to the divine word. The term "laid bare" comes from the verb "to grip in a neck-hold," an image that conveys vulnerability and peril. This stress on our exposure and accountability provides a solemn warning for all of us who hear the word of God.
Given this uncomfortable picture of our nakedness before God, we may rightly ask, "Where is the good news in this passage?" Thankfully, the text does not end here. Instead, the writer affirms Jesus' high priestly ministry to us in our need (4:14-16). That affirmation transforms the warning of the first section. Even though the word of God penetrates and exposes the deepest recesses of our hearts, we should not despair. We must give an account, a word that responds to the divine word. But in our efforts to speak, we are not left alone. There is one who has come to help us, to be our "merciful and faithful high priest" (2:17).
As the Exalted One seated at God's right hand (1:3, 13), Jesus has passed through the heavens to occupy a place of honor and glory. That status inspires us in moments of discouragement to hold on to our confession, our hope, and our confidence in God and Jesus (3:1; 10:23). We have an advocate in God's court.
Gospel Mk 10:17-30
Today we continue reading the Gospel of Mark from where we left off last Sunday. Last Sunday our Gospel told how Jesus was tested by the Pharisees about the requirements for divorce. Recall that these chapters come from the second part of Mark’s Gospel, which chronicles the beginning of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem.
In today’s Gospel, an unnamed man approaches Jesus and inquires about what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus replies that one must follow the commandments of the Law of Moses. The man acknowledges that he has observed all of these since his childhood. Jesus then says that only one thing is lacking: he must give his possessions to the poor and follow Jesus. The man leaves in sadness, and Mark tells us that this is because he had many possessions.
The belief in resurrection and eternal life was a relatively recent development in Jewish thought at Jesus’ time, and it wasn’t shared by everyone. The Pharisees taught that there would be a resurrection from the dead; the Sadducees did not share this belief. Jesus taught that there would be a final judgment for everyone and eternal life (the Kingdom of God) for believers.
Jesus makes two requirements of the wealthy man who approaches him. First, he must give up his possessions. Throughout history, some Christians have taken this literally. Their example witnesses to us a radical commitment to the Gospel of Jesus. Some have read this as a particular requirement directed to this specific individual. Still others have sought to explain the meaning intended by the word possessions as those things that prevent one from following Jesus. Christians have generally understood that at the least, following Jesus requires that believers hold material possessions loosely and remain vigilant against seeking security in accumulating possessions.
The second requirement Jesus makes of this man is the invitation that Jesus extends to all would-be disciples: “follow me.” Jesus very much wants this man to be his disciple. We believe that the Christian faith is one in which each believer is in a personal relationship with Jesus. Just as this Gospel tells us that Jesus loves the man and is sad when he departs, so too, Jesus loves us and is saddened when we are unable to follow him.
We see in this Gospel reading another example of Mark’s pattern, which shows Jesus offering further elaboration about his message and meaning to his disciples. To his disciples, Jesus laments the challenges faced by those who are rich in following him and entering the Kingdom of God. In reply to the disciples’ astonishment at the strictness of the standard that Jesus speaks about today, Jesus reminds his disciples that nothing is impossible with God. Salvation is determined by our ability to rely completely upon God.
Peter replies to Jesus by boasting that the disciples have already given up everything. Jesus acknowledges that those who have given up everything for the sake of the Gospel will be rewarded. This reward begins now, in the new community that one will gain in this life, and will continue in the eternal age to come. Our personal relationship with Jesus is also an invitation to the community of faith, the Church.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- How many possessions do you have? (probably too many to count) Are there things you own that you don’t need anymore? What do you do with these things? Throw them out? Donate to Purple Heart?
- Consider books you have, ornaments, nick knacks etc. What do you do with these things? When it comes time to give these away, how easy is it for you to give them up? Sometimes it is even difficult for us to give away things we don’t use anymore.
- In today’s Gospel, a man asks Jesus what he must do to gain eternal life.
- What is the first part of Jesus’ answer to this man’s question? (to follow God’s commandments) What is the second part of Jesus’ answer? (to give what he has to the poor and to follow Jesus) What does the man do? (He goes away in sadness.) Why? (because he had many possessions and it was too difficult for him to give them up to follow Jesus)
- Jesus is telling us that money and possessions can sometimes become more important to us than doing what God wants. Jesus wants us to be careful about our attitude toward material things. If our possessions stand in the way of loving God or loving others, it is better for us to give them away.
- Pray and ask God to help you remember that doing what God wants is more important than keeping our possessions. Pray the Peace Prayer of Saint Francis.
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
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I don’t remember if I gave you this link before, but if you want to look up the references in commentaries you can use this link to all the books of the Bible. Just cut and paste it into your web browser. Google or Firefox etc. God bless!
http://www.usccb.org/bible/books-of-the-bible/index.cfm
Sunday October 7, 2018 Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 140
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 2:18-24
The LORD God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him."
So the LORD God formed out of the ground
various wild animals and various birds of the air,
and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them;
whatever the man called each of them would be its name.
The man gave names to all the cattle,
all the birds of the air, and all wild animals;
but none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.
So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man,
and while he was asleep,
he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib
that he had taken from the man.
When he brought her to the man, the man said:
"This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called 'woman, '
for out of 'her man' this one has been taken."
That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one flesh.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
May you see your children's children.
Peace be upon Israel!
R. May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Reading 2 Heb 2:9-11
Brothers and sisters:
He "for a little while" was made "lower than the angels, "
that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
For it was fitting that he,
for whom and through whom all things exist,
in bringing many children to glory,
should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering.
He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated
all have one origin.
Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers.”
Gospel Mk 10:2-16
The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,
"Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?"
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?"
They replied,
"Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her."
But Jesus told them,
"Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate."
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery."
And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
"Let the children come to me;
do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to
such as these.
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it."
Then he embraced them and blessed them,
placing his hands on them.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 2:18-24
The book of Genesis begins with two different but complementary stories of God's creation of the world.
Two Creation Stories and Two Portrayals of God
In Genesis 1, God is portrayed as speaking from afar, bringing order out of chaos in a well planned and carefully structured progression of six days of creation. Genesis 1 teaches us that God's intentions for creation will come to fruition in accord with God's will and desire.
When we turn to the second creation story in Gen 2:4b-25, the portrait of God is somewhat different. God gets "down and dirty" with creation, forming the human (adam) from the land or clay (adamah). God performs CPR on the newly formed lump of clay, breathing into the dirt-creature's nostrils "the breath of life." Like the crazed doctor who brings to life the lifeless Frankenstein in the film Young Frankenstein, we can imagine God exclaiming, "He's alive! He's alive!"
The image of the garden of Eden as a laboratory with God as the chief scientist engaging in trial-and-error experiments captures something of the spirit of God's portrayal in Genesis 2. Although God will finally and assuredly have God's way with the world (Genesis 1), God will also encounter unexpected challenges and try new solutions in a give-and-take in interaction with creation and its creatures (so Genesis 2).
Being Lonely: Not Good!
In Genesis 1, God had repeatedly said that everything was "good." In Genesis 2, God surveys his emerging horticultural experiment in Eden and senses something is "not good." God observes, "It's not good that the man should be alone" (2:18). God's discovery highlights what is fundamental to human nature and human flourishing: humans are social creatures who thrive in close and intimate relationships with others. Thus, God resolves to make for the single human "a helper [Hebrew: ezer] as his partner." A "helper" in the Old Testament is not a subordinate but one who may be an equal or sometimes even a superior to the one who is being helped. In fact, God is often called a "helper" to humans in need (Psalm 10:14; 54:4).
God's first experimental attempt to resolve this deficit of community is to create an array of wild animals, birds, and domestic animals as possible soul mates for the human. God marches the colorful parade of diverse wild life before the human and invites him to give names to the various creatures (2:18-20). Elephant, condor, dog, cat, kangaroo, what have you. The act of naming in the ancient world was a means of defining and shaping the character and essence of the one named. By naming the animals, the human participates with God as a co-creation, but sadly this first experiment does not work. The animals are interesting, but none of the animals fully resolves the ache and void of human loneliness.
The Second Experiment: Success at Last!
So God embarks on another experiment. God assumes the role of chief surgeon and anesthetizes the man into a deep sleep. This new attempt at finding a "helper as his partner" will not involve human co-creation this time. It will all be God's doing, a gift from God alone. God surgically removes a rib from the man's side and lovingly shapes the rib into a second human being who is "like" the man but also "opposite" him, like two puzzle pieces that fit together. The animal-as-full-partner experiment had been a bust, but this time God gets it oh so right! The man awakes and instantly recognizes the fulfillment of his deep longing in the eyes of the new "other," the woman.
For the first time in Scripture, the human speaks in the elevated language of poetic verse as a sign of the ecstasy and joy that accompanies this discovery:
This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh.
This one shall be called Woman [Hebrew ishshah]
for out of Man [Hebrew ish] this one was taken.
"At last," the search is over. The imagery of being "bone of my bones" and "flesh of my flesh" speaks of a bond between the man and woman so strong that to sever it would be as if to rip out a physical part of one's own body. The man's lyric response is the Bible's first example of love poetry but not its last. The Bible's other great celebration of human love and passion is the Old Testament book, the Song of Songs, a commentary and sequel to Genesis 2.
Love as a Fragile Gift
This marital bond is so intimate that the two "become one flesh"--naked, open to one another, vulnerable, trusting, passionate, loving, and "not ashamed" (2:24-25). This union of two lonely human beings yearning for community and finding it in one another is the great climax of the second creation story.
Unfortunately, the happy union is quickly strained and marred as the narrative suddenly and unexpectedly descends into the story of Adam and Eve's disobedience and expulsion from the garden of Eden in Genesis 3. Mutual trust, partnership, support, freedom from shame, and equality of relationship are all threatened by human disobedience in Genesis 3.
The reality and the mystery of human love is that sometimes it endures and sometimes it does not. Genesis 2 reminds us of God's original intention and desire for humans--to find in at least one other person a bond of love that runs so deeply and so intimately that we never feel alone.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
This, as the former, is a psalm for families. In that we were taught that the prosperity of our families depends upon the blessing of God; in this we are taught that the only way to obtain that blessing which will make our families comfortable is to live in the fear of God and in obedience to him. Those that do so, in general, shall be blessed (v. 1, 2, 4), In particular,
- I. They shall be prosperous and successful in their employments (v. 2).
- II. Their relations shall be agreeable (v. 3).
- III. They shall live to see their families brought up (v. 6).
- IV. They shall have the satisfaction of seeing the church of God in a flourishing condition (v. 5, 6).
It is here shown that godliness has the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
It is here again and again laid down as an undoubted truth, that those who are truly holy are truly happy.. God blesses them, and his pronouncing them blessed makes them so. They are blessed now, they shall be blessed still, and forever. This blessedness, arising from this blessing, is here secured.
That, by the blessing of God, they shall get an honest livelihood and live comfortably upon it. It is not promised that they shall live at ease, without care or pains, but, What your hands provide you will enjoy; you will be blessed and prosper.
Here is a double promise,
That they shall have abundance of comfort in their family-relations. As a wife and children are very much a man's care, so, if by the grace of God they are such as they should be, they are very much a man's delight, as much as any creature-comfort.
The wife shall be as a vine by the sides of the house, not only as a spreading vine which serves for an ornament, but as a fruitful vine which is for profit, and with the fruit whereof both God and man are honored, Jdg. 9:13. The vine is a weak and tender plant, and needs to be supported and cherished, but it is a very valuable plant, and some think (because all the products of it were prohibited to the Nazarites) it was the tree of knowledge itself. The wife's place is the husband's house; there her business lies, and that is her castle. Her place is by the sides of the house, not under-foot to be trampled on. She shall be fruitful as the vine, not only in children, but in the fruits of wisdom, and righteousness, and good management, the branches of which run over the wall (Gen. 49:22; Ps. 80:11), like a fruitful vine, not cumbering the ground, nor bringing forth sour grapes, or grapes of Sodom, but good fruit.
The children shall be as olive plants, likely in time to be olive-trees, and, though wild by nature, yet grafted into the good olive, and partaking of its root and fatness, Rom. 11:17. It is pleasant to parents who have a table spread, though but with ordinary fare, to see their children round about it, to have many children, enough to surround it, and those with them, and not scattered, or the parents forced from them.
That they shall have those things which God has promised and which they pray for: The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion, where the ark of the covenant was, and where the pious Israelites attended with their devotions. Blessings out of Zion are the best-blessings, which flow, not from common providence, but from special grace, Ps. 20:2.
That they shall live long, to enjoy the comforts of the rising generations: "Thou shalt see thy children's children, as Joseph, Gen. 50:23. Thy family shall be built up and continued, and thou shalt have the pleasure of seeing it.' Children's children, if they be good children, are the crown of old men (Prov. 17:6), who are apt to be fond of their grandchildren.
Reading 2 Heb 2:9-11
Hebrews 2:9-11 opens to us a spiritual reality that we must come to understand and appreciate if we are to make the most of this wonderful opportunity of salvation that God gave to us completely unbidden. Because of our disobedience and the resulting curse of death placed on us, we could never experience what is said of us in Psalm 8:4-8, which the author of Hebrews refers to here. However, Jesus suffered death and gained the victory for us. As a result, He wears the crown of glory and rules the universe. We know this Being as God-in-the-flesh, but the author uses His earthly name, Jesus, so that we can see the historical setting of His victory.
"Jesus" calls to mind the concept of salvation, as it means "savior." The author writes that Jesus accomplished the redemption of His people by "tasting] death," not—interestingly—by merely "dying." To taste death is a graphic illustration of the painful way He suffered and died. He was not spared this excruciating trauma because He was the Son. He experienced suffering, both physical and emotional, to the very marrow of His bones.
In Hebrews 2:10, we find that the "everyone" of verse 9 is, in realty, not in this context the whole world, but it is limited to the "many sons" being brought to glory—in other words, the church. He bore the suffering that should have come upon us as the wages of our sins. He is the Author, the Pioneer, the Trailblazer, the Forerunner, going before us to our salvation. He is the One clearing the path, as it were, as we make our way following our calling. In Hebrews 12:2, He is called "the author and finisher [or perfecter] of our faith." The Father made Him pass through gruesome suffering in our behalf.
He completed His preparation for the responsibility that He now holds as our High Priest; the Father has charged Him with the task of preparing many others to share life with them in the Kingdom of God. Jesus, therefore, is the One who makes men holy. The path to sanctification lies in obedience to doing God's will, and that obedience is to be given out of gratitude because one understands and knows the Father and Son from within an intimate relationship (John 17:3).
Gospel Mk 10:2-16
Today we continue to read from the Gospel according to Mark. For the past three Sundays, we have been hearing Mark’s reports of conversations between Jesus and his disciples. Recall that in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus uses these private moments to teach his disciples in greater detail about the Kingdom of God. Beginning with today’s Gospel, Jesus returns to Judea, Jewish territory, and resumes his public ministry. The first verse of chapter 10 of Mark’s Gospel tells us that crowds gathered around Jesus, and he taught them, as was his custom. Immediately, the Pharisees approach Jesus to test him.
The Pharisees question Jesus about the lawfulness of divorce. Under specific conditions, divorce was an accepted practice among the Jewish people during the time of Jesus. It was regulated by the Law of Moses, as found in Deuteronomy 24:1-5. This law only permits that a husband may divorce his wife if he finds her to be indecent. This is the justification that the Pharisees reference when Jesus inquires about the commandment of Moses. In reply, Jesus quotes from the Book of Genesis and counters that God’s original intention was that men and women would become one flesh in marriage. Jesus describes the teaching of Moses as a concession made to God's original intention because of human stubbornness.
In private, Jesus’ disciples question him further about this teaching on divorce. It is to his disciples that Jesus lays out the implications of his teaching by explaining that remarriage after divorce is adultery. Jesus’ teaching was more restrictive than the teaching of the Pharisees, which permitted remarriage. Jesus further distinguished his teaching from the cultural norms of his time by applying his words equally to men and women. Jewish culture permitted only that a husband may divorce his wife. Wives were not permitted to divorce their husband for any reason, including adultery.
At first glance, the final part of today’s Gospel seems unconnected to the previous teaching about divorce. When read together, however, these passages present a strong picture of Jesus’ emphasis on the importance of family. God intended for women and men to be joined together in marriage. Among the purposes of marriage is the raising of children. By welcoming children and fostering their relationship with God, parents and families bear witness to the Kingdom of God.
At the end of today’s Gospel, the people were bringing their children to Jesus, and again Jesus’ disciples show that they just don’t get it. Recall that in the Gospel for each of the past two Sundays, Jesus has taught his disciples the value and importance of these “little ones” in the Kingdom of God. Yet in today’s Gospel, the disciples try to prevent people from bringing their children to Jesus. Jesus reprimands his disciples and welcomes these children. Again Jesus offers these children as an example of the kind of complete trust and dependence upon God that ought to be the attitude of all believers.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about how relationships are portrayed in songs, books, or TV shows.
- Some of the messages about love and relationships sound very romantic. But making a long-term commitment to another person is a difficult thing. People succeed only with God’s help and grace. This grace is celebrated in the Sacrament of Marriage. Jesus sent a strong message about the importance and strength of this commitment in today’s Gospel.
- What does Jesus say about the marriage relationship in today’s Gospel? (that God joins man and woman in marriage; that in marriage, man and woman become one flesh; that what God has brought together may not be separated by human beings) The disciples question Jesus further about this teaching. Why do you think they ask Jesus about this again? (because they find this teaching challenging because Jesus is being more strict than the Pharisees, and so on)
- What scene is described at the end of today's Gospel? (Jesus welcoming the children)
- It seems like these two scenes are unrelated, but hearing them together teaches us something very important. God wants to help us honor our commitments to one another. To do this, we must be like children before God, trusting him completely and depending upon his help. The Church teaches us that the Sacrament of Marriage strengthens our commitment and gives married couples the gift of the Holy Spirit to help them honor their promises to one another.
- Pray that God will strengthen the commitment of married couples and help them honor and respect one another. Pray Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s prayer, the Suscipe.
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
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Sunday September 30, 2018 Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 137
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Nm 11:25-29
The LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to Moses.
Taking some of the spirit that was on Moses,
the LORD bestowed it on the seventy elders;
and as the spirit came to rest on them, they prophesied.
Now two men, one named Eldad and the other Medad,
were not in the gathering but had been left in the camp.
They too had been on the list, but had not gone out to the tent;
yet the spirit came to rest on them also,
and they prophesied in the camp.
So, when a young man quickly told Moses,
"Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, "
Joshua, son of Nun, who from his youth had been Moses’aide, said,
"Moses, my lord, stop them."
But Moses answered him,
"Are you jealous for my sake?
Would that all the people of the LORD were prophets!
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
the decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
Though your servant is careful of them,
very diligent in keeping them,
Yet who can detect failings?
Cleanse me from my unknown faults!
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
.
From wanton sin especially, restrain your servant;
let it not rule over me.
Then shall I be blameless and innocent
of serious sin.
R. The precepts of the Lord give joy to the heart.
.
Reading 2 Jas 5:1-6
Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries.
Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten,
your gold and silver have corroded,
and that corrosion will be a testimony against you;
it will devour your flesh like a fire.
You have stored up treasure for the last days.
Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers
who harvested your fields are crying aloud;
and the cries of the harvesters
have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure;
you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter.
You have condemned;
you have murdered the righteous one;
he offers you no resistance.
Gospel Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
At that time, John said to Jesus,
"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name,
and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us."
Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him.
There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name
who can at the same time speak ill of me.
For whoever is not against us is for us.
Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ,
amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.
"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,
it would be better for him if a great millstone
were put around his neck
and he were thrown into the sea.
If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
It is better for you to enter into life maimed
than with two hands to go into Gehenna,
into the unquenchable fire.
And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off.
It is better for you to enter into life crippled
than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.
Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye
than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna,
where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'"
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Nm 11:25-29
We have here the performance of God's word to Moses, that he should have help in the government of Israel.
Here is the case of the seventy privy-counsellors in general. Moses, though a little disturbed by the tumult of the people, yet was thoroughly composed by the communion he had with God, and soon came to himself again. He did his part; he presented the seventy elders before the Lord, round the tabernacle, that they might there stand ready to receive the grace of God, in the place where he manifested himself, and that the people also might be witnesses of their solemn call. Note, Those that expect favor from God must humbly offer themselves and their service to him. God was not wanting to do his part. He gave of his Spirit to the seventy elders, which enabled those whose capacities and education set them but on a level with their neighbors all of a sudden to say and do that which was extraordinary, and which proved them to be actuated by divine inspiration: they prophesied, and did not cease all that day, and (some think) only that day. They discoursed to the people of the things of God, and perhaps commented upon the law they had lately received with admirable clearness, and fullness, and readiness, and aptness of expression, so that all who heard them might see and say that God was with them. Thus, long afterwards, Saul was marked for the government by the gift of prophecy, which came upon him for a day and a night.
Here is the particular case of two of them, Eldad and Medad, probably two brothers.
They were nominated by Moses to be assistants in the government, but they went not out unto the tabernacle as the rest did. Most think that they declined coming to the tabernacle out of an excess of modesty and humility; being sensible of their own weakness and unworthiness, they desired to be excused from coming into the government. Their principle was their praise, but their practice in not obeying orders was their fault.
The Spirit of God found them out in the camp, where they were hidden among the stuff, and there they prophesied, that is, they exercised their gift of praying, preaching, and praising God, in some private tent. Note, The Spirit of God is not tied to the tabernacle, but, like the wind, blows where he listens. There was a special providence that these two should be absent, for thus it appeared that it was indeed a divine Spirit which the elders were actuated by, and that Moses gave them not that Spirit, but God himself. They modestly declined preferment, but God forced it upon them; nay, they have the honor of being named, which the rest have not: for those that humble themselves shall be exalted, and those are most fit for government who are least ambitious of it.
Joshua moved to have them silenced: My lord Moses, forbid them. It is probable that Joshua himself was one of the seventy, which made him the more jealous for the honor of their order. He takes it for granted that they were not under any necessitating impulse, for the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets, and therefore he would have them either not to prophesy at all or to come to the tabernacle and prophesy in concert with the rest. He does not desire that they should be punished for what they had done, but only restrained for the future. This motion he made from a good principle, not out of any personal dislike to Eldad and Medad, but out of an honest zeal for that which he apprehended to be the unity of the church, and concern for the honor of God and Moses.
Moses rejected the motion, and reproved him. Though Joshua was Moses's particular friend and confidant, though he said this out of a respect to Moses, whose honor he was very loth to see lessened by the call of those elders, yet Moses reproves him, and in him all that show such a spirit. We must not secretly grieve at the gifts, graces, and usefulness of others. It was the fault of John's disciples that they envied Christ's honor because it shaded their master's.
The elders, now newly ordained, immediately entered upon their administration; when their call was sufficiently attested by their prophesying, they went with Moses to the camp, and applied themselves to business. Having received the gift, they ministered the same as good stewards. And now Moses was pleased that he had so many to share with him in his work and honor.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 10, 12-13, 14
The song employs beautiful imagery, playful poetry, and elegant prayer-petitions. - In the first section (verses 1-6), the focus is on creation, the genre is similar to a hymn, the poetry is flexibly fluid, and the generic name for God is used.
- In the second section (verses 7-10), the focus is on God's Torah (translated as "law" but "instruction" would be better), the genre is similar to a wisdom psalm, the poetry becomes consistently formal, and the proper name of the LORD is used.
- In the third section (verses 11-14), the focus shifts to the "servant" who speaks the psalm, the genre is similar to a prayer, the poetry becomes more informal, and the proper name for the LORD continues to be used.
Most current interpreters hold that the poem is a coherent whole. The root metaphor of the psalm is speech:
Part I (verses 1-7) Creation's Speech -- praise for God
Part II (verses 8-12) Torah's Speech -- instruction of humanity
Part II (verses 13-15) Servant's Speech -- prayer to God
Psalm 19 intends to teach. The first part of the poem teaches that the heavens tell us that there is a God. The power of the creator can be known about through the paradoxical, unspoken speech of creation: "There is no speech, nor are there words; [the heavens'] voice is not heard; yet their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world" (verses 4-5).
But the second part of the psalm teaches us who God is and what God wills. The Lord's Torah -- we would call it Scripture -- is a word that we can actually understand and gives us words to follow.
The Assigned Verses: "The Torah of the Lord is Perfect"
As already mentioned, the poetry and focus of the psalm change beginning with verse 8, which is the first verse in the psalm's second section. The focus shifts to the "Torah of the Lord." The poetry becomes rigidly regular. Each of the lines in verses 8-10 is constructed identically: noun + Lord + adjective + participle + noun.
Each phrase begins with a synonym for the Torah of the Lord -- Torah, decrees, precepts, commandment, fear, and ordinances -- are a reference to the word of God revealed in the Scriptures. Torah is not here "law" in the legal sense, but as "instruction" in a more holistic sense. This section of the poem celebrates what God has done and continues to do through the Scriptures. God revives the soul, makes wise the simple, enlightens the eye, endures forever, and is altogether righteous.
Stop a moment. Pause briefly and linger on the promise here.
The Bible is such a part of Western society that we often fail to appreciate the means of grace that Scripture is. The psalm offers poetic testimony that invites both church and synagogue to realize the miracle that we hold in our hands. And it does this by offering promises about what the Word does (revive the soul, make wise the simple, enlighten the eye, and so on).
The poem then offers two (literally) golden metaphors for the Word. It is more desirable than refined gold. It is sweeter than the golden honey of the honeycomb.
Yes, the Torah of the Lord is perfect. Yes, its laws are a gracious gift from the very God who created us -- they show us how to live and they offer pictures of what it means to love the neighbor.
As the psalmist knows, "in keeping them there is great reward" (verse 12). Reward here doesn't mean that God miraculously rewards those who keep God's law. Rather, reward here means that good things come in the very earthly keeping of the laws -- don't steal and you stay out of prison, don't kill and you won't be executed, and so on.
But, as the psalmist also knows that perfect obedience is beyond human capacity. The psalmist knows that no one "can detect their [own] errors." Therefore the psalmist prays, "Clear me from hidden faults" (verse 13).
The psalm ends with a prayer that many preachers use for the start of their sermon: "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." The use of this prayer in connection with preaching begs us to wonder if even our proclamation of God's word needs God's forgiving, gracious blessing.
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Reading 2 Jas 5:1-6
James returns to the principle that work must serve the needs of others. His words in the beginning of chapter 5 are scathing. He warns “the rich” to “weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you” (James 5:1). While the gold in their vaults and the robes in their closets may look as shiny as ever, James is so certain of their coming judgment that he can speak as if their riches were already decomposing: “Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted” (James 5:2–3). Their self-indulgence has succeeded only in “fattening” them “for the day of slaughter” (James 5:5). The day of slaughter seems to be a reference to the day in which God judges those whom he called to lead and care for his people, but who preyed on them instead (Zech. 11:4–7).
These rich people are doomed both for how they acquired their wealth and for what they did (or didn’t do) with it once they had it. James echoes the Old Testament as he excoriates them for their unjust business practices: “Listen! The wages of the laborers who mowed your fields which you kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts” (James 5:4; cf. Lev. 19:13).[1]
Leviticus 19 is one of James’s favorite Old Testament passages; see Luke Timothy Johnson, Brother of Jesus, Friend of God (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 123ff.
Money that should be in the hands of laborers sits instead in the treasuries of the landowners. And there it stays—they hoard their wealth and ignore the needy around them (James 5:3).
Business leaders must be especially diligent about paying their workers fairly. An analysis of what constitutes fair pay is beyond the scope of this discussion,
but James’s words “the wages you have kept back by fraud” (James 5:4) are an accusation of abuse of power on the part of these particular wealthy landowners. The workers were owed wages, but the rich and powerful found a way out of paying them without incurring punishment by the legal system. The rich and powerful often have means to subvert the judiciary, and it’s astonishingly easy to exercise unfair power without even recognizing it. Abuses of power include misclassifying employees as independent contractors, inaccurately registering workers in a lower skill code, paying women or minorities less for doing the same job as others, and using children for jobs so dangerous that adults refuse to do them. Misuse of power can never be excused just because it is a so-called standard practice.
James also condemns those who “have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure” (James 5:5). The question of what constitutes living in luxury and in pleasure is also complex, but it confronts many Christians in one way or another. James’s chief concern in this passage is the well-being of the poor, so the most relevant question may be, “Does the way I live enhance or diminish the lives of poor people? Does what I do with money help lift people out of poverty or does it help keep people impoverished?”
Gospel Mk 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
Today we continue to read from the Gospel of Mark. Recall that last week we heard Jesus chastise his disciples for their argument about who among them was the greatest. Jesus taught them that the greatest among them will be those who serve the least ones. In today’s Gospel, the disciple John questions Jesus about an unknown exorcist who was driving out demons in Jesus’ name. John’s question might have been motivated by jealousy. Previously in Mark's Gospel, Jesus healed a boy whom the disciples had been unable to heal. John’s question is further evidence that the disciples have not yet grasped Jesus’ words to them. They continue to compare themselves to others who seem to have greater healing powers, and they do not want to share the power of Jesus’ name with others.
Today the demon possession described in the Gospels might be seen as a form of mental illness, but the need for healing these syndromes was as real then as it is now. Exorcism was a common practice in first-century Palestine. Some people had the power to heal the symptoms of possession. One of the strategies used was to invoke the name of a person or figure who was believed to have the power to heal.
The disciples observed that the unknown exorcist invoked Jesus’ name and was successful in his healing efforts. This unknown healer recognized the power of Jesus’ name, yet he was not a follower of Jesus. In his reply to his disciples, Jesus acknowledges that deeds of faith can precede the words of faith. He also teaches that the disciples should not be reluctant to share Jesus’ healing powers with others.
Later in this Gospel, Jesus teaches us not to create obstacles for those who are just beginning to have faith but to encourage even the smallest signs of faith. The Greek word used here for sin also connotes “stumbling” or “causing scandal.” In vivid terms Jesus teaches his disciples the consequences to those who would put obstacles before people who are on the road to faith.
Making the Connection
- Jealousy. What does it mean to be jealous? Why might a person be jealous of another person? What are some signs that a person is jealous? (Accept all reasonable answers, but be sure that the conversation moves beyond being jealous about possessions; if needed, redirect the questions to raise the issue about being jealous of another person’s abilities or power.)
- Being jealous of another person can sometimes cause us to exclude or disregard the contributions they make. In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus’ reply to a question from his disciple John about a person who was using Jesus’ name to heal. It sounds as if Jesus’ disciples might be jealous of this power.
- Why did the disciples want to stop the person who was healing in Jesus’ name? (because this person was not a follower of Jesus) What answer did Jesus give to his disciples? (He told the disciples to let this person continue.)
- The disciples sounded jealous because they thought that they were the only ones who would be able to heal others using the power of Jesus’ name. Jesus teaches them that they should not be jealous. Instead they should remember that all who do what God wants are equal in his eyes and are working together to serve the Kingdom of God.
- This is important for us to remember. Whenever we do something good for another person, even the smallest good deed, God is pleased with us. And God wants us to appreciate the good deeds of others, who are working, like us, to serve the Kingdom of God.
- Ask God to keep us from being jealous of the things others can do and ask God to help us work with others to serve the Kingdom of God. Pray the Lord’s Prayer.
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Sunday September 23, 2018 Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 134
This weeks review has a little extra session at the end discussing books of the bible and in particultr Wisdom.
Hope you find it useful.
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 2:12, 17-20
The wicked say:
Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him.
For if the just one be the son of God, God will defend him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
With revilement and torture let us put the just one to the test
that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 54:3-4, 5, 6 and 8
R. The Lord upholds my life.
O God, by your name save me,
and by your might defend my cause.
O God, hear my prayer;
hearken to the words of my mouth.
R. The Lord upholds my life.
For the haughty men have risen up against me,
the ruthless seek my life;
they set not God before their eyes.
R. The Lord upholds my life.
Behold, God is my helper;
the Lord sustains my life.
Freely will I offer you sacrifice;
I will praise your name, O LORD, for its goodness.
R. The Lord upholds my life.
Reading 2 Jas 3:16—4:3
Beloved:
Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist,
there is disorder and every foul practice.
But the wisdom from above is first of all pure,
then peaceable, gentle, compliant,
full of mercy and good fruits,
without inconstancy or insincerity.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace
for those who cultivate peace.
Where do the wars
and where do the conflicts among you come from?
Is it not from your passions
that make war within your members?
You covet but do not possess.
You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;
you fight and wage war.
You do not possess because you do not ask.
You ask but do not receive,
because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Gospel Mk 9:30-37
Jesus and his disciples left from there and began a journey through Galilee,
but he did not wish anyone to know about it.
He was teaching his disciples and telling them,
“The Son of Man is to be handed over to men
and they will kill him,
and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.”
But they did not understand the saying,
and they were afraid to question him.
They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house,
he began to ask them,
“What were you arguing about on the way?”
But they remained silent.
They had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest.
Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them,
“If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”
Taking a child, he placed it in the their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me.”
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 2:12, 17-20
For they have said. A reference to the wicked and ungodly men introduced at the end of the last chapter with these words: It was the wicked who with hands and words invited death, considered it a friend, and pined for it,
and made a covenant with it, Because they deserve to be allied with it
(Wisdom 1:16). Their culture of death philosophy is introduced here, and continues in the following verses. They reject the concept of immortality and, as a result, adopt a “live for today alone” approach to the things of this world, and a “might makes right” approach to their fellow human beings. For this reason they persecute the just man whose life and very existence is a witness against them. But they err in thought, and are blinded by wickedness, unable to discern God’s plan for humanity. No doubt thinking themselves highly independent, each one priding himself on being his own man, they are in reality in the devil’s possession (Wisdom 2:23-24).
Verses 12-22 which forms the bulk of today’s readings concerns the suffering of the just man. As is the case with so many texts along these lines, this one is often applied to Christ in the liturgy.
The truly righteous man is a living witness against the sinner who cannot abide the testimony. They say he is not for our turn, i.e., he refuses to turn in their immoral direction. They are incensed that this is itself a witness against them: he is contrary to our doings. The righteous man thinks the time past is sufficient to have fulfilled the will of the Gentiles, for them who have walked in riotousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings and unlawful worshipping of idols, because they know a judgement is coming. The unrighteous, however, think it strange that you run not with them into the same confusion of riotousness (see 1 Peter 4:3-4).
Pope John Paul II (Veritatis Splendor #93)~By witnessing fully to the good, they (martyrs and saints) are a living reproof to those who transgress the law (cf. Wisdom 2:12), and they make the words of the Prophet echo ever afresh: “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” (Isa 5:20)
Wis 2:15 The very sight of the righteous man makes them irate. This statement of the unrighteous will take on added meaning in verses 17 and 19 (see notes below)
Wis 2:16 He treats them like Triflers because of their superficial philosophy (Wisdom 2:1-5) and the lifestyle they have embraced because of it (Wisdom 2:6-10). Triflers because they treat the righteous man of no account, and persecute him (Wisdom 2:12-20). They are thoroughly superficial: clouds without water, which are carried about by winds: trees of the autumn, unfruitful, twice dead, plucked up by the roots: Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own confusion: wandering stars, to whom the storm of darkness is reserved for ever (Jude 12-13).
Wis 2:17 & 18
In verse 15 they said, he is grievous to us, even to behold, but here they wish to try and test him to see for themselves if he is righteous and true, and if his end is as he hopes. Here they imitate Satan, the Devil, in whose possession they are (Wisdom 2:24-25, John 8:42-44), for he tempted Christ is just such a manner: If thou be the son of God…(Matt 4:1-11). See also Matt 27:39-43.
Wis 2:19 Note the reference to examining and knowing. They bring up once again the theme of sight (verse 15 & 17) and knowledge (“reasoning with themselves”, verse 1). Also, having determined that we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as if we had not been: for the breath in our nostrils is smoke (Wisdom 2:2), the unrighteous have decided that the lives of others are of no real consequence: Let us examine him by outrages and tortures.
Wis 2:20 Modern translation such as the RSV differ regarding the second part of the verse: Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 54:3-4, 5, 6 and 8
If making plans of our own (presumably in the face of God's plans for us) is laughable, how about issuing commands to God, telling God the Divine's own business in no uncertain terms? Who would dare to give God orders? Yet this is, in a sense, exactly what Psalm 54 does.
Our psalm begins with a four-fold plea: "save me...vindicate [me]...hear [me]." Each of these pleas -- actually imperative verbs -- and a fourth “listen” [to me] quite literally command God's attention, response, and action. These imperative clauses that form the introduction to the psalm demand God's attention. And while some Hebrew language grammarians might call this particular use of the imperative a "jussive," (a command) that is really just a delicate way of labeling the act of giving orders to someone who out-ranks you.
But enough grammar. Why is God's attention and action commanded? Because the enemies of the psalmist, the insolent and the ruthless, have risen against him to tear him apart with their words.
At issue here in Psalm 54 is speech: speech directed to God in response to the vile slander of human beings. Notice the tension that is present in regards to the hearing of speech in the psalm. God is commanded to "give ear," to listen, to pay attention to the psalmist's words, and perhaps at the same time to the false witness of the psalmists enemies. It is almost as if the psalmist begs God, "Can you not hear the insolent and the ruthless as they lie about me?"
That the enemies actions are speech-based seems clear in that the enemies are said to be "rising against" him, a reference (most likely) to the actions of witnesses in the gate of the community (Isaiah 29:20-21: "For the tyrant shall be no more, and the scoffer shall cease to be; all those alert to do evil shall be cut off -- those who cause a person to lose a lawsuit, who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate, and without grounds deny justice to the one in the right"; cf. Psalm 27:12, "Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they are breathing out violence").
Notice also that the psalmist does not answer word-for-word those who falsely accuse him. Such a response is the fool's move; implicit in the psalm is the sense that he-said-they-said doesn't get a person anywhere. Instead, the psalmist "sets God" before him, appealing to God to judge on his behalf, to find for the defense if you will, and to reverse the judgment, pronouncing it against the psalmist's enemies. Indeed, before offering a pledge of thanksgiving, the psalmist exults in this reverse judgment saying that God "will repay my enemies for their evil," and that "my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies."
The psalm, which may strike us as an odd selection for reading/recitation during worship, actually couches the whole conflict very much in terms of the worship life of the community. This may be, at least in part, what is meant by the idea of "putting God" before oneself -- which the psalmist does and his enemies do not (compare verses 2 and 3). It is only in the presence of God that the conflict will be appropriately resolved. In service of putting God before himself, and at the same time putting his pleas before God, the psalmist employs several terms which are worship-related and technical.
At the end of the psalm, coming in response to his (presumed? assumed? anticipated?) vindication the psalmist vows an act of thanksgiving for God's judgment against his enemies. The author of the psalm says, "I will sacrifice," presenting a "freewill offering," in order to "give thanks" (verse 8). In worship, the psalmist will celebrate his deliverance.
One might ask at this point, if any sinner (which all of us most surely are) could ever do such a thing as demand that God act as judge on our behalf. But because God has delivered us from every trouble (verse 9), and because God is our helper (verse 6), even the sinful man or woman can, in the face of evil, rely on God to be not just a judge, not just any judge, but their judge.
Reading 2 Jas 3:16—4:3
3:13-18 These verses show the difference between men's pretending to be wise, and their being really so. He who thinks well, or he who talks well, is not wise in the sense of the Scripture, if he does not live and act well. True wisdom may be known by the meekness of the spirit and temper. Those who live in malice, envy, and contention, live in confusion; and are liable to be provoked and hurried to any evil work. Such wisdom comes not down from above, but springs up from earthly principles, acts on earthly motives, and is intent on serving earthly purposes. Those who are lifted up with such wisdom, described by the apostle James, is near to the Christian love, described by the apostle Paul; and both are so described that every man may fully prove the reality of his attainments in them. It has no disguise or deceit. It cannot fall in with those managements the world counts wise, which are crafty and guileful; but it is sincere, and open, and steady, and uniform, and consistent with itself. May the purity, peace, gentleness, teachability, and mercy shown in all our actions, and the fruits of righteousness abounding in our lives, prove that God has bestowed upon us this excellent gift.
The former chapter speaks of envying one another, as the great spring of strife and contentions; this chapter speaks of a lust after worldly things, and a setting too great a value upon worldly pleasures and friendships, as that which carried their divisions to a shameful height. The apostle here reproves the Jewish Christians for their wars, and for their lusts as the cause of them: The Jews were a very seditious people, and had therefore frequent wars with the Romans; and they were a very quarrelsome divided people, often fighting among themselves; and many of those corrupt Christians against whose errors and vices this epistle was written seem to have fallen in with the common quarrels. Hereupon, our apostle informs them that the origin of their wars and fighting was not (as they pretended) a true zeal for their country, and for the honor of God, but that their prevailing lusts were the cause of all.
They make a war within as well as fighting without. Impetuous passions and desires first war in their members, and then raise feuds in their nation. From lust of power and dominion, lust of pleasure, or lust of riches, from some one or more of these lusts arise all the broils and contentions that are in the world; and, since all wars and fighting come from the corruptions of our own hearts, it is therefore the right method for the cure of contention to lay the axe to the root, and mortify those lusts that war in the members. It should kill these lusts to think of their disappointment: "You lust, and have not; you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain. You covet great things for yourselves, and you think to obtain them by your victories over the Romans or by suppressing this and the other party among yourselves. You think you shall secure great pleasures and happiness to yourselves, by overthrowing everything which thwarts your eager wishes; but, alas! you are losing your labor and your blood, while you kill one another with such views as these.’’
Sinful desires and affections generally exclude prayer, and the working of our desires towards God: "You fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not. You fight, and do not succeed, because you do not pray you do not consult God in your undertakings, whether he will allow of them or not; and you do not commit your way to him, and make known your requests to him, but follow your own corrupt views and inclinations: therefore you meet with continual disappointments.’’
James is trying to get them to turn back to God and beg His forgiveness.
Gospel Mk 9:30-37
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus again predict his passion, death, and Resurrection to his disciples. The setting here is important. Jesus and his disciples are preparing to journey through Galilee, a Jewish territory in which Jesus has already encountered problems with the Pharisees. Perhaps this is why Mark indicates that Jesus was trying to journey in secret. In predicting his passion, Jesus is acknowledging the danger they will face and is trying to prepare his disciples for it. Yet Mark tells us that the disciples did not understand what Jesus was saying and were afraid to ask what he meant. Such hesitation on the part of the disciples is not characteristic behavior. Peter had no fear about rebuking Jesus in last week’s Gospel. Perhaps this is an indication that the disciples were aware that a new situation was emerging.
Mark paints a vivid picture in today’s Gospel. Having arrived at Capernaum, Jesus and his disciples enter a house. In this private place, Jesus asks his disciples about the argument they had while they were journeying. Again, the disciples are uncharacteristically silent and afraid to answer. They have been found out. Jesus then summons the Twelve, whom Mark identified earlier in his Gospel as those chosen by Jesus to preach and to drive out demons. To this select group of disciples, Jesus teaches that those who would be first in God’s kingdom must be servants of all.
Jesus then calls forward a child and teaches the Twelve that to receive a child in Jesus’ name is to receive both Jesus and the One who sent him. We might easily fail to understand the significance of this action. In first-century Palestine, children were without status or power, possessing no legal rights. In this action, Jesus is teaching his disciples and us that when we serve the least ones among us, we serve Jesus himself. Who are the people without power or status in our society that Jesus is calling us to serve? Do we do so willingly? Jesus teaches that God’s judgment of us will be based on this criterion alone.
Making the Connection
- Name some people who are famous (actors, athletes, politicians, and so on). Why are these people famous? Try to identify some of the things that people do to become famous.
- Some people in our society become famous for their abilities, such as athletes and actors. Other people become famous because they have accepted important jobs, such as leaders of government and politicians.
- Do you think you would you like to be famous? Why or why not?
- In today’s Gospel, we learned that some of Jesus’ first disciples argued about which of them was the greatest or the most important. Even they wanted to be famous! Jesus teaches them something surprising about what it means to be great in God’s eyes.
- What did Jesus tell his disciples would make them great? (serving others, especially serving the least ones among us) Do you think God cares if people are famous? (No.) What will make us great in God’s eyes? (if we serve other people in love)
- Pray the Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s Prayer for Generosity.
Teach me true generosity.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve.
To give without counting the cost,
To fight heedless of wounds,
To labor without seeking rest,
To sacrifice myself without thought of any reward
Save the knowledge that I have done your will.
Amen.
Books in the Bible
Old Testament New Testament
Catholic 46 27 73
Lutheran/Protestant 39 27 66
Jewish 24 0 24
7 Books eliminated by other religions
Tobit – Judith – Wisdom – Sirach – Baruch – 1 Macabees – 2 Macabees
Book of Wisdom
THE BOOK OF WISDOM
The Book of Wisdom was written about fifty years before the coming of Christ. Its author, whose name is not known to us, was probably a member of the Jewish community at Alexandria, in Egypt. He wrote in Greek, in a style patterned on that of Hebrew verse. At times he speaks in the person of Solomon, placing his teachings on the lips of the wise king of Hebrew tradition in order to emphasize their value. His profound knowledge of the earlier Old Testament writings is reflected in almost every line of the book, and marks him, like Ben Sira, as an outstanding representative of religious devotion and learning among the sages of postexilic Judaism.
The primary purpose of the author was the edification of his co-religionists in a time when they had experienced suffering and oppression, in part at least at the hands of apostate fellow Jews. To convey his message he made use of the most popular religious themes of his time, namely the splendor and worth of divine wisdom (6:22–11:1), the glorious events of the exodus (11:2–16; 12:23–27; 15:18–19:22), God’s mercy (11:17–12:22), the folly of idolatry (13:1–15:17), and the manner in which God’s justice operates in rewarding or punishing the individual (1:1–6:21). The first ten chapters in particular provide background for the teaching of Jesus and for some New Testament theology about Jesus. Many passages from this section of the book, notably 3:1–8, are used by the church in the liturgy.
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Sunday September 16, 2018 Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 131
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 50:5-9a
The Lord GOD opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
He is near who upholds my right;
if anyone wishes to oppose me,
let us appear together.
Who disputes my right?
Let that man confront me.
See, the Lord GOD is my help;
who will prove me wrong?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 114:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I love the LORD because he has heard
my voice in supplication,
Because he has inclined his ear to me
the day I called.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The cords of death encompassed me;
the snares of the netherworld seized upon me;
I fell into distress and sorrow,
And I called upon the name of the LORD,
"O LORD, save my life!"
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Gracious is the LORD and just;
yes, our God is merciful.
The LORD keeps the little ones;
I was brought low, and he saved me.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
For he has freed my soul from death,
my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.
I shall walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 Jas 2:14-18
What good is it, my brothers and sisters,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
If a brother or sister has nothing to wear
and has no food for the day,
and one of you says to them,
"Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, "
but you do not give them the necessities of the body,
what good is it?
So also faith of itself,
if it does not have works, is dead.
Indeed someone might say,
"You have faith and I have works."
Demonstrate your faith to me without works,
and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works.
Gospel Mk 8:27-35
Jesus and his disciples set out
for the villages of Caesarea Philippi.
Along the way he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that I am?"
They said in reply,
"John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others one of the prophets."
And he asked them,
"But who do you say that I am?"
Peter said to him in reply,
"You are the Christ."
Then he warned them not to tell anyone about him.
He began to teach them
that the Son of Man must suffer greatly
and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed, and rise after three days.
He spoke this openly.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
At this he turned around and, looking at his disciples,
rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,
"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the gospel will save it."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 50:5-9a
- The Song itself falls naturally into four strophes, (a structural division of a poem containing stanzas of varying line-length, especially an ode or free verse poem) each of which is introduced by the refrain "The Lord GOD (verses 4, 5, 7, 9):
Result: preaching consolation
B The Lord GOD has opened (perfect) my ear
(verses 5-6)
Result: suffering
a - did not hide face
b - disgrace
B’ The Lord GOD will help (imperfect) me
(verses 7-8)
Result: vindication
a - set face like flint
b - no disgrace
A’ The Lord GOD will help (imperfect) me (verse 9)
Result: no one can declare me guilty
The first two strophes A (verse 4) and B (verses 5-6) are further characterized by past tense (perfect) verbs describing what the Lord God has done, namely, given the servant the tongue and ear of a disciple. In contrast to this, the last two strophes B' (verses 7-8) and A' (verse 9) are characterized by future tense (imperfect) verbs describing what the Lord God will do; in both cases God will help him. All four strophes conclude with the results of God's activity. The two middle strophes are further linked by their repetition of "disgrace”, "insult") and "face" as the servant describes the vindication of his suffering. An exhortation identifying the speaker as the "servant" closes the song (verses 10-11).
The first strophe begins with the servant declaring that "The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of a disciple" (limmudim), not the tongue of a "teacher". That is, he has been equipped by God for the prophetic office. The purpose of his calling is that he "may know how to sustain the weary with a word," that he may console those who are suffering under the burdens of life. He has received this "tongue of a disciple" because every morning the Lord God wakens his ear to listen as a disciple (in Hebrew, the same word as above).
In the second strophe the servant describes what has happened to him as a result of his acceptance of this call and his unwillingness to shrink from the burdens that call entailed. He suffered the physical hostility of being scourged and the ultimate ancient near eastern humiliation of having his beard plucked out and being spit upon, as well as the mental anguish and disgrace that accompanied such abuse.
The third strophe describes a reversal signaled by the change from past tense verbs descriptive of God's activity to future tense verbs. Despite the disgrace and humiliation the servant experiences, he goes on to declare his unwavering trust in and reliance upon God. He is convinced that the God who called him to this disagreeable office is with him in the midst of his suffering: "he who vindicates me is near," he cries out in verse 8, and this confidence results in the strength he needs to courageously bear the disgrace and humiliation he has encountered, knowing that in the end he will be vindicated.
In the final strophe, he reaffirms that the Lord God will help him and he challenges his adversaries to a trial, let those who judge him so harshly now dare to face him in the court of heaven where the Lord God will stand beside him as advocate. The outcome is not in doubt, his cause will be vindicated and his adversaries will perish, deprived of victory and like a garment that falls apart to rags or is consumed by moths.
Following the Song itself, Second Isaiah has added a concluding exhortation "Who among you fears the Lord and obeys his servant?" Second Isaiah asks. Answer: "Those who walk in darkness and have no light," those who suffer persecution. And all because despite their suffering and affliction they "trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon their God," and they will be vindicated.
Powerful as this message is this week, Christians must read and hear these words the way the church has always read and heard them: as descriptive of the suffering experienced by Jesus in his life-giving passion and death. Just as the servant was persecuted for his faithful obedience to God, maintaining that faithful obedience to the end, so Jesus was persecuted for his message, remaining obedient unto death, "even to death on a cross" as Paul reminds us.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 114:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
A hymn celebrating Israel’s escape from Egypt, journey through the wilderness, and entry into the promised land, and the miracles of nature that bore witness to God’s presence in their midst. In the perspective of the Psalm, the people proceed directly from Egypt into the promised land (Ps 114:1–2). Sea and Jordan, which stood like soldiers barring the people from their land, flee before the mighty God as the earth recoils from the battle (Ps 114:3–4). The poet taunts the natural elements as one taunts defeated enemies (Ps 114:5–6).
Pairs of cosmic elements such as sea and rivers, mountains and hills, are sometimes mentioned in creation accounts. Personified here as warriors, the pairs tremble in fear before the Divine Warrior. The quaking also recalls the divine appearance in the storm at Sinai and elsewhere. But each time repeating the exhortation, “I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living”, indicating it id the Lord their God providing for them.
Reading 2 Jas 2:14-18
In this latter part of the chapter, the apostle shows the error of those who rested in a bare profession of the Christian faith, as if that would save them, while the temper of their minds and the tenor of their lives were altogether disagreeable to that holy religion which they professed. To let them see, therefore, what a wretched foundation they built their hopes upon, it is here proved at large that a man is justified, not by faith only, but by works.
I. Upon this arises a very great question, namely, how to reconcile Paul and James. Paul, in his epistles to the Romans and Galatians, seems to assert the directly contrary thing to what James here lays down, saying if often, and with a great deal of emphasis, that we are justified by faith only and not by the works of the law. Amicae scripturarum lites, utinam et nostrae—There is a very happy agreement between one part of scripture and another, notwithstanding seeming differences: it were well if the differences among Christians were as easily reconciled.
1. When Paul says that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law (Rom. 3:28), he plainly speaks of another sort of work than James does, but not of another sort of faith. Paul speaks of works wrought in obedience to the law of Moses, and before men's embracing the faith of the gospel; and he had to deal with those who valued themselves so highly upon those works that they rejected the gospel (as Rom. 10, at the beginning most expressly declares); but James speaks of works done in obedience to the gospel, and as the proper and necessary effects and fruits of sound believing in Christ Jesus. Both are concerned to magnify the faith of the gospel, as that which alone could save us and justify us; but Paul magnifies it by showing the insufficiency of any works of the law before faith, or in opposition to the doctrine of justification by Jesus Christ; James magnifies the same faith, by showing what are the genuine and necessary products and operations of it. 2. Paul not only speaks of different works from those insisted on by James, but he speaks of a quite different use that was made of good works from what is here urged and intended. Paul had to do with those who depended on the merit of their works in the sight of God, and thus he might well make them of no manner of account. James had to do with those who cried up faith, but would not allow works to be used even as evidence; they depended upon a bare profession, as sufficient to justify them; and with these he might well urge the necessity and vast importance of good works. As we must not break one table of the law, by dashing it against the other, so neither must we break in pieces the law and the gospel, by making them clash with one another: those who cry up the gospel so as to set aside the law, and those who cry up the law so as to set aside the gospel, are both in the wrong; for we must take our work before us; there must be both faith in Jesus Christ and good works the fruit of faith. Paul may be understood as speaking of that justification which is inchoate, ( just begun and so not fully formed or developed; rudimentary.) James of that which is complete; it is by faith only that we are put into a justified state, but then good works come in for the completing of our justification at the last great day; then, Come you children of my Father—for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat, etc.
Having thus cleared this part of scripture from everything of a contradiction to other parts of it, let us see what is more particularly to be learnt from this excellent passage of James; we are taught,
That faith without works will not profit, and cannot save us. So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Can faith save him? Observe here, (1.) That faith which does not save will not really profit us; a bare profession may sometimes seem to be profitable, to gain the good opinion of those who are truly good, and it may procure in some cases worldly good things; but what profit will this be, for any to gain the world and to lose their souls? For a man to have faith, and to say he has faith, are two different things; the apostle does not say, If a man have faith without works, for that is not a supposable case; the drift of this place of scripture is plainly to show that an opinion, or speculation, or assent, without works, is not faith; but the case is put thus, If a man say he has faith, etc. Men may boast of that to others, and be conceited of that in themselves, of which they are really destitute.
Gospel Mk 8:27-35
Today’s reading is the turning point in Mark’s Gospel. Almost exactly at the book's midpoint, this passage initiates a major shift in Mark's plot. The word Christ has not appeared since the Gospel's opening verse. We have had seven-plus chapters of Jesus' ministry, questions asked about his true identity and authority, secrets told and disclosure promised, and demonic powers identifying Jesus as God's Son. Readers have been given no indication that death awaits Jesus, although if you know the book's ending maybe you see foreshadowing in his baptism (1:9-11), the opposition he encounters (3:6), and John's execution (6:14-29).
In the presentation of the life and ministry of Jesus found in the Gospel of Mark, the deeds of Jesus have shown Jesus to be the Son of God. Yet many, including Jesus’ disciples, have not yet realized his identity. In today’s Gospel Jesus is near Caesarea Philippi, a very Roman setting and once the limit of ancient Israel's northward extension. Here he pops the question: "Who do people say that I am?" Now he wants to discuss his reputation, here at this borderland?
He then turns the question directly to the disciples and asks what they believe. Peter speaks for all of them when he announces that they believe Jesus to be the Christ.
The word Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word for Messiah, which means “the anointed one.” At the time of Jesus, the image of the Messiah was laden with popular expectations, most of which looked for a political leader who would free the Jewish people from Roman occupation. Jesus does not appear to have used this term for himself. As we see in today’s reading, Jesus refers to himself instead as the Son of Man, a term derived from the Jewish Scriptures, found in the Book of Daniel and in other apocryphal writings. Many scholars suggest that the phrase Son of Man is best understood to mean “human being.”
Now that the disciples have acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, Jesus confides in them the outcome of his ministry: he will be rejected, must suffer and die, and will rise after three days. Peter rejects this prediction, and Jesus rebukes him severely. The image of Christ that Jesus is giving is not the image of the Messiah that Peter was expecting. Jesus then teaches the crowd and the disciples about the path of discipleship: To be Chris’s disciple is to follow in the way of the cross.
We can easily miss the fear that Jesus’ words must have evoked in his disciples. Death by crucifixion was all too familiar as a method of execution in Roman-occupied territories. It was also an omnipresent danger to the Christian community for whom Mark wrote. The path that Jesus was inviting his disciples to share meant tremendous suffering and death. This is the kind of radical commitment and sacrifice that Jesus calls us to adopt for the sake of the Gospel.
Making the Connection
- Think about a time when you were told something that you didn’t want to hear. For example your car can’t be fixed. Or the TV is dead. How did you respond?
- In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus telling his disciples something that they may not have wanted to hear.
- What did Jesus ask his disciples at the beginning of today’s Gospel? (He asked what people were saying about him.) What did Peter answer when Jesus asked the disciples who they thought that he was? (Peter said that Jesus was the Christ) In saying this, Peter acknowledged that he believed that Jesus was sent by God to save his people. This must have sounded pretty good to the disciples.
- What does Jesus tell his disciples next? (that he was going to suffer and die) What does Peter do? (Peter objects to what Jesus has said and rebukes him.) How does Jesus respond? (He tells Peter that he doesn’t understand and that he is not thinking like God.) Then what does Jesus tell his disciples? (Jesus says that anyone who wants to be his disciple must follow his example by denying oneself and taking up one’s cross.)
- Peter didn’t want to hear this part of the Good News of Jesus. But Jesus said that we have to accept all of it to be his followers, both the cross and the glory of the Resurrection. Jesus set an example for all his disciples to follow. He loved us so much that he was willing to suffer and die for us.
- Who are some people in our world today who serve others? Police officers, Firemen etc’ These people can also be examples for us. Jesus also wants us to offer our lives in service to others.
- Pray that we will be good followers of Jesus. Pray together the Lord’s Prayer.
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Sunday September 9, 2018 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 128
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 35:4-7a
Thus says the LORD:
Say to those whose hearts are frightened:
Be strong, fear not!
Here is your God,
he comes with vindication;
with divine recompense
he comes to save you.
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened,
the ears of the deaf be cleared;
then will the lame leap like a stag,
then the tongue of the mute will sing.
Streams will burst forth in the desert,
and rivers in the steppe.
The burning sands will become pools,
and the thirsty ground, springs of water.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The God of Jacob keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD gives sight to the blind;
the LORD raises up those who were bowed down.
The LORD loves the just;
the LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The fatherless and the widow the LORD sustains,
but the way of the wicked he thwarts.
The LORD shall reign forever;
your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 Jas 2:1-5
My brothers and sisters, show no partiality
as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.
For if a man with gold rings and fine clothes
comes into your assembly,
and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in,
and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes
and say, “Sit here, please, ”
while you say to the poor one, “Stand there, ” or “Sit at my feet, ”
have you not made distinctions among yourselves
and become judges with evil designs?
Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.
Did not God choose those who are poor in the world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom
that he promised to those who love him?
among the people.
Gospel Mk 7:31-37
Again Jesus left the district of Tyre
and went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee,
into the district of the Decapolis.
And people brought to him a deaf man who had a speech impediment
and begged him to lay his hand on him.
He took him off by himself away from the crowd.
He put his finger into the man’s ears
and, spitting, touched his tongue;
then he looked up to heaven and groaned, and said to him,
“Ephphatha!”— that is, “Be opened!” --
And immediately the man’s ears were opened,
his speech impediment was removed,
and he spoke plainly.
He ordered them not to tell anyone.
But the more he ordered them not to,
the more they proclaimed it.
They were exceedingly astonished and they said,
“He has done all things well.
He makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 35:4-7a
Isaiah 35:4--7a is a small selection from the larger vision found in 35:1--10. Chapter 35 can be divided into two sections:
1) The theophany of the LORD (verses 1--6a)
2) The return of the people (verses 6b--10)
Both units begin with descriptions of the desert changing from a dry and barren place into a land that is flourishing (verses 1--2a) with an abundance of water (verses 6b--7). The two sections also share the theme of joy, first at the coming of the LORD and then for the return of God's elect. Most scholars assign Isaiah 35 to Deutero Isaiah, an exilic author, since the prophet uses the well-known theme of the LORD making a way or "highway" in the desert (cf. Isaiah 40:3; 43:19).
In verses 1-6a, the author draws heavily on the theme of the LORD's coming. God's appearance in the created order, also known as a theophany, is the primary image within this first half of Chapter 35. The section begins in verses 1--2 with the wilderness rejoicing and blooming when it sees the "glory of the LORD, the majesty of our God" (verse 2). Thus, the barren ground responds and is transformed at the coming of the LORD.
Following this doxological response from nature, the people are encouraged to take heart and not to fear (verses 3--4). It is common within the biblical narrative for the people to respond in fear to the LORD's appearance. Here, however, the writer provides assurance that God's coming will result not in the people's destruction but in their salvation (verse 4b). Moreover, just like the parched land, the weakest and most vulnerable in society will respond and be transformed--the blind shall see, the deaf shall hear, and the lame shall "leap like a stag" (verse 6a).
In verses 6b--10, the LORD's coming parallels the homecoming of the exiles. The theophany in the first section has given way to the corresponding image of God's people returning through the desert, a holy pilgrimage with Zion as its destination. Like the first section, this second unit of Chapter 35 begins with the transformation of the natural order. The desert becomes a well-watered land. The salvation of the LORD, whether depicted theologically through the appearance of God or anthropologically in the people's joyful journey home, begins with the natural order's transformation and response to the mighty acts of God. Rather than facing the harsh natural forces of the wilderness, the people return upon a well-watered highway. Instead of hostile terrain, the travelers encounter a flourishing path with "streams in the desert" (verse 6b).
This passage emphasizes the radical nature of God's work among humanity. When the LORD appears, strange and marvelous things happen. The wilderness becomes a flourishing path with streams of water flowing abundantly. Dangerous roads become secure paths upon which the redeemed can walk with assurance. The blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame not only walk but leap for joy. The exiles return home.
When God visits God's people, there is only one appropriate response. All of creation and humanity are transformed at the appearance of their God, and all rejoice together and sing for joy. The LORD's presence, whether characterized by a theophany or manifested through the mighty works done on behalf of God's people, changes everything, quite literally.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 146:6-7, 8-9, 9-10
This is a praise psalm. Indeed, they’re all praise psalms here at the end of the Psalter. Psalms 146-150 make up a sort of “praise collection” -- with the Hebrew root halal (“praise”) appearing 40 times in the last five psalms. Each of those five psalms begins and ends with the Hebrew “Hallelu-Jah” -- that is, with the exhortation to “Praise the Lord!”
Psalm 146 is, like the four psalms that follow, unrestrained in its exuberance. Generally speaking, praise psalms attend to the variety of reasons for such exuberance in the first place. Here in Psalm 146, the reasons are ample. Praise the Lord for creating sky, earth, and sea, and all that is in them and for keeping faith without ceasing (verse 6). Praise the Lord, too, for giving justice to the oppressed, food to the hungry, freedom to the imprisoned, and sight to the blind, not to mention a few other items, such as protecting strangers and supporting widows and orphans (verses 7-8). There’s a lot of praiseworthiness here. Simply put, the psalm gives credit where credit is due.
The words of Isaiah 61:1-2 -- words which proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor -- are reflected in this section of Psalm 146. For this reason, scholars believe that Psalm 146 -- like Isaiah 61 -- derives from Israel’s post-exilic period. As if to underscore the psalm’s historical setting, the very next psalm begins by declaring, “Hallelujah … The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the broken-hearted, and binds up their wounds” (147:2-3).
Reading 2 Jas 2:1-5
The apostle is here reproving a very corrupt practice. He shows how much mischief there is in the sin of prosopolepsia —respect of persons, which seemed to be a very growing evil in the churches of Christ even in those early ages, and which, in these after-times, has sadly corrupted and divided Christian nations and societies. Here we have a caution against this sin laid down in general. The character of Christians fully implied: they are such as have the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ; they embrace it; they receive it; they govern themselves by it; they entertain the doctrine, and submit to the law and government, of Christ; they have it as a trust; they have it as a treasure. How honorably James speaks of Jesus Christ; he calls him the Lord of glory; for he is the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person. Christ’s being the Lord of glory should teach us not to respect Christians for anything so much as their relation and conformity to Christ. You who profess to believe the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, which the poorest Christian shall partake of equally with the rich, and to which all worldly glory is but vanity, you should not make men’s outward and worldly advantages the measure of your respect. In professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, we should not show respect to men, so as to cloud or lessen the glory of our glorious Lord: how ever any may think of it, this is certainly a very heinous sin. We have this sin described and cautioned against, by an instance or example of it. For if there come into your assembly a man with a gold ring, etc. Assembly here is meant of those meetings which were appointed for deciding matters of difference among the members of the church, or for determining when censures should be passed upon any, and what those censures should be; therefore the Greek word here used, synagoge, signifies such an assembly as that in the Jewish synagogues, when they met to do justice. To this the phrases used by the apostle have a most plain reference, and therefore the assembly here spoken of must be some such as the synagogue-assemblies of the Jews were, when they met to hear causes and to execute justice: to these the arbitrations and censures of their Christian assemblies are compared. But we must be careful not to apply what is here said to the common assemblies for worship; for in these certainly there may be appointed different places of persons according to their rank and circumstances, without sin. Thus, now hear the case: "There comes into your assembly) a man that is distinguished by his dress, and who makes a figure, and there comes in also a poor man in vile raiment, and you act partially, and determine wrong, merely because the one makes a better appearance, or is in better circumstances, than the other.’’ Observe hence, God has his remnant among all sorts of people, In matters of religion, rich and poor stand evenly; no man’s riches set him in the least nearer to God, nor does any man’s poverty set him at a distance from God. With the Most High there is no respect of persons, and therefore in matters of conscience there should be none with us. All undue honoring of worldly greatness and riches should especially be watched against in Christian societies. James does not here encourage rudeness or disorder. Civil respect must be paid, and some difference may be allowed in our carriage towards persons of different ranks; but this respect must never be such as to influence the proceedings of Christian societies in disposing of the offices of the church, or in passing the censures of the church, or in any thing that is purely a matter of religion; here we are to know no man after the flesh. It is the character of a citizen of Zion that in his eyes a vile person is contemned, but he honors those that fear the Lord. If a poor man be a good man, we must not value him an iota less for his poverty; and, if a rich man be a bad man, we must not value him any iota the more for his riches. Of what importance it is to take care what rule we go by in judging of men; if we allow ourselves commonly to judge by outward appearance, this will too much influence our spirits and our conduct in religious assemblies.
Gospel Mk 7:31-37
Today we continue to hear the Gospel of Mark proclaimed. In today’s reading, Jesus heals a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. This is a story about Jesus’ healing power, and in it we find clues about our understanding of sacrament. We are struck by the physical means used to heal the man, the use of spittle and touch. The Church continues to celebrate the sacraments using physical means. In the Sacrament of Baptism, water and oil are used to show the power of the Holy Spirit. In the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, we are anointed with holy oil on the forehead and the hands. In the Eucharist, bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. We are a sacramental people who believe that God’s grace is given to us through these physical signs.
Some, however, see in this Gospel an image of the proclamation of the good news of Jesus to the Gentiles. The geographic references tell us that Jesus is journeying through Gentile territory. Jesus had previously visited this region and healed a person possessed by a demon. Jesus was already famous there, which explains why people brought the deaf man to him. The story that precedes this reading in Mark’s Gospel sets the stage. Jesus encounters a Gentile, a Syrophoenician woman who asks him to heal her demon-possessed daughter. Jesus engages her in a dialogue about not feeding to dogs the food intended for children. Jesus is struck by the woman’s great faith when she replies that even dogs eat the food that falls from the table, and he heals her daughter immediately. The faith of this Greek woman compels Jesus to respond to her plea.
Mark shows that Jesus’ own mission affirms the early Church’s mission to the Gentiles. This was a significant issue to the early Christian community, which found that the good news of Jesus took root and spread quickly among the Gentiles. Yet there is an irony in the story of healing that Mark tells. Jesus gives the man the gift of speech, but then tells him not to use it. Jesus asks that the news of his healing power, which is evidence of his identity as the Messiah, not be spread. This is a recurring motif in Mark’s Gospel and is sometimes called the “messianic secret.”
Making the Connection
- Think about times when you were told good news or experienced something wonderful and yet were asked not to tell others about it. What are some reasons why people are asked to keep such news secret for awhile? (because they want to tell people themselves; because it is intended to be a surprise) Is it easy to keep such a secret or surprise?
- In today’s Gospel, Jesus asks someone to keep secret the amazing thing that Jesus did for him. We’re not sure why Jesus asked for such a secret to be kept. But we learned in this Gospel that the secret was not kept.
- What did Jesus do for this man? (Jesus healed his deafness and removed his speech impediment.) Why might Jesus have asked that no one be told about this healing? Who shares the news of the man’s healing? (the man and those who brought the man to Jesus) What did they announce? (that Jesus had done all things well and had made the deaf man hear and cured his speech impediment)
- Christians are like the man and his friends in today’s Gospel. We have great news about Jesus that we can't help but share with others so that they might also know Jesus’ love.
- Ask God to help us share the good news of God’s love with others. Pray together the Prayer to the Holy Spirit.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Sunday September 2, 2018 Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 125
Reading 1 Dt 4:1-2, 6-8
Moses said to the people:
"Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe,
that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land
which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God,
which I enjoin upon you,
you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it.
Observe them carefully,
for thus will you give evidence
of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
who will hear of all these statutes and say,
'This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.'
For what great nation is there
that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us
whenever we call upon him?
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees
that are as just as this whole law
which I am setting before you today?"
Responsorial Psalm Ps 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Whoever walks blamelessly and does justice;
who thinks the truth in his heart
and slanders not with his tongue.
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Who harms not his fellow man,
nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor;
by whom the reprobate is despised,
while he honors those who fear the LORD.
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
.
Who lends not his money at usury
and accepts no bribe against the innocent.
Whoever does these things
shall never be disturbed.
R. One who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord.
Reading 2 Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27
Dearest brothers and sisters:
All good giving and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights,
with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change.
He willed to give us birth by the word of truth
that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.
Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this:
to care for orphans and widows in their affliction
and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Gospel Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals
with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
—For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews,
do not eat without carefully washing their hands,
keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace
they do not eat without purifying themselves.
And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed,
the purification of cups and jugs and kettles and beds. --
So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him,
"Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders
but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"
He responded,
"Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching as doctrines human precepts.
You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition."
He summoned the crowd again and said to them,
"Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person;
but the things that come out from within are what defile.
"From within people, from their hearts,
come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 4:1-2, 6-8
The book of Deuteronomy (from the Greek deuteronomos, literally, "second law") consists of a series of speeches given by Moses to the generation of Israelites who are about to enter into the Promised Land. In many ways, the lectionary text for today may be understood as a microcosm of the entire book of Deuteronomy, as it consists of injunctions to follow the law, as well as motivations for doing so.
The theological center of the passage appears in verses seven and eight. Note the parallel structure in the following rhetorical questions:
- What great nation is there that has gods near to it like the LORD our God? (verse 7)
- What great nation is there that has statutes and ordinances righteous as all this law? (verse 8)
If God draws near in the law that God gives, then we can expect the law to produce the same things that God produces. According to our Deuteronomy text, it does. As God gives life, so the law gives life. In verse 1, Moses urges the Israelites to listen to the statutes and ordinances he is teaching them. Why? "In order that you may live and go and inherit the land." In verse 2, Moses explains that nothing is to be added to, or taken away from these commands. The law shares God's attribute of completeness and wholeness.
What is missing in the lectionary pericope is verses 3-5, which recount the Israel's history at Baal Peor, where the Israelites yoked themselves to foreign women and the gods of Moab (cf. Numbers 25:1-13). Moses explains, "The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who went after the Baal of Peor, while those of you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today" (verses 3-4). While this may not be a very palatable text, it makes the point strongly that there is death to those who do not follow God, and life for those who hold fast to God. Note how easily, then, the author switches between talking about the life-giving law and the life-giving God.
Verse 6, where our text picks up again, explains that keeping the statutes and ordinances will demonstrate the Israelites' wisdom and understanding to other nations. The wisdom and understanding of God will be evident to the other nations as the Israelites obey the law. Verse 8 tells us that the statutes and ordinances referred to in verse 1 are equated with the torah, which is described with the adjective, "righteous," probably referring to the social righteousness of these laws.
Christians must decide whether we too are heirs of this command. Jesus was called "Rabbi" by his disciples, who were students of his interpretation of the law. It is therefore highly unlikely that Jesus calls us to dismiss the law's life-giving power, wisdom and understanding. Far more likely is that if we study Deuteronomy and learn more about the law, it will bear witness to those around us (the other nations) and we will learn to love Jesus more.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5
The Hebrew Bible as a whole represents the tension felt in Israelite society over the relationship between the worship one offers to God and the actions one takes with respect to neighbor. No single text in the Old Testament ever completely resolves this tension, though a strong case can be made that the prophetic witness certainly directed Israelites away from legalistic ritual toward obedience to God's word in general (1 Samuel 15:22, "surely, to obey is better than sacrifice") and concern for social justice in particular (Isaiah 1:11-17; Hosea 6:6; Amos 5:21-24; Micah 6:6-8).
Moreover, the Ten Commandments themselves exhibit a "marriage between cultic duty and moral demand." Rather than replacing concerns for ritual holiness, therefore, Old Testament theology invites Yahweh's worshipers to celebrate their relationship with God from within a life that exhibits love of neighbor. This is certainly part of the thrust of Jesus' teaching in the gospel lection for today, as well as in James's instruction about "the law of liberty" in the epistle reading (James 1:17-27).
Regardless of the number of distinct statements, the economy of language is stunning, with only fifty three Hebrew words compared to the NRSV's one hundred and two words. The psalmist wanted a memorable and trustworthy guide for social conduct, and sermons can present the psalm as a living portrait of the kind of life Moses called for in the Old Testament lection for this Sunday (Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9). Observing Yahweh's words will indeed display Israel's "wisdom and discernment" to all the peoples (Deuteronomy 4:6).
What then shall we do with the specific claims the psalm places upon us? Overall, we affirm that the instructions of verses 2-5 are not conditions for entering worship but descriptions of living in a community guided by wisdom. The active participles in verse 2 (the walker, the doer, the speaker) reinforce this notion by emphasizing qualities of continued practice, not achieved righteousness.
Of particular concern are what people do with their speech (verses 3-4) and how they handle their money (verse 5), but these are not stated as general principles as they might be found in the Book of Proverbs. They are instead contextualized in terms of the effect our words and finances have on "friends" and "neighbors" (verse 3). Even when other persons are not mentioned by name, their presence is implied as the recipients of an oath (verse 4) or a loan (verse 5).
To bring the message full circle, the psalm is describing the kind of community within which God dwells. When the psalms were being collected in the post-exilic era, many dispersed Jews would never experience Temple worship. Psalm 15 encouraged them that communities of honesty and justice, wherever they may be, were themselves dwelling places of God.
Reading 2 Jas 1:17-18, 21b-22, 27
This theme -- God's goodness and perfection, and therefore the goodness and perfection of what God gives -- is the starting place for the present passage (verse 17). Human beings, brought forth by this good God by means of a word of truth, are to reflect divine goodness and perfection in the world.
One of the notable features of James is the author's use of vivid, concrete images that, parable-like, both illustrate the author's points and leave enough ambiguity to tease our minds into active thought. But the one who hears without doing, James implies, has what one of my associates called "moral Alzheimer's," a kind of deep forgetfulness that leaves the religious self unable to function fully.
So this is what James tells us: that we are to be quick to "hear," because not hearing enough leads us, apparently inevitably, to speech that is angry and unproductive. But hearing alone is not sufficient. We must also "do," because failing to act is evidence of a fundamental failure to function as God's first fruits in the world.
In what, then, does our religion consist? Perhaps the second startling turn in this passage is not so unexpected, after all, to those who have followed the argument leading up to it. Pure and undefiled religion, according to James, is this:
- caring for orphans and widows in their distress
- keeping oneself unstained from the world
That's it. The care of "orphans and widows" is a synecdoche for actions taken on behalf of the less fortunate, since in the ancient world widows and orphans were the most vulnerable members of society, singled out for special consideration also in biblical law and prophetic pronouncements. And since such work would necessarily bring one into contact with unbelievers and with the seamier side of human existence, believers are supposed to be careful to avoid participation in practices contrary to their Christian ethic.
Certainly these are important facets of most Christians' understanding of their religion. They would likely make many Christians' "top ten." But James challenges us to imagine a Christianity in which these are vital. What would such a faith and practice look like?
Perhaps, if we as Christians were to follow James's precepts, we would do a lot less talking and a lot more listening. We would forswear anger and self-deception. We would measure our faith by our personal relationships, both in our habits of speech and our relationships with others in the community. Our primary expression of our religion would be in outreach to the poor and neglected. By such attitudes and actions, James tells us, we fulfill the divine purpose and become first fruits of all God's creatures
Gospel Mk 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
The writer of Mark's Gospel often mentions apparently small details almost nonchalantly, in passing, seemingly on the way to a larger point. But these small details often make an even larger point, for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Such is the case here. The fact that these Pharisees and scribes are from Jerusalem matters a great deal. For Mark, Jerusalem's greatest significance is that it is where Jesus will die. Mark's narrative is breathlessly hurtling toward Jerusalem, and to the death and resurrection of Jesus that will set the fulfillment of the kingdom of God in motion. By noting that these Pharisees and scribes are from Jerusalem, Mark is linking not only them, but this entire event, to Jesus' death and resurrection. It is because the kingdom is at hand that it's imperative that Jesus' message is understood, right now.
In today’s Gospel, Mark provides a significant amount of information about the Jewish observance of ritual-purity laws. Most scholars believe that Mark includes this information because his audience includes Gentile Christians who have no knowledge or experience of these laws. We can infer, therefore, that many in Mark’s community were not Jewish Christians.
In this Gospel, Mark addresses the question of which Jewish practices would also be observed in the newly emerging Christian community. This was a significant question for the early Christian Church, especially in communities that included both Jewish and Gentile converts to Christianity. We also hear this question addressed in the letters of Paul with regard to table fellowship. In Gospel passages such as the one today, we see the Gospel evangelists finding justification for a Christian practice distinct from Judaism in the remembrances of Jesus’ teaching and the practice of his first disciples.
Jesus first criticizes the Pharisees for putting human tradition above God’s Law. Here, Jesus is referring to the tradition of the elders, the teachings of the Pharisees, which extended the ritual-purity laws of Temple worship to everyday Jewish life. Jesus criticizes the Pharisees for making this tradition equal to and as binding as the Law of Moses.
Next, Jesus comments on the meaning behind the Pharisees’ language of holiness—clean and unclean. Jesus teaches that a person is not defiled by the food that enters his or her body, but rather by sin that emerges from his or her words and actions. In this teaching, Jesus unmasks a deeper question behind the one posed to him by the Pharisees. The real issue is holiness, which is not found in external acts alone. Holiness comes from within and is evidenced in the actions and attitudes that emerge from a person’s life.
If we read today’s Gospel carefully, we will see a pattern in Jesus’ teaching method that will be repeated in the weeks ahead. Jesus’ first teaching is directed to the Pharisees who questioned him. Jesus’ words are then directed to the crowd, teaching that a person is defiled by his or her words and actions, not by the food that he or she eats. In verses omitted in today’s reading, we learn that Jesus returned home with his disciples, who in turn questioned him about what he had taught. The words we read at the conclusion of today’s Gospel are addressed to Jesus’ disciples. Mark’s narrative shows several audiences for Jesus’ teaching: his antagonists, the crowds, and Jesus’ disciples. As we see in this reading, the words to the Pharisees are often words of challenge. The teaching to the crowds is often a general, sometimes cryptic, message. With the disciples, who often misunderstand Jesus’ words, further explanation is offered about his message and its meaning.
Jesus’ words challenge us as well. In our desire to show that we are holy, we might also give too much credence to externals, following rules without thinking about the intention behind them. Jesus reminds us that we do not make ourselves holy by our actions. Rather, we become holy when we allow God’s Spirit to transform us. Our actions should be an expression of the conversion of our heart to God and to God’s ways.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about the rules you have to follow; like driving, in a court room or at home, others? How do these rules compare? What are some examples of rules that are the same at home and outside the home? (Respect those in authority, respect others, be kind, be responsible for yourself.) What are some examples of rules that are different at home and at work or school? Why do you think some rules are different?
- All rules are important. It is also important for us to know the reasons rules are made so that we can better understand why it is important to honor the rules. Like red light, stop signs etc.
- In today’s Gospel, we hear the Pharisees challenge the practice of Jesus’ disciples that went against a rule that the Pharisees taught about washing hands and food utensils.
- What did the Pharisees think that Jesus’ disciples should be doing? (washing their hands carefully) This was a practice of the Pharisees and of some Jewish people. They washed their hands and purified food utensils to make them clean. They thought that by doing this they were making themselves holy. What did Jesus say was a better indication of a person's holiness than washing one's hands and dishes? (the words and deeds he or she does)
- Jesus taught that the Pharisees had forgotten the meaning behind their rules. They thought that they were making themselves holy by following the rules about making things clean. But Jesus taught that there was something more important than these actions. Jesus taught that our words and deeds toward others are what show us to be holy people. God wants us to do good things with our lives, such as share our possessions, think kind thoughts even about those who hurt us, and be truthful.
- Ask God to help us live our lives in ways that show that our love for Jesus. Pray the Morning Prayer.
Morning PrayerGod, our Father, I offer you today
all that I think and do and say.
I offer it with what was done
on earth by Jesus Christ, your Son.
Amen.
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Sunday August 26, 2018 Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 122
Reading 1 Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem,
summoning their elders, their leaders,
their judges, and their officers.
When they stood in ranks before God,
Joshua addressed all the people:
"If it does not please you to serve the LORD,
decide today whom you will serve,
the gods your fathers served beyond the River
or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling.
As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
But the people answered,
"Far be it from us to forsake the LORD
for the service of other gods.
For it was the LORD, our God,
who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt,
out of a state of slavery.
He performed those great miracles before our very eyes
and protected us along our entire journey
and among the peoples through whom we passed.
Therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
.
The LORD has eyes for the just,
and ears for their cry.
The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Many are the troubles of the just one,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him;
he watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Reading 2 Eph 5:21-32 or 5:2a, 25-32
Brothers and sisters:
Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is head of his wife
just as Christ is head of the church,
he himself the savior of the body.
As the church is subordinate to Christ,
so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ loved the church
and handed himself over for her to sanctify her,
cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,
that he might present to himself the church in splendor,
without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that she might be holy and without blemish.
So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
For no one hates his own flesh
but rather nourishes and cherishes it,
even as Christ does the church,
because we are members of his body.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
This is a great mystery,
but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.
Gospel Jn 6:60-69
Many of Jesus' disciples who were listening said,
"This saying is hard; who can accept it?"
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,
he said to them, "Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending
to where he was before?
It is the spirit that gives life,
while the flesh is of no avail.
The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe."
Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe
and the one who would betray him.
And he said,
"For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father."
As a result of this,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer accompanied him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"
Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b
Joshua invites all Israel to the town of Shechem in the central highlands of Israel. Joshua reminds them of the long history of all that God had done for Israel: the promises to the ancestors, the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, and God’s provision through the wilderness (Joshua 24:1-13). Although much of this section is deleted from the lectionary reading, these verses are important. They testify to God’s grace, mercy and unmerited love of Israel which forms the reason for Joshua’s call in verse 14: “Now therefore, fear the Lord and serve him completely and sincerely.” Reverence and obedience to God are the primary ways by which God’s people give thanks to God for the generous gifts of life and freedom God has already given.
Joshua urges the people to put away “the gods of the ancestors” and “serve the LORD.” Speaking on behalf of his own household, Joshua declares: “We will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:15). If the other Israelite household are unwilling to follow the example of Joshua in serving the LORD, then they are free to “choose” among multiple other foreign gods, whether Mesopotamian gods (from “beyond the River [Euphrates]”) or “the gods of the Amorites [Canaanites]” (24:14-15). It doesn’t matter which other god they choose; they will have broken the sacred covenant bond between them and their one true God.
The Israelites respond to Joshua enthusiastically: “We also will serve the LORD” (Joshua 24:18)! Now the reader might expect Joshua at this point to say, “Great! I’m delighted to hear you’re on board!” Instead, Joshua sternly replies, “You cannot serve the LORD!” God is jealous for your love, and God will not forgive you endlessly and without consequence. If you forsake God, God will “consume you, after having done you good” (Joshua 24:19). The people urgently answer back, “No, we will serve the LORD” (24:21). The elderly Joshua seems to have a longer view of these matters based on his long experience.
Joshua knew all too well what Moses also knew (Deuteronomy 31:27, 29). The future of God’s people in the land depended ultimately not on the people’s sincerity, faithfulness or obedience. No, ultimately, the future depended on God -- God’s faithfulness, God’s mercy, God’s powerful word, God’s transformation of the heart. Israel would suffer severe consequences for its centuries of forsaking God (exile from the land). In the end, however, God would bring Israel back to the land not because of who the people were, but because of who God was…and who God is.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21
Anything seem familiar about this Psalm? It’s the same one as last week and the week before that. Not sure why the Lectioners’ did this but I’m assuming it’s to drive home the idea that this month is about the Body and Blood of Jesus.
So you can review last weeks’ commentary if you’d like.
Reading 2 Eph 5:21-32
Here the apostle begins his exhortation to the discharge of relative duties. As a general foundation for these duties, he lays down that rule v. 21. There is a mutual submission that Christians owe one to another, condescending to bear one another's burdens: not advancing themselves above others, nor domineering over one another and giving laws to one another. Paul was an example of this truly Christian temper, for he became all things to all men. We must be of a yielding and of a submissive spirit, and ready to all the duties of the respective places and stations that God has allotted to us in the world.
When we consider Scripture in reference to marriage, our thoughts often go to the Book of 1 Corinthians 7 or 13:4-8. There, we find the familiar description of what love is. The Book of Ephesians however, has something important to say about marriage as well. This verse in particular has often been the subject of controversy and is often misunderstood in its true intent and meaning.
Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.
For the husband is head of his wife
just as Christ is head of the church,
he himself the savior of the body.
As the church is subordinate to Christ,
so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
Wives may be called to submit to their husbands, but it is because husbands are called to love their wives. As Christians, we have no problem submitting ourselves to Christ. Jesus died on the cross to cleanse us from sin. His love and His sacrifice is what calls us to give our lives completely to Him. We are called to do the same in marriage. Submitting to our husbands is easy and comes naturally when our husbands treat us with love and respect. Likewise, loving and respecting your wife comes easily when your wife is respectful of you. Submission is not a show of weakness; it is an act of love.
So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
A respectful and faith-filled marriage is based on mutual love and respect. Love and submission go hand in hand. These two acts are meant to complement each other rather than place one spouse above the other. The husband is called to lead his family in faith and the wife is called to love and serve her family. Together, husband and wife raise their family in faith and love; just as Jesus intends us to do.
When we give ourselves in marriage, we become one with our spouses. Our lives become so intertwined that we are no longer two separate individuals leading two different lives; rather, we are one united front facing life’s joys and challenges together. In serving our spouse, we are serving the Lord.
Marriage should not be a competition between husband and wife. The love between husband and wife is what calls us to serve one another in marital duties. To love, honor and serve our spouse is one of the best ways to love, honor and serve our Lord.
Gospel Jn 6:60-69
This Gospel is a perfect example of why we need to attend mass or scripture study each week. If we picked up this Gospel and read the second sentence we would be wondering what the apostles were talking about. But last week we had JN 6:51-58 in which Jesus was talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood so their question here is in reference to that section. For our Gospel today we hear the conclusion of the “Bread of Life discourse” in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. In the preceding verses, which we have heard proclaimed in our liturgy over the past few weeks, we have heard Jesus explain that he is the Bread of Life, given so that those who believe may have eternal life. This discourse follows the miracle in which Jesus fed more than five thousand people with five barley loaves and two fish. As Jesus has been teaching these things, John’s Gospel describes a murmuring crowd unable to accept Jesus’ words. In today’s Gospel, the crowd has dwindled in number, and John no longer references them, or the Jews. Instead John describes the questioning of those considered to be Jesus’ own disciples.
Today’s Gospel first records the response of those in the crowd who are described as Jesus’ disciples. Just as the larger crowd had struggled with Jesus’ teaching, these disciples also cannot accept Jesus’ words. Jesus is said to know about their murmuring. He responds by acknowledging their unbelief and by reiterating that only those chosen by the Father will follow Jesus to the end. John’s Gospel reports that many of those who had been Jesus’ disciples ceased to follow him at this point. The number of people following Jesus dwindled from a crowd of more than 5,000 to only 12 people. And it is to these Twelve that Jesus now turns his attention.
Simon Peter’s response to Jesus’ question as to whether those closest to him will also leave, reminds us of the reports of Peter’s confession of faith in the Synoptic Gospels. Peter announces, on behalf of all the Twelve, that they have come to believe all that Jesus has taught about himself: Jesus is the one from God in whom they have found the path to eternal life.
This conclusion of the Bread of Life discourse focuses on personal faith in the life of Christian discipleship. Each person must make his or her own judgment about who Jesus is and in doing so determine the way of life that he or she will follow. God’s grace invites us to be Jesus’ disciples, but each person must respond to the grace of God and confess as his or her own the belief that Jesus is the one from God. This faith then commits us to the path of life, leading us to eternal life.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- If you were baptized as an infant, your parents spoke for you in making a profession of faith in what the Catholic Church teaches about Jesus. Your parents also promised to teach you about our faith in Jesus. For many of us, this is why we celebrate Mass and participate in Church activities, because it is important to our parents and our families. Eventually, each of us makes our own decision about why and how we will express our faith in Jesus.
- For the past several weeks, we have heard Jesus teach about himself in our Gospel. In particular, we have heard Jesus teach us that he is the Bread of Life. In today’s Gospel we hear how those closest to Jesus responded to these words.
- Did all of Jesus’ disciples accept his teaching? (No, many of Jesus’ disciples could not accept his words and went away.) Who did accept Jesus’ teaching? (the Twelve) What did Simon Peter say that the Twelve had come to believe about Jesus? (that Jesus came from God; that Jesus could lead them to eternal life)
- As we grow in our faith, we will make our own choices about living our faith. But we can’t do this without God’s help and the help of the community of faith, the Church. We pray that God will help us be like Simon Peter and the disciples who chose to follow Jesus.
- Conclude by praying the Apostles’ Creed.
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen.
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Sunday August 19, 2018 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 119
THE READINGS ----------
-------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Prv 9:1-6
Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidens; she calls
from the heights out over the city:
"Let whoever is simple turn in here;
To the one who lacks understanding, she says,
Come, eat of my food,
and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;
advance in the way of understanding."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,
and your faces may not blush with shame.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
.
Reading 2 Eph 5:15-20
Brothers and sisters:
Watch carefully how you live,
not as foolish persons but as wise,
making the most of the opportunity,
because the days are evil.
Therefore, do not continue in ignorance,
but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.
And do not get drunk on wine, in which lies debauchery,
but be filled with the Spirit,
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and playing to the Lord in your hearts,
giving thanks always and for everything
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father.
.
Gospel Jn 6:51-58
Jesus said to the crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Prv 9:1-6
Wisdom who has previously partnered with God in creation, (Proverbs 8:22-31), is now the host of a great banquet. But before she sets her table, she builds a house (or perhaps a banquet house). It seems that the whole purpose of her building is hospitality; she needs a place to host the banquet to which she will soon invite the world. Wisdom is no lady at leisure ordering the staff about -- she has staff but works with them and does hard, manual labor herself.
First in verse 1, Wisdom builds her own house, then she crafts seven decorative pillars -- either chopping down trees or carving stones. Then in verse 2 she butchers her own fresh meat, mixes her own wine and sets her table. In verse 3 she tasks her serving girls with an undisclosed task, likely invitations to specific guests -- who are they? -- yet she herself invites complete strangers en mass. She goes from place to place, specifically inviting those who are woefully unacquainted with her in verse 4, calling out to them, shouting loudly in public places, in so doing she models extraordinary yet perhaps acceptable behavior for human women. In verse 5 she explains that the way for those bereft of her to benefit from her is to feast at her table. And if they do so, they will live and walk in understanding.
Wisdom's table is a metaphor for the acquisition of wisdom. But what is wisdom? It is more than innate intelligence or sense; for it can be gained by those who lack it. In Biblical Hebrew, wisdom is as much technical expertise or craft(wo)manship as it is intellectual knowledge. The women (Exodus 35:26) and men (Exodus 31:6) who craft the Tabernacle in the wilderness are all called wise; if Israel keeps the Torah they will be a "wise and understanding people" in Deuteronomy 4:6; the wise woman who led her city seems to be the governing official who saves her people from certain death by shrewd and lethal political dealing in 2 Samuel 20:22, and of course the wisdom of Solomon was legendary, 1 Kings 4:29. So wisdom is craft: statecraft, Torah-craft craftwomanship, craftsmanship and craftiness.
The source of wisdom is Wisdom herself. And who (or what) is Wisdom? In rabbinic (Jewish) thought, Wisdom is the Torah. The rubric goes something like this: Both Wisdom and Torah are feminine nouns. Proverbs 3:18 says, "She is a Tree of Life," also understood to be the Torah. Torah-knowledge, fruit from that tree, should be feasted upon like the banquet at Wisdom's table: "taste and see" (Psalm 34:8), the sweetness of God's word(s) is compared to honey, (Psalm 119:103; Ezekiel 3:3), the notion continues in the New Testament in Revelation 10:9. Wisdom is also intimately tangled up with God, said to be both the first of God's creation (Proverbs 8:22) and God's co-worker/master-worker (Proverbs 8:30). God is the source of Wisdom (and Torah and life).
Wisdom also appears in the Gospels as the vindicator (Matt 11:19) and parent (Luke 7:35) of Jesus of Nazareth, in both cases Wisdom is to be identified with God and not Mary of Nazareth. In addition, the Wisdom of God is the source of a text that Luke (11:49) quotes as scripture; it is otherwise unknown, but clearly authoritative for him.
Wisdom has built her house...she has set her table. So pull up a seat and sit down. Eat and drink your fill. And be satisfied.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7
Psalm 34 is a testimony embedded in the narrative of scripture. Like any testimony, it gives the narrative of God and the narrative of David, the Old Testament protagonist or antagonist -- depending on which part of his life the reader is considering. In Psalm 34, David gives testimony of a time when he fled Saul, took refuge with the Philistines, and came to be afraid of King Achish, the king of Gath (1 Samuel 21:10-12).
The structure of the first eight verses of this Psalm does two things: it establishes the author’s intention to give a testimony (v. 1-3) and it provides details of David’s experience that prompted the testimony.
David begins his testimony in Psalm 34 by stating his intent: to worship God at all times (v. 1). This praise, however, is not passive; it is an intentional commitment to extol the name of GOD in an ongoing manner. This praise is to be continuous. It is to happen at all times. The author then invites, even commands others to listen (v. 2), particularly those who are weak. What is the cumulative result? The assembly will worship GOD together by offering praise, so that what began as one individual’s praise has now become a corporate reason to praise (v. 3).
Verses 4-6 are a more specific account of the general introduction to Psalm 34. Here, the Psalmist doesn’t tell the whole story, but he does say that he prayed to GOD, GOD heard, and GOD rescued him from what may have been a terrifying experience (v. 4). GOD delivered him from the “object” of the fear, not only the feeling of fear. Looking to GOD will do for others as it did for the Psalmist: give a new appearance (v. 5). In this particular instance, the new appearance was one of radiance, of shining. Verse 6 provides a recap of the Psalm: a weak man called to GOD, GOD listened, and GOD delivered.
Thomas Long has said, “To be human is to live a story.” Psalm 34 reminds us of this. Psalm 34 also reminds us that sharing that story through the practice of Christian testimony is deeply embedded in the narrative of scripture and in the narrative of God and God’s people.
Here, we see David’s testimony embedded in the narrative of scripture, of God, and of God’s people. Through David, we are reminded that as Christians our testimonies are not boring because they involve the action of God, the one whose ears are turned to us, the one who has delivered our forebears, and the one who is ready to deliver us if we are bold enough to ask. And, we are reminded that when God does deliver us, we are to share that story so that our individual praise can become a communal praise.
Reading 2 Eph 5:15-20
Addressed to the church in Ephesus but presumed to have been circulated to many churches, Ephesians 5:15-20 fits well within the framework of today's governing scripture -- the Gospel reading -- and the congenial imagery of Proverbs. Both tell us that this Sunday is about the food of true life. The living bread is given -- body and blood -- for the beloved community.
This passage sets forth stark alternatives aimed specifically at living a life that is centered in worship: singing (lalountes) and giving thanks (eucharistountes) in the name of the Lord. This passage also lays out a pathway to that life by setting up stark oppositions. One scholar sees three oppositions in Ephesians 5:1-20: love vs. lust, light vs. darkness, and wisdom vs. foolishness. The text for this Sunday focuses on the last of these.
God has given us time, ourselves, and Earth in and through which to exercise reverence by being wise, focused on God's desire for all creation, and Spirit-filled. We honor God's gifts when we attend to its profundity, acknowledging that creation and our own lives actually matter. If we spend our days numbed to God's gifts (that is, inebriated by a myriad of possible anesthetics, including greed, power, contempt for others, and all manner of unfocused indulgences), we cannot experience life "filled with the Spirit."
The contrast here is between going along with social norms and, conversely, being directed by a more penetrating source of purpose. These admonitions are not meant to be legalisms that straitjacket joy; they articulate contrasts that can help us see our true identity as beloved of God in Christ Jesus. To be filled by the Holy Spirit is, in fact, to be baptized and, thus, invited to the feast of bread and wine.
It is not possible, aside from the presence of Christ, to know the will of the Lord or to make the most of our time or even to be careful! Indeed, a person can choose one path rather than another, negotiate the extent to which we believe we have a handle on God's will, and learn how to be useful and productive with our days. We may well be good care-takers of Earth and its creatures. But we cannot know most deeply what God has made available to us without knowing what it is to live a life of thanksgiving. The writer of Ephesians describes that thanksgiving as a gathering of those who come together to sing to the Lord and give thanks "at all times and for everything."
There is a certain irony in a text that sets foolishness against wisdom. The cross is wisdom. Life in Jesus' risen presence is abundant life. Yet, isn't it also foolish? To live a life of thanksgiving in the face of all that is wrong in the world, all the pain and need and stupidity, may seem to some people to be a very foolish way to live. So this passage invites us to think deeply about the relationship between foolish and wise life, to pay attention, so that we live according to what resides beyond the present moment.
Gospel Jn 6:51-58
On this Sunday, we continue to read from the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. Today’s Gospel elaborates further on the teaching that Jesus began in our liturgy last week. In that reading, the crowds wondered about how Jesus could say that he had come down from heaven because they knew Jesus to be the son of Joseph. In this Gospel, some have difficulty with Jesus’ teaching that he is the living bread sent from God. Recall that Jesus had told them that just as God gave the Israelites manna to sustain them in the desert, so now God has sent new manna that will give eternal life. We hear the concluding verse of last week’s Gospel repeated in today’s reading: Jesus himself is the bread sent by God; Jesus’ flesh is the bread that is given for the life of the world.
Among the stumbling blocks for those who heard but did not understand Jesus is teaching that the bread that Jesus will give is his own flesh. In response to the people who quarreled over his words, Jesus teaches with even greater emphasis that salvation comes to those who eat his Body and Blood. Jesus doesn’t seem to answer the question posed about how salvation will come about, perhaps because this reality can only be understood after his death and Resurrection. Instead, Jesus teaches about the life that he will give to the world.
To many ears, Jesus’ words are jarring and difficult to hear. Many who heard Jesus could not accept what he said. Many today continue to struggle to accept these words. But they are important words because they reveal our intimate connection with Jesus.
Without the familiar story of the last supper, this text is the primary reflection on the Eucharist in John. With that in mind, we need to notice the clear and insistent focus on Jesus himself as the one given by the Father, the one who is the Bread of Life from Heaven, the one on whom we must feed.
If this text is at one level a meditation on the Eucharist then part of the point is that the Eucharist is life-giving because it is Jesus who gives it, and it is life-giving because it is Jesus himself who is given. The Eucharist is life-giving because it draws us deeper into relationship with Jesus, so that we may "abide" there (verse 56). There can be no proper understanding of the Eucharist apart from this life-giving participation in the life and the death of Jesus himself.
This is the mystery that is at the heart of our eucharistic theology. In the elements of bread and wine, Jesus’ Body and Blood are made truly present. When we share in the Body and Blood of Christ, Jesus himself comes to dwell within us. This communion with the Lord makes us one body, brings us eternal life, and sends us forth to be Christ’s body for the life of the world.
Without the familiar story of the last supper, this text is the primary reflection on the Eucharist in John. With that in mind, we need to notice the clear and insistent focus on Jesus himself as the one given by the Father, the one who is the Bread of Life from Heaven, the one on whom we must feed.
If this text is at one level a meditation on the Eucharist then part of the point is that the Eucharist is life-giving because it is Jesus who gives it, and it is life-giving because it is Jesus himself who is given. The Eucharist is life-giving because it draws us deeper into relationship with Jesus, so that we may "abide" there (verse 56). There can be no proper understanding of the Eucharist apart from this life-giving participation in the life and the death of Jesus himself.
Making the Connection
- Identify as many different forms of bread as you can think of (white bread, wheat bread, bagels, English muffins, pitas, tortillas, and so on).
- Why do we eat bread? What does bread do for us? (Bread is nourishment; bread sustains us; eating bread fills us.)
- Bread is a staple of our diet, as it was for people in Jesus’ time. Today’s Gospel reading talks about the bread that Jesus gives us. This reading is taken from the Gospel of John, which we have been hearing at Sunday Mass for the past several weeks. We’ll understand today’s Gospel better if we review these readings.
- Remember that a crowd of people had gathered to hear Jesus, and Jesus had blessed five barley loaves and two fish; there was enough to feed over five thousand people. Many people came to believe that Jesus came from God because of that miracle. The next day, the crowd continued to follow Jesus, and many wanted to see him perform another miracle. Instead, Jesus talks with them about the miracle, the sign, he had performed. Many people who hear him are not sure how to receive his words.
- What kind of bread does Jesus say he will give? (living bread) Where does this living bread come from? (heaven) What will this bread do for those who eat it? (It will bring them eternal life; Jesus will come to live in those who eat this bread.) What else does Jesus say about this bread? (Jesus says that this living bread is his flesh, given for the life of the world.) What do you think Jesus is talking about? (the Eucharist)
- In today’s reading, Jesus is telling us about the special gift he gives us in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. When we share in the Eucharist, Jesus is present to us; through Holy Communion we will share eternal life.
- We shouldThank God for the gift of the Eucharist. Pray the Lord’s Prayer or today’s psalm.
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Sunday August 12, 2018 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 116
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THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 19:4-8
Elijah went a day's journey into the desert,
until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it.
He prayed for death saying:
"This is enough, O LORD!
Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers."
He lay down and fell asleep under the broom tree,
but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat.
Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake
and a jug of water.
After he ate and drank, he lay down again,
but the angel of the LORD came back a second time,
touched him, and ordered,
"Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!"
He got up, ate, and drank;
then strengthened by that food,
he walked forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
I will bless the LORD at all times;
his praise shall be ever in my mouth.
Let my soul glory in the LORD;
the lowly will hear me and be glad.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Glorify the LORD with me,
Let us together extol his name.
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
And delivered me from all my fears.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Look to him that you may be radiant with joy.
And your faces may not blush with shame.
When the afflicted man called out, the LORD heard,
And from all his distress he saved him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.
R. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.
Reading 2 Eph 4:30—5:2
Brothers and sisters:
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God,
with which you were sealed for the day of redemption.
All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling
must be removed from you, along with all malice.
And be kind to one another, compassionate,
forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ.
So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
Gospel Jn 6:41-51
The Jews murmured about Jesus because he said,
"I am the bread that came down from heaven, "
and they said,
"Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?
Do we not know his father and mother?
Then how can he say,
'I have come down from heaven'?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Stop murmuring among yourselves.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:
They shall all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 19:4-8
Elijah literally finds himself in the wilderness in this reading, but he also seems to be figuratively in the wilderness as he asks the Lord to take his life. Elijah has endured a traumatic episode with the prophets of Baal and Asherah up in the northern region of Carmel. Although he successfully dispatched the prophets and demonstrated God’s power to Ahab, something is wrong. Elijah experiences a sense of shame or failure or some type of emotion on which we cannot quite put our finger. It leaves him deflated, despondent and depressed. We may never know what exactly led to this situation under the broom tree in the wilderness, but I imagine we can all think of difficult situation like this. We can think of Hagar in the wilderness with her young boy, but God would not allow that situation to endure. We can think of Jonah under his own tree in faraway Nineveh, equally despondent.
The Bible presents these scenarios to us in order to highlight the travails of God’s people. Whether they be a foreign female slave, a runaway prophet, or perhaps the most famous prophet, there will be bumps in the road or perhaps chasms in the road. Our Scripture focuses on “the way.” At times that way is crystal clear. 1 Kings has previously presented Elijah as assured and triumphant. He seemed to have no problem finding his way, yet now we see a very different Elijah, an Elijah sharing more in common with Hagar and Jonah than Elisha and Isaiah. While we meet a very different Elijah here, we meet the same Lord here who ministered to Hagar and Jonah.
Elijah’s struggles with many things, but nothing more than himself. We can all probably recognize how we can be our own worst enemy. 1 Kings 19 clearly demonstrates Elijah’s demons bringing him to a standstill. Oftentimes, it is easy for us to see the source of other people’s problems. We have seen many triumphs of Elijah before this event, and we know that there will be many triumphs to follow. With all of this in mind it can be hard to understand how things went so wrong so quickly for Elijah. Yet that is part of Elijah’s story just like it can often be part of our story. We can often find ourselves most at risk, when we are feeling most invulnerable.
God sends unexpected help to Elijah during his time of great vulnerability. Elijah is able to overcome his great sadness through the care of the angels and the nourishment of their food. This story invites us to see how the Lord has been present to us in difficult moments. It also invites us to view our problems through a lens able to see God’s divine presence in the world. Just as God is clearly present to Elijah in order to help him overcome his travails, we must have the same confidence that God is present and will be present in our lives. We know the whole of the Elijah story and can see this as just a blip in the story. We must also have the awareness that our travails and troubles are far from the whole of our story. Just as God has been present in our past, we must persevere in the hope that God will be present in our future.
We find a compassionate God here sending an angel to Elijah in his hour of need, and sending an angel again to Elijah in the following verse. As God accompanies Elijah, Hagar, and Jonah on their journey, Scripture invites us to consider how God has accompanied us on our journeys. We can think of Elijah going from mountain top to mountain top on his journey from Carmel to Horeb. Those mountain experiences are memorable and often fill us with life, especially when we have transcendent experiences of God. Yet Scripture stops here to focus on the horizontal experience rather than the vertical experience. This reading challenges us to see how God was present to us in the boring parts of our journey. Elijah teaches us to bring all our emotions to God. God will be present to us in different ways on different parts of the journey. We cannot experience the theophany of a storm cloud and deluge in the middle of the desert, but God finds a different way to be present to us. Our reading assures us that God makes the entire journey with us.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Perhaps Psalm 34 as poetry set to song served in some way the people of God. Each human life is an aggregation of experiences that build up over time. Sedimentary layers of rocks, sludge, and discarded ideas mingle together and press in on one another. We are walking repositories of all that has happened to us and each new experience fits into that matrix to find its place among the rest.
If one were able to cut through the accretions to see by way of a cross section all that has been, what would they discern. I suspect they might be surprised to see layers where God's grace covered the hard places and where God's presence brushed against jagged stones of disappointment or personal pain. Perhaps the activity of God in human experience is not unlike a fertile layer of soil laid down by a springtime flood over our river bottoms of stone and sand. Once given to the rocky places new life can emerge where none previously may have been thought possible. Our hard times can be transformed by recognition of the abiding presence of God.
What would it mean to bless the Lord at all times with praise continually in our mouths? Is the Psalmist realistic about human capacity to stay focused on a topic? Or is the Psalmist interested in inviting the people of God to some reorientation of thought and action? How would it be to go through life with each 24 hour day permeated by reflection on the presence of God and God's activity in the things we think are somehow too removed, too banal, or too mundane? What if God were one of us as the pop song suggested? How might we note the difference?
The opening explosion of praise invokes human senses of taste, hearing, sight, and touch. It seems only the sense of smell is missing or perhaps it isn't. Since smell is intimately connected with our sense of taste it may be implicitly indicated. Smell from campfire smoke as the angel of the Lord encamped nearby touches minds filled with memories of outdoor camping experiences in the wilderness and in travels from place to place.
The Hebrew word -- ira -- translated into English as "fear" stands out in the text and draws hearers toward further reflection about how to not only be cognizant of the actions of God, but to face fears through living in right relation with the living God. The word fear is sprinkled through the Psalm from start to finish -- delivered from all fears and angels encamp around those that fear God.
Fear for human beings is the result of many catalysts. It can be derived from human experiences of guilt and shame. It can arise from threats real and imagined to our existence or the existence of those whom we love. It can grow from experience with the natural world that can be a place of physical and emotional pain. It may emerge when one is faced with something that has not been previously experienced -- like the first time standing at the edge of a high cliff when faced with the recognition that one slip could cause our demise.
Fear can make the legs weak or can trigger a response to run from the perceived danger or risk. Rarely in my experience does fear invite adoration. Instead the fight or flight response seems more common. Maybe the idea of fearing God is not so much fighting or fleeing as it is recognition of the scale of something that cannot be fully comprehended. Like an unsolvable math problem, the number of stars in the universe, or the number of beats our heart will beat over a lifetime -- we cannot determine with certitude what the solution or numbers are. We only know that they exist and if we had the capacity to determine them the answers would only produce more questions.
Reading 2 Eph 4:30—5:2
Our passage contains a lot of moral advice that can be found in many places in the ancient world.
In that sense, there is nothing "original" in this text. However, the wealth of moral instruction does not mean the Bible is simply "moralizing" its readers. The key difference lay in the motivation for the morality. Most commentators agree that Paul's framework for his ethical instruction is baptism.
Interwoven throughout the letter to the Ephesians are many references to death and life (2:1, 5), putting away the old self (4:22, 25) and being marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit (1:13, 4:30). In other words, instead of simply being exhorted to do good works, the community is continually reminded that it has been engrafted into the body of Christ and that its hope is grounded in Christ's present and future redemption. The result is a life lived in love, rooted and grounded in the love of Christ (5:2). Our discussion of this text focuses on common misunderstandings of Paul's words.
Be Angry?
In some highly sentimental versions of the Christian faith it is thought that any type of anger is a sin. Paul surprises us here by recognizing that anger has its place. He also says that it has its limits. Even those with a superficial knowledge of the Bible recognize that this is a book acquainted with anger. The prophets (Amos for example!) can hardly contain their outrage at the way the people of Israel have violated God's covenant.
Jesus was upset when he overturned the tables of the moneychangers or when he encountered almost any form of self-righteous arrogance. And Paul himself was furious with church in Galatians as it fell back into seeing the law as a way to please God (Galatians 3:1-3). Indeed, God may be slow to anger but this does not mean God is never angry. God gets upset when his people turn to idolatry. As one of my professors put it, love is always outraged at betrayal.
And yet we must be careful. Paul warns the Ephesians not to "let the sun go down on your anger" (4:26). He recognizes that anger can quickly become obsessive. Instead of being upset over a thoughtless word or deed, we have a tendency to make it "personal" in a hurry. We nurse a grudge and cook up schemes for revenge. Once we have slipped into this realm we have opened the door for the devil (4:27). The well-being of the community then becomes secondary and our main purpose is simply to get even. Thus Paul reminds us of the need to let forgiveness have the last word (4:32).
Paul also says in our text that we must not "grieve" the Holy Spirit. What is meant by this unusual phrase? Paul says in Ephesians that the Spirit has "sealed" us in the promises of Christ (1:13, 4:30), given us access to the Father (2:18), and provided us with the inner power to sustain the life of faith (3:16-17). This is an impressive list of gifts. Perhaps Paul's use of the word "grieve" can be understood in the context of the human tendency to slip into behavior that undermines our community in Christ (4:31). For example, parents have a hard time conceiving of a situation where they would stop loving their children.
We can all cite examples of mothers and fathers who have gone to extraordinary lengths to help a prodigal son or daughter. These parents have indeed been "grieved" or disappointed by the actions of their loved ones -- but they rarely break off the relationship completely. Even in the most dire of cases there is still a flicker of hope for reconciliation and restoration. So it is with God. The "seal" or bond of the Spirit is inviolable.
This section concludes with the ultimate exhortation: be imitators of God (5:1)! Here is where there is a true break with the typical virtue-vice lists of the ancient world. A standard has now been set that transcends all human morality. It could also lead to despair if not handled carefully.
Our culture's interpretation of love might be said to be at war with the biblical understanding of agape. Commercials and conventional usage suggest that love is largely a romantic feeling produced by the right combination of clothes, physical conditioning, smile and make-up. In other words, love is dependent upon being lovable.
This is the exact opposite of agape love which reaches out and extends itself to the most unlovable.
Paul highlights the effects of this love as well. We now inherit the status of "beloved children" (5:1). Our task then is to take this love to the neighbor or "live in love" (5:2) as Paul says. Perfect imitation of this love is not possible. God's word of forgiveness will always be relevant (4:32). But the love of Christ dwells in our hearts as well (3:17). And that makes a big difference as we make our way into the world.
Gospel Jn 6:41-51
On this Sunday, we continue to read from the “Bread of Life discourse” found in the sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. Recall that we have been reading from this chapter for the past two weeks and will continue to read from it for another two. Last week, the crowd asked for a sign that would show that Jesus came from God. Jesus replied by saying that he is the sign and the bread of life sent by God. At this point, our Lectionary omits six verses in which Jesus predicts the unbelief of the crowd and further develops his connection with God the Father. In these verses, Jesus says that he was sent by God to do the Father’s will. Jesus promises that those who look upon the Son with faith will find eternal life. Some of these themes are repeated in today’s Gospel reading.
Today’s Gospel begins with a report that the Jews complained about Jesus’ claims regarding his identity. They knew his family, and they knew he was the son of Joseph. They could not comprehend what Jesus meant when he said that he came down from heaven. Jesus responds to the complaints by saying that only those who are chosen by God will recognize him as the one that God sent. This is a recurring theme in John’s Gospel, that God has chosen those who will have faith in Jesus.
In the verses that follow, Jesus talks more about his unity with the Father. He is the one who has seen the Father and, therefore, knows the Father. Those who listen to God will recognize that Jesus is the one sent from God. Those who believe will have eternal life. Jesus concludes with the central element of our eucharistic theology. He promises that the bread of life will bring eternal life to those who partake of it, and he tells us that the bread of life will be his own flesh, given for the life of the world.
In today’s reading, we hear Jesus say again, as he did in last week's Gospel, that he is the bread of life. We also hear Jesus add that he is the living bread. Both of these statements help us understand better the gift that Jesus gives us in the Eucharist. We celebrate this gift of Jesus each time we gather for Mass. We believe that receiving Jesus in the Eucharist will lead us to eternal life.
Making the Connection
- To know a few facts about a person does not necessarily mean that we know that person well. If someone knew you only as a member of your family, what might they know about you? What kinds of things wouldn’t they know? Would knowing that you go to a particular school add any additional information? (Yes, some.) Would this be enough to know you well? (Probably not.) Why not? (They haven’t taken the time to get to know you.)
- In today’s Gospel, some of the people in the crowd are upset because Jesus told them that he was the bread of life that came down from heaven. They don’t believe this because they seem to think they know Jesus.
- In today’s Gospel, some of the people in the crowd are upset because Jesus told them that he was the bread of life that came down from heaven. They don’t believe this because they seem to think they know Jesus.
- In the Gospel what information does the crowd know about Jesus? (They know that his father is Joseph; they know his family.) Is this enough to know Jesus well? (No.) What does Jesus say a person must do to know him well? (Jesus says that those who listen to God will know that Jesus came from God.)
- This is important for us to understand because there are many details about Jesus' life that we don't know. But knowing these details would not tell us what we need to know about Jesus. We learn all we need to know about Jesus from God’s Word to us, the Scripture. Scripture teaches us to have faith that Jesus is God's Son who brings us salvation. We also have the gift that Jesus gave us in the Eucharist. We grow closer to Jesus when we celebrate the Eucharist.
- Pray that we will grow in our understanding and faith in Jesus through our celebration of the Eucharist. Pray the Act of Faith.
Act of Faith
O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because you have revealed them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
Amen.
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Sunday August 5, 2018 Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 113
My fellow scripture study friends. Please accept my apologies. I was on vacation. Here is last weeks study.
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 16:2-4, 12-15
The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron.
The Israelites said to them,
"Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt,
as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert
to make the whole community die of famine!"
Then the LORD said to Moses,
"I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.
Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion;
thus will I test them,
to see whether they follow my instructions or not.
"I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.
Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,
so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God."
In the evening quail came up and covered the camp.
In the morning a dew lay all about the camp,
and when the dew evaporated, there on the surface of the desert
were fine flakes like hoarfrost on the ground.
On seeing it, the Israelites asked one another, "What is this?"
for they did not know what it was.
But Moses told them,
"This is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
What we have heard and know,
and what our fathers have declared to us,
We will declare to the generation to come
the glorious deeds of the LORD and his strength
and the wonders that he wrought.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
He commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven;
he rained manna upon them for food
and gave them heavenly bread.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Man ate the bread of angels,
food he sent them in abundance.
And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountains his right hand had won.
R. The Lord gave them bread from heaven.
Reading 2 Eph 4:17, 20-24
Brothers and sisters:
I declare and testify in the Lord
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their minds;
that is not how you learned Christ,
assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him,
as truth is in Jesus,
that you should put away the old self of your former way of life,
corrupted through deceitful desires,
and be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
and put on the new self,
created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth.
Gospel Jn 6:24-35
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
"Rabbi, when did you get here?"
Jesus answered them and said,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
you are looking for me not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal."
So they said to him,
"What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."
So they said to him,
"What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat."
So Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world."
So they said to him,
"Sir, give us this bread always."
Jesus said to them,
"I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 16:2-4, 12-15
The need for bread in this early stage of the journey out of Egypt provides both God and God’s people with an opportunity to understand and to trust the other. Throughout the narrative, the people struggle to trust and to follow God, and God struggles to know and to nurture this fledgling community of former slaves.
In the opening verses, the narrator establishes that it is the second month of the children of Israel’s journey out of Egypt, and the people are complaining (lit. “murmuring”) against Moses and Aaron because they are hungry. The complaint in this narrative is the third of its kind (see also Exodus 14:11; 15:24). Each complaint follows a certain pattern: (1) the people encounter a potentially devastating threat to their well-being -- the pursuit of the pharaoh and his chariots, deadly dehydration, starvation; (2) they complain (literally “murmur”) against their leadership; (3) their human leaders bring the complaint before God; and (4) God saves them by various means -- the miraculous crossing of the sea, providing drinkable water, and, in this narrative, providing bread from heaven.
The language of the complaint is strong. One might even say it is unfair. “The Israelites said to them, "Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread!
But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!" (16:3). The harsh servitude the people endured in Egypt, described in the earlier chapters of Exodus, bears no resemblance to this description of the plenty they claim they enjoyed there.
Interestingly, the people make no mention of pharaoh and his unreasonable demands. In an indirect way, the people seem to blame God both for their current crisis in the wilderness as well as their enslavement: "Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh was the one trying to kill them in Egypt. God rescued them! Their hunger leads them to what seems to be willful forgetfulness.
One might be tempted to regard the pattern of complaints in these chapters and the injustice in the wording of this particular complaint in a negative light, but, while Moses and Aaron appear to be frustrated with the people, the text portrays God as focused on the people and their needs rather than disturbed by their demands. Indeed, the complaint and the occasion that prompts it provides God with an opening to learn more about them by means of a test.
The test itself is multilayered. On the surface, the test enables God to know the people’s response to the gift of manna: will they follow God’s instruction and gather only what they need according to the day? Will they respect the Sabbath? The answers to these questions seem to be the overall purpose of the test according to 16:4, but the test also serves another, perhaps more important, purpose: the gathering of manna in the wilderness -- with specific amounts brought in on certain days -- creates a structure in the people’s lives that is a reliable constant in the turmoil of their wilderness wandering.
The people gather in the morning what they need for the day and no more, except on the day before the Sabbath when they gather enough for both days. There are no days on which the manna fails to appear. Although the reader is not yet aware that this journey to their new land will take forty years, the narrator notes that this provision of manna lasts the entirety of the trip (16:35). Order is thus established in the midst of chaos by means of this rhythm of divine provision.
In verses 2-3, the people claimed to long for Egypt and its bounty, but what Egypt really represented was a complete lack of rest with a pharaoh who cared nothing for their well-being or their needs. Here, bread and rest -- on the Sabbath -- are provided generously and reliably. The difference between the former reality of their lives in Egypt and their present reality in the hands of a trustworthy God, who provides for them even in the wilderness, is made clear when one compares the beginning of the narrative to the end of the reading at verse 15. The “idealized and unwarranted memories of Pharaoh’s food (verse 3) are to be replaced with the genuine memories of the bread from God.”1
The stress and chaos of life on the journey of the children of Israel through the wilderness is intense and debilitating, so much so that the people begin to long for their former lives as slaves in Egypt. As they long to go back, God’s grace pushes them forward by providing strength for the journey in the form of food and a structure to their days and weeks by the instructions regarding the keeping of the Sabbath.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 78:3-4, 23-24, 25, 54
Psalm 78 is the second longest psalm in the Psalter; only psalm 119 is longer.
The psalm is often called historical, and it is an instruction or meditation in poetic form about how to live a godly life. The theme of the psalm is the relationship between God and his people. It describes the life of the Israelites from the time in Egypt to the election of David as king.
Since the psalm is very long, it is radically abridged in the lectionary. Only two introductory verses and five verses in the middle of the psalm are chosen for the day.
The story is not told in chronological order, since the aim of the psalmist is not to write history. It is rather to give examples for coming generations how not to act. History is related in order to understand the present. In that sense the psalm is a mirror for the reader/listener. The content of the psalm is built on contrasts.
The beginning of the psalm is unusual in that it is not addressed to God but to "my people," i. e. to those who listen to the teacher. The wording is remindful of that in the wisdom traditions of the Old Testament.
The teaching is called "parable” and ”dark sayings” (verse 2). The first word suggests something of importance, the second expression can also be translated ”mysteries” or ”riddles.” The intention is to make clear from the beginning that what follows is more than a retelling of history. There is something to learn from history, and that’s what the psalmist wants to stress.
Verses 34–37 are part of the section in the psalm where the Israelites in the desert are in focus. The picture of the people is not a flattering one. Israel on its way to the promised land is a history of constant trouble. The people are disobedient. It is only when God is forced to be harsh and punishes the Israelites that they return to God and ask for his help. The pattern is well-known from other parts of the Old Testament, from both the historical books and the prophetic literature.
The people knew that God was their rock and redeemer (verse 35), but their memory of this was short. Very soon after a conversion they were back to ”normal” again; and normal in their case was disobedience, lies, and an unsteady heart.
In contrast to the people, God is depicted as compassionate, forgiving, and mild (verse 38). The verse is not only the key verse in the psalm, it is also -- according to the Masoretes -- the center verse of the Psalter.
In the following God’s reactions and actions are further described, and so are the people’s actions. The contrast between the two -- God and the Israelites -- is hammered in. The psalmist’s aim is clear: he wants his listeners to have trust in
Reading 2 Eph 4:17, 20-24
The apostle charged the Ephesians in the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus, that having professed the gospel, they should not be as the unconverted Gentiles, who walked in vain fancies and carnal affections. Do not men, on every side, walk in the vanity of their minds? Must not we then urge the distinction between real and nominal Christians? They were void of all saving knowledge; they sat in darkness, and loved it rather than light. They had a dislike and hatred to a life of holiness, which is not only the way of life God requires and approves, and by which we live to him, but which has some likeness to God himself in his purity, righteousness, truth, and goodness. The truth of Christ appears in its beauty and power, when it appears as in Jesus. The corrupt nature is called a man; like the human body, it is of divers parts, supporting and strengthening one another. Sinful desires are deceitful lusts; they promise men happiness, but render them more miserable; and bring them to destruction, if not subdued and mortified. These therefore must be put off, as an old garment, a filthy garment; they must be subdued and mortified. But it is not enough to shake off corrupt principles; we must have gracious ones. By the new man, is meant the new nature, the new creature, directed by a new principle, even regenerating grace, enabling a man to lead a new life of righteousness and holiness. This is created, or brought forth by God's almighty power.
In the following verses notice the particulars wherewith we should adorn our Christian profession. Take heed of everything contrary to truth. No longer flatter or deceive others. God's people are children who will not lie, who dare not lie, who hate and abhor lying. Take heed of anger and ungoverned passions. If there is just occasion to express displeasure at what is wrong, and to reprove, see that it be without sin. We give place to the devil, when the first motions of sin are not grievous to our souls; when we consent to them; and when we repeat an evil deed. This teaches that as sin, if yielded unto, lets in the devil upon us, we are to resist it, keeping from all appearance of evil. Idleness makes thieves. Those who will not work, expose themselves to temptations to steal. Men ought to be industrious, that they may do some good, and that they may be kept from temptation. They must labor, not only that they may live honestly, but that they may have to give to the wants of others. What then must we think of those called Christians, who grow rich by fraud, oppression, and deceitful practices! Alms, to be accepted of God, must not be gained by unrighteousness and robbery, but by honesty and industry. God hates robbery for burnt-offerings.
Gospel Jn 6:24-35
Confusion seems to abound in this passage. Except that in John confusion is as much a literary device as is symbolism. Each point of confusion, that is, offers Jesus a chance to redirect his audience to what is more important. First, the crowds want to know how he and the disciples got around the shore. Jesus accuses them of just wanting to eat again when they should be working for imperishable food. Implication: the spiritual reality of what happened is more important than the earthly one.
Then they want to know what kind of work they should be doing that would be pleasing to God and, presumably, grant imperishable food. Jesus answers that the only work that matters is believing in the one God sent. Implication: according to John's Jesus, it all comes down to this -- do you believe Jesus is the One who reveals God uniquely and fully?
The people then ask for a sign like Moses did by providing the ancient Israelites with manna (which is kind of interesting, since Jesus has just fed 5000 of them!). Jesus responds that it wasn't Moses who provided manna but God. Implication: you do not need and should not look for an intermediary, as God will provide bread from heaven for God's people directly.
Finally, the people ask for, even demand, this bread, and Jesus responds that he is the bread. Implication: Jesus reveals God's character and provides direct access to relationship with God, something formerly mediated by covenant, law, or leader but now is directly accessible through him.
Throughout, this scene provides something of a halting but progressive disclosure that in Jesus God is revealing God's own self most clearly and fully so that all people will have access to God or, to hearken back to John 1, so that all people can become "children of God" (1:12).
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- There are many needs that people require to be healthy and happy. Try to name some of these.
- Observe that some needs are more important than others. Sometimes we talk about our most important physical needs as our “basic human needs.” Which items on your list might be considered a “basic human need?” (water, food, shelter, clothing) There are also non-physical needs that might be considered “basic human needs.” What might be examples of these needs? (love, a sense of purpose, healthy relationships, faith)
- Human beings have many important needs that must be fulfilled if they are to be healthy and happy. In today’s Gospel, we hear that the people were seeking out Jesus because he had fed them abundantly with five loaves of bread and two fish. (Recall last week’s Gospel.) Jesus tells the people that God will provide a greater gift that will satisfy their spiritual needs. Think of the Gospel reasing.
- What has Jesus already given the people? (He gave them food, loaves of bread and fish, so that they would not be hungry.) Are the people satisfied, or do they want something more? (They aren’t satisfied; they want more bread.)
- Jesus satisfied a basic physical need, but the people wanted more food. But Jesus tells them that he can give them something even more important than food; he can give them eternal life. What is the question the crowd asks next? (They ask what must they do to accomplish God’s work.) What does Jesus tell them? (that they will do what God wants when they believe in him) Then, Jesus says that he will give them the gift of himself, that he is the bread of life. This is the gift that Jesus has given to us in the Eucharist.
- When we celebrate the Eucharist, we are offering God our thanks because God provides for all of our needs, our basic physical needs and our spiritual needs.
- Thank God for all the wonderful gifts he has given to us, especially for the gift of the Eucharist. Pray the Act of Faith, Act of Hope, and Act of Love.
O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because you have revealed them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
Amen
Act of Hope
O my God, relying on your infinite mercy and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, the help of your grace, and life everlasting, through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.Amen.c
Act of Love
O my God, I love you above all things with my whole heart and soul, because you are all good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me and I ask pardon of those whom I have injured.
Amen.
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Sunday July 29, 2018 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 110
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Kgs 4:42-44
A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing to Elisha, the man of God,
twenty barley loaves made from the firstfruits,
and fresh grain in the ear.
Elisha said, "Give it to the people to eat."
But his servant objected,
"How can I set this before a hundred people?"
Elisha insisted, "Give it to the people to eat."
"For thus says the LORD,
'They shall eat and there shall be some left over.'"
And when they had eaten, there was some left over,
as the LORD had said.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The eyes of all look hopefully to you,
and you give them their food in due season;
you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R. The hand of the Lord feeds us; he answers all our needs.
Reading 2 Eph 4:1-6
Brothers and sisters:
I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace:
one body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.
Gospel Jn 6:1-15
Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes
and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip,
"Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
"Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little."
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?"
Jesus said, "Have the people recline."
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
"Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted."
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves
that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
"This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Kgs 4:42-44
1) Today's text begins not with scarcity but with generosity. It begins with the announcement that a man from Baal-shalishah comes bringing "food from the first fruits." The text does not provide his name, only mentioning the village he comes from. There is no indication of any obligation on the part of this man to provide food to Elisha nor any mention that Elisha is in need of food.
The giver arrives without explanation. And it is the gifts that are described: "twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain." This is a generous amount! It is not hard to picture, to smell, and to savor the taste of this pile of fresh bread and grain, or to recognize the labor that went into producing them.
2) A second surprising act of generosity then takes place: a sharing of these tasty foods. Elisha decides to share these first fruits with others and instructs "Give it to the people and let them eat."
3) The picture suddenly changes and the generous pile of barley loaves and fresh ears of grain suddenly seems quite small when the servant in charge of administering Elisha's instruction reveals there are a hundred people to feed. The servant's question makes it clear that the eating is to include everyone. How can the giving be accomplished with equity?
4) There is nothing magical about the food that is being discussed in this passage, but there is something unusual. It is described as "food from the first fruits." In the Israelite calendar, the first fruits marked the end of the harvest. The offering of "first fruits" acknowledged that the land and its produce belonged first of all to God. That reality was to serve as a reminder of God's providing and as a curb against selfishness and greed.
The "food from the first fruits" is a holy offering (Leviticus 23:20). According to the festival instructions, it is to be delivered to the priest who is to offer it before the LORD. In 2 Kings 4, however, it is brought to the prophet Elisha who instructs that it be offered to the people. The people will dine on the LORD's meal.
5) While the delivery of the first fruits to Elisha could be viewed as a protest against the religious establishment at Gilgal, nothing in the text makes that connection. Nor is there any objection to this redirection of the food offering (unlike the objection to Jesus plucking grain on the Sabbath in Mark 2:23-28). Instead, there is a surprising third act of generosity. Elisha repeats the instruction, "Give it to the people and let them eat," adding, "for thus says the LORD, 'They shall eat and have some left.'" And it was so. The source of this abundance is God. The LORD feeds the people with the LORD's own food.
A miracle occurs in this story: a sack of grain and twenty barley loaves feed one hundred people, with food remaining. It is a miracle:
- made possible by God's abundant providing.
- initiated by the generosity of an anonymous giver.
- shared with others because of the recipient's generosity.
- in which all are included because of an administrator's concern for equity.
- through which the community shares in what is holy.
The passage depicts the miracle of daily existence: human community and holy living are dependent upon the abundant providing of God, human generosity and willingness to share, and attention to equity.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:10-11, 15-16, 17-18
The main subject of Psalm 145 is the eternal kingship of the Lord.
The psalm contains a comprehensive expression of praise for God as heavenly king. Perhaps this is why the psalm’s superscription designates it as a “song of praise” (Tehillah). Psalm 145 is the only psalm to be identified this way. The Talmud recognizes its unique identity as a song of praise by saying, “Everyone who repeats the Tehillah of David thrice a day may be sure that he is a child of the world to come”. What the Talmud surely recognizes is that Psalm 145 invites the believer to praise God in ways that acknowledge God’s exclusive prerogative as ruler of the cosmos and God’s unique care for those who seek him. This central set of concerns is expressed in verses 10-18.
Psalm 145 is an acrostic poem. Each successive verse begins with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostics were perhaps composed for ease of memorization or to make the theological point that what is expressed in the poem aims to be comprehensive. The acrostic style creates a somewhat artificial structure. Nevertheless, the psalm has two distinct points at which the psalmist invites praise of God. In the first verse the psalmist declares “I will extol you, my God and King,” thus giving personal witness to the intention to praise. Then verse 10 expands the voice of praise to “all your works” and “all your faithful.” Hence, verse 10 marks a second beginning of praise in Psalm 145. The initial “I” voice in verse 10 speaks on behalf of all God’s creatures and all God’s people with a similar promise of praise: “All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your faithful shall bless you.”
A key question about verse 10 concerns the identity of “your faithful.” Does this expression refer to a special group within Israel (e.g. “those who love him,” as opposed to the wicked; see v. 20), to all the Israelites, or to some broader constituency? Although the psalm does not make the identity explicit, the pairing of “your faithful” with “all your works” would seem to argue for a broad identity. Even if the faithful ones who speak God’s praise do not designate an expanded, inclusive group, however, their praise sends word of God’s grace to all people (v. 12). The message, if not the messengers, includes all who turn to God. The only criterion for inclusion is need recognized and expressed.
An important part of the theology of Psalm 145:10-18 is the location of the psalm in the Psalter. It appears as the last psalm before the final doxology (Psalms 146-150, tied together by “Praise the Lord” at the beginning and end of each). As the final psalm in the last Davidic collection in the book (Psalms 138-145), Psalm 145 is also the last word of David in the Psalter. Here David speaks and praises God, and his praise in turn introduces the praise-filled conclusion to the Psalter in Psalms 146-150. At the center of David’s praise, verses 10-18 declare that “your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations” (v. 13) and “the Lord is just in all his ways, and kind in all his doings” (v. 17). In other words, God as heavenly king is faithful in a way that no king of Israel ever was, and God’s kingdom of righteousness endures forever, in contrast to the Davidic monarchy that could not last. Perhaps most remarkably, David himself delivers this message. David appears here (as Moses earlier, in Psalm 90) as mediator for and guide to Israel from across the ages. He points the Israelites who have known humiliation and defeat at the hands of the Babylonians to the kingdom of God rather than to the kingdom of David’s descendants. They will find hope and future in the heavenly King rather than in a mortal “in whom is no help” (Psalm 146:3).
It is also appropriate that this final message on the lips of David sums up much of what the Psalter has been expressing in Psalms 1-144. Namely, God is uniquely concerned for the lowly and downcast (see Psalms 1; 34; 37). As verse 14 says, “the lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.” As the psalm expresses this feature of God’s character it also presents a thorough-going understanding of God’s grace available through dependence and faith. As verse 18 proclaims, “The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.” Indeed, the main requirement for getting help from God and knowing God’s salvation is calling on him out of one’s need. In other words, God looks for those open to divine direction and help. Faithfulness is thus defined primarily by dependence.
Reading 2 Eph 4:1-6
Paul begins our section by reminding his listeners that he is a "prisoner in the Lord" (4:1). However, as Paul sees it, his frequent stays in prison are never without purpose. He does not simply refer to himself as a prisoner but as a "prisoner in the Lord" (compare 3:1). We might consider imprisonment to be a "waste" of time because it inhibits our freedom to do what we want to do. But Paul has a different perspective. Even confinement does not diminish his energy for his mission in life: to proclaim Christ. Indeed, he even reports to the church of the Philippians that his imprisonment serves to spread the gospel of Christ (Philippians 1:12-14). Perhaps there are two lessons that might be drawn from Paul's example.
First, we should never limit Christ's presence and power to places we typically regard as holy or sacred. As Paul's own situation reminds us, the power of Christ can never be constrained by a physical or social location. We might think divinity goes hand in hand with wealth, splendor, influence and comfort. But almost everything in the gospels subverts this understanding.
God shows up in a manger and not a palace. The first to hear about the incarnation are not statesmen but shepherds. Jesus is regularly accused of hanging out with sinners and then, like Paul, becomes a prisoner of the state on the way to a shameful death. And then the first witnesses of the resurrection are women, deemed by their culture to be unreliable gossips.
Second, it is worth noting that stays in prison can often hone understanding and insight. Letters from captivity (like Ephesians or Philippians) are profound meditations on the meaning of faith in the midst of suffering and exclusion.
Paul pairs the words "called" and "callings" in two different places in the passage (4:1 and 4:4). The reader is reminded of the relationship between our being called by God and the subsequent assignment of a calling in the world. The language of calling links the church with the election of Israel. God has chosen for himself (1:4) a people and this election depends firmly on God's decision. It is done "before the foundation of the world" (1:4) and it relies solely on God's gracious initiative. And the result of being called is that the faithful now have callings where they lead lives marked by humility, love and patience (4:2).
It is easy to get confused about the dual nature of a call. It is worth underlining that being called and having a calling must be distinguished but never separated. Our relationship with God simultaneously involves a relationship with neighbor or community. And these callings are multiple as it is impossible for a Christian to not be in some type of calling at all times of life.
Just as God is active in every nook and cranny of creation so God uses his people to make sure people are fed, clothed, comforted, educated, protected, etc. Proclaimers would be wise to remind listeners that a calling should not be pared down to a job or occupation. This would mean wide stretches of human experience would be outside of God's providence. God calls us not only to work but to friendship, family life, citizenship, etc. In other words, our bearing witness to the truth is grounded in a deep humility (4:2).
Gospel Jn 6:1-15
The feeding of the multitude is the only miracle story told in all four Gospels.
Perhaps this story has such a secure place in the memory of the church because of the Eucharistic themes which it carries.
While each Gospel includes this story, each also strikes distinctive notes in the telling. Only John tells us that this event takes place near the festival of Passover (John 6:4). What may seem like an insignificant detail in fact is at the heart of what the entire chapter claims about Jesus.
At the end of chapter 5, Jesus complained that his opponents did not understand or believe what Moses had written (John 5:39-47). We then are ushered immediately into a scene that not only takes place at Passover, one of the great events associated with Moses, but into a text that overflows with echoes of the Passover event. Some examples include:
- At the beginning of chapter 6, events of supernatural feeding and of salvation from the sea are joined together, just as the crossing of the sea and the manna in the wilderness were part of the story of Moses.
- There is "testing" here (John 6:6), as there was in Exodus 16:4.
- Jesus commands that the pieces be gathered up so that nothing is wasted, just as Moses commanded in Exodus 16:19.
- Jesus is said to go up "to the mountain" (notice that it is not simply "a" mountain in verse 3). In fact, the text strangely says that after the feeding, Jesus (again?) withdrew "to the mountain”. Perhaps this repeated mention of "the mountain" (another piece unique to John's account) is intended to recall that other mountain in Israel's story, where Moses met God.
Verse 14 indicates that the people have made the connections. Faced with this feeding miracle in the wilderness, they remember the promise that God will raise up a prophet like Moses, and they confess that Jesus is that prophet. But they fail to realize what this sign actually reveals. Instead of seeing in Jesus the very embodiment of God's glory, love, and Word, they see a king, a political or military figure who might serve their desires.
We ought to remember the Passover was a festival of national liberation from a foreign oppressor. It is an act of revolution to want to make Jesus king. The crowds are certainly acting on their beliefs, and acting boldly; but they have missed the point of what has happened. They see Jesus' gracious gift, but they want a glory for him that fits into their assumptions and serves their goals.
How often do we fail to see the depths of what God is doing, because we are focused only on what serves our immediate desires and needs? We fail to realize how graciously God is acting among us, for our sake and for the sake of the whole world. We only see partially and in distorted ways. We need the continuing word of Jesus, and the gift of himself, if we are to move more deeply into the glory of God. This is what the crowds need as well, though it will take all of chapter 6 to tell the story.
It is at the cross that we see the full depth of God's glory, and the cross cannot be avoided. Like the crowds in John 6, we have been fed by God's grace, fed with God's mercy and care and steadfast love; and, like them, we often fail to see what God is doing among us. We look for the "wrong" kind of Jesus, one who will simply serve our programs, our desires, and our wishes.
Jesus will have no part of this, because God is up to something far greater. Jesus comes to us as God in the flesh, the one who reveals to us the Father and draws us into the Father's love. Jesus comes across the fearful, lonely, empty, threatening times and places, and says "I am." The "I am" has come to be with us and bring us to the goal God has intended.
This divine presence means we find ourselves called, as the disciples were, to feed the hungry. Of course this means we are to provide food and clean water to so many in this world who lack those things. And of course, our resources are not sufficient for such a task. But this cannot be an excuse to refuse what Jesus' gives, and to bring it to others within the world. is no excuse not to receive from Jesus' hand what he gives, and to go into the world with this gift.
All life and all good gifts come from God. Jesus comes to open our hearts and our hands to those around us. We can do that only because he also comes to open our eyes to his own presence as the grace-and-peace-filled "I" in the middle of the storm.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Try to recall a time when you made a contribution necessary for the success of an event or activity (for example, bringing needed supplies or equipment, making suggestions at the planning stage, offering help). Think about why it was important. Think about how you felt about the contribution you were able to make?
- In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus invites his disciples to make a contribution to the work he wants to do. However, the disciples are reluctant to help, thinking that they do not have what is needed
- Seeing the crowd approaching him, what did Jesus want to do? (feed them) What did Philip answer when Jesus asked where they could buy food? (that they didn’t have enough money to buy food for so many people) What did the disciple Andrew tell Jesus? (that there was a boy with five barley loaves and two fish, but this wasn’t enough to feed everyone) Did Jesus think that this was enough? (yes)
- Jesus gave thanks to God for the food that was given to him and fed more than 5,000 people. All the people ate and had their fill. Then what did Jesus tell his disciples to do? (collect the leftovers so that nothing would be wasted) Jesus accepted the contribution of food that was given to him, and this small offering became more than enough to feed the crowd.
- This miracle teaches us about the great gift we receive in the Eucharist, when the gifts of bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. When the bread and wine are offered at Mass, we offer ourselves as well, giving thanks to God for all that we have been given. God has given us many gifts to share and can do amazing things when we offer these gifts in service to others.
- Pray in gratitude for the gifts God has given each of us to share in service to the Kingdom of God. Pray Psalm 145 above.
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Sunday July 22, 2018 Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 107
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 23:1-6
Woe to the shepherds
who mislead and scatter the flock of my pasture,
says the LORD.
Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel,
against the shepherds who shepherd my people:
You have scattered my sheep and driven them away.
You have not cared for them,
but I will take care to punish your evil deeds.
I myself will gather the remnant of my flock
from all the lands to which I have driven them
and bring them back to their meadow;
there they shall increase and multiply.
I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them
so that they need no longer fear and tremble;
and none shall be missing, says the LORD.
Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David;
as king he shall reign and govern wisely,
he shall do what is just and right in the land.
In his days Judah shall be saved,
Israel shall dwell in security.
This is the name they give him:
"The LORD our justice."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Reading 2 Eph 2:13-18
Brothers and sisters:
In Christ Jesus you who once were far off
have become near by the blood of Christ.
For he is our peace, he who made both one
and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh,
abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims,
that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two,
thus establishing peace,
and might reconcile both with God,
in one body, through the cross,
putting that enmity to death by it.
He came and preached peace to you who were far off
and peace to those who were near,
for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Gospel Mk 6:30-34
The apostles gathered together with Jesus
and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them,
“Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.”
People were coming and going in great numbers,
and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it.
They hastened there on foot from all the towns
and arrived at the place before them.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd,
his heart was moved with pity for them,
for they were like sheep without a shepherd;
and he began to teach them many things.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 23:1-6
Just as sheep need a shepherd to guide and protect them, the people of Israel need responsible leaders to provide for them. Wise leadership matters.
Jeremiah 23:1-6, which concerns shepherds and their sheep, was chosen for this Sunday in July because of the thematic connection to the Gospel reading, Mark 6:30-34, which includes a description of the crowd following Jesus “like sheep not having a shepherd.” As we will see below, this image of shepherd-less sheep provokes feelings of anxiety and concern.
Our passage issues judgment to shepherds who have not upheld their duties to their flock. Jeremiah is not concerned with actual livestock and real shepherds. Instead, the prophet is using a common metaphor from the ancient Near East to speak of human kings and leaders as shepherds to the people. The ovine imagery is appropriate since the duties and responsibilities of shepherds would be well-known to ancient readers. Shepherds are supposed to take care of their sheep. Feed them; protect them; guide them.
But the kings have not been good shepherds given that the sheep now find themselves in exile, scattered among the nations. God blames these leaders for destroying and scattering the sheep. Given the use of the plural, shepherds, we are to assume that a whole set of Judah’s kings is responsible, not just a single figure.
This judgment against the leadership brings up the question of responsibility and accountability. This passage from Jeremiah seems to want to place all the blame for the exile on the Judahite leadership (more specifically, the last few kings of Judah before the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem). But can we always blame the shepherds for the disastrous affairs among their sheep fold? What role might the sheep play also in this scattering? And how about other nations’ shepherds who have held more political and military power? The theological and ethical perspective of Jeremiah 23 is quite narrow: woe to the shepherds!
The shepherd is indeed a very biblical image. Psalm 23 uses this same imagery to speak of God as a shepherd. Shepherds take their sheep to green pastures and still waters and along correct paths. They protect them with their rod and staff in the darkest valleys. Likewise, Ezekiel 34 speaks of the leaders of Israel as shepherds and of God as the good shepherd. God seeks out the scattered sheep and rescues them from dangerous places.
Many of us today do not have intimate knowledge of these pastoral responsibilities. The metaphor of a shepherd really works only for those of us with prior biblical knowledge or livestock experience. How might we reimagine this metaphor for today? How do we speak of and imagine leadership? Similarly, many of us do not live under the rule of a king. To conceive of God as a king does not resonate as well with a people of democracy. We need perhaps new metaphors for leadership, a way to update and expand our biblical metaphors. But where shall we obtain these understandings of leadership? Should we think of God as the good C.E.O.? or the President?
God’s solution to this instance of poor leadership is forthcoming. The oracle of judgment becomes an oracle of salvation in verse 3. God takes the initiative. God will gather the flock from their scattering, bringing them back to the fold of the land of Israel, and raise up new shepherds, new leaders, for them.
Verses 5-6 then move beyond the shepherd metaphor to speak of a righteous branch. God will raise up a Branch who will reign wisely so that Judah and Israel will be saved. Jeremiah has in mind an earthly king or line of royal figures here, a future Davidic monarchy.
Finally, we get a glimpse of the characteristics of a proper leader or shepherd in verse 5: the execution of justice and righteousness in the land. The specifics of this type of wise leadership are still withheld, as these details are not a part of the rhetorical goal of this oracle of promise. Nevertheless, we have a promise of new leadership. God will begin again with the house of David to enthrone a sagacious shepherd.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-3, 3-4, 5, 6
Literary artistry. The basic facts about the psalm preach an eloquent message by themselves. There are fifty-five Hebrew words in this psalm, and unlike many psalms there are almost no repetitions. Only the Hebrew words for “Lord” (vv. 1, 6), “day” (v. 6, twice), and possibly “restore/return” (vv. 3, 6) are repeated. It’s as if the poet were given a list of some fifty words and told to write the most memorable poem in human history. Moreover, a total of fifty-five words creates a precise center (the 28th word), namely, “you,” in reference to the Lord. Thus, the thought at the very center of the poem is the phrase, “you are with me” (v. 4). Combine that insight with the closure created by the use of “Lord” in the psalm’s opening and closing phrases, and we see the portrait of the divine shepherd who is there at the beginning, the middle, and the end of our journey. By virtue of its literary artistry alone, therefore, this psalm declares that God enfolds his people so that we all are part of the flock; and yet this shepherd intimately knows the sheep in all their distinction and difference. Each one of us is throughout his or her life a unique and precious possession of God.
Historical context. Scholars have done excellent work explaining the ancient Near Eastern context of the psalm. Still, this is not an idea that every commentary discusses, and it almost certainly is not on your parishioners’ radar. Nevertheless, it is important for grasping the psalm’s meaning in its original context to know that both Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures used the shepherd image for their kings, their gods, or both. The epilogue to the famous Code of Hammurabi has that king state: “I made the people lie down in safe pastures, I did not allow anyone to frighten them.” Or in regard to the image of the banquet (vv 5-6), there is the goddess Anat who “arranges seats for the warriors, arranges tables for the soldiers.” The biblical psalmist, being well aware of this broad cultural background, is thus making an affirmation of faith: The Lord -- not a foreign god or king -- is the only true shepherd of each and every Israelite. We now hear this psalm not merely as a message of comfort on life’s journey but a theological creed spoken in the midst of our own culture with all of its earthly leaders and “gods” that can never be the Shepherd-King of Psalm 23.
Biblical theology. Finally, while many parishioners will connect this poem with the shepherd images elsewhere in the Bible (e.g., Jeremiah 23, Ezekiel 34, John 10), few will identify the echoes of Israel’s national journey of deliverance, wilderness, and emergence in the land (see especially Psalm 78:52-55). This most precious of personal psalms is about both our individual journeys and the journey of the people of God. Finally, biblical theology finds echoes of prophetic themes connecting this psalm to the covenantal standards of justice. And the poet’s sense of protection from the enemies (v. 5) moves toward a richer understanding of reconciliation through the good shepherd who tells us to love and forgive them (Matthew 5:44; Luke 22:34).
Reading 2 Eph 2:13-18
Ephesians 2:11-22 in Context
Rhetorically, Ephesians 2 lays very important groundwork for the rest of the letter. It’s helpful to see the argument in terms of concentric circles. The outer circle in 2:1-10 communicates God’s cosmic transformation of humanity from being dead in sin to alive in Christ. The inner circle in 2:11-22 begins with a “therefore” (dio), suggesting that everything said issues from 2:1-10. Here Paul focuses on the reconciliation of Jew and Gentile, which falls within God’s bigger move of reconciling humanity from sin and death to life. This social, on-the-ground-relational transformation cannot be divorced from the greater cosmic move of transferring humanity from the house of the old aeon to the new house under the lordship of Jesus Christ. God’s reconciliation does not stop with me and my own sinfulness; it aims to resurrect humanity from the palpable widespread systemic brokenness of a world caught under sin and death.
Uncircumcision and Circumcision
Verses 11-12 focus on Gentiles who had been excluded and separated. They are the “uncircumcision.” It is not that Gentiles were “not saved” -- not on the train to heaven but rather on the highway to hell. The writer describes their situation as “apart from Christ, separated from the commonwealth of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, not having hope and godless in the world.”
These verses provide opportunity to go in two directions. First, they provide a doorway to reorient the idea of God’s salvation. Being saved is not just “getting a ticket out of hell,” or positively put, assurance of heaven. It is a movement from one sphere of life to another. These verses remind us: salvation involves more than forgiveness of the individual sinful self; it is the integration into God’s work of redemption and reconciliation, which is strongly implied in the following verses (see also 2 Corinthians 5).
From the perspective of the author, humanity outside of God’s reconciliation exists as hopeless wanderers. It’s not that humanity apart from God has no identity or home. Humanity apart from God’s mission would not see themselves this way. But human identity outside of God’s working of redemption is about as lasting as the fog in the San Francisco bay. Sure, it’s thick and dense and a force to be reckoned with; but it will pass, revealing it was only a mist with no substance. It’s not that God has called humanity from nothingness; God has called humanity from the illusion that our stubborn insistence that we and our manufactured ways can actually bring into actualization our full identity as those made in the image of God.
The Two Have Become One
The circumcision and the uncircumcision are two separate groups within humanity according to our author. One group was considered outsiders, the other insiders with regard to covenant with God (and it was not only that Jews saw Gentiles as outsiders; from the perspective of Gentile life and religiosity, Jews were equally ignorant of God as defined by their history and tradition). This separation between the two groups was not limited to theological disposition -- to “belief”; it played out in very real ways in terms of human social relations. While it would be incorrect to say these groups of people had no interaction, it is important to understand that they did not sit at the same table together; they were not interested in sharing life. They were opposed.
This passage trumpets the good news that God has brought uncircumcision and circumcision together. One radical element of this message is that God’s unification of the two groups does not mean “uniformity.” One group does not fall under the power of the more dominant group. Rather, Paul says that God in Christ has made one humanity of the two. Gentiles do not become Jews; Jews do not become Gentiles. Rather, both Jews and Gentiles become united in Christ as Jew and Gentile. The uncircumcision are welcomed into the story of God played out through the people of the circumcision, to play their own part in the continuing story of redemption.
Gospel Mk 6:30-34
Verses 30-34 are the introduction to the "Feeding of the Five Thousand" account in Mark 6:35-44 and the incident when Jesus walked on the water in Mark 6:45-52. However, we skip over those two great stories. (I imagine these texts are omitted because they are included in Year A when Matthew 14:13-21 and 14:22-33 are read.)
Give It a Rest
In a Gospel which is so fast-paced and where so many things happen "immediately," it is a striking shift in verse 31 when Jesus tells the disciples to get away by themselves to rest. Unfortunately though, we find out that Jesus and the disciples never get their little vacation. (For Jesus, after presumably three years of ministry, he would have to die to get three days of rest in the tomb!)
It may be a small point, but we do see that the success of the disciples in their ministry is not measured simply by how much they accomplish. Having been out on their own, now they are called back to Jesus. It is the same with the Gospel. It's not a matter of how much we accomplish, but a matter of our relationship with the Lord.
Mark 6:34 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It reads, "As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd."
We've seen similar scenes in Mark. This time the large crowd impinges upon Jesus and the disciples' plan for a little rest, but still Jesus has compassion. (The Greek used here is splagchnizomai, a great word denoting sympathy, mercy, and loving concern.)
Why does Jesus have compassion on them? "Because "they were like sheep without a shepherd." That is such a poignant and powerful image, and I suspect many of us often feel like we are in that position.
In chapter 10 of the Gospel of John, this image will be elaborated with the reflection on what it means for Jesus to be the Good Shepherd. For John, it ties in with Jesus being the one who knows and is known by the sheep. Most importantly, the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
If that is the case, then what would it look like for Jesus to show compassion to these "shepherdless" sheep in Mark? You might be anticipating something like how Jesus healed their sick and took the children into his arms. But that's not what the text says here.
What does Jesus do? "And he began to teach them many things" (Mark 6:34).
The supreme shepherd leading His sheep.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- I know that many of you are involved in some wonderful activities, and also keeping the house or apartment in order. I imagine at the end of a week you would probably just like a little rest.
- In last week’s Gospel, we heard Jesus send his disciples to preach and to heal in his name. In today’s Gospel, we hear what happens when they return from this important work.
- What does Jesus want his disciples to do now that they have returned from their work? (He wants them to rest.) Do they succeed in finding time to rest? (No, the crowd continues to seek them out; Jesus is moved with pity and begins to teach the crowd.)
- In today’s Gospel, we learn that Jesus wanted his disciples to rest and relax after their work. Jesus also wants us to make time in our lives for rest and relaxation. Part of this time might be spent in prayer. Just as we need to set aside time for homework and to plan for other important activities in our week, we also need to plan for prayer.
- Think about your weekly schedules and identify a time this week when tyou will pray. Ask Jesus to help you make prayer a priority in your life. Say the Lord's Prayer.
Sunday July 15, 2018 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 104
THE READINGS ----------------------------
Reading 1 Am 7:12-15
Amaziah, priest of Bethel, said to Amos,
“Off with you, visionary, flee to the land of Judah!
There earn your bread by prophesying,
but never again prophesy in Bethel;
for it is the king’s sanctuary and a royal temple.”
Amos answered Amaziah, “I was no prophet,
nor have I belonged to a company of prophets;
I was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores.
The LORD took me from following the flock, and said to me,
Go, prophesy to my people Israel.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD —for he proclaims peace.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and prepare the way of his steps.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Reading 2 Eph 1:3-14 or 1:3-10
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without blemish before him.
In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ,
in accord with the favor of his will,
for the praise of the glory of his grace
that he granted us in the beloved.
In him we have redemption by his blood,
the forgiveness of transgressions,
in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.
In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us
the mystery of his will in accord with his favor
that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times,
to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.
In him we were also chosen,
destined in accord with the purpose of the One
who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will,
so that we might exist for the praise of his glory,
we who first hoped in Christ.
In him you also, who have heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him,
were sealed with the promised holy Spirit,
which is the first installment of our inheritance
toward redemption as God’s possession, to the praise of his glory.
Gospel Mk 6:7-13
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two
and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
He instructed them to take nothing for the journey
but a walking stick--
no food, no sack, no money in their belts.
They were, however, to wear sandals
but not a second tunic.
He said to them,
“Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave.
Whatever place does not welcome you or listen to you,
leave there and shake the dust off your feet
in testimony against them.”
So they went off and preached repentance.
The Twelve drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Am 7:12-15
There are two episodes in the prophetic career of Amos, set in the northern kingdom of Israel around 750 BCE.
Verses 7-9 recount a vision of doom for Israel that he received. Verses 10-17 describe his encounter with the priest Amaziah, which results in Amos’ being banned from the temple at Bethel. These originally separate episodes are connected by their similar announcements of judgment against King Jeroboam II of Israel (vv. 9, 11). Although their tone is largely negative, they are not completely without hope, and they offer contemporary readers an opportunity for critical self-reflection.
The vision
The phrase “vision” may bring to mind the elaborate, bizarre imagery associated with Ezekiel or Revelation. Many prophetic visions in the Bible, however, are simple object lessons. (Imagine a really ominous children’s moment!) The prophet sees a single object or scene, which is either self-explanatory or comes with a brief explanation.
Bethel was the site of an ancient religious shrine (see Genesis 28:18-19) that became the chief sanctuary of the kingdom of Israel (1 Kings 12:28-33). Amos had proclaimed that the worship-taking place there was meaningless because it was divorced from a concern for economic justice, especially for Israel’s oppressed agricultural laborers (Amos 5:21-24). He even warned of Bethel’s destruction (Amos 3:14, 5:5-6). Not surprisingly, these words attract the attention of Amaziah, a priest there. He perceives Amos as a threat not only to the temple at Bethel but to the stability of the nation, because the prophet had threatened the king. These fears were not groundless; prophetic activity had played a role in political uprisings in Israel before (see 1 Kings 11:29-39; 2 Kings 9:1-10). In response, Amaziah first sends a letter to King Jeroboam reporting Amos’ role in a possible conspiracy (Amos 7:10-11). This action would not have been unusual, as royal officials (including priests) frequently reported prophetic activity to rulers in the ancient Near East. Amaziah also forbids Amos from ever speaking at Bethel again. In the process, he makes it clear that Bethel is committed to the interests of the state: “it is the king’s sanctuary, and … a temple of the kingdom” (Amos 7:13 NRSV). He attempts to discredit Amos in v. 12 by dismissing him as an outsider and implying that he only prophesies for income. (Although he prophesied in Israel, Amos was a citizen of the neighboring kingdom of Judah.)
Ironically, Amos defends his prophetic activity by denying that he is a professional prophet. The phrase “prophet’s son” in v. 14 doesn’t necessarily refer to biological descent from a prophet, but rather to membership in a prophetic guild. Candidates for public office use similar rhetoric when they claim not to be career politicians or members of “the establishment.” He warns that neither Amaziah nor his family will escape the coming disaster that God has decreed for Israel (vv. 16-17). The story ends there, without revealing what happened to either Amaziah or Amos. King Jeroboam himself died peacefully, but his son was assassinated, triggering several decades of political instability for Israel (2 Kings 15:8-31). The kingdom was eventually conquered by the Assyrians in 722 BCE, and many of its citizens were exiled. The original audience of Amos 7, which was written after the time of the historical prophet, would have likely made these retrospective connections.
It’s easy to cast Amaziah as the villain in this story, but closer examination reveals a more sympathetic character. No doubt he sincerely believed he was doing God’s will by supporting the ruling powers. As current trends lead many to despair about the future of the church in America, one can even admire his commitment to the security of the institution he served. Faithful leadership frequently requires Amaziah’s brand of pragmatism. And yet his investment in the status quo ultimately led him to oppose God’s transformative work in the world. This unfortunate example should force us to examine our own individual and communal commitments. Whose interests do we promote? Does working with political and economic institutions -- which no doubt accomplish much good -- give our tacit approval to their unjust actions or policies? Can we simultaneously benefit from and speak out against structures that promote violence, enshrine economic oppression, and dehumanize persons of color, women, and sexual minorities? These are complex questions, and the answers may look very different in different contexts. This story invites us to self-reflection and criticism, lest we too sacrifice our witness to secure our survival.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9-10, 11-12, 13-14
Reflecting on Psalm 85:8-13 without the first verses is akin to a liturgy that omits the call and prayer of confession, moving instead straight to the assurance of pardon.
The words are applicable alone, yet are designed as part of a whole. The psalm is a communal prayer for help and can be divided into three sections or stanzas, verses 1-3, 4-7, and 8-13. Verses 1-3 serve as a reminder of God's forgiving acts in the past, followed by pleas by the people for God's forgiveness in the present, ending with a section expressing hope for restored relationship between the people and God.
Verses 1-3 function as the call to confession reminding the people and God of God's past saving acts. God's active grace is clear in the verbs used "favor," "return," "lift," and "cover." These acts are God's alone given to an undeserving people (verse 3). The people have angered God repeatedly and in response God has relented and turned back all anger.
The second section, verses 4-7, is a cry to God for restoration now. The sinful acts of the people are not named specifically, allowing for use of this psalm in many times and places. Yet, the sins are clearly present as the people ask God if God will be angry forever (verse 5).
Many scholars see this psalm in light of the exile and this as a prayer for restoration after the exile was over. This is a possible context, but certainly not the only situation to which this prayer can apply. The pleas in this stanza are universal and, as we all know, from Genesis 3 forward, the story is a long one of sin and redemption. Over and over, the people found ways to turn from God either out of fear, lack of faith, greed, or in a search for other gods. These verses are then not about one event, but they reflect all of the times that God has restored "the fortunes" of Jacob. "Fortunes" is best understood not in terms of monetary gain, but as a restoration of the community to full communion with God.
A new voice enters at verse 8. The voice could be a prophet or a worship leader. Ultimately, it is not the person speaking the words that matter, but the message being delivered. The imperative form of the last section, give way here to the cohortative, meaning a wish for the future. The wish is a view of the world ordered by God's kingdom.
A warning within a wish for the future is not uncommon (Psalm 95:8-10). The warning serves as a reminder that the people and God have been in this place before, and the people will probably put them there again. The response to God's great forgiveness should be more than words, it involves a change in behavior. It involves remembering the warning.
The remainder of the psalm gives us a glimpse of God's kingdom. The image is of a world transformed by God's forgiveness. What if for just one Sunday, we could see and believe the power of God's forgiveness? Could we imagine the world as it should be when God sets it back in place? What if as we hear the words of assurance, the heavens open and we see the glory of God? Would we listen to the warning and change our world?
To announce God's grace and restoration is to call a new beginning into the world. Psalm 85 celebrates God's grace and offers all of us a glimpse of God's kingdom.
Reading 2 Eph 1:3-14
The Second Lesson for this Sunday is the first in a series of readings from the Letter to the Ephesians extending over seven Sundays.
Of the total verses in Ephesians (155), nearly half (75 of them) will be read during these seven Sundays.
The lesson for this Sunday begins with a lofty doxological statement concerning God the Father (1:3-6). Next, we have a brief characterization of Jesus as the one in whom we have redemption (1:7). In 1:8-10, the author again speaks about God and of what God has done in Christ. Finally, in 1:11-14 the focus is once more upon Christ.
But even in these verses there is no clear-cut division. For example, within 1:11-14, primarily on Christ, there is a clear reference to God the Father in the long phrase at 1:11b: "the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will."
The passage is filled with assertions about God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. In its "God statements," it sets forth an image of God as one who:
- has chosen believers
- has destined them for adoption as his children
- continues to bless them
- showers his grace upon them
In its "Christ statements," the passage portrays Jesus as one whose death is redemptive -- in this case explicitly meaning the forgiveness of sins -- and whose coming into the world is revelatory; he has made known "the mystery" of God's will. In him we have gained an "inheritance" and have "the word of truth," which is "the gospel of [our] salvation."
Christ is therefore both the Redeemer and the Revealer. Of course, these are the two main functions of Christ throughout the New Testament.
Concerning the Spirit, it is the "promised" Spirit. Whether the author knows of the promise of the Spirit in the Gospel of John (John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7) or simply from the promise in Joel 2:28-29, one cannot tell. In any case, the view that the Spirit would be poured out and distributed among believers in the early days of the Christian church was widely held. Both Acts and the letters of the apostle Paul testify to it (Acts 2:1-36; Romans 5:5; 8:13-16; 1 Corinthians 12:3-11, etc.).
The experience of the Spirit is a "pledge" or "down payment" for the final and ultimate redemption that is to follow. Here is a case of the "already/not yet" dynamic that one finds in the New Testament. The gift of the Spirit is the "already" of the new age of redemption, but it is only a pledge of more to come, the "not yet."
What is written about the Spirit in 1:13b-14 is similar to what Paul himself had written. He said that God has anointed us "by putting his seal on us and giving us his Spirit in our hearts as a first installment (2 Corinthians 1:22).
Gospel Mk 6:7-13
This week’s Gospel and the one for next week describe how Jesus sent the disciples to minister in his name and the disciples’ return to Jesus afterward. These two passages, however, are not presented together in Mark’s Gospel. Inserted between the two is the report of Herod’s fears that Jesus is John the Baptist back from the dead. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ ministry is presented in connection with the teaching of John the Baptist. Jesus’ public ministry begins after John is arrested. John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus, who preached the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God.
While we do not read these details about John the Baptist in our Gospel this week or next week, our Lectionary sequence stays consistent with Mark’s theme. Recall that last week we heard how Jesus was rejected in his hometown of Nazareth. The insertion of the reminder about John the Baptist’s ministry and his death at the hands of Herod in Mark’s Gospel makes a similar point. Mark reminds his readers about this dangerous context for Jesus’ ministry and that of his disciples. Preaching repentance and the Kingdom of God is dangerous business for Jesus and for his disciples. Mark wants his readers to remember that we, too, may find resistance as we choose to be disciples of Jesus.
Mark’s Gospel tells us that Jesus sent out the Twelve. These twelve were selected from among Jesus’ disciples and named by Mark in chapter 3. Mark notes that these twelve are also called “apostles.” The word apostle means “one who is sent.” The number twelve is also a symbolic number, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. By naming twelve apostles, Jesus shows his mission to be in continuity with the mission of God’s people, Israel.
Jesus’ instructions to the apostles are very specific. He repeats the mission that they are sent to preach and to share his authority to heal and to drive out demons. Jesus sends them in pairs, establishing his mission as a communal endeavor. Jesus also instructs them to travel lightly, without the customary food, money, and extra set of clothes. These instructions mean that the Twelve will be dependent on the hospitality of others, just as Jesus depended on others to provide for his needs.
Jesus continues to send us into the world as his disciples. But like the first disciples, we are not sent alone. Jesus has given us the community of the Church, which strengthens our life of discipleship. The Christian message can only authentically be proclaimed in and through the community of faith that is the Church. In our work with others, we build this community of faith and can invite others to share in it.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about preparing for an overnight trip what will you need to pack. Try to take just essential items.
- If you were to stay at a hotel, what items would you expect to find provided in your room? (for example, soap, shampoo, conditioner) Observe that travelers expect to find these essential items provided as part of the hospitality offered when they stay at a hotel.
- In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus gives authority to the Twelve and sends them out, giving specific instructions about what they are to bring for their journey.
- What instructions did Jesus give to the Twelve when he sent them out? (He told them to take a walking stick and to wear sandals, but not to bring food or money or a second tunic. He told them to travel in pairs. He told them to stay in one house until they were ready to leave from that place.) Observe that, like travelers today, the Twelve would depend on the hospitality of others to provide for their needs.
- What were the Twelve able to do when Jesus sent them out? (They preached repentance, drove out demons, and cured many who were sick.) Observe that the Twelve were also dependent on Jesus, who gave them authority over unclean spirits.
- Jesus also calls us to share in his mission and sends us out to serve others. We depend on Jesus and the community of the Church that he gives us in our journey as disciples.
- Thank God for providing everything we need to serve others in Jesus’ name. Pray the Our Father.
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Sunday July 8, 2018 Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 101
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 2:2-5
As the LORD spoke to me, the spirit entered into me
and set me on my feet,
and I heard the one who was speaking say to me:
Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites,
rebels who have rebelled against me;
they and their ancestors have revolted against me to this very day.
Hard of face and obstinate of heart
are they to whom I am sending you.
But you shall say to them: Thus says the LORD GOD!
And whether they heed or resist—for they are a rebellious house--
they shall know that a prophet has been among them.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 123:1-2, 2, 3-4
R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.
To you I lift up my eyes
who are enthroned in heaven --
As the eyes of servants
are on the hands of their masters.
R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.
As the eyes of a maid
are on the hands of her mistress,
So are our eyes on the LORD, our God,
till he have pity on us.
Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.
Have pity on us, O LORD, have pity on us,
for we are more than sated with contempt;
our souls are more than sated
with the mockery of the arrogant,
with the contempt of the proud.
R. Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.
Reading 2 2 Cor 12:7-10
Brothers and sisters:
That I, Paul, might not become too elated,
because of the abundance of the revelations,
a thorn in the flesh was given to me, an angel of Satan,
to beat me, to keep me from being too elated.
Three times I begged the Lord about this, that it might leave me,
but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you,
for power is made perfect in weakness.”
I will rather boast most gladly of my weaknesses,
in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.
Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and constraints,
for the sake of Christ;
for when I am weak, then I am strong.
Gospel Mk 6:1-6
Jesus departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples.
When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many who heard him were astonished.
They said, “Where did this man get all this?
What kind of wisdom has been given him?
What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands!
Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary,
and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?”
And they took offense at him.
Jesus said to them,
“A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house.”
So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there,
apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them.
He was amazed at their lack of faith.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 2:2-5
Stubborn. Impudent. Rebellious.
These are the adjectives God uses in this address to the prophet to describe the people of ancient Israel. The descriptors certainly do not cast Ezekiel’s audience in the best light. The labels neither tell the whole story of Israel’s behavior nor provide the ethical scope for a proper theological anthropology.
It’s a one-sided characterization.
First, the adjectives remind us of that side of humanity that finds it difficult to respond obediently to God’s call. This may not be the easiest notion to preach, but we are capable of stubbornness. The prophets did not wait until Lent to remind people of this capacity.
For Ezekiel’s context, words such as “stubborn” are particularly poignant given their occurrence within his call or commissioning near the beginning of this biblical book. Our lesson today from Ezekiel 2 comes immediately after the well-known chariot vision of Ezekiel in which the prophet sees “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” (Ezekiel 1:28). Ezekiel has experienced an overwhelming divine vision and now hears a divine voice. If he is not already engulfed in the immensity of his prophetic call, our passage promises to create such a feeling. His call shall not involve preaching to a receptive audience ready for introspection and change. The prophet is called instead to a house of rebellion, a phrase unique to this biblical book.
This rather pessimistic attitude toward ancient Israel is also a result of the exilic context of the book of Ezekiel. If God is not to blame for the exile (and Ezekiel surely affirms that theological notion), then the people must be to blame. This point, of course, highlights the danger of such name-calling. While it is true that we like ancient Israel can be a stubborn people at times, it is simply not true that many events -- especially international events like the fall of nation-states, are the result of our rebellion. When attempting to make sense of their exilic situation, some prophets tended to emphasize Israel’s direct role in their demise, while ignoring the more likely political factors at play. We must be careful when speaking of rebellious houses to not misplace blame and shame. When bad things happen, it can be tempting to resort to blaming the victim.
Second, the call of God through the prophet implies that the people can respond. Although they are rebellious, they are not without hope. God holds out hope that the people will hear and respond. This implication is actually not emphasized much in this small passage from Ezekiel. Additionally, if you continuing reading into Ezekiel 3, you will find more name-calling (“the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart”) and little signal that God thinks Ezekiel’s prophecies will result in changed hearts.
Yet, the prophetic call for change still goes forth. And this prophetic message is written down and preserved. It is read and reread through the years and centuries until this very Sunday in Pentecost. The prophetic call goes forth not because there is no chance of a response. The call comes to us because we can and do respond.
Third, this passage from Ezekiel 2 connects to the Gospel reading for today, Mark 6:1-6. In the lesson from Mark, Jesus teaches in his hometown synagogue and receives a less than positive reception. In response to this rejection, he quotes a proverb: “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place
and among his own kin and in his own house”
The two readings share the idea that a prophetic voice is not always heard. Jesus identifies himself as a prophet -- standing in continuity with ancient Israel’s prophetic tradition -- who, like those earlier prophets, does not find everywhere a receptive audience. There is risk inherent in speaking for and about God. Prophets take this risk. Some will hear and respond to the call; others will be more stubborn.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 123:1-2, 2, 3-4
Psalm 123 is the fourth psalm in the collection of psalms held together by the common designation “of Ascents” in their titles (Psalms 120-134).
These psalms were probably collected for use during pilgrimage to Jerusalem or to promote such pilgrimage. The term “ascents” comes from a Hebrew root meaning “to go up.” This word appears in the last line of the Chronicler’s history as part of the report that Cyrus of Persia, having conquered the Babylonians, would allow the exiled people of Judah to return to their homeland and to worship God in the soon-to-be-rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. The word to the exiles concerning anyone who would return to Jerusalem was, “Let him go up” (2 Chronicles 36:23). Thus, “ascents” in the title of Psalm 123 denotes ascent to Jerusalem and/or to the temple on Mount Zion.
The psalm has elements of the prayers for help known elsewhere in the Psalter (e.g. Psalm 13): complaint of trouble and petition for salvation (verses 3-4) and expression of trust (verses 1-2). These features most often appear in reverse order, with complaint and petition first, followed by a statement of trust, though the present order occurs in some other psalms such as Psalm 40. The two parts of Psalm 123 hold together well, with the statement of trust and confidence serving as the foundation for the complaint and petition. For example, references to mercy in verses 2 and 3 connect the two segments of the psalm. The petition for mercy in verse 3 is related to the recognition that it is God’s nature to give it.
The psalm opens with an individual speaking (“I lift up;” v. 1). In verse 2 the voice becomes plural (“our eyes look to the Lord”) and the community voice pervades the remainder of the psalm. This shift from first-person singular to first-person plural speech probably reflects the situation of worship in which an individual spoke on behalf of the worshippers gathered (see similarly-cast prayers in Psalms 129 and 131).
Psalm 123 begins with the declaration, “To you I lift my eyes” (Psalm 123:1), which is similar to the opening of Psalm 121 (“I lift up my eyes to the hills”) and may in fact be an adaptation of Psalm 121:1. “Lifting the eyes” is an expression of anxiety and helplessness.1 In Psalm 121 the psalmist lifts eyes to the hills in search of security and protection. The psalm suggests this is found in God’s presence as experienced in the Jerusalem temple. In Psalm 123:1, however, the eyes are not lifted to God’s dwelling place in the Jerusalem temple, but to God’s heavenly abode (“enthroned in heaven”). Though the psalm appears in a collection meant for pilgrimage to Jerusalem, it identifies God first and foremost as the one who dwells in the heavens. The worshippers who prayed this prayer lived in the period after the Babylonian exile. They had experienced the vulnerability of the temple in Jerusalem when they saw it destroyed and, as a result, they placed their trust in and conceived God primarily as the one who was enthroned in the temple that could not be destroyed by an enemy.
Verse 2 contains a double simile that expounds on the opening declaration. The worshipping community “lifts its eyes” as servants look to a master (v. 2a) or as female slaves look to their mistress (v. 2b). The images connote vulnerability, dependence, and obedience. But here the notion of the “master” is transformed. The psalmist who calls on the Lord as master knows no dread or fear, only mercy. This master is one exclusively sought out for salvation: “our eyes look to the Lord our God, until he has mercy on us” (v. 2).
The psalmist seeks mercy in the form of relief from the contempt and oppression of the enemy. The notion of being held in contempt by an enemy is a common theme in the Psalter. For example, the reference to being scorned by the proud suggests a situation akin to the psalmist’s description of enemies sarcastically asking “Where is your God?” in Psalm 42:3. The language here is particularly close to that in other passages that distinguish humankind as rich and poor, righteous and wicked. Those who are speaking scornfully are “at ease” (v. 4) and are identified thus as rich and wicked. Although the psalm does not identify the enemies further, this language appears in Amos 6 in reference to those who enjoy economic privilege and oppress the poor. Both Amos and the psalmist identify the poor as righteous (Amos 2:6; Psalm 34:4-10, 19-22). The division does not suggest that material wealth itself is a mark of wickedness or that lack of it is a sign of righteousness. Rather, the language is used this way to highlight the typical attitude of dependence and humility of the poor and the common lack thereof by the rich.
Reading 2 2 Cor 12:7-10
What gives us the courage to do the right thing -- to act on what our conscience calls us to do -- when we know that we often will not be rewarded for it in this life?
Can we boldly defend the common good in the face of powerful detractors concerned solely with their own interests and agendas? And when we do speak the truth about what needs to be done in specific circumstances, can we do so with the love and forgiveness needed to bring about the justice we are calling for? These are some of the larger questions Paul grapples with in 2 Corinthians that provide a context for interpreting this passage.
The logic of double-negation
In 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, Paul asserts that we can be confident in all circumstances, whether we are “at home” or “away” from either “the body” or “the Lord.” This theme resonates with his refrains in Philippians that “living is Christ and dying is gain” (Philippians 1:21) and that in any and all circumstances -- whether in plenty or in need -- we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:12-13).
There is a logic of double-negation at work in these verses that runs throughout Paul’s letters. This logic brings to the fore the point that God’s “yes” -- God’s promise, which we receive in Jesus through the Spirit -- is far greater than all our human distinctions and circumstances (2 Corinthians 1:18-22). In Galatians, for example, Paul states that through the Spirit we eagerly await the “hope of righteousness” because “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything”; all that counts is “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:5-6). In 1 Corinthians, he makes clear that the foolishness and weakness of the cross of Christ embodies the fact that God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).
As depicted in the great hymn of Romans 8, Paul’s point with these negations is to affirm that nothing -- neither death nor life; not angels, rulers, or powers; not height or depth, nor anything else in all creation -- can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39). The love of God encompasses everything in reality. Grounded in God’s love through Christ’s grace and the Holy Spirit’s communion, we can be what we have been called to be: an open statement of truth, commending ourselves with confidence to everyone’s conscience before God, regardless of our circumstances (2 Corinthians 4:2; 13:13).
Being at home or away from the body
Is Paul not introducing yet another dualism -- another distinction -- with his talk about being “at home” or “away” from “the body” or “the Lord”? We can gain some insight on this question by taking a look at his “fool’s speech” regarding the “super-apostles” who have defamed him and abused the Corinthians with their deceptive misuse of spiritual power.
In that speech Paul refers to “visions and revelations” he experienced fourteen years prior, saying that he does not know whether they were “in the body or out of the body” (2 Corinthians 12:1-7). Paul himself has had such visions and revelations, which may indeed have been “out of the body” experiences. In these kinds of experiences we may have a powerful sense of union with God or sense of being “at home” with the Lord. Yet Paul is very clear: those experiences are no more sacred -- no more weighted with authority -- than others.
Why? Because the only power and authority we can ultimately rely on is the sufficiency of God’s grace. Through that grace, power is “made perfect (teleitai, better translated as “reaches full maturity”) in weakness.” Indeed, our ultimate criterion is the weakness of Jesus’ suffering body undergoing all of our vicissitudes, even to the point of death on a cross (2 Corinthians 12:8; cf. Philipians 2:8).
Walking by faith not sight
In fact, all that we do in our bodies will be manifest (phanerothenai) before “the judgment seat of Christ” -- the eschatological place and time where and when Christ will judge all the living and the dead (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 2:16, 14:9-10). This reference to Christ’s “judgment seat” is not a threat but a promise. Although we live in a world where technical savvy, wealth, and power seem continually to trump God’s steadfast love, justice, and righteousness, we can be confident that the latter -- described as God’s mercies and consolation in 2 Corinthians -- will prevail in the end (2 Corinthians 1:3; cf. Jeremiah 9:23-24).
Wherever we are, we are accountable to God -- and thus also to one another -- for what we do in our bodies, whether good or evil. And God’s grace is sufficient to give us the power to please God in all circumstances.
So being in “ecstasy” (eksestemen, taken out of ourselves) before God does not immune us from being accountable for what we do with our bodies (2 Corinthians 5:13). Rather, knowing the fear of the Lord -- that we are ultimately accountable to God and not to any other power -- frees us to speak to speak the truth and to persuade others to do the same. Well known to God, we can confidently make ourselves known to others, even as we persuade them to reciprocate by living in the same confidence and sincerity (2 Corinthians 5:11-13).
Grounded in God’s love, we can speak truth to one another -- we can risk sincerity -- even when we disagree or might be wrong. God is reconciling the entire world through Christ, in spite of anything we or others have done (2 Corinthians 5:19): God’s promises are always a “yes.” Rooted in that “yes,” our lives can be an open statement of truth -- regardless of where we find ourselves (2 Corinthians 1:20-22).
Gospel Mk 6:1-6
This is one of those instances where the lectionary disturbs the narrative flow of Mark's gospel.
Verses 1-6 of chapter 6 are really a self-contained unit, but who wants to end on that challenging verse 6? So we get verses 7-13 related to the sending of the disciples. We don't hear the rest of this story, however, until two weeks later in the lectionary when the return of the disciples is narrated in Mark 6:30.
So let’s just stick with the lectionary and deal with verses 1-6.
The reason why the people of Nazareth reject Jesus in Mark 6:1-6 has never been entirely clear to me. I am more familiar with instances where a small town celebrates, even exaggerates, the success stories of locals who have made it big.
The text suggests an initial positive reception, but somewhere in verses 2-3 everything changes. Why might this be?
- Did they wonder if Jesus was 'crazy smart,' and then decide that he was just crazy? Earlier in Mark 3:21, Jesus' own family had come to get him because they thought he had "gone out of his mind."
- In Mark 6:2, the people asked, "Where did this man get all this?" Did they decide, like the scribes had in Mark 3:22, that he got it all from a demonic source? (This makes for a nice connection with the earlier, similar synagogue scene in Mark 1:21-27 where the question about Jesus' authority was first raised.)
- In a social system where status was understood as fixed (i.e., your status at birth defined who you would always be) and honor/shame considerations were important, did they simply regard it as impossible for Jesus to amount to anything? The people of Nazareth indicate this negative perception when they identify Jesus as a "carpenter" (i.e., a low-status manual laborer) and as the "son of Mary" (i.e., hinting at a questionable fatherhood).
The identity of Jesus is a consistent issue in Mark. In the gospel, we hear the opinions of rulers, religious authorities, crowds, disciples, and family members. For the author of Mark, the important question keeps coming around to "who do you -- the reader -- say that Jesus is?" And if you do honor Jesus as a prophet (or more than a prophet), who does that make you? Does it mean new allegiances that supersede traditional country and family values? As you answer those questions, Mark is leading you into a confession of faith.
But what about Jesus' inability to perform miracles? Apparently it caused Jesus to wonder too! A couple things to note:
- The problem is not a matter of whether they have enough faith but that they have no faith.
- Elsewhere in Mark, a person's faith is not necessarily tied to the success of a miracle. Sometimes faith is not mentioned at all. Sometimes the faith of the restored one's friends or family is noted, or, as in Mark 9:24. Sometimes it's a matter of "I believe; help my unbelief!"
Would you agree that we are living in a world that is more and more characterized by unbelief?
If so, doesn't it feel as if we are living in a Nazareth-world -- a culture that is, at best, disinterested in Jesus?
If so, isn't it utter folly to think we can change anything by preaching Christ?
In fact, isn't any Christian whose life has been transformed by Christ living defenseless in a world where security and status are calculated commodities?
We do have one thing, we have experienced the faithfulness of God in Jesus crucified and risen. So, we may marvel at the unbelief around us, but still we go forth, proclaiming and practicing our faith in Christ.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about and describe the meaning of the phrase “Act your age”’ Think about situations in which this phrase might be spoken. Think about expectations that people have regarding the behavior of others.
- An you recall a time when a parent, teacher, or friend seemed surprised by an action of someone that showed their maturity (for example, demonstrating a new ability, accepting a new responsibility, or showing independence). Why do you think these actions were a surprise to others? As young people grow to maturity, they experience adjustments in their relationships with others as expectations change.
- In this Sunday’s Gospel, we hear about how Jesus was received when he taught in the synagogue in his hometown.
- How do the people respond to Jesus’ teaching? (Some are astonished. Some wonder that he is the same person whom they thought they knew. Some took offense at him.) How might you explain this response to Jesus and his teaching? What do some of the people of Nazareth know about Jesus? (They know that Jesus is a carpenter, and they know his family.)
- Because they do not recognize that Jesus is the Son of God, the people of Nazareth are surprised by Jesus’ teaching, and his actions among them are limited. Jesus is amazed at their lack of faith. As Christians, we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, and this faith has the power to change all our relationships.
- How does faith in Jesus as the Son of God transform our relationship with God and with one another? (For example: Jesus saves us from sin and restores our relationship with God. In Christ, we are children of God and brothers and sisters to one another.)
- Ask God to give us faith to know Jesus truly, the Son of God who saves us from sin. Pray the Act of Faith.
O my God, I firmly believe that you are one God in three divine persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe that your divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy catholic Church teaches, because in revealing them you can neither deceive nor be deceived.
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Sunday July 1, 2018 Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 98
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24
God did not make death,
nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.
For he fashioned all things that they might have being;
and the creatures of the world are wholesome,
and there is not a destructive drug among them
nor any domain of the netherworld on earth,
for justice is undying.
For God formed man to be imperishable;
the image of his own nature he made him.
But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world,
and they who belong to his company experience it.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13
R. (2a) I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear
and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the netherworld;
you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.
I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;
a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Hear, O LORD, and have pity on me;
O LORD, be my helper.
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O LORD, my God, forever will I give you thanks.
R. I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
Reading 2 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15
Brothers and sisters:
As you excel in every respect, in faith, discourse,
knowledge, all earnestness, and in the love we have for you,
may you excel in this gracious act also.
For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.
Not that others should have relief while you are burdened,
but that as a matter of equality
your abundance at the present time should supply their needs,
so that their abundance may also supply your needs,
that there may be equality.
As it is written:
Whoever had much did not have more,
and whoever had little did not have less.
Gospel Mk 5:21-43
When Jesus had crossed again in the boat
to the other side,
a large crowd gathered around him, and he stayed close to the sea.
One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying,
"My daughter is at the point of death.
Please, come lay your hands on her
that she may get well and live."
He went off with him,
and a large crowd followed him and pressed upon him.
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.
She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors
and had spent all that she had.
Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.
She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd
and touched his cloak.
She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured."
Immediately her flow of blood dried up.
She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him,
turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?"
But his disciples said to Jesus,
"You see how the crowd is pressing upon you,
and yet you ask, 'Who touched me?'"
And he looked around to see who had done it.
The woman, realizing what had happened to her,
approached in fear and trembling.
She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth.
He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."
While he was still speaking,
people from the synagogue official's house arrived and said,
"Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?"
Disregarding the message that was reported,
Jesus said to the synagogue official,
"Do not be afraid; just have faith."
He did not allow anyone to accompany him inside
except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James.
When they arrived at the house of the synagogue official,
he caught sight of a commotion,
people weeping and wailing loudly.
So he went in and said to them,
"Why this commotion and weeping?
The child is not dead but asleep."
And they ridiculed him.
Then he put them all out.
He took along the child's father and mother
and those who were with him
and entered the room where the child was.
He took the child by the hand and said to her, "Talitha koum,"
which means, "Little girl, I say to you, arise!"
The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.
At that they were utterly astounded.
He gave strict orders that no one should know this
and said that she should be given something to eat.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 1:13-15; 2:23-24
Recently I’ve spent more time than usual thinking about death. The main reason is that my wife and my son-in-law’s parents succumbed to cancer. It seems like one moment they were fine and moving about and living a fine retirement life and the next they totally bed ridden. My wife had prayed for years that “If this disease will strike anybody that I love,”please take it out of their body and put it in mine. Sacrificial love is the best response to death.
God, wrote the author of the Book of Wisdom, “did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living” (Wis 1:13). He is a God of life, and “he fashioned all things that they might have being” (Wis 1:14). And yet, God became man, knowing that he would suffer and die.
The Gospels, as we see in today’s reading, are full of encounters between the God-man Jesus Christ and death. In bringing the daughter of Jairus back from death, Jesus demonstrated several things: his supernatural power, his compassionate love and the orientation of his perfect and selfless will. The evangelist Mark recounts three statements made by Jesus as he was healing the young girl. The first remark was spoken to the father: “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” The second was made to the grief-stricken crowd: “Why this commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but asleep.” And, finally, he said to the daughter: “Little girl, I say to you, arise!” (Mk 5:36-41)
Those statements provide a marvelous catechesis of the divine response to death. First, we are not to fear death, but to have faith since death has been conquered by Christ’s suffering, death and resurrection. Second, by faith we are able to know that there is real, lasting hope beyond death, and that those who fall asleep in Christ are not dead but fully alive.
Third, we know that at the final judgment, God will reunite the righteous with their bodies: “For that which is corruptible must clothe itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with immortality” (1 Cor 15:53). God did not make death — it is the result of man’s sin — but he has given us a supernatural response to it.
Essential to that response is the “formula of exchange,” or admirabile commercium, which states that the eternal Son of God became what we are so that we could become what he is. This takes on various forms in Tradition, including that found in today’s epistle: “For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).
The riches of the Son, as many of the early Church Fathers pointed out, are located in his divinity, and so the riches given to us through the Son include sharing in that divinity. The blessing of eternal life in Christ, is the only true and lasting answer to death.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 30:2, 4, 5-6, 11, 12, 13
The two dominant kinds of psalms are laments and psalms of praise, reflecting the lows and highs of life. Most of the psalms in the first part of the book are laments, but these prayers usually end on a hopeful note. That hope is sometimes expressed as a promise or vow of praise.
Psalm 30 is a fine example of a text that fulfills such a vow. It is a classic psalm of thanksgiving where the speaker declares or narrates to the congregation what God has done to deliver him/her from crisis. The Hebrew term for this kind of psalm is todah, a song that confesses how God has acted to deliver. In poetic form, the psalm tells a story of thanksgiving; it narrates the divine action of deliverance that has brought forth praise.
The structure of Psalm 30 tells the story:
- Verses 1-5 state the intention to give praise and thanksgiving to God.
- Verses 6-11 tell the story of the crisis (verses 6-7), the prayer (verses 8-10), and the deliverance (verse 11).
- Verse 12 renews the promise of thanksgiving.
Most likely, the crisis lying behind the psalm is one of sickness (verse 2). Consequently, worshipers in ancient Israel may have used this psalm in services offering prayers of thanksgiving for healing.
The opening of the psalm declares praise and thanksgiving for God's rescue from the crisis at hand and from opponents who had made the crisis more difficult. The psalmist lifts up God just as God has lifted up the psalmist.
- You have drawn me up
- You have healed me
- You brought me up
- You restored me
God has delivered the psalmist from the power of death and Sheol.
Beginning in verse 4, the speaker addresses the congregation, the "faithful ones." They are called to join in the thanksgiving to God. Verse 5 uses powerful poetic imagery to articulate the reason the congregation should give thanks: God's anger and the resulting weeping are but a moment in the context of a life of joy and hope.
Another way to put this is that God's 'no' to the faith community always comes in the context of God's 'yes.' Night and day become symbols of God's anger and favor. The striking reversal witnessed in verse 5 is characteristic of the poetic power of this psalm; other reversals are in verses 2, 7, and 11.
Verses 6-11
The body of the psalm tells the story of the crisis, the prayer, and the deliverance. All was well in the life of this person. Perhaps he or she had come to trust in human achievement rather than in God. Suddenly prosperity faltered and he/she cried out to God for help and mercy. The pleas are in verses 8 and 10.
The petitioner's questions in verse 9 are part of this persuasive prayer to convince God to answer mercifully. Behind the questions lie the petitioner's hopes to live and praise God, a life that is only possible with deliverance from death. In such praise, the speaker will bear witness to God's involvement in the world and narrate the good news of God's deliverance.
We again find powerful poetic imagery in verse 11 to describe the rescue. Grief changes to dancing and the customary sackcloth attire for grieving is turned in for joy. The thanksgiving is for God's deliverance from the crisis and for a new perspective on life centered upon gratitude.
Verse 12
The psalm concludes with a renewed promise of praise and thanksgiving to God throughout life. With the new perspective of gratitude, the psalmist's main vocation for life is the praise of God. Renewed life is a gift from God best enjoyed in thanksgiving.
Psalm 30 narrates a story that envisions God as present in joy and in trouble, that is, in all of life. The psalm proclaims a gospel of divine involvement in the world in all of life. It is a daring act of faith to see God in all the parts of life, and our psalm with powerful poetry helps us to imagine such a reality. The psalmist strongly holds to God's providence in the midst of a crisis of life and death, and God did not leave the psalmist alone but came to deliver her/him from the crisis.
Psalm 30 is a poetic testimony. Giving testimony or bearing witness is an old tradition in Christian communities. Such words powerfully seek to draw listeners into the experience of thanksgiving so that God's providence is not limited to the speaker, but becomes part of the life of the congregation. The poetry of Psalm 30 thus becomes a compelling way to express faith in terms of prayer and thanksgiving.
Life as praise or thanksgiving would be an appropriate response to the psalm. The goal of the divine deliverance narrated in the psalm reaches beyond the rescue itself to the response of gratitude as a completion of the prayer.
Reading 2 2 Cor 8:7, 9, 13-15
This passage fits in a larger section of 2 Corinthians (8:1-9:15) that is chiefly concerned with Paul's collection for the Jerusalem church. In Galatians 2:10, Paul indicates that concern for the poor has been a part of his ministry from the beginning. According to Romans 15, Paul views the collection as a service to the poor among the saints in the Jerusalem church (Romans 15:25-26).
Paul's collection for the Jerusalem church is a massive undertaking. Paul only mentions the contribution of the Macedonian churches in our present passage (2 Corinthians 8:1 and 9:2, 4). His previous letter indicates that he intended the churches of Galatia to participate as well (1 Corinthians 16:1).
The instructions in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 imply that the church has raised questions about how to collect their contribution. Paul's directions in that letter suggest that the Corinthians are eager to participate. The apostle appeals to this zeal in 2 Corinthians 8:10-11 and encourages them to finish what they started a year ago. Ultimately, it seems that the Corinthians made some contribution because Paul acknowledges in Romans 15:25-26 that he will deliver to Jerusalem the collection from Macedonia and Achaia (where Corinth is located).
Before Paul reminds the Corinthians of their commitment to the collection, he boasts that the Macedonian churches have given generously (2 Corinthians 8:1-5). In fact, Paul uses language that characterizes their action in a superlative fashion. The Macedonian believers have undergone a severe test of affliction, yet their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity (8:2).
According to Paul, these saints, though suffering themselves, begged to give to this collection for the poor. If the Macedonians, who have suffered terrible affliction, have given so great a gift, then the Corinthians can surely give as generously.
In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul gets more mileage out of the Macedonian success story by shaming the Corinthian church into acting. Perhaps the apostle is anticipating that some in the Corinthian church might now be opposed to contributing to this collection. After all, the relationship between Paul and this community has recently shown signs of strain (2 Corinthians 2:2-4; 7:1-13). Paul worries that the Corinthians will be humiliated, if some from the Macedonian church come to Corinth with Paul, and the collection is not ready. He reminds the church again that they have promised to participate and that the collection should be a willing gift (2 Corinthians 9:5).
Before he resorts to shaming them directly, he reminds the believers that their actions to support the Jerusalem poor demonstrate the earnestness of their faith (2 Corinthians 8:8). Paul reframes the whole collection as the gospel enacted. In 2 Corinthians 8:9, Paul retells the good news through the lens of generosity. Christ gave up extraordinary riches so that others might receive the abundant wealth of God's grace.
Indeed, there is plenty of evidence that Paul thought of the collection as more than an act that remembered the poor. There were surely poor people in the churches of Macedonia, Galatia, and Achaia. Though Paul seems devoted to remembering the poor -- especially those in Jerusalem (Galatians 2:10), this collection is more than an offering.
In Romans 15, Paul gives further rationale for why he would encourage all the Gentile believers to help the Jerusalem church. According to Romans 15:27, Paul believes that the Gentile saints are in debt to the Jews: "for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings."
According to Paul, it is through Israel, and particularly through the majority of Israel's trespass of not recognizing God's work through Jesus, that salvation has come to the Gentiles (Romans 11:7-12). The Gentiles are, therefore, indebted to Israel. The collection connects these two communities and becomes an outward manifestation of Paul's eschatological vision that Jew and Gentile will praise God together with one voice (Romans 15:1-13).
These Gentile churches are collecting money for believers in Jerusalem whom they have likely never met. Furthermore, based on the frustration Paul expresses in Galatians 2 over the exclusive dining practices of some of the Jerusalem leaders, it is not clear how well these Gentiles would have been welcomed by the Jerusalem saints. Yet, this offering binds the Jerusalem community to the Gentile believers who are now serving as benefactors. To use Paul's language, this collection shows the believers' indebtedness to one another and ultimately to the God who is working among them.
Paul is clear that he is not calling the Corinthians to give to the point that it hurts. They share in responsibility to care for their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem, just as their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem share in caring for them (8:14). It is hard to establish any form of "equality" (8:14) if one party has nothing because it has given up everything.
Instead, the Corinthians are the ones who have means. The Corinthians are urged to give generously with the knowledge that God has already provided abundantly for them for this very purpose: "And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work" (9:8).
Gospel Mk 5:21-43
The text at hand is one of those two-for-one deals where one story is used to frame another, and they mutually interpret each other.
Look for both differences:
- the socially and religiously prominent Jairus in contrast to the unnamed woman
- one makes a formal request while the other sneaks a touch
- the role of the crowd and of the disciples
- the issues of fear and faith
- a 12 year-old girl and a 12 year sickness
Prior to the events described, Jesus had been on the far side of the Sea of Galilee where he had encountered the Gerasene demoniac. Now back in Jewish territory, Jesus faces potentially dangerous situations again, both from being crushed by the crowds and being infected with ritual uncleanness.
I suppose a preacher has to say something about this uncleanness business. Safeguards are placed around such matters and given a ritual context involving priests and sacrifices, but it is also a matter of plain common sense. If a body is oozing, flaking, bleeding, or dead, you probably don't want to touch it. Being unclean, therefore, is going to leave you socially isolated.
However, the situation is complicated. After all, the woman, clearly unclean by the standards of Leviticus 15:25-27, is mixed up in the press of the crowds around Jesus. The 'dead' girl is surrounded by family and friends.
I realize how tempting it is to focus on this story as an example of holistic, social healing which reintegrates a person into community and restores one to family. I also suspect we do so because we are quite hesitant to promise miracle cures
In the central story, Jesus does not seek out and restore the woman. She's the one who takes the extraordinary and prohibited initiative in touching Jesus.
English translations attempting to provide a clear and understandable story obscure the dramatic way the scene is described. In a more literal rendering, you should hear the string of participles that build up, finally culminating in the woman's action: "And a woman--having been bleeding for twelve years, and having suffered greatly from many physicians, and having spent all she had, and having benefited not one bit but rather having gone from bad to worse, having heard about Jesus, having come in the crowd from behind--touched his cloak." Jesus stops and makes a scene, while the disciples get testy with Jesus and his seemingly futile desire to know who touched him.
It reminds me of the scene in Genesis 3 after Adam and Eve have eaten the fruit and are hiding from God. God takes an evening stroll in the garden and calls out, "Where are you?" It's not that God is unaware of their location. Rather, the question offers an opportunity for Adam and Eve to come forward and come clean. God will do a similar thing again in Genesis 4 when asking Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
In those cases, the truth comes out in nuanced parcels or is avoided altogether. In Mark 5:33, however, "The woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him, and told him the whole truth."
The whole truth! This seems to me to be a good preaching approach. What does it mean for this woman to tell the whole truth? Is she confessing something about her plan and her confidence in Jesus? Is she telling the truth about herself? I imagine her saying something like, "I was desperate, and you were my last hope."
What are the consequences of this woman speaking the truth? Jesus responds with three affirmations:
- "Your faith has saved/healed you.
- Go in peace, and
- be cured of your disease." (Mark 5:34)
But even Jesus, rather than compassionately sharing how he feels Jairus' pain, basically tells him to buck up and keep the faith. Arriving at Jairus' house and the distressed commotion of the grieving family and friends, Jesus tells them to knock it off, because the girl is only sleeping.
The distraught crowd promptly responds by laughing at Jesus. I'm not sure which stage of grief that reflects, but Jesus is surely the one still in denial.
Jesus' next empathetic move is to kick them all out except for the parents and his chosen disciples. He takes the girl's hand (remember, touching a corpse makes you "unclean"), and with a couple simple words restores her to life.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about a time when you were sick. When you were sick, did you have any special needs? If so, what were they? What did other people do to help you feel better?
- Have you ever helped take care of someone who was sick? What does it feel like to be with someone who is sick?
- We are fortunate to have people who care for us when we are sick. Caring for people who are sick can be very rewarding, especially when we help them feel more comfortable. But it can also be discouraging because sometimes there seems to be little we can do to help them feel better.
- Today’s Gospel tells the story of a father who felt helpless because his daughter was sick. But he sought help for his daughter from Jesus.
- What does Jairus ask Jesus to do to make his daughter well? (to lay his hands on her) What happens while Jesus is walking to Jairus’s house? (Messengers report that Jairus’s daughter has died.) What does Jesus do? (He tells Jairus not to be afraid; he continues to Jairus’s house; he says that the girl is only sleeping and he raises her, making her well again.)
- Jairus did something that each one of us can do; he asked Jesus to be present with a person who was sick. We can also pray for those who care for the sick, such as parents, nurses, doctors, and all people who work in the medical profession.
- Conclude by saying prayers of petition, asking Jesus to heal each person named on your prayer list by praying, “Jesus, heal us.” Conclude your prayer time by praying Glory Be to the Father.
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Sunday June 24, 2018 - Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
Lectionary: 587
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 49:1-6
Hear me, O coastlands,
listen, O distant peoples.
The LORD called me from birth,
from my mother's womb he gave me my name.
He made of me a sharp-edged sword
and concealed me in the shadow of his arm.
He made me a polished arrow,
in his quiver he hid me.
You are my servant, he said to me,
Israel, through whom I show my glory.
Though I thought I had toiled in vain,
and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength,
yet my reward is with the LORD,
my recompense is with my God.
For now the LORD has spoken
who formed me as his servant from the womb,
that Jacob may be brought back to him
and Israel gathered to him;
and I am made glorious in the sight of the LORD,
and my God is now my strength!
It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,
to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15
R. (14) I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.
O LORD, you have probed me, you know me:
you know when I sit and when I stand;
you understand my thoughts from afar.
My journeys and my rest you scrutinize,
with all my ways you are familiar.
R. I praise you for I am wonderfully made.
Truly you have formed my inmost being;
you knit me in my mother's womb.
I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made;
wonderful are your works.
R. I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.
My soul also you knew full well;
nor was my frame unknown to you
When I was made in secret,
when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.
R. I praise you, for I am wonderfully made.
Reading 2 Acts 13:22-26
In those days, Paul said:
"God raised up David as king;
of him God testified,
I have found David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart;
he will carry out my every wish.
From this man's descendants God, according to his promise,
has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus.
John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance
to all the people of Israel;
and as John was completing his course, he would say,
'What do you suppose that I am? I am not he.
Behold, one is coming after me;
I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.'
"
Gospel Lk 1:57-66, 80
When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child
she gave birth to a son.
Her neighbors and relatives heard
that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her,
and they rejoiced with her.
When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child,
they were going to call him Zechariah after his father,
but his mother said in reply,
"No. He will be called John."
But they answered her,
"There is no one among your relatives who has this name."
So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
He asked for a tablet and wrote, "John is his name,"
and all were amazed.
Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed,
and he spoke blessing God.
Then fear came upon all their neighbors,
and all these matters were discussed
throughout the hill country of Judea.
All who heard these things took them to heart, saying,
"What, then, will this child be?"
For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.
The child grew and became strong in spirit,
and he was in the desert until the day
of his manifestation to Israel.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 49:1-6
Who is the servant in these readings? Jacob, Babylon and earlier as chapter 48 drew to a close, the identity of the Servant remains open. Cyrus is no longer a possible candidate so the role of Servant defaults to Israel. At the end of chapter 48 the voice of an individual prophet emerges for the first time in 48:16b, "And now the Lord GOD has sent me and his spirit." The Spirit that earlier anointed the Servant of Isaiah 42:1 now commissions an individual prophet to fulfill the role of the Servant. It will be this individual who will speak as the Servant of Yahweh throughout chapters 49-53 and will fulfill the role of the Servant spoken of earlier in chapters 40-48.
Both Isaiah 42:1-6 and 49:1-8 describe the Servant as ministering to the nations (42:1; 49:6), teaching the coastlands (42:4, 49:1), caring for justice (42:3-4; 49:4), and serving as a light to the nations and a covenant to the people (42:6, 49:6, 8). Just as 42:5-9 is a commissioning speech, so too 49:1-3 functions in the same manner. The one key development in chapter 49 is that the Servant, who is clearly identified as Israel (49:3), will now have a ministry to his own kin. The Servant is commissioned to "bring Jacob back to him" (49:5) and "to raise up the tribes of Jacob and restore the survivors of Israel" (49:6). His ministry is not merely to liberate the nations, but to revive and restore his own people.
Israel as God's Servant has not been faithful to its role as God's elect nation (cf. 48:1-2). Israel as God's Servant is called to open the eyes of the blind (42:7), but is itself plagued with the same problem: "Who is blind but my servant, or deaf like my messenger whom I send? Who is blind like my dedicated one, or blind like the servant of the LORD?" (42:19).
The prophet commissioned in chapter 49 is not a replacement of Israel as God's Servant, but is commissioned to call Israel back to be faithful to its vocation as a light to the nations. God's Servant is to be concerned for the local as well as the global. As important as it is to reach the nations, it is oftentimes the case that it is easier to reach out to strangers halfway across the globe than to one's own family or neighbors. The people of God are never to neglect their own kin as exemplified by Jesus' own willingness to go to Nazareth and Jerusalem.
It appears that the radical transformation announced as a new exodus in Isaiah 40-48 was not completely realized by the Israelites who returned home to rebuild their Temple following 538 B.C.E. Many Israelites refused to return, preferring their life in Babylon to the challenging task of rebuilding a desolated homeland. The prophet-Servant of Isaiah 49-53 is charged with the difficult task of persuading a reluctant and obstinate people to embrace a dangerous mission. As evidenced in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the returnees would face opposition and oppression from within and without the Judean community. Isaiah 49-53 captures the progression of resistance the prophet-Servant experiences. He first encounters an unresponsive audience, then experiences confrontations and insults, and eventually endures violence and death.
Second Isaiah makes clear that Servanthood involves prophetic ministry in the tradition of Jeremiah and the psalms of lament. Like Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5), the Servant is called to prophetic ministry while in his mother's womb (Isaiah 49:1). Unlike Cyrus who wields a literal sword and bow, the weapon a prophet employs is his preaching (Isaiah 49:2; cf. Hosea 6:5; Jeremiah 23:29). Like Jeremiah, faithfulness to one's prophetic vocation may result in rejection and opposition, resulting in the prophet to question his call to ministry (Jeremiah 20:7-18).
Observe that the lament of the prophet in 49:4 recalls the complaint of Israel in Isaiah 40:27-31. In that text Israel accuses Yahweh of disregarding the "right" or justice (mispaṭ, 40:27) of Israel and for this reason they have grown faint and lost strength (koaḥ, 40:29, 31). In Isaiah 49:4 the prophet-Servant complains to Yahweh, "Though I thought I had toiled in vain,
for nothing and for naught spent my strength,
Yet my right is with the LORD,
my recompense is with my God."
In contrast to this self-evaluation, Yahweh is much more positive in his assessment of his Servant. In 49:3 Yahweh states that he will be glorified in his Servant, such that in 49:5 the prophet can claim, "I am honored in the sight of the LORD, and my God is now my strength." Humans do not possess the means to properly assess their own ministries and achievements; only God can do so.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 139:1b-3, 13-14ab, 14c-15
Psalm 139 combines praise of, appeal to, and wisdom meditation on God who knows all and who encompasses all. The psalmist admits to God, in effect, "You know where I live," which is to say, God can get at me as God wills and there is no place to hide. Normally, for us, the "I know where you live" line is seen as threat, and that certainly can be the case with God as well. Can this possibly be good news? The psalmist obviously hopes that it is, but only because he, like the lectionary, can draw this intensely personal plea into the whole story of Israel with God. This is precisely not the Athenians' "unknown god" (Acts 17:23) -- or any other generic deity, from whom we would almost certainly want to keep our address and phone numbers unlisted. Can you trust an unknown God?
The psalm is like others that understand God as a kind of final court of appeal to whom one can turn when unjustly accused (e.g., Psalm 7; 26; 69). This is not some claim of being without sin (see, e.g., Psalm 69:4-5), but rather a case-by-case insistence that those "wicked" who now accuse me of particular wrongdoing are simply wrong, or perhaps even unjust persecutors. So, "Search me, O God, and know my heart" (Psalm 139:23) -- an appeal that can only be made out of trust in a known God, a God of justice, a God who liberates those wrongly held captive, a God of mercy and steadfast love.
The one praying is hemmed in by real enemies, real injustice, real "terrorists" -- that is his claim -- and the appeal is to a God who will not and cannot let that stand. Thus, search me and know me! Of course, on another day (or in another sermon) the psalmist and the listener might come to understand that the appeal to "see if there is any wicked way in me" (verse 24) might turn up things they would rather not have uncovered; but even then the God of this psalm is one to whom one could then flee in hope of mercy.
In Psalm 139, though, the psalmist must not flee to God, God comes to the psalmist. There is no place to flee (verse 7), and in these verses the psalm becomes a meditation on God's amazing and incomparable "God-ness" (not unlike the meditations of Job) and a hymn of praise to the God who knows not only Samuel and Nathaneal but "me." The psalm proclaims a relationship with God that is profoundly personal, but never private. God knows me, cares about me, seeks me out, formed me in my mother's womb, knows me heart and soul, knows my anatomy inside and out -- but this is not "my" God as in a God of my choice; this is Yahweh, a God with a name and a history, the God who chooses Israel and me, the God who sent Jesus, the God who calls me not only to look within but to look without to see others wrongly accused and to call them brothers and sisters.
A surprising turn in the psalm is its insistence that even Sheol -- the grave, death itself -- cannot separate me from God. Elsewhere, the Psalter thinks it can (Psalm 6:5; 30:9; 88:4-6) -- not because there is a limit to God's power and grace, but because there simply is no "there" there -- nothing with which God can relate. Death is death, so, prior to a doctrine of resurrection, I am just gone. Job, too, worries that even his "hope" will be lost if he succumbs to the invasive nothingness of death (Job 17:11-16); but our psalmist retains that hope. "God be at mine end, and at my departing," he would be able to sing (almost certainly "he" in those days), anticipating the joy that comes with the morning (Psalm 30:5), where "neither death, nor life...nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39).
The psalm writer does not know all the details of Paul's confession, does not yet know Easter, but he knows God -- more, he knows that God knows him -- so he is willing to open himself to wherever this God is taking him, confident that there can be no separation.
Reading 2 Acts 13:22-26
Then Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen: The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with an uplifted arm He brought them out of it. Now for a time of about forty years He put up with their ways in the wilderness. And when He had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, He distributed their land to them by allotment. After that He gave them judges for about four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior; Jesus.”
“After John had first preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, ‘Who do you think I am? I am not He. But behold, there comes One after me, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to loose.’ Men and brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to you the word of this salvation has been sent. For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him. And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death. Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.”
Gospel Lk 1:57-66, 80
She brought forth a son: The promise was fulfilled just as God said it would be. God always keeps His promises.
b. They rejoiced with her: This fulfilled Gabriel’s promise recorded at Luke 1:14 (many will rejoice at his birth).
In those days “When the time of the birth was near at hand, friends and local musicians gathered near the house. When the birth was announced and it was a boy, the musicians broke into song, and there was universal congratulation and rejoicing. If it was a girl, the musicians went silently and regretfully away!”
c. They would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias: Both Zacharias and Elizabeth knew the name of the child had to be John, according to the command from the angel (Luke 1:13).
d. They made signs to his father: They treated Zacharias as if he were deaf, not mute. This must have been constantly annoying to Zacharias.
e. His name is John: Now, Zacharias responded in total faith. It wasn’t “I think his name should be John.” For Zacharias, this was recognition of a fact, not a suggestion.
i. Even though he had failed before, God gave Zacharias a second chance at faith. He gives the same to us today.
ii. “This was a return from the point of unbelief, and the exercise of will in the appointed way.”
f. Immediately his mouth was opened: Just as Gabriel said, Zacharias could speak again. He spoke, praising God. It was fitting that Zacharias’ first words were praise to God. His chastisement for disobedience had not made him bitter. Instead, it made him want to trust God all the more, at every opportunity.
The child grew and became strong in spirit: The promise of God came to fruition in John’s life. John was in the desert till the day of his manifestation because that is where God trains many of His prophets.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Name things that a painter must do before applying paint to a wall. (Prepare it by scraping, sanding, washing, and applying a primer.)
- What would happen if these preparations were not made? (The wall would be in poor condition, the paint would not look good, the paint would not go on smoothly, and so on.)
- Name some other projects that require preparation.
- Who helped prepare the way for the coming of Jesus? (John the Baptist)
- John the Baptist helped prepare people for the coming of Jesus. His message continues to prepare us to receive Jesus into our lives. Without the help of John the Baptist, we might not be prepared to recognize Jesus coming into our lives.
- In this Sunday's Gospel, we learn about the birth of John the Baptist, a man who will go on to prepare people for the ministry of Jesus by preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
- According to this reading, where did John the Baptist spend most of his life? (in the desert) The desert was considered a spiritual place where God could be encountered and where evil spirits dwelled. John the Baptist lived his life in the desert, learning that the way to God was by turning away from sin.
- Pray the Lord's Prayer, emphasize the words “and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” which help us prepare for the coming of Jesus into our lives.
Sunday June 17, 2018 Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 92
Reading 1 Ez 17:22-24
Thus says the Lord GOD:
I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar,
from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot,
and plant it on a high and lofty mountain;
on the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it.
It shall put forth branches and bear fruit,
and become a majestic cedar.
Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it,
every winged thing in the shade of its boughs.
And all the trees of the field shall know
that I, the LORD,
bring low the high tree,
Sunday June 10, 2018 Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 89
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 3:9-15
After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree,
the LORD God called to the man and asked him, "Where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden;
but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself."
Then he asked, "Who told you that you were naked?
You have eaten, then,
from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!"
The man replied, "The woman whom you put here with me--
she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it."
The LORD God then asked the woman,
"Why did you do such a thing?"
The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it."
Then the LORD God said to the serpent:
"Because you have done this, you shall be banned
from all the animals
and from all the wild creatures;
on your belly shall you crawl,
and dirt shall you eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
R. (7bc) With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
But with you is forgiveness,
that you may be revered.
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
I trust in the LORD;
my soul trusts in his word.
More than sentinels wait for the dawn,
let Israel wait for the Lord.
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
For with the LORD is kindness
and with him is plenteous redemption
and he will redeem Israel
from all their iniquities.
R. With the Lord there is mercy, and fullness of redemption.
Reading 2 2 Cor 4:13—5:1
Brothers and sisters:
Since we have the same spirit of faith,
according to what is written, I believed, therefore I spoke,
we too believe and therefore we speak,
knowing that the one who raised the Lord Jesus
will raise us also with Jesus
and place us with you in his presence.
Everything indeed is for you,
so that the grace bestowed in abundance on more and more people
may cause the thanksgiving to overflow for the glory of God.
Therefore, we are not discouraged;
rather, although our outer self is wasting away,
our inner self is being renewed day by day.
For this momentary light affliction
is producing for us an eternal weight of glory
beyond all comparison,
as we look not to what is seen but to what is unseen;
for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal.
For we know that if our earthly dwelling, a tent,
should be destroyed,
we have a building from God,
a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in heaven.
Gospel Mk 3:20-35
Jesus came home with his disciples.
Again the crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,
for they said, "He is out of his mind."
The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said,
"He is possessed by Beelzebul,"
and "By the prince of demons he drives out demons."
Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables,
"How can Satan drive out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself,
that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand.
And if Satan has risen up against himself
and is divided, he cannot stand;
that is the end of him.
But no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property
unless he first ties up the strong man.
Then he can plunder the house.
Amen, I say to you,
all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be
forgiven them.
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will never have forgiveness,
but is guilty of an everlasting sin."
For they had said, "He has an unclean spirit."
His mother and his brothers arrived.
Standing outside they sent word to him and called him.
A crowd seated around him told him,
"Your mother and your brothers and your sisters
are outside asking for you."
But he said to them in reply,
"Who are my mother and my brothers?"
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,
"Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 3:9-15
Since God seems not to know where the humans are, does this mean God is not omniscient? When the human explains he was afraid because of his nakedness, does he not know that God will find this strange? How did the human even know there is something to fear in being naked?
God asks the sensible question: How did you know you should hide? Not waiting for an answer, God drives immediately to the suspicion that the knowledge of good and evil has come into the human: "Have you eaten from the tree...?"
This story is hard to hear without centuries of built-up prejudices ruling the interpretation. In order to let the gospel rise to the surface, we have to expunge the ideas that this story tells us the woman is inferior and the snake is despicable. How can we do that?
Rather than seeing this story as depicting necessary dualism between human and divine, human and nature, good and evil, knowledge (bad) and ignorance (bliss), we might notice the harm that comes from such simplistic readings. Seeing the story only through the structures of oppositions leads to divisive and untrue views of creation.
1) The story does not say the woman is a vixen for suggesting that the fruit should be eaten nor is she inferior to the man. If we see the woman in Genesis 3 through the view of her creation as the "helper" (Genesis 2:18), and we define "helper" as a subordinate creature (i.e., he initiates; she obeys or follows), we ignore the more generous interpretation offered by the word "helper" when it is used to refer to God.
2) We might note that this story shows us the possibility that truth does not come only from the divine but from what God has created: the snake, the tree, and the initiative -- the daring -- of the woman in taking a risk.
3) Try shedding the notion that the "fall" story is about sin -- especially sexual sin -- and the shame of the naked body. Try the notion that gaining the knowledge given by the forbidden tree allows the humans to differentiate themselves from the rest of nature. This self-image is necessary for stewardship and care of creation. It also opens the opportunity to know God's goodness in clothing them (Genesis 3:21-22). Once the human beings have shown themselves willing to transgress the boundaries of God, nakedness becomes frightening, since even the boundaries of their bodies no longer seem secure. Blame is their response to fear of vulnerability rather than shame.
4) See what difference it makes to reinterpret the snake's qualities. The Hebrew word for "cunning" is arum which can also be crafty and prudent (Proverbs 12:16) and clever (Proverbs 12:23; 13:16; 14:8; and 22:3). We speak of cunning in negative terms while clever is positive. The snake did not simply cause disobedience but put an end to uncritical obeisance (respect, homage, worship, adoration, reverence, veneration, honor, submission, deference). Consider whether asking a question is evidence of evil, for that is what the snake, in fact, does. Asking what God really said is not the symbol of demonic powers but, rather, using one's intelligence.
5) This Genesis story sets the stage for the vocation of the faithful. In the garden, when confronted with their fear [of nakedness, of vulnerability, of non-differentiation from animals because they are not yet clothed], the humans seek to place blame on someone other than themselves. The adam (creature of dust) blames the woman, and the woman blames the snake. As a story depicting human reaction to threats, this scene is perfect. What, if not blame others, do humans exercise when they are attacked? What, if not oppression of the foreigner, do nations initiate when scared? We have come a long distance from the beginning of this scene. No longer is creation simply a garden in which the creator walks in the evening breeze. Trouble has appeared.
Jesus' way is markedly different from that of the humans in Genesis 3. Jesus re-defines kinship, saying that his family is neither based in biology nor comprised of people like himself: fellow rabbis and theologians. His family are those who do "the will of God." He challenges the expected structures of relationship and of power, creating community out of relationships centered in God. The Old Adam and the New Adam stand in stark contrast. Jesus "refuses the idolatry of security."6
It remains for us humans to acknowledge our fear and, clothed with the garments of God's care for us, to see how we might respond with our weaknesses rather than by asserting power over others. How might such a posture alter our relationships with Earth (and even snakes!)?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
The lament of Psalm 130 is familiar to our hearing and our living. The psalmist cries out to God from “the depths” (verse 1), from the darkest abyss of human suffering. That abyss takes different shapes in individual and communal human life, but we all have had or will have some experience of it.
Grief, depression, illness, poverty, abuse -- any of these experiences, and so many more, can plunge us into a darkness so deep that it can feel almost like death. That the abyss, the pit, the deep, is so centrally and universally a part of human life is reflected in the Psalms’ repeated reference to it. Augustine, in his exposition on this psalm, likened the abyss to the belly of the whale in which Jonah was trapped: Jonah’s abyss was deep in the water, in the yawning center of the whale’s body, tangled in the “very entrails of the beast.”
In verses 1 and 2, that cry is a demand to be heard, an insistence that God listen to the voice of torment: “Pay attention to my suffering, and for heaven’s sake, have mercy on me!” Often such a demand issues from a sense of God’s absence in the depths. Pain, whether physical, psychological, spiritual, or some combination, can be so isolating that we feel abandoned to our misery, even by God.
But the careful structure of Psalm 130 indicates that the demand here issues not from a sense of abandonment but from a certainty that God will hear. The writer cries out from the sure conviction that God cares. Verse 5 states that the psalmist trusts in the promises that God has made and waits for their fulfillment, and twice in verse six the psalmist describes his or her soul as waiting for the Lord “more than those who watch for the morning.” This phrase may refer to those who, after a night of prayer, receive confirmation of God’s redemption with the new light of dawn. The psalmist is asserting that he or she lives with even greater certainty of God’s attention than these.
Is this the pious boasting of a holier-than-thou jerk, eager to show us up in the faithfulness department? Actually, this text is a careful statement about God’s character, not the psalmist’s, and the key to this understanding is found in verses 3 and 4. “If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.”
The psalmist is not asserting the power of God’s judgment or even the extent of human sin, as these verses are often read. The writer is telling us that God is not the kind of God under whose judgment the sinner withers. Rather, “there is forgiveness with God,” as verse 6 states. Forgiveness, in other words, is who God is. This Psalm is about the very character of God, which remains steadfast even in the abyss. God is not to be feared because of the wrath of God’s judgment, but God is revered because “with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem” (verse 7). God’s unchanging love is the essence of who God is, and God’s power is precisely the power to redeem.
It is this God, the writer argues, the God who is mercy and love, who will redeem the people. In similar laments, like Psalm 25:6, the psalmist must call upon God to remember God’s mercy. Not here. He the writer calls on us to remember that God is mercy. We need this reminder especially in the depths of misery. Augustine says that Jonah’s prayer, uttered from the depths of the whale’s body, was not contained by that body. Jonah’s prayer “penetrated all things, it burst through all things, it reached the ears of God.”
Even the prayer that issues from the utter abandonment of human suffering reaches God’s ears, is heard and answered by the God whose very being is love. What’s more, Augustine continues, that love not only hears, but becomes a companion who leads us on our way. God hears the cry from the abyss, meets us in the depth of our pain, and accompanies us in and through it, sharing in our suffering and leading us toward the light of God’s redemption.
The sad truth is that human beings can be downright ignorant in the depths. The deepest suffering not only can tear at our flesh and our hearts, it can strip us of all that makes us who we are, such that we feel that our very selves are lost. To someone in this state, whose stolen self is unable to issue the prayer for God’s hearing, what does Psalm 130 offer?
Together with the gentle companionship of others who have known suffering and redemption, the words of Psalm 130 can be a healing balm to the shattered soul, offering assurance of God’s endless mercy, and of the divine companionship that will remake all that is broken. Psalm 130 issues a calling to the assembled to claim for each and all of us the vast mercy of God and to companion one another through and out of the myriad abysses we each and all encounter.
Reading 2 2 Cor 4:13—5:1
Within the context, Paul's words illustrate his profound faith in God's salvation type acts. For a God who can defeat death itself, frail mortal bodies are no challenge to God's power. Instead, God demonstrates God's power in choosing mere mortals to bear witness to divine glory. With so great a God working among the Corinthians, there is no need to allow the sufferings of the present age to deter them from testifying to God's new creation.
Paul's Risky Mission
Paul's life is certainly not an illustration of a health and wealth gospel. The apostle is no stranger to suffering. At the beginning of this letter, he makes reference to severe affliction experienced in Asia (2 Corinthians 1:8). In 2 Corinthians 11:23-27, the apostle recounts beatings, shipwrecks, and other near-death experiences to demonstrate the danger of his mission and the sincerity of his faith. Furthermore, the passage under study immediately follows a catalog of hardships that illustrate human frailty (4:8-12). All these hardships exemplify that "death is at work in us" (4:12).
The stakes are high in Paul's mission. Both death and life are at work. Though death is making small victories -- afflicting, perplexing, persecuting, and striking down (4:8-10), God has already defeated death by raising the Lord Jesus. This same God "will raise us also with Jesus, and will bring us with you into his presence" (4:14).
Certitude in God's Power
Underlying the entire message of 2 Corinthians -- and indeed Paul's whole gospel -- is the apostle's certitude in God's power. God made Paul a minister (3:4-6), and it is by God's mercy that Paul has survived numerous hardships (4:1). God is a God of consolation (1:3-7) and reconciliation (5:18-21).
God has chosen mortal bodies in which to display God's power. God is in the act of transforming bodies that are so fragile and vulnerable that Paul likens them to jars of clay (4:7). According to Paul, the reason that God has chosen such fragile vessels is to make clear "this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us" (4:7). The good news is only possible because a powerful God is at work.
It is God's spirit that dwells in us and transforms mortal bodies. If the holy law (Romans 7:12), that could not bring life, brought fleeting glory to Moses' face, how much more lasting glory will God's life-giving Spirit bring to those who love God? (2 Corinthians 3:7-11). This mighty Spirit is working to transform mortal flesh and to bring life (4:11-12).
The apostle's certitude in God's power gives him strength to face any hardship. Since Paul has faith that God who raised Jesus will also raise up those who are in Jesus (4:13-14), he can say with confidence, "We do not lose heart" (4:16).
In 2 Corinthians 4:16, Paul acknowledges the frailty of our human existence. In the context of this passage, the "outer nature" is subject to all the sufferings of this present age -- beatings, shipwrecks, afflictions, and trials. This outer nature is aptly paralleled to earthen vessels that, by their very nature, are subject to weakness (4:7).
Paul can express hope in the midst of adversity and can subject his body to physical and emotional hardships because he knows with all certainty that God will rectify his body. The Spirit's very presence is his assurance that God is at work creating life and redeeming all creation (5:5).
Building from God
Paul contrasts the transient nature of the "earthly tent" with the eternal nature of the heavenly building from God (5:1). Heaven is the very locus of God's new creation. Paul's appeal to this heavenly building is similar to Paul's reminder in Philippians 3:20 that "our citizenship is in heaven." Though trials and hardships may come in this old age that is passing away (1 Corinthians 7:31), Paul calls the church to think in terms of God's new kingdom where death is swallowed up by life.
Unwavering Hope
Amidst real hardships and suffering, Paul expresses hope in God's work to redeem and to transform. The threat of hardship would be enough to drive most believers away, but Paul will stop at nothing to be a bearer of God's good news. He knows that the God who is at work in his mortal body is the same God who resurrected Jesus from the dead. It is in this God whom Paul places his unwavering hope.
Gospel Mk 3:20-35
So now Jesus comes home. We want to see how this story will play out in his hometown. Up to this point, even with all the excitement, the reports and the prospects have not been good. Even as Jesus continues to heal and to draw crowds and disciple followers, he has to skirt around in the border regions and escape to the mountains (3.1-19). The upshot has been that already only this far in the story the Pharisees and the Herodians conspire how they can destroy him (Mark 3:7). It is telling that the last named disciple Jesus calls is Judas Iscariot, “the one who betrayed him” -- the past tense would seem to mark this already as essentially a done deal (Mark 3:19). So when at the beginning of today’s reading we join the crowds, packed together so tightly that they can’t even get their arms free to grab some food, we sense that somebody has to do something to restore some order.
A Mess of a Family Gathering
And for that his family is ready? Yes, they come ready with restraints to shackle his body and with charges to tame his outlandish speech: “he’s out of his mind; you don’t really need to listen to him.” And the scribes from Jerusalem add a religious stamp to the charges: “he is actually in league with the demonic powers.” That should take care of any mistaken assumptions and relegate to insignificance the clamoring crowds. Those in the know have the essential facts to discount his person and his credentials. Enough said about this Jesus. The threats to the ordering of society, family, and religion have been thwarted once again.
Just more Riddles
So what will Jesus answer to these charges? He seems to offer some help to alleviate the uproar when he picks up a theme with us from the beginning; the talk is about the “kingdom” and about who has authority and power. But as usual his words are always in riddles. But to those who have ears to hear, perhaps we hope especially to us, his riddles make sense. They call us to consider deeply just what is going on here -- to rethink what the story of this Jesus might have to do with how we imagine our world and the ways of God with God’s creation. What is it that God is calling us to see and hear in this Jesus? Who is it that has the power to change our world, and how is that power going to be exercised in those of us who are called to journey along with this Jesus in this Pentecost Season?
The Risk of Blasphemy
The answers to these questions are not always so clear. They will call for a people who are aware of the risk of listening to the wrong sources, who are aware of the risk of joining in the wrong words whose error becomes so much blasphemy. In this Jesus the Spirit of God is at work. That much has been signed at the beginning, in the descent of God’s Spirit upon him at his baptism. God’s benediction on him has been pronounced; the promise is that in his journey among and with us God will be at work. To question or reject that presence and the signs of this kingdom is to risk missing out on the good news that God has in store for us in the person and message of this Jesus.
True Family and the Will of God
There are no guarantees in our hearing. Even those who have all the proper credentials -- whose blood lines would seem to link them to this Jesus, or who claim status among the leaders of the temple in Jerusalem -- are ultimately at risk for missing out on this journey. Jesus puts it very directly. It is not status but action in response to the call of God in the person of this Jesus that marks what it means to belong to his “family.” That would seem to sum it all up simple and to the point. Relationships in this family are dynamic; they flow from the encounter and response to this Jesus.
And yet, at this point in the journey, there remains a hiddenness or a mystery to it all. Relationships in this family are couched in terms of “doing the will of God.” But at this point in the story, just what that “will of God” entails is not specifically detailed. For those of us who thrive on lists, who need “things to do” to establish some comfort level, this story of Jesus will not comply with our wishes. We will have to be willing to come along for the journey. We will just have to trust this Jesus and the invitation to join him and to believe that in his company we will participate in the unfolding of the good news of God’s kingdom among us and in our world.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Take a few moments to think about the groups or clubs, to which you belong. Make a list of these different groups.
- What is your relationship like with the other people in these groups? You most likely share common interests with the other members. You probably spend some time together sharing ideas or things you’ve done. You may even be friends with people in these groups.
- In today’s Gospel, Jesus is returning to his hometown. Just before this event, Jesus chose his twelve disciples. Think about what Jesus told us about the kind of relationship he wants to have with those who choose to follow him.
- Along with the crowds who come to hear Jesus teach, who also comes to see him? (Jesus’ relatives)
- At the end of this Gospel, Jesus is surrounded by his disciples and those who want to listen to him teach and preach. These people share a common interest. But Jesus tells them that they must be more than just friends who are part of the same group. Jesus explains that those who follow him must share the kind of love, support, and understanding that we feel with our closest family members.
- Pray the Lord’s Prayer or the Hail Mary.
Sunday June 3, 2018 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
Corpus Christi - The Feast of Corpus Christi is the Roman Rite liturgical solemnity celebrating the real presence of the body and blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in the Eucharist—known as transubstantiation. Two months earlier, the Eucharist is observed on Holy Thursday in a somber atmosphere leading to Good Friday.
Maundy Thursday commemorates Jesus Christ's institution of the Eucharist during the Last Supper, which is described in the Christian bible.
Some people call it Holy Thursday, others Maundy Thursday. But what does the “Maundy” in “Maundy Thursday” mean? It’s certainly not a commonly-used word or something you’re likely to hear outside the context of Easter. What did this term mean, and where did it come from?
Etymologically, the consensus is that “Maundy” comes from the Latin word Mandatum (itself from the verb Mandare), which is translated “commandment.”
Jesus gave the apostles the greatest commandment while he washed their feet.
Lectionary: 168
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 24:3-8
When Moses came to the people
and related all the words and ordinances of the LORD,
they all answered with one voice,
"We will do everything that the LORD has told us."
Moses then wrote down all the words of the LORD and,
rising early the next day,
he erected at the foot of the mountain an altar
and twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.
Then, having sent certain young men of the Israelites
to offer holocausts and sacrifice young bulls
as peace offerings to the LORD,
Moses took half of the blood and put it in large bowls;
the other half he splashed on the altar.
Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people,
who answered, "All that the LORD has said, we will heed and do."
Then he took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, saying,
"This is the blood of the covenant
that the LORD has made with you
in accordance with all these words of his."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18
R. (13) I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
How shall I make a return to the LORD
for all the good he has done for me?
The cup of salvation I will take up,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people.
R. I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 Heb 9:11-15
Brothers and sisters:
When Christ came as high priest
of the good things that have come to be,
passing through the greater and more perfect tabernacle
not made by hands, that is, not belonging to this creation,
he entered once for all into the sanctuary,
not with the blood of goats and calves
but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls
and the sprinkling of a heifer's ashes
can sanctify those who are defiled
so that their flesh is cleansed,
how much more will the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God,
cleanse our consciences from dead works
to worship the living God.
For this reason he is mediator of a new covenant:
since a death has taken place for deliverance
from transgressions under the first covenant,
those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.
Sequence
Lauda Sion
Laud, O Zion, your salvation,
Laud with hymns of exultation,
Christ, your king and shepherd true:
Bring him all the praise you know,
He is more than you bestow.
Never can you reach his due.
Special theme for glad thanksgiving
Is the quick’ning and the living
Bread today before you set:
From his hands of old partaken,
As we know, by faith unshaken,
Where the Twelve at supper met.
Full and clear ring out your chanting,
Joy nor sweetest grace be wanting,
From your heart let praises burst:
For today the feast is holden,
When the institution olden
Of that supper was rehearsed.
Here the new law’s new oblation,
By the new king’s revelation,
Ends the form of ancient rite:
Now the new the old effaces,
Truth away the shadow chases,
Light dispels the gloom of night.
What he did at supper seated,
Christ ordained to be repeated,
His memorial ne’er to cease:
And his rule for guidance taking,
Bread and wine we hallow, making
Thus our sacrifice of peace.
This the truth each Christian learns,
Bread into his flesh he turns,
To his precious blood the wine:
Sight has fail’d, nor thought conceives,
But a dauntless faith believes,
Resting on a pow’r divine.
Here beneath these signs are hidden
Priceless things to sense forbidden;
Signs, not things are all we see:
Blood is poured and flesh is broken,
Yet in either wondrous token
Christ entire we know to be.
Whoso of this food partakes,
Does not rend the Lord nor breaks;
Christ is whole to all that taste:
Thousands are, as one, receivers,
One, as thousands of believers,
Eats of him who cannot waste.
Bad and good the feast are sharing,
Of what divers dooms preparing,
Endless death, or endless life.
Life to these, to those damnation,
See how like participation
Is with unlike issues rife.
When the sacrament is broken,
Doubt not, but believe ‘tis spoken,
That each sever’d outward token
doth the very whole contain.
Nought the precious gift divides,
Breaking but the sign betides
Jesus still the same abides,
still unbroken does remain.
The shorter form of the sequence begins here.
Lo! the angel’s food is given
To the pilgrim who has striven;
see the children’s bread from heaven,
which on dogs may not be spent.
Truth the ancient types fulfilling,
Isaac bound, a victim willing,
Paschal lamb, its lifeblood spilling,
manna to the fathers sent.
Very bread, good shepherd, tend us,
Jesu, of your love befriend us,
You refresh us, you defend us,
Your eternal goodness send us
In the land of life to see.
You who all things can and know,
Who on earth such food bestow,
Grant us with your saints, though lowest,
Where the heav’nly feast you show,
Fellow heirs and guests to be. Amen. Alleluia.
Gospel Mk 14:12-16, 22-26
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,
Jesus’ disciples said to him,
"Where do you want us to go
and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"
He sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the city and a man will meet you,
carrying a jar of water.
Follow him.
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house,
'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room
where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
Make the preparations for us there."
The disciples then went off, entered the city,
and found it just as he had told them;
and they prepared the Passover.
While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, gave it to them, and said,
"Take it; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 24:3-8
24:3 Moses came and told the people all the Lord’s words and all the decisions. All the people answered together, “We are willing to do all the words that the Lord has said,” 24:4 and Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. Early in the morning he built an altar at the foot of the mountain and arranged twelve standing stones – according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 24:5 He sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls for peace offerings to the Lord. 24:6 Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and half of the blood he splashed on the altar. 24:7 He took the Book of the Covenant and read it aloud to the people, and they said, “We are willing to do and obey all that the Lord has spoken.” 24:8 So Moses took the blood and splashed it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”
The first two verses record the appointment of a second session upon mount Sinai, for the making of laws, when an end was put to the first. When a communion is begun between God and us, it shall never fail on his side, if it does not first fail on ours. Moses is directed to bring Aaron and his sons, and the seventy elders of Israel, that they might be witnesses of the glory of God, and that communion with him to which Moses was admitted; and that their testimony might confirm the people's faith, in this approach.
In the following verses, we have the solemn covenant made between God and Israel, and the exchanging of the ratifications; and a very solemn transaction it was, typifying the covenant of grace between God and believers through Christ.
I. Moses told the people the words of the Lord, v. 3. He did not lead them blindfolded into the covenant, nor teach them a devotion that was the daughter of ignorance; but laid before them all the precepts, general and particular, in the foregoing chapters; and fairly put it to them whether they were willing to submit to these laws or not.
II. The people unanimously consented to the terms proposed, without reservation or exception: All the words which the Lord hath said will we do. They had before consented in general to be under God's government (ch. 19:8); here they consent in particular to these laws now given. O that there had been such a heart in them! How well it would be if people would always be in the same good mind that sometimes they seem to be in! Many consent to the law, and yet do not live up to it; they have nothing against it, and yet will not persuade themselves to be ruled by it.
This is the tenor of the covenant, That, if they would observe the foregoing precepts, God would perform the foregoing promises. "Obey, and be happy." Here is the bargain made.
1. How it was engrossed in the book of the covenant: Moses wrote the words of the Lord (v. 4), that there might be no mistake; probably he had written them as God dictated them on the mount. As soon as ever God had separated to himself a peculiar people in the world, he governed them by a written word, as he has done ever since, and will do while the world stands and the church in it. Moses, having engrossed the articles of agreement concluded upon between God and Israel, read them in the audience of the people (v. 7), that they might be perfectly apprised of the thing, and might try whether their second thoughts were the same with their first, upon the whole matter. And we may suppose they were so; for their words in (v. 7) are the same with what they were (v. 3), but somewhat stronger: All that the Lord hath said (be it good, or be it evil, to flesh and blood, Jer. 42:6) we will do; so they had said before, but now they add, "And will be obedient; not only we will do what has been commanded, but in everything which shall further be ordained we will be obedient." Bravely resolved! if they had but stuck to their resolution. See here that God's covenants and commands are so incontestably equitable in themselves, and so highly advantageous to us, that the more we think of them, and the more plainly and fully they are set before us, the more reason we shall see to comply with them.
2. How it was sealed by the blood of the covenant, that Israel might receive strong consolations from the ratifying of God's promises to them, and might lie under strong obligations from the ratifying of their promises to God. Thus has Infinite Wisdom devised means that we may be confirmed both in our faith and in our obedience, may be both encouraged in our duty and engaged to it. The covenant must be made by sacrifice (Ps. 50:5), because, since man has sinned, and forfeited his Creator's favor, there can be no fellowship by covenant till there be first friendship and atonement by sacrifice.
In preparation therefore for the parties putting their seals to this covenant, Moses builds an altar, to the honor of God, which was principally intended in all the altars that were built, and which was the first thing to be looked at in the covenant they were now to seal. No addition to the perfections of the divine nature can be made by any of God's dealings with the children of men, but in them his perfections are manifested and magnified, and his honor is shown forth.
He erects twelve pillars, according to the number of the tribes. These were to represent the people, the other party to the covenant; and we may suppose that they were set up against the altar, and that Moses, as mediator, passed to and fro between them. Probably each tribe set up and knew its own pillar, and their elders stood by it. He appointed sacrifices to be offered upon the altar (v. 5), burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, which yet were designed to be expiatory (the act of atoning for sin or wrongdoing). We are not concerned to ask who these young men were that were employed in offering these sacrifices; for Moses was himself the priest, and what they did was purely as his servants, by his order and appointment. No doubt they were men who by their bodily strength were qualified for the service, and by their station among the people were fittest for the honor.
Preparation being thus made, the ratifications were very solemnly exchanged. The blood of the sacrifice which the people offered was (part of it) sprinkled upon the altar (v. 6), which signifies the people's dedicating themselves, their lives, and beings, to God, and to his honor. In the blood (which is the life) of the dead sacrifices all the Israelites were presented unto God as living sacrifices, Rom. 12:1. The blood of the sacrifice which God had owned and accepted was (the remainder of it) sprinkled either upon the people themselves (v. 8) or upon the pillars that represented them, which signified God's graciously conferring his favor upon them and all the fruits of that favor, and his giving them all the gifts they could expect or desire from a God reconciled to them and in covenant with them by sacrifice. Thus our Lord Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant (of whom Moses was a type), having offered up himself a sacrifice upon the cross, that his blood might be indeed the blood of the covenant, sprinkled it upon the altar in his intercession (Heb. 9:12), and sprinkles it upon his church by his word and ordinances and the influences and operations of the Spirit of promise, by whom we are sealed. He himself seemed to allude to this solemnity when, in the institution of the Lord's supper, he said, This cup is the New Testament (or covenant) in my blood.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 116:12-13, 15-16, 17-18
In this final section of the psalm, verses 12-19, the psalmist vows to offer up public expressions of gratitude in the house of the Lord, so full is his heart with thanksgiving for what God has done. He will lift up the cup of salvation, call on the name of the Lord, and offer up a sacrifice of thanksgiving (Leviticus 7:11-15) so that everyone will know what God has done and join the psalmist in giving God praise. The expression “cup of salvation” in verse 13 is found only here and its meaning is unclear. It may refer to a drink offering that often accompanied temple sacrifices (Numbers 15:8-10; 28) or it may be a figurative expression for drinking in the benefits and blessings of God’s salvation.
Read in the context of the passion of Christ, the psalmist’s “cup of salvation” calls to mind another cup, the cup that is poured out for us as the new covenant in Jesus’ blood (Luke 22:21). Here, at an annual Passover meal with his disciples, while remembering and rehearsing God’s mighty act in delivering Israel from slavery in Egypt, Jesus lifts up the cup and proclaims that in him, God is bringing about something new, a new redemptive work for all people.
While ours is not a political liberation like the Exodus nor a healing from sickness like the psalmist, both of these images are helpful metaphors for understanding what Christ has done for us. Sin is like a brutal taskmaster, controlling our wills and enslaving us to the selfish and evil inclinations of our own hearts. Who can deny that we do what we do not want to do and what we do not want to do, we do. Often we act in ways that damage relationships, dehumanize ourselves, and destroy shalom. Similarly, sin is like an untreated sickness that poisons our life as individuals and as communities. It robs people of the life of blessing and human flourishing that God intended for them and leads to death.
Lifting the cup, Jesus announces that the reign of sin is over. In him, there is forgiveness for sin, freedom from guilt, and a new covenant whereby we are restored to new life as God’s kingdom people. In Christ, the old has passed away; the new has come. Redemption and restoration are ours as all are now invited to drink in the benefits and blessings of the cup poured out, Jesus blood shed for us.
The significance of Psalm 116 is that it invites us to remember and rehearse how we too have been “delivered from death” by the death of our Lord and Savior and cultivates in us a posture of thanksgiving and praise for all God’s goodness to us. Whenever we celebrate the Lord’s supper, Christ holds out to us the cup that is poured out as a new covenant in his blood, inviting us to drink in the benefits and blessings of his sacrifice, to say with grateful hearts yes to God, yes to salvation, yes to dying to sin, and yes to our new life as God’s kingdom people in Jesus Christ.
Reading 2 Heb 9:11-15
The author of Hebrews (probably Paul) continues to show in our text (9:11-14) that "Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come." The previous tents of the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies are now a "perfect tent" in Jesus Christ. This is a tent "not made with hands, that is, not of this creation" (9:11). The connection to the Ark of the Covenant and sacrifice of atonement is unique in the New Testament and draws us into the rich history of the "first covenant" now brought to perfection in Jesus Christ.
The perfection in Christ is now spelled out: He entered once for all into the Holy Place, “not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption” (Greek: lutrosis) (9:12). The goat was used for the
people's sacrifice, and the calf was used for the sacrifice for the high priest and his house (Leviticus 16:5-11). Once again we have a connection to Paul in the same section in Romans: "For there is no distinction, all have sinned and sare deprived of the glory of God; They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:22-23). Christ's act of atonement (Greek: hilasterion) on the cross secures an eternal redemption. Christ has entered into the perfect heavenly sanctuary after he provided an eternal redemption, thus securing our eternal redemption by his blood/death on the cross.
The analogy to the first covenant sacrificial system has provided a remarkable way in which the author of Hebrews has drawn us into the history and meaning of the way in which the first covenant attempted to bring the gift of redemption to the people. It was not a perfect system, but it foreshadows the perfect redemption of the blood of the cross in Jesus' redeeming and atoning death.
Our text now brings us to a resounding conclusion: "For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of a heifers ashes can sanctify those who have been defiled so that their flesh is cleansed, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit* offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works to worship the living God" (9:13-14).
What is present in these words stands through all eternity! The imperfection of previous sacrifices is past. There is no more meaning to all things previous. They have had their place in the history of God's salvation for the people, but now all things are new. The blood of Christ is the complete sacrifice. In Christ Jesus redemption is accomplished.
Jesus' final word from the cross in the gospel of John is the word of fulfillment: "It is finished" (John 19:30). The Greek tense signifies that Christ's redemption has been made for all times. It is completed/accomplished/finished in the past and it remains completed/accomplished/finished into the eons of eons.
Our text from Hebrews is also the word for All Saints Day. In the gospel text assigned with this text from Mark 12:28-34, we hear the confession of the scribe who proclaims the truth of our Hebrews text. Jesus had taught him the truth of the first and second commandment, and he responds: " The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’ And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:32-33).
Jesus commends the scribe for answering wisely: "You are not far from the kingdom of God" (Mark 12:34). This unknown scribe bears witness to the truth that it is not through the blood of animals or the sprinkling of ashes by burning a red heifer that there is ceremonial sacrifice for sinful and defiled persons (9:13-14). Only through the perfect sacrifice of Christ is God's work of salvation brought to perfection or completion: "It is finished" (John 19:30). This is the word from the cross for all the saints in Christ Jesus for all eternity. Amen.
Gospel Mk 14:12-16, 22-26
Our text begins with preparation for the evening meal: "On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed" (14:12). All the imagery of this meal is present and its significance in marking the deliverance of the captive Israelites in the Exodus. There is no mistaking what this meal will signify for the life of the new community centered in the deliverance of Christ's death and resurrection.
Details of the preparation and setting for the meal are described: "So the disciples set out and went to the city, and found everything as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover meal" (14:12-16). The first watch of the night is noted: "When it was evening, he came with the twelve" (14:17).
During the meal Jesus takes bread, blesses, breaks and gives it to the disciples with the words, " Take it; this is my body" (14:22). Jesus also takes the cup with the words, "This is my blood of the covenant, which will be shed for many. Amen, I say to you, I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God" (14:23-25). With these words, what could the disciples be thinking?
The meal concludes with the singing of the Hallel, and the walk to the Mount of Olives. Here Jesus notes they will all fall away and recalls prophetic words which identify the betrayal of the Son of Man: "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered." The shepherd will be struck down in crucifixion, but the promise of resurrection will gather the sheep: "But after I have been raised up, I shall go before you to Galilee" (14:28).
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Most of us eat three meals a day and we don’t give it much thought. But meals don’t just happen. They require planning and preparation.
- In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus give instructions to his disciples for preparing a special meal for the Jewish celebration of Passover. We also hear some details about the meal that Jesus shares with his disciples; this meal is called the Last Supper.
- What do we do today to remember this Last Supper that Jesus shared with his disciples? (We celebrate the Eucharist.) What preparations are made so that we can celebrate the Eucharist each week? (The worship space is prepared; the priest prepares the homily; lectors, altar servers, and Eucharistic ministers are assigned and prepared.)
- Even if we don’t have an official role at the Sunday Eucharist, we should prepare ourselves for this celebration. What are some things that we might do to prepare ourselves to celebrate the Eucharist? (Read and reflect upon the Sunday readings, especially the Gospel; keep the Eucharistic fast; make ourselves present and attentive at the Sunday Eucharist.)
- Do one thing this week to better prepare for your celebration of the Eucharist on Sunday. Pray the Lord’s Prayer.
Sunday May 27, 2018 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Lectionary: 165
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 4:32-34, 39-40
Moses said to the people:
"Ask now of the days of old, before your time,
ever since God created man upon the earth;
ask from one end of the sky to the other:
Did anything so great ever happen before?
Was it ever heard of?
Did a people ever hear the voice of God
speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?
Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself
from the midst of another nation,
by testings, by signs and wonders, by war,
with strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors,
all of which the LORD, your God,
did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?
This is why you must now know,
and fix in your heart, that the LORD is God
in the heavens above and on earth below,
and that there is no other.
You must keep his statutes and commandments that I enjoin on you today,
that you and your children after you may prosper,
and that you may have long life on the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22
R. (12b) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the Lord the earth is full.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made;
by the breath of his mouth all their host.
For he spoke, and it was made;
he commanded, and it stood forth.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own
Reading 2 Rom 8:14-17
Brothers and sisters:
For those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,
but you received a Spirit of adoption,
through whom we cry, "Abba, Father!"
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
that we are children of God,
and if children, then heirs,
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,
if only we suffer with him
so that we may also be glorified with him.
Gospel Mt 28:16-20
The eleven disciples went to Galilee,
to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them.
When they all saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus approached and said to them,
"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.
And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 4:32-34, 39-40
In this chapter we have, a most earnest and pathetic exhortation to obedience, both in general, and in some particular instances, backed with a great variety of very pressing arguments, repeated again and again, and set before them in the most moving and affectionate manner imaginable.
They saw a strange composition of fire and darkness, both dreadful and very awful; and be a striking foil to each other; the darkness made the fire in the midst of it look the more dreadful. Fires in the night are the most frightful, and the fire made the darkness that surrounded it look the more awful; for it must be a strong darkness which such a fire did not disperse. In allusion to this appearance upon Mount Sinai, God is said to show himself for his people, and against his and their enemies, in fire and darkness together, Ps. 18:8, 9. He tells them again (v. 36) what they saw, for he would have them never forget it: He showed thee his great fire. One flash of lightning, that fire from heaven, strikes an awe upon us; and some have observed that most creatures naturally turn their faces towards the lightning, as ready to receive the impressions of it; but how dreadful then must a constant fire from heaven be! It gave an earnest look of the day of judgment, in which the Lord Jesus shall be revealed in flaming fire. As he reminds them of what they saw, so he tells them what they saw not; no manner of similitude, from which they might form either an idea of God in their fancies or an image of God in their high places. By what we see of God is sufficient ground for us to believe him to be a Being of infinite power and perfection, but no occasion given us to suspect him to have a body such as we have. What they heard at Mount Sinai (v. 12): he enlarges upon towards the close of his discourse, v. 32, 33, 36. First, They heard the voice of God, speaking out of heaven. God manifests himself to all the world in the works of creation, without speech or language, and yet their voice is heard (Ps. 19:1-3); but to Israel he made himself known by speech and language, condescending to the weakness of the church's infant state. Here was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, to prepare the way of the Lord. Secondly, They heard it out of the midst of the fire, which showed that it was God himself that spoke to them, for who else could dwell with devouring fire? God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind, which was terrible; but to Israel out of the fire, which was more terrible. We have reason to be thankful that he does not thus speak to us, but by men like ourselves, whose terror shall not make us afraid, Job 33:6, 7. Thirdly, They heard it and yet lived, v. 33. It was a wonder of mercy that the fire did not devour them, or that they did not die for fear, when Moses himself trembled. Fourthly, Never had any people heard the like. He bids them enquire of former days and distant places, and they would find this favor of God to Israel without precedent or parallel, v. 32. This singular honor done them called for singular obedience from them. It might justly be expected that they should do more for God than other people, since God had done so much more for them.
He urges God's gracious appearances for them, in bringing them out of Egypt, from the iron furnace, where they labored in the fire, forming them into a people, and then taking them to be his own people, a people of inheritance (v. 20); this he mentions again, v. 34, 37, 38. Never did God do such a thing for any people; the rise of this nation was quite different from that of all other nations. They were thus dignified and distinguished, not for anything in them that was deserving or inviting, but because God had a kindness for their fathers: he chose them. See the reasons of free grace; we are not beloved for our own sakes, but for his sake who is the great trustee of the covenant. They were delivered out of Egypt by miracles and signs, in mercy to them and in judgment upon the Egyptians, against whom God stretched out his arm, which was signified by Moses's stretching out his hand in summoning the plagues. They were designed for a happy settlement in Canaan, v. 38. Nations must be driven out from before them, to make room for them, to show how much dearer they were to God than any other people were. Egyptians and Canaanites must both be sacrificed to Israel's honor and interest. Those that stand in Israel's light, in Israel's way, shall find it is at their peril.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:4-5, 6, 9, 18-19, 20, 22
So we wait.
Sitting here on earth we wait in hope and faith. We sit with the blanket of God’s promises resting upon our laps. We stare out the window waiting for God to roll down our street in brand new Cadillac or pushing a carriage with a cooing child. We wait, we watch. What we are looking for is hard to describe. We are looking for a small bit of sustenance when the ground dries up. We are looking for a little life in a deathly world. We are listening for all those echoes of God’s promises in the world. These faint echoes that resemble and initiate what will become.
The truth is, we don’t hear these echoes as often as we’d like. Most of our life is spent waiting for another vision. Like Hannah, like Abraham and Sarah, like Israel in Babylon we rest our heads on God’s promises, but never stop waiting for them to be fulfilled. This difficult waiting is exacerbated by our finiteness which drives us to create our worlds in our own images, which is not surprising given the circumstances of our own making. Given our limited vantage and the unpredictable action of God, the Christian life requires waiting on God.
Waiting is hard. It is fitting that this lectionary passage comes during ordinary time within the liturgical season because what is more ordinary than waiting. Verse 20 sounds like the Psalmist is trying to convince herself that she is not sick and tired of waiting. The truth is, there is no school that teaches us how to wait. We convince ourselves that we have been faithful, that we are happy, and that the wait isn’t so bad, but mostly it is miserable. I hear deep need in the final verse of the lectionary passage. “May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.” Hope is no longer enough, O God, let your love break into our world and justify our hope. As the psalmist copes with waiting, she begins to remember the times when God delivered the people from danger and fed them in times of hunger (v. 18). Treks across the sea bed. Manna in the wilderness. Deliverance and sustenance. When we wait, our minds wander to those times when God delivered us from danger and provided sustenance during times of need. Times when God was our shield and our help (v 20). When we wait, we begin to remember and remembering soothes our anxiety and renews our hope.
In North America and elsewhere, the outdoor trails of our parks and forests are marked with blazes. Blazes are small directional signs that assure the traveler that he or she is on the right path. The hike requires following the blazes. But the blaze is not the destination, just the marker. Hikers are bound to leave the approaching blaze in the past. The marker is a reminder that you are on the right trail and that while you might not see another marker for a while, it will show up. Indeed, if you travel far and don’t see a marker, it is time to backtrack and remember where the last time you saw a marker. The trail marker is not just reassurance that you are on the right path, it is also a reminder that the trail is bigger than any one person. The steadfast love of God is not just a reassurance that God has chosen you as God’s heritage, but also a reminder that our finitude limits our perspective. The finite always have to wait until they see the next blaze.
So we wait.
Reading 2 Rom 8:14-17
For many Christians, the Holy Spirit remains a puzzle. The other members of the Trinity, the Father and the Son, are better defined. But there is much confusion about the Spirit. Questions like the following are likely to be in the minds of listeners: Just what does the Holy Spirit do? How would I know if the Holy Spirit is involved in my life? It might be helpful, using our text in Romans as a guide, to describe the work of the Holy Spirit under the following headings.
The Holy Spirit Points to Christ
Often when people speak of the Holy Spirit they associate it with an extraordinary or spectacular event. We tend to let stories like the tongues of fire that appeared on the heads of the apostles (Acts 2:3) or the dramatic conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus define our understanding of how God works in the world. And there is little question that many acts of God are astonishing.
But just as notable is the way God works in a mundane manner. When Paul speaks of the power of the Spirit in our verses he points to our inclusion in God’s family. The Spirit makes us “children of God” (8:14) and so intertwines our lives with Christ that we now understand God as a Father or even a “Daddy” (as Abba might be translated -- see 8:15). In addition, Paul suggests we are now “heirs” with Christ (8:17). In other words, all that the Son shares with the Father (peace, life, righteousness) has now been bequeathed to us as well.
In most cases the Holy Spirit usually does not try to draw attention to itself but rather works on us to strengthen our relationship of faith in Christ. This means the Spirit is very busy indeed. In our stumbling attempts at faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit is at work, overcoming our own desire to be in control. When we seek comfort, the Spirit reminds us of Christ’s seeking of the lost sheep and his forgiveness to a betrayer like Peter. When we need correction, the Spirit calls to mind Christ’s injunction against the love of money or the need to forgive -- even those we classify as enemies.
Those who wonder about the Spirit’s presence in their lives need only look to their struggling faith in Christ and they will find plenty of evidence. Left to our own devices, we wander far from the source of light and truth. But the Spirit has other plans. God’s Spirit continually reaches out to embrace and encourage us.
The Holy Spirit is a Gift
The Holy Spirit is not something that resides in us or is under our control. There is such a thing as the human spirit, of course. This is the source of our imagination and creativity. It enables poets, painters, writers to practice express their gifts and it inspires magnificent works in literature and art. But when we attach the word “Holy” to the word “Spirit” we move beyond the human realm. We are now speaking of God and a force beyond human manipulation. Similar to the wind, the Holy Spirit is not something we can manage or direct (Acts 2:2).
The Holy Spirit Means Trouble
This might strike people as a bit odd. After all, Jesus calls the Holy Spirit the “helper” (John 16:7). Furthermore, we are told the fruits of the Spirit are things like peace and joy (Galatians 5:22-23). And it is true that to be in a relationship with Christ (the chief task of the Holy Spirit as explained above) does bring a peace that passes all understanding. But those joined to Christ in faith by the Spirit are also returned to the world in lives of self-giving love.
The first thing the Spirit does after descending upon Jesus in his baptism is to drive him out into the desert for a frightening encounter with the devil (Mark 1:12-13). Think about that … the desert … a place traditionally identified with temptation and trial. People should be cautioned about associating the Holy Spirit with “playing it safe” or material abundance. As a wise, older pastor once told me, the “Spirit brings us to where the pain is.”
In fact, our text from Romans assumes that those who are part of God’s family will also experience difficulty. As joint heirs with Christ “we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:17). Paul’s point is not that we go out and seek suffering. That would turn suffering into a “good work” and simply be another attempt to manipulate God to our own ends. Nor does our participation in suffering mean that we are somehow in the midst of the Spirit’s work.
For example, I do not believe that God wishes things like depression for his children. However, those caught up in the Spirit, that is, those joined to the radical love of Jesus Christ, should not be surprised that it leads to conflict, struggle and trouble. After all, the Spirit not only drove Jesus to the desert; it also propelled him on a ministry that would eventually lead to a cross.
Gospel Mt 28:16-20
Readers today often interpret this passage as a directive to evangelize others. After all, the imperative verb is right there: “make disciples of all nations…” (28:19). Although Jesus uses the formula “Father and Son and Holy Spirit,” Trinitarian theology as we know it took many centuries to develop. Reading it backward into this first century Gospel may not be appropriate.
But if we only read this passage as a manifesto on evangelism, we may be missing out. The passage is also a strong statement of the authority of the risen Jesus. The word “therefore” in “Go therefore and make disciples” suggests that the action of making disciples results from the previous verse: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 20:18). Jesus’ instructions result from the authority he possesses.
Because of this, it is fitting to reflect on this passage on Holy Trinity Sunday. The risen Jesus, fully vested with divine authority, stands before his disciples with one final teaching.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). Jesus’ authority has been apparent from the outset of the Gospel. His healing powers testify to his authority over demons and sickness. He casts out demons “by the Spirit of God,” which is evidence of the presence of God’s kingdom (12:28). The power of God’s Spirit comes into the world through Jesus as he shows compassion to those who need him (9:36; 14:14).
Jesus also has the authority of the Son of Man. Many interpreters identify the authority of Matthew 28:18 with the dominion given to the human one in Daniel 7:13-14: “I saw one like a human being [Aramaic: one like a son of man] coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.” Because Matthew has already identified Jesus as the Son of Man, the authority given to Jesus evokes this scene from Daniel, in which the human one comes to have authority over all.
As the Son of Man, Jesus already displays the divine authority to forgive sins. He heals a paralyzed man not only for the man’s sake but “so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Matthew 9:6). Because the power to forgive resides with God alone, the scribes think Jesus has committed blasphemy. But Matthew presents Jesus as the one who rightly claims this authority because he is the Son of Man.
Jesus’ instructions connect his authority to the topic of baptism. Although baptism has not been mentioned since Matthew 3, in that context John the Baptist connected Jesus’ authority to judge with baptism. John pointed to one “more powerful than I” who “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (3:11-12).
Jesus’ instruction to baptize in Matthew 28:19 calls to mind the baptism “with Holy Spirit and fire” that John foretold. In recognition of the divine authority Jesus possesses, his followers are also to be marked through baptism -- not in John’s name or the Spirit’s name alone but “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (28:19). The Son is evoked alongside Father and Spirit to identify the power that acts in baptism. It is a baptism that fully acknowledges the authority the Son possesses.
Finally, Jesus’ authority as a teacher comes through in these verses. The disciples should teach others “to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Jesus is the source of commandments that disciples should obey.
Matthew’s aim was not to convey a fully developed Trinitarian theology but to spread the good news about Jesus. Part of that good news is that Jesus fully shares the authority of the Father and the Spirit. He is a powerful healer, judge, and teacher, because his power is the same divine power known throughout the stories of the Old Testament. Through this power, those who become disciples may experience his mercy and learn to live by his teachings.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about some examples of team mascots or team emblems/logos. They identify the team as a group. Think about the cross. what group is identified by the cross.
- As Christians, we claim the cross of Jesus as a mark of our identity. In fact, there is something we do as Catholics when we gather to pray that also shows our identity as Christians. What do we do? (make the Sign of the Cross) What words do we say as we make the Sign of the Cross? (In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.)
- When we make the Sign of the Cross, we name ourselves Christians by saying the name of God, who is three Persons in one—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Does anyone know what we call this teaching of our faith? (the Trinity) This Sunday is called the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, and on this day we remember that God has revealed himself to us in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- Our Gospel for today reminds us of our Baptism, the first time that we were marked with the Sign of the Cross.
- In today’s Gospel, what does Jesus tell his disciples to do? (teach all nations about Jesus and baptize in the name of the Trinity) The Church today continues to teach all people about Jesus and to baptize in the name of the Trinity. When we were baptized, the priest, our parents, and our godparents traced a cross on our foreheads. The priest also spoke the name of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—as we were baptized with water. These signs remind us that through our Baptism, we share in the life of the blessed Trinity.
- Try to remember that we also have been given the power to teach others about Jesus through our Baptism. In conclusion pray the Glory Be to the Father.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end.
Amen.
Sunday May 20, 2018 - Pentecost Sunday - Mass during the Day
Lectionary: 63
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:1-11
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.
At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
"Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?
We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
How manifold are your works, O LORD!
the earth is full of your creatures;
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD be glad in his works!
Pleasing to him be my theme;
I will be glad in the LORD.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13
Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Gospel Jn 20:19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:1-11
Today’s lectionary passage begins with the one hundred twenty gathered together. Luke then describes the coming of the Holy Spirit as the sound of a rushing wind, an apparition of tongues resting on each, and the gift of the ability to speak in other languages. The narrative turns next to the outsiders who witness this spectacle. These include immigrants to Jerusalem from all over the Mediterranean basin. Exegetical notes
When the day of Pentecost had come: Although contemporary Jews commemorate the holy gift of the Law, Torah, at Mt. Sinai on Shavuot, it is not clear whether the ancient harvest festival carried that meaning in Luke’s day. Whether or not it did, Luke’s narrative serves as a Christian appropriation and reinterpretation of the festival day.
…there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind: comprises one long sentence describing the coming of the Holy Spirit. This is no gentle inbreaking. The spirit comes suddenly, even violently upon the gathered. Fiery tongues appear and settle on each of them. Luke makes no distinction here, with regards to gender, as he will in other parts of Acts. Then the gathered begin to speak in “other tongues” as enabled by the spirit. The later verses in this passage clarify that these are known languages of the Mediterranean basin, rather than the spiritual language that Paul calls glossolalia in 1 Corinthians 12-14.
Now there were devout Jews: Acts 2 focuses on the growth of belief in Jesus among Jews, not among Gentiles as will be the case in Acts 10. Moreover, these are not pilgrims to the harvest festival; they are immigrants, inhabitants of Jerusalem (Acts 2:5). Their homelands encircle Palestine in all directions (2:9-11). Further, they have mother tongues other than the languages of Palestine (Acts 2:8, 11). This points to the cultural diversity of Jews of Luke’s day, likely caused in part by various diasporas (Jews living outside of Israel).
All were amazed and perplexed: Here, “amazed” should be considered a less than pleasant emotion. This is not the joy of a child seeing a magic trick. These have gathered because they also heard the violent wind (Acts 2:6). Their sentiment is closer to bewilderment; they are flummoxed by all of the signs and portents. Some, of course, mock the happenings as a scene caused by people drunk on new wine (2:13). Luke uses their question “What does this mean” to launch into Peter’s speech.
In Luke’s telling, Pentecost engenders fear and bewilderment rather than celebration. The parallel here is to the eschatological day of the Lord. Pentecost is both its forerunner and, paradoxically, its fulfillment. The Holy Spirit proves not to be a quiet, heavenly dove, but rather a violent force that blows the church into being (Acts 2:41-47). That church consists mainly of immigrants, people of different languages and cultures with different mother tongues (Acts 2:5, 9-12, 14). To these, the message goes forth, a message of the coming of the Day of the Lord, full of heavenly portents and prophetic women, slaves, and men. But in the midst of the chaos of Pentecost rests an anchor. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
This reading from Psalm 104 is a case in point.
A quick glance at the text reveals a three-part structure:
- Verses 24 through 26 describe the wondrous character of God's creation;
- Verses 27 through 30 describe God's providence;
- Verses 31 through 35 turn to praise.
The Wonders of Creation (24-26)
In the portion of the Psalm that precedes this reading, the Psalmist has offered an extensive catalogue of the many things that God has created. Accordingly, we have the exclamation of verse 24, "How manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures." It is, in one sense, a summary of what came before.
Nevertheless, the crowning example of the sea and its most awesome creature (Leviathan) serves perfectly well to illustrate the point without reference to those earlier verses. What God has created is awesome beyond the comprehension of mortals.
No ancient Israelite could even begin to claim full comprehension of the sea, with its vastness, unpredictability, and dangerous power. Indeed, despite all the efforts of science and exploration that lie between the ancients and our own time, the sea remains in many ways mysterious and in all ways uncontrollable.
The claim here is that God created and therefore has dominion over not only the sea but even its most dangerous and terrifying inhabitant, the whale/sea monster Leviathan. If there are such incredible wonders in the creation, the power, wisdom, and skill of the creator must be even more incredible.
Dependence upon Providence (27-30)
A natural question arising from looking at the near-infinite diversity of creatures is, "How do they all find what they need to survive? How can the world provide for so many different needs?"
The Psalmist turns the improbability of the world furnishing a suitable niche for so many different creatures into another theological observation: it all depends on the providence of God. Whatever lives, says the Psalm, is receiving life, breath, and sustenance from the hand of the Creator. And if that providing hand were ever to be closed, no creature could survive.
The existence of life, then, is an argument for the providence of God!
Praise the Lord! (31-35)
While one might well be tempted to focus on the Pentecost connection mentioned above as the culmination of the treatment of the Psalm, it would be a mistake to disregard the Psalmist's chosen conclusion. The movement from contemplation of the creation through recognition of God's providence must, in the logic of the Psalter, lead to praise.
The proper response of the creature to the Creator is always one of reverent celebration, and the recognition of how extensively God has provided and sustained us is cause for the Psalmist to break out in joyful superlatives.
Praise should come forth "as long as I live," and "while I have being." The Lord's glory is so clearly shown in his creation and providence that the creaturely life must be one of thanksgiving and praise. How else could one respond to such a God?
Seeing the wonders of creation and providence doesn't just encourage us to say, "Wow! God is pretty great." Instead, they demand that the blight of sin be removed, so that the creation may be entirely what God intends it to be.
In Jesus Christ, God has indeed dealt decisively with the blight of sin, not by slaughtering sinners, but by redeeming them. This good news should set off an even more exuberant round of praise than the Psalmist's! But no better beginning could be made to such news than that which closes the Psalm, the first "Hallelujah!" or "Praise the Lord!" of the Psalter.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13
What does it look like to be people of Pentecost, to be those claimed by the Spirit?
In the cultural buffet that is offered under the sign of “spirituality,” this passage from 1 Corinthians makes some important claims about the Spirit through which the church lives, and about the shape of faithful spirituality.
Paul’s discussion begins in verse 3 by insisting that the undeniable sign of the Spirit’s activity will be confession of Jesus as Lord. The Spirit brings faith itself, and specifically faith focused on Jesus as Lord.
This is a radically inclusive claim. As far as the Spirit is concerned, there will be no room for the categories that culture might use to divide the haves from the have-nots (“Jews or Greeks, slaves or free,” verse 13). By the very nature of faith as a divine gift, the Spirit has been and continues to be active in all who confess Jesus as Lord.
Paul indicates how to understand the Spirit’s activity in the church by his identification of the Spirit’s work through the believers as “gifts.” The root of this word points to the nature of these gifts: the gifts (“charismata”) are the result of God’s grace (“charis”). The gifts of the Spirit are the active, experienced instances of God’s grace at work in the church. All believers are given such gifts of the Spirit (notice “everyone” and “each” in 6b-7a).
To be gifted by the Spirit is not something that happens to some believers but not to others. Paul never gives us the impression that he expects some people in the church to be the ones who are ministering, and that there are others who are simply ministered to because they haven’t been given any of the Spirit’s gifts.
It isn’t quite right to simply equate talents with “gifts of the Spirit” either; there is something more involved than simply talent. Paul’s central point about these gifts is made in verse 7, where he notes that these gifts are given to each for the good of the whole church. This allows room for us to rightly identify as gifts of the Spirit those talents that are informed by, summoned by, and “energized” by the Spirit for the good of the church.
We are not talking about being “gifted” individuals who have the talents required to get ahead and earn a good salary or the admiration of others. Paul wants the Corinthians to adopt a new way of looking at spirituality by seeing these abilities as a means through which God is at work with grace and mercy for the whole community. It is that dynamic which transforms talents into gifts of the Spirit. When, by God’s grace and power, talents are reoriented away from us and our own interests and when they become vehicles for God’s love, they are truly the Spirit’s gifts to the church.
Believers are not simply individuals who are empowered and gifted by the Spirit. They are interconnected parts of a single body, and it is to this image that Paul turns near the end of our passage. Others in Paul’s culture used the image of the body to strengthen the hierarchy of society. Philosophers and politicians said that human society was like a body, which had to have a head that told everything else what to do. Of course, the elite rich get to be the head (or the stomach!), and the poor need to keep working as the hands and feet.
Paul overturns this common use of the body image. He questions any assumption that some members of the body are more important than any others. In the body of Christ, behavior will not be determined by concern for honor and status, but by what builds up the whole body, by interdependence, and by love. The work of the Spirit, correctly understood, will result in a unified body of Christ, not in competition or division, since we all receive life and growth from the same flowing baptismal grace (verse 13).
Gospel Jn 20:19-23
Fear colors the scene, as Jesus' followers have secured themselves from the authorities (that is the referent of the problematic expression "the Jews" in 20:19). Note, then, the importance of the language that introduces Jesus' commission: "Peace be with you." Jesus gives peace not "as the world gives" (14:27); he gives peace that provides solace in the face of persecution, a promise of new possibilities, and confidence in his ability to overcome "the world" (16:33). (In this Gospel, "the world" usually indicates a hostile and ignorant response to the truth that Jesus embodies.)
Recalling the moment when God breathed life into the original earth person in Genesis 2:7 (cf. Ezekiel 37:9), Jesus breathes the Spirit of life into (not merely "on") his followers in John 20:22. A new creation is afoot. This creation does not replace "the world." It engages it.
"Forgiving" and "Retaining" Sins
The final verse requires some attention, because many people experience "the Johannine Pentecost" like this:
- Jesus bestows peace upon his worried followers. Great!
- Jesus fills them with the Holy Spirit. Great!
- Jesus tells them they can forgive or retain other people's sins. Huh?
It is imperative that we make sense of this verse in light of all that has come before it. Too many mistakes have been made in the past by those who have read John 20:23 in isolation or with a sloppy connection to the unrelated words of Matthew 16:19. We must attend to how the Johannine Jesus has already characterized the problem of "sin," the role of the Holy Spirit, and the nature of his ministry. If not, we risk perpetuating a legacy of misuse and polemic that has muddied this verse across the history of its interpretation.
Jesus is not appointing the church as his moral watchdog; nor does he commission it to arbitrate people's assets and liabilities on a heavenly balance sheet.
In John's Gospel, Jesus talks about sin as unbelief, the unwillingness or incapacity to grasp the truth of God manifested in him. To have sin abide, therefore, is to remain estranged from God. The consequence of such a condition is ongoing resistance. Sin in John is not about moral failings; primarily it is an inability or refusal to recognize God's revelation when confronted by it, in Jesus.
Consequently, the resurrected Christ tells his followers (all his followers) that, through the Spirit that enables them to bear witness, they can set people free ("set free" or "release" is a better translation than "forgive" in 20:23) from that state of affairs. They can be a part of seeing others come to believe in Jesus and what he discloses.
Failure to bear witness, Jesus warns, will result in the opposite: a world full of people left unable to grasp the knowledge of God. That is what it means to "retain" sins ("retain" is the opposite of "set free"). Jesus is not--at least, not in this verse--granting the church a unique spiritual authority. He is simply reporting that a church that does not bear witness to Christ is a church that leaves itself unable to play a role in delivering people from all that keeps them from experiencing the fullness that Jesus offers.
Jesus Lives
Receiving the Spirit, the church receives Jesus. And so the church receives Jesus' own capacity to make God manifest, bringing light to the world. The Trinitarian intimacy inferred from John's presentation of these ideas is striking, but even more so is the intimacy expressed between the Divine and humanity.
Such intimacy between God and us is but one consequence of the rich Easter confession about what happens when God raises a corpse to new life. Jesus lives, yes--not apart from us, but in and through us.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Name some situations in which greater peace is needed. These examples could be taken from current events, from history or family life.
- Now choose one of the situations named and identify some of the issues involved in this conflict. What are some of the issues being contested? Why is peace lacking in this situation? What would it take to restore peace in this situation?
- When Jesus appeared to his disciples after his Resurrection, his first words to them were a greeting of peace.
- Why might Jesus’ greeting of peace have been so welcome to his disciples? (They were gathered in the upper room in fear; they had witnessed Jesus’ death on the cross). As witnesses to Jesus’ death, the disciples had been very much a part of a situation of conflict. They gathered together in fear, perhaps because they thought that some people would seek their deaths as well. They needed to hear Jesus’ words of peace and reassurance.
- The feast of Pentecost celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus’ first disciples. This same Holy Spirit is still with us. After breathing upon them and giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit, what does Jesus tell his disciples to do? (to forgive sins)
- Just as Jesus sent his disciples to forgive the sins of others, so too are we sent to bring peace to the world. And we also have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us with this task.
- Looking back at the situation of conflict you thought about at the beginning, what might the Holy Spirit lead you to do to help bring peace to the situation? No right or wrong answers here jut your thoughts.
- Pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to work through us to bring peace to the world. Pray the Prayer to the Holy Spirit.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord, by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Sunday May 13, 2018 - The Ascension of the Lord
Lectionary: 58
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 1:1-11
In the first book, Theophilus,
I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught
until the day he was taken up,
after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit
to the apostles whom he had chosen.
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for "the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
When they had gathered together they asked him,
"Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
He answered them, "It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth."
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, "Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
All you peoples, clap your hands,
shout to God with cries of gladness,
For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome,
is the great king over all the earth.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.
Sing praise to God, sing praise;
sing praise to our king, sing praise.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
For king of all the earth is God;
sing hymns of praise.
God reigns over the nations,
God sits upon his holy throne.
R. God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
Reading 2 Eph 1:17-23
Brothers and sisters:
May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
give you a Spirit of wisdom and revelation
resulting in knowledge of him.
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened,
that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call,
what are the riches of glory
in his inheritance among the holy ones,
and what is the surpassing greatness of his power
for us who believe,
in accord with the exercise of his great might,
which he worked in Christ,
raising him from the dead
and seating him at his right hand in the heavens,
far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion,
and every name that is named
not only in this age but also in the one to come.
And he put all things beneath his feet
and gave him as head over all things to the church,
which is his body,
the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
Gospel Mk 16:15-20
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Go into the whole world
and proclaim the gospel to every creature.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved;
whoever does not believe will be condemned.
These signs will accompany those who believe:
in my name they will drive out demons,
they will speak new languages.
They will pick up serpents with their hands,
and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them.
They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them,
was taken up into heaven
and took his seat at the right hand of God.
But they went forth and preached everywhere,
while the Lord worked with them
and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 1:1-11
The book of Acts begins by reminding its reader, Theophilus, of an earlier book -- the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:1-4), placing the reader in the midst of an extended story with Jesus at the center.
The second book, Acts, retains its links to this primal history and describes a new, equally primal history. The book also begins with a small family, brothers and sisters in Christ, living under the rule of that same empire. As the Holy Spirit empowers them, they will become Christ’s “witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The reader is welcomed into this narrative with its own miraculous events, rebirths, and prophecies that will interrupt and transform individuals and communities. From the start, these people overcome severe opposition and find the joy of life God intended from the beginning, enduring into the future.
Through the opening interchange between Jesus and the apostles, Acts reminds its readers of their grounding in a central element of history -- God created us for life and preserves us. “After [Jesus’] suffering he presented himself alive to them” (Acts 1:3). Because he has life, we have life.
If those purposes seem empty or that power seems absent, at times we serve best by waiting (Acts 1:4-5). In our current American culture, “waiting” is generally held as something to be avoided. Fast food, next day deliveries, nonstop flights, Google searches that take milliseconds, on-demand movies, text messaging, and so on all create a culture of impatience. Not that these are all bad, but Acts reminds us that the God of all time acts on God’s own time, and sometimes we just need to wait, sit, and be.
While we wait, Acts reminds us not to assume we already know what we’re waiting for. When Jesus returns to the disciples as promised, they essentially ask, “We already know what you’re going to do. When will you do it?” Although we benefit from certainty in our faith, it helps to remember that God’s ways are not our ways, and God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).
Along those lines, it is not clear that the disciples were expecting Jesus to be lifted up and taken out of sight. From the first book until now -- first surprise, Jesus is crucified; second, he is risen; third, he’s back eating and talking; fourth, he is gone again. The exact nature of what “ascension” was or how it fits with a scientific worldview -- these get no more explanation in Acts than resurrection does in the rest of the New Testament. Whatever it was, it aligns with a slender thread through scripture, found in Elijah’s chariot of fire disappearing into a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11) or possibly in Paul’s talk of someone caught up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:1-4). Luke and Acts both describe the ascension (Luke 24:50-51, Acts 1:9), along with other boundary-crossing glimpses into divine realities: transfiguration (Luke 9:28-36), the wind and fire of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13), Stephen’s pre-martyrdom vision of Christ (Acts 7:55), the complementary visions of Saul on the road to Damascus and Ananias, who welcomed him after he arrived (Acts 9:1-19), Peter’s visionary conversation with God over new dietary laws (Acts 10:9-16), and so on.
Though, as mentioned above, Acts has moments where the people are advised to wait, it is foremost a record of people and God in motion. Luke and Acts show how people, based on all that Jesus did and taught and all the Spirit empowers them to do, act where they are and wherever God calls them to go. And, so, the two men in white robes say to Jesus’ followers, “People wherever you are, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? It’s time to move.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
Since ancient times Psalm 47 has been used for worship.
It is plain to see why Christians have used it on Ascension Day. “God has gone up with a shout” (47:5) brings to mind Jesus’ ascent into heaven. “The early church used the psalm to celebrate the ascension of Jesus, a practice that is commonly followed still in the liturgy of many churches.
Long before Easter, Psalm 47 had a place in Israel’s worship. It is an enthronement Psalm, not for an earthly king but for God. In Psalm 47, the LORD reigns. Psalm 47 proclaims that God is in heaven, ruling over earth.2 The Psalm summits in verse 6: “God has gone up with a shout, the LORD amid trumpet blasts.” Some scholars have supposed that 47:6 envisions the entrance of God into the sanctuary, symbolized by the procession of the holy ark of the Covenant. In any case Psalm 47:6 “expresses the theological heart of the psalter, God reigns.”3
Psalm 47 may be divided into two sections. Verses 1-4 begin with the cue (or command) to clap, shout, and sing. Then we hear the reason for all this joy: God “subdued peoples” and “nations” and “chose our heritage” for God’s people. God made Israel into a nation with a name and a land to dwell in. “The pride of Jacob” (verse 5) refers to the land that God gave to the people, land which once belonged to other nations. In the New Testament, we find a similar expression: “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy”(1 Peter 2:10). There is a before and an after, defined by the mighty acts of God.
Next comes the (literal) high point of the Psalm, verse 6 in which “God has gone up with a shout.” This may refer to a processional in worship, demonstrating that God is enthroned in the heavens. The theological meaning is that that God rules over all nations -- indeed of the entire universe. Israel rejoiced in being God’s people, but also in knowing God as LORD of all, not just some local deity.
The second section of the Psalm, verse 6-9, continues the joy. In verse 7 alone, the people are told four times to sing. Here’s why: God is Lord over all the peoples. “God is king over the nations.” The kings and princes -- those who wield power on earth -- gather to worship God. If only we could hear this psalm instead of just read it, our ears would ring with a royal fanfare of trumpets, and the clapping, shouting and singing would be like waves crashing on the shore.
Above the joyful din come the clear notes of God’s mercy and power. In particular events in history, God is at work delivering and saving Israel. Yet in those specific acts of God, the general mercy and power of God are revealed for all nations. Since God rules overall, all who join in the worship become partakers of God’s blessings.
With this background in mind, it makes perfect sense that churches use Psalm 47 on Ascension Day. The obvious connection is that Christians applied “God has gone up with a shout” (Psalm 47:5) to Jesus being “lifted up” into the sky (Acts 1:9).
Reading 2 Eph 1:17-23
Ephesians 1:15-23 is one of the longer prayer sections in Paul’s letters.
Rhetorically, Paul’s prayer does more than just record the content of his prayer for his audience to read. It serves to (re)establish the vision for their identity and reassert the nature of the faith-life into which they have been called.
Why is Paul doing this, why does he say things in the particular way he does in Ephesians? Context would explain this, of course. But we know little about the context of Paul’s audience. It is likely that the original audience may have been broader than the community in Ephesus. Nevertheless, one clear theme is reconciliation in Christ -- reconciliation to God and consequently also to one another, reconciliation that crosses established lines Greco-Roman culture and human traditions had drawn that kept certain peoples apart. Reminding people of our rootedness in God’s reconciling action in Christ and of its very real consequences for how we live in relation to one another is something we can never wear out.
The general flow of this section can helpfully be broken up into three sections but only two are presented to us today.
Verses 17-19. Here, Paul highlights the purpose of his prayer. He remembers the community in Christ and prays constantly “in order that God … might give you all (as with 90% of the uses of “you” in the New Testament, it is plural) a spirit of wisdom and revelation … ”
Paul’s emphasis here lies on his hope that God will make known to the community God’s wisdom, riches, hope, and power. The wisdom, etc. is for the community, to be worked out as the people live and love in relationship with one another and the surrounding world.
Paul’s theological logic roots the community’s existence in what God has done; it is God who has acted for them. It is good to keep playing this tune as it is all too easy for us humans to start thinking that we can actually set the course for our own existence and believe that it is actually going to turn out well. However, if we play this tune too generically, it loses much of its power. We need to be reminded more specifically of God’s activity that establishes and defines us, and not just generically that we are free or forgiven or redeemed not by what we’ve done but because of what God has done. We need constant reminder of the transforming and upside-down to the world nature of God’s act in the crucified Jesus who now reigns as Lord of all creation. The wisdom, riches, hope, and power come through and are lived out in ways the normal systems of the world would find “foolish.”
Verses 20-23. Here, Paul elaborates on the power of God, focusing on God’s power displayed in God’s raising and exaltation of Jesus Christ.
As a conclusion to the prayer, this section builds on the previous verses that point to what God has done, and it draws focus to the wondrous glory of God that has been “energized” in Christ. At first sight, this passage seems very triumphalist. Paul specifies God’s exaltation of Christ above all things, placing all things under the feet of Christ, and appointing Christ as the head of the church, which is his body.
What makes the difference is not what Paul explicitly says here, but what he assumes. In verses 19-20 Paul writes that the power and strength which God “energizes” is the power that God worked first when God raised Christ from the dead. What gives this statement its bite is the subtle presumption that Christ’s exaltation and Lordship proceed from and are established upon his suffering and death.
The powers and dominions in our Ephesians passage are subjects paradoxically because Christ became a slave. This is, as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, God’s power in weakness, foolishness from the world’s perspective, yet God’s wisdom. This is “enlightenment”: transformation through slavery, suffering, and death.
If Christ is the head, as a suffering and dying head, he is the head also of a suffering body that has died to the world’s systems. Christ’s system is not power but service, indeed, slavery in love. Paul’s prayer here in Ephesians does not proclaim victory and triumph as it had always been understood. Rather, by reminding his audience of God’s victory and triumph that comes through raising the crucified Christ, Paul reminds them of the establishment of a new order: God’s new order under the Lordship of the one who became a slave to death.
The old powers, rulers, and dominions defined by power no longer call the shots for those who are in Christ. As Paul goes on to say in chapter 2, sin and the life marked by transgression of God’s good purposes no longer have dominion. This means, as Paul will write about in most of Ephesians, that those systems of existence that kept Jew and Gentile in antagonism no longer determine life. Paul’s prayer reminds the audience of the wisdom, power, and glory of God that give birth to their new existence, an existence rooted in the one whose suffering and death reconciled the world. It is a prayer that their lives of faith active in love would be established upon and molded by this wisdom and subversive power of God. This is Paul’s prayer. Is it ours?
Gospel Mk 16:15-20
The text consists of two parts: a summary of Jesus' preaching in 1:14-15; and a call story in 1:16-20.
These two parts are connected by the sense of urgency brought on via the proclamation of the reign of God.
Mark tells us that after John was "handed over" , Jesus returned to Galilee and began to preach the gospel. One translation speaks of paradothēnai as "arrested," however, the Greek verb has a much fuller sense. It includes an allusion to John's death, for the verb paradidōmi is used in Mark and elsewhere in the New Testament to speak of Jesus' being handed over to death (e.g., Mark 14:21; Romans 4:25; 1 Corinthians 11:23). Consider the evidence linking these two men's deaths. Both men were prophets who offended the powers that be. Both died violent deaths. Moreover, Mark placed similar passages questioning the identity of Jesus before the account of John's death (6:14-16), and before the first of the three passion predictions (8:27-30), which suggests that he saw a parallel between the two men's deaths. As has been long observed, the cross of Jesus casts a long shadow over the Gospel of Mark. Thus, already in Mark 1:14 the mention of John's being "handed over" raises the specter of Jesus' death. For Mark, Jesus' kingdom ministry takes place, from the very beginning, under the shadow of the cross.
In 1:15 there follows a summary of Jesus' preaching. Such summaries are common throughout the synoptic gospels (cf. Matthew 4:23; 9:35). Mark appears to have constructed this summary on material from Jesus' preaching. The very fact that Mark places this summary of Jesus' preaching of the gospel after mention of John's being "handed over" may be based on tradition containing Jesus' view of history such as is recorded in Luke 16:16, namely, that "the law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed." With the end of John's ministry comes the end of one stage of history. Now, Jesus and his gospel come to center stage. Jesus' ministry is the center of all history.
The reliance on traditional material is evident in the rest of 1:15. The proclamation that "the kingdom of God has come near" (ēggiken hē basileia tou theou) is found elsewhere in Jesus' sayings (Matthew 10:7; Luke 10:9, 11). In addition, Jesus' healings and exorcisms were particularly connected to the coming of the kingdom (Matthew 12:28, Luke 11:20; cf. Matthew 10:7-8, Luke 10:9). It is possible that Jesus thought that both were true. Wherever he conducted his ministry, there God's reign was actively coming into being, even if the kingdom might not come fully until the future.
The announcement that "the time (kairos) is fulfilled (peplērōtai)" also has the ring of tradition. Luke similarly begins his account of Jesus' Galilean ministry with Jesus preaching in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth about the "year of the Lord's favor" that Isaiah had prophesied (Isaiah 61:2). Jesus then said, that time had been fulfilled (peplērōtai) in the people's hearing that very day (Luke 4:19, 21).
Interestingly, Isaiah 60:22, coming just before the part of Isaiah quoted in Luke 4, speaks of the time (Greek: kairos) when God would bring about the restoration of Israel. Possibly this is the source of the statement about the kairos in Mark 1:15. It is likely that the latter half of Isaiah lies behind Jesus' eschatological vision, and is the source of his understanding of the kingdom. Isaiah 61:1 characterizes the time of the Lord's favor as a time of preaching the good news (Greek: euaggelizesthai).
Isaiah 52:7 connects the preaching of good news with the proclamation of God's reign. Thus, the good news of the kingdom of God is that the one true God, with his life and peace and truth, is about to establish his rule over the world. All other opposing powers--whether human powers or sin or evil or death--are destined to end their rule.
The second section (Mark 1:16-20) then illustrates what the urgent call of the kingdom looks like. Jesus, walking along the Sea of Galilee, sees the two brothers Simon and Andrew, fishermen, casting their nets in the sea. He calls them to follow, and immediately, in obedience, they leave their nets and follow him. The same happens with James and John. The time is here, God's kingdom is near; there is no time to lose!
It is striking that these four men would drop everything to follow Jesus if they did not already know him. Indeed, some scholars have speculated that they actually knew Jesus, or knew about him, before he called them into discipleship. Whatever the history of the relationship between Jesus and these four men may have been, however, the story gives effective expression to the urgency of the call to discipleship.
Consider also that Mark portrays Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom coming not only as a gift ("good news"), but also with a demand ("repent"). To be sure, the indicative ("the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near") precedes the imperative ("repent and believe in the good news"). What humans do, comes as a response to God's prevenient action. Still, we must not overlook that the one who promises the kingdom to sinners is the same one who calls sinners to repentance and who calls disciples to give up all that they have to follow him. Since in Jesus everything is given to me, in Jesus everything is demanded of me. The four disciples' willingness to throw in their lot completely with Jesus illustrates that attitude.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about a time when you called upon another person who you believed had more knowledge and/or power to help you. Perhaps you asked a friend about car trouble or an electrical issue.
- We are able to do many more things on our own. But each of us, every now and then, requires a little extra assistance from someone who has more knowledge and power than we have. In some ways, we can think about the assistance that we receive from Jesus in this way. This is one of the things we remember as we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension.
- In today’s Gospel, we heard the instructions that Jesus gave to his disciples before he was taken up to heaven.
- What instructions does Jesus give to his disciples? (Proclaim the Gospel to the entire world; bring people to salvation through Baptism.) By what signs will belief in Jesus be recognized? (healing of the sick; driving out demons; speaking new languages; protection from harm)
- Jesus is telling his disciples that they will be able to do some of the very things that he had done during his life.
- Where does the Gospel of Mark tell us Jesus went after he was taken to heaven? (a seat at God’s right hand)
- Forty days after his Resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven. Mark’s Gospel tells us that a seat was already prepared for him, at the right hand of God. We certainly have a powerful ally in Jesus. If we ask him, he will help us follow his example.
- Pray that we will remember to call upon Jesus to help us as we try to follow his example.
Pray the Apostles’ Creed.
I believe in God,
the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
He descended into hell;
on the third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from there He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Catholic Church,
the communion of Saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting.
Amen.
Sunday May 6, 2018 Sixth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 56
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
When Peter entered, Cornelius met him
and, falling at his feet, paid him homage.
Peter, however, raised him up, saying,
"Get up. I myself am also a human being."
Then Peter proceeded to speak and said,
"In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.
Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly
is acceptable to him."
While Peter was still speaking these things,
the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the word.
The circumcised believers who had accompanied Peter
were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit
should have been poured out on the Gentiles also,
for they could hear them speaking in tongues and glorifying God.
Then Peter responded,
"Can anyone withhold the water for baptizing these people,
who have received the Holy Spirit even as we have?"
He ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
or:
R. Alleluia.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
R. The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Jn 4:7-10
Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.
In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sin
Gospel Jn 15:9-17
Jesus said to his disciples:
"As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father's commandments
and remain in his love.
"I have told you this so that my joy may be in you
and your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one's life for one's friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
In a vision Cornelius is told to send for Peter. Who was in Joppa. The humility of Peter is evident when he tells Cornelius to get up for he too is a human being. When Peter entered he found many people gathered together 28i and said to them, “You know that it is unlawful for a Jewish man to associate with, or visit, a Gentile, but God has shown me that I should not call any person profane or unclean.*
He speaks to the household and friends of Cornelius, a notable leader of Roman soldiers who is nevertheless described as "God-fearing" (10:2, 22). This means that he helped the poor and was also known for his regular prayer life (10:2, 32). Peter's "sermon" is startling and even destabilizing. He announces God's radical love is on the move, breaking down cherished and long-held borders and categories.
Peter begins by saying that "God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" (10:34). God shows no partiality! Think of how that statement challenges and undermines our tendency to confine God to the comfortable categories of our own "religions." In Peter's day, the inclusion of Gentiles in God's mission was profoundly controversial. Many of the original followers of Jesus could not conceive of a messiah meant for non-Jews, even though God's promises to Israel have always had universal trajectory (Genesis 12:3).
We are not that different. We tend to build our own "private" faiths, drawing lines around who is "in" and who is "out." And we get upset when people mess with our religion.
The idea that God shows no partiality has sometimes been misunderstood. This is not an affirmation of a superficial universalism. Peter is hardly claiming the modern creed of many in the West who say that God is all-loving and therefore is far above all human religions. According to this line of thinking, God simply wants us to be kind to others and is fundamentally uninterested in particular religious differences.
Our attempts to control God and keep God safely within our predetermined categories are contradicted by the early Christian preaching about Jesus. Most commentators on this text agree that Peter's speech in Acts 10:38-43 is something like an early Christian creed. At the center of this preaching is the fact that this one "anointed" by God ( the messiah) dies on a tree (10:38-39). But according to Jewish law anyone who dies this way is "cursed," literally cut off from the people of God (Deuteronomy 21:23). So early Christian preaching has God most fully revealed in the most unthinkable of places-in the execution of a criminal on a cross. By whatever measurement-religious, social, cultural--the death of the Jew named Jesus was hideous, shameful, and offensive. But because he bore the sin of the world, the cross becomes a place of forgiveness and reconciliation (I Corinthians 5:21).
God's love is now at loose in the world--this is what animates early Christian preaching. It is a wild and unruly force, winning over the hearts of centurions like Cornelius. It reverses conventional categories of who is "in" and who is "out." It eats with sinners and upholds love of enemies as a new norm. Let us be cautious about all human attempts to corral and control this power. The Holy One of Israel has a way of eluding human attempts to hold him tight. Indeed, our "gods" are too small.
Though interpretations will differ, most Christian traditions can agree that baptism is the place where God's love for them becomes personal. The danger of emphasizing a divine love that is "wild and unruly" (see above) is that it is perceived to be forever on the move and never really landing anywhere. But Acts makes clear there is a close link between baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit (10:47). And it is also true that the early mission of the church was inseparable from baptism (Matthew 28:19).
In other words, God's love takes up residence in human hearts. In baptism we celebrate the new life we have in Christ (Titus 3:5). It is also the place where we are joined to Christ (Romans 6:3-4). When assailed by doubt or overcome by despair, we can always point to our baptism as evidence that God's love has not passed us by. Paul's words ring in our ears: "For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his" (Romans 6:5).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 98:1, 2-3, 3-4
Did you ever try in your mind to imagine the sound of ancient musical instruments and the mindset of the ancient Israelites who played them.
Israel praised with makeshift instruments which craftsmen labored over and their sole purpose was to produce sound that would rise to the skies and be heard by God.
When they thought of God, their first reflex was Praise. Our first reflex might be far more utilitarian: We ask God for stuff, we measure God by whether God seems to be doing what we need, or else, we question God. Why does God allows this or that? Why doesn’t God fix this or that?
Praise is our best counter to evil in the world. If we are "lost in wonder, love, and praise," there is not much chance we will stumble into tawdry sin, or find ourselves jaded and cynical. Praise is the cure for despair and loneliness. If we "make a joyful noise to the Lord" (cf. Psalm 100:1), we experience a quiet in the soul, a community of love.
Psalm 98 praises the Lord "for he has done marvelous things... He has made known his victory" (Psalm 98:1-2). Weaving the universe into existence, fashioning the delicate petals on a rose, crafting massive canyons, musing in wisdom, promising eternal bliss−we could expend every minute of every day noticing some new aspect of the greatness of God.
Of course, the most marvelous "thing" God ever did was to visit us on earth. Jesus, by simply showing up on earth, by teaching, touching, suffering and rising, was and is marvelous. Jesus is the victory of God, and our only sensible response is to praise.
Reading 2 1 Jn 4:7-10
One of the best-known works of Western art is surely that section of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel which depicts God reaching down to touch Adam's fingertip and give him life. So well known is this portion of Michelangelo's monumental work that it appears not merely in art histories and coffee-table display books, but is also used and caricatured in advertising and political cartoons. Only the most jaded of tourists can fail to marvel when gazing up at the mural, so laboriously and painstakingly painted, so powerful in its depiction of the life-giving power of God. We stop, study, appraise and admire. What a masterpiece! What an artist!
In this section of the epistle, John writes, This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world (v. 9). We might be tempted to exclaim, What a masterpiece! What an artist! But "The Sending of the Son" is not simply the title of a painting that we study, admire and appreciate. Michelangelo's painting has power not just because of its artistic merits, but because we can virtually feel the life that flows from God's hand to Adam. Even so, John writes not just that God showed his love among us but that he did so by sending the Son into the world that we might live through him.
God's life-giving love, then, is the theme of this passage. As John develops this theme, he makes three important points: God is the source of all love (4:7-8); God models what genuine love is (4:9-10); and God commands us to love each other (4:11-12). We move from the assertion that God is love to the command that we are to love each other. Indeed, the whole point of the passage is to trace the relationship between God's love and human love, and to show how human love flows from God's own love. The Source of Love (4:7-8)
In exploring the relationship between God's love for us and our love for each other, the Elder makes two statements: love comes from God (v. 7), and God is love (v. 8). The second statement is more far-reaching than the first. To comprehend the sweeping character of the statement God is love, substitute the name of anyone you know--your mother, pastor, friend, a well-known Christian or hero of the faith or even yourself--for "God." Few are the people we would describe simply with the word love. Mom may be the most loving person you have known. She may have shown you what mature, self-giving, genuine love is like. But no matter how full, rich and steadfast her love, the statement "Mom is loving," can never be changed into "Mom is love." For love does not characterize her as it characterizes God.
Because God is love, love comes from God. God is the source of love. Like the electricity running through electrical wires, love comes from God to us, then flows through us to others in the community. When John exhorts his readers, let us love one another, he is encouraging them to allow God's love to flow through them. For because God is love, love must characterize those who claim to be born of God or to know God (v. 7; 3:10, 14; 4:20-21). Those who claim to be doing the will of God and reflecting God's activity in the world will be known by the love they manifest for God and for each other. This was what Jesus told his disciples (Jn 13:35).
In short, God not only gives us the command to love but has also modeled for us what true love is, just as Jesus modeled love for his disciples when he washed their feet before his death (Jn 13:1-17). Love that does not express itself concretely and in service to others is not love (1 Jn 3:16-18). But even more, God also empowers us to love. By confession of the Son whom God has sent, we are born of God and come to know God, who is love (v. 7); we are given life (v. 9); our sins are forgiven (v. 10). We come into the realm of life and love, in which we are given life and are empowered to extend the same kind of life-giving love to others. We come to know the source of love.
Gospel Jn 15:9-17
The theme of these verses is obviously love and the repeated reference to it now (5 times as verb or noun in verse 9 alone; 11 times in the lesson as a whole) clearly gives love the center stage. The effect is now to interpret the whole of the passage on vine and branches in terms of love.
Love is to be seen above all in the love of the Father as shown forth in the love of the Son. Our thoughts are intentionally directed back to the announcement of the depth of God's love for the world as evidenced in the giving of the Son. "God so loved..." (3:16). In the interconnected and unfolding message of John's gospel, it is as if every word and every passage mutually interpret one another. Using a modern analogy, one might imagine that every word in the gospel were hyperlinked to every other word in the gospel, so that "clicking" on one word necessarily explodes and expands into every other word as its commentary and frame of meaning and understanding.
The abiding relationship of vine and branches of last Sunday's lesson, which culminates in the bearing of much fruit, is now given further delineation in terms of love. If abiding is not for its own sake but has an end or a purpose, now that purpose takes shape in love. Love is the fruit of the abiding relationship of Father and the Son, just as it is of the Son and those who follow his words.
Those "words" of Jesus are characterized in this lesson as Jesus "commands" (5 times as verb or noun). Consistent with John's "just as" theology, even these commands which Jesus calls upon his disciples to keep are simply an extension of the commands of the Father which Jesus has already kept. Jesus asks nothing of his disciple community that he has not already modeled in the abiding love which he has with the Father. In this way abiding, loving, and keeping commandments are all bound up together in a mutual relationship.
Lest we miss it, the first section concludes with a direct and clear statement of the outcome or fruit of this abiding love. The commandments of Jesus are not general or scattered but focused and specific: "This is my commandment, love one another as I love you" (12). The repetition of these words again at the conclusion of the second section (17) underscores their
If love for one another is the goal of our abiding in Jesus' love, then the model for that self-giving love is stated clearly in the memorable beginning words of the second section (10-17). There is no greater love than that shown in the giving of one's life for one's friends. Though stated in general terms, the "laying down of one's life" is a pointed reference to God's giving of the Son, and in the narrative an only slightly veiled reference to and anticipation of the passion and death of Jesus on the cross. The power of God's great love in Jesus, confirmed in Easter's promise of the resurrection, always has its frame of reference and its power in Jesus' giving of his life on the cross.
Jesus now speaks of the power of that giving of life to transform the disciples' relationship and calling into a new status. These disciples are no longer to be counted as "servants" but as "friends." In the cross and resurrection they have come to know what this "greater love" has power to accomplish in them through their unity in the abiding relationship with Jesus and the Father. Jesus' words now make it further clear that the power to respond to his command to love one another comes from Jesus' own prior love and calling: "I have called you...; I have chosen you...; I have appointed you... (15, 16
The key guarantor of this abiding relationship that will usher in the fruit of love is the power of prayer. Prayer, too, is grounded in the mutual abiding relationship of Father, Son, and disciple community. The Father will give you whatever you ask in my name (16). When this promise is linked immediately with the repeated reference to Jesus' command to "love one another," it is clear that "whatever we ask" defines and directs Christian prayer toward the fulfilling of the command to love for the other. The promise that such love can be fulfilled resides in the giving that has already preceded in Jesus' love on the cross.
Jesus came so that we might experience an overflowing life (John 10:10). Jesus expresses here the longing and the promise that his joy might be in us and that only in such abiding love and joy is the wholeness of life that the Father's love has in its purview and promise. Just as the power of this love for our lives comes when we draw power from the vine, so our joy comes from knowing that we have been chosen, called, and sent. The abiding power of that love in and through us has power to renew and transform us and the whole of creation.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Has anyone ever participated in an obstacle course. If anyone has, invite him or her to talk about the experience. If no one has, describe a hypothetical obstacle course.
- What kinds of obstacles did you face in your race? How did you overcome them? Were some obstacles more difficult than others? Why? What makes an obstacle course challenging? Why do we choose to run obstacle course?
- In today’s Gospel, Jesus commands his disciples to love one another as he has loved them. I really believe that all of us want to love others as Jesus showed us to love. But sometimes we face obstacles in showing our love for others. What do you think? What obstacles do we sometimes face when we try to show our love for another person? (Accept all reasonable answers
- John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus spoke these words to his disciples during the Last Supper. Do you remember what Jesus did during the Last Supper to show his disciples how he wanted them to love one another? (He washed his disciples’ feet.) What do we know that Jesus will do soon after the Last Supper to show his love for his disciples? (He will die on the cross.) For Jesus, even death was not an obstacle in showing his love for his disciples, who were his friends.
- Jesus also calls us his friends, and he showed his great love for us in his sacrifice on the cross. God raised Jesus from the dead, and Jesus continues to help us show love to others. One way that he helps us is through the promise he made in today’s Gospel. Jesus said that God will give us whatever we ask for. One of the things we ask for from God is help overcoming the obstacles to loving other people.
- Conclude in prayer by inviting the young people to think again about one of the obstacles they face when they try to love others. Invite them to ask God to help them overcome this obstacle so that they can love others as Jesus taught. Pray together the
Act of Love.
O my God, I love you above all things with my whole heart and soul, because you are all good and worthy of all my love. I love my neighbor as myself for the love of you. I forgive all who have injured me and I ask pardon of those whom I have injured.
Amen.
Obstacle Course
- First, they have to run and weave around the pylons, then run to the set of hoops.
- For the first three hoops they have to hop on their left foot, then one foot in each for the set of two hoops. Then hop only on their right foot through the 3 hoops at the end.
- Run over the set of pylons and jump over them and then the other set.
- Then they will go to the other set of hoops, and using quick feet, they run through the hoops as quick as possible (one foot in each hoop).
- Once they are through the hoops, they will run to the pylon and taking off from that pylon, they will jump as far as they can (long jump).
- Then they will do another obstacle or a sport inspired task/skill to finish off the obstacle course.
- Then they will run around the outside of the obstacle course and go to the end of the line to do it again.
- When a participant starts the second section, then the next participant in line can start.
Sunday April 29, 2018 Fifth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 53
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 9:26-31
When Saul arrived in Jerusalem he tried to join the disciples,
but they were all afraid of him,
not believing that he was a disciple.
Then Barnabas took charge of him and brought him to the apostles,
and he reported to them how he had seen the Lord,
and that he had spoken to him,
and how in Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus.
He moved about freely with them in Jerusalem,
and spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord.
He also spoke and debated with the Hellenists,
but they tried to kill him.
And when the brothers learned of this,
they took him down to Caesarea
and sent him on his way to Tarsus.
The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace.
It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord,
and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit it grew in numbers.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will fulfill my vows before those who fear the LORD.
The lowly shall eat their fill;
they who seek the LORD shall praise him:
"May your hearts live forever!"
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
All the ends of the earth
shall remember and turn to the LORD;
all the families of the nations
shall bow down before him.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
To him alone shall bow down
all who sleep in the earth;
before him shall bend
all who go down into the dust.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
And to him my soul shall live;
my descendants shall serve him.
Let the coming generation be told of the LORD
that they may proclaim to a people yet to be born
the justice he has shown.
R. I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Jn 3:18-24
Children, let us love not in word or speech
but in deed and truth.
Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth
and reassure our hearts before him
in whatever our hearts condemn,
for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything.
Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us,
we have confidence in God
and receive from him whatever we ask,
because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
And his commandment is this:
we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another just as he commanded us.
Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them,
and the way we know that he remains in us
is from the Spirit he gave us.
Gospel Jn 15:1-8
Jesus said to his disciples:
"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you.
Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own
unless it remains on the vine,
so neither can you unless you remain in me.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit,
because without me you can do nothing.
Anyone who does not remain in me
will be thrown out like a branch and wither;
people will gather them and throw them into a fire
and they will be burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you,
ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.
By this is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 9:26-31
Remember the earlier verses of this chapter were about Saul going to the high priest and asking for papers to go to Damascus and round up those who belonged to the Way,* so that he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.
On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul,
Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He was blinded and led to Damascus where Ananias was sent by the Lord to restore his sight. He preached the word of the Lord and was being threatened, they watched the gates night and day to kill him--The full extent of his danger appears only from his own account ( 2 Corinthians 11:32 ): "In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me"; the exasperated Jews having obtained from the governor a military force, the more surely to compass his destruction. Then the disciples . . . by night let him down--"through an opening in the wall" ( 2 Corinthians 11:33 ). Could have been a window or perhaps a hole in the wall (see pictures at the end of this document) and so he left Damascus and headed for Jerusalem. These verses pick up the story there.
Saul comes to Jerusalem--"three years after" his conversion, and particularly "to see Peter" ( Galatians 1:18 ); no doubt because he was the leading apostle, and to communicate to him the prescribed sphere of his labors, especially to "the Gentiles."
They were all afraid of him knowing him only as a persecutor of their faith.
But Barnabas . . . brought him to the apostles--that is, to Peter and James; for "other of the apostles saw I none," says he fourteen years after ( Galatians 1:18 Galatians 1:19 ). Probably none of the other apostles were there at the time ( Acts 4:36 ). Barnabas being of Cyprus, which was within a few hours' sail of Cilicia, and annexed to it as a Roman province, and Saul and he being Hellenistic Jews and eminent in their respective localities, they may very well have been acquainted with each other before this. What is here said of Barnabas is in fine consistency with the "goodness" ascribed to him ( Acts 11:24 ), and with the name "son of consolation," given him by the apostles ( Acts 4:36 ); and after Peter and James were satisfied, the disciples generally would at once receive him.
And he was with them, coming in and going out at Jerusalem--for fifteen days, lodging with Peter ( Galatians 1:18 ).
He disputed against the Hellenists-- addressing himself especially to them, perhaps, as being of his own class, and that against which he had in the days of his ignorance been the fiercest.
So they went about to slay him--Thus was he made to feel, throughout his whole course, what he himself had made others so cruelly to feel, the cost of discipleship.
The brothers brought him down to Cæsarea and sent him forth to Tarsus--In Galatians 1:21 he himself says of this journey, that he "came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia"; from which it is natural to infer that instead of sailing direct for Tarsus, he landed at Seleucia, travelled thence to Antioch, and penetrated from this northward into Cilicia, ending his journey at Tarsus. As this was his first visit to his native city since his conversion, so it is not certain that he ever was there again. probably was now that he became the instrument of gathering into the fold of Christ those "kinsmen," that "sister," and perhaps her "son," of whom mention is made in Acts 23:16 , Romans 16:7 Romans 16:11 Romans 16:21
The church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria was at peace. It was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord, and with the consolation of the holy Spirit it grew in numbers. Rather, "the Church," according to the best manuscripts and versions. But this rest was owing not so much to the conversion of Saul, as probably to the Jews being engrossed with the emperor Caligula's attempt to have his own image set up in the temple of Jerusalem.
This incidental notice of distinct churches already dotting all the regions which were the chief scenes of our Lord's ministry, and that were best able to test the facts on which the whole preaching of the apostles was based, is extremely interesting. "The fear of the Lord" expresses their holy walk; "the comfort of the Holy Spirit."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 22:26-27, 28, 30, 31-32
Psalm 22 is the lament of a conflicted individual, and this is evident in the tension established early in the Psalm. Accusatory statements like “I cry by day, but you do not answer” (v.2) and “I am a worm” (v. 6) are juxtaposed with declarative statements such as “You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel” (v.3) and “You took me from the womb; you kept me safe” (v. 9). Indeed, the first twenty-one verses of the Psalm display an individual in distress, full of contradictory statements about the human plight and the goodness of God.
The first twenty-four verses of this Psalm remain in the first person voice, and they are an explicit dialogue with God. But, verse 25 becomes a testimony of sorts that answers the disruption presented in the litany of complaints and questions in the earliest verses of the Psalm. Verse 25 alters the tone of the litany and sets the individual, and even the whole community, towards a “right and creative relationship” with God. Truly, “the individual’s experience should correspond to that of the community and should deepen its faith.”
From verse 25 onward, the Psalmist establishes the strong implication that what the Lord has accomplished for the individual, the Lord will accomplish for the whole world. From the weak, the poor, and those of the lowest status in the community who must seek help from Lord (v. 26) to the ends of the earth and all nations (v. 28-29), those who remember the Lord, turn to the Lord, and worship the Lord (v. 27) will find a generative faith (v. 30-31) that will eventually confirm and testify to the past, present, and future deeds of the Lord.
To give this Psalm an explicitly Christocentric focus on this Sunday in the Easter season might be to trace the dark days of Christ suffering on the cross to the promise that came with the dawn of the resurrection. Verses 25-31, when viewed from the dark days of Good Friday and Holy Saturday to the dawn of the resurrection, promise that all those who are weak and call upon the name of God in their weakness will eat and be satisfied. In biblical times, this might have been the Psalmist (Old Testament) or Christ or Christ’s disciples (New Testament), but its implications are ever contemporary. Yes, even we when faced with suffering -- whether we find ourselves among the weak or the powerful -- will move from darkness to dawn and proclaim the deliverance that comes from God to God’s people. This is the Psalmist’s story. This is Christ’s story. This is our story as we profess during this season. And, this is the story for generations to come. Thanks be to God.
Reading 2 1 Jn 3:18-24
This epistle, really a sermon, was written for a community that defined itself over and above and against the world around it.
Those in John's community were children of light and those outside were children of darkness. For example, consider a verse that the lectionary omits: "Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you" (1 John 3:13).
John's epistle is written in part to clarify the meaning of John's Gospel for a community which reads that gospel as its central guide to faith and action.
The author writes, "And this is (God's) commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another just as (Christ) has commanded us" (1 John 3:23).
There are two great themes in the Gospel of John. First, John's Gospel is the revelation that Jesus Christ is the revealer of God. Above all, Christ reveals that he is the revealer. And second, Jesus not only reveals himself, he commands those who believe in him to love one another.
These two themes help to shape the identity of this relatively small church as they feel battered by the hostile world around it. This is a community that should do two things very well. True members of this community should believe in Jesus Christ as God's own Son, the full revelation of God's own self. And true members of this community should love one another.
But the writer of this epistle is concerned that in both of these ways, the church members he leads are falling away from the truths with which they began.
1 John 3:16 again recalls John's Gospel and that great text where Jesus sets the command to love one another in the even greater context of his own revelatory love: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another" (John 13:34). Here the communal love for brother and sister is placed in the context of the redemptive love that Christ shows for all of humankind on the cross.
1 John makes the same connection between our love for each other and Christ's love for us. "We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us -- and we ought to lay down our lives for one another" (1 John 3:16).
Here we glimpse the depth of the gift and the gravity of the demand. Christ gives unconditional love for us, even to the point of death. And he demands our unconditional love for each other, even to the point of death.
Yet, as preachers so often do, the preacher who writes this epistle tries to show what love to the point of death might mean, not just at the extreme moments of sacrifice, but in the daily give and take of the loving life.
Concretely, such love means charity. "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help?" (1 John 3:17).
Even in the midst of great economic difficulty, most Americans have more of the world's goods than most of the world can imagine. At its most painful end, Christian love requires giving up our lives. In ways less sacrificial but still surprisingly painful, Christian love requires giving up some of the goods we think we need when we come up against someone who is truly needy.
And concretely such love means living out what we say. The truisms abide because there is truth in them. "Practice what you preach." "Walk the walk, don't just talk the talk." "Sermons in shoes." "Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action" (1 John 3:18).
There is a great word from the Gospel of John , "Abide." Jesus abides with those who love him (cf. John 15:5). In that eternal life to which he invites us, there are many "abiding places" -- a better translation than the traditional "mansions" (John 14:2).
1 John makes clear what the Gospel of John also implies: the dwelling in eternal life is not a promise for the future only, but a promise for the present as well. "All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us" (1 John 3:24). The promise of John's Gospel is still being lived out in the community that treasures its words.
There is a network on the Internet called "LinkedIn." It seeks to provide the opportunity for people to stay in touch with each other and to serve as resources for each other in times of particular need.
1 John believes that the church is the people who are Linked In. The presence of the Paraclete links believer to Christ through faith and believer to believer through love.
The epistle's word for that link is richer than the website's. We abide in God and God in us, and we abide in each other, too.
"When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me."
Gospel Jn 15:1-8
The image, of course, has an Old Testament history with the vine used as a metaphor for the people of Israel, in both positive and negative ways.
One entry into this passage could be some history and information on oenology! (en ologee) (the study of wine). For any of you who have visited the Napa Valley in California or some of the well-known Italian or French wineries, you will appreciate the rich history of wine-making that depends so completely on the welfare of the grapevines and the arts and expertise of the vine grower.
Just as circuitous and complex as a vine and its branches, so too are these brief verses. What are some of the key and inter-related themes for this Easter season text?
The most obvious is the identification of relationships: God as the Vine Grower; Jesus as the Vine and we as the branches. Jesus' role as the vine is twice identified, in verse 1 as "the true vine" and in verse 5 as "the vine." This is the life source of the branches.
It is God who tends to the flourishing of the branches, and likewise will "remove[s] every branch" (John 15:2) that gives no yield. What is the key for this work of the vineyard? It is abiding. Interesting is it not that abiding was used in the second reading also. With almost mantra-like force the word "abide" is repeated eight times.
Perhaps the sole exposure to the word "abide" has been in the very self-focused hymn: "Abide with Me." The hymn's mood tends more towards the realities of ceasing activity than increasing it. This passage from John, however, takes the activity of abiding into the briskness of daylight and opportunity.
What is the meaning of abiding in Jesus, the Risen One during this post-Resurrection season?
First, the relationship of abiding means that we cannot "go it alone" in our spiritual lives, as a "free floating spirituality." Jesus notes the impossible cannot happen: "the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless you abide in me" (John 15:4).
It is no secret that one can be deeply engaged in "things of the Church" in publicly meaningful ways, and yet the activities may not be truly connected to Christ. In that case, the vine grower eventually gets around to pruning such branches.
The possibilities of going it alone in American society are widespread and inviting. Carried over into the spiritual life, this fact can have devastating results. Dependency and inter-relatedness are rarely valued to the extent that individualism is. This passage flies in the face of such attitudes with a very different type of invitation to reliance on God.
Is the process of reliance on the vine an easy one? Hardly. The Vine Grower will deal with the branches in a manner that will alter their very being and formation. And to those who think abiding is a free ride, Jesus reminds them that "every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit" (John 15:2b).
If you have clipped your shrubs way back, you may experience the sense of reluctance in having to strip down once luxuriant branches for a greater and unseen future good. But what are the alternatives?
Removal of self or the removal of entire congregations from the reality of abiding in the Vine prompts Jesus to warn that "you can do nothing" (John 15:5). The string of verbs says such branches " people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned. " (John 15:6). In selecting between submission to or departure from the Vine, it is truly an all-or-nothing proposal.
Second, beyond the fact of reliance, abiding in Christ the Vine means change! John 15:5 notes that abiding means the opportunity to "bear much fruit." What does that mean? This passage does not define 'bearing fruit!"
As with any lively metaphor, it invites us to expand on its possibilities in our own lives. We are free to make much of metaphors and this one is no exception. It means plenty, abundance, life-giving and pleasing. But what might that be?
We are invited to contextually explore the possibilities of this question with any given group of listeners. Would bearing fruit mean? A renewal of hope for a dying congregation? A recommitment and new unity of purpose in a congregation ripped by conflict? A congregation beginning to see and respond to the poor, the hungry and the imprisoned in their community in a way they had not before?
Abiding in Christ establishes a communication element that does not exist outside of the divine-human relationship. Jesus invites those who are intent on abiding in him to "ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you" (John 15:7). What an amazing directive!
Jesus' words show a readiness to respond to requests from the abiding ones for two reasons. The giving of good things to God's abiders glorifies God in the presence of those who may doubt God, thus serving as confirmation of God's activity.
Furthermore, as a result of the human asking and the divine giving, Jesus says "you become my disciples" (John 15:8). The asking proves and is part of the process of discipling, both to those who wish to abide and to those who witness the lives and actions of the abiders.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think of the word expert. What makes a person an expert in his or her field? If someone wants to gain knowledge about science, medicine, history, or other subjects, he or she might turn to an expert. And this makes sense. When we want to gain knowledge, we turn to someone who has studied and learned about our area of interest.
- But let’s say we want to find out what it means to be a Christian. What expertise might we look for? What makes someone an “expert” Christian?
- How does Jesus say we will recognize an expert disciple, or Christian? (He or she will bear fruit.) What do you think Jesus means by this? Do you remember what did Jesus say will allow a person to bear this kind of fruit? (his or her relationship with Jesus)
- People become good disciples of Jesus because of their relationship with him. We develop this relationship with Jesus through our reading of Scripture and our life of prayer. But most especially, Jesus promises us that he will remain in us and that we will be his disciples when we share his Body and Blood in the Eucharist.
- Say a prayer asking God to help us remain faithful to our relationship with Jesus. Pray the Prayer of Saint Richard of Chichester.
Prayer of St Richard of Chichester
Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ
For all the benefits Thou hast given me,
For all the pains and insults Thou hast borne
for me.
O most merciful Redeemer, friend and
brother,
May I know Thee more clearly,
Love thee more dearly,
Follow thee more nearly.
Amen.
Sunday April 22, 2018 Fourth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 50
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 4:8-12
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said:
"Leaders of the people and elders:
If we are being examined today
about a good deed done to a cripple,
namely, by what means he was saved,
then all of you and all the people of Israel should know
that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead;
in his name this man stands before you healed.
He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
given to the human race by which we are to be saved."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29
R. (22) The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in princes.
R. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my savior.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD;
we bless you from the house of the LORD.
I will give thanks to you, for you have answered me
and have been my savior.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
for his kindness endures forever.
R. The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Jn 3:1-2
Beloved:
See what love the Father has bestowed on us
that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are.
The reason the world does not know us
is that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God's children now;
what we shall be has not yet been revealed.
We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is.
Gospel Jn 10:11-18
Jesus said:
"I am the good shepherd.
A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
A hired man, who is not a shepherd
and whose sheep are not his own,
sees a wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away,
and the wolf catches and scatters them.
This is because he works for pay and has no concern for the sheep.
I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep.
I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold.
These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
This is why the Father loves me,
because I lay down my life in order to take it up again.
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.
I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.
This command I have received from my Father."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 4:8-12
I. The literary context: “Ya got trouble”
Our first lesson takes place in the larger context of Acts 3:1-4:31, the first instance of conflict between Jesus’ witnesses and local authorities. The precipitating causes are a lame man’s healing (3:1-10) and Peter’s public proclamation (3:11-26). Positive reception for his message riles the temple authorities, prompting them to arrest Peter and John for investigation (4:1-4). Today’s reading features the apostles’ response at that investigation.
II. The text at hand: A new kind of boldness
The authorities gathered for the investigation are no team of scrubs:
“Their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high-priestly family” (Acts 4:5-6).
Annas was high priest in 6-15 c.e., and his son-in-law Caiaphas is high priest at this time (18-36 c.e.; John 11:49; 18:13).1 In short, Acts 4:5-6 sets the scene for a serious examination by Jerusalem’s foremost leaders.2
The leaders ask directly: “by what power or by what name did you do this?” (4:7) The entire incident recalls earlier words of Jesus:
“When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say” (Luke 12:11-12).
Not only does Acts 4:5-12 resonate with Luke 12:11-12 in language and tone, it also accurately foresees how Jesus’ followers will respond. Peter is “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 4:8) and answers in a way that the narrative ultimately calls “boldness” (4:13, parresia). This is the first instance of many in Acts where Jesus’ witnesses proclaim with a “boldness” that stems from the power of the Spirit (4:29-31; 9:27-28; 13:46; 14:3; 18:26; 19:8; 26:26; 28:31). Under this intense atmosphere of investigation, the Spirit’s “bold” empowerment first manifests itself, and at just the right time.
“Bold” is certainly what Peter’s answer is. After reiterating the grounds for investigation (Acts 4:9), he declares emphatically:
“Let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead. 11This Jesus is ‘the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone.’ 12There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:10-12).
Peter’s response names several themes representative of apostolic preaching in Acts. First, he addresses not simply the leaders, but “all the people of Israel” (v. 10; see 2:14b, 22, 36; 9:15; 13:26, 38, 46; 28:20). Second, after attributing Jesus’ death to the leaders of Jerusalem (cf. 2:23-24; 3:14-15; 4:27-28), he emphasizes that “God raised [him] from the dead” (4:10). More than any other evangelist, Luke emphasizes the resurrection as Jesus’ vindication (Acts 2:22-36; 3:13, 26; 5:30; 10:40; 13:31-38; see also 24:21; 26:8; 26:23). Third, Jesus’ rejection by those in authority fulfills scripture, as implied by Peter’s quotation of Psalm 118:22 in Acts 4:11 (see also Luke 24:44-47; Acts 2:22-36; 3:18; 13:31-38; 26:22-23; cf. Matthew 21:42; 1 Peter 2:7). Fourth, the message of Jesus entails “salvation” (soteria) -- a divine reality that generates wholeness, restoration, and reversal of societal norms (“healed” in Acts 4:9 is literally “saved,” sesotai).3 Fifth, the language of necessity (“must,” dei, v. 12) about being “saved” is distinctive language of Luke-Acts for identifying matters “necessary” to the overarching purposes of God (Luke 2:49; 4:43; 9:22; 13:14, 33; 17:25; 21:9; 22:37; 24:7, 26; Acts 3:21; 19:21; 23:11). Altogether, Peter’s response in Acts 4:8-12 uses distinctive themes of Luke-Acts to express a bold declaration about the saving nature of Jesus.
III. Reflections: “Boldness” in today’s world
In today’s pluralistic society, interpreters rightly stumble over the exclusiveness of Peter’s language: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Taken at face value, this word excludes. However, in its original context the apostles did not aim to exclude future religious movements, but rather to validate the message of Jesus before a hostile audience and world. In this context, the Spirit’s “boldness” empowered a frank and straightforward emphasis that was seemed necessary. Whether or not a “boldness” empowered by the Spirit today should be so one-dimensional is another question. In short, the contexts of the first audiences of Acts 4:5-12 are very different than our own. While Peter’s words undoubtedly emphasize the distinctiveness of salvation associated with Jesus, how the same Holy Spirit empowers us to express the good news of Jesus “boldly” today is a matter of ongoing dialogue and discernment. Nonetheless, as with the earliest apostles, we are no less in need of Spirit-driven boldness today, lest the world never recognize “companions of Jesus” (Acts 4:13) in their midst.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29
It is probable that David penned this psalm when he had, after many a story, weathered his point at last, and gained a full possession of the kingdom to which he had been anointed. He then invites and stirs up his friends to join with him, not only in a cheerful acknowledgment of God’s goodness and a cheerful dependence upon that goodness for the future, but in a believing the expectation of the promised Messiah, of whose kingdom and his exaltation to it his were typical.
He celebrates God’s mercy in general, and calls upon others to acknowledge it, from their own experience of it (v. 1): O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is not only good in himself, but good to you, and his mercy endures forever, not only in the everlasting fountain, God himself, but in the never-failing streams of that mercy, which shall run parallel with the longest line of eternity, and in the chosen vessels of mercy, who will be everlasting monuments of it. Israel, and the house of Aaron, and all that fear God, were called upon to trust in God (Ps. 115:9-11; here they are called upon to confess that his mercy endures forever, and so to encourage themselves to trust in him, v. 2-4. Priests and people, Jews and proselytes, must all own God’s goodness, and all join in the same thankful song; if they can say no more, let them say this for him, that his mercy endures forever, that they have had experience of it all their days, and confide in it for good things that shall last forever. The praises and thanksgivings of all that truly fear the Lord
In verses 19-29 we have an illustrious prophecy of the humiliation and exaltation of our Lord Jesus, his sufferings, and the glory that should follow. Peter thus applies it directly to the chief priests and scribes, and none of them could charge him with misapplying it, Acts. 4:11 . Now observe here, the preface with which this precious prophecy is introduced, v. 19-21. The psalmist desires admission into the sanctuary of God, there to celebrate the glory of him that cometh in the name of the Lord: Open to me the gates of righteousness. So the temple-gates are called, because they were shut against the uncircumcised, and forbade the stranger to come nigh, as the sacrifices there offered are called sacrifices of righteousness. Those that would enter into communion with God in holy ordinances must become humble suitors to God for admission. And when the gates of righteousness are opened to us we must go into them, must enter into the holiest, as far as we have leave, and praise the Lord. Our business within God’s gates is to praise God; therefore we should long till the gates of heaven be opened to us, that we may go into them to dwell in God’s house above, where we shall be still praising him. The psalmist triumphs in the discovery that the gate of righteousness, which had been so long shut, and so long knocked at, was now at length opened. He promises to give thanks to God for this favor (v. 21): I will praise thee. Those that saw Christ’s day at so great a distance saw cause to praise God for the prospect; for in him they saw that God had heard them, had heard the prayers of the Old-Testament saints for the coming of the Messiah, and would be their salvation. The prophecy itself, v. 22, v. 23. This may have some reference to David’s preferment; he was the stone which Saul and his courtiers rejected, but was by the wonderful providence of God advanced to be the headstone of the building. But its principal reference is to Christ; and here we have, His humiliation. He is the stone which the builders refused; he is the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, Dan. 2:34 .
Let the exalted Redeemer be met, and attended, with joyful hosannas, v. 25, v. 26. Let him have the acclamations of the people, as is usual at the inauguration of a prince. Let every one of his loyal subjects shout for joy, Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord! This is like Vivat rex—Long live the king, and expresses a hearty joy for his accession to the crown, an entire satisfaction in his government, and a zealous affection to the interests and honor of it. Hosanna to the Son of David; long live King Jesus; let him reign forever. Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, do their part in this great solemnity, v. 26. Let them bless the prince with their praises: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Jesus Christ is he that cometh —ho erchomenos, he that was to come and is yet to come again.
The psalmist concludes with his own thankful acknowledgments of divine grace, in which he calls upon others to join with him, v. 28, v. 29. He will praise God himself, and endeavor to exalt him in his own heart and in the hearts of others, and this because of his covenant-relation to him and interest in him: "Thou art my God, on whom I depend, and to whom I am devoted, who ownest me and art owned by me; and therefore I will praise thee.’’ Peace in heaven to us through Christ, and therefore glory in the highest.
Reading 2 1 Jn 3:1-2
The apostle, in the last verse of the preceding chapter, having declared that everyone who works with righteousness is born of God, begins the chapter with an exclamation expressive of his high admiration of the love of God in calling them his children, although they are not acknowledged to be such by the men of the world, because carnal men have no just notion of the character of God. Behold what manner — The word ποταπην, thus rendered, signifies both how great, and what kind of love — Love immense, condescending, and kind, compassionate, forgiving, patient, forbearing, sanctifying, comforting, enriching, exalting, and beautifying, the Father — Of universal nature, of men and angels, and of our Lord Jesus Christ; hath bestowed on us — Fallen and depraved creatures, sinful, guilty, and dying; that we should be called sons, (τεκνα, children,) of God and be constituted his heirs, and joint-heirs with his only-begotten and beloved Son: and all this on the easy condition of turning to Him, in repentance, faith, and new obedience. Therefore the world is not acquainted with our true character, our principles and practices, our disposition and behavior, our present privileges and future expectations; and therefore does not acknowledge us for what we really are, nor esteem and love us, but hates and persecutes us; because it knew him not. As if he had said, Since the enmity of carnal men against the divine will, and the divine nature, is so great that Christ himself, the image of the invisible God, inhabited by the fullness of the Deity, was unknown and hated when he dwelt in the flesh, it is no wonder that we are hated also in those respects in which we resemble him. Nevertheless, Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. At the day of judgement, it is probable that the wicked will have a transient sight of Christ as he is, but will not thereby be made like him, in body or mind.
Gospel Jn 10:11-18
"One flock, one shepherd . . ."
On this Sunday of Easter the gospel lesson shifts from historical recounting of the events following to resurrection to Christological reflection. The goal is to assist us as we, like Mary and the disciples, seek to understand what happened and is happening to us, the flock of the good shepherd.
In the years, decades, and centuries, to our own time, the followers of Jesus have sought for ways to express, in words and images, who was and who is this person Jesus Christ. John, for example, opened his gospel account with the grand vision of the one who was before all time and through whom all things came into being. Jesus was the very Word of God made flesh. And they turned to the images Jesus had taught them about himself. He told them that he was the vine and they were the branches. He told them that he was the bread of life and living water that would quench their thirst forever. And he taught them that he was their shepherd; they were his flock.
Some of the earliest images of Jesus found in churches and tombs were not portrayals of Jesus on the cross, or the infant in the manger. Rather, they picture Jesus as the gentle shepherd. And what may be one of the earliest paintings of all is of a very young Jesus, dressed in a short white tunic, who has draped a lamb over his shoulders. "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me." (John 10:14) What does it mean to understand the risen Christ as our shepherd? And what kind of flock are we to be?
I think that it is fair to say that most of us do not have much experience with shepherds or with sheep. I believe many of you have heard of or been to a County Fair. I never want to miss the animal barns: cows, pigs, and of course the sheep. In each pen are lovely, wooly sheep being taken care of the 4H boys and girls. Just outside of the barn there will always be one of the 4H members washing, combing, and trimming their lamb. I love the fact that sheep really do say, "Baaaa." But I am afraid that is my only contact with sheep and their caretakers.
When Jesus spoke of shepherds and sheep, he was speaking to people who had everyday experiences with lambs, sheep, goats, and kids. Even if they made their living as a carpenter or fisher, they knew or watched the shepherds all of the time, moving the sheep and goats from the pens to the fields. They drank the milk of those animals, turned that milk into cheese, and eventually ate the animals. Those animals provided not just daily nourishment, they were essential for important religious rituals. All of Jesus' friends and followers had grown up telling and re-telling the story of Moses and the flight out of Egypt. Each year they heard the call to "take a lamb for each family" (Exodus 12:3b) and prepare the Passover meal.
It is important to recognize that this passage not only offers us a functional description of what God in Jesus will do for us. Jesus is also making an ontological statement. He is not only describing what a good shepherd does and will do. He is making the claim that he is the good shepherd. Therefore, it must have seemed quite strange and startling for Jesus' friends and followers to hear Jesus tell them that he was the good shepherd. After all, they knew who the good shepherd was -- God. The scriptures were filled with images of God as the shepherd of the chosen people.
Jesus then described the divine sheepfold. To be his followers was to enter into his sheepfold. He came to be the one who cared for and fed them. It was a dangerous job; protecting the sheep from wolves and bandits. As the good shepherd Jesus had not only to be willing to, he did, lay down his life for the sheep that God had given him.
Like Ezekiel, Jesus then contrasts himself with the hired hand. The hired hand, he explained, thinks only of himself and not the sheep; running away when danger approaches. (Was Jesus suggesting to the Pharisees that they were hired hands?) Jesus then explains that not only is he the shepherd who will give up his own life for the flock, but he has done this willing. It may have looked like he was captured and executed by the authorities, but in reality, "No one takes it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord." (John 10:18)
What does it mean to be a sheep of Jesus' flock? It means that we enter through his gate. Jesus is the way to salvation. We know his voice and follow him. He cares for us, keeping us safe. And when we wander away, which we know we do all too often, he comes searching for us.
These are wonderful, comforting images, but this passage includes one other challenging thought. The good shepherd decides who is in the sheepfold, we do not. "I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold." (John 10:16) The Pharisees and the disciples alike thought that they knew who the chosen ones of God were. But this shepherd is telling them, and telling us, that there will be "one flock, one shepherd" and it is God, in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, not we, who bring together that flock.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Have you ever known someone to give up something important in order to help you? Think about a friend who chose to attend your party instead of going to a ballgame, or a parent who stayed up with you at night when you were sick.
- When we give up something important to us to help another person, or we give up something say for Lent we are said to make a sacrifice. Think about a time when you made a sacrifice for another person.
- In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses the example of a shepherd to demonstrate the kind of service we wrote about. He used this example because it was familiar to his listeners. But today we’re less familiar with the work of shepherds. What other models might we use to teach the kind of sacrificial service that Jesus described?
- Whenever we serve others in ways that put their needs before our own, we are following the example that Jesus gave us.
- Pray the Saint Ignatius of Loyola’s Prayer for Generosity.
Eternal Word, only begotten Son of God,
Teach me true generosity.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve.
To give without counting the cost,
To fight heedless of wounds,
To labor without seeking rest,
To sacrifice myself without thought of any reward
Save the knowledge that I have done your will.
Amen.
Sunday April 15, 2018 Third Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 47
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
Peter said to the people:
"The God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus,
whom you handed over and denied in Pilate's presence
when he had decided to release him.
You denied the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you.
The author of life you put to death,
but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses.
Now I know, brothers,
that you acted out of ignorance, just as your leaders did;
but God has thus brought to fulfillment
what he had announced beforehand
through the mouth of all the prophets,
that his Christ would suffer.
Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9
R. (7a) Lord, let your face shine on us.
or:
R. Alleluia.
When I call, answer me, O my just God,
you who relieve me when I am in distress;
have pity on me, and hear my prayer!
R. Lord, let your face shine on us.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Know that the LORD does wonders for his faithful one;
the LORD will hear me when I call upon him.
R. Lord, let your face shine on us.
or:
R. Alleluia.
O LORD, let the light of your countenance shine upon us!
You put gladness into my heart.
R. Lord, let your face shine on us.
or:
R. Alleluia.
As soon as I lie down, I fall peacefully asleep,
for you alone, O LORD,
bring security to my dwelling.
R. Lord, let your face shine on us.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Jn 2:1-5a
My children, I am writing this to you
so that you may not commit sin.
But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous one.
He is expiation for our sins,
and not for our sins only but for those of the whole world.
The way we may be sure that we know him is to keep
his commandments.
Those who say, "I know him," but do not keep his commandments
are liars, and the truth is not in them.
But whoever keeps his word,
the love of God is truly perfected in him.
Gospel Lk 24:35-48
The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way,
and how Jesus was made known to them
in the breaking of bread.
While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
"Peace be with you."
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, "Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones
as you can see I have."
And as he said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet.
While they were still incredulous for joy and were amazed,
he asked them, "Have you anything here to eat?"
They gave him a piece of baked fish;
he took it and ate it in front of them.
He said to them,
"These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you,
that everything written about me in the law of Moses
and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled."
Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.
And he said to them,
"Thus it is written that the Christ would suffer
and rise from the dead on the third day
and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins,
would be preached in his name
to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses of these things."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
One of the primary themes of Acts, seems to be the expansion of boundaries that separate individuals and group.
We all know what it’s like to be part of a group. We share common interests, beliefs, commitments, etc. We are part of an in-group. Some among us have experience being part of the out-group. Some have been more marginalized to the out-group more than others, but relegation to the out-group knows no boundaries.
One of the things Luke tries to accomplish in Acts is the expansion of these boundaries, even while making clear distinctions between those who follow Christ and those who do not. The episode narrated in 3:12-19 serves as an example of this tension. In response to the healing of the paralyzed man (read 3:1-11), a large crowd gathers in Solomon’s portico (3:11), a roofed colonnade likely on the south side of the Herodian Temple complex that remained from Solomon’s Temple. Peter explains what has happened (3:12), providing another important parallel between Jesus and Peter, teaching in the temple (cf. Luke 21:37). Here, as in his previous speech, Peter appeals to their common identity by addressing the crowd as “Israelites” and by attributing the healing of the man to “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus..”
This is significant because it links the healing “in the name of Jesus” with “the God of our ancestors,” thus emphasizing a commonality within Judaism and the significance of Jesus within that tradition. Peter also appeals to Israel’s identity by reminding the crowd of the promise of a “prophet like Moses” (which is evident in some Qumran texts and Josephus), other prophets (3:24), and of God’s covenant with Abraham that supports an inclusive identity (which Luke is highlighting) by asserting, “in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (3:25; cf. 3:12–3).
Bet even while appealing to this common identity, Peter sharpens the distinctions between the Christians and the crowd. Mikael Parsons notes the structure within the inner frame of Peter’s speech:
A The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,
the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus
B whom you handed over and denied in Pilate's presence
when he had decided to release him.
B / You denied the Holy and Righteous One
and asked that a murderer be released to you, and you killed the Author of life
This pattern “underscores the fundamental difference between the actions of Peter’s audience … and the mighty deed of God.” Thus, the “God of Abraham” has subverted the actions of the Judean authorities and affirmed the words of Peter and the Christ followers.
Although the crowd rejected Pilate’s attempts to release Jesus (Luke 23:4, 16, 22), thereby participating in Jesus’ death, Peter acknowledges that his hearers and their rulers acted in ignorance (Acts 3:17), even though God had clearly “foretold [this] through all the prophets” (Acts 3:18). But ignorance is not excuse for their rejection of Jesus. They must now “repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out” (Acts 3:19). By distinguishing the Christ group from the crowd in the temple, Peter draws a distinct boundary between the Christ group and those outside the Christ group. Though they share a common ethnic identity, the two groups are radically different in their response to Jesus. Members of the in-group are those who believe that Jesus is the resurrected Messiah, having demonstrated that belief in the boundary crossing rituals of baptism in Jesus’ name and being filled with the Holy Spirit. Members of the out-group, however, reject Jesus, had him killed, and now must be reconciled through repentance and return to God so that they may be forgiven of their rejection of the Messiah. The core contrast between in-group and out-group here is that in-group members believe in Jesus while out-group members reject him. Belief is contrasted with violence here to distinguish between the in-group and out-group, thus serving to point toward another less prominent identity marker in the narrative.
What does it mean to be part of the in-group, the Christ movement? What identity markers help us know who is ‘one of us’ and who is not? In many ways, our task remains the same as Luke’s -- to help expand the boundaries of who can be part of the Christ group, and to make distinctions that highlight how our group’s values are different from others around us.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 4:2, 4, 7-8, 9
People are troubled about many things, but God 'puts gladness in our hearts.' Psalm 4 is a good text any time of year because it offers wisdom and imparts faith. But on the Third Sunday of Easter, it has a special job to do.
Psalm 4 deals honestly with unbelief: outside the church, inside the church, or even within preachers. At Easter time, the words "Christ is Risen!" are answered with "Alleluia, he is risen indeed." But unspoken responses might include: "Oh really?" or "I doubt it;" or "I wish I believed that;" or even "You've got to be kidding." Even preachers may privately wonder if Easter is too good to be true.
But God has heard all this before. In the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Easter, Jesus tells his frightened, doubting disciples, "Peace be with you" (Luke 24:36). Likewise, Psalm 4 offers peace to troubled hearts and trust to doubting minds.
To use Psalm 4 on the Third Sunday of Easter, it is helpful to note that the other texts for this day all address the problem of unbelief. Preachers would like the message, "Christ is arisen!", to prompt a worldwide chorus of Alleluias. But from the first Easter down to the present, the good news that Jesus lives brings different responses - even among his followers. Some people receive the message with joy. Others are skeptical or fearful, and still others reject the message out of hand.
The Gospel lesson addresses the problem of unbelief within the inner circle itself. The disciples have just heard two of their own members say that Jesus is risen, yet they are "startled and terrified" and "doubts arise in their hearts" when Jesus appears (Luke 24:37-38). Even some of the disciples find it hard to believe, yet Jesus offers peace.
In this Easter context of faith and doubt, and hoping against hope, Psalm 4 begins with a prayer for help. "Answer me when I call, O God..." (4:1). And it ends with a statement of faith. "You have put gladness in my heart...You alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety" (4:7-8). Beginning and ending with God - always a good idea for the preacher.
But the middle part of the Psalm addresses other people, and these people have various responses to God's grace. Some believe in God, and some do not. Among the believers, some are so anxious they can't sleep at night, even with a "Sleep Number" bed. Still others seem to be wondering what God has done for them lately: "There are many who say, 'O that we might see some good!'" (4:6). Thus, the Psalmist has some choice words to each of these groups of people.1
- To the unbelievers: (4:2) "How long, you people, shall my honor suffer shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies?" This sounds like Peter's sharp rebuke of his listeners in Acts 3:14-15. But quickly Peter changes his tone and calls these people "friends," so that they might listen to his proclamation. Psalm 4 is a good vessel for this proclamation. Verse 1 says that 'God gave us room when we were in distress.' Easter means that God sets us free from the fear of death - God 'gives us room.' In the Psalms, this language means that God lifts us out of a tight spot. What could be tighter than the grave! To the unbelievers (and we all have our moments), God gives "room." Room to rise from the grave of unbelief, room for faith.
- To the sleep deprived believers: (4:4) "When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent." The fear of death, our own or a loved one's, is enough to keep anyone awake at night and tempt us to find relief anywhere we can. But the Psalmist exhorts us to pray and trust. For insomniac believers, who believe but have trouble trusting, the Psalm ends up with these wonderful words: "I will both lie down and sleep in peace" (4:8).
- To the folks who wonder if God has done anything good for them lately: (4:6) the Psalm says that God's life giving power is our true wealth. It's Easter, but we've been in one of the worst economic slumps since the 1930's. People in the congregation might be thinking, "Okay, so Jesus rose from the dead, but can you say the same for my pension?" Perhaps this is irreverent talk, but it gets at the issue of where we put our trust. Verse 7 says that God's presence puts gladness in our hearts "more than when their grain and wine abound." A preacher might have a bit of fun coming up with current versions of 'grain and wine abounding.'
Reading 2 1 Jn 2:1-5a
Ask a non--Christian--even ask some Christians--what the point of Christian faith is.
For many, it is "Jesus came so that I'll live forever." In the Gospels, however, Jesus never promises that he will be crucified and his disciples will be the risen ones.
Such self--centeredness renders us deaf to a keynote in all of this Sunday's lections: the capacity of the risen Christ to draw individuals into authentic life together.
On the subject of sin: If (on the one hand) we say we don't have sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us . But if (on the other hand) we confess our sins, he is dependable, righteous, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And if (on the one hand) we say we haven't sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word (his promise of forgiveness) is not in us.
This last possibility breaks the pattern, leaving the listener hanging without a countervailing "other hand." Note that the writer of 1 John does not play the role of omniscient scold, rampantly condemning a few misguided souls while claiming for himself and the majority superior righteousness. Real churches act in this way. For no matter how truthful the gospel they have received, all Christians are capable of both clear--eyed contrition and self--deluded evil.
The author hastens to pastoral comfort (1 John 2:1-2). He writes, not to stir up sin or despair, but to console a riven church that Jesus Christ is a living, righteous force that releases us from our sins.
The images for that redemption are both judicial and cultic. Christ is our advocate (parakletos) with the Father, adopting the role that Jesus in the Fourth Gospel attributes to the Holy Spirit who comes after him (John 14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-11). At the same time, Jesus has sacrificed himself as the expiation (hilasmos) for sins; not merely ours, but the whole world's (1 John 1:7; 2:2; see also Romans 3:25; Hebrews 9:11--10:18).
Gospel Lk 24:35-48
The Gospels tell us that Jesus appeared to the disciples on several occasions after they discovered that his tomb was empty. Part of the mystery of Jesus' Resurrection is that he appeared to his disciples not as a spirit but in bodily form. The bodily form was not one that the disciples recognized though. In John's Gospel, Mary of Magdala does not recognize that the figure standing before her is Jesus until he speaks to her. In Luke's Gospel the disciples who meet Jesus on the road to Emmaus do not recognize him until he breaks bread with them. The resurrected Jesus had a physical presence, but the disciples couldn't recognize Jesus unless he allowed them to. His resurrected body, nonetheless, showed the marks of his crucifixion.
From readings such as today's Gospel, we also see that in his resurrected body, Jesus seems to be free of physical constraints. He appears to the disciples despite the fact that the doors were locked.
Jesus greets his disciples with the gift of peace and the gift of the Holy Spirit. In doing so, Jesus commissions his disciples to continue the work that he has begun: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” During the meeting, Jesus also shows the integral connection between forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The story of Thomas illustrates our Christian experience today: We are called to believe without seeing. In fact, all Christians after the first witnesses have been called to believe without seeing. Thomas's doubt is hardly surprising; the news of Jesus' appearance was incredible to the disciples who had seen him crucified and buried. Thomas's human nature compelled him to want hard evidence that the Jesus who appeared to the disciples after his death was indeed the same Jesus who had been crucified. Thomas is given the opportunity to act on that desire. He is our witness that Jesus is really risen.
Our faith is based on the witness of the Church that has preceded us, beginning with Thomas and the first disciples. Through Baptism we receive the same Holy Spirit that Jesus brought to the first disciples. We are among those who are “blessed” because we believe without having seen.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Ry to recall a recent holiday or celebration that included special food. Try to abut your favorite aspects of gathering with family or friends for this meal. Observe that food is important for our physical nourishment, but gathering for meals nourishes us in other ways as well. Try to identify some of the benefits of sharing meals with others and write them down.
- In the Gospel of Saint Luke, there are many descriptions of meals that Jesus shared with others. At these meals, the disciples were given food and more. This Sunday we hear about a meal that Jesus shared with his disciples after his Resurrection.
- After sharing this meal, what does Jesus tell his disciples? (They are to be witnesses to all that Jesus said and did.) How did sharing this meal with Jesus strengthen the disciples to be his witnesses? (Some reasonable answers, are they knew that Jesus was not a ghost, but was truly present with them, and their minds were open to understand the Scriptures.)
- We also share a meal with Jesus and are given a mission to be his witnesses when we celebrate the Mass. What are the final words of the Mass? (“Go in peace to love and serve the Lord; Thanks be to God.”)
- These final words of the Mass remind us that the Eucharist sends us to be witnesses to Jesus today, especially by helping others know that Jesus forgives sins. What are some ways in which we might help others know that Jesus forgives sins?
- Conclude in prayer that our frequent celebration of the Eucharist will help us choose to teach others about the forgiveness of sins we receive from Jesus. Pray the Psalm for this Sunday, Psalm 4.
Sunday April 8, 2018 Second Sunday of Easter
(Or Sunday of Divine Mercy)
Lectionary: 44
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 4:32-35
The community of believers was of one heart and mind,
and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,
but they had everything in common.
With great power the apostles bore witness
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and great favor was accorded them all.
There was no needy person among them,
for those who owned property or houses would sell them,
bring the proceeds of the sale,
and put them at the feet of the apostles,
and they were distributed to each according to need.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let the house of Aaron say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let those who fear the LORD say,
"His mercy endures forever."
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I was hard pressed and was falling,
but the LORD helped me.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just:
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Jn 5:1-6
Beloved:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God,
and everyone who loves the Father
loves also the one begotten by him.
In this way we know that we love the children of God
when we love God and obey his commandments.
For the love of God is this,
that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not burdensome,
for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
Who indeed is the victor over the world
but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ,
not by water alone, but by water and blood.
The Spirit is the one that testifies,
and the Spirit is truth.
Gospel Jn 20:19-31
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord."
But he said to them,
"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."
Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe."
Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 4:32-35
From the start, the risen Jesus charged his witnesses to share the good news of his resurrection with the world (Luke 24:44-48; Acts 1:1-8). After all, this is the climactic (eschatological) sign of God's light-giving, life-saving purpose for all people and places, even "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8; cf. 13:47). The resurrection forges new communities of light and life. Only in such fellowship (koinonia) is the meaning of the resurrection progressively discerned and demonstrated, learned and lived out.
As in our own day, the early church worked out its resurrection faith through regular communal practices, such as baptism, the Eucharist, scripture study, and prayer. An earlier summary reports (following Peter's Pentecost sermon): "So those who welcomed his message were baptized... They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (2:41-42).
But they also engaged in a radical resurrection practice not so popular today: "Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common (koina)" (4:32).
What a remarkable group! They held everything "in common," yet were notably uncommon by normal social standards, both in the limited goods, zero-sum world of Mediterranean antiquity and in the private-boosting, wealth-expanding economy of modern Western capitalism.
How did Christ's resurrection motivate such a unified, generous community? Or, conversely, how did the practice of communal goods inform the early church's understanding of the living Christ?
First, Christ's resurrection is inextricably connected with his crucifixion. God did not raise Jesus from just any death, but death on a cross, signifying ultimate self-emptying and sacrifice. Jesus dies bankrupt and bereft, stripped of all earthly possessions (including clothes - cf. Luke 23:34) and reliant only on his Divine Father into whose hands he commits his breath/spirit (pneuma, Luke 23:46).
It is out of this experience of complete surrender that God brings fresh, resurrection life to Jesus. Losing his life, he saves it. Forfeiting "the whole world" of self-aggrandizing profit, he gains the true wealth of God's kingdom. The crucified and risen Jesus thus inspires his followers to find new life as they "deny themselves and take up their cross daily" (Luke 9:23). They relinquish all they are and own into God's hands or, more literally, at the feet of God's apostles in Acts 4:35.
Second, raising Christ from the grave signals anew God's creative sovereignty over all creation (cf. Acts 4:24). According to one biblical image, God's bringing life from death is likened to a seed falling into the ground, "dying," and then bursting forth, "rising" in fruitful bloom and flower (see John 12:24-25; 1 Corinthians 15:36-38).
Resurrection thus stakes afresh God's claim on the whole earth. "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it" (Psalm 24:1). "The land is mine," God announces, as grounds for the Sabbath/Jubilee provisions of restoring properties to original owners and remitting debts so "there will be no one in need among you" (Leviticus 25:23; Deuteronomy 15:4). Finally, the resurrection of Christ marks the "first fruits" not only of a new, singular beginning, but also of a climactic restoration of all things.
For the early church, this conviction forged a close nexus between Christ's resurrection, ascension and parousia (final re-appearing). "Christ is risen!" joined naturally with "Christ is coming again soon!" Hence, with this imminent hope of a remade world, investing in "lands and houses" for the long haul might seem unnecessary at best, unfaithful at worst.
There is some question about whether selling one's possessions was compulsory (as with the apocalyptic Jewish sect at Qumran) or voluntary for membership in the earliest Christian community. But our summary text suggests it was the norm, if not the rule. And although Peter informs Ananias in the next chapter that he was free to dispose of his property as he wished (Acts 5:4), the fact that Ananias publicly lies about contributing all the proceeds from a land sale (and then drops dead!) demonstrates the strong community pressure to pool all possessions for the common good (5:1-6).
Of course, however much we might admire the radical communitarian practice of the early Jerusalem church, we may also pity, even decry, their shortsighted, impractical economic vision. Quite possibly, it contributed to hard times down the line, requiring assistance (bailout) from the more prosperous congregation in Antioch (11:27-30).
Turns out they were in it for the long haul, or at least a longer haul than they expected. And the clock is now ticking well past the 2000-year mark. It is all too easy, then, for us not simply to pity the early church's practice, but to dismiss it altogether.
But we thereby also run the risk of dismissing their vibrant resurrection faith that ignited their extraordinary common-fellowship (koinonia) in the first place. And resurrection faith that does not profoundly shape communal practice lacks depth of meaning and breadth of appeal.
So, how shall we live out our faith in the risen Christ today?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
On Easter Sunday, the church proclaims, "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his mercy endures forever!" (Psalm 118:1).
Jesus Christ is risen. And in Christ, we too shall rise. God's mercy endures forever! The words of Psalm 118 have long been used to herald Easter. "This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad" (118:24).
In its ancient Jewish context, Psalm 118 was most likely an entrance liturgy to the Temple, used at the festival of Passover. It proclaimed God's deliverance from Egypt and, later on, from the Exile. The Psalm was a liturgical script, complete with speaking parts for leaders and congregation. One can hear the jubilant call and response in 118:2-4: "Let Israel say, 'His mercy endures forever.' Let the house of Aaron say, 'His mercy endures forever.' Let those who fear the LORD say, 'His mercy endures forever.'"
Since New Testament times, Psalm 118 evokes for Christians the story of Easter.
New Testament writers used Psalm 118 "as a means of understanding and articulating the significance of Jesus."3 (See Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7.) Christians have long read this Psalm with Jesus in mind.
"The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice in it and be glad" (Psalm 118: 22-24).
The ancient church relied on the words of the New Testament writers, and during the Middle Ages, Psalm 118 continued to inspire Christian worship.
Just as the Psalmist was delivered by God, so now Christ empowers us, comforts us, and snatches us out of the realm of death. All this is done, so that we might proclaim the deeds of the Lord. Easter is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice in it and be glad! (118:24).
Reading 2 1 Jn 5:1-6
True love for the people of God, may be distinguished from natural kindness or party attachments, by its being united with the love of God, and obedience to his commands. The same Holy Spirit that taught the love, will have taught obedience also; and that man cannot truly love the children of God, who, by habit, commits sin or neglects known duty. As God's commands are holy, just, and good rules of liberty and happiness, so those who are born of God and love him, do not count them grievous, but lament that they cannot serve him more perfectly. Self-denial is required, but true Christians have a principle which carries them above all hindrances. Though the conflict often is sharp, and the regenerate may be cast down, yet he will rise up and renew his combat with resolution. But all, except believers in Christ, are enslaved in some respect or other, to the customs, opinions, or interests of the world. Faith is the cause of victory, the means, the instrument, the spiritual armor by which we overcome. In and by faith we cleave to Christ, in contempt of, and in opposition to the world. Faith sanctifies the heart, and purifies it from those sensual lusts by which the world obtains sway and dominion over souls. It has the indwelling Spirit of grace, which is greater than he who dwells in the world. The real Christian overcomes the world by faith; he sees, in and by the life and conduct of the Lord Jesus on earth, that this world is to be renounced and overcome. He cannot be satisfied with this world, but looks beyond it, and is still tending, striving, and pressing toward heaven. We must all, after Christ's example, overcome the world, or it will overcome us to our ruin.
Gospel Jn 20:19-31
What is a disciple to do in the wake of Jesus’ resurrection?
Following the Easter story of Jesus’ appearance to Mary Magdalene, two parallel stories in John explore the responses of disciples to the message of his resurrection. Although Thomas is often singled out as deficient in belief, his story shares much in common with the response of the disciples as a whole. The twin accounts present the disciples as both believing and disbelieving. The gift of the Holy Spirit enlivens the disciples to continue Jesus’ ministry without rendering them perfect believers.
Thomas is missing when the other disciples encounter Jesus. Yet he hears from them the same proclamation they heard from Mary Magdalene: “We have seen the Lord!” (20:25; cf. 20:18). Like Thomas, the disciples were not immediately transformed by Mary’s proclamation of the good news. They remain behind locked doors, where they are gathered out of fear (20:19). Like Thomas, the disciples only respond with joy to Jesus’ presence after he shows them his hands and his side (20:20, 27). Although “doubting Thomas” gets his reputation from this story, his response of unbelief is not unique, but instead is typical of disciples of Jesus.
There are two theological issues at stake in the portrait of the disciples vis-á-vis Thomas. The first is the question of whether the disciples achieve perfect or complete belief following Jesus’ resurrection. Much of the language of the Farewell Discourse (John 14-17) has led readers to expect that it will. Jesus has spoken of a future time when the disciples would “know” (14:20), “testify” (15:27) and “do greater works” than Jesus has done (14:12). Although they manifest doubt during Jesus’ earthly life, the language of the Farewell Discourse suggests a future time when the disciples overcome these deficiencies. Many scholars read the resurrection stories as just such accounts, where the disciples’ belief is seen in its maturity.
However, the disciples are not presented simply as believers, even after Jesus’ resurrection. Even after his first appearance and the gift of the Holy Spirit (also foreseen in the Farewell Discourse (14:16-17), the disciples remain behind locked doors the second week as well (20:26). They proclaim the Easter message, “We have seen the Lord!” but their actions do not fully match their understanding. Although the narrator proclaims “blessed” the one who has not seen and yet has believed (20:29), this is true of none of Jesus’ disciples. Instead, John portrays the disciples as still reaching toward belief in Jesus.
Even Thomas’s confession, “My Lord and my God!” (20:28) does not mark the completion of his faith. His statement is a significant confession, but it is not the end of the story. In the next chapter, Thomas is named as one of seven disciples. The pattern is familiar: they initially do not recognize Jesus (21:4), but come to understand him (21:7). Yet they finish with a question about his identity that they dare not ask even as they know the answer (21:12). Although John’s language projects a future time in which disciples will understand Jesus, that perfect knowledge always lies outside the boundaries of the Gospel story. The disciples embody a belief that reaches toward but never quite achieves complete understanding of Jesus.
The second theological question these verses raise explicitly is the reader’s relationship to Jesus’ disciples. What is expected of later followers of Jesus, and should they understand themselves as like or unlike the disciples of the story? In verses 19-23, Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit onto the disciples. Is this a special possession of the early church? Some interpreters imagine “the disciples” here as a limited group of the twelve (minus Judas and Thomas) who are commissioned as official apostles with particular duties that raise them above the level of the average believer. Jesus’ words to them, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them...” (20:23), reinforce the perception for many that the disciples have a unique role.
Yet it may be better to understand the disciples as a group that reflects John’s understanding of discipleship as a whole. As is often the case in John, “the disciples” who appear in 20:19 are unnumbered and unnamed. Although John clearly knows of the designation “the twelve,” he uses the phrase to identify disciples who are part of Jesus’ most intimate group of associates (6:71; 20:24) rather than to specify the actions or characteristics of the group.
Although readers may be primed to expect Jesus’ last supper to be eaten with the twelve (cf. Matt 26:20; Mark 14:11), or that he will appear to the eleven alone in his resurrection (Matt 28:16; Mark 16:14; Luke 24:33, 36), John specifies only that “the disciples” are present in each case (13:5; 20:19). This designation suggests a more open-ended group of people included in Jesus’ words and actions.
But what then does it mean for Jesus to breathe out the Holy Spirit and to tell this larger group of disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them”? The passage is a commissioning scene, but it is a commissioning of the church as a whole, not an elite group of leaders. John’s language seems to grant broad powers to the church to forgive or retain sins. It may help to remember that throughout John’s Gospel “sin” has referred to the rejection of Jesus and his ministry (e.g., 8:24; 9:41; 15:22-24). Jesus’ presence already reveals and condemns people’s belief or unbelief (cf. 3:17-19; 5:22). In Jesus’ absence the church steps into this role. The image is not a narrow one of a priest assigning penance but a broader recognition that the church becomes the arbiter of acceptance or rejection of Jesus.
Even so, part of our modern difficulty with this text may be that Jesus leaves this authority in the hands of disciples who are not themselves free from sin. John seems well aware of this, having positioned the story of commissioning in the midst of the disciples’ struggle to come to terms with their resurrection faith. Instead of trying to “solve” the problem of this responsibility granted to the church, I would say instead that the passage seems consistent with John’s portrait of the disciples. They are called to do much more than they are capable of. Yet they occasionally achieve great clarity, and in those moments they manifest the hope of the resurrection.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Identify five things that you and people might argue about. Write them down on a piece of paper.
- Try to act out in your mind one or more of the items.
- Jesus knew human beings well. He knew that we would have arguments. But he gave us the remedy for hurt feelings in the gift of reconciliation.
- What disagreement among the disciples is heard in this Gospel? (Thomas didn’t believe that the other disciples had seen Jesus.) How did Jesus begin the process of reconciliation for the disciples? (He appeared again when Thomas was present; he shared with his disciples the power to forgive sins.) What gift did Jesus give to his disciples to help them forgive sins? (the Holy Spirit)
- Say: Jesus has also given us the power to be people who forgive and reconcile with one another. Whenever we act to bring peace and resolution, we are acting in the spirit of Jesus.
- Pray the Peace Prayer of Saint Francis.
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Sunday April 1, 2018 Easter Sunday - The Resurrection of the Lord - The Mass of Easter Day
He is Risen, Alleluia. Have a happy and Blessed Easter!!
Lectionary: 42
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Peter proceeded to speak and said:
"You know what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.
We are witnesses of all that he did
both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commissioned us to preach to the people
and testify that he is the one appointed by God
as judge of the living and the dead.
To him all the prophets bear witness,
that everyone who believes in him
will receive forgiveness of sins through his name."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
"The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD."
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
Reading 2 Col 3:1-4
Brothers and sisters:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
Gospel Jn 20:1-9
On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
"They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don't know where they put him."
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Today’s reading features Peter’s message to the gathered household of Cornelius. After opening exchanges (10:24-33), Peter addresses directly the context at hand:
Then Peter proceeded to speak and said,* “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. Rather, in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him. The Greek is bolder about God’s lack of partiality: “God is not a partiality-shower (lit. ‘face-taker,’ prosopolemptes).” The concept appears elsewhere in Scripture regarding God’s lack of favoritism toward the rich and powerful (Deuteronomy 10:17; Lev 19:15; 2 Chronicles 9:17; Psalm 82:2; Sirach 35:15-16; Colossians 3:25; Ephesians 6:9; James 2:1, 9), but applying this same language to Jew-Gentile distinctions is quite new (also in Romans 2:11). The next verse only accentuates this meaning: “in every nation whoever fears him and acts uprightly is acceptable to him.” The language of “acceptable” (dektos) is rare in Luke-Acts, and first occurs to describe the nature of Jesus’ ministry as “the year of the Lord’s acceptance (dektos).” As these factors show, Peter’s message opens with one of the boldest declarations in Luke-Acts about the nature of God’s favor toward non-Jews.
Due to convoluted phrasing, translations render verses 36-37 in various ways. But two focal points in the text clearly emerge: God’s message entails “preaching peace by Jesus Christ,” and this Jesus “is Lord of all” (v. 36). Both points would have a sound spoken loudly to hearers within the Roman Empire. The phrase “preaching peace” (euangelizomenos eirenen, lit. “proclaiming the good news of peace”) uses language employed elsewhere in association with Roman emperors (“good news” and “peace” regarding Augustus’s birth, OGIS 2:458; cf. Luke 2:14). Even more, the phrase “Lord of all” implies the inferiority of all rival lords, both human and divine (Epictetus calls Caesar “lord of all” in Discourses 4.1.12; Pindar calls Zeus the same in Isthmian 5.53). These parallels would be striking to a centurion of a leading cohort in the Roman army (Acts 10:1). However, Roman rulers are not the only rivals on the horizon: Peter’s speech later recalls how Jesus’ ministry confronted the oppressive power of the devil (Acts 10:38), a cosmic foe still at large in Acts (13:8-13; 26:18; cf. 19:11-20).
The rest of Peter’s message (Acts 10:37-43) summarizes Jesus’ ministry, passion, and resurrection (vv. 37-38, 39b-41). Peter also emphasizes how Jesus’ followers are now witnesses (vv. 39, 41) called to testify -- with ancient prophets -- that he is both judge of all and source of forgiveness for believers (vv. 42-43). In fact, verses 37-43 spotlight major themes from Luke-Acts: John’s baptism, the Spirit’s presence, the devil’s oppression, the apostles’ testimony, Jesus’ resurrection, and the fulfillment of scripture. These verses summarize the highlights of Luke’s story about Jesus so that the audience in Cornelius’s home may hear the story authentically.
In the lectionary, Acts 10:34-43 appears most notably on Resurrection Sunday, and on that day is hardly the focal text. But this story’s contributions are not only independently profound, they are complementary to the message of Easter.
First, more directly than anywhere else in Luke-Acts (and arguably the New Testament), Acts 10:34-35 declares that “in every nation” God shows no favoritism to particular peoples. For a church now overwhelmingly Gentile that holds dear an Easter story entirely about Jewish characters, this is no small detail. For our benefit Peter’s message proclaims: God does not play favorites.
Second, the passage declares “he is Lord of all,” using politically- and religiously-charged language (kyrios, “lord”) to claim Jesus’ lordship over earthly and supernatural forces. In this way Acts 10:34-43 makes explicit what the resurrection story only implies: Jesus is Lord over all things -- death, the devil, and all the forces that defy God.
Third, the message of Jesus is powerful. Just outside the bounds of our first reading, Peter’s message is interrupted by an unexpected guest: the Holy Spirit (vv. 44-45). Although the narrative of Acts complicates a formulaic relationship between the proclaimed message and the Spirit’s presence, the Spirit’s advent at several occasions (e.g., 2:37; 10:44) implies there is a mysterious power about the message of Jesus.
Whereas today’s Gospel reading states “he is risen,” our first reading declares boldly a message no less profound: “he is Lord of all.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23.
Given that the occasion of this Sunday is so prominent (as it should be), we will inevitably end up interpreting this Psalm through the lens of Easter resurrection.
When testifying one first narrates what one has seen and heard [e.g., "the Lord did not give me over to death" verse 18] and then declares what one believes about what has been seen and heard [e.g., "The Lord has become my salvation," verse 14, and "I shall not die, but I shall live," verse 17]. This Psalm is a leader's testimony to the people.
This individual song of praise becomes a communal song of praise as it moves others to testify to what God has done in their lives. The celebrant could be any one of us who has born witness to God's mighty act of delivering us from bondage when we cannot free ourselves.
iImagine how this Psalm picks up where the shorter ending of the Gospel of Mark leaves off; that is, you break the silence of the women who first witnessed the empty tomb by proclaiming, "He is risen!" In doing so you encourage others do the same. Let the "Alleluias" return.
Finally, it is worth focusing a bit on verse 22 ("The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."). Architecturally, the cornerstone is key; it is key for the stability of the structure and, additionally, as a kind of capstone that points to the architectural plans perfect execution.
The Psalm suggests that what has become the cornerstone was once a stone that the builders rejected. For whatever reason, it was once of no use but now, unexpectedly, has become the chief cornerstone. It is possible that the Psalmist has moved from a place of rejection to restoration and is now celebrating God's role in this. Could it be that when we testify as the Psalmist did we, too, are rejoicing at the unexpectedness of now being the one to testify!
Talk about unexpected . . . whoever imagined a baby from Bethlehem would grow up, die an untimely death and rise from his own tomb! Because the leap has already been made from cornerstone as inanimate object to cornerstone as metaphor for a person, it is no surprise that the leap is made in the New Testament to identify Jesus as the cornerstone, the chief cornerstone even. [Note that this Psalm (this verse) is one of the most often quoted in the New Testament. (See, for example, Matthew 21:41, Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:6-7, Ephesians 2:20.)]
The news that God has defeated death must be proclaimed on this day that the Lord has made. Rejoice! Alleluia!
Reading 2 Col 3:1-4
Colossians is in many ways "the epistle in the middle."
It seems to be midway in the development from the historical Paul to documents such as Ephesians and 1-2 Timothy and Titus that are clearly written in a later generation to update Paul for a new day. Chapter 3 begins the advice-giving section of the letter. The theme of the whole section (3:1-4:6) is stated in 3:1, "So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." The implications of what it means to "seek the things that are above" are drawn out in the succeeding verses.
Why is Col 3:1-4 read on Easter Sunday? The answer is as brief as the reading:
*the text refers to the resurrection of Jesus,
*it connects believers to it, and
*it outlines a basic ethical response that the author hopes will guide believers.
The text does refer to the resurrection of Jesus. He has been raised, and he is currently to be found "above," "seated at the right hand of God." One of the characteristics of Colossians, Ephesians, and the post-Paul era in general is that the time categories used by Paul, such as "this age" and "the age of ages," are now transformed into spatial categories of above and below--or, as in v. 2, "above" and "on earth." In that "above" realm, Christ is seated at God's right hand. The right hand is the hand of power and judgment; the reference to being seated at the right hand has its origin in Ps 110:1, one of the most quoted passages in the New Testament (see Eph 1:20, Acts 2:34, Heb 1:3).
Our passage also connects believers to the resurrection. The resurrection affects not only Jesus but all those who trust in him. In the undisputed letters of Paul the believer is not already resurrected with Jesus. In fact, Paul is quite careful to avoid that language (see Rom 6:4, for example). The author of Colossians had no such qualms. The reference to being "raised with" refers to baptism, in which the believer is identified with the death of Jesus and dies to the world's demands (Col 2:20). But the believer is also raised with Jesus to a life of new behavior.
And so, the author directs the listeners to "seek the things that are above, where Christ is." "To seek" does not mean to go on a scavenger hunt for an illusive set of behavior standards, but rather it means to orient our lives on the things that are above. The author calls on believers to lift their vision, to look beyond the complications and messiness of daily life and to find direction for living from "above." And so, v. 2, believers are to "think of what is above, not o what is on earth." "Set your minds on" translates the Greek word fronei/te phroneite, which refers to a person's orientation or basic stance to life. Where do believers get their orientation--from the "things that are on earth" or from "above?" The author knows that it is difficult for believers to orient their lives properly. And so the author uses the present tense imperative, which signals an ongoing action and a continual need to re-orient, to re-set one's life. In our neighborhood the electricity goes off with some regularity--any major storm or wind almost certainly will mean a blackout. When the power comes back on, I have to spend quite awhile resetting clocks, radios, televisions, and VCR/DVD players. So, too, believers get off track. Our "power" goes off--or better expressed, our ability to access that power goes off. When we reconnect we need to reset our lives. And so for the author of our passage, setting our minds on the things that are above is not a one-time-only decision but a decision that needs to be made over and over again.
And how can believers do that? They can do so by remembering that we have died, v. 3: "for you have died" (see also 2:12, 20). And since the death of believers has occurred in baptism, our passage is close to Luther's counsel that believers need to return every day to our baptisms and kill the old Adam and the old Eve.
Even though the author of Colossians is more relaxed in his use of resurrection language than are the undisputed letters of Paul, he too reserves some things for the end of time. And so the resurrected life of believers, real though it may be (v. 1) is for the moment hidden with Christ. And so, also, the future glory of believers is, well, future! That glory will be revealed only when Christ himself is revealed. And that Christ is our very life, v. 4, by which the author reminds us that Christ is the source of life.
The Colossians text helps us to connect the wonderful good news of Easter to our lives today. When Jesus is killed and when he is raised, in some way we are killed and we are raised with him. And his past-tense resurrection and our past-tense-but-still-future resurrection help us to lift our eyes to the heavens above, both to see the resurrected Christ and to orient our lives to him.
Gospel Jn 20:1-9
In the beginning . . . In the new beginning . . .
John presents us with the narrative that lies at the heart of the Gospel. Jesus, who was crucified, has been raised. We watch as Mary, Peter, and an unnamed disciple discover that Jesus' tomb is now empty; the outward and visible sign that Jesus has conquered death and a new creation has begun. And we are witnesses to the moment when Mary meets her risen Lord. Her grief turns to joy and she brings to us the good news that has been proclaimed throughout the ages, "I have seen the Lord."
This portion of John's gospel is a play that unfolds in three distinctive acts; a story about people searching, about sadness and fear, about action, surprise, and joy. And it is a story that takes us full circle back to the opening of the gospel.
The scene opens on a solitary figure walking through the darkness. Mary Magdalene has broken through her fear in order to tend to the body of her teacher and friend. All gospel accounts of this moment vary on some points. But what is consistent is the day and that it is Mary Magdalene who is the first to go to the tomb.
When Mary finds that the stone has been removed she jumps to conclusions. Her perception of what has happened is that someone has entered and stolen the body. But the author does not tell us if she entered or even looked in the tomb. Did she really know that the body of Jesus was not there? (How often do we jump to conclusions about God's actions in our lives?) Nevertheless, she runs back to tell Peter what she believes has happened.
Act two shifts to the experiences of Peter and the unnamed disciple intriguingly identified only as "the one whom Jesus loved." Over the years there have been many suggestions as to whom these two might represent: Jewish and Gentile Christians, Petrine and Johannine Christians. Could it be that the beloved disciple is unnamed because, as one biblical scholar has suggested, this person is to represent us?
Like Mary they run. The unnamed disciple, perhaps younger, arrives first. Since he could be the junior partner, he waits until the senior partner, Peter, arrives. He allows Peter to be the first to enter. Inside, Peter discovers that the tomb is, indeed, empty. And unlike the four-day dead Lazarus, who stumbled out of his tomb hindered by his burial wrappings (John 11:44), the cloths are still in the tomb. The details are intriguing. The author describes the placement of the wrappings, but also notes that the cloth that had covered Jesus' head has been rolled up and put in another part of the tomb. We should note that the tomb is truly empty when Peter and then the other disciple enter. There is no angel; no heavenly messenger.
John tells us that the beloved disciple "saw and believed." But what did he believe? It could be that he believed Mary was correct -- someone had stolen the body of Jesus. Or did he believe what Jesus had said the night of their last meal together, that Jesus had "conquered the world!" (John 16:33)
Act two ends as the two go home. There are no shouts of joy, no celebration. The emptiness of the tomb does not seem yet to have made a difference. (How many people in your congregation will not be feeling joy, hope, or certainty this Easter morning?)
The focus returns to Mary standing outside of the tomb. Weeping, she does, this time, enter the tomb. It would seem that neither Peter nor the disciple have offered any words of comfort or encouragement to Mary. But Mary does not find an empty tomb. While the body of Jesus is not there, like the synoptic gospel accounts, there are two angels. In response to their almost ridiculous question, (of course she should be weeping,) Mary repeats her interpretation of the situation; the theft of her friend's body.
Finally she repeats the question once again to a man she believes is the gardener. This may not be as ridiculous an understanding as it seems. It could be that John is giving us clues on how we might understand what has happened. Two things drive us back to the beginning of John's gospel encouraging us to view this, not as the end of the story, but a new beginning.
First, in the opening of John's gospel, Jesus' first words are a question directed at the disciples of John the Baptizer. "What are you looking for?" (John 1:38) And here, in this beginning, this new creation, Jesus asks Mary the very same question, "Whom are you looking for?" (John 20:15) A new ministry is beginning, a new story. Is Jesus asking the same question of us this Easter morning? What are we looking for? It was when Jesus called her by name that Mary recognized her beloved Rabbouni. Is Jesus calling our name? And when John's disciples called out to this Rabbi, he invited them to "Come and see" (John 1:39). Are we being called to see the new things that God is doing in our lives and in our world?
Second, unlike the synoptic gospels that begin at dawn, John's tale begins in the dark, the absence of light. This is the writer who, at the opening of his gospel took us not to a stable, but to the very opening of creation, "In the beginning." Could it be that John is taking us back, once more, to that primordial darkness when "the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep" (Genesis 1:2). The author is echoing Paul's declaration that in the death and resurrection of Jesus we are experiencing a new creation, "everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" (2 Corinthians 5:17)
And where are we? In a garden. Without knowing it, Mary has correctly identified Jesus as the gardener who is bringing a new world, a new life, and a new creation into being, as he had done before:
"All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it" (John 1:3-5).
In the first creation story God drove Eve and Adam out of the garden. But in this new creation Jesus sends Mary out of the garden rejoicing. She is sent out to tell everyone the darkness has not overcome the Word made flesh who had lived among us. She had seen her Rabbi, and she now understood that she has seen "the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14) "I have seen the Lord." (John 20:18) Her message declares to us the new beginning that God has prepared for all of us
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Remember that last Sunday we heard and reflected upon the events of Jesus' passion and death on the cross. How do you think the disciples felt on the day of Jesus' death and during the days that followed? What do you think they were doing on these days? (gathering together to comfort one another, remembering Jesus' life and his importance to them)
- Today's Gospel reading is about what happened on the morning of the third day after Jesus' death.
- Mary of Magdala found something unusual when she visited Jesus' tomb. What did she find? (The stone had been removed.) What did Mary do next? (She ran to tell Simon Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved.)
- If you were Mary of Magdala, Simon Peter, or the Beloved Disciple, what would you have thought when you found the stone removed and Jesus' tomb empty? Today's Gospel tells us that Mary of Magdala thought that someone had taken Jesus' body. The disciples did not yet understand that Jesus had been raised from the dead.
- During Lent we prepared ourselves to remember and celebrate Jesus' death and resurrection. During the season of Easter, the Church asks us to reflect and meditate upon Jesus' Resurrection and what it means for us as Jesus' disciples today. We can spend time during the Easter season thinking about Jesus' Resurrection and the gift of eternal life that he gives to us.
- Praying today's psalm, Psalm 118.
Sunday March 25, 2018 Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
Lectionary: 37 and 38
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 50:4-7
The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
All who see me scoff at me;
they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads:
"He relied on the LORD; let him deliver him,
let him rescue him, if he loves him."
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Indeed, many dogs surround me,
a pack of evildoers closes in upon me;
They have pierced my hands and my feet;
I can count all my bones.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
They divide my garments among them,
and for my vesture they cast lots.
But you, O LORD, be not far from me;
O my help, hasten to aid me.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:
"You who fear the LORD, praise him;
all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him;
revere him, all you descendants of Israel!"
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Reading 2 Phil 2:6-11
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel
Gospel Mk 14:1—15:47
The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread
were to take place in two days' time.
So the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way
to arrest him by treachery and put him to death.
They said, "Not during the festival,
for fear that there may be a riot among the people."
When he was in Bethany reclining at table
in the house of Simon the leper,
a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil,
costly genuine spikenard.
She broke the alabaster jar and poured it on his head.
There were some who were indignant.
"Why has there been this waste of perfumed oil?
It could have been sold for more than three hundred days' wages
and the money given to the poor."
They were infuriated with her.
Jesus said, "Let her alone.
Why do you make trouble for her?
She has done a good thing for me.
The poor you will always have with you,
and whenever you wish you can do good to them,
but you will not always have me.
She has done what she could.
She has anticipated anointing my body for burial.
Amen, I say to you,
wherever the gospel is proclaimed to the whole world,
what she has done will be told in memory of her."
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve,
went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them.
When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money.
Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
when they sacrificed the Passover lamb,
his disciples said to him,
"Where do you want us to go
and prepare for you to eat the Passover?"
He sent two of his disciples and said to them,
"Go into the city and a man will meet you,
carrying a jar of water.
Follow him.
Wherever he enters, say to the master of the house,
'The Teacher says, "Where is my guest room
where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?"'
Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready.
Make the preparations for us there."
The disciples then went off, entered the city,
and found it just as he had told them;
and they prepared the Passover.
When it was evening, he came with the Twelve.
And as they reclined at table and were eating, Jesus said,
"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me,
one who is eating with me."
They began to be distressed and to say to him, one by one,
"Surely it is not I?"
He said to them,
"One of the Twelve, the one who dips with me into the dish.
For the Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born."
While they were eating,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them, and said,
"Take it; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them,
and they all drank from it.
He said to them,
"This is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed for many.
Amen, I say to you,
I shall not drink again the fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Then Jesus said to them,
"All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written:
I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be dispersed.
But after I have been raised up,
I shall go before you to Galilee."
Peter said to him,
"Even though all should have their faith shaken,
mine will not be."
Then Jesus said to him,
"Amen, I say to you,
this very night before the cock crows twice
you will deny me three times."
But he vehemently replied,
"Even though I should have to die with you,
I will not deny you."
And they all spoke similarly.
Then they came to a place named Gethsemane,
and he said to his disciples,
"Sit here while I pray."
He took with him Peter, James, and John,
and began to be troubled and distressed.
Then he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death.
Remain here and keep watch."
He advanced a little and fell to the ground and prayed
that if it were possible the hour might pass by him;
he said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible to you.
Take this cup away from me,
but not what I will but what you will."
When he returned he found them asleep.
He said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep?
Could you not keep watch for one hour?
Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."
Withdrawing again, he prayed, saying the same thing.
Then he returned once more and found them asleep,
for they could not keep their eyes open
and did not know what to answer him.
He returned a third time and said to them,
"Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
It is enough. The hour has come.
Behold, the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.
Get up, let us go.
See, my betrayer is at hand."
Then, while he was still speaking,
Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived,
accompanied by a crowd with swords and clubs
who had come from the chief priests,
the scribes, and the elders.
His betrayer had arranged a signal with them, saying,
"The man I shall kiss is the one;
arrest him and lead him away securely."
He came and immediately went over to him and said,
"Rabbi." And he kissed him.
At this they laid hands on him and arrested him.
One of the bystanders drew his sword,
struck the high priest's servant, and cut off his ear.
Jesus said to them in reply,
"Have you come out as against a robber,
with swords and clubs, to seize me?
Day after day I was with you teaching in the temple area,
yet you did not arrest me;
but that the Scriptures may be fulfilled."
And they all left him and fled.
Now a young man followed him
wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body.
They seized him,
but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.
They led Jesus away to the high priest,
and all the chief priests and the elders and the scribes came together.
Peter followed him at a distance into the high priest's courtyard
and was seated with the guards, warming himself at the fire.
The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin
kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus
in order to put him to death, but they found none.
Many gave false witness against him,
but their testimony did not agree.
Some took the stand and testified falsely against him,
alleging, "We heard him say,
'I will destroy this temple made with hands
and within three days I will build another
not made with hands.'"
Even so their testimony did not agree.
The high priest rose before the assembly and questioned Jesus,
saying, "Have you no answer?
What are these men testifying against you?"
But he was silent and answered nothing.
Again the high priest asked him and said to him,
"Are you the Christ, the son of the Blessed One?"
Then Jesus answered, "I am;
and 'you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of the Power
and coming with the clouds of heaven.'"
At that the high priest tore his garments and said,
"hat further need have we of witnesses?
You have heard the blasphemy.
What do you think?"
They all condemned him as deserving to die.
Some began to spit on him.
They blindfolded him and struck him and said to him, "Prophesy!"
And the guards greeted him with blows.
While Peter was below in the courtyard,
one of the high priest's maids came along.
Seeing Peter warming himself,
she looked intently at him and said,
"You too were with the Nazarene, Jesus."
But he denied it saying,
"I neither know nor understand what you are talking about."
So he went out into the outer court.
Then the cock crowed.
The maid saw him and began again to say to the bystanders,
"This man is one of them."
Once again he denied it.
A little later the bystanders said to Peter once more,
"Surely you are one of them; for you too are a Galilean."
He began to curse and to swear,
"I do not know this man about whom you are talking."
And immediately a cock crowed a second time.
Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had said to him,
"Before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times."
He broke down and wept.
As soon as morning came,
the chief priests with the elders and the scribes,
that is, the whole Sanhedrin held a council.
They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
Pilate questioned him,
"Are you the king of the Jews?"
He said to him in reply, "You say so."
The chief priests accused him of many things.
Again Pilate questioned him,
"Have you no answer?
See how many things they accuse you of."
Jesus gave him no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast he used to release to them
one prisoner whom they requested.
A man called Barabbas was then in prison
along with the rebels who had committed murder in a rebellion.
The crowd came forward and began to ask him
to do for them as he was accustomed.
Pilate answered,
"Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?"
For he knew that it was out of envy
that the chief priests had handed him over.
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd
to have him release Barabbas for them instead.
Pilate again said to them in reply,
"Then what do you want me to do
with the man you call the king of the Jews?"
They shouted again, "Crucify him."
Pilate said to them, "Why? What evil has he done?"
They only shouted the louder, "Crucify him."
So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd,
released Barabbas to them and, after he had Jesus scourged,
handed him over to be crucified.
The soldiers led him away inside the palace,
that is, the praetorium, and assembled the whole cohort.
They clothed him in purple and,
weaving a crown of thorns, placed it on him.
They began to salute him with, AHail, King of the Jews!"
and kept striking his head with a reed and spitting upon him.
They knelt before him in homage.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the purple cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him out to crucify him.
They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon,
a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country,
the father of Alexander and Rufus,
to carry his cross.
They brought him to the place of Golgotha
— which is translated Place of the Skull --
They gave him wine drugged with myrrh,
but he did not take it.
Then they crucified him and divided his garments
by casting lots for them to see what each should take.
It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him.
The inscription of the charge against him read,
"The King of the Jews."
With him they crucified two revolutionaries,
one on his right and one on his left.
Those passing by reviled him,
shaking their heads and saying,
"Aha! You who would destroy the temple
and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself by coming down from the cross."
Likewise the chief priests, with the scribes,
mocked him among themselves and said,
"He saved others; he cannot save himself.
Let the Christ, the King of Israel,
come down now from the cross
that we may see and believe."
Those who were crucified with him also kept abusing him.
At noon darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And at three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?"
which is translated,
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
"Look, he is calling Elijah."
One of them ran, soaked a sponge with wine, put it on a reed
and gave it to him to drink saying,
"Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to take him down."
Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
The veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom.
When the centurion who stood facing him
saw how he breathed his last he said,
"Truly this man was the Son of God!"
There were also women looking on from a distance.
Among them were Mary Magdalene,
Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, and Salome.
These women had followed him when he was in Galilee
and ministered to him.
There were also many other women
who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
When it was already evening,
since it was the day of preparation,
the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea,
a distinguished member of the council,
who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God,
came and courageously went to Pilate
and asked for the body of Jesus.
Pilate was amazed that he was already dead.
He summoned the centurion
and asked him if Jesus had already died.
And when he learned of it from the centurion,
he gave the body to Joseph.
Having bought a linen cloth, he took him down,
wrapped him in the linen cloth,
and laid him in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock.
Then he rolled a stone against the entrance to the tomb.
Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses
watched where he was laid.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 50:4-7
Isaiah 50:4-7 is part of a larger poem that extends to 50:11.
Its subject is a servant of God (50:10), who speaks of his life in God’s service with both pride and pugnacity. The poem begins with his boast of being attentive to the word of God (verse 4), and he proclaims that his calling is “to sustain the weary with a word.” Then the poem takes a surprising turn: “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.” (verse 6).
This poem is in that portion of Isaiah (chapters 40-55) written in the final years of the Babylonian exile, so speaking a message of comfort to the weary exiles of that time would seem to be a compelling and attractive calling. Inviting torture is less so. And yet this servant, suffering so horribly, goes on to declare, “The Lord GOD is my help, therefore I am not disgraced;…” (verse 7a). He is a compelling and strong character, whose dignity and ferocity are at odds with his beaten visage, and the prophet of Second Isaiah offers him to the people in exile as a powerful symbol of courage and hope in the midst of profound suffering. Indeed, the prophet offers the model of the servant to the people and calls them to be like him -- to understand their own suffering as he does -- rooted in the call to be faithful servants of God.
There are several poems in Isaiah 40-55 whose focus is this individual whom God calls “my servant.” These include 42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; and 52:13-53:12. While there has been a tendency to view these poems as sounding a distinct note within Second Isaiah and excising them from their context, contemporary scholarship has moved away from this treatment of the servant poems and made solid arguments for regarding them as integral to Second Isaiah’s work and message.
Understood within the context of Second Isaiah, the servant poems are best seen as part of the prophet’s effort to inspire and transform the people in exile from seeing themselves as helpless slaves of Babylon (see Isaiah 49:7) to servants of God, endowed with dignity and purpose. This commentary is not the place for a comprehensive study of the imagery of the servant in Second Isaiah, but a few notes on servant imagery within the book might be helpful:
No Name
The servant of God is never given a name in these poems, suggesting that the poems about the servant are not descriptions of a historical individual (or, at least, are not only descriptions of an actual person) but are deliberately non-specific in order to allow the people to imagine themselves as the servant. When there is a particular name associated with the servant, the name is “Israel” or “Jacob” (41:8-9; 44:1-2, 21; 45:4; 48:20; 49:3, 5-6), indicating that the prophet’s intent is for the people as a whole to see themselves as the servant and not to associate the term with one particular person.
Blameless Individual
The servant of these four servant poems is a blameless individual, whose faithfulness to God is unparalleled and whose suffering is extreme (see especially 52:13-53:12). Some have argued that the servant cannot possibly be the people in exile because they were not beyond reproach, but Second Isaiah begins with the admission that the suffering of the people has exceeded the fault: “[Jerusalem] has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins” (40:2b).
Also consider the perspective of 52:4-5, which reads: “Now therefore what am I doing here, says the Lord, seeing that my people are taken away without cause?” The above examples demonstrate that there is room within the framework of Second Isaiah to regard the people in exile as suffering undeservedly.
Babylon?
The people to whom the prophet writes were living in exile, but there is only a single mention of the people serving Babylon in Second Isaiah. In fact, Babylon is not even mentioned by name in that single text:
“Thus says the LORD, the redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,
To the one despised, abhorred by the nations,
the slave of rulers:” (49:7a).
The Hebrew word translated “slave” here is the same word translated as “servant” in the texts that speak of God’s servant in the rest of Second Isaiah. Considering the fact that the people in exile were under the control of Babylon, it is surely significant that the prophet does not speak of their lives and their labor as belonging to anyone but God. As God’s own servant, the people are divinely called and empowered, and they will ultimately be vindicated (42:1, 6-7; 43:10; 44:1-5; 49:1-6; 50:4, 7-9; 52:13, 53:5, 10-12).
Reading Isaiah 50:4-9a in light of the servant imagery we find throughout Isaiah 40-55 highlights the fact that the servant is not to be viewed simply as a description of a particular person in history. Open ears, learned and sustaining speech, a staunch faith and a willingness to suffer are the hallmarks of the ideal servant of God. God’s calling to be “my servant” is issued to the people in exile, struggling to maintain their identity as God’s own people in the midst of the Babylonian empire. It is a powerful calling, and it issues through the ages to Judea in first century ce and to us as well.
This poem is, of course, the Old Testament reading for this Sunday, which is the Sunday of the Passion. This text will serve as background for most sermons delivered this Sunday, but it is my hope that it will deepen our sense of gratitude for the one we profess as Christians to have fulfilled the calling to be God’s servant in the truest sense.
I hope that gratitude is not the only response to this servant song and to the story of the Passion, however. In both the Passion of Christ and the suffering of the servant of God in Second Isaiah, a call is issued. The call is not to a life of ease but to a life in the service of God, grounded in our faith. May our ears ever be open to the word of God and our mouths ever ready to speak a word of comfort. May our faces never be hidden out of fear or shame because the God “who vindicates me is near.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24.
Psalm 22 is a prayer of complaint that, perhaps more than any psalm, serves as a link between the Old Testament and the story of Jesus' passion.
Indeed, this psalm is an appropriate lectionary reading as we prepare for Holy Week because the Gospels cite and allude to it at least five times in the crucifixion account. It is important to recognize, however, that Psalm 22 is not important simply because it appears in the New Testament. Rather, the New Testament writers drew from it because of its profound expressions of suffering and faith.
Psalm 22 has "an intensity and a comprehensiveness" that is almost unequaled among psalms of this type. The psalm has two main parts: (1) a prayer for help in verses 1-21a; and (2) a song of praise in verses 21b-31. Both of these sections have two prominent divisions in which repetition of a main theme, sometimes with exact vocabulary, strengthens the psalm's expression of both complaint and praise. Verses 1-11 has two complaints (verses 1-2, 6-9), contains some of the most striking language in the Psalms. The psalm opens with the famous cry of dereliction, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
At the other end of this section the psalmist complains,
"But I am a worm not a man, scorned by men, despised by the people" (verse 7). In both cases, however, the complaint is followed by an extended confession of trust that recalls God's protection in the past (verses 3-5, 9-11). The first confession of trust is corporate ("In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted and you rescued them" verse 5) and second individual and personal ("Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother's breast," For you drew me forth from the womb, made me safe at my mother’s breasts. verse 10).
The prayer for help in verses 12-21a focuses on the nature of the psalmist's trouble. The verses leading up to 17-20 include images of animals that circle the psalmist waiting to devour and destroy. These images are followed in both cases by complaints of physical weakness. The section concludes with a concatenation of petitions for God to be near and to save from the sword, the dog, and the lion (verses 19-21a).
The second major portion of the psalm turns to praise and assurance that God has heard and answered. This section offers praise and thanksgiving that matches the repeated calls for help in verses 1-21a. Verse 21b responds tersely to the complaints of verses 1-18 by saying "From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me." The rest of the psalm then promises praise to God, promises that progress from the psalmist's profession before worshippers (verses 22-25) to the praise of those who "sleep in the earth" (verse 29).
The psalmist's promise of praise dominates verses 22-26. Twice the psalmist pledges to honor God by recalling God's goodness (verse 22) and by making vows in the midst of the congregation (verse 25). After both promises of praise the psalmist then declares God's past goodness to those in trouble and those of lowly estate ("the afflicted," verse 24; "the poor" and "those who seek him," verse 26; the word translated "afflicted" and the word translated "poor" are actually the same, ?an? ). Verses 27-31 then expand the promise of praise so that every person in human history is included: "all the families of the nations" (verse 27), "all who sleep in the earth" (verse 29), and "future generations" (verse 30).
The connection between Psalm 22 and the story of Jesus' suffering and death is natural given the extensive description of suffering the psalm contains. Perhaps the most obvious connection between the passion story and Psalm 22 is Jesus' cry of God-forsakenness: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1; Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46). Other portions of the psalm provide an outline of the experience of Jesus on the cross.
In all four Gospels (Mark 15:24; Matthew 27:35; Luke 23:34; John 19:24) the description of the soldiers' activity beneath the cross draws on Psalm 22:18:
"they divide my garments among them,;
and for my clothing they cast lots."
Not only does the psalmist cry out to God with unparalleled expressions of pain and loss (verse 1), but the writer also expresses hope in something close akin to resurrection (verses 29-30). Thus, Psalm 22 is appropriate for the hope that accompanies Jesus' passion as well as the grief. It anticipates a vision of God who holds the believer even after death that will only be expressed fully centuries later.
Reading 2 Phil 2:6-11
What's in a name? From a biblical perspective -- everything!1
A name was believed to represent the essence of a person's character. The name Jesus, of course, is the Greek version of the Hebrew name Joshua, which means "he saves."
"The name that is above every name..."
In Philippians Paul incorporates into his letter what is most likely an early Christian hymn. In this hymn we see how Jesus embodies his given name, "he saves." Being "in the form of God," he did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped or exploited, as something to be held onto at all costs and used to his own advantage. Rather, he willingly " ….emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. (2:6-8).
Jesus is not a passive victim, but enters fully and willingly into his mission. He empties himself of all claims to divine glory and honor to become a human being -- not a human of high status and honor, but a lowly slave serving other human beings. He humbles himself even to the point of dying a slave's death, for the shameful and tortuous form of execution by crucifixion was reserved for slaves and rebels against Roman rule.
This Jesus is the one whom God highly exalts and to whom God gives "the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend... and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (2:9-11). In exalting Jesus, God gives Jesus his own name -- "Lord" -- and confers on him Lordship over all creation. One day every knee will bend before him, "in heaven and on earth and under the earth," and every tongue join in confessing together that Jesus Christ is Lord.
This hymn makes the astonishing claim that the one we call God and Lord is most fully revealed in the crucified one. The one who humbled himself and took the form of a slave shows us who God is and how God acts. God's essential character is shown to be one of self-emptying love rather than self-aggrandizement or grasping for power and glory. God's high exaltation of Jesus confirms the divine nature of his mission and ensures that one day he will be acknowledged by all for who he truly is. Jesus, the one who saves, is God's anointed one (the Messiah or Christ), and Lord of all.
Does our life together reflect "the same mind that was in Christ Jesus"? Are we looking to the interests of others rather than our own interests? Are humility and servanthood evident among us?
Gospel Mk 14:1—15:47
Palm Sunday is a day to set the tone for those who will be worshiping together throughout Holy Week and to rehearse the drama of Holy Week for those who will not gather with the worshiping community again until Easter Sunday.
To allow worshipers to move from the joy of the parade into Jerusalem to the joy of the parade out of the tomb without experiencing the somberness of the temple conflicts, the eschatological predictions of future suffering and redemption, the anointing, the last supper, the arrest and trial, the mobs, the crucifixion and the burial is to rob the Paschal Mystery of much of its mystery.
The lectionary for this Sunday divides the readings into the Liturgy of the Palms (anchored by Mark 11:1-11) and the more extended Liturgy of the Passion (focused on Mark 14:1 -- 15:47). But if congregations are willing to forego their usual liturgical format, worship can be structured around a sequence of dramatic readings from the gospel lections (as well as the other lections). Such a format invites worshipers to experience an extended narrative in a way that the confines of Sunday worship rarely allow. Hymns, prayers, communion, and other acts of worship can be included in the service at places that invite the congregation to respond appropriately to the different readings.
Begin with commentary on the scenes in chapter 15 leading up to Jesus' death, focusing on how Jesus' identity is misunderstood. The religious leaders, Pilate, the crowds, and soldiers are all confused about who Jesus is.
Move to a wide angle lens approach and offer a sympathetic reading of these opponents indicating that their misunderstanding should be no surprise given that Mark presents even the disciples as being confused.
Walk through key moments in Mark where the disciples exhibit misunderstanding, e.g., in the parables discourse where insiders are supposed to understand the mystery of the reign of God but Jesus has to interpret the parables for them (4:10-13, 34), in the miracle of calming storm where they question who Jesus is (verses 40-41), when Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ (seemingly understanding) only to be rebuked by Jesus and called Satan after he rejects Jesus' self-understanding as one who must suffer and die (8:27-33), and after the other two passion predictions where the disciples respond inappropriately (arguing over who is the greatest in 10:30-37 and asking to sit on Jesus' right and left hand in glory in 11:32-40).
The strategy behind such a survey would be the cumulative effect of presenting the disciples' misunderstanding. Thus the climax of the narration should be Peter's denial (14:66-72) that is the last scene before the lectionary reading begins in 15:1: when he says in his last denial, "I do not know this man you are talking about," he thinks he is lying, but he is not.
Sum up the misunderstanding in terms of the fact that no human in Mark's narrative calls Jesus the Son of God. The title of the book declares it (1:1). The heavenly voice announces it at Jesus' baptism (1:11) and transfiguration (9:7), but the disciples do not "get it." But finally one person does -- the very man who crucified Jesus, the Gentile, the Roman oppressor, the centurion. When he sees Jesus die, he recognizes him: "Truly this man was God's son" (15:39).
This long narration of Mark's story through the christological lenses of misunderstanding and the messianic title of Son of God finally allows the preacher to claim, on the congregation's behalf, our contemporary misunderstanding of who Jesus Christ, the Son of God is. And it allows the preacher to lead the congregation to the rejection, suffering and death of the cross, even today, as the place where we can truly understand who Jesus is for us (pro nobis).
Preachers with different theological orientations will naturally interpret the significance of the cross in different ways, but reclaiming its centrality (through the lens of Mark) for interpreting the Christ event and indeed contemporary Christian existence is not a bad way to start off Holy Week.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- This week we celebrate Holy Week, which is the most important week in the Church year because it is when we remember Jesus’ death on the cross for our salvation. On Palm Sunday, we hear two Gospel readings. The first Gospel tells us how Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was greeted by the crowds. The crowds shouted praises to God because they thought Jesus was coming to save them.
- In the second Gospel reading for this Sunday, which is also called Passion Sunday, we hear the details about several events: Jesus’ Last Supper, his prayer in the garden of Gethsemane, Judas’s betrayal, the arrest of Jesus, Peter’s denial of Jesus, and how Jesus was accused and sentenced to death. This year we read the passion from Mark’s Gospel. Let’s prayerfully listen to a portion of this Gospel.
- When we hear this Gospel, we discover that Jesus was alone when he died on the cross. Before he died, Jesus cried out to God, asking why God had abandoned him. Jesus felt completely abandoned and alone as he died on the cross. But the Gospel also tells us that some were looking on from the distance—Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of the younger James and of Joses, Salome, and many other women.
- In dying alone on the cross, Jesus identifies himself with all those who are forgotten and alone in our world. Jesus wants us to bring his good news to those who feel alone. The women who looked on from a distance had ministered to Jesus as he traveled throughout Galilee. They felt helpless in the face of Jesus’ Crucifixion, but they were there.
- God appeared to be absent when Jesus died on the cross, but we know that he wasn’t. By raising Jesus from the dead, God was saying to all of those who are forgotten and alone in the world that he cares for them.
- Conclude by praying for those who feel alone and abandoned. Ask God to help our Church to reach out to all people, comforting them with the assurance of his care and love. Pray the Peace Prayer of Saint Francis
- Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Spikenard (spike nard) was an expensive perfume mentioned in the Song of Solomon (1:12; 4:13–14) and in the gospels’ accounts of women anointing Jesus (Mark 14:3; John 12:3).
Spikenard had a strong, distinctive aroma, similar to an essential oil that clings to skin and hair and continues to give off its heady perfume. It was also thought to have medicinal properties. According to Eastman’s Bible Dictionary, spikenard “is the root of an Indian plant, the Nardostachys jatamansi, (nardo stan chees jata man see) of the family of Valeriance, growing on the Himalaya mountains and in India. It is distinguished by its having many hairy spikes shooting out from one root.” The ointment prepared from the root was highly valued. Spikenard symbolized the very best in ancient cultures the way that “Tiffany diamond” or the “gold standard” does to us.
Spikenard had a unique fragrance, and the presence of its aroma was an indication that the very best had been offered. In the Song of Solomon, spikenard is mentioned in reference to the love between bride and groom. In Song of Solomon 1:12, the bride says, “While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.” Those words imply that, despite all other fragrances in the room, only his bride’s would matter to the groom. The presence of spikenard represented their passion for each other and their desire to have only the best define their love.
When Mary of Bethany broke her alabaster jar of spikenard (John 12:3) and bathed the feet of Jesus with the oil, she, too, wanted only the best to define her love for Him. It has been speculated that this jar may have been Mary’s dowry or her inheritance. In other words, this jar of spikenard ointment may have been all she had of value, and she poured it out on Him. Her extravagant gift is a picture of the kind of offering expected of each of us. Only the best was worthy of her Lord, and she was willing to give everything as an act of worship.
A denarius (or "penny") was what an agricultural worker typically was paid for one day's labor (probably 10 hours, sunup to sundown) Mt. 20:2-9). Was worth about 15 cents.
Note Rev. 6:6 which sets the price of wheat at a penny per measure, or barley at a penny for 3 measures. I have been told that a measure here is enough to feed a person for a day. In other words, it would take an agricultural worker's entire wages for a day to feed himself on wheat; or he would be able to feed himself and two other family members on barley. This verse is obviously indicating a difficult time.
To put the value in today’s dollars let’s assume a minimum wage of $7.50 per hour today. Since some had said the jar was worth 300 days wages it would be worth 7.50 times 10 times 300 or $22,500.00. WOW!!!
Sunday March 18, 2018 – Year B Fifth Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 35
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 31:31-34
The days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers
the day I took them by the hand
to lead them forth from the land of Egypt;
for they broke my covenant,
and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD.
But this is the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD.
I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts;
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives
how to know the LORD.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD,
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
A clean heart create for me, O God,
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners shall return to you.
R. Create a clean heart in me, O God.
Reading 2 Heb 5:7-9
In the days when Christ Jesus was in the flesh,
he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears
to the one who was able to save him from death,
and he was heard because of his reverence.
Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered;
and when he was made perfect,
he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
Gospel Jn 12:20-33
Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast
came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee,
and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus."
Philip went and told Andrew;
then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them,
"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it,
and whoever hates his life in this world
will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me,
and where I am, there also will my servant be.
The Father will honor whoever serves me.
"I am troubled now. Yet what should I say?
'Father, save me from this hour'?
But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name."
Then a voice came from heaven,
"I have glorified it and will glorify it again."
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder;
but others said, "An angel has spoken to him."
Jesus answered and said,
"This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.
Now is the time of judgment on this world;
now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw everyone to myself."
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 31:31-34
On this Sunday, we hear words of promise from the prophet Jeremiah, words about a new covenant and a renewed relationship between God and God's people.
The words are addressed to a people in exile, far from home and bereft of hope. The covenant between God and Israel, the covenant made so long ago at Sinai, is (or seems to be) broken. God has not protected Israel from harm and they have been taken into exile.
Into such a situation, the prophet speaks words of promise. But he frames those promises in terms of the very relationship in question. The prophet speaks of a covenant -- like the one made at Sinai -- between the Lord and Israel. "The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah" (Jeremiah 31:31).
There is both continuity and discontinuity with what has come before. The continuity lies in the character of God and the love God continues to have for a wayward people. God will not abandon Israel forever. God will not forget God's promises made so long ago at Sinai:
I will dwell among the Israelites, and I will be their God. (Exodus 29:45; cf. Exodus 6:7)
And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. (Leviticus 26:12)
Just so, in this new covenant, God promises, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33). The relationship is not new. Israel knows this God, and God knows this people. The promises Jeremiah speaks build on a long and shared history between God and Israel, a history marked by wavering on the part of the people and by faithfulness on the part of God. God continues to love this wayward people; they continue to be God's treasured possession. In this new covenant there is indeed continuity with what has come before.
The discontinuity is, of course, implied with the term, "new." This is a new covenant with Israel, not like the covenant at Sinai, "a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says GOD" (Jeremiah 31:32). Still, what is new about this covenant is not so much its content, but the means by which God will bring it about.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says GOD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know GOD," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says GOD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:33-34)
The old covenant, written on stone tablets and scrolls, will be replaced by the new covenant, written on flesh. The first set of stone tablets was broken (Exodus 32:19), the second set written again (Exodus 34:1) and hidden away in the Ark of the Covenant (Deuteronomy 10:5). The book of the law, containing the stipulations of the covenant, likewise was stored beside the Ark (Deuteronomy 31:24-26) and mostly forgotten until it was rediscovered in the reign of King Josiah (2 Kings 22), in the early days of Jeremiah's prophetic career.
Unlike the old covenant, then, written on stone tablets that can be broken and scrolls that can be lost, the new covenant will be written within the people, on their very hearts. No need for remedial religious education, because everyone will know GOD, from the king to the stable boy, from the oldest elder to the youngest child.
And it will all be GOD's doing. "I will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more." The people have not demonstrated a great aptitude for faithfulness during the many years of the old covenant, so this time GOD will do it differently. This time, the covenant relies solely on GOD's mercy, GOD's ever-present grace in forgiving a disobedient people and calling them back into relationship with him.
And it is all God's doing. In and through Jesus Christ, the God of Jeremiah continues to forgive, renew, reform, and call God's people into right relationship with him and with one another. God is faithful, even when we are not.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 51:3-4, 12-13, 14-15.
In verses 1 -- 5, the psalm begins with a cry for forgiveness, emphasizing the urgency of the situation with a series of imperative verbs: have mercy, blot out, wash, and cleanse. The picture behind the Hebrew word translated "transgressions" in verses 1, 3, and 13, is one of rebellion, as when children rebel against parents (see also Isaiah 1:2). The literal sense of the Hebrew translated "iniquity" (verses 2, 9) is "to be bent out of shape." For example, in Psalm 38:6, the Jewish Publication Society Bible gives the translation "I am all bent." The word translated "sin" (Hebrew hata' in verses 2, 3, 4, 9) or "sinner" (5 and 13) in non-theological contexts means "to miss the target." Judges 20:16 tells of 700 left-handed sling-shotters who could "sling a stone at a hair and not miss (hata')."
Balancing these words for sin are three Hebrew picture-words for forgiveness. The Hebrew translated "blot out" in verse 1 is also used to "wipe" a dirty dish (2 Kings 21:13). To "wash" in verses 2 and 7 could better be translated "scrub," as one scrubs dirty clothes (Exodus 19:10, 14). "Cleanse" in verse 2 and "be clean" in verse 7 is the same word used for washing clothes in a river (Leviticus 13:6, 34, 58).
In verses 13 -- 17, the one praying looks forward to being happy and right with God once again (verses 8, 11-12). Once he/she experiences the joy of being forgiven, he/she vows to witness and teach others about it and sing and praise God (verses 13-15). In verses 16 and 17 the psalmist says, "The sort of sacrifice the Lord desires is not something I bring as an offering. Rather, the Lord wants me, broken spirit, broken heart and all" (see also Micah 6:6-8).
Reading 2 Heb 5:7-9
Christ was obedient not only in his death, but from the moment of his coming into the world.
This is the message of today's epistle reading. The author's declaration here is close to Paul's statement in Romans 3:25, where he speaks of God putting forward Jesus "as an expiation through faith in his blood." Yet, it is not Paul that the author of Hebrews has in mind.
What we find here is a positive explanation of Christ's priestly act. What is said about Christ is in reply to the inability of the priestly or Levitical sacrificial system to perfect the individual's conscience. The author said in 9:14 that the perfection of conscience was the goal of worship. The speaker here is Christ. In fact, it is only the second time in the book that Jesus himself speaks. More importantly, these words are ascribed to Christ "when [he] came into the world" (Hebrews 10:5). Thus, the complete obedience that is the essence of Christ's priesthood is also expressive of his character. One may clearly see this in his faithful and obedient sacrifice on the cross, but the author wants us to understand that Christ was faithful at the moment of his coming into existence. Jesus is the son who "learned obedience through what he suffered" (5:8), and did so from the beginning.
The actual verses quoted from the psalm come from the Septuagint (i.e., the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) rather than the Hebrew. This is most evident in the use of the term "body," which does not appear in the Hebrew rendition. (It has "ear.") The point appears to be that Jesus was committed entirely to God, including his body.
It was through a single-minded obedience of Christ's will and -- most pointedly -- body, says Hebrews, that our sanctification through God's will has come about. The author wants us to see that the incarnation is explained by the atonement, but the atonement would never have come about without Christ's faithful obedience. Moreover, the sacrifice offered up by Jesus was so perfectly complete that no repetition of it is either necessary or possible. It was offered "once for all" (10:10). Although Jesus "learned obedience from the things he suffered," which implies that he grew in his understanding of the divine will, the reading for today wants us to be certain that even at the moment of the incarnation Jesus was thoroughly committed to carrying it out.
Gospel Jn 12:20-33
This lectionary periscope is the opening section of Jesus’ final discourse for the world.
Greeks arrive on the scene, find Philip, and make one of the most extraordinary requests of the entire Gospel, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Jesus’ discourse that follows is, in part, a response to this request. If you wish to see Jesus, then this is what you will and must see. There is a reason this verse finds itself carved on or engraved in our pulpits. It is a summative theology of preaching, particularly for the Fourth Gospel. Any sermon on the Gospel of John has this as its goal, the very real presence of Jesus that needs to be experienced by any or all of our human senses. Jesus’ response to the request of the Greeks announces that the hour has come (meaning the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension). In many respects, what follows is an interpretation of the hour for the world to hear. One way to view Jesus’ last public discourse is as an interpretation of the “final” sign in the Gospel: Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Both this discourse and the Farewell Discourse are based on the fact that the hour is here. These two discourses share that perspective and shape what Jesus will say and how he will say it in the chapters that follow.
A call to discipleship
An immediate example of how Jesus’ last public words foreshadow his personal words to the disciples is the image offered in John 12:24. The metaphor of bearing fruit will receive fuller treatment in the image of the vine and the branches in chapter 15. Verse 25 is further commentary on the agricultural metaphor presented in verse 24, but viewed through the lens of the Farewell Discourse has less to do with function of Jesus’ death as it does with the possibility of what the disciples will do when Jesus is gone. They will do greater works than these (John 14:12) because Jesus is returning to the Father. So much of this last discourse from Jesus is about discipleship. To serve Jesus (John 13:16) is to follow Jesus and to follow Jesus is to do the works that he did, to feed and tend his sheep (John 13:36-37; 21:15-19), to testify on his behalf (John 15:27).
Don’t forget who Jesus is
John 12:27 is demonstrative of how different the portrait of Jesus is in the Gospel of John. John’s Jesus would never ask for this cup to pass (John 18:11) but willingly lays down his life in the events that are to come. John 12:28-30 should be reminiscent of both the baptism of Jesus and the event of the Transfiguration in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-10; Luke 9:28-36), the latter omitted from the Fourth Gospel and the former, the baptism of Jesus, does not include the words from heaven, neither for the benefit of the crowd nor for Jesus. In the Gospel of John, Jesus does not need confirmation of who he is (John 12:30). He is perfectly aware of his origin, his relationship with God, and his identity (John 1:1). The voice from heaven does not confirm Jesus’ origin, his relationship to God, or his identity, but rather testifies that in Jesus, God’s name has been glorified (John 12:28-30).
A moment of decision
This section of John’s Gospel, particularly 12:31-33, is also the moment of judgment because this is the last time the “world” will hear Jesus’ words. To listen to Jesus is to believe in him and this, for all intents and purposes, is the last chance. The ruler of this world will be cast out, which will be acted out in the next chapter, with the departure of Judas to the dark side (13:27-30). This is another example by which to know that what Jesus says is true. Verses 32-33 at first glance seem to foreshadow the crucifixion. At the same time, literally, “what sort of death he was about to die” suggests that the “the sort of death” includes also that that death leads to his resurrection and ascension. When Jesus is lifted up from the earth to draw all people to himself, that lifting up is simultaneously all three events: crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. The Farewell Discourse provides confirmation of this in that Jesus’ parting words are not just in anticipation of his death, but in anticipation of his ascension, perhaps a far more difficult reality to face than his inevitability in a tomb. To what extent the ascension is even harder theologically because of the resurrection? Jesus must prepare his disciples for his twice departure, his death and his ascension.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- There is a question that we sometimes hear people ask, “What’s in it for me?” Have you ever heard someone ask that question, or have you ever asked that question yourself? What are some of the situations in which you have heard this question? What does it mean?
- “What’s in it for me?” is a common question in our society.
- After reading todays Gospel, what do you think Jesus might say about the question?
- “What’s in it for me?” is the wrong question for followers of Jesus. Jesus certainly didn't ask this question as he journeyed to the cross. What does today’s Gospel tell us Jesus was thinking about when he thought about his death on the cross? (his Father, God; all sinners; the entire world) Jesus teaches his disciples that those who want to follow him must serve others, thinking about others’ needs before their own.
- We are approaching the end of Lent. What might you do between now and Easter to show your willingness to follow Jesus in this way?
- Pray the Prayer of Saint Ignatius of Loyola.
teach me to be generous;
teach me to serve You as You deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward
save that of knowing I am doing Your Will.
Sunday March 11, 2018 - Year B Fourth Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 32
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23
In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people
added infidelity to infidelity,
practicing all the abominations of the nations
and polluting the LORD’s temple
which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers,
send his messengers to them,
for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place.
But they mocked the messengers of God,
despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets,
until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed
that there was no remedy.
Their enemies burnt the house of God,
tore down the walls of Jerusalem,
set all its palaces afire,
and destroyed all its precious objects.
Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon,
where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons
until the kingdom of the Persians came to power.
All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah:
“Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths,
during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest
while seventy years are fulfilled.”
In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia,
in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah,
the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia
to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom,
both by word of mouth and in writing:
“Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia:
All the kingdoms of the earth
the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me,
and he has also charged me to build him a house
in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people,
let him go up, and may his God be with him!”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6.
R. (6ab) Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
By the streams of Babylon
we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the aspens of that land
we hung up our harps.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
For there our captors asked of us
the lyrics of our songs,
And our despoilers urged us to be joyous:
“Sing for us the songs of Zion!”
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
How could we sing a song of the LORD
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand be forgotten!
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
May my tongue cleave to my palate
if I remember you not,
If I place not Jerusalem
ahead of my joy.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
Reading 2 Eph 2:4-10
Brothers and sisters:
God, who is rich in mercy,
because of the great love he had for us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions,
brought us to life with Christ — by grace you have been saved —,
raised us up with him,
and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
that in the ages to come
He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace
in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;
it is not from works, so no one may boast.
For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works
that God has prepared in advance,
that we should live in them.
Gospel jn 3:14-21
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Chr 36:14-16, 19-23
The great sin that brought this destruction was idolatry. The priests and people went after the abominations of the heathen, forsook the pure worship of God for the lewd and filthy rites of the Pagan superstition, and so polluted the house of the Lord, 2 Chronicles 36:14. The priests, the chief of the priests, who should have opposed idolatry, were ring-leaders in it. That place is not far from ruin in which religion is already ruined.
The great aggravation of their sin, and that which filled the measure of it, was the abuse they gave to God's prophets, who were sent to call them to repentance, 2 Chronicles 36:15, 2 Chronicles 36:16. Here we have, (1.) God's tender compassion towards them in sending prophets to them. Because he was the God of their fathers, in covenant with them, and whom they worshipped (though this degenerate race forsook him), therefore he sent to them by his messengers, to convince them of their sin and warn them of the ruin they would bring upon themselves by it, rising up early and sending, which denotes not only that he did it with the greatest care and concern imaginable, as men rise early to set their servants to work when their heart is upon their business, but that, upon their first deviation from God to idols, if they took but one step that way, God immediately sent to them by his messengers to reprove them for it. He gave them early timely notice both of their duty and danger. Let this quicken us to seek God early, that he rises early to send to us. The prophets that were sent rose earlyto speak to them, were diligent and faithful in their office, lost no time, slipped no opportunity of dealing with them; and therefore God is said to rise early. The more pains ministers take in their work the more will the people have to answer for if it be all in vain. The reason given why God by his prophets did thus strive with them is because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling-place, and would by these means have prevented their ruin. Note, The methods God takes to reclaim sinners by his word, by ministers, by conscience, by providences, are all instances of his compassion towards them and his unwillingness that any should perish. (2.) Their base and disingenuous carriage towards God (2 Chronicles 36:16): They mocked the messengers of God (which was a high affront to him that sent them), despised his word in their mouths, and not only so, but misused the prophets, treating them as their enemies. The ill usage they gave Jeremiah who lived at this time, and which we read much of in the book of his prophecy, is an instance of this. This was an evidence of an implacable enmity to God, and an invincible resolution to go on in their sins. This brought wrath upon them without remedy, for it was sinning against the remedy. Nothing is more provoking to God than abuses given to his faithful ministers; for what is done against them he takes as done against himself. Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Persecution was the sin that brought upon Jerusalem its final destruction by the Romans. See Matthew 23:34-37. Those that mock at God's faithful ministers, and do all they can to render them despicable or odious, that vex and misuse them, to discourage them and to keep others from hearkening to them, should be reminded that a wrong done to an ambassador is construed as done to the prince that sends him, and that the day is coming when they will find it would have been better for them if they had been thrown into the sea with a mill-stone about their necks; for hell is deeper and more dreadful.
Multitudes were put to the sword, even in the house of their sanctuary (2 Chronicles 36:17), whither they fled for refuge, hoping that the holiness of the place would be their protection. But how could they expect to find it so when they themselves had polluted it with their abominations? 2 Chronicles 36:14. Those that cast off the dominion of their religion forfeit all the benefit and comfort of it. The Chaldeans not only paid no reverence to the sanctuary, but showed no natural pity either to the tender sex or to venerable age. They forsook God, who had compassion on them (2 Chronicles 36:15), and would have none of him; justly therefore are they given up into the hands of cruel men, for they had no compassion on young man or maiden. All the remaining vessels of the temple, great and small, and all the treasures, sacred and secular, the treasures of God's house and of the king and his princes, were seized, and brought to Babylon, 2 Chronicles 36:18. 3. The temple was burnt, the walls of Jerusalem were demolished, the houses (called here the palaces, as Psalm 48:3, so stately, rich, and sumptuous were they) laid in ashes, and all the furniture, called here the goodly vessels thereof, destroyed, 2 Chronicles 36:19. Let us see where what woeful havoc sin makes, and, as we value the comfort and continuance of our estates, keep that worm from the root of them. The remainder of the people that escaped the sword were carried captives to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:20), impoverished, enslaved, insulted, and exposed to all the miseries, not only of a strange and barbarous land, but of an enemy's land, where those that hated them bore rule over them. They were servants to those monarchs, and no doubt were ruled with rigor so long as that monarchy lasted. Now they sat down by the rivers of Babylon, with the streams of which they mingled their tears, Psalm 137:1. And though there, it should seem, they were cured of idolatry, yet, as appears by the prophet Ezekiel, they were not cured of mocking the prophets. The land lay desolate while they were captives in Babylon, 2 Chronicles 36:21. That fruitful land, the glory of all lands, was now turned into a desert, not tilled, nor husbanded. The pastures were not clothed as they used to be with flocks, nor the valleys with corn, but all lay neglected. As the just punishment of their former abuse of it. They had served Baal with its fruits; cursed therefore is the ground for their sakes. Now the land enjoyed her sabbaths; (2 Chronicles 36:21), as God had threatened by Moses, Leviticus 26:34, and the reason there given (v. 35) is, “Because it did not rest on your sabbaths; you profaned the sabbath-day, did not observe the sabbatical year.” They many times ploughed and sowed their land in the seventh year, when it should have rested, and now it lay unploughed and unsown for ten times seven years. Note, God will be no loser in his glory at last by the disobedience of men: if the tribute be not paid, he will distrain and recover it, as he speaks, Hosea 2:9. If they would not let the land rest, God would make it rest whether they would or not. Some think they had neglected the observance of seventy sabbatical years in all, and just so many, by way of reprisal, the land now enjoyed; or, if those that had been neglected were fewer, it was fit that the law should be satisfied with interest. We find that one of the quarrels God had with them at this time was for not observing another law which related to the seventh year, and that was the release of servants; see Jeremiah 34:13, etc. Yet we may consider it as giving some encouragement to their hopes that they should, in due time, return to it again. Had others come and taken possession of it, they might have despaired of ever recovering it; but, while it lay desolate, it did, as it were, lie waiting for them again, and refuse to acknowledge any other owners.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6.
We have here the daughter of Zion covered with a cloud, and dwelling with the daughter of Babylon; the people of God in tears, but sowing in tears. The mournful posture they were in as to their affairs and as to their spirits. They were posted by the rivers of Babylon, in a strange land, a great way from their own country, whence they were brought as prisoners of war. The land of Babylon was now a house of bondage to that people, as Egypt had been in their beginning. Their conquerors quartered them by the rivers, with design to employ them there, and keep them to work in their galleys; or perhaps they chose it as the most melancholy place, and therefore most suitable to their sorrowful spirits. If they must build houses there (Jer. 29:5 ), it shall not be in the cities, the places of concourse, but by the rivers, the places of solitude, where they might mingle their tears with the streams. We find some of them by the river Chebar (Eze. 1:3 ), others by the river Ulai, Dan. 8:2 . There they sat down to indulge their grief by pondering on their miseries. Jeremiah had taught them under this yoke to sit alone, and keep silence, and put their mouths in the dust, Lam. 3:28, Lam. 3:29 . "We sat down, as those that expected to stay, and were content, since it was the will of God that it must be so.’’ Thoughts of Zion drew tears from their eyes; and it was not a sudden passion of weeping, such as we are sometimes put into by a trouble that surprises us, but they were deliberate tears (we sat down and wept ), tears with consideration—we wept when we remembered Zion, the holy hill on which the temple was built. Their affection to God’s house swallowed up their concern for their own houses. They remembered Zion’s former glory and the satisfaction they had had in Zion’s courts, Lam. 1:7 . Jerusalem remembered, in the days of her misery, all her pleasant things which she had in the days of old, Ps. 42:4 . They remembered Zion’s present desolations, and favored the dust thereof, which was a good sign that the time for God to favor it was not far off, Ps. 102:13, Ps. 102:14 . They laid by their instruments of music (v. 2): We hung our harps upon the willows. The harps they used for their own diversion and entertainment. These they laid aside, both because it was their judgment that they ought not to use them now that God called to weeping and mourning (Isa. 22:12 ), and their spirits were so sad that they had no hearts to use them; they brought their harps with them, designing perhaps to use them for the alleviating of their grief, but it proved so great that it would not admit the experiment. Music makes some people melancholy. As vinegar upon niter, so is he that sings songs to a heavy heart. The harps they used in God’s worship, the Levites’ harps. These they did not throw away, hoping they might yet again have occasion to use them, but they laid them aside because they had no present use for them; God had cut them out other work by turning their feasting into mourning and their songs into lamentations, Amos. 8:10 . Everything is beautiful in its season. They did not hide their harps in the bushes, or the hollows of the rocks; but hung them up in view, that the sight of them might affect them with this deplorable change. Yet perhaps they were faulty in doing this; for praising God is never out of season; it is his will that we should in everything give thanks, Isa. 24:15, Isa. 24:16. The abuses which their enemies put upon them when they were in this melancholy condition, v. 3. They had carried them away captive from their own land and then wasted them in the land of their captivity, took what little they had from them. But this was not enough; to complete their woes they insulted over them: They required of us mirth and a song. This was very barbarous and inhuman; even an enemy, in misery, is to be pitied and not trampled upon. It argues a base and sordid spirit to upbraid those that are in distress either with their former joys or with their present griefs, or to challenge those to be merry who, we know, are out of tune for it. This is adding affliction to the afflicted. It was very profane and impious. No songs would serve them but the songs of Zion, with which God had been honored; so that in this demand they reflected upon God himself as Belshazzar, when he drank wine in temple-bowls. Their enemies mocked at their sabbaths, Lam. 1:7. The patience wherewith they bore these abuses, v. 4. They had laid by their harps, and would not resume them, no, not to ingratiate themselves with those at whose mercy they lay; they would not answer those fools according to their folly. Profane scoffers are not to be humored, nor pearls cast before swine. David prudently kept silence even from good when the wicked were before him, who, he knew, would ridicule what he said and make a jest of it, Ps. 39:1, Ps. 39:2 . The reason they gave is very mild and pious: How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? They do not say, "How shall we sing when we are so much in sorrow?’’ If that had been all, they might perhaps have put a force upon themselves so far as to oblige their masters with a song; but "It is the Lord’s song; it is a sacred thing; it is peculiar to the temple-service, and therefore we dare not sing it in the land of a stranger, among idolaters.’’ We must not serve common mirth, much less profane mirth, with anything that is appropriated to God, who is sometimes to be honored by a religious silence as well as by religious speaking. The constant affection they retained for Jerusalem, the city of their solemnities, even now that they were in Babylon. Though their enemies banter them for talking so much of Jerusalem, and even doting upon it, their love to it is not in the least abated; it is what they may be jeered for, but will never be jeered out of, v. 5, v. 6. How these pious captives stood affected to Jerusalem. Their heads were full of it. It was always in their minds; they remembered it; they did not forget it, though they had been long absent from it; many of them had never seen it, nor knew anything of it but by report, and by what they had read in the scripture, yet it was graven upon the palms of their hands, and even its ruins were continually before them, which was an evidence of their faith in the promise of its restoration in due time. In their daily prayers they opened their windows towards Jerusalem; and how then could they forget it? Their hearts were full of it. They preferred it above their chief joy, and therefore they remembered it and could not forget it. What we love we love to think of. Those that rejoice in God do, for his sake, make Jerusalem their joy, and prefer it before that, whatever it is, which is the head of their joy, which is dearest to them in this world. A godly man will prefer a public good before any private satisfaction or gratification whatsoever. How steadfastly they resolved to keep up this affection, which they express by a solemn imprecation of mischief to themselves if they should let it fall: "Let me be forever disabled either to sing or play on the harp if I so far forget the religion of my country as to make use of my songs and harps for the pleasing of Babylon’s sons or the praising of Babylon’s gods. Let my right hand forget her art’’ (which the hand of an expert musician never can, unless it be withered), "nay, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I have not a good word to say for Jerusalem wherever I am.’’ Though they dare not sing Zion’s songs among the Babylonians, yet they cannot forget them, but, as soon as ever the present restraint is taken off, they will sing them as readily as ever, notwithstanding the long disuse.
Reading 2 Eph 2:4-10
In the cosmology of Ephesians, "this world" refers to the present age in enmity with God (cf. 1:21). Here "air" is understood to be the zone between earth and the heavens which is inhabited and ruled by antagonistic forces exercising control over the world below. Later in Ephesians, this ruler is labeled the devil (4:27; 6:11). The term "flesh" depicts the human condition so turned in on itself that one's passions, cravings, and mindset are in total disrepute and disobedience thus marking us as children of wrath. While this was the former existence of Christians, it remains the current reality of all non-Christians (verse 2b).
Verses 2:4-7 presents God's intervening actions and the transformation they wrought. Though we were children of wrath, God acted out of the wealth of divine mercy and abundance of love (verse 4). This divine conversion had nothing to do with how loveable we were, but with how incredibly loving God is. Thus, God made us alive with Christ, raised us with Christ, and sat us in the heavenly places where Christ now rules over all powers and dominions (2:5-6 echoing 1:20-21). In the Greek, the three verbs "made alive, raised, and seated" all have a prefix meaning "with," highlighting how God did to us what God had previously done to Christ. This emphasizes the divinely wrought solidarity shared between Christ and Christians
Gospel jn 3:14-21
The central verse in this passage is perhaps the best known Bible verse in the world.
John 3:16 shows up in many public places. Hoisted on posters, etched on jewelry, and isolated from this passage, "For God so loved the world..." has become emblematic of the central message of Christian faith. This centrality is not undeserved. The power of this verse, however, is enhanced when it is read carefully and in context.
The lectionary divides Jesus' speech to Nicodemus, which begins in 3:11 and extends to 3:21, at verse 14. The passage begins with a play on the word "lift up." It describes God's command to Moses to lift up the serpent in the wilderness and the lifting up that is in store for Jesus. The passage makes little sense without the background story from Numbers 21:4-9. In that narrative, the people became "impatient" on their way. Still in the wilderness after their departure from Egypt, and despairing of being able to survive in a land with no food and water, they complained against God and Moses.
Consequently, terrible serpents appeared, bit the people, and killed them. When they repented, the Lord told Moses to make a serpent and set it on a pole so that anyone who had been bitten might look at it and live. The serpent was a mark of God's anger and God's mercy. God's people might be saved by the God of life, if only they would look upon the image of that which would have brought about their death.
To see the Son of Man lifted up calls for "belief" for the sake of eternal life, not simply a restoration of earthly life. God once saved the people by calling upon them to gaze on the serpent. Now, God would save the people by having them gaze in belief upon the Son, lifted up.
Next comes John 3:16, in which the "so" is often misunderstood. The Greek houtos means "so" in the sense of "just so," or "in this way," or the more archaic, "thusly." We could translate the verse as "This is the way God loved the world, with the result that he gave his only Son, in order that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 is not about how much God loved the world. It is about in what way God loved the world.
The single most important thing to notice about this verse is that God loved the world. God deeply loved the world that God created, and God longs for this creation to live. It is not only God's own people whom God will save, as in the Numbers story. It is the cosmos that God has loved, precisely by having given the only son,. God loved by having given the son, a non-coercive act that sets in motion real consequences.
Yet God's action was not disinterested. The purpose of God's having sent the Son was to save the world, just as the purpose of commanding Moses to erect a serpent on a pole was to save the people from death. The son came to save, to grant eternal life because God loved the world. That was Jesus' announcement. I'm here because the God who loved you of old, still does. He sent me to tell you, to show you, to gather you up into life with him forever.
Jesus' coming is like the bringing of a light into a dark space. The contrast of light and dark is intense. Indeed, the coming of the Son into the world leads to numerous pairs of contrasting realities:
- condemn and save
- believe and not believe
- stay in the darkness and come into the light
- do evil and doing what is true
If this begins to sound like a theology that demands our deciding to believe or not, we have several reminders in the context that help us to hear more deeply what John wants to say.
First, these verses are embedded in a story where Jesus continues to engage, argue, and persuade people who are slowly transformed into believers. In John 3, Nicodemus is the seeker by night who is left in confusion, only to reappear in 19:39 to help care for Jesus' body. He has emerged from darkness into light over the course of Jesus' ministry.
So also the Samaritan woman of John 4 whose long conversation with Jesus ends in a tentative belief, far from where she first began. Consider the blind man healed in John 9, whose move from darkness to light happens rather quickly in physiological terms, but more slowly in terms of identifying Jesus. The intense contrast between believing and not believing, darkness and light, and evil and truth are descriptions of realities, but not of the process by which human beings come to recognize truth, light, life, and God's own son.
Finally, verses 18-21 follow the first and most important contrast, the contrasting ways to depict God's own goal and longing. God's way of loving the world was to send the Son to save it. Jesus is God's expression of love and longing. The light comes to find us, to illuminate our path for our sake, because God wants us. God reaches out through the Son with the sheer purpose of sharing everlasting life with us.
Yes, John tells us there are real consequences in our daily life and our everlasting relationship with God. But he tells us in order to help us see the contrasts, look clearly at our lives, appreciate the gracious gift of God as a gift of love, and live in fearless confidence of that love. Have we ever been so truly and consistently desired by another as we are by God? No indeed. God loved the world in this way that he gave the Son so that we might live forever with God.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about a time when you did something that you knew to be wrong. What did you do afterward? Did you tell someone else about what you did, or did you try to hide what you had done? How did you feel afterward?
- When we have done something wrong, we are often tempted to hide what we have done from others. Sometimes we even think that we can hide our sins from God. Our Gospel reading today talks about this.
- According to the gospel , why did Jesus come into the world? (to save the world) How does he do this? (through his death and Resurrection, by exposing and then forgiving our sins)
- Because Jesus died for our salvation, we do not hide our sins from God. Instead we confess our sins to God, confident that God forgives us. In what sacrament do we experience God’s forgiveness? (the Sacrament of Reconciliation) During Lent, many people take the opportunity to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that they can experience the joy of God’s forgiveness.
- Thank God for his mercy and forgiveness available to us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Pray the Act of Contrition.
Sunday March 4, 2018 - Third Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 29
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 20:1-17
In those days, God delivered all these commandments:
"I, the LORD, am your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery.
You shall not have other gods besides me.
You shall not carve idols for yourselves
in the shape of anything in the sky above
or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth;
you shall not bow down before them or worship them.
For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God,
inflicting punishment for their fathers' wickedness
on the children of those who hate me,
down to the third and fourth generation;
but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation
on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments.
"You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.
For the LORD will not leave unpunished
the one who takes his name in vain.
"Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
Six days you may labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD, your God.
No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter,
or your male or female slave, or your beast,
or by the alien who lives with you.
In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth,
the sea and all that is in them;
but on the seventh day he rested.
That is why the LORD has blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
"Honor your father and your mother,
that you may have a long life in the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you.
You shall not kill.
You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor's house.
You shall not covet your neighbor's wife,
nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass,
nor anything else that belongs to him."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 11.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The law of the LORD is perfect,
refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
giving wisdom to the simple.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the command of the LORD is clear,
enlightening the eye.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are true,
all of them just.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
They are more precious than gold,
than a heap of purest gold;
sweeter also than syrup
or honey from the comb.
R. Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
Reading 2 1 Cor 1:22-25
Brothers and sisters:
Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom,
but we proclaim Christ crucified,
a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom,
and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
Gospel Jn 2:13-25
Since the Passover of the Jews was near,
Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves,
as well as the money changers seated there.
He made a whip out of cords
and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen,
and spilled the coins of the money changers
and overturned their tables,
and to those who sold doves he said,
"Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."
His disciples recalled the words of Scripture,
Zeal for your house will consume me.
At this the Jews answered and said to him,
"What sign can you show us for doing this?"
Jesus answered and said to them,
"Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."
The Jews said,
"This temple has been under construction for forty-six years,
and you will raise it up in three days?"
But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Therefore, when he was raised from the dead,
his disciples remembered that he had said this,
and they came to believe the Scripture
and the word Jesus had spoken.
While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover,
many began to believe in his name
when they saw the signs he was doing.
But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,
and did not need anyone to testify about human nature.
He himself understood it well.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 20:1-17
God’s own introduction to these words is important for an appropriate understanding: “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” The Ten Commandments are not a law code, a body of laws that are meant to float free of their narrative context. This introductory line about redemption -- often omitted from printed versions of the Ten Commandments, unfortunately -- is recognized in Judaism as the first word; “you shall have no other gods before me” is the second word.
This opening word of God accomplishes several things. It keeps the commandments personally oriented: I am the Lord your (singular) God. Obedience to the commandments is relationally conceived. These are words given to you by your God. The law is a gift of a God who has redeemed you. The Ten Commandments, then, are a gracious word of God and they begin with a word of good news about what God has done on behalf of “you” as a member of the community of faith. The commandments are to be read through the lens of that redemptive confession. God’s saving actions have drawn the people of God into a new orbit of life and blessing, to which the people respond by giving a certain “commandment shape” to their lives.
The Ten Commandments are an integral part of the covenant between God and people at Mount Sinai. This covenant is a specific covenant within the already existing covenant with Abraham. The Sinai covenant does not establish the relationship between Israel and God. Israel has long been God’s people when Sinai happens (“Let my people go”). These commandments are given to an already elected, redeemed, believing, and worshiping community. They have to do with the shape of daily life on the part of those already in relationship with God. The commandments give shape to Israel’s vocation. At the same time, the Ten Commandments specify no judicial consequences for disobedience. Their being obligatory is not conditional on their being enforceable. Their appeal is to a deeper grounding and motivation: these are the commands of the Lord your God, who has created you and redeemed you.
“You shall have no other gods before me” introduces the commandments and gives shape to all the others. Idolatry is the focus. But how will we define idolatry? It commonly has reference to material images; the story of the golden calf comes to mind. In such cases, “other gods” is shaped by the commandment against graven images in Exodus 20:4. “Other gods” could include any person, place, or thing that we hold to be more important or as important as God. These “other gods” could also lift up the long-standing gods who have long been worshiped among us, such as money, property, fame, power … the list is long. The command is to be absolutely loyal to God. In the evangelists language, the call is to fear, love, and trust in God above all things. This commandment is the grounding for all other commandments, which draw out what loyalty to God entails in various aspects of the relationship.
Less well remembered is that idolatry includes the language one uses to speak of God. Might the problem of idolatry for us often be verbal images? Our ideas about God and the verbal images we use for God can be idolatrous; they often have as high a standing in our thinking/speaking about God as does God himself. Or, we can reduce God to a set of fixed propositions and make God into a settled, unchanging God. Is that not to break the first commandment? And negatively affect the way in which the other commandments are kept?
The Ten Commandments are not new commandments for Israel (see Exodus 16:22-30), but they are a convenient listing of already existing law for vocational purposes. Moreover, the Commandments were not thought to be transmitted in a never-to-be-changed form. They were believed to require adaptation in view of new times and places. This is shown by a comparison of the Commandments in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5; the latter text contains some important new developments. For example: the wife -- on a list of property in Exodus 20:17 -- is removed from that list in Deuteronomy 5:21; wife is exchanged with house and given her own commandment, perhaps reflecting a changing role for women in that culture. Might additional changes be made in the commandments in view of changing times and places? Such as, you shall not covet your neighbor’s husband! What commandments might you add to the ten?
Before the Ten Commandments were given, the Bible talks much about law; indeed, laws are already specified in the pre-sin creation accounts (Genesis 1:28). Such commands are reflective of God’s law given for the sake of the world before sin. To obey these commandments and others which follow in their train is to act as one was created to act. And so commandments become an integral part of the life of the community of faith before we get to Mount Sinai.
While the address of the commandments is individual, the concern is not some private welfare. The focus of the commandments is vocational, to serve the life and health of the community, to which end the individual plays an important role. The first commandment lays a claim: How you think about God will deeply affect how you think about and act toward your neighbor.
The first commandment is positively formulated in Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Notably, Jesus uses this positive formulation of the first commandment. The commandment to love one another does not set the Ten Commandments aside, however; it opens up the particularities of the Ten Commandments to limitless, on-the-move possibilities in view of new times and places.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 11.
The Psalm touches on a number of major biblical themes -- creation, law, sin, forgiveness, and ethical conduct among them -- and also offers a rich set of imagery and well-known language on which to draw.
There are three clear sections of the Psalm:
Verses One through Six
Here the Psalmist offers a vivid description of the glories of creation, focused particularly on the heavens might of the One who could and did arrange and regulate such a spectacle.
Verses Seven through Ten
The focus of the Psalm switches abruptly from God's creation to God's torah (law, instruction). This torah is praised repeatedly, whether it is referred to as "commandment," "precepts," "decrees," or any of the other various terms deployed here. The value of God's instruction for "reviving the soul...making wise the simple...rejoicing the heart...enlightening the eyes...enduring forever...[and being] true and righteous altogether" certainly goes a long way toward explaining why it is more valuable and desirable than the richest gold and the sweetest honey.
Verses Eleven through Fourteen
Recognizing all of the virtues of torah, the Psalmist now turns specifically to its value as a guide to right conduct. At first glance, the ethical consequence of receiving torah seems straightforward: if one keeps the law, great reward will result. If one does not, the consequences alluded to in the line "by them is your servant warned" would instead come into play. The difficulty, as the Psalmist goes on to point out, is that one does not always even realize when one has transgressed the law. Thus, the Psalm concludes with a series of pleas to God for forgiveness of unconscious sin, for protection against evil influences, and for the acceptability to God, deserved or otherwise, of the Psalmist's words and thoughts.
The flow of the Psalm through these three sections (with torah serving as the bridge between creation and human conduct) offers a number of possible directions for proclamation. Depending on the specific context and concerns that you personally have, exposition could focus on:
The Psalm's case for Scripture (or for torah) as the essential guide and authority for determining Christian moral and ethical conduct. It is, in the structure of the Psalm, only after God gives torah to enlighten, make wise, and so forth that a person can be "warned" and guided to proper conduct and choices.
The need for God's sovereign and gracious salvation even in the light of torah. The recognition of "hidden faults" and of the need for God's protection from evil influences is a deep admission of human inability to live according to the law, and therefore of the powerful need for forgiveness and the Gospel.
The failure of "natural theology" to offer full, saving knowledge of God. In effect, the Psalm could be construed as saying "The heavens may tell of God's glory, but it is only after God gives torah that the believer can make enough sense of the creation to recognize sin, to cry out for forgiveness, and to place all hope and trust in God's grace.
While any of these approaches to the text might well suit a particular moment in the life of the church, there is a more straightforward and broadly applicable way to engage Psalm 19 as well.
This text is a celebration of three great gifts of God: creation, torah, and forgiveness. Its reading and interpretation can and should summon the people of God to join in, giving thanks for the particular ways these gifts have been manifest in their lives and the life of their community. Such a celebration is appropriate for any of us, and will surely be found acceptable in God's sight
Reading 2 1 Cor 1:22-25
In this text Paul is not seeking to answer age old questions regarding how we humans come to know God.
Likewise he is not trying to provide a theological treasure-map to guide our human quests to find the divine. Instead, Paul is presenting the divine enterprise which intentionally thwarts all human attempts to know or find God. This is the divine initiative of the cross.
Paul's theological perspective is decidedly top-down. In the cross God has deliberately chosen to reveal God's own self and unleash divine power whose goal is human salvation. The irony (indeed the paradox) of this divine scheme is that the cross is the last place where humanity would expect to discover God's ultimate wisdom and power.
At times we may find folk who are baffled why more people were not converted to Christian faith through the preaching of Paul. Actually just the opposite should baffle us: why would any first century person have been converted to Christian faith through the preaching of Paul?
The core of Paul's preaching is the word of the cross (1:18) and the proclamation of Christ crucified (1:23). Yet this is not a message geared to win friends or influence people. The cross was a lousy marketing tool in the first century world (as it most likely remains in the twenty-first century). Here it is important to realize fully the first century realities of crucifixion. This was the enactment of capital punishment meted out by the forces of the Roman Empire. It was reserved for those disreputable individuals or groups such as rebellious slaves, insurrectionists, pirates, or brigands who had threatened the divinely sanctioned social order of the Empire. Thus the cross was the imperial instrument used to suppress subversion.
As a public spectacle, crucifixion was an act geared to shame its victims through degradation, humiliation, and torture before, during, and even after death ensued. At the same time, it was a political statement which declared that all who threatened the imperial social order would find themselves co-crucified with the current victim. In some Jewish circles, it could also be regarded as a sign of divine curse (cf. Deuteronomy 21:23).
Given this reality, it would be sheer idiocy (not just mere foolishness) to speculate how the cross might be a means of divine revelation. Paul, however, goes much further. He does not speculate on what God might or might not be doing through the cross. Rather, he openly, boldly, and regularly proclaims the cross as the intentional and exclusive means God has chosen to encounter humanity and initiate our salvation. The cross is the divine activity which both embarrasses and embraces humanity in an inclusive way.
God's embarrassing action in the cross relates to humanity's attempts to establish its own appropriate means for encountering God. According to 1:22, Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom. Here, Paul is referring to attempts to encounter God, either through miraculous divine manifestations (such as the events surrounding the Exodus) or elaborate philosophical systems and their eloquent rhetorical schemes. The proclamation of Christ crucified does not fit such human criteria - it is offensive to Jewish sensibilities and idiotic to Gentile intelligence (1:23).
God, however, is not a reactive deity. God has not sought out humanity according to the ways humanity has sought out God. Rather, God has intentionally and decidedly destroyed the ways and means by which humanity decided to get to God (1:19, quoting Isaiah 29:14). Through the four rhetorical questions in 1:20, Paul declares that God has rejected and embarrassed the best and brightest of human efforts to understand, explain, and experience God.
At the same time, God embraces humanity through the cross, both as the event of Good Friday and as an act of proclamation. Both Jews and Gentiles are called into relationship with God through the word of the cross (1:24). Suddenly that which outwardly seems moronic and weak, the apparent oxymoron of Christ crucified, becomes divine revelation, divine power, and divine salvation (1:18, 21). We do not get to God, or find the key to knowing God through our efforts. Rather, God comes to us and establishes the terms of the encounter of faith in the proclamation of the cross.
Throughout 1 Corinthians, Paul is confronting various forms of social, theological, spiritual, and moral elitism which have fractured and stratified God's church in Corinth (1:11-13). The core of Paul's appeal is for a unified perspective and purpose among the Corinthians (1:10). By opening 1 Corinthians with this unrelenting focus on the cross, Paul both undercuts elitist perspectives and undergirds foundational Christian unity. God has outsmarted and outmaneuvered human attempts to set the agenda regarding the who and the how of our getting to God (1:25).
At the same time, the cross becomes the epistemological key for understanding not only God, but understanding ourselves as those called by God. Hence the proclamation of the word of the cross by Paul and contemporary preachers does not impart a new understanding of the divine. Rather, it provides people with the experience to encounter God anew precisely where God has most clearly displayed God's own self, own power, and own wisdom. The cross always remains, at one and the same time, offensive idiocy and divine delight (1:21). Paul's preaching never downplays, disguises, or dismisses the power and wisdom of God manifested in the cross of Jesus Christ. Do you feel the power f the cross?
Gospel Jn 2:13-25
I wondered what kind of stone the original 10 commandments were written on? What do you think?? According to tradition passed down the original ten commandments where etched in Blue Sapphire by God. This was to symbolize the link between the earth and God.
A man was hoping to stop in to a new café that had opened in, near his church. But when he got there one of the plate glass doors had been shattered.
Lights were on inside. A man sat at the counter, working at a computer. Two people came up behind him, apparently also intending to visit the shop. They tried to see if the store was open, in spite of the broken glass. They finally caught the eye of the person sitting at the counter, who, it turned out, was the owner. He informed them through the shattered glass that the store had been broken into early that morning and they had stolen the cash register.
The reaction of the two people behind him was astonishment: “They stole the cash register!”
He thought to himself, “What else would you steal? The coffee beans?”
However, as he reflected on it, their astonishment made sense. Somehow this symbol, so central in a culture of commerce, was something that could not be touched. Their reaction was in response to the sense that a center of commerce had been so dramatically upset.
He felt for the owner. It’s not easy to cope with economic loss as well as the feeling of exposure to potential violence, which is becoming very common in our cities. Still, it seemed to shine a light on how we can become so accustomed to a financial system, its familiarity taken as its normalcy, that it masks a deeper and more troubling dysfunction.
That is, they were astonished by the theft of a cash register; but how did they feel about the brazen presence of poverty and inequity in our communities.
John’s story of Jesus cleansing the temple brings this experience to mind. Whereas we tend to get used to what might be called “embedded” realities in church and society, Jesus proclaims a radical vision of temple and society.
In John, proclamation corresponds to or emerges from incarnation and this text’s account of incarnation may startle us. This periscope follows on the heels of Jesus changing water into wine. In that text, Jesus’ actions are unseen. We don’t see the water turned into wine. We only hear Jesus’ command to the servants to fill the jars with water. Everything occurs on the down low, so that only the servants recognize the miracle. Everyone else simply marvels that the host has saved the best wine until last.
By contrast, in this text, Jesus acts with bold, kinetic, and unmistakable gestures. In the Greek, the narrator depicts Jesus’ actions in the temple in one long sentence, extending from verse 14-16. This seems to be John’s way of underscoring Jesus’ intensity. It could also reflect the way a witness recounts an accident or a robbery in the middle of public area. They tell the story in a rush, as if the thing itself were still shocking to the senses. But in these retellings, often a single feature remains in the memory of the witness, something said (or not said) or something done (or not done).
Obviously, a lot happened in several short bursts of christological energy: Jesus came upon (or “found” (New International Version) those who were selling sacrificial animals, “seated at their tables” (established, part of the landscape, so to speak) (John 2:14); took a whip of cords (15a); drove the animals out (like an alarmed shepherd might drive its flock away from a poisonous well, perhaps); emptied coins and turned over tables (15b).
In the span of two verses, Jesus has radically upended the firmly embedded!
All this Jesus did in one nearly seamless rush of holy zeal -- but our witness singles out Jesus’ words to those who sold doves: "Take these out of here,
and stop making my Father's house a marketplace.” (John 2:16b). It brings yo mind Luke, who records that Jesus’ family brought two doves to the temple, to satisfy the prescribed offering for the birth of a son (Luke 2:24). Since they were poor, offering a lamb for a sacrifice was out of the question. Perhaps, though, there was “price gouging” even in the temple -- but it was so ordinary, so much a part of the warp and weft of temple life, that it wasn’t something noted by anyone. Maybe it was as much a part of Roman life as it was a part of religious life.
Given the level of upset, we can understand why the people in the temple might have wanted an explanation for Jesus’ actions. The narrator’s use of the term “the Jews” (John 2:18a) needs to be addressed critically by the interpreter, both in light of John’s narrative purpose and in a post-Holocaust world. According to some theologians, John’s “the Jews” represents “those who question Jesus and do not know him” (544). This is a much broader, more inclusive category than “the Jews” -- and perhaps that is helpful.
In any event, Jesus’ answer reflects the Johannine penchant for misunderstandings and double-meanings, something that we will encounter again in the story of Nicodemus in John 3:1-16, among others. Now, however, it focuses on the double meaning of temple and being raised. Jesus’ opponents believe that he is speaking of the bricks and mortar of the temple but he is speaking of the temple of his body (see also 1 Corinthians 16:19-20).
The wordplay is, I think, instructive but at the same time, we shouldn’t spiritualize this text. Jesus’ actions in the temple may “parable” the much deeper and more profound completion of his life through resurrection, but it does not thereby negate the way in which Jesus upends the embedded powers and attitudes that can become so firmly entrenched in our worldviews.
Our devotion to property values even at the expense of affordable housing options seems to speak to this concern. The so-called “tiny-house” movement seems to hold promise as a means of providing affordable housing for the insufficiently housed and the unhoused. However, the initiative is getting push-back from established communities. One owner objected to a tiny-house initiative in her community saying, “I think tiny homes are great and people can enjoy them if they like, but please don’t put them in our neighborhood. My home is my sanctuary and it’s going to be destroyed by different thinking.”
She is right. Her version of sanctuary will be “destroyed” by different thinking. She worries that existing home values could drop by $100,000 if the tiny-house initiative goes through -- not an insignificant sum of money. But could this be analogous to the anxieties of those who did not know Jesus? They were afraid of losing something that took forty-six years to build. Something will be lost, of course. Jesus dies on the cross. Calvary delivers an enormous hit on heaven’s property value. But the resurrection and ascension of Jesus suggest that this is only the beginning of the formation of much larger, more expansive community.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- What are some places that we believe are holy? (churches, shrines, altars, the tabernacle) What makes a place holy? (A place is holy because we experience God’s presence there.) What do we do at holy places? (worship God, gather for celebrations)
- Just as we have important holy places where we gather to pray and to worship God, there was a special holy place for the Jewish people in Jerusalem when Jesus was alive. This place was the Temple. It was first built by King Solomon to house the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the tablets on which were written the Ten Commandments. That first temple was destroyed in 587 B.C., long before Jesus was born. But a second temple was built in its place when the Jewish people were able to return to Jerusalem. This is the Temple that Jesus knew, and it had recently been expanded under King Herod. But Jesus does an unusual thing at the Temple in today’s Gospel.
- What did Jesus do in today’s Gospel? (He cleared out the merchants and moneychangers from the Temple.) Why do you think that he did this? (He said that they were making the Temple look more like a marketplace.) Say: The merchants were selling animals to people who came to worship at the Temple. The people offered the animals in sacrifice as part of their prayer. The moneychangers were exchanging Roman coins for temple coins because the Roman coins were engraved with the image of the emperor, who said that he was like a god. These coins could not be used when making an offering at the Temple.
- What was Jesus’ response to the people who asked for a sign to show his authority to do this? (Jesus said that he would destroy this Temple and raise it up in three days.)
What do the people say in response? (They said that such a feat would be impossible; they knew that it had taken 46 years to build the Temple.) The Gospel tells us that Jesus' disciples would later have a different understanding about what he said. What would the disciples understand Jesus to mean? (The disciples would understand this to be a reference to Jesus' death and Resurrection.) When did the disciples begin to understand this? (only after Jesus' Resurrection) - The Gospel of John was written many years after Jesus' death and Resurrection. The Romans had destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, and the Jewish people could no longer worship there. This was a terrible and sad event for the Jewish people. But the Jewish people continued to worship God in their homes and in synagogues. In today's reading, we hear one way in which the Christian community tried to understand the destruction of the Temple.
- As Christians, we experience God's presence in many ways. We believe that the places where we gather as a community to pray—our churches— are holy. We also believe that Christ is present in a special way in the Eucharist, which is reserved in the tabernacle in our churches so that we can pray in Christ's presence.
- Pray the Lord's Prayer.
Sunday February 25, 2018 Second Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 26
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18
God put Abraham to the test.
He called to him, "Abraham!"
"Here I am!" he replied.
Then God said:
"Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love,
and go to the land of Moriah.
There you shall offer him up as a holocaust
on a height that I will point out to you."
When they came to the place of which God had told him,
Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it.
Then he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
But the LORD's messenger called to him from heaven,
"Abraham, Abraham!"
"Here I am!" he answered.
"Do not lay your hand on the boy," said the messenger.
"Do not do the least thing to him.
I know now how devoted you are to God,
since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son."
As Abraham looked about,
he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket.
So he went and took the ram
and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.
Again the LORD's messenger called to Abraham from heaven and said:
"I swear by myself, declares the LORD,
that because you acted as you did
in not withholding from me your beloved son,
I will bless you abundantly
and make your descendants as countless
as the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore;
your descendants shall take possession
of the gates of their enemies,
and in your descendants all the nations of the earth
shall find blessing--
all this because you obeyed my command."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
I believed, even when I said,
"I am greatly afflicted."
Precious in the eyes of the LORD
is the death of his faithful ones.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your handmaid;
you have loosed my bonds.
To you will I offer sacrifice of thanksgiving,
and I will call upon the name of the LORD.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
My vows to the LORD I will pay
in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
R. I will walk before the Lord, in the land of the living.
Reading 2 Rom 8:31b-34
Brothers and sisters:
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son
but handed him over for us all,
how will he not also give us everything else along with him?
Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us, who will condemn?
Christ Jesus it is who died—or, rather, was raised--
who also is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.
Gospel Mk 9:2-10
Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
"Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
"This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 22:1-2, 9a, 10-13, 15-18
The story named by Christians “the sacrifice of Isaac” and by Jews “the akedah” (the “binding” of Isaac) has engendered heated debate over the centuries. Is it a story of an abusive God, a misguided Abraham, religious violence at its worst? Or is it a story of faith and obedience?
Trying to get around the difficulties, many argue that it is simply an etiological tale about the shift from human sacrifice to animal sacrifice. This seems likely. It is certainly the case that other biblical texts expressly forbid child sacrifice (e.g. Leviticus 18:21; Jeremiah 7:30-34; Ezekiel 20:31). The practice is known in the cultures surrounding Israel and may have been practiced in Israel as well (hence the prophetic condemnation of it).
There is more here, though, than such a history-of-religions interpretation allows. The akedah is a foundational story for Judaism and Christianity in ways that are too complex to trace in this short essay. Even before the canon was closed, the akedah became associated with worship at the Jerusalem Temple. In 2 Chronicles 3:1, the mountain of the Temple is called “Mount Moriah,” the mountain of the akedah. (In fact, “Moriah” appears in the Bible only in these two passages.) Hence, the sacrifice of the ram in place of Isaac becomes the foundational act for all the Temple sacrifices that follow.
For Christianity, the sacrifice of the beloved son has obvious resonance with Jesus’ death. That’s why Genesis 22 is appointed as one of the readings for the Easter Vigil (and sometimes as one of the readings on Good Friday). In addition, the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son became for early Christians one of the greatest examples of his faith: “By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered up Isaac … He considered the fact that God is able even to raise someone from the dead” (Hebrews 11:17, 19). In the history of Christian interpretation, Genesis 22 has continued to be understood as a story of faith against all odds, and as a foreshadowing of God’s self-giving in Jesus Christ.
Despite this rich history of interpretation, well-meaning people through the centuries, horrified by this story, have attempted to negate it in various ways. And it is true that it can be a dangerous text, especially in an era of religious extremism.
Still, there is a theological depth in this story that should not be passed over. The narrative has gripped the religious imagination of Jew and Christian alike for thousands of years. It is worth looking at its details.
The story begins, “After these things God tested Abraham” (22:1). And what do “these things” include? God’s call to Abraham to go to a land he has never seen; God’s promise to Abraham that he will be the father of a great nation; the long years of Sarah’s barrenness; the birth of Ishmael; and at long last, the impossible birth of the boy they call “Laughter.”
Then Abraham, at Sarah’s insistence, casts out his first son, Ishmael, with great sorrow. And now, God demands a most horrible thing: “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I will show you” (22:2). The rabbis imagine the scene:
God said, “Take your son.” And Abraham said, “I have two sons.” He answered him, “Your only son.” He said to him, “Each is the only son of his mother.” God said, “The one whom you love.” Abraham replied, “Is there any limit to a father’s love?” God answered, “Isaac.”
The Hebrew prose of this story is beautiful and succinct. Abraham does what God demands, and sets out with his son. Abraham doesn’t say much. Isaac says even less, and one is left to imagine what they are thinking and feeling. The narrator uses repetition to heighten the poignancy: “The two of them walked on together,” as the father and son walk together in silence on the third day (22:6). Together in purpose, together in love. The narrator continually emphasizes the relationship between the two, as if we need to be reminded: “Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac.” “Isaac said to Abraham his father, “My father!” and he said, “Here I am, my son” (22:7).
“Here I am” -- in Hebrew hineni. It’s the same word Abraham used to answer God’s call in verse 1: “Here I am.” Abraham is attentive to God, and equally attentive to his beloved son. Here I am.
And Isaac says, “See, we have fire, and wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” And Abraham, heart torn in two, says, “God will see to the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And, again, “The two of them walked on together” (22:7-8). Whether Isaac knew what was going to happen is a matter that the rabbis debated. Perhaps he did not, which makes Abraham’s pain all that much more acute. Perhaps he did, which makes Isaac, too, an example of great faith and obedience. The two of them walk on together, father and son, the son carrying the wood for his own sacrifice. The first century rabbis, with no connection to Christianity but with ample experience of Roman executions, said of this detail: “Isaac carries the wood for the sacrifice like one who carries his own cross.”
They reach the place of sacrifice, and Abraham builds an altar. Again, as if we need to be reminded, the narrator emphasizes the relationship between father and son. “He bound his son Isaac … Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to kill his son” (22:9-10).
At that moment, the LORD calls to him with great urgency, “Abraham, Abraham!” And Abraham replies for the third and final time in the story, “Here I am.” One can imagine that his tone now is one of unspeakable relief and hope.
The LORD speaks, "Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me" (22:12).
“Now I know.” This story does not subscribe to later notions of God’s perfect omniscience. This is a genuine test, and Abraham is free to decide what he will do. God neither knows nor pre-ordains how Abraham will respond. Reading this story with a hermeneutic of generosity, one could argue that God imposes this one-time test on Abraham because God has risked everything on this one man, and God needs to know if he is faithful.
Abraham and his descendants are the means by which God has chosen to bless the whole world (Genesis 12:3). And Abraham has not always proven up to the task (the wife-sister charade, Hagar and Ishmael). Now God needs to know whether Abraham is willing to give up the thing most precious to him in all the world for the sake of being faithful to the God who gave him that gift in the first place. And Abraham passes this most excruciating of tests: “Now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me."
Then, as Abraham had told Isaac, God provides; God provides a ram to take the place of the beloved son. “So Abraham called that place ‘The LORD will provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided’" (22:14).
There is a word-play here and in verse 8 that is worth noting. The Hebrew word (ra’ah) translated “provide” is literally the word for “seeing.” So the last phrase can be translated, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided” or “On the mount of the LORD he shall be seen.” Given the association of Mt. Moriah with the Temple Mount, both translations speak truth about God’s presence and God’s providence.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 116:10, 15, 16-17, 18-19
A single voice speaks here, drawing us into the psalmist's experience and, in effect, leading us to compare our own with his.
The voice here:
- is upbeat and hopeful, not remorsefully agonizing over sin
- tells a personal story of rescue in answer to his prayer
- tells the story publicly to other worshipers (and God [verses 16-17]), perhaps at the temple (see verses 18-19)
- moves from a declaration of love for God (verses 1-2), through a moving report about the rescue experience (verses 3-11), to a series of thankful promises (verses 12-15, 18-19)
When I first read Psalm 116, I couldn't quite connect it with Maundy Thursday. I wondered, "What were those people who organized the lectionary thinking?"
But, after further reflection, these topics seem right on target for the occasion. Remember: this is the evening we remember both Jesus' washing of the disciples' feet and his command (Latin, mandatum, hence the English "Maundy") to love one another. "Love" is the psalmist's first word, and he commands himself (verses 12-19) to respond to the love of God he'd seen in action.
Two questions arise for me. First, why should I obey Jesus' command? And second, how shall I carry it out? But with Jesus' teaching in the background, Psalm 116 provides the answers, appropriately fitting the context of Maundy (or Holy) Thursday.
Granted, it's humanly impossible to "repay" God fully. The bill for rescue is incalculable. As I see it, however, the "big one" should be something God really likes, and it should be something sacrificial.
Reading 2 Rom 8:31b-34
Amazingly enough, this is a question that we should be asking ourselves regularly. ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?' In Romans 8 alone, Paul has written extensively to prove this very point. God loves us, he sent his son Jesus to die for us, he gave us the Holy Spirit to be our counselor and guide and to remind us of everything Jesus told us. In lieu of this, this question holds amazing implications for us as believers... understanding the dynamics of how God feels about you will change your life. When holding this perspective in view and weighing everything else that happens against this revelation of God's love towards you, then the rest seems unimportant. David held this perspective throughout his entire life, he wrote in the Psalms, "The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalm 118:6). He penned this in the midst of turmoil and unrest. However he could write this because he knew God and knew that God loved him and in light of that, nothing else mattered.
Just as asking this question is important, so is reminding ourselves of the answer. ‘If God is for us, then who is against us?' Who can be our foe if God is on our side? Paul goes on in the next couple of verses to explain how God is the one who justified us ( Romans 8:33 ) and Jesus is the one who died for us (Romans 8:34) so in reality who can bring an accusation against us. This is so important to understand. So many people miss it in life if they do not understand the extent of God's love towards them. Jude tells us to keep ourselves in the love of God (Jude 1:21) because he knew that having this revelation equips the saints to be powerful in the kingdom.
It is amazing to me to know that God chose me and called me to be his child. It is amazing to know he died for me and sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for me. It is amazing to know that nothing can separate me from his love. Understanding this will empower you to overcome any obstacle you face. Understanding this will release you from the fear that keeps you in chains. David said in the Psalm, "The LORD is my light and my salvation- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life- of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1). And in today's passage Paul asks, "What, then, shall we say in response to this? What is there to say? This revelation leaves us speechless.
Today, we are blessed to know and understand that God loves me and nothing can or will separate me from Him.
Gospel Mk 9:2-10
Transfiguration is one of those "non-holidays" that appears in lectionaries with its own particular set of readings, but doesn't draw much attention from local congregations.
The Transfiguration has many of the elements of the story of a superhero. There's an arduous trek up a mountain; a tightly knit company of friends on a "mission" together; the appearance of other-worldly figures in dazzling light; the transformation of the hero into an equally dazzling figure; a command from a powerful voice from another dimension; a determined descent to battle those other powers back home. Jesus is not exactly a superhero...is he?
Well, "no." And "yes." Inherent in the story of the Transfiguration is the promise of a kind of life beyond what is apparent to earthly eyes most of the time. Both Moses and Elijah, two figures whose passing's were mysterious, were believed by many Jews to be God's precursors of the end times. Because Elijah went bodily into heaven (2 Kings 2:9-12) and Moses' grave was never found (he was buried by God himself in Deuteronomy 34:4-7), these two men of the faith were thought to be available for God to send back. God would send them to inform humankind that God's reign was at hand. It is no accident that these two appear with Jesus on the mountain. They discuss that change already prophesied by Jesus (Mark 1:15) and as the two messengers disappear into the cloud (a sign of God's presence, cf. Exodus 40:34-38), the word comes to "Listen to Jesus," the only one left. Now Jesus becomes the divinely chosen precursor of the turn of the age.
Moses, Elijah, and even God are not the only signs for the alert that God's reign are coming. Peter, contrary to popular portrayal, makes the connection that is too obscure for us to make. According to some Jewish expectation and as stated in the book of Zechariah the prophet (see 14:16-21), God would usher in the new age, the "Day of the Lord," during the Feast of Booths. This God-commanded festival kept by Jews for centuries, was considered a possible time for God's taking control of God's creation and beginning the age of shalom. So Peter's question about building booths is neither laughable nor mistaken. Peter is clear that the end times are coming and the Feast of Booths was upon them. Moses, Elijah, and Jesus need not construct their own booths for the celebration.
Peter was wrong about the timing, as Mark suggests (verse 6). Had he forgotten Jesus' prediction of suffering and death or did he think God had just trumped Jesus' prediction and advanced the timetable? We don't know. But the word from the cloud, "Listen to him," is a reminder to pay attention to Jesus' reliable words (including those predictions in 8:31). He will not be a superhero as we understand it, but as one who lays down his life and thus opens glory to many.
Since this story so emphasizes the dazzling glow of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah that we also need to pay attention to glory. The best known earlier example of a dazzling face transformed by being in the presence of God is that of Moses (Exodus 34:2, 29-35). After Moses has been in conversation with God about the future life of God's people, he descends from the mountain so reflecting the light of God's glory that he must cover his face lest he frighten the people. There are surely similarities to Jesus as he seeks to form a new people of God, has climbed a mountain, and is in conversation with God. Also important, in Daniel the "Son of Man" is also dazzling white. The mysterious messianic figure who will bring about God's will and God's justice, is a supernaturally stunning figure (Daniel 7:9-14). As Jesus is transfigured Peter, James, and John and Mark's audience catches a glimpse of his reality as Son of Man, God's chosen messenger of the God's reign.
Putting all this together, we have a story that reassures Jesus' core disciples and Mark's readers: Jesus' predictions of betrayal, death, and resurrection are to be trusted. The struggles yet to come for Jesus should in no way diminish confidence in his promises or his predictions of resurrection. As Mark's gospel drives toward the bitterness of the passion and the ambiguity of an ending without a resurrection appearance, this story itself shines as a beacon of hope.
Recall that James and John believe in that glory and try to claim a place at Jesus' side there (10:35-37). They don't understand the price of that glory, even when Jesus tries to remind them. Even glory can be misunderstood.
We follow in trust that God is forming us into a new people through Jesus, through whatever comes our way.
Making the Connection
In photographs, scrapbooks, and journals, we record memorable experiences and reflect on the significance of these events in our lives. Events in the life of Jesus, such as the Transfiguration, are recorded in the Gospels to deepen our understanding of Jesus.
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- In your mind visualize a memorable event you witnessed (for example, a wedding ceremony, a graduation, or a spectacular scene in nature)
- Try to describe one of the specific events that you have been glad to witness.
- What might you do to preserve these memories in addition to taking photos (for example, describe the event in a letter, write about it in a journal, keep mementos of it in a scrapbook).
- In this Sunday’s Gospel, three of Jesus’ disciples witness a spectacular event that leads one of them to say, “It is good that we are here!”
- What do the disciples witness in today’s Gospel? (Elijah and Moses appear with Jesus; Jesus’ clothes become dazzling white; a voice from heaven speaks about Jesus.) Who are Elijah and Moses? (Elijah was a prophet of Israel who helped the Israelites stay faithful to Yahweh. Moses led the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and delivered the Ten Commandments.) Why do you think Peter says, “It is good that we are here!”? What does Peter want to do? (make tents for Moses, Elijah, and Jesus)
- It was good that Peter was present at the Transfiguration, but not for the reason he thinks. What instruction does Jesus give to his disciples after the Transfiguration? (not to tell anyone until after Jesus has risen from the dead)
- Peter and the other disciples were privileged to witness the Transfiguration so that they would later understand the meaning of Jesus’ passion, death, and Resurrection. What do they learn about Jesus at the Transfiguration that will help them understand Jesus better? (Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises that God made to Israel. Jesus will be glorified by God. Jesus is the Son of God.)
- In the Transfiguration, we glimpse the glory of Jesus’ Resurrection, which we celebrate at Easter. During Lent, we take time to seek greater appreciation for the mystery of Jesus’ Resurrection by learning more about him. What are some things you can do this Lent to learn more about Jesus? (Maybe things such as reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, paying close attention at Mass.) Choose one of these practices to focus on during Lent.
- Conclude by praying that you will grow in appreciation for the mystery of Jesus’ Resurrection as you learn more about Jesus during Lent. Pray Psalm 116.
Sunday February 18, 2018 First Sunday of Lent
Lectionary: 23
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Gn 9:8-15
God said to Noah and to his sons with him:
"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
and with every living creature that was with you:
all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals
that were with you and came out of the ark.
I will establish my covenant with you,
that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed
by the waters of a flood;
there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth."
God added:
"This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come,
of the covenant between me and you
and every living creature with you:
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign
of the covenant between me and the earth.
When I bring clouds over the earth,
and the bow appears in the clouds,
I will recall the covenant I have made
between me and you and all living beings,
so that the waters shall never again become a flood
to destroy all mortal beings."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Good and upright is the LORD,
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and he teaches the humble his way.
R. Your ways, O Lord, are love and truth to those who keep your covenant.
Reading 2 1 Pt 3:18-22
Beloved:
Christ suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.
In it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison,
who had once been disobedient
while God patiently waited in the days of Noah
during the building of the ark,
in which a few persons, eight in all,
were saved through water.
This prefigured baptism, which saves you now.
It is not a removal of dirt from the body
but an appeal to God for a clear conscience,
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
who has gone into heaven
and is at the right hand of God,
with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.
Gospel Mk 1:12-15
The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1
The story of Noah and the flood is one of those biblical narratives that we are so familiar with we think we know the whole story.
In fact, what we tend to think of as the story is one of two interpretations that are common in our culture. The most common interpretation is very much a children's story of animals and rainbows. This is a story about God's love for animals, about remembering God's love each time we see a rainbow, even about the bright side of every storm.
The second common interpretation is a story that is most definitely not for children. In this interpretation, God is so angered by human rebellion that God floods the whole earth, wiping out nearly everything in a fit of divine rage. This is a story about a God whom you'd be crazy to want to have anything to do with, a God of wrath who is ready and willing to strike down sinners.
Neither of these stories is the whole story, of course, and neither contains much truth. A truer story is that God has a myriad of ways of calling us back to the harmony that God intended for us. Our text for today, in which God establishes a covenant with Noah and his descendants, tells us that God is hanging up the bow, putting aside forever the option of destruction and seeking us as God's own.
The entire flood narrative (Genesis 6:5-9:17) is the culmination of a story of increasing human sinfulness that begins in Genesis 3. There we first see that sin results in disharmony -- between humans and other creatures (3:15), between male and female (3:16), and between humans and their earthly labors (3:17-18). Disharmony intensifies in chapter four, in which the first murder, that of a brother no less, occurs. The genealogy of chapter five draws the link from Adam's generation to Noah's in order to highlight the downward spiral of humanity. Finally, 6:1-8 narrates the breaking of God's harmonious world. In the coupling of heavenly and earthly beings, the boundary between the two realms is shattered. The entire cosmos is thus thrown into disorder, and humanity is so broken that God regrets having created it in the first place.
The language of this divine regret in 6:5-6 is breathtaking. In verse five, God saw that "every inclination of the thoughts of [human] hearts was only evil continually." Yet God's response to this realization is not one of anger or revenge. Rather, God was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart (verse 6). God sorrows over the corruption of the beings that God made with such care and love, and God's heart, in striking contrast to the evil inclination of the human heart, is grieved by their betrayal. God is pained by the brokenness of creation. God sends the flood, then, not as an act of revenge, but out of grief over the rending of right human relationship with God. Note that human betrayal of God's intention has effects beyond human beings; human sin has issued in the corruption of all the earth (6:11), and therefore in its destruction.
That destruction, of course, is not total. God doesn't wipe away the creation entirely and then walk away. The flood is in fact the means of re-creation. God washes the earth clean and both God and the earth begin again. The re-creative nature of the flood is underscored by parallels between this narrative and the creation narrative of Genesis 1:
- That which God had repeatedly pronounced good in chapter one, God now names as evil (6:5 and 6:12).
- The separation and gathering of the waters (1:6-11) is first undone (6:11) and then redone (8:3-14).
- God's command to "be fruitful and multiply" (1:28) is repeated three times (8:17, 9:1, and 9:7) after the flood.
- That humans are created in the image of God is repeated (9:6b).
Which brings us to the covenant, the sealing of the newly-restored relationship between God and God's creatures. Note that this is entirely God's doing. God enters into an eternal covenant with all creation without requiring anything in return. God does so fully aware that "the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth," (8:21) still. The flood has not cleansed the human heart of sin, which we see in the latter portion of chapter nine. But God knows this, and God enters into covenant with us anyway. Perhaps the divine heart that was so aggrieved by human wickedness that God sent a flood is now moved by that same grief to seek another way to get through to us. So God promises to Noah and to his descendants, and to every creature on the earth, never again to destroy all creation with a flood.
The sign of this covenant, God's bow in the clouds, is precisely the bow of battle. Ancient depictions of a deity armed with bow and arrow are not unusual. To hang up one's bow is to retire from battle. That bow in the clouds is the sign of God's promise that whatever else God does to seek our restoration, destruction is off the table.
An implication of this promise is that God will try everything else. God will seek us and seek us, despite or perhaps because of God's knowledge of every sin, every grief, and every shame that veils our vision of God's reality and of our own as God's creatures. Whatever dwells in our hearts that keeps us from hearing the harmony of all life in God's care, God will not give up on loving us into restoration.
Responsorial Psalm
The psalm is intimate and intensely personal, voiced in the first person singular and addressing God in the second person singular. And woven through this appointed portion of the psalm are four key themes: the psalmist's total surrender to God and variations on three imperatives addressed to God: don't let me be put to shame; show, teach, and lead me in your paths; and remember yourself and your character and forget me and mine.
The psalmist's surrender is rendered most beautifully in the opening line, "To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul." Allow yourself to contemplate this offering of the deepest, truest part of the self to God. The act of submission is touching in its profound vulnerability and simultaneously strong in its volition (foreshadowing Jesus' insistence in John 18 that "No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.").
This theme of surrender reappears in verse 2, "My God in you I trust ..." and again in verse 5, "for you I wait all day long." A sermon that enters the psalm through this self-offering could remind Christians that the "path" toward which God finally "leads" us is the way of the cross. It should not be lost on us that the self-offering of a lifted up soul is a first action on that way.
The first imperative "Do not let me be disgraced ..." reveals the sliver of human fear and doubt that restrains the psalmist's trust. (Some commentators prefer to translate this phrase as Let me not be disappointed ...) The psalm is the testimony of one strong in faith: "Yes, you are God; yes, I trust you; yes, I am as sure as I can be that your ways are right."
And yet then comes, "but please, please don't disappoint me; please let me be right about you!" Here with the psalmist we come face-to-face with all that's at stake when we surrender ourselves in faith -- even when that surrender is to the God whose gracious mercy we know so well. The shadow side of trust is the yearning for that trust to be vindicated. The wonderful circular paradox is that the imperative that issues from that sliver of doubt is addressed to the one we've already been empowered to trust.
The second imperative, "make known to me your ways ... teach me your paths," plays on the iconic metaphor of "life as journey." We can infer that the psalmist believes that many paths are available and that confusion among them is inevitable -- thus the need for instruction and guidance. The psalmist asks God to be present and directive about the proper way to go (verses 4, 7, and 9).
Reading 2
What Peter has in mind here appears to have little to do with the classic salvation history that later Church Fathers like Clement and Augustine would develop out of this text, a scheme in which righteous humans are released from the bonds of Hell. Instead, Peter is assuring his audience of the cosmic implications of their baptismal vows. The one in whom they have placed their faith, he insists, is indeed the Lord of all creation, of heaven and earth, of things seen and unseen.
The impact of this proclamation can be better understood when we consider the chapters that precede this hymnic affirmation of the triumphant Christ. Those to whom Peter addressed his epistle were experiencing in their own lives the kind of suffering that was the result of turning their backs on the Hellenistic status quo. Their pleas to God during this time were not unlike those of the Psalmist: "do not let me be disgraced; do not let my enemies gloat over me" (25:2). Their baptism, ironically, is at once the source of their hope and the reason for their earthly trials.
Peter introduces this letter with an allusion to the church as a kind of new Adam living in an old world (1:3-5); as such, the faithful will have to endure, if for but a time, the ills of a culture in which they have been effectively marginalized. Though they are aliens and exiles (2:11), they are nevertheless members of a heavenly household. And the water in which they were baptized, and by which they stand before God with a clear conscience, serves as an appropriate symbol for what they are experiencing in their daily lives. Water, especially in the story of Noah, serves as both an instrument for God's judgment of the wicked and a means for the redemption of the godly. It is good to be reminded which side one is on, especially in times of trial.
In drawing on the story of Noah, Peter wants to assure his readers that they are indeed the church, a new ark rising and falling with the waters of adversity, yet proceeding toward the day of peace when the chaos around them would recede and a new world would be established. And that day would come, for the Lord into whose body they had been baptized is indeed the Lord of creation. He had made himself known to the spirits of disobedience -- even from the first day of his earthly ministry (Mark 1:14-15, passim) -- and placed them on notice. Though it might appear to the aliens and exiles that these wayward angels still held sway over their lives, the waters were indeed subsiding.
While talk of principalities and spirits bound in prison may strike us as a vestige of a bygone world, we should not be so quick to discount the contemporary relevance of this text, especially during this season of Lent. Walter Wink has argued persuasively that "the powers that be" are still a very real part of our existence -- whether as the collective spirit of a nation, a corporation, or other organizations -- and often we are only too willing to offer them the trust and obedience that should be reserved for God alone.
Lent offers us the opportunity to search our conscience, to consider the implications of our baptism, and to assess which side we are really on. Ostensibly, the waters that wash us clean are the source of our salvation, but our actions sometimes suggest an allegiance to the chaos that lies just beyond the walls of the ark. Christ proclaims from the right hand of God that the spirits have been bound, but we too often insist through our words and our deeds that they should once again be set free.
Gospel Mk 1:12-15
We have here a brief account of Christ’s temptation, and the beginning of His preaching after John was arrested.
His temptation. The good Spirit that descended upon him, led him into the wilderness, v. 12. Paul mentions it as a proof that he had his doctrine from God, and not from man—that, as soon as he was called, he went not to Jerusalem, but went into Arabia, Gal. 1:17 . Retirement from the world is an opportunity of more free converse with God, and therefore must sometimes be chosen, for a while, even by those that are called to the greatest business. Mark observes this circumstance of his being in the wilderness —that he was with the wild beasts. It was an instance of his Father’s care of him, that he was preserved from being torn in pieces by the wild beasts, which encouraged him the more that his Father would provide for him when he was hungry. Special protections are earnests of seasonable supplies. It was likewise an intimation to him of the inhumanity of the men of that generation, whom he was to live among—no better than wild beasts in the wilderness, nay abundantly worse. In that wilderness, the evil spirits were busy with him; he was tempted by Satan; not by any inward injections (the prince of this world had nothing in him to fasten upon), but by outward solicitations. Solicitude often gives advantages to the tempter, therefore two are better than one. Christ himself was tempted, not only to teach us, that it is no sin to be tempted, but to direct us where to go for succor when we are tempted, even to him that suffered, being tempted; that he might experimentally sympathize with us when we are tempted. The good spirits were busy about him; the angels ministered to him, supplied him with what he needed, and dutifully attended him. Note, The ministration of the good angels about us, is matter of great comfort in reference to the malicious designs of the evil angels against us; but much more does it befriend us, to have the indwelling of the spirit in our hearts, which they have it, the evil one touches them not, much less shall he triumph over them.
A general account of Christ’s preaching in Galilee. John gives an account of his preaching in Judea, before this (ch. 2 and 3), which the other evangelists had omitted, who chiefly relate what occurred in Galilee, because that was least known at Jerusalem. Notice when Jesus began to preach in Galilee; After John was put in prison. When Johm had finished his testimony, then Jesus began his. Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of God. Christ came to set up the kingdom of God among men, that they might be brought into subjection to it, and might obtain salvation in it; and he set it up by the preaching of his gospel, and a power going along with it. Observe the great truths Christ preached; The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. This refers to the Old Testament, in which the kingdom of the Messiah was promised, and the time fixed for the introducing of it. They were not so well versed in those prophecies, nor did they so well observe the signs of the times, as to understand it themselves, and therefore Christ gives them notice of it; "The time prefixed is now at hand; glorious discoveries of divine light, life, and love, are now to be made; a new dispensation far more spiritual and heavenly than that which you have hitherto been under, is now to commence.’’ Note, God keeps time; when the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, for the vision is for an appointed time, which will be punctually observed.Tthey fondly expected the Messiah to appear in external pomp and power, not only to free the Jewish nation from the Roman yoke, but to make it have dominion over all its neighbors, and therefore thought, when that kingdom of God was at hand, they must prepare for war, and for victory and preferment, and great things in the world; but Christ tells them, in the prospect of that kingdom approaching, they must repent, and believe the gospel. They had broken the moral law, and could not be saved by a covenant of innocency, for both Jew and Gentile are concluded under guilt. They must therefore take the benefit of a covenant of grace, must submit to a remedial law, and this is it—repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. m, shall, without fail, come to him. The instruments Christ chose to employ in setting up his kingdom, were the weak and foolish things of the world; not called from the great sanhedrim, or the schools of the rabbin, but picked up from among the tarpaulins by the sea-side, that the excellency of the power might appear to be wholly of God, and not at all of them. Though Christ needs not the help of man, yet he is pleased to make use of it in setting up his kingdom, that he might deal with us not in a formidable but in a familiar way, and that in his kingdom the nobles and governors may be of ourselves, Jer. 31:21. Christ taught as one that had authority, as one that knew the mind of God, and was commissioned to declare it. There is much in the doctrine of Christ, that is astonishing; the more we hear it, the more cause we shall see to admire it.
Making the Connection
- What are some temptations that you face? Make a list of some of these temptations.
- What is one thing that regularly tempts you? Circle this item on your list.
- In Mark’s Gospel, we don't hear details about how Satan tempted Jesus, nor do we hear how Jesus succeeded in resisting temptation. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ battle with Satan continues throughout his life, to be concluded only at his death on the cross.
- During Lent, we focus on resisting temptation in our lives. We renew our commitment to resist certain temptations, but our efforts during Lent are only the beginning. We pray that what we begin during each Lent will continue long after.
- How will you try to resist the temptation you circled? What help will you need to do this? Remember, no one succeeds in resisting temptation alone. God helps us!
- Pray the Act of Contrition.
Here’s one version for reference
My God,
I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong
and failing to do good,
I have sinned against you
whom I should love above all things.
I firmly intend, with your help,
to do penance,
to sin no more,
and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.
Our Savior Jesus Christ
suffered and died for us.
In his name, my God, have mercy.
Sunday February 11, 2018 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 77
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Lv 13:1-2, 44-46
The Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
"If someone has on his skin a scab or pustule or blotch
which appears to be the sore of leprosy,
he shall be brought to Aaron, the priest,
or to one of the priests among his descendants.
If the man is leprous and unclean,
the priest shall declare him unclean
by reason of the sore on his head.
"The one who bears the sore of leprosy
shall keep his garments rent and his head bare,
and shall muffle his beard;
he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!'
As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean,
since he is in fact unclean.
He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 32:1-2, 5, 11
R. (7) I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Blessed is he whose fault is taken away,
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the man to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
my guilt I covered not.
I said, "I confess my faults to the LORD,"
and you took away the guilt of my sin.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you just;
exult, all you upright of heart.
R. I turn to you, Lord, in time of trouble, and you fill me with the joy of salvation.
Reading 2 1 Cor 10:31—11:1
Brothers and sisters,
Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do,
do everything for the glory of God.
Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or
the church of God,
just as I try to please everyone in every way,
not seeking my own benefit but that of the many,
that they may be saved.
Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
Gospel Mk 1:40-45
A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
"If you wish, you can make me clean."
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched him, and said to him,
"I do will it. Be made clean."
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning the him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
He said to him, "See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them."
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Lv 13:1-2, 44-46
So just what is leprosy?
It is a progressive infectious disease caused by a bacteria that attacks the skin, flesh, nerves, etc.; it is characterized by nodules, ulcers, white scaly scabs, if not treated will cause the wasting of muscles, deformities, mutilation, and the eventual loss of sensation,( and is contagious.)
Leprosy was a deadly disease dreaded by everyone in ancient Israel. It is worse than cancer. When somebody has leprosy, he or she becomes automatically ostracized or separated from the community. Thus, as we see in today's first reading, what a leper is going on the street he has to cry, "unclean, unclean... He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp" (Lv 13:45-46).
Today's Gospel passage presents a scenario in which a leper came to Jesus, kneeling down and begging him saying, "if you wish, you can make me clean." (Mark 1:40) Moved with pity, Jesus stretches out his hand touching the leper saying, "I do will it. Be made clean." (Mark 1:41) The Bible tells us that the leprosy left him immediately. What is the significance of this message? What challenges does it give us today?
There are times in our lives when we may be overwhelmed by all kinds of situations confronting us. There are situations that make us become isolated, abandoned, rejected, depressed, and lonely. At times we find ourselves lonely, even amidst the crowd! There are times when problems make our life so miserable, like that of an ostracized leper. There are times when families and friends may not be able to help, but there is somebody whose will is best. We need to approach Him and say, "Lord, let your will be done for me.” The Lord has promised never to abandon us, even if mothers could abandon their children (CF I S. 49:14 – 16).
On a spiritual level, that deadly disease affecting human life today is sin. It is so deadly because it separates us spiritually from our Lord.
Before making any crucial decisions Jesus usually withdraws into solitude to have a deeper encounter with his Father. This is our model. We too must find time within our busy schedule to pray. It is in prayer and deep meditation that we can encounter Jesus profoundly and embrace peace. It is during those quiet moments that we can hear him loud and clear. Such an encounter with Jesus also brings us healing of mind and body. The ancient Latin dictum “Ora et labora” (work and pray) should be our motto as Christians, not “Laborare est Orare” (working is praying), as we see in many cases today working is not synonymous with praying. If you want to encounter Jesus in his busy world, then you need to embrace solitude.
This passage explains to us also why we need our weekly days off, monthly recollection, annual retreat, and annual vacation. Some years ago, in a parish in the United Kingdom a pastor had worked for 14 years in a row without taking any vacation. The people were so concerned because he was running out of energy and zeal. Let us not forget that a car that runs all day, without stopping for fuel refill, will soon run out of gas.
My friends ask me why I go on spiritual retreat. I respond "I need all the help that I can get." Anyone, lay or cleric; living is a busy area; needs recollection, retreats and quiet moments as often as necessary. It is a busy world. We cannot be too busy for prayer and retreat. May the Lord give us many opportunities to encounter him and his healing power as we continue our journey in a busy world.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 32:1-2, 5, 11
Long before the insights from contemporary psychology concerning repression, biofeedback loops, and psychosomatic disorders, the ancient psalmist knew very clearly that unacknowledged and unresolved guilt could have serious physical consequences. There is no reason to think that the language of Psalm 32 is purely metaphorical -- “my bones wasted away; I groaned all day long.”
Unacknowledged and unresolved guilt was taking its toll. And it is still happening!
It is no wonder that some of the most penetrating analyses of sin and guilt have come in recent years not from biblical scholars and theologians, but rather from psychiatrists. For instance, Karl Menninger was motivated by his concern for mental health and a healthier society to ask Whatever Became of Sin? He was concerned that unacknowledged and unresolved guilt inevitably comes out in various forms of unhealthy “escapism, rationalization, and reaction or symptom formation.”
Therefore, he called for a recovery of the concept of sin; and he suggested that clergypersons should take the lead: “It is their special prerogative to study sin -- or whatever they call it -- to identify it, to define it, to warn us about it, and to spur measures for combatting it and rectifying it.”
The appearance of Psalm 32 in the lectionary offers a prime opportunity for clergypersons to take up the challenge “to study sin.” And almost certainly, it will be a challenge! As Menninger points out, sin-talk has not been and is not very popular. For one thing, it can sound archaic and overly judgmental. Then too, our concern for privacy and proper appearances makes confession of sin (or weakness or need) a bit risky.
As Gerald Wilson notes, “The cults of independence and perfection have prevented many a struggling evangelical Christian from admitting his or her fears, failures, and helplessness until the crisis was so great that it can no longer be denied and broke out with the utmost devastation for all those concerned.” This reality, of course, underscores the importance of the challenge “to study sin.”
Perhaps the language of verses 3-4 suggests that the psalmist had arrived (or was about to arrive) at a devastating breaking point. If so, then she or he offers us a very important example of the benefits of confronting and confessing one’s sin. What ends up broken in Psalm 32 is neither the psalmist’s life nor the lives of those with whom the psalmist is concerned. Rather, what ends up broken is the psalmist’s silence!
While neither God nor the psalmists are in favor of sin, the real problem in Psalm 32 is not the psalmist’s sin but rather the psalmist’s failure to acknowledge and confess sin. It is crucial; therefore, that the silence be broken for, as James L. Mays points out, “the silence is the rejection of grace.”
The tragic thing about the failure to confess sinfulness and need is that we close ourselves off from the liberating grace of God. A more literal translation of verse 5c emphasizes this liberating dimension: “and you took away the guilt of my sin.” A burden has been lifted! God bears the burden of sin with us or even for us!
This, of course, is pure grace, anticipating both Jesus’ proclamation of the realm of God (see Luke 7:36-8:3) and Paul’s proclamation of the good news of justification by grace (see Romans 4:6-8 where Paul quotes Psalm 32:1-2).
To be sure, Psalm 32 is about sin and guilt; and it is rightly numbered among the Church’s seven Penitential Psalms (see Psalms 6, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143). But Psalm 32 is even more clearly about the divine willingness to forgive. This willingness is grounded in God’s essential character -- that is, God is gracious, merciful, and steadfastly loving (see Exodus 34:6-7; and note “steadfast love” in Psalm 32:10).
Reading 2 1 Cor 10:31—11:1
The apostle urges he people to refrain where they will give offense, while yet he allows it lawful to eat what was set before them as common food, though it had been offered in sacrifice. "Another man's conscience is no measure to our conduct. What he thinks unlawful is not thereby made unlawful to me, but may be a matter of liberty still; and as long as I own God as a giver of my food, and render him thanks for it, it is very unjust to reproach me for using it." This must be understood abstracted from the scandal given by eating in the circumstance mentioned. Though some understand it to mean, "Why should I, by using the liberty I have, give occasion to those who are scandalized to speak evil of me?" According to that advice of the apostle (Rom. 14:16), Let not your good be evil spoken of. Note, Christians should take care not to use their liberty to the hurt of others, nor their own reproach.
The apostle takes occasion from this discourse to lay down a rule for Christians' conduct, and apply it to this particular case (v. 31, 32), namely, that in eating and drinking, and in all we do, we should aim at the glory of God, at pleasing and honoring him. This is the fundamental principle of practical godliness. The great end of all practical religion must direct us where particular and express rules are wanting. Nothing must be done against the glory of God, and the good of our neighbors, connected with it. No, the tendency of our behavior to the common good, and the credit of our holy religion, should give direction to it. And therefore nothing should be done by us to offend any, whether Jew, or Gentile, or the church, v. 32. The Jews should not be unnecessarily grieved nor prejudiced, who have such an abhorrence of idols that they reckon every thing offered to them thereby defiled, and that it will pollute and render culpable all who partake of it; nor should heathens be countenanced in their idolatry by any behavior of ours, which they may construe as homage or honor done to their idols; nor young converts from Gentilism take any encouragement from our conduct to retain any veneration for the heathen gods and worship, which they have renounced: nor should we do anything that may be a means to pervert any members of the church from their Christian profession or practice. Our own humor and appetite must not determine our practice, but the honor of God and the good and edification of the church. We should not so much consult our own pleasure and interest as the advancement of the kingdom of God among men. Note, A Christian should be a person devoted to God, and of a public spirit.
Gospel Mk 1:40-45
Last Sunday's gospel lesson impressed upon us the scope of Jesus' ministry and mission, and the power of the good news of His preaching and healing to impact the lives of all who flocked to hear the message of forgiveness and presence of God's new reign. With today's lesson there is no relenting in the intensity and success of that mission, whose fast-paced movement by now has developed a kind of rhythm.
In the final words of last Sunday's lesson, we heard that Jesus' mission encompassed all of Galilee and drew the whole world to Jesus' doorstep. But today, once again much like in the case of Peter's mother-in-law (1:29), we are drawn back to the particular, to the impact of Jesus' healing power upon the life of one individual. In fact, the whole movement of today's lesson mirrors that of last Sunday's verses, Mark 1:29-39. Whereas that lesson began with the healing of Peter's mother-in-law and ended with reference to Jesus' mission throughout the whole of Galilee, this lesson begins with the healing of a person with leprosy and ends with reference to the spread of Jesus' fame and people coming to Him from "everywhere."
The clear effect of the progression of these texts is to proclaim the power of the good news, present from the very beginning in Jesus' mission and ministry. Whereas in the other synoptic gospels this story needs some time to work its way out, in Mark this power has its "epiphany" already in Mark's unique portrayal of the ministry and preaching of John the Baptist. When Jesus announces the "kingdom of God" has already come near and the reign of God is upon us in this good news, His preaching compounds and strengthens that message. "Immediately," (to use Mark's favorite word) the powers that be are engaged. Jesus' healing and casting out of demons acknowledge His authority and power as something to be reckoned with. In Jesus' presence lives will be changed. But as the story progresses, beginning especially in last Sunday's lesson, there are signs that such power will not go unchallenged. The new and the old are bound to clash; the new will not be contained by the old. That impending clash becomes more explicit in Mark 2:1-12 and 2:13-22, but it already breathes beneath the surface in this Sunday's lesson.
The leper's arrival and request press the issues of the good news squarely: "If you are willing, you have the power to make me clean" (a translation). The words "if you wish, you can..." disguises and softens Mark's loaded words of "will" and "power." Here, we are invited to face the issue of how Jesus will address the matter of "clean and unclean" in the particular realities of this world. That particularity is clear in the leper's question, which is not about cleansing and power in general, but about the power to make "me" clean. Ultimately, the issue of the good news is whether it has the power to effect change in my life and yours.
The leper's question recognizes that if there is to be healing, it will be dependent on a God who "wills" that it be so. The "if" in his question leaves that matter provocatively up in the air. As such his words remind us that hearing the arrival of this Jesus as good news is contingent on finding in him the epiphany of a God who actually "wills" that this healing be so. But his words also recognize that such actuality takes more than "will." The will to cleanse remains only a possibility until it meets the appearance of One who has the "power" to deliver on the promise of that will. This issue of power is central, for it stands both at the beginning and end of this lesson, though it is unfortunately disguised in the English translations. It is here in the leper's request (verse 40). It is there again in verse 45, where strangely and surprisingly we hear that the successful spread of the word about Jesus means He no longer "has the power" to go around "openly." Instead, He must stay in secret in the wilderness. (Literally, he does not have the ability for "epiphany").
Of course these matters of power will ultimately move this story to the cross. But for now, Jesus' immediate answer is clear. Jesus is moved with compassion. He reaches out, touches the leper, and says, "I do will it." If there is any question of the requisite power to cleanse, it is avoided and leapt over. The "I will" becomes immediate reality in Jesus' command: "Be made clean" (Mark 1:41-42).
In Jesus, "I will" is the power of the good news to change lives and the message of Epiphany; that in Jesus this will and power of God is clearly revealed. Boundaries are crossed; issues of power are addressed; unclean becomes clean; the sick become whole. And Jesus will get into trouble for this!
The trouble is perhaps suggested in the refusal of this good news to be restrained, even by Jesus' own command. Jesus gives the former leper two commands, " See that you tell no one anything " and " show yourself to the priest," neither of which he obeys. Instead, this man goes out and "preaches" the "word" mightily (Greek: polla; literally, "in many words"). And his preaching is effective, so much so that Jesus becomes hampered in His own ministry (Mark 1:45).
This epiphany story draws us into a number of tensions of discipleship and faith. The leper's story makes clear that God's will in Jesus to touch, to cleanse, and to make whole is not just imagination or wish. Instead, it is promise that has the power to touch the particularity of lives, broken and suffering from the powers of the unclean in this world. It also makes clear that the proclamation of this good news has the power, even today, to burst the boundaries of constraint that would keep this good word from being heard. The story of this Jesus will get out!
Making the Connection
- You have so many choices in the course of the day that you may not even realize how many decisions you make. Try to list some of the decisions that you have made since you woke up this morning. Things like: (choosing what clothes to wear, choosing what to eat for breakfast, and so on)
- Most of us have become pretty good at making good choices that relate to our daily routines. But sometimes we are faced with a choice that is more difficult.
- In today’s Gospel, Jesus is faced with this kind of choice. A man approaches Jesus, asking to be healed. Jesus was faced with the choice of whether to heal him or not.
- What did the man want Jesus to do? (cure his leprosy) Why might Jesus not want to do this? Remember that leprosy is a disfiguring skin disease and that in Jesus’ time, people with leprosy were not permitted to have contact with people who did not have the disease. What did Jesus decide to do? (He healed the man with leprosy; he touched him as part of the healing.)
- As Christians, we face similar choices with the decisions that we are asked to make. We have the choice to love, the choice to help, or to do nothing. We show the depth of our faith when, like Jesus, we choose to love and to help, even when this is difficult for us.
- Conclude by praying together that we will have the courage to help and heal others, even if doing so is difficult. Pray together the Prayer to the Holy Spirit.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Sunday February 4, 2018 Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 74
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jb 7:1-4, 6-7
Job spoke, saying:
Is not man's life on earth a drudgery?
Are not his days those of hirelings?
He is a slave who longs for the shade,
a hireling who waits for his wages.
So I have been assigned months of misery,
and troubled nights have been allotted to me.
If in bed I say, "When shall I arise?"
then the night drags on;
I am filled with restlessness until the dawn.
My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
Remember that my life is like the wind;
I shall not see happiness again.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
R. (cf. 3a) Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, for he is good;
sing praise to our God, for he is gracious;
it is fitting to praise him.
The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem;
the dispersed of Israel he gathers.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
He tells the number of the stars;
he calls each by name.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Great is our Lord and mighty in power;
to his wisdom there is no limit.
The LORD sustains the lowly;
the wicked he casts to the ground.
R. Praise the Lord, who heals the brokenhearted.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23
Brothers and sisters:
If I preach the gospel, this is no reason for me to boast,
for an obligation has been imposed on me,
and woe to me if I do not preach it!
If I do so willingly, I have a recompense,
but if unwillingly, then I have been entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my recompense?
That, when I preach,
I offer the gospel free of charge
so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
Although I am free in regard to all,
I have made myself a slave to all
so as to win over as many as possible.
To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do for the sake of the gospel,
so that I too may have a share in it.
Gospel Mk 1:29-39
On leaving the synagogue
Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.
Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases,
and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
Rising very early before dawn, he left
and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him
and on finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you."
He told them, "Let us go on to the nearby villages
that I may preach there also.
For this purpose have I come."
So he went into their synagogues,
preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jb 7:1-4, 6-7
I have been allotted months of futility: Job saw his present suffering like the futile, discouraging work of a servant or a hired man. He felt there was no hope or reward, only weariness.
The words hard service in Job 7:1 are descriptive of military service. The Latin Vugate translates, The life of man is a warfare upon earth. The early English Coverdale translation has it, Is not the life of man upon earth a very battle? With this Job communicated both the struggle of life, together with the idea that he has been drafted unwillingly into this battle.
Wearisome nights have been appointed to me: Job described his physical condition in painful terms. He suffered from insomnia and his skin affliction came back again and again.
Clarke comments on My flesh is caked with worms: “The figure is too horrid to be further illustrated.”
Job mourns the futility of life.
My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle: Job did not mean this in a positive sense, as in saying “My, look how fast the time is going by.” As described in the previous verses, in this season of affliction time is dragging by for Job through his sleepless and painful nights. Yet when he looked at his life in totality, it seemed to be a meaningless blur, spent without hope and as a breath.
“Ibn Ezra noted long ago the play on the word [tiqwah, ‘hope’], which can also mean ‘thread.’ Job’s days move fast like a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end through want of thread. Both meanings were equally intended. This is the kind of overtone in meaning that cannot be reflected in a translation without a footnote.”
“Worse than the disease itself, Job lost all hope of being healed. He believed his only release from pain was death.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6
- Praise the Lord! Psalm 147 begins and ends with these words, which are both a declaration and an encouragement of praise to Yahweh. This hallelujah begins and ends the five psalms that end the Book of Psalms.
- “There is no heaven, either in this world, or the world to come, for people who do not praise God. If you do not enter into the spirit and worship of heaven, how should the spirit and joy of heaven enter into you?”
- it is good to sing praises to our God: It was right for the Psalmist to tell himself and others to praise the Lord, and he assumed that God’s people would do it with singing. The goodness of praise comes from the truth that it is, in itself, pleasant and beautiful.
- Psalm 33:1 says, praise from the upright is beautiful. True praise is beautiful to God, to His people, and to the individual worshipper.
- Praise is pleasant and beautiful for humanity, “It is decent, befitting, and proper that every intelligent creature should acknowledge the Supreme Being: and as he does nothing but good to the children of men, so they should speak good of his name.”
- If praise is beautiful, “As on the contrary, an unthankful man is an ugly, ill-favoured spectacle.”
(2-6) The care and power of God.
The Lord builds up Jerusalem;
He gathers together the outcasts of Israel.
He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds.
He counts the number of the stars;
He calls them all by name.
Great is our Lord, and mighty in power;
His understanding is infinite.
The Lord lifts up the humble;
He casts the wicked down to the ground.
- The Lord builds up Jerusalem, He gathers together the outcasts of Israel: The Psalmist quickly began to describe the goodness and greatness of God, to give himself and others reasons to praise God. The first reason is God’s active care for Jerusalem and a likely reference to its restoration after the exile.
- “The twelfth chapter of Nehemiah tells how the Levites were brought to the city to lead a grand celebration ‘with songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres’ (Neh. 12:27)”. It would have been fitting for them to sing this Psalm, especially Psalm 147:2-3.
- Consider the many kinds of outcasts that Jesus gathers and blesses today.
· Outcasts may be the very poorest and most despised among men
· Outcasts may be those who have made themselves so by their wickedness
· Outcasts may be those who judge themselves to be outcasts
· Outcasts may be backsliders from the church
· Outcasts may be those who have fallen into great depression of spirit
· Outcasts may be those who suffer for righteousness’ sake
- He heals the brokenhearted: God does not only care for communities, but also for individuals. Those who hurt – the brokenhearted and the wounded – are special objects of His care.
- Hearts are broken through disappointment. Hearts are broken through bereavement. Hearts are broken in ten thousand ways, for this is a heart-breaking world; and Christ is good at healing all manner of heart- breaks. There are many reasons why Jesus is good at healing the brokenhearted.
· Jesus is educated for this work, having His own heart broken
· Jesus is experienced in this work, having healed broken hearts for 2,000 years
· Jesus is willing to take the worst patients, and has never yet lost a patient
· Jesus heals broken hearts with medicine that He himself provides
- “That God tells the number of the stars is only what we should expect of Him….But that He should be able to bend over one broken heart and bind it with His sympathy and heal its flowing wounds, this is wonderful, amazing, divine.”
Binds up their wounds: “As a good shepherd, Zechariah 11:4, that good Samaritan, Luke 10:34, and as a good surgeon dealeth by his patient.”
- He counts the number of the stars, He calls them all by name: The same God who cares for the lowly individual also knows and names all the stars. His majesty extends in both directions, from the span of the universe to the individual need.
- The Psalmist allowed us to the make the logical point – that if God knows and names all the stars, He certainly knows me and names me.
- Apparently in the days of Matthew Poole (1624-79), astronomers numbered 1,025 stars. “He telleth the number of the stars, which no man can do, Genesis 22:17. For those thousand and twenty-five which astronomers number, are only such as are most distinctly visible to the eye, and most considerable for their influences.” Now (2016) scientists estimate that there are 1 billion trillion stars in the observable universe. God knows the exact number.
- He calls them all by name: “Calling them all by names (lit., He calls names to them all) is not giving them designations, but summoning them as a captain reading the muster roll of his band. It may also imply full knowledge of each individual in their countless hosts.”
- The ‘stars’ are not forces or deities as in the ancient Near East but created entities over which the Lord is sovereign.
- Great is our Lord, and mighty in power: The Psalmist again described God in the high aspects of His majesty (His understanding is infinite) and in the lowest and most compassionate aspects of His majesty (the Lord lifts up the humble).
- “It turns upside down the familiar argument that in so great a universe our small affairs are too minute to notice.”
- His understanding is infinite: “There is no fathoming his wisdom, or measuring his knowledge. He is infinite in existence, in power, and in knowledge, as these three phrases plainly teach us.”
- The Lord lifts up the humble; He casts the wicked down to the ground: This is much like the phrase repeated three times in the Scriptures – God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (Proverbs 3:34, James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5).
- “He reverses the evil order of things. The meek are down, and he lifts them up; the wicked are exalted, and he hurls them down to the dust.”
- “As a man ranks himself in one or other of these two divisions, he may expect from heaven storm or sunshine, mercy or judgment.”
Reading 2 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23
This dialectic - preach or be damned - arises from Paul's self-reflection on his role as apostle. Paul is presenting his self-understanding, describing the manner in which he presents himself, and the ultimate motivation which drives him. Preach, or be damned.
To be fair Paul doesn't actually say "damned." Rather, he says "woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel" (1 Corinthians 9:16). As with the Old Testament "woes" that one reads in numerous prophetic oracles (cf. Isaiah 45:9; Hosea 7:13; see also Matthew 23:13-36), this is serious business. This is not the "whoa" of amazement or surprise, but the "woe" of suffering and punishment. In effect, Paul is calling trouble down upon himself should he fail to preach the gospel. "Woe to me if I fail to proclaim the gospel! I must preach or be damned!" With this attitude, Paul sets the stage for a striking reflection on his own calling as apostle, and provides a refreshing resource for our reflection on what it means to be called, commissioned to serve God and our neighbor, and proclaim the gospel.
There is much in this passage that may be familiar, primarily Paul's summary of the nature of his apostleship. One of Paul's most oft-quoted phrases is found here, that he will be "all things to all people" (1 Corinthians 9:22). Among the Jews, Paul is a committed and observant Jew, as he proudly declares elsewhere (Philippians 3:4-6). To those under the law, Paul will conduct himself as one also under the law, even though he is not subject to that law (1 Corinthians 9:20). To those outside the law, he will appear and present himself as one also outside of the law, even though, in a potentially confusing turn-around, he is "not free from God's law" (verse 21). To the weak, Paul will give himself as one who is weak, though he has reason to boast (verse 22).
This fourfold summary of "all things" is at heart a repetition of two things in an A-A-B-B pattern. The Jews and those under the law are best read as one and the same. Likewise, those outside the law, the Gentiles, are also the "weak." Think of this as a Pauline version of "There are two kinds of people." "And," Paul says, "I am whatever they need me to be, a little A-ish or a little B-ish." Though free in Christ Jesus, Paul submits himself, to the point of being a slave, to his neighbors, willing to be "all things to all people."
As with most familiar things, one must be careful not to read "all things to all people" as though Paul is saying that "everything goes." As noted above, Paul is talking less about "all things" than articulating a basic two-part distinction: those under the law, and those outside the law, which covers everyone. What Paul is driving at is not some pluralist vision of all things being equal. He is driven by the need to deliver the gospel to all people, not just the chosen people or the insiders. Outside of this text, Paul explicitly says that theological relativity and idolatry are not a part of the gospel (1 Corinthians 10:14-22). In other words, Paul is stressing that he has given up all claims to his own particularity; but not the particularity of the gospel; in order to "win more," and "save some." The question is, why?
Why is Paul willing to do this? Why be all things to all people? Why risk appearing a chameleon of compromise? Why give up freedom for servitude? Why? Preach or be damned. For Paul this is not a question, or a matter of choice. It is a matter of necessity, of compulsion, of apostolic imperative. It is the gospel that is for all people, the gospel that drives him to reach out both to Jew and to Gentile, to the one struggling under the burden of the law and the one blissfully ignorant of its demands. For Paul the gospel is needed by both kinds of people, it is the one thing that is for all people. This is why he does what he does.
And this brings us again to the remarkable way in which Paul describes the apostolic imperative which drives him, and what it means for us. At the beginning of this little passage from 1 Corinthians, Paul holds in tension a set of contradictory terms: boasting and obligation, reward and commission. The calling, the obligation to proclaim the gospel is not a cause for boasting or arrogance; neither is it a means to an end or a reward. For Paul the gospel, as a blessing to be shared (1 Corinthians 9:23; 10:17; 11:23-26), is both obligation and reward, commission and compensation. Paul does not talk here of his calling or his "Christian life" as something motivated by heavenly reward, or something in which to take pride. Paul, who is accustomed to the occasional pride filled boast, takes a different tack here. He is motivated by the joy from servitude to Christ, the reward of a slavish devotion to all his neighbors, both those under God's law and those unaware of it.
Gospel Mk 1:29-39
As Jesus begins his ministry in Galilee he has called disciples. In the Capernaum synagogue he healed a man with an unclean spirit by "rebuking" the spirit and calling it out of him. The amazed local folks talk about this new teacher and exorcist everywhere. Meanwhile, after the healing in the synagogue, Jesus returns to Simon Peter's house. There lies Simon Peter's mother-in-law in the grip of a fever. This is no small matter in the ancient world. A fever was not only debilitating for a short while, but was often a symptom of a condition that would lead to death. We know nothing from Mark about this fever -- its intensity, its duration, or its cause -- but we do know a valued family member was unable to be up and about her work. Her calling had been taken from her by an illness.
Jesus simply "raises her up." In Mark's direct and uncomplicated style he says, "...and the fever left her and she served them." The verbs are interesting. Simon Peter's mother-in-law is raised up by Jesus, a word that takes on powerful meaning in Mark's gospel and in subsequent Christian communities. In 16:6 the word is applied to Jesus himself. Mark uses egeiro in many healings (see, for example, 9:27). The word suggests that new strength is imparted to those laid low by illness, unclean spirits, or even death, so that they may again rise up to take their place in the world. That's where the second interesting verb comes into play.
Simon Peter's mother-in-law "served" immediately after having been raised. The verb is diakoneo, the same verb Jesus uses to describe the essence of his own ministry in Mark 10:45. It is "to serve" rather than "to be served" that characterizes the Christ of God. It is also "to serve" that characterizes his disciples. Simon Peter's mother-in-law is far from being an exemplar of a pathetic, un-liberated woman for whom serving men is her whole life. Rather she is the first character in Mark's gospel who exemplifies true discipleship. (Side bar: it will be women who are described as having served Jesus in 15:41 as well. This is not a verb used of Jesus' male disciples who famously do not quite "get it" within the gospel itself.)
Needless to say, the second healing really got around among the people. All kinds of folks were brought to Jesus for help. Capernaum's sick were laid before his door and he healed illnesses and cast out demons by the score. Please notice that these two activities were not identical. The ancients did not believe that all illnesses were demonically caused. They knew as well as we do that people get sick for all manner of reasons.
But please notice in addition, that illness bore a heavy social cost: not only would a person be unable to earn a living or contribute to the well-being of a household, but their ability to take their proper role in the community, to be honored as a valuable member of a household, town, or village, would be taken from them. Peter's mother-in-law is an excellent case in point. It was her calling and her honor to show hospitality to guests in her home. Cut off from that role by an illness cut her off from doing that which integrated her into her world. Who was she when no longer able to engage in her calling? Jesus restored her to her social world and brought her back to a life of value by freeing her from that fever. It is very important to see that healing is about restoration to community and restoration of a calling, a role as well as restoration to life. For life without community and calling is bleak indeed.
Jesus' ministry involves restoration of those cut off from community to a full role in the community. Those who have been seriously ill in our own time will understand the joy of simply being back as a participant in the "ordinary" processes of community life. Truly, there is nothing ordinary about life in community. Jesus wields the power of God Almighty to bring about participation: it is God's will for creation to be serving in community with others.
This discussion leads naturally to the end of the passage where suddenly Jesus seems to reject his call to heal and insists that he must proclaim throughout the villages and towns of Galilee the message he came to deliver. That proclamation, or announcement, continues to be in both word and deed as Jesus goes forward. In 1:15 we heard that message from Jesus: "the reign of God has come near. Repent and trust the good news." We have seen in the story of the man possessed and of Peter's mother-in-law how good that good news was: part of God's reign is the casting out of demons and the turning aside of illnesses; it has to do with restoration of those oppressed to a full role in their communities; it has to do with creating a people raised up to serve each other. And people do come in numbers, trusting that Jesus will heal and restore.
Yet his calling at this point in Mark's gospel is to share the in-breaking of God's kingdom through healing and announcement. Jesus is the herald with the power to bring in a foretaste of the kingdom, even as he promises that it is continuing to "draw near." As he goes throughout the Galilee he does not rely simply on words to make his point, but on the casting out of demons.
How vital it is to know that the coming of God's kingdom is indeed good news? One could imagine God's reign coming as a reign of terror. Humans have plenty of experience with powerful kings doing terrible things to those over whom they reign. Will God be like that? Will it be punishment and brutality for those who don't get on board? No. Jesus shows over and over again, that God's power serves the people. From the very beginning of his ministry Jesus casts out those spirits opposed to God's people, those things which lay them low, as part of his heralding the kingdom. God comes to restore, to save and God's power is sufficient to do it.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think about times when you were ill. What did you want most when you were sick? What did other people do to help you when you were sick? How have you helped others who were sick?
- In today’s Gospel, we hear how Jesus cured Simon's mother-in-law, who was sick with fever. We also hear how Jesus cured many other people. Let’s listen carefully to this Gospel.
- What did Simon’s mother-in-law do after Jesus healed her? (She served Jesus and his disciples.) We see in her example that one of the things that those who are ill need most is a sense of purpose and the opportunity to make a contribution.
- The Church continues to bring Jesus’ healing presence to those who are sick. What are some things that our Church does for those who are sick? (We visit the sick; we bring Jesus’ presence in the Eucharist; we pray for those who are sick; we celebrate the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.)
- Conclude in prayer asking Jesus to be with those who are sick. Pray prayers of petition for those who are sick; after each petition, pray “Jesus, heal us.” Conclude by praying the Glory Be to the Father.
Sunday January 28, 2018 Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 71
Reading 1 Dt 18:15-20
Moses spoke to all the people, saying:
"A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen.
This is exactly what you requested of the LORD, your God, at Horeb
on the day of the assembly, when you said,
'Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God,
nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.'
And the LORD said to me, 'This was well said.
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin,
and will put my words into his mouth;
he shall tell them all that I command him.
Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name,
I myself will make him answer for it.
But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name
an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak,
or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.'"
Responsorial Psalm Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9
R. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works."
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Reading 2 1 Cor 7:32-35
Brothers and sisters:
I should like you to be free of anxieties.
An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord,
how he may please the Lord.
But a married man is anxious about the things of the world,
how he may please his wife, and he is divided.
An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord,
so that she may be holy in both body and spirit.
A married woman, on the other hand,
is anxious about the things of the world,
how she may please her husband.
I am telling you this for your own benefit,
not to impose a restraint upon you,
but for the sake of propriety
and adherence to the Lord without distraction.
Gospel Mk 1:21-28
Then they came to Capernaum,
and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"
Jesus rebuked him and said,
"Quiet! Come out of him!"
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
"What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 18:15-20
How do we know if one speaks for God or if God is being used to promote a social or political agenda? This question is as old as the ages, and this text from Deuteronomy goes hand-in-hand with the Gospel lesson from Mark. These questions are asked over and over again about Jesus. Is he the real deal? Is he really speaking for God, or is he just another itinerant prophet?
The literary setting for Deuteronomy is at the end of Moses' life as the wandering Israelites prepare to enter the Promised Land. Moses is the only leader they have ever known, and his impending death puts the community in jeopardy. Deuteronomy represents Moses' last words to Israel, both present and future. The style is one of a sermon. In other words, it is not simply information, but it encourages and cajoles, calling the people to belief and a life lived according to God's instruction. It is the equivalent of Moses' ancient life instruction book to the people of Israel.
To fully grasp the meaning of this passage in a modern context, some explanation is necessary. What is the modern equivalent of ancient prophets? First, most people are unfamiliar with exactly what a prophet was in the ancient near eastern context. In biblical times, prophets were not rare. Indeed, 2 Kings tells that the king of Israel had 400 prophets at his disposal (1 Kings 22:6)! The problem was not finding a prophet - it was finding a prophet that was truly speaking for God.
Prophets performed a wide range of functions, including some that are condemned in Deuteronomy 18:10-11. Prophets of the Lord are the mouthpieces for God, and their proclamations are made without the common acts of divination or speaking to dead spirits. Prophets of ancient times should probably be thought of as preachers, for they interpret the word of God to the people. Ancient Prophets, however, were distinct from priests who were responsible for leading the people in worship. The only function of an ancient prophet was to declare the word of God to the people. They did not run meetings or organize the congregation.
You can see the modern day equivalent of prophets any given Saturday in New York City. As you go about your tasks, it is not uncommon to see an individual or a group standing on milk cartons and telling the passersby that "God loves them," or that "they are going to hell," or that "they are one of the lost ten tribes of Israel." This religious cornucopia is now intensified by multiple cable television stations and internet sites. Prophets or preachers are still standing up and telling the people they speak for God. Often the messages are contradictory, and we still wonder which ones are true and which are false.
This passage begins with the reason why prophets are needed. It reaches back to the giving of the law in Exodus 19 and 20. When the people heard God speak they were so frightened, they begged Moses to speak with God and be their mediator. Prophets, then, are selected by God ("I raise up" verses 15, 18; "I will put my words" verse 18; "I command" verse 18) for the sake of the people. Prophets answer to God, not to the people, so they are free to speak the truth. Prophets also come "from among their own people" (verse 18). These speakers of truth are home grown. They know the ways and the hearts of the people they speak to and connect with them. They who speak for God must also be paid attention to, for to ignore their calls is the same as ignoring God (verse 19).
The hanging question is the same today as it was in ancient days: how do we know which of the many preachers/prophets who speak are truly speaking for God? The answer in the text is clear. If what the prophet says comes true, then the prophet is speaking for God. It seems like a good answer, but it does not answer all of our questions. Prophets talk of eternal things and life after death. Some of what they say is simply unknowable in this life. The test in Deuteronomy certainly helps us with some prophets who claim to speak for God, but not all. What is clear is that if a prophet/preacher leads folks astray, it is the prophet and not the people who are at fault. Unfortunately, unscrupulous prophets tend to prey on those who are the weakest and most vulnerable.
This text also speaks to Jesus' life and ministry. His truths were not easy to hear, and eventually it was his truth telling that would result in death on a cross. Some would not believe him because he did not have the right pedigree, and did not hang out with the right people. Others did not believe him because they had already formed their own ideas of what the Messiah was to be, and Jesus' message of grace and forgiveness was nothing like they envisioned. Still others were clear that this was Joseph's son who could not possibly be proclaiming God's will. Yet all of the things in the Deuteronomy text can be shown in Jesus' life, preaching, and death.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9
The psalm’s combination of a double call to worship (the lectionary reading) and a prophetic word is best explained with a liturgical or festival setting. The psalm celebrates and interprets the reign of God in the congregation’s liturgical setting. We might envision a procession, but the specific festival setting has been debated.
Jewish tradition ties the psalm to the beginning of Sabbath; others have suggested the Feast of Tabernacles or a covenant renewal festival. The movement of the psalm does suggest a connection to the beginning of worship, but it is difficult to be more specific. Verses 1-7 offer praise to God in the form of a double call to worship. The first summons to praise is in verses 1-2 followed by reasons for the praise in verses 3-5. The second call to worship in verse 6 narrows the focus to God’s covenant people, and verse 7 gives the reason for that call to praise. The last line of verse 7 introduces a prophetic word from God, an oracle. In contemporary terms, the first seven verses call the congregation to come to worship and the last verses deliver the prophetic word in the tradition of verses 8-11, a call to faithfulness. Re-enacting the liturgical setting helped us all to envision the movement and import of the psalm.
In the book of Psalms, this text comes in a cluster of psalms that celebrate the kingship of YAHWEH, an emphasis appropriate for Christ the King Sunday. The emphasis on YAHWEH’s kingship forms a response to the crisis of exile urgently articulated at the end of Book III in Psalm 89. The Davidic Kingdom has fallen, but the kingship of YAHWEH endures as a sign of hope for the community.
The psalm opens with a call to praise. The rendering “come sing joyfully to the Lord” is probably too tame for the Hebrew verbs that call for shouting and singing aloud, a noisy shout of homage similar to the shouting at the entrance of a human king. The call is for a procession to worship with this joyful singing. The movement is to the outer courts and then toward the sanctuary, the holy place of worship and the place of divine presence.
With verse 3, the liturgist brings the congregation to the reason for offering praise to God. The call to praise followed by the reason the congregation should offer praise is the classic style of praise in the Hebrew Psalter. The reason given in Psalm 95 is that YAHWEH is king, here tied to creation language. God created the world from its depths to its heights, from the sea to the dry land, all the world, and God reigns over it. The psalm begins with the broad realm of creation, a call to praise applicable to all peoples.
Reflecting its common ancient Near Eastern setting, the psalm portrays YAHWEH as preeminent among the gods, as king throughout creation and ruler over the powers of chaos and disorder. God created and reigns over creation. Thus all God’s creatures are called to praise.
The second call to praise narrows the focus. The congregation is now called to come and bow down, to kneel before the creator. The scene is analogous to an encounter with a human king with kneeling and bowing in homage. Now the congregation comes into the presence of the sovereign and bows awaiting a royal declaration. The opening call to worship portrays God as creator and ruler over creation.
The emphasis in the second call to worship is that the congregation belongs to God. God created this people and leads them and provides for them and protects them. The reason for praise in verse 7 alludes to the ancient Near Eastern royal image of God as shepherd of the people. God is “our Maker” and “our God.” The reference reminds the congregation that God’s mighty acts in history created this covenant people.
This double call to worship then makes it clear that God as both creator and redeemer is central to ancient Israel’s faith tradition. These verses at the beginning of Psalm 95 call to mind the familiar Psalm 100. These emphases characterize the cluster of psalms that celebrate the kingship of YAHWEH. The psalm’s concluding verses speak a prophetic warning by bringing to mind historical events in which the community did not trust YAHWEH. The call is to live a life of trust and faithfulness.
The sequence of Psalm 95 is important for readers. The psalm begins with the praise of God and moves to a prophetic warning spoken by God. The warning hopes that the community will trust in God, that is, will live out the praise articulated in verses 1-7. God’s gracious acts of creation and of calling out the community lead to the challenge for a response of praise and of lived faith.
Psalm 95 sings praise to God as sovereign and calls for faithfulness in response, in contrast to their ancestors’ response in the wilderness. So the psalm brings the past to bear on the present liturgical context. Those who do not heed the warning of history may have the misfortune of repeating it. The solemn warning that concludes the psalm hopes for a better response to the praise sung in verses 1-7.
Reading 2 1 Cor 7:32-35
But I would have you - I would advise you to such a course of life as should leave you without anxieties. My advice is regulated by that wish, and that wish guides me in giving it.
Without anxiety, solicitude, care; without such a necessary attention to the things of this life as to take off your thoughts and affections from heavenly objects; (see the notes on Matthew 6:25-31)
careth for the things that belong to the Lord, "The things of the Lord;" the things of religion. His attention is not distracted by the cares of this life; his time is not engrossed, and his affections alienated by an attendance on the concerns of a family, and especially by solicitude for them in times of trial and persecution. He can give his main attention to the things of religion. He is at leisure to give his chief thoughts and anxieties to the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom. Paul's own example showed that this was the course which he preferred; and showed also that in some instances it was lawful and proper for a man to remain unmarried, and to give himself entirely to the work of the Lord. But the divine commandment Genesis 1:28, and the commendation everywhere bestowed upon marriage in the Scriptures, as well as the nature of the case, show that it was not designed that celibacy should be general.
Gospel Mk 1:21-28
To attribute symptoms of shouting and convulsing with possession by an unclean spirit is not consonant with our understanding of the causes of mental or physical illness. Exorcism may appear alien. Jesus’ confrontation in the synagogue has been read as Jesus teaching over and against “Judaism,” while it is more historically accurate to see Jesus’ deeds and words, his ‘new teaching” to make sense within, and not outside, the ideals of Jewish covenant faithfulness.
Within the narrative world of the gospel of Mark, this encounter is the first public deed of power in his ministry. The story sets up the conflict that structures the first half of the gospel and that was displayed in the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness. It is the conflict between the power of evil, associated with Satan (Beelzebul, Mark 3:22) and demons and the power of God exercised through Jesus. This cosmic conflict is reflected in the earthly realm by the struggle of Jesus with demons, the controversy between Jesus and “scribes and Pharisees,” and the tension between Jesus and his “mother, sisters, and brothers” (Mark 3:31-35).
The cosmic conflict has a social political dimension; possession by demons (legion) is parallel to occupation of the countryside by Roman power (Mark 5:1-13) The conflict is described in violent terms “have you come to destroy us?” Elsewhere it is likened to a battle for ownership of a house (Mark 3:21-27). People who suffer the effects of being occupied or “possessed” by demons lose their ability to control their movements and their voices; either they are immobilized or compelled to move destructively (Mark 9:20-22). They are self-destructive (Mark 5:5). Exorcism by Jesus results in healing and restoration.
In this episode the authority of Jesus’ teaching contrasts with that of the scribes and is paired with his dramatic and effective exorcism of the unclean spirit. Those who witness it are amazed both by the authority of his teaching and his authority over the unclean spirits. The impact of his actions causes his reputation to grow throughout Galilee.
Within the account of the exorcism is a dialogue, initiated by the unclean spirit(s) who calls Jesus of Nazareth by name and appears to know his purpose -- “have you come to destroy us?” The unclean spirit makes a demonic “confession”/recognition and calls him “the holy one of God.” Jesus’ responds by commanding him to “Be silent” and to “come out of him.” That the unclean spirit is the first to name Jesus and acknowledge his power is an early instance of Mark’s ironic reversals and surprises. Evil forces have the most to lose in the coming of Jesus and the “good news.” Apprehending the threat Jesus poses, the spirit exits the man with one last spasmodic movement and one final cry.
The possession by demons illustrates the reality of evil and gives it, even for modern hearers, a shape and a sound. In this first skirmish, Jesus prevails, but not without the unclean spirit protesting and acting out. The voice of the prophet crying in the empty wilderness, the voice from heaven speaking at the baptism, and here the voice of the man, which is at the same time, the voice of the unclean spirit, who shouts and cries out the name of Jesus, not with admiration but with fear. Is the cry with a loud voice with which he comes out, a death rattle, or a curse? As the story proceeds the opposing forces will gather strength, will do more damage, and will seem to silence Jesus himself (Mark 14:61). Jesus commands the spirit to “be silent” with the same word as he commands the sea to “be still” “be silent” (Mark 4:39). He rebukes the unclean spirit, the sea (Mark 4:30) and even Peter (Mark 8:33).
There are risks in identifying the forces of evil and of God in contemporary struggles too, specifically, particularly if one assumes oneself and ones’ own “people” to be on the side of God. The community that performed and heard Mark’s gospel, was powerless and poor in a country occupied by a powerful empire. The theological imagination of the victory of God’s power over illness, disability, and danger was for them, lifesaving good news.
The ancient world view that attributes illness to unclean spirits that lies behind this story, although outdated medically, does dramatize forces that wreak havoc within individual, communities, and countries -- mental illness, addiction, sexual abuse, and racial hatred. The gospel proclaims Jesus’ “authority” over even the most unclean of spirits that continue to take us over.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Let’s assume that you would like to learn a new skill—you want to learn to play the piano. What are some requirements that you should include on your list of qualifications for a piano instructor? (a degree in music, experience with the instrument, experience with teaching, and so on) Would it be enough to find a person who could read music? Is it enough to look for someone who has a college degree in music? No, when looking for the best piano teacher, we usually look for someone who has both a music degree and experience in playing the piano and teaching students.
- What do we mean when someone is said to “walk the walk and talk the talk”? (It means that there is consistency between the person’s words and actions.) Why is this important? (People are credible if their actions and words are consistent.)
- In today's Gospel we saw one of the ways in which Jesus’ actions demonstrated the power and authority behind his words.
- How did the people respond to Jesus’ teachings and healings? (They were amazed and astonished; they recognized that he spoke and acted with authority.)
- As people of faith, we want others to observe consistency between our words and actions. In what ways does the Church demonstrate the power of the words we teach about Jesus? (through outreach to the poor and the sick, in our work for justice, and so on) In particular, when we act with justice toward others, we demonstrate the authority and power of what we believe about God.
- Conclude in prayer that people will observe in our actions for justice the authority and power of our faith in God. Pray the
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
Sunday January 21, 2018 Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 68
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jon 3:1-5, 10
The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying:
"Set out for the great city of Nineveh,
and announce to it the message that I will tell you."
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh,
according to the LORD'S bidding.
Now Nineveh was an enormously large city;
it took three days to go through it.
Jonah began his journey through the city,
and had gone but a single day's walk announcing,
"Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed, "
when the people of Nineveh believed God;
they proclaimed a fast
and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way,
he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them;
he did not carry it out.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (4a) Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
In your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice
and teaches the humble his way.
R. Teach me your ways, O Lord.
Reading 2 1 Cor 7:29-31
I tell you, brothers and sisters, the time is running out.
From now on, let those having wives act as not having them,
those weeping as not weeping,
those rejoicing as not rejoicing,
those buying as not owning,
those using the world as not using it fully.
For the world in its present form is passing away.
Gospel Mk 1:14-20
After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."
As he passed by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea;
they were fishermen.
Jesus said to them,
"Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Then they abandoned their nets and followed him.
He walked along a little farther
and saw James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
They too were in a boat mending their nets.
Then he called them.
So they left their father Zebedee in the boat
along with the hired men and followed him.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jon 3:1-5, 10
A little review reminding you of the first request from God to Jonah.
Jonah is more than just a big fish tale. It is a story with a point, and it is worth telling the whole story.
If we follow the lectionary reading, we enter the story of Jonah right in the middle of the action. “The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time.” We all know what happened the first time. God said, “Get up and go to Ninevah … and Jonah got up and ran away towards Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.”
Jonah’s no Peter, Andrew, James, or John. He doesn’t leave what he’s doing and immediately follow God’s call. He jumps on the first boat going in the opposite direction and he hides in the hold of the ship, hoping that somehow God won’t take notice. It’s as if Peter, Andrew, James, and John, upon encountering Jesus, jumped into their fishing boats and rowed like madmen for the opposite shore, as far away from this dangerous itinerant preacher as they could get.
Jonah did just that, trying to get as far away from the LORD, and the LORD’s bizarre instructions, as he could get. Go to Nineveh? The capital of the Assyrian Empire, that destroyer of Israel, that brutal occupying force. It was unthinkable.
So Jonah runs away, but God sends a storm. The sailors are more pious than Jonah but they eventually reluctantly throw Jonah overboard. The sea calms down immediately, and God appoints a big fish to swallow Jonah.
Jonah, totally immersed in sea water and fish blubber, does indeed sing a prayer: “You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood enveloped me.” The sea in the ancient Near East, of course, is the symbol of chaos, of danger, of wildness. But even in the heart of the seas, God hears Jonah’s prayer. God speaks to the great fish, and the fish vomits him out onto dry land.
That’s where we enter the story. The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, “Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.” And, this time, still covered in sea water and fish vomit, Jonah obeys. He walks into the city, one day’s journey, and preaches the shortest sermon ever recorded:
It’s a sermon of 5 words in Hebrew -- “Forty days more, and Nineveh will be overthrown!”
The response is electric. Immediately, the people of Nineveh believe God. The people declare a fast. The king, not to be outdone, orders human and animal alike to fast and put on sackcloth. Then all those sackcloth-covered cows and sheep and people bellow out their repentance to God, and God changes his mind about the punishment, and does not bring it about.
Here’s the thing, you see, here’s the thing all of us have found out about following the call of God in and through the waters: God is God and does not act as we think the Almighty should act. In good faith, we follow where we hear God’s call, we go to the city, or the suburb, or to small town and rural America, and we are prepared to bring God’s word to that place, and what we find is that God is already there before us. We find that no people, and no place, not even Nineveh, can properly be called God-forsaken.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
In many of the texts, God teaches us humility, trust and joy in the presence of God. Learning nice little moral lessons, or memorizing factoids about God is not the point. Instead God invites us to be changed by divine mercy and love. The work of Psalm 25 is to express receptivity, or even to make us receptive. The Psalm can be used as a refrain to support the other texts, as a theme for prayer, or the focus of an entire sermon.
Originally, this Psalm was a Hebrew acrostic; that is, it began with the first letter of the alphabet, and ended with the last. But this is more than a word game. It is about God’s A- Z mercy in your life, even when you feel abandoned. Taken as a whole, Psalm 25 is a prayer for help, growing more intense as it progresses.
In verses 1-9, The Psalm begins in an attitude of worship: “To you, Oh Lord, I lift up my soul.” Lifting up the hands is an ancient posture of prayer, expressing our dependence on God. This simple gesture opens a person to receive God’s blessing. So too, the worshipper ‘lifts up’ their soul to receive God’s love. God’s love takes many forms and in Psalm 25:1-9 these include instruction and wisdom.
Repeatedly the Psalmist asks to be taught God’s ways. “Make known to me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths” (verse 4). “Guide me by your fidelity, and teach me” (verse 5). “God instructs sinners in the way…and teaches the humble”. To know about God is a starting point, but the Psalmist wants something more. The Psalmist wants to be with God, to walk in God’s path.
People want to be instantly gratified, but if we really need something we will wait for it. “For you I wait all day long” (verse 5). Waiting was hard for the Psalmist, who was in desperate need of help. Enemies were seeking to inflict harm. It seems that the enemies were external -- the “wantonly treacherous ones” who put the Psalmist to shame, see(verses 2-3). Shame comes from outside and is inflicted by individuals or groups. But “enemies” may also be within us, for example, guilt or regret for the “Remember no more the sins of my youth” (verse 7). Pride can make us unteachable, but so can guilt and shame. Then we can’t move forward, can’t hear God’s voice of wisdom, or receive blessing and forgiveness.
And yet we may become most teachable when we are vulnerable, when our illusions of superiority and self-sufficiency have been stripped away. So the Psalmist who implores God, lead me in your truth and teach me.
This is a relationship with God, a two-way communication in which the Psalmist both receives God’s teaching and dares to instruct God. The Psalmist tells God what to remember: steadfast love and mercy (verse 6). And the Psalmist tells God what to forget: “the sins of my youth” (verse 7).
A person I know has a dog that when she takes it for a walk the dog takes the leash in her mouth, so that she can lead my acquanitence. It is an endearing gesture and always makes her laugh. If this give and take happens between animals and humans, surely it happens between us and God. And as we live in that relationship, we wait, and receive, and lift our souls. We learn, change and grow more and more into the image of God in which we are created.
Reading 2 1 Cor 7:29-31
People who hear this passage read will find it puzzling. They do not have a sense of the imminent coming of Christ, and they can hardly live day-to-day "as though not" having dealings with the world. It is important therefore, to set it in the context of 1 Corinthians and within the larger framework of Paul's ethical teaching, as done here.
It is helpful to put side-by-side two words: "disengagement" and "engagement." In his ethical thinking, and in our passage for today, Paul calls upon persons of faith to disengage from the world and its ways of living. One should step back and see how being entangled with it can be a captivity preventing one from living the new life in Christ. But that is not the end of the matter, for we continue to live in this world and have to deal with it. In Paul's way of thinking, disengagement is not an end in itself. Rather, being disengaged and set free, a person can engage the world from the perspective of being one who is "in Christ." And Paul provides a lot of exhortation in his letters concerning that life, as mentioned in previous verses.
In the end, the primary message of this text is that nothing in this world can compare to the eternal fellowship we have with God and Christ. Dealing with the world is inevitable and important - we need to deal with it well for the sake of our families, our nation, and ourselves. But we need to maintain an "eschatological reserve," knowing that this is not all there is, for we look to the eternal beyond that which is passing away. Still, we should remain invested in the world and its ongoing concerns. Indeed, those who pray for the kingdom and expect Christ to come in glory are bound to be engaged in the world and its struggles. Knowing the certainty of God's ultimate reign beyond history, we work to align the present and future with it.
Gospel Mk 1:14-20
We have seen that the announcement that the kingdom of God is near also appears in Matthew 10:7 and Luke 10:9, 11. Closely connected with this announcement in the tradition known to Luke (a so-called Q tradition), was the call to repentance (Luke 10:13). Perhaps the juxtaposition of the announcement of the reign of God and the call to repentance in the summary of Mark 1:15 is rooted in similar traditional material. In any case, the theological basis for the juxtaposition is clear. Announcing that God's reign is near has the consequence of an urgent call for repentance, that is, aligning one's values and way of life with God's ways. In today's epistle reading (1 Corinthians 7:29-31) Paul similarly calls for an examination of our priorities in light of the kairos.
This section (Mark 1:16-20) then illustrates what the urgent call of the kingdom looks like. Jesus, walking along the Sea of Galilee, sees the two brothers Simon and Andrew, fishermen, casting their nets in the sea. He calls them to follow, and immediately, in obedience, they leave their nets and follow him. The same happens with James and John. The kai euthys ("and immediately") of 1:18 and 1:20, a favorite turn of phrase of Mark, gives expression to the urgency of the call. The time is here, God's kingdom is near; there is no time to lose!
It is striking that these four men would drop everything to follow Jesus if they did not already know him. Indeed, some scholars have speculated that they actually knew Jesus, or knew about him, before he called them into discipleship (cf. John 1:35-40). Whatever the history of the relationship between Jesus and these four men may have been, however, the story gives effective expression to the urgency of the call to discipleship.
Consider also that Mark portrays Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom coming not only as a gift ("good news"), but also with a demand ("repent"). I believe this is a salutary warning that we dare not limit the force of Jesus' preaching of the kingdom by imposing upon it a rigid Law-Gospel grid. If we try to impose such a grid on his preaching and teaching, we will not understand them in their integrity. To be sure, the indicative ("the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God has come near") precedes the imperative ("repent and believe in the good news"). What humans do comes as a response to God's prevenient action. Still, we must not overlook that the one who promises the kingdom to sinners is the same one who calls sinners to repentance and who calls disciples to give up all that they have to follow him. To put it in Pauline terms, Christ is my life (cf. Philippians 1:21); my life is a total gift from him. Therefore I must also be willing and prepared to forfeit everything for him (Philippians 3:7-8; cf. Mark 8:35). Since in Jesus everything is given to me, in Jesus everything is demanded of me. The four disciples' willingness to throw in their lot completely with Jesus illustrates that attitude.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Imagine that your school principal is looking for volunteers to help clean up the school grounds on an annual community service day. What recommendations might you make about how to recruit people to help with this project? (put up posters around the school building, send flyers home with students, make phone calls to parents, extend invitations to particular individuals) Do you think any of these methods would be more effective than the others? Which one, and why?
- People are more likely to contribute to a project if they receive personal invitations. This kind of invitation shows that their particular talents are needed. And we all like to feel needed.
- Jesus seemed to know this about human nature, as we saw in today's Gospel.
- Whom did Jesus call in today's Gospel? (four fishermen: Simon, Andrew, James, and John) What did you notice about the way in which these four people responded to Jesus' call? (They immediately put aside their work to follow Jesus.) Jesus called these four fishermen to be his disciples, and he promised them important work, to be “fishers of men.”
- Jesus also invites us personally to be his followers. He has important work for us. Our hope and prayer is that we will respond to Jesus as quickly and enthusiastically as these first disciples did.
- Conclude in prayer that we will be like the first disciples and answer Jesus' invitation. Pray the Prayer of Saint Richard of Chichester
Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ,
for all the benefits thou hast given me,
for all the pains and insults thou hast borne for me.
O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother,
may I know thee more clearly,
love thee more dearly,
and follow thee more nearly, day by day.
Amen.
Sunday JANUARY 14, 2018 Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 65
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19
Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD
where the ark of God was.
The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, "Here I am."
Samuel ran to Eli and said, "Here I am. You called me."
"I did not call you, " Eli said. "Go back to sleep."
So he went back to sleep.
Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli.
"Here I am, " he said. "You called me."
But Eli answered, "I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep."
At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD,
because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet.
The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time.
Getting up and going to Eli, he said, "Here I am. You called me."
Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth.
So he said to Samuel, "Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply,
Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening."
When Samuel went to sleep in his place,
the LORD came and revealed his presence,
calling out as before, "Samuel, Samuel!"
Samuel answered, "Speak, for your servant is listening."
Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him,
not permitting any word of his to be without effect.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10
R. (8a and 9a) Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Sacrifice or offering you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, "Behold I come."
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
"In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
to do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!"
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Reading II 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20
Brothers and sisters:
The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord,
and the Lord is for the body;
God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him.
Avoid immorality.
Every other sin a person commits is outside the body,
but the immoral person sins against his own body.
Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
For you have been purchased at a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body.
Gospel Jn 1:35-42
John was standing with two of his disciples,
and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,
"Behold, the Lamb of God."
The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.
Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them,
"What are you looking for?"
They said to him, "Rabbi" — which translated means Teacher —,
"where are you staying?"
He said to them, "Come, and you will see."
So they went and saw where Jesus was staying,
and they stayed with him that day.
It was about four in the afternoon.
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter,
was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.
He first found his own brother Simon and told him,
"We have found the Messiah" — which is translated Christ —.
Then he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said,
"You are Simon the son of John;
you will be called Cephas" — which is translated Peter.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19
The opening chapters of 1 Samuel provide background for the institution of Israel’s monarchy.
After a narrative on the Hannah’s unlikely pregnancy (1 Samuel 1) and her accompanying prayer (1 Samuel 2), 1 Samuel 3 describes the call narrative for the Israelite leader.
The story is familiar to many of us. Eli is aged, both physically and emotionally from the parenting heartaches at the end of 1 Samuel 2. And as the young Samuel ministers under Eli, he hears God’s voice three times. Upon finally realizing through Eli’s direction that this was, indeed, the voice of God, he gives his stunning answer in verse 10, “Speak for your servant is listening.” The word of God to Samuel reveals the next phase of God’s activity and in revealing to Samuel, his prophetic credibility is established.
But within this familiar story, sometimes we can miss certain details in our reading. Those details are exegetically significant, as the Bible tends to be laconic.
- “The word of the Lord was rare/precious; visions were not frequent” (1 Samuel 3:1).
- Eli’s eyes are dim (1 Samuel 3:2).
- Samuel is confused, not just average confused, but really confused.
- “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord” (1 Samuel 3:7).
This is not exactly flattering company!
- “yet”
Seems like two overarching themes emerge within these details of Samuel’s call. First, Samuel learns to forego his own agency in favor of God’s agency.
Interestingly, during the primary call (1 Samuel 3:10), Samuel no longer answers, “Here I am.” Why is that? Is Samuel less confused (definitely)? Is Samuel less panicked (probably)?
Verse 11 affirms Samuel’s deference when God responds, “See, I am about to do something.” Structurally, the passage outlines movement from Samuel’s repeated “Here I am” replies to God’s “See, I am.” When Samuel suppresses his own voice to hear God’s, he gets the spectacular proclamation beginning with the word that, “Will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.” God then declares that prophetic fulfillment has finally arrived. Remember, the Word of the Lord had been rare and precious.
Samuel’s eagerness is commendable (“he ran” v.5), but an overzealous human spirit needs to take a backseat to God’s sovereignty (cf. 2 Samuel 7:5). Though we should be slow to judge Samuel, as in those times the Word of God had been rare.
Second, Samuel displays his full humanity. This passage informs our understanding of the rest of the life of Samuel. The Lord was with Samuel, but somehow, this divine appointment does not at all diminish the totality of the human experience. In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel undergoes eagerness, confusion, maturity, growth, realization, knowledge, panic, and affirmation.
Eventually, we see Samuel as a successful prophet (1 Samuel 3:20), military leader (1 Samuel 4), and interceder for the people of Israel when they fail (1 Samuel 15). Towards the end of his life, the corruption of his own sons will ironically mirror Eli’s failure (1 Samuel 8:1-3).
Why does the passage unabashedly display the full humanity within one of Israel’s pivotal prophets? I suspect that this helps us relate to the struggles of our own communities as they walk with God. I suspect that this helps us relate the biblical texts to our own lives.
The word of the Lord is precious. But instead of saying “Here I am,” perhaps we can quietly ask God to “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10
Psalm 40, classified as an Individual Lament, consists of two seemingly distinct parts, verses 1-10 and verses 11-17, suggesting to many scholars that two originally separate psalms were joined at some point to form a single psalm.
In the psalm's first ten verses, the psalmist recounts God's deliverance from some life-threatening situation--described in verse 2 as "the pit of destruction" and "the muddy clay". The content of verses 11-17 resembles an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving, which generally consists of three parts: (1) an Introduction, in which the psalmist declares the intention of giving thanks and praising God; (2) a Narrative, in which the psalmist tells what has happened that has prompted the words of praise; and (3) a Conclusion, in which the psalmist praises God for all that God has done (see Psalm 30 for a good example of an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving). For the most part, 40:1-10 consists of the Narrative of an Individual Hymn.
In the lament portion of Psalm 40, the brief Expression of Trust (verse 17) states that the psalmist is "poor" and "needy" and that God is "my help" and "my deliverer." This commentator reads verses 1-10 as part of the Lament Psalm's Expression of Trust and, therefore, as an integral part of the Individual Lament, rather than as a separate composition added to the beginning of the Lament. God, as "help" and "deliverer," has brought this "poor" and "needy" one "up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog" (40:2). In addition, verbal parallels link verse 10 to verse 11, strengthening the case for the psalm being read as a whole. Verse 10's two occurrences of "faithfulness" ('emet) is echoed in verse 11, as the occurrence of "steadfast love" (chesed).
Thus, let us explore verses 1-10 as part of the Expression of Trust of this Individual Lament, with verse 11 beginning the psalm's Petition.
The reader learns in verse 1 that the psalmist has "waited patiently" for the Lord. The Hebrew verbal root here is qavah, which carries the idea of "hopeful anticipation" or "anxious waiting." In addition, the syntactical structure of this verb in verse 1 is "Infinitive Absolute" plus "Perfect." (Pull that Hebrew grammar off the shelf!) The Infinitive Absolute plus the Perfect emphasizes or intensifies the action of the verb. So, in Psalm 40:1, the psalmist is "actively, anxiously awaiting, with every fiber of the being" for the Lord. This is no quiet resignation--the psalmist is fully confident that God will come to the rescue.
And God, indeed, rescues the psalmist from the "pit" (or, "well"--bor), the "bog" (or, "mire"--teet). A number of psalms use these words as symbols of death (bor--Psalms 7:15; 28:1; 88:6; 143:7 and teet--Psalms 18:42; 69:14). Thus, we may surmise that the threat to which the psalmist refers is not a minor life-event, but a serious situation in which the very being of the psalmist is threatened.
God hears and sets the feet of the psalmist on a secure rock and puts a "new song" in the psalmist's mouth. The phrase "new song" (sheer hadash) occurs six times in the Psalter (33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; and 149:1), but the best insight into its meaning comes perhaps in Isaiah 42:10 (the only place where "new song" appears outside the Psalter). Isaiah 42 is a song of celebration of the "servant," discussed four times in the book (42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; and 52:13-53:12). In the context of Isaiah 42, the "new song" marks a new beginning, a radical change from what has come before. Psalms 96 and 98, classified as Enthronement Psalms, psalms which celebrate the kingship of God over all the earth, contain the same sentiment. Recognizing God as king establishes a new world order--no human king can surpass the power and majesty of Yahweh king. The singer of Psalm 40 celebrates a new beginning after being rescued from the "pit" and the "bog."
Verses 4-10 address the outcome of the deliverance and the "new song." The psalmist declares that those who trust in God will be "happy" (NRSV). The word translated in the NRSV as "happy," and in the NASB and the NIV as "blessed" is 'ashrey, from a Hebrew root that means "go straight, advance, follow the track." It appears twenty-six times in the Psalter. While "happy" and "blessed" are acceptable translations for the Hebrew root word, a better translation seems to be "content." "Blessed" brings to mind the Hebrew word baruk, which carries cultic/sacred connotations. "Happy," at least in our twenty-first-century context does not convey the full depth of the root word. A better translation is, in this commentator's opinion "content," which conveys a deep-seated sense of peace and feeling settled.
The psalmist's sense of contentedness ('ashrey) comes not from listening to the words of the proud (verse 4), from pursuing things that only fleetingly offer satisfaction (false gods--verse 4), or from offering burnt or sin offerings--pious acts of worship (verse 6). Rather it comes from trusting in God (verse 4). The word "trust" is derived from the Hebrew root batach, which means "to feel secure, be unconcerned, to totally rely on another." When humans totally rely on God, they may not be immune to the exigencies of life--the pit and the bog, but they can see beyond the exigencies to a new vision--a new song, and summon all those around them to hear "the glad news of deliverance (verse 9).
Thus, the faithfulness ('emet) and steadfast love (chesed) of God is passed from one generation to the next (verses 10-11).
Reading 2 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20
First Corinthians stands as a masterful example of a leader addressing a divided congregation and honestly critiquing the views of each side.
Prior to this passage, Paul repeatedly attempts to move people away from an attitude of "It's all about me" to a focus on the one who calls and saves them. He opens the letter with twenty references to God or Christ in the first ten verses. He frequently reminds them of the source of their lives (1:28-31; 3:6-7, 11, 16, 21-23; 4:7) as he addresses a host of competing positions.
Various factions in the congregation label others as wise or foolish, weak or strong; fight over who was the best pastor before the current one; bring lawsuits against one another; argue over sexual morality, whether it's better to be married or single, what makes a healthy marriage, what constitutes grounds for divorce, what are appropriate dietary practices; what is the correct understanding of resurrection and the afterlife; and on and on. When conflict becomes that pervasive, no conflict management plans have any hope of succeeding unless the people involved can move beyond self-absorption, step back, and see a bigger picture of a higher calling. Paul seeks to accomplish that.
We will focus on two central elements of this passage.
"'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things are beneficial. 'All things are lawful for me,' but I will not be dominated by anything" (6:12-13). Paul seems to be correcting a misinterpretation or over-application of one of his core ideas (see also Galatians 5:1, Romans 8:1-2). Teachers and preachers often find themselves in the dismaying position of hearing a key point applied in ways they never imagined. This particular idea, that Christ has set us free, lies near the center of the gospel. But Paul begins to clarify its limits.
Christ does not set us free so that we can do whatever we want to do; Christ sets us free so that we can do whatever God wants us to do. Paul's message does not proclaim individual or communal license. For example, Paul argues that over-indulgence in food represents a misunderstanding of who we are as people of God (verse 13a).
This is an alien concept in an American culture where over a third of adults are obese and we have the Food Network. It's not that eating things we like is bad (all things are lawful). However, eating things we like without regard to larger considerations can be harmful to our individual health and harmful to the health of society (not all things are beneficial). A third of the US adult population is obese, and almost a billion people on the planet live in constant hunger (see websites for Bread for the World or US Department of State, Office of Global Food Security). This is as much as anything else a spiritual problem, individually and communally.
Paul notes one trap of focusing too much on our own freedom. What we start to do freely (because we want to, like to, or just because we can) can become our master. As the Eagles' song goes, "these things that are pleasing you hurt you somehow" (from "Desperado"). I can, freely, ignore a healthy diet, not exercise, start smoking, get drunk daily, take cocaine, buy on credit until I'm drastically in debt, and be mean to family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
Soon, what I chose freely -- any one of them -- can dominate my life. I will no longer be free. The cosmos does not actually revolve around me. God, by grace, can set us free from those dominations, but even though the power of a free will is immediate, the way back to health will still be long and hard. Paul cautions us to choose our paths carefully lest the things we freely choose become our undoing or become an imposition on our neighbors and, collectively, foster suffering or oppression.
"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body" (6:19-20). Again, Paul's words here have both individual and communal implications. In the original Greek, the pronouns in this verse are plural. Since he's addressing a community his words should be understood both as addressing individuals (each of you in this community) and the entire group (all of you together).
So, it is appropriate to understand this personally -- "my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within me" -- and communally -- "this body of people, part of the body of Christ, is a temple of the Holy Spirit within us." What I do (or don't do) in my body matters. What we do (or don't do) as a body of believers' matters.
This takes us back to Paul's over-arching purpose in this letter, to focus our attention on the fact that our lives originate in Christ (we were bought with a price) and that we live not for our own sakes but for the sake of God's purposes. My individual body is not mine. It is God's creation to be used for God's purposes. The body of Christ -- congregationally, denominationally, and across the globe -- is not ours. It is God's creation to be used for God's purposes.
The fights, the desires, the pettiness, the selfishness that can consume us are all diversions from, perversions of that for which we were created. We were bought with a price, to glorify God in our bodies. This remains true for both individuals and groups. Paul calls the people back to the fundamental reality of their lives -- it's not "my" life and it's not "my" church. Only when an individual or a congregation gets that can they be free. And, if they get it, the freedom is glorious for each individual, for the congregation, and for God.
Gospel Jn 1:35-42
To lead into todays gospel let’s review the first part of this chapter.
The Gospel of John is a dramatic, gripping narrative.
John 1:29-42 divides into two main parts: verses 29-34 and verses 35-42.
Act I: Background
The play has already begun at John 1:1, of course, with the great Prologue (1:1-18) in which John the Baptist first appears (1:6-8; 15). John the Baptist looms large in 1:19-28. The leaders of Jerusalem interrogate John, asking after his identity. John treads the path of via negative, which the Prologue has taught us to expect from him. The Prologue states that John was not the light, but was a testifier (from the Greek martyr whence we derive the English word martyr). Likewise, John triply confesses that he is NOT the Messiah (verse 20), he is not Elijah (verse 21), and he is not "the prophet" (probably a reference to Moses' declaration in Deuteronomy 18:15).
Still, the leaders press antagonistically, demanding a statement, so John turns to Scripture and places his ministry in the context of words of the prophet Isaiah. They ask him about the meaning of his baptizing practices and he immediately does what he does best in the Fourth Gospel: he testifies to Jesus and his preeminence in the spirit of the words already mentioned in the Prologue at verse 15. And he makes a key observation about the Inquisitors: they do not know Jesus; here we should hear dramatic music or a gong or something of that sort since we are supposed to recall 1:11 at this point ("He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him"). John the Baptist and Jesus have not yet interacted in the narrative but we have been superbly set up for that pregnant imminent moment.
Act II: Jesus and John the Baptist Interact (verses 29-34)
The day after his run-in with the authorities, John the Baptist (JB) sees Jesus and testifies about his identity: "See the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Note the following:
1. Jesus takes away the sin of the world (Greek: kosmos), not the church, just as in 3:16 we hear that God so loved the world and in 4:42 the Samaritans recognize Jesus as the savior of the world. Jesus himself declares in 12:32: "And when I am lifted up from the earth [referring to his crucifixion], I will draw everyone to myself."
2. Try not to read the atonement theology that you are familiar with from Hebrews and perhaps Paul into the Gospel of John. Jesus becomes a Paschal Lamb of sorts in that every holy metaphor, tradition and space dear to Judaism (and Samaritanism, for that matter) finds its fulfillment in Jesus according to the Johannine community, including the Temple (chapters 2 and 4), Moses, scripture (chapter 5:39ff), the manna in the wilderness (chapter 6), the various "festivals of the Judeans," Abraham (chapter 8, especially verses 53-59), and so on.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the significance of Passover would in some way be fulfilled in Jesus for John. Indeed, in John Jesus is killed a day earlier than he is in the Synoptic Gospels. That is, by the time he is enjoying the Last Supper in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he is already dead in John. In John, he is killed on the day when the Passover Lamb is sacrificed (for a helpful chart on this, go to http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/Jesus-Death.htm ).
But Jesus is never considered a ransom in John nor is he a "lamb led to the slaughter" whose death was a "humiliation" (as in Acts. 8:31-32). In fact, Jesus clearly and repeatedly states that he lays down his life of his own accord. He has the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again (10:17-18). No, John simply piles up metaphors on Jesus to impress upon you the significance, identity, and ultimacy of Jesus. He is simultaneously the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd (chapter 10) who knows his sheep and who asked Peter to feed his lambs (chapter 21).
Act III: Come and See (verses 35-42) Todays Gospel.
The Final Act of John's inaugural proclamation parallels the previous day. Once again John sees Jesus and testifies: "See the Lamb of God." On the basis of hearing the testimony of another person, John's disciples follow Jesus. It begins with Jesus directly addressing them: "What do you seek?" (Jesus always asks pointed, direct questions in John). He invites them to "Come and See." They hang out with Jesus (Greek: meno, "abide") which leads to their deep intimate encounter with him. This results in a rich, eternal-life-giving experience of their own with Jesus such that their faith is no longer derivative of someone else's but is now based on their own intimate relationship with Jesus.
And so goes the pattern throughout John, as you see already in verse 41. Andrew has been found by Eternal Life and what does he do? He immediately testifies that Jesus is the Messiah (remember 20:31?) and invites his brother Simon to come and see/encounter Jesus for himself. An intimate encounter occurs and Simon follows. In the passage right after ours, Philip becomes a follower and immediately testifies to Nathaniel, using the same words as Jesus did: "Come and See" (1:46).
The Samaritan woman does the same thing in chapter 4. She hangs out and engages Jesus deeply, his identity is revealed to her, she is flooded by Eternal Life and she goes out to testify and to tell her fellow Samaritans to "Come and See." They do come and they "hang out" with Jesus (verse 40) and they have a direct revelation of their own which leads them to testify: "They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
What are we waiting for? Let's go testify for the sake of Abundant, Eternal Life!
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Try to imagine that you are seeking information about a sports team or a club that you wish to join. What are some things that you could do to find out if this particular sport or club is something you want to be a part of? (Read information about the team or club, research what other people or organizations report about the team or club, talk to other people who have been part of the team in the past or who have been members of the club, or talk to current members.) Now think about which method of information gathering would be the most persuasive and helpful to your decision making.
- The ideas you named above would be helpful in providing the information you need. But the experiences of other people are often more persuasive than other forms of information. Advertisements are good examples of ways in which information is provided by presenting the experiences that people have had with a particular product. In today’s Gospel, we learned how Jesus’ first disciples learned about Jesus.
- Who does the Gospel say was the first to tell people about Jesus? (John the Baptist) Who was next? (Andrew and another disciple) Whom did Andrew tell? (his brother, Simon) The first community of Jesus’ disciples learned about Jesus from other people. When these people came to Jesus, they learned for themselves who Jesus was, and then they wanted to be his followers.
- This is one of the most important aspects of our faith. No one is a disciple of Jesus alone. To be a follower of Jesus is to be part of a community of disciples. Today we call that community the Church.
- Conclude in prayer together that the Church will continue to witness to others all that we have learned about Jesus. Pray together the Apostles’ Creed.
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen.
Sunday JANUARY 14, 2018 Second Sunday of Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 65
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19
Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the LORD
where the ark of God was.
The LORD called to Samuel, who answered, "Here I am."
Samuel ran to Eli and said, "Here I am. You called me."
"I did not call you, " Eli said. "Go back to sleep."
So he went back to sleep.
Again the LORD called Samuel, who rose and went to Eli.
"Here I am, " he said. "You called me."
But Eli answered, "I did not call you, my son. Go back to sleep."
At that time Samuel was not familiar with the LORD,
because the LORD had not revealed anything to him as yet.
The LORD called Samuel again, for the third time.
Getting up and going to Eli, he said, "Here I am. You called me."
Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the youth.
So he said to Samuel, "Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply,
Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening."
When Samuel went to sleep in his place,
the LORD came and revealed his presence,
calling out as before, "Samuel, Samuel!"
Samuel answered, "Speak, for your servant is listening."
Samuel grew up, and the LORD was with him,
not permitting any word of his to be without effect.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10
R. (8a and 9a) Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I have waited, waited for the LORD,
and he stooped toward me and heard my cry.
And he put a new song into my mouth,
a hymn to our God.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Sacrifice or offering you wished not,
but ears open to obedience you gave me.
Holocausts or sin-offerings you sought not;
then said I, "Behold I come."
R. Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.
"In the written scroll it is prescribed for me,
to do your will, O my God, is my delight,
and your law is within my heart!"
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
I announced your justice in the vast assembly;
I did not restrain my lips, as you, O LORD, know.
R. Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Reading II 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20
Brothers and sisters:
The body is not for immorality, but for the Lord,
and the Lord is for the body;
God raised the Lord and will also raise us by his power.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?
But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one Spirit with him.
Avoid immorality.
Every other sin a person commits is outside the body,
but the immoral person sins against his own body.
Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
For you have been purchased at a price.
Therefore glorify God in your body.
Gospel Jn 1:35-42
John was standing with two of his disciples,
and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,
"Behold, the Lamb of God."
The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus.
Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them,
"What are you looking for?"
They said to him, "Rabbi" — which translated means Teacher —,
"where are you staying?"
He said to them, "Come, and you will see."
So they went and saw where Jesus was staying,
and they stayed with him that day.
It was about four in the afternoon.
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter,
was one of the two who heard John and followed Jesus.
He first found his own brother Simon and told him,
"We have found the Messiah" — which is translated Christ —.
Then he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said,
"You are Simon the son of John;
you will be called Cephas" — which is translated Peter.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Sm 3:3b-10, 19
The opening chapters of 1 Samuel provide background for the institution of Israel’s monarchy.
After a narrative on the Hannah’s unlikely pregnancy (1 Samuel 1) and her accompanying prayer (1 Samuel 2), 1 Samuel 3 describes the call narrative for the Israelite leader.
The story is familiar to many of us. Eli is aged, both physically and emotionally from the parenting heartaches at the end of 1 Samuel 2. And as the young Samuel ministers under Eli, he hears God’s voice three times. Upon finally realizing through Eli’s direction that this was, indeed, the voice of God, he gives his stunning answer in verse 10, “Speak for your servant is listening.” The word of God to Samuel reveals the next phase of God’s activity and in revealing to Samuel, his prophetic credibility is established.
But within this familiar story, sometimes we can miss certain details in our reading. Those details are exegetically significant, as the Bible tends to be laconic.
- “The word of the Lord was rare/precious; visions were not frequent” (1 Samuel 3:1).
- Eli’s eyes are dim (1 Samuel 3:2).
- Samuel is confused, not just average confused, but really confused.
- “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord” (1 Samuel 3:7).
This is not exactly flattering company!
- “yet”
Seems like two overarching themes emerge within these details of Samuel’s call. First, Samuel learns to forego his own agency in favor of God’s agency.
Interestingly, during the primary call (1 Samuel 3:10), Samuel no longer answers, “Here I am.” Why is that? Is Samuel less confused (definitely)? Is Samuel less panicked (probably)?
Verse 11 affirms Samuel’s deference when God responds, “See, I am about to do something.” Structurally, the passage outlines movement from Samuel’s repeated “Here I am” replies to God’s “See, I am.” When Samuel suppresses his own voice to hear God’s, he gets the spectacular proclamation beginning with the word that, “Will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.” God then declares that prophetic fulfillment has finally arrived. Remember, the Word of the Lord had been rare and precious.
Samuel’s eagerness is commendable (“he ran” v.5), but an overzealous human spirit needs to take a backseat to God’s sovereignty (cf. 2 Samuel 7:5). Though we should be slow to judge Samuel, as in those times the Word of God had been rare.
Second, Samuel displays his full humanity. This passage informs our understanding of the rest of the life of Samuel. The Lord was with Samuel, but somehow, this divine appointment does not at all diminish the totality of the human experience. In 1 Samuel 3, Samuel undergoes eagerness, confusion, maturity, growth, realization, knowledge, panic, and affirmation.
Eventually, we see Samuel as a successful prophet (1 Samuel 3:20), military leader (1 Samuel 4), and interceder for the people of Israel when they fail (1 Samuel 15). Towards the end of his life, the corruption of his own sons will ironically mirror Eli’s failure (1 Samuel 8:1-3).
Why does the passage unabashedly display the full humanity within one of Israel’s pivotal prophets? I suspect that this helps us relate to the struggles of our own communities as they walk with God. I suspect that this helps us relate the biblical texts to our own lives.
The word of the Lord is precious. But instead of saying “Here I am,” perhaps we can quietly ask God to “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Responsorial Psalm Ps 40:2, 4, 7-8, 8-9, 10
Psalm 40, classified as an Individual Lament, consists of two seemingly distinct parts, verses 1-10 and verses 11-17, suggesting to many scholars that two originally separate psalms were joined at some point to form a single psalm.
In the psalm's first ten verses, the psalmist recounts God's deliverance from some life-threatening situation--described in verse 2 as "the pit of destruction" and "the muddy clay". The content of verses 11-17 resembles an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving, which generally consists of three parts: (1) an Introduction, in which the psalmist declares the intention of giving thanks and praising God; (2) a Narrative, in which the psalmist tells what has happened that has prompted the words of praise; and (3) a Conclusion, in which the psalmist praises God for all that God has done (see Psalm 30 for a good example of an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving). For the most part, 40:1-10 consists of the Narrative of an Individual Hymn.
In the lament portion of Psalm 40, the brief Expression of Trust (verse 17) states that the psalmist is "poor" and "needy" and that God is "my help" and "my deliverer." This commentator reads verses 1-10 as part of the Lament Psalm's Expression of Trust and, therefore, as an integral part of the Individual Lament, rather than as a separate composition added to the beginning of the Lament. God, as "help" and "deliverer," has brought this "poor" and "needy" one "up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog" (40:2). In addition, verbal parallels link verse 10 to verse 11, strengthening the case for the psalm being read as a whole. Verse 10's two occurrences of "faithfulness" ('emet) is echoed in verse 11, as the occurrence of "steadfast love" (chesed).
Thus, let us explore verses 1-10 as part of the Expression of Trust of this Individual Lament, with verse 11 beginning the psalm's Petition.
The reader learns in verse 1 that the psalmist has "waited patiently" for the Lord. The Hebrew verbal root here is qavah, which carries the idea of "hopeful anticipation" or "anxious waiting." In addition, the syntactical structure of this verb in verse 1 is "Infinitive Absolute" plus "Perfect." (Pull that Hebrew grammar off the shelf!) The Infinitive Absolute plus the Perfect emphasizes or intensifies the action of the verb. So, in Psalm 40:1, the psalmist is "actively, anxiously awaiting, with every fiber of the being" for the Lord. This is no quiet resignation--the psalmist is fully confident that God will come to the rescue.
And God, indeed, rescues the psalmist from the "pit" (or, "well"--bor), the "bog" (or, "mire"--teet). A number of psalms use these words as symbols of death (bor--Psalms 7:15; 28:1; 88:6; 143:7 and teet--Psalms 18:42; 69:14). Thus, we may surmise that the threat to which the psalmist refers is not a minor life-event, but a serious situation in which the very being of the psalmist is threatened.
God hears and sets the feet of the psalmist on a secure rock and puts a "new song" in the psalmist's mouth. The phrase "new song" (sheer hadash) occurs six times in the Psalter (33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; and 149:1), but the best insight into its meaning comes perhaps in Isaiah 42:10 (the only place where "new song" appears outside the Psalter). Isaiah 42 is a song of celebration of the "servant," discussed four times in the book (42:1-9; 49:1-7; 50:4-11; and 52:13-53:12). In the context of Isaiah 42, the "new song" marks a new beginning, a radical change from what has come before. Psalms 96 and 98, classified as Enthronement Psalms, psalms which celebrate the kingship of God over all the earth, contain the same sentiment. Recognizing God as king establishes a new world order--no human king can surpass the power and majesty of Yahweh king. The singer of Psalm 40 celebrates a new beginning after being rescued from the "pit" and the "bog."
Verses 4-10 address the outcome of the deliverance and the "new song." The psalmist declares that those who trust in God will be "happy" (NRSV). The word translated in the NRSV as "happy," and in the NASB and the NIV as "blessed" is 'ashrey, from a Hebrew root that means "go straight, advance, follow the track." It appears twenty-six times in the Psalter. While "happy" and "blessed" are acceptable translations for the Hebrew root word, a better translation seems to be "content." "Blessed" brings to mind the Hebrew word baruk, which carries cultic/sacred connotations. "Happy," at least in our twenty-first-century context does not convey the full depth of the root word. A better translation is, in this commentator's opinion "content," which conveys a deep-seated sense of peace and feeling settled.
The psalmist's sense of contentedness ('ashrey) comes not from listening to the words of the proud (verse 4), from pursuing things that only fleetingly offer satisfaction (false gods--verse 4), or from offering burnt or sin offerings--pious acts of worship (verse 6). Rather it comes from trusting in God (verse 4). The word "trust" is derived from the Hebrew root batach, which means "to feel secure, be unconcerned, to totally rely on another." When humans totally rely on God, they may not be immune to the exigencies of life--the pit and the bog, but they can see beyond the exigencies to a new vision--a new song, and summon all those around them to hear "the glad news of deliverance (verse 9).
Thus, the faithfulness ('emet) and steadfast love (chesed) of God is passed from one generation to the next (verses 10-11).
Reading 2 1 Cor 6:13c-15a, 17-20
First Corinthians stands as a masterful example of a leader addressing a divided congregation and honestly critiquing the views of each side.
Prior to this passage, Paul repeatedly attempts to move people away from an attitude of "It's all about me" to a focus on the one who calls and saves them. He opens the letter with twenty references to God or Christ in the first ten verses. He frequently reminds them of the source of their lives (1:28-31; 3:6-7, 11, 16, 21-23; 4:7) as he addresses a host of competing positions.
Various factions in the congregation label others as wise or foolish, weak or strong; fight over who was the best pastor before the current one; bring lawsuits against one another; argue over sexual morality, whether it's better to be married or single, what makes a healthy marriage, what constitutes grounds for divorce, what are appropriate dietary practices; what is the correct understanding of resurrection and the afterlife; and on and on. When conflict becomes that pervasive, no conflict management plans have any hope of succeeding unless the people involved can move beyond self-absorption, step back, and see a bigger picture of a higher calling. Paul seeks to accomplish that.
We will focus on two central elements of this passage.
"'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things are beneficial. 'All things are lawful for me,' but I will not be dominated by anything" (6:12-13). Paul seems to be correcting a misinterpretation or over-application of one of his core ideas (see also Galatians 5:1, Romans 8:1-2). Teachers and preachers often find themselves in the dismaying position of hearing a key point applied in ways they never imagined. This particular idea, that Christ has set us free, lies near the center of the gospel. But Paul begins to clarify its limits.
Christ does not set us free so that we can do whatever we want to do; Christ sets us free so that we can do whatever God wants us to do. Paul's message does not proclaim individual or communal license. For example, Paul argues that over-indulgence in food represents a misunderstanding of who we are as people of God (verse 13a).
This is an alien concept in an American culture where over a third of adults are obese and we have the Food Network. It's not that eating things we like is bad (all things are lawful). However, eating things we like without regard to larger considerations can be harmful to our individual health and harmful to the health of society (not all things are beneficial). A third of the US adult population is obese, and almost a billion people on the planet live in constant hunger (see websites for Bread for the World or US Department of State, Office of Global Food Security). This is as much as anything else a spiritual problem, individually and communally.
Paul notes one trap of focusing too much on our own freedom. What we start to do freely (because we want to, like to, or just because we can) can become our master. As the Eagles' song goes, "these things that are pleasing you hurt you somehow" (from "Desperado"). I can, freely, ignore a healthy diet, not exercise, start smoking, get drunk daily, take cocaine, buy on credit until I'm drastically in debt, and be mean to family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers.
Soon, what I chose freely -- any one of them -- can dominate my life. I will no longer be free. The cosmos does not actually revolve around me. God, by grace, can set us free from those dominations, but even though the power of a free will is immediate, the way back to health will still be long and hard. Paul cautions us to choose our paths carefully lest the things we freely choose become our undoing or become an imposition on our neighbors and, collectively, foster suffering or oppression.
"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body" (6:19-20). Again, Paul's words here have both individual and communal implications. In the original Greek, the pronouns in this verse are plural. Since he's addressing a community his words should be understood both as addressing individuals (each of you in this community) and the entire group (all of you together).
So, it is appropriate to understand this personally -- "my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within me" -- and communally -- "this body of people, part of the body of Christ, is a temple of the Holy Spirit within us." What I do (or don't do) in my body matters. What we do (or don't do) as a body of believers' matters.
This takes us back to Paul's over-arching purpose in this letter, to focus our attention on the fact that our lives originate in Christ (we were bought with a price) and that we live not for our own sakes but for the sake of God's purposes. My individual body is not mine. It is God's creation to be used for God's purposes. The body of Christ -- congregationally, denominationally, and across the globe -- is not ours. It is God's creation to be used for God's purposes.
The fights, the desires, the pettiness, the selfishness that can consume us are all diversions from, perversions of that for which we were created. We were bought with a price, to glorify God in our bodies. This remains true for both individuals and groups. Paul calls the people back to the fundamental reality of their lives -- it's not "my" life and it's not "my" church. Only when an individual or a congregation gets that can they be free. And, if they get it, the freedom is glorious for each individual, for the congregation, and for God.
Gospel Jn 1:35-42
To lead into todays gospel let’s review the first part of this chapter.
The Gospel of John is a dramatic, gripping narrative.
John 1:29-42 divides into two main parts: verses 29-34 and verses 35-42.
Act I: Background
The play has already begun at John 1:1, of course, with the great Prologue (1:1-18) in which John the Baptist first appears (1:6-8; 15). John the Baptist looms large in 1:19-28. The leaders of Jerusalem interrogate John, asking after his identity. John treads the path of via negative, which the Prologue has taught us to expect from him. The Prologue states that John was not the light, but was a testifier (from the Greek martyr whence we derive the English word martyr). Likewise, John triply confesses that he is NOT the Messiah (verse 20), he is not Elijah (verse 21), and he is not "the prophet" (probably a reference to Moses' declaration in Deuteronomy 18:15).
Still, the leaders press antagonistically, demanding a statement, so John turns to Scripture and places his ministry in the context of words of the prophet Isaiah. They ask him about the meaning of his baptizing practices and he immediately does what he does best in the Fourth Gospel: he testifies to Jesus and his preeminence in the spirit of the words already mentioned in the Prologue at verse 15. And he makes a key observation about the Inquisitors: they do not know Jesus; here we should hear dramatic music or a gong or something of that sort since we are supposed to recall 1:11 at this point ("He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him"). John the Baptist and Jesus have not yet interacted in the narrative but we have been superbly set up for that pregnant imminent moment.
Act II: Jesus and John the Baptist Interact (verses 29-34)
The day after his run-in with the authorities, John the Baptist (JB) sees Jesus and testifies about his identity: "See the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Note the following:
1. Jesus takes away the sin of the world (Greek: kosmos), not the church, just as in 3:16 we hear that God so loved the world and in 4:42 the Samaritans recognize Jesus as the savior of the world. Jesus himself declares in 12:32: "And when I am lifted up from the earth [referring to his crucifixion], I will draw everyone to myself."
2. Try not to read the atonement theology that you are familiar with from Hebrews and perhaps Paul into the Gospel of John. Jesus becomes a Paschal Lamb of sorts in that every holy metaphor, tradition and space dear to Judaism (and Samaritanism, for that matter) finds its fulfillment in Jesus according to the Johannine community, including the Temple (chapters 2 and 4), Moses, scripture (chapter 5:39ff), the manna in the wilderness (chapter 6), the various "festivals of the Judeans," Abraham (chapter 8, especially verses 53-59), and so on.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the significance of Passover would in some way be fulfilled in Jesus for John. Indeed, in John Jesus is killed a day earlier than he is in the Synoptic Gospels. That is, by the time he is enjoying the Last Supper in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he is already dead in John. In John, he is killed on the day when the Passover Lamb is sacrificed (for a helpful chart on this, go to http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/Jesus-Death.htm ).
But Jesus is never considered a ransom in John nor is he a "lamb led to the slaughter" whose death was a "humiliation" (as in Acts. 8:31-32). In fact, Jesus clearly and repeatedly states that he lays down his life of his own accord. He has the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again (10:17-18). No, John simply piles up metaphors on Jesus to impress upon you the significance, identity, and ultimacy of Jesus. He is simultaneously the Lamb of God and the Good Shepherd (chapter 10) who knows his sheep and who asked Peter to feed his lambs (chapter 21).
Act III: Come and See (verses 35-42) Todays Gospel.
The Final Act of John's inaugural proclamation parallels the previous day. Once again John sees Jesus and testifies: "See the Lamb of God." On the basis of hearing the testimony of another person, John's disciples follow Jesus. It begins with Jesus directly addressing them: "What do you seek?" (Jesus always asks pointed, direct questions in John). He invites them to "Come and See." They hang out with Jesus (Greek: meno, "abide") which leads to their deep intimate encounter with him. This results in a rich, eternal-life-giving experience of their own with Jesus such that their faith is no longer derivative of someone else's but is now based on their own intimate relationship with Jesus.
And so goes the pattern throughout John, as you see already in verse 41. Andrew has been found by Eternal Life and what does he do? He immediately testifies that Jesus is the Messiah (remember 20:31?) and invites his brother Simon to come and see/encounter Jesus for himself. An intimate encounter occurs and Simon follows. In the passage right after ours, Philip becomes a follower and immediately testifies to Nathaniel, using the same words as Jesus did: "Come and See" (1:46).
The Samaritan woman does the same thing in chapter 4. She hangs out and engages Jesus deeply, his identity is revealed to her, she is flooded by Eternal Life and she goes out to testify and to tell her fellow Samaritans to "Come and See." They do come and they "hang out" with Jesus (verse 40) and they have a direct revelation of their own which leads them to testify: "They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
What are we waiting for? Let's go testify for the sake of Abundant, Eternal Life!
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Try to imagine that you are seeking information about a sports team or a club that you wish to join. What are some things that you could do to find out if this particular sport or club is something you want to be a part of? (Read information about the team or club, research what other people or organizations report about the team or club, talk to other people who have been part of the team in the past or who have been members of the club, or talk to current members.) Now think about which method of information gathering would be the most persuasive and helpful to your decision making.
- The ideas you named above would be helpful in providing the information you need. But the experiences of other people are often more persuasive than other forms of information. Advertisements are good examples of ways in which information is provided by presenting the experiences that people have had with a particular product. In today’s Gospel, we learned how Jesus’ first disciples learned about Jesus.
- Who does the Gospel say was the first to tell people about Jesus? (John the Baptist) Who was next? (Andrew and another disciple) Whom did Andrew tell? (his brother, Simon) The first community of Jesus’ disciples learned about Jesus from other people. When these people came to Jesus, they learned for themselves who Jesus was, and then they wanted to be his followers.
- This is one of the most important aspects of our faith. No one is a disciple of Jesus alone. To be a follower of Jesus is to be part of a community of disciples. Today we call that community the Church.
- Conclude in prayer together that the Church will continue to witness to others all that we have learned about Jesus. Pray together the Apostles’ Creed.
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried;
he descended into hell;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen.
Sunday JANUARY 7, 2018 The Epiphany of the Lord
Lectionary: 20
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 60:1-6
Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come,
the glory of the Lord shines upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth,
and thick clouds cover the peoples;
but upon you the LORD shines,
and over you appears his glory.
Nations shall walk by your light,
and kings by your shining radiance.
Raise your eyes and look about;
they all gather and come to you:
your sons come from afar,
and your daughters in the arms of their nurses.
Then you shall be radiant at what you see,
your heart shall throb and overflow,
for the riches of the sea shall be emptied out before you,
the wealth of nations shall be brought to you.
Caravans of camels shall fill you,
dromedaries from Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba shall come
bearing gold and frankincense,
and proclaiming the praises of the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13.
R. (cf. 11) Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king's son;
He shall govern your people with justice
and your afflicted ones with judgment.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
The kings of Tarshish and the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
R. Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Reading 2 Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6
Brothers and sisters:
You have heard of the stewardship of God's grace
that was given to me for your benefit,
namely, that the mystery was made known to me by revelation.
It was not made known to people in other generations
as it has now been revealed
to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body,
and copartners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Gospel Mt 2:1-12
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod,
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying,
"Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage."
When King Herod heard this,
he was greatly troubled,
and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people,
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea,
for thus it has been written through the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel."
Then Herod called the magi secretly
and ascertained from them the time of the star's appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said,
"Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word,
that I too may go and do him homage."
After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them,
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star,
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,
they departed for their country by another way.
REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 60:1-6
I believe that, as preachers, we must always begin from this simple but poignant realization. Too easily can we craft the words of proclamation by slipping beyond the limit imposed by context. We shape an overarching narrative to bolster a particular viewpoint (our own viewpoint, our own cultural bias), applying the story to ourselves without much disruption of practice. The prophetic voice, however, always calls for disruption of some sort, even in its most jubilant and comforting exclamations.
Too simplistically, we can read Isaiah 60 on Epiphany and conjure up images of the three magi bearing gifts, finally making it to the manger. We can reduce epiphany to a cute story that satisfies our deepest longing for narrative integrity. And yet, epiphany is so much more than a story of three magi. Even of that story, T. S. Eliot writes, “I should be glad of another death.”1
The liturgical season that Isaiah 60 inaugurates is a season of revelation. Epiphany, in the early church, was not about the arrival of the magi but the revelation of Jesus Christ, at his baptism, to the whole world as God’s only and beloved child. Epiphany is God’s self-revelation to the world, the beginning of Christ’s public ministry. It was one of the three major feasts of the liturgical calendar around which faith communities organized the rhythms of their life: Easter, Epiphany, Pentecost (not Christmas or a nativity scene or magi!).
Isaiah 60 is part of Third Isaiah (chapters 56-66). Rather than being the voice of one prophet, it is assumed that this prophecy arises out of the Isaianic school, a school of disciples dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the prophecies of first and second Isaiah, as well as speaking those prophecies to a new and complex situation. There are several passages in Third Isaiah that are almost direct citations from Second Isaiah (including the text for today -- see Isaiah 49:12, 18).
Third Isaiah is situated in the sixth century BCE as the exiles from Babylonian returned to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, a major conflict had arisen between those who remained and those who returned. Living conditions were extremely difficult. Jerusalem was in ruins. The people were now divided again not against some outside threat or enemy but among themselves.
The remnant associated with the Isaianic school were on the margins of power. They were a small group. It is possible that they were embattled against those who had much more narrow, exclusionist understanding of what it meant to serve God (rather than the inclusive position argued in Third Isaiah where, for example, even foreigners and eunuchs can serve at the altar).
When reading Isaiah 60 publicly, without also reading at least the preceding chapter, the radical irruption of light and glory, consolation and joy is missed. Chapters 58 and 59 are characterized by gloom, by despair, by a call to repentance (the ways of the wicked are crooked, our transgressions are many, our sins testify against us). They are also marked by a yearning for light and glory to come (we wait for the light but there is only darkness).
The opening line of Isaiah 60 is like a thunderbolt of glory (exegetes, of course, interpret this sudden change of tone to different editorial sources). What surprises the reader or hearer is the abruptness of the shift from doom and gloom to light and glory. Perhaps what is most surprising in this shift is God’s response to the people’s crooked ways and their sense of despair: they are not to mend their ways first (out of fear) rather God comes, God irrupts, God arises and shines forth in glory!
This coming, this shining forth is unconditional. God is always a God whose glory is salvific. The people’s repentance, the mending of ways, the living out of justice is a response to this coming! It is not an attempt to be made right with God but it is thanksgiving for the one who comes, who reveals life and salvation in the midst of the community.
God’s glory in the Hebrew scripture is always God’s presence. The glory of the Lord appears in the wilderness when the people complain about lacking food and God promises manna; when the Arc of the Covenant is completed, the glory of the Lord descends and fills it so that even Moses could not enter it; when Moses asks to see God’s glory, God responds, “You cannot see my face”; it is the glory of the Lord that fills the sanctuary in Isaiah 6 (Holy! Holy! Holy! Kabod in Hebrew – Glory! Glory! Glory!). Throughout the Hebrew scriptures God’s presence, God’s very own face, is designated by glory. God does not posses glory -- God is glory.
Now this glory and light arises among the people, it is the Lord who arises among them, giving what the Lord gives: life and salvation. But this giving is not just for the remnant of Israel, it is not just for those who have returned from exile, but for all the nations. Now, all the nations will come with what is specific to them -- their own little “glories” -- and bring them to the Lord. Just as in Isaiah 6, the Temple could not contain the glory now also here, the people of Israel cannot contain it. The presence of God expands outwards toward the whole cosmos.
A sermon based on today’s texts might want to embody this glory in a doxological manner. Who is this God who now enters into our midst? Who is this God who now actually shows us God’s face, the face of a child? God’s glory is no longer far off in some heavenly realm, experienced as a cloud, but it is calling all people together. Even the story of the magi is a call of a radical responsibility toward all those who have been excluded from our classical narrative. All are swept up in singing a cosmic doxology.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13.
In America, the relationship between political leadership and faith matters is tenuous, superficial, and rather manipulative.
Candidates know that they must declare their spiritual mettle in order to win elections, and once in a while a pastor like Billy Graham makes a cameo appearance in the White House.
For ancient Israel, God and the things of God were prior to and at the heart of things political. God’s prophets were even in position to bring down divine judgment on a reigning king. Psalm 72 is a remarkable hymn, a prayer we believe was used on the day of a new king’s coronation -- and many believe the prayer would have been repeated annually at a festival of the king’s enthronement.
With some imagination, we can picture the raucous day. Still grieving the previous king’s death (or perhaps harboring a sense of relief that he was no more), caravans of citizens would gather around the hillsides of Jerusalem. Hearing the blowing of the shofar, they would gather for worship, for the anointing of the one they fantasized might just be a king like David, the kind of king they had prayed for so long.
A magnificent, noisy, joyful procession would make its way from down in the valleys of Kidron and Hinnom up the spur of the hill, winding past the royal palace (which archaeologists now believe they have uncovered!) toward the temple. Horns blaring, dancers somersaulting, crowds shouting, then a hushed silence as the sacred oil was poured by the high priest over the young king’s head, soaking into his hair and garments, soiling his feet and the ground. See the moment -- and read Psalm 72.
The very notion of praying for a ruler is instructive. What if Americans measured the amount of time they expend complaining about a president or governor or mayor and instead of grousing, actually offered up intensive prayers for the leader in question? The Episcopalians prescribe, as part of their weekly worship regimen, prayers for the president (or for the queen if the praying is being done in the British Commonwealth). During campaigns, many voters are terrified that if the one they are not supporting wins, catastrophe will strike. But wouldn’t it make sense, if that dreaded candidate is elected, that we pray constantly that we will be proven wrong, and that the new leader will in fact prosper?
But even if we pray for a leader, what would the objective be? We might pray for military success, or wizardry with the economy, a quelling of political opposition, or the greatness of our nation. In Psalm 72, we overhear something very different, and we should be uneasy.
The Psalm begins by asking God to “Give the king Your justice… and Your righteousness… May he defend the cause of the poor, and give deliverance to the needy.” Such a campaign in our day would be lambasted as “liberal,” and a debate would be touched off about governmental programs versus private sector aid or, more likely, the conversation would drift toward blaming the poor, and insisting they get busy and take care of themselves.
The cluster of Hebrew terms used in these phrases is telling. “Justice” is not fairness or the good being rewarded and the wicked punished. Rather, mishpat (“justice”) is the Bible’s subversive term for God’s desired state of affairs: mishpat is when the poorest are cared for. A society is just to the degree to which every person has enough and is lifted up; a king is measured, not by hordes of chariots or the gold in the treasury, but by whether the cause of the poor was defended, whether the needy were delivered. Similarly, “righteousness” isn’t smug goodness; zedekah (“righteousness”) is being in sync with God’s ways, embodying God’s will.
Sadly, modern church people in America tend to vote for the more conservative candidates who are prepared to shirk any responsibility for caring for the needy. Not only that, many congregations themselves do little to nothing to engage the poor, advocate for their cause, or ensure that those who oppress the needy are fought tooth and nail. Psalm 72 is an ancient liturgy, a museum piece of an old prayer, but the designs of God that shout from its verses echo across the centuries and raise hard questions pointed right at today’s church.
The most fascinating verse in Psalm 72 is the verse 11: “May all kings fall down before him.” Israel was a small time power, forced into subservience more often than relishing independence. The other kings most certainly would not be falling down before him! Was this national pride? A fantasy? A sick dream? Or a Messianic hint, that in God’s good time, God’s king would be the one before whom all would bow (Philippians 2:10).
But notice why those kings in verse 11 will bow down: “For he delivers the needy when he calls… He has pity on the weak… From oppression he redeems their life” (verses 12 and 13). Other kings never do such things; but one day the truth will be made palpable, and they will realize the wisdom, wonder, and grace of God’s way.
The lectionary mandates that this Psalm be read on January 6, the twelfth day of Christmas, the Epiphany. What a perfect time to weigh God’s desires for leadership, to contemplate what God would like to see done down here for the oppressed, for those who have nothing! The greens we wear and with which we decorate our sanctuaries intimate the growth and life that are the natural result of God have come down to earth to be the kind of King that not only was wanted by God, but desperately needed by God’s people.
During Epiphany, when leaves do not yet hang from the trees, and our yards and the fields are brown and lifeless, we look to God for the Spring to come, for a new day when we give life, and abundantly. Psalm 72:6 dreams that the king will be “like rain that falls… like showers that water the earth.” We are not purveyors of death or condemnation, and we do not dwell in oblivion in our fortress churches. We go out into the world, and seek to be the Body of Christ, to be Jesus out in the world, the Jesus who was the king prayed for over so many centuries.
Reading 2 Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6
Epiphany marks the end of the Christmas season for the church calendar.
By the sixth day in January, the wider society has long moved past the celebrations of Christmas. Employees have returned to work, children have returned to school, and stores are beginning to set out Valentine’s merchandise.
The church, on the other hand, persists a full 12 days after Christmas Day to remember the visit of the wise men to the young Jesus as recorded in Matthew’s gospel (2:1–12). First noted in the fourth century, this celebration of the revelation of God to humanity called the faithful to reflect upon the awesome reality of the Incarnation. God became man; in Christ, the two natures were neither confused nor divided. The revelation of this unity prepared the way for another, for the Gentiles to be joined with God’s people Israel.
It is the revelation of this second mystery that Paul proclaims in Ephesians 3. Actually, this mystery seems to be forefront in his mind from the very beginning of the letter. He hints at it in the first chapter when he declares that his readers have been chosen by God for adoption, a description fitting for those who were not born into the people of God (2:11).
Then, in chapter 2, he describes the mystery explicitly. They, as Gentiles, were formerly separate from God and his people, but now in Christ, the two have been made one (2:12-13). Because of his proclamation of this mystery, Paul is a prisoner (3:1). If we look to Luke’s narrative in Acts, Paul ends up in chains because the Jewish leadership finds great offense at this aspect of his message and actions, namely that he teaches “against the law” and “brings Greeks into the Temple” (Acts 21:28).
Paul, however, seems undaunted by his circumstances. In his view, this is the task to which God has called him, to administer this aspect of God’s grace. His tone conveys a sense of grateful awe that God saw fit to reveal this great mystery to him. For Paul, Epiphany is not just one day, but describes his entire life and calling. He preaches, and subsequently he has been imprisoned for this preaching, because God has revealed this mystery to him. Paul mentions that he wrote about this mystery briefly before. It is not clear if he is referring to his statements in chapters 1 and 2 of this letter or if this refers to another letter to the Ephesians to which we no longer have access.
Even if we are missing another explanation, thankfully, Paul’s description of his understanding of the mystery seems clear from the following verses. The Spirit has now made known what in former times was concealed, namely that the Gentiles are now fellow heirs, fellow members of the same body, and fellow participants in the promises.
A compact reference to Paul’s extended discussions in Galatians and Romans, Ephesians 3:6 asserts the reality that in Christ through the gospel, those who were once not God’s people have been grafted in and become children of the promise. Paul now serves this mystery and does so because God’s power energizes him. This task has cost Paul his freedom. Nevertheless, he does not do it begrudgingly, but gratefully.
The rich alternative economy in which grace comes to unexpected recipients is not a new thing according to Paul’s understanding. It might have just recently been revealed to the apostles and prophets, of whom Paul considers himself to be the least important, as he, a former persecutor, was the last (1 Corinthians 15:8), but Paul finds proclamations of God’s gracious mystery in Israel’s Scriptures to make his case.
Even more, he asserts here that the mystery has been hidden with God, who is the creator of all things, suggesting that this mystery has always been God’s plan. This hunch proves correct in the following verse. This mystery in Christ -- Lord over all peoples, both Jew and Gentiles -- was the eternal plan of God, but only in the last days has God made it evident and begun its fulfillment. When God brings these groups together -- Jew and Gentile -- the church displays the creative diversity of his wisdom. It is not just Paul, the other apostles, or even the Ephesians who now can see this mystery, but also the authorities and rulers (3:10).
Paul might have in mind those Jewish leaders who instigated his imprisonment, but also the heavenly authorities, the spiritual forces whom ancients believed wielded control over the functions of the visible world. The Ephesians now have boldness and confident access to God, an amazing statement for those who would have had no access to the presence of God as manifest in the Jewish temple. Now that the mystery has been revealed, those who were excluded are now included. As they trust Jesus’ faithful actions, which display the faithfulness of God to his ancient plan, they can participate as full members of the people of God.
The great celebration of the Incarnation, according to Paul, flows into the great celebration of the church. As we exhibit unity -- of different races, classes, and genders (as Paul says in Galatians 3:28) -- we display the mystery of God who brings all his creation together in the unity of the God-man, the Jewish baby worshipped by the Gentile kings from the East.
Gospel Mt 2:1-12
God is so determined to proclaim the “good news of great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10) that God reaches beyond fields in the region around Bethlehem to “the East” (some scholars say Persia).
God reaches beyond shepherds at the bottom of the barrel to Wise Ones at the top. God reaches beyond people scared witless by God’s glory to those who observe the glorious star at its rising, and methodically, persistently, and sincerely follow it to a king. All along the way, God directs them, first by a star, then via a verse from Micah, and finally in their dreams.
Yes, I am aware that I am conflating Matthew and Luke; this is precisely what the liturgical year does as well. Preachers overly concerned about biblical literacy might use this occasion to untangle the Christmas story in order to teach that the Magi never made it to the manger. But then the preacher needs to explain that Matthew makes no mention of a manger. Better to save this for Sunday School and preach the Epiphany gospel in its liturgical and calendar context.
That said, in our church we move our Magi from one spot to another during the days of Christmas, rather than placing them in the crèche on Christmas Eve, and only bring them to “the house [where] they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage” (Matthew 2:11) on Epiphany. Placing the Magi in the manger on Christmas Eve misses how far God reaches to ensure that all people -- emphasize all -- receive the good news of Christ’s birth.
While Christian tradition holds that the Magi were kings (an interesting contrast between these kings’ response to Jesus’ birth and the way Herod, king of God’s people, responded), a more precise description might be that the Magi belonged to the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism, which paid particular attention to the stars. This priestly caste gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science.
So these Wise Ones from the East were scientists and practiced other religions, and God used their faith and knowledge to bring them to the Christ. More ironic, God used scientists who practiced other religions to let King Herod and the chief priests and scribes of the people in on the news that their Messiah had been born.
God seems to do whatever it takes to reach out to and embrace all people. God announces the birth of the Messiah to shepherds through angels on Christmas, to Magi via a star on Epiphany, and to the political and religious authorities of God’s own people through visitors from the East. From a manger, where a child lies wrapped in bands of cloth, God’s reach, God’s embrace in Christ Jesus, gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Jesus eats with outcasts and sinners. Jesus touches people who are sick and people who live with disabilities. Jesus even calls the dead back to life. Ultimately, Jesus draws all people to himself as he is lifted up on the cross. In Christ Jesus, no one is beyond God’s embrace.
God’s radical grace is wondrously frightening. I experience a bit of a shudder as I think of the implications of portraying the Magi as scientists who practiced another religion, because to do so pushes me to expand my understanding of both the ways God reaches out to people to announce good news in and through Christ and what it means for individuals to have faith and for gatherings of the faithful to be church.
The Magi did not come looking for the Christ through preaching, liturgy, sacrament, a welcoming congregation, or a vital social ministry. They came seeking the Christ after studying the night skies. As someone who holds on to favorite, cherished ways that God works to proclaim the gospel and bring people to faith, it’s always wondrously frightening to realize anew that God’s own work of embracing all people is more “mystery” than “formula,” because God’s ways are always bigger than my understanding.
The alternative, of course, is to join Herod in not seeing God’s ever-expanding embrace, or feeling threatened by it, and instead giving way to just plain fear: “When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him” (Matthew 2:3). Herod jealously reached out himself, just far enough to violently protect his place and preserve his power.
We too can feel jealous when visitors show up seeking Christ due to experiences outside of our purview and control. We have our own ways of reaching out, just far enough to slaughter someone’s experiences of God’s grace for the sake of our patterns, practices, and perspectives. And so the stage is set for another liturgical year of proclaiming Christ overcoming the conflict between God’s ever expanding embrace and our need to protect and preserve, a drama resolved on the cross and continuing in our day.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think of the best gift you ever received. What was it? What made it special? Was it the gift itself, the thought that went into it, or the person who gave it to you?
- Many people around the world give gifts on the feast of the Epiphany instead of giving gifts on Christmas. As we read today’s Gospel, it might become clear why that is.
- What gifts were given to Jesus by the Magi? (gold, frankincense, and myrrh) Let me tell you a bit about each of these. Gold is familiar to most of us. We associate gold with wealth and royalty. Frankincense was often used by priests for worship in the Temple. Myrrh is a perfume and was used to prepare a body after death. We often understand this gift to foretell Jesus’ suffering and death.
- What made these gifts special? (Accept all reasonable answers.) These gifts showed that the Magi truly recognized the infant Jesus for who he would be for them and for us: Savior. We too are called this season to offer our gifts to Jesus. What might we offer to show that we recognize who Jesus is? (Accept all reasonable answers.)
- Conclude by praying together that we will always recognize Jesus as our Savior, as the Magi did. Sing or say the song “We Three Kings.”
Sunday December 31, 2017 The Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph
Lectionary: 17
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14
God sets a father in honor over his children;
a mother's authority he confirms over her sons.
Whoever honors his father atones for sins,
and preserves himself from them.
When he prays, he is heard;
he stores up riches who reveres his mother.
Whoever honors his father is gladdened by children,
and, when he prays, is heard.
Whoever reveres his father will live a long life;
he who obeys his father brings comfort to his mother.
My son, take care of your father when he is old;
grieve him not as long as he lives.
Even if his mind fail, be considerate of him;
revile him not all the days of his life;
kindness to a father will not be forgotten,
firmly planted against the debt of your sins
—a house raised in justice to you.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
R. (cf. 1) Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD,
who walks in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
Reading 2 Col 3:12-21
Brothers and sisters:
Put on, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved,
heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
bearing with one another and forgiving one another,
if one has a grievance against another;
as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.
And over all these put on love,
that is, the bond of perfection.
And let the peace of Christ control your hearts,
the peace into which you were also called in one body.
And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,
as in all wisdom you teach and admonish one another,
singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs
with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, in word or in deed,
do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus,
giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Wives, be subordinate to your husbands,
as is proper in the Lord.
Husbands, love your wives,
and avoid any bitterness toward them.
Children, obey your parents in everything,
for this is pleasing to the Lord.
Fathers, do not provoke your children,
so they may not become discouraged.
Gospel Lk 2:22-40
When the days were completed for their purification
according to the law of Moses,
They took him up to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord,
just as it is written in the law of the Lord,
Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord,
and to offer the sacrifice of
a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons,
in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon.
This man was righteous and devout,
awaiting the consolation of Israel,
and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit
that he should not see death
before he had seen the Christ of the Lord.
He came in the Spirit into the temple;
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to perform the custom of the law in regard to him,
He took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:
"Now, Master, you may let your servant go
in peace, according to your word,
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you prepared in sight of all the peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and glory for your people Israel."
The child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him;
and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother,
"Behold, this child is destined
for the fall and rise of many in Israel,
and to be a sign that will be contradicted
—and you yourself a sword will pierce--
so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."
There was also a prophetess, Anna,
the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.
She was advanced in years,
having lived seven years with her husband after her marriage,
and then as a widow until she was eighty-four.
She never left the temple,
but worshiped night and day with fasting and prayer.
And coming forward at that very time,
she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child
to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.
When they had fulfilled all the prescriptions
of the law of the Lord,
they returned to Galilee,
to their own town of Nazareth.
The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom;
and the favor of God was upon him.
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 3:2-6, 12-14
Jesus, son of Sirach wrote his wisdom treatise (also known as "Ecclesiasticus" or "Book of the Church") as a text book to train young men entering the bureaucracy in Jerusalem. Authored prior to the Maccabean revolt against the Syrians in 180 B.C., the book contained praises for wisdom and advice for the moral life, especially interpersonal and family relationships. These verses addressed the duty a son owed his parents.
Notice the verses expound upon the Fourth Commandment. A brief reflection on the list of the commandments revealed the esteem placed upon the extended family as the pillar of society. Honoring one's parents was the most important of the commandments that addressed human affairs (more important than murder, theft, adultery, and bearing false witness). Sirach seemed to state that honoring parents was a sign of righteousness. It forgave sin [3:3]. It was a means of divine blessing (children and prayers heard) [3:5]. It was the guarantee of a long life and temporal power [3:6-7]. Even the patience required for the care of elderly parents strengthen character. And God would also look upon the son offering such care with compassion [3:12-14].
Ancient cultures like that in Judea were family-oriented and elderly-centered. Our American culture is just the opposite. What was common necessity then is now considered optional. Yet, the advice given in Sirach is as meaningful today as it was over two millennia ago. Honoring parents creates strong families and strong societies.
The fourth commandment is based upon a deeper command from God: love others as self. Love assumes and builds up respect. How have you shown love and respect to your family members? How have you expected such treatment in return?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
Our Psalm Reading, which gives us the Promise for the week, is a blessing given by temple priests to families and pilgrims as they ascend to the Temple to celebrate the New Year. It presents to us the ideal Jewish family, whose very lives revolve around the LORD and are guided by His Word. The outcome of such righteousness and reverence produces abundant fruits of labor, as well as peace and harmony in the family.
Reading 2 Col 3:12-21
In the Second Reading, which is the source of our Order, St. Paul exhorts his readers to uphold godly obligations and to practice invariably Christian virtues. Meekness, patience, compassion, and kindness all reflect an essential virtue, which is humility. Only a humble person can be forgiving and truly thankful because only he realizes that everything comes from God. As a result, he is able to attain peace and prove the genuineness of his love, which is the fruit of the Spirit that binds everything in perfect harmony and enables him to conquer the empire of the flesh. The Reading concludes, appropriately, with directions for the family, where the virtues are fundamentally applied and tested.
Gospel Lk 2:22-40
Lastly, St. Luke describes the Holy Family in our Gospel, whose obedience and faithfulness to the Word are quite evident. He presents them as the first stewards of God’s Love and the very model of Christian families and communities. The story of Jesus’ presentation in Jerusalem is one of the few stories in the canonical gospels that have to do with Jesus’ childhood.
Along with the stories of the circumcision and naming of Jesus (Luke 2:21, January 1 every year), the visit of the magi (Matthew 2:1-12, Epiphany every year), the slaughter of the innocents (Matthew 2:13-23, First Sunday after Christmas in year A), and Jesus in the temple as a twelve-year-old (Luke 2:41-52, First Sunday after Christmas in year C), this story gives one a rare opportunity to review Jesus’ childhood.
The scarcity of information about Jesus’ childhood reminds us that the gospels are not biographies, or at least not primarily that. They are kerygmatic narratives -- they seek to proclaim the gospel and to undergird and strengthen faith in Christ. The little information that they give us about Jesus’ childhood is not intended, say, to explain the development of his character or personality. It is clear that Luke’s childhood stories seek to make theological points: Jesus was born a Jew among Jews. He came under the law of Moses. And, although he fulfilled the law in honoring his father and mother (Luke 2:51), his ultimate obedience was to his heavenly Father (Luke 2:49; cf. Mark 3:35). As such, our Gospel lesson is easily linked to the epistle reading for the day, where Paul tells us that Jesus was “born of woman” and “born under the law” so that he might redeem those who were under the law (Galatians 4:4-5).
The presentation in Jerusalem is motivated by specific requirements of the law of Moses. According to Leviticus 12, after a woman gives birth to a son, she is impure for forty days. At the end of that period, she is to bring an offering to the temple, which the priest offers as a sacrifice, effecting her purification. In addition, Exodus 13:2, 12, 15 state that every first-born male (which “opens the womb”), whether human or animal, “belongs” to the Lord (cf. 34:20). While (clean) animals (Leviticus 27:27) would be sacrificed, first-born sons needed to be redeemed (Exodus 13:12-15). According to Numbers 3:46-51, the redemption involved the payment of five shekels to the priesthood. However, according to another tradition in Numbers 3:11-13; 8:16-18, the tribe of the Levites takes the place of the first-born sons of Israel as the Lord’s possession. Thus the biblical notion of redemption included the idea that the first-born son “belongs” to the Lord in a special way and is dedicated to serve him (as the Levites were also dedicated to serve him).
Luke has apparently taken this old idea of the first-born son being dedicated to God’s service and made it fruitful for his narrative. The Torah contains no requirement that the first-born son be presented at the temple. However, Luke alludes to the story of Samuel. When Hannah, who had no children, prayed to God for a son, she vowed that, if she had a son, she would give him to God for all his days (1 Samuel 1:11). And indeed, after Samuel was born, Hannah brought him to the temple, and he was “lent” to the Lord for life (1 Samuel 1:24-28). It is clear that Mary in Luke takes the role of Hannah (cf. Luke 1:46-55 with 1 Samuel 1:11; 2:1-10) while Jesus takes the role of Samuel (cf. Luke 2:40, 52 with 1 Samuel 2:26). Thus when Joseph and Mary present Jesus to the Lord in Jerusalem, they are in effect dedicating his life to God (no redemption money is given). Jesus will be “holy to the Lord” (Luke 2:23). With these words Luke subtly alters the language of Exodus 13:2, 12 from a command to consecrate (hagiazein) the first-born to God to a declaration about Jesus. Luke’s wording is reminiscent of Luke 1:35, where the angel Gabriel tells Mary that her son will be “holy” and will be called the “Son of God,” because he will be conceived by the Holy Spirit. Luke’s wording is perhaps also (though more distantly) reminiscent of other stories that speak of Jesus as a “holy one” with a special relationship to God (e.g., Mark 1:24). The story thus sets the stage for Jesus’ life dedicated fully to his heavenly Father (Luke 2:49).
As noted above, Paul speaks of Jesus as having been born under the law in order to redeem those who were under the law. Instead of being redeemed, Jesus himself will by his death redeem others. This happens when Jesus takes upon himself the curse of the law -- indeed, “becomes” the curse (of the law) -- by being crucified on the tree (Galatians 3:13). That is the scandal of the cross, by which God saves the world (1 Corinthians 1:21, 23). The idea is, to be sure, more Pauline than Lukan. Yet the scandal of the cross is hinted at in Luke 2:34. Jesus will be the cause of many rising and falling in Israel -- he will be both the stone upon which some stumble and the stone of salvation (Romans 9:33; 1 Peter 2:6-8). In any case, Luke’s account certainly gives credence to Paul’s claim. The dedication of Jesus to God at the temple sets Jesus on the way to his work of redemption.
Simeon and Anna appear as devout Jews who are awaiting the fulfillment of God’s promises of consolation and redemption for Israel. These sections of Luke’s story are drenched with the language of Deutero-Isaiah (cf. Isaiah 40:1; 42:6; 49:6, 13; 52:9, 10). Simeon and Anna thus become spokesman and spokeswoman for the salvation and redemption that is to come through Jesus. Simeon gets a glimpse of the salvation that one-day the whole world (“all flesh”) will see (cf. Luke 3:6, Luke’s addition to Mark): forgiveness of sins and deliverance from eternal death (Acts 13:38-39, 46-47). That is the ultimate meaning of Christmas, the incarnation of the Son of God.
Making the Connection
Our families have the primary role in teaching us about the traditions of our faith and how we express our faith. The family of Jesus is a model for Christian families in this important task.
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- What are some ways in which we express our faith in God? What do we do to show that we are Catholic? (daily prayer, reading Scripture, gathering for Mass, praying the Rosary) From whom did you learn the importance of these expressions of our faith? (Accept all reasonable answers.)
- Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. For many of us, our families have played an important role in teaching us about our Catholic faith. Jesus also learned about his faith from his parents. Today’s Gospel presents Jesus’ family as a model for family life. Let’s listen carefully to this Gospel to see what we might learn to imitate in our own lives.
- What are Mary and Joseph doing in todays gospel? (They are honoring the traditions of their Jewish faith by bringing the infant Jesus to the Temple.) Why do you think it is important that we know this about Jesus’ family? (It shows Jesus’ family’s faithfulness to their religious tradition; it shows that Jesus learned his faith from his family.) Are there ways that Catholic families express their faith that are similar to the way that Jesus’ family expressed their faith? (bringing a child to church for Baptism, bringing children to weekly Mass, and so on)
- We learn from many people how to express our faith in God, but our families have a special role in teaching us about God and our Catholic faith. Take some time to write a prayer of thanksgiving to God for your family and for all that we have learned from them about God and our faith.
- Conclude in prayer, asking God to bless and strengthen our families. Pray the Lord’s Prayer.
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Sunday December 24, 2017 Fourth Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 11
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Christ the Savior is born! Glory to God in the highest!
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
When King David was settled in his palace,
and the LORD had given him rest from his enemies on every side,
he said to Nathan the prophet,
"Here I am living in a house of cedar,
while the ark of God dwells in a tent!"
Nathan answered the king,
"Go, do whatever you have in mind,
for the LORD is with you."
But that night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said:
"Go, tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD:
Should you build me a house to dwell in?'
"It was I who took you from the pasture
and from the care of the flock
to be commander of my people Israel.
I have been with you wherever you went,
and I have destroyed all your enemies before you.
And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth.
I will fix a place for my people Israel;
I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place
without further disturbance.
Neither shall the wicked continue to afflict them as they did of old,
since the time I first appointed judges over my people Israel.
I will give you rest from all your enemies.
The LORD also reveals to you
that he will establish a house for you.
And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,
I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins,
and I will make his kingdom firm.
I will be a father to him,
and he shall be a son to me.
Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me;
your throne shall stand firm forever."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29
R. (2a) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
The promises of the LORD I will sing forever;
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, "My kindness is established forever";
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
"I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to David my servant:
Forever will I confirm your posterity
and establish your throne for all generations."
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
"He shall say of me, 'You are my father,
my God, the Rock, my savior.'
Forever I will maintain my kindness toward him,
and my covenant with him stands firm."
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Reading 2 Rom 16:25-27
Brothers and sisters:
To him who can strengthen you,
according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ,
according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret for long ages
but now manifested through the prophetic writings and,
according to the command of the eternal God,
made known to all nations to bring about the obedience of faith,
to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ
be glory forever and ever. Amen.
.
Gospel Lk 1:26-38
The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin's name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
"Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end."
But Mary said to the angel,
"How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?"
And the angel said to her in reply,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God."
Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word."
Then the angel departed from her.
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16
David being at rest in his palace, considered how he might best employ his leisure and prosperity in the service of God. He formed a design to build a temple for the ark. Nathan here did not speak as a prophet, but as a godly man, encouraging David by his private judgment. We ought to do all we can to encourage and promote the good purposes and designs of others, and, as we have opportunity, to forward a good work.
Blessings are promised to the family and posterity of David. These promises relate to Solomon, David's immediate successor, and the royal line of Judah. But they also relate to Christ, who is often called David and the Son of David. To him God gave all power in heaven and earth, with authority to execute judgment. He was to build the gospel temple, a house for God's name; the spiritual temple of true believers, to be a habitation of God through the Spirit. The establishing of his house, his throne, and his kingdom for ever, can be applied to no other than to Christ and his kingdom: David's house and kingdom long since came to an end. The committing iniquity cannot be applied to the Messiah himself, but to his spiritual seed; true believers have infirmities, for which they must expect to be corrected, though they are not cast off.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 89:2-3, 4-5, 27, 29
Many psalms that begin with complaint and prayer end with joy and praise, but this begins with joy and praise and ends with sad complaints and petitions; for the psalmist first recounts God’s former favors, and then with the consideration of them aggravates the present grievances. It is uncertain when it was penned; only, in general, that it was at a time when the house of David was woefully eclipsed; some think it was at the time of the captivity of Babylon, when king Zedekiah was insulted over, and abused, by Nebuchadnezzar, and then they make the title to signify no more than that the psalm was set to the tune of a song of Ethan the son of Zerah, called Maschil; others suppose it to be penned by Ethan, who is mentioned in the story of Solomon, who, outliving that glorious prince, thus lamented the great disgrace done to the house of David in the next reign by the revolt of the ten tribes. I. The psalmist, in the joyful pleasant part of the psalm, gives glory to God, and takes comfort to himself and his friends. This he does more briefly, mentioning God’s mercy and truth (v. 1) and his covenant (v. 2-4), but more largely in the following verses, wherein, 1. He adores the glory and perfection of God (v. 5-14). He pleases himself in the happiness of those that are admitted into communion with him (v. 15-18). He builds all his hope upon God’s covenant with David, as a type of Christ (v. 19-37).
Reading 2 Rom 16:25-27
Paul is now concluding this long and excellent epistle, and he does it with a great deal of affection. As in the main body of the epistle he appears to have been a very knowing man, so in these appurtenances of it he appears to have been a very loving man. So much knowledge and so much love are a very rare, but (where they exist) a very excellent and amiable—composition; for what is heaven but knowledge and love made perfect? It is observable how often Paul speaks as if he were concluding, and yet takes fresh hold again. One would have thought that solemn benediction which closed the foregoing chapter should have ended the epistle; and yet here he begins again, and in this chapter he repeats the blessing (v. 20), "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, Amen.’’ And yet he has something more to say; nay, again he repeats the blessing (v. 24), and yet has not done; an expression of his tender love. These repeated benedictions, which stand for valedictions, speak Paul loth to part. Now, in this closing chapter, we may observe, I. His recommendation of one friend to the Roman Christians, and his particular salutation of several among them (v. 1endash 16). II. A caution to take heed of those who caused divisions (v. 17endash 20). III. Salutations added from some who were with Paul (v. 21endash 24). IV. He concludes with a solemn celebration of the glory of God (v. 25endash 27
.
Gospel Lk 1:26-3
And in the sixth month
After Elisabeth's conception; for so long was John the Baptist conceived before Christ, and so long he was born before him; and it seems as if there was the same distance between the public ministry of the one, and the other: John was before Christ, as man, being his forerunner; but Christ was preferred unto him as mediator, and existed before him, as the eternal Son of God:
the angel Gabriel was sent from God;
the same angel, that near five hundred years before gave Daniel an exact account of the time of the Messiah's coming, and six months ago acquainted Zacharias with the conception, birth, character, and office of his forerunner:
unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth;
the whole country of Galilee was mean and contemptible with the Jews: they observe, though through mistake, that no prophet arose out of it, ( John 7:52 ) and Nazareth particularly was exceeding despicable in their eye: hence those words of Nathanael, "can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" ( John 1:46 ) and yet hither an angel was sent by God; and here dwelt the mother of our Lord. (See Gill on Matthew 1:23)
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Who are some examples of people who have changed the world for the better by their work or contribution? (Jonas Salk and the polio vaccine, Thomas Edison and the invention of the light bulb, and so on) What prepared these people to make these great contributions?
- Who are some people of faith who have made extraordinary contributions to the world? (Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II, Saint Francis of Assisi, and so on) What prepared these people to make extraordinary contributions to the world?
- Today’s Gospel offers to us another example of a person of faith who made an extraordinary contribution to the world: Mary, the mother of Jesus. This Gospel gives us several clues about what prepares a person of faith to do extraordinary things.
- What extraordinary thing was Mary asked to do in this Gospel? (to be the Mother of God’s Son, Jesus) What was Mary’s response? (First she asked how this would be possible, and then she answered yes.) What does this Gospel tell us prepared Mary for her most amazing job? (Mary was said to have been filled with God’s grace even before the angel visited her. The Gospel also says that the Holy Spirit would prepare her to give birth to Jesus.)
- What do you think prepares people of faith, ourselves included, to do extraordinary things in our world? (God’s grace, the Holy Spirit) It is the Holy Spirit working within us that enables ordinary people to make extraordinary contributions in our world. Because Mary was filled with God’s grace, she was able to cooperate with God’s plan for salvation by becoming the mother of Jesus.
- Conclude in prayer for the awareness to be open to God’s grace and the Holy Spirit in order to be able to cooperate in God’s plan for salvation. Pray together the Magnificat.
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior;
for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
He has shown the strength of his arm,
he has scattered the proud in their conceit.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and has lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
the promise he made to our fathers,
to Abraham and his children forever
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Sunday December 17, 2017 Third Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 8
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 61:1-2a, 10-11
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor,
to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and release to the prisoners,
to announce a year of favor from the LORD
and a day of vindication by our God.
I rejoice heartily in the LORD,
in my God is the joy of my soul;
for he has clothed me with a robe of salvation
and wrapped me in a mantle of justice,
like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem,
like a bride bedecked with her jewels.
As the earth brings forth its plants,
and a garden makes its growth spring up,
so will the Lord GOD make justice and praise
spring up before all the nations.
Responsorial Psalm Lk 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54
R. (Is 61:10b) My soul rejoices in my God.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked upon his lowly servant.
From this day all generations will call me blessed:
R. My soul rejoices in my God.
the Almighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his Name.
He has mercy on those who fear him
in every generation.
R. My soul rejoices in my God.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has come to the help of his servant Israel
for he has remembered his promise of mercy,
R. My soul rejoices in my God.
Reading 2 1 Thes 5:16-24
Brothers and sisters:
Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing.
In all circumstances give thanks,
for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
Do not quench the Spirit.
Do not despise prophetic utterances.
Test everything; retain what is good.
Refrain from every kind of evil.
May the God of peace make you perfectly holy
and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body,
be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful,
and he will also accomplish it.
Gospel Jn 1:6-8, 19-28
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
And this is the testimony of John.
When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests
and Levites to him
to ask him, "Who are you?"
He admitted and did not deny it,
but admitted, "I am not the Christ."
So they asked him,
"What are you then? Are you Elijah?"
And he said, "I am not."
"Are you the Prophet?"
He answered, "No."
So they said to him,
"Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us?
What do you have to say for yourself?"
He said:
"I am the voice of one crying out in the desert,
'make straight the way of the Lord,'"
as Isaiah the prophet said."
Some Pharisees were also sent.
They asked him,
"Why then do you baptize
if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?"
John answered them,
"I baptize with water;
but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,
the one who is coming after me,
whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie."
This happened in Bethany across the Jordan,
where John was baptizing.
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 61:1-2a, 10-11
The Messiah, his character and office. (1-3) His promises of the future blessedness of the church. (4-9) The church praises God for these mercies. (10,11)
The prophets had the Holy Spirit of God at times, teaching them what to say, and causing them to say it; but Christ had the Spirit always, without measure, to qualify him, as man, for the work to which he was appointed. The poor are commonly best disposed to receive the gospel, James 2:5; and it is only likely to profit us when received with meekness. To such as are poor in spirit, Christ preached good tidings when he said, Blessed are the meek. Christ's satisfaction is accepted. By the dominion of sin in us, we are bound under the power of Satan; but the Son is ready, by his Spirit, to make us free; and then we shall be free indeed. Sin and Satan were to be destroyed; and Christ triumphed over them on his cross. But the children of men, who stand out against these offers, shall be dealt with as enemies. Christ was to be a Comforter, and so he is; he is sent to comfort all who mourn, and who seek to him, and not to the world, for comfort. He will do all this for his people, that they may abound in the fruits of righteousness, as the branches of God's planting. Neither the mercy of God, the atonement of Christ, nor the gospel of grace, profit the self-sufficient and proud. They must be humbled, and led to know their own character and wants, by the Holy Spirit, that they may see and feel their need of the sinner's Friend and Savior. His doctrine contains glad tidings indeed to those who are humbled before God.
Those only shall be clothed with the garments of salvation hereafter, that are covered with the robe of Christ's righteousness now, and by the sanctification of the Spirit have God's image renewed upon them. These blessings shall spring forth for ages to come, as the fruits of the earth. So duly, so constantly, and with such advantage to mankind, will the Lord God cause righteousness and praise to spring forth. They shall spread far; the great salvation shall be published and proclaimed, to the ends of the earth. Let us be earnest in prayer, that the Lord God may cause that righteousness to spring forth among us, which constitutes the excellence and glory of the Christian profession.
Responsorial Psalm Lk 1:46-48, 49-50, 53-54
Mary praises God, characterizing God as one who cares for the lowly and frustrates the intentions of the powerful.
Mary's extended statement of praise (often called the Magnificat, the first word of the Latin translation of her statement) comes in response to her relative Elizabeth's Spirit-inspired words in 1:41-45, which confirm what the angel Gabriel promised Mary in 1:26-35. As with the other two "canticles" in Luke 1-2 (the Benedictus and the Nunc dimittis), the words of the Magnificat come from numerous passages in the Old Testament. The specific form and themes of Mary's praise closely resemble those in Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2:1-10, which comes after the birth of that woman's son, the Prophet Samuel.
The Magnificat does not speak directly about Jesus; rather, it is a description of God. It moves at a rapid pace, progressing through a series of strong, decisive verbs that characterize God's actions throughout Israel's history. Mary speaks about a God who reverses things, who is capable of overturning human authority and structures. Her statement begins by speaking about God's recent actions on her behalf (vv. 47-49) and then turns its attention to God's activity on behalf of and against others (vv. 50-55). Mary is announcing that her story, God's choice of blessing her to bear God's Son, is a part of the ongoing drama of God's activity in the world. This casts Mary as a prophet, one who boldly interprets her experience in light of God and God's history.
Reading 2 1 Thes 5:16-24
The Lord's coming again into this world assumes therefore a very different character from that of a vague object of hope to a believer as a period of glory. In chapter 5 the apostle speaks of it, but in order to distinguish between the position of Christians and that of the careless and unbelieving inhabitants of the earth. The Christian, alive and taught of the Lord, ever expects the Master. There are times and seasons; it is not needful to speak to him concerning them. But (and he knows it) the day of the Lord will come and like a thief in the night, but not for him: he is of the day; he has part in the glory which will appear in order to execute judgment on the unbelieving world. Believers are the children of light; and this light which is the judgment of unbelievers, is the expression of the glory of God-a glory which cannot endure evil, and which, when it shall appear, will banish it from the earth. The Christian is of the day that will judge and destroy the wicked and wickedness itself from off the face of the earth. Christ is the Sun of righteousness, and the faithful will shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
The world will say, "Peace and safety," and in all security will believe in the continuance of its prosperity and the success of its designs, and the day will come suddenly upon them. (Compare 2 Peter 3:3.) The Lord Himself has often declared it. ( Matthew 14:36-44 ; Mark 13:33-36 ; Luke 12:40 , &c.; 17:26 , &c.; 21:35 , &c.)
It is a very solemn thing to see that the professing church (Revelation 3:3) which says that it lives and is in the truth, which has not Thyatira's character of corruption, is yet to be treated as the world-at least, unless it repents.
We may perhaps wonder to find the Lord saying of a time like this, that men's hearts will be failing them for fear, and for looking after those things that are coming on the earth. (Luke 21:26) But we see the two principles-both security and fear-already existing. Progress, success, the long continuance of a new development of human nature-this is the language of those who mock at the Lord's coming; and yet beneath it all, what fears for the future are at the same time possessing and weighing down the heart! I use the word "principles," because I do not believe that the moment of which the Lord speaks is yet come. But the shadow of coming events falls upon the heart. Blessed are they that belong to another world!
The apostle applies this difference of position- namely, that we belong to the day, and that it cannot therefore come upon us as a thief-to the character and walk of the Christian. Being a child of the light he is to walk as such. He lives in the clay, though all is night and darkness around him. One does not sleep in the day. They that sleep sleep in the night: they that are drunken are drunken in the night; these are the works of darkness. A Christian, the child of the day, must watch and be sober, clothing himself with all that constitutes the perfection of that mode of being which belongs to his position-namely, with faith and love and hope-principles which impart courage and give him confidence for pressing onwards. He has the breastplate of faith and love; he goes straight forward therefore against the enemy. He has the hope of this glorious salvation, which will bring him entire deliverance, as his helmet; so that he can lift up his head without fear in the midst of danger. We see that the apostle here brings to mind the three great principles of 1 Corinthians 13 to characterise the courage and steadfastness of the Christian, as at the beginning he shewed that they were the mainspring of daily walk.
Faith and love naturally connect us with God, revealed as He is in Jesus as the principle of communion; so that we walk with confidence in Him: His presence gives us strength. By faith He is the glorious object before our eyes. By love He dwells in us, and we realise what He is. Hope fixes our eyes especially on Christ, who is coming to bring us into the enjoyment of glory with Himself.
Consequently the apostle speaks thus: "For God hath not appointed us to wrath " (love is understood by faith, that which God wills-His mind respecting us) "but to obtain salvation." It is this which we hope for; and he speaks of salvation as the final deliverance "by our Lord Jesus Christ I would here call the reader's attention to the way in which the apostle speaks of the Lord's coming in the different chapters of this epistle. It will be noticed that the Spirit does not present the church here as a body. Life is the subject-that of each Christian therefore individually: a very important point assuredly.
The apostle desired that the disciples should acknowledge those who labored among them and guided them in grace and admonished them, and esteem them greatly for their work's sake. The operation of God always attracts a soul that is moved by the Holy Ghost, and commands its attention and its respect: on this foundation the apostle builds his exhortation. It is not office which is in question here (if such existed), but the work which attracted and attached the heart. They ought to be known: spirituality acknowledged this operation of God. Love, devotedness, the answer to the need of souls, patience in dealing with them on the part of God -all this commended itself to the believer's heart: and it blessed God for the care He bestowed upon His children. God acted in the laborer and in the hearts of the faithful. Blessed be God, it is an ever existing principle, and one that never grows weaker !
The same Spirit produced peace among themselves. This grace was of great value. If love appreciated the work of God in the labourer, it would esteem the bother as in the presence of God: self-will would not act.
Now this renunciation of self-will, and this practical sense of the operation and presence of God, gives power to warn the unruly, to comfort the fearful, to help the weak, and to be patient towards all. The apostle exhorts them to it. Communion with God is the power and His word the guide in so doing. In no case were they to render evil for evil, but to follow that which was good among themselves and towards all. All this conduct depends on communion with God, on His presence with us, which makes us superior to evil. He is this in love; and we can be so by walking with Him.
God, as we have said, rests thus in Himself-is this rest for Himself. He gives us, and is for us, this entire peace. The conscience being perfect through the work of Christ who has made peace and reconciled us to God, the new nature-and consequently the heart-finds its perfect satisfaction in God, and the will is silent; moreover, it has nothing further to desire. It is not only that God meets the desires that we have: He is the source of new desires to the new man by the revelation of Himself in love. [See Footnote #10] He is both the source of the nature and its infinite object; and that, in love. It is His part to be so. It is more than creation; it is reconciliation, which is more than creation, because there is in it more development of love, that is to say, of God: and it is thus that we know God. It is that which He is essentially in Christ.
In the angels He glorifies Himself in creation: they excel us in strength. In Christians He glorifies Himself in reconciliation, to make them the first fruits of His new creation, when He shall have reconciled all things in heaven and on earth by Christ. Therefore it is written "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children sons of God" They have His nature and His character.
It is in these relationships with God-or rather it is God in these relationships with us in peace, in His communion, who develops sanctification, our inward conformity of affection and intelligence (and consequently of outward conduct) with Him and His will. "The God of peace himself sanctify you wholly." May there be nothing in us that does not yield to this benignant influence of peace which we enjoy in communion with God! May no power or force in us own anything but Himself! In all things may He be our all, so that He only may rule in our hearts! He has brought us perfectly into this place of blessedness in Christ and by His work. There is nothing between us and God but the exercise of His love, the enjoyment of our happiness, and the worship of our hearts. We are the proof before Him, the testimony, the fruit, of the accomplishment of all that He holds most precious, of that which has perfectly glorified Him, of that in which He delights, and of the glory of the One who has accomplished it, namely, of Christ, and of His work. We are the fruit of the redemption that Christ has accomplished, and the objects of the satisfaction which God must feel in the exercise of His love.
God in grace is the God of peace for us; for here divine righteousness finds its satisfaction, and love its perfect exercise.
The apostle now prays that, in this character, God may work in us to make everything respond to Himself thus revealed. Here only is this development of humanity given-"body, soul, and spirit." The object is assuredly not metaphysical, but to express man in all the parts of his being; the vessel by which he expresses that which he is, the natural affections of his soul, the elevated workings of his mind, through which he is above the animals and in intelligent relationship with God. May God be found in each, as the mover, spring, and guide!
In general the words "soul and spirit" are used without making any distinction between them, for the soul of man was formed very differently from that of animals in that God breathed into his nostrils the breath (spirit) of life, and it was thus that man became a living soul. Therefore it suffices to say soul as to man, and the other is supposed. Or, in saying spirit, in this sense the elevated character of his soul is expressed. The animal has also its natural affections, has a living soul, attaches itself, knows the persons who do it good, devotes itself to its master, loves him, will even give its life for him; but it has not that which can be in relationship with God (alas ! which can set itself at enmity against Him), which can occupy itself with things outside its own nature as the master of others.
The Spirit then wills that man, reconciled with God, should be consecrated, in every part of his being to the God who has brought him into relationship with Himself by the revelation of His love, and by the work of His grace, and that nothing in the man should admit an object beneath the divine nature of which he is partaker; so that he should thus be preserved blameless unto the coming of Christ.
It remains to take notice of one interesting circumstance as to the manner in which the apostle instructs them. He takes, in the first chapter, the truths which were precious to their heart, but were still somewhat vaguely seized by their intelligence, and as to which they were indeed fallen into mistakes, and employs them (in the clearness in which he possessed them himself) in his practical instructions, and applies them to known and experienced relationships, that their souls might be well established on positive truth, and clear as to its use, before he touched on their error and the mistakes they had made. They waited for His Son from heaven. This they already possessed clearly in their hearts; but they would be in the presence of God when Jesus comes with all His saints. This was clearing up a very important point without directly touching the error. Their heart got straight as to the truth in its practical application to what the heart possessed. They understood what it was to be before God the Father. It was much more intimate and real than a manifestation of terrestrial and finite glory. Further they would be before God when Jesus came with all His saints: a simple truth which demonstrated itself to the heart by the simple fact that Jesus could not have some only of His assembly. The heart seized this truth without an effort; yet in doing so it was established, as was the understanding also, in what made the whole truth clear, and that in way of the relationship of the Thessalonians to Christ and those that were His. The joy even of the apostle in meeting them all (those who had died consequently, as well as the living) at the coming of Jesus, placed the soul on an entirely different ground from that of being found here, and blessed by the arrival of Jesus when they were here below.
Thus enlightened, confirmed, established, in the real bearing of the truth which they possessed already by a development of it which connected itself with their best affections and with their most intimate spiritual knowledge, founded on their communion with God they were ready with certain fixed basis of truth to enter on and set aside without difficulty an error which was not in accord with what they now knew how to appreciate at its just value, as forming park of their moral possessions. Special revelation made all clear as to details. This manner of proceeding is very Instructive.
Gospel Jn 1:6-8, 19-28
Have you caught the "holiday spirit" yet? How do you get into the holiday mood? Do you rely on others or events to spark your "Christmas feeling?"
Christmas is coming soon. The lights, the sounds, the smells of the holidays are in the air. No matter where we go, we are reminded of holiday cheer. In fact, many of us rely on this atmosphere to bring us out of our doldrums. We expect people, places, or events to create the mood that Christmas brings.
Human nature tempts us to lean on others to bolster our condition. We expect others to "fix" us when we are down, sustain us when we are "up." We are tempted to treat God the same way. God, the Mr. Fix-it for our souls.
What happens when God doesn't "fix" us? How many times have we been disappointed when our expectations of God are unfulfilled? How many times have we confused faith with expectation? How many times have we forgotten that God defines himself?
John the Baptist had expectations about the One to come. Did Jesus fulfill his expectations? Or, did Jesus define his mission on his own terms?
Popular Translation
John the Baptist preached against King Herod because he married his brother's wife. So, the king had his soldiers arrest John. When he was in jail, John heard the kinds of things Jesus was doing. John sent some of his followers to Jesus with a question. "Are you the one John said would come? Or, is there someone else we should expect?" they asked.
"Go tell John what you see and hear," Jesus answered. "Blind people can now see. Deaf people can now hear clearly. Crippled people can now walk. People with diseases are now healthy. Dead people live again. And the poor have the Good News preached to them. The person who doesn't doubt me is really happy!"
As John's people left, Jesus began to talk to the crowd about the Baptist. "What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swaying in the wind? What did you go out to see? Someone dressed in expensive clothes? People who wear expensive clothes live in a king's palace. So, what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, a prophet and much, much more! God talked about John in the Bible:
'I am sending my messenger ahead of you.
He will prepare the way for you.'
Listen! No one who has ever lived is more important than John the Baptist. But the humblest person in God's Kingdom is greater than John!"
Matthew's gospel faces us with the difference between what we expect of others and what they can deliver. John expected someone greater than he. Jesus gave an answer that may have been different from what John expected. In that exchange we discover how Jesus saw his own ministry and the ministry of John the Baptist.
With his comments about his own ministry and that of John's, Jesus implicitly compared the two. John prepared people for the Kingdom; Jesus involved people in the Kingdom. John stood as a Kingdom signpost. As Messiah, Jesus was the Kingdom. As the one preparing the populace, John was greater than anyone else up to that point. But, was John ready to partake in the kingdom? Was he willing to accept the witness of his two followers about Jesus' works? Everyone who still considered the faith question was the least in the Kingdom. [11:11]
Catechism Themes: The Public Ministry of Jesus and The Signs of the Kingdom
The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him. They invite belief in him. To those who turn to him in faith, he grants what they ask. So miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his Father's works; they bear witness that he is the Son of God. But his miracles can also be occasions for "offense"; they are not intended to satisfy people's curiosity or desire for magic. Despite his evident miracles some people reject Jesus; he is even accused of acting by the power of demons.
By freeing some individuals from the earthly evils of hunger, injustice, illness, and death, Jesus performed messianic signs. Nevertheless he did not come to abolish all evils here below, but to free men from the gravest slavery, sin, which thwarts them in their vocation as God's sons and causes all forms of human bondage.
We expect much from the Lord who gives us much. His gifts challenge us to pass them along to others, especially those in need. As Jesus has freed us from need, so we, too, must free others from need.
Sometimes, however, all we can do is stand in awe. While these experiences help to strengthen our faith, we should not depend upon them in the future. An experience of God is a gift, not an expectation. Once we build our faith solely upon awe experiences, we focus upon them as if they were magic. We might think that these experiences should be an everyday event; if we have a "down" day, our prayer life dwells only upon a return to the "wow" experience. When we do not have a consistent spiritual high, we might be tempted to reject faith as an illusion. We might forget the passion of Christ; even pain and depression are paths to God. Even "down" days are God's gifts to us.
What do we expect from God? Miracles or magic. Miracles engage us in a faith dialogue with God; we become part of the miracle as it becomes a part of us. Magic, however, is meant for entertainment. It impresses us, but does not change us. Miracles demand a response; magic demands applause. Do we pray to be engaged or impressed?
As Christmas approaches, it's time to ask the question. What do we expect from God? Do we want to follow him? Or, do we want him to fix us? Do we seek to be with him? Or, do we expect him to be with us?
Have we confused faith with expectation? Faith puts God in charge. Expectation puts us in charge. Faith allows God to surprise us. Expectation does not.
What should we expect from God? Nothing. What should we believe God can do? Everything! Even the surprise of his Son born in a poor stable.
As a part of preparing for Christmas, reflect on your expectations of the holidays. Are they realistic? Can people or events fulfill your ideals? Or can you set aside your expectations so God can surprise you?
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- There are many things that we accept on the word of other people. For example, we believe our parents and grandparents when they tell us about what life was like when they were children. We believe the scientists who report to us the results of their observations and experiments. We believe our teachers when they teach us about the facts of history. What are some examples of things that you accept on the word of others?
- Why do we believe what people tell us? What makes the word of another person believable? (They have actual experience with the things that they are explaining, they have learned something we have not, or because their word to us has previously proved trustworthy.)
- This is also the way it is with what we believe about Jesus. Today’s Gospel talks about John the Baptist and how he gave witness to Jesus.
- What did John the Baptist tell the Jewish leaders when they asked about his authority and preaching? (John said that he was not the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet.) What did John the Baptist say when they asked about the baptisms that he was performing? (John said that he was baptizing in preparation for another person.) John offered this testimony about himself and about Jesus because he knew Jesus was the Son of God who was coming to save the world. He told the people that Jesus was among them even though they did not yet recognize him.
- The people who came to see John the Baptist believed his words to them. If we were to continue reading in John’s Gospel, we would hear how John the Baptist recognized Jesus as the Son of God when the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus. John then announced to the people that Jesus was the Lamb of God. Where do we look to hear testimony about who Jesus is? (the Bible, the Church, the people of faith in our lives) We believe these witnesses to Jesus because they have proven themselves to be trustworthy and because they witness to a person they know, Jesus.
- Conclude in prayer that you will continue to grow in faith and in your ability to recognize Jesus’ presence in all aspects of life. Pray the Act of Faith.
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Sunday December 10, 2017 Second Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 5
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 40:1-5, 9-11
Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated;
indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins.
A voice cries out:
In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!
Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God!
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill shall be made low;
the rugged land shall be made a plain,
the rough country, a broad valley.
Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.
Go up on to a high mountain,
Zion, herald of glad tidings;
cry out at the top of your voice,
Jerusalem, herald of good news!
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah:
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by his strong arm;
here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
Like a shepherd he feeds his flock;
in his arms he gathers the lambs,
carrying them in his bosom,
and leading the ewes with care.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9-10-11-12, 13-14
R. (8) Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD—for he proclaims peace to his people.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and prepare the way of his steps.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Reading 2 2 Pt 3:8-14
Do not ignore this one fact, beloved,
that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years
and a thousand years like one day.
The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard "delay,"
but he is patient with you,
not wishing that any should perish
but that all should come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief,
and then the heavens will pass away with a mighty roar
and the elements will be dissolved by fire,
and the earth and everything done on it will be found out.
Since everything is to be dissolved in this way,
what sort of persons ought you to be,
conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion,
waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames
and the elements melted by fire.
But according to his promise
we await new heavens and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you await these things,
be eager to be found without spot or blemish before him, at peace.
Gospel Mk 1:1-8
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God.
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you;
he will prepare your way.
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths."
John the Baptist appeared in the desert
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
People of the whole Judean countryside
and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem
were going out to him
and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River
as they acknowledged their sins.
John was clothed in camel's hair,
with a leather belt around his waist.
He fed on locusts and wild honey.
And this is what he proclaimed:
"One mightier than I is coming after me.
I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.
I have baptized you with water;
he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 40:1-5, 9-11
Imagine a general amnesty for all prisoners in the United States. While that thought might scare us, there would be joy in many quarters. Fathers would see their families. Sons would see their parents. Heroes would return to their communities. Many lost in the system would see hope in freedom. The impact of such an amnesty was felt by the Jews when they heard the words of Second Isaiah.
The beginning of Second Isaiah presented a scene of divine command and the announcement of a town crier. God pronounced a nation-wide forgiveness and the crier announced the return of the exiles. [40:1-5] The joy of such an announcement must have accompanied the fall of Babylon to Cyrus and the Persian army in 539 B.C. A year later, the Persian ruler enacted an edict of return for the Jews in the Diaspora. They were to rebuild Jerusalem and restore the Temple.
The changing events justified the loyalty of the exiles to their God. Now the Lord could display his power, even through a foreign king. The Jewish nation could once again rally around their God. They could once again show a religious and patriotic pride. The Lord saved them! [40:9-11]
Freedom from bondage implicitly means return. Pardon from sin means return to God. As we wait for the coming of the Lord at Christmas, let us remember the words of Isaiah and their echo in the preaching of John the Baptist. Metanoia, repentance, means turn away from self-centered pursuits. And turning towards the Almighty.
How do you plan to turn away from the self this Advent? And turn towards God?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9-10-11-12, 13-14
His salvation; that complete salvation and deliverance for which all the Israel of God do pray and wait, even the redemption of Israel by the Messiah; of which not only Christian, but even Jewish, writers understand this place; and to which the following passages do most properly and perfectly belong. And the psalmist might well say of this salvation that it was nigh, because the seventy weeks determined by Daniel for this work, Daniel 9:24, were now begun, this Psalm being written after Daniel’s time.
Them that fear him; the true Israel of God, even all those that love and fear him; by which words he both excludes all hypocritical Israelites from this salvation, and tacitly assigns it to all that fear God, whether Jews or Gentiles. And when that salvation shall come, we shall be freed from all that scorn and contempt under which we now groan, and shall recover our ancient glory; and the glorious presence of God, the most eminent tokens whereof we have now utterly lost; and the God of glory himself, even Christ, who is called the brightness of his Father’s glory, Hebrews 1:3; compare John 1:14; and the glory of Israel, Luke 2:32; shall come and visibly dwell in this now despised land.
Reading 2 2 Pt 3:8-14
2 Peter 3:8. Be not ye ignorant — Whatever they are; of this one thing — Which casts much light on the point in hand; that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day — This is an allusion to Psalm 90:4, where Moses had said, A thousand years in thy sight are as one day, which words St. Peter applies with regard to the period intervening between the time when he wrote, and the last day; denoting thereby, 1st, God’s eternity, whereby he exceeds all measure of time in his essence and in his operation: 2d, His knowledge, to which all things past, or to come, are present every moment: 3d, His power, which needs no long delay in order to bring his work to perfection: and, 4th, His long-suffering, which excludes all impatience of expectation and desire of making haste. But it must be observed, that neither the apostle nor the psalmist meant that God does not perceive any difference between the duration of a day and that of a thousand years; but that these differences do not affect either his designs, or actions, or felicity, as they do those of finite creatures. So that what he brings to pass on the day he declares his purpose, is not more certain than what he will bring to pass a thousand years after such declaration. In like manner, what is to be brought to pass a long time after his declaration, is not less certain than if it had been done when declared. The apostle’s meaning is in substance, that in one day, yea, in one moment, he could do the work of a thousand years; therefore he is not slow, he is always equally able, equally ready to fulfil his promise; and a thousand years, yea, the longest time, is no more delay to the eternal God than one day is to us: therefore he is longsuffering; he gives us space for repentance without any inconvenience to himself. In a word, with God time passes neither slower nor swifter than is suitable to him and his economy. Nor can there be any reason why it should be necessary for him either to delay or hasten the end of all things. How can we comprehend this? If we could have comprehended it, St. Peter needed not to have added, with the Lord.
Gospel Mk 1:1-8
To an observant reader, one notes that the first verse in the gospel of Mark does not contain a main verb: "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (1:1).
The significance of this observation is to see that these words do not compose a sentence; they rather serve to express the title of the gospel of Mark. Whatever story, miracle, parable, exorcism, teaching or narrative event of Jesus is in the gospel of Mark, it is the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ. This beginning takes place in our hearing or reading of the gospel of Mark. The words of this gospel break into our lives with the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The good news begins with the witness of two prophetic texts from Malachi and Isaiah that announce a forerunner who will go before the coming of God's Messiah. A messenger of God will go "ahead of you" (Malachi 3:1), one who will: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight" (Isaiah 40:3). The faith in which God's people have lived in Messianic hope serves as the inaugural word, bringing together the anticipation and fulfillment times of God's salvation.
The messenger, witness, and forerunner of this time of fulfillment is John the baptizer. The Second Sunday of Advent in Year B focuses on the person of John. In our text from the gospel of Mark, we hear an extensive description of John's identity. He lives in the wilderness near the river Jordan where Jesus is baptized. The baptism he offers is for his people from the Judean countryside as "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (1:4).
John's baptism is preparatory in anticipation for the coming of the Messiah. John even draws people from the city of Jerusalem, the city of religious leaders, who "were baptized by him (John) in the river Jordan, confessing their sins" (1:5). John's baptism of repentance and forgiveness is a call to the people of Judea and those in the city of Jerusalem to turn from their godless ways and receive the forgiveness that is present in God.
The description of John stretches our imagination. He is identified as a wilderness man: "John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey" (1:6). However, the primary intention of John was not to draw attention to himself, but to the one of whom he is the forerunner: "'The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me, I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals'" (1:7). John's role is that of a servant to the one he is called to serve.
The baptism of this one who is to come is radically different from that of John's baptism: "'I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit'" (1:8). This is the role that John plays out in a significant way, calling attention to the one who ushers in God's kingdom. Jesus is the Messiah whose ministry is empowered by God's Spirit.
The baptism of Jesus by John in the river Jordan is a baptism in which the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is evident: "And just as he was coming up out of the water, [Jesus] saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him" (1:10). The voice from heaven confirms who Jesus is: "And a voice came from heaven: 'You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased'" (1:11).
John fulfills the role of the one who is the forerunner, the one who is called to make known "the Messiah, the Son of God" (1:1), "the Lord" (1:3), the one who "will baptize with the Holy Spirit" (1:8), and the one who is "my (God's) Son, the Beloved" (1:11). Within the opening verses of the gospel we are introduced to Jesus, and we see and hear for ourselves the one who is "the beginning of the good news" (1:1).
This is the one who has come, who is present, and who is to come again. We too are called to announce and make known God's Son in this season of Advent. Like the witness of John, we too are witnesses to the one who incarnates "the beginning of the good news, the gospel" (1:1).
At the midpoint of the gospel, in the story of the transfiguration (9:2-13), we will again hear God's voice from heaven announcing the role and mission of Jesus: "Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, listen to him" (9:7). As we move into the second half of the gospel of Mark, we are called to listen to the final teachings and deeds of Jesus, along with the witness present in "the Son of Man (who) came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many" (10:45).
At the end of the gospel in the story of Jesus' crucifixion, we will again see the identity of Jesus made known as "the Son of God" (1:1). Throughout the gospel, the unclean and demonic spirits know who Jesus is as he has engaged in battle with them and the powers of this world. As the heavens were "torn apart" (1:10) at Jesus' baptism, the temple curtain is "torn in two from top to bottom" at Jesus' death (15:38). At the cross of crucifixion, we hear for the first time in the gospel of Mark the identity of Jesus as the Son of God on the lips of a human witness in the words of the Roman centurion: "Truly this man was God's Son" (15:39).
From "the beginning," the evangelist Mark leads us through the pages of the gospel with the intention and goal of seeing Jesus Christ as the one who is the crucified and risen Lord. This is not only the beginning of the good news, the gospel, but in Jesus' death and resurrection we have the fulfillment of all the aeons of time in Jesus Christ.
John the Baptist leads us in this Advent season to the one who is our Lord, whose birth we await and whose reign in eternity will never end. This is "the beginning of the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (1:1).
Making the Connection
- During the season of Advent, many of us do many things to prepare for our celebration at Christmas. What are some things that people do to prepare for Christmas? Make a list.
- Many people are very busy during the season of Advent doing all these things. But let’s consider for a minute how these things prepare us to receive Jesus. Look over the list you have just made. How do these things prepare the way for Jesus? (Some of these things prepare the way for Jesus more than others.)
- What did John the Baptist do to prepare the way for Jesus? (He preached repentance and baptized people as a sign of forgiveness of sins.) Having heard today’s Gospel, is there anything else that you think that we should be doing during Advent to prepare the way for Jesus? (Try to identify ways in which we might repent for our sins, seek forgiveness, and change our lives so that we might invite others to be followers of Jesus.)
- One of the things that the Church invites us to do during the season of Advent is to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. During Advent, we seek forgiveness for our sins and look for ways in which we can be better followers of Jesus.
- Conclude with a simple reconciliation service, such as the following:
- Pray silently, asking God to forgive your sins and promise to do one thing this week to be a better follower of Jesus. Pray the Act of Contrition and then celebrate God’s forgiveness by sharing a sign of peace.
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Sunday December 3, 2017 First Sunday of Advent
Lectionary: 2
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7
You, LORD, are our father,
our redeemer you are named forever.
Why do you let us wander, O LORD, from your ways,
and harden our hearts so that we fear you not?
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes of your heritage.
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
with the mountains quaking before you,
while you wrought awesome deeds we could not hope for,
such as they had not heard of from of old.
No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but you
doing such deeds for those who wait for him.
Would that you might meet us doing right,
that we were mindful of you in our ways!
Behold, you are angry, and we are sinful;
all of us have become like unclean people,
all our good deeds are like polluted rags;
we have all withered like leaves,
and our guilt carries us away like the wind.
There is none who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to cling to you;
for you have hidden your face from us
and have delivered us up to our guilt.
Yet, O LORD, you are our father;
we are the clay and you the potter:
we are all the work of your hands.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
R. (4) Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
O shepherd of Israel, hearken,
from your throne upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Rouse your power,
and come to save us.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
May your help be with the man of your right hand,
with the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
R. Lord, make us turn to you; let us see your face and we shall be saved.
Reading 2 1 Cor 1:3-9
Brothers and sisters:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I give thanks to my God always on your account
for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus,
that in him you were enriched in every way,
with all discourse and all knowledge,
as the testimony to Christ was confirmed among you,
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift
as you wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He will keep you firm to the end,
irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful,
and by him you were called to fellowship with his Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel Mk 13:33-37
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man traveling abroad.
He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
each with his own work,
and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
Watch, therefore;
you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming,
whether in the evening, or at midnight,
or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'"
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 63:16b-17, 19b; 64:2-7
Isaiah 56-66 is thought to be from the post-exilic phase—after Cyrus of Persia gave the Jewish exiles permission to return to Jerusalem and to rebuild the temple.
Isaiah 63:7 – 64:12 is a lengthy prayer of lament. Why lament? Hasn’t God arranged their release from servitude in Babylon? Hasn’t God miraculously raised up Cyrus of Persia, who not only allowed them to return to Jerusalem, but even provided resources for their journey and the rebuilding of the temple.
But their return has been painful. The city and temple lay in ruins, and their neighbors have made rebuilding difficult. Internal divisions have impeded progress. Life in Jerusalem has hardly been a bed of roses.
The prophet reminds the Lord that he is their father (63:16b). Then (astonishingly) the prayer continues, Why do you make us wander, LORD, from your ways,
and harden our hearts so that we do not fear you?*Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. (63:17).
I beg your pardon! Who was it that rebelled? I thought it was Israel. Who was it that walked out the door? Surely it was Israel. How is Israel’s infidelity suddenly God’s fault?
But the prophet is not cataloging facts, but is instead unburdening his heart of its pain. He is also trying to find words that will persuade the Lord to return to Israel (63:17b)—to save them—to make life easier for them.
The one offering the prayer concludes chapter 63 by saying, “Too long have we been like those you do not rule, on whom your name is not invoked.
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
with the mountains quaking before you” (63:19)—which is another way of saying “We regret to inform you that we have not enjoyed any benefit lately from our relationship with you. This has been very disappointing to us. Please take immediate action to remedy this unfortunate situation.”
Again, the prayer is drawing attention to the unsatisfactory quality of the current relationship of Israel with God and highlighting the plight of the Israelites in the hope of motivating God to save Israel.
And then begins our reading with the next verse, 64:1—a continuation of this prayer.
As when brushwood is set ablaze, or fire makes the water boil!
Then your name would be made known to your enemies
and the nations would tremble before you,
(v. 1a). We heard this kind of language earlier in the first section of this book, when Isaiah warned the people of the consequences that they would suffer for failing to rely on the Lord. But then he raised the hope of salvation, saying: “You will be visited by the Lord of Armies with thunder, with earthquake, with great noise, with whirlwind and storm, and with the flame of a devouring fire” (29:6), “that the mountains might quake at your presence” (v. 1b). Israel is seismically active due to the Rift Valley through which the Jordan River flows—so the people have experienced earthquakes. They associate earthquakes with God’s presence and/or God’s judgment (Exodus 19:18; Job 9:6; Psalm 18:7; 68:8; 99:1;
In this instance, this prayer of lament asks that God would announce his presence by an earthquake.
“as when fire kindles the brushwood, and the fire causes the waters to boil” (v. 2a). This portion of verse 2 really belongs with verse 1b. Quaking mountains, burning brushwood, and boiling water are all metaphors for the kind of beyond-our-control energy represented by God’s presence.
“Then your name would be made known to your enemies and the nations would tremble before you,” (v. 2b). The purpose of these manifestations of God’s presence (quaking mountains, etc.) is to impress God’s enemies (who, presumably, are also Israel’s enemies) so that they will become properly respectful of God, (and also of Israel).
“While you worked awesome deeds we could not hope for,*
3such as had not been heard of from of old.
No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen,
any God but you working such deeds for those who wait for him” (v. 3). God has been performing awesome deeds in behalf of Israel for quite some time. The plagues on Egypt that forced Pharaoh to let Israel go come to mind—as does the deliverance of Israel at the Red Sea—and the manna in the wilderness—and the flattened walls of Jericho—and little David’s victory over giant Goliath—and so on and so forth.
With regard to quaking mountains, Sinai comes to mind (Exodus 19:18). God’s presence there was manifested by fire and smoke and a shaking mountain.
But at the moment Israel is not seeing mountains quake or fire or smoke or any other evidence that God is present. That fact lies in the background of this prayer of lament.
Would that you might meet us doing right, that we might be mindful of you in our ways! Indeed, you are angry; we have sinned, we have acted wickedly. (v. 4).
The distinguishing quality of God is that he works for—helps—saves—”those who wait for him.”
Those who worship other gods might claim to have seen demonstrations of their gods’ power, but there is no sense of those gods being in any kind of personal relationship with their people or taking care of their people. The best that can be said for those gods is that they, when placated, visit no harm on their people.
“who waits for him” (v. 4b). Waiting for the Lord means waiting with hope or expectation. Throughout scripture, we find an emphasis on waiting for the Lord (Genesis 49:18; Psalm 37: 9; Hosea 12:6; Zephaniah 3:8; Romans 8:25; Galatians 5:5). To “wait for” the Lord is to live in faith—to live in the expectation that God’s “compassion doesn’t fail”—that his mercies never come to an end—that his faithfulness is not only great but assured. To “wait for” the Lord is to live in the certainty that the Lord has the power and the will to bless those who are faithful. To “wait for” the Lord is to see beyond one’s present circumstances (such as the exile) to a future blessed by the hand of the Lord (such as the
“There is none who calls on your name, who stirs up himself to take hold of you” (v. 7a). In verse 63:19 (part of this prayer of lament), the one offering the prayer noted that Israel has become “as those who were not called by your name”—like those whose identity is no longer entwined with God’s identity.
The fallen leaf, blown away by the wind, no longer seeks a connection to the tree. Israel, having become accustomed to iniquitous behavior, no longer seeks a connection to God. She doesn’t call on God’s name, and doesn’t attempt to take hold of God.
This last phrase, “take hold of God,” brings to mind Jacob, who wrestled with God (or God’s agent) all night. Finally, God (or God’s agent) said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” So God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, “for you have fought with God and with men, and have prevailed” (Genesis 32:26-28). But there is no one in Israel now who has that kind of passion for wrestling with God.
he prayer says that God has delivered the people into their iniquity, but it might be more accurate to say that God has allowed them to go where they were determined to go. God did not propel them down that pathway. God did not encourage their iniquitous behavior. God simply gave them the freedom to choose their path and to walk down it.
ISAIAH 64:8-9. BUT NOW, YAHWEH, YOU ARE OUR FATHER8But now, Yahweh, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter (yo·sere·nu—the one who fashions us); and we all are the work of your hand. 9Don’t be furious, Yahweh, neither remember iniquity forever: see, look, we beg (Hebrew: hab·bet·na—Behold, please) you, we are all your people.
“But now, Yahweh, you are our Father” (v. 8a; see also 63:16). Yet, in spite of everything, God is our Father. God might be disappointed with our behavior. God might have allowed us to engage in self-destructive behavior. God might have allowed us to shrivel up and blow away, like a leaf in winter. But God’s purpose has never been our destruction. God’s hope is the hope of a Father, who always hopes against hope that the child will see the error of his/her ways and return home. The Parable of the Prodigal Son comes to mind (Luke 15).
“we are the clay, and you our potter (yo·sere·nu—the one who fashions us); and we are all the work of your hand” (v. 8b). Just as fathers and mothers love their children, artists also feel a deep affection for their art. When an artist fashions a piece of art, something of the artist is bound up in that art. Part of that has to do with the deep involvement of the artist in the creative process. Part of it is pride of workmanship. Part of it is that the work of art reflects the artists understanding of how the piece should look or sound or feel. The artist and the art are inextricably bound together.
There is an interesting phenomenon at work here. An artist might feel that his/her art is imperfect. He/she might even be reluctant to display his/her art, because the inadequacy of the art would reveal the inadequacy of the artist. However, the same artist who would be frustrated with the imperfection of his/her art would quickly bristle at a critic who would make negative comments about the art. The artist’s intolerance of his/her art is nothing compared with his/her intolerance of the art critic. That is because the artist and the art are inextricably bound together.
This prayer uses that connection of art and artist in an attempt to persuade God to forgive Israel—to redeem Israel—to save Israel. The one offering the prayer has called God a Father. Now he reminds God of the creativity that God has expended in fashioning the nation Israel—God’s people—God’s artwork. Israel might have sinned, and be as disgusting as a soiled menstrual cloth, but God should not/cannot abandon Israel, because artist and art are inextricably bound together.
“Don’t be furious, Yahweh” (v. 9a). It would be too much to pray that God would not be angry. How could God fail to be angry at Israel for its rebellious behavior? This prayer is simply that God will not be exceedingly angry—so angry that he would do things that he might regret later—so angry that he might dash the work of his hands against a wall. It is a prayer that God will keep his anger within bounds. If God will do that, Israel can hope for redemption. If not, there is no hope.
“neither remember iniquity forever” (v. 9b). This is a similar thought with a slightly different slant. It would be too much to pray that God would not notice Israel’s iniquity. How could God fail to notice Israel’s sin? Impossible! It would be too much even to ask that God would not remember Israel’s sin. This prayer asks merely that God will not remember Israel’s sin forever—into eternity. If God will do that, Israel can hope that its relationship with God might one day be restored. If not, Israel has no hope.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
Study Tools
GIVE EAR, O SHEPHERD OF ISRAEL
Belief in the God of Israel is not blind faith, but an informed trust. One expression of our confidence that the LORD is in control of all things is to make our complaints known to Him. In Psalm 80 the writer bemoans the plight of the divided tribes of Israel, and boldly expresses his perplexity at God’s dealings with them.
The Psalmist uses two metaphors: that of God as shepherd (Psalm 80:1-7; Psalm 80:17-19), and that of Israel as a vine (Psalm 80:8-16). Both of these Jesus applies to Himself (John 10:11; John 10:14; John 15:1). He as the God-man embraces both.
Asaph begins his prayer with an appeal that God will hear (Psalm 80:1). Sometimes our Shepherd seems distant, and deaf to our cries. We might need, like the Psalmist, to remind ourselves just who He is - “the one who dwells between the cherubim” - and what He has done on behalf of His church in the past (1 Samuel 7:12).
It is customary to think of our salvation as a single event, ‘when I got saved’. In one sense this is true, but it is also an ongoing event in our lives. The changes and so-called chances of life may present us with new problems as we grow from one level in our Christianity to another, so we need to call on God anew to continue His saving work within us (Psalm 80:2).
There is a refrain throughout the Psalm, growing in intensity and boldness. The appeal for our restoration is first addressed to “God” (Psalm 80:3), then to “God of hosts” (Psalm 80:7), and finally to the “LORD God of hosts” (Psalm 80:19). The prayer that God’s face would shine upon us reminds us of the Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6:24-26), and of the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ transfiguration.
There is a picture in the Hebrew language of the LORD “fuming” against the prayers of His people (Psalm 80:4): “How long You fume?” This may not be anger on God’s part, but rather an expression of the Psalmist’s frustration that his prayers seem unable to penetrate the cloud of God’s glory. Sometimes our prayers might seem to reach no higher than the ceiling: nevertheless we must still pray, and tell Him about it!
This Psalm is different to another great Shepherd song, Psalm 23. There the LORD sets a table before us, but here He allegedly feeds us with the bread of tears (Psalm 80:5). God is unchangeable, but our experience of His Providence may vary from time to time.
Sometimes our neighbors bring us strife, or our enemies laugh at us (Psalm 80:6). Or, as Jesus warned us, a man’s foes may be those of his own household (Matthew 10:36). The solution is the same: we must look to Him to shine upon us, “turn us” and save us (Psalm 80:3; Psalm 80:7; Psalm 80:19), and “return” to us (Psalm 80:14).
Psalm 80:17 is clearly Messianic. It is Jesus who is at the right hand of God, ever interceding on our behalf (Romans 8:34): Jesus, whose favourite name for Himself whilst He was upon the earth was “the Son of man” (Mark 14:62). It was Jesus who was “made strong”, strengthened by an angel in the garden of Gethsemane in order that He might do God’s will (Luke 22:43).
Reading 2 1 Cor 1:3-9
It was customary for Greek and Roman letter-writers in the first century A.D. to prefix their epistles with “greetings” (Acts 15:23; James 1:1). Paul regularly uses a pun, replacing “greetings” with “grace” (1 Corinthians 1:3). In what may be a second pun here (1 Corinthians 1:4), Paul gives thanks for the Corinthians’ “grace” - possibly hinting at their gifts.
The “grace” which we receive “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” - and for that matter from the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4) - is more than just free forgiveness, although it is inclusive of that. “Grace” is also an empowering for ministry (1 Corinthians 3:10), as Paul himself testifies (1 Corinthians 15:10). “Grace” is the source of the spiritual gifts given for the benefit of all (1 Corinthians 12:8-11), and those of the leadership in particular (1 Corinthians 12:28-31).
By adding the word “peace” - the traditional Hebrew greeting - Paul internationalizes the Gospel. “Peace” does not just indicate the absence of war, but is about being complete, perfect and full. “Peace” speaks to us of health, success, well-being, rest, and harmony - and is part and parcel of our “peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).
When Paul makes this special greeting, he does so as the ambassador of Christ. “Grace and peace” are the offering which we receive from the God who is pleased for us to call Him “Father” (Galatians 4:6). “Grace and peace” is the gift which we receive from God’s Son, with whom we are “joint-heirs” (Romans 8:17).
Paul offers thanksgiving to God for the church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 1:4). This is good pastoral care: Paul wants the Corinthians to know that, even if he does have some stern words to speak to them, it is because his heart longs for them. The Apostle offers his thanksgiving to God, not just once but “always” on their behalf, and particularly gives thanks for their gift of grace.
In fact Paul celebrated the Corinthians’ giftedness, especially in speech and knowledge, in which they were enriched by God (1 Corinthians 1:5). This is part of God’s grace to them. In this the testimony of Christ has been confirmed in them, and strengthened among them (1 Corinthians 1:6).
Again Paul affirms their giftedness (1 Corinthians 1:7), by which they can patiently wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ in His glory. As with all His people, God will not hold them liable to charges, and will confirm their blamelessness at the second coming (1 Corinthians 1:8). He who has begun a good work in us will see it through to the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).
“God is faithful,” Paul reminds us (1 Corinthians 1:9). Our faith may waver, but the Lord’s kingdom is steadfast and true, far outliving the kingdoms of men (Daniel 6:26). The Lord is the One who helps us in the midst of our temptations (1 Corinthians 10:13).
The Lord is the One who calls us into the fellowship of His Son (1 Corinthians 1:9). We may think that we enter into fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ as so many individuals: but ultimately we enter in as part of His body, the church. This fellowship begins at conversion, continues in our communion with other believers, and is eternal.
Gospel Mk 13:33-37
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We have the application of this prophetic sermon. As to the destruction of Jerusalem, expect it to come very shortly. As to the end of the world, do not inquire when it will come, for of that day and that hour knoweth no man. Christ, as God, could not be ignorant of anything; but the Divine wisdom which dwelt in our Savior, communicated itself to his human soul according to the Divine pleasure. As to both, our duty is to watch and pray. Our Lord Jesus, when he ascended on high, left something for all his servants to do. We ought to be always upon our watch, in expectation of his return. This applies to Christ's coming to us at our death, as well as to the general judgment. We know not whether our Master will come in the days of youth, or middle age, or old age; but, as soon as we are born, we begin to die, and therefore we must expect death. Our great care must be, that, whenever our Lord comes, he may not find us secure, indulging in ease and sloth, mindless of our work and duty. He says to all, Watch, that you may be found in peace, without spot, and blameless.
Making the Connection
Well aware of the temptations of distractions and the danger of procrastination, you can appreciate Jesus’ message of vigilance in anticipation of the coming of the Son of Man. Remember the importance of prayer and faithfulness to God as ways to honor Jesus’ command to be alert and ready for his return in glory.
- Imagine the following situation: You are a teenager and your parent has instructed you to clean your room. Imagine that your room is really messy. Your parent will be inspecting your room in one hour and will expect it to be clean. What do you do? Probably most of you would not procrastinate since you know the deadline is imminent.
- Now imagine this same situation with one minor change: You do not know when your parent will return to check on your room. Does this change how you will act after your parent leaves? If so, how?
- Sometimes we act differently when we don’t have a deadline. Without a deadline, we often succumb to the temptation to procrastinate or to let ourselves be distracted by other things. Jesus warned his disciples that the coming of the Son of Man would be much like the second situation we considered. Think about His warning found in today’s Gospel.
- In today’s Gospel Jesus is responding to a question from his disciples about how they will know when the Son of Man, Jesus, will return in glory. What does Jesus tell them about when this will happen? (Only the Father knows when the Son of Man will return in glory.) Why do you think this is more like the second situation we discussed above? (The timeframe is unknown.) What does Jesus tell his disciples that they should do in the meantime? (They should be alert and watchful.)
- During Advent, we do more than just prepare ourselves to celebrate the birth of Christ. The Church also wants us to remember that we must keep ourselves ready to receive Christ when he comes to us in our daily lives and at the end of time. Like the disciples, Jesus wants us to be watchful and alert so that we might recognize the signs of Christ in our midst. What are some things that we do to keep ourselves ready to receive Christ? (daily prayer, reading Scripture, staying faithful to God’s commandments, and so on)
- Pray that we will use the season of Advent to re-commit ourselves to being watchful and alert to the signs of Christ in our midst. Read as a concluding prayer Paul’s words to the Corinthians found in today’s second reading, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, or pray the Lord’s Prayer.
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Sunday November 26, 2017 The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Lectionary: 160
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 34:11-12, 15-17
Thus says the Lord GOD:
I myself will look after and tend my sheep.
As a shepherd tends his flock
when he finds himself among his scattered sheep,
so will I tend my sheep.
I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered
when it was cloudy and dark.
I myself will pasture my sheep;
I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD.
The lost I will seek out,
the strayed I will bring back,
the injured I will bind up,
the sick I will heal,
but the sleek and the strong I will destroy,
shepherding them rightly.
As for you, my sheep, says the Lord GOD,
I will judge between one sheep and another,
between rams and goats.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-2, 2-3, 5-6
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28
Brothers and sisters:
Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since death came through man,
the resurrection of the dead came also through man.
For just as in Adam all die,
so too in Christ shall all be brought to life,
but each one in proper order:
Christ the firstfruits;
then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ;
then comes the end,
when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father,
when he has destroyed every sovereignty
and every authority and power.
For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
When everything is subjected to him,
then the Son himself will also be subjected
to the one who subjected everything to him,
so that God may be all in all.
Gospel Mt 25:31-46
Jesus said to his disciples:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory,
and all the angels with him,
he will sit upon his glorious throne,
and all the nations will be assembled before him.
And he will separate them one from another,
as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Then the king will say to those on his right,
'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.'
Then the righteous will answer him and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you,
or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you,
or naked and clothe you?
When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?'
And the king will say to them in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Then he will say to those on his left,
'Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For I was hungry and you gave me no food,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
a stranger and you gave me no welcome,
naked and you gave me no clothing,
ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.'
Then they will answer and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,
and not minister to your needs?'
He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.'
And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS ----------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 34:11-12, 15-17
First Reading: Ezekiel 34:11-16
"Pride goes before the fall." But after the fall, what happens next? This was the question Ezekiel tried to answer for his contemporaries taken into captive exile.
As the son of a priest, Ezekiel was taken into exile by the Babylonians. Soon after, Ezekiel felt the call to prophesy among his countrymen. Through visions and strange behavior, Ezekiel tried to explain why the Jews were in exile. And he looked ahead to God's salvation.
While the Jews lost all because of their sin, they would be gathered together by the power of God. The Lord would bring the Diaspora (communities of Jews spread throughout the world) back to worship in Jerusalem, like a shepherd gathers lost sheep who strayed from the flock [34:11-12]. He care for the injured. He would return the lost sheep (the Jews in the Diaspora) and would give them a place of safety, with lust pastures [34:13-14]. But there would be judgment, for not all the lost would be innocent [34:15-17].
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-2, 2-3, 5-6
Many of David's psalms are full of complaints, but this is full of comforts, and the expressions of delight in God's great goodness and dependence upon him. It is a psalm which has been sung by good Christians, and will be while the world stands, with a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction. I. The psalmist here claims relation to God, as his shepherd (v. 1). II. He recounts his experience of the kind things God had done for him as his shepherd (v. 2, 3, 5). III. Hence he infers that he should want no good (v. 1), that he needed to fear no evil (v. 4), that God would never leave nor forsake him in a way of mercy; and therefore he resolves never to leave nor forsake God in a way of duty (v. 6). In this he had certainly an eye, not only to the blessings of God's providence, which made his outward condition prosperous, but to the communications of God's grace, received by a lively faith, and returned in a warm devotion, which filled his soul with joy unspeakable. And, as in the foregoing psalm he represented Christ dying for his sheep, so here he represents Christians receiving the benefit of all the care and tenderness of that great and good shepherd.
From three very comfortable premises David, in this psalm, draws three very comfortable conclusions, and teaches us to do so too. We are saved by hope, and that hope will not make us ashamed, because it is well grounded. It is the duty of Christians to encourage themselves in the Lord their God; and we are here directed to take that encouragement both from the relation wherein he stands to us and from the experience we have had of his goodness according to that relation.
Reading 2 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28
1 Corinthians 15 is Paul’s most extensive presentation of Christ’s Parousia and our bodily resurrection as a result of Christ’s future coming.
That is because some of the Corinthians have rejected the notion of our bodily resurrection. We do not know for sure why this is the case. It could be that they view the soul as the immortal entity of human existence which is housed in a mortal, disposable body. Or perhaps they hold a realized eschatology which sees Christians as already participating in Christ's resurrected reality. In any case, throughout this chapter Paul mounts a sustained argument that presents the resurrection of Christ as the foundational basis for our future bodily resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:19 is not the opening of a new section but the closing of a unit begun in 15:12 wherein Paul draws out the logical inferences to the proposition that there is no resurrection of the dead. If indeed there is no resurrection of the dead, then:
- Christ has not been raised (15:13);
- Apostolic preaching is in vain since Christ’s resurrection is a central component of such proclamation (15:14a recalling 15:4);
- The Corinthians’ faith is in vain (15:14b, 17a);
- The apostles are thus false witness about God (15:15);
- We are still in our sins (v. 17);
- Dead Christians are non-existent entities (v. 18)
In 1 Corinthians 15:19 Paul then presents the concluding implication of this argumentative chain. If Christian hope is limited by the boundary of mortal existence and does not extend to the hope of the resurrection, then Christians are the most pathetic of people since their hope is based on a mere illusion of life beyond death.
Beginning in 15:20, Paul flips around his argument. He opens with the emphatic temporal marker, “but now,” to present divine reality: Christ has been raised from the dead. His intentional use of the perfect, passive verb, “had been raised” highlights how Christ was raised by God in the past and remains resurrected into the present and future. Christ’s resurrection is the first fruit of those who have fallen asleep (a euphemism for death as a transitory but not permanent state of existence). First fruit was the first of the harvest offered to God as its choicest portion which also vouchsafes the rest of the crop. In his resurrection, Christ is the choicest portion of the eschatological harvest which also vouchsafes the rest of the eschatological harvest (an image he will repeat in 15:23a).
Most English translations of 1 Corinthians 15:21 do not quite capture what Paul is highlighting. There is no verb in the parallel clauses of v. 21a and v. 21b. Our translations seek to solve this dilemma by inserting the verbs “came/come” as if Paul is presenting the means by which death and resurrection arrive. Actually, the assumed verb should be “is” as Paul presents the reality of death and resurrection, i.e., through a human is death and through a human is resurrection of the dead.
In 1 Corinthians 15:22 Paul elucidates this reality claim. In Adam, all die. Here Paul is reflecting his broader theological perspective that Sin and Death invaded creation and enslaved humanity through Adam’s disobedience (see Romans 5:12-21). On the one hand, in baptism we were incorporated in Christ’s death and thus died to Sin so that Sin is no longer our enslaving lord (Romans 6:1-14). Nevertheless, Death still holds sway over our mortal existence so that our Adamic reality means we all die. This, however, is not the last word or our final destiny because all humanity defined by Christ will be made alive. Paul’s intentional use of the future, passive verb, “will be made alive” shows that this is a divine future event occurring at Christ’s Parousia. We do not have a mortal soul which will continue to live on after we die. Rather, we are mortal bodies who die, but through the resurrecting power of God we will be made alive.
Paul then goes on to present the culminating chain of events which will unfold at Christ’s Parousia as the end of created time and space. Christ will obliterate every antagonistic power and rule which stands in opposition to God and God’s salvific plan (1 Corinthians 15:24b, 25b). For Paul, these malevolent powers are both human and non-human. This recalls his prior claim in 1 Corinthians 2:7-8 that the rulers of this age did not comprehend God’s hidden plan and so crucified Christ. Ironically, they inadvertently began the divine sequence of events which will result in their own destruction because God has raised Christ from the dead, and his future coming will involve their annihilation. The final and ultimate enemy which Christ will obliterate is Death itself (15:26). In Paul’s theological perspective, Death is not simply the powerful ally of Sin. Death is the cosmic dark lord who has attempted to have final say over everything which God had created. Thus Paul is not thinking about death in existential terms, though he does understand that all of us feel the sting of death in our own mortal, bodily existence. Instead, Paul is thinking on a cosmic scale. In this regard, the ultimate theological question for Paul is not: “What happens to us when we die?” Rather, the ultimate theological question is, “Who has final say regarding the existence of everything in the cosmos, Death or God?” Paul’s answer is clear: At Christ’s Parousia the final victory will belong to God as humanity marked by Christ will be raised; Christ will destroy all that stands in opposition to God; and Christ will hand over everything he has liberated back to God so that God will be the everything in everything (1 Corinthians 15:24-28).
Here we discover that Easter is much bigger than Easter. On the first Easter, God established the course toward which God is drawing all reality. On that day, God did not simply change the existence of Jesus from being dead to being alive. God changed the destiny of the cosmos in the first fruit defeat of Death by raising Christ from the dead. The divine victory at Christ’s future coming will culminate in the ultimate obliteration of the ultimate enemy of God coupled with our bodily resurrection into eternal life.
Gospel Mt 25:31-46
The Lord's teaching on the final judgment challenges every disciple of Jesus to be a harbinger of God's kingdom in a broken world.
The teaching opens with apocalyptic images that convey Christ's kingship. The image of the Son of Man coming in glory reflects imagery from Daniel 7:13-14 and recalls other places in Matthew's Gospel where Jesus foretells the coming judgment (24:30-31; 26:64).
In chapter 24, after Jesus privately warns his disciples of dark days ahead when false prophets will arise and many will lose faith, Jesus tells his followers that the suffering will be interrupted by "the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (24:30). He will send out his angels to gather all the elect (24:31). In the passage under study, which marks the end of Jesus' eschatological discourse (24:1-25:46), the Son of Man has arrived with his angels and is now seated on the throne, where he is called the king (25:34).
The portrait of Christ as King is a fearsome one in this text. All the nations of the world have gathered before him and behold his majesty. This imagery recalls Zechariah 14:1-21 where every nation will recognize the kingship of the Lord as the Lord stands upon the Mount of Olives -- Jesus' own location as he teaches his disciples (Matthew 24:3).
From the throne, the king uses his authority to separate the people. To illustrate the separation of one individual from another, Jesus likens himself to a shepherd who separates his flock of sheep from the goats who are grazing in the same pasture. The sheep receive the place of honor and inherit God's kingdom (25:34).
Jesus calls the sheep those who are "blessed by my Father" (25:34). Who are the blessed ones? The blessings of the beatitudes foreshadow Jesus' eschatological teaching. Although the Greek word for "blessed" in 25:34 is not the same as the one employed in the beatitudes, both convey a blessing from God.
In the beatitudes, Jesus blesses those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake and who are reviled for their faith (5:10-11; cf. 24:9-14). Likewise, Jesus' teaching on the blessing of the sheep comes after he has warned his disciples that they will be hated by the world and tortured for his sake (24:9). In Christ's kingdom, the blessed ones are those who do not retaliate with violence, but bear witness to a new empire by serving others (25:31-46).
The blessed ones have demonstrated their faithfulness by performing acts of loving-kindness. The charge to care for the poor and the disadvantaged can be found throughout scripture, but it is especially exhibited in the ministry of Jesus. In this Gospel, Christ has announced the arrival of God's kingdom while he cures the sick (e.g., 8:28-9:8, 9:18-38; 12:9-14; 14:34-36; 15:29-31), welcomes the despised (9:9-13), and provides food for the hungry (14:13-21; 15:32-39). He orders his disciples to carry on his ministry by doing likewise (10:5-15, 40-42).
The service of the "least" concerns all people everywhere. Since Jesus has warned the disciples repeatedly of their upcoming persecution (10:16-39; 24:9-14), the context of this passage suggests that believers would certainly be among those who are suffering and imprisoned.
The primary purpose of a prison at the time was not to incarcerate individuals for an indefinite period of punishment, but to have a place for them to await trial (consider Phil 1:19-20; 2:23-24). It was often the responsibility of loved ones to provide some basic necessities while the person was in jail. Not only are believers to provide this service for one another, but they are to demonstrate Christ's love by ministering to others who may have no one to care for them.
The righteous ones performed these deeds with no idea that they were ministering to Christ. Jesus says that whenever they gave food to the hungry, welcomed a stranger, clothed the naked, or visited the sick or imprisoned, they acted in kindness toward Jesus himself. Jesus can identify with the least of these because he has walked in their shoes (cf. 8:20).
On the other hand, those who have failed to see the needs of the disadvantaged have acted as though they have never seen Jesus. They have not followed in Christ's footsteps. They have not continued to do the work that the Master has called them to do (24:45-51). They have not displayed who the real King is.
Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus' teaching has announced and illustrated the kingdom of God. God's kingdom does not function like a typical kingdom. This divine reign has invaded the world and is good news -- especially to those on the fringes of society. This rule welcomes those who have no status and seeks to serve others rather than exploit them.
The righteous have inherited this kingdom. Those who claim to follow Jesus and hope to endure to the end (24:13) are called to live faithfully to God's righteous empire.
Those who have experienced God's kingdom cannot go back to life as it once was. Stanley Hauerwas writes, "The difference between followers of Jesus and those who do not know Jesus is that those who have seen Jesus no longer have any excuse to avoid 'the least of these.'"1
The blessed ones are those who have seen a King who is not like the kings of this world. They are blessed because they know a King who brings real peace, who sees the needy, and who hears the cries of the oppressed. In God's kingdom, no one is hungry, naked, sick, or alone. To bear witness to Christ as King is to be a messenger of this kingdom--to serve others and thereby profess the invasion of God's glorious empire.
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Think of a picture of a crying child, a picture of a smiling child, and two clear glasses.
- One glass with a small amount of cooking oil and the other glass with the same amount of water. These two liquids look alike. By the looks of them, it is hard to tell if one tastes good and one tastes bad.
- Now think about the two pictures of the children. Can you tell if either of the children in the pictures has been misbehaving? (No. The crying child might be showing kindness by being sad that someone has been hurt, and the smiling child might be showing meanness because he or she is happy that someone else has gotten into trouble.)
- Sometimes people escape punishment for their bad behavior, and sometimes good actions are not rewarded. This doesn’t seem fair to us. Jesus teaches us in today’s Gospel that we don’t have to worry about this because God will judge all behavior when Jesus returns. Think about the gospel.
- In the Gospel this week, Jesus tells us that life may seem unfair at times; the consequences of good behavior and bad behavior get mixed up. If we pour the oil into the water and stir with the fork they mix. But Jesus says that we should not worry about this because someday he will return to separate the good from the bad. Once the liquid settles, the oil will separate and rise to the top. God can tell the difference between those who serve him and others and those who reject him by not caring for others. Those who follow him will live with him forever. Those who do not have chosen not to live with him. This will be a lonely choice for them. What do you think Jesus wants us to do? (He wants us to be doing good things for others, especially those who are hungry, ill, naked, or imprisoned.) Jesus says that when we do these things for anyone, we are doing them for him.
- Pray the Act of Love.
Bring to class a picture of a crying child, a picture of a smiling child, a fork, and two clear glasses. Fill one glass with a small amount of cooking oil and the other glass with the same amount of water. Hold up both glasses for the class to see. These two liquids look alike. By the looks of them, it is hard to tell if one tastes good and one tastes bad.
- Now think about the two pictures. Can you tell if either of the children in the pictures has been misbehaving? (No. The crying child might be showing kindness by being sad that someone has been hurt, and the smiling child might be showing meanness because he or she is happy that someone else has gotten into trouble.)
- Sometimes people escape punishment for their bad behavior, and sometimes good actions are not rewarded. This doesn’t seem fair to us. Jesus teaches us in today’s Gospel that we don’t have to worry about this because God will judge all behavior when Jesus returns. Think about what Jesus says in the gospel.
- In the Gospel this week, Jesus tells us that life may seem unfair at times; the consequences of good behavior and bad behavior get mixed up. Pour the oil into the water and stir with the fork. But Jesus says that we should not worry about this because someday he will return to separate the good from the bad. Allow the liquid to settle, so the oil will separate and rise to the top. Say: God can tell the difference between those who serve him and others and those who reject him by not caring for others. Those who follow him will live with him forever. Those who do not , have chosen not to live with him. This will be a lonely choice for them. What do you think Jesus wants us to do? (He wants us to be doing good things for others, especially those who are hungry, ill, naked, or imprisoned.) Jesus says that when we do these things for anyone, we are doing them for him.
- Conclude in prayer together, asking God to help us serve others. Pray together the Act of Love.
Amen.
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Sunday November 19, 2017 Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 157
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
When one finds a worthy wife,
her value is far beyond pearls.
Her husband, entrusting his heart to her,
has an unfailing prize.
She brings him good, and not evil,
all the days of her life.
She obtains wool and flax
and works with loving hands.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her fingers ply the spindle.
She reaches out her hands to the poor,
and extends her arms to the needy.
Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting;
the woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her a reward for her labors,
and let her works praise her at the city gates.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
R. (cf. 1a) Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R. Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Reading 2 1 Thes 5:1-6
Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters,
you have no need for anything to be written to you.
For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come
like a thief at night.
When people are saying, "Peace and security, "
then sudden disaster comes upon them,
like labor pains upon a pregnant woman,
and they will not escape.
But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness,
for that day to overtake you like a thief.
For all of you are children of the light
and children of the day.
We are not of the night or of darkness.
Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do,
but let us stay alert and sober.
Gospel Mt 25:14-30
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
"A man going on a journey
called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them.
To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one--
to each according to his ability.
Then he went away.
Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them,
and made another five.
Likewise, the one who received two made another two.
But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground
and buried his master's money.
After a long time
the master of those servants came back
and settled accounts with them.
The one who had received five talents came forward
bringing the additional five.
He said, 'Master, you gave me five talents.
See, I have made five more.'
His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Since you were faithful in small matters,
I will give you great responsibilities.
Come, share your master's joy.'
Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said,
'Master, you gave me two talents.
See, I have made two more.'
His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Since you were faithful in small matters,
I will give you great responsibilities.
Come, share your master's joy.'
Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said,
'Master, I knew you were a demanding person,
harvesting where you did not plant
and gathering where you did not scatter;
so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground.
Here it is back.'
His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant!
So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant
and gather where I did not scatter?
Should you not then have put my money in the bank
so that I could have got it back with interest on my return?
Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten.
For to everyone who has,
more will be given and he will grow rich;
but from the one who has not,
even what he has will be taken away.
And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'"
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Prv 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
The Book of Proverbs is a collection of sayings and wisdom poems that found its present form after the return of the exiles from Babylon. However, many verses surely came from the period of the monarchy in Judea before its fall.
The poem of an ideal wife (31:10-31) comprised the last major section of Proverbs. The poem described the perfect wife as prudent, industrious, and wise. Such a woman would make a prosperous business person by today's standards. But, unlike today, the ideal wife in Proverbs did all this in the shadow of her husband. According to the custom and culture, the wife was part of the husband's family, so her loyalty belonged to her spouse. Even in acts of charity [31:20] she was to advance his reputation [31:23]. Above all, two qualities stand out, stability [31:25] and fidelity to the God of Israel [31:30 b]. Notice that the qualities of sensuality and femininity were absent [31:30a].
If we strip away the notion of the wife, the remaining qualities would describe a faithful believer. Prudent and wise. Generous and industrious. Stable and faithful. We should strive for these qualities in our lives.
Do you see any of these qualities in yourself? In your spouse (if you are married)? How have these qualities improved your life?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
This, as the former, is a psalm for families. In that we were taught that the prosperity of our families depends upon the blessing of God; in this we are taught that the only way to obtain that blessing which will make our families comfortable is to live in the fear of God and in obedience to him. Those that do so, in general, shall be blessed (v. 1, 2, 4), In particular, I. They shall be prosperous and successful in their employments (v. 2). II. Their relations shall be agreeable (v. 3). III. They shall live to see their families brought up (v. 6). IV. They shall have the satisfaction of seeing the church of God in a flourishing condition (v. 5, 6). We must sing this psalm in the firm belief of this truth, That religion and piety are the best friends to outward prosperity, giving God the praise that it is so and that we have found it so, and encouraging ourselves and others with it.
Reading 2 1 Thes 5:1-6
Concerning the time span and the exact moment (of the end time), brothers, you do not have need (for anything) to be written to you, for you yourselves surely know that the Day of the Lord comes thus as a thief in the night. When (people) say, "Peace and security," then sudden destruction rises upon them, just like the (sudden) birth pang in the (pregnant) womb. But you, brothers, are not in the dark, so that the day should overtake you as a thief. For you are all sons of light, sons of the day. We are neither of the night, nor of the dark. So then, we should not fall asleep, but we should remain awake and sober.
"the time span and the exact moment" is "chronos" and "kairos" in Greek. "Chronos" is the flow of time (as in "chronological time"). "Kairos" is the exact moment (as in "the right time"). Paul echoed Jesus' warning in Acts 1:7 about speculation over the end times.
After Paul reassured the Thessalonians about the fate of those who died before the return of Jesus, he turned his attention to the favorite hobby of many Christians: speculating about the end times. He reminded his audience that trying to pinpoint the time frame of Jesus' return was futile. In fact, the Day of the Lord will come as a shock! Paul echoed a favorite image of Israel's prophets for the arrival of the Lord: the rushing onset of labor (Jer. 6:24; 22:23; Mic. 4:9). Notice that Paul implicitly saw this as God's work alone. This belief contradicted that of many Jews who believed that revolution or a righteous life would hasten the coming of the Lord. Paul inferred this was God's work alone, not man's.
Faith, however, empowered the Christian. He or she certainly knew that the Lord would return; they just didn't know when. This anticipation was not merely to be felt, but to be lived in a Christian lifestyle. Notice the qualities Paul used for the Christian who looked to the coming of Jesus. Living as children of the light, of the day. Living sober, alert lives. Paul would compare these qualities to those who lived shamefully in the shadows or in a stupor, like the sleepy or the drunk (see 5:7, not translated).
How we live reflects how seriously take the Christian message. We should live like we are ready for the coming of the Lord.
Are you ready for the coming of Jesus? How can you get ready for his return?
Gospel Mt 25:14-30
Have you ever felt like an outcast? What attitude or chain of events caused your feelings?
Think back to your childhood or adolescence. At one point you may have felt ostracized by your peers. They may have wanted more than you could give. Or, they may have rejected you for whom you were and what you could offer them. They may have taunted you mercilessly. Their barbs may have stung deeply. For a while you might have felt that the world stood against you.
In the last week's parable (Matthew 25:1-30), Jesus compared his followers to an unlikely image: unmarried teenage girls. Imagine the faces of the men in Jesus' audience who heard this parable. Utter amazement and shock. In a society that segregated by gender and that lived in clans ruled by patriarchs, the thought of men being compared to silly young girls seemed outlandish. How dare the Master berate Christian men like that?!
If that image stopped males in their tracks, imagine the power of the image in this week's gospel. The Kingdom was like an extortionist and his three henchmen. The shock must have been unbearable.
Contemporaries of Jesus believed all the wealth of the world was limited and the distribution of riches was preordained. In addition, the economic systems of the ancient world existed for many generations and had grown rigid over time. While someone could quickly amass a fortune, the general populace suspected that person of theft, bribery, or extortion. In a culture wary of change, only the devious and immoral could rise up the economic latter.
When Jesus began the parable, he created additional suspicions. The rich man most likely lived abroad (i.e., he was a foreigner). As he prepared for his journey home, he delegated his underlings to invest his fortune. While the eight silver talents described in 25:15 had a current value of $3 million, such wealth seemed uncountable to the impoverished contemporaries of Jesus. [25:14-16]
The two of the man's employees doubled the money they were given. How could they do this? Since the story assumed the rich man and his employees were non-Jews, they could lend money at exorbitant rates (30% to 50%) and enforce repayment with the threat of prison. If someone could not repay, he was jailed until his family could repay the loan (this was actually a ransom). The populace hated such lenders for their power and their wealth. They drained the poor people, taking an unfair share of a harvest or grain production as repayment. [25:24-25]
(Another explanation made the extortionist and his men tax collectors who could demand any surcharge they wanted. 50% surcharges were common. The tax collector had the power of imprisonment to enforce his levies. The poor hated these collectors as much as lenders.)
What would a cautious, honorable employee do? Bilking money from the poor was immoral. Without government controls or insurance, no investment was truly safe. So the honorable man would bury his master's money. Hidden away far from one's dwelling, no thief could find a man's gold or silver. And, since inflation in the ancient economic order was unimaginable, money maintained constant buying power from generation to generation. Even Jewish rabbis insisted that anyone who buried his master's money was not liable for it, since this was the most prudent course of action. [25:18]
Yet, Jesus belittled the prudent man and praised the extortionist as the image that revealed the Kingdom. Why would Matthew's audience be attracted to this parable? There are three possible answers. First, God worked outside the boundaries of good taste or the moral edicts of the self-righteous. God even used evil for his own ends (witness the crucifixion). Anything, even the greed of evil men, could reveal the Kingdom.
Second, Jesus ministered to the outlaw and the outcast. These people helped to form the original Christian communities. The outlaw and the outcast identified with principles in the parable as their own.
Third, Matthew's audience lived on the fringes of society. Excommunicated by Pharisaical Judaism, the Jewish-Christians of Matthew's community felt persecuted by their Jewish brethren and ignored by the non-Jews. The believers in the evangelist's community only had each other for financial and moral support. To be sure, the early faithful heard the words "Christian" and "sinner" whispered in the same sentence. For, they suffered the same public ridicule as the extortionist and his underlings.
How did Matthew's audience understand the parable? Let us look into Matthew's gospel for clues. Since the master gave his servants wealth, he meant those riches invested, even risked, for increased returns. The only parallel to an increase occurred in Matthew 13:3-9, the parable of the sower and the seed. Jesus interpreted these images in Matthew 13:18-23, where the preacher represented the sower and the Word represented the seed. The increase of the harvest represented the power of the Word in the hearts of people who became Christians.
If we draw a parallel between the two parables, the uncountable riches were the Word and the servants of the master were evangelizing Christians. Since God's Word was dynamic, the results of its use were equally dynamic. Those who preached the Word enjoyed its fruits and the promise of the Master's favor.
The most difficult parallel lay between the foreign master and God. How could anyone envision God as a ruthless extortionist? Yet, early Christians did foresee the coming of the Kingdom in violent terms. The final judgment would come swift and sure. Those who rejected the Lord would be, in turn, rejected. These included "lukewarm" or "fence sitting" followers, Christians in name only. [25:30]
The moral of the parable revealed God's ways. "...the person who has a lot will get more until its more than enough. But the person who doesn't have much will have the little he owns taken from him." [25:29] Like the extortionist, God expected much from his creatures, far more than occasional lip-service. To those who responded with loving service, he would give more, including the very life of his Son. But to those who gave little love, even that small amount would dry up and wither away. Through the eyes of the world, God ruled without mercy. But, through the eyes of his faithful, he ruled with justice and love.
While we might not realize it, we live in the end times. Ever since Christ ascended to his Father, Christians have waited anxiously for the return of their Lord in glory. For the past 2000 years, the Church has recognized the current moment as a time of favor, yet a time of judgment.
As we discussed last week, the risen Christ is fully present to us, his followers, yet we struggle against evil as they journey to meet the Lord. Sometimes, we might fall to our own self-delusions of holiness, sometimes to the lure of worldly temptation, sometimes to wiles of the Evil One. Ultimately, we will undergo a final trial, a choice between ". . . apparent solution to (our) problems . . . " and the truth. (CCC 675) A pseudo-messianic persona or force the Church calls the "Anti-Christ" will led the battle against us. This persona or force can include cults of personality or ideologies. In the end, the "Anti-Christ" (has and) will challenge God's People. Only God can deliver his faithful from the final test. We cannot save ourselves.
"The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil . . . " (CCC 677)
How have you waited upon the Lord, in spite of the challenges you face? Has your waiting been active? Explain.
God has his ways. Sometimes we feel his blessing. Sometimes we feel his distance. There are even times God may feel like the enemy. We enjoy times of intimacy as graced moments. But we might fail to realize that in times of distance and estrangement God offers us his life.
God demands much from us. Indeed, he demands everything! His edicts may sound unreasonable and may turn others away. Outsiders may view Christianity as extortion.
But, he gave everything in return, the very life of his only Son. For, he is the door to eternal life.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- What are some things that you have learned to do well? Think about this question and to make a list of at least five things.
- We all have particular skills and abilities, and each person’s combination of skills and abilities is unique. Our skills and abilities are among God’s many gifts to us.
- What are we to do with the skills and abilities that we have been given? Jesus taught about what to do with our abilities in a parable that we hear in this Sunday’s Gospel. Today’s Gospel uses the word “talents.” When Jesus used this word, he was referring to a kind of coin. Today we use this word to describe a person’s special abilities.
- Why were the first two servants rewarded by the master? (They used the talents that they were given and returned more money to the master than they were given.) Why was the third servant punished by the master? (He buried the talents that he was given and returned to the master only the money he had received.) What do you think this means about what Jesus wants us to do with our talents? (Jesus wants us to develop and use the gifts and talents that we have been given.)
- One of the things that Jesus would like us to do is to use our gifts and talents to help others. Look back over the list of skills and abilities that you made earlier. Make a list now of all of the ways that you can think of to use your skills and abilities to help others.
- Jesus does not want us to bury our talents. Choose one thing from your list that you will do this week. Write that one thing on a slip of paper. Refer to it during the week.
- Conclude in prayer pray the Prayer to the Holy Spirit.
- Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Sunday November 12, 2017 Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 154
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 6:12-16
Resplendent and unfading is wisdom,
and she is readily perceived by those who love her,
and found by those who seek her.
She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of their desire;
Whoever watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed,
for he shall find her sitting by his gate.
For taking thought of wisdom is the perfection of prudence,
and whoever for her sake keeps vigil
shall quickly be free from care;
because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her,
and graciously appears to them in the ways,
and meets them with all solicitude.
Reading 2 1 Thes 4:13-18
We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,
about those who have fallen asleep,
so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,
so too will God, through Jesus,
bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord,
that we who are alive,
who are left until the coming of the Lord,
will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself, with a word of command,
with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God,
will come down from heaven,
and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who are left,
will be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air.
Thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore, console one another with these words.
Gospel Mt 25:1-13
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
"The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins
who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
The foolish ones, when taking their lamps,
brought no oil with them,
but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps.
Since the bridegroom was long delayed,
they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
At midnight, there was a cry,
'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones said to the wise,
'Give us some of your oil,
for our lamps are going out.'
But the wise ones replied,
'No, for there may not be enough for us and you.
Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.'
While they went off to buy it,
the bridegroom came
and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him.
Then the door was locked.
Afterwards the other virgins came and said,
'Lord, Lord, open the door for us!'
But he said in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.'
Therefore, stay awake,
for you know neither the day nor the hour."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 6:12-16
Every national leader exercises authority with an eye to history. Vanity demands leaders make their mark on the world and leave a legacy. Many kings and presidents have pondered the question: how will future generations judge me?
What is the key to a favorable legacy, as well as a peaceful and profitable rule? The author of the Wisdom of Solomon had his favorite answer: wisdom! In fact he was so enamored with the virtue that he personified it in his writing. The image of wisdom the author painted was that of a young lover, a woman who waited eagerly by the gate to a man's house (so the virtue was easily available), yet aloof enough to only be available to those who sought her. "Lady Wisdom" was no commoner; she was "resplendent and unfading.." Like a classy lover, the virtue was intimate and reliable, a confidant in need. This was a virtue of those groomed for position and power.
The Wisdom of Solomon was written in the so-called "inter-Testamental" period (200 B.C. to 150 A.D.) . Composed by a Greek-speaking Jew (most likely in Alexandria, Egypt), the book was used to instruct young Jewish males in the ways of leadership.
Like the young Jews who heard these words, we, too, should seek wisdom as our guide to leadership. The comfort it brings far outweighs gains from turf battles or displays of ego. When we act wisely, we act for the good of all, not for the self.
Look upon the leadership in your community and church. How is that leadership exercised? With wisdom? How have you exercised leadership? How wise have you been in your dealings with others.
Remember it’s nice to be important but it’s more important to be nice.
Reading 2 1 Thes 4:13-18
Here is comfort for the relations and friends of those who die in the Lord. Grief for the death of friends is lawful; we may weep for our own loss, though it may be their gain. Christianity does not forbid, and grace does not do away, with our natural affections. Yet we should not be excessive in our sorrows; this is too much like those who have no hope of a better life. Death is an unknown thing, and we know little about the state after death; yet the doctrines of the resurrection and the second coming of Christ, are a remedy against the fear of death, and undue sorrow for the death of our Christian friends; and of these doctrines we have full assurance. It will be some happiness that all the saints shall meet, and remain together for ever; but the principal happiness of heaven is to be with the Lord, to see him, live with him, and enjoy him for ever. We should support one another in times sorrow; not deaden one another's spirits, or weaken one another's hands. And this may be done by the many lessons to be learned from the resurrection of the dead, and the second coming of Christ. What! comfort a man by telling him he is going to appear before the judgment-seat of God! Who can feel comfort from those words? That man alone with whose spirit the Spirit of God bears witness that his sins are blotted out, and the thoughts of whose heart are purified by the Holy Spirit, so that he can love God, and worthily magnify his name. We are not in a safe state unless that it is the way with us, or we are desiring to be so.
Gospel Mt 25:1-13
We conclude the church year with three parables from Matthew 25. Matthew is using themes from Jewsih apocalyptic literature. First a strong inducing of the end of the world, second diametrically opposed realities, third a belief that God is in charge and will bring a judgment against the unrighteous and vindicate the righteous. Finally this school of Jewish thought of apocalyptic literature provides ethical standards for life under great difficulties. When we hear readings from apocalyptic literature elsewhere in the liturgy it is good to keep these thmes in mind. Such writing was meant to give hope to people in persecution, to give them comfort and challenge us as well. An ethical note is found in todays parable of the wise and foolish virgins waiting for a bridegroom. In a time of great trial it is important to be prepared. Of course this story is meant to remind us about the end of time and Jesus eventual return. And no one as Jesus has earlier warned knows when that will happen except the Father. We want to be living in such a way as to be ready for Jesus arrival. There’s a dualism here as well the wise and foolish virgins. The wise prepare the foolish do not. When the doors to the wedding reception are locked those who were unprepared won’t be able to enter despite their protests that they are friends of the groom. Words alone won’t get us in. Crying out even the proper title of respect and faith is insufficient preparation for entry into the kingdom. One must remain ever ready and accomplish God’s will. Good advice even as we await the Lord’s coming.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Let’s imagine that we are planning a surprise party for a friend. How would we go about preparing for this party? Let’s make a list of the things we would need to do to prepare. Create a list that includes items such as preparing an invitation list, setting the date and place for the party, planning the food, choosing the decorations, planning activities, and so on.
- There’s a lot of preparation needed for a surprise party. What would happen if the guest of honor arrived before we were ready? What would happen if the guest of honor was delayed in his or her arrival? (Accept all reasonable answers.)
- In Jesus’ time, the bridegroom traveled from his home to the home of the bride to meet the bride and bring her back to his home. The virgins in this parable were family members and friends of the bride, whose job it was to greet the bridegroom and escort him to the bride. What did they need to do to be prepared for this job? (They had to prepare their lamps and meet the bridegroom.) What happened in the story? (Some of the women didn’t bring enough oil for their lamps, and when the bridegroom was delayed, they were unable to meet him.) Were these foolish virgins able to attend the wedding feast? (No, they were unable to accompany the bridegroom to the feast; they were not able to attend the feast because they arrived too late.)
- Jesus concludes this parable by reminding his listeners that we must stay prepared to receive the Kingdom of Heaven because we do not know when the Kingdom of Heaven will come. What are some things that we should be doing to stay prepared to receive the Kingdom of Heaven? (praying every day, learning what God wants us to do, obeying the Commandments)
- Conclude in prayer together for the strength to prepare to receive the Kingdom of Heaven when it comes. Pray the Prayer to the Holy Spirit
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord, by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.----------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday November 5, 2017 Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 151
THE READINGS ----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Mal 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10
A great King am I, says the LORD of hosts,
and my name will be feared among the nations.
And now, O priests, this commandment is for you:
If you do not listen,
if you do not lay it to heart,
to give glory to my name, says the LORD of hosts,
I will send a curse upon you
and of your blessing I will make a curse.
You have turned aside from the way,
and have caused many to falter by your instruction;
you have made void the covenant of Levi,
says the LORD of hosts.
I, therefore, have made you contemptible
and base before all the people,
since you do not keep my ways,
but show partiality in your decisions.
Have we not all the one father?
Has not the one God created us?
Why then do we break faith with one another,
violating the covenant of our fathers?
Reading 2 1 Thes 2:7b-9, 13
Brothers and sisters:
We were gentle among you, as a nursing mother cares for her children.
With such affection for you, we were determined to share with you
not only the gospel of God, but our very selves as well,
so dearly beloved had you become to us.
You recall, brothers and sisters, our toil and drudgery.
Working night and day in order not to burden any of you,
we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly,
that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us,
you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God,
which is now at work in you who believe.
Gospel Mt 23:1-12
Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,
"The scribes and the Pharisees
have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.
Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you,
but do not follow their example.
For they preach but they do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens hard to carry
and lay them on people's shoulders,
but they will not lift a finger to move them.
All their works are performed to be seen.
They widen their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels.
They love places of honor at banquets, seats of honor in synagogues,
greetings in marketplaces, and the salutation 'Rabbi.'
As for you, do not be called 'Rabbi.'
You have but one teacher, and you are all brothers.
Call no one on earth your father;
you have but one Father in heaven.
Do not be called 'Master';
you have but one master, the Christ.
The greatest among you must be your servant.
Whoever exalts himself will be humbled;
but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Mal 1:14b-2:2b, 8-10
Let’s look up the beginning of this reading, the last part is Cursed is the cheat who has in his flock an intact male,
and vows it, but sacrifices to the LORD a defective one instead
Our Liturgical Setting: This year, we've been making our way through the chapters of Saint Matthew's gospel every Sunday of Ordinary Time. The editors of the lectionary usually pick a first reading that resonates with the day's gospel. In today's gospel, Jesus criticizes the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his day. Today's first reading prepares us to hear that.
The Historical Situation: The priests of this period (around 450 BC, after Judah's return from the exile in Babylon) were indifferent about their rituals and their teaching responsibilities, and often unfair in the judgments they made among the people. Malachi expresses God's outrage at this.
Proclaiming It: Notice that the person of the speaker changes in the last three short sentences. Where the prophet had been speaking in the voice of God, he switches to his own voice for three rhetorical questions. Pause before starting to proclaim those questions. Modulate your tone of voice, if you can, to bring out the difference.
You can express the divine outrage by building your volume and sharpening your tone through the first sentence and the long second sentence, until you're practically shouting "I will send a curse upon you."
When introducing the reading, pronounce the author's name MAL uh kie, where the accented first syllable rhymes with "pal," and the third syllable sounds like "eye."
Reading 2 1 Thes 2:7b-9, 13
A monk was sent by his abbot to assume the responsibilities of being the new prior of one of their daughter priories at a distant country. The monk journeyed to his destination, the priory where he was to serve as prior, and upon arrival the other monks welcomed him thinking him to be just simply one from their community who had come to help them with their work. So they sent him into the monastery to help clean the monastery. They gave him a whole list of different chores and duties to do. And he did all that was asked of him each day. After several days, the abbot arrived; and looking for the monk he had sent, he found him in the kitchen washing the dishes after the other monks had eaten.
He gathered the monks in their chapter room and he announced to them that he wanted to introduce to them their new prior. And in walked this monk that they had been putting to work, serving them and their needs, washing dishes, serving tables, cleaning the monastery, tending to the gardens…all the different duties and responsibilities. The prior amazed and impressed - an impression on the community that was long lasting. An impression that when one humbles oneself in service to others, one does simply all that is asked of them.
As we come here this weekend, we hear that we are to be a people who are to be true to our calling – a calling to give praise and glory to our God. And the manner in which we do that is in our humbly serving one another. Our willingness to put the needs, the concerns of others, ahead of our own personal needs and concerns. Our willingness to be that people who put into action what we profess – that God loves us, that God blesses us. And in turn, we show that love and that blessing through our willingness to humbly serve one another.
We are called, in a sense, to embrace humility. Humility indeed stretches us, because no one of us really likes to think of ourselves less than others. And it’s not a matter of thinking of less than others as it is more so thinking that we can serve. That we can serve one another without condition, without seeking appreciation, without seeking acknowledgement, without seeking anything in return – just simply doing what is good in service of others, because it’s good! It’s holy!
And so we come here, in a sense, to recognize that in stretching ourselves it is a matter of giving of ourselves, making gifts of ourselves, to one another. As a community of faith, and even beyond, it’s just simply serving all people.
Because of our knowing how much our God loves us, how much our God blesses us. And all that we can do is to humbly give praise and glory to our God, and we do so in our humble willingness to serve, to serve the poor, to serve the stranger, to serve our families, our friends, our neighbors, to serve anyone who is in need – just because it is good. And it is holy.
That kind of humility is what Paul speaks of in our second reading in the First Letter to the Thessalonians. Just going about and doing because it’s right, and it’s good and it’s holy. Not wanting to in any way impose upon another, but just serving others, always looking at what more can I do, what more can I do?
And as we go through this kind of a community of faith here at Epiphany, this time of year when we take time to reflect upon God’s blessings in our lives, to reflect upon how we respond to those blessings through making a pledge of stewardship, of giving of time, of talent, of treasure, we’re mindful then that it is humbling that we have recognized all that God does for us. And that we offer it humbly in service to one another, in order to continue the work of our God, bringing to light God’s love, God’s goodness, God’s mercy.
And so we gather then to give praise. We pray that we may be a people who can embrace humility. Who are willing to ask what more can I offer? What more can I do? How can I serve? And in our humble service, what we discover is how much more we were unaware of God’s great love and God’s many blessings in our lives.
God indeed loves us and blesses us beyond our imagining, and all that’s asked of us is to humbly acknowledge what our God does. Give God praise and glory and be willing to love and serve one another.
Gospel Mt 23:1-12
This passage introduces a chapter in Matthew filled with Jesus' warnings to the scribes and Pharisees.
Yet it is important to note from the onset that the narrative audience of the chapter is the Jewish crowds and Jesus' disciples (23:1), with no indication that the Pharisees or scribes are listening in. The chapter functions as a negative example for those who follow Jesus, as well as a partial rationale for the judgment on current Jerusalem leadership and the temple which will be the focus of Matthew 24.
To gain a better sense of Jesus' critique of the Pharisees, we would do well to remind ourselves of their primary motivations and distinctives. According to Josephus, the Pharisees surpassed other Jews in their knowledge of the Torah (Life, 38). They were particularly concerned to bring the practices of purification necessary for temple participation into their everyday experience. The Pharisees were not attempting to earn a place in God's covenant through their Torah observance. Instead, as part of God's covenant people, they attempted to live out faithfulness to the Law, with a strong focus on avoiding ritual defilement whenever possible.
Jesus' problem with the Pharisees and scribes is not with their intentions in relation to God per se. We see from this passage that the two significant critiques Jesus provides have to do with (1) their lack of obedience to the Torah as they teach it to the people (23:2-4); and (2) the motivation in doing the Law as a way to gain human favor and honor (23:5-7). Regarding the first, Jesus' followers are told to listen to and obey what the Pharisees and scribes teach from the Torah, since they "sit on Moses' seat." Yet Jesus will immediately qualify the authority of the Pharisees: they themselves do not practice what they preach. This may sound odd, since the Pharisees were known for their devotion to the Law. Yet, as Matthew has shown earlier in his gospel, Jesus indicts the Pharisees for their interpretation of the Torah along with oral tradition when the latter provides a way out of obeying the former. In Matthew 15, Jesus criticizes the Pharisees and scribes for putting their oral tradition above the command to honor parents, thereby breaking God's command in their attempts to keep it (15:3-6)! In addition, the Pharisees are described as putting heavy burdens on those they teach (23:4; the yoke image would have brought to mind the teaching of Torah). By this Jesus places the Pharisees in direct contrast to himself as Torah teacher, since his yoke--his teaching of Torah--is easy and light, not heavy and burdensome (11:28-30), in part because his interpretation of the Torah places centrality on love, mercy, and justice.
Just as Jesus has called his disciples to a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees (5:20), in Matthew 23:1-4 he calls his disciples into faithful obedience in contrast to these leaders. Matthew also alludes back to earlier teaching, reminding them that Jesus' interpretation of the Torah brings life and rest (11:28-30). Both of these reminders can be contextualized in our preaching. Faithful obedience--loyalty to God and God's word--is to be central to Christian living (cf. 23:23). In a cultural context that worships freedom from tradition and constraints--in which religious regulations or laws are often viewed, de facto, as heavy and burdensome--Jesus calls his followers to faithfulness and obedience with the assurance that his teachings are easy loads to bear (11:28-30). Matt 23:1-4 also reminds Christian leaders to reflect upon their own teaching: Are we placing heavy burdens upon those entrusted to us without lifting a finger in aid? Or do we share the teachings of Jesus that bring promised rest?
Jesus' second critique of the scribes and Pharisees is that they do the religious practices for the wrong audience (23:5-7; see parallel ideas in 6:1-18). They wear the required religious garment with fringes (per Numbers 15:37-40), but they accentuate the length "to be seen by others" (23:5). They seek honor from people rather than praise from God alone for their religious observance. Nowhere do we hear Jesus faulting their religious practice per se. Instead, he is highly critical of their misplaced focus upon human accolades.
In contrast, Jesus' followers are prohibited from elevating anyone among them over the others. This is quite a counter-cultural call! Seeking places of honor and the best seats in public gatherings as the Pharisees are described as doing (23:6-7) would have been the acceptable and expected behavior in the first century context. Jesus' renunciation of status concerns and practices in his community would have been difficult to fully envision in that context. In fact, earlier in Matthew the disciples struggle to understand Jesus' teaching on status reversal (cf. 18:1-5; 19:30-20:16; 20:20-28).
This particular message from Matthew continues to speak with relevance to the contemporary church. For, even if we believe ourselves to be more democratic than our ancient brothers and sisters, it is often the case that "the Christian community resembles a Wall Street exchange of works wherein the elite are honored and the ordinary ignored.” The hope offered us as we address these difficult issues is a gracious heavenly Father and Jesus our Messiah who will continue to instruct us and lead us as communities of faith (23:10).
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Name some people you think of as leaders. For each person, what are some key characteristics of this leader? What are some of this leader’s responsibilities?
- Do any of these leaders inspire you to want to be a leader? Why or why not? Are there any other characteristics you would hope for in a leader?
- In today’s Gospel, Jesus talks to the crowd about some of their religious leaders. In fact, he is rather critical of these religious leaders.
- What does Jesus tell the crowd about some of their religious leaders? Why? (He tells them to follow what they teach, but not to follow their example; Jesus says that they do not practice what they preach.) Jesus then tells the crowd what characteristic he looks for in a good leader. What does he say? (Jesus says that leaders should be humble; a good leader serves others.)
- In what ways are the leaders you named earlier like the kind of leader that Jesus described? Are there others we might list as leaders in the model of Jesus? Who? Prepare such a list discussing what makes each a leader in the model that Jesus teaches.
- Pray petitioning God for the wisdom to grow to be people who humbly serve others as Jesus taught. Pray the act of love.
Amen.
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Sunday October 29, 2017 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 148
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 22:20-26
Thus says the LORD:
"You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.
If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry.
My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword;
then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans.
"If you lend money to one of your poor neighbors among my people,
you shall not act like an extortioner toward him
by demanding interest from him.
If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge,
you shall return it to him before sunset;
for this cloak of his is the only covering he has for his body.
What else has he to sleep in?
If he cries out to me, I will hear him; for I am compassionate."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51
R. (2) I love you, Lord, my strength.
I love you, O LORD, my strength,
O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
My God, my rock of refuge,
my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim,
and I am safe from my enemies.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
The LORD lives and blessed be my rock!
Extolled be God my savior.
You who gave great victories to your king
and showed kindness to your anointed.
R. I love you, Lord, my strength.
Reading 2 1 Thes 1:5c-10
Brothers and sisters:
You know what sort of people we were among you for your sake.
And you became imitators of us and of the Lord,
receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit,
so that you became a model for all the believers
in Macedonia and in Achaia.
For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth
not only in Macedonia and in Achaia,
but in every place your faith in God has gone forth,
so that we have no need to say anything.
For they themselves openly declare about us
what sort of reception we had among you,
and how you turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God
and to await his Son from heaven,
whom he raised from the dead,
Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.
Gospel Mt 22:34-40
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law tested him by asking,
"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
He said to him,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 22:20-26
“My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword.”
Did our loving, life-affirming God just utter those words?
Such references to violence and vengeance often turn people away from exploring the Old Testament. In fact, it is uncommon for the Church to use passages such as the above in its sacred liturgy. Even in the New Testament we see God striking sinners dead! (Read Acts 5.) How can there be any place for violence and vengeance in the Bible?
To understand, we first have to consider that Israel’s belief in one God (monotheism) developed over a loooong period of time. In its earliest history, the people who would become the nation of Israel imagined God as one of many gods. These gods were understood in very human terms, with human characteristics and behaviors reflecting the worldview of the time. From this perspective, it was important that Israel's God be strong enough to be able to take care of Israel. Perception is everything, and no one would follow a "wimpy" God--what was the point of a god, they thought, except to protect his or her people?
So early on, the Lord God of Israel was understood primarily as a “warrior” who went before Israel in battle. But as time went on, Israel came to understand that God's life-affirming role went beyond protecting God's people against their enemies. In particular, Israel's experience of exile enabled the nation to see God as the very fabric of their lives and of their hearts, the “creator” God whose love for them was expressed in many different ways.
And even today God's power is an important part of our understanding of who God is. Even as the ancient worldview of "many" gods moved aside for Israel's fierce monotheism, God's role as a warrior for the defenseless and upright continued (check out Exodus 22:20-23 and any of the prophetic writings--Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and so on).
Israel, like us, had to mature spiritually in an understanding of God. It is all part of the spiritual process that reveals a caring, merciful and just God to whom we draw closer each day in knowledge and love.
We really don't know our God if we don't know the contours of our relationship with God, from the beginning. The Catholic Biblical School can help with that!
Reading 2 1 Thes 1:5c-10
Thessalonica was (and still is) an important seaport about 185 miles (300 km) north of Athens. In Paul’s day, the region in which Thessalonica was located was known as Macedonia. Today, it is northern Greece. In return for its support of Augustus, the Romans made Thessalonica a free city in 43 B.C.
Paul, Silas, and Timothy visited Thessalonica on Paul’s Second Missionary Journey (NOTE: Silas is his name in the book of Acts, written by Luke. In Paul’s writings, he is known as Silvanus). Paul and Silas had been in Philippi, but were imprisoned there on the complaint of the owner of a slave girl from whom Paul had exorcised a demon. An earthquake freed them that night, but they remained in the jail until the following morning. Learning that they were Roman citizens, the magistrates apologized, freed them, and asked them to leave Philippi (Acts 16).
They then went to Thessalonica, where on three successive Sabbaths they attended the synagogue and presented their case for Jesus as the Messiah. They made a number of converts, primarily among devout Greeks (Acts 17:4)—Gentiles sympathetic to Judaism, but who had not yet become full-fledged Jewish proselytes.
Jewish leaders, unhappy about these conversions, complained to the authorities that Paul and Silas were claiming that there was a king named Jesus (Acts 17:7). As a result of the ensuing conflict, Paul and Silas left for Berea (Acts 17:10). Jewish leaders from Thessalonica followed them to Berea, “agitating the multitudes” (Acts 17:13). Silas and Timothy stayed temporarily in Berea, while Paul went to Athens (Acts 17:14). Paul sent word to Silas and Timothy to rejoin him, which they did (Acts 17:15).
Paul then went to Corinth, where he stayed for a considerable time (Acts 18). Silas and Timothy rejoined him there (Acts 18:5). It was there, after opposition by Jewish leaders, that Paul said, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!” (Acts 18:6).
Paul sent Timothy to assist the church at Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 3:2). Timothy brought back a good report (3:6ff.), but expressed concern about their understanding of the status of “those who have fallen asleep in Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 4:14).
• Paul assures the Thessalonian Christians that “the dead in Christ will rise first” when Jesus comes again (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
• He reminds them that “the day of the Lord (will come) like a thief in the night” (5:2)—and that the unrepentant will find no escape (5:3).
• He reminds them also that they are “children of light” (5:5), which assures their salvation (5:8-9).
• He encourages them to “build each other up” (5:11)—and “to respect and honor” “those who are over you in the Lord” (5:12-13)—”to admonish the disorderly”…and to “be patient toward all” (5:14).
• He says, “Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks” (5:16-18).
• He tells them to “test all things” (5:21) and to “abstain from every form of evil” (5:22).
THE IMMEDIATE CONTEXT:In verses 1-5b, Paul, including the names of Silvanus and Timothy, expressed their greetings and wishes for grace and peace (v. 1). They remembered the Thessalonians in their prayers—”remembering…your work of faith and labor of love and patience” (vv. 2-3). Paul reminds them that God has chosen them, and that the Good News came to them in power, through the work of the Holy Spirit (vv. 4-5ab).
1 THESSALONIANS 1:5c. WHAT WE SHOWED OURSELVES TO BE5c You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake.
“You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake” (v. 5c). Paul and his colleagues had preached an authentic word in Thessalonica—a reliable word. They had been intent on pleasing God rather than the people to whom they were preaching (2:4). They used no words of flattery to manipulate their hearers (2:5). They sought no human-dispensed glory (2:6). They worked to support themselves so that they might not impose a financial burden on the people to whom they were preaching (2:9). The Thessalonian Christians had seen this. They had experienced the integrity of Paul and his colleagues—their unselfishness—their agape love. All of those things contributed to their confidence that Paul and his colleagues were telling the truth—that they were serving God rather than promoting some sort of private agenda.
1 THESSALONIANS 1:6-7. YOU BECAME AN EXAMPLE6 You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia.
“You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction“ (v. 6a WEB). Having seen the authenticity of Paul and his colleagues (see the comments above on v. 5), the new Christians in Thessalonica responded by imitating them. As they did so, they were also imitating the Lord. The Thessalonian Christians had suffered just as Christ had suffered—and just as Paul and his colleagues had suffered in the furtherance of their preaching ministry.
In the next chapter, Paul will mention how he and his colleagues suffered and were shamefully treated in Philippi (2:2). The book of Acts includes a number of accounts of Paul’s suffering in the service of Christ (Acts 9:28-29; 13:50; 14:4, 19; 16:22-24; 21:30-36; 22:22-25; 23:1-10). In his second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul gave a summary statement of his sufferings in Christ’s service. He was imprisoned, beaten, stoned, and shipwrecked. He endured perils of rivers and robbers—perils from Jews and Gentiles—perils in cities, in the wilderness, and at sea. He was frequently hungry and thirsty—cold—even naked. Above and beyond all that, he experienced daily anxiety for the fledgling churches he had founded (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).
“with joy of the Holy Spirit“ (v. 6b WEB). These Thessalonian Christians experienced joy in spite of their troubles. Before they had known Christ, they could look forward only to an uncertain future. Now they live in the assurance that the Holy Spirit—God’s Spirit—dwells in them, guiding and strengthening them. Furthermore, they live in the conviction that Christ’s death and resurrection have guaranteed their own salvation. Those things make it possible for them to be joyful in the midst of lives that are often difficult (see also 5:16—”Rejoice always!”).
“so that you became an example (Greek: typos) to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia“ (v. 7 WEB). Greeks used the word typos to refer to the mark or impression made by striking something with a patterned image. As a tentmaker, Paul would have worked primarily with leather—and leather lends itself to stamped images. However, a stamped image would need to be clear and accurate to be of value.
Paul tells the Thessalonian Christians that they have provided a faithful example (typos)—a witness with far-reaching impact.
Macedonia was the northern region and Achaia the southern region of the area that we know today as Greece. Paul is telling these Thessalonian Christians that their suffering for Christ—and their joy in Christ—has made them powerful witnesses throughout that part of the world—north to south—border to border.
A life well-lived is a sermon well-preached—a truth not limited to the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Roman philosopher, Seneca—contemporaneous with Paul and his colleagues—said, “We reform others unconsciously when we walk upright.” So we do!
We usually think of witnessing as something that we do for the benefit of unbelievers. It is, indeed, a wonderful thing to see the light of faith begin to shine in the heart of someone who has heretofore lived in darkness. It is especially wonderful to know that our witness helped to make that possible. But in this verse, Paul tells these Thessalonian Christians that they have become “an example to all who believe.” In other words, the Thessalonian example has been a special blessing to those who have already embraced Christ. Why would that be important? Why would someone who already believes in Christ need to see the faithful example of another believer?
The Gospel of Mark tells a lovely story of a father who brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus. When the father asked Jesus to heal his son, Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” The father responded, “I believe. Help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24). That father’s response is a prayer that all of us would do well to memorize—and to pray. “I believe. Help my unbelief!”
Many people believe, but none believes perfectly. Our faith-journey sometimes feels as if we are walking a tightrope—and in a sense we are. We are buffeted by forces that threaten to throw us off-balance. The stronger our faith, the more determined is the tempter to unseat us. Therefore, we always need help, and the community of believers (the church) is one of the best places to find that help. When we fellowship with other believers, their faith strengthens ours—and our faith strengthens theirs.
When my wife and I visit the big city, we worship at a large, vital church that our son discovered when going to college there. That church includes personal testimonies in their worship services, a tradition less popular today than in earlier times. They structure those testimonies pretty tightly. Shortly before the sermon, one of the ministers interviews a member of the congregation who has agreed to give his or her testimony. Sometimes the testimony involves a husband and wife with babes in arms or children standing alongside—a particularly charming touch. The questions and answers have been practiced beforehand, giving the testimony a bit of a contrived flavor. Nevertheless, those testimonies are compelling. The congregation collectively holds its breath, listening intently to every word. It would be appropriate to tell the person or persons offering their testimony, “you (have) become an example to all who believe.”
1 THESSALONIANS 1:8: FROM YOU THE WORD OF THE LORD HAS BEEN DECLARED8 For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out; so that we need not to say anything.
“For from you the word of the Lord (Greek: tou kuriou) has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out“ (v. 8a WEB). “The word of the Lord” could mean “the word of God the Father” or “the word of Christ” or both. In the New Testament, it most often appears to mean “the word of Christ”—but the ambiguity may be intentional.
These Thessalonians have not only received the word of the Lord, but have also declared it—preached it—disseminated it. As noted above, their faithful witness has spread widely—from Macedonia to Achaia—from north to south—and to every place where the witness of their faith has touched.
We need to hear this, because we are always tempted to think that our personal witness or that of our small congregation has little potential. However, those Thessalonian Christians were few in number. They weren’t accustomed to traveling far and wide. They could not use radio, television, the Internet, cell phones, etc. to spread the word. Nevertheless, they somehow declared the word of the Lord in such a way that it made a positive impact far and wide—on whomever their witness touched.
“so that we need not to say anything“ (v. 8b WEB). This is hyperbole—exaggeration for effect—overstatement to make a point. Paul and his colleagues are busily preaching and writing on an ongoing basis, and they know the value of their words (Romans 10:15-17). But they also know the importance of encouraging the faithful Christians in Thessalonica to continue being faithful, so they include this bit of over-the-top praise.
1 THESSALONIANS 1:9-10. YOU TURNED FROM IDOLS TO A LIVING GOD9 For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.
“For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you“ (v. 9a WEB). Who are “they”? They would be those from Macedonia, Achaia, and elsewhere who have been positively influenced by the example of the Thessalonian Christians.
Those people have told Paul and his colleagues that they have heard good reports about the reception that the Thessalonian Christians accorded them. That was true of devout Greeks (Acts 17:4)—Gentiles sympathetic to Judaism, but who had not yet become full-fledged Jewish proselytes. It was not true of Jewish leaders who became upset when these devout Greeks became followers of Jesus (Acts 17:7-10). Those leaders even followed Paul and his colleagues to Berea, where they agitated the people (Acts 17:13).
But Timothy has visited Thessalonica again, and his report tells us that that the Christians there continued to enjoy strong faith in Christ and an abiding relationship with Paul and his colleagues.
“and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God“ (v. 9b WEB). This is key! The Thessalonian Christians had turned from the worship of idols—inanimate, dead idols—to the worship of the living God. They had moved from the worship of that which is counterfeit to that which is real. People had noticed the difference in their lives, and were favorably impressed. The proclamation of the Gospel was enhanced by their witness.
“and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom (the true God) raised from the dead—Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come“ (v. 10 WEB). The early Christian community eagerly awaited Christ’s Second Coming. Paul had obviously included this emphasis in his earlier preaching in Thessalonica, and he will emphasize it again in this letter (5:2-6).
The fact that God raised Jesus from the dead authenticated his status as Son of God. Later, it also authenticated the proclamation of the apostles.
It was appropriate for these Christians to look forward to Christ’s Second Coming, because Paul had assured them that Christ would deliver them from the wrath to come. They would not suffer the judgment that the wicked would experience at the end of time.
Gospel Mt 22:34-4
Re you familiar with the musical play – “Fiddler on the Roof.”
The play is set in an impoverished Russian village, Anatevka, populated largely by Jewish families, at a time when Russia was ruled by the Tsar. The people of the village were of simple faith and lived close to the land. They heard little news of the outside world and their lives were governed strictly by their age-old traditions.
As the curtain opens for the first act, the attention of the audience is drawn to the roof of a house on the stage. A violin begins a haunting tune and the shadow of a fiddler, violin tucked under his chin, is seen playing and dancing gaily on the roof.
The lights come on the stage and the first person we meet is Tevye the dairy farmer. His opening words go something like this. “A fiddler on the roof? Sounds crazy no?… You might say that every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant simple tune without breaking his neck … It isn’t easy! … How can we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word. Tradition! Because of our tradition we have kept our balance for years … Because of our tradition everyone knows who he is and what God expects of him…. Tradition! Tradition! Without our tradition our life would be as shaky as… as … as a fiddler on the roof!”
Like Tevye, the Pharisees were concerned with tradition. Like Tevye, the Pharisees knew that without Israel’s traditions life would be as shaky as a fiddler on the roof. Like Tevye, they knew the importance of knowing who we are and what God expects of us.
The Pharisees tried to trick Jesus by asking him a theological question. “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (v. 36). The Pharisees asked Jesus attempting to trick him with a theological question. Jesus answered by quoting the Old Testament and the tradition that the Pharisees respected so much. He said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (vv. 37-39).
There is nothing new in Jesus’ answer. This is not something original. In Jewish writings long before Jesus’ time, these two commandments summarised the whole of the law. In fact Luke’s Gospel attributes this summary not to Jesus but to the Jewish lawyer who asked Jesus what he must do to receive eternal life (Luke 10:26-27). Jesus asked him,
“What is written in the law? How do you read it?” The lawyer replies, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
Every Pharisee, every Jew — even Tevye the dairy farmer in the village of Anatevka — knew those words. These words are the essence, the beginning and the ending of the Jewish piety. In Deuteronomy we read, “Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God; Yahweh is one: and you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). These words were to be recalled in the morning and in the evening. They were to be taught to the children. And they were recited just before the moment of death.
“A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself'” (v. 39), Jesus continued. Jesus went to the heart of the Pharisees’ tradition — and his own. He quoted the Law in Leviticus dealing with right conduct toward the neighbor. He went on, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (v. 40).
The Jews had been out to trap Jesus. First, the Pharisees and the Herodians had a go with a question whether taxes should be paid to the Emperor or not. A question to get Jesus to condemn himself with his own answer.
Then the Sadducees try out a tricky question on Jesus about a woman who marries seven times. Which husband will she have when the dead will be raised to life? Again a question to trick Jesus because the Sadducees didn’t believe in the resurrection.
And now the Pharisees test Jesus again to try and find out where he stands in regard to the traditional faith, the faith of the fathers. And in his reply, we find that Jesus had a great respect for tradition. He goes to the very heart of the Jewish faith and quotes passages of the Old Testament. Earlier in Matthew’s Gospel we hear that Jesus hasn’t come to do away with Israel’s faith. We hear him say, “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill. For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished” (Matthew 5:17-18). Jesus has great respect for the traditional faith, but not necessarily the traditional interpretation of the Pharisees.
The Jewish idea of responsibility when it comes to who is to be loved goes like this. Everyone was to love God, that was compulsory. But everyone else was graded as to how much love they were to be given. There were those people to whom it was a responsibility to show love. Those on the outer circles of the community, like outcasts, sinners, tax collectors, Gentiles, Samaritans etc, some were to be loved less, or others were owed no love whatsoever. The Pharisees had established many laws to help people in their observance of this command. These laws told people whom they were to love, and whom they could ignore.
By saying that the greatest commandment is to love God and to love your neighbour, this gives a new slant to the traditional interpretation. To love God that was clear enough but to also say to love one another in the same breath puts both of these commands on an equal footing. One is not more important than the other. To love God is to love my neighbour and to truly love my neighbour is to love God. In fact, we can’t make any sense out of Jesus’ radical command to love our enemies unless we first recognise the love that God has for us and loves us in such a radical way even though we are his enemies because of sin.
The love of God and the love of our neighbor are inseparable. You cannot claim to love God if you don’t love your neighbor. Essentially the entire law of God can be boiled down to two simple commandments: Love God with your whole being; and love whomever God puts next to you as you love yourself.
The late Henry Hamann said in his book on Matthew’s Gospel: “Jesus does not separate love for God from love for man, since the latter flows from the former, and since without the latter the former is impossible”.*
Before we go any further we need to understand what Jesus means here when he uses the word love. That little four letter word “love” is used in many contexts. We talk about loving our dog, loving strawberries and ice-cream, or loving a member of the opposite gender. When we use the word love like that we are expressing our affection and have warm feelings for whatever it is that we are loving. Because we associate the word “love” with affection it’s no wonder that we have difficulty loving those people who annoy us, those who have hurt us, and those who don’t deserve to be loved.
When the Bible talks about love it primarily means a love that keeps on loving, it means commitment. We may have warm feelings of gratitude to God when we consider all that he has done for us, but it is not warm feelings that Jesus is demanding of us. It is stubborn, unwavering commitment. It follows then that to love one another, including our enemies, doesn’t mean we must feel affection for them, rather it means a commitment on our part to take their needs seriously, just as God committed himself to taking our needs seriously by sending his Son into this world. You see this in marriages where because of the aging process one partner has become physically incapacitated, difficult to live with, very demanding, and yet the other partner keeps on caring and putting up with it all. That’s coming close to the biblical idea of love. It’s that commitment even though it isn’t deserved. It’s that stubborn, unwavering commitment to the other person’s needs often at a great sacrifice to him/herself. That’s where many marriages go wrong. The couple say they are in love – they have warm feelings for each but not the commitment. When the warm feelings fade so does their marriage.
This kind of love doesn’t come naturally. It is true that this kind of love comes from God, but putting it into practice is something we have to work on. Love – commitment – is a deliberate action of the will. To love means deliberately to turn toward another person and their needs, to give away something of ourselves to someone else without thinking of what we will get in return. In Luke’s Gospel Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 15:25-37) we see an example of a man loving his enemy, committing his money, time and energy to seeing to the needs of the man lying in the gutter. He stopped to help and to hang with the consequences. All he could see was someone in need. This kind of love/commitment is self-sacrificing. It is putting the other person first, whether it is God or our neighbour.
In all honesty, it doesn’t take much imagination to realize that this kind of love has been in short supply in our lives. In fact, if we could love perfectly then there would be no more sin in our world. If we loved perfectly, if we were able to be truly committed to other people, then there would be no more violence, or war, what we say and do would only be gentle, kind and caring.
Because this is not the case Jesus came to pay for our lovelessness. He showed us what true love is. His love touched the dumb, the deaf, the diseased, the disabled. His love warned, wept and washed dirty feet. His love told of a shepherd searching for lost sheep, a Father rushing out to embrace and kiss his lost son as he welcomed him home. His love turned the other cheek, and willingly walked that extra mile. His love carried a cross — and died upon it! His love welcomed each of us into God’s family, forgiving our sin in the water of our Baptism. Because of Jesus you are perfect saints in the eyes of God. Eternal life is yours in Christ. Forgiveness of sins is yours. The perfect love of God is yours.
We no longer have to love; we get to love.
We don’t love in order to get to heaven; we love because heaven is already ours in Christ.
We don’t love in order to win God’s favor; we love because we already have God’s favor in Christ.
We don’t love so that God will love us; we love because God has loved us in Christ with the greatest love we will ever know, the crucified love of Jesus.
Jesus came to make us more loving. What form this loving takes is not important, but what is important is that it does take place. When you fail, remember Jesus loves you, and let his love shine through you into the lives of the people around you.
The Pharisees continue to test Jesus with a question about the greatest commandment.
Making the Connection
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- What laws do you think are the most important laws in our country? (laws that prohibit killing, laws that protect our environment, laws that protect our freedom of speech)
- Each of these examples are laws that are essential to maintaining our society. To the Jewish people of Jesus’ time, the Law was central to the expression of their faith.
- Turn to the Book of Leviticus. This book of the Bible contains many laws for how to live a life of holiness according to Jewish tradition.
- Browse the Book of Leviticus to locate examples of laws. Thin of some examples.
- In this Sunday’s Gospel, the Pharisees try to trick Jesus with questions about religious laws.
- How does Jesus answer the Pharisees’ question about the Law? (He summarizes all the laws into two commandments: love God and love your neighbor.)
- We sometimes think that laws are restricting—that they prevent us from doing certain things. Jesus teaches us that the heart of God’s Law is love. The commandments, in fact, free us from those things that get in the way of loving God and loving our neighbor.
- Pray the Our Father, remembering that God sent his Son to teach us this important lesson about the law of love
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Sunday October 22, 2017 Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 145
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 45:1, 4-6
Thus says the LORD to his anointed, Cyrus,
whose right hand I grasp,
subduing nations before him,
and making kings run in his service,
opening doors before him
and leaving the gates unbarred:
For the sake of Jacob, my servant,
of Israel, my chosen one,
I have called you by your name,
giving you a title, though you knew me not.
I am the LORD and there is no other,
there is no God besides me.
It is I who arm you, though you know me not,
so that toward the rising and the setting of the sun
people may know that there is none besides me.
I am the LORD, there is no other.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10
R. (7b) Give the Lord glory and honor.
Sing to the LORD a new song;
sing to the LORD, all you lands.
Tell his glory among the nations;
among all peoples, his wondrous deeds.
R. Give the Lord glory and honor.
For great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
awesome is he, beyond all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are things of nought,
but the LORD made the heavens.
R. Give the Lord glory and honor.
Give to the LORD, you families of nations,
give to the LORD glory and praise;
give to the LORD the glory due his name!
Bring gifts, and enter his courts.
R. Give the Lord glory and honor.
Worship the LORD, in holy attire;
tremble before him, all the earth;
say among the nations: The LORD is king,
he governs the peoples with equity.
R. Give the Lord glory and honor.
Reading 2 1 Thes 1:1-5b
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians
in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
grace to you and peace.
We give thanks to God always for all of you,
remembering you in our prayers,
unceasingly calling to mind your work of faith and labor of love
and endurance in hope of our Lord Jesus Christ,
before our God and Father,
knowing, brothers and sisters loved by God,
how you were chosen.
For our gospel did not come to you in word alone,
but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction.
Gospel Mt 22:15-21
The Pharisees went off
and plotted how they might entrap Jesus in speech.
They sent their disciples to him, with the Herodians, saying,
"Teacher, we know that you are a truthful man
and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.
And you are not concerned with anyone's opinion,
for you do not regard a person's status.
Tell us, then, what is your opinion:
Is it lawful to pay the census tax to Caesar or not?"
Knowing their malice, Jesus said,
"Why are you testing me, you hypocrites?
Show me the coin that pays the census tax."
Then they handed him the Roman coin.
He said to them, "Whose image is this and whose inscription?"
They replied, "Caesar's."
At that he said to them,
"Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar
and to God what belongs to God."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 45:1, 4-6
This passage stands in the center of the first half of Second Isaiah (Isaiah 40-55), which was composed in the middle of the sixth century BC to encourage Judeans scattered by the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC to return and rebuild their city and temple.
After a double introduction in Isaiah 40:1-11 and 40:12-31, chapters 41 to 47 unfold through repetition of several themes concerning God’s uniqueness (see verses 5-6), God’s creative power (see verse 7), and God’s plans in history (see especially verses 1-3), as well as Israel’s standing as God’s chosen servant (see v. 4). All of these motifs have occurred already in previous chapters, but here they united to make utterly explicit what the prophet believes God is doing.
The themes of God’s uniqueness and creative power were especially prominent in 40:12-31, which began with the question, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span?” The issue of the existence and power of other gods continued in several passages regarding idols and idol makers (40:19-20; 41:6-7; 42:17; and especially the extended satirical piece in 44:9-20).
God’s unanswered challenge to other gods to speak up for themselves is voiced in 41:21-24, 28-29. Although God’s uniqueness is remembered again in Isaiah 42:8; 43:10-11; 44:6-8, it is especially prominent throughout chapter 45 (see verses 5, 6, 14, 18, 21, 22; and 46:9). God’s creative power is reiterated in 40:20; 42:5; 43:1, 7, 21; 44:2, 21, 24. Israel’s standing as God’s chosen servant began to emerge with the questions in 40:27, but is announced fully in 41:8-10 (see also 41:14; 43:1-7; 44:1-2).
Especially prominent in the first verse of this chapter is the name of the Persian conqueror credited with taking over Babylon in the 540s and allowing exiles to return home. Foreshadowings of this announcement appear first in Isaiah 40, where verse 3 says, “Prepare the way of the Lord,” and verse 10 announces, “See, the Lord God comes with might.” Chapter 41 builds on this expectation by referring to “a victor from the east” (verse 1), whom God has summoned, along with his sword and drawn bow.
This vision is reinforced in 41:25 with, “I stirred up one from the north, and he has come.” God’s own military might reappears in 42:14-15 and 43:14-17. In the last verse of chapter 44, just before this passage begins, the prophet names Cyrus for the first time, portraying the Persian conqueror as God’s obedient agent who “shall carry out all my purpose” (44:28).
All these themes converge explicitly in Isaiah 45:1-7, as the writer imagines Cyrus as God’s anointed (a term formerly reserved for Israelite rulers and priests), a victor subduing nations with God’s guiding. God calls Cyrus by name, even though this king does not know who God is. Thus an event dawning on Babylon’s and Israel’s political horizon, an event begging for interpretation, is credited to God who, as the prophet claims, is in charge of all things in creation and history, who forms light and creates darkness, who makes both weal and woe.
Creation themes from Genesis 1 are both recollected and disputed here, since Genesis 1:3 credited God with calling light into being, but not darkness, and the creation story reiterated seven times God’s characterization of the emerging world not as woeful but only good, even very good.
Continuing past the lectionary passage, Isaiah 45 goes on to argue against anyone who might critique the notion that God could use Cyrus in this way. Verses 12 and 13 specifically set Cyrus’s divine calling in parallel to God’s act of creating earth, heavens, and humankind (see also the reiteration in v. 18). He will once again be mentioned in 46:11 as “a bird of prey from the east, the man for my purpose from a far country.” After the elaborate announcements of God’s plans that reach their crescendo in chapter 45, the Babylonian gods Bel and Nebo (46:1-7), and “virgin daughter Babylon” herself (47:1-15), are described as humiliated, defeated, and exiled.
The Persian conqueror Cyrus, founder of the Achaemenid Empire, ultimately created the largest empire the ancient Near Eastern world had yet witnessed. He is also known from other historical sources. Not only is he mentioned approvingly in 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 and thirteen times in Ezra 1-6, as well as in the later book of Daniel, but he is remembered in monuments such as his magnificent tomb and the column that depicts and names him in his capital Pasargadae, now in Iran.
The cuneiform Nabonidus Chronicle, which relates Cyrus’s conquest of Babylon and his reign, is a copy of a text thought to have been composed within a generation or two of Cyrus’s life. The Greek historian Herodotus in the fifth century B.C.E. also wrote extensively about him, as did other Greek and later Roman historians.
But the most famous ancient text concerning Cyrus outside the Bible is the Cyrus cylinder. This writing, like Scripture, depicts the king as a liberator of conquered peoples and a supporter of diverse temples. Unlike the expectations expressed in Isaiah, his conquest of Babylon is described in the cylinder as peaceful, and welcomed by the people and priests of Babylon, who had been neglected by Nabonidus, the final Babylonian king. The cylinder does not mention the Jewish people in Babylon specifically, but its ideology stands consistent with depictions of Cyrus’s policies in the Bible. In 1971 the Cyrus cylinder was declared by the United Nations to be an early declaration of human rights.
The pro-Persian stance of this passage contrasts with biblical views of other empires, including Assyria, Babylon, Greece, and Rome. Thus it stands in some tension with Matthew 22:15-22, which depicts the debate between some Pharisees and Jesus over paying taxes to Caesar, in which Jesus suggests indifference to both pro- and anti-Roman sentiments, saying instead “give to God the things that are God’s” (verse 22). It also appears at least at first to stand in tension with Psalm 96, which depicts God alone as sovereign. But in its suggestion that even world emperors, however unknowingly, are subject to divine decree, this passage reconciles political rule with divine reign.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 96:1, 3, 4-5, 7-8, 9-10
Psalm 96:1-9 calls all people of the earth and indeed the earth itself to sing praise to God and to worship God in God’s temple.
This section of the psalm is dominated by imperatives that call forth that praise: “sing to the Lord;” “tell of his salvation;” “declare his glory;” “ascribe glory and strength;” and “worship the Lord.” The opening call to sing a “new song” does not elicit a song with fresh lyrics or music, but a song with universal scope that declares the extent of God’s sovereignty. Such a song is new is that it “breaks out of the category of space and time and embraces all things.”[1] Although the song appears on the lips of God’s people who worship in the temple, it recognizes God’s guidance of and reign over all creatures.
The reason for the praise the psalm evokes is the identification of God as the one true lord of heaven and earth, the maker of all things (verses 4-6). The song originated in a time and place in which many deities were recognized. Every nation had its gods and claimed them to have sovereignty. The Babylonians, for example, declared that their chief deity, Marduk, created the earth and ruled over it.
Psalm 96:5 declares, however, that Marduk and the other gods are merely idols. That is, the images that represented them were the extent of their reality. Only God was real and powerful and therefore worthy of praise. With this claim Psalm 96 stands close to Second Isaiah who proclaims that Israel’s God is the true creator and only this God has sovereignty over the earth (Isaiah 40:18-20).
Psalm 96:7-9 are almost identical to Psalm 29:1-2. It is possible that Psalm 96 borrowed this section from Psalm 29. If that is the case, however, Psalm 96 has altered the language to fit its context. While Psalm 29 is set in the heavenly realm, with its call for the heavenly beings to ascribe glory to God, Psalm 96 addresses those gathered in the earthly temple. Indeed, Psalm 96:7-9 invites all humankind to “ascribe” strength and glory to the Lord and to offer in his courts worship that is appropriate for the sovereign God.
Psalm 96:1-9, with its testimony of God’s rule over the earth (see also verse 10, “The Lord reigns!”), is part of a grouping of psalms that focus on the reign of God (see Psalms 93, 95-99). These psalms are sometimes categorized as “enthronement psalms” because of they speak of God’s eternal kingship. This psalm and the larger group of enthronement psalms appear in a section of the book of Psalms (Book IV, Psalms 90-106) that seems to be organized to deal with the theological crisis of the Babylonian exile in 587 BCE.
The theological crisis is expressed in many of the psalms that precede this section (Book III, Psalms 73-89). Such psalms painfully related doubts about Israel’s core beliefs (the central role of Jerusalem and the Davidic king in God’s plan, for example). But Psalm 96 along with the other enthronement psalms reminded those who doubted that God was still in control, that God is the one who “made the heavens” (96:5) and therefore God is able to secure the future for God’s people.
What is striking about the claims of Psalm 96 is how untrue many of the statements in the psalm might have seemed to those who spoke them. The people of Judah were constantly at the mercy of enemy nations all around them. Their history started, of course, with slavery in Egypt. After being delivered from bondage and entering the land God promised them they struggled with the Philistines, the Edomites, Ammonites, and the Moabites. Eventually they would be destroyed and exiled by the likes of Assyria and Babylon.
Even in the glory days of David and Solomon these people lived in a small and rather insignificant kingdom in comparison with the great empires of their day. In light of that fact, it may seem rather silly to claim that Israel’s God is “feared above all gods” (verse 4). On what event or events did Israel base its claim to a unique place in the world order? How could Israel claim that its God was king over all the earth?
The answer to these questions lays in the fact that Israel, and later the church, understood their claims of God’s kingship as a future reality. They understood God’s reign eschatologically, as something to come, to be fulfilled when God brings creation to its fruition. The liturgical celebration of God’s reign, therefore, celebrates something that is not fully evident right now. But that does not mean this psalm, or any other liturgy, presents a false hope or a naive view of the world.
Rather, it gives a way to state and restate what God’s people believe about the world. Most importantly, what the psalm says about the world to come shapes the way God’s people live right now. This is the power of liturgy, and the power of Psalm 96. The proclamation only makes sense, however, when it is made in the company of other believers. Together we declare what we believe about the world. As we do, we create a community that not only believes in God’s reign with the head, but also responds to God’s kingdom with the heart. To live as though we belong to the kingdom of God means that we work to bring justice and well-being, just as God also is working.
Psalm 96:1-9 appears in the lectionary on the second Sunday after Pentecost. That liturgical location gives yet another crucially important focus to the interpretation. Pentecost for the first Christians was marked by an outpouring of God’s Spirit that empowered them to proclaim the Good News so that all people might hear, understand, and respond (Acts 2:5-42). As a psalm for the time after Pentecost, Psalm 96:1-9 likewise invites all the creatures of the earth to declare the glory of God. For the church, God’s glory is known most clearly in Jesus Christ.
Reading 2 1 Thes 1:1-5b
What circumstances have occasioned this apparent second letter to the Thessalonians? Just how much "time" has passed since the arrival of the first? Such questions of "timing" may arise for a modern reader who notes, among other things, the almost verbatim mirroring of this letter's greeting with that of the first letter and the somewhat strange to Paul prominent theme of judgment that pervades this brief letter. Might such comparisons suggest a later "timing" when associates or followers of Paul have penned this letter in his name.
Whatever the "timing," even a cursory reading reveals a community undergoing stressful "persecutions and afflictions" (1:4) that tempt it to "give up" or "grow weary" in the struggle to keep doing good (3:12-13).
A Time for Thanksgiving
The opening theme of "thanksgiving" is pure Paul. Yet here somewhat uniquely thanksgiving is an "obligation" (opheilomen), a duty, that belongs to the gift of community (Paul says " we" are bound to give thanks; 1:3) identified by its characteristic marks of "faith" and "love." It is "always" the right time for thanksgiving for a Christian community whose faith "grows abundantly" (the unique emphatic word here illustrates a favorite Pauline device -- prefixing a verb with the word hyper-, as if to suggest "hyper-growth") and whose love toward one another continues to increase.
Paul's words come as a reminder of several aspects of thanksgiving. First, thanksgiving in the Christian community is always somewhat counter-intuitive. When "times" are good, one easily forgets the gifts of God that create and sustain life. When "times" are bad, it is difficult to muster a list of things for which one should be thankful. Second, thanksgiving is never a private matter; it is founded and sustained by life in community--by the mutual interplay of faith in God's grace and the energizing power of acts of love in service to one another.
A Matter for Boasting
Like a mother who tenderly yet firmly encourages a young child who has been "roughed up" on the playground, Paul's loving arms now surround and encourage this community. Avoiding any note of pity, instead he compliments them for their "steadfastness" in the midst of intense persecutions and sufferings (the word "all" underscores the enormity; 1:4), steadfastness that has become a matter for his boasting about them among all the churches. Still one notes here the absence of the third member of the familiar triad of faith, love, and hope (see 1 Thessalonians 1:2: "work of faith," "labor of love," and "steadfastness of hope").
Perhaps Paul senses a community whose world, beset much like our own with divisions, hatreds, and suspicions, places it at risk of giving up the faith or losing energy for loving care of the neighbor (see 3:13). Such times call not for slinking back into our private enclaves, but rather for open boasting about and renewed encouragement of a community actively engaged in the obligations of faith and love.
Prayer with a Purpose
"To this end we always pray for you." (1:11) Paul's prayer bespeaks a confidence in God's care and concern for what happens in this world, a confidence that cannot be taken for granted. A well-known contemporary New Testament scholar and prolific writer puts it this way, "I left the faith...because I could no longer reconcile my faith in God with the state of the world that I saw all around me...There is so much senseless misery in the world that I came to find it impossible to believe that there is a good and loving God who is in control."1
Paul is not naïve about the world of the Thessalonians. Such communities do not happen by accident. They are founded on the purposive presence and call of God, sustained by God's power to bring to fruition ("God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill..." 1:11) acts of love and mercy precisely through the faithfulness and steadfastness of this believing community. This is "tough stuff," not a matter for wimps. Such works depend on "resolve" and "faith" (the Greek word used here, eudokia, has the sense of a firm and positive decision). That firm resolve is not to be taken for granted; it too is a gift of God and it comes in response to prayer that is sustained within the broader community of faith.
Finally, such resolve and good work are not ends in themselves. They redound to a mutuality of glory in which the name of Christ is glorified and, in return, Christ gives glory to the community that bears his name (1:12). It is no accident that all of this, both literarily and theologically, is located within the framework of God's grace and love. "Grace and Peace" begin Paul's address (1:2), and "grace" marks the conclusion of this opening chapter (1:16), underscoring that all Christian community and life are framed by the grace and love of God.
On Whose Authority
The reading assigned for the lectionary skips verses 5-10 perhaps because of their somewhat uncomfortable or troublesome theme of "judgment" (1:5). The writer speaks of current afflictions as part of God's righteous intention "to make you worthy of the kingdom," and promises that "on that day" those who persecute you will in the end be punished because they "do not know God" and do not "obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."
Such strong images of judgment have led many to question Paul's authorship of this letter and to wonder whether the viewpoint expressed does not belong to a later period of the early church, when apocalyptic images such as those in the book of Revelation are more prominent.
Gospel Mt 22:15-21
We think of the last days of Jesus' final week as being full of vexation.
Indeed, they were: betrayal, arrest, torture, and crucifixion. But the first two days of the week were also filled with difficulty. In Matthew's version of the week, Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly on Monday and proceeds to the temple to cleanse it of abuse. Tuesday is particularly full.
Jesus returns to Jerusalem for a series of pronouncements and confrontations by religious leaders. On this day, Jesus curses the fig tree, is questioned about his authority, offers three parables that each conclude with dire warnings for those who assume they are comfortably within God's favor.
Then he is challenged on whether to pay taxes to Caesar, is questioned about the resurrection of the dead, challenged about the greatest commandment, and engaged in discussion about the nature of the messiah.
Finally, Jesus engages in a long discourse (23:1-25:46) in which he denounces religious leaders, laments over Jerusalem, foretells destruction of the temple, gives his disciples a list of signs concerning the end times, offers additional parables, and tells of the final judgment. Tuesday was a big day.
It seems one of the chief accomplishments of the day was to put the religious leaders in their place. Jesus overwhelms his verbal adversaries and denounces temple leadership so thoroughly that by the next day, Wednesday of Holy Week, the leaders began plotting to arrest and kill this bothersome prophet.
The pericope for this day lies within Tuesday's busy agenda. Here we have the failed attempt by the Pharisees and Herodians to trap Jesus on what appears to be a political issue: whether or not it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. We might imagine the smugness with which they employ this trap. The Pharisees are against the Roman occupation government, so they bring along the Herodians, people obliged to Rome for keeping Herod in puppet power.
Together, it ought to be easy to catch Jesus up. Note the false flattery of their opening remarks: "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth . . . " (22:16). Their own insincerity is palpable. Then, they spring the trap: "Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?"
By this time in the day, Jesus is well warmed up for this treacherous game of chess. He sees through their sarcasm to the malice that lies beneath and brands them hypocrites. This is why: Jesus seems to carry no coins. The Pharisees dare not carry Roman coins, for they bear the blasphemous image of Tiberius Caesar and the inscription proclaims him divine. Yet, when Jesus asks for a Roman coin, they readily provide it. There, in the sacred space of the temple, the Pharisees possess the idolatrous image.
The Pharisees are thinking two moves ahead in this game. If Jesus says that it is lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, he alienates the people who hate the Roman occupation and its Caesar. If he says it is unlawful to pay taxes, the people will be pleased, but Jesus will then be liable for arrest by the Romans.
A clever gambit. But, not clever enough. Jesus asks them whose inscription is on the coin. Caesar, they answer. Then render to the emperor what is due him, he says, and to God what belongs to God. Checkmate.
But this is not just a game; and the teaching reaches far beyond those who first heard it. It reaches even to our time. As much as we might like to determine Jesus' attitude about taxes today, or the way governments do their business, our narrative makes it clear that Jesus has greater concerns in mind.
Governments are necessary, taxes may be necessary, and every country has a Caesar of sorts to contend with. So, render unto that Caesar whatever is due. But, don't mess around with the things that belong to God.
Whom do we belong to? Sometimes it seems like we belong to Caesar. Taxes, legal restrictions on our freedoms, imprisonment if you engage in civil disobedience. Or, perhaps, we feel that our job owns us. Or our families. Sometimes, we even feel owned by our material possessions. Ralph Waldo Emerson said it: "Things are in the saddle, and ride mankind."
But to whom do we really belong? Take a look at any person. Whose inscription is on him or her? Each is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). There can be no doubt, then, what Jesus means here. Give yourselves to God because it is to him that you belong.
It is God who claims us, who made us in his own image. We do not belong to anything or to anyone else. We don't even belong to ourselves. We belong to God in all our being, with all our talents, interests, time, and wealth. "We give thee but thine own, whatever the gift my be. All that we have is thine alone, a trust, O Lord, from thee."1
The consequences of belonging to God are remarkable. First, it means that God will not forsake us. The Pharisees and the other religious leaders that Jesus denounces were notoriously bad at caring for the people. They forsook their responsibilities and the people God gave into their care. They deserved condemnation. But, God does not forsake his own. By Friday of Holy Week, Jesus made that clear in the boldest way possible.
Second, it means that because we belong to God, we belong to the people of God, the body of Christ. We are baptized into this fellowship and can only lose our membership by turning our backs on God. If there is any alienation, it is our own doing. And, if we return, God is there, as always.
Third, it means that we give to God that which belongs to God's: that is, we give ourselves. We take the sacred trust and invest it in lives of worship. Sometimes, that worship occurs privately, in devotion. Sometimes, in church with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And the rest of the time, it occurs in the sphere of daily work and service. All of this is worship. Ultimately, giving ourselves to God means that we give ourselves to the world.
Making the Connection
- Do you know what a trick question is? (a question that is intended to mislead the respondent so that he or she answers incorrectly)
- In this Sunday’s Gospel, the Pharisees ask Jesus a trick question in hopes of injuring his credibility and getting him into trouble.
- If Jesus says that the tax should be paid to Caesar, he would be considered guilty of false worship since the Romans believe the emperor to be divine. On the other hand, if Jesus says the tax should not be paid, he would be encouraging disobedience to Roman laws, which would be sedition.
- What do you think the Pharisees hoped that Jesus would say? (something that would get him into trouble)
- What do you think Jesus meant when he told the Pharisees to give God what was due to God? (to be loyal to God)
- Think about the times when you do not give God what is due to God. Even though there are times when we are not the person that God wants us to be—when we are not loyal to God—we can always ask forgiveness.
- Say the Act of Contrition.
- Say: When you are faced with choices this week, think about whether or not your decisions will honor your loyalty to God.
Sunday October 15, 2017 Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 142
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 25:6-10a
On this mountain the LORD of hosts
will provide for all peoples
a feast of rich food and choice wines,
juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
the veil that veils all peoples,
the web that is woven over all nations;
he will destroy death forever.
The Lord GOD will wipe away
the tears from every face;
the reproach of his people he will remove
from the whole earth; for the LORD has spoken.
On that day it will be said:
"Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!
This is the LORD for whom we looked;
let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!"
For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
R. (6cd) I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side
with your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. I shall live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
Reading 2 Phil 4:12-14, 19-20
Brothers and sisters:
I know how to live in humble circumstances;
I know also how to live with abundance.
In every circumstance and in all things
I have learned the secret of being well fed and of going hungry,
of living in abundance and of being in need.
I can do all things in him who strengthens me.
Still, it was kind of you to share in my distress.
My God will fully supply whatever you need,
in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
To our God and Father, glory forever and ever. Amen.
Gospel Mt 22:1-14
Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and elders of the people
in parables, saying,
"The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who gave a wedding feast for his son.
He dispatched his servants
to summon the invited guests to the feast,
but they refused to come.
A second time he sent other servants, saying,
'Tell those invited: "Behold, I have prepared my banquet,
my calves and fattened cattle are killed,
and everything is ready; come to the feast."'
Some ignored the invitation and went away,
one to his farm, another to his business.
The rest laid hold of his servants,
mistreated them, and killed them.
The king was enraged and sent his troops,
destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then he said to his servants, 'The feast is ready,
but those who were invited were not worthy to come.
Go out, therefore, into the main roads
and invite to the feast whomever you find.'
The servants went out into the streets
and gathered all they found, bad and good alike,
and the hall was filled with guests.
But when the king came in to meet the guests,
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
The king said to him, 'My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?'
But he was reduced to silence.
Then the king said to his attendants, 'Bind his hands and feet,
and cast him into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'
Many are invited, but few are chosen."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 25:6-10a
Isaiah 25:6-10a serves up one of the most glorious images in the Hebrew Bible.
"On this mountain," God labors (God's self!) to prepare a sumptuous, Julia-Childs-worthy meal. God crawls to the back of the wine cellar to retrieve the best vintage wines, wines that have aged for years, perhaps in preparation for this very occasion (verse 6). On this same mountain where the china has been laid out and the wine glasses are sparkling, God will not only nurture and feed; God will destroy. God will destroy "the shroud" and "the sheet" that cover all people (verse 7). Turns out this a feast to commemorate God's defeat of nothing less than death itself.
The meal on Mt. Zion in Isaiah recalls the ritual meal taken on Mt. Sinai that served in part to ratify the covenant between God and the recently freed slaves from Egypt (Exodus 24:9-11). As in Isaiah's vision, that meal on Mt. Sinai also marked the people's transition from death to life, from slavery under Pharaoh to life with YAHWEH.
Prior to the feast in Exodus, the people make a covenant with YAHWEH, which stipulates that if the people obey God's voice, they will be God's "treasured possession out of all the peoples" (19:5-6). God assures them that the whole earth belongs to YAHWEH, but "you," says God, "shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (verse 6).
Isaiah's vision imagines the meal on Mt. Sinai in eschatological terms. In Isaiah's vision, on this mountain, Mt. Zion, God will perform the final act of this performance, this drama between God and God's people. On this mountain, the God of the whole earth will defeat the ultimate enemy and all the people of the world partake in the ritual feast. The enemy Pharaoh is cast onto the cosmic stage and the Hebrews wandering in the wilderness become all the people of the world.
And as the people watch the drama unfold between God and Death on the cosmic big screen, God's achingly tender side emerges for a moment. I imagine God looking into the eyes of dirty-faced children, broken men, and care-worn women, wiping away each tear of grief and disgrace. And the people stand in awe, flooded with relief and joy, and they say, "This is our God", the one we have waited for (Isaiah 25:9).
It's all so beautiful... and yet, we know that on the ground, for the Yahwists in Palestine and in the Diaspora, this was a fantasy -- a stunning articulation of hope but not real life. Death was a reality for them as much as it is for us. How are we to understand this defeat of death when we have experienced death's sting so acutely?
Gene Tucker helps navigate this disjunction between life and text, saying, "While readers may see the end of death as the focal point, the text emphasizes the end of mourning. That is, the stress is upon the pain that death creates for those still alive, the survivors that mourn their loss. Even in this respect the emphasis is upon life and the living."1 The same, I think, is true on All Saints Day. We remember the dead, but through and in our acts of memorial, we also come to see and value life anew.
Like all good art, the images in Isaiah 25 are not uncomplicated -- or blithely "beautiful." For this imagery to work effectively for a people who are well acquainted with the powers of death, which come in natural and political forms, God must be more than just loving, more than just tender. God must be stronger, more voracious, and more vicious than Death. I capitalize Death because the Hebrew word for death (mwt) is related to the word that designates the god of death (Môt), whose appetite for human life is insatiable.
Metaphors of distress in the Psalter often focus on his vast mouth, which threatens to swallow up life in the span of a breath. In Canaanite mythology, YAHWEH's counterpart the storm/weather god Baal defeats Môt (Death) as well as Yam (Sea). This myth of the defeat of Death, informed by the textual memory of the covenant on Mt. Sinai, is cast on a cosmic, future stage. And here God opens up God's tremendous throat to swallow the swallower himself. Reminds me of that Goya painting of Satan Devouring His Son...
Maybe that's a bit gruesome for a sermon. But apocalyptic scenarios, such as we find here in Isaiah's "Little Apocalypse," juxtapose the stunningly beautiful and the horribly grotesque. Isaiah 25 contains images of life and banquets, but surrounding them are radical pictures of violence and judgment (see Isaiah 24:17-23). The rich pictures jump off the page and drip with life and, in so doing, they manage to make us simultaneously yearn and cringe. They engage our senses along the continuum of human experience like the mixture of hunger and revulsion evoked by the communion meal that swirls blood together with wine and serves up bread along with wounded flesh.
Apocalyptic images insist on, indeed depend on, the radical otherness of God. This, of course, is not unproblematic. And yet, shielding congregations from the violent acts and impulses of God in the Bible does make violence go away. War continues to rage, murder and abuse are almost commonplace, and blood flows in the movies, on TV and in video games every day. What are preachers, holding a potential tinder box (Isaiah 25) in their hands, to do? Read only the verses selected by the Lectionary and ignore God swallowing up death and its residuals in the surrounding text (24:17-23; verses 1-3, 10-12)?
That is the option we usually go with. Pastorally and liturgically, this makes sense. On All Saints Day in particular, folks in our pews are grieving over tragic losses of loved ones or remembering the kindness and warmth of grandparents or feeling conflicted and anxious over less happy memories of the "saints" they knew. Why poke a stick in the snake hole on a day like today? Why sully a perfectly glorious image of God wiping away the tears from all faces (verse 8) with talk of the other side of the coin: divine violence and judgment? Good question. Maybe we don't.
But maybe we take up the issue on another day -- because addressing and contextualizing the violence in the Bible (in particular, the violence of God) is a crucial task of the preacher. Violence is a preoccupation of the Bible because it is a preoccupation of humanity.
If we ignore it, we risk ignoring the full humanity of the people in the pews and the full spectrum of issues addressed by the biblical text. We risk communicating to them that this aspect of their lives and of their selves is better served by Hollywood.
To render God in terms both beautiful and grotesque, as Isaiah does, expresses the incomprehensibility of the divine without distancing God with abstractions. God in these depictions is utterly Other and yet also intimately -- even disturbingly -- near.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23:1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
Many of David’s psalms are full of complaints, but this is full of comforts, and the expressions of delight in God’s great goodness and dependence upon him. It is a psalm which has been sung by good Christians, and will be while the world stands, with a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction. I. The psalmist here claims relation to God, as his shepherd (v. 1). II. He recounts his experience of the kind things God had done for him as his shepherd (v. 2, v. 3, v. 5). III. Hence he infers that he should want no good (v. 1), that he needed to fear no evil (v. 4), that God would never leave nor forsake him in a way of mercy; and therefore he resolves never to leave nor forsake God in a way of duty (v. 6). In this he had certainly an eye, not only to the blessings of God’s providence, which made his outward condition prosperous, but to the communications of God’s grace, received by a lively faith, and returned in a warm devotion, which filled his soul with joy unspeakable. And, as in the foregoing psalm he represented Christ dying for his sheep, so here he represents Christians receiving the benefit of all the care and tenderness of that great and good shepherd. A psalm of David.
Verses 1-6 From three very comfortable premises David, in this psalm, draws three very comfortable conclusions, and teaches us to do so too. We are saved by hope, and that hope will not make us ashamed, because it is well grounded. It is the duty of Christians to encourage themselves in the Lord their God; and we are here directed to take that encouragement both from the relation wherein he stands to us and from the experience we have had of his goodness according to that relation.I. From God’s being his shepherd he infers that he shall not want anything that is good for him, v. 1. See here, 1. The great care that God takes of believers. He is their shepherd, and they may call him so. Time was when David was himself a shepherd; he was taken from following the ewes great with young (Ps. 78:70, Ps. 78:71 ), and so he knew by experience the cares and tender affections of a good shepherd towards his flock. He remembered what need they had of a shepherd, and what a kindness it was to them to have one that was skillful and faithful; he once ventured his life to rescue a lamb. By this therefore he illustrates God’s care of his people; and to this our Savior seems to refer when he says, I am the shepherd of the sheep; the good shepherd, Jn. 10:11 . He that is the shepherd of Israel, of the whole church in general (Ps. 80:1 ), is the shepherd of every particular believer; the meanest is not below his cognizance, Isa. 40:11 . He takes them into his fold, and then takes care of them, protects them, and provides for them, with more care and constancy than a shepherd can, that makes it his business to keep the flock. If God be as a shepherd to us, we must be as sheep, inoffensive, meek, and quiet, silent before the shearers, nay, and before the butcher too, useful and sociable; we must know the shepherd’s voice, and follow him. 2. The great confidence which believers have in God: "If the Lord is my shepherd, my feeder, I may conclude I shall not want any thing that is really necessary and good for me.’’ If David penned this psalm before his coming to the crown, though destined to it, he had as much reason to fear wanting as any man. Once he sent his men a begging for him to Nabal, and another time went himself a begging to Ahimelech; and yet, when he considers that God is his shepherd, he can boldly say, I shall not want. Let not those fear starving that are at God’s finding and have him for their feeder. More is implied than is expressed, not only, I shall not want, but, "I shall be supplied with whatever I need; and, if I have not every thing I desire, I may conclude it is either not fit for me or not good for me or I shall have it in due time.’’II. From his performing the office of a good shepherd to him he infers that he needs not fear any evil in the greatest dangers and difficulties he could be in, v. 2-4. He experiences the benefit of God’s presence with him and care of him now, and therefore expects the benefit of them when he most needs it. See here,1. The comforts of a living saint. God is his shepherd and his God—a God all-sufficient to all intents and purposes. David found him so, and so have we. See the happiness of the saints as the sheep of God’s pasture. (1.) They are well placed, well laid: He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. We have the supports and comforts of this life from God’s good hand, our daily bread from him as our Father. The greatest abundance is but a dry pasture to a wicked man, who relishes that only in it which pleases the senses; but to a godly man, who tastes the goodness of God in all his enjoyments, and by faith relishes that, though he has but little of the world, it is a green pasture, Ps. 37:16 ; Prov. 15:16, Prov. 15:17 . God’s ordinances are the green pastures in which food is provided for all believers; the word of life is the nourishment of the new man. It is milk for babes, pasture for sheep, never barren, never eaten bare, never parched, but always a green pasture for faith to feed in. God makes his saints to lie down; he gives them quiet and contentment in their own minds, whatever their lot is; their souls dwell at ease in him, and that makes every pasture green. Are we blessed with the green pastures of the ordinances? Let us not think it enough to pass through them, but let us lie down in them, abide in them; this is my rest for ever. It is by a constancy of the means of grace that the soul is fed. (2.) They are well guided, well led. The shepherd of Israel guides Joseph like a flock; and every believer is under the same guidance: He leadeth me beside the still waters. Those that feed on God’s goodness must follow his direction; he leads them by his providence, by his word, by his Spirit, disposes of their affairs for the best, according to his counsel, disposes their affections and actions according to his command, directs their eye, their way, and their heart, into his love. The still waters by which he leads them yield them, not only a pleasant prospect, but many a cooling draught, many a reviving cordial, when they are thirsty and weary. God provides for his people not only food and rest, but refreshment also and pleasure. The consolations of God, the joys of the Holy Ghost, are these still waters, by which the saints are led, streams which flow from the fountain of living waters and make glad the city of our God. God leads his people, not to the standing waters which corrupt and gather filth, not to the troubled sea, nor to the rapid rolling floods, but to the silent purling waters; for the still but running waters agree best with those spirits that flow out towards God and yet do it silently. The divine guidance they are under is stripped of its metaphor (v. 3): He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, in the way of my duty; in that he instructs me by his word and directs me by conscience and providence. These are the paths in which all the saints desire to be led and kept, and never to turn aside out of them. And those only are led by the still waters of comfort that walk in the paths of righteousness. The way of duty is the truly pleasant way. It is the work of righteousness that is peace. In these paths we cannot walk unless God both lead us into them and lead us in them. (3.) They are well helped when any thing ails them: He restoreth my soul. [1.] "He restores me when I wander.’’ No creature will lose itself sooner than a sheep, so apt is it to go astray, and then so unapt to find the way back. The best saints are sensible of their proneness to go astray like lost sheep (Ps. 119:176 ); they miss their way, and turn aside into by-paths; but when God shows them their error, gives them repentance, and brings them back to their duty again, he restores the soul; and, if he did not do so, they would wander endlessly and be undone. When, after one sin, David’s heart smote him, and, after another, Nathan was sent to tell him, Thou art the man, God restored his soul. Though God may suffer his people to fall into sin, he will not suffer them to lie still in it. [2.] "He recovers me when I am sick, and revives me when I am faint, and so restores the soul which was ready to depart.’’ He is the Lord our God that heals us, Ex. 15:26 . Many a time we should have fainted unless we had believed; and it was the good shepherd that kept us from fainting.2. See here the courage of a dying saint (v. 4): "Having had such experience of God’s goodness to me all my days, in six troubles and in seven, I will never distrust him, no, not in the last extremity; the rather because all he has done for me hitherto was not for any merit or desert of mine, but purely for his name’s sake, in pursuance of his word, in performance of his promise, and for the glory of his own attributes and relations to his people. That name therefore shall still be my strong tower, and shall assure me that he who has led me, and fed me, all my life long, will not leave me at last.’’ Here is,(1.) Imminent danger supposed: "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, that is, though I am in peril of death, though in the midst of dangers, deep as a valley, dark as a shadow, and dreadful as death itself,’’ or rather, "though I am under the arrests of death, have received the sentence of death within myself, and have all the reason in the world to look upon myself as a dying man, yet I am easy.’’ Those that are sick, those that are old, have reason to look upon themselves as in the valley of the shadow of death. Here is one word indeed which sounds terrible; it is death, which we must all count upon; there is no discharge in that war. But, even in the supposition of the distress, there are four words which lessen the terror:—It is death indeed that is before us; but, [1.] It is but the shadow of death; there is no substantial evil in it; the shadow of a serpent will not sting nor the shadow of a sword kill. [2.] It is the valley of the shadow, deep indeed, and dark, and dirty; but the valleys are fruitful, and so is death itself fruitful of comforts to God’s people. [3.] It is but a walk in this valley, a gentle pleasant walk. The wicked are chased out of the world, and their souls are required; but the saints take a walk to another world as cheerfully as they take their leave of this. [4.] It is a walk through it; they shall not be lost in this valley, but get safely to the mountain of spices on the other side of it.(2.) This danger made light of, and triumphed over, upon good grounds. Death is a king of terrors, but not to the sheep of Christ; they tremble at it no more than sheep do that are appointed for the slaughter. "Even in the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. None of these things move me.’’ Note, A child of God may meet the messengers of death, and receive its summons with a holy security and serenity of mind. The sucking child may play upon the hole of this asp; and the weaned child, that, through grace, is weaned from this world, may put his hand upon this cockatrice’s den, bidding a holy defiance to death, as Paul, O death! where is thy sting? And there is ground enough for this confidence, [1.] Because there is no evil in it to a child of God; death cannot separate us from the love of God, and therefore it can do us no real harm; it kills the body, but cannot touch the soul. Why should it be dreadful when there is nothing in it hurtful? [2.] Because the saints have God’s gracious presence with them in their dying moments; he is then at their right hand, and therefore why should they be moved? The good shepherd will not only conduct, but convoy, his sheep through the valley, where they are in danger of being set upon by the beasts of prey, the ravening wolves; he will not only convoy them, but comfort then when they most need comfort. His presence shall comfort them: Thou art with me. His word and Spirit shall comfort them—his rod and staff, alluding to the shepherd’s crook, or the rod under which the sheep passed when they were counted (Lev. 27:32 ), or the staff with which the shepherds drove away the dogs that would scatter or worry the sheep. It is a comfort to the saints, when they come to die, that God takes cognizance of them (he knows those that are his), that he will rebuke the enemy, that he will guide them with his rod and sustain them with his staff. The gospel is called the rod of Christ’s strength (Ps. 110:2 ), and there is enough in that to comfort the saints when they come to die, and underneath them are the everlasting arms. III. From the good gifts of God’s bounty to him now he infers the constancy and perpetuity of his mercy, v. 5, v. 6. Here we may observe,1. How highly he magnifies God’s gracious vouchsafements to him (v. 5): "Thou preparest a table before me; thou hast provided for me all things pertaining both to life and godliness, all things requisite both for body and soul, for time and eternity:’’ such a bountiful benefactor is God to all his people; and it becomes them abundantly to utter his great goodness, as David here, who acknowledges, (1.) That he had food convenient, a table spread, a cup filled, meat for his hunger, drink for his thirst. (2.) That he had it carefully and readily provided for him. His table was not spread with any thing that came next to hand, but prepared, and prepared before him. (3.) That he was not stinted, was not straitened, but had abundance: "My cup runs over, enough for myself and my friends too.’’ (4.) That he had not only for necessity, but for ornament and delight: Thou anointest my head with oil. Samuel anointed him king, which was a certain pledge of further favor; but this is rather an instance of the plenty with which God had blessed him, or an allusion to the extraordinary entertainment of special friends, whose heads they anointed with oil, Lu. 7:46 . Nay, some think he still looks upon himself as a sheep, but such a one as the poor man’s ewe-lamb (2 Sa. 12:3 ), that did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom; not only thus nobly, but thus tenderly, are the children of God looked after. Plentiful provision is made for their bodies, for their souls, for the life that now is and for that which is to come. If Providence do not bestow upon us thus plentifully for our natural life, it is our own fault if it be not made up to us in spiritual blessings.2. How confidently he counts upon the continuance of God’s favors, v. 6. He had said (v. 1), I shall not want; but now he speaks more positively, more comprehensively: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. His hope rises, and his faith is strengthened, by being exercised. Observe, (1.) What he promises himself—goodness and mercy, all the streams of mercy flowing from the fountain, pardoning mercy, protecting mercy, sustaining mercy, supplying mercy. (2.) The manner of the conveyance of it: It shall follow me, as the water out of the rock followed the camp of Israel through the wilderness; it shall follow into all places and all conditions, shall be always ready. (3.) The continuance of it: It shall follow me all my life long, even to the last; for whom God loves he loves to the end. (4.) The constancy of it: All the days of my life, as duly as the day comes; it shall be new every morning (Lam. 3:22, Lam. 3:23 ) like the manna that was given to the Israelites daily. (5.) The certainty of it: Surely it shall. It is as sure as the promise of the God of truth can make it; and we know whom we have believed. (6.) Here is a prospect of the perfection of bliss in the future state. So some take the latter clause: "Goodness and mercy having followed me all the days of my life on this earth, when that is ended I shall remove to a better world, to dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, in our Father’s house above, where there are many mansions. With what I have I am pleased much; with what I hope for I am pleased more.’’ All this, and heaven too! Then we serve a good Master.3. How resolutely he determines to cleave to God and to his duty. We read the last clause as David’s covenant with God: "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever (as long as I live), and I will praise him while I have any being.’’ We must dwell in his house as servants, that desired to have their ears bored to the door-post, to serve him for ever. If God’s goodness to us be like the morning light, which shines more and more to the perfect day, let not ours to him be like the morning cloud and the early dew that passeth away. Those that would be satisfied with the fatness of God’s house must keep close to the duties of it
Reading 2 Phil 4:12-14, 19-20
In an intense little book called Beginning to Pray, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom tells about a time during the Nazi occupation of Paris when he very nearly was caught by the Gestapo:
"During the German occupation of France I was in the resistance movement and, coming down into the Underground, I was caught by the police.... What took place at that moment was this: I had a past, I had a future, and I was moving out of one into the other by walking briskly down the steps. At a certain moment someone put a hand on my shoulder and said 'Stop, give me your papers.' At that moment . .. I realized that I had no past, because the real past I had was the thing for which I should be shot.... I found myself standing there like the lizard who had been caught by the tail and had run away leaving the tail somewhere behind, so that the lizard ended where the tail had been."1
Something like this happens in the lesson for today. Paul had been walking briskly from his past into his future, so to speak, when God put a hand on his shoulder, and took him from a past and future that he thought he understood, to a previously unimaginable new life in Christ. The break is decisive. It is a matter of life and death, and having broken with his former identity, Paul doesn't walk; he runs into the future that is his in union with Christ.
We, like Paul, live at the threshold between the past and the future. This threshold is cruciform, and it is both an exit and an entrance. We, like Paul, are no longer to find our life, our purpose, our worth, our identity, in the past, but only in the discovery of who we are in Christ. This is incredibly liberating good news. It also is scary, perhaps insulting, and certainly difficult to grasp and comprehend. God continually wrenches us from what is comfortable and familiar and tugs us into the glorious future of the children of God.
Paul narrates his past in terms of his family, nationality and faith, and in terms of his accomplishments. That is, his former identity was bound up in a set of given relationships, as well as personal achievements and failures. Indeed, his greatest achievement, perfection in relationship to the Law of Moses, accompanied his greatest failure, persecution of the church. In any case, having once considered his personal story as a kind of asset, now he considers it loss -- even more, "garbage." I wonder what his relatives would say about that value judgment!
We also have our personal stories, some of which we cherish, some of which we would gladly bury. In either case, we often feel that our identity is bound up in those stories; we want to tell them to each other, or at least parts of them. Like lizards, we trail our personal histories -- our "tails"! -- behind us. Becoming "tail-less" is a necessary part of being transformed in the image of Christ.
In practical terms, this means that we don't own our past or our memories. Rather, access to the past is mediated by the judgment and mercy of God. This is part of what baptism signifies, and we see its effects in the profound freedom from the past in Paul's personal narrative. He does not have amnesia. Rather, from the standpoint of the grace of God in Christ, he is no longer defined by that history, because only God can tell him who he is.
Unlike the past, therefore, Paul's future is not primarily about him. It's about God. Specifically, it's about "the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." That is, Jesus Christ is the threshold where our past and our future meet. Jesus is the one whose faithful obedience to death (Philippians 2:8) nullifies the power of our own history and liberates us for a new future. Paul puts it this way: "For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith" (3:8-9).
An alternative translation of verse 9 reads, "the faithfulness of Christ." This divine faithfulness is the incarnate expression of God's faithfulness throughout the history of Israel, now crystallized in Christ and decisively effective for the whole world. In other words, Christ himself makes us righteous and thereby brings us into the life-giving presence of God. When Paul yearns to "be found in" Christ, he is responding to the self-giving love of Christ who was "found in human form" (2:7).
Finally, Paul uses the image of a race to describe the Christian life. A runner who keeps glancing over his shoulder will not win the race. Rather, the one who keeps her "eyes on the prize" will stay on track. Similarly, the runner who mistakes the half-way marker for the goal and stops there, saying "I made it!" will drop out of the race.
So also, Paul says that he has not "already reached the goal" (3:12). The phrase is literally, "have already become perfect or mature." Paul uses the same word in verse 15, when he says, "Let those of us who are mature be of the same mind." Paradoxically, "mature thinking" means recognizing that we're not yet mature! We're not yet perfect, and if we think we are, we are deceiving ourselves. Rather, we are always in the midst of the race, carried forward from the past to the future in union with Christ.
Gospel Mt 22:1-14
We are rightly mystified by the behavior of the characters in this bizarre little story. An initial invitation to come to a feast in honor of the king’s son is met with rejection (verse 3). That’s odd (nobody turns down a royal summons), but not deeply troubling. A second invitation sweetens the deal with descriptions of the elaborate preparations (verse 4) -- it’s going to be delicious! Who wouldn’t come to this party? But those invited are apparently unimpressed, and return to business as usual (verse 5). Again, this is unusual behavior -- but it’s the kind of strangeness we have learned to expect in a parable.
But then things go completely off the rails. We watch in horror as the servants sent by the king to announce the party are seized, abused, and murdered (verse 6). We didn’t see that coming! How did the stakes suddenly get so high? And the weirdness and violence are just getting started. In retaliation, the king goes to war against his own people. Enraged by their actions he unleashes an army. Before we know it, the murderers themselves are murdered, and a city (presumably the king’s own city!) is a pile of smoldering ash (verse 7).
But it gets weirder still. With our heads still spinning, we learn that the dinner is still on (verse 8)! Now the invitations go out again, this time to commoners on the “main streets” of the (destroyed?) city (verse 9). Apparently, while soldiers pillaged and slashed -- all the while as great flames devoured the buildings outside the palace walls -- little Sterno burners toiled away silently under the sumptuous dishes in the great hall, keeping the meal hot for the eventual guests!
In other words, this is not a realistic story, and my first suggestion for preaching it is to tell it in such a way that the hearers are invited to appreciate its absurdities. No doubt this is a disturbing story -- inflammatory, even. But perhaps we can get some perspective and even a little hermeneutical leverage by coming clean about the ways it strains credibility -- even the special credibility we reserve for parables. With the stakes of realism lowered a bit, we can start to answer some questions.
Why is the narrative so tortured in its twists of plot? Because it is being constructed by Matthew as an allegory of salvation history at the end of the first century, Matthew’s community finds itself in conflict with the synagogue down the street, and this story is a tool for thinking about the meaning of that conflict.
Note that this is not a matter of “Christians vs. Jews” -- that kind of thinking would come later -- but an intramural conflict within Judaism. Surely Matthew and his community understood themselves as faithful Jews who had responded to God’s summons to the kingdom banquet offered in honor of God’s Messiah, Jesus. But others had inexplicably rejected the great invitation, ignoring or persecuting both the prophets of old, and the new missionaries of this good news.
In Matthew’s world, a burning city would have called to mind Jerusalem’s destruction at the hands of the Romans in 70 CE, interpreted here as God’s judgment on those who rejected the new thing God was doing in Jesus. An unexpected invitation to commoners on the main streets points toward the surprising ways the invitation to God’s kingdom banquet is increasingly extended to and embraced by those once considered outsiders.
But before we decide that this is just Matthew working out some rhetorical violence against opponents, and assuring his own community that they are on the right side of salvation history, we should read the story to the end: a denouement is coming, and it’s a doozy.
With the party in full swing, the king enters the banquet hall and moves among the guests. To his dismay, he finds that one of them is not dressed properly. “Friend,” he says, “how did you get in here without a wedding robe” (verse 12)? And receiving no satisfactory answer, he has the poor guy bound and thrown out -- not just outside the hall, but into “the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (verse 13). With “friends” like that, who needs enemies?
Again, we find credulity strained to the breaking point: of course the guy isn’t dressed properly -- he was pulled in off the street at the last minute! But again, allegory, and not realism, is calling the shots here. Matthew warns his community against self-satisfaction. This king is no pushover, and if the new guests are beneficiaries of an unexpectedly generous invitation, they must nevertheless be on guard against the complacency shown by the first invitees. The doors of the kingdom community are thrown wide open, and the invitation extends literally to all. But once you come in, there are standards. You can’t go on acting like you are not at an extraordinary party.
But even if appropriate clothing is a metaphor for the need for appropriate behavior in the new, inclusive community, the parable may be saying more here than anybody expected -- and the surplus will preach. Maybe Matthew originally intended this as a stern warning to live up to the rigorous standards of a higher righteousness (5:20, 48), but the story, pushed down and contorted by allegorical demands for too long, rises at the last to assert its own delightful possibility.
Within the world of the story as told, the problem with this guy is not that he is not taking things seriously enough. No, his problem is a failure to party. The kingdom of heaven (verse 2) is a banquet, after all, and you’ve got to put on your party dress and get with the program. The kingdom music is playing, and it's time to get up on the dance floor. Or, as the slightly more sober, but no less theologically astute Barth put the matter: “In the last resort, it all boils down to the fact that the invitation is to a feast, and that he who does not obey and come accordingly, and therefore festively, declines and spurns the invitation no less than those who are unwilling to obey and appear at all.”
Making the Connection
- Whom do you expect to see in heaven?
- Do you think you will be in heaven?
- In today’s Gospel Jesus tells a parable about the kingdom of heaven. He addresses the parable to the religious leaders, people who were fairly confident that they were chosen by God for salvation. Review carefully the Gospel.
- In the parable, who finally got to enjoy the wedding feast? Were you surprised by this? Do you think those who heard the parable as Jesus told it were surprised?
- Why was the guest sent away from the feast? (The guest wasn’t dressed appropriately.) Was this fair? What does this tell us about accepting God’s invitation of salvation? (We must show our acceptance by changing our lives to conform to God’s kingdom.) Jesus teaches us in this Gospel the importance of humility as we hope for God’s kingdom and salvation.
- Pray for the strength to approach God’s promise of salvation with humility and repentance. Pray the Lord’s Prayer.
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Sunday October 8, 2017 Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 139
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 5:1-7
Let me now sing of my friend,
my friend's song concerning his vineyard.
My friend had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside;
he spaded it, cleared it of stones,
and planted the choicest vines;
within it he built a watchtower,
and hewed out a wine press.
Then he looked for the crop of grapes,
but what it yielded was wild grapes.
Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard:
What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I had not done?
Why, when I looked for the crop of grapes,
did it bring forth wild grapes?
Now, I will let you know
what I mean to do with my vineyard:
take away its hedge, give it to grazing,
break through its wall, let it be trampled!
Yes, I will make it a ruin:
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
but overgrown with thorns and briers;
I will command the clouds
not to send rain upon it.
The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah are his cherished plant;
he looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed!
for justice, but hark, the outcry!
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20
R. (Is 5:7a) The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
A vine from Egypt you transplanted;
you drove away the nations and planted it.
It put forth its foliage to the Sea,
its shoots as far as the River.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Why have you broken down its walls,
so that every passer-by plucks its fruit,
The boar from the forest lays it waste,
and the beasts of the field feed upon it?
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted
the son of man whom you yourself made strong.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
O LORD, God of hosts, restore us;
if your face shine upon us, then we shall be saved.
R. The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.
Reading 2 Phil 4:6-9
Brothers and sisters:
Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,
if there is any excellence
and if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Keep on doing what you have learned and received
and heard and seen in me.
Then the God of peace will be with you.
Gospel Mt 21:33-43
Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:
"Hear another parable.
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard,
put a hedge around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower.
Then he leased it to tenants and went on a journey.
When vintage time drew near,
he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce.
But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,
another they killed, and a third they stoned.
Again he sent other servants, more numerous than the first ones,
but they treated them in the same way.
Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking,
'They will respect my son.'
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,
'This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'
They seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.
What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?"
They answered him,
"He will put those wretched men to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other tenants
who will give him the produce at the proper times."
Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
by the Lord has this been done,
and it is wonderful in our eyes?
Therefore, I say to you,
the kingdom of God will be taken away from you
and given to a people that will produce its fruit."
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Reading 1 Is 5:1-7
Justice and righteousness, both of these crucial words/concepts are featured in Isaiah 5:1-7, another of the more memorable passages in all of the prophetic literature. What begins as if it will be a "love-song" quickly develops into an allegory; and lest there be any doubt about the message, verse 7 concludes the passage by offering an explicit interpretation. God is the owner of the vineyard, which represents God's people. The coming destruction (verses 5-6) results from the people's failure to do what God "expected," and more literally and poignantly, what God "hoped for" (verses 2, 4, 7). That is, the failure to enact and embody justice and righteousness invites catastrophe.
Israel and Judah are imaged elsewhere as the vineyard or vine that God has planted. For instance, the psalm for the day, Psalm 80, contains a "plot" similar to the one found in Isaiah 5:2-6. Indeed, Psalm 80 assumes the destruction that is anticipated in Isaiah 5:5-6. The question asked by the psalmist in 80:12 -- "Why have you broken down its walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?" -- is answered in Isaiah 5:1-7. In short, the people have invited their own destruction by the failure to do justice and righteousness. Psalm 80 pleads for the restoration of the vine/people. The Isaiah tradition itself also uses the vine imagery again in Isaiah 27:2-6, both to explain the consequences of disobedience ( verse 4), as well as to plead for the people's obedience (verse 5) and to anticipate an eventual restoration (verse 6).
In Isaiah 5:1-7, however, the tone is judgment. The owner of the vineyard made every possible preparation for a fruitful harvest -- picking a good site, preparing the land, choosing the best plants, arranging for protection and for processing the grapes. But what he got was "wild grapes," or more literally, "stinking things" (verses 2, 4). The portrayal of God here is significant. In particular, what God "expected" or "hoped for" does not happen; in short, God does not guarantee the results.
We must assume that God's people have been given the freedom to respond to God faithfully, or not. Such freedom is absolutely necessary for true relationality -- that is, love (remember, the passage begins as a "love-song") -- to exist. But it is precisely the people's freedom that means things can go wrong, and they do. All of this has important implications for understanding the tone of judgment in Isaiah 5:1-7 and the prophets in general -- that is, judgment is not to be understood as God's need to punish or to get even with the sinful people. Rather, judgment is the set of destructive consequences that result from the people's own choices. God is essentially gracious (see commentary on Hosea 11:1-11).
As for what the people have chosen, verse 7 gives us a general picture, further details of which can be found in the remainder of Isaiah 5. The good, fruitful harvest that God "expected" or "hoped for" is named with the two extraordinarily important words "justice" and "righteousness." The structure and rhetoric of the passage add even further emphasis to these two crucial words. They occur in the climactic verse, and the alliterative word-play in Hebrew highlights them even further. Instead of the "justice" (mishpat) that God "expected," God sees "bloodshed" (mispach). And instead of "righteousness" (tsedaqah), God hears "a cry" (tse'aqah). Instead of the goodness that God expects the people to enact and embody, there is violence that leads the victims to cry out for help.
The Hebrew word translated "cry" is particularly important and revealing. When God's people were being victimized by Pharaoh in Egypt, their response was to cry to God for help (see Exodus 3:7). This word also occurs in 1 Samuel 8:18 in the culmination of Samuel's warning to the people about the "justice" of the soon-to-be-established monarchy. As Samuel puts it, the "justice" of the kings will be nothing but oppression. The people "will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves." In short, the warning is that the monarchy itself will re-create the oppressive conditions of Pharaoh's Egypt. Isaiah 5:7 suggests that the worst has happened. God's own people have chosen a system that creates victims and evokes their cries for help.
The details of the oppressive conditions are evident as chapter 5 unfolds -- joining "house to house" and adding "field to field" (verse 8), thus displacing poor farmers from their land (and only source of livelihood), and resulting in both homelessness and hunger (verse 13). Excess, greed, and conspicuous consumption (see also verses 11-12, 22) are apparently supported by corruption and manipulation of the legal system (verse 23). The deplorable situation results, according to Isaiah 5, from the rejection of God's "instruction" and "word". Although the poor are directly victimized, everyone eventually stands to lose (verse 15) when justice and righteousness (see verse 16) are not enacted and embodied.
Violence, victimization, hunger, homelessness, greed, conspicuous consumption, corruption -- these realities sound all too familiar! Somewhere in our world, a child dies every four seconds from causes related to hunger and malnutrition. In the United States, 51% of our people will have lived in poverty at some point in their lives by the time they reach age 65. 46 million people in the United States have no health insurance. All the while, corporate executives make 419 times more money than the average worker, and then there are the obscenely large bonuses that in recent months have even been funded by taxpayer money. As Mary Pipher concludes, "We have cared more about selling things to our neighbors than we've cared for our neighbors. The deck is stacked all wrong and ultimately we will all lose."3
We can do better. We should do better. God expects us to do better. But tragically, instead of justice, God sees violence; and instead of righteousness, God hears the cries of victims.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 80:9, 12, 13-14, 15-16, 19-20
This portion of Psalm 80 responds to the first lesson from Isaiah 5 by employing the same metaphor of God's people as a ruined, forsaken vine and vineyard.
In the first lesson, Isaiah argues God's side: in spite of my loving viticulture, my grape people were a failure; there was nothing for it but to abandon them and the whole project. The psalm then argues the people's side seeking God's restoration to wholeness.
I'm a loyal fan of The Revised Common Lectionary but let me say that allowing verses 7, 14, and 15 to represent the gist of the people's appeal takes some of the fun out of the juxtaposition of Psalm 80 with Isaiah 5 and Matthew 21. As the first reading and gospel reading make clear, God expects the vineyard to produce fruits of the Reign: justice and righteousness.
What's striking about the people's defense in Psalm 80 is the absence of mention of God's vineyard mission. The psalm seems concerned only with the grandeur of the vine and the restoration of the special relationship once enjoyed between God and God's own people. In verses 1-6, the people address God in unctuous tones, reminding God of the divine power to save and then appealing to God's (or is it only the people's) honor and reputation: "You make us the scorn of our neighbors; our enemies laugh among themselves" (verse 6). Then (following the appointed verses) in verse 16, the psalm calls not for mercy but rather for God's vengeance to rain down upon the boars and beasts who have had their way with the vineyard.
The appointed verses begin with a simple request for restoration (verse 7). Then the psalmist hearkens back to Exodus and the conquest of Canaan, reminding God that the vineyard was God's own project (verse 8). The description in verses 9-11 of the vineyard's success deserves some attention from the preacher's imagination. It is a picture of a grotesque grape vine that towers over cedar trees and mountains and stretches from the Mediterranean to the Jordan and beyond.
Sure, it's only a metaphor celebrating God's provision of the land promised to Abraham and Sarah. But the people's pride in this uncanny vine provides an entry point for pointing out dissonance between their vision and God's. Vineyards need protection because grape production involves the maintenance of tricky bio-chemical balances accompanied by a trust in ruthless discipline (one adage has it that the vintner must "cut the plants back as far as he or she can stand and then give the pruning saw to someone who hates wine"). Monster vines don't need protection; nor are they likely to bear the best fruit.
The weakness of the people's appeal is shown most vividly in the question posed in verse 12, "Why have you broken down its wall ...?" God has never been bashful about chastising the chosen people nor about explaining to them exactly why (cf. today's first reading!). God disciplines (prunes) so that the people may grow and bear fruits that befit God's mission. God's people here seem to want restoration of their prosperity, reputation, and "goodness with God" simply for their own sake.
When I'm sitting in worship on October 2 I want to hear you explore whether the people's "case" in Psalm 80 (especially verses 8-11) bears any spiritual metaphorical relationship to the fretful handwringing of the mainline churches in North American (including, sadly, some in my own denomination, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) over our "decline." "We took root and once filled the land! The Appalachians and Rockies were covered by our shadow (though perhaps never the Cascades or Sierra Nevadas). Our boughs and tendrils towered over..."
Well, you get the idea. In what ways do our visions of our former or hoped-for grandeur make grotesque the metaphors into which we have been invited to live: servant, steward, lamb? And then, with the rich judgments of Isaiah 5 and Matthew 21 as background, proclaim as Gospel the confidence we have to pray, with the psalmist (verses 14-15), "Turn now, O God of hosts, look down from heaven; behold and tend this vine; preserve what your right hand has planted," adding, "for the sake of your mission in the word."
Reading 2 Phil 4:6-9
Today’s passage belongs to the last chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Philippians.
It features practical advice for a life centered in Christ. This means that, in terms of contents, the audience should not expect anything new.
What Paul writes here is both a recapitulation and application of what he has already stated in previous chapters of his letter, as the attentive reader will notice. It functions like a well-chosen sending out hymn: It reminds the congregation what the worship including its sermon was all about and provides a practical edge, Let’s reflect on seems to be the most important themes of this passage.
Paul encourages his audience: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice” (Philippians 4:4). This sentence alone captures two key topics of the letter, namely joy and theological focus. As for the first, Paul repeats almost verbatim what he stated earlier in 3:1, and already there he admitted to being a bit redundant.
Indeed, Paul opened his letter with remarks that he is “constantly praying with joy” (1:4); he goes on to mention “joy in faith” (1:25) and wants the Philippians to “make my joy complete” by having the same intent and mind (2:2). In chapter 4:1, Paul calls the congregation in Philippi “my joy and crown,” thus employing the term as a metonymy for what causes him to be cheerful. The list shows that “joy” is a central concept for Paul in this letter.
Is such a reminder necessary? Is it not somewhat odd to urge people to be joyful? This is probably true; however, if we could measure the “degree” of joyfulness in our Christian congregations, then we would probably have to admit that advice for more joy rather than less might be quite expedient.
We are too often focused on sin instead of celebrating that we are forgiven. We complain too often about the lack of holiness instead of remembering what we are as children of God. We are too often frustrated by feelings of weakness instead of being delighted about the strength of the Holy Spirit working in us. Yes, we too probably need a periodic reminder to “rejoice in the Lord.”
Which brings us to the second key topic of Philippians: theological and Christological focus. It may be stating the obvious, but the joy Paul has in mind is not superficial; it has little in common with the obligatory laughter of invisible (non-existing?) audiences in TV sitcoms. There is a difference between something funny and deep joy, which has a lasting effect and the power to change us.
Specifically, this joy is not the same as “fun,” and following Jesus is certainly not always “fun.” Just as Jesus, so Paul was countercultural. This was manifest in the fact that he was persecuted, beaten, and imprisoned. In the end, his faith cost him his life, as it did for many who believed in Jesus. This was not fun. Those who know Jesus have made this experience for the past 2000 years.
So what is there to rejoice? Real and lasting joy comes from the confidence that, no matter what happens, we are inseparably connected to God and saved. It has to do with where the focus of one’s life is or, to employ a famous phrase by Paul Tillich, with one’s “ultimate concern.” The Apostle Paul could rejoice because he did not fear death. A few years before penning his Letter to the Philippians, he wrote to the congregations in Rome: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Romans 8:35).
The knowledge that Christ has overcome death gave Paul this certainty. This is what Tillich had in mind when explaining: “Our ultimate concern is that which determines our being or not-being. Only those statements are theological which deal with their object in so far as it can become a matter of being or not-being for us” (Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology vol. 1, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1967, p. 12).
The focus on Christ, however, also has immediate ramifications for the here and now. Paul advises: “Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5). Paul expected that Christ’s return was imminent, and this would have consequences on how people who believed in him would behave. For instance, they would “not worry about anything” (verse 6a), referencing what Jesus had said in the Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear” (Matthew 6:25). Instead, trust in God leads to prayer (v. 6b).
In addition, the theological and Christological focus help to overcome human disagreements.
Previously Paul had asked his audience to strive “side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel” (Philippians 1:27). We may assume that such advice was necessary because different opinions prevailed among his audience. In 4:2, we now read (according to NRSV): “I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord.” (A brief comment on pronunciation: The Greek name of the first woman should be rendered “Euhodia;” it is composed of Greek eu --“well” and hodos -- “way, road”; thus euhodoo means “to go well, succeed.”)
This is proof that tensions in congregations are no modern problem. The focus on God is the best remedy when no longer ultimate, but preliminary concerns start to dominate our agendas. It alone guarantees “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (4:7) -- and hence empowers us to overcome human differences.
Gospel Mt 21:33-43
When people in authority challenged Jesus, he often responded to their challenges with a parable.
If those challenging him didn't get the first parable, he'd give them a second one. Today's Gospel is just such a second parable addressed to the challenge posed by the chief priests and elders about the source of Jesus' authority (21:23-27).
The parable begins with a situation that was business as usual in Roman-occupied Palestine. A landowner established a vineyard complete with a fence, a winepress, and even a watchtower. He then became an absentee landowner, returning to his own country as often happened in the far-flung territories of the Roman Empire. Tenants were in charge of overseeing the productivity of the vineyard and paying their rent to the owner at harvest time, in the form of a share of the produce. So far, so good: business was working as usual. Then everything came apart!
When the owner's slaves arrived to collect his share of the produce, the tenants attacked them, even beating one and killing another. The owner of the vineyard then simply sent another delegation of slaves to collect the rent. Hmm... this is not normal!
Those slaves were treated even worse than the first. Surely by now the owner would send in troops or some form of armed enforcement of his rights! But no, instead he sends his son, thinking by some logic that the thugs who have abused two delegations of slaves will respect the owner's son and heir. How foolish! In parallel folly the tenants reason that if they kill the son, they will get his inheritance. Apparently unaware of how ridiculous their notion is, they kill the son.
Are you still playing along with the parable? I hope so, because the punch line is almost here. Jesus asks his audience (the chief priests and elders), "Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" The answer is obvious, and the tenants offer it: "He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time" (verse 41).
Whether the answer is given in a gloating voice or as a lament in fear and trembling depends on where those listening see themselves -- us -- in the story, and therein lays the catch. The chief priests and elders probably see themselves in the role of the landowner, caught in his own merciful response to those in his charge. They would be able to actually own land, and to have others manage it for them while they were busy with their administrative tasks in Jerusalem. They would see the servants as their subordinates and themselves as the real victims of the unscrupulous tenants, and they would be ready and even eager to pronounce judgment on them.
We who are Christians, on the other hand, have tended to read the parable seeing God as the landowner and the temple leaders as the thoroughly evil tenants who are defrauding God of the rightful fruits of God's covenant with Israel. In this allegory, the groups of servants are Israel's prophets and Jesus is the son.
We, in turn, are the "other tenants" to whom the "vineyard" will be given after it is taken from the Jerusalem leaders who have not managed it well (Isaiah 5:1-7). Seen as an allegory of salvation history from Matthew's perspective, even to the point of depicting Jesus, who would be crucified outside of Jerusalem, as the son who is killed outside of the vineyard, this parable becomes an opening salvo from Jesus himself, justifying our claims against the Jewish leaders and even against Judaism as a whole.
Before we buy either of the traditional readings, though, we need to step back and look at it again. Perhaps neither allegory is the best way to approach this parable.
Our confusion about how to read this parable is built into its role and place in Matthew's Gospel. This exchange between Jesus and the chief priests and elders is set in Jerusalem near the end of Jesus' ministry. This final section of the Gospel before the passion narrative gazes stereo-optically at Jesus' own life and ministry and at the church that will carry on his witness to God's reign after Jesus' approaching passion, death, and resurrection.
Jesus' collision with the Jerusalem leadership is a thread running through the whole Gospel, just as the church would later be in conflict with the synagogue as both communities attempted to deal with the consequences of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple. The arguments between them were most often not about religious practices, but about the temple leaders' collusion with exploitative economic and social policies of the Roman Empire, and later over different ways of negotiating life under that Empire in the church and the synagogue from which it was "called out" (ekklesia).
Jesus' citation of Psalm 118:22-23 (verse 42) does not rebut the verdict the leaders have pronounced on the tenants, but rather it refocuses the discussion. The issue is no longer the old "vineyard," but rather a totally new structure of which Jesus himself is the "cornerstone." That structure is God's reign or empire, which Jesus has been proclaiming from the beginning of his ministry and which the church will continue to proclaim in Jesus' name.
This parable does not use the story to set forth the surprising nature and qualities of God's reign, as do so many others in the Gospels. Its focus is rather on the futility of debates about, and maintenance programs for, the institutions of this age. Even the terms of God's relationship to God's own people are new. This puzzling parable pulls us forward toward that unknown future in which we will be both blessed and judged, and about which we know only that it is anchored in Jesus Christ.
Making the Connection
- Think of a time when they were rejected. Write about it briefly, describe the experience and how you felt about it.
- Rejection is a very difficult experience that can take time to overcome. In this Sunday's Gospel, Jesus tells the chief priests and elders a story about a man who experiences very harsh rejection.
- To whom can we compare the landowner, the messengers, the son, and the tenants? (God, the prophets, Jesus, ourselves)
- Jesus' story reminds the chief priests and elders that God's own people have repeatedly rejected God's love, yet God continues to reach out to them. He even sent his own Son, Jesus. Remember how you felt when you were rejected? What does it say about God that, even though his love has been rejected so many times, he continues to reach out to us? Think about it.
- Now that you have reflected on what it felt like to experience rejection, think what it means to know that God loves you no matter how many times you reject him.
- Ask God for help when you experience disappointment or rejection.
- Pray this Sunday's psalm, Psalm 80.
- God bless!
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Sunday October 1, 2017 Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 136
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 18:25-28
Thus says the LORD:
You say, "The LORD's way is not fair!"
Hear now, house of Israel:
Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?
When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies,
it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.
But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed,
he does what is right and just,
he shall preserve his life;
since he has turned away from all the sins that he has committed,
he shall surely live, he shall not die.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
R. (6a) Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Remember that your compassion, O LORD,
and your love are from of old.
The sins of my youth and my frailties remember not;
in your kindness remember me,
because of your goodness, O LORD.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Good and upright is the LORD;
thus he shows sinners the way.
He guides the humble to justice,
and teaches the humble his way.
R. Remember your mercies, O Lord.
Reading 2 Phil 2:1-11
Brothers and sisters:
If there is any encouragement in Christ,
any solace in love,
any participation in the Spirit,
any compassion and mercy,
complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love,
united in heart, thinking one thing.
Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory;
rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves,
each looking out not for his own interests,
but also for those of others.
Have in you the same attitude
that is also in Christ Jesus,
Who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel Mt 21:28-32
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people:
"What is your opinion?
A man had two sons.
He came to the first and said,
'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'
He said in reply, 'I will not, '
but afterwards changed his mind and went.
The man came to the other son and gave the same order.
He said in reply, 'Yes, sir, 'but did not go.
Which of the two did his father's will?"
They answered, "The first."
Jesus said to them, "Amen, I say to you,
tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the kingdom of God before you.
When John came to you in the way of righteousness,
you did not believe him;
but tax collectors and prostitutes did.
Yet even when you saw that,
you did not later change your minds and believe him."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 18:25-28
As you by now know I like to take in more than just the verses in the reading. I want to get the full picture so to speak.
The word that comes to the prophet Ezekiel in today’s lesson is an argument between God and the exiles.
Having listened in on the exiles’ talk, God asks Ezekiel what their use of a proverb might mean: “The parents have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” The exiles are “proverbing a proverb,” either applying an existing saying to their present situation, or creating a new one. Its meaning is clear: children suffer from their parents’ mistakes.
As proverbs go, this one is memorable if only because it rings so true. Who has not mourned a parent’s limitations, or struggled against some lingering psychic injury from childhood? What the exiles mean by applying it to themselves is the problem. Not only does it allow them to blame others for their current plight, it also obscures the particulars of the current emergency.
While it is certainly true that the Babylonian exile is the end result of a long series of rebellions (as Ezekiel will argue elsewhere), it is the current rebellion that now jeopardizes the kingdom of Judah. One is reminded of David’s blasé remark on learning the news of Uriah’s death in battle: (2 Samuel 11:25).
According to David, Uriah has died because war happens, not because David has had anything to do with it. Similarly, by identifying with the children in the proverb, the exiles cast themselves as innocent victims, as if Nebuchadnezzar’s deportation had not singled out those responsible for the rebellion. In the course of the argument, God urges the exiles to acknowledge their own guilt, repent, and live. The question to consider is how rejecting the proverb is a necessary step.
Commentators often draw connections between this proverb and the ancient Israelite understanding of intergenerational responsibility for guilt (see Exodus 34:7), and suggest that Ezekiel 18 marks a breakthrough to a supposedly higher understanding of individual moral responsibility. Although there are good reasons to challenge that reading, personal responsibility is nevertheless a key theme of the chapter.
It is first articulated in God’s initial rejoinder to the proverb, which establishes a close connection between guilt and punishment: “Only the one who sins shall die!” (18:4). This connection is developed in two stages. First, conventional assumptions about intergenerational guilt and punishment are carefully dismantled through the examination of the fates of the righteous father, the wicked son, and the righteous grandson. Neither guilt nor righteousness is carried from one generation to the next; only the wicked one dies (18:5-18).
In the second stage, the disputation examines the careers of righteous and wicked individuals. A righteous person can turn to wickedness and lose his life; conversely, a wicked person can turn to righteousness and live (18:19-24). Even within a single lifetime, then, one’s past doesn’t necessarily determine the future. If the generations are not bound to suffer because of the sins of the ancestors, neither does an individual’s past guilt condemn him to a life of punishment.
But if Ezekiel 18 is only about guilt and punishment, it’s worth asking why God emphatically declares ownership over all life “Know that all lives are mine; the live of the parent as well as the life of the child is mine” (18:4a). Is this declaration only for the sake of justifying God’s right to kill the wicked? This would seem not to be the case, since God emphatically repudiates any pleasure in the death of anyone, even sinners (verses 23, 32). Indeed, as the argument unfolds, the more pressing question is not who gets punished, but whether it is possible to imagine life after guilt. If God does not desire the death of anyone, not even the wicked (verse 32; cf. verse 23), then what are sinners to do?
They must let go of self-justifying but limiting ways of seeing themselves. In Ezekiel 18, this means letting go of the proverb. Remarkably, the exiles cling to it even after God establishes that only the wicked suffer for their sins (18:5-18). One would think this is good news; yet in v. 18 the exiles protest, “Why should not the son suffer for the iniquity of the father?”
Apparently identifying with the children of the proverb, the exiles would prefer to see themselves as victims than as moral agents capable of choosing their destiny. They object yet again when God declares that even the wicked may live by turning from their wickedness. They protest, “The way of the Lord doesn’t measure up”, “the way of the Lord is unfair”. The translation in suggests that the protest revolves around questions of divine justice; the exiles protest God’s unfathomability -- as if they prefer the tidiness of a self-limiting proverb to the mystery of God’s offer of new life.
The disputation makes God’s way perfectly clear. God values life above all else. Therefore God is open to human repentance and change. By contrast, the proverb relegates its users to an endless cycle of suffering by encouraging them to re-inscribe old patterns of guilt and blame. What God offers instead is life grounded in truth telling and responsibility. Mom and Dad may in fact have made a mess of things, but the children have eaten their fair share of sour grapes.
Somewhat paradoxically, accepting responsibility for guilt also makes it possible to let it go; this is conveyed quite literally in God’s challenge to the exiles to “cast away” their transgressions (verse 31). Repentance is not a matter of bearing guilt as a burden, neither is it the cultivation of remorse or regret. Instead, is the first step toward transformation -- what Ezekiel calls getting a new heart and a new spirit. Repentance is an active, deliberate step in a new direction. It is a step into the future, into life itself.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14
As the first order, our psalmist (David) orients his entire being toward God (Psalm 25:1). This ancient poet’s posture parallels the picture of God, who is ever present in “the word of the Lord is very near” (Deuteronomy 30:14). The psalmist refers to himself as “[his] soul,” which is an idiomatic way in Hebrew of referring to oneself. The nucleus of the phrase is nefesh (“soul” or “living being”) that recalls the creation account of Genesis 1-2, where human beings and other creatures are called nefesh. Its Semitic root covers a wide range of meaning from soul to appetite. He lifts up his desire and life energy and directs them to the LORD.
The psalmist clearly recognizes the perils in life. He is confronted by “[his] enemies” (Psalm 25:2b). They could prevail and gloat over their victory to add insult to injury. Above all, he dreads the danger of “shame,” which constitutes a major concern in the biblical world. The loss of honor is a debilitating situation in antiquity as is the case in many parts of today’s world. In vv. 2-3, he mentions “shame” repeatedly with three words derived from the same root. From the psalmist’s perspective, God should prevent him from being humiliated. First, it affects adversely “those who wait for [God]” (v. 3). The Hebrew word that signifies waiting shares the same etymology with tiqvah (“hope”). The root originates from the practice of making thread by twisting fibers together. God cannot let down those who hope and wait for God’s intervention, anxiously wringing their hands.
In the security of confidence in the LORD, the psalmist wants to learn and follow God’s way (vv. 4-5). In the Hebrew text, these two verses are twins. They begin and end with words based on the root that refers to a “way,” as if he is saying, “I will KNOW your way. I will GO your way.” He is determined to do this, for he recognizes God as his salvation. The Hebrew word for “salvation” includes not only deliverance from the present dangers in life (as depicted in vv. 2-3) but also the well-being and prospering that accompany the observance of the law as referred to in Deuteronomy 30:10).
The psalmist has a good reason to count on God’s mercy and steadfast love, for these are some of the things that one can be sure will last forever -- “they have been from old” (Psalm 25:6). His petition that the LORD “be mindful” enlists a simple Hebrew word that means “remember.” This Hebrew verb is oriented not so much to the past as to the present. The psalmist is not merely asking God to recall something that could be forgotten. The psalmist petitions God to act based on the categories of mercy and steadfast love.
Mercy and steadfast love are linked together elsewhere in the book of Psalms (40:11; 103:4). Our psalmist conceptualizes the divine attributes as two sides of the coin. In the Greek Septuagint, they are translated with two synonyms that mean “compassion.” The Latin Vulgate uses miseratio and misericordia; the former may signify the emotion of pity, whereas the latter includes willingness to do something about it.
The latter of the pair (“steadfast love”; mentioned three times in 25:6, 7, 10) translates hesed, a Hebrew word that has vexed many generations of translators, for there is no suitable English word that can convey its meaning. The modern convention of rendering it as “steadfast love” is based on the observation that it portrays faithful compassion that never fails.
When the psalmist asks God to remember mercy and steadfast love, he prays that God may not “remember the sins of [his] youth or [his] transgressions” (v. 7a). Again, the psalmist prays that God may not base divine decision on the past. The petitioner cannot rule out the wrongs that he must have committed as a reckless youth. As a fallible human being, he makes his straightforward confession of sins (“transgressions”). He is neither able nor willing to claim innocence as the basis for God’s aid. He can only rely on God’s mercy and steadfast love (v. 7b).
He can be sure of God’s deliverance, for even sinners are granted the chance to be taught in the LORD’s way (v. 8). For the humble, God has a special arrangement (v. 9). In the Hebrew language, it is almost impossible to distinguish the humble from the oppressed poor. It is not always possible to keep them apart in today’s world, either, where power and privilege are poised to preempt the care for the powerless. The two halves of the verse make a reasonable pair, in which guidance and instruction are brought together. Yet, there is a subtle overtone that suggests that the first half recommends the humble walk in life, while the second underscores the importance of learning.
The psalmist’s confidence resides in God’s steadfast love that will endure “for those who keep his covenant and his decrees” (v. 10), which again recalls the first lesson from Deuteronomy 30:9-14. One needs not construe v. 10b as a prerequisite to the proposition presented in v. 10a. The psalmist has already established his helplessness in having himself saved for himself. The psalmist ponders the blessing reserved for those who live faithfully. They will witness God’s faithfulness.
Reading 2 Phil 2:1-11
The apostle proceeds in this chapter where he left off in the last, with further exhortations to Christian duties. He presses them largely to like-mindedness and lowly-mindedness, in conformity to the example of the Lord Jesus, the great pattern of humility and love. Here we may observe, the great gospel precept passed upon us; that is, to love one another. This is the law of Christ’s kingdom, the lesson of his school, the livery of his family. This he represents (v. 2) by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. We are of a like mind when we have the same love. Christians should be one in affection, whether they can be one in apprehension or not. This is always in their power, and always their duty, and is the likeliest way to bring them nearer in judgment. Having the same love. Observe, the same love that we are required to express to others, others are bound to express to us. Christian love ought to be mutual love. Love, and you shall be loved. Being of one accord, and of one mind; not crossing and thwarting, or driving on separate interests, but unanimously agreeing in the great things of God and keeping the unity of the Spirit in other differences. Here observe, the pressing of the duty. He is very importunate with them, knowing what an evidence it is of our sincerity, and what a means of the preservation and edification of the body of Christ. The inducements to brotherly love are these: "If there is any consolation in Christ. Have you experienced consolation in Christ? Evidence that experience by loving one another.’’ The sweetness we have found in the doctrine of Christ should sweeten our spirits. Do we expect consolation in Christ? If we would not be disappointed, we must love one another. If we have not consolation in Christ, where else can we expect it? Those who have an interest in Christ have consolation in him, strong and everlasting consolation. If we expect the benefit of God’s compassions to ourselves, then be compassionate one to another. If there is such a thing as mercy to be found among the followers of Christ, if all who are sanctified have a disposition to holy pity, make it appear this way, show it.
Fulfil the joy of your poor minister, who preached the gospel to you.’’ He proposes some means to promote it. Do nothing through strife and vain glory, There is no greater enemy to Christian love than pride and passion. If we do things in contradiction to our brethren, this is doing them through strife; if we do them through ostentation of ourselves, this is doing them through vain-glory: both are destructive of Christian love and kindle unchristian heats. Christ came to slay all enmities; therefore let there not be among Christians a spirit of opposition. Christ came to humble us, and therefore let there not be among us a spirit of pride.
Observe, Christians must be of Christ’s mind. We must bear a resemblance to his life, if we would have the benefit of his death. If we have not the Spirit of Christ, we are none of his, Rom. 8:9 . Now what was the mind of Christ? He was eminently humble, and this is what we are to learn of him. Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, Mt. 11:29 . If we were lowly-minded, we should be like-minded; and, if we were like Christ, we should be lowly-minded. We must walk in the same spirit and in the same steps with the Lord Jesus, who humbled himself to sufferings and death for us; not only to satisfy God’s justice, and pay the price of our redemption, but to set us an example, and that we might follow his steps.
Here are his two estates, of humiliation and exaltation. His estate of humiliation. He not only took upon him the likeness and fashion of a man, but the form of a servant, that is, a man of mean estate. He was not only God’s servant whom he had chosen, but he came to minister to men, and was among them as one who served in a mean and servile state. One would think that the Lord Jesus, if he would be a man, should have been a prince, and appeared in splendor. But quite the contrary: He took upon him the form of a servant. He was brought up probably working with his foster father at his trade. His whole life was a life of humiliation, meanness, poverty, and disgrace; he had nowhere to lay his head, lived upon alms, was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, did not appear with external pomp, or any marks of distinction from other men. This was the humiliation of his life. But the lowest step of his humiliation was his dying the death of the cross. He became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Even the death of the cross, a cursed, painful, and shameful death,—a death accursed by the law (Cursed is he that hangeth on a tree) —full of pain, the body nailed through the nervous parts (the hands and feet) and hanging with all its weight upon the cross,—and the death of a malefactor and a slave, not of a free-man,—exposed as a public spectacle. Such was the condescension of the blessed Jesus. His exaltation was the reward of his humiliation. Because he humbled himself, God exalted him; and he highly exalted him. to the dead as well as the living.—To the glory of God the Father. Observe, It is to the glory of God the Father to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; for it is his will that all men should honour the Son as they honor the Father, Jn. 5:23 . Whatever respect is paid to Christ redounds to the honor of the Father. He who receiveth me receiveth him who sent me,
Gospel Mt 21:28-32
If you remember we discussed the parables of Jesus not only explain truths but they also expose the heart and have a twist. This is another series of parables that Jesus taught. This parable is part of a series of three parables that Christ spoke at one time. Remember that Matthew writes primarily for a Jewish audience, (Vineyard is Israel and the Spirit is revealing through him that Jesus is King of kings. To understand this parable you must look at its context. Jesus had just triumphantly entered Jerusalem and had just overthrown the money tables in the Temple. The religious leaders were mad. They asked a question about His authority in verse 23.
Todays gospel might be called “My two sons”. The twist hits home to the Chief Priests and Pharisees when they agree that the first son who initially refused but then did his father’s wishes puts them on the spot. Jesus tells them outsiders, tax collectors and even Gentiles will enter the kingdom before them. In response Jesus tells this exposing parable. Think about what this parable might reveal about you?
I. The Illustration Christ Uses in the Parable (28-30)
A. The Illustration Reveals a Relationship {Father – Son} (28)
Israel – God’s chosen sons. Also, the Bible reveals that we too are the sons of God when we are born again.
B. The Illustration Reveals Responsibilities of Sons. (28, 30)
C. The Illustration Reveals the Responses of Sons Who are Asked to Serve (29, 30)
1. The response of the repentant – rebellious but repentant. Goodness of God led to repentance.
2. The response of the self-righteous – talked the talk, but did not walk the walk.
II. The Question That Christ Asked About The Parable. (31)
A. It Was An Easy Question.
B. It Was An Exposing Question.
III. The Application Christ Gives about This Parable (31b-32)
A. It Was A Personal Application. “For I say unto you…”
B. It Was Powerful Application.
1. The acceptance of the unaccepted was because of their repentance.
2. The rejection of the reputable was because of their lack of repentance.
3. The reason for both was a belief issue.
Conclusion: Although this parable is primarily about Israel it applies to each one today. Be careful that you just don’t have an outward form of righteousness and you are not really born again. Jesus said in Matthew 7:21; "Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Later He said in Matthew 12:50; “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother”.
Making the Connection
- If our words and our actions do not match, people will not believe that we mean what we say. That’s why we have the expression “actions speak louder than words.” In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus tells a story about the relationship between words and actions
- Think about these situartions:
- a. I’m very happy. (but said with a frown/tears)
b. I’m doing it as fast as I can. (But moving very slowly)
c. Yes, I agree with you. (But said while shaking his or her head No)
d. I think that’s a great idea. (But said while rolling his or her eyes) - Which son do you think the father was more pleased with? Why? Which response would you prefer from someone?
- Each Sunday, when we come to Mass, we say what we believe about God’s love for us and how we should love one another. When we leave the church after Mass, it is important that our actions match our words. What kinds of actions would match what we say at Mass? (Accept all reasonable answers.) Think about the attitudes sometimes expressed while leaving the parking lot.
- Conclude by praying aloud the Act of Contrition, asking God to help us to match our words and our actions.
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Sunday September 24, 2017 Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 133
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 55:6-9
Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call him while he is near.
Let the scoundrel forsake his way,
and the wicked his thoughts;
let him turn to the LORD for mercy;
to our God, who is generous in forgiving.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways above your ways
and my thoughts above your thoughts.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18
R. (18a) The Lord is near to all who call upon him.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD and highly to be praised;
his greatness is unsearchable.
R. The Lord is near to all who call upon him.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. The Lord is near to all who call upon him.
The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.
R. The Lord is near to all who call upon him.
Reading 2 Phil 1:20c-24, 27a
Brothers and sisters:
Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.
For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.
If I go on living in the flesh,
that means fruitful labor for me.
And I do not know which I shall choose.
I am caught between the two.
I long to depart this life and be with Christ,
for that is far better.
Yet that I remain in the flesh
is more necessary for your benefit.
Only, conduct yourselves in a way worthy of the gospel of Christ.
Gospel Mt 20:1-16a
Jesus told his disciples this parable:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.
Going out about nine o'clock,
the landowner saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard,
and I will give you what is just.'
So they went off.
And he went out again around noon,
and around three o'clock, and did likewise.
Going out about five o'clock,
the landowner found others standing around, and said to them,
'Why do you stand here idle all day?'
They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.'
He said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.'
When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman,
'Summon the laborers and give them their pay,
beginning with the last and ending with the first.'
When those who had started about five o'clock came,
each received the usual daily wage.
So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more,
but each of them also got the usual wage.
And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying,
'These last ones worked only one hour,
and you have made them equal to us,
who bore the day's burden and the heat.'
He said to one of them in reply,
'My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?'
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 55:6-9
As usual I’d like to review more than just the verses in todays reading. Isaiah 55:1-9 comprises most of the final hymn of the exilic portion of Isaiah (chapters 40-55, commonly called Second Isaiah), which invites exiles living outside of Judah in the sixth century, at the dawn of Persian rule, to uproot themselves, move to a land their generation never knew, and reclaim their ancestral home.
For more on the Babylonian exile and on Second Isaiah’s response to it see Isaiah 43:1-7.
Though a real event in an earthly world, the Babylonian exile of the Jews was portrayed in Scripture with such moving imagination that later readers saw in it much more than history. Poetry eloquently describing a pragmatic return from exile in spiritual terms soon came to be read as describing the spiritual journey of every believer from our various alienations to our home in God.
Second Isaiah constructs several bold arguments for this journey: to reclaim the legacy of Abraham and Sarah (Isaiah 41:8; 51:1-2); to reenact the exodus from Egypt so many centuries before (43:16-17; 51:9-10); to live out Israel’s role as God’s own creation (42:5-6; 43:1, 7, 15; 51:16). Here in chapter 55 the poet imagines repatriation as welcome to a bountiful feast of satisfying foods, hosted by none other than God.
The image of Judah’s land as one “flowing with milk and honey” (see Deuteronomy 26:9) is implicit in this invitation. In the book of Proverbs Wisdom employs food as a metaphor for wise teaching, here God’s banquet not only recalls the promise of the land’s fertility but also the spiritual richness of life before God.
The bold exhortation embedded in verse one’s thrice-repeated imperative verb “come … come … come” is to choose well. Come to the water; come to the banquet; come buy without money. In other words, don’t take what has value and waste it on nothing. Don’t settle for what doesn’t feed; take only what is good. This theme of choice permeates the whole passage. Soon the food imagery recedes, and returning to the land is merged with returning to God (verses 6-7). Clear distinction between seeking God’s ways and failing to seek them is made in verses 8-9. Because God’s ways are so radically different from human ways, because God’s thoughts are not human thoughts, they won’t be found by any other means than through this Godward journey.
The chapter’s final four verses, 10-13, return to the theme of nutrition, as God’s own words are compared to the rain and snow that bring food from the ground. Mountains, hills, and trees -- powerful figures of the natural world -- are imagined singing and clapping in celebration when the exiles return. Verdancy quickly follows as cypress and myrtle appear. Isaiah 55 beckons its audience to choose to position themselves as recipients of God’s bounty, both physical and spiritual.
In light of this passage, it’s worthwhile to consider the economics of food and water. In Lamentations 5:2-4, conquered people had complained of the high cost of what had once been available for free:
Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,
our homes to aliens.
We have become orphans, fatherless;
our mothers are like widows.
We must pay for the water we drink;
the wood we get must be bought.
Those who lost their heritage to encroaching foreigners were forced to pay money even for natural resources freely found by those owning property. Not only fuel, but even water, had been commodified. This harsh reality faced by the generation of the conquered makes the offer of free water, milk, food, and wine all the more moving.
What of the choices in our world? On a spiritual, individual plane we can certainly speak of the invitation to make healthy choices for one’s own soul, to choose what gives life, rather than what does not nourish, and to meet our gracious and giving God in that place. On a more literal plane we can point to the growing health crisis in America born of poor choices both individual and social.
On a broader social scale, we might also examine what we are offering the world, a world where, as among the ancient Judeans, basic necessities, even water, have been increasingly commodified. Hunger advocates repeatedly state that we are growing enough food today to feed all seven billion of us, if we only distribute it fairly. Yet many subsistence communities abroad have been forced to give up farming, displaced by cash crops that feed richer nations, and instead to depend on expensive, nutrient-low imports. As Sojourners editor Jim Rice recently put it, “Poor families who in the past may have eaten a diet high in fruits and vegetables from local farms now rely mainly on starchy staples and ingest higher proportions of fats and sugars.”
What would happen if we were to take seriously the graceful cornucopia of this passage, offering nutritional gifts not just for ourselves, but for all for whom God cares?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18
Sometimes we praise God by talking so much that our words become hollow. Other times, we praise God as our heavenly Santa Claus who gives gifts we want. We also treat God as a street vendor with whom we can bargain: "I'll give you praise if you will do (fill-in-the-blank)..." As the bargainer, we may even decide to keep shopping until something better comes along. Praise is cheap and at times we cheapen our praise to God. How then, do we begin to claim Psalm 145 as our own when it commits us to voice our praise to God?
In the Psalter, Psalm 145 serves two structural functions. It is the final David psalm (Psalms 138-145), and it is the first psalm of praise in a series that ends the Psalter (Psalms 145-150). While Psalm 145 belongs to David and expresses David's personal commitment to worship Yahweh, the psalm is not primarily about one individual's praise. It has a universal scope that calls the whole of creation to "praise God's name forever and ever" (verse 2).
Two elements implicitly hint at Psalm 145's intended universality. The first of these is its acrostic structure. With the exception of a nûn (In Aramaic, nun means “fish.” The mem, the waters of the sea, is the natural medium of the nun, fish. The nun “swims” in the mem, covered by ...) line, each line is arranged sequentially by a letter of the alphabet. Thus, the entire alphabet is "marshalled in praise of God."
In addition to its acrostic structure, the psalmist indicates the broad scope of intended praise through four commitments to worship. The first commitment, made in verses 1-2, is individual ("I will extol you, my God and King"). Verse 4 expresses an intergenerational commitment to praise ("one generation ... to the next "), and verse 10 expresses two corporate commitments to praise. The first is from creation ("all your works") and the second from the Lord's followers ("your faithful"). In the final verse (21), both individual ("my mouth") and corporate ("all flesh") commitments are made with the assurance they will endure through time ("forever and ever").
The commitments in verses 1-2, 4, 10, and 21 are interspersed with specifics of The Lord’s greatness and goodness. Verses 3-6 and 11-13b illustrate the praise of The Lord’s greatness using bold language: might, glory, great, fame, and power. In contrast, verses 7-9 and 13c-20 capture the praise of The Lord’s goodness, depicted through tender language: gracious, merciful, compassionate, faithful, just, and kind. The cumulative picture presented in Psalm 145 is "a many-sided though overlapping account of the nature of worship, of The Lord’s greatness, goodness, and concrete positive involvement with humanity."3
The Goodness of God (verses 8-9)
The passages in this week's Lectionary text are embedded in Psalm 145's emphasis on the goodness of Yahweh as a touchstone for praise. Like Psalm 103 and others, Psalm 145:8 borrows language from The Lord’s self-revelation in Exodus 34:6. Yahweh is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and full of steadfast love. Repeated use of Yahweh in verses 8 and 9 ensures that all of these attributes point to the Lord, the curator of creation.
Verse 9 emphasizes The Lord’s goodness and compassion to all people. Here, the word "all" seems to be uniquely inclusive. Rather than expressing a defined totality such as the nation of Israel, this passage seems to indicate that the Psalm refers to all of humanity and all of creation. Moreover, verse 9 echoes verse 1 and captures Yahweh as THE king "over all he has made," not one king among many different kings. Walter Brueggemann suggests the rest of Psalm 145 is "best understood as an extrapolation from these verses to see how God's characteristic self-giving is experienced in the daily blessings of creation."4
God's Active Care (verses 14-21)
Although the second portion of the lectionary text begins with verse 14, it may be helpful to begin reading the Psalm at verse 13c. This phrase transitions from The Lord’s dominion and rule to The Lord’s nurture and care for those who are frail and needy. In other words, the transcendent and powerful God is also the immanent and strengthening God.
This transition in verse 13c may seem shocking because the powerful often ignore the weak. Yet, this is an abuse of power. "As wealth is granted in order to be shared, so power is granted in order to be exercised on behalf of the needy."5 Hence, we should not be taken aback by The Lord’s attention to the powerless and downtrodden.
In verse 14, the psalmist gives a picture of a pro-active God who both upholds the falling and raises those who have been bowed down. It is logical to wonder why a God who keeps people from falling would allow some to become "bowed down," but this term may be synonymous with being knocked over by someone or something. In such an instance, it is The Lord who will give rescue to all people. Therefore, the eyes of all will look to Yahweh who provides in due time (verse 15).
Verses 15-16 portray The Lord as the God who gives to all living things through an open hand rather than a clenched fist. The Lord is ready to show rather than withhold favor (verse 16), and in all things The Lord does, The Lord is just and kind (verse 17).
In 18b, the psalmist moves the otherwise inclusive nature of the Psalm to more specific terms. Anyone can call upon The Lord, no matter their state, as long as they call upon the Lord "in truth." Verse 19 continues the specificity of 18, acknowledging that The Lord fulfills desires for all - so long as they fear The Lord. Verse 20a follows 19, claiming The Lord will watch over those who love The Lord. After twenty verses affirming the greatness and goodness of The Lord, verse 20b provides a reality check that God will "destroy the faithless to stop them from acting oppressively."6
The final verse of Psalm 145 expresses the commitment of the psalmist and the universe to continue in praise of God. More importantly, it suggests this praise will have an everlasting, permanent quality.
Psalm 145 is a robust doxological assertion: the individual, the community, and the whole creation is to praise God for God's goodness and God's greatness. We are to participate in this praise, yet we know our praise is cheap and at times cheapens God.
Within this tension, this week's Psalm passages provide a glimpse of hope. They move us from generalized, hollow praise of God to recall specific and meaningful accounts of God's goodness in our lives. They remind us of God's ongoing tenderness towards us, the weak and needy, and they remind us that God's goodness - just like God's creation - is universal in scope (this week's Old and New Testament narratives are perfect examples of God's goodness). We are then called to invest in and proclaim the ongoing praise of our God the King whose selfless giving is manifest daily in each blessing of creation. Thanks be to God!
Reading 2 Phil 1:20c-24, 27a
The lectionary passage Philippians starts with an impressive statement about life and death.
The Apostle Paul wrote these lines during his imprisonment in Rome, probably some time between 61 and 63 AD. This specific situation is important to understand our text. Most likely, Paul’s imprisonment was rather a situation of house arrest under military custody that would have allowed him certain privileges, for instance visits of Timothy with whom he penned this letter.
It is nevertheless clear that Paul’s theological reflections are a response to the imminence of death, which was a potential outcome of this predicament. (His death in Rome just a few years later is the topic of the 2nd century apocryphal writing called Martyrdom of Paul). In our pericope, Paul provides an impressive reevaluation of death (Philippians 1:21–26) that leads to an exhortation of the congregation to suffer for Christ (1:27–30). The passage is followed by the famous hymn celebrating Christ’s humility until death (2:6–11), the lectionary text of the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
Our pericope starts with the following sentences: “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain. If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. And I do not know which I shall choose. I am caught between the two. I long to depart this life and be with Christ, [for] that is far better.” (Philippians 1:21–23). When hearing such a statement, some might be impressed by Paul’s religious enthusiasm. Others may feel uncomfortable or might even want to accuse the apostle of boasting. I feel compelled to ask, “Are you sure, Paul, you don’t hang on to life more than that?” What kind of principle is “dying is gain” anyway?
Most of our modern culture is dominated by countless efforts of making life more gratifying and fulfilling while eliminating the threat and experience of death. We tend to admire people who succeed in life or who live their lives to the fullest. There are not many role models for the idea that “dying is gain.”
So how could the Apostle Paul make such a statement some 2,000 years ago? We find the answer first in his situation of imprisonment mentioned above. It came with the potential of death, and thus it was only appropriate for Paul to reflect on death instead of adopting a state of denial. We encounter the result of his reflections in verse 23: “I long to depart this life and be with Christ, [for] that is far better.
Second, it is clear that Paul’s reflections hinge on the presence of Christ. Paul is absolutely certain that death is not a transition into a state of non-existence; hence, he is not afraid of it. Paul does not doubt at all that death can only be the moment when he will be united with Christ. This is a faith perspective the apostle has developed earlier: “ … we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord”.
The test of such faith comes in a situation of impending death, be it in the first century AD or more recently. In the spring of 1945, the last message written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer before his execution in a concentration camp in Nazi-Germany demonstrates a similar kind of confidence: “ … for me this is the end but also the beginning. With him (sc. the bishop of Chichester to whom this message was addressed) I believe in the principle of our Universal Christian brotherhood which rises above all national interests, and that our victory is certain.”
For our perspectives on death, the centeredness on the resurrected Christ can make a big difference. It turns typical human perspectives on life upside down. Attitudes of ‘living life to the fullest’ suddenly become questionable. The quest for more material possessions suddenly becomes vain. In the Letter to the Philippians, Paul turns his attention instead to the people who had gathered around him to hear the message of Christ. He wants to be their servant. He therefore makes a few recommendations on how followers of Christ should live (1:27–30). His words convey expectations of an endearing relationship between the members of the congregation in Philippi, who are to be “standing firm in one spirit, striving side by side with one mind for the faith of the gospel” (1:27).
Again, I am not certain whether everybody feels comfortable with such a statement. These are high ideals for communal life. Yet do we not all know how divided our church congregations are today? Divisions because of worship styles, dogmatic issues, dress codes, or matters of life style are ubiquitous, leaving the ‘body of Christ’ separated into different denominations and sub-groups. It might help to reflect on the fact that this situation in the Christian Church is not recent; it probably existed already during Paul’s time.
If he reminded the congregation in Philippi to be unified, did this not imply that there were divisions? Were not the opening chapters of Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians also dealing with the problem that people there followed Christ but declared they belonged to Paul or Apollos or Cephas (1:12)?
In the end, the crucial question is whether essential or secondary aspects determine corporate church identities. There can never be enough of a focus on Jesus Christ, that is, on the story of his life, suffering, and death, and on the gospel of salvation through faith in him (see, for example, Philippians 2:6–11). Only when we hear this gospel time and again will we be able to live our lives “in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (1:27). Those called “Christians” should always strive to learn more about the person after whom they are named.
Gospel Mt 20:1-16a
If you are anything like me you could re-read this parable a couple of times come up with a slightly different angle on it, depending on the word or phrase you use to summarize the story. This does not mean, of course, that the parable can mean anything, but that there is some complexity to the way the biblical text (and perhaps parables in particular) will strike us. Two things in particular jumped out at me as I read and re-read this parable. So, to answer my own question:
First, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard is about the 9th (and 10th) commandment. In a very real sense this parable is about coveting. While "covet" may not seem the most obvious word to describe what is going on here, it does fit both the emphasis of Jesus' teaching and the overarching emphasis in Matthew on the Law and Jesus' representation of it in a way that transforms our thinking and doing. Coveting lies at the heart of this parable in a couple of ways.
We covet what God chooses to give to others. A parable is essentially an elaborate allegory. We are invited to see ourselves in the story, and then apply it to ourselves. The wages at stake (even at the moment of Jesus' first telling of the parable) are not actual daily wages for vineyard-laborers, but forgiveness, life, and salvation for believers. We need not literally be laborers in a vineyard, as we are all of us co-workers in the kingdom (1 Corinthians 3:9).
And in relationship, one believer to another, covetousness is a problem. The point here isn't necessarily that other folks receive blessings from God that we don't -- that they get more or better or lovelier gifts from God. The problem is that they get the same as us; and they don't deserve it, do they? They are less worthy, or later arrivals, or just plain worse sinners. They don't deserve the same as we get, do they? Not nothing maybe, but certainly not the same. The parable's day laborers parallel perfectly with today's forgiven-sinners in both our pews and pulpits.
We have a tendency, as the parable aptly illustrates, to covet and to be resentful of what others receive from God. The owner of the vineyard asks those who have worked longest and (presumably) hardest for him, "Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?" The point is that God's grace, mercy, and forgiveness are God's to give away as God sees fit.
As a direct result of this, we covet God's power to forgive and God's control over who is forgiven and how. This parable is perfectly matched in the lectionary to the parable of Jonah, who has run away to avoid delivering the message of forgiveness that God has sent him to proclaim. Jonah complains (complains!), "for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing," and surely this cannot be for them? It is ironic that Jonah, who had earlier declared that "deliverance belongs to the Lord" (2:9, a deliverance he himself has experienced), has rejected the good news of who God is for others.
The parable of the laborers in the vineyard is about coveting, about our frustration with the grace of God as it applies not to us, but to others.
Second, the parable of the laborers in the vineyard is about the first and the last. The parable itself displays a reversal of expectations -- "the last will be first and the first will be last"; this is not only the summary of the parable (20:16), but a critical aspect of New Testament theology.
Notice the flow of the narrative as the workers are compensated for their labors:
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, "Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first. When those hired about five o'clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. When the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.'"
The last are literally first in that they are paid first. And the first, who have labored longest, must also wait the longest to get theirs. But notice as well that the first who are now last do not receive nothing or less, they receive the same, as the laborers themselves say, "you have made them equal to us...." So perhaps it should be said that the last shall be first, and the first shall be the same.
This element of the parable is taken up in the other Gospels and in Revelation; this scandalous reversal of expectation, of our sense of justice, and even of our hopes, is a central piece of the New Testament. Whoever wants to be first must be last, and servant of all (Mark 9:35); so much for human ideas of greatness. Who is worthy to climb the holy hill, and enter the gate of God's kingdom? Some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last (Luke 13:30). And it is Jesus, who is first and last (Revelation 1:17), who tells us that we need not fear; for in the one who is both first and last, the first and the last are brought together when we are called to lay down the burdens of our days and find our home with God.
The scandal of this parable is that we are all equal recipients of God's gifts. The scandal of our faith is that we are often covetous and jealous when God's gifts of forgiveness and life are given to other in equal measure. And the scandal of our preaching, if based on this parable, ought to encompass both.
Making the Connection
The message from our society sometimes leads us to overvalue success and achievement. Today's parable reminds us that while we owe everything to God, God owes us nothing.
- Consider the questions: Is it better to be first or last? In what instances is it better to be first? Are there instances when it might be better to be last? Think about it.
- Sometimes our assumptions and judgments are far from the values of God. Sometimes our society overemphasizes the importance of being first or being number one. As your examples showed, there are instances where the ordering of things might be better in the reverse. Today's Gospel invites us to reconsider our values and make our judgments on more than appearances.
- Do you think that the landowner acted fairly toward the workers who were hired first? Why or why not? Remember the first workers agreed to a full days wage,
- The mistake that the workers make is to believe that they were entitled to something more than had been negotiated. It is the workers who are being unfair; they are seeking to change the terms of the agreement. As the landowner in the parable observes, they are jealous because he is generous. They cannot be thankful for the payment they received and the opportunity to work at all.
- Sometimes it is like this between God and us. We forget that God's love for us is given to us freely and generously. We have not earned it. God owes us nothing but offers his love abundantly.
- Pray today's psalm, Psalm 145, or the Lord's Prayer.
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Sunday September 17, 2017 Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 130
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 27:30—28:7
Wrath and anger are hateful things,
yet the sinner hugs them tight.
The vengeful will suffer the LORD's vengeance,
for he remembers their sins in detail.
Forgive your neighbor's injustice;
then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven.
Could anyone nourish anger against another
and expect healing from the LORD?
Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself,
can he seek pardon for his own sins?
If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath,
who will forgive his sins?
Remember your last days, set enmity aside;
remember death and decay, and cease from sin!
Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor;
remember the Most High's covenant, and overlook faults.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12
R. (8) The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
He will not always chide,
nor does he keep his wrath forever.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so surpassing is his kindness toward those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion.
Reading 2 Rom 14:7-9
Brothers and sisters:
None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself.
For if we live, we live for the Lord,
and if we die, we die for the Lord;
so then, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
For this is why Christ died and came to life,
that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
Gospel Mt 18:21-35
Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
"Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive?
As many as seven times?"
Jesus answered, "I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.
That is why the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king
who decided to settle accounts with his servants.
When he began the accounting,
a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back,
his master ordered him to be sold,
along with his wife, his children, and all his property,
in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said,
'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.'
Moved with compassion the master of that servant
let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a much smaller amount.
He seized him and started to choke him, demanding,
'Pay back what you owe.'
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him,
'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
But he refused.
Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison
until he paid back the debt.
Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened,
they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master
and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked servant!
I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to.
Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant,
as I had pity on you?'
Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers
until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you,
unless each of you forgives your brother from your heart."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Sir 27:30—28:7
Sirach 27:16-28:11 forms the immediate context from which today’s reading is taken. The primary concern of these verses is to highlight the dangers to personal integrity and friendship. The betrayal of secrets can ruin a friendship, and very well might make reconciliation with the injured party impossible (Sir 27:16-21). Insincerity of conduct towards those you are having discourse with, and the twisting of their word into a meaning not intended by them, is reprehended by Sirach, and he insists that the Lord hates such a man (sir 27:22-24). In typical Old Testament fashion Sirach 27:25-29 speaks of the inexorable law of retribution: what goes around comes around. It is at this point that today’s reading, Sirach 27:30-28:7 begins.
Sir 27:30. Anger and wrath, these also are abominations, yet a sinner holds onto them.
Sir 28:1. The vengeful will face the Lord’s vengeance, indeed he remembers their sins in detail.
Anger and wrath are things directed towards other people. In spite of the fact that retribution will come upon the wicked eventually, they continue to maintain their hold on it.
The sinful man will possess them. The evil man may come to “possess” anger and wrath as a recipient of such things; either from men in this life, or from God at the judgment. The latter (from God) is more likely the meaning here in light of the explicit statement in 28:1, and the reference to his not knowing where retribution comes from in Sirach 27:27.
Sir 28:2 Forgive your neighbor the wrong done to you; then when you pray. Your own sins will be forgiven.
Sir 28:3 Does anyone nourish anger against another, and expect healing from the Lord?
Sir 28:4 Can one refuse mercy to a sinner like oneself, yet seek pardon for one’s own sins?
Sir 28:5 If a mere mortal cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins?
Verse 2 should certainly call to mind the sixth petition of the Lord’s prayer, and verses 3-5 serve as commentary, while at the same time highlighting the hypocrisy of seeking reconciliation with God when still at enmity with your neighbor. Betrayal of friends (Sir 27:16-21) and insincerity of conduct (Sir 27:22-23) are both examples of such hypocrisy. The end result of the evil man’s hypocrisy towards his fellow man is treating God in the same base fashion.
Sir 28:6 Remember your last days and set enmity aside;
remember death and decay, and cease from sin!
Sir 28:7 Remember the commandments, and do not be angry with your neighbor; remember the covenant of the Most High, and overlook faults
Remember, though you may think you can get away with something during this life, at its end their will be a reckoning: the law of retribution mentioned in Sirach 27:25-29. (see Sir 7:36; do not be angry with your neighbor…overlook ignorance. Overlook the faults of your neighbor rather than bearing a grudge, for this is enshrined in the law (Lev 19:17-18; Ex 23:4-5).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 9-10, 11-12
Psalm 103 is classified as an Individual Hymn of Thanksgiving, a psalm in which a single voice praises God for goodness to or on behalf of that individual, usually for deliverance from some trying situation.
Hermann Gunkel, one of the great fathers of psalm studies, describes hymns of thanksgiving in this way: “A person is saved out of great distress … and now with grateful heart he brings a thank offering to Yahweh; it was customary that at a certain point in the sacred ceremony he would offer a song in which he expresses his thanks.”
The psalmist begins the words of thanksgiving by addressing the nephesh, usually translated as “soul,” but better understood as “inmost being” -- the all of who a person is. (See the parallel “and all my being” in the second half of verse 1.) The opening and closing words of the psalm (verses 1 and 22) bring to mind the popular praise song by Andrae Crouch, “Bless the Lord, O my soul ... He has done great things.”
While Crouch’s song leaves the “great things” undefined, Psalm 103 outlines in detail just what God does for the psalmist’s nephesh. God forgives iniquity, heals diseases, redeems from the Pit (a reference to death), crowns with steadfast love and mercy, satisfies with good, and works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed (verses 3-6).
Verses 7 and 8 recall the time of the Wilderness Wanderings, when Israel repeatedly grumbled against and rejected God’s goodness, but God continued to provide for and guide them. Verse 8 brings to the mind of the hearer the golden calf incident in Exodus 32-34, which culminated in God’s self-declaration in Exodus 34:5-7: “The LORD came down in a cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name, “LORD.” So the LORD passed before him and proclaimed: The LORD, the LORD, a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity, continuing his love for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but bringing punishment for their parents’ wickedness on children and children’s children to the third and fourth generation!.”
The word translated “merciful” in Exodus 34:6 and Psalm 103:4 and 8 is particularly interesting. It is derived from the Hebrew verbal root raham, whose noun form rehem means “womb.” God's compassion is tied closely to the concept of “womb love,” the love a mother feels for her yet-to-be-born child. Over and over, the psalmists remember and call upon God's mercy, God's “womb love.” “Be mindful of your mercy, O LORD, and of your steadfast love”; “Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me”; “The LORD is good to all, and his compassion (another word used to translate raham) is over all that he has made”. References to God’s mercy (or compassion) occurs no less than twenty-two times in the book of Psalms.
Psalm 22 takes the metaphor a step further and actually connects God's identification with “womb-love” to the physical referent for the metaphor. In verse 10 the psalmist cries to God, “Upon you I was cast from the rehem. Here God is intimately tied to the life-giving womb and is further pictured as midwife. Phyllis Trible, in God and Rhetoric of Sexuality, describes the image in this verse as a “semantic movement from a physical organ of the female body to a psychic mode of being.” In Ps 77:9 the psalmist asks “Has God in anger shut up his compassion?” The verb translated “shut up” (qapats) is used most often in the Hebrew text in reference to “shutting the mouth,” but one does not have to travel far metaphorically to connect “mouth” with “womb opening” in this poetic construction.
Another word in verses 4 and 8 of Psalm 103 is also found in God’s self-descriptive words in Exod 34:6 -- hesed. It is translated as “steadfast love.” Hesed is a difficult word to render into English; it has to do with the relationship between two parties of an agreement, a covenant in the context of the Old Testament. God made a covenant with Abraham in Gen 15:18, stating “To your descendants I give the land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates.” In Exodus 19:4-5, God and the people of Israel entered into a covenant relationship at Mt. Sinai. God said to them, “You have seen how I treated the Egyptians and how I bore you up on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you obey me completely and keep my covenant,* you will be my treasured possession among all peoples, though all the earth is mine. Now, therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the peoples.”
God promised that the Israelites would be a treasured possession; they had only to keep God’s covenant stipulations. We might say that hesed is about covenant relationship or covenant promises. It has to do with the sacred agreement, the sacred relationship, between God and God’s people. Thus, Exodus 34 and Psalm 103 remind us that our God is a God of womb-love and a God of covenant promise.
The thanksgiving words of Psalm 103 stand in stark contrast to the lamenting words of Psalms 42 and 43, in which the psalm singer admonishes the nephesh, who is “cast down” and “disquieted,” to “hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God”. Words of quiet despair are transformed into words of thankful praise as the singer of Psalm 103 brings to mind all of God’s “benefits” (verse 2). The word translated “benefits” (gemul), though, actually has to do with receiving in return what one has earned -- what one should receive in return for one’s actions, words, and thoughts. The psalmist recognizes that, while God is not a God of retribution (note I said should above), we are called upon to respond to and embrace the mercy, the “womb-love,” of God and to uphold our human responsibilities of the steadfast love, the hesed, relationship.
Reading 2 Rom 14:7-9
We have to read more of the psalm to get the full impact of this reading.
This section of Romans makes it clear that divisions in the church go back to the earliest churches.
The "strong" who are mentioned here apparently eat everything, observe all days as the same, and perhaps drink wine. The "weak in faith," mentioned in the first verse of this reading apparently abstain from meat, observe one day as more sacred than others--this was probably the Sabbath--and abstain from wine. More significant than these differences in lifestyle, however, were the attitudes that were dividing the church. Paul's commands toward both groups make it pretty clear that the "strong" were despising the "weak," while the "weak" were judging or condemning the "strong."
The behavioral differences in view here are adiaphora, "indifferent things," or "things that don't matter." These behaviors are not explicitly prohibited or commanded by scripture. They lie in a moral zone where each person must exercise conscience to decide how to proceed.
Differences in how we follow our consciences always have the potential to threaten our fellowship as believers in Christ. A story about Ruth Graham, wife of the famous evangelist, illustrates how differences can threaten our unity. Mrs. Graham, dressed and made up as would seem fitting for any American woman in the 1970s, attended a luncheon with wives of conservative pastors in Germany. These German Christians had more conservative ideas regarding how women should look. They did not believe that married Christian women should wear makeup or clothing that made them look too much like the world. As a result, a German pastor's wife, sitting across from Ruth Graham, became very upset. She thought it was shameful that the wife of this famous evangelist looked so worldly. Why, Ruth Graham was even wearing mascara! The German pastor's wife became so angry that she started crying right into her beer. Meanwhile Ruth Graham couldn't understand why the woman was crying, although it bothered her that a self-respecting pastor's wife was drinking beer at a meeting to prepare for an evangelistic crusade where Christians come together as the unified body of Christ.
In this text and what follows, Paul shows no sign he recommends that people who are more liberated in conscience teach those with more sensitive consciences to change their positions. In fact, he sounds postmodern in 14:14 when he says that for the person who thinks a certain food is unclean, it is unclean. This leads him to say in the next verse, "I am not walking in love if what I do or eat causes a fellow believer to be grieved." Notice he makes no allowances for what I intend or don't intend to do. If I have a more robust conscience and a believer around me is grieved, then I have not been acting in love by first asking how my behavior will affect others around me.
One summer an evangelist went on a short missions trip to rural Guatemala. He knew that men weren't supposed to wear short pants, so on the first day at the ministry site--a Sunday--He was out in long pants, playing soccer with some village boys. His team leader came out and said, "Mark, there are some pastors here who are asking why you, a participant in this conference, are playing a competitive game like soccer on a Sunday." It turned out that the believers to whom we were ministering thought there was something wrong with competitive sports. They would not think of playing soccer on a Sunday! It was like Paul said here in 14:5--one person places one day above the others while another person views all days alike. On that Sunday in Guatemala, He had to respect the sensibilities of the pastors who were there and walked off the field.
Paul says that if both sides are doing their action "for the Lord," then both positions are valid and must be respected (14:6). Is Paul saying that I have to curtail my freedoms because of others' sensitivities? For relationships within the church, this is exactly what Paul is saying and confirmed by his words on verses 7-9, that we, like Christ, are not living for ourselves. We are here to live for the Lord.
Another reason Paul gives for respecting the behavior of others' in indifferent matters is that each believer will stand before God in judgment. It is not for us to judge other people. If they can perform their activities in good conscience for the Lord, then we can let them continue.
Indeed, the theme that God will finally judge is not just an idea that keeps us from taking revenge, as we see in Romans 12:19. God's judgment is also a powerful idea that keeps me from judging or despising those who live out their Christian convictions in ways different from how I live. Jesus said, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged". Paul is applying Jesus' words to differences within the church. His goal for our church is presented in his benediction in Romans 15:5-6, that instead of using our words to despise or judge others in our fellowship, we glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ "with one voice!"
Gospel Mt 18:21-35
The economy of forgiveness Jesus announces is congruent neither with the values and assumptions that govern human economies nor the relentless pursuit of power and privilege that drives our daily social relationships. The pursuit of unlimited forgiveness (Matthew 18:21-22) requires a definitive break from the tacit arrangements that govern everyday life, whether ancient or modern.
When Peter asks Jesus how many times he has to forgive a brother who sins repeatedly against him -- as many as seven times? -- Jesus explodes Peter’s magnanimous offer: not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Think about ourselves here for a moment. How many times would we forgive in todays world? I know I say “three strikes and you’re out.” Jesus’ number is not drawn from the air. It mirrors the boast of Cain’s descendant, Lamech, in Genesis 4:23-24, who brags that the mortal vengeance he has extracted against a young man who hurt him far exceeds God’s promise of seven-fold punishment against anyone who might kill Cain. Jesus is calling his community of disciples to participate in undoing the curse of Cain and Lamech that has kept their offspring trapped in spasms of envy, hatred, violence, and retribution across the generations to this day.
The parable of the unforgiving servant serves as a sobering counterpoint -- a sharp warning -- to those who might think forgiveness is possible on limited terms. The parable illustrates with painful clarity the difficulty of practicing forgiveness in a social system built for different purposes. It may also illustrate the power of “binding and loosing” (Matthew 18:18): even heaven has a hard time undoing the damage wrought by human choices and the intractable systems we build to sustain our places in the world of Cain and Lamech.
Despite the suggestion at the end of the parable that God will act as the king in the parable, we should resist the inclination to read the parable as a simple allegory, in which the power figure, in this case a king, represents God, and the servant who is forgiven much but refuses to forgive another stands for Israel or some other too easily vilified social group. Parables work best when they are read primarily as simple, integral stories, rather than as ciphers to be decoded in terms favorable to Christians. In any case, parables do not usually convey a simple moral point so much as they are meant to induce critical reflection and to pull the blinders from our eyes.
Although the figures in this parable are exaggerated, as so often is true in parables, the king and his slave represent and follow scripts that would have been familiar to ancient Mediterranean audiences. Kings used agents like the “unmerciful servant” to organize lower levels of agents, from tax-farmers to torturers (Matthew 18:34), who together made up a system that ensured the continuous flow of wealth, power, and honor to the top of the pyramid.
The unforgiving servant is apparently a manager of the highest level, effectively a CFO, with control over the movement of vast wealth. The astronomical “debt” or “loan” he owes may represent the income he is responsible for producing from those lower on the pyramid of patronage. In the Mediterranean economy, the goal was to pass a steady, acceptable flow of wealth further up the pyramid, while retaining as much as one could get away with for oneself, to be used to grease one’s own way further up the pyramid.
This slave, who works near or at the very top of the pyramid, may have taken too large a share for himself. The reckoning described early in the parable is meant to correct any wrongdoing on the part of the slave, but also to send a message to the whole system to limit such “honest graft.” In such a case, the only recourse on the servant’s part would be to beg for mercy, as this one does to good effect. Disciplining and then restoring such a slave might be a better move on the king’s part than finding a replacement. Although the king forgives the slave’s enormous “loan,” the slave’s obligation to the king is actually intensified. He is likely to be more loyal going forward than less.
The king’s stupendous act of mercy is, however, neither a private matter nor an act with consequences for this slave alone. Wiping this debt off the books has implications for everyone down the pyramid, a fact certainly noted by all the clients of this servant. The king effectively inaugurates a regime of financial amnesty, a jubilee, not only for one slave, but for everyone in his debt.
The economic revolution, however, makes it not much further than the door. The slave’s immediate encounter with one of his client-slaves, someone with a much smaller obligation, demonstrates that the forgiven slave intends to revert to business as usual. He gives no heed to the second slave’s appeal, although it is nearly identical to the one he had just given the king. His failure to carry on the forgiveness the king granted him not only halts the spread of financial amnesty in its tracks, it also mocks and dishonors the king himself. The king cannot ignore such an affront. The unforgiving slave binds himself not to the king’s mercy, but to the old system of wealth extraction and violence. He thus binds the king in turn to deal with him once again within the confines of this system.
Jesus seems to tell us that God’s forgiveness has necessary limits, but perhaps these are the limits we set. The unforgiving slave brings judgment on himself by treating his own forgiveness as a license to execute judgment on others. He thus transforms a merciful king into a vengeful judge. The problem lies not with the king, or even by analogy with God, but with the world the slave insists on constructing for himself, under which terms his fate is now set. With whom, and to what systems, do we bind ourselves each day?
Making the Connection
- Ask volunteers to arrange the dominoes in order so that when one falls, it triggers the chain reaction for the rest of them to fall.
- Have you ever done something that you were sorry you had done? Have you ever wished you could start all over again and that no one would even remember what you had done wrong? Think about examples.
- In this week's Gospel, Jesus tells us that he will always forgive us for the things that we are sorry for doing and that we can start over. Reflect on the Gospel reading.
- Today's Gospel tells us that Jesus will always forgive us. But it also tells us what Jesus wants us to do. What was that? (to forgive others)
- Forgiveness starts with God, but it should also travel through us to other people. Watch what happens when God forgives us and we forgive other people. Tip over the first domino starting the dominoes on their chain reaction.
- Conclude in prayer for the ability to be as forgiving as God is. Pray the Lord's Prayer.
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Sunday Sept. 10, 2017 Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 127
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 33:7-9
Thus says the LORD:
You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel;
when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me.
If I tell the wicked, "O wicked one, you shall surely die, "
and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way,
the wicked shall die for his guilt,
but I will hold you responsible for his death.
But if you warn the wicked,
trying to turn him from his way,
and he refuses to turn from his way,
he shall die for his guilt,
but you shall save yourself.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
R. (8) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works."
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Reading 2 Rom 13:8-10
Brothers and sisters:
Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another;
for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
The commandments, "You shall not commit adultery;
you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not covet, "
and whatever other commandment there may be,
are summed up in this saying, namely,
"You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Love does no evil to the neighbor;
hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.
Gospel Mt 18:15-20
Jesus said to his disciples:
"If your brother sins against you,
go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.
If he listens to you, you have won over your brother.
If he does not listen,
take one or two others along with you,
so that 'every fact may be established
on the testimony of two or three witnesses.'
If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church.
If he refuses to listen even to the church,
then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector.
Amen, I say to you,
whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again, amen, I say to you,
if two of you agree on earth
about anything for which they are to pray,
it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Ez 33:7-9
On the passage of the watchman. If the prophet has done his or job, then the demise of the people is their own fault.
An evangelist spoke about repenting which means a change of mind, like a 180 degree turn:
“They tell me I rub the fur the wrong way. I don’t. Let the cat turn around!”
Everybody falls at least venially, as Proverbs 24:16 says that even a righteous person may fall seven times, but he gets up again, but has a sense of mercy and integrity because the person seeks holiness.
e.g. One day a mother and her son went to visit Gandhi. The mother needed help from one of the world’s greatest leaders.
It turns out, the little boy had an obsession with sugar and she went to seek Gandhi’s help on how to break her son’s sweet addiction.
“Gandhi, my son consumes far too much sugar, will you please tell him it’s bad for his health?”
After listening to the mother’s plea patiently, Gandhi refused to give the boy advice and told her to return in two weeks.
The mother left somewhat disappointed at Gandhi’s request.
Two weeks later they returned.
Gandhi pulled the child aside and told him it would be best if he quit eating so much sugar. The boy did his best to cut back on sweets.
The mother then pulled Gandhi aside curious as to why he needed two weeks.
Gandhi smiled to her and said “Two weeks ago I had an obsession with sugar. I needed the time to see if I could cut back myself.”
The goal of fraternal concern for others spiritual and moral well-being is reconciliation of the person with God and the Christian community.
e.g. In Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation II, it says: “By the working of your power it comes about, O Lord, that hatred is overcome by love, revenge gives way to forgiveness, and discord is changed to mutual respect.”
Summary: Jesus is saying that we are not to be only concerned with someone’s material well- being but also for their moral and spiritual good. Hebrews 13:17 says to watch over souls as one who will have to give an account.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Psalm 95 begins with a reciprocal invitation to praise (Psalm 95:1). Yet praise must have focus. This is not just a chance for ‘a good-old sing-song’ - you can get that down the pub. This is serious worship, with its focus upon who the LORD is (the Rock), and who He is to us (the rock of our salvation).
We should be aware - even in ‘the praise part of our service’ - that we are coming into the presence of the true and living God. We draw near with the familiarity of “thanksgiving” and of “making a joyful noise” (Psalm 95:2), ‘boldly approaching the throne of grace’ (Hebrews 4:16). But we also come with a sense of awe at the presence of the LORD, the great God, the King over all (Psalm 95:3).
We celebrate Him as the One who sustains all things (Psalm 95:4). We acknowledge Him as Creator (Psalm 95:5). We worship, we bow down, we kneel in the presence of the LORD our Maker (Psalm 95:6).
Such awe is appropriate in those who have the LORD as “our God” (Psalm 95:7). We are “the people of his pasture, and the sheep of His hand” (Psalm 95:7).
Praise gives way to Word: a word of exhortation, and a word of warning. ‘Anyone who has ears should listen’ (cf. Matthew 13:9). “Today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart…” (Psalm 95:7-8).
We are taken back in time to an incident (Exodus 17:1-7), not long after the LORD had led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt (Exodus 13:3). The Red Sea had miraculously parted, and the first generation of freedmen had walked across dry-shod. Miriam’s song (Exodus 15:21) was still fresh in the memories of the people.
The people put the LORD to the test in the wilderness (Psalm 95:8-9). They chided with Moses, and he accused them of tempting the LORD (Exodus 17:2). After all the miracles of Egypt, the people questioned: ‘Is the LORD among us or not?’ (Exodus 17:7). How soon we forget past mercies!
It was at this point that “the Rock” (Psalm 95:1) was introduced (Exodus 17:6): ‘and that Rock was Christ’ (1 Corinthians 10:4). There came a breaking point in the relationship between the LORD and His people, and a whole generation were doomed to wander in the wilderness for forty years (Psalm 95:10), and failed to enter the promised land (Psalm 95:11). These things are written for our admonition, the Apostle Paul tells us: ‘therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall’ (1 Corinthians 10:11-12).
Reading 2 Rom 13:8-10
Those of us who grew up in the North Country often like to tell stories of our harsh winters. We tend to glory in the fact that we survived huge snowfalls, and some of the coldest temperatures ever recorded this side of Antarctica. Living as an adult, in the North, I was always amazed that the snowfalls were never as deep as they were when I was a child; the snow banks never quite so high. Then, it hit me. I was viewing winter from a different perspective. The snow banks look much higher when you’re only four feet tall instead of six feet, and the snow seems deeper when you’re making your way through it with 25 inch inseams rather than 32 inch.
A 26.2 mile marathon looks very different to the individual who is running it for the first time, as opposed to the veteran runner who has “been there, done that, and has the T-shirt.”
We Christians are invited to live our lives marching to the beat of a different drummer than other folks because we have a different perspective. We see life through the cross and eternity.
REMEMBER THE TIME
Two thousand years has shown that Paul was incorrect in his assumption that Jesus would return quickly. Still we have the promise that Jesus will return. When he does return, he will make all things new and will establish the kingdom of God—heaven—on earth. As children of God—people who have died with Christ in baptism so that we may live with him in his kingdom—we live in the reality of this promise, and the fact that we are eternal beings.
Teilhard de Chardin a French Jesuit philosopher, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience." Only the object and the subject have been changed in this observation, but the change in perspective is dramatic and dynamic!
For Paul, the fact that Christians are eternal beings makes a big difference in how we live our lives. We have broken free of the expectations, short-sighted goals, and self-centered interests of the world. He invites his readers to view possessions from a perspective beyond their physical lives. Jobs become vocations and ministries. Daily life is transformed from acquisition to a life of service. Grudges aren’t worth nursing, and relationships become valuable.
The other perspective that Paul has viewed life from and encourages his readers to do the same is the cross of Christ. Paul has written eleven chapters in this letter highlighting the steadfast love, overwhelming grace and unconditional forgiveness of God. It is God’s love and grace that inspires us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, and to live lives of love.
TRAVEL LIGHT
Working from his twin perspectives, Paul starts out his instructions on how to live in the reality of God’s love and grace by telling his readers to owe no one anything except to love one another. I think Paul is suggesting to us that we travel light.
Summary: "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a human experience." Only the object and the subject have been changed in this observation, but the change in perspective is dramatic. Paul shows us a better view of life.
Gospel Mt 18:15-20
Some have called our society litigious which means that people are ready to sue each other at the slightest provocation even the church in the United States has all kind of policies in place to protect people’s rights with processes to treat people's grievances. But did you know such policies are not new in the current church. In today's Gospel Jesus spells out a process to address the situation when one community member hurts another. Our Lord asked his followers to first get the problem private a one-to-one situation where no one who fended discusses the situation with the one who inflicted the injury. Only if that fails is a disciple to involve others as witnesses. The third step after failure is to tell the church, that is bring the issue before the whole community. If nothing persuades the sinful disciple to listen, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector Jesus said. Fr. John Withrop writes that this type treatment seems to treat them as “outcasts” but we should remember that Jesus calls such to be members of his inner circle or His wisest community. He goes on say that these now public sinners will become the focus of reconciliation. Matthew follows up this process with dealing with community problems with a reminder that the prayer and action of the Church is united with God's graciousness. When we act as Jesus has taught we are assured of the Father’s generosity and the presence of Jesus in our midst as we gather.
Making the Connection
- Remind the people that we often look to other people to provide repairs when something breaks down.
- Ask them to name examples of repairs that they have seen take place in their own home. (Accept all reasonable answers.)
- Tell the people that we ask certain people to do repairs for us because they are good at it.
- Ask the people to think about what they are good at repairing for which other people might ask them for help.
- Encourage the people to think not only of repairing objects but also of repairing things such as feelings, confidence, and friendships.
- Tell the people that in this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus offers advice on how to repair relationships when there is conflict.
- Jesus doesn’t say that we won’t have disagreements; in fact, he acknowledges them. What can we learn about the Christian way to handle conflict from Jesus’ teaching? How can you apply this in your family, with your friends? There are no wrong answers,
- Prayer is also an important part of handling conflict. Jesus promises that he will guide the decisions of those who pray to him. When we have a problem with another person, we pray that God will help bring peace to the situation and that God will be with us as we work toward this peace.
- Conclude by praying for the support needed to handle conflicts in a Christian manner. Pray together the Peace Prayer of Saint Francis.
Where there is hatred let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy
O divine master grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled as to console
to be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
And it's in dying that we are born to eternal life
Amen
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Sunday Sept. 3 , 2017 Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 124
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 20:7-9
You duped me, O LORD, and I let myself be duped;
you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.
All the day I am an object of laughter;
everyone mocks me.
Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage is my message;
the word of the LORD has brought me
derision and reproach all the day.
I say to myself, I will not mention him,
I will speak in his name no more.
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
R. (2b) My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
for your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Thus will I bless you while I live;
lifting up my hands, I will call upon your name.
As with the riches of a banquet shall my soul be satisfied,
and with exultant lips my mouth shall praise you.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.
R. My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God.
Reading 2 Rom 12:1-2
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.
Gospel Mt 16:21-27
Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.
Then Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him,
"God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you."
He turned and said to Peter,
"Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me.
You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do."
Then Jesus said to his disciples,
"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?
For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father's glory,
and then he will repay all according to his conduct."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 20:7-9
Jeremiah had been put in the stocks - by the church governor, no less - for having the audacity to speak the Word of the LORD in church (Jeremiah 20:1-2)! Even then, there was no stopping Jeremiah telling it as it is, speaking forth the words of God. In this passage we are overhearing the praying prophet wrestling with God.
The prophet’s lament falls in line with others of the genre: both in his own writings, and in the rest of the Bible.
1. Address.
You duped me, O LORD, (Jeremiah 20:7) in the briefest of openings: but nevertheless, in his pain, Jeremiah is crying out to none other than the true and living God. A good place for any of us to begin.
2. Complaint.
The complaint commences with an expression of the occasional doubt of every preacher: that his words are perhaps not, after all, from God. Jeremiah fears that he may have been “duped” (Jeremiah 20:7) by the LORD (cf. 1 Kings 22:19-23), and consequently fallen foul of the law concerning false prophets (Ezekiel 14:9-10).
This fear arose from Jeremiah’s interpretation of the mocking (Jeremiah 20:7), reproach and derision (Jeremiah 20:8), and defaming (Jeremiah 20:10) which he was facing. The prophet took his eye off the ball. The persecuted preacher questions his own integrity when the LORD does not do things exactly as he thinks God should, and momentarily loses his assurance.
Jeremiah complains that he has been unfairly overpowered by the LORD (Jeremiah 20:7), but he has not the power to forbear from speaking His words (Jeremiah 20:9). Like Peter and John, he ‘cannot but speak’ the word of God (Acts 4:20). Like Paul, ‘necessity is laid upon me… woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel’ (1 Corinthians 9:16).
3. Trust.
Jeremiah’s enemies hoped that the prophet would prove to have been deceived, and that they would prevail (Jeremiah 20:10). But against this Jeremiah’s faith reasserts itself in the assurance that his enemies would not, ultimately, prevail (Jeremiah 20:11). It is God who will prevail.
4. Petition.
The prophet strengthens himself in the LORD (cf. 1 Samuel 30:6) - and his consequent imprecation is nothing more sinister than a plea to see things as God sees them (Jeremiah 20:12).
5. Praise.
Jeremiah emerged from his ordeal with an invitation to the faithful to join him in singing praise to the One who had delivered him (Jeremiah 20:13). Although his experience is very personal, and very real, Jeremiah also stands for all the people of God: both Israel (Jeremiah 15:5), and the wider Church (1 Peter 4:16). As well as this, Jeremiah is a type of Christ, and anticipates the coming of the suffering Saviour (Isaiah 53:3).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 63:2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
Our Christian life, your Christian life began and begins with a search for God.
. We may not understand exactly what we are searching for but it all began with a search.
. The boss of a big company needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem with one of the main computers. He dialed the employees home telephone number and was greeted with a child’s whispered, "Hello?"
The boss asked, "Is your Daddy home?"
"Yes," whispered the small voice.
"May I talk with him?" the man asked.
To the boss’ surprise, the small voice whispered, "No."
The boss persisted, "Is your Mommy there?"
"Yes," came the answer.
"May I talk with her?"
Again, the small voice whispered, "No."
“Well, is there someone else there I might talk to?" the boss asked the child.
"Yes," whispered the child, "a policeman."
"Well then, may I speak with the policeman?"
"No,” whispered the child “he is busy"
"Busy doing what?" asked the boss.
"Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the Fireman," came the whispered answer.
Now the boss was growing concerned and just then he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the ear piece on the phone, the boss asked, "What is that noise?"
"A hello-copper," answered the whispering voice.
Alarmed, the boss nearly shouted: "What is going on there?"
In an awed whispering voice, the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello-copper!"
"Why are they there?"
There was a muffled giggle as the child said, "They are looking for me!"
. We all search for something.
. We all start our Christian life with a search.
.Our Christian life began with our soul thirsting for something or someone to fill an emptiness that is inside all of mankind.
. Many of us tried all sorts of things to fill that void.
. We try to do it with relationships with spouses or friends and acquaintances.
. There is nothing wrong with these relationships but they will not fill the emptiness that creates this search in us.
. We try filling this void with activities and hobbies. Sports or partying.
. There is nothing wrong with a good party but that never fills the void that we are searching to fill.
. David, in this psalm, describes how our body, our soul, our very being longs to be filled.
. We long to be filled and God is the only thing that will fill this void.
. We hear of the drive that adopted children have to find their birth parents. This desire and drive is in them because there is something missing in their life that needs to be present.
. We are born separated from God through our sin. This separation creates a void in our lives that can only be filled as we reconcile ourselves to and with our creator.
. We do this through the belief in Jesus’ sacrifice for this sin that separates us from God.
. Your Christian life begins when you find God through the death of Jesus Christ.
. After you have searched and found God trough Jesus Christ, You worship and serve him.
. As you live this precious life that God has given you, you praise and worship him.
. Look at verses 3&4.
. 3 Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary
to see your power and your glory,
4 for your kindness is a greater good than life;
my lips shall glorify you.
. Lord I have seen your power and your glory in my life.
. Lord you have sustained me with your love and power as I have traveled this world.
. In good times and bad, you are there.
. Think back on your life, can you see the presence of the Lord in your life?
. I’m sure that most, if not all of you, have had your up’s and downs in life.
. Thank him that he has given you a place, a sanctuary to lift him up and praise him.
. In your Christian life you have searched and found God. You have seen him in all the circumstances of your life.
. Now, you must resolve to praise him here on this rock we call earth until you go home to be with Jesus for eternity.
. David writes that he will praise God as long as he lives.
. Folks, just because we are getting more mature in this life, it does not mean that we stop praising God.
. This sermon is title “this is your Christian life, from start to finish.”
. David says that he will finish his life praising God.
. How are you finishing folks?
. One day I watched a movie called “Money Ball”.
. This was a true story of a general manager of a baseball team that revolutionized the way they looked at baseball players. I’m not going to bore you with the story but; at the very end of the movie, he was talking to his assistant and they were reviewing the past year and the success that they had. He looked at his assistant and said, we did a lot of amazing things this year but we didn’t finish well.
. In the psalm, David writes that we need to finish well.
. We need to praise God for as long as we live. As long as we have breath, we are to praise God.
. My question to you this morning is how are you finishing?
. God wants us to finish well.
. He wants us to praise him for as long as we have breath in this body that He has given us.
. Are you finishing well?
. Just because we are getting older and maybe a little slower, doesn’t mean that we can’t praise God as long as we live.
. I challenge you this morning to finish well.
. God is not finished with you yet.
. As long as you have life in this frail body, you need to use it praising God.
. That way, when we stand before the master, we will hear the words recorded in Matthew 25:21.
. “…Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful …”
. Are you finishing your life well ?
Reading 2 Rom 12:1-2
To focus our thoughts today, listen to the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 12:1-2,
I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.
The Bible tells us that God, the Creator of the universe, knows you and wants to have a relationship with you.
God has a dream for your life!
God has a plan for your life and mine.
A perfect plan that brings honor and Glory to Him and blessing to us.
I think it’s true to say every parent has a dream for their child.
If you are a parent you have a dream for your children.
A dream that perhaps began before they were born.
If you are not a parent, the truth is your parents probably had a dream for you before you were born.
I’m not sure if moms dream more than dads.
Or if dads dream more than moms.
Or maybe we both dream as much as each other.
What will our baby be like?
What will they dream about becoming?
What will fill their thoughts?
Will they do well in school?
Will they be athletic or artistic or scientific?
Will they get a good job?
What is the destiny God has for them?
God has a dream for His children.
God has a destiny for His children.
God has a dream and a destiny for you.
Sometimes as human parents we can have unrealistic dreams for our children.
We may dream of our child being a pilot - that is possible.
An astronaut not so much.
Our heavenly Father has a dream for every one of His children, and God’s dream is to make you like His Son Jesus. Matthew 5:48 says, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
God’s dream for you and I is that we would be perfect. Perfect, that seems to be asking a lot, dreaming a lot, but when we come to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior, when we repent and turn to Christ, God sees us as perfect.
Isaiah 61:10 says, I will rejoice heartily in the LORD,
my being exults in my God;
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation,
and wrapped me in a robe of justice,
Like a bridegroom adorned with a diadem,
as a bride adorns herself with her jewels
of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.
We could never be perfect in our own righteousness. When Jesus died on the cross, He did not just take away your sins. He also gave us His righteousness. God has clothed you and I with the robe of righteousness, which was paid for by Jesus’ blood.
In Romans 8, The Apostle Paul tells us how God uses every circumstance, every up, every down, every relationship, everything we ever go through to make us more like Jesus. God’s dream for you is about, the kind of person you are destined to become, the kind of relationship you will have with Him.
God calls each of us to be loving, kind, gentle, holy, God calls us to be people who live out our daily lives with integrity. God is with us every moment of every day. When you are driving your car, you can have a conversation with Him. When you are washing dishes, you can sing praise to Him. When you face a big decision in your life, you can ask your Heavenly Father to lead and to guide. God cares about the detail of your life, He wants to be in an intimate, loving, deep relationship with you.
Gospel Mt 16:21-27
At this time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. (Matthew 16:21)
Jesus was aware that He would be rejected and put to death at Jerusalem. All this was necessary to bring the church into existence as the spiritual form of the kingdom on earth. He could now talk about these things openly, since the disciple’s faith was now strong enough to bear it. So from this point on the Lord’s ministry takes on a somewhat different complexion as He seeks to prepare His followers for the suffering that awaited him and the disappointment which they must suffer. The Elders whom He refers to are the religious leaders; probably members of the Sanhedrin. The words, “killed and raised again the third day,” clearly indicate that He is aware of His earthly ministry and destiny. Predicting His death and rejection was human, but only the God-man could predict a supernatural resurrection.
Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, “God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you.” (Matthew 16:22)
I believe that Peter may have been a little puffed-up by the great things that Jesus had recently said to him, so he became bold enough to speak to Jesus in a harsh manner. It certainly was not becoming of him to take upon himself to advise his Master. God knows what He has to do, without our teaching. Romans 11:34 expresses this idea, “For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?”
Peter’s words are very passionate as he speaks against suffering and the offense of the cross. He said, “God forbid that you should suffer. We cannot bear the thought of it.” But he is mistaken, because we cannot measure Christ’s love and patience by our own.
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (Matthew 16:23)
Christ’s displeasure with Peter is evident. He turned upon Peter, I suppose with a frown, and said, “Get behind me, Satan.” He addressed Satan in the same manner when He was tempted by him.
Why did Christ resent so much Peter’s proposition, which seems not only harmless, but kind? There are two reasons given:
1. You are an offense to Me,-He is saying, “Peter you are a hindrance; you are in my way.” Christ was so intent upon the work of our salvation, which must be accomplished at Calvary, that He was very sensitive to anything that would divert Him from it. Our Lord Jesus preferred our salvation before His own comfort and safety, for we are told in Romans 15:3, “For Christ did not please himself; but, as it is written, “The insults of those who insult you fall upon me.” He didn’t come into the world to spare Himself, as Peter suggested, but to spend Himself.
So, why did He call Peter Satan? It was because when he made his suggestion to Jesus, he was standing in the way of our salvation, so Jesus looked upon him as coming from the devil. He is a sworn enemy to our salvation. The same Satan who entered into Judas was prompting Peter.
Those who are engaged in any good work must expect to meet hindrances from friends and foes, from within and without. Those who obstruct our progress must be thought of as an offence to us. When we are called by God, those who hinder us from doing our work are Satan’s servants.
2. “For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”-The things that are of God, that is, His will and glory, often clash and interfere with the things that are of men, that is, with our own wealth, pleasure and reputation.
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. “ (Matthew 16:24-25)
Jesus has told his disciples that He must suffer, but now He shows them that they must suffer also, and they must be ready and willing. When Jesus first called His disciples the word was follow Me; now He is saying that to be a disciple of Christ you must follow Him. A disciple of Christ comes after Him, as a sheep after the shepherd, the servant after his master, the soldiers after their captain; he is one who pursues the same objectives that Christ did-the glory of God, and the glory of heaven: and one who walks in the same path that He did, is led by His Spirit, treads in His steps, submits to His conduct and follows the lamb, withersoever he goes. (Rev. 14:4)
Those who follow Christ must make a deliberate choice to do so, for He wants His people to be volunteers. And when they make the choice they must set down and consider the cost.
Jesus gives one of the conditions of following Him as denying himself. Peter had advised Christ to spare himself, but Christ tells them all that they must deny themselves. It was a hard lesson that Christ taught, for all of His acts of His birth, and life, and death, was all acts of self-denial. They were done so that we could observe them, and they were for both our redemption and instruction. All of the followers and Disciples of Christ must deny themselves. This is fundamental to our faith and one of the first lessons that we learn. We deny ourselves for Christ’s sake and for the brethren.
Jesus said, “Let him take up his cross.” The cross here refers to all our sufferings; persecutions for righteousness’ sake, and every trouble that happens to us. The troubles of Christians are called crosses in reference to Christ’s death on the cross. Every disciple of Christ has his cross, which is his special trouble to be endured. Crosses are the common lot of God’s children and every one of us must take up that cross which a wise God has given to us. But we must manage our troubles and afflictions so that they don’t become a stumbling block or a hindrance to our service to God. However, we are not to just take up our cross, but we must use it to an advantage in our work for Christ. When we rejoice in our afflictions, and glory in them, then we are taking up our cross.
Making the Connection
- In the story of the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy meets three characters who join her on her journey to the Emerald City to meet the great and powerful Oz. Each of these characters is lacking something. What are they missing? (The scarecrow is missing a brain; the tin man lacks a heart; and the lion has no courage.)
- Let’s think about the scarecrow for a moment. Without a brain, what is it that he feels he is unable to do? (think) We definitely need a brain to think! In fact, when we do something thoughtless, someone may ask, “Where are your brains?”
- In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus challenges Peter to think, but to do so in a very unusual way.
- In todays Gospel, how does Jesus want Peter to think? (not as humans think, but as God thinks)
- How is God’s thinking different from Peter’s thinking in this story? (Peter thinks that Jesus should not go to Jerusalem and face the danger of death; God thinks that Jesus is called to go to Jerusalem to give his life for others.)
- We are born to think of our own needs. God calls us to think not about ourselves but about others. This is a different way of thinking. Like the scarecrow, we need a brain. Although we have our own brain, we need to put on the mind—the brain—of God to think as God thinks.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer.
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Sunday August 27, 2017 Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 121
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 22:19-23
Thus says the LORD to Shebna, master of the palace:
"I will thrust you from your office
and pull you down from your station.
On that day I will summon my servant
Eliakim, son of Hilkiah;
I will clothe him with your robe,
and gird him with your sash,
and give over to him your authority.
He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and to the house of Judah.
I will place the key of the House of David on Eliakim's shoulder;
when he opens, no one shall shut
when he shuts, no one shall open.
I will fix him like a peg in a sure spot,
to be a place of honor for his family."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8
R. (8bc) Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
I will give thanks to you, O LORD, with all my heart,
for you have heard the words of my mouth;
in the presence of the angels I will sing your praise;
I will worship at your holy temple.
R. Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
I will give thanks to your name,
because of your kindness and your truth:
When I called, you answered me;
you built up strength within me.
R. Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
The LORD is exalted, yet the lowly he sees,
and the proud he knows from afar.
Your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
forsake not the work of your hands.
R. Lord, your love is eternal; do not forsake the work of your hands.
Reading 2 Rom 11:33-36
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!
For who has known the mind of the Lord
or who has been his counselor?
Or who has given the Lord anything
that he may be repaid?
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen.
Gospel Mt 16:13-20
Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi and
he asked his disciples,
"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"
They replied, "Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah,
still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"
Simon Peter said in reply,
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus said to him in reply,
"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
Then he strictly ordered his disciples
to tell no one that he was the Christ
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 22:19-23
We cannot resist the conclusion that far more is meant by these verses than the mere replacement of a corrupt and ineffective official by a faithful successor. Eliakim is a type of the "righteous remnant" who indeed were the glory of Judah, the heir of all the sacred promises to Abraham and who did indeed totally replace the great secular majority of Israel who correspond to Shebna. The ultimate fall of Eliakim is a reference to the rejection of the Messiah. This was indeed the "fall" of the righteous remnant in the racial sense. " you have hewn for yourself a tomb here" is far too strong as a reference to the fall of one man. This foretells the destruction of secular Israel by the armies of Vespasian and Titus in 70A.D.
The reference here to the "key of David" is of special interest. Many have pointed out that "opening and shutting" represent the making of decisions that no one but the king could change. Here is the background of Jesus' teaching in Matthew 16:19, "Suggesting that Jesus was appointing Peter to be steward over the household of God in the messianic kingdom." While true enough as far as it goes, this statement is fundamentally altered to extend the ownership of the key of David to all of the apostles of Christ (Matthew 18:18), and by no means restricting it merely to Peter. Besides that, "The ultimate authority is claimed in these very terms for Christ himself (Revelation 3:7,8)."
This reference to the key of David is all but proof of the proposition that there are indeed in this half of the chapter overtones of the messianic kingdom and the rejection of racial Israel as the chosen race.
How futile and pitiful are the plans of sinful men. Shebna was concerned about building himself an impressive tomb, high on a cliff; but he did not know that he would go into slavery under a foreign invader, suffer a shameful death, and have no impressive tomb whatever, if indeed, he had any at all. Jamieson has given us this sad comment on the death of Shebna:
"The mention of "thy magnificent chariots" does not mean that Shebna would have these in a foreign land, but that he would be borne thither in ignominy instead of in his magnificent chariots. The Jews say that he was tied to the tails of horses by the enemy, to whom he had designed to betray Jerusalem, as they thought he was mocking them; and so he died."
This message to Shebna is a reproof of his pride, vanity, and security; what vanity is all earthly grandeur, which death will so soon end! What will it avail, whether we are laid in a magnificent tomb, or covered with the green sod? Those who, when in power, turn and toss others, will be justly turned and tossed themselves. Eliakim should be put into Shebna's place. Those called to places of trust and power, should seek to God for grace to enable them to do their duty. Eliakim's advancement is described. Our Lord Jesus describes his own power as Mediator, Re 3:7, that he has the key of David. His power in the kingdom of heaven, and in ordering all the affairs of that kingdom, is absolute. Rulers should be fathers to those under their government; and the honor men bring unto their families, by their piety and usefulness, is more to be valued than what they derive from them by their names and titles. The glory of this world gives a man no real worth or excellence; it is but hung upon him, and it will soon drop from him. Eliakim was compared to a nail in a sure place; all his family are said to depend upon him. In eastern houses, rows of large spikes were built up in the walls. Upon these the moveables and utensils were hung. Our Lord Jesus is as a nail in a sure place. That soul cannot perish, nor that concern fall to the ground, which is by faith hung upon Christ. He will set before the believer an open door, which no man can shut, and bring both body and soul to eternal glory. But those who neglect so great salvation will find, that when he shuts none can open, whether it be shutting out from heaven, or shutting up in hell for ever.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 138:1-2, 2-3, 6, 8
It does not appear, nor is it material to enquire, upon what occasion David penned this psalm; but in it. He looks back with thankfulness upon the experiences he had had of God’s goodness to him (v. 1-3). He looks forward with comfort, in hopes. That others would go on to praise God like him (v. 4, v. 5). That God would go on to do good to him (v. 6-8). In singing this psalm we must in like manner devote ourselves to God’s praise and glory and repose ourselves in his power and goodness. A psalm of David.
Verses 1-5. How he would praise God, compare Ps. 111:1 . He will praise him with sincerity and zeal—"With my heart, with my whole heart, with that which is within me and with all that is within me, with uprightness of intention and fervency of affection, inward impressions agreeing with outward expressions.’’. With freedom and boldness: Before the gods will I sing praise unto thee, before the princes, and judges, and great men, either those of other nations that visited him or those of his own nation that attended on him, even in their presence. He will not only praise God with his heart, which we may do by pious ejaculations in any company, but will sing praise if there be occasion. Note, Praising God is work which the greatest of men need not be ashamed of; it is the work of angels, the work of heaven. Before the angels (so some understand it), that is, in religious assemblies, where there is a special presence of angels, 1 Co. 11:10 . In the way that God had appointed: I will worship towards thy holy temple. The priests alone went into the temple; the people, at the nearest, did but worship towards it, and that they might do at a distance. Christ is our temple, and towards him we must look with an eye of faith, as Mediator between us and God, in all our praises of him. Heaven is God’s holy temple, and thitherward we must lift up our eyes in all our addresses to God. Our Father in heaven. What he would praise God for. For the fountain of his comforts—for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth, for thy goodness and for thy promise, mercy hidden in thee and mercy revealed by thee, that God is a gracious God in himself and has engaged to be so to all those that trust in him. For thou hast magnified thy word (thy promise, which is truth) above all thy name. God has made himself known to us in many ways in creation and providence, but most clearly by his word. The judgments of his mouth are magnified even above those of his hand, and greater things are done by them. The wonders of grace exceed the wonders of nature; and what is discovered of God by revelation is much greater than what is discovered by reason. In what God had done for David his faithfulness to his work appeared more illustriously, and redounded more to his glory, than any other of his attributes. Some good interpreters understand it of Christ, the essential Word, and of his gospel, which are magnified above all the discoveries God had before made of himself to the fathers. He that magnified the law, and made that honorable, magnifies the gospel much more. For the streams flowing from that fountain, in which he himself had tasted that the Lord is gracious, v. 3. He had been in affliction, and he remembers, with thankfulness. The sweet communion he then had with God. He cried, he prayed, and prayed earnestly, and God answered him, gave him to understand that his prayer was accepted and should have a gracious return in due time. The intercourse between God and his saints is carried on by his promises and their prayers. The sweet communications he then had from God: Thou strengthenedst me with strength in my soul. This was the answer to his prayer, for God gives more than good words, Ps. 20:6 . Observe, It was a speedy answer: In the day when I cried. Note, Those that trade with heaven by prayer grow rich by quick returns. While we are yet speaking God hears, Isa. 65:24 . It was a spiritual answer. God gave him strength in his soul, and that is a real and valuable answer to the prayer of faith in the day of affliction. If God give us strength in our souls to bear the burdens, resist the temptations, and do the duties of an afflicted state, if he strengthen us to keep hold of himself by faith, to maintain the peace of our own minds and to wait with patience for the issue, we must own that he has answered us, and we are bound to be thankful. What influence he hoped that his praising God would have upon others, v. 4, v. 5. David was himself a king, and therefore he hoped that kings would be wrought upon by his experiences, and his example, to embrace religion; and, if kings became religious, their kingdoms would be every way better. Now, This may have reference to the kings that were neighbors to David, as Hiram and others. "They shall all praise thee.’’ When they visited David, and, after his death, when they sought the presence of Solomon (as all the kings of the earth are expressly said to have done, 2 Chr. 9:23 ), they readily joined in the worship of the God of Israel. It may look further, to the calling of the Gentiles and the discipling of all nations by the gospel of Christ, of whom it is said that all kings shall fall down before him, Ps. 72:11 . Now it is here foretold, (1.) That the kings of the earth shall hear the words of God. All that came near David should hear them from him, Ps. 119:46 . In the latter days the preachers of the gospel should be sent into all the world. That then they shall praise God, as all those have reason to do that hear his word, and receive it in the light and love of it, Acts. 13:48 . (3.) That they shall sing in the ways of the Lord, in the ways of his providence and grace towards them; they shall rejoice in God, and give glory to him, however he is pleased to deal with them in the ways of their duty and obedience to him. Note, Those that walk in the ways of the Lord have reason to sing in those ways, to go on in them with a great deal of cheerfulness, for they are ways of pleasantness, and it becomes us to be pleasant in them; and, if we are so, great is the glory of the Lord. It is very much for the honor of God that kings should walk in his ways, and that all those who walk in them should sing in them, and so proclaim to all the world that he is a good Master and his work its own wages.
Verses 6-8 David here comforts himself with three things: The favor God bears to his humble people (v. 6): Though the Lord be high, and neither needs any of his creatures nor can be benefited by them, yet has he respect unto the lowly, smiles upon them as well pleased with them, overlooks heaven and earth to cast a gracious look upon them (Isa. 57:15 Isa. 66:1 ), and, sooner or later, he will put honour upon them, while he knows the proud afar off, knows them, but disowns them and rejects them, how proudly soever they pretend to his favor. Dr. Hammond makes this to be the sum of that gospel which the kings of the earth shall hear and welcome—that penitent sinners shall be accepted of God, but the impenitent cast out; witness the instance of the Pharisee and the publican, Lu. 18. The care God takes of his afflicted oppressed people, v. 7. David, though a great and good man, expects to walk in the midst of trouble, but encourages himself with hope. That God would comfort him: "When my spirit is ready to sink and fail, thou shalt revive me, and make me easy and cheerful under my troubles.’’ Divine consolations have enough in them to revive us even when we walk in the midst of troubles and are ready to die away for fear. That he would protect him, and plead his cause: "Thou shalt stretch forth thy hand, though not against my enemies to destroy them, yet against the wrath of my enemies, to restrain that and set bounds to it.” That he would in due time work deliverance for him: Thy right hand shall save me. As he has one hand to stretch out against his enemies, so he has another to save his own people. Christ is the right hand of the Lord, that shall save all those who serve him. The assurance we have that whatever good work God has begun in and for his people he will perform it (v. 8): The Lord will perfect that which concerns me. That which is most needful for me; and he knows best what is so. We are careful and cumbered about many things that do not concern us, but he knows what are the things that really are of consequence to us (Mt. 6:32 ) and he will order them for the best. That which we are most concerned about. Every good man is most concerned about his duty to God and his happiness in God, that the former may be faithfully done and the latter effectually secured; and if indeed these are the things that our hearts are most upon, and concerning which we are most solicitous, there is a good work begun in us, and he that has begun it will perfect it, we may be confident he will, Phil. 1:6 . Observe, What ground the psalmist builds this confidence upon: Thy mercy, O Lord! endures for ever. This he had made very much the matter of his praise (Ps. 13:6 ), and therefore he could here with the more assurance make it the matter of his hope. For, if we give God the glory of his mercy, we may take to ourselves the comfort of it. Our hopes that we shall persevere must be founded, not upon our own strength, for that will fail us, but upon the mercy of God, for that will not fail. It is well pleaded, "Lord, thy mercy endures forever; let me be forever a monument of it.’’ What use he makes of this confidence; it does not supersede, but quicken prayer; he turns his expectation into a petition: "Forsake not, do not let go, the work of thy own hands. Lord, I am the work of thy own hands, my soul is so, do not forsake me; my concerns are so, do not lay by thy care of them.’’ Whatever good there is in us it is the work of God’s own hands; he works in us both to will and to do; it will fail if he forsake it; but his glory, as Jehovah, a perfecting God, is so much concerned in the progress of it to the end that we may in faith pray, "Lord, do not forsake it.’’ Whom he loves he loves to the end; and, as for God, his work is perfect.
Reading 2 Rom 11:33-36
Most people don't take the time to think much about God. We are busy with other things which seem to be more immediate, more exciting and entertaining. We seldom take the time to consider eternal realities and we may even resist any serious thought about ourselves and God. We need to take time to study and personally think about who God is, what God is like, how He is described in the Scriptures, what His plan is and then what our response will be.
There are many superb passages in the New Testament that communicate clearly to us about God. One is Romans 11:33-36.
33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways!
34 “For who has known the mind of the Lord*
or who has been his counselor?
35* “Or who has given him anything
that he may be repaid?”
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen
Summary of Romans 1-11
Before we undertake a study of truths in this paragraph, we need to consider the context: the book of Romans. In the first eleven chapters of Romans, Paul gives a step by step presentation of God's plan, the gospel of Christ.
In the first three chapters, he begins with the sin of man. It is an ugly picture of how people know there is a God and they know what is right before Him, but they do what is wrong. Near the end of this section there is that statement of Paul: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (Rom. 3:23). The truth is, man has sinned, but God - in the riches of His love and grace - has given a remedy, the gospel of Christ (the power of God to save, Rom. 1:16).
In chapters four, five and six - Paul takes the next step in this journey. Though we have sinned, we can be forgiven; we can be justified "by faith" and enjoy peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The direction of that faith, the response and activity of it, the life of faith that responds to Christ and pleases God - all of that is developed in this section. And here, Paul clearly identifies the proper response of sinners to the gospel: we were buried with Him through baptism into death ... so we should walk in newness of life ... you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered ... and having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. So, the problem is sin; God provides the remedy in Christ - the gospel tells of Christ as the remedy - but individual must respond (hearing, believing and obeying from the heart).
In chapter seven, Paul speaks to the Jews about their previous relationship with the law of Moses, now severed by their marriage to Christ. In chapter eight, the freedom, blessings and hope enjoyed by those whose faith responds to the gospel.
Now in chapters nine, ten and eleven - Paul deals with a particular, sensitive issue at that time, the Jews and their difficulty in accepting Gentiles. Because of their history, traditions and attitudes, it was enormously difficult for Jewish Christians to understand the change from the old covenant to the new. It was a special challenge for most of them to accept Gentiles as brethren, share with them and conquer all their prejudices. Part of the problem was, some Jews were mis-informed and confused by Paul's enemies - thinking that Paul was teaching that God had rejected every Israelite. The apostle addresses these sensitive questions in Romans nine, ten and eleven. And his argument is well expressed in the opening statement of chapter eleven: "I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew!"
So, there is the problem of sin; the solution God provides in Christ; man's necessary response of faith; also, in Romans, Paul deals with questions and issues about all of this. Romans is a step by step presentation of the gospel plan, written by the inspired apostle.
Beginning in chapter twelve, Paul teaches how we should live in view of all these marvelous truths. This is sometimes called "the practical section" of the book because of the focus on practice in daily life. However, before beginning this section - Paul stops at the end of chapter eleven and offers up this excellent statement of praise to God.
Here is what this is like.
If you are out in the forest, or climbing a mountain - there is the labor involved in the task (walking the trail, climbing the rocks). But from time to time you feel compelled to pause and look around, beholding the wonder and beauty of nature and praising the God who made it. This is like a traveler who has reached the summit of some great mountain. There, he stops to praise the beauty of the creation and the Creator.
Paul - in Romans chapters one through eleven - has given this account of what the problem is and what the solution is. Man has sinned. God sent His Son. We must respond to the gospel. Paul has tackled the difficulties of misrepresentations, issues between Jews and Gentiles, etc. Now at this point, at the end of chapter eleven, this is like a traveler or mountain climber who is compelled to pause and praise the One who made it all.
One thing we should learn from this is, we should never get so busy and involved in academics, arguments and apologetics that we forget the God who deserves all the glory! It was necessary for Paul to provide all this rich instruction about God's plan. It is important for us to read and understand it, then teach these things to others. But let us never become so involved in analysis and apologetics that we forget to praise the God whose plan we are teaching and following. The truth of the gospel should always provoke in us the desire to worship, praise and acknowledge Him.
But now back to the statement in Rom. 11:33-36. Let me make these four points:
1) This passage tells me how I can be enriched.
To be "enriched" is to add depth and meaning to your life. In some private and public schools there are "enrichment" programs, designed to give motivated students a fuller educational experience. In agriculture, when you enrich weak soil, you add good nutrients to it, in the hope of a better harvest. To be enriched is to have a deeper, fuller experience in life - anticipating a better eventual outcome. Now the devil tries to tell us that sin is the key to a better life. He is a liar! He promises what he cannot deliver, and he delivers what he does not promise. The God Paul describes in the above passage is capable of providing the enrichment we should seek, and in Christ He does that. If I will place my heart and life into the hands of God, submitting to His plan - the gospel - there is great and powerful enrichment that is mine in Christ.
2) It is ludicrous to imagine that we could ever teach God anything.
This is so obvious to anyone who has read the Scriptures and who knows anything at all about God. It is unlikely that you will hear anyone claim to take on the task of instructing or counseling God.
What would we teach Him? What would we say, to enlighten and inform Him? Does God suffer with some ignorance we could remedy by imparting to Him our wisdom?
His wisdom is infinite, unsearchable, incomparable and invincible. We, on the other hand, suffer with ignorance and the resulting sin. We must depend upon Christ, the divine remedy. We need help. We have to study, learn and repent. What counsel can we offer God?
He knows everything. Everything possible; everything actual; every event; every person and every thought in the mind of every person ... past, present and future! We need His counsel, and He provides it in Christ.
3) We are not God's creditors.
Think about this. What do we have that we could offer to God, that He needs, and that would put Him in eternal debt to us? What would that gift be? Does God suffer some insufficiency or lack that we could supply? (See Acts 17:25).
There is nothing we have to offer or give, that God needs and that would put Him in eternal debt to us! That's the point of verse 35: "Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?"
We should clarify this. There is reverence, worship, praise and obedience we ought to give God, because He is God and we are not. But this is not a matter of putting Him in debt to us. This is our response to Him who is “above all,” and worthy of our praise. {On pay day, do you consider your check a matter of grace or benevolence? No. You think of it as your due compensation for work done. We will never be able to stand before God and demand due compensation for work done... unless we want justice without mercy.}
4) “To Him be the glory forever.”
If I worked in such a perfect fashion all my life, that I earned the pay of eternal life as compensation equal to my performance, I might be justified in being proud of myself; and I might boast that “I did it all myself.”
Since salvation is a gift received; since we come into this as sinners needing the blood of Christ, to God be the glory! Abraham gave “glory to God,” (Rom. 4:20). This inclination to praise God was a result of his active faith. So every Christian should confess, " In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to boast in what pertains to God. " (Rom. 15:17).
Conclusion:
God is so great. Do we recognize that, think about it and respond to it? Man's response to God's greatness and God's plan for man in Christ should be to be buried with Christ in baptism and then walk in newness of life.
Gospel Mt 16:13-20
In today's Gospel Jesus asked his disciples who do you say that the Son of Man is? It is of course a key question for us personally and communally when we reflect on a story reminds us of prayer of St. Francis of Asissi. His secretary brother Leo once asked Francis to tell him the prayer that the saint prayed over our early life, Francis and said simply who are you my God and who am I? The answer to the first question is the same question Jesus asked his disciples, gave rise to St. Francis to ask the second question who am I? Francis understood that the way he responded would define his identity as a Christian. Think about Matthews community 2000 years or more ago, they had struggles internally as well as externally they had questions about how to structure their lives in a world that could be hostile to the good news Scripture scholars suggest that much of Matthews their reflects upon issues of their identity as a church. It's no different for us today, imagine Jesus confronting you or me this Sunday. He wants us to answer the question who do you say that the Son of Man is? Each of us must respond to that question then face St. Francis second question as well. How we respond will shape our personal identity as a Catholic and our parishes identity. Jesus is ready to offer us the responsibility, the vocation the keys to the kingdom power to bind and loose all the gifts we need plus the promise to be with us until the end of time. But be careful the answer to that question will challenge you to define who you are, as Peter will be forced to do in the very next passage which we will hear next Sunday. Following Jesus on the way of the cross.
Making the Connection
- Who are some leaders in our Church today? Why is it important for our Church to have good leaders?
- In today’s Gospel reading we hear a conversation between Jesus and his disciples. One disciple is singled out in this conversation and given a leadership role in the Church. Do you remember who it was?
- What question did Jesus ask his disciples? (What are people saying about me?) What answers do the disciples give? (John the Baptist, Elijah, the prophets) And then what does Jesus ask? (He asks for his disciples’ opinion.) Who speaks for the disciples? (Peter)
- In this Gospel, Jesus recognizes the disciple Peter as an important leader because Peter professes his belief that Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus commends Peter for this, not because he came to this belief on his own, but because God allowed Peter to recognize Jesus as his only Son.
- Peter played an important role in the early Christian community and helped to build the Church. This was a role given to him by God. We continue to honor Peter and those who have followed him as leaders in the Church. Today we recognize and honor the pope as Peter’s successor. Like Peter, the pope reminds us that we are a people united in the faith that Jesus is God’s Son.
- Say the Our Father.
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Sunday August 20, 2017 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 118
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 56:1, 6-7
Thus says the LORD:
Observe what is right, do what is just;
for my salvation is about to come,
my justice, about to be revealed.
The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
ministering to him,
loving the name of the LORD,
and becoming his servants--
all who keep the sabbath free from profanation
and hold to my covenant,
them I will bring to my holy mountain
and make joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be acceptable on my altar,
for my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
R. (4) O God, let all the nations praise you!
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
R. O God, let all the nations praise you!
Reading 2 Rom 11:13-15, 29-32
Brothers and sisters:
I am speaking to you Gentiles.
Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles,
I glory in my ministry in order to make my race jealous
and thus save some of them.
For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,
what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.
Just as you once disobeyed God
but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,
so they have now disobeyed in order that,
by virtue of the mercy shown to you,
they too may now receive mercy.
For God delivered all to disobedience,
that he might have mercy upon all.
Gospel Mt 15:21-28
At that time, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.
And behold, a Canaanite woman of that district came and called out,
"Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!
My daughter is tormented by a demon."
But Jesus did not say a word in answer to her.
Jesus' disciples came and asked him,
"Send her away, for she keeps calling out after us."
He said in reply,
"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, "Lord, help me."
He said in reply,
"It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs."
She said, "Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters."
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
"O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish."
And the woman's daughter was healed from that hour.
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 56:1, 6-7
In the absence of God answering prayer, darkness is his only companion. Darkness pervades over the audience Isaiah addresses in Isaiah 58 for the very same reason. Their prayers have gone unanswered; God has been silent. Darkness is their only friend.
The historical backdrop for Isaiah 58 is likely the period of fasting that followed the exile. Zechariah 7:3-5 indicates that Israel fasted on the fifth and seventh months for seventy years following the destruction of Jerusalem. For seventy years Israel would fast at least twice a year commemorating the fact that they had lost their home and their king. They fasted and prayed seeking a response, an answer to their troubles.
This scenario matches the people’s outcry in 58:3, “‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?’” The people are clearly fasting in order for their prayers to be answered. The city of Jerusalem seems to be in ruins (58:12) and thus an exilic, or possibly postexilic situation is likely.
The people are desperately seeking justice from God. In Isaiah 58:2 God observes that “they ask of me righteous judgments.” This term “righteous judgments” is a form of the words “justice” (mispat) and “righteousness” (tsedaqah), which feature prominently in the book of Isaiah.
Ever since Isaiah 40:27 Israel has been complaining, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right (mispat) is disregarded by my God.” Israel believes a great injustice has been done to them by Babylon. They held been held captive by foreign oppressors. Their city is in ruins. Their temple is destroyed. They have been abandoned by God.
Israel complains that God has deprived them of justice. God responds by demanding Israel to stop depriving those around them of justice and righteousness! Even though Israel has been attentive to the ritual ordinances of the Law, they have completely neglected the ethical demands of it. The people believe they are the victims, when in fact they are the victimizers.
They approach God in prayer as if they practice justice and righteousness: “Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness (tsedaqah) and did not forsake the ordinance (mispat) of their God”(Isaiah 58:2). But clearly they are not such a people.
Although they believe they are seeking God through their fasts, they forget that Isaiah had earlier clearly instructed that they were to “seek justice (mispat)), rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (Isaiah 1:17). To truly “seek the LORD” is to seek justice and righteousness for the poor and oppressed. They are willing to entrust their rituals and prayers to God, but not extend their faith commitment to the social and economic spheres of their lives. Because of their social and economic sins they remain in darkness.
To cease from oppressing others is not enough. To be a people of justice and righteousness means to be actively engaged in social and economic reform. Israel is to be an agent of liberation, generosity, and compassion for the poor and oppressed (58:6-7). Isaiah urges Israel, “pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted”(58:10, RSV). The phrase “pour yourself,” literally means to “pour out your soul.”
This is similar to the expression “humble oneself” or “afflict oneself” in 58:3, which there refers to fasting. By the use of this language Isaiah is calling for a full transformation of the soul of the community. Fasting, when done properly, is not a means of earning favor from God; it is a means of spiritual transformation.
Fasting is an attempt to align one’s priorities to the will of God. Isaiah is now calling for a fast, not from food, but from affluence, indifference, and privilege so that the community of faith might live in harmony with God, who “dwell[s] in the high and holy place, and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit”(Isaiah 57:15).
It is clear that the salvation God promises is conditioned upon the people’s response. All the promises of Isaiah 58:8-9 are introduced by the word “then”:
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
The promise in 58:10 comes in the form of an “If, then” clause:
If you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.
This conditional emphasis is an extension of the fundamental principle expressed earlier in 56:1: “Maintain justice (mispat), and do what is right (tsedaqah), for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.”
Isaiah 58 verses 8 and 10 promise that light will break forth and healing will appear. In the book of Isaiah, light is a symbol for salvation:
- “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness -- on them light has shined”(Isaiah 9:2).
- “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you”(Isaiah 60:1-2).
Based upon these passages, what is this light about to dawn? It is God’s eschatological promise of salvation. It is the goal, the end, the consummation of his kingdom promises. The light is none other than the Lord himself, who comes to liberate his people from darkness and establish a just and righteous kingdom.
Those who pour out themselves for the sake of justice and righteousness need not fear darkness or abandonment. The opposite is the case. It is to them the light of God’s salvation will shine.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
As the twice-repeated refrain (verses 3, 5) indicates, Psalm 67 is a song meant for public worship.
We can imagine a worship leader or choir singing the body of the psalm, with the congregation or a larger choir intoning the refrain:
May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face to shine upon us,
that your way may be known upon earth,
your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide the nations upon earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, has blessed us.
May God continue to bless us;
let all the ends of the earth revere him.
The theme of the psalm is blessing. The psalm begins with a request for blessing. The words of the Aaronic benediction normally close worship services:"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26). Here, those words are slightly tweaked and are used to open the psalm: "May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us."
Blessing: God's Gracious Activity
The theological category of blessing is one of the most important in the Old Testament--a theme that is often underappreciated in protestant theology. The great theologian Claus Westermann contrasted two general aspects of God's merciful action towards humanity: God's saving activity and God's blessing activity.1 For good reason, protestant Old Testament theology has strongly emphasized God's saving activity--forgiving sin, rescuing from oppression, saving from death and the like. But the Old Testament consistently speaks of another sphere of God's mercy: the blessing activity of God--fruitful harvests, fertility, health, prosperity, and the like. Psalm 67 majors in an area in which the church has often minored--the longing request for God's blessing.
Like God's saving activity, God's blessing activity is available by grace alone. This is true in two senses. First, even though some blessing is made available through the law (and thus it may appear that blessing is conditional and comes as a result of works righteousness), the law itself is sheer gift--not something that was earned by Israel, but an unexpected, breathtaking, welcome gift of grace.
The law was bestowed as a gracious gift in order that life might thrive--as a sign that God has drawn near to the covenant people. As Moses says in Deuteronomy 4:7-8, "What other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?"
Second, God's blessing is by grace alone because God blesses whom God chooses, when God chooses, for the reasons God chooses. God's blessings are gracious, surprising, unexpected gifts. This is clear throughout the biblical narrative. One need think only of Sarah. God announces to Abraham in Genesis 17 that, "I will bless her and will surely give her a son by you" (verse 16). Abraham then laughs at God and counter-offers, "O that Ishmael might live in your sight" (verse 18). God does answer Abraham's prayer and blesses Ishmael, too. But God goes Abraham one better and saves the most surprising blessing for Sarah. A free gift of grace. Or, one might think of Mary. The unsuspected maiden whom all generations now called, "Blessed."
Blessing: Already and Still
In Psalm 67, the poet begins by asking for God's blessing in verse 1 and requests God's continued blessing in verse 7: "May God continue to bless us." But the poet also stands in the people's midst and announces God's blessing: "The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, has blessed us" (verse 6). And this is often the role of the public, Christian leader: to ask the Lord to bless and even at the same time to remind God's people of how much God has already done.
In Psalm 67, the poet has the fruits of harvest in mind: "the earth has yielded its increase." The bounty of nature is not a bad place to start--the image of trees bearing fruit, fields yielding grain, and pastures teeming with livestock communicate blessing even today, when so little of the population is in direct contact with farming. But other images can be added: the beauty of nature, the birth of a new generation, the existence of good government and public servants, the love of parents and friends, good health and good medical care, music and joy. One could keep going.
Why must the Christian leader remind people of God's blessings? Because it is easy to forget. Recently, as I left a baseball stadium on an absolutely beautiful day, I heard one young man mumble to his friend, "What has God ever done for me?" The implication seemed to be both that God hadn't done anything and that everything the young man had in life was the result of his own hard work. It is good--even necessary--for the Christian leader to stand in front of the assembly and remind us of all our blessings. And it necessary--even good--for the Christian leader to stand in front of God and ask for the Lord's continued to blessings. God has blessed us richly. And we rely on God's continued blessings.
Blessing: Foundation of God's Mission
But the psalm has one more important lesson to teach about God's blessing activity--God blesses for the sake of mission. Indeed, God's blessing is the foundation of mission. Within the psalm, it is clear that the ultimate purpose of God's blessing is mission: "that your way be known on earth, your saving power among all nations" (verse 2). So that the peoples and nations might praise God.
This emphasis in the psalm is also the basis of Israel's identity. According to Genesis 12, the reason that God elected Israel in the first place was for the purpose of mission--that Israel would itself be a means of grace. God chose Abraham and Sarah and promised them descendants and also promised that "you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. . . and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (verses 2b-3).
The message is repeated in Exodus 19, when God renewed the covenant with the descendants of Abraham whom he had just rescued from Egypt. The Lord said, "you shall be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation" (verse 6). And what did the priest to do, other than be the channel of divine blessing? Israel was not chosen for its own sake, but was chosen for the sake of mission. And Israel was not blessed either because of who it was or for its own benefit. Israel was blessed so that all the families of the earth may be blessed through it.
When we pray with Psalm 67 that "God continue to bless us" or when we end the end of the worship service with the wish that "the Lord's face shine upon you," we do so for the sake of God's mission. In order that through God's people, all of the world might experience God's saving help
Reading 2 Rom 11:13-15, 29-32
Getting down to brass tacks, Paul poses the question bluntly in Romans 11:1: "Has God rejected his people?"
I like his equally blunt answer: "Hell, no!"
I know, your Bible probably says something more polite, like "By no means!" or "Absolutely not!" The expression is mē genoito, an emphatic denial Paul utters nine other times in Romans after posing a ludicrous theological question (such as, in 9:14, "Is there injustice with God?"). Although Paul treats the questions as preposterous, still he makes us consider them, just for a moment, so he can show how crucial is their denial.
I believe--but haven't been able to confirm--it was J. Christiaan Beker who took the liberty of translating Paul's answer as "Hell, no!" I think "No freaking way!" also works, for our day and age.
But we need to know why the question is so important, if we are to know why the emphatic denial is utterly crucial, for Christians and Jews alike.
The Faithfulness of God
As I mentioned in the commentary for two weeks ago, regarding Romans 9:1-5, Paul will have no part in a theology that implies God will not keep promises. If God will not prove faithful to promises made throughout Israel's history, Christians have no good reason to expect God will keep the ones made to us through Christ. The fidelity of God remains a bedrock of Paul's theology, something he learned early as a Jew and had confirmed through his encounter with Christ.
Paul poses his key question ("Has God rejected his people?") after having characterized the situation as similar to one described in Isaiah, where God waits patiently for a disobedient and unresponsive people.
Paul doesn't develop much of an argument in response to the question. It's pretty simple for him. God cannot have rejected the people "whom he foreknew" (11:2), simply because "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (11:29). That's how God rolls, as we say in our day and age.
As a result, Paul can confidently claim that "all Israel will be saved" (11:26) and will experience "full inclusion" (11:12) in God's salvation. Don't miss or undersell these important statements.
Admittedly, Paul's road to toward these confident assertions is winding, raising serious questions about what exactly he means by "Israel" (9:6-9), inclusion (11:12, 17-24), and the notion of a God who hardens hearts (9:18; 11:25). Tensions weave their way through Romans 9-11, tensions between strong claims about God's fidelity and less-than-satisfying arguments about the details of God's master plan concerning Jews who have not embraced Jesus Christ. Paul cannot neatly reconcile the tensions; today's preachers should avoid trying to do what Paul couldn't.
(I should note that today's gospel reading, from Matthew 15, includes its own share of tensions about Jews and gentiles. I recommend preachers avoid the temptation to collapse one passage too neatly into the other one. Best to preach on just one of these texts this Sunday.)
Living in the Tensions
The lectionary, perhaps attempting to protect people from the tough language of 11:25 and 11:28, does us no favors by omitting the first half of 11:25. There Paul counsels his readers against presuming they can figure out what God is up to, and he also calls the situation a "mystery."
"Mystery" here does not mean "enigma." It's something that's accessible or revealed only to those on the inside, with privileged access. It seems Paul is referring to something that makes no sense on the surface but will finally emerge with clarity in the end, when God's purposes have been worked out.
This mystery involves the "disobedience" in which, Paul believed, some of his contemporary Jews dwelled--"some," excepting those who were already in Christ. (On how Paul introduces this notion of "disobedience" in Romans 10:16, recall last week's commentary on 10:5-15.) But in 11:30-32 Paul quickly expands the set of those who dwell in disobedience. As those who remember Romans 1-3 know, all people dwell in disobedience. As a result, the salvation of all is predicated on God's mercy.
Paul's main emphasis, once again, is on God. The conclusion of the "arguments" set forth in Romans 9-11 comes in 11:32. However God works, and for whatever reasons God works, God works so that God "may be merciful to all" (11:32).
All the handwringing in these chapters, therefore, isn't just about figuring out "the status of the Jewish people"; it's about reaffirming that God calls people--all people--out of wrath, judgment, and sins. God does this to prove God's righteousness and loyalty (as we learned in Romans 3:21-26 ).
As I've said repeatedly about Romans 9-11 during this three-week run of lectionary readings, likewise again here we find a passage primarily about God's faithfulness, less about the successes and failures of people's faith. As Charles Cousar sagely said concerning these chapters: "Israel remains the object of God's love and retains a place in God's saving purposes. It is not because Israel has demonstrated or will demonstrate tenacious fidelity that it continues to be God's chosen people, but because God has demonstrated and will demonstrate such fidelity."1
It seems to me that Paul is making a move preachers should recognize well. Faced with difficult, unexplainable circumstances (in Paul's case, the apparent "hardening" of his Jewish kinfolk), Paul stumbles around with a little theological speculation about God's purposes but soon turns to something much more helpful: emphasizing a firmer foundation, something that makes more sense (in this case, God's mercy). Anyone who has presided over the funeral of a child or helped a community through a natural disaster knows how this works. We can't pretend to know all the answers, and we often make things worse by trying to explain things. But we can--we must!--trust that God will be merciful.
Why do we trust in this mercy? Because, finally, "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."
Mercy Wins
The last word in Paul's argument--really, it's the final word in the Greek sentence in 11:32--is "mercy." (He uses the verb eleeō, "show mercy.") In the end, God is merciful. We might not understand how everything will work out, but God will see to it. Faith rests on hopes like this.
Even though the flow of Romans 11 appears to give him several opportunities for making such a move, Paul stops short of explicitly saying that Christianity must be the means by which the Jewish people will experience their ultimate salvation. Many preachers will see wisdom in following Paul's lead and refusing to offer simplistic explanations where Paul finds it better to leave the details up to God. The primary impetus of anyone's salvation, in every case, is the mercy of God.
But we're wise to reaffirm the theological bedrock on which Paul repeatedly refuses to compromise (in claims such as "the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable"). This bedrock, anchored in the faithfulness of God, should be the central movement of a sermon. There are plenty of other things that life throws our way to create dissonance with these claims, to make us doubt them. But we do ourselves no favors in trying to make theological sense of our circumstances and our future unless we have a God whose character rings true to statements like these.
What have we learned, then, over three weeks with Romans 9-11? The main point Paul returns to in his sometimes tortuous discussion is this: when it comes to accomplishing salvation, everything is in God's hands--not in the hands of the church, nor in those of "Israel."
We can learn a lot from the final movement of Paul's discussion (in Romans 11:33-36):
O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" [derived from Isaiah 40:13 LXX]. "Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?" [derived from Job 41:11]. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.
Paul concludes, not with persuasion or theological argumentation, but with doxology. This is where our reflections on God's faithfulness, God's mercy, and God's mysteries are supposed to take us.
Preachers would do well to add these verses to their readings, to remind us that humility and wonder should guide us when we consider salvation--ours or anyone else's. Theological reflection, rightly undertaken, demands such a posture.
Gospel Mt 15:21-28
Reversals and contrasts mark Matthew's wonderfully and intricately-woven story of a Canaanite woman's faith.
Unique to Matthew's narrative, Jesus in his preaching has challenged his hearers to learn the ways of God's mercy (see 9:13 and 12:7). Now in a favorite Matthean motif (see 14:13 and elsewhere), Jesus "withdraws" and enters territory in which the boundaries of God's mercy is tested.
Under Matthew's hand Mark's parallel story (7:24--30) has been completely transformed into a story of remarkable faith in an unexpected place. In Mark's story both the culminating reference to the faith of the woman and the disciples, who play so significant a role in this story, are completely absent. Here as characters and theme they join the central figures of Jesus and the Canaanite woman in an intense and weighty encounter.
Even the animals get into the story as the suggestive and provocative images and roles of sheep and dogs join these characters and permeate the tightly interlocking and contested dialog. One soon wonders just who in the end are meant to be the sheep and who the dogs in this story? And what of the "shepherd" who seems caught in the middle of this exchange? Largely lost in translations is the choral contest that Matthew has set up--with the woman on one side and the disciples (who do not even appear in Mark's narrative) on the other.
Identified as a foreigner, still this Canaanite woman has all the appropriate language of a true Israelite. She persistently cries out for God's mercy (the Greek imperfect underscores the repetition, while in her kyrie eleison one is certainly meant to hear the worship language of the faithful).
On the other side her pleas are matched by the shouts of the disciples, "get rid of her!" (in the original Greek their words are an alliterative and ironic echo of the woman's cry: apolyson). With dramatic effect the story sets before us a Jesus flanked by two competing choruses: on one side one lone creature crying "kyrie eleison," and on the other a band of bullies shouting her down with their "apolyson."
Checking IDs
So stretch your imaginations to entertain the scene. Gathered in one corner are those familiar disciples, for Matthew the true blue representatives of the faithful lost sheep of Israel, now leaping into the fray like so many ravenous beasts, as it were self-styled guarantors of the holy tradition, on their guard lest the mercies of God be wasted on the unworthy. Like a gang of watchdogs at the door they are about the checking of IDs and keeping out the non-pedigreed riffraff. On the other side of the gate stands this outsider, a woman no less, one lone representative of the dogs of religion, now become as it were a lost sheep plaintively pleading for the mercy of the master shepherd. No English translation can capture Matthew's careful orchestration of the painful choral refrain. "Lord, have mercy," the dog's solo bleating cry. "Get rid of her," the "lost-sheep chorus" barks back in reply.
And what of the master, the Messiah? Do our ears deceive us when this harbinger of good news now seems to join these "bouncers," not only refusing to answer her pleas, but even seeming to join in with a few sharp licks of his own. As Matthew's story makes clear, Jesus reply "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (15:24) is addressed not to the woman but to his disciples. And when not to be put off by Jesus' silence, she persists in her pleas for help, addressing him again as "Lord," still Jesus seems to add to the rejection.
Now he addresses her directly with a comment about the injustice of throwing to the "dogs" what belongs to the children (15:26). Not surprising that the resulting picture of Jesus and his response is so troubling that many interpreters have sought to soften or explain away the clear and direct language of the text.
Faith Stands its Ground
And here the stage is set for an astounding reversal. Surely here we meet the climactic focus of this story, that wondrously-strange and persistent faith that stands its ground against all opposition. This woman is not to be put off, and against all the signs of apparent hopelessness, doggedly stands her ground, persistently seeking the Lord's help, even if it is only to be in those meager crumbs that might fall from the "master's" table. And in the wonderful surprise that is the miracle of faith, she meets the gracious healing power of God's Messiah.
Matthew's Jesus has elsewhere chastised the "little faith" of these disciples (8:26; 14:31; 16:8), but here, in the only occurrence of this conjoined adjective in the whole New Testament, Jesus praises the "great faith" of this woman and commands that her plea be granted. No sooner are the words spoken than it is done. We are told that the woman's daughter is healed instantly (in contrast Mark's narrative delays the discovery until the woman returns home; 7:30). As if in response to this "great faith," in the verses that follow today's lesson, Jesus breaks out in healings that amaze the crowds and call forth the praises of God (15:29-31).
And what of us who hear this story? Can it be that its subtle reversals and surprises intend to work some transformation in our lives as well? To open us up to see the wondrously extravagant reaches of God's mercies? For surely this is the gospel's call for all Jesus' followers, constantly at risk as potential "unfaiths," not to assume the role of greedy bouncers at the door checking IDs, but to take our places on our knees as ones who cling for mercy with that same persistent faith that turns us around and plants us shoulder to shoulder with this woman, side by side with all the outcasts, the wounded, the hungry, the lonely, the homeless.
It seems hardly accidental that this story is placed within a framework of Jesus' Galilean ministry in Matthew that begins in 14:13-21 with the story of the feeding of the five thousand and is followed almost immediately by the story of the feeding of the four thousand (15:32-39). In these stories the compassionate mercy of God, the persistence of faith, and the gift of that bread which supplies our every need are all bound together. Elbow to elbow around the master's table, as we receive even a meager morsel, a few crumbs, by God's mercy they become for us the gift of finest wheat, a saving Word of hope and renewal and life.
The longer reading that includes verses 10-20 just preceding this story may be joined to this one by this common theme of bread and eating, but more likely should be linked around the themes of clean and unclean, and inside and outside. Much like the story of the Canaanite woman, Jesus' parable raises questions about the understanding of where the boundaries of God's mercies are to be located. Traditional ways of locating what is unclean or outside are called into question as Jesus calls for a new understanding and a new heart as the origin and center of God's ways among us.
Like the story of the woman who as an outsider experiences God's mercy and so challenges a too-narrow tradition that would want to restrict God's mercies to a chosen few, so these sayings invite a reexamination of our hearts and call us to a new appraisal of the expansive reach of God's mercies
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Recall a time when a request of yours was rejected. (Perhaps you asked to go to the movies or watch a TV show after your bedtime.) What did it feel like to have your request rejected? What was your response to this rejection?
- In today’s Gospel we hear a very surprising story in which Jesus at first rejects the pleas of a woman what we can learn about how we should approach God with our needs.
- How many times does Jesus reject the woman’s request? (at least three times) What was Jesus’ first response to the woman’s requests? (He ignores her.) What was Jesus’ second response? (He says that he was sent only to the people of Israel.) What was Jesus’ third response? (He appears to insult her when he implies that only the Israelites are God’s children.) How does the woman respond to each of these rejections? (She continues to persist; she cleverly turns around Jesus’ insult; she remains confident that Jesus can and will help her.)
- In this story we can find a lesson about our prayer. The woman in the story is successful in making her request to Jesus because she remains confident that Jesus can and will help her. It is her faith that Jesus rewards by healing her daughter. When we bring our needs to God in prayer, we should do so with confidence and faith, like the Canaanite woman.
- Say this prayer of petition.
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Sunday August 13,2017 Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 115
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a
At the mountain of God, Horeb,
Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter.
Then the LORD said to him,
"Go outside and stand on the mountain before the LORD;
the LORD will be passing by."
A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains
and crushing rocks before the LORD--
but the LORD was not in the wind.
After the wind there was an earthquake--
but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake there was fire--
but the LORD was not in the fire.
After the fire there was a tiny whispering sound.
When he heard this,
Elijah hid his face in his cloak
and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14
R. (8) Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
I will hear what God proclaims;
the LORD — for he proclaims peace.
Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him,
glory dwelling in our land.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Kindness and truth shall meet;
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice shall look down from heaven.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
The LORD himself will give his benefits;
our land shall yield its increase.
Justice shall walk before him,
and prepare the way of his steps.
R. Lord, let us see your kindness, and grant us your salvation.
Reading 2 Rom 9:1-5
Brothers and sisters:
I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie;
my conscience joins with the Holy Spirit in bearing me witness
that I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart.
For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ
for the sake of my own people,
my kindred according to the flesh.
They are Israelites;
theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants,
the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;
theirs the patriarchs, and from them,
according to the flesh, is the Christ,
who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
Gospel Mt 14:22-33
After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat
and precede him to the other side,
while he dismissed the crowds.
After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray.
When it was evening he was there alone.
Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore,
was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it.
During the fourth watch of the night,
he came toward them walking on the sea.
When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified.
"It is a ghost," they said, and they cried out in fear.
At once Jesus spoke to them, "Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid."
Peter said to him in reply,
"Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water."
He said, "Come."
Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus.
But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened;
and, beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, save me!"
Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter,
and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?"
After they got into the boat, the wind died down.
Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying,
"Truly, you are the Son of God."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 19:9a, 11-13a
Elijah has had a good run, literally and figuratively.
He has decimated Queen Jezebel's religious community by personally executing her four hundred prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18:40. That he neither executed nor challenged her four hundred and fifty prophets of Asherah, (see verse 19ff), points to a broader acceptance of the Asherah tradition.
While the prophets uniformly condemn the worship of Baal, many are silent on the worship of Asherah regarded as complimentary to and not as competitive with the God of Israel. Isaiah only has two references to her, while Jeremiah and Micah have just one reference each. (Compare that to Jeremiah's ten references against Baal worship.) Hosea and Zephaniah both mention Baal worship, but not Asherah worship. The prophets who do not condemn the worship of Asherah at all include Ezekiel, who condemns the worship of other deities in the temple, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi.
As a result Elijah's actions, to mix metaphors, Jezebel has demanded Elijah's head on a platter. Elijah has fled to where he imagines he will be beyond Jezebel's grasp. He is safe for the moment, but he is anything but secure. God has provided him divine comfort and companionship along his journey and actual, edible food and potable water with supernatural benefits, (1 Kings 19:5-8). Elijah is sustained by his meal(s) for an unimaginably long time. ("Forty days and forty nights" is a euphemism for "a really long time." It is no more a mathematical formula than is "a month of Sundays.")
Passing through Beer-Sheba, as the crow flies, the Kishon wadi, (the site of the execution) is some 300 miles northwest of the mountain range home to the "mountain of God" called Sinai in some traditions and Horeb in this story. Traveling twenty miles or so a day (or night) and avoiding anyone who might have turned him in would have taken weeks -- two at breakneck speed, likely more at his pace. Elijah's pace would also have been affected by whether or not he was mounted for all or part of the journey; the text suggests but does not specify that he was not. No mount is mentioned.
Sometime after Elijah falls asleep, God speaks to him, questioning him. What is he doing here? God is not always omniscient in the bible; that is a later theological claim. (God asks Adam, where he is and who told him he was naked and had he been eating the forbidden fruit in Genesis 2. In other places God knows what is in the human heart, see Genesis 6:5; 1 Kings 8:39; Psalm 44:21, etc.) As Elijah catches God up on recent events from his perspective, it is not immediately clear whether God's questions are informational or rhetorical. What Elijah does not say is that he is hiding from Jezebel or that he has come to seek God's help and protection.
God responds to Elijah's self-assessment with self-revelation. First God displayed historic and traditional signs of God's presence, a windstorm, an earthquake and fire (from heaven?). But God was not present among the usual suspects. Then there was a qol dammah daqah, a sound (or voice) of a fine silence. And that is where Elijah encountered God.
While Elijah encountered God-in-silence on a revered mountain, it strikes me that the setting was not necessary for the encounter. That was where Elijah was at the time. The divine appearance was not dependant on an indigenous feature, such as the bush that burned and was not consumed. Perhaps Elijah could have encountered God-in-silence at any point along his journey and even without taking a single step.
After his epiphany, God asks Elijah the same question that God asked him before. Now it is clear that this is a rhetorical question. Elijah gives essentially the same answer. His experience with God has not changed him. I think this is an important observation for contemporary readers and hearers of the scriptures who would like to imagine ourselves in the sacred stories. I know that I have thought how different my own faith story would have been had I been able to see, hear and experience what my spiritual ancestors saw, heard and experienced.
The story of Elijah says, not so fast. Elijah saw, heard and experienced God in fantastic ways. The power of God flowed through him to work miracles that were unequalled by anyone before him. Yet Elijah was essentially unchanged by this incredible encounter with God. And so God fired him, or at least announced his retirement. It is hard to know how Elijah heard the command to anoint another prophet to take his place in verse 16. It may have been quite troubling because the monarchs whom God was firing/retiring/replacing, Ben-Hadad of Aram and Ahab of Israel (who are not named in the text) were to be killed. There was no other retirement plan for kings.
God's last words to Elijah are that God does not need Elijah; God has untold thousands-upon-thousands (seven thousand is a figurative number) of faithful servants on whom God can depend. What is missing from the assigned lesson is Elijah's response. He accepts his assignment from God, knowing that his time as God's prophet is drawing to an end, not knowing what that end will be.
Elijah faithfully calls Elisha whom God has designated as his successor in the verses following the lesson. Hazael will assassinate Ben-Hadad in 2 Kings 8:15 and succeed him; it is not clear if Elijah (or Elisha) ever actually anointed him. And Elisha will complete Elijah's work and anoint Jehu in 2 Kings 9. (Ahab dies in battle, 1 Kings 22:20ff.) And along the way, God reveals a spectacular retirement plan for Elijah in 2 Kings 2:11, towards which Elijah journeys faithfully, not knowing the outcome.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14
Psalm 85 is a communal prayer for help and these verses express confidence that the help prayed for will indeed come.
Thus, the lectionary reading comprises the portion of the psalm that announces and describes the coming of salvation. It is set within the larger context of complaint and petition. At the beginning of the psalm the community remembers how in the past God turned from his “hot anger” (v. 3) and restored their fortunes. Now they pray that the Lord will restore them again (v. 4). They petition God with the questions of whether God will persist in wrath toward them (v. 5) or revive them (v. 6). The petition uses language common to the Psalter: “show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation” (v. 7; see Psalms 106:1; 107:1).
The prayer for help the community offers in verses 1-7 is generic. It could apply to nearly any situation of trouble the community experienced. For example, the prophet Haggai used the same verb as Psalm 85:1a (“showed favor;”) when he complained about the people’s failure to rebuild the temple. As in Haggai’s time, the ones who pray Psalm 85 remember being restored, but they are currently languishing. The language of petition in the psalm, however, could fit any number of experiences in Israel’s history. What is most certain is that the salvation prayed for in verses 1-7 is promised in verses 8-13.
Verse 8 marks a transition from complaint (vv. 1-7) to assurance that God will save (vv. 9-13). This verse likely represents the voice of a priest or prophet who served as part of the personnel of the worship place. After the prayer for help uttered by worshippers, this worship leader invites the hearing of God’s word and reminds worshippers of God’s certain response to their prayer. The promise is that God will “speak peace.” Peace here translates the Hebrew term shalom. The word in some contexts means peace in the sense of absence of conflict or war (Joshua 9:15). In this verse, however, shalom seems to connote something like “welfare” or “prosperity” or perhaps simply “goodness.” What the Lord will speak will be good news because it will promise salvation (v. 9). The announcement of salvation is similar to that in Isaiah 40-55, which declares to the people who have experienced defeat and humiliation that God’s deliverance is at hand.
Verses 9-13 further promise and describe what God’s salvation will be like. Verse 9 may be read as a continuation of verse 8 in that it declares that salvation is coming. It begins with an emphatic particle (“Surely;”) and the assurance that salvation is “at hand.” Salvation is available for “those who fear,” that is, those who humbly look to God for deliverance.
Salvation is portrayed as the work of four attributes of God’s presence, the powers are “steadfast love,” “faithfulness,” righteousness,” and “peace.” The first of these is the covenant love and faithfulness God shows to God’s people. Israel often cries for “steadfast love” in times of hardship and uncertainty (Psalms 89:49; 90:14). It is the ultimate sign of God’s favor and faithfulness, evidence that God is true to the promises he made to his people. “Faithfulness” is God’s reliability, which complements and defines further “steadfast love.” The love Israel knew in relationship with God was always faithful; they could rely on it.
The third and fourth terms form another pair that logically belongs together. “Righteousness” means more than simply “what is right.” It represents the essential character of God by which God created and maintains the world. Thus, Psalm 97:2 declares that “righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne,” and Psalm 5:8 asks to be led through trouble by God’s righteousness. “Peace” appeared in verse 8 as a label for what God would speak to the people in need of salvation. In verse 10, and paired with “steadfast love,” however, shalom seems to have the more common meaning of “wholeness” or “completeness.” Like steadfast love, shalom here represents the just order of the creation.
These “salvation powers” work together in dynamic fashion and have an impact on all realms of existence. The salvation they bring will be observed on the ground and in the sky (v. 11). It will be experienced as both a spiritual and physical realty. As a result of the Lord’s gift of “what is good” (v. 12), the earth will flourish and will yield food in abundance. The picture is one of complete harmony and fulfillment of what God intended the world to be (“righteousness and peace will kiss each other,” v. 10).
The salvation promised here is much more holistic than what many modern people envision. For many, salvation is experienced as inner contentment, as a spiritual reality. Psalm 85 suggests, however, that the salvation of human beings is part of God’s work to reconcile all of creation to God’s self. The full realization of such salvation can only be accomplished with the coming of God to bring the world to fruition. It is eschatological. It is not surprising therefore that the church has always seen the powers of salvation described here especially at work in Jesus Christ. The prologue to John’s gospel says it particularly well: “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). Also, as the Apostle Paul declared, “in it (the gospel of Jesus Christ) the righteousness of God is revealed” (Romans 1:17).
Reading 2 Rom 9:1-5
The first few verses of Romans 9 are surprisingly self-referential.
Verse 1 contains a three-fold affirmation of Paul’s truthfulness, verse 2 contains a two-fold avowal of grief, and verse 3 expresses a desire to be cut off from Christ using the double self-reference, “I myself.”
Paul regularly inserts himself into the various arguments and assertions that comprise his letters. We should pause and ask why it happens here.
The opening salvo would seem to signal that Paul’s reputation is on the line. Later in Romans we will discover that Paul is somewhat nervous about his upcoming trip to Jerusalem. As he takes an offering from his churches to the saints there, he is worried about those who are disobedient and about whether this gift will be accepted (Romans 15:31).
Although Paul never says so explicitly, it appears that he hopes his mission to Jerusalem will help cement the place of his gentile converts as equal partners with their Jewish brothers and sisters.
But if the people who are marked out by the God-given law are not the people to whom one must belong to be part of God’s family, where does this leave those people?
Paul seems to be defending himself against the charge that his law-free mission to the Gentiles entails a callous rejection of his own people, of Israel. The three-fold defense tells us that this chapter about God’s election is not merely theological, it is also deeply personal.
Paul’s self-defense comes in his twofold repetition of the grief he feels: “great sorrow” and “unceasing anguish” (Romans 9:2).
It is difficult to imagine a more dramatic plunge from the heights of exaltation found in the end of chapter 8 to the depths of pain and agony expressed here (an agony that will work its way to another climactic moment of exaltation by the end of chapter 11). Paradoxically, the source of both is the same: God’s gracious fidelity to God’s people.
The backdrop of Romans includes not only the intramural Christian debates about circumcision and food laws, but also the stark reality that few of the people of Israel have accepted the idea that Jesus is God’s Messiah.
In chapter 8, the claim that God makes upon a people leads Paul to celebrate the surety of final salvation. But this creates the massive problem of what it might say about God that the people of Israel upon whom God had previously set God’s claim had rejected God’s work and were no longer defining the people of God.
This is the tragedy that breaks Paul’s heart and that propels the argument for the next three chapters of the letter (Romans 9-11).
The paradox entailed in Israel’s separation from Paul’s gospel is accented in the list of gifts that are Israel’s by rights. The first two blessings Paul mentions are adoption and glory. In chapter 8, these very things describe the present and future adoption of those who are in Christ by the Spirit (Romans 8:15, 23) as well as the glory that devolves upon such offspring (8:17, 18, 21, 30).
Similarly, when Paul mentions “the covenants” and “the patriarchs” he articulates Israel’s blessings in ideas that have been earlier applied to non-Jewish believers (Romans 4).
The “law” is an aspect of Israel’s story that Paul struggles to explain, as he attempts to guard his Gentile converts from being defined or bound by it, while at the same time he affirms that love of neighbor fulfills the law (Romans 13:9-10).
Ultimately, however, for Paul the law finds its meaning, and is read rightly, when it is read as a witness to the death and resurrection of Jesus (Romans 3:21). When Paul speaks of “the Law” and “the promises,” and affirm that “from them comes the Christ according to the flesh” (9:4-5), he is imagining three parts of the same whole.
In Romans 1:1-3 Paul says that his gospel is (1) promised beforehand by God; (2) about God’s son; and (3) born of David’s seed according to the flesh. Throughout these next three chapters Paul is directly engaging with the consequences of giving a Christological reframing to the hope, faith, and scriptures of Israel.
The fundamental tenant of Paul’s gospel is that the crucified Christ is the resurrected Lord over all. For Paul, it is God (the Father) who raises Jesus, through the Spirit. Paul’s defense of himself is ultimately linked with his defense of God: God is the one who acted both to send God’s Son and to raise that Son from the dead and enthrone him at God’s right hand.
Thus, this section concludes with a somewhat unexpected ejaculation of praise: “God blessed, forever!”
There is some debate over whether Paul intends to say, “Christ, who is over all, blessed forever” or, instead, “Christ who is over all – God blessed forever!” The second expression is more likely. Paul consistently treats Jesus (the Son) and God (the Father) as two distinct characters in the drama of salvation.
Moreover, the weight of so much of Romans is to direct glory to God for God’s work in sending and raising Jesus the Messiah. This paragraph fits that larger theme by ascribing all of Israel’s gifts to the God who is also the Father of Jesus Christ.
These first five verses of Rom 9 introduce the next three chapters of the letter, which are now widely recognized as the climax of the letter’s argument. The immediately following discussion will wrestle directly with the question of election.
But before he goes there, Paul lays out this basis for the argument: God is the one who has given Israel all its great gifts, God is the one who has fulfilled the promises in Christ, and so God is ultimately worthy of praise. Such will culminate the argument in chapter 11 as well.
Gospel Mt 14:22-33
In the Gospel reading this week, Jesus indeed calls to his disciples in the midst of the wild and restless sea, but he is not beckoning them away from the storm. Instead, his voice calls them into the tumult.
The text says that Jesus made the disciples get into the boat (14:22). A better translation of this main verb would be “to force” or “to compel.” Jesus did not give the disciples a choice. He compelled them to get into the boat and to leave him alone with the crowds.
Why did he not have the disciples stay and help him with these crowds? After all, the multitude is huge. There are 5,000 men and probably twice as many women and children (14:21). They followed Jesus out to this lonely place (14:13). It was the disciples who wanted Jesus to get rid of the crowds before the great miracle of the feeding (14:15). Only after feeding this multitude does Jesus send everyone away: the crowds and the disciples.
It is not insignificant that Jesus retreats to the mountain while he has sent his disciples out into the raging chaos of the sea. The mountain in Matthew’s Gospel is a place for encountering God and hearing the proclamation of God’s glorious kingdom (e.g., 5:1-7:29; 17:1-8). In Moses-like fashion, Jesus proves that he is both the leader of the crowds and the intercessor to the divine. He climbs alone to a mountain for his rendezvous with the Father.
Jesus stays on the mountain to pray. Twice the writer states that Jesus is by himself (verse 23). While Jesus is alone conversing with the Father, the disciples find themselves in a life-threatening situation.
The disciples are probably over a half mile from the land, and the boat is being beaten -- or, more literally, being tormented -- by the waves. The situation is reminiscent of Jesus’ calming of the sea in Matthew 8:23-27. In that story, Jesus led the disciples into the boat and stayed with them, even though he was asleep. When the storm arose and the waves covered the boat, the disciples cried out, “Lord, save us; we are perishing” (8:25). Jesus questions, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” Then, he rebukes the wind, and the story ends with the disciples marveling, “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and sea obey?” (8:27).
In our passage this week, though, the disciples do not have the luxury of awaking Jesus. Jesus is not there.
The disciples have been struggling to keep afloat for a while. The text says that it is not until the fourth watch of the night that Jesus decides to come to them in the middle of the sea. Thus, it is the early morning hours (3 a.m. to 6 a.m.), while it is still dark, that Jesus makes his appearance.
The disciples, though, do not initially recognize Jesus in the midst of the chaos. They have been alone with the threatening waves for hours. They are probably tired from being up all night. In the midst of this crisis when their energy reserves are spent, Jesus reveals himself to them.
In this exhausted state with the roar of the waves and the spray of the sea drenching their boat, they mistake the Lord of creation for a phantom. Given the common perception of the sea as the locus of evil and chaos, it is hard to blame them for initially mistaking the figure of Jesus for a specter of death. After all, it is they who have rowed into the middle of evil’s realm, and the waves are indeed attacking them.
Over their cries of fear, Jesus calls to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid” (15:27). Jesus reveals himself -- not simply as Jesus, their teacher, but as “I AM.” A more literal translation of this sentence would be, “Take courage, I am, do not be afraid.” This self-revelation is a disclosure of Jesus’ source of power. For Matthew’s Jewish Christian audience, Jesus’ words echo the divine name.
Jesus’ self-revelation moves beyond his words. His actions are also revealing. According to Job 9:8, God alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the Sea. In Psalm 89:10, the psalmist exalts the Lord, “You rule the raging sea; you still its swelling waves.” In the midst of the sea’s churning, Jesus does what only God can do. This is a theophany.
The last time Jesus revealed his power over the chaos of the sea he did so within the confines of the boat. Even then, his power confounded the disciples. Now, he is displaying his power in the death-defying stunt of walking on the sea.
When confronted with the inexplicable reality of a God who controls chaos with his toes, Peter does the inexplicable: he asks to meet Jesus in the tumult. The text does not say that Jesus calmed the seas to make Peter’s steps easier. In fact, it is the wind that frightens Peter and causes him to sink. It was only Jesus’ call that made it possible for Peter to make any strides in the first place.
At this point in our narrative, the story sounds remarkably like the previous miracle on the sea. There is a cry for the Lord’s salvation followed by Jesus’ question of faith, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” (verses 30-31). This week’s text, however, ends by answering the question posed by the first narrative. The first time Jesus calmed the sea, the disciples were left wondering who Jesus is. This calming of the sea ends with a declaration, “Truly you are the Son of God.” (14:33).
In Matthew’s Gospel, this story is meant to reveal who Jesus is. But that revelation is only possible in the midst of the chaos. If Jesus had not forced the disciples to embark on this uncertain journey, they would have missed the opportunity to see God revealed in their midst.
- Today’s Gospel tells us about a time when Jesus' disciples recognized Jesus as God’s own Son. As we read this Gospel, let’s imagine that we are there. To help us do this, I will need you to act out this Gospel story.
- Imagine yourself to be Jesus, Peter, or the disciples.
- Why did the disciples become afraid in this story? (They thought they were seeing a ghost.) What did Peter want to do? (He wanted to walk on the water as Jesus did.) What happened when Peter tried to walk on the water? (He grew afraid and started to sink.) What did Jesus do? (Jesus helped Peter when he grew afraid.) What did the disciples learn about Jesus in this story? (They learned that Jesus is the Son of God.)
- Jesus teaches us an amazing thing in this story. Peter wants to be like Jesus; he wants to walk on the water. And Jesus says, “Yes!” Jesus wants us to share in the amazing and wonderful work that he can do. This is what the members of the Church are called to do today. But to do this work, we have to trust that Jesus will always be helping us to do it. If we forget this, then we can’t do Jesus’ work well. Like Peter, we may sink. But even if we forget and grow fearful, Jesus will still help us, just as he helped Peter.
- Pray the Lord's Prayer. Be mindful of the ways in which Jesus works through you.
Sunday August 6, 2017 Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
Lectionary: 614
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dn 7:9-10, 13-14
As I watched:
Thrones were set up
and the Ancient One took his throne.
His clothing was bright as snow,
and the hair on his head as white as wool;
his throne was flames of fire,
with wheels of burning fire.
A surging stream of fire
flowed out from where he sat;
Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him,
and myriads upon myriads attended him.
The court was convened and the books were opened.
As the visions during the night continued, I saw:
One like a Son of man coming,
on the clouds of heaven;
When he reached the Ancient One
and was presented before him,
The one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship;
all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away,
his kingship shall not be destroyed.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 9
R. (1a and 9a) The Lord is king, the Most High over all the earth.
The LORD is king; let the earth rejoice;
let the many islands be glad.
Clouds and darkness are round about him,
justice and judgment are the foundation of his throne.
R. The Lord is king, the Most High over all the earth.
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
before the LORD of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his justice,
and all peoples see his glory.
R. The Lord is king, the Most High over all the earth.
Because you, O LORD, are the Most High over all the earth,
exalted far above all gods.
R. The Lord is king, the Most High over all the earth.
Reading 2 2 Pt 1:16-19
Beloved:
We did not follow cleverly devised myths
when we made known to you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received honor and glory from God the Father
when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory,
"This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven
while we were with him on the holy mountain.
Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable.
You will do well to be attentive to it,
as to a lamp shining in a dark place,
until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
Gospel Mt 17:1-9
Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother, John,
and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them;
his face shone like the sun
and his clothes became white as light.
And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them,
conversing with him.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
"Lord, it is good that we are here.
If you wish, I will make three tents here,
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
While he was still speaking, behold,
a bright cloud cast a shadow over them,
then from the cloud came a voice that said,
"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased;
listen to him."
When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate
and were very much afraid.
But Jesus came and touched them, saying,
"Rise, and do not be afraid."
And when the disciples raised their eyes,
they saw no one else but Jesus alone.
As they were coming down from the mountain,
Jesus charged them,
"Do not tell the vision to anyone
until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Dn 7:9-10, 13-14
These verses from the Book of Daniel provide the reader with one of the most graphic depictions of God found in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament (HB/OT) (cf. Isaiah 6; Ezekiel 1; Exodus 33:17-23).
In this passage, the God of Israel appears as the Ancient of Days (or “the Ancient One”); a figure clothed in brilliant white who has hair as pure as wool and a throne of fiery flames. Such theophanies, in which God appears in human form, are rare. Biblical writers were cautious about such portrayals, seemingly aware of the danger of making God too human-like.
More than Meets the Eye
Given this reluctance, the passage invites us to consider what’s at stake in this, and any, portrayal of God. A humorous and relevant example may be found in the cartoons of Gary Larsen who drew the popular strip “The Far Side” during the 1980’s and 1990’s. For him, God is an old man with long white hair and flowing beard and robes.
Larsen’s God is omnipotent and omniscient, but also comic and even a bit ridiculous, like always being a million points ahead of the other contenders on the trivia game show. In one strip, God cooks up the earth in his kitchen, shaking a bottle labeled “Jerks” over it while thinking to himself, “Just to make things interesting.” In another strip, God is sitting at the computer, preparing to hit the “smite” button, while watching a guy walk underneath a grand piano that is being lowered out of an upper story window.
This conventional depiction of God as an old man may seem a little unsophisticated, perhaps a little childish at best. At worst, God is petty and arbitrary in looking after human affairs, a little too much like his goofy human subjects. But for Daniel 7, the intention of the passage is to portray God as anything but! The writer of Daniel 7 is, in fact, trying to illuminate the deity’s justice, righteousness, and commitment to God’s people during a time when justice and righteousness seem to be up for grabs, especially when it comes to governing the world.
The claims, intentions, and activities of human kings are often the subject of suspicion in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament. This suspicion is front and center in the symbolic vision of Daniel 7, which reflects the events in Jerusalem in 167 BC when the Syrian Emperor Antiochus IV “Epiphanes” (so nicknamed because he thought he was a manifestation of the gods) outlawed the practice of Judaism and forbade the population from following the Torah.
This event raised important questions, such as, what is God’s response to such dire circumstances? Is God present in the midst of such things and, if so, how is God’s power to be seen? In answer, Daniel 7 shows the workings of the heavenly sphere, a part of reality typically unavailable to humans caught up in the chaos of the mundane world. These verses give the readers a glimpse of a divine courtroom in which angelic jurors (verse 10d) and the divine judge (verse 9) take their places. The divine court consults legal documents (verse 10e) -- the scrolls that contain records of past actions (see Psalm 40:7; 56:8) and/or future judgments (Psalm 69: 28) -- and renders judgment on Antiochus IV (“the little horn” of verse 11).
The Ancient of Days’ raiment and description are consistent with this courtroom imagery. In this scene, Daniel 7 may be taking a cue from the ancient Canaanite depictions of El, the creator god who presided over the divine courts of the Canaanite gods. El was called “The Father of Years” and “Judge El” and was described as having grey hair, a symbol of his wisdom and experience. Daniel 7 also emphasizes the wisdom and antiquity of the God of Israel, but then goes on to emphasize that God’s appearance is white not grey.
White is the color of purity and righteousness that the prophets associate with God’s actions and intentions (see Isaiah 1:16-18 and Zechariah 3:1-5). White hair and clothing are, so to speak, the God of Israel’s judge’s robes. These are visual cues that, despite appearances to the contrary down below on earth, God is indeed meting out judgment and justice against the despicable king.
In the verses that come before and after this lectionary passage, the text further contrasts God’s righteous rule with the brutal rule of Antiochus IV and other foreign kings and empires. The biblical writer does this skillfully by depicting these kingdoms as wild, fierce, and predatory animals with unnatural features. They have too many heads, or too many wings, or too many horns. But in contrast, the Ancient of Days resembles a human!
Not only this, but God’s angelic agent and viceroy is also humanlike. The passage describes “one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven” (verse 13) who will govern all peoples, nations, and languages with the Most High’s power. It is not possible to identify with certainty who the ancient Jewish writer had in mind when talking about this being on the clouds -- it may have been the archangel Michael, or it may have been a reference to the entire Jewish community. But what is significant is that God’s features and the humanlike one on the clouds are bound up together with humanity -- God has not abandoned the faithful community in Jerusalem, but is identified with and allied with the people.
Daniel 7 influenced the New Testament enormously. In the gospels, the grammatically indefinite phrase, “one like a human being” becomes the title the “Son of Man” and gives new meaning in the person of Jesus Christ. Though the Son of Man suffers now, he is also the chosen one of God who will come again in the future to usher in God’s eternal kingdom (Mark 8:38; 13:26; Matthew 13:24, 37; 16:28; 19:28; 24:30; Luke 12:8-9; see also Revelation 5:11-12). It is this connection that brings Daniel 7 into the lectionary on Christ the King Sunday. And yet as Christians prepare to celebrate Christ’s universal kingship, we do well to remember how the New Testament continues the Old Testament’s critique of kingship and oppressive power. Christ’s kingship is not to be understood in triumphalist terms, but in terms of his radical suffering and service to the outcast.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 97:1-2, 5-6, 9
There seems to be a close relationship between Psalms 96 and 97, which some call the "twin-psalms”.
Psalm 96 concludes with the announcement that God "is coming" (verse 13), and Psalm 97 seems to portray the effects of God's arrival. These effects involve "the earth" (verses 4-5), as the language and imagery of theophany (which means "God appearing") suggest in verses 3-5 (see similar descriptions in Exodus 13:21-22; 19:6-20; 20:18-21; 24:16-17; Psalms 18:7-15; 50:3; Micah 1:4; Hebrews 3:3-12). The storm-language -- "lightnings" and thunder ("the earth . . . trembles") -- bespeaks the awesome power of God, before which even the "mountains melt," an observation that connotes not destruction but yielding to God's sovereign claim.
The effects of God's arrival also involves the human community, as suggested by the mention of "righteousness and justice" in verse 2. This vocabulary also appears elsewhere in the enthronement collection (see Psalms 98:9; 99:4) -- in short, as monarchs, both human and divine, are supposed to do (see Psalms 72 and 82), God is coming to set things right in the world over which God is "the Lord" (verse 5).
Psalm 97 is the psalm not only for the seventh Sunday of Easter, but also for Christmas Eve/Day. Reflecting on the use of Psalm 97 at Christmas, Walter Brueggemann offers the following conclusion:
In Christmas the Church does not simply celebrate
the birth of a wondrous baby. Through that birth
we celebrate the cosmic reality that God has
entered the process of the world in a decisive
way that changes everything toward life. The
entry of God into the process of the world is the
premise of the poem in Psalm 97.
Brueggemann's mention of life suggests the appropriateness of Psalm 97 for the Easter season. Whatever else it might mean, the resurrection is a validation of what Jesus was born to do, what he lived to do, and what he was killed for doing -- that is, proclaiming and embodying the reign of God in a ministry aimed at setting the world right, at revealing the shape of life as God intends it.
The whole sequence of birth, life and ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection contains the recognition that Jesus' proclamation and embodiment of the reign of God did not go unopposed. Despite the affirmation that the cosmic elements respond positively to God's reign (see verse 4 where the "mountains melt" and verse 5 where "The heavens proclaim his righteousness"), and that "Zion hears and is glad" (verse 8), Psalm 97 also clearly recognizes that the reign of God does not go unopposed (and, of course, this is understandable if Psalm 97 is a response to the disruption and suffering of exile -- see above).
In particular, the concluding section of the psalm recognizes that there is "evil" in the world perpetrated by "the hand of the wicked," from which God's "faithful" will need to be rescued (verse 10). The first line of verse 10 is better translated as an admonition, as in the note "You who love the LORD hate evil." When heard as such, this admonition is capable of addressing the readers of Psalm 97 in every generation, including us.
More particularly, when heard during the season of Easter, we are reminded, in the language of Psalm 97, that the resurrection represents God's deliverance of Jesus from the power of evil, and God's shining of light into the darkness of a wicked world (verse 11; see Mark 16:2; John 1:4-5). As for us, the resurrection -- an affirmation of God's reign -- is what gives us the courage to hate and to oppose the evil that clearly still exists in our world, as an affirmation and manifestation of our love for God.
We might also say, "When the resurrection is proclaimed, the righteous take courage." Guatemalan poet Julia Esquivel describes the hope and courage of those in Guatemala who resisted the right-wing government and its death squads during the prolonged Guatemalan civil conflict by saying that they were "threatened . . . with Resurrection!" Her poem, entitled "They Have Threatened Us with Resurrection," ends with these words (see Threatened with Resurrection [Elgin, IL: Brethren Press, 1992], 63-65):
Join us in this vigil
and you will know what it is to dream!
Then you will know how marvelous it is
to live threatened with Resurrection!
To dream awake,
to keep watch asleep,
to live while dying,
and to know ourselves already
resurrected!
Such dreaming, such hope, such courage is why Brueggemann sees Psalm 97 as an invitation "to reflect on the transformation wrought by God and the ethical possibility offered us in that transformation."5 Such reflection that leads to courageous ethical action -- to justice and righteousness, to the life that God intends -- is certainly an appropriate conclusion to the season of Easter.
Reading 2 2 Pt 1:16-19
This is about authority, credibility, and trust. “We were not following cleverly reasoned myths…” (2 Peter 1:16). Read on to verse 21 to get the impact of these words.
The words provide clues to a situation of conflict in which both the message and the witness are subject to challenge. We may expect such differences to drive concerns in the public sector and in political debate, but we may not be so ready to expect or acknowledge their presence in faith communities or in the congregations we know and love.
Still it is no kept secret that our religious communities seem to have become more and more used to creating conflict and divisions and the fears and discomforts which accompany them. It may be small comfort, but it may be a helpful contribution toward a more hopeful outlook to be reminded that such divisions and conflict were also present in the early church -- such as the Christian community to which the second letter of Peter was addressed. When authority is in question, the confidence and hope of a community are in question -- then and now.
Worthy of note is that claims to credibility and authority are not founded first of all by reference to the name of Jesus, though such a claim would not have been unimportant. Attention is directed rather to the name that stands over this whole epistle, the name of a respected and revered apostolic leader, namely Peter.
Though this letter purports to have been written by Peter, that can hardly be the case. As 2 Peter 3:15-16 makes clear, by the time this letter is written, the letters of Paul have already been collected and are circulating in the Christian community as of equal standing with the “other scriptures.”
So, following a practice familiar in other ancient religious writings, an authoritative appeal is made to the name of one who was “there” at the beginning. This Peter had heard the words of Jesus and, where this day of Transfiguration is concerned, was there on the mountain when Jesus was revealed as Messiah and confirmed by the direct address of God. Whoever the writer, the words exhibit confidence that appeal to a revered and trusted leader from the earliest days of Jesus and his disciple community will be of sufficient weight and importance to sway a community at risk.
At the same time the author recognizes that no name, not even that of Peter, will ultimately be enough. Trust ultimately is fostered by and relies upon the word and promise of God. That promise resides in the “power and presence” of the Lord Jesus Christ that witness to the Transfiguration continues to dwell with the faith community (verse 16).
Though most translations construe the word parousia here as “coming” and hence to suggest a reference to the second coming or return of Jesus, the normal root sense of this word is “presence.” Given the context and the clear allusions to the event of the Transfiguration, the word here must rather refer to the authority and power that resides in the affirmation of the “presence” of the Lord Jesus Christ with his disciple community.
In the Transfiguration we celebrate, then and now, the confidence that the authority of God’s word and our hope for the future rest finally not in any intermediary authority, but in the promise of Jesus’ abiding presence with his faithful followers.
That presence of Jesus with each faithful community is continually confirmed by the presence and effectiveness of the “prophetic word.” When Paul includes the gift of “prophecy” among the diverse gifts of the Spirit, he is certainly not referring to the writings or witness of the prophets, but rather to the gift that resides in the ability to “interpret” with clarity and power the authoritative scriptures for a contemporary community (1 Corinthians 12.10).
It is that same gift of faithful interpretation of the scriptures to which the author now points. Now that neither Jesus nor the original apostles are present, either for that early Christian community or for us, it remains all the more important to have confidence that we can trust those who interpret and mediate the scriptures to us for this present day. That was true for the early church, and so it is true for us.
As the matter stands and as the writer’s argument acknowledges, interpretation always places us at risk. Can we trust the one who interprets? Will we get it right? Will we agree? The divisions and conflicts in our churches are not conducive to great confidence or assurance on this score. But the writer offers some direction in the concluding verses of today’s reading (1:20-21).
First, it is important to note that the comments here are not about the “writing” or “writers” of scripture, as frequently they are so taken. The term epilysis at the end of verse 20 is a technical term that refers not to the writing but rather to the task of “unlocking,” “deciphering,” or “explaining “ of a written text, as the translation of “interpretation” has accurately captured. Hence this means that once again (as in verse 19) the reference to “prophecy of scripture” is not to the “writing” but rather to the gift of clearly and accurately “unlocking” and witnessing to the message of scripture.
Experience has taught us to be appropriately on guard, to expect that there will always be problems of understanding which some may “twist” or “pervert” to their own ends. There will be disagreements about interpretation as there apparently are in the community to which this letter is addressed (see 2 Peter 3:16). There needs to be some further course of appeal.
That course of appeal lies ultimately for them and for us in the presence, testimony, and power of the Spirit. As for the Johannine community, who heard the promise of the Spirit as the confirmation of the abiding presence of the resurrected Jesus (see John 14-16), so here this community is reminded that the power for hope and confidence in a living witness resides in recognizing that interpretation is not just a matter of individual whim or competency.
We are invited to trust, and indeed that is the promise, that the power and the authority ultimately rests in God. The Spirit continues to move among us. In the Spirit’s presence, the glorified Jesus on the mountain is made present among us, the gift of prophecy for faithful interpreting of the scriptures is continually given, and the appeal of faithful witness is granted a hearing within faithful Christian communities who bear fruit in hopeful endurance and godly affection and love.
Gospel Mt 17:1-9
Epiphany is about light, about illumination, about revelation.
Across its Sundays we discover the significance of the Jesus whose birthday we just celebrated. We learn about how the babe born at Bethlehem is also the light of the world as well as about how we as his followers are also called to be light. We are drawn more deeply into an understanding of who and what the infant greeted by shepherds and magi is for us and for all the world and of our role to share what we have learned.
In this regard, think of the Christmas message as a tightly, even intricately packaged Christmas gift which takes us the whole of Epiphany to unwrap and discover. Transfiguration Sunday draws the season to a close, and Matthew's account provides the nearly perfect bookend to the story of Jesus' Baptism that we read on the first Sunday of Epiphany.
Make no mistake, "transfiguration" is a strange word, one that you almost never use in everyday speech. The relationship to the Baptism of our Lord, the first Sunday in the season, is clear, as we are again invited to listen with the crowds (at Jesus' Baptism) and disciples (at the Transfiguration) as a voice from heaven announces, "This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
At the same time, Transfiguration leans unmistakably into Lent, as Jesus comes down from the mountain to head to the death he speaks of during that very descent. The injunction to "listen to him" addressed to Peter, James, and John will become poignant, even painful in the weeks ahead as they regularly fail to do just that, or at least fail to understand what they are listening to. And those same words, when taken as addressed also to us as Jesus' latest disciples, orient us to listen and watch the Lord of Glory approach his destiny in Jerusalem so that we might more fully comprehend God's purposes and work in Jesus.
As if all this weren't enough, Transfiguration also foreshadows Easter. When the disciples fall to the ground in holy awe, the glorified and glowing Jesus comes to them, touches them (elsewhere in Matthew a sign of healing), and commands them not just to stand up but literally to "be raised!" Jesus then commands them not to speak of this event until he himself has been raised, this time from death. There is something about this day, this event, that can't be understood until after the resurrection.
Our confusion about the Transfiguration moves beyond both linguistic and liturgical considerations, as biblical scholars have also regularly failed to understand the role this scene plays in the larger gospel narratives. It comes somewhere out of nowhere, in each gospel playing to a greater or lesser degree a pivotal mark in the narrative (most noticeably in Luke), but not clearly connected to what comes immediately before or after. In Matthew's account, the Transfiguration occurs six days -- perhaps recalling the six days the cloud enveloped Mount Sinai before speaking to Moses -- after Jesus' first prediction of his passion and his rebuke of Peter (presumably) outside Caesarea Philippi (16:21-23). It is followed by more passion predictions and the continuing story of Jesus' ministry in and around Galilee and his impending journey to Jerusalem. Clearly a "mountain top experience," it is nevertheless challenging to see how the account contributes to or advances Matthew's story of Jesus. For this reason, we can probably focus with confidence primarily on the details of the account itself. Of these, two deserve particular attention.
First, Peter's reaction may seem odd to hearers, but some New Testament scholars suggest that it is the appropriate cultic response to what is, quite literally, an epiphany, a manifestation of divine presence. Peter wishes to make a booth, a tent, a tabernacle -- perhaps referencing the Jewish festival of Tabernacles -- by which to offer lodging for these historic and significant religious figures. Others see in Peter's suggestion less a cultic response and more the desire to preserve the event, to capture something of the magnificence of the moment. Still others -- and perhaps especially our hearers -- have been struck by this as characteristic of Peter and many of us: when encountered by something beyond our reckoning, our first inclination is to do something, anything! However you read the impetus for Peter's suggestion, it is notable that in Matthew the voice from heaven actually interrupts him, cutting him off in order first to pronounce Jesus blessed and then to command the attention of the disciples. Whatever Peter -- or we -- may have been thinking, that is, there is only one thing that is needful: to listen to him, the beloved One.
Second, when all is over -- when Moses and Elijah are gone, the voice is quiet, Jesus' face and clothing have returned to normal, and the disciples are left in holy awe -- all that is left is Jesus. Whatever all these signs and symbols may have meant, the disciples are once again with their Lord, their teacher, their friend. This is perhaps one of the signature characteristics of Matthew. Jesus, the one whose clothes and face shone like the sun, the one equal to Moses and Elijah, the one whom the very heavens proclaim as God's own beloved Son, will not leave them.
When all else fades -- and indeed, soon enough all will become dark indeed -- yet Jesus remains, reaching out in help and healing. At the very close of Matthew's account, he will gather with these and all of his disciples on another mountain, and promise that he will be with them even to the close of the age.
Most of us have had mountain top experiences and can testify to their importance to our lives. But all of us have also had to return to the valley. At both places, and all those in between, Jesus is there, reaching out to raise us to life again.
- What does it mean to feel certain about something? What are some things that we know with certainty?
- In faith, Christians profess with certainty and conviction that Jesus is the Son of God. How do we know that Jesus is God’s Son? (Possible responses: Scripture and the Church teach us this; people of faith give witness to this belief.) What is some evidence from Scripture that Jesus is the Son of God? (The baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan and the voice from Heaven declaring that Jesus is God’s beloved Son; the Resurrection; and so on.)
- In today’s Gospel we hear about a time when Jesus was revealed to his disciples as the Son of God.
- This important event in the life of Jesus and his disciples is called the Transfiguration. In this event a voice from Heaven revealed that Jesus is God’s Son. Thus, as the disciples had suspected, Jesus is the Messiah.
- We might also have moments like this in our lives, moments when we are certain about what we believe. But, like Peter, we may not understand fully what we have experienced until later. The disciples reflected on the Transfiguration after the events of the Lord’s Passion and came to understand what had been revealed to them about Jesus on the mountain—that he is the Son of God who would die and rise for our Salvation.
- Conclude in prayer asking God to calm our fears, confirm us in our belief, and strengthen our faith. Pray the Nicene Creed
Sunday July 30, 2017 Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 109
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12
The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night.
God said, "Ask something of me and I will give it to you."
Solomon answered:
"O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king
to succeed my father David;
but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act.
I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen,
a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted.
Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart
to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.
For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?"
The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request.
So God said to him:
"Because you have asked for this--
not for a long life for yourself,
nor for riches,
nor for the life of your enemies,
but for understanding so that you may know what is right--
I do as you requested.
I give you a heart so wise and understanding
that there has never been anyone like you up to now,
and after you there will come no one to equal you."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130
R. (97a) Lord, I love your commands.
I have said, O LORD, that my part
is to keep your words.
The law of your mouth is to me more precious
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
R. Lord, I love your commands.
Let your kindness comfort me
according to your promise to your servants.
Let your compassion come to me that I may live,
for your law is my delight.
R. Lord, I love your commands.
For I love your command
more than gold, however fine.
For in all your precepts I go forward;
every false way I hate.
R. Lord, I love your commands.
Wonderful are your decrees;
therefore I observe them.
The revelation of your words sheds light,
giving understanding to the simple.
R. Lord, I love your commands.
Reading 2 Rom 8:28-30
Brothers and sisters:
We know that all things work for good for those who love God,
who are called according to his purpose.
For those he foreknew he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his Son,
so that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers and sisters.
And those he predestined he also called;
and those he called he also justified;
and those he justified he also glorified.
Gospel Mt 13:44-52
Jesus said to his disciples:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
"Do you understand all these things?"
They answered, "Yes."
And he replied,
"Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household
who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old."
or Mt 13:44-46
Jesus said to his disciples:
"The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 1 Kgs 3:5, 7-12
GOD REGARDS WITH SPECIAL FAVOUR THOSE WHO HONOUR HIM. It is idle to speculate as to whether Solomon would not have received the same blessings if he had not sacrificed and prayed. The fact was, that sacrifice and prayer were the immediate antecedents of the blessings, and are represented as having direct relation to them. Such a fact is sufficient answer to all philosophical objections to prayer, and an emphatic rebuke to those who say it is nonsense to insist that God has any pleasure in our worship and formal expressions of homage.
II. WITH PROPER REGARD TO GOD'S WILL WE MAY PRAY FOR SPECIAL BLESSINGS. It was not presumption for Solomon to take God at His word. It would have been unpardonable unbelief had he replied to His offer of good that he could not presume to make mention of what was uppermost in his heart. God never trifles. His offers are never to be regarded as only general evidence of a willingness to do us good, but as real invitations that we make known our requests. There is proof enough that our Father is pleased to gratify the wishes of His children, and it is no pleasure to Him that they pray only in vague and indefinite generalities. The very idea of the relationship forbids such prayer; the idea of prayer itself is opposed to such expressions of desire.
III. WE MAY MAKE THE EXPERIENCE OF OTHERS A PLEA FOR GOOD TO BE GRANTED TO OURSELVES. Solomon made mention of David's life and reign as having been pleasing to God, and of God's great mercy to him, and urged this as proof that a purpose to. be upright may become a ground of hope since He who does not change will grant favour always when the required conditions are fulfilled. The faithfulness of God is the real stimulus to prayer.
IV. BLESSINGS INCOMPLETE IN THEIR NATURE MAY BE PRESSED AS AN ARGUMENT IN PRAYER FOR THEIR COMPLETION. In David's dying charge to his son he reminded him of God's declaration to himself: "If thy children take heed," etc. Solomon made this declaration the basis of his plea with God in this interview. A large part of Christian work is in progress, the execution of plans which require time and persistent toil. We need not fear lest God will weary of co-operation in such work.
V. CONSCIOUSNESS, AND EVEN CONFESSION OF INABILITY TO PERFORM DUTY MAY BECOME A FURTHER WARRANT FOR HELP FROM GOD WHEN THE DUTY IS CLEARLY ASSIGNED BY HIM. The same conviction oppresses many a Christian whom God has called to do work in the different departments of His service. This should not cause him to faint or despair or retire, but should rouse him to greater confidence in prayer while he resolves to stand in the place assigned him.
VI. GOD DOES NOT CONTENT HIMSELF WITH GRANTING SIMPLY WHAT WE ASK WHEN WE HAVE THE SPIRIT HE APPROVES. His answer to Solomon's prayer was: "Behold, I have done according to thy words."
VII. THANKSGIVING FOR ANSWER TO PRAYER SHOULD BE PROMINENT AND IN THE MOST POSITIVE FORM OF EXPRESSION
1. The address which God made to Solomon, when He said, "Ask what I shall give thee," He does in effect make to each of us, especially to the young. By erecting a throne of grace in heaven, opening the way to it, inviting us to come to Him with our requests, and promising to grant our petitions when they are agreeable to His will, He does in effect say to each of us, "Ask what I shall give thee."
2. Though we are not, like Solomon, kings; and therefore need not, as he did, qualifications requisite for that office; yet we all need spiritual wisdom and understanding, and may therefore all imitate his example in making our choice. Every parent, also, has reason to adopt the prayer of Solomon. Pro. lessors of religion have reason to imitate the example of Solomon.
3. That God is pleased with those who make the choice and sincerely offer up the prayer of Solomon.
(1) Because it is the effect of His grace. We are told that the Lord rejoices in His works, and with reason does Be rejoice in them; for they are all very good. If He rejoices in them, He must, of course, be pleased with them. But to induce persons to make the choice and offer up the prayer of Solomon, is always His work, the effect of His grace.
(2) He is pleased with it, because it indicates opinions and feelings similar to His own. In the opinion of Jehovah, spiritual wisdom, that wisdom of which the fear of God is the beginning, is the principal thing, the one thing needful, to creatures such as we are. Now those who make the choice which Solomon made, estimate objects according to their real value; that is, according to their value in the estimation of God. Their opinions and feelings in this respect correspond with His; and since all beings are necessarily pleased with those who resemble them, God cannot but be pleased with those who resemble Him in this respect.
(3) God is pleased with those who thus pray for a wise and understanding heart, because such prayers are indicative of humility.
(4) God is pleased with such characters, because their conduct evinces that they are actuated by a benevolent concern for His glory, and for the happiness of their fellow-creatures.
(5) God is pleased with those who imitate the examples of Solomon, because it actually and greatly tends to promote His glory.
4. All who make his choice, and adopt his prayer, shall certainly be favoured with a wise and understanding heart. That God will gratify the desires of those who thus pray for wisdom, is evident from His express promises. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth liberally to all men and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77, 127-128, 129-130
First, a few comments about Psalm 119 as a whole. As noted above, this wisdom psalm is by far the longest psalm in the Psalter. It is an alphabetic, acrostic psalm. Its 176 verses are divided into 22 stanzas. Each stanza is precisely eight verses long. Similar to the old song, "A, You're Adorable (The Alphabet Love Song," each verse in each given stanza begins with the appropriate letter from the Hebrew alphabet. In stanza 1 (verses 1-8), every verse begins with the Hebrew letter 'alef. In stanza 2 (verses 9-16), ever verse begins with the Hebrew letter bet.
And so on. The section assigned for this Sunday is the pe stanza. Each verse begins with a different pe word: "wonderful" (pila'ot), "unfolding" (petach), "my mouth" (pi), "turn" (pe'amay), "my steps" (pe'ami), "redeem" (pedeni), "your face" (paneyka), and "streams" (palgey). As a whole, the theological theme of the psalm is the Word of God--over and over, the psalm employs eight different synonyms for God's Instruction (Hebrew, torah): law, commandments, statutes, ordinances, decrees, words, precepts, and promises.
All eight occur in this stanza. The constraints forced on the poet by the acrostic structure probably explain why, at times, the psalm is so repetitious and shifts somewhat awkwardly between wisdom sayings ("Your decrees are wonderful," verse 129) and petitions asking for help ("Turn to me and be gracious," verse 132). The poem is not really a consecutive, linear argument. Rather it is a circular, repetitive meditation on God's Word and a prayer for God's guidance.
As noted above, the pe stanza of the poem has a theological theme (God's Word) and a poetic theme (the human body). The stanza can be described as having the following structure:
Verses 129-131 Wisdom-like statements about God's Word: "Your decrees are wonderful. . ."
Verse 57 - "Thou art my portion, O Lord." A broken sentence. The translators have mended it by insertions, but perhaps it had been better to have left it alone, and then it would have appeared as an exclamation, - "My portion, O Lord!" The poet is lost in wonder while he sees that the great and glorious God is all his own! Well might he be so, for there is no possession like Jehovah himself. The form of the sentence expresses joyous recognition and appropriation, - "My portion, O Jehovah!" David had often seen the prey divided, and heard the victors shouting over it; here he rejoices as one who seizes his share of the spoil; he chooses the Lord to be his part of the treasure. Like the Levites, he took God to be his portion, and left other matters to those who coveted them. This is a large and lasting heritage, for it includes all, and more than all, and it outlasts all; and yet no man chooses it for himself until God has chosen and renewed him. Who that is truly wise could hesitate for a moment when the infinitely blessed God is set before him to be the object of his choice?
God made us to serve him, and enjoy him; but by sin we have made ourselves unfit to serve him, and to enjoy him. We ought, therefore, continually to beseech him, by his Holy Spirit, to give us understanding. The comforts some have in God, should be matter of joy to others. But it is easy to own, that God's judgments are right, until it comes to be our own case. All supports under affliction must come from mercy and compassion. The mercies of God are tender mercies; the mercies of a father, the compassion of a mother to her son. They come to us when we are not able to go to them. Causeless reproach does not hurt, and should not move us. The psalmist could go on in the way of his duty, and find comfort in it. He valued the good will of saints, and was desirous to keep up his communion with them. Soundness of heart signifies sincerity in
Reading 2 Rom 8:28-30
The destiny toward which the Spirit is ushering us through its prayers is God’s plan for a new humanity. Romans 8:28-30 has been fodder for hundreds of years of theological debate over foreknowledge and predestination. But at the heart of these verses is the Father’s yearning for God’s people to be formed after the image of the Son.
This “image” language reaches deep into Israel’s story, back to the very beginning. Humans are created according to the image of God. This hints at the idea that salvation in Christ is a new creation project, one in which God is recreating humanity. Jesus is a second Adam figure (see 1 Corinthians 15:49, Colossians 3:10) who holds in himself the future that God has in store for us.
This new humanity comes about with Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. In Romans 1:4 Paul says that Jesus was appointed son of God by the Spirit of holiness. The word he uses in 1:4, horizo, is the same root as the word we translate “predestined” (proorizo) in 8:28. What God appointed for Jesus at his resurrection God also pre-appointed for the rest of us: being raised to divine likeness and “sonship.”
These verses weave together eternity-past and eternity-future: from God’s knowing in advance through our receiving the glory of God’s beloved children (8:17, 21). The loom of this tapestry is the resurrected Son, the firstborn of the new humanity, the first human justified by resurrection, the first human glorified with the glory of God’s children.
This integration into the family of God provides us with the bedrock reality that withstands and has the power to overcome all our fears, doubts, and insecurities: God is for us. God is on our side.
Once again, Paul propels his case with Christological force: we know the depth of God’s passion for us because God did not spare God’s own son (8:32). The verse echoes God’s praise of Abraham in Genesis 22, when the patriarch “did not spare” his own son, Isaac.
Abraham’s act was the very picture of human fidelity to God, but Romans 8:32 reverses the story: the offering of the Son becomes the very picture of God’s fidelity to humanity. The death of Jesus is the assurance for us that God will fulfill all God’s covenant promises, giving us “all things” (8:32).
Romans 8 piles up eschatological imagery: hope for future resurrection, visions of a restored cosmos, anticipation of full glorification. Another dimension of the coming future is the final judgment.
Here, too, God and Christ work in concert to ensure that this vision of the future is not one of foreboding, but of hopeful confidence. The power of the accuser has been undone by the idea that the judge has given up his own son so that he might freely justify rather than condemn (verses 33-34).
Moreover, the resurrected Jesus at God’s right hand ensures that final vindication is not some cold transaction completed through a deed in the far off past. The living Jesus (in addition to the Spirit) intercedes for us at God’s right hand.
Embodied at God’s right hand is not only the “price paid” for our salvation, but the goal God has in mind for us as well, the image to which God has planned to conform us, the first embodiment of the true humanity who will at last reign over this world as God desired from the beginning (Romans 5:17; Genesis 1:26-28).
Sitting at God’s right hand is the love that God has always dreamed that humanity would embody.
The love of Christ, which is nothing less than the love of God at work in Jesus the Messiah (8:39) undergirds the great victory that Paul anticipates in verses 35-39. Here he takes up his mantra that the Christian life entails suffering, not primarily because we must overcome our sin, but because the world is full of persecutions awaiting the faithful. It is for God’s sake that “we are put to death all day long, considered as sheep to be slaughtered” (verse 36).
Gospel Mt 13:44-52
Parables can have different interpretations if the interpretation matches the overall theme of the evangelists in the Gospel and is challenging to those in power and comforting to those who are afflicted. Their three parables in today's Gospel two of them have to do with discovery A man digs up a treasure in the field and a merchant seeks and finds a valuable pearl. A book on parables suggests that these are two ways we can discover the kingdom of God the kingdom of heaven. First treasure was found by accident the second by seeking. Both parables illustrate the total response we must make to God. We must caution here that the kingdom of heaven is not something that can be bought or possessed it is rather God's gift and with discovery brings us great joy. We should also note that the two individuals are not necessarily perfect the man who digs up the treasure in someone else's field would have dubious rights to his find that is on shaky moral ground. The pearl merchant could also could be greedy and possessive but it could be a redeemed rich man honestly seeking the kingdom of heaven. Both characters might show up in today's third parable of the dragnet gathering in the good and bad. To make easy judgments on others can bind us to the myth of both good and bad in person and in structure. The kingdom of heaven waits to welcome all those who seek it sincerely
- Which is more important for good health, a piece of gum or an apple? Which is more valuable, a dollar or a nickel? Which is more important, your television or your family?
- Some things are more important than others. Even if we like to chew gum, it is more important that we eat apples because our bodies need the vitamins found in apples to keep us healthy. Dollar bills and nickels are both important, but a dollar is worth more than a nickel, so it is more valuable. And, of course, our family is much more important to us than television, even if we really enjoy watching television. If we had to choose between our family and watching television, we would always choose our family.
- Jesus taught people about the kingdom of heaven. To help the people understand how important the kingdom of heaven is, Jesus told two parables.
- What did the person in the first parable do in order to gain the treasure buried in the field?
What did the merchant do so that he could purchase the pearl of great price?
(He sold everything he had so that he could buy this pearl.) Jesus wants us to understand that the kingdom of heaven is the most important and valuable thing in our lives. We should do everything we can to find God and what he wants for us.
- Pray for God’s help in valuing the kingdom of heaven above everything else. Pray the Lord’s Prayer.
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Sunday July 23, 2017 Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 106
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 12:13, 16-19
There is no god besides you who have the care of all,
that you need show you have not unjustly condemned.
For your might is the source of justice;
your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.
For you show your might when the perfection of your power is disbelieved;
and in those who know you, you rebuke temerity.
But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency,
and with much lenience you govern us;
for power, whenever you will, attends you.
And you taught your people, by these deeds,
that those who are just must be kind;
and you gave your children good ground for hope
that you would permit repentance for their sins.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
R. (5a) Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
All the nations you have made shall come
and worship you, O LORD,
and glorify your name.
For you are great, and you do wondrous deeds;
you alone are God.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity.
Turn toward me, and have pity on me;
give your strength to your servant.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
Reading 2 Rom 8:26-27
Brothers and sisters:
The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.
And the one who searches hearts
knows what is the intention of the Spirit,
because he intercedes for the holy ones
according to God's will.
Gospel Mt 13:24-43
Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying:
"The kingdom of heaven may be likened
to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.
When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.
The slaves of the householder came to him and said,
'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where have the weeds come from?'
He answered, 'An enemy has done this.'
His slaves said to him,
'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
"First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn."'"
He proposed another parable to them.
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush,
and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'"
He spoke to them another parable.
"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened."
All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables,
to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:
I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation
of the world.
Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house.
His disciples approached him and said,
"Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
He said in reply, "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man,
the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom.
The weeds are the children of the evil one,
and the enemy who sows them is the devil.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire,
so will it be at the end of the age.
The Son of Man will send his angels,
and they will collect out of his kingdom
all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.
They will throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun
in the kingdom of their Father.
Whoever has ears ought to hear."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Wis 12:13, 16-19
Responsorial Psalm Ps 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
Psalm 86 is classified by most scholars as a psalm of individual lament, in which an individual expresses the pain of his present condition and seeks relief from God.1
However, most of the elements of complaint are in the early part of the psalm, with only verse 14 and verse 17 from our selection expressing concern over the psalmist's circumstances, and even in those places there is no explicit mention of pain that has been experienced. Verses 11-17 thus on their own read more as an expression of commitment based on the experience of God's past help (verses 12-13, 17) and on the knowledge of God's character (verses 13, 15-16). The element of petition is still present, however, in the final two verses.
The opening petition, "Teach me your way, O LORD," expresses a common important sentiment in the psalms (see examples, 25:4 and 27:11). The tacit basis of the petition is that God's way is not necessarily obvious and hence requires teaching in order to know it. The line that follows, "that I may walk in your truth," is a statement of commitment. The psalmist and we desire to know God's way not out of curiosity but so that we may actually live it out. "Truth" is used in the second line not to mean anything different than God's way but to affirm that God's way is truth. We might well be reminded at this point of Christ's claim to be "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). The word "life" does not appear in the NRSV's translation in this passage, but life is certainly an issue in verse 13, and the Hebrew word translated as "soul" in verse 13 is translated "life" in verse 2 (nefesh).
The last line of verse 11 combines the elements of petition and commitment: "Give me an undivided heart to revere your name." The tacit basis of the petition is again important: Just as the psalmist recognizes that we are in need of teaching, so he recognizes that very often our hearts are divided and thus unable to walk in God's way. There is not the burden of sin here felt in Psalm 51:10's plea for God to "create in me a clean heart," but the sentiment is the same.
The psalmist does not dwell on the need for an undivided heart, for in the very next line he expresses thanks to God "with my whole heart" (verse 12). There is a simple confidence that his prayer for an undivided heart is answered. In fact, there is a bold magnification of the petition from verse 11, because whereas in verse 11 he had asked merely to "revere" God's name, here in verse 12 his claim is much stronger: "I will glorify your name forever." Not only has he moved from revering to glorifying, but the addition of "forever" makes the return of thanks all the more fervent. It is as strong a statement of commitment as one can imagine. Can we make the claim our own?
Verse 13 provides the foundation for the thanksgiving, petitions, and commitment expressed in verse 11-12: "For great is your steadfast love toward me." "Steadfast love" translates the single Hebrew word khesed. The Hebrew meaning is difficult to convey with any single English expression, and thus we see different English Bibles using a variety of translations in different contexts: steadfast love, lovingkindness, love, kindness, mercy, loyalty, favor, devotion, goodness, and still others. The range of translations gives a sense of the broad meaning of the word. For the psalmist here, it is a confession of and proclamation of his fundamental relationship with God, and especially of the blessing he has received from that relationship.
The second half of verse 13 expresses a very concrete benefit of God's khesed: "You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol." In the context of the overall psalm, this probably refers to a deliverance from physical death. Sheol is simply the "the grave" (as it is often translated). Many Christians will think here, however, and appropriately so, of the salvation from spiritual death that is the quintessential example of God's khesed in their lives. It is the life that walking in God's way and truth provides.
The reference to God's khesed is picked up in verse 15 and expanded. Beginning with the word "merciful," verse 15 is a quote of the fundamental self-revelation of God given to Moses at Mt. Sinai: "The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness" (Exodus 34:6). This initial self-revelation expressed Israel's understanding of the basic nature of its relationship to God, and it is quoted and paraphrased frequently throughout the Old Testament (e.g. Numbers 14:18; Joel 2:13; Psalms 103:8, 145:8; Nehemiah 9:17). Here it forms the basis for the psalmist's appeal for grace, strength, and salvation in verse 16 and for why he need not fear his enemies referred to in verse 14.
When he appeals to God to "turn to me and be gracious to me" (verse 16), it is his knowledge of the gracious character of God mentioned in the Exodus quote of verse 15 that prompts his plea. Of course, the words "turn to me" also express his feeling of the present absence of God's grace, a feeling caused by the intentions of his enemies mentioned in verse 14. The feelings of divine absence and abandonment expressed in many of the psalms (in the present psalm, mostly in verses 1-7) often cause believers today a certain amount of discomfort, but they should remind us that it is pointless to hide our true feelings in addressing God -- and that there is no need to do so.
Verse 17 closes the psalm with a final petition, a request for a sign of God's favor. As in verse 16, the petition is based on knowledge of God's character, but here the psalmist expresses it in terms of his own experience: "because you, LORD, have helped me and comforted me." In this sense the psalmist's petition may be a model for our own prayers to God: Our appeals arise out of our common understanding of God's character and out of our experience of God's steadfast love and faithfulness to us in the past.
Reading 2 Rom 8:26-27
Likewise the Spirit - This introduces a new source of consolation and support, what is derived from the Spirit. It is a continuation of the argument of the apostle, to show the sustaining power of the Christian religion. The "Spirit" here undoubtedly refers to the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, and who strengthens us.
Aid - This word properly means, to sustain with us; to aid us in supporting. It is applied usually to those who unite in supporting or carrying a burden. The meaning may be thus expressed: "he greatly assists or aids us."
Our infirmities - Assists us in our infirmities, or aids us to bear them. The word "infirmities" refers to the weaknesses to which we are subject, and to our various trials in this life. The Spirit helps us in this,
(1) By giving us strength to bear them;
(2) By exciting us to make efforts to sustain them;
(3) By ministering to us consolations, and truths, and views of our Christian privileges, that enable us to endure our trials.
For we know not ... - This is a specification of the aid which the Holy Spirit, renders us. The reasons why Christians do not know what to pray for may be,
(1) That they do not know what would be really best for them.
(2) they do not know what God might be willing to grant them.
(3) they are to a great extent ignorant of the character of God, the reason of his dealings, the principles of his government, and their own real needs.
(4) they are often in real, deep perplexity. They are encompassed with trials, exposed to temptations, feeble by disease, and subject to calamities. In these circumstances, if left alone, they would neither be able to bear their trials, nor know what to ask at the hand of God.
With groanings - With sighs, or that deep feeling and intense anxiety which exists in the oppressed and burdened heart of the Christian.
For we know not what we should pray for as we ought: one way whereby the Spirit helps us, is by teaching us to pray. Prayer doth greatly relieve us under the cross, and is a great refuge in trouble: but we knowing not how to pray.
Gospel Mt 13:24-43
• Last Sunday, we were introduced to Matthew 13 as a chapter of parables. This week we have three more parables, all with “growth” as a theme.
• Jesus tells another parable about a “sower”, this time one who has an enemy who secretly sows his field with weeds. This certain type of weed (called “tares” or “darnel” in some translations) contained a fungus that was poisonous to people and animals, causing severe nausea. This was sometimes done for revenge or maliciousness and the Romans had severe penalties to those caught committing such an act. These weeds look just like wheat in the early stages of growth thus making them almost impossible to remove without ruining the wheat.
• The owner of the field decides to let the wheat and the tares grow side by side until the harvest. In biblical terms, “the harvest” is often associated with a day of God’s judgment (Jeremiah 51:33; Joel 4:13; Hosea 6:11; Revelation 14:14-20).
After Jesus left the crowd and went indoors, his followers approached him with a request. "Explain the wheat and weeds parable to us in simple language" they said.
"The farmer who sowed the high quality wheat seed is the Son of Man. And the quality seed is everyone who follows God into his Kingdom," Jesus answered. "The field is the world. But the weeds are the evil people who reject God. And the enemy who put the evil people among the good is the devil. Now, the harvest is the end of time and the reapers are God's messengers. The end of time will be just like the harvest and burning of the weeds. The Son of Man will send out his messengers. They will gather together everyone who sins and causes others to sin. They will throw those people into a fiery furnace where they will cry out and grind their teeth. Then, the good people will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. If you can hear me, then listen!"
Like the parable of the sower and the seed, Jesus used parables to challenge his audience to think. The images and symbols in the stories allowed for various interpretations, depending upon the audience and their circumstances. Interpreting symbolic stories in this way is called allegory.
To help relieve anxiety among his persecuted followers, Jesus told this parable as an allegory of good and evil. Obviously, Jesus recognized good and evil lived together. But, when Jesus made that co-existence part of God's Kingdom, he must have shocked his own followers. How could God allow such evil in the world? Shouldn't God act to save his people? Why did he delay?
Jesus countered those questions with an observation. God allowed evil in the world for the greater good. First, he delayed the terrible day of wrath so the good works of Christians could take root. When a believer experienced God's Kingdom, he or she produced "fruit:" an ethical lifestyle that fed the needy and inspired faith (and repentance) in others. The believer's lifestyle helped build up the Christian community and multiply effects of the good "fruit."
To make this notion clear, Jesus interpreted the parable in Matthew 13:36-43. The Son of Man (i.e., Jesus) sowed the wheat seeds; Satan sowed the weeds. At the Final Judgment, the angels (i.e., messengers) will gather the good and the bad into separate camps. The evil will be punished while the good will "shine like the sun" (13:43, also see Daniel 12:3).
Early Christians had a vested interest in this interpretation. After all, they believed the messengers of the Son of Man were, in fact, Christian missionaries who spread the Good News. As the missionaries evangelized, they "gathered" God's people into community life. In other words, the harvest had begun, in spite of evil in the world. As long as Christians evangelized through word and acts of charity, they could tolerate evil.
However, people, even Christians, did not perform works of charity with the best of intentions. Sometimes, an evil end perverted the best of "fruit." (Even the young weeds looked like fresh wheat; only maturity allowed workers to distinguish between the two.) [13:26] Here, Jesus implied a second reason God delayed the Final Judgement: to allow evil to produce the greater good. The greatest sign of this belief was the cross. Evil men crucified the Lord. Yet, without their evil, believers could not experience the limitless benefits of his resurrection. Indeed, God's revealed his Kingdom on the cross.
How has the experience of evil in your life helped you produce good? How has it challenged you?
Catechism Themes: Providence and the Scandal of Evil (CCC 309-314)
Christianity can answer the question: why does evil exist in the world? The root of the answer lies in our free will. As God is free, so he chose to create us with freedom. Our freedom lies in a choice: to walk closer to the Lord, or to walk away from the Lord. The world functions as an arena for our choice.
To walk closer to the Lord involves the choice of love. We realize God loves us and we love him in return. In the choice of love, we extend our love to others. The world becomes the means to exercise love.
However, freely chosen love involves the risk of rejection. We can chose the self over all others. The world, then can become a means to reject others. We have seen this rejection many times over the past century in the suffering of the innocent.
God does not infringe on our free will. Indeed, to allow us the opportunity to repent, God gives us the chance and the choice to harden our hearts. But, God even uses our rejection as the opportunity for greater good, as he did with the death and resurrection of Jesus.
If we ask "why is there evil in the world?" we must also ask "why is there good in the world?" While we may not be able to answer the question of evil on a physical level, certainly we can answer it on a moral level. The moral and the immoral live in the same world, because God created the world as the means to exercise moral freedom. Evil may induce despair, but good inspires hope. Only hope based upon the choice of love can ultimately answer the scandal of evil in the world.
How does faith inspire you to face problem of evil? Are you optimistic about the problems of the world, or pessimistic? Why?
God gives us a choice. Are we the wheat or the weed? What sort of fruit do we produce? If the answers to those questions are less than clear, never fear. God gives us the chance and the means to change and walk closer to him. But the chance requires action. Inaction is not an option.
There are no right or wrong answers to the questions below, just think about them, maybe discuss with your friends.
- Imagine two wrapped boxes, one wrapped in plain brown paper and one wrapped in colorfully decorated paper
- If you could choose one of these gifts, which would you choose and why?
- I have just asked you to make a judgment based on appearances. We often do this in our lives. We judge things, and sometimes we even judge people based on first impressions and appearances. This is not the way that God judges. Jesus told a parable about this to teach us about God’s judgment in todays gosple.
- In this parable the sower makes a surprising decision. He allows the wheat and the weeds to grow together. Why does he do this? (He says that pulling the weeds before the harvest will damage the wheat as well.)
- What alternative does he offer to pulling up the weeds? (The sower says to wait until harvest time, when the wheat and the weeds can be pulled up together and separated without harming the wheat.)
- What does this parable tell us about God’s judgment?
- If this is the way that God judges, what might be the lesson for us about judging things by their appearances?
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Sunday July 16, 2017 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 103
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 55:10-11
Thus says the LORD:
Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
and do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14
R. (Lk 8:8) The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
You have visited the land and watered it;
greatly have you enriched it.
God's watercourses are filled;
you have prepared the grain.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
Thus have you prepared the land: drenching its furrows,
breaking up its clods,
Softening it with showers,
blessing its yield.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
You have crowned the year with your bounty,
and your paths overflow with a rich harvest;
The untilled meadows overflow with it,
and rejoicing clothes the hills.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
The fields are garmented with flocks
and the valleys blanketed with grain.
They shout and sing for joy.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
Reading 2 Rom 8:18-23
Brothers and sisters:
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing
compared with the glory to be revealed for us.
For creation awaits with eager expectation
the revelation of the children of God;
for creation was made subject to futility,
not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it,
in hope that creation itself
would be set free from slavery to corruption
and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;
and not only that, but we ourselves,
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
we also groan within ourselves
as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
Gospel Mt 13:1-23
On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.
Such large crowds gathered around him
that he got into a boat and sat down,
and the whole crowd stood along the shore.
And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:
"A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up.
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear."
The disciples approached him and said,
"Why do you speak to them in parables?"
He said to them in reply,
"Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.
To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
This is why I speak to them in parables, because
they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.
Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted,
and I heal them.
"But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear.
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
"Hear then the parable of the sower.
The seed sown on the path is the one
who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it,
and the evil one comes and steals away
what was sown in his heart.
The seed sown on rocky ground
is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy.
But he has no root and lasts only for a time.
When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
he immediately falls away.
The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word,
but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word
and it bears no fruit.
But the seed sown on rich soil
is the one who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 55:10-11
Rain and the snow come down from heaven (Vs. 10)
We know that rain and snow come from the atmosphere but it all comes from God
God’s Word has come down to us from heaven (from God)
* All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness,* 2 Timothy 3:16
“For no prophecy ever came through human will; but rather human beings moved by the holy Spirit spoke under the influence of God.” 2 Peter 1:21,
Snow and rains purpose is fulfilled on earth. Remember a time when there was a drought and look out on all that dirt and dust. In that dirt lies all kinds of potential. Those dusty fields have the potential for beauty and lushness. Those fields have the capacity to feed and help mankind. All that is needed is rain to transform those fields.
We see the power of God’s Word to transform a person’s life. From spiritual barrenness and death. “ For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deluded, slaves to various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful ourselves and hating one another.” Titus 3:3), to spiritual abundance and life (may have life and have it more abundantly. John 10:10). God’s Word can transform lives that people consider worthless and hopeless.
Making it bud and flourish (Vs. 10). God’s Word can cause our lives to blossom out.
Yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater (Vs. 10).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14
Verses 9-13 maintain the focus on the earth, but the emphasis moves from God's might to God's bounty in the harvest, which is described in lavishly descriptive language. This lavishness might well be said to be the unifying force throughout the psalm. The descriptions of the earth are almost mythical sounding throughout. This mythical quality, combined with the exclusively beneficent description of God's dealings with humankind that pervade the psalm, gives the attentive reader or hearer an overwhelming sense of the life-giving presence of God.
The animated richness of nature provided by the divine presence dominates the psalm in verses 9-13. Verses 9-10 celebrate the gift of water, which provides people with grain, shapes the earth, and causes life to grow. For an ancient agrarian people living in a dry land, this blessing was no doubt better understood and more appreciated than it is for most Christians today. The personification trend continues in verse 11a, as the year is "crowned" with God's bounty.
Verse 11b will strike many readers as curious: "your wagon tracks overflow with richness." The exact nature of the symbolism here is debated -- it perhaps pictures God riding across the earth in a chariot -- but, whatever the case, the point is that where God goes, richness abounds. God's presence is life and abundance. Verses 12-13 close the psalm with a series of further personifications: The pastures, hills, meadows, and valleys all clothe themselves with appropriate bounty, and they all "shout and sing together for joy."
Psalm 65 thus depicts a world alive with the bounty and glory of God. While many scholars believe that its original use was for thanksgiving celebrations at harvest time, its possible applications today are many. With its wide-ranging portrayal of an undefiled, joyful creation, along with peoples delivered, at peace, and praising God, it provides a vision counter to what we tend to see in the world today.
Reading 2 Rom 8:18-23
Knowledge is simply specific information about something. The state or fact of knowing. Familiarity, awareness, or understanding gained through experience or study. We will discover today that as Christians some things are just obvious. An since things are obvious we should live according to what we know instead of acting like we don’t know or don’t have a clue.
Points of Emphasis
1. The First Thing We Should Know
You are not in this thing by yourself! Verses 18-23, in particular verse 22, tells us basically that everyone who is a believer is going through. You are not facing your trials alone. We are all waiting on the Lord for something... But they that wait on the Lord....
2. The Second Thing We Should Know
Is actually what we DON’T know. We have short comings, we don’t have all of the answers. We can’t express, in this frail human form, what we really need for God to accomplish in our lives. We don’t know what to pray for. Verses 24-27 But we do know, with the aid of The Holy Spirit, that if we can’t say it, He can see it!
3. The Third Thing We Should Know
Verse 28 It’s all good. When I love Him, it’s all good. When I hear His Word, it’s all good...
"When He was on the Cross, You were on His Mind”
Gospel Mt 13:1-23
This Sunday and for the following two Sundays we will hear parables. Fr. Greg Friedman OFM had the privilege of studying parables under Sr Barbara Reid. He shared her teaching on how Jesus parables worked.
Most parables start with something familiar, like todays with farming. The people of Jesus tie were very familiar with this and so would be attentive to the story. Next the parables have layers of meaning using comparisons and metaphor usually with a reference to the kingdom of heaven. Next, parables have an unexpected twist. The farmer’s generous scattering of the precious seed everywhere seems to indicate an extravagant God , even wasteful, but the parables are meant to elicit a response from the listeners.
Next there are many valid interpretations of the parables and it is up to the preacher to discern what the people need to hear. Very interesting discussion on this topic. What do you think?
Today’s Gospel marks the beginning of the third long discourse given by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew. Over the next few weeks, the Gospel readings will consist of the entire 13th Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, a lengthy teaching discourse.
Throughout this discourse, Jesus will offer several parables to illustrate for his listeners what he means by the kingdom of heaven. He begins with the parable of the sower, which appears rather straightforward—of course seeds grow best in good soil. Seeds that miss the soil, are sown on rocky ground, or are sown among other plants will not grow. The surprise in the parable is the enormous yield of the seed that is sown on good soil.
Jesus then explains his use of parables. Jesus seems to suggest that he uses parables to teach because the meanings of parables are not self-evident. The hearer must engage in some degree of reflection in order to comprehend the message of a parable. In this way, the medium—the parable—models the point of the parable of the sower. Those who are willing to engage themselves in the effort to understand will be rewarded by the discovery of the message and will bear fruit.
To bring home the point, Jesus interprets the parable of the sower to his disciples. The different types of soil in which the seeds are sown are metaphors for the disposition with which each individual hears the teaching about the kingdom of heaven. Some will be easily swayed away from the kingdom of heaven. Some will receive it for a time but will lose it when faced with difficulties. Some will hear the word but will then permit other cares to choke it out. Yet some will receive it well, and the seed will produce abundant fruit.
Jesus entered into a boat that he might be the less pressed, and be the better heard by the people. By this he teaches us in the outward circumstances of worship not to covet that which is stately, but to make the best of the conveniences God in his providence allots to us. Christ taught in parables. Thereby the things of God were made more plain and easy to those willing to be taught, and at the same time more difficult and obscure to those who were willingly ignorant. The parable of the sower is plain. The seed sown is the word of God. The sower is our Lord Jesus Christ, by himself, or by his ministers. Preaching to a multitude is sowing the corn; we know not where it will light. Some sort of ground, though we take ever so much pains with it, brings forth no fruit to purpose, while the good soil brings forth plentifully. So it is with the hearts of men, whose different characters are here described by four sorts of ground. Careless, trifling hearers, are an easy prey to Satan; who, as he is the great murderer of souls, so he is the great thief of sermons, and will be sure to rob us of the word, if we take not care to keep it. Hypocrites, like the stony ground, often get the start of true Christians in the shows of profession. Many are glad to hear a good sermon, who do not profit by it. They are told of free salvation, of the believer's privileges, and the happiness of heaven; and, without any change of heart, without any abiding conviction of their own depravity, their need of a Saviour, or the excellence of holiness, they soon profess an unwarranted assurance. But when some heavy trial threatens them, or some sinful advantage may be had, they give up or disguise their profession, or turn to some easier system. Worldly cares are fitly compared to thorns, for they came in with sin, and are a fruit of the curse; they are good in their place to stop a gap, but a man
must be well armed that has much to do with them; they are entangling, vexing, scratching, and their end is to be burned, Hebrews 6:8. Worldly cares are great hinderances to our profiting by the word of God. The deceitfulness of riches does the mischief; they cannot be said to deceive us unless we put our trust in them, then they choke the good seed. What distinguished the good ground was fruitfulness. By this true Christians are distinguished from hypocrites. Christ does not say that this good ground has no stones in it, or no thorns; but none that could hinder its fruitfulness. All are not alike; we should aim at the highest, to bring forth most fruit. The sense of hearing cannot be better employed than in hearing God's word; and let us look to ourselves that we may know what sort of hearers we are.
Pondering the Gospel
- Sometimes communication is difficult because we do not, or cannot, accept a message that was spoken to us. Let’s look at some examples so that you know what I mean.
- One message that may be spoken to you is “everything will be OK” What are some of the ways in which you respond when this message is spoken to you?
- Another message that we receive often is “don’t worry about it.” What are some ways in which you might respond to this message?
- In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers a parable to show how different people hear the message about the Kingdom of God.
- Note that in the parable, the message about the kingdom of heaven is the same; no differences among the seeds are noted. But the result in each case is very different, depending upon how the message is received. Jesus wants us to be like good soil in which the seed can bear abundant fruit.
- What are some things that we can do so that we are like the good soil, able to hear and accept God's Word about the kingdom of heaven? (prayer, reading the Bible, scripture study)
Sunday July 9, 2017 Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 100
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Zec 9:9-10
Thus says the LORD:
Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion,
shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king shall come to you;
a just savior is he,
meek, and riding on an ass,
on a colt, the foal of an ass.
He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim,
and the horse from Jerusalem;
the warrior's bow shall be banished,
and he shall proclaim peace to the nations.
His dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14
R. (cf. 1) I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I will extol you, O my God and King,
and I will bless your name forever and ever.
Every day will I bless you,
and I will praise your name forever and ever.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
and compassionate toward all his works.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD,
and let your faithful ones bless you.
Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is faithful in all his words
and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
and raises up all who are bowed down.
R. I will praise your name for ever, my king and my God.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 Rom 8:9, 11-13
Brothers and sisters:
You are not in the flesh;
on the contrary, you are in the spirit,
if only the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Consequently, brothers and sisters,
we are not debtors to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die,
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.
Gospel Mt 11:25-30
At that time Jesus exclaimed:
"I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to little ones.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him."
"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Zec 9:9-10
If we read a little further thru verse 12 we can set this in place.
We might wonder why we are being taken back to Palm Sunday after Pentecost, during ordinary time, when the lectionary focuses on the life of the church with such themes as discipleship, vocation, and mission.
Not only is the text out of season, its apparent militarism would not, on first glance, sit well with these themes of Christian discipleship. The militarism is readily explained in light of Zion theology, which maintained that God’s presence kept Jerusalem and its king safe from enemies (Psalms 2, 46, 47, 48); even so, it remains difficult to see how to relate this theme to Christian discipleship and mission.
More puzzling still is the characterization of the rescued prisoners of 9:11 as “prisoners of hope” in the parallel line in 9:12. This unusual expression suggests that Zion’s inhabitants endure a spiritual and psychological form of captivity, not a literal one. Therein lies the problem: how can hope be a prison? Hope is a good thing, isn’t it? Yet this phrase provides an important key to solving the puzzle of Zechariah 9:9-12.
The hope holding Zion’s inhabitants captive is precisely the ancient militarist hopes of Zion theology. A closer look at how the text reconfigures this militarist tradition will show that it presents a new way to know God’s saving presence and therefore establishes a new basis for hope. The text thus turns out to be perfectly suited for reflection on life in ordinary time, as it encourages us to live out our resurrection faith by breaking free from our prisons of old expectations.
While it’s certainly possible that the reference to hope in Zech 9:12 builds on other prophetic promises of hope (Hosea 2:15; Isaiah 8:17; Jeremiah 31:17)1, it remains difficult to explain why Zion’s inhabitants would be considered its prisoners. The solution to this puzzle is that hope is not always necessarily a good thing. The term tiqveh is rare in the prophetic tradition; it is used far more frequently in the wisdom literature, where it is often associated with false expectations or humanly conceived prospects not rooted in trust in God (Proverbs 10:28; 11:7, 23).
In fact, the word is often used with the verb “to dry up” in a richly alliterative phrase that gets lost in translation (Psalm 9:18; Ezekiel 19:5; 37:11; Job 8:13; Proverbs 10:28; 11:23). We catch a glimpse of this desiccated hope in Ezekiel 37. When the exiles complain, “Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off.” (Ezekiel 37:11), Ezekiel visualizes them as so many dry bones. These once hopeful people are so far gone it is absurd to ask if they can live again.
One may suggest that Zechariah 9–11 was written to address false hopes, or at least to recast outmoded ones. The superscription of Zechariah 9–11 identifies it as a massa’ (English “An Oracle”), a scribal re-interpretation of older prophetic revelation to provide new revelation for a new situation.
While it remains an open question when this reinterpretation took place, it would have occurred either in the Persian or Hellenistic periods, well after the kingdom of Judah had ceased functioning as an autonomous, sovereign kingdom. One challenge these scribes would have faced was the lingering militarism of the older prophetic tradition. Much of Zechariah 9–11 consists of allusions older prophecies filled with mythic scenarios of the Divine Warrior coming to vanquish Israel’s enemies.
With its allusion to Zephaniah 3:14 and Zechariah 2:10, Zechariah 9:9-12 is a case in point, since both of these older prophetic texts command Zion to rejoice over God’s dealings with the enemies. For Jews living under Persian or Hellenistic control, any continued expectation that God would rescue them militarily could indeed become a prison. Locked in past ways of seeing the world and God’s ways in it, they would be incapable of seeing divine activity in their current circumstances.
How to release these prisoners of hope from old expectations? In effect, the scribes employ the older traditions to open new paths to peace. As in Zephaniah 3:14 and Zechariah 2:10, the audience is commanded to rejoice because of what God has done for Zion and its inhabitants. But where the older texts speak of enemies, Zechariah speaks of conditions that make for peace. The king is not the agent of deliverance but one who has himself been humbled yet declared righteous.
The fact that he is delivered but not the deliverer may explain his entry into Zion on a donkey. Donkeys do appear once elsewhere as the preferred mode of royal transport (Genesis 49:11), but it’s also the case that donkeys don’t go to war, horses do. In addition, verse 10 indicates that God (read “I” instead of “he”) banishes weapons and implements of war -- including warhorses -- from Ephraim and Judah. While one may infer that the banished weapons belong to the enemies, the verse does not make that claim. God’s presence secures the king and the kingdom, though not by any visibly military means. The scribes have thus subtly recast motifs associated with military victory to emphasize new ways of being at peace in the world.
By reshaping the older military traditions, the scribes have also subtly redefined the basis for hope. One is reminded of the enigmatic statement to Zerubabel in Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit.” Hope remains grounded in the conviction of God’s presence; but once the people are released from the prison of old expectations, they are free to discover God at work in new and unexpected ways.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14
We give homage to so many things that our praise is cheap. Is it also accurate to say that our praise to God is cheap? Or, that it has at least been cheapened? Perhaps.
Sometimes we praise God by talking so much that our words become hollow. Other times, we praise God as our heavenly Santa Claus who gives gifts we want. We also treat God as a street vendor with whom we can bargain: "I'll give you praise if you will do (fill-in-the-blank)..." As the bargainer, we may even decide to keep shopping until something better comes along. Praise is cheap and at times we cheapen our praise to God. How then, do we begin to claim Psalm 145 as our own when it commits us to voice our praise to God?
Psalm 145: Function and Structure
In the Psalter, Psalm 145 serves two structural functions. It is the final David psalm (Psalms 138-145), and it is the first psalm of praise in a series that ends the Psalter (Psalms 145-150). While Psalm 145 belongs to David and expresses David's personal commitment to worship Yahweh, the psalm is not primarily about one individual's praise. It has a universal scope that calls the whole of creation to "praise God's name forever and ever" (verse 2).
Two elements implicitly hint at Psalm 145's intended universality. The first of these is its acrostic structure. With the exception of a nûn line, each line is arranged sequentially by a letter of the alphabet. Thus, the entire alphabet is "marshalled in praise of God."1
In addition to its acrostic structure, the psalmist indicates the broad scope of intended praise through four commitments to worship. The first commitment, made in verses 1-2, is individual ("I will extol you, my God and King"). Verse 4 expresses an intergenerational commitment to praise ("one generation ... to another"), and verse 10 expresses two corporate commitments to praise. The first is from creation ("all your works") and the second from Yahweh's followers ("all your faithful"). In the final verse (20), both individual ("my mouth") and corporate ("all flesh") commitments are made with the assurance they will endure through time ("forever and ever").
The commitments in verses 1-2, 4, 10, and 20 are interspersed with specifics of Yahweh's greatness and goodness. Verses 3-6 and 11-13b illustrate the praise of Yahweh's greatness using bold language: might, glory, great, fame, and power. In contrast, verses 7-9 and 13c-20 capture the praise of Yahweh's goodness, depicted through tender language: gracious, merciful, compassionate, faithful, just, and kind. The cumulative picture presented in Psalm 145 is "a many-sided though overlapping account of the nature of worship, of Yahweh's greatness, goodness, and concrete positive involvement with humanity."2
The Goodness of God (verses 8-9)
The passages in this week's Lectionary text are embedded in Psalm 145's emphasis on the goodness of Yahweh as a touchstone for praise. Like Psalm 103 and others, Psalm 145:8 borrows language from Yahweh's self-revelation in Exodus 34:6. Yahweh is gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, and full of steadfast love. Repeated use of Yahweh in verses 8 and 9 ensures that all of these attributes point to the Lord, the curator of creation.
Verse 9 emphasizes Yahweh's goodness and compassion to all people. Here, the word "all" seems to be uniquely inclusive. Rather than expressing a defined totality such as the nation of Israel, this passage seems to indicate that the Psalm refers to all of humanity and all of creation. Moreover, verse 9 echoes verse 1 and captures Yahweh as THE king "over all he has made," not one king among many different kings. Walter Brueggemann suggests the rest of Psalm 145 is "best understood as an extrapolation from these verses to see how God's characteristic self-giving is experienced in the daily blessings of creation."
Reading 2 Rom 8:9, 11-13
But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
a. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you: Because the Holy Spirit is given to each believer when they are born again, every Christian has within themselves a principle higher and more powerful than the flesh.
i. "Many sincere people are yet spiritually under John the Baptist's ministry of repentance. Their state is practically that of the struggle of Romans Seven, where neither Christ nor the Holy Spirit is mentioned, but only a quickened but undelivered soul in struggle under a sense of 'duty,' not a sense of full acceptance in Christ and sealing by the Holy Spirit." (Newell)
b. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His: This means that every believer has the Holy Spirit. It is a misnomer to divide Christians among the "Spirit-filled" and the "non-Spirit-filled." If a person is not filled with the Holy Spirit, they are not a Christian at all.
i. However, many do miss out on living the Christian life in the constant fullness of the Spirit because they are not constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit as Paul commanded in Ephesians 5:18. They have no experience of what Jesus spoke about when He described rivers of living water flowing from the believer (John 7:37-39).
ii. How do I know that I have the Spirit? Ask these questions:
- Has the Spirit led you to Jesus?
- Has the Spirit put in you the desire to honor Jesus?
- Is the Spirit leading you to be more like Jesus?
- Is the Spirit at work in your heart?
c. And if the Spirit of Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin: Because Jesus lives in us, the old man (body) is dead, but the Spirit lives and reigns, and will live out His salvation even through our mortal bodies through resurrection.
i. Not only are we in Christ (Romans 8:1), but He also is in you, and because God cannot abide a sinful home, the body (old man) had to die when Jesus came in.
B. Our obligation: to live in the Spirit.
1. (Rom 8:12-13) Our debt is to the Spirit, not to the flesh.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors; not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
a. We are debtors - to the flesh, to live according to the flesh: The flesh (again, in the narrow sense of sinful flesh in rebellion against God) gave us nothing good. So we have no obligation to oblige or pamper it. Our debt is to the Lord, not to the flesh.
b. For if you live according to the flesh you will die: Paul constantly reminds us that living after the flesh ends in death and we need the reminder because we are often deceived into thinking that the flesh offers us life.
c. By the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body: When we put to death the deeds of the body (force the sinful flesh to submit to the Spirit), we must do it by the Spirit. Otherwise we will become Pharisees and spiritually proud.
i. Paul tells us that not only are we saved by the work of the Spirit, but also we must walk by the Spirit if want to grow and pursue holiness in the Lord. We cannot be like some among the Galatians who thought they could begin in the Spirit but then find spiritual perfection through the flesh (Galatians 3:3).
1. (Rom 8:12-13) Our debt is to the Spirit, not to the flesh.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors; not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
a. We are debtors - to the flesh, to live according to the flesh: The flesh (again, in the narrow sense of sinful flesh in rebellion against God) gave us nothing good. So we have no obligation to oblige or pamper it. Our debt is to the Lord, not to the flesh.
b. For if you live according to the flesh you will die: Paul constantly reminds us that living after the flesh ends in death and we need the reminder because we are often deceived into thinking that the flesh offers us life.
c. By the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body: When we put to death the deeds of the body (force the sinful flesh to submit to the Spirit), we must do it by the Spirit. Otherwise we will become Pharisees and spiritually proud.
i. Paul tells us that not only are we saved by the work of the Spirit, but also we must walk by the Spirit if want to grow and pursue holiness in the Lord. We cannot be like some among the Galatians who thought they could begin in the Spirit but then find spiritual perfection through the flesh (Galatians 3:3).
Gospel Mt 11:25-30
It becomes children to be grateful. When we come to God as a Father, we must remember that he is Lord of heaven and earth, which obliges us to come to him with reverence as to the sovereign Lord of all; yet with confidence, as one able to defend us from evil, and to supply us with all good. Our blessed Lord added a remarkable declaration, that the Father had delivered into his hands all power, authority, and judgment. We are indebted to Christ for all the revelation we have of God the Father's will and love, ever since Adam sinned. Our Savior has invited all that labor and are heavy-laden, to come unto him. In some senses all men are so. Worldly men burden themselves with fruitless cares for wealth and honors; the gay and the sensual labor in pursuit of pleasures; the slave of Satan and his own lusts, is the merest drudge on earth. Those who labor to establish their own righteousness also labor in vain. The convinced sinner is heavy-laden with guilt and terror; and the tempted and afflicted believer has labors and burdens. Christ invites all to come to him for rest to their souls. He alone gives this invitation; men come to him, when, feeling their guilt and misery, and believing his love and power to help, they seek him in fervent prayer. Thus it is the duty and interest of weary and heavy-laden sinners, to come to Jesus Christ. This is the gospel call; Whoever will, let him come. All who thus come will receive rest as Christ's gift, and obtain peace and comfort in their hearts. But in coming to him they must take his yoke, and submit to his authority. They must learn of him all things, as to their comfort and obedience. He accepts the willing servant, however imperfect the services. Here we may find rest for our souls, and here only. Nor need we fear his yoke. His commandments are holy, just, and good. It requires self-denial, and exposes to difficulties, but this is abundantly repaid, even in this world, by inward peace and joy. It is a yoke that is lined with love. So powerful are the assistances he gives us, so suitable the encouragements, and so strong the consolations to be found in the way of duty, that we may truly say, it is a yoke of pleasantness. The way of duty is the way of rest. The truths Christ teaches are such as we may venture our souls upon. Such is the Redeemer's mercy; and why should the laboring and burdened sinner seek for rest from any other quarter? Let us come to him daily, for deliverance from wrath and guilt, from sin and Satan, from all our cares, fears, and sorrows. But forced obedience, far from being easy and light, is a heavy burden. In vain do we draw near to Jesus with our lips, while the heart is far from Him. Then come to Jesus to find rest for your souls.
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Sunday July 2, 2017 Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 97
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a
One day Elisha came to Shunem,
where there was a woman of influence, who urged him to dine with her.
Afterward, whenever he passed by, he used to stop there to dine.
So she said to her husband, "I know that Elisha is a holy man of God.
Since he visits us often, let us arrange a little room on the roof
and furnish it for him with a bed, table, chair, and lamp,
so that when he comes to us he can stay there."
Sometime later Elisha arrived and stayed in the room overnight.
Later Elisha asked, "Can something be done for her?"
His servant Gehazi answered, "Yes!
She has no son, and her husband is getting on in years."
Elisha said, "Call her."
When the woman had been called and stood at the door,
Elisha promised, "This time next year
you will be fondling a baby son."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19
R. (2a) For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
The promises of the LORD I will sing forever,
through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness.
For you have said, "My kindness is established forever;"
in heaven you have confirmed your faithfulness.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O LORD, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day,
and through your justice they are exalted.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
You are the splendor of their strength,
and by your favor our horn is exalted.
For to the LORD belongs our shield,
and the Holy One of Israel, our king.
R. For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Reading 2 Rom 6:3-4, 8-11
Brothers and sisters:
Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus
were baptized into his death?
We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father,
we too might live in newness of life.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more;
death no longer has power over him.
As to his death, he died to sin once and for all;
as to his life, he lives for God.
Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin
and living for God in Christ Jesus.
Gospel Mt 10:37-42
Jesus said to his apostles:
"Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
"Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet's reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is a righteous man
will receive a righteous man's reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because the little one is a disciple--
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a
Elisha passed to Shunem. Shunem was a village of Galilee, situated in the territory assigned to Issachar (Joshua 19:18). It is reasonably identified with the modern Solam, at the south-eastern foot of the Gebel Duhy, or "Little Hermon," a "flourishing village encompassed by gardens", and "in the midst of the finest corn-fields in the world", on the edge of the Plain of Esdraelon. Elisha, in his progression to different parts of the northern kingdom, happened to come on one occasion to Shunem. Where was a great woman. Houbigant strangely translates, "a tan woman," maintaining that a woman would not be called "great" in the sense of "wealthy" during her husband's lifetime; but no other commentator has accepted this view. The meaning seems to be that she was a woman of substance, one well-to-do, perhaps one that had brought her husband the bulk of his wealth. And she constrained him to eat bread; i.e. she invited him in as he passed her house, and would take no denial. Compare Lot's pressing hospitality, as related in Genesis 19:1-3. And so it was, that as often as he passed by, he turned in to her abode to eat bread. Elisha, it appears, had frequent occasion to pass through Shunem on his way from Carmel to visit the cities of Galilee, or versa. It became his habit, on these journeys, to eat his meals at the house of the rich Shunammite. Hence arose a kindly feeling on both sides and a close intimacy.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 89:2-3, 16-17, 18-19
The true meaning seems to be, that the psalmist had said; that is, he had said in his mind; he had firmly believed; he had so received it as a truth that it might be spoken of as firmly settled, or as an indisputable reality. It was in his mind one of the things whose truthfulness did not admit of a doubt.
Mercy shall be built up for ever - The mercy referred to; the mercy manifested in the promise made to David. The idea is, that the promise would be fully carried out or verified. It would not be like the foundation of a building, which, after being laid, was abandoned; it would be as if the building, for which the foundation was designed, were carried up and completed. It would not be a forsaken, half-finished edifice, but an edifice fully erected.
Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish - In the matter referred to - the promise made to David.
In the very heavens - literally, "The heavens - thou wilt establish thy faithfulness in them." That is the heavens - the heavenly bodies - so regular, so fixed, so enduring, are looked upon as the emblem of stability. The psalmist brings them thus before his mind, and he says that God had, as it were, made his promise a part of the very heavens; he had given to his faithfulness a place among the most secure, and fixed, and settled objects in nature. The sun in its regular rising; the stars in their certain course; the constellations, the same from age to age, were an emblem of the stability and security of the promises of God. Compare Jeremiah 33:20-21.
Reading 2 Reading 2 Rom 6:3-4, 8-11
Baptism teaches the necessity of dying to sin, and being as it were buried from all ungodly and unholy pursuits, and of rising to walk with God in newness of life. Unholy professors may have had the outward sign of a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness, but they never passed from the family of Satan to that of God. The corrupt nature, called the old man, because derived from our first father Adam, is crucified with Christ, in every true believer, by the grace derived from the cross. It is weakened and in a dying state, though it yet struggles for life, and even for victory. But the whole body of sin, whatever is not according to the holy law of God, must be done away, so that the believer may no more be the slave of sin, but live to God, and find happiness in his service.
The strongest motives against sin, and to enforce holiness, are here stated. Being made free from the reign of sin, alive unto God, and having the prospect of eternal life, it becomes believers to be greatly concerned to advance thereto. But, as unholy lusts are not quite rooted out in this life, it must be the care of the Christian to resist their motions, earnestly striving, that, through Divine grace, they may not prevail in this mortal state. Let the thought that this state will soon be at an end, encourage the true Christian, as to the motions of lusts, which so often perplex and distress him. Let us present all our powers to God, as weapons or tools ready for the warfare, and work of righteousness, in his service. There is strength in the covenant of grace for us. Sin shall not have dominion. God's promises to us are more powerful and effectual for mortifying sin, than our promises to God. Sin may struggle in a real believer, and create him a great deal of trouble, but it shall not have dominion; it may vex him, but it shall not rule over him. Shall any take occasion from this encouraging doctrine to allow themselves in the practice of any sin? Far be such abominable thoughts, so contrary to the perfections of God, and the design of his gospel, so opposed to being under grace. What can be a stronger motive against sin than the love of Christ? Shall we sin against so much goodness, and such love?
Gospel Mt 10:37-42
Today’s Gospel is the conclusion of the instructions and consolations that we have heard Jesus offering to his disciples during the past few weeks. In this passage, Jesus summarizes both the costs of discipleship and its rewards. Once again our understanding of the Gospel is strengthened by considering the context in which it was written and the perspective of Matthew’s audience.
The conditions of discipleship outlined in Matthew’s Gospel may appear harsh. Yet they underline for us a truth—choosing anything with one’s whole heart has consequences. Choosing life with Christ means that every relationship we have must be understood from a new perspective. For many in Matthew’s community, this choice brought division to their family.
Matthew also outlines the reward of hospitality offered to Jesus’ followers. In today’s Gospel, Jesus explains the difficulties of discipleship, yet reveals that those who welcome the disciples have also welcomed him.
Today’s Gospel also highlights for us the importance of hospitality in the Christian life. To welcome another in Jesus’ name is to extend hospitality to Jesus himself. We have many opportunities in our daily life to reach out to others, to be a welcoming presence and a sign of God’s love.
He that loveth father or mother more than me,.... The design of these words, is not at all to lessen the due affection of children to their parents; or to detract from the respect and esteem, in which they are due by them: it is the duty of children, to love, honor, and, obey them (remember 4th commandment); who have been the means of bringing them into the world, and of bringing them up in it; nor do any of the doctrines of Christ break in upon the ties and obligations of nature, or in the least set aside any of the duties of natural religion: but the intent of this passage is, to show, that as Christ is infinitely above all creatures, he is to be loved above the nearest and dearest relations and friends; being God over all blessed for ever, and also the Savior and Redeemer; which itself, makes him more amiable and lovely than a common parent. That man therefore, that prefers father and mother to Christ, and their instructions, and orders, to the truths and ordinances of Christ: who, to please them, breaks the commands of Christ, rejects his Gospel, and either denies him, or does not confess him, our Lord says, is not worthy of me; or he is not , "fit for me": it is not fit and proper, that such a person should name the name of Christ, or be called by his name, and should be reckoned one of his disciples; he is not fit to be a member of the church of Christ on earth, nor for the kingdom of heaven, but deserves to be rejected by him, and everlastingly banished his presence: for otherwise no man, let him behave ever so well, is worthy of relation to Christ, and interest in him; or of his grace, righteousness, presence, kingdom and glory. The same is the sense of the following clause;
and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me: whoever, to gratify a child, drops the profession of Christ, renounces his Gospel, and neglects his commands, it is not proper and convenient that he should bear the name of Christ, be accounted one of his, or be treated as such, but all the reverse.
Pondering the Gospel
- What does it mean to say that one has come to a crossroads? The expression, “we have come to a crossroad,” means that one has traveled with a person for a time, and now they each can choose to go in a different direction. Look carefully at the traffic sign for a crossroad. What does it look like? (a cross)
- Jesus says some difficult things at the beginning of this Gospel. What does Jesus say? (We cannot love any person more than Jesus; to follow Jesus means we must take up our cross.)
- This Gospel reminds us that when we choose to follow Jesus, we might face some crossroads—times when we must part company with others, perhaps because these others are doing things that are not right. Instead we must choose to act in ways that show that we are disciples of Jesus.
- Jesus does not say that being his disciple will be easy. But he does promise that our life of discipleship will be rewarded.
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Sunday June 25, 2017 Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 94
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 20:10-13
Jeremiah said:
"I hear the whisperings of many:
'Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!'
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
'Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him.'
But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
O LORD of hosts, you who test the just,
who probe mind and heart,
let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause.
Sing to the LORD,
praise the LORD,
for he has rescued the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked!"
Responsorial Psalm Ps 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35
R. (14c) Lord, in your great love, answer me.
For your sake I bear insult,
and shame covers my face.
I have become an outcast to my brothers,
a stranger to my children,
Because zeal for your house consumes me,
and the insults of those who blaspheme you fall upon me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
I pray to you, O LORD,
for the time of your favor, O God!
In your great kindness answer me
with your constant help.
Answer me, O LORD, for bounteous is your kindness;
in your great mercy turn toward me.
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
"See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.
Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
the seas and whatever moves in them!''
R. Lord, in your great love, answer me.
Reading 2 Rom 5:12-15
Brothers and sisters:
Through one man sin entered the world,
and through sin, death,
and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned--
for up to the time of the law, sin was in the world,
though sin is not accounted when there is no law.
But death reigned from Adam to Moses,
even over those who did not sin
after the pattern of the trespass of Adam,
who is the type of the one who was to come.
But the gift is not like the transgression.
For if by the transgression of the one the many died,
how much more did the grace of God
and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ
overflow for the many.
Gospel Mt 10:26-33
Jesus said to the Twelve:
"Fear no one.
Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed,
nor secret that will not be known.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;
rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy
both soul and body in Gehenna.
Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin?
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges me before others
I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father.
But whoever denies me before others,
I will deny before my heavenly Father."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Jer 20:10-13
What "dark times" have you lived through? How did you live through these times?
Jeremiah felt misunderstood. As a holy man who prophesied just before the Babylonian exile, Jeremiah faced the wrath of the king's court. For he could see the coming calamity and the blindness of the king's advisors
Judah was nothing more than a city-state centered near Jerusalem, a mere speck in the eye of the regional powers at the time. Egypt to the south. Babylon to the north and east. Playing one against the other was an invitation to disaster. In the end, Judah played that game and was destroyed.
How did Jeremiah live life in the face of a hostile leadership? He toyed with despair, as he mimicked the machinations of his enemies. [20:10] But, in the end, he remembered the One who caused him to prophesy. And the One who would save him. Jeremiah's enemies would see their shame and fall! [20:11-13]
Jeremiah saw the bigger picture. The success of those who lie and steal, spread rumor and slander will not last. In the end, their secret plans will be known. And their character will be revealed. The good will see the light of day. God will do this!
Have you ever been the target of gossip, rumor, or character assassination? How has God helped you these times?
Responsorial Psalm Ps 69:8-10, 14, 17, 33-35
PaybackHave you ever prayed for revenge when you felt oppressed by others?
Payback. If there was ever a temptation in times of personal siege, it’s for payback, revenge, dark karma. We all are tempted to demand payback at one time or another, but are we honest and brazen enough to pray for it? In the light of the gospels, that thought is “a little tacky” at best, highly inappropriate at worst. But that didn’t stop the ancient Israelites to seek payback, even in prayer. In fact, they felt their honor demanded it.
Psalm 69 was a lament song that asked for divine retribution. This psalm can be divided into six parts: 1) opening prayer for salvation, 2) lament, 3) prayer for salvation, 4) lament, 5) curse of enemies, and 6) final doxology. Notice the repetition of themes seemed to heighten the core of the hymn: the curse of enemies.
Opening Prayer for Salvation
The opening petition of the psalm was surprisingly direct. “God, save me.” 69:1b-2 presented a flood analogy (cursed like the sinners in the time of Noah?), yet, 69:3 countered with the thirst of the psalmist because of tears. A modern equivalent to the opening might be: “Lord, save me. I’m up to my eye balls in trouble, but I’ve cried so much, my mouth is dry and I can’t see you.”
Lament
This lament, along with the opening prayer, echoed the same themes from Jeremiah. Like the prophet, the psalmist was hounded by close friends and family members (69:8), yet was fully known by God. His enemies were numerous and powerful. Despite, personal repentance for the nation, the psalmist gained little comfort. Even, the watchmen gossiped about the psalmist; he was the butt of jokes and the subject of drunkard songs. From the rich to the poor, the singer was reviled by all in society. Yet, the psalmist remained faithful and was willing to endure irrational reproach.
Prayer for Salvation
Notice how the prayer for salvation in 69:14-15 echoed the flood theme of 69:1-2. The psalmist feared sinking into the “mire” and the “depths” (the depths of the seas were considered to be the home of evil by many ancient peoples). This prayer to be saved from the sea was marked off by two bookend verses; both 69:13 & 16 invoked the reason for the covenant of Sinai: God’s loving kindness. The hymn reminded God of his promises; the psalmist saw the answering of his prayer as a way for God to renew his covenant, but on a far more personal level. The covenant also became a reason for hasten a positive response from God (69:17-18).
Lament
The psalmist stated his loneliness in stark terms. Only God knew the measure of his suffering. No one else cared or enemies openly derided the singer. He felt he was treated with utter disdain.
Curses
Ancient Israelites, like their Semitic cousins, were an intense people. They were known to bless and curse expressively, even out of proportion. The psalmist was no exception. Here, he cursed the mere associations of his enemies; he cursed them to the ravages of old age; he cursed them to a complete loss of honor and reputation; he cursed them to an existence of loneliness akin to exile, especially an exile from YHWH himself. The bile of the singer was palpable, his anger displayed before God and fellow worshipers in stark relief.
Closing Doxology
The doxology turned the psalmist from his lament and his curse. Now he placed his total focus upon God. The singer asked for salvation, then declared his song more pleasing to God than sacrificial offerings, for it was the hymn of the humble and the needy. (Does 69:33b indicate the psalm was written during the Babylonian exile? Or, was it written after the return, as 69:35-36 seem to suggest?) The psalm ended with a call to universal praise and a sure hope that the promise God made to Abraham for the land would be fulfilled.
As you read the psalm, you will notice phrases that sound familiar. They should, for the evangelists used the tone and snippets of the hymn for their Passion narratives. John 15:25 used 69:4; Matthew 27:34 used 69:21. Indeed, the psalm’s loneliness and lament became a backdrop for the Passion. The tone of the psalm dovetailed with the suffering of the Messiah.
It’s easy to want payback, especially when we have been wronged. If such a temptation rears its ugly head, maybe we should do what the psalmist did. Do not shy away, but put our feelings honestly before God. Sometimes, sharing the state of the heart with God is the first step toward justice and healing. It may not gain us payback, but it will achieve something much greater.
How have you placed your dark emotions before God? How has your honesty healed you?
Reading 2 Rom 5:12-15
How do you "connect the dots" in a problem? What logic or process do you use to get to the bottom of a problem?
Popular Translation
12 Sin came into the world through the first man. And, because he sinned, he died. Now all people sin, and, so, they, too, will all die. 13 There was sin in the world until the time God gave his people the Law, but there was no list of sins because there was no Law. 14 Still, death ruled the world from Adam the first man to Moses the Law-giver. And even those who did not sin had the face of the sinner Adam. But, he was a model for the one God would send.
15 The gift God offers us is not like sin. If everyone dies because one man sinned, how much greater will the grace of God and the gift of the man Jesus Christ will be for all people!
Literal Translation
12 Because of this, as through one man’s sin came into the world, and through sin death, so throughout all men passed death, with reference to which all sinned. 13 For until (there was) the Law, sin was in the world, but sin was not detailed since there was no Law, 14 but death reigned from Adam to Moses, and upon those not having sinned the likeness of transgression of Adam, who is a type of the ONE to come.
15 But the grace is thus not like the transgression. For if by the trespass of one (man) many died how much more the grace of God and the gift of the one man JESUS the CHRIST overflow for the many.
5:12 “Because of this” referred to the subject of reconciliation of humanity to God. In the following verses, Paul summed up salvation history: sin brought death into the world and all men die because all sin. But the death and resurrection of Christ brought an end to death, and, so, to sin.
5:13 “sin was not detailed” is literally “sin was not charged.” In other words, sin was in the cosmos as a reality, but was not detailed as an individual offense until God gave his Law to his people.
These verses sum up St. Paul's view of salvation. This is his world view and logic. He presumed the vision of Genesis: God made the world "good." The sorry state of the affairs in the world could be laid squarely at the feet of humanity. Evil existed because people sinned; they disobeyed the will of a benevolent Creator. Even when God gave his people the Law with its list of divinely ordained duties, people still said "NO!" The result of disobedience was death.
Notice Paul assumed a commonly held belief in the ancient world. Death was the ultimate evil and sin was the root cause of that evil. Evil was inescapable, to be sure, but the cause of evil was not fate or divine malevolence. The fault lies with people.
Also notice Paul's logic. Along with other ancient rabbis, he argued in dualistic terms. He separated his arguments into two camps: God and people, black and white, life and death, good and evil. In these verses, Paul separated God from evil by placing the blame on humanity's sin. But, he finishes his argument with another pairing: sin and grace. If sin caused death, what would grace achieve? If death was pervasive, how much greater would grace give life? This was the way Paul stated his rhetorical questions about God's gift.
One thing does lead to another. Yes, we sin, so, we will die. But, beyond death we will have an indescribable life. We will live with God, simply because of his freely given gift of grace.
How much greater is God in your life than evil, sin, and death? How do you experience his great power?
Gospel Mt 10:26-33
What causes people worry about their security and their future?
Worry, anxiety, fear. Americans seem to invite anxiety even in the best of times. Some people not only worry, they wallow in it. Fear becomes a lifestyle that demands some sort of therapy, some sort of drug, some sort of insurance. An atmosphere of extreme concern causes some to live indoors and in the shadows.
What can help people break out of fear, anxiety, and worry? A trust in something greater than themselves. When people lose themselves to fear, they realize they are not in control. They live in sheer chaos. When they realize that God is truly in control, and that all they need to do is to trust God, they can live without anxiety. They can live openly, in peace.
In Matthew's gospel, Jesus spoke to his front line, his Apostles, on fear and the need for faith.
Literal Translation
26 So, you should not fear them. For nothing is (now) covered which will not be uncovered and (now) hidden which will be known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear (secretly) in your ear, announce on the roof (tops).
26b was a proverb in the midst of commands. The proverb referred to daily existence in an extended family that lived in the same neighborhood for generations. In such a tightly knit community, nothing could be covered up or kept a secret forever. Indeed, in the time of Jesus, adults trained children to freely walk into others' apartments and houses so they could spy, for no one locked their houses up during the day!
On the one hand, people distrust the stranger and those who dodge an issue. But, since people need privacy, they raised lies, deception, and counter-rumors to an art form. On the other hand, knowledge of others' business did have a social benefit. People can trust others who have nothing to hide.
Jesus instructed his Apostles to reveal all and to live a transparent life in order to gain the trust of people. Beyond the issue of trust, however, remained the issue of symbol. The Apostles proclaimed the ministry of the Messiah, the coming of the end times. At the final judgement, God would reveal all secrets and the saints would live in transparent glory. To convince an audience, the Apostles would need to present themselves as if they already lived such a transparent life in the Kingdom! [10:27]
How hard is it to live a transparent life, a life without secrets? What part of life is "nobody's business?"
28 Do not fear the (ones) killing the body, but not being able to kill the soul. Fear more the (One) being able to destroy the body and soul in Gehenna.
10:28 "soul" means the essence of the self. The verse can be translated: "Don't be afraid of those who can destroy your body. They cannot destroy the real 'you.'"
Such a transparent life would be honest, but it would leave the Apostles vulnerable. Living honestly cast an unfavorable shadow on those who have a secret to keep or something to hide. The dishonest could become jealous and soon rage against the honest. The dishonest would use guile, ill wit, rumor, and even persecution to justify themselves against the honest. Yes, they could kill the body (both of the individual Apostles and the Christian community), but they could not kill the spirit.
Ultimately, the Christian should live as if the day of judgment had already arrived. They should live with everything uncovered before God, for God was the only thing that really mattered. Only he could condemn both body and soul.
Why do many Christians worry about what others think of them? How can you help them overcome such anxiety?
29 Are not two sparrows sold (for a small coin)? And one of them will not fall onto the ground without (the will of the) Father. 30 But even your hairs on (your) head, all have been counted. 31 So, do not be afraid. You have more worth than (a flock of) many sparrows.
10:29 "(for a small coin)" is literally "(for an) assarion." An assarion was a small copper coin worth one-sixteenth of a denarii, the coin of a day's wage. If someone earned $100 a day, an assarion would be worth $6.25.
"without (the will of the) Father" is literally "without the Father."
In the time of Jesus, "sparrow" was a common term used for many different types of small birds, not necessarily a particular species. Town merchants sold small birds in marketplaces as one of the few meat sources for the poor. The coin (an "assarion") used to pay for two birds was Roman in origin.
Jesus used the analogy of size to emphasize God's providence. Everything in the world depended upon God's will. The flight of a small bird and even something smaller, the hair on one's head. If he directed such things of small worth, how much more will God care for his people!
Three times, Jesus tells his audience not to worry (10:26, 28, 31) Don't worry to be open about faith, don't worry about powerful opponents, don't worry about one's fate. All three lay in God's hands.
How can you lay your personal daily needs before the Lord? How will such a daily offering help you?
32 So, anyone who acknowledges me in the presence of men, I will also acknowledge him in the presence of my Father, the One in heaven. 33 But, whoever should deny me in the presence of men, I will also deny him in the presence of my Father, the One in heaven.
Faith could have a high cost: loss of privacy, persecution, and a loss of self-determination. But a single benefit outweighed the cost: an advocate before God. At the time of Jesus, when some prophets cried out for God's judgment and the end seemed immanent, people asked themselves "Where do I stand before God?" The Sadducees hid behind Temple cult. The Pharisees held to observance of the Law as justification. But, the Christian took comfort in the words "I belong to Jesus." Unlike worship ritual or religious duty, the Christian had a personal mediator, a go-between who could plead the case of the follower. Jesus would advocate for the faithful, but reject the apostate.
How can I freely share my Christian commitment with others?
Catechism Theme: Morality and the Passions (CCC 1763-1770)
"Passions" are emotions that drive us to action or inaction when a moral dilemma faces us. Some passions like love focus on the good in life, while others like fear and hatred help us avert evil.
Passions are morally neutral; their morality depends upon their use. When we use them for a good end, we make them virtuous. When we use them for an evil end, we make them immoral. A feeling of love or ecstasy in itself does not make us good. In the same way, feelings of hatred or inadequacy do not make us evil or deficient.
We need passions such as the will to accomplish the moral good. But most of all, we need the movement of Spirit who empowers us toward the good.
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Sunday June 18, 2017 Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ
Lectionary: 167
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a
Moses said to the people:
"Remember how for forty years now the LORD, your God,
has directed all your journeying in the desert,
so as to test you by affliction
and find out whether or not it was your intention
to keep his commandments.
He therefore let you be afflicted with hunger,
and then fed you with manna,
a food unknown to you and your fathers,
in order to show you that not by bread alone does one live,
but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of the LORD.
"Do not forget the LORD, your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt,
that place of slavery;
who guided you through the vast and terrible desert
with its saraph serpents and scorpions,
its parched and waterless ground;
who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock
and fed you in the desert with manna,
a food unknown to your fathers."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
R. (12) Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has granted peace in your borders;
with the best of wheat he fills you.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them. Alleluia.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Cor 10:16-17
Brothers and sisters:
The cup of blessing that we bless,
is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break,
is it not a participation in the body of Christ?
Because the loaf of bread is one,
we, though many, are one body,
for we all partake of the one loaf.
Gospel Jn 6:51-58
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds:
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my flesh for the life of the world."
The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,
"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them,
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you do not have life within you.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
has eternal life,
and I will raise him on the last day.
For my flesh is true food,
and my blood is true drink.
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood
remains in me and I in him.
Just as the living Father sent me
and I have life because of the Father,
so also the one who feeds on me
will have life because of me.
This is the bread that came down from heaven.
Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died,
whoever eats this bread will live forever."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a
In a long discourse/commentary on the Law, Moses used the language of parent and child to symbolize the Exodus experience. God cared for his people, as a father cared for his dependent children. In his wisdom, he provided everything the people needed for the long journey, including food. Yet, even this dependent relationship had a point: life required, not only food, but the Word of God. [8:2-3]
However, dependence was a two-edged sword. It could encourage trust. Or, it could spawn pride, resentment, and rebellion. Even in dependence, the people had a choice. So, Moses gave a brief history of God's initiative. "Remember," Moses said to the people, "remember how God cared for you!" In the end, the water from the rock and the manna from heaven were signs of God's compassion. But, even they were a means to an end: a relationship with God. [8:14b-16]
Eucharist is a sign of God's compassion. It reminds us what God has done and will do for us. But, it, too, is a means to an end. As the full presence of the risen Lord, it can bring us into a deep relationship with God. We only need to depend upon God, trust him as his child, to make it so.
When you receive Eucharist this Sunday, reflect on what God has done in your life.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
When do you stop in your daily routine to give God praise? Why do you praise the Lord?
If we bother to look, we can always find a reason to praise God. Despite evil in the world, open eyes and open hearts will glorify God for the smallest blessing. So, let us look and raise our voices in song to the Lord!
The psalms are full of praise. Psalm 147 was a combination of three different psalms that represented praise in different contexts. The first (147:1-6) praised God for comforting the poor and needy in Jerusalem after the Babylonian Exile. God was the one who rebuilt Jerusalem; those who returned were his instruments in the construction. God would also return those left in alien environs to the Promised Land. The God of the cosmos cared for the least significant, so great was his power.
The second song of praise (147:7-11) thanked God for his power, primarily shown in the rainy season. Through his gift, produce and livestock flourished. In the greater view, all (even the king) should remember that they rely on God for all good things (like the rain), not on national strength or the size of an army. The devout and humble pleased God, for they lived that reliance. (Notice the unspoken relationship between praise and an attitude of reliance on God for his many blessings.)
The third song (147:12-20) addressed Jerusalem which believed God’s word originated with his presence in the Temple then spread to the corners of the world. The city should praise God for his protection and his blessing. Both came from the word of God which swiftly commands nature’s rhythms and processes. This was the same word God gave to his people in the Law. Notice that the power that regulated nature also regulated the life of the people in the city. There was a sense God’s creative power and his Law were one and the same.
Let's dwell on that last point for just a moment. God’s Word controls the universe and guides our very lives. If there was any reason to praise God, this insight would be the reason. God’s power is so overwhelming that it holds the galaxies in their orbits, the sub-atomic particles in their space, and the fate of nations in his hands. Yet, the Lord has not forgotten me or you as individuals. When we are poor and needy, he sustains us. When we enjoy the produce of the land, he provides for us. When we see the good his will gives us, he blesses us. God takes care of us with all good things.
Praise God!
Take a few moments and look for reasons to praise God. Nothing is too small or too large. Make a list, if needed and praise the Lord!
Reading 2 1 Cor 10:16-17
10:16 “is it not communion with the blood of Christ?” The word “communion” in Greek is “koinonia,” a term that described community and fellowship. Koinonia meant an allegiance of two or more people with a common purpose; meal association defined the membership of the koinonia. In the context that surround these verses, Paul was concerned about Christians eating meat sacrificed to idols; pagan neighbors would invite Christians to banquets at temples where such meat was shared in a meal of communion. Paul argued against accepting such invitations, for participation in the meal meant a communion with the idol. How could someone claim to be a Christian when he was present at such a banquet? Did he worship Christ or the idol? Certainly scandal would follow.
Communion defines community. That statement might seem obvious, even trite, like Gertrude Stein’s famous phrase: “A rose is a rose is a rose.” But, because it is so obvious, its impact is overlooked. Humans define their social worlds with meals. Table mates are usually family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. These are people who share something in common: blood relations, geographic proximity, job environments, and shared values. Sometimes, the strongest bonds for meal fellowship transcend these factors. Sometimes, these bonds are far greater than the people involved.
Eucharist is a case in point. Christ defined his community at a simple meal; he defined it with his self-giving. His Body was himself and his Blood was his life. When believers share the meal, they become one with Christ. The loaf of bread, the Body of Christ, is the focal point. Those who eat the bread become one with the Body. Communion with the bread defines the community as the Body of Christ. The Church, then, is the people who are made one in the Body of Christ and share the life of Christ in common.
When Christ shared himself with us, he molded us into himself. Christ’s communion defines us as part of his community.
How important is Communion to you? Who shares Communion with you? How important are these people to you? Why or why not?
Gospel Jn 6:51-58
Habit or Commitment?Does Communion reflect a habit or a commitment?
At one point or another, every Christian says a prayer or receives communion without thought. Christian practice becomes second nature. And the Christian takes elements of a faith life for granted.
However, our post-Christian society will make such a lax attitude more difficult to sustain. The media tempts the Christian with the easy life. The need for economic gain invites the believer to cut corners with personal relationships. Even voices on the fringe have become rabidly anti-Christian. The Christian can no longer depend upon culture to maintain faith. The cacophony of voices from media, the stress of daily living, and even those on the edge ask one question: How strong is our commitment to Christ?
In John's gospel, Jesus debated this question with a hostile crowd. In doing so, Jesus taught them and John's readers the true meaning of Communion.
Jesus said to the crowd
51 "I AM the Living Bread, the (bread) having come down from heaven. If someone should eat of this bread, he will live into the age (of the Kingdom); but the bread which I will give is my flesh, on behalf of the life of the world."
6:51 "but the bread which I will give is my flesh, on behalf of the life of the world." John is trying to draw a parallel between the given bread (broken and shared at the Last Supper) and Jesus' flesh (given upon the cross). The thread that holds the parallel together is the verb "given." Jesus freely gave himself up on the cross for the world. Jesus freely gave bread at the Last Supper with the words, "This is my body." Setting aside the nitpicking difference between "flesh" and "body," John clearly wanted to see salvation on the cross celebrated in the bread shared in the Eucharist. Jesus freely gave himself to us on the cross. He freely gives himself to us in Communion. The gift in these two different events is the same.
Like last week's study, Jesus debated with a Jewish audience. In John 3:16-18, he discussed spiritual rebirth with Nicodemus. Now, he found himself in a fiery dialogue with a Jewish crowd. They traveled across the Sea of Galilee to see Jesus after they witnessed of a great miracle: the multiplication of the loaves and fish (see John 6:1-15). Jesus challenged their reason to seek him out. They wanted a prophet to follow. But Jesus offered them something more than food to feed their bellies. He offered them the feast of eternal life! And, so, the dialogue continued with the audience on the physical plane and with Jesus on the spiritual plane.
Jesus said to the crowd
51 I AM the Living Bread, the (bread) having come down from heaven. If someone should eat of this bread, he will live into the age (of the Kingdom); but the bread which I will give is my flesh, on behalf of the life of the world.
"I AM" has been emphasized, since John used the phrase to denote the divine presence within Jesus. As we have studied in the past, the phrase "I AM" hearkened back to the title God revealed to Moses at Mt. Sinai (Exodus 3:14-15). This title, YHWH in the Hebrew text, was connected with the verb "to be," not in the context of existence but activity ("to be doing something"). Jews believed their God lived because he actively intervened time and time again in their history. Unlike the dead idols of neighboring peoples, the Jews proudly called their God, the"living" God, the One that got the job done.
Jesus used the idea of the living God when he described himself as the "living" bread from heaven. He bridged the title "I AM" with bread. Unlike the manna God sent the Hebrews as they wandered the desert, Jesus came to feed people as the living bread (see John 6:30-32). Jesus, then, connected his identify (I AM, the living One, the divine presence) to his mission (bread from heaven to feed the world).
Jesus is the bread that "came down from heaven" in 6:51a, but he "will give" this bread (his flesh). Notice the shift in verb tense from the past to the future. The past refers to the Incarnation (see John 1:14); the future refers to his death on the cross. With this simple shift in time, Jesus again emphasized the thematic change from his identity to his mission.
John 6:51 created a controversy. The crowd began to grumble about Jesus' claim. How could Jesus give his flesh as food? Even though people complained to each other, the thrust of their argument went against Jesus.
Jesus responded emphatically. "Amen! Amen! I say to you!" Then, with an "if...then" statement, Jesus divided his audience into the spiritually dead and the spiritually living.
Those who do not eat and drink have no life, for they have no intimacy with the "Son of Man." Taken together as a Semitic phrase, the term "flesh and blood" referred to the entire person. The phrase, "Son of Man" flowed from a reference to everyone (like the phrase "G.I. Joe" referred to all American fighting men in World War II; see Psalm 8:4) to a reference to the Messiah (see Daniel 7:13). The phrase "Son of Man" made Jesus like everyone else. It also made him God's Chosen. With these two converging meanings, the phrase "Son of Man" amply described Jesus as God's unique instrument for universal salvation. Those who had direct intimate union with the Son of Man had eternal life, for they possessed God's very life. Those who did not existed as empty shells.
To drive the point home, John used an unusual verb in 6:54a: "The person eating my flesh..." This graphic image connected the eater to the food, the believer to the Master. The believer must not nibble the flesh of the Master. No, to feast on the bread of life required a full commitment from the believer!
John continued to use the verb "eating" in 6:54-58 to distinguish the believer from the non-believer.
55 For MY flesh is true food and MY blood is true drink. 56 The (person) eating MY flesh and drinking MY blood remains in me and I (remain) in him.
What did Jesus mean by "true food" and "true drink?" In the context of ancient times and the context of the verse, the word "true" meant "only." The body and blood of Christ, then, were the only food and drink that really mattered.
Remember our discussion of John 14:6 (Fifth Sunday in Easter) when Jesus stated "I AM the way, the Truth, and the Life." In this short phrase, Jesus connected he phrase "I AM" with the "Truth." In other words, the divine presence within Jesus ("I AM") was the only thing that mattered ("the Truth"). Everything else paled in comparison. In the same way, intimacy with Jesus (flesh and blood) was the only thing that really matter for the believer (eat true food...drink true drink).
Those who make such a strong commitment ("eating" his flesh) have the life of Christ within them, as they become part of Christ. The verb "stay" in 6:56 expresses intimate union between Christ and the believer. As a corollary, such intimacy unites believers with each other in Christ. St. Paul coined an analogy for the union of a believer with Christ and other Christians: the Body of Christ.
57 In the same way the Living Father sent me and I live through the Father, the (person) eating MY flesh will also live through me.
Verse 6:57 has two parts: Jesus' relationship with the Father and the believer's relationship with Jesus. In both relationships, one party depends on the other for life. Jesus lives because of the Father. And the believer lives because of Jesus.
The first relationship caused the second one. The mission of Jesus from the Father bridged the two relationships. The Father willed the Son to sacrifice himself so he could feed believers. In this sense, Jesus became the conduit for the Father's very life to the believer. Jesus has life through the Father. The believer has life through Jesus.
The title "living" for God the Father echoes the implications of Jesus' phrase "I AM" and his self-identification with the bread from heaven (see 6:51a above).
58 This is the bread having come down from heaven, unlike (the manna which our) ancestors ate and (then) died. The (person) eating this bread will enter into the age (of the Kingdom)."
6:58 summed up Jesus' discourse. Jesus used bread to compare believers and unbelievers. Believers eating the bread (the flesh of Jesus) that gives life. They shared a table fellowship centered on the Lord. And they became part of the Body they consumed.
Unbelievers (symbolized by the Jewish antagonists of Jesus) held they lived close to God, for their ancestors ate the manna bread from heaven (i.e., their ancestors based their lives solely upon God's providence). But there was a difference between one truly living close to God and believing one lived close to God because that person enjoyed a good life. Living close to God involved risks (being misunderstood and even persecuted for faith); enjoying God's favor merely meant a relatively comfortable life. The one who chose intimacy with God was spiritually alive. The one who simply paid lip service to God for his blessings was spiritually dying.
Questions and Answers
Why is Eucharist the high point of Christian life?
The Eucharist is the high point of Christian life because 1) Eucharist remembers and celebrates the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, and 2) in the Communion, Jesus unites his followers with himself. (1407)
What are the two parts of Eucharist?
The two parts of Eucharist are 1) the Liturgy of the Word where the Bible is read and taught, and 2) the Liturgy of the Eucharist where God is thanked for all his gifts, the bread and wine are consecrated (changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus), and Jesus' followers share in his Body and Blood at Communion. (1408)
How is the risen Jesus active in the Eucharist?
Since the Eucharist celebrates the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the Jesus acts as high priest (by offering himself to God the Father) and victim (who died in our place). The ordained priest represents Christ as priest in the Mass; the consecrated bread and wine is Christ sharing himself with us. (1411)
What are the sacramental signs of Eucharist?
The sacramental signs of Eucharist are 1) the bread and wine, 2) the prayer asking for the blessing of the Holy Spirit and 3) the word of Consecration ("This is my body...this is my blood of the new covenant..."). (1412)
Is only part of Jesus present in Eucharist or all of Jesus?
All of Jesus is present in the consecrated bread and wine, not merely his Spirit. Jesus is present "Body, Blood, soul and divinity." (1413)
What is necessary in order to receive Eucharist?
In order to receive Eucharist, one must be forgiven of serious (or "mortal") sins. Someone with a serious sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before they receive Eucharist. (1415) Eucharist does forgive less serious (or "venial" sins) and strengthens one against serious sin. (1416)
How many times a year must a Catholic receive Eucharist?
A Catholic must receive Eucharist at least once a year, but all Catholics are encouraged to go every time they attend Mass. (1417)
Why does one genuflect in front of the tabernacle?
Since the tabernacle contains the consecrated bread (which is really Jesus), one shows honor to the consecrated hosts (known as the "Blessed Sacrament") by genuflecting or bowing. (1418)
Westerners, especially Americans, enjoy "the Good Life." Does this freedom from want help or hinder your commitment to Christ?
So many sparks fly from these few passages: the divinity of Christ, the gift of his sacrifice on the cross, his life offered to the believer (made explicit at Communion), the commitment of the believer in response. To continue the meal metaphor, the rich thematic fare Christ offered in John 6:51-58 can overwhelm us. But it should not numb us. Christ invites us to consume him in Word and Sacrament. He entreats us to constantly renew our commitment to his Lordship. The question that lies before us is simple. Do we take his invitation at its full value?
How can you help the Communion you receive on Sunday come alive this week?
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Sunday June 11, 2017 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
Lectionary: 164
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9
Early in the morning Moses went up Mount Sinai
as the LORD had commanded him,
taking along the two stone tablets.
Having come down in a cloud, the LORD stood with Moses there
and proclaimed his name, "LORD."
Thus the LORD passed before him and cried out,
"The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God,
slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity."
Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.
Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord,
do come along in our company.
This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and receive us as your own."
Responsorial Psalm Dn 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
R. (52b) Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever;
And blessed is your holy and glorious name,
praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you in the temple of your holy glory,
praiseworthy and glorious above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you on the throne of your kingdom,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim,
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
R. Glory and praise for ever!
Reading 2 2 Cor 13:11-13
Brothers and sisters, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the holy ones greet you.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the love of God
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Gospel Jn 3:16-18
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9
Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones: Remember Moses broke the first set of tablets of stone, the ones written with the finger of God (Exodus 32:19). He broke them because Israel broke the covenant.
The Lord descended by some open token of his presence and manifestation of his glory in a cloud, and thence proclaimed his NAME; that is, the perfections and character which are denoted by the name Lord.
The cloud mentioned was no doubt the cloud of God’s glory. It is thought his was the same cloud that:
- Covered Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:16)
- Went with Israel by day (Exodus 13:21-22)
- Went to the tent of Moses (Exodus 33:9-10)
- Filled the temple with glory (2 Chronicles 7:2)
- Overshadowed Mary at the conception of Jesus (Luke 1:35)
- Was present at the transfiguration of Jesus (Luke 9:34-35)
- Will be present at the return of Jesus (Revelation 1:7)
The Lord God is merciful; ready to forgive the sinner, and to relieve the needy. Gracious; kind, and ready to bestow undeserved benefits. Long-suffering; slow to anger, giving time for repentance, only punishing when it is needful. He is abundant in goodness and truth; even sinners receive the riches of his bounty abundantly, though they abuse them. All he reveals is infallible truth, all he promises is in faithfulness. Keeping mercy for thousands; he continually shows mercy to sinners, and has treasures, which cannot be exhausted, to the end of time. Forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin; his mercy and goodness reach to the full and free forgiveness of sin. And will by no means clear the guilty; the holiness and justice of God are part of his goodness and love towards all his creatures. In Christ's sufferings, the Divine holiness and justice are fully shown, and the evil of sin is made known. God's forgiving mercy is always attended by his converting, sanctifying grace. None are pardoned but those who repent and forsake the allowed practice of every sin; nor shall any escape, who abuse, neglect, or despise this great salvation. Moses bowed down, and worshipped reverently. Every perfection in the name of God, the believer may plead with Him for the forgiveness of his sins, the making holy of his heart, and the enlargement of the Redeemer's kingdom.
Responsorial Psalm Dn 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
These verses began the brilliant hymn of praise to God. Read in its entirety, the prayer is praise and an imperative of praise by all creation. According to the story in Daniel 3, the words of the prayer were placed in the mouths of three Jews who served the court of Nebuchadnezzar (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), the Babylonian monarch who swept Judah’s elders into exile. These Jews refused to bow down to the golden statue that Nebuchadnezzar had erected as a focal point of worship. For their punishment, the three young men were condemned to death in a fiery furnace. Instead of dying, they walked in the furnace unscathed and blessed God. As an interesting side note, a fourth figure joined the men in the furnace. This figure appeared like “a son of God.”
Reading 2 2 Cor 13:11-13
1. What do you know about the Trinity from the last lines of this reading: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” God’s nature is love, and he has invited us to come along in his company. What are the implications for our communities?
2. We can all agree with and/or encourage each other in order to live in peace. How important is this to you? Do you encourage others? Is Paul talking about agreeing on everything or only on matters of faith?
Gospel Jn 3:16-18
This week we return to the liturgical season of Ordinary Time. This Sunday and next, however, are designated as solemnities—special days that call our attention to central mysteries of our faith. Today on Trinity Sunday we celebrate the mystery of the Holy Trinity, one God in three persons.
Today’s Gospel is from the beginning of John’s Gospel. The passage we read follows Jesus’ conversation with a Pharisee, Nicodemus, about what it means to be born of both water and the spirit. Nicodemus approaches Jesus at night and acknowledges Jesus as a teacher from God. Jesus tells him that only those who are born from above will see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus misunderstands and questions how a person can be born more than once. Jesus tells Nicodemus that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. Jesus is essentially explaining Baptism, which we celebrate as a sacrament today. Yet Nicodemus, we are told, still does not understand what Jesus is saying. Jesus continues by testifying to the need to be born from above so that one might have eternal life.
After the dialogue with Nicodemus, the author of the Gospel offers his own explanation of Jesus’ words. This is what we read in today’s Gospel, John 3:16-18.
In the context of today’s focus on the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the reading calls our attention to the action of God, who reveals himself in three persons: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God the Father, out of love for the world, sent his Son into the world in order to save it. Through the death and resurrection of the Son, we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit. As three persons, God acts always as a God of love; he does not condemn the world but acts to save it.
The Gospel also calls attention to the response that is required of us. God’s love for us calls us to respond in faith by professing our belief in God’s son, Jesus, and the salvation that he has won for us. This profession of faith is a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- This Sunday, as the Easter season has ended, we are invited to learn about God: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This Sunday we celebrate the Holy Trinity, three Persons in one God. We celebrate the solemnity of Trinity Sunday to rejoice that God chooses to interact with us in different, loving ways.
- What different words would you use to describe the different persons in the Trinity? For example Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier, Father, Son, and Spirit. What else?
- This Sunday’s Gospel talks about why and how God acts. We come to know who God is by what God does for us. What does the Gospel tell us about what God does for us and why? (God sent Jesus to save the world because God loves the world.) The Holy Spirit is given to us so that we might believe that God loves us and wants to give us eternal life. The Trinity is a way to talk about how we experience God’s love for us.
- God is love, and he who abides in love, abides in God, and God in him.
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So sorry my friends I published the incorrect study last week. I added it this week for review. Again my apologies.
Sunday June 4, 2017 - Pentecost Sunday - Mass during the day
Lectionary: 63
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:1-11
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled,
they were all in one place together.
And suddenly there came from the sky
a noise like a strong driving wind,
and it filled the entire house in which they were.
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire,
which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.
At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd,
but they were confused
because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked,
"Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
Then how does each of us hear them in his native language?
We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites,
inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia,
Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene,
as well as travelers from Rome,
both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs,
yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues
of the mighty acts of God."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
R. (cf. 30) Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD, my God, you are great indeed!
How manifold are your works, O Lord!
the earth is full of your creatures;
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
may the LORD be glad in his works!
Pleasing to him be my theme;
I will be glad in the LORD.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
If you take away their breath, they perish
and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created,
and you renew the face of the earth.
R. Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13
Brothers and sisters:
No one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;
there are different forms of service but the same Lord;
there are different workings but the same God
who produces all of them in everyone.
To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.
As a body is one though it has many parts,
and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body,
so also Christ.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body,
whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons,
and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Gospel Jn 20:19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:1-11
In my research almost all narrators mentioned that it is a shame that the Pentecost story in Acts 2:1-2:47 is cut in half. The whole of Acts 2 is a unit of Lukan thought that shouldn’t be divided they feel.
This story is a kind of summary of Luke's second volume. Luke's first volume led us from the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem to the climactic events of his life in Jerusalem. Acts, on the other hand, moves us from Pentecost in Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
To Jerusalem. From Jerusalem. That's Luke's outline.
Luke tells this story in three parts:
- Acts 2:1-13, the miracle of Pentecost
- Acts 2:14-40, Peter's keynote address
- Acts 2:41-47, announces a summary of the Pentecost story and points to the messianically restored, Spirit-filled church that is the true Israel
When Peter preaches on Pentecost he changes slightly the quotation from the prophet Joel. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, Joel says: "After these things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." (Septuagint, Joel 3:1) Luke, through Peter, makes clear that what is happening at Pentecost is the beginning of the great time when God brings all of human history to consummation--in Jesus Christ. "In the last days, it will be, God declares, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh."
The whole great drama of the two volume book--Luke and Acts--is the story of God's Spirit as the sign of the end of the times. At the beginning of his ministry Jesus stands in the synagogue and reads Isaiah 61. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor." Jesus' ministry begins with the gift of the Spirit, not for the sake of the church but for the sake of the world. The church's ministry begins with the gift of the Spirit, not for the sake of the church, but for the sake of the world.
Notice that at the beginning of both ministries, that of Jesus and that of the church, Luke shows us how deeply grounded the new covenant is in the old. Jesus cannot explain his ministry without turning to Isaiah. Peter cannot explain what Pentecost means without turning to Joel. The understanding of the relationship of the growing church to Judaism in Luke and Acts is a much disputed issue. What cannot be disputed is that neither Jesus nor church is comprehensible apart from Israel's story and Israel's hope.
Our text is often read and preached in connection with the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9. In that story we remember God confused and diversified human languages so that the whole earth no longer "had one language and the same words." Presumably this is God's punishment for the human pretension and pride that built the tower. Notice, however, that Pentecost does not really reverse Babel. It is not the case, that at the end of Pentecost all the earth--or even all believers--have one language and the same words. The miracle of Pentecost is that even though there are still many languages and diverse words people are able to understand each other. It is a misreading of the story to think that God's promise for the church is a kind of ecclesiastical Esperanto--a universal language we all can speak and understand. The apostles speak a variety of languages so that a variety of people can hear. God's promise for the church is that in our diversity, through our diversity, the Spirit still leads us forward in understanding. If Eden was a "happy fall" because it made possible our redemption, maybe Babel was a happy fall because it enriched our diversity--the languages in which we can preach the Gospel and praise God.
Professor Lamin Sanneh of Yale Divinity School grew up as a Muslim and converted to Christianity. He has great appreciation for both faiths, but he has pointed out that Christianity, unlike Islam, believes in the translation of our sacred texts. The Q'ran is really the Q'ran only in Arabic. The Bible is the Bible whether in Hebrew and Greek or in English or French or Hindi. That is a gift of the Spirit.
We also notice, though, that when the first believers speak in diverse languages but say the same thing, they do not deliver speeches praising diversity. Diversity is a blessed feature of the Christian life but it is not the center of that life. What they speak about is "God's deeds of power." (Acts 2:11) There is a tendency among American Christians to bring diverse people together to praise our diversity. The model we get in Acts is that we bring diverse people together to praise God.
When Peter preaches about the miracle that people have observed (trying to defend his friends against the accusation that they have been drinking too much) what he talks about is not the splendor of the congregation but the majesty of God. It is God's Spirit that makes this day possible. The day is not the church's day; it is "the coming of the Lord's great and glorious day."(Acts 2:20) The purpose of the day is not to congratulate each other but to repent and believe: "Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Acts 2:21)
This is not the last word on the spread of the Gospel in the book of Acts. Here we have the Gospel proclaimed and enacted among Jews from every nation and of every tongue. But the story goes on: in Acts 8, Philip interprets scripture to the Ethiopian eunuch. In Acts 9, a Jewish leader named Saul is overpowered on the road to Damascus and recruited--though he does not yet know it--to spread the Gospel to the Gentiles. In Acts 10, Peter's vision of God's vision grows enormously. When God gives him the compelling dream of the sheet filled with creatures of all kinds, Peter realizes that Pentecost is for people of all kinds. He has to rethink his own sermon on Joel. When God says "in the last days I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh," God means all flesh." The church grows and spreads and among all peoples serves the coming Reign of God.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
Psalm 104 presents a glorious picture of God as creator and a sweeping view of the world God made.
The main subject of the psalm is the order of the world and the sovereignty of the God who created and maintains it. This subject in turn instills confidence that God can and will order the lives of those who seek God by keeping them in God’s purpose and away from evil.
Psalm 104 draws from theological ideas similar to those in the creation story in Genesis 1:1-2:4a and the flood story in Genesis 6-9. In Genesis 1:1-2:4a God creates the world by pushing back the waters that covered the earth so there is a place for plants to grow and animals, including humans, to flourish. The flood story states that when God saw that human beings were completely bent toward evil (6:5) God decided to reverse creation and start over (note in 7:11 the flood occurred when the waters were allowed to cross the boundaries God had made).
But after the flood God realized that humans were still inclined toward evil (8:21b). Nevertheless, God decided to allow the world to remain intact (8:21a). This promise is the most basic sign of God’s grace. God determined to be patient with human beings and not to punish them as they deserve to be punished.
Reading 2 1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13
Verses 1 thru 3. Now in regard to spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be unaware.
You know how, when you were pagans, you were constantly attracted and led away to mute idols.
Therefore, I tell you that nobody speaking by the spirit of God says, “Jesus be accursed.”
The apostle comes now to discuss spiritual gifts, which abounded in the church of Corinth, but were greatly abused. What these gifts were is at large told us in the body of the chapter; namely, extraordinary offices and powers, bestowed on ministers and Christians in the first ages, for conviction of unbelievers, and propagation of the gospel. Gifts and graces, charismata (Theology. a divinely conferred gift or power, also a spiritual power or personal quality that gives an individual influence or authority over large numbers of people.) and charis (Greek name for races), greatly differ. Both indeed were freely given of God. But where grace is given it is for the salvation of those who have it. Gifts are bestowed for the advantage and salvation of others. And there may be great gifts where there is not an iota of grace, but persons possessed of them are utterly out of the divine favor. They are great instances of divine benignity to men, but do not by themselves prove those who have them to be the objects of divine complacency. This church was rich in gifts, but there were many things scandalously out of order in it. Now concerning these spiritual gifts, that is, the extraordinary powers they had received from the Spirit. The apostle tells them he would not have them ignorant either of their origin or use. They came from God, and were to be used for him. It would lead them far astray if they were ignorant of one or the other of these. Note, Right information is of great use as to all religious practice. It is wretched work which gifted men make who either do not know or do not advert to the nature and right use of the gifts with which they are endowed. He puts them in the mind of the sad state out of which they had been recovered: You were Gentiles, carried away to dumb idols, even as you were led. While they were so, they could have no pretensions to be spiritual men, nor to have spiritual gifts. While they were under the conduct of the spirit of Gentilism, they could not be influenced by the Spirit of Christ. If they well understood their former condition, they could not but know that all true spiritual gifts were from God. Now concerning this, observe, 1. Their former character: they were Gentiles. Not God’s peculiar people, but of the nations whom he had in a manner abandoned. The Jews were, before, his chosen people, distinguished from the rest of the world by his favor. To them the knowledge and worship of the true God were in a manner confined. The rest of the world were strangers to the covenant of promise, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and in a manner without God, Eph. 2:12 . Such Gentiles were the body of the Corinthians, before their conversion to Christianity. What a change was here! Christian Corinthians were once Gentiles. Note, It is of great use to the Christian, and a proper consideration to stir him up both to duty and thankfulness, to think what once he was: You were Gentiles. 2. The conduct they were under: Carried away to these dumb idols, even as you were led. They were hurried upon the grossest idolatry, the worship even of stocks and stones, through the force of a vain imagination, and the fraud of their priests practicing on their ignorance, for, whatever were the sentiments of their philosophers, this was the practice of the herd. The body of the people paid their homage and worship to dumb idols, that had ears but could not hear, and mouths but could not speak,
Gospel Jn 20:19-23
- The Season of Easter concludes with today’s celebration, the Feast of Pentecost. On Pentecost we celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem; this event marks the beginning of the Church. The story of Pentecost is found in the Acts of the Apostles, today’s first reading. The account in today’s Gospel, John 20:19-23, also recounts how Jesus gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to his disciples. Yet the event in John’s Gospel takes place on Easter Sunday. There is no need to try to reconcile these two accounts. It is enough that we know that after his death, Jesus fulfilled his promise to send to his disciples a helper, an advocate, who would enable them to be his witnesses throughout the world. But still why this difference in the readings?
- Best I could determine is:
- A) Jesus said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" because He was actually imparting the Holy Spirit at this time, and wanted them to understand what was happening. The "breathing" was to illustrate the giving of Spiritual life, and would be familiar imagery from their knowledge of Genesis 2:7.
- B) Jesus blew on them to illustrate to His disciples that He and the Spirit were one, and that the Spirit would come forth from Him. He then commanded them in advance to "Receive the Holy Spirit" because it was almost time for Him to go to the Father and for the Spirit to come, and He wouldn't be with them to explain it when it happened. So today the Holy Spirit comes to enlighten the disciples, give them the knowledge and understanding to spread the word that Jesus taught them.
We already heard today’s Gospel proclaimed on the Second Sunday of Easter this year (Lectionary Cycle A). That Gospel passage, however, also included the description of Jesus’ appearance to Thomas. In that context, we were led reflect on belief and unbelief.
In the context of the Feast of Pentecost, John 20:19-23 reminds us about the integral connection between the gifts of peace and forgiveness and the action of the Holy Spirit. Jesus greets his disciples with the gift of peace. Jesus then commissions his disciples to continue the work that he has begun, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He breathes the Holy Spirit upon the disciples and sends them to continue his work of reconciliation through the forgiveness of sins. Jesus’ act of breathing the Holy Spirit mirrors God’s act of breathing life into Adam at the time of Creation. In fact, both the Greek and Hebrew words for “spirit” can also be translated as “breath.”
This Gospel reminds us that the Church is called to be a reconciling presence in the world. The reconciling presence of Christ is celebrated in the Church’s sacramental life. In the Sacrament of Baptism, we are cleansed of sin and become a new creation in Christ. In the Sacrament of Penance, the Church celebrates the mercy of God through the forgiving of sins. This reconciling presence is also to be a way of life for Christians. In situations of conflict, we are to be agents of peace and harmony among people.
How is God's Spirit different from the Force in Star Wars?
The latest Star Wars movie was released in December 2015 (with more to come!). Children of all ages can now relive the saga of the most profitable series in movie history. They can root for the Light side of the Force, and boo the Dark Side.
The Holy Spirit found in Christianity does not mirror the dual nature of the impersonal Force. Why? The Holy Spirit brings us love and hope. Love and hope do not have a dark side. And, both love and hope begin with forgiveness.
The Holy Spirit we worship, the Holy Spirit we possess, is the Spirit of divine forgiveness.
Popular Translation
Late Sunday evening, the followers of Jesus locked the doors of the place where they met because they feared the Jewish leaders. Jesus appeared in the middle of them and said, "Peace be with you." After he spoke, Jesus showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They felt great joy when they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said to them, "Peace be with you. Just as the Father sent me, I am sending you." Then, Jesus breathed on them. "Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."
Jesus said.
"If you forgive someone's sins, their sins are and will ever be forgiven.
If you don't forgive their sins, their sins are not forgiven."
Like many other Resurrection stories, John divided this passage into two blocks: appearance of the Risen Lord and the commission of the disciples. For John, the breath of the Spirit was the sign and substance of the commission.
Literal Translation
Being evening in that first day of the week, and the doors having been locked where the disciples were because of fear of the (Jewish leaders.), Jesus came and stood in the middle (of them) and said "Peace to you." Having said this, he showed (his) hands and side to them. The disciples rejoiced, having seen the Lord.
"Evening in that first day of the week" is literally "evening in that day, the first one of the sabbaths." The use of the plural "sabbaths" indicates the time frame of a week.
"(Jewish leaders)" is literally "Jews." John used generic language to indicate specific groups within in the general culture. "Jews" were members of the Jewish leadership. "Greeks" were the non-Jewish populace (not people born in Greece).
The scene in the gospel opened with fear and apprehension on the part of Jesus' followers. John originally wrote "they feared the Jews." Clearly John referred to the Jewish leaders, especially the Pharisees. So the popular translation reflected the relationship between Jesus and the Pharisees.
We should also note the relationship between John's community and Jewish synagogues led by Pharisees. By the time John wrote his gospel, Jewish Christians had been excommunicated for their belief in the Messiah. Ostracized and socially persecuted, some Christians reacted in fear, while others boldly proclaimed the gospel. Early Christians needed as sense of stability, a sense of divine peace. Through the words of Jesus, "Peace" was John's prayer for his readers.
With the sight of Jesus, fear turned into great joy. Anxiety turned into relief. Desperation turned into vindication. Most important, a lack of spiritual direction turned into a sense of deep spiritual grounding. The divine presence stood close to them. And with the divine presence came divine peace.
On the one hand, Jesus already suffered for that particular sin and all the sins of the world. Hence, the declaration would be a proclamation of the Good News. (The current form of the Sacrament of Reconciliation stresses this proclamation. In the sacrament, we are to celebrate God's forgiveness, not our sinfulness.)
On the other hand, the implication of "pre-forgiveness" might lead to presumption on the part of the sinner or a sense of blessed predestination. Obviously the former sense is meant, not the latter. God holds everyone responsible for their actions, both of sin and of faith.
Jesus commissioned his followers to partake in his Messianic ministry. At the time of Jesus, Jews believed the Messiah mission at the end of time was universal. They held the Messiah would go out from Jerusalem to the known world, spread the Good News of salvation, and incite a massive pilgrimage to Palestine. As he gathered all Jews spread throughout the world home, he would call all peoples to Jerusalem so they, too, could worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Jerusalem, the Messiah would judge this massive throng in a Final Judgement, the Day of Yahweh.
The Resurrection appearance marked the starting point for this process. From Jerusalem, Jesus sent his followers out as missionaries to the known world. They would testify to the Risen Christ as the Good News of salvation. And the Good News would start the journey home for both Jews and Gentiles.
What happened to the Jerusalem pilgrimage? There were two possible answers. First, the Romans leveled Jerusalem in response to the Jewish revolt in 66 A.D. Both the city and the Christian mother church turned to rubble. The Jerusalem church could no longer commission missionaries.
Second, Christians spiritualized the pilgrimage. The return home always included the theme of repentance; the sinner who walked away from God's dwelling place turned around and journeyed back. For the Christian, a heavenly Jerusalem became an abode for God. The sinner could find earthly reflection of Jerusalem in the local church community. Hence, conversion and repentance were close to home.
So, the followers saw their vocation within God's plan of salvation. The Father sent the Son into the world to lead everyone back to the Father. Jesus would involve his followers in that same work. Since they witnessed Jesus risen, his followers would be a witness to others.
But Jesus gave them more than a witness. He gave them the Holy Spirit. The breath and command to "Receive the Holy Spirit" must be seen as two parts of the same action. "Them" (the followers) was the object of "Jesus breathed on" and the indirect object of "Jesus said." As Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit out, the text inferred, his follower would breathe it in, just as Jesus commanded.
We have already discussed the connection between breath and Spirit in past studies. The word for "Spirit" in both Greek ("pnema") and Hebrew ("ruah") was the same for breath or wind. Ancient people believed that any movement of air was the result of power. Breath was the result of an inner power, one's life force or spirit. Strong winds that caused death and destruction were the result of God's inner power judging sin. The breath of inner life and violent winds, Jews believed, came from one source, God. So, God's Spirit was a life-giving, and life-taking power. (See Genesis 1:1 and Acts 2:7).
Once the followers breathed in God's Spirit, they shared in the Messiah's power of judgement with the power to declare sins forgiven. John 20:23 referred to the followers' preaching of the Good News. Missionaries like the apostles and Paul, proclaimed a reconciliation of sinners to the Father through Christ; when sinners repented and converted to Christianity, they were cleansed in the waters of baptism. In the context of this verse, the process of reconciliation began with the proclamation of the Good News (declare sins forgiven) and continued through baptism (they are forgiven).
Notice the verb "are forgiven" is in the perfect tense. Forgiveness began in the past, continues into the present, and trails off into the indefinite future. In other words, once forgiven, always forgiven. But, does forgiveness begin with the preacher's declaration? No. The forgiveness of all sin began with Christ on the cross. The apostles and their successors proclaimed a forgiveness that flows from Christ's death and resurrection; the sinner partook in that forgiveness at the point of repentance, of turning one's life over to God.
We Catholics refer to John 20:23 as the basis for the Sacrament of Penance (also known as Reconciliation or Confession). In a Church that is an assembly of sinners, this insight makes perfect sense. Christ continually calls the Church to never ending conversion, just as the Christian life is a constant road back to God. The sacrament is a celebration of God's forgiveness in which the priest represents God and Church to the penitent. The priest proclaims the Good News of divine mercy to the penitent, advises him or her in spiritual counsel, and declares the penitent forgiven. In response, the penitent prays or performs an act of justice that symbolizes an openness of heart to God and neighbor (a so-called "penance"). In this way, the sacrament harkens back to Baptism (which is the original context for this verse) and, so, derives its power from Baptism. The Sacrament of Penance, then, continues the process of repentance Baptism put into place.
With the power of the Spirit revealed at Pentecost, the activity of the Trinity was made known. God the Father sent his Son to share his very life, his very Spirit, with his followers. Now, disciples would carry on the work of the Son. They would celebrate the Spirit in their daily lives as they followed in the footsteps of their Lord.
God calls everyone to repentance, even second chances. How do you respond to his call? How do you help others with their call to conversion?
Pentecost revealed the power of God's forgiveness, his Spirit. Unlike the Force of Star Wars, the Spirit of God is personal. The Spirit establishes a link between the believer and the person of the Father through the person of the Son. And the Spirit makes that link personal. It is a link of love, hope, and joy based upon personal forgiveness.
Let us rejoice in the Spirit, the third person of the Trinity.
How can you celebrate a life in the Spirit this week?
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Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings
- Name some situations in which greater peace is needed. These situations could be taken from current events, historical events, or contemporary school or family life situations.
- Choose one of the situations named, and then identify some of the issues involved in this conflict. Ask yourself questions such as these: Why is peace lacking in this situation? What are some of the issues being contested? What would it take to restore peace in this situation?
- When Jesus appeared to his disciples after his Resurrection, his first words to them were a greeting of peace. This was welcome news to the disciples. Why do you think this was such welcome news? (They were gathered in the upper room in fear; they had witnessed Jesus’ death on the cross.) As witnesses to Jesus’ death, the disciples had been very much a part of a situation of conflict. They gathered together in fear, perhaps because they thought that some people would seek their deaths as well. They very much needed to hear Jesus’ words of peace and reassurance.
- The Feast of Pentecost celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus’ first disciples. This same Holy Spirit is still with us. After breathing upon them and giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit, what does Jesus tell his disciples to do? (to forgive sins)
- Just as Jesus sent his disciples to forgive the sins of others, so too we are sent to bring peace to the world. And we also have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us with this task.
- Looking back at the situation of conflict at the beginning, what might the Holy Spirit lead us to do to help bring peace to this situation of conflict?
- Conclude by praying that the Holy Spirit will continue to work through us to bring peace to the world. Pray today’s Psalm or the Prayer to the Holy Spirit.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.
And kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And you will renew the face of the earth.
Lord,
by the light of the Holy Spirit
you have taught the hearts of your faithful.
In the same Spirit
help us to relish what is right
and always rejoice in your consolation.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Sunday May 28, 2017 Seventh Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 59
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 1:12-14
After Jesus had been taken up to heaven the apostles
returned to Jerusalem
from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem,
a sabbath day's journey away.
When they entered the city
they went to the upper room where they were staying,
Peter and John and James and Andrew,
Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew,
James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot,
and Judas son of James.
All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,
together with some women,
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 27:1, 4, 7-8
R. (13) I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life's refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
One thing I ask of the LORD; this I seek:
to dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
That I may gaze on the loveliness of the LORD
and contemplate his temple.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear, O Lord, the sound of my call;
have pity on me, and answer me.
Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks.
R. I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Pt 4:13-16
Beloved:
Rejoice to the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ,
so that when his glory is revealed
you may also rejoice exultantly.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you,
for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
But let no one among you be made to suffer
as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as an intriguer.
But whoever is made to suffer as a Christian should not be ashamed
but glorify God because of the name.
Gospel Jn 17:1-11a
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
"Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
"I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 1:12-14
The first verses 1 thru 11 discuss Jesus Ascension into heaven. These verses then discuss the disciples returning to Jerusalem. Verses 15 thru 26 discuss the choosing of Judas replacement, Matthias. Interesting mention of a Sabbaths day journey, approx. a mile, since according to the Jewish law travel on the Sabbath was limited to 2000 paces.
From Acts 1:4 onwards the last interview seems to be narrated. Probably it began in the city, and ended on the slopes of Olivet. There was a solemn summoning together of the Eleven, which is twice referred to {Acts 1:4, Acts 1:6}. What awe of expectancy would rest on the group as they gathered round Him, perhaps half suspecting that it was for the last time! His words would change the suspicion into certainty, for He proceeded to tell them what they were not to do and to do, when left alone. The tone of leave-taking is unmistakable.
Jesus told them they must remain in Jerusalem and await the Spirit.
The prohibition against leaving Jerusalem implies that they would have done so if left to themselves; and it would have been small wonder if they had been eager to hurry back to quiet Galilee, their home, and to shake from their feet the dust of the city where their Lord had been slain. Truly they would feel like sheep in the midst of wolves when He had gone, and Pharisees and priests and Roman officers ringed around them. No wonder if, like a shepherdless flock, they had broken and scattered! But the theocratic importance of Jerusalem and the fact that nowhere else could the Apostles secure such an audience for their witness, made their ‘beginning at Jerusalem’ necessary. So they were to ignore their natural longing to get back to Galilee, and to stay in their dangerous position. We all have to ask, not where we would be most at ease, but where we shall be most efficient as witnesses for Christ, and to remember that very often the presence of adversaries makes the door ‘great and effectual.’
These eleven poor men were not left by their Master with a hard task and no help. He bid them to ‘wait’ for the promised Holy Spirit, the coming of whom they had heard from Him when in the upper room He spoke to them of ‘the Comforter.’ They were too feeble to act alone, and silence and retirement were all that He enjoined till they had been plunged into the fiery baptism which should quicken, strengthen, and transform them.
The instructions then given are again referred to in Luke’s Gospel, and are there represented as principally directed to opening their minds ‘that they might understand the Scriptures.’ The main thing about the kingdom which they had then to learn, was that it was founded on the death of Christ, who had fulfilled all the Old Testament predictions. Much remained untaught, which after years were to bring to clear knowledge; but from the illumination shed during these fruitful days flowed the remarkable vigor and confidence of the Apostolic appeal to the prophets, in the first conflicts of the Church with the rulers. Christ is the King of the kingdom, and His Cross is His throne, these truths being grasped revolutionized the Apostles’ conceptions. They are also needed for us.
The founder tells his followers to spread the word across the entire face of the earth, but then he vanishes into the clouds, so the newly commissioned apostles just go back home, sit tight, and pray. Good luck with that, guys. (And girls: along with those “certain women,” we have here the last reference to Mary in the New Testament, other than Paul’s minimalistic “born of a woman” in Galatians 4.)
Furthermore, the question they ask -- now will you restore the kingdom to Israel? -- is proof that they still don’t get it, even after the resurrection. “Not getting it” is a distinguishing quality of Jesus’ disciples. Think of Peter’s constant stumbles, the disciples bickering about who is the greatest (not once but twice in Luke: chapters 9 and 22), or James and John asking to sit at Jesus’ left and right hands to demonstrate how well they’ve understood what he’s said about being mocked and flogged and spat upon.
So there’s been Jesus doing all this teaching, feeding, healing, dying, rising and raising, not to mention his relentless hammering on sin and the forgiveness thereof -- and what the excitable apostles distill from it all is that now is the time for the restoration of the kingdom. Apparently, they missed the “my kingdom is not of this world” memo. (Perhaps because it was only circulated among John’s readership.)
This is not an error likely to be made by twenty-first-century, probably Gentile Christians with the long burden of church history trailing behind them. But Jesus’ response is as timely as ever: “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.”
- Speculation as to the grand pattern of history, and our place in it, is a pastime venerable only because of its age. Augustine did about the best job that can possibly be done with it, employing (to use the terminology of a thousand years later) a theology-of-the-cross hermeneutic (the branch of knowledge that deals with interpretation, especially of the Bible or literary texts.): the true city of God is hidden and suffering, and earthly glory is no proof of anything..
Jesus betrays no hints about history’s course. What he gives us -- besides himself! -- is now and eternally. Now: you don’t know the pattern, the times, or the periods. You don’t need to. What you need to do now is get going as witnesses to the good news about God breaking into history. Eternally: God’s justice will be wrought on all sin and evil, God’s mercy will be poured abroad, the body will be raised up to live in a city without temple or lamp where God is all in all.
Stirring words. Stirring enough to send the happy disciples right back to where they started, a familiar place, to pray and hang out. It’s not a bad start. It’s not enough, either. But they don’t know what to do without the Holy Spirit egging them on. A little Pentecost fire, a handy martyrdom of Stephen, and they’ll start on that long road to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth. In God’s time, not theirs. It is enough.
are as needful for us.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 27:1, 4, 7-8
As much as any psalm, Psalm 27 expresses trust in the lord and claims absolute dependence on God.
This is apparent in verse 1, which begins the reading: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
The psalm is a prayer for help. It presumes the psalmist is in some type of trouble (verses 7, 9, 12). Psalms of this type typically contain petition, complaint, and expressions of trust (see Psalm 13 as an example). Psalm 27 is unique in its heightened emphasis on trust.
The opening verse describes the Lord with language that suggests his presence is life-giving and protective. As James Luther Mays says, “The Lord is called ‘light’ because light drives darkness away.”1 Light is a basic category of order and stability that recalls the first act of creation (Gen 1:3; see Exodus 10:21). It is possible that the psalmist perceived and experienced God’s appearance and presence (God’s “face;” verse 8) via sunlight that shone into the temple and reflected off gold decorations (1 Kings 6:20). The reference to God as light (and to God’s face) thus makes the psalm particularly appropriate for the season of epiphany, the celebration of the manifestation of God’s presence.
Israel knew God as “salvation” and celebrated that identity in the aftermath of the exodus from Egypt (Exodus 15:2). “Stronghold” is a common description of God in the Psalms (Psalm 18:2). The metaphor derives from military situations in which a well-positioned fortress with strong walls provided safety from enemy assaults. These images suggest, therefore, that whatever trouble plagues the psalmist, the Lord’s protection is sufficient to protect the psalmist from it. In times of trouble the natural impulse is to flee to a place of safety (see Psalm 11:1-3 for an expression of that sentiment), but Psalm 27 declares the Lord is the “place.”
Verses 2-3 continue the statement of confidence that began in verse 1. The lectionary reading, however, skips to verse 4. The reason for omitting verses 2-3 is not clear, but verse 4 is certainly worthy of attention. It sums up the faith embedded in the psalm with the declaration, “One thing I asked of the lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the lord and to inquire in his temple.” Here the psalmist identifies the place of God’s protection and shelter as the central sanctuary in Jerusalem.
This identity is evident in the way verse 4 pairs the general expression, “house of the lord” (see also Psalm 23:6) with the specific term, “temple” (hekal). An additional expression “in his tent” here and in verse 6 has the same meaning. This is a poetic name for the temple that conjures images of both protection and intimacy. A tent does not have multiple rooms as permanent structures do. Therefore, the guest in the tent of another naturally participates in the life of those who dwell there (see Psalm 61:4).2
The terms “seek” and “inquire” suggest the presence of a prophet or other cultic official who gave oracles to worshippers who “sought” them. For the psalmist, this is no mere utilitarian practice; the word of God was not something sought simply to gain success in life (compare the kings seeking an oracle in 1 Kings 22:5, 7). Rather, the psalmist’s only desire is to be in God’s presence and to allow God’s word to direct his life.
This remarkable claim of singular desire for God’s presence is similar to the statement in Psalm 23:1b (“I shall not want”) to the effect that the lord’s guidance provides all that is needed for life. The psalm actually petitions God for more, namely for deliverance from an enemy’s false accusations (verse 12), but it suggests that such deliverance comes under the care of God’s sheltering protection. Psalm 27 thus invites the reader to live into such trust that is complete and comprehensive.
Verse 5 continues to express confidence in the Lord’s protection with further descriptions of the safety of the temple. The images continue and expand on the notion of God as stronghold. The psalmist speaks of safety in terms of being hidden, covered, and placed “high on a rock.” “Stronghold” (verse 1b), “shelter” (verse 5a), “cover of his tent” (verse 5a), and “rock” (verse 5b) are expressions related to the overarching notion of refuge that appears so often in the Psalms (Psalms 2:12; 16:1; 18:1-3[2-4]; 31:1[2]; 34:8[9]; 91:1-2; 142:5[6]). That is, the psalmist here and elsewhere speaks of God as a hiding place, a shelter from the storms of life. For other expressions of these images in the Psalms see especially Psalms 61:2b-4 and 63:7.
In verse 6 the psalmist declares the intention to worship with song and sacrifice in response to God’s salvation. But then the psalm turns to complaint and petition for the rest of the lectionary reading and for the rest of the psalm (verses 7-14). The sharp break between verses 6 and 7 has led some scholars to conclude that the two main portions of the psalm were originally separate psalms.
Nevertheless, verses 1-6 and 7-14 hold together around themes of salvation (verses 1, 9), enemies (verses 2-3, 12), trust (verses 3, 14) and seeking God (verses 4, 8). The psalm closes with petitions that draw upon the language of trust earlier in the psalm: “seek his face” (verse 8 [see verse 4]); “O God of my salvation” (verse 9; see verse 1). Thus, as Mays points out, “the two parts of the psalm are one more way in which the Psalter teaches how closely related are trust and need.”3
Reading 2 1 Pt 4:13-16
By patience and fortitude in suffering, by dependence on the promises of God, and keeping to the word the Holy Spirit has revealed, the Holy Spirit is glorified; but by the contempt and reproaches cast upon the believers, the Holy Spirit is evil spoken of, and is blasphemed. One would think such cautions as these were needless to Christians. But their enemies falsely charged them with foul crimes. And even the best of men need to be warned against the worst of sins. There is no comfort in sufferings, when we bring them upon ourselves by our own sin and folly. A time of universal calamity was at hand, as foretold by our Savior, Mt 24:9,10. And if such things befall in this life, how awful will the day of judgment be! It is true that the righteous are scarcely saved; even those who endeavor to walk uprightly in the ways of God. This does not mean that the purpose and performance of God are uncertain, but only the great difficulties and hard encounters in the way; that they go through so many temptations and tribulations, so many fightings without and fears within. Yet all outward difficulties would be as nothing, were it not for lusts and corruptions within. These are the worst clogs and troubles. And if the way of the righteous be so hard, then how hard shall be the end of the ungodly sinner, who walks in sin with delight, and thinks the righteous is a fool for all his pains! The only way to keep the soul well, is, to commit it to God by prayer, and patient perseverance in well-doing. He will overrule all to the final advantage of the believer.
Gospel Jn 17:1-11a
Today’s reading is a prayer, which appears at the conclusion of Jesus’ Last Supper discourse. At the end of the prayer, Jesus is arrested in the garden. The prayer might be read as Jesus’ final commendation of himself to the Father. In the prayer, Jesus also expresses care and concern for his disciples.
Jesus’ prayer reaffirms the complete union between Jesus and the Father. Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus has been presented as the Word, who pre-existed with the Father and was sent to do the Father’s work on earth. In this prayer we learn that Jesus’ life and ministry have been directed toward one purpose, revealing the Father. When this work is accomplished, Jesus is to return to the Father to be glorified. Regardless of what happens to Jesus, in John’s Gospel, Jesus and the Father are in charge. Even in the description of Jesus’ death, Jesus does not simply die but instead hands over his spirit.
In today’s Gospel we also note the distinction found in John’s Gospel between the world and the disciples. The disciples are in the world, but they are separate from it because they have been given to Jesus. They are chosen from the world to be in service to the world for its salvation. This salvation has been accomplished in Jesus because Jesus has revealed the Father to the world, but the disciples will be sent by Jesus to make both the Father and Jesus known to the world. Jesus’ prayer is for the disciples’ work in the world.
Gift giving at Christmas or birthdays can be a challenge, how to give the perfect gift. You may have had this experience with family, friends or co-workers. In todays gospel we hear about a truly remarkable gift. At the last supper Jesus
prays to His Father about his disciples. They belong to you and you gave them to me. A gift exchanged between God the Father and God the Son. This prayer is sometimes called the high priestly prayer of Jesus.
Imagine the setting, a well loved teacher sharing a final meal with His closest disciples. He tells them he is going to leave them, at least for a while. They are stunned, what will they do without Jesus? He patiently answers their fears as he explains what they have experienced together. In doing so Jesus sums up most of John’s gospel. He is the Word made flesh, from whom all things were created and the ultimate Word of love, God’s Son will reveal the total sign of love, His total gift of self.
If we change the setting to our time perhaps we can allow Him to answer our questions and fears over 2000 years later. God’s love from all eternity incudes you and me. We are a part of the gift. Let’s take deep comfort in the prayer of Jesus, I pray for them because they are yours and everything pf yours is mine and everything of mine is yours and I am glorified in death.
- We know that it’s an important part of our Catholic tradition to pray for one another. Who are some people that you pray for? Do you know whether anyone prays for you? Who?
- In today’s Gospel we hear an example of how Jesus prayed. This prayer is in the Gospel according to John and is a part of what Jesus says at his Last Supper. Remember that after Jesus shared his Last Supper with his disciples, he was arrested and crucified.
- What two things did Jesus pray for in this Gospel? (Jesus prayed that the Father would glorify him as Jesus had glorified the Father by the work he did on earth. Jesus prayed for his disciples.) What do you think Jesus wanted the Father to do for his disciples?
- After this reading, Jesus’ prayer continues to the end of the chapter. Jesus prays for the protection of his disciples and he prays for all those who would come to believe in him because of the disciples’ teaching. That means that Jesus prayed for us as well. Our faith teaches us that Jesus continues to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father.
- What do you think are some things that Jesus wants for us? How does it feel to know that Jesus prays for us and did so even before he died?
- Conclude in prayer using today’s psalm, Psalm 27.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't forget this Thursday is Ascension Thursday!
May 21, 2017
Sixth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 55
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed or crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.
Now when the apostles in Jerusalem
heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God,
they sent them Peter and John,
who went down and prayed for them,
that they might receive the Holy Spirit,
for it had not yet fallen upon any of them;
they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Then they laid hands on them
and they received the Holy Spirit.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
R. (1) Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise.
Say to God, "How tremendous are your deeds!"
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
"Let all on earth worship and sing praise to you,
sing praise to your name!"
Come and see the works of God,
his tremendous deeds among the children of Adam.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He has changed the sea into dry land;
through the river they passed on foot;
therefore let us rejoice in him.
He rules by his might forever.
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare
what he has done for me.
Blessed be God who refused me not
my prayer or his kindness!
R. Let all the earth cry out to God with joy.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Pt 3:15-18
Beloved:
Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence,
keeping your conscience clear,
so that, when you are maligned,
those who defame your good conduct in Christ
may themselves be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing good,
if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.
For Christ also suffered for sins once,
the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous,
that he might lead you to God.
Put to death in the flesh,
he was brought to life in the Spirit.
Gospel Jn 14:15-21
Jesus said to his disciples:
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Saul was persecuting the church, and “those who were scattered abroad went around preaching the word”. Philip went to the city of Samaria, where he proclaimed the Messiah and the crowds responded eagerly.
Philip the evangelist was one of the “seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom,” appointed earlier to relieve the apostles of routine church administrative tasks. He is remembered today primarily as the one who proclaimed the good news of Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch and, when the eunuch responded positively, baptized him (8:26-40). He will be mentioned later as Paul’s host in Caesarea (21:8).
But back to Samaria! Philip exorcised many unclean spirits and cured many people of their infirmities. Even Simon the magician, astounded by the miracles that Philip was working, became a believer and was baptized (8:13)—although his faith turned out to be quite immature (8:18-24). Many others were also baptized in that place (8:12).
ACTS 8:14. THE APOSTLES AT JERUSALEM SENT PETER AND JOHN
Samaria is the region located between Judea (to the south) and Galilee (to the north). To understand the relationship of Jerusalem and Samaria, we must first understand something of Samaria’s history. In the eighth century B.C., Assyria conquered Samaria and exiled most of its inhabitants, replacing them with people from Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim (2 Kings 17:24)—essentially repopulating the area with people other than Jews.
However, some Samaritans remained faithful to Yahweh (Jeremiah 41:5), and offered their assistance in rebuilding the temple to Zerubbabel after the Babylonian Exile. But Zerubbabel responded, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God” (Ezra 4:3)—thus antagonizing the Samaritans and initiating a period of antagonism between Samaria and Judea that was still present in New Testament times.
But Jesus wasn’t antagonistic to Samaritans. He made a Samaritan the hero of one of his most famous parables (Luke 10:29-37). While traveling through Samaria, he healed ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19). He spoke with a Samaritan woman and changed her life for the better (John 4:4-41). And he specified Samaria as the first place outside Jewish territory that the disciples were to go with the Gospel (Acts 1:8).
“They sent Peter and John to them“. The Jerusalem church is the mother church, and the apostles constitute its key leadership. Luke doesn’t specify the motive for sending Peter and John to Samaria, but there are at least three possible motives:
• First, they would want to verify that the new believers in Samaria were well-grounded in the faith.
• Second, they would want to render assistance, to the extent that assistance might be needed.
• Third, they would want to demonstrate their acceptance of the Samaritan believers as fellow-members of the church. The breach that had existed for centuries between Judea and Samaria must not be allowed to define the relationship between Christians in Judea and Christians in Samaria.
It is interesting that John would be one of the two apostles sent to Samaria. Earlier, he and his brother, James had been with Jesus as he traveled through Samaria toward Jerusalem. The Samaritans “didn’t receive him (Jesus), because he was traveling with his face set towards Jerusalem” (Luke 9:53). James and John responded by asking Jesus, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from the sky, and destroy them, just as Elijah did?” (Luke 9:54)—an offer that drew a rebuke from Jesus (Luke 9:55).
We have seen Peter and John together on a number of occasions (3:1, 3-4, 11; 4:1, 13, 19), but this is the last time that they appear together in the Book of Acts.
ACTS 8:15-16. PETER AND JOHN PRAYED FOR THEM
We don’t know why these believers have not yet received the Holy Spirit. There is no suggestion here that there was anything wrong with Philip’s evangelism or that the Samaritans’ belief is defective. They have been “baptized in the name of Lord Jesus”—the usual way that people are baptized in the Book of Acts. Everything seems to be in order—with the exception that they have not received the Holy Spirit in spite of doing everything right.
Nor are we told how it is apparent that they have not received the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the apostles are looking for a confirming sign—possibly speaking in tongues.
But it seems possible that God withheld the Spirit to give these apostles from Jerusalem an opportunity to bring their personal ministry to bear upon these Samaritans, who until very recently would have been considered by the apostles to be a lower form of life.
“They had only been baptized in the name of Christ Jesus”. In that culture, people considered a person’s name to be more than a simple label to identify that person. They believed that something of the person’s identity was tied up in the name—that the name expressed something of the person’s identity. They also assumed that a name possessed something of the power of the one who wore that name.
ACTS 8:17. AND THEY RECEIVED THE HOLY SPIRIT
17Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
“Then they laid their hands on them“ (v. 17a). The Jewish people practiced the laying on of hands as a way of conveying authority or power. In the Old Testament, Moses laid hands on Joshua to commission him (Numbers 27:18-23). In the New Testament, the apostles laid hands on people to heal them (Matthew 9:18; Acts 28:8), to impart the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:17; 19:6), and to ordain them for a particular work (Acts 6:6; 13:3; 2 Timothy 1:6).
In this instance, the laying on of hands has another very special connotation. It demonstrates that these apostles from Jerusalem regard these Samaritan believers as worthy of spiritual gifts.
“And they received the Holy Spirit“. We aren’t told how people knew that they had received the Holy Spirit, but it must have had a visible manifestation such as speaking in tongues. Simon, the magician, was sufficiently impressed that he offered the apostles money if they would give him the power to convey the Holy Spirit through the laying on of his hands—an offer that the apostles rejected soundly (8:18-24).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
On this Sunday, the church uses verses from Psalm 66 to respond to and echo Isaiah's call to rejoice as we summon the whole earth to "be joyful" and "sing the glory of God's name" (66:1, 2). "Psalm 66 recalls God's deliverance at the Exodus (verse 6), celebrated at the early harvest festival, for which the poet pledges appropriate thanksgiving sacrifices."1
The appointed verses appear to be a community hymn, the purpose of which is summarized in verse 8: "Bless our God, O peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard." The psalmist calls all the earth to make a joyful noise to God (66:1) and declares, "All the earth praises you, they sing praises to you, sing praises to your name" (66:4). In the First Reading, Isaiah announces that God will extend prosperity to Jerusalem so that all may know that God's hand is with God's servants and God's indignation is against God's enemies (66:12, 14). Echoing this good news, the psalmist recalls God's "awesome deeds" and proclaims that God's great power keeps God's people among the living and causes enemies to cringe (66:3, 9).
Who are God's Enemies?
"Because of your great power, your enemies cringe before you" (66:3). So who are God's enemies? Does God, in fact, have enemies, and how do we preach about them? We tend to look for some "other," for someone else to be God's enemies. We seem to find that someone in verse 7: "who rules by his might forever, whose eyes keep watch on the nations—let the rebellious not exalt themselves." Yet, to name "the nations" or "the rebellious" as God's enemy is too simplistic. While "the nations" are mentioned this once, the reference to the Exodus in verse 6 reminds us of all the ways God's people doubted, complained, and rebelled against God as they wandered their way through the wilderness behind a pillar of cloud and fire.
This might be an occasion to preach about death and everything that causes God's people--us--to trip and fall as God's enemies. The preacher might dare to name all the ways we die and the ways we individually and congregationally--and on this Independence Day, perhaps nationally--doubt, complain, and rebel against God as we follow God through the wilderness of the world.
While the Fourth of July might tempt us to name "others" as God's enemies, a God-fearing people in a "Christian nation" witnesses to its faith by concretely naming and specifically confessing the ways our country functions as God's enemy. The preacher can then declare the good news that nevertheless, God "has kept us among the living, and has not let our feet slip."(66:9). Taking a cue from the Epistle reading, Paul might call these things that we name and confess "transgressions" and invite the preacher to "restore . . . in a spirit of gentleness" (Galatians 6:1).
See God's Awesome Deeds
Perhaps more appealing, the preacher might join the seventy sent by Jesus and use the psalm to proclaim God's awesome deeds of great power, so that the assembly might know, in Luke's words, that "the dominion of God has come near to you" (Luke 10:9). The psalmist declares, "Come now and see the works of God, how awesome are God's deeds toward all people" (verse 5). The psalmist recalls God's "awesome deeds" (verse 3) of transforming the sea into dry land and permitting God's people to cross the river into the Promised Land without getting their feet wet. These Exodus events, which bookend Israel's wilderness sojourn, provide a context or interpretive key for the psalmist's invitation for the people to thank God for a more recent rescue (66:8-9). The psalmist recalls the people at the sea rejoicing "there" (66:6-7) and calls the people to likewise bless God for keeping them alive and not allowing them to misstep.
Rather than explicitly and objectively naming God's awesome deeds in the individual or corporate lives of the congregation or nation, the appointed psalm gives us a perspective from which we can discover and name God's awesome deeds, or the ways the dominion of God has come near to us, for ourselves. After all, God's awesome deeds are not objective or obvious. Israel passing safely through the sea brought death upon Egypt and crossing the river meant warfare and occupation for the people living in Israel's Promised Land. When the church sings this psalm, it claims the Exodus as its own story and points to the fact that, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, God likewise rules over the nations and that, when it comes near to us, the dominion of God will bring destruction to the powers of this world. In humility we therefore name the ways God has kept us among the living and not let our feet slip (66:9).
Preaching Psalm 66:1-9
Whether the preacher chooses to name God's enemies or point to God's awesome deeds, the appointed psalm does not permit a self-congratulatory hooray for us, our church, or, especially on this day, our nation. Indeed, we are blessed. Yet, our blessings often mean suffering for others. More striking still, despite our blessings, we often end up as God's enemies. As the psalmist says, the praise on this day belongs to God who keeps us among the living in spite of ourselves and who does awesome deeds toward all people. The sermon should leave the assembly blessing God, singing the glory of God's name, and letting the sound of praise be heard.
Reading 2 1 Pt 3:15-18
Still referring to ( Isaiah 8:13 ) not by making him holy, which need not, nor cannot be, he being essentially, infinitely, and perfectly holy; but by declaring and proclaiming his holiness, as the seraphim in Isaiah's prophecy, and the four living creatures in the Revelation did; and by glorifying of him, praising and applauding all his perfections, and among the rest, this of his holiness, and giving thanks at the remembrance of it; which he has so much displayed in the works of creation, providence, redemption, and grace; hence the Arabic version renders it, bless the Lord God in your hearts: the Lord God is sanctified by his people externally, when they regard his commands, attend his ordinances, and call upon his name, and praise him; but here an internal sanctification of him, a sanctification of him in their hearts, is intended, and what is opposed to the fear of men, and unbelief, and lies in the exercise of the grace of fear upon him; see ( Isaiah 8:13 ) and which has for its object his goodness, and is a fruit of the covenant of his grace, and is a child like and godly fear; and in the exercise of faith upon him, upon his covenant and promises, his faithfulness, and power to help, assist, and preserve; whereby glory is given to him, a witness borne to his truth, and he is sanctified: some copies, as the Alexandrian, and one of Stephens's, read, sanctify the Lord Christ; and so read the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions; and certain it is that he is intended in ( Isaiah 8:13 ) as appears from ( 1 Peter 3:14 ) compared with ( Romans 9:33 ) ( 1 Peter 2:8 )
and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a
reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear;
by the hope that is in the saints, is not designed the grace of hope itself, which is given to them, and implanted in them in regeneration; the reason, ground, and foundation of which are, the love, grace, and mercy of God, through Christ, and his person, blood, righteousness, sacrifice, and redemption; but the Gospel, the whole Christian doctrine, the doctrine of faith, and which the Syriac version here calls the "hope of faith"; and the profession of Christianity, called in ( Hebrews 10:23 ) , the profession of hope; in which persons profess their hope of eternal life and happiness through Christ, as doctrine of the Gospel directs them to. Now, a "reason" of this is to be given; not that they are to account for the Gospel, upon the foot of carnal reason; for that is not of men, nor according to the carnal reason of men; nor is it to be thought that every Christian should be capable of defending the Gospel, either in whole, or in part, by arguments and reasons, in a disputatious way, or to give a reason and argument for every particular truth; but that he should be well acquainted with the ground and foundation of the Christian religion; at least, with the first principles of the oracles of God, and be conversant with the Scriptures, and be able to point out that in them, which is the reason of his holding this and the other truth, though he is not able to give a gainsayer satisfaction, or to stop his mouth: and this is to be done with meekness and fear; with meekness, before men; in an humble modest way; not with an haughty air, and in a morose and surly manner, which serves only to irritate and provoke: and with fear; either of God, and so the Ethiopic Version renders it, with the fear of the Lord; considering the subject of the argument, and the importance of it, and how much the honour of God is concerned in it; and taking care lest the answer should be delivered in a light, trifling, and negligent manner, and that no part of truth be dropped or concealed, in order to please men, and be screened from their resentments; or with all due reverence of, and respect to men, to superiors, to the civil magistrates, who may ask the reason; for they are to be treated with honour and esteem, and to be answered in an handsome and becoming manner, suitable to the dignity of their persons and office; as the sanhedrim was by Stephen; and as Felix, Festus, and Agrippa, by the Apostle Paul: and this answer, or reason, is to be given to every man; that has authority to ask, and that asks in a modest manner, and with a reverence suitable to the subject; for the phrases, "with meekness and fear", may respect him that asks the reason, as well as him that gives the answer; for that which is holy is not to be given to dogs, to impudent persons, mockers and scoffers, nor are pearls to be cast before swine, filthy and irreverent persons; see ( Matthew 7:6 ) the Alexandrian copy, and some others, and so the Vulgate Latin version, read, "but with meekness and fear"; for if it is not asked in such a way, there is no obligation to give an answer: and this is to be given "always"; whenever it is asked in such a manner, and by proper persons; when there is a necessity of it, and as opportunity offers: and saints should be always "ready to" give and therefore it becomes them daily and diligently to search the Scriptures, meditate on them, and get all the help and assistance they can, to lead them into an acquaintance with them, that they may be so; for though the apostles had extraordinary assistance promised them, and therefore were bid not to consider beforehand what they should say, when brought before kings and princes; yet this is not to be expected by ordinary persons, nor in ordinary cases. Agreeably to this is the advice of R. Eleazar
Gospel Jn 14:15-21
This passage picks up where last week's reading left off. Jesus continues to deliver his Farewell Discourse, preparing his disciples for his departure and their receipt of the Holy Spirit.
In this brief but powerful passage, Jesus reiterates his favorite theme: love. He also promises the Holy Spirit. Finally, Jesus emphasizes the intimate unity of Jesus, God, the Spirit, and the believer.
Love
Fifty-seven times Jesus uses love verbs (agapao, phileo). Add to that all of the occurrences of "friend" (which is the translation of philos) as well as the fact that the primary disciple in the Fourth Gospel is an unnamed character called "the beloved disciple," and we might accuse the author of touting a single issue. And why not, for is it not the case that "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life"?.
The passage begins and ends with love. In v. 15 Jesus declares that if his disciples love him, they will keep his commandments. The reader may ask, "What commandments?" Unlike, say, Matthew, nowhere in John does Jesus command us to go the second mile, turn the other cheek, render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. Famously, Jesus gives only a single commandment in John and it occurs in the chapter just before ours: "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (13.34-35). He reiterates this in the chapter just after ours: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. (John 15:12-13). We see, then, the overwhelming, repetitive, circular emphasis on love. So, if the preacher is to preach this text, she will have to take up love. Perhaps John would have exulted to hear Bill Coffin's claim to his fellow Christians: "If we fail in love, we fail in all things else."
It's worth noting that love is tied to John's realized eschatology. Jesus gives one commandment: to love. Therefore, judgment and eternal life begin now. At the end of each day, and during each moment of each day, for John, there's only one question to ask yourself: "In what ways did I or did I not love today?" As you reflect upon that, judgment happens. Where you did not love, there lies judgment. But understand that for John judgment is merely diagnostic, not retributive. Jesus constantly asks the characters questions that help them understand their lives and motives more clearly. To the sick man in ch. 5:6: "Do you wish to be made well?"; to Martha in 11:26: "Do you believe this?". He asks questions not because he doesn't know the answers (since John 2:24-25 assures us that Jesus already knew everything); rather, he asks so that we might know, and therefore move forward with clear vision into the truth, light, glory, love, abundant for which God has created us. It's all of a piece.
The Holy Spirit
Admittedly, John's pneumatology is unusual compared to other NT texts. In contrast to Luke, who depicts the Holy Spirit as heavily active in the lives of characters from the beginning of his Gospel until the end of Acts, John insists that the Holy Spirit will come only after Jesus himself departs. Why is this? A clue lies in Jesus' referring to the Holy Spirit not as The Paraclete, but rather as Another Paraclete. Jesus was the first; for the Spirit to be active among them while Jesus was there would have been redundant since they each serve the same revelatory function. What appeared to be bad news to the disciples, namely Jesus' departure from them, turned out to be the best of news for both them and us. While Jesus walked the earth, his ministry was limited to one locale and one person, himself. Upon his departure, his disciples are given the Spirit and moved from apprentices to full, mature revealers of God's love. And this happens not just to the first disciples, but all those who would come later, those who never saw the historical Jesus. You see, the evangelist insists that present believers have no disadvantage in comparison to the first believers. Everything they were taught and they experienced is available to the same degree and with equally rich texture to us.
The word parakletos presents notorious translational difficulty because it has a range of meanings in the Greek, all of which are meant by the author. English translations variously translate it Comforter, Advocate, Counselor, and Helper; perhaps it would be best to keep it in its transliterated form, Paraclete, so as to catch the attention of the hearer with the strangeness; after all, it's strange among biblical authors, too. It appears only five times: four times in John 14-16 and once in 1 John 2:1. It's also best not to shut down possible meaning for the listener by narrowing the word to one meaning. The Holy Spirit is specifically said to do the following: teach, remind (14:26), abide (14:16), and testify about Jesus (15:26). Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit deals in truth.
The Quattrinity
Christians are familiar with the Trinity, but perhaps the most stunning feature of the Fourth Gospel is what I have termed the Quattrinity. In John, Jesus insists that the intimate relationship that exists between him, God, and the Spirit also includes believers. The believer does not stand close by admiring the majesty of the Trinity; rather, she is an equal part of it. John tries to push at this by grabbing hold of a number of terms and repeating them: abide, love, the language of being "in" (14:17 and 20), and later in the Discourse, an emphasis on "one-ness" (cf. 17:21-23). Johannine believers don't "imitate" Jesus; they participate in him wholly. If the passage is read aloud and preached, the reading should go through v. 23, the pinnacle of the passage: "Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them." If God and Christ have made their home with us (recall 1:14), how can we imagine there to be any distance between us and God? This, in turn, affects our eschatology. Everything that matters, that is, ultimate intimacy with God and Christ, is available now. What might one hope for beyond that? God is not currently holding out on us in any way--life, abundant life, is available for living from this moment into eternity.
No right or wrong answers to the below, just things to ponder.
- How many of you have had a friend or family member move away? What was that experience like? (Think about it) When people move away or go away for a short time, they sometimes give farewell gifts to friends or family members who stay behind. Why might people do that? (What do you think)
- In today’s Gospel, Jesus is telling his disciples that they will receive a gift after he has left them, after he has died. Review carefully the reading.
- An advocate is a helper, someone who takes action for another person or offers witness or defense for another person. Who is the Advocate? (the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit) Jesus promises his disciples that even though he will leave them, he will not abandon them. Instead they will receive a great gift, a helper who will reveal to them the great love that exists between the Father and the Son and the disciples.
- How do you think the disciples felt when they heard these words? (Think about it ) How do you think the disciples will feel after they receive this gift of the Holy Spirit? (Think about it)
- Jesus has also given us the gift of the Holy Spirit, whom we received in Baptism. If we call upon the Holy Spirit, he will help us understand God’s love for us and will help us follow Jesus.
- Conclude by saying a prayer of your choice.
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May 14, 2017
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 52
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 6:1-7
As the number of disciples continued to grow,
the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews
because their widows
were being neglected in the daily distribution.
So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said,
"It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table.
Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men,
filled with the Spirit and wisdom,
whom we shall appoint to this task,
whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer
and to the ministry of the word."
The proposal was acceptable to the whole community,
so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the Holy Spirit,
also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas,
and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism.
They presented these men to the apostles
who prayed and laid hands on them.
The word of God continued to spread,
and the number of the disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly;
even a large group of priests were becoming obedient to the faith.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Exult, you just, in the LORD;
praise from the upright is fitting.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R. Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Pt 2:4-9
Beloved:
Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings
but chosen and precious in the sight of God,
and, like living stones,
let yourselves be built into a spiritual house
to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
For it says in Scripture:
Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion,
a cornerstone, chosen and precious,
and whoever believes in it shall not be put to shame.
Therefore, its value is for you who have faith, but for those without faith:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone, and
A stone that will make people stumble,
and a rock that will make them fall.
They stumble by disobeying the word, as is their destiny.
You are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people of his own,
so that you may announce the praises" of him
who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Gospel Jn 14:1-12
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled.
You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
In my Father's house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not,
would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come back again and take you to myself,
so that where I am you also may be.
Where I am going you know the way."
Thomas said to him,
"Master, we do not know where you are going;
how can we know the way?"
Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.
If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him."
Philip said to him,
"Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us."
Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own.
The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me,
or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these,
because I am going to the Father."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 acts 6:1-7
Luke notes the church's continued numerical growth as the apostles faithfully teach and evangelize (5:42). This success leads to an overload for the apostles in their administration of the common fund for the poor (4:35, 37; 5:1; compare Deut 1:9-10). As a result, the Grecian Jewish widows are being overlooked in the daily food distribution. The resulting complaints (compare Num 17:5) threaten to destroy the church's unity.
The fact that it is Grecian Jews (Hellenistoi; Longenecker 1981:327-29 for a cogent discussion of the options for understanding this term) who complain against Hebraic believers (Hebraioi; see Longenecker 1981:332) shows that cultural tensions probably lie behind the oversight. Pious widows, having been removed from the temple dole--the weekly quppah, or poor basket of foodstuffs (m. Pe'a 8:7)--are now dependent on the church's daily distribution (NIV specifies it more precisely than the Greek by adding of food; see Kistemaker 1990:221). But the apostles, Hebraic Jews, are not making sure the Grecian widows receive their share.
Hebraic Jews had a prejudicial sense of superiority over Grecian Jews, because of their own birthplace and language. Lack of communication between the groups also fostered suspicion. In fact, human diversity will always bring with it opportunities for prejudicial division and injustice.
Facing the problem immediately and openly, the Twelve gather the congregation (plethos; see 4:32 for comment) and point out another threat: distraction from their calling, the ministry of the word of God. This activity is essential for church vitality and growth (see 6:7). The apostles are facing the decisions that come to leaders of a movement that is growing in numbers and complexity.The Church Resolves the Problem (6:3-6)
The Twelve instruct the congregation to choose seven men to take over this responsibility. That the diaconate is a function and not an office is clear from Luke's wording. He never uses the noun "deacon" (compare Phil 1:1; 1 Tim 3:8-13), though a noun and verb to describe the function are present (diakonia, Acts 6:1; diakoneo, 6:2; contrast 1:25). This passage probably did contribute, however, to the origin of the office (Coppens 1979:421). Luke stresses that this physical/social ministry has equal validity with the apostles' evangelism/edification ministry, for he uses diakonia to describe both (6:1, 4). The church must exercise both, and neither to the exclusion of the other (see Lk 10:38-42).
This division of labor is accompanied by a reiteration of the apostles' commitment to their calling: prayer and ministry of the Word of God. The apostles determine to be "busily engaged in, devoted to" these things, so that realistically they will take up all their time (Bruce 1990:183; compare 1:14; 2:42, 46). Prayer (literally, "the prayer") may have to do with leading the community's prayer services (Bruce 1990:183), or the apostles' intercession for the welfare of the community or effectiveness in preaching, whether individually or as a group (10:9; 13:3; Haenchen 1971:263; Stott 1990:121), or both. Prayer is central to the church's vitality and advance, as it was in Jesus' ministry (Lk 5:16; 6:12; 9:18, 28; 11:1; 22:41; see 18:1). The ministry of the Word "[sees] to it that the Word of God is communicated in power and in continuity with the apostles' teaching as its norm" (Krodel 1986:134). In the summary statement on growth, the necessity of this ministry is articulated for a third time (6:7; compare 6:2).
The proposed solution reveals the values that guided the decision: commitment to unity, to a holistic ministry and to growth by means of preaching and teaching. The decision-making process reflects equally important values for church order. It is participatory, because of the church's spiritual equality (1:16; 2:17; 4:33; 6:3; 15:23). It involves distinct roles for leaders and congregation. The leaders (note it is collegial leadership) propose a solution and the criteria for implementing it. They also confirm the congregation's implementation (6:6). The congregation must "own" the proposed solution and do their assigned part (6:5).
If unity and growth are to be promoted, then, structures in the church must be flexible. Decision-making must be participatory, with distinctive roles for leaders and congregation.
The Twelve instruct the congregation to find seven men with a good reputation. The word order in the Greek makes it unlikely that the reputation is limited to being Spirit-filled, as the NIV suggests. The spiritual qualification full of the Spirit applies to those who have so fully given themselves to following Christ that God's saving, sanctifying and edifying grace is clearly and continuously manifest in their lives (6:5; 7:55; 11:24). The final qualification is wisdom--that skill in administration and business which will bring efficient and effective accomplishment of a task. Moral, spiritual, practical-- these should be the hallmarks of all who sit on church boards. Only with such leadership will the real work of the church be done.
The whole congregation took ownership of the proposal, and unity was restored (6:5; compare 4:32). They brought forward names of seven men who may well have already been exercising leadership in the Grecian Jewish segment of the church. Except for Stephen and Philip (see 6:9--7:60; 8:4-40; 21:8), Scripture tells us no more of these men. Stephen's spiritual quality is particularly noted. Being full of faith and of the Holy Spirit probably points not to his working of miracles (as Haenchen 1971:263; see v. 9) but to his extraordinary depth of faith, as well as his singular life in the Spirit.
The leaders confirm the congregation's work by praying over and laying hands on these men. Though grammatically one could understand the people as doing this, Luke probably intends us to understand the apostles as the commissioners (compare 6:3). "The laying on of hands" is used in Old Testament passages with the "choice of supplementary leadership" form. Hebrew samak, used in Numbers 27:18, means "to lean the hand on, exercise some force at the base of the hand at the joint" and has the significance of to "pour your personality--or a quality of yours relevant at this moment--into him" (Daube 1976:162; compare Num 27:20). What the apostles pass on to the Seven through the laying on of hands is not the Spirit, for the Seven already have the Spirit (Acts 6:3). Rather, they receive authority to work as the apostles' representatives in a specific task (Parratt 1969:213).The Church, Restored, Continues to Grow (6:7)
Having weathered the threat, the church returns to its normal condition: growth. So integral to growth is the Word of God, the message of salvation, that Luke uses personification, saying literally, "The word of God grew" (see 12:24; 19:20). As the seed possesses the power of growth, so "the word has in itself the power of life. . . . This independent force of the word of God makes it the preeminent instrument of salvation" (Kodell 1974:506; Acts 10:36; 13:26; 14:3; 16:32; compare 4:4; 11:1; 13:49; Lk 8:11). Luke's combination of spread (grew) and increased (multiplied) echoes the Old Testament command "Be fruitful and multiply," which was incorporated into covenant promises about the people of God (Lev 26:9; Jer 3:16; 23:3; compare Gen 1:28).
From among the priests, the core of the church's opposition (Acts 4:1; 5:17), a large number become obedient to the faith. The social gulf between the ordinary priests and the upper-class chief priests, who oppressed them economically, may explain the regular priests' openness to the gospel (Longenecker 1981:333). Still, the response of the priesthood reflects the total triumph of the church's mission. No segment of Jewish society was beyond the reach of the gospel. And today our churches should be marked by the same conviction--that the ministry of the Word is essential for growth and that growth is the normal condition of the church
Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19
1- 1-2
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! This unattributed Psalm begins with a call for God’s righteous to rejoice and praise. The Psalmist’s first sense was those among God’s people who walked rightly, those who are righteous among men in a relative sense.
“Psalm 32 ended by calling on the righteous to sing praises to God. This note is picked up on in Psalm 33, almost as if its first three verses were written as an elaboration of Psalm 32:11.”
Rejoice in the Lord: “Calling upon the saints to be cheerful; and indeed there is hardly any duty more pressed in the Old and New Testament, or less practiced.”
God’s people are called to rejoice in the Lord, and in nothing else. “To rejoice in temporal comforts is dangerous, to rejoice in self is foolish, to rejoice in sin is fatal, but to rejoice in God is heavenly.”
Under the New Covenant we may extend this to those declared righteous through faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-26). Those who are righteous by God’s decree have an even greater responsibility to rejoice and praise.
For praise from the upright is beautiful: God regards worship from His people (both upright in a relative sense and declared to be upright) as beautiful. It pleases Him and creates the sense of appreciation for beauty. God appreciates our praise.
“It is apparently meant for liturgical use…the opening summons to praise takes us far away from the solitary wrestlings and communings in former psalms.”
“Take away the Christian’s power of praising God, and you make him a poor earth-worm, bound here with doubts, and fears, and cares; but let him but kindle in his soul the flame that burns in heaven of seraphic love to God, and away he mounts.” (Spurgeon)
“An upright person is one without deception (Psalm 32:2) full of integrity of heart, and the opposite of the perverse (Proverbs 8:8).”
“Praise in the mouth of a sinner is like an oracle in the mouth of a fool; how uncomely is it for him to praise God, whose whole life is a dishonouring of God? It is as indecent for a wicked man to praise God, who goes on in sinful practices, as it is for an usurer to talk of living by faith, or for the devil to quote Scripture.” Praise the Lord with the harp; make melody with an instrument of ten strings: God also declared His satisfaction with worship through music and musical instruments. This can please God, the Creator of music and the Great Musician.
“Experts tell us that the kinnor (harp) and nebel (psaltery) were both stringed instruments, differing in the position of the sounding board, which was below in the former and above in the latter, and also in the covering of the strings.”
The Psalmist clearly exhorted God’s people to praise Him with the accompaniment of musical instruments. Strangely, some have thought that such musical accompaniment belonged only to the Old Covenant and not to the New.
Nevertheless, the most important instrument is the heart. “Music, both vocal and instrumental, is of eminent use in setting forth the praises of God; but there is no instrument like the rational soul, and no melody like that of well-tuned affections.”
Sing to Him a new song: God loves to receiving the rejoicing and praise of His people expressed in song, especially the new song.
“‘New song’ simply means that every praise song should emerge from a fresh awareness of God’s grace.” (Boice)
“As God gives you fresh occasions, so do not you content yourselves with the old songs or psalms, made by the holy men of God, but make new ones suited to the occasions.” (Poole)
“Put off oldness ye know the new song. A new man, a New Testament, a new song. A new song belongeth not to men that are old; none learn that but new men, renewed through grace from oldness, and belonging now to the New Testament, which is the kingdom of heaven.” (Augustine, cited in Spurgeon)
Play skillfully with a shout of joy: Skillful musicianship and enthusiasm fitting for the joy of God’s people are other ways God is honored with praise.
A shout of joy: “Heartiness should be conspicuous in divine worship. Well–bred whispers are disreputable here. It is not that the Lord cannot hear us, but that it is natural for great exultation to express itself in the loudest manner. Men shout at the sight of their kings: shall we offer no loud hosannahs to the Son of David?”
“Note the call in that verse for freshness and skill as well as fervour; three qualities rarely found together in religious music.”
2. (4-5) The greatness of God expressed in His character, who He is.
For the word of the Lord is right,
And all His work is done in truth.
He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
For the word of the Lord is right, and all His work is done in truth: The goodness and truth of God’s word is a further reason for praise. In addition, God does His work in truth – not with deceit or manipulation.
“His word and His work are inseparable, for His words are never empty.”
“In all this we find the true secret of our confidence, and so of our joy. The word and the work of God are ever one. His word never returns to Him empty – it accomplishes that which He pleases.”
He loves righteousness and justice: The Psalmist kept thinking of the greatness of God’s character – His love for righteousness and justice and His goodness spread all over the earth. The Psalmist rightly rejoiced that Yahweh, the God who is really there, is not amoral or without goodness. He is what we who are made in His image would understand as “good.”
“The Psalmist means that there is no spot in it where the traces and footprints of God’s love may not be discerned, if only the eyes ad the heart are opened.”
“The Lord’s love (hesed) is evident in his works on earth. With respect to the rest of creation, he shows the same loyalty, constancy, and love that has found particular expression in the covenant relationship with his people.”
“He might, if he had pleased, have made everything we tasted bitter, everything we saw loathsome, everything we touched a sting, every smell a stench, every sound a discord.” (Paley, cited in Spurgeon)
“Earth might have been as full of terror as of grace, but instead thereof it teems and overflows with kindness….If earth be full of mercy, what must heaven be where goodness concentrates its beams?” (Spurgeon)
4. (18-19) The care of God for the individual.
The eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him: The Psalmist continues to think both of God’s hand in world-shaking events (such as the battles of kings), and His most minute care for the individual.
Jesus told us that God cares for the smallest of birds (Matthew 6:26); surely He will care for those who honor Him, who are made in His image.
“They who fear God need not fear anything else; let them fix their eye of faith on him, and his eye of love will always rest upon them.”
On those who hope in His mercy: Those who truly fear the Lord find their hope in His mercy, not in their own goodness or righteousness.
To deliver their soul: “Freedom from troubles he promiseth not; but deliverance in due time he assureth them.”
Reading 2 1 Pt 2:4-9
Peter writes to the Christians who were scattered throughout Asia Minor, the area that is today called Turkey. And he knows problems are going to come to them, just like they come into our lives today. Peter encourages them in chapter 1 that because God is with us, and because he loves us and protects us, God wants to use the trials we face to be a source of joy and growth in our lives. We need to choose to respond to trials with hope!
And then in chapter 2, Peter goes on to remind us of who we are. He starts chapter 2 by reminding us that we are all children in the same family. And as such, we need to all get along. Too many families face “sibling rivalry” - brothers and sisters who need to get along. I’ve done funerals before where two brothers have walked in, shook hands, and then walked to separate corners of the funeral home, not talking to each other the whole time there. But far too often in the church, we need to be reminded that we all need to get along. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul even had to write to the church at Philippi and encourage them to get involved in promoting reconciliation between some members who had difficulty getting along. He says, I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you, loyal followers, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel. One of the ways we show our identity with Christ is by loving one another. Psalm 133 - How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! As Jesus met with his disciples the last night before the crucifixion, he tells them, By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Then Peter goes on to tell us that we are all stones in the same building in 2:5. When you look at an old stone house or church - In PA they were all over the place - each stone is different from the stone beside it, but each works together with all the other stones to makes the walls. Our goal in the church is not uniformity - we don’t need to try to be just like every other Christian in the church - rather our goal is unity - to agree on the essentials. Paul writes in Ephesians 3 - Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit--just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Then Paul goes on to mention the different gifts given to Christians. We each have differing gifts, but we all use them to build up the body of Christ. And in that same passage Paul goes on to explain their purpose - so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment; and if he didn’t spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when he brought the flood on the world of the ungodly; and if he reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to extinction,[d] making them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the depraved behavior of the immoral (for as that righteous man lived among them day by day, his righteous soul was tormented by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
Gospel Jn 14:1-12
The readings for the last few Sundays have been about the Resurrection, but today’s Gospel takes us back in time to an event in Jesus’ life before his Passion. Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to prepare a place for them in his Father’s house. He promises that where he is going, his disciples will be able to follow. Thomas, who will later doubt the disciples’ reports that they have seen the Risen Lord, contradicts Jesus by saying that the disciples don’t know where Jesus is going or how to get there. Jesus explains that he himself is the way, the truth, and the life. In knowing and loving Jesus, the disciples now love God the Father.
Philip then makes a request that challenges Jesus’ words. Philip wants Jesus to show the Father to the disciples. Recall that Jesus has just told his disciples, “If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” As a good teacher, Jesus responds to Philip by repeating and elaborating on what he has just told the disciples: they have seen and known Jesus, so they have seen and known the Father. Then Jesus offers another reassurance about his departure: because of faith in God and in Jesus, the disciples will do the work that Jesus has done and more.
The connection between Jesus and his Father, between Jesus’ work and the work of the Father, is made clear in today’s Gospel. Jesus is in the Father, and God the Father is in Jesus. As God spoke his name to Moses, “I am,” so too Jesus speaks his name to his disciples: “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
The revelation of the Trinity is completed in the passage that follows today’s reading, and it is the Gospel for next Sunday. Because Jesus goes away, the Father will send in Jesus’ name the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, who will continue the work of the Father and of Jesus.
- Have you ever looked closely at a quarter? On one side there is a person, George Washington. On the other side is a different image. So there are two sides to the same coin.
- In a way, this quarter reminds us of Jesus. He has two sides also. He’s man and he’s God—all at the same time. Can we split the quarter and remove one side from the other? (No) Well, we can’t remove Jesus from God or God from Jesus either. They are one.
- When we believe in Jesus, we receive all the benefits that he gives. The Gospel this week is about some of the benefits of faith in Jesus. Let’s listen carefully to today’s Gospel to understand what those benefits are.
- What does Jesus say that he is going to do for us? (Jesus says that he is preparing a place for us in his Father’s house in heaven.) What does Jesus say about people who believe in him? (Jesus says that those who believe in him will be given the ability to do great things just as he does.) Say: Jesus does a lot for us, and he keeps on giving and giving!
May 7, 2017
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 49
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
"Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified."
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart,
and they asked Peter and the other apostles,
"What are we to do, my brothers?"
Peter said to them,
"Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is made to you and to your children
and to all those far off,
whomever the Lord our God will call."
He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them,
"Save yourselves from this corrupt generation."
Those who accepted his message were baptized,
and about three thousand persons were added that day.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6
R. (1) The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
He guides me in right paths
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk in the dark valley
I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
With your rod and your staff
that give me courage.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Pt 2:20b-25
Beloved:
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good,
this is a grace before God.
For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.
He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.
When he was insulted, he returned no insult;
when he suffered, he did not threaten;
instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,
so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed.
For you had gone astray like sheep,
but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
Gospel Jn 10:1-10
Jesus said:
"Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.
But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him,
because they do not recognize the voice of strangers."
Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.
So Jesus said again, "Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Luke has kept us waiting so long for the fulfillment of this plot point that we may have forgotten we were waiting for it at all.
So, let’s start by backing up and rediscovering the seed that was planted so long ago.
It all started in Luke 3. John the Baptist, whose miraculous birth we’ve heard all about, has burst onto the scene as a full-grown adult with curious habits of attire and nutrition. He does not pull any of his punches. He has a lot to say about repentance -- and a lot to say to those who don’t repent. But for those who do, he has something to offer: baptism.
Baptism is so exceedingly familiar to Christians that we rarely catch how unutterably bizarre and novel John’s baptism was. Of course, there were plenty of ablutions and immersions in the religious practice of Israel. Using water for cleansings both physical and symbolic is hardly an innovative idea. But in Israel, all these immersions were performed solo, by and on one’s own self. No one else immersed you.
As far as we know, John was the first one to come along and immerse others. Getting a dunking by John in the Jordan was public testimony to one’s repentance, aligning oneself with repentant Israel. It was odd enough to attract crowds of people to the wilderness, including tax collectors and soldiers.
Compelling as it is, John’s baptism centered on repentance is limited in its scope. It’s not clear whether Luke thinks John’s baptism could also forgive the sins of the repentant; the Evangelist seems to be trying to distance himself from that inference inherited from Mark. But there is an even more important curtailment of John’s power that Mark, Luke, and all the rest agree on: John cannot baptize with the Holy Spirit. Instead, one is coming, John prophesies, who will indeed baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. And that one is so far above John that John isn’t even worthy to untie his sandals.
The proof: Jesus himself is the first to have the Spirit descend upon him at baptism. John’s Gospel records John the Baptist’s astonishment at the sight, and Matthew’s Gospel reports a kind of quarrel the two men had over whether the one should receive baptism from the other, which is followed by the startling descent of the Spirit. Luke actually detaches John the Baptist from Jesus’ baptism altogether, by interpolating the account of his beheading and keeping the act of baptism in the passive voice. One way or another, Luke wants to make it very clear that John’s baptism can’t bestow the Spirit.
Then twenty-one more chapters of Luke’s Gospel ensue, with a lot of exciting and distracting things like miracles, exorcisms, a crucifixion and a resurrection, so we may easily lose track of baptism and the Spirit along the way.
Fortunately, Peter, filled with the long-promised Holy Spirit, is here to make amends. All righteousness has been fulfilled: the Holy One of Israel was killed, but his faithful Father raised him up again to new life and through him grants the Holy Spirit. So, all those who are still carrying burdens of repentance can come to the promised deliverance. Come and be baptized, and two extraordinary promises will be fulfilled: in the name of Jesus Christ your sins will be forgiven, and you will receive the Holy Spirit. This is baptism 2.0, new and improved and better than ever!
The long list of the gathered nations on the day of Pentecost often obscures the fact that the people gathered to hear Peter’s sermon are all Jews -- diaspora Jews, in the main. They’re back in Jerusalem for the festival, but they’ve so acclimated themselves to their new homelands (after the example of Esther or the instructions of Jeremiah) that they’ve forgotten the mother tongue, which is why the Spirit has to effect a linguistic miracle before Peter can be heard. But repatriation is not a problem. This gift of baptism with forgiveness and the Spirit is for them, for their children, and for all those however faraway they may be. In fact, the gift is for anyone the Lord calls to Himself: that’s the only prerequisite.
The rest of Acts is the Lord’s calling more and more people to receive His gift: first Samaritans, then a Jewish proselyte in the form of the Ethiopian eunuch, next Gentiles starting with Cornelius, and finally John’s disciples still stuck at baptism 1.0. But in the end the Lord claims them all, every community if not yet every individual member thereof. Sins will be forgiven and the Spirit will be poured out on all flesh.
Responsorial Psalm Psalm Ps 23: 1-3a, 3b4, 5, 6
Many of us can only hear the first line of the Psalm “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” With a simple metaphor in a concise and elegant line, this verse expresses the message of the entire psalm: Yahweh satisfied every need. The images shift throughout the poem, but that central idea remains constant.
Indeed, Psalm 23 delivers some of the most beautiful and deeply comforting images in the whole Bible. As such, this psalm is a favorite -- indeed, the favorite -- of many. But the imagery in this psalm is also full of surprises. So our reading and discussion of this text should not be sentimental, but bold, always keeping in mind the ways that its radical claims confront our experiences of suffering, fear, enmity, and alienation.
The enduring appeal of Psalm 23
The pastoral metaphor at the outset of Psalm 23 resonates so deeply with Christians because of texts like John 10 (the Gospel reading for this Sunday) and John 21:15-17. The history of Christian art has played its part as well, reinforcing and developing this image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd through countless iterations. Having encountered all of these images of Jesus holding and caring for sheep, it’s hard for us not to associate Jesus as the shepherd in v. 1.
We can also attribute the psalm’s popularity to its happy ending. With rhetorical flourish, the psalm describes a blessed present and a blessed future, filled with the enjoyment of God’s presence: “Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;” and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come. We have to be careful because sentimentalism can easily supplant exegesis. When that happens, our well-worn readings tend to mute the fresh word from God to the contemporary community.
The journey of the Psalmist
The pastoral images that dominate the beginning of the psalm (shepherd, the verdant fields, and the waters of repose) actually work together to describe a journey that Yahweh oversees and guides. The rest in green pastures is in fact but a temporary repose. This psalmist is on the go, walking beside the water, along paths, and through valleys.
Thus the journey does not end at the end of the psalm. Rather, seeking after God’s presence is a lifelong enterprise, a long-term journey.
Jesus as shepherd and trailblazer
As Christians who read and discuss this text, we must consider Jesus not only as the good shepherd of John 10, but also as the trailblazer of the paths of righteousness (see Hebrews 12:1-2). Jesus tends us and guides us into right relationships with each other and with God. In the psalm, the paths of righteousness do not lead directly from the green pastures to the house of the Lord. No, those righteous ruts go through the very darkest valley. In Jesus’s case, the paths of righteousness lead all the way to the cross. Jesus has shown us that way (see especially 1 John 3:16-24, and calls us to follow him. The good news of Psalm 23 is that when we walk these paths of righteousness, we walk with God.
Reading 2 1 Pt 2:20b-25
As he concluded this passage, Peter once more alluded to Isaiah 53, “We had all gone astray like sheep, all following our own way;
But the LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all.”
If God had not determined that all believers’ sins should fall on Jesus, there would be no shepherd to bring God’s flock into the fold.
The phrase, were continually straying like sheep describes by analogy the wayward, purposeless, dangerous, and helpless wandering of lost sinners, whom Jesus described as “sheep without a shepherd” (Matt. 9:36). The verb rendered have returned, carries the connotation of repentance, a turning from sin and in faith a turning toward Jesus Christ. But Peter’s readers had trusted in Christ’s substitutionary death and turned to Him for salvation. Like the prodigal son in Luke 15:11–32, they had turned away from the misery of their former sinful life (cf. Eph. 2:1–7; 4:17–24; Col. 3:1–7; 1 Thess. 1:2–10) and received new life in Christ (cf. Eph. 5:15–21; Col. 3:8–17; 1 Thess. 2:13–14). All who are saved come under the perfect care, provision, and protection of the Shepherd and Guardian of their souls.
The analogy of God as shepherd is a familiar and rich theme in Scripture (cf. 5:4; Ps. 23:1; Ezek. 34:23–24; 37:24). Jesus identified Himself as God when He took the divine title and named Himself the “good shepherd” (John 10:11, 14). Shepherd is an apt title for the Savior since it conveys His role as feeder, leader, protector, cleanser, and restorer of His flock. And believers as sheep, is also an apt analogy because sheep are stupid, gullible (a sheep called the “Judas sheep” in modern times leads the other sheep to slaughter), dirty (the lanolin in sheep’s wool collects all kinds of dirt), and defenseless (they have no natural defensive capabilities).
Shepherd: the Shepherd leads and shepherds the sheep. He loves them as His own; therefore He must lead them to the green pastures and still waters. He must see that they are nourished and protected and given the very best care possible. (See note—Mk. 6:34 for more discussion, what happens to sheep without a Shepherd.)
1. He feeds the sheep even if He has to gather them in His arms and carry them to the feeding pasture. Isaiah 40:11
2. He guides the sheep to the pasture and away from the rough places and precipices. Psalms 23:1-4
3. He seeks and saves the sheep who get lost. Matthew 18:11-12
4. He protects the sheep. He even sacrifices His life for the sheep. John 10:11 / Hebrews 13:20
5. He restores the sheep who go astray and return. I Peter 2:25
6. He rewards the sheep for obedience and faithfulness. I Peter 5:4
7. He shall keep the sheep separate from the goats. Matthew 25:32-33
II. Like Sheep we hear Jesus’ Voice, John 10:3
Jesus began this discourse by identifying Himself as the true Shepherd, in sharp contrast to all false shepherds. Each village in the sheepherding regions of Palestine had a fold where sheep were kept at night. The shepherds would graze their flocks in the surrounding countryside during the day, and then lead them back to the communal sheepfold in the evening. There the shepherds would stop each sheep at the entrance with their rods and carefully inspect it before allowing it to enter the fold (cf. Ezek. 20:37–38). Once in the fold, the sheep were in the care of the doorkeeper (a hired undershepherd; v. 12), who would keep watch over them during the night. He would give only the shepherds access to the sheepfold; therefore anyone who could not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbed up some other way, was a thief and a robber. Since the doorkeeper obviously would not let strangers in, would-be rustlers had to climb the wall of the sheepfold to get at the sheep. Only the one who entered by the door was a shepherd of the sheep.
Each of those common elements of everyday life had a symbolic meaning in the Lord’s metaphor. Though some argue that the sheepfold represents the church or heaven, the context (cf. v. 16) indicates that it represents Israel. In addition, it is hard to see how thieves could break into either the church or heaven and steal sheep (cf. vv. 27–29). The door is Jesus Himself (vv. 7, 9), who alone has the authority to lead out of Israel’s fold His own elect sheep. The thieves and robbers represent the self-appointed (cf. Matt. 23:2) Jewish religious leaders, who, doing the work of the devil, not God, climbed the walls of the sheepfold to spiritually fleece and slaughter the people.
III. Like Sheep we all need a Shepard or we would Scattered , Mark 6:34
“And Jesus, when he came out, saw many people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.”
Given the indefatigable persistence of the crowds that constantly surrounded Jesus and His disciples, it is not surprising that as they pushed out into the lake, the people saw them going, and many recognized them. They watched Jesus and His disciples leave in the boat and began traversing the shore on foot in order to follow them. As John writes, the “A large crowd followed him, because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.” (John 6:2). Most of those in the crowd were thrill seekers, motivated out of a desire to witness and perhaps personally experience miracles. Those who were sick wished to be healed, and those who were well wanted to be entertained. Some were also fueled by political ambitions, hoping to press Jesus into becoming their political deliverer (cf. John 6:14–15). Noting the direction the boat was headed, the people assessed its general destination and ran there together on foot from all the cities, and got there ahead of them.
When Jesus and His disciples reached their destination, the swarming crowd was already there waiting. When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd that had already gathered. Though they violated His privacy, Jesus responded by “welcoming them” (Luke 9:11). The Lord could have ignored them or sent them away; He could have gotten back in the boat and sailed to a different location. Instead, He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. Jesus was deeply moved by genuine concern for these people because, spiritually speaking, they were wandering as lost sheep without a shepherd for their souls.
As was His usual pattern, Jesus not only taught the people, He also healed them. As Matthew 14:14 explains, “When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.” The Lord’s compassion extended beyond the spiritual needs of people to include their physical infirmities as well. Jesus’ ability to heal them from temporal ailments was evidence of His ability to offer them spiritual help: salvation not just from the debilitating effects of sin in this life but from the eternal effect of sin itself. The physical healing He provided was limited to this life only, but the eternal life He offered abounds with blessings and benefits both for this life and the next.
Gospel Jn 10:1-10
So the Gospel continues the theme of the good shepherd.
In an agrarian (cultivated land) society, where sheep were a mainstay of agricultural life, the serious dangers faced by sheep without a shepherd would have been immediately understood. Without help and guidance, sheep are defenseless, unable to clean themselves, and prone to getting lost. In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was sometimes pictured as a flock with no shepherd (Num. 27:17; 1 Kings 22:17; 2 Chron. 18:16; Ezek. 34:5). The metaphor depicted the nation as being spiritually vulnerable to deadly enemies and malnourished, threatened by error and sin, and lacking in faithful caretakers and spiritual protectors. As “the good shepherd” (John 10:11), Jesus was willing to feed, cleanse, and protect these lost sheep (cf. Matt. 10:6), and lead them into eternal safety in the fold of salvation. Thus He began to teach them many things. According to Luke 9:11, He was “speaking to them about the kingdom of God” (i.e., the realm of salvation), which was the primary theme of His preaching (cf. Mark 1:15; 4:11, 26–32; Luke 4:43; 6:20; 8:1; 11:20; 17:20–21; 18:24–25; John 3:3; Acts 1:3).
Even today outside of Jerusalem Bedouin shepherds guide their flocks in the hills. It is only thru Jesus that we have life and have it more abundantly.
Admittedly, the image of Jesus as shepherd makes for a far more natural comparison than comparing Jesus to a gate. And how can Jesus be both at the same time? These two images are part of a richly layered, extended metaphor that speaks of sheep, shepherd, gate, gatekeeper, strangers, thieves, bandits, and wolves. All of these except for the wolves are introduced in the first ten verses, and all of the elements of this extended metaphor contribute to understanding who Jesus is, and who we are in relation to him.
Jesus begins by describing who he is not. Those who climb into the sheepfold in a furtive way are thieves and bandits who do not care about the sheep but only about their own gain. By contrast, the shepherd enters the sheepfold openly, by means of the gate. He is recognized immediately by both the gatekeeper, who opens the gate for him, and by the sheep, who know his voice. When he calls his sheep by name, they follow him, and he leads them out to pasture. The sheep will not follow a stranger but instead will flee from one whose voice they do not recognize.
At this point the narrator comments that those listening did not understand the figure of speech that Jesus was using. Rather than change tactics, Jesus “doubles down” on this figure of speech, saying to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep” (10:7). He describes all who came before him as thieves and bandits to whom the sheep did not listen (10:8). Again Jesus says, “I am the gate,” and then adds: “Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture” (10:9). Whereas “the thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy,” Jesus says, “I came so that they might have life, and have it more abundantly” (10:10).
The function of the gate is to keep the sheep together in the sheepfold during the night, safe from thieves and predators. During the day the gate is opened so that the sheep can go out, following their shepherd, to find pasture. The gate and the shepherd work together for the well-being of the sheep, so that the flock thrives. Jesus is both the gate and the shepherd at the same time; he guards and protects his sheep from danger, and he provides for their nourishment, for their life in abundance.
Though chapter divisions might obscure the fact, there is no break after Jesus’ comments to the Pharisees in 9:41. Rather, Jesus launches immediately into this discourse about sheep and gates and shepherds. The shepherd discourse, then, interprets the sign that he has enacted in restoring sight to the blind man.
Although there is no one-to-one correspondence between elements of the metaphor and the narrative it follows, certain associations are hard to miss. The Pharisees who have interrogated the blind man in John 9 are supposed to be the shepherds of Israel, those who care for, protect, and nourish the people. Instead, they expel the healed blind man from their community, refusing to believe that Jesus and his healing work come from God. They are more concerned about guarding their power and authority than about the well-being of the people.
Having already restored the sight of the man, Jesus seeks him out again after his expulsion from the synagogue and brings him into the community of his followers (9:35-38). For the blind man, salvation is not only receiving his physical sight but also spiritual sight, recognizing who Jesus is, believing in him, and becoming part of his community. He followed the voice of Jesus before he could see him, and it led to new life. His days of isolation are over; he now knows himself to be a valued member of Jesus’ flock, cared for and protected.
One direction for reflection on this text might be to ask: What does it mean for us as followers of Jesus today, in our context, to be protected by the gate and the shepherd, to be “saved,” to have life in abundance?
It is important to note that the metaphor of the gate is not one of exclusion, not a license to think of ourselves as Jesus’ true sheep and others as outsiders. (If we use it that way, we become like the Pharisees who expelled the blind man from their community.) The purpose of the gate is not to keep out other sheep. Indeed, Jesus says in verse 16, “I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
It goes without saying that there are many thieves and bandits in our world who seek to steal and kill and destroy. There are also “wolves in sheep’s (or shepherd’s) clothing”.
What, then, is the life in abundance that Jesus promises? The whole of John’s Gospel is focused on this gift of life:
- “through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race;” (1:4).
Much has been written about how sheep are rather unintelligent animals. It is true that without a shepherd, they will not necessarily be able to find food or water, and that they will easily get lost and not be able to find their way home. However, the thing that Jesus emphasizes about sheep is that they know the voice of their shepherd. Whatever else one can say about the mental capacities of sheep, they have this in their favor: they recognize the voice of the one who cares for them. They follow their shepherd, but will not follow a stranger whose voice they do not know.
What about us? Do we recognize the voice of the good shepherd over all the other voices promising abundance? How might you as a preacher help us to recognize that voice?
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April 30, 2017
Third Sunday of Easter
Lectionary: 46
Review of some items from last week.
Distance from Egypt to the Promised Land 250 miles in a straight Line but that would take them thru the Philistines who were a warring group. God did not want to scare the Israelites so he sent them in a round about direction.
Approximately 2 million people were travelling and of that number only two of that original group made it to the Promised Land Joshua and Caleb. Children under age 19 and under born on the way also made it.
The trip should have taken 11 days but because the scouts sent out by Moses for 40 days to observe came back and reported the armies were huge men and many in number they told the people they should not go, even though God told them he would protect them Since they chose not to go, God said you shall wander for one year for each day you spent on the mountain, hence the 40 years of wandering
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:14, 22-33
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
"You who are Jews, indeed all of you staying in Jerusalem.
Let this be known to you, and listen to my words.
You who are Israelites, hear these words.
Jesus the Nazarene was a man commended to you by God
with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs,
which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know.
This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God,
you killed, using lawless men to crucify him.
But God raised him up, releasing him from the throes of death,
because it was impossible for him to be held by it.
For David says of him:
I saw the Lord ever before me,
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
Therefore my heart has been glad and my tongue has exulted;
my flesh, too, will dwell in hope,
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your holy one to see corruption.
You have made known to me the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence.
"My brothers, one can confidently say to you
about the patriarch David that he died and was buried,
and his tomb is in our midst to this day.
But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him
that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne,
he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ,
that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld
nor did his flesh see corruption.
God raised this Jesus;
of this we are all witnesses.
Exalted at the right hand of God,
he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father
and poured him forth, as you see and hear."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
R. (11a) Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, "My Lord are you."
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R. Alleluia.
You will show me the path to life,
abounding joy in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.
R. Lord, you will show us the path of life.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2
Reading 2 1 Pt 1:17-21
Beloved:
If you invoke as Father him who judges impartially
according to each one's works,
conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning,
realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct,
handed on by your ancestors,
not with perishable things like silver or gold
but with the precious blood of Christ
as of a spotless unblemished lamb.
He was known before the foundation of the world
but revealed in the final time for you,
who through him believe in God
who raised him from the dead and gave him glory,
so that your faith and hope are in God.
Gospel
Gospel Lk 24:13-35
That very day, the first day of the week,
two of Jesus' disciples were going
to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus,
and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred.
And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,
Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,
but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
He asked them,
"What are you discussing as you walk along?"
They stopped, looking downcast.
One of them, named Cleopas, said to him in reply,
"Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem
who does not know of the things
that have taken place there in these days?"
And he replied to them, "What sort of things?"
They said to him,
"The things that happened to Jesus the Nazarene,
who was a prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people,
how our chief priests and rulers both handed him over
to a sentence of death and crucified him.
But we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel;
and besides all this,
it is now the third day since this took place.
Some women from our group, however, have astounded us:
they were at the tomb early in the morning
and did not find his body;
they came back and reported
that they had indeed seen a vision of angels
who announced that he was alive.
Then some of those with us went to the tomb
and found things just as the women had described,
but him they did not see."
And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are!
How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!
Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things
and enter into his glory?"
Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,
he interpreted to them what referred to him
in all the Scriptures.
As they approached the village to which they were going,
he gave the impression that he was going on farther.
But they urged him, "Stay with us,
for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over."
So he went in to stay with them.
And it happened that, while he was with them at table,
he took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and gave it to them.
With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,
but he vanished from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
"Were not our hearts burning within us
while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?"
So they set out at once and returned to Jerusalem
where they found gathered together
the eleven and those with them who were saying,
"The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!"
Then the two recounted
what had taken place on the way
and how he was made known to them in the breaking of bread.
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:14, 22-33
Here, as in the Gospels, Peter is represented as the chief of the Apostles and head of the Church. What a change has come over him who before was so timid and weak! Now filled with the spirit of God, and with the gift of tongues on his lips, he fearlessly proclaims to all the miracle of Christ’s Resurrection.
The discourse of Peter was artfully arranged, so as to carry its point and win the assent of his hearers. He did not at first assert the divinity and Messiahship of Jesus, lest this should antagonize the Jews, but began by appealing to the ancient prophecy which foretold the present wonderful happenings, and was a sign of the inauguration of the Messianic reign. Now he proceeds to call attention to ” Jesus of Nazareth ” as a man sent by God and approved of by God through many miracles wrought publicly in the presence of those who were now listening. And the death of this same Jesus, he goes on to say (verse 23), was foreseen and decreed by God from all eternity as a means for man’s salvation (John 3:16; 14:31; 18:11). But God’s foreknowledge and decree of the Passion and death of Jesus did not in any way excuse or palliate the wickedness of the Jews, who, as St. Peter here affirms, were really responsible for these crimes, and used the Romans as mere agents of their malevolence.
In the following verse (24) St. Peter observes that God did not suffer Jesus to remain in the tomb, but raised Him up, as the Psalmist (Ps 16:8-11) had long before announced.
Having loosed the sorrows of hell. The word for “sorrows” in the Hebrew of the Psalm is cords, bonds; and the Greek MSS. have death instead of “hell.” Hell or “death” means here the grave, the abode of the dead (Heb., sheol).
David in the Psalm 16:8-11 introduces the Messiah as speaking to God, who is always before him, as Protector, who will give ” hope ” of resurrection to His ” flesh ” in the grave, and who will ” not leave His soul in sheol,” nor permit His body ” to see the corruption of the grave,” but will restore Him again to ” the ways of life ” through the Resurrection, and fill Him in heaven ” with the joy of His presence.”
St. Peter calls attention to the fact that the words of the Psalmist could not apply to David himself, since he was dead, and his grave in the Holy City was known, but that, having received from God a promise that he should have a successor, the Messiah, in whom these predictions should be verified, and being himself a prophet, he foresaw in prophecy the Resurrection of Christ, the Messiah, of which St. Peter and all were witnesses.
Peter now gives the real explanation of the miracle of the gift of tongues: This Jesus, this Christ of whom he had been speaking and of whom David prophesied, has been raised by God to the throne of the Divinity, and has just now sent the Holy Spirit on the disciples, as He had promised before being assumed into heaven (John 15:26; 16:7).
Responsorial Psalm Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
Psalm 16 is ordinarily classified as a psalm of trust/assurance/confidence. In fact, a major form critic, labels Psalm 16 not only a “Song of Confidence,” but also a “Confession of Faith.” “The psalm can be compared in its function with the Apostles’ Creed in Christian worship.”
The Apostles’ Creed, of course, is a foundational Christian creed. If Psalm 16 is really comparable, it may be helpful to think about Psalm 16 as something like a poetic expression of and elaboration upon the faith affirmed in the first of the Ten Commandments -- “no other gods” (Exodus 20:3) -- and in the pivotally important Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
In short, Psalm 16 is a lovely and eloquent poetic rendering of Israel’s radical monotheism. Each of its sections -- verses 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-11 -- offers a variation on the theme of “no other gods” or “the LORD alone.”
Verse 1 features the major psalmic concept of “refuge,” which is introduced in Psalm 2:12 and appears frequently, especially in Book I (Psalms 1-41; see 5:11; 7:1; 11:1; 14:6; and more). To “take refuge” in God means to trust God unreservedly. This, in turn, means to submit the self fully to God, as the psalmist indicates that she or he has done by addressing God as “my Lord” in verse 2.
The theme of “the LORD alone” culminates in the conclusion to verse 2. The word “good” refers to the resources, material and otherwise, that make life possible; so the psalmist affirms that his or her life derives from and depends solely upon God.
Verses 3-4 are notoriously difficult, and translations vary considerably. According to most interpretations the psalmist expresses exclusive loyalty to God by honoring those who honor God (verse 3), as well as by avoiding every semblance of idolatry (verse 4).
In contrast to those who drink idolatrous offerings (verse 4), the LORD is the psalmist’s only “cup” (verse 5). But the real unifying feature of verses 5-6 is the language of land-settlement that is drawn from the book of Joshua -- “”portion” (Joshua 19:9), “lot” (18:6, 8), and “heritage”). Because land represented access to life, the affirmation again is that the psalmist’s life derives from and depends solely upon God.
The affirmation “I will bless the LORD” (Psalm 16:7) reinforces the psalmist’s submission to God (see verse 2), since “bless” seems originally to have meant something like to “kneel in obeisance to.” The mention of “counsel” and round-the-clock instruction recalls Psalm 1 (see “advice” in 1:1 and “night” in 1:2), which opens the Psalter by orienting readers exclusively to God and God’s will, as a matter of life and death. Verse 8 continues the focus on the constancy of God’s presence, which proves to be the psalmist’s sole source of stability (see 15:5, and compare 13:4 where “shaken” represents the same Hebrew root).
Not surprisingly, “the path of life” is mentioned explicitly in verse 11. This verse serves well as a culmination, since its vocabulary recalls earlier sections of the poem -- see “pleasures” and “pleasant places” (verses 6, 11), “right hand” (verses 8, 11), and “joy”/”rejoices” (verses 9, 11). The repetition summarizes and reinforces the message of the whole; that is, the psalmist’s joyful affirmation that his or her life derives from and is dependent upon “the LORD alone.”
The appearance of Psalm 16 in the lectionary is an opportunity both to appreciate its artistic beauty and to open ourselves to the challenge of Israel’s radical monotheism. In our pervasively self-centered context, for instance, what difference might it make if we entertained the conviction that life is not something we achieve, but rather something we receive as a gift from God? What difference might it make if we viewed the life-sustaining resources that most of us enjoy not as something we have earned or deserve, but rather as evidence of God’s goodness? Might a pervasive sense of entitlement begin to be replaced by a posture of humility and gratitude?
“What is the chief end of humankind? The chief end of humankind is to glorify God and enjoy God forever.” What difference might it make if we began to try to ground our pleasure and joy not in self nor in stuff but in God? It’s worth a try!
Reading 2 1 Pt 1:17-21
On the Second Sunday after Easter the given text was I Peter 1.3-9 This week's assigned text covers another part of I Peter 1, i.e. vv. 17-21. In my discussion I will consider all the remaining verses of I Peter 1, which includes vv. 10-16 and vv. 24, 25.
Many interpreters of this epistle see vv. 3-9 as the indicative of the gospel and vv. 13-25 as the imperatives of the gospel. It may be clearer to say that when Peter calls on his readers to take up the life of the baptized he majors in making the indicative known. The imperatives of Christian living are almost drowned out by his emphasis on the indicatives of grace.
Vv. 13-25 have been called "the charge to the baptized." It is a section of I Peter where indicative and imperative are completely comingled with each other. So what dos this mean? Let’s think of a person who was in position to get a promotion and a hefty salary raise at her place of work. There was much consternation in the office on the day that the indication of who would receive this advancement was to be announced. The candidates filed into the bosses' office one by one. Finally Pam went in. She was afraid. And then she heard the word announced over her: "Pam, congratulations. The promotion is yours." This word does what it says. With the sound of a few words a big chunk of Pam's world changed.
The indicative words of grace in the text today are in vv. 15, 18, 21, 23. Are powerful indicative words for us. God speaks words over us and it is so! Our world is changed. We are new people.
And then we move to the imperatives of the reading: 13, 14, 22. The call to neighbor love in v. 22 is probably the most important of the imperatives. Being a Christian is all about being loved by God as the empowering action that enables us to love our neighbor. New people do new things. That's the message here. As some have put it, we are called to become who we are. The Christian doesn't seek to live out the imperatives of the gospel to become a Christian. The Christian lives out the imperatives because she/he is a Christian. Through the living sacrifice of our lives for our neighbors we continually become who we are.
We should match the good news of God's announcement with several aspects of the human condition. To give just one example let’s think of our mortality. We hear challenging messages from the world around us: "You have only one life so why not live it up." "You are a nobody in this universe and you are on a one way track to death." "You are a nobody." Words like these seek to define our lives. They are powerful and seductive.
But there is another word! "That word is the good news that was announced to you." V. 25. You are born anew as a new being through the preaching of the word. You are born anew in baptism and your new life will never perish. You are born anew through the bread and wine and words of the Lord's Supper. You are born anew through the life giving power of the words of scripture. Thanks be to God for God's life-giving word!
Gospel Lk 24:13-35
Our reading is the story called "The Walk to Emmaus." It occurs right after the Easter narrative in the Gospel of Luke (24:1-12), and it takes place later in the day on Easter Sunday. The story is found only in Luke's Gospel. The location of Emmaus has never been identified with certainty, but it was near the city of first-century Jerusalem, which was smaller than the city is today.
The story begins abruptly with the words "two of them" who are on the road to Emmaus. Did you ever think who are those persons? There is no clear reference to "them" in 24:1-12. They are clearly not part of the eleven within the original circle of the Twelve, since the story ends with them going to report to "the eleven" what had happened (24:33). Yet they are part of a "group" of disciples (24:9) to which the women also belong who had gone to the tomb, and three of whose names are provided at 24:10 ("Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women"). In addition to the women, some of this "group" also visited the tomb on Easter morning (24:24) subsequently "and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him," the risen Christ. We are given the name of one of the two on the road to Emmaus. His name is Cleopas (24:18), but he shows up nowhere else in the New Testament.
In the first part of the story (24:13-27) these two persons (presumably men) have no idea who Jesus was when he approached them. He must have had normal human features (not superhuman), and they do not even catch on to his identity when he interpreted "Moses and all the prophets" concerning himself (24:27). They are aware, however, of recent events in Jerusalem. They recite to Jesus a brief summary of his earthly career ("a prophet mighty in word and deed"), his passion, and his death (24:19-20). They also know the essential Easter story. What they say in 24:22-24 is a brief recounting of the Easter narrative in 24:1-12.
It is in the second part of the story (24:28-35) that the identity and significance of the stranger becomes known to the travelers on the road. They are gathered at the table, and their guest "took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them" (24:30). The words are almost identical to those in 22:19 at the Last Supper ("he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them"). Surely the eucharistic symbolism is intentional. In fact, interpreters have often pointed out that worship practices in the early church have affected the telling of the story. The event is on a Sunday, and it involves the interpreting of Scripture, proclamation, and sacrament. It is in that event that the two disciples understand who the stranger is. They now know it is Jesus, who vanishes from them. Then too they recall that their hearts burned within them while he had been teaching them concerning the Messiah on the road to Emmaus (24:32).
The story ends with the two men going to Jerusalem to report what had happened. But before they can do that, they hear the testimony of the eleven who say that Jesus had been raised and had appeared to Simon (Peter, 24:34). The statement functions to place Peter as the first believer in the risen Christ, the first apostle.
The story has theological and homiletical significance on three levels. First, like the lesson from last Sunday, it demonstrates that belief in Jesus as risen Lord was not self-evident to his earliest followers, even after his crucifixion and resurrection. The reason why people back then came to believe in him was that he appeared to them. In other words, it took divine revelation for them to believe. That was true for Peter (24:34), and it was true for the men who traveled on the road to Emmaus.
Why is it that some believe, and others do not? Martin Luther explained we cannot believe by our own reason or strength; it is by the Holy Spirit that one comes to believe.
Second, the setting for most persons to come to faith is Christian worship, which includes Scripture, proclamation, and sacrament. That is also where the faith of all is sustained. It is the place where Jesus continues to reveal himself. The Christian faith is born and nurtured where people share in worship through word, gesture, and earthly means, such as water, bread, wine, and tactile expressions of mutual care--the smile, the clasp of another's hand, perhaps even an embrace.
And, finally, the story for today is one of movement. It contains at least nine verbs describing movement. The two men "are going" (24:13), Jesus "came near and went with them" (24:15), they "came near" Emmaus (24:28), Jesus "walked ahead of them" (24:28), "he went in to stay with them" (24:29), "he vanished from their sight" (24:31), and "they got up and returned to Jerusalem" (24:33). Some of the verbs tell of movements made by Jesus; others tell of the two men. Either way, both Jesus and his followers are on the move. But it is not movement for its own sake. The moves being made have a purpose, and that is to tell the story of Jesus, to interpret it, to have fellowship (communion) with Jesus and others, and to share it all with others. That is what it means to be the church.
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April 23, 2017
Second Sunday of Easter (or Sunday of Divine Mercy)
Lectionary: 43
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves
to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life,
to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.
Awe came upon everyone,
and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
All who believed were together and had all things in common;
they would sell their property and possessions
and divide them among all according to each one's need.
Every day they devoted themselves
to meeting together in the temple area
and to breaking bread in their homes.
They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart,
praising God and enjoying favor with all the people.
And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
R. (1) Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let the house of Aaron say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let those who fear the LORD say,
"His mercy endures forever."
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
I was hard pressed and was falling,
but the LORD helped me.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just:
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it.
R. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love is everlasting.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 1 Pt 1:3-9
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,
kept in heaven for you
who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith,
to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time.
In this you rejoice, although now for a little while
you may have to suffer through various trials,
so that the genuineness of your faith,
more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire,
may prove to be for praise, glory, and honor
at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Although you have not seen him you love him;
even though you do not see him now yet believe in him,
you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy,
as you attain the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
Gospel Jn 20:19-31
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you."
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
"Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained."
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord."
But he said to them,
"Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you."
Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe."
Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 2:42-47
In these verses we have the history of the truly primitive church, of the first days of it; its state of infancy indeed, the state of its greatest innocence. They kept close to holy ordinances, and abounded in piety and devotion; for Christianity, when admitted in the power of it, will dispose the soul to communion with God in all those ways wherein he has appointed us to meet him, and has promised to meet us. The greatness of the event raised them above the world, and the Holy Ghost filled them with such love, doing away selfishness, and causing charity. And God who moved them to it, knew that they were quickly to be driven from their possessions in Judea. The Lord, from day to day, inclined the hearts of more to embrace the gospel; not merely teachers, but actually being brought into a state of acceptance with God, being made partakers of regenerating grace. Those whom God has designed for eternal salvation, shall be effectually brought to Christ, till the earth is filled with the knowledge of his glory.
All who believed were together and had all things in common;
they would sell their property and possessions
and divide them among all according to each one's need.
The challenge of course, is getting communities of faith to believe this about themselves--and about God. Congregations are easily frustrated in their attempts to build a community that functions as an authentic expression of the gospel, even if it must remain a flawed expression. But it is an empowering thing to realize that Christians are not left to their own devices in creating such an environment. The ministry of God's reign that Jesus inaugurated during his life and secured by his death, resurrection, and glorification is not merely a thing of the past or a faint hope for future days; it continues, sometimes barely perceptibly, in the corporate life of communities of faith. It is important to underscore that Acts 2:42-47 describes a community of faith that operates in the power of God's Spirit. The virtues of justice, worship, and mutuality are not accomplishments of extraordinary folk; they are signs of the Spirit within a community of people who understand themselves as united in purpose and identity--not a dispersed collection of individual churchgoers. This is not to say that the members of a community of faith bear no responsibility for living in a way that displays God's reconciliation. The audacious claims of a resurrection faith demand such boldness from us.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
On Easter Sunday, the church proclaims, "Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love is everlasting" (Psalm 118:1).
Jesus Christ is risen. And in Christ, we too shall rise. God's steadfast love endures forever! The words of Psalm 118 have long been used to herald Easter. "This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad!" (118:24).
In its ancient Jewish context, scripture studiers believe Psalm 118 was most likely an entrance liturgy to the Temple, used at the festival of Passover. It proclaimed God's deliverance from Egypt and, later on, from the Exile. The Psalm was a liturgical script, complete with speaking parts for leaders and congregation. One can hear the jubilant call and response in 118:2-4:
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let the house of Aaron say,
"His mercy endures forever."
Let those who fear the LORD say,
"His mercy endures forever."
With this Psalm on their lips, the priests and people processed into the Temple. The approach to the Temple culminates in verse 19, "Open the gates of righteousness..." and the condition for entrance is given in verse 20, “This is the LORD’s own gate,
through it the righteous enter.”
The physical movement begins outside the Temple, progressing inside and all the way to the altar. The people express their faith that since God has saved them in the past, he can be trusted in the future (verse 25).1
Since New Testament times, Psalm 118 evokes for Christians the story of Easter.
In danger I called on the LORD;
the LORD answered me and set me free.
The LORD is with me; I am not afraid;
what can mortals do against me? (118:5-6).
New Testament writers used Psalm 118 "as a means of understanding and articulating the significance of Jesus."3 (See Matthew 21:42; Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:7.) Christians have long read this Psalm with Jesus in mind.
*The stone the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
iBy the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it. (Psalm 118: 22-24).
The ancient church relied on the words of the New Testament writers, and during the Middle Ages, Psalm 118 continued to inspire Christian worship.
Just as the Psalmist was delivered by God, so now Christ empowers us, comforts us, and snatches us out of the realm of death.
Reading 2 1 PEtER 1:3-9
The First Letter of Peter is addressed to the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. One commentator suggests that geographically speaking this would be 300,000 square miles! That’s about the size of Texas plus Maine.
The major purpose of the letter appears to be an appeal to Christian believers not to turn away from the gospel they have heard proclaimed. A very interesting theory of the usage of the letter is that it was a letter intended to be read at a baptismal service with the purpose of strengthening the faith of the baptized as they find themselves living as exiles in an alien culture. We note, e.g., that I Peter 1.3 refers to new birth.
A description of the audience for this letter of I Peter would include the fact that they were relative newcomers to Christianity [1.4; 1.17; 1.25; 2.2]. They were an immature group of believers who were encountering a hostile environment. They were foreigners in their own country because of their election [1.2], their worship of God [4.14-15], their origin [1.3, 23; 2.2], their lifestyle [2.16], and their innocent suffering [2.12; 3.13, 16]. They needed guidance on their way. One interpreter of this letter sees, therefore, a two-fold purpose for its writing: 1] It is a call to young Christians to hold fast their faith. "Become who you are," might summarize Peter's message on this point. 2] It is a description for how young believers can be Christians in a hostile cultural environment. This message is fashioned for those who have suffered much for their new faith. The role of suffering, the suffering of Jesus and the suffering of his followers pervades the epistle.
This text from I Peter is appointed for the First Sunday after Easter. Verses 3-5 are a flourish of praise for baptism; new birth! Note how the hope of new birth is dominated by images of the resurrection. Our salvation here is pointed toward the end of history! As Easter people we live between the NOW and the NOT YET. Easter people live between the times!
Remember these folks live in a hostile faith environment.
One of the basic themes of this epistle is counsel on the way to be a Christian in a hostile cultural environment. Peter continually cites the suffering of Christ as the great hope for the beleaguered believer: 2.21-23; 3.18-23; 4.1-2, 13f. [Some interpreters identify the theme of suffering and hope as the key themes in I Peter.] In these texts Peter gives expression to a profound theology of the cross. There is much wise guidance here for us.
- Peter mentions faith three times in our assigned text: verses. 5, 7, 9. Faith in these passages has a strong eschatological emphasis. (the part of theology concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind)
- Faith, that is, lives toward the future and the future has been revealed to us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave.
Gospel Jn 20:19-31
The Gospels tell us that Jesus appeared to the disciples on several occasions after they discovered that his tomb was empty. Part of the mystery of Jesus' Resurrection is that he appeared to his disciples not as a spirit but in bodily form. The bodily form was not one that the disciples recognized though. In John's Gospel, Mary of Magdala does not recognize that the figure standing before her is Jesus until he speaks to her. In Luke's Gospel the disciples who meet Jesus on the road to Emmaus do not recognize him until he breaks bread with them. The resurrected Jesus had a physical presence, but the disciples couldn't recognize Jesus unless he allowed them to. His resurrected body, nonetheless, showed the marks of his crucifixion.
From readings such as today's Gospel, we also see that in his resurrected body, Jesus seems to be free of physical constraints. He appears to the disciples despite the fact that the doors were locked.
Jesus greets his disciples with the gift of peace and the gift of the Holy Spirit. In doing so, Jesus commissions his disciples to continue the work that he has begun: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” During the meeting, Jesus also shows the integral connection between forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The story of Thomas illustrates our Christian experience today: We are called to believe without seeing. In fact, all Christians after the first witnesses have been called to believe without seeing. Thomas's doubt is hardly surprising; the news of Jesus' appearance was incredible to the disciples who had seen him crucified and buried. Thomas's human nature compelled him to want hard evidence that the Jesus who appeared to the disciples after his death was indeed the same Jesus who had been crucified. Thomas is given the opportunity to act on that desire. He is our witness that Jesus is really risen.
Our faith is based on the witness of the Church that has preceded us, beginning with Thomas and the first disciples. Through Baptism we receive the same Holy Spirit that Jesus brought to the first disciples. We are among those who are “blessed” because we believe without having seen.
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April 16, 2017 HE IS RISEN ALLELUIA
The Resurrection of the Lord
Sunday The Mass of Easter Day
Lectionary: 42
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Peter proceeded to speak and said:
"You know what has happened all over Judea,
beginning in Galilee after the baptism
that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
He went about doing good
and healing all those oppressed by the devil,
for God was with him.
We are witnesses of all that he did
both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem.
They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised on the third day and granted that he be visible,
not to all the people, but to us,
the witnesses chosen by God in advance,
who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
He commissioned us to preach to the people
and testify that he is the one appointed by God
as judge of the living and the dead.
To him all the prophets bear witness,
that everyone who believes in him
will receive forgiveness of sins through his name."
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
R. (24) This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Israel say,
"His mercy endures forever."
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.
"The right hand of the LORD has struck with power;
the right hand of the LORD is exalted.
I shall not die, but live,
and declare the works of the LORD."
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
R. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Reading 2 Col 3:1-4
Brothers and sisters:
If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.
Gospel Jn 20:1-9
On the first day of the week,
Mary of Magdala came to the tomb early in the morning,
while it was still dark,
and saw the stone removed from the tomb.
So she ran and went to Simon Peter
and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
"They have taken the Lord from the tomb,
and we don't know where they put him."
So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter
and arrived at the tomb first;
he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
When Simon Peter arrived after him,
he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there,
and the cloth that had covered his head,
not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
Then the other disciple also went in,
the one who had arrived at the tomb first,
and he saw and believed.
For they did not yet understand the Scripture
that he had to rise from the dead.
After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning,
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.
And behold, there was a great earthquake;
for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven,
approached, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.
His appearance was like lightning
and his clothing was white as snow.
The guards were shaken with fear of him
and became like dead men.
Then the angel said to the women in reply,
"Do not be afraid!
I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified.
He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said.
Come and see the place where he lay.
Then go quickly and tell his disciples,
'He has been raised from the dead,
and he is going before you to Galilee;
there you will see him.'
Behold, I have told you."
Then they went away quickly from the tomb,
fearful yet overjoyed,
and ran to announce this to his disciples.
And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them.
They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage.
Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid.
Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee,
and there they will see me."
------------------------------ REFLECTIONS -----------------------------------
Reading 1 Acts 10:34a, 37-43
Our text begins with Peter addressing a most unlikely audience.
He is speaking to the household and friends of Cornelius, a notable leader of Roman soldiers who is nevertheless described as "God-fearing" (10:2, 22). This means that he helped the poor and was also known for his regular prayer life (10:2, 32). Peter's "sermon" is startling and even destabilizing. He announces God's radical love is on the move, breaking down cherished and long-held borders and categories.
Peter begins by saying that "God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him" (10:34). God shows no partiality! Think of how that statement challenges and undermines our tendency to confine God to the comfortable categories of our own "religions." In Peter's day, the inclusion of Gentiles in God's mission was profoundly controversial. Many of the original followers of Jesus could not conceive of a messiah meant for non-Jews, even though God's promises to Israel have always had universal trajectory (Genesis 12:3).
We are not that different. We tend to build our own "private" faiths, drawing lines around who is "in" and who is "out." And we get upset when people mess with our religion. No Partiality--Because Of Jesus
The idea that God shows no partiality has sometimes been misunderstood. This is not an affirmation of a superficial universalism. Peter is hardly claiming the modern creed of many in the West who say that God is all-loving and therefore is far above all human religions. But let's be careful about turning Peter into some kind of Deist. The reason that Peter makes the claim that God is not partial is because of the way that God has revealed himself in the concrete and particular life of Jesus of Nazareth. As Acts 10:40-43 demonstrates, Jesus' resurrection means that he is a messiah for Jews and Gentiles. And the fact that he is returning to judge all people means that all of human history is headed towards him. Ironically, only the life and ministry of the Jew named Jesus allows Peter to say that God shows no partiality!
Most commentators on this text agree that Peter's speech in Acts 10:38-43 is something like an early Christian creed. At the center of this preaching is the fact that this one "anointed" by God (the messiah) dies on a tree (10:38-39). But according to Jewish law anyone who dies this way is "cursed," literally cut off from the people of God (Deuteronomy 21:23). So early Christian preaching has God most fully revealed in the most unthinkable of places-in the execution of a criminal on a cross. By whatever measurement-religious, social, cultural--the death of the Jew named Jesus was hideous, shameful, and offensive. But because he bore the sin of the world, the cross becomes a place of forgiveness and reconciliation (I Corinthians 5:21).
God's love is now at loose in the world--this is what animates early Christian preaching. It is a wild and unruly force, winning over the hearts of centurions like Cornelius. It reverses conventional categories of who is "in" and who is "out." It eats with sinners and upholds love of enemies as a new norm. Let us be cautious about all human attempts to corral and control this power. The Holy One of Israel has a way of eluding human attempts to hold him tight.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:1-2, 16-17, 22-23
When testifying one first narrates what one has seen and heard [e.g., "the Lord did not give me over to death" verse 18] and then declares what one believes about what has been seen and heard [e.g., "The Lord has become my salvation," verse 14, and "I shall not die, but I shall live," verse 17].
The celebrant could be any one of us who has born witness to God's mighty act of delivering us from bondage when we cannot free ourselves.
Imagine how this Psalm picks up where the shorter ending of the Gospel of Mark leaves off; that is, break the silence of the women who first witnessed the empty tomb by proclaiming, "He is risen!" In doing so we encourage others do the same. Let the "Alleluias" return.
Finally, it is worth focusing a bit on verse 22 ("The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."). Architecturally, the cornerstone is key; it is key for the stability of the structure and, additionally, as a kind of capstone that points to the architectural plan's perfect execution.
The Psalm suggests that what has become the cornerstone was once a stone that the builders rejected. For whatever reason, it was once of no use but now, unexpectedly, has become the cornerstone. It is possible that the Psalmist has moved from a place of rejection to restoration and is now celebrating God's role in this. Could it be that when we testify as the Psalmist did we, too, are rejoicing at the unexpectedness of now being the one to testify!
Talk about unexpected . . . whoever imagined a baby from Bethlehem would grow up, die an untimely death and rise from his own tomb! Because the leap has already been made from cornerstone as inanimate object to cornerstone as metaphor for a person, it is no surprise that the leap is made in the New Testament to identify Jesus as the cornerstone. [Note that this Psalm (this verse) is one of the most often quoted in the New Testament. (See, for example, Matthew 21:41, Acts 4:11, 1 Peter 2:6-7, Ephesians 2:20.)]
The essence of this psalm might be that one "cannot encounter God and not talk about it." The news that God has defeated death must be proclaimed on this day that the Lord has made. Rejoice! Alleluia!
Reading 2 Col 3:1-4
Chapter 3 begins the advice-giving section of the letter. The theme of the whole section (3:1-4:6) is stated in 3:1, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God." The implications of what it means to "seek the things that are above" are drawn out in the succeeding verses.
Why is Col 3:1-4 read on Easter Sunday? The answer is as brief as the reading:
*the text refers to the resurrection of Jesus,
*it connects believers to it, and
*it outlines a basic ethical response that the author hopes will guide believers.
The text does refer to the resurrection of Jesus. He has been raised, and he is currently to be found "above," "seated at the right hand of God." One of the characteristics of Colossians, Ephesians, and the post-Paul era in general is that the time categories used by Paul, such as "this age" and "the age of ages," are now transformed into spatial categories of above and below--or, as in v. 2, "above" and "on earth." In that "above" realm, Christ is seated at God's right hand. The right hand is the hand of power and judgment; the reference to being seated at the right hand has its origin in Ps 110:1,
The Colossians text helps us to connect the wonderful good news of Easter to our lives today. When Jesus is killed and when he is raised, in some way we are killed and we are raised with him. And his past-tense resurrection and our past-tense-but-still-future resurrection help us to lift our eyes to the heavens above, both to see the resurrected Christ and to orient our lives to him.
Gospel Jn 20:1-9
Today we begin the Easter Season, our 50-day meditation on the mystery of Christ's Resurrection. Our Gospel today tells us about the disciples' discovery of the empty tomb. It concludes by telling us that they did not yet understand that Jesus had risen from the dead. Thus, the details provided are not necessarily meant to offer proof of the Resurrection. The details invite us to reflect upon a most amazing gift, that is faith in Jesus and his Resurrection.
Each of the four Gospels tells us that Jesus' empty tomb was first discovered by women. This is notable because in first-century Jewish society women could not serve as legal witnesses. In the case of John's Gospel, the only woman attending the tomb is Mary of Magdala. Unlike the Synoptic accounts, John's Gospel does not describe an appearance of angels at the tomb. Instead, Mary is simply said to have observed that the stone that had sealed the tomb had been moved, and she runs to alert Simon Peter and the beloved disciple. Her statement to them is telling. She assumes that Jesus' body has been removed, perhaps stolen. She does not consider that Jesus has been raised from the dead.
Simon Peter and the beloved disciple race to the tomb, presumably to verify Mary's report. The beloved disciple arrives first but does not enter the tomb until after Simon Peter. This detail paints a vivid picture, as does the detail provided about the burial cloths. Some scholars believe that the presence of the burial cloths in the tomb offers evidence to the listener that Jesus' body had not been stolen (it is understood that grave robbers would have taken the burial cloths together with the body).
The Gospel passage concludes, however, that even having seen the empty tomb and the burial cloths, the disciples do not yet understand about the Resurrection. In the passage that follows, Mary of Magdala meets Jesus but mistakes him for the gardener. In the weeks ahead, the Gospel readings from our liturgy will show us how the disciples came to believe in Jesus' Resurrection through his appearances to them. Our Easter faith is based on their witness to both the empty tomb and their continuing relationship with Jesus—in his appearances and in his gift of the Holy Spirit.
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April 9, 2017
Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
Lectionary: 37 and 38
THE READINGS -----------------------------------------------------------------
Reading 1 Is 50:4-7
The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
that I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
and I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
my face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.
The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23-24
R. (2a) My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
All who see me scoff at me;
they mock me with parted lips, they wag their heads:
"He relied on the LORD; let him deliver him,
let him rescue him, if he loves him."
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Indeed, many dogs surround me,
a pack of evildoers closes in upon me;
They have pierced my hands and my feet;
I can count all my bones.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
They divide my garments among them,
and for my vesture they cast lots.
But you, O LORD, be not far from me;
O my help, hasten to aid me.
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:
"You who fear the LORD, praise him;
all you descendants of Jacob, give glory to him;
revere him, all you descendants of Israel!"
R. My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Reading 2 Phil 2:6-11
Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
something to be grasped.
Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
Because of this, God greatly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Gospel Mt 26:14—27:66
One of the Twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot,
went to the chief priests and said,
"What are you willing to give me
if I hand him over to you?"
They paid him thirty pieces of silver,
and from that time on he looked for an opportunity
to hand him over.
On the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread,
the disciples approached Jesus and said,
"Where do you want us to prepare
for you to eat the Passover?"
He said,
"Go into the city to a certain man and tell him,
'The teacher says, "My appointed time draws near;
in your house I shall celebrate the Passover with my disciples."'"
The disciples then did as Jesus had ordered,
and prepared the Passover.
When it was evening,
he reclined at table with the Twelve.
And while they were eating, he said,
"Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."
Deeply distressed at this,
they began to say to him one after another,
"Surely it is not I, Lord?"
He said in reply,
"He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me
is the one who will betray me.
The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him,
but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born."
Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply,
"Surely it is not I, Rabbi?"
He answered, "You have said so."
While they were eating,
Jesus took bread, said the blessing,
broke it, and giving it to his disciples said,
"Take and eat; this is my body."
Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying,
"Drink from it, all of you,
for this is my blood of the covenant,
which will be shed on behalf of many
for the forgiveness of sins.
I tell you, from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine
until the day when I drink it with you new
in the kingdom of my Father."
Then, after singing a hymn,
they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Then Jesus said to them,
"This night all of you will have your faith in me shaken,
for it is written:
I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep of the flock will be dispersed;
but after I have been raised up,
I shall go before you to Galilee."
Peter said to him in reply,
"Though all may have their faith in you shaken,
mine will never be."
Jesus said to him,
"Amen, I say to you,
this very night before the cock crows,
you will deny me three times."
Peter said to him,
"Even though I should have to die with you,
I will not deny you."
And all the disciples spoke likewise.
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane,
and he said to his disciples,
"Sit here while I go over there and pray."
He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee,
and began to feel sorrow and distress.
Then he said to them,
"My soul is sorrowful even to death.
Remain here and keep watch with me."
He advanced a little and fell prostrate in prayer, saying,
"My Father, if it is possible,
let this cup pass from me;
yet, not as I will, but as you will."
When he returned to his disciples he found them asleep.
He said to Peter,
"So you could not keep watch with me for one hour?
Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."
Withdrawing a second time, he prayed again,
"My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass
without my drinking it, your will be done!"
Then he returned once more and found them asleep,
for they could not keep their eyes open.
He left them and withdrew again and prayed a third time,
saying the same thing again.
Then he returned to his disciples and said to them,
"Are you still sleeping and taking your rest?
Behold, the hour is at hand
when the Son of Man is to be handed over to sinners.
Get up, let us go.
Look, my betrayer is at hand."
While he was still speaking,
Judas, one of the Twelve, arrived,
accompanied by a large crowd, with swords and clubs,
who had come from the chief priests and the elders
of the people.
His betrayer had arranged a sign with them, saying,
"The man I shall kiss is the one; arrest him."
Immediately he went over to Jesus and said,
"Hail, Rabbi!" and he kissed him.
Jesus answered him,
"Friend, do what you have come for."
Then stepping forward they laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.
And behold, one of those who accompanied Jesus
put his hand to his sword, drew it,
and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his ear.
Then Jesus said to him,
"Put your sword back into its sheath,
for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
Do you think that I cannot call upon my Father
and he will not provide me at this moment
with more than twelve legions of angels?
But then how would the Scriptures be fulfilled
which say that it must come to pass in this way?"
At that hour Jesus said to the crowds,
"Have you come out as against a robber,
with swords and clubs to seize me?
Day after day I sat teaching in the temple area,
yet you did not arrest me.
But all this has come to pass
that the writings of the prophets may be fulfilled."
Then all the disciples left him and fled.
Those who had arrested Jesus led him away
to Caiaphas the high priest,
where the scribes and the elders were assembled.
Peter was following him at a distance
as far as the high priest's courtyard,
and going inside he sat down with the servants
to see the outcome.
The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin
kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus
in order to put him to death,
but they found none,
though many false witnesses came forward.
Finally two came forward who stated,
"This man said, 'I can destroy the temple of God
and within three days rebuild it.'"
The high priest rose and addressed him,
"Have you no answer?
What are these men testifying against you?"
But Jesus was silent.
Then the high priest said to him,
"I order you to tell us under oath before the living God
whether you are the Christ, the Son of God."
Jesus said to him in reply,
"You have said so.
But I tell you:
From now on you will see 'the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of the Power'
and 'coming on the clouds of heaven.'"
Then the high priest tore his robes and said,
"He has blasphemed!
What further need have we of witnesses?
You have now heard the blasphemy;
what is your opinion?"
They said in reply,
"He deserves to die!"
Then they spat in his face and struck him,
while some slapped him, saying,
"Prophesy for us, Christ: who is it that struck you?"
Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard.
One of the maids came over to him and said,
"You too were with Jesus the Galilean."
But he denied it in front of everyone, saying,
"I do not know what you are talking about!"
As he went out to the gate, another girl saw him
and said to those who were there,
"This man was with Jesus the Nazorean."
Again he denied it with an oath,
"I do not know the man!"
A little later the bystanders came over and said to Peter,
"Surely you too are one of them;
even your speech gives you away."
At that he began to curse and to swear,
"I do not know the man."
And immediately a cock crowed.
Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken:
"Before the cock crows you will deny me three times."
He went out and began to weep bitterly.
When it was morning,
all the chief priests and the elders of the people
took counsel against Jesus to put him to death.
They bound him, led him away,
and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.
Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned,
deeply regretted what he had done.
He returned the thirty pieces of silver
to the chief priests and elders, saying,
"I have sinned in betraying innocent blood."
They said,
"What is that to us?
Look to it yourself."
Flinging the money into the temple,
he departed and went off and hanged himself.
The chief priests gathered up the money, but said,
"It is not lawful to deposit this in the temple treasury,
for it is the price of blood."
After consultation, they used it to buy the potter's field
as a burial place for foreigners.
That is why that field even today is called the Field of Blood.
Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah
the prophet,
And they took the thirty pieces of silver,
the value of a man with a price on his head,
a price set by some of the Israelites,
and they paid it out for the potter's field
just as the Lord had commanded me.
Now Jesus stood before the governor, and he questioned him,
"Are you the king of the Jews?"
Jesus said, "You say so."
And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders,
he made no answer.
Then Pilate said to him,
"Do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you?"
But he did not answer him one word,
so that the governor was greatly amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast
the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd
one prisoner whom they wished.
And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
So when they had assembled, Pilate said to them,
"Which one do you want me to release to you,
Barabbas, or Jesus called Christ?"
For he knew that it was out of envy
that they had handed him over.
While he was still seated on the bench,
his wife sent him a message,
"Have nothing to do with that righteous man.
I suffered much in a dream today because of him."
The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds
to ask for Barabbas but to destroy Jesus.
The governor said to them in reply,
"Which of the two do you want me to release to you?"
They answered, "Barabbas!"
Pilate said to them,
"Then what shall I do with Jesus called Christ?"
They all said,
"Let him be crucified!"
But he said,
"Why? What evil has he done?"
They only shouted the louder,
"Let him be crucified!"
When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all,
but that a riot was breaking out instead,
he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd,
saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood.
Look to it yourselves."
And the whole people said in reply,
"His blood be upon us and upon our children."
Then he released Barabbas to them,
but after he had Jesus scourged,
he handed him over to be crucified.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium
and gathered the whole cohort around him.
They stripped off his clothes
and threw a scarlet military cloak about him.
Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head,
and a reed in his right hand.
And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying,
"Hail, King of the Jews!"
They spat upon him and took the reed
and kept striking him on the head.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him off to crucify him.
As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon;
this man they pressed into service
to carry his cross.
And when they came to a place called Golgotha
—which means Place of the Skull —,
they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall.
But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink.
After they had crucified him,
they divided his garments by casting lots;
then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
And they placed over his head the written charge against him:
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
Two revolutionaries were crucified with him,
one on his right and the other on his left.
Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying,
"You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself, if you are the Son of God,
and come down from the cross!"
Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said,
"He saved others; he cannot save himself.
So he is the king of Israel!
Let him come down from the cross now,
and we will believe in him.
He trusted in God;
let him deliver him now if he wants him.
For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"
The revolutionaries who were crucified with him
also kept abusing him in the same way.
From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And about three o'clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
"Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?"
which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
"This one is calling for Elijah."
Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge;
he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed,
gave it to him to drink.
But the rest said,
"Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him."
But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice,
and gave up his spirit.
Here all kneel and pause for a short time.
And behold, the veil of the sanctuary
was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened,
and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection,
they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
The centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus
feared greatly when they saw the earthquake
and all that was happening, and they said,
"Truly, this was the Son of God!"
There were many women there, looking on from a distance,
who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him.
Among them were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph,
and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
When it was evening,
there came a rich man from Arimathea named Joseph,
who was himself a disciple of Jesus.
He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus;
then Pilate ordered it to be handed over.
Taking the body, Joseph wrapped it in clean linen
and laid it in his new tomb that he had hewn in the rock.
Then he rolled a huge stone across the entrance to the tomb
and departed.
But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
remained sitting there, facing the tomb.
The next day, the one following the day of preparation,
the chief priests and the Pharisees
gathered before Pilate and said,
"Sir, we remember that this impostor while still alive said,
'After three days I will be raised up.’
Give orders, then, that the grave be secured until the third day,
lest his disciples come and steal him and say to the people,
'He has been raised from the dead.'
This last imposture would be worse than the first."
Pilate said to them,
"The guard is yours;
go, secure it as best you can."
So they went and secured the tomb
by fixing a seal to the stone and setting the guard.
------------------------------ REFLE
July 3, 2016 - The Lord God is like a sun and shield; the Lord gives us kindness and honor. He does not hold back anything good from those whose lives are innocent. Psalms 84:11
So we have concluded the review of:
THE BLESSED CURÉ OF ARS IN HIS CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTIONS
Saint John Vianney
I hope that it was educational and incite full. Also I hope it gave you an understanding of this simple man who took God’s gifts and made the best of them. We too must do the same. God Bless.
A look back at where we started.
"THERE IS no doubt, " says Pere Gratry, "that, through purity of heart, innocence, either preserved or recovered by virtue, faith, and religion, there are in man capabilities and resources of mind, of body, and of heart which most people would not suspect. To this order of resources belongs what theology calls infused science, the intellectual virtues which the Divine Word inspires into our minds when He dwells in us by faith and love."
And Pere Gratry quotes with enthusiasm, excusing himself for not translating them better, these magnificent words of a saint who lived in the eleventh century in one of the mystic monasteries on the banks of the Rhine: "This is what purifies the eye of the heart, and enables it to raise itself to the true light: contempt of worldly cares, mortification of the body, contrition of heart, abundance of tears . . . meditation on the admirable Essence of God and on His chaste Truth, fervent and pure prayer, joy in God, ardent desire for Heaven. Embrace all this, " adds the saint, "and continue in it. Advance towards the light which offers itself to you as to its sons, and descends of itself into your hearts. Take your hearts out of your breasts, and give them to Him who speaks to you, and He will fill them with deific splendour, and you will be sons of light and angels of God. "
The description we have just read seems to have been traced from the very life of the Curé of Ars. Every detail recalls him, every feature harmonises marvellously with his. Who has ever carried further "contempt of worldly cares, mortification of the body, abundance of tears?" He was always bathed in tears. And then, "meditation on the admirable Essence of God and on His chaste Truth, and fervent and pure prayer, joy in God, ardent desire for Heaven" - how characteristic is this! "He had advanced towards the light, and the light had descended of itself into his heart. . . . He had taken his heart from his breast, and given it to Him who spoke to him; and He who spoke to him, " who is the Divine, uncreated Word of God, "filled him with deific splendour. " No one could doubt it who has had the happiness of assisting at any of the catechisms of Ars; of hearing that extraordinary language, which was like no human language; who has seen the irresistible effect produced upon hearers of all classes by that voice, that emotion, that intuition, that fire, and the signal beauty of that unpolished and almost vulgar French, which was transfigured and penetrated by his holy energy, even to the form, the arrangement, and the harmony of its words and syllables. And yet the Curé of Ars did not speak words: true eloquence consists in speaking things; he spoke things, and in a most wonderful manner. He poured out his whole soul into the souls of the crowds who listened to him, that he might make them believe, love, and hope like himself. That is the aim and the triumph of evangelical eloquence.
How could this man, who had nearly been refused admittance into the great seminary because of his ignorance, and who had, since his promotion to the priesthood, been solely employed in prayer and in the labours of the confessional - how could he have attained to the power of teaching like one of the Fathers of the Church? Whence did he derive his astonishing knowledge of God, of nature, and of the history of the soul? How was it that his thoughts and expressions so often coincided with those of the greatest Christian geniuses, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa?
For example, we have often heard him say that the heart of the saints was liquid. We were much struck with this energetic expression, without suspecting that it was so theologically accurate; and we were surprised and touched to find, in turning over the pages of the Summa, that the angelical doctor assigns to love four immediate effects, of which the first is the liquefaction of the heart. M. Vianney had certainly never read St. Thomas, which makes this coincidence the more remarkable; and, indeed, it is inexplicable to those who are ignorant of the workings of grace, and who do not comprehend those words of the Divine Master: "Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. " [Matt. 11:25].
The Spirit of God had been pleased to engrave on the heart of this holy priest all that he was to know and to teach to others; and it was the more deeply engraved, as that heart was the more pure, the more detached, and empty of the vain science of men; like a clean and polished block of marble, ready for the tool of the sculptor.
The faith of the Curé of Ars was his whole science; his book was Our Lord Jesus Christ. He sought for wisdom nowhere but in Jesus Christ, in His death and in His Cross. To him no other wisdom was true, no other wisdom useful. He sought it not amid the dust of libraries, not in the schools of the learned, but in prayer, on his knees, at his Master's Feet, covering His Divine Feet with tears and kisses. In the presence of the Blessed Sacrament where he passed his days and nights before the crowd of pilgrims had yet deprived him of liberty day and night, he had learnt it all----------------------------------------------------------
June 26, 2016 - The Lord does not listen to the wicked, but he hears the prayers of those who do right. Proverbs 15:29
CHAPTER 16 : On Paradise
"Blessed, O Lord, are those who dwell in Thy house: they shall praise Thee for ever and ever."
To DWELL in the house of the good God, to enjoy the presence of the good God, to be happy with the happiness of the good God - oh, what happiness, my children! Who can understand all the joy and consolation with which the saints are inebriated in Paradise? St. Paul, who was taken up into the third heaven, tells us that there are things above which he cannot reveal to us, and which we cannot comprehend.... Indeed, my children, we can never form a true idea of Heaven till we shall be there. It is a hidden treasure, an abundance of secret sweetness, a plenitude of joy, which may be felt, but which our poor tongue cannot explain. What can we imagine greater? The good God Himself will be our recompense: Ego merces tua magna nimis - I am thy reward exceeding great. O God! the happiness Thou promisest us is such that the eyes of man cannot see it, his ears cannot hear it, nor his heart conceive it.
Yes, my children, the happiness of Heaven is incomprehensible; it is the last effort of the good God, who wishes to reward us. God, being admirable in all His works, will be so too when He recompenses the good Christians who have made all their happiness consist in the possession of Heaven. This possession contains all good, and excludes all evil; sin being far from Heaven, all the pains and miseries which are the consequences of sin are also banished from it. No more death! The good God will be in us the Principle of everlasting life. No more sickness, no more sadness, no more pains, no more grief. You who are afflicted, rejoice! Your fears and your weeping will not extend beyond the grave. . . . The good God will Himself wipe away your tears! Rejoice, O you whom the world persecutes! your sorrows will soon be over, and for a moment of tribulation, you will have in Heaven an immense weight of glory. Rejoice! for you possess all good things in one - the source of all good, the good God Himself.
Can anyone be unhappy when he is with the good God; when he is happy with the happiness of the good God, of the good God Himself; when he sees the good God as he sees himself? As St. Paul says, my children, we shall see God face to face, because then there will be no veil between Him and us. We shall possess Him without uneasiness, for we shall no longer fear to lose Him. We shall love Him with an uninterrupted and undivided love, because He alone will occupy our whole heart. We shall enjoy Him without weariness, because we shall discover in Him ever new perfections; and in proportion as we penetrate into that immense abyss of wisdom, of goodness, of mercy, of justice, of grandeur, and of holiness, we shall plunge ourselves in it with fresh eagerness. If an interior consolation, if a grace from the good God, gives us so much pleasure in this world that it diminishes our troubles, that it helps us to bear our crosses, that it gives to so many martyrs strength to suffer the most cruel torments - what will be the happiness of Heaven, where consolations and delights are given, not drop by drop, but by torrents!
Let us represent to ourselves, my children, an everlasting day always new, a day always serene, always calm; the most delicious, the most perfect society. What joy, what happiness, if we could possess on earth, only for a few minutes, the angels, the Blessed Virgin, Jesus Christi In Heaven we shall eternally see, not only the Blessed Virgin and Jesus Christ, we shall see the good God Himself! We shall see Him no longer through the darkness of faith, but in the light of day, in all His Majesty! What happiness thus to see the good God! The angels have contemplated Him since the beginning of the world, and they are not satiated; it would be the greatest misfortune to them to be deprived of Him for a single moment. The possession of Heaven, my children, can never weary us; we possess the good God, the Author of all perfections. See, the more we possess God, the more He pleases; the more we know Him, the more attractions and charms we find in the knowledge of Him. We shall always see Him and shall always desire to see Him; we shall always taste the pleasure there is in enjoying the good God, and we shall never be satiated with it. The blessed will be enveloped in the Divine Immensity, they will revel in delights and be all surrounded with them, and, as it were, inebriated. Such is the happiness which the good God destines for us.
We can all, my children, acquire this happiness. The good God wills the salvation of the whole world; He has merited Heaven for us by His death, and by the effusion of all His Blood. What a happiness to be able to say, "Jesus Christ died for me; He has opened Heaven for me; it is my inheritance. . . . Jesus has prepared a place for me; it only depends on me to go and occupy it. Vado vobis parare locum - I go to prepare a place for you. The good God has given us faith, and with this virtue we can attain to eternal life. For, though the good God wills the salvation of all men, He particularly wills that of the Christians who believe in Him: Qui credit, habeat vitam aeternam - He that believeth hath life everlasting. Let us, then, thank the good God, my children; let us rejoice - our names are written in Heaven, like those of the Apostles. Yes, they are written in the Book of Life: if we choose, they will be there forever, since we have the means of reaching Heaven.
The happiness of Heaven, my children, is easy to acquire; the good God has furnished us with so many means of doing it! See, there is not a single creature which does not furnish us with the means of attaining to the good God; if any of them become an obstacle, it is only by our abuse of them. The goods and the miseries of this life, even the chastisements made use of by the good God to punish our infidelities, serve to our salvation. The good God, as St. Paul says, makes all things turn to the good of His elect; even our very faults may be useful to us; even bad examples and temptations. Job was saved in the midst of an idolatrous people. All the saints have been tempted. If these things are, in the hands of God, an assistance in reaching Heaven, what will happen if we have recourse to the Sacraments, to that never-failing source of all good, to that fountain of grace supplied by the good God Himself! It was easy for the disciples of Jesus to be saved, having the Divine Saviour constantly with them. Is it more difficult for us to secure our salvation, having Him constantly with us? They were happy in obtaining whatever they wished for, whatever they chose; are we less so? We possess Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; He is continually with us, He is ready to grant us whatever we ask, He is waiting for us; we have only to ask. O my children! the poor know how to express their wants to the rich; we have only our indifference, then, to accuse, if assistance and graces are wanting to us. If an ambitious or a covetous man had as ample means of enriching himself, would he hesitate a moment, would he let so favourable an opportunity escape? Alas! we do everything for this world, and nothing for the other? What labor, what trouble, what cares, what sorrows, in order to gather up a little fortune! See, my children, of what use are our perishable goods? Solomon, the greatest, the richest, the most fortunate of kings, said, in the height of the most brilliant fortune: "I have seen all things that are done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. " And these are the goods to acquire which we labor so much, whilst we never think of the goods of Heaven! How shameful for us not to labor to acquire it, and to neglect so many means of reaching it! If the fig tree was cast into the fire for not having profited by the care that had been taken to render it fertile; if the unprofitable servant was reproved for having hidden the talent that he had received, what fate awaits us, who have so often abused the aids which might have taken us to Heaven? If we have abused the graces that the good God has given us, let us make haste to repair the past by great fidelity, and let us endeavour to acquire merits worthy of eternal life.
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June 19, 2016 - Teach them to obey everything that I have taught you, and I will be with you always, even until the end of this age. Matthew 28:20
CHAPTER 15 : On the Love of God
"If you love Me, keep My Commandments."
NOTHING IS so common among Christians as to say, "O my God; I love Thee," and nothing more rare, perhaps, than the love of the good God. Satisfied with making outward acts I of love, in which our poor heart often has no share, we think we have fulfilled the whole of the precept. An error, an illusion; for see, my children, St. John says that we must not love the good God in word, but in deed. Our Lord Jesus Christ also says, "If anyone love Me he will keep My Word:' If we judge by this rule, there are very few Christians who truly love God, since there are so few who keep His Commandments. Yet nothing is more essential than the love of God. It is the first of all virtues, a virtue so necessary, that without it we shall never get to Heaven; and it is in order to love God that we are on the earth. Even if the good God did not command it, this feeling is so natural to us, that our heart should be drawn to it of its own accord.
But the misfortune is that we lavish our love upon objects unworthy of it, and refuse it to Him alone who deserves to be infinitely loved. Thus, my children, one person will love riches, another will love pleasures; and both will offer to the good God nothing but the languishing remains of a heart worn out in the service of the world. From thence comes insufficient love, divided love, which is for that very reason unworthy of the good God; for He alone, being infinitely above all created good, deserves that we should love Him above all things: more than our possessions, because they are earthly; more than our friends, because they are mortal; more than our life, because it is perishable; more than ourselves, because we belong to Him. Our love, my children, if it is true, must be without limit, and must influence our conduct....
If the Saviour of the world, addressing Himself to each one of us separately, were now to ask us the same question that He formerly asked St. Peter: "Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me?" could we answer with as much confidence as that great Apostle, "Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee"? Domine, tu scis quia amo te. We have perhaps pronounced these words without taking in their meaning and extent; for, my children, to love the good God is not merely to say with the mouth, "O my God! I love Thee!" Oh, no! where is the sinner who does not sometimes use this language?
To love the good God is not only to feel from time to time some emotions of tenderness towards God; this sensible devotion is not always in our own power. To love the good God is not to be faithful in fulfilling part of our duties and to neglect the rest. The good God will have no division: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength:' This shows the strength of the Commandment to love God. To love God with our whole heart is to prefer Him to everything, so as to be ready to lose all our possessions, our honour, our life, rather than offend this good Master. To love God with our whole heart is to love nothing that is incompatible with the love of God; it is to love nothing that can share our heart with the good God: it is to renounce all our passions, all our ill-regulated desires. Is it thus, my children, that we love the good God?
To love the good God with our whole mind is to make the sacrifice to Him of our knowledge and our reason, and to believe all that He has taught. To love the good God with our whole mind is to think of Him often, and to make it our principal study to know Him well. To love the good God with our whole strength is to employ our possessions, our health, and our talents, in serving Him and glorifying Him. It is to refer all our actions to Him, as our last end. Once more, is it thus that we love the good God? Judging by this invariable rule, how few Christians truly love God!
Do those bad Christians love the good God, who are the slaves of their passions? Do those worldly persons love the good God, who seek only to gratify their body and to please the world? Is God loved by the miser, who sacrifices Him for a vile gain? Is He loved by that voluptuary, who abandons himself to vices the most opposite to divine love? Is He loved by that man who thinks of nothing but wine and good cheer? Is He loved by that other man, who cherishes an aversion to his neighbour, and will not forgive him? Is He loved by that young girl, who loves nothing but pleasures, and thinks of nothing but indulgence and vanity? No, no, my children, none of these persons love the good God; for we must love Him with a love of preference, with an active love!
If we had rather offend the good God than deprive ourselves of a passing satisfaction, than renounce those guilty meetings, those shameful passions, we do not love the good God with a love of preference, since we love our pleasures, our passions, better than the good God Himself. Let us go down into our own souls; let us question our hearts, my children, and see if we do not love some creature more than the good God. We are permitted to love our relations, our possessions, our health, our reputation; but this love must be subordinate to the love we should have for God, so that we may be ready to make the sacrifice of it if He should require it....
Can you suppose that you are in these dispositions - you who look upon mortal sin as a trifle, who keep it quietly on your conscience for months, for years, though you know that you are in a state most displeasing to the good God? Can you suppose that you love the good God? Can you suppose that you love the good God - you who make no efforts to correct yourselves; you who will deprive yourselves of nothing; you who offend the Creator every time that you find opportunity? Yes, my children, what the miser loves with his whole heart is money; what the drunkard loves with his whole heart is wine; what the libertine loves with his whole heart is the object of his passion. You, young girls, you who had rather offend God than give up your finery and your vanities, you say that you love God; say rather that you love yourselves.
No, no, my children; it is not thus that the good God is to be loved, for we must love Him not only with a love of preference, but also with an active love. "Love," says St. Augustine, "cannot remain without the constant action of the soul: Non potest vacare amor in anima amantis. Yes," says this great saint, "seek for a love that does not manifest itself in works, and you will find none:' What! could it be, O my God, that Thy love alone should be barren, and that the Divine fire, which ought to enkindle the whole world, should be without activity and without strength?
When you love a person, you show him the more or less affection according as the ardour of your love for him is more or less great. See, my children, what the saints were like, who were all filled with the love of the good God: nothing cost them too much; they joyfully made the greatest sacrifices; they distributed their goods to the poor, rendered services to their enemies, led a hard and penitential life; tore themselves from the pleasures of the world, from the conveniences of life, to bury themselves alive in solitude; they hastened to torments and to death, as people hasten to a feast. Such were the effects which the love of the good God produced in the saints; such ought it to produce in us. But, my children, we are not penetrated with the love of God; we do not love the good God. Can anyone say, indeed, that he loves the good God, who is so easily frightened, and who is repulsed by the least difficulty? Alas! what would have become of us if Jesus Christ had loved us only as we love Him? But, no. Triumphing over the agonies of the Cross, the bitterness of death, the shame of the most ignominious tortures, nothing costs Him too dear when He has to prove that He loves us. That is our only model. If our love is active, it will manifest itself by the works which are the effects of love, because the love of the good God is not only a love of preference, but a pious affection, a love of obedience, which makes us practice His Commandments; an active love, which makes us fulfil all the duties of a good Christian. Such is the love, my children, which God requires from us, to which He has so many titles, which He has purchased by so many benefits heaped upon us by His death for us upon the Cross. What happiness, my children, to love the good God! There is no joy, no happiness, no peace, in the heart of those who do not love the good God on earth. We desire Heaven, we aspire to it; but, that we may be sure to attain to it, let us begin to love the good God here below, in order to be able to love Him, to possess Him eternally in His holy Paradise.
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June 12, 2016 - So do not lose the courage you had in the past, which has a great reward. You must hold on, so you can do what God wants and receive what he has promised. Hebrews 10:35-36
CHAPTER 14 : On Prayer
OUR CATECHISM teaches us, my children, that prayer is an elevation, an application of our mind and of our heart to God, to make known to Him our wants and to ask for His assistance. We do not see the good God, my children, but He sees us, He hears us, He wills that we should raise towards Him what is most noble in us - our mind and our heart. When we pray with attention, with humility of mind and of heart, we quit the earth, we rise to Heaven, we penetrate into the Bosom of God, we go and converse with the angels and the saints. It was by prayer that the saints reached Heaven: and by prayer we too shall reach it. Yes, my children, prayer is the source of all graces, the mother of all virtues, the efficacious and universal way by which God wills that we should come to Him. He says to us: "Ask, and you shall receive. " None but God could make such promises and keep them. See, the good God does not say to us, "Ask such and such a thing, and I will grant it;" but He says in general: "If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you. " O my children! ought not this promise to fill us with confidence, and to make us pray fervently all the days of our poor life? Ought we not to be ashamed of our idleness, of our indifference to prayer, when our Divine Saviour, the Dispenser of all graces, has given us such touching examples of it? For you know that the Gospel tells us He prayed often, I and even passed the night in prayer? Are we as just, as holy, as this Divine Saviour? Have we no graces to ask for? Let us enter into ourselves; let us consider. Do not the continual needs of our | soul and of our body warn us to have recourse to Him who alone can supply them? How many enemies to vanquish - the devil, the world, and ourselves. How many bad habits to overcome, how many passions to subdue, how many sins to efface! In so frightful and painful a situation, what remains to us, my children? The armour of the | saints: prayer, that necessary virtue, indispensable to good as well as to bad Christians. . . .
Within the reach of the ignorant as well as the learned, enjoined to the simple and to the enlightened, it is the virtue of all mankind; it is the science of all the faithful! Everyone on the earth who has a heart, everyone who has the use of reason ought to love and pray to God; to have recourse to Him when He is irritated; to thank Him when He confers favours; to humble themselves when He strikes.
See, my children, we are poor people who have been taught to beg spiritually, and we do not beg. We are sick people, to whom a cure has been Promised, and we do not ask for it. The good God does not require of us fine prayers, but prayers which come from the bottom of our heart.
St. Ignatius was once travelling with several of his companions; they each carried on their shoulders a little bag, containing what was most necessary for them on the journey. A good Christian, seeing that they were fatigued, was interiorly excited to relieve them; he asked them as a favour to let him help them to carry their burdens. They yielded to his entreaties. When they had arrived at the inn, this man who had followed them, seeing that the Fathers knelt down at a little distance from each other to pray, knelt down also. When the Fathers rose again, they were astonished to see that this man had remained prostrate all the time they were praying: they expressed to him their surprise, and asked him what he had been doing. His answer edified them very much, for he said: "I did nothing but say, Those who pray so devoutly are saints: I am their beast of burden: O Lord! I have the intention of doing what they do: I say to Thee whatever they say. " These were afterwards his ordinary words, and he arrived by means of this at a sublime degree of prayer. Thus, my children, you see that there is no one who cannot pray - and pray at all times, and in all places; by night or by day; amid the most severe labours, or in repose; in the country, at home, in travelling. The good God is everywhere ready to hear your prayers, provided you address them to Him with faith and humility.
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June 5, 2016 - The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid? Psalms 27:1
CHAPTER 13 : On Grace
CAN WE, of our own strength, avoid sin, and practice virtue? No, my children, we can do nothing without the grace of God: that is an article of faith; Jesus Christ Himself taught it to us. See, the Church thinks, and all the saints have thought with her, that grace is absolutely necessary to us, and that without it we can neither believe, nor hope, nor love, nor do penance for our sins. St. Paul, whose piety was not counterfeit, assures us, on his part, that we cannot of ourselves even pronounce the name of Jesus in a manner that can gain merit for Heaven. As the earth can produce nothing unless it is fertilised by the sun, so we can do no good without the grace of the good God. Grace, my children, is a supernatural assistance which leads us to good; for example, there is a sinner who goes into a church and hears an instruction: the preacher speaks of Hell, of the severity of the judgments of God; he feels himself interiorly urged to be converted; this interior impulse is what is called grace. See, my children, it is the good God taking that sinner by the hand, and wishing to teach him to walk. We are like little children: we do not know how to walk on the road to Heaven; we stagger, we fall, unless the hand of the good God is always ready to support us. O my children! how good is the good God! If we would think of all that He has done, of all that He still does every day for us, we should not be able to offend Him - we should love Him with all our heart; but we do not think of it, that is the reason. . . . The angels sin, and are cast into Hell. Man sins, and God promises him a Deliverer. What have we done to deserve this favour? What have we done to deserve to be born in the Catholic religion, while so many souls are every day lost in other religions? What have we done to deserve to be baptised, while so many little children in France, as well as in China and America, die without Baptism? What have we done to deserve the pardon of all the sins that we commit after the age of reason, while so many are deprived of the Sacrament of Penance?
O my children! St. Augustine says, and it is very true, that God seeks in us what deserves that He should abandon us, and finds it; and that He seeks what would make us worthy of His gifts, and finds nothing, because, in fact, there is nothing in us - we are nothing but ashes and sin. All our merit, my children, consists in cooperating with grace. See, my children, a beautiful flower has no beauty nor brilliancy without the sun; for during the night it is all withered and drooping. When the sun rises in the morning, it suddenly revives and expands. It is the same with our soul, in regard to Jesus Christ, the true Sun of justice; it has no interior beauty but through sanctifying grace. In order to receive this grace, my children, our soul must turn to the good God by a sincere conversion: we must open our hearts to Him by an act of faith and love. As the sun alone cannot make a flower expand if it is already dead, so the grace of the good God cannot bring us back to life if we will not abandon sin.
God speaks to us, without ceasing, by His good inspirations; He sends us good thoughts, good desires. In youth, in old age, in all the misfortunes of life, He exhorts us to receive His grace, and what use do we make of His warnings? At this moment, even, are we cooperating rightly with grace? Are we not shutting the door of our heart against it? Consider that the good God will one day call you to account for what you have heard today; woe to you, if you stifle the cry that is rising from the depths of your conscience! We are in prosperity, we live in the midst of pleasures, all puffed up with pride; our heart is of ice towards the good God. It is a ball of copper, which the waters of grace cannot penetrate; it is a tree which receives the gentle dew, and bears no more fruit. . . . Let us be on our guard, my children; let us take care not to be unfaithful to grace. The good God leaves us free to choose life or death; if we choose death, we shall be cast into the fire, and we must burn forever with the devils. Let us ask pardon of God for having hitherto abused the graces He has given us, and let us humbly pray Him to grant us more.
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May 29, 2016 - The Lord shows his true love every day. At night I have a song, and I pray to my living God. Psalms 42:8
CHAPTER 12 : On Sloth
Sloth is a kind of cowardice and disgust, which makes us neglect and omit our duties, rather than do violence to ourselves.
ALAS, MY CHILDREN, how many slothful people there are on this earth: how many are cowardly, how many are indolent in the service of the good God! We neglect, we omit our duties of piety, just as easily as we should take a glass of wine. We will not do violence to ourselves; we will not put ourselves to any inconvenience. Everything wearies, everything disgusts the slothful man. Prayer, the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which do so much good to pious souls, are a torture to him. He is weary and dissatisfied in church, at the foot of the altar, in the presence of the good God. At first he feels only dislike and indifference towards everything that is commanded by religion. Soon after, you can no longer speak to him either of Confession or Communion; he has no time to think of those things.
O my children! how miserable we are in losing, in this way, the time that we might so usefully employ in gaining Heaven, in preparing ourselves for eternity! How many moments are lost in doing nothing, or in doing wrong, in listening to the suggestions of the devil, in obeying him! Does not that make us tremble? If one of the lost had only a day or an hour to spend for his salvation, to what profit would he turn it! What haste he would make to save his soul, to reconcile himself with the good God! And we, my children, who have days and years to think of our salvation, to save our souls - we remain there with our arms crossed, like that man spoken of in the Gospel. We neglect, we lose our souls. When death shall come, what shall we have to present to Our Lord? Ah! my children, hear how the good God threatens the idle: "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. " "Take that unprofitable servant, and cast him out into the exterior darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. "
Idleness is the mother of all vices. Look at the idle; they think of nothing but eating, drinking, and sleeping. They are no longer men, but stupid beasts, giving up to all their passions; they drag themselves through the mire like very swine. They are filthy, both within and without. They feed their soul only upon impure thoughts and desires. They never open their mouth but to slander their neighbour, or to speak immodest words. Their eyes, their ears, are open only to criminal objects. . . . O my children! that we may resist idleness, let us imitate the saints. Let us watch continually over ourselves; like them, let us be very zealous in fulfilling all our duties; let the devil never find us doing nothing, lest we should yield to temptation. Let us prepare ourselves for a good death, for eternity. Let us not lose our time in lukewarmness, in negligence, in our habitual infidelities. Death is advancing: tomorrow we must, perhaps, quit our relations, our friends. Let us make haste to merit the reward promised in Paradise to the faithful servant in the Gospel!
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May 22, 2016 - The right word spoken at the right time is as beautiful as gold apples in a silver bowl. Proverbs 25:11
CHAPTER 11 : On Anger
Anger is an emotion of the soul, which leads us violently to repel whatever hurts or displeases us.
THIS EMOTION, my children, comes from the devil: it shows that we are in his hands; that he is the master of our heart; that he holds all the strings of it, and makes us dance as he pleases. See, a person who puts himself in a passion is like a puppet; he knows neither what he says, nor what he does; the devil guides him entirely. He strikes right and left; his hair stands up like the bristles of a hedgehog; his eyes start out of his head - he is a scorpion, a furious lion. . . . Why do we, my children, put ourselves into such a state? Is it not pitiable? It is, mind, because we do not love the good God. Our heart is given up to the demon of pride, who is angry when he thinks himself despised; to the demon of avarice, who is irritated when he suffers any loss; I to the demon of luxury, who is indignant when his pleasures are interfered with. . . . How unhappy we are, my children, thus to be the sport of demons? They do whatever they please with us; they suggest to us evil-speaking, calumny, hatred, vengeance: they even drive us so far as to put our neighbour to death. See, Cain killed his brother Abel out of jealousy; Saul wished to take away the life of David; Theodosius caused the massacre of the inhabitants of Thessalonica, to revenge a personal affront. . . . If we do not put our neighbour to death, we are angry with him, we curse him, we give him to the devil, we wish for his death, we wish for our own. In our fury, we blaspheme the holy Name of God, we accuse His Providence. . . . What fury, what impiety! And what is still more deplorable, my children, we are carried to these excesses for a trifle, for a word, for the least injustice! Where is our faith! Where is our reason? We say in excuse that it is anger that makes us swear; but one sin cannot excuse another sin. The good God equally condemns anger, and the excesses that are its consequences. . . . How we sadden our guardian angel! He is always there at our side to send us good thoughts, and he sees us do nothing but evil. . . . If we did like St. Remigius, we should never be angry. See, this saint, being questioned by a Father of the desert how he managed to be always in an even temper, replied, "I often consider that my guardian angel is always by my side, who assists me in all my needs, who tells me what I ought to do and what I ought to say, and who writes down, after each of my actions, the way in which I have done it. "
Philip II, King of Spain, having passed several hours of the night in writing a long letter to the Pope, gave it to his secretary to fold up and seal. He, being half asleep, made a mistake; when he meant to put sand on the letter, he took the ink bottle and covered all the paper with ink. While he was ashamed and inconsolable, the king said, quite calmly, "No very great harm is done; there is another sheet of paper"; and he took it, and employed the rest of the night in writing a second letter, without showing the least displeasure with his secretary.
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May 15, 2016 - This God is our God forever and ever. He will guide us from now on. Psalms 48:14
CHAPTER 10 : On Gluttony
Gluttony is an inordinate love of eating and drinking.
WE ARE GLUTTONOUS, my children, when we take food in excess, more than is required for the support of our poor body; when we drink beyond what is necessary, so as even to lose our senses and our reason. . . . Oh, how shameful is this vice! How it degrades us! See, it puts us below the brutes: the animals never drink more than to satisfy their thirst: they content themselves with eating enough; and we, when we have satisfied our appetite, when our body can bear no more, we still have recourse to all sorts of little delicacies; we take wine and liquors to repletion! Is it not pitiful? We can no longer keep upon our legs; we fall, we roll into the ditch and into the mud, we become the laughing stock of everyone, even the sport of little children. . . .
If death were to surprise us in this state, my children, we should not have time to recollect ourselves; we should fall in that state into the hands of the good God. What a misfortune, my children! How would our soul be surprised! How would it be astonished! We should shudder with horror at seeing the lost who are in Hell. . . . Do not let us be led by our appetite; we shall ruin our health, we shall lose our soul. . . . See, my children, intemperance and debauchery are the support of doctors; that lets them live, and gives them a great deal of practice. . . . We hear every day, such a one was drunk, and falling down he broke his leg; another, passing a river on a plank, fell into the water and was drowned. . . . Intemperance and drunkenness are the companions of the wicked rich man. . . . A moment of pleasure in this world will cost us very dear in the other. There they will be tormented by a raging hunger and a devouring thirst; they will not even have a drop of water to refresh themselves; their tongue and their body will be consumed by the flames for a whole eternity. . . .
O my children! we do not think about it; and yet that will not fail to happen to some amongst us, perhaps even before the end of the year! St. Paul said that those who give themselves to excess in eating and drinking shall not possess the kingdom of God. Let us reflect on these words! Look at the saints: they pass their life in penance, and we would pass ours in the midst of enjoyments and pleasures. St. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal, fasted all Advent, and also from St. John Baptist's day to the Assumption. Soon after, she began another Lent, which lasted till the feast of St. Michael. She lived upon bread and water only on Fridays and Saturdays, and on the vigils of the feasts of the Blessed Virgin and of the Apostles. They say that St. Bernard drank oil for wine. St. Isidore never ate without shedding tears! If we were good Christians, we should do as the saints have done.
We should gain a great deal for Heaven at our meals; we should deprive ourselves of many little things which, without being hurtful to our body, would be very pleasing to the good God; but we choose rather to satisfy our taste than to please God; we drown, we stifle our soul in wine and food. My children, God will not say to us at the Day of Judgment, "Give Me an account of thy body"; but, "Give Me an account of thy soul; what hast thou done with it?" . . . What shall we answer Him? Do we take as much care of our soul as of our body? O my children! let us no longer live for the pleasure of eating; let us live as the saints have done; let us mortify ourselves as they were mortified. The saints never indulged themselves in the pleasures of good cheer. Their pleasure was to feed on Jesus Christ! Let us follow their footsteps on this earth, and we shall gain the crown which they have in Heaven.
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May 8, 2016 - Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Psalms 27:14
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MARY AND HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO ALL OUR MOTHERS!!
CHAPTER 9 : On Envy
Envy is a sadness which we feel on account of the good that happens to our neighbour.
ENVY, my children, follows pride; whoever is envious is proud. See, envy comes to us from Hell; the devils having sinned through pride, sinned also through envy, envying our glory, our happiness. Why do we envy the happiness and the goods of others? Because we are proud; we should like to be the sole possessors of talents, riches, of the esteem and love of all the world! We hate our equals, because they are our equals; our inferiors, from the fear that they may equal us; our superiors, because they are above us. In the same way, my children, that the devil after his fall felt, and still feels, extreme anger at seeing us the heirs of the glory of the good God, so the envious man feels sadness at seeing the spiritual and temporal prosperity of his neighbour.
We walk, my children, in the footsteps of the devil; like him, we are vexed at good, and rejoice at evil. If our neighbour loses anything, if his affairs go wrong, if he is humbled, if he is unfortunate, we are joyful. . . we triumph! The devil, too, is full of joy and triumph when we fall, when he can make us fall as low as himself. What does he gain by it? Nothing. Shall we be richer, because our neighbour is poorer? Shall we be greater, because he is less? Shall we be happier, because he is more unhappy? O my children! how much we are to be pitied for being like this! St. Cyprian said that other evils had limits, but that envy had none. In fact, my children, the envious man invents all sorts of wickedness; he has recourse to evil speaking, to calumny, to cunning, in order to blacken his neighbour; he repeats what he knows, and what he does not know he invents, he exaggerates. . . .
Through the envy of the devil, death entered into the world; and also through envy we kill our neighbour; by dint of malice, of falsehood, we make him lose his reputation, his place. . . . Good Christians, my children, do not do so; they envy no one; they love their neighbour; they rejoice at the good that happens to him, and they weep with him if any misfortune comes upon him. How happy should we be if we were good Christians. Ah! my children, let us, then, be good Christians and we shall no more envy the good fortune of our neighbour; we shall never speak evil of him; we shall enjoy a sweet peace; our soul will be calm; we shall find paradise on earth.
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May 1, 2016 - With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished." Genesis 19:15
CHAPTER 8 : On Lust
the love of the pleasures that are contrary to purity.
NO SINS, my children, ruin and destroy a soul so quickly as this shameful sin; it snatches us out of the hands of the good God and hurls us like a stone into an abyss of mire and corruption. Once plunged in this mire, we cannot get out, we make a deeper hole in it every day, we sink lower and lower. Then we lose the faith, we laugh at the truths of religion, we no longer see Heaven, we do not fear Hell. O my children! how much are they to be pitied who give way to this passion! How wretched they are! Their soul, which was so beautiful, which attracted the eyes of the good God, over which He leant as one leans over a perfumed rose, has become like a rotten carcass, of which the pestilential door rises even to His throne. . . .
See, my children! Jesus Christ endured patiently, among His Apostles, men who were proud, ambitious, greedy - even one who betrayed Him; but He could not bear the least stain of impurity in any of them; it is of all vices that which He has most in abhorrence: "My Spirit does not dwell in you," the Lord says, "if you are nothing but flesh and corruption. " God gives up the impure to all the wicked inclinations of his heart. He lets him wallow, like the vile swine, in the mire, and does not even let him smell its offensive exhalations. . . . The immodest man is odious to everyone, and is not aware of it. God has set the mark of ignominy on his forehead, and he is not ashamed; he has a face of brass and a heart of bronze; it is in vain you talk to him of honour, of virtue; he is full of arrogance and pride. The eternal truths, death, judgment, Paradise, Hell - nothing terrifies him, nothing can move him. So, my children, of all sins, that of impurity is the most difficult to eradicate. Other sins forge for us chains of iron, but this one makes them of bull's hide, which can be neither broken nor rent; it is a fire, a furnace, which consumes even to the most advanced old age. See those two infamous old men who attempted the purity of the chaste Susannah; they had kept the fire of their youth even till they were decrepit. When the body is worn out with debauchery, when they can no longer satisfy their passions, they supply the place of it, oh, sham! by infamous desires and memories.
With one foot in the grave, they still speak the language of passion, till their last breath; they die as they have lived, impenitent; for what penance can be done by the impure, what sacrifice can be imposed on himself at his death, who during his life has always given way to his passions? Can one at the last moment expect a good confession, a good Communion, from him who has concealed one of these shameful sins, perhaps, from his earliest youth - who has heaped sacrilege on sacrilege? Will the tongue, which has been silent up to this day, be unloosed at the last moment? No, no, my children; God has abandoned him; many sheets of lead already weigh upon him; he will add another, and it will be the last . . .
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April 24, 2016 - With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished." Genesis 19:15
CHAPTER 7 : On Avarice
Avarice is an inordinate love of the goods of this world.
YES, MY CHILDREN, it is an ill-regulated love, a fatal love, which makes us forget the good God, prayer, the Sacraments, that we may love the goods of this world - gold and silver and lands. The avaricious man is like a pig, which seeks its food in the mud, without caring where it comes from. Stooping towards the earth, he thinks of nothing but the earth; he no longer looks towards Heaven, his happiness is no longer there. The avaricious man does no good till after his death. See, how greedily he gathers up wealth, how anxiously he keeps it, how afflicted he is if he loses it. In the midst of riches, he does not enjoy them; he is, as it were, plunged in a river, and is dying of thirst; lying on a heap of corn, he is dying of hunger; he has everything, my children, and dares not touch anything; his gold is a sacred thing to him, he makes it his divinity, he adores it. . . .
O my children! how many there are in these days who are idolators! how many there are who think more of making a fortune than of serving the good God! They steal, they defraud, they go to law with their neighbour; they do not even respect the laws of God. They work on Sundays and holydays: nothing comes amiss to their greedy and rapacious hands. Good Christians, my children, do not think of their body, which must end in corruption; they think only of their soul, which is immortal. While they are on the earth, they occupy themselves with their soul alone. So you see how assiduous they are at the Offices of the Church, with what fervour they pray before the good God, how they sanctify the Sunday, how recollected they are at holy Mass, how happy they are! The days, the months, the years are nothing to them; they pass them in loving the good God, with their eyes fixed on their eternity. . . .
Seeing us so indifferent to our salvation, and so occupied in gathering up a little mud, would not anyone say that we were never to die? Indeed, my children, we are like people who, during the summer, should make an ample provision of gourds, of melons, for a long journey; after the winter, what would remain of it? Nothing. In the same way, my children, what remains to the avaricious man of all his wealth when death comes upon him unawares? A poor covering, a few planks, and the despair of not being able to carry his gold away with him. Misers generally die in this sort of despair, and pay eternally to the devil for their insatiable thirst for riches. Misers, my children are sometimes punished even in this world.
Once St. Hilarion, followed by a great number of his disciples, going to visit the monasteries under his rule, came to the abode of an avaricious solitary. On their approach, they found watchers in all parts of the vineyard, who threw stones and clods of earth at them to prevent their touching the grapes. This miser was well punished, for he gathered that year much fewer grapes than usual, and his wine turned into vinegar. Another solitary, named Sabbas, begged him, on the contrary, to come into his vineyard, and eat the fruit. St. Hilarion blessed it, and sent in to it his religious, to the number of three thousand, who all satisfied their hunger; and twenty days after, the vineyard yielded three hundred measures of wine, instead of the usual quantity of ten. Let us follow the example of Sabbas, and be disinterested; the good God will bless us, and after having blessed us in this world, He will also reward us in the other.
April 17, 2016 – In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
CHAPTER 6 : On Pride
Pride is an untrue opinion of ourselves, an untrue idea of what we are not.
THE PROUD MAN is always disparaging himself, that people may praise him the more. The more the proud man lowers himself, the more he seeks to raise his miserable nothingness. He relates what he has done, and what he has not done; he feeds his imagination with what has been said in praise of him, and seeks by all possible means for more; he is never satisfied with praise See, my children, if you only show some little displeasure against a man given up to self-love, he gets angry, and accuses you of ignorance or injustice towards him. . . . My children, we are in reality only what we are in the eyes of God, and nothing more. Is it not quite clear and evident that we are nothing, that we can do nothing, that we are very miserable? Can we lose sight of our sins, and cease to humble ourselves?
If we were to consider well what we are, humility would be easy to us, and the demon of pride would no longer have any room in our heart. See, our days are like grass - like the grass which now flourishes in the meadows, and will presently be withered; like an ear of corn which is fresh only for a moment, and is parched by the sun. In fact, my children, today we are full of life, full of health; and tomorrow, death will perhaps come to reap us and mow us down, as you reap your corn and mow your meadows. . . . Whatever appears vigorous, whatever shines, whatever is beautiful, is of short duration. . . . The glory of this world, youth, honours, riches, all pass away quickly, as quickly as the flower of grass, as the flower of the field. . . . Let us reflect that so we shall one day be reduced to dust; that we shall be thrown into the fire like dry grass, if we do not fear the good God.
Good Christians know this very well, my children; therefore they do not occupy themselves with their body; they despise the affairs of this world; they consider only their soul and how to unite it to God. Can we be proud in the face of the examples of lowliness, of humiliations, that Our Lord has given us, and is still giving us every day? Jesus Christ came upon earth, became incarnate, was born poor, lived in poverty, died on a gibbet, between two thieves. . . . He instituted an admirable Sacrament, in which He communicates Himself to us under the Eucharistic veil; and in this Sacrament He undergoes the most extraordinary humiliations. Residing continually in our tabernacles, He is deserted, misunderstood by ungrateful men; and yet He continues to love us, to serve us in the Sacrament of the Altar.
O my children! what an example of humiliation does the good Jesus give us! Behold Him on the Cross to which our sins have fastened Him; behold Him: He calls us, and says to us, "Come to Me, and learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart. " How well the saints understood this invitation, my children! Therefore, they all sought humiliations and sufferings. After their example, then, let us not be afraid of being humbled and despised. St. John of God, at the beginning of his conversion, counterfeited madness, ran about the streets, and was followed by the populace, who threw stones at him; he always came in covered with mud and with blood. He was shut up as a madman; the most violent remedies were employed to cure him of his pretended illness; and he bore it all in the spirit of penance, and in expiation of his past sins. The good God, my children, does not require of us extraordinary things. He wills that we should be gentle, humble, and modest; then we shall always be pleasing to Him; we shall be like little children; and He will grant us the grace to come to Him and to enjoy the happiness of the saints.
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April 10, 2016 - The wise people will shine like the brightness of the sky. Those who teach others to live right will shine like stars forever and ever. Daniel 12:3
CHAPTER 5 : On Temptations
WE ARE all inclined to sin, my children; we are idle, greedy, sensual, given to the pleasures of the flesh. We want to know everything, to learn everything, to see everything; we must watch over our mind, over our heart, and over our senses, for these are the gates by which the devil penetrates. See, he prowls round us incessantly; his only occupation in this world is to seek companions for himself. All our life he will lay snares for us, he will try to make us yield to temptations; we must, on our side, do all we can to defeat and resist him. We can do nothing by ourselves, my children; but we can do everything with the help of the good God; let us pray Him to deliver us from this enemy of our salvation, or to give strength to fight against him. With the Name of Jesus we shall overthrow the demons; we shall put them to flight. With this Name, if they sometimes dare to attack us, our battles will be victories, and our victories will be crowns for Heaven, all brilliant with precious stones.
See, my children, the good God refuses nothing to those who pray to Him from the bottom of their heart. St. Teresa, being one day in prayer, and desiring to see the good God, Jesus Christ showed to the eyes of her soul His Divine hands; then, another day, when she was again in prayer, He showed her His face. Lastly, some days after, He showed her the whole of His Sacred Humanity. The good God who granted the desire of St. Teresa will also grant our prayers. If we ask of Him the grace to resist temptations, He will grant it to us; for He wishes to save us all, He shed His Blood for us all, He died for us all, He is waiting for us all in Heaven. We are two or three hundred here: shall we all be saved, shall we all go to Heaven? Alas! my children, we know nothing about it; but I tremble when I see so many souls lost in these days.
See, they fall into Hell as the leaves fall from the trees at the approach of winter. We shall fall like the rest, my children, if we do not avoid temptations, if, when we cannot avoid them, we do not fight generously, with the help of the good God - if we do not invoke His Name during the strife, like St. Antony in the desert.
This saint having retired into an old sepulchre, the devil came to attack him; he tried at first to terrify him with a horrible noise; he even beat him so cruelly that he left him half dead and covered with wounds. "Well," said St. Antony, "here I am, ready to fight again; no, thou shalt not be able to separate me from Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God. " The spirits of darkness redoubled their efforts, and uttered frightful cries. St. Antony remained unmoved, because he put all his confidence in God. After the example of this saint, my children, let us be always ready for the combat; let us put our confidence in God; let us fast and pray; and the devil will not be able to separate us from Jesus Christ, either in this world or the next.
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April 3, 2016 - Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. Matthew 7:24
CHAPTER 4 : On Sin
Sin is a thought, a word, an action, contrary to the law of God.
BY SIN, my children, we rebel against the good God, we despise His justice, we tread under foot His blessings. From being children of God, we become the executioner and assassin of our soul, the offspring of Hell, the horror of Heaven, the murderer of Jesus Christ, the capital enemy of the good God. O my children! if we thought of this, if we reflected on the injury which sin offers to the good God, we should hold it in abhorrence, we should be unable to commit it; but we never think of it, we like to live at our ease, we slumber in sin. If the good God sends us remorse, we quickly stifle it, by thinking that we have done no harm to anybody, that God is good, and that He did not place us on the earth to make us suffer.
Indeed, my children, the good God did not place us on the earth to suffer and endure, but to work out our salvation. See, He wills that we should work today and tomorrow; and after that, an eternity of joy, of happiness, awaits us in Heaven. . . . 0 my children! how ungrateful we are! The good God calls us to Himself; He wishes to make us happy forever, and we are deaf to His word, we will not share His happiness; He enjoins us to love Him, and we give our heart to the devil. . . . The good God commands all nature as its Master; He makes the winds and the storms obey Him; the angels tremble at His adorable will: man alone dares to resist Him. See, God forbids us that action, that criminal pleasure, that revenge, that injustice; no matter, we are bent upon satisfying ourselves; we had rather renounce the happiness of Heaven, than deprive ourselves of a moment's pleasure, or give up a sinful habit, or change our life. What are we, then, that we dare thus to resist God? Dust and ashes, which He could annihilate with a single look. . . .
By sin, my children, we despise the good God. We renew His Death and Passion; we do as much evil as all the Jews together did, in fastening Him to the Cross. Therefore, my children, if we were to ask those who work without necessity on Sunday: "What are you doing there?" and they were to answer truly, they would say, "We are crucifying the good God. " Ask the idle, the gluttonous, the immodest, what they do every day. If they answer you according to what they are really doing, they will say, "We are crucifying the good God. " O my children! it is very ungrateful to offend a God who has never done us any harm; but is it not the height of ingratitude - to offend a God who has done us nothing but good?
It is He who created us, who watches over us. He holds us in His hands; if He chose, He could cast us into the nothingness out of which He took us. He has given us His Son, to redeem us from the slavery of the devil; He Himself gave Him up to death that He might restore us to life; He has adopted us as His children, and ceases not to lavish His graces upon us. Notwithstanding all this, what use do we make of our mind, of our memory, of our health, of those limbs which He gave us to serve Him with? We employ them, perhaps, in committing crimes.
The good God, my children, has given us eyes to enlighten us, to see Heaven, and we use them to look at criminal and dangerous objects; He has given us a tongue to praise Him, and to express our thoughts, and we make it an instrument of iniquity - we swear, we blaspheme, we speak ill of our neighbour, we slander him; we abuse the supernatural graces, we stifle the salutary remorse by which God would convert us. . . . we reject the inspirations of our good guardian angel. We despise good thoughts, we neglect prayer and the Sacraments. What account do we make even of the Word of God? Do we not listen to it with disgust? How miserable we are! How much we are to be pitied! We employ the time that the good God has given us for our salvation, in losing our souls. We make war upon Him with the means He has given us to serve Him; we turn His own gifts against Him! Let us cast our eyes, my children, upon Jesus fastened to the Cross. and let us say to ourselves, "This is what it has cost my Saviour to repair the injury my sins have done to God. "
A God coming down to the earth to be the victim of our sins! A God suffering, a God dying, a God enduring every torment, because He has put on the semblance of sin, and has chosen to bear the weight of our iniquities! Ah, my children! at the sight of that Cross, let us conceive once for all the malice of sin, and the abhorrence in which we should hold it. . . . Let us enter into ourselves, and see what we ought to do to repair our past sins; let us implore the clemency of the good God, and let us all together say to Him, from the bottom of our heart, "O Lord, who art here crucified for us, have mercy upon us! Thou comest down from Heaven to cure souls of sin; cure us, we beseech Thee; cause our souls to be purified by approaching the tribunal of penance; yes, O God! make us look upon sin as the greatest of all evils, and by our zeal in avoiding it, and in repairing those we have had the misfortune to commit, let us one day attain to the happiness of the saints."
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March 27, 2016 - Wait for the Lord's help and follow him. He will honor you and give you the land, and you will see the wicked sent away. Psalms 37:34
HAPPY EASTER!! He is risen, Alleluia!!!
CHAPTER 3 : On the Last Judgment
OUR CATECHISM tells us, my children, that all men will undergo a particular judgment on the day of their death. No sooner shall we have breathed our last sigh than our soul, without leaving the place where it has expired, will be presented before the tribunal of God. Wherever we may die, God is there to exercise His justice. The good God, my children, has measured out our years, and of those years that He has resolved to leave us on this earth, He has marked out one which shall be our last; one day which we shall not see succeeded by other days; one hour after which there will be for us no more time. What distance is there between that moment and this - the space of an instant. Life, my children, is a smoke, a light vapour; it disappears more quickly than a bird that darts through the air, or a ship that sails on the sea, and leaves no trace of its course!
When shall we die? Alas! will it be in a year, in a month? Perhaps tomorrow, perhaps today! May not that happen to us which happens to so many others? It may be that at a moment when you are thinking of nothing but amusing yourself, you may be summoned to the judgment of God, like the impious Baltassar. What will then be the astonishment of that soul entering on its eternity? Surprised, bewildered, separated thenceforth from its relations and friends, and, as it were, surrounded with Divine light, it will find in its Creator no longer a merciful Father, but an inflexible Judge. Imagine to yourselves, my children, a soul at its departure from this life. It is going to appear before the tribunal of its Judge, alone with God; there is Heaven on one side, Hell on the other. What object presents itself before it? The picture of its whole life! All its thoughts, all its words, all its actions, are examined.
This examination will be terrible, my children, because nothing is hidden from God. His infinite wisdom knows our most inmost thoughts; it penetrates to the bottom of our hearts, and lays open their innermost folds. In vain sinners avoid the light of day that they may sin more freely; they spare themselves a little sham in the eyes of men, but it will be of no advantage to them at the day of judgment; God will make light the darkness under cover of which they thought to sin with impunity. The Holy Ghost, my children, says that we shall be examined on our words, our thoughts, our actions; we shall be examined even on the good we ought to have done, and have not done, on the sins of others of which we have been the cause. Alas! so many thoughts to which we abandon ourselves - to which the mind gives itself up; how many in one day! in a week! in a month! in a year! How many in the whole course of our life! Not one of this infinite number will escape the knowledge of our Judge.
The proud man must give an account of all his thoughts of presumption, of vanity, of ambition; the impure of all his evil thoughts, and of the criminal desires with which he has fed his imagination. Those young people who are incessantly occupied with their dress, who are seeking to please, to distinguish themselves, to attract attention and praise, and who dare not make themselves known in the tribunal of Penance, will they be able still to hide themselves at the day of the judgment of God? No, no! They will appear there such as they have been during their life, before Him who makes known all that is most secret in the heart of man.
We shall give an account, my children, of our oaths, of our imprecations, of our curses. God hears our slanders, our calumnies, our free conversations, our worldly and licentious songs; He hears also the discourse of the impious. This is not all, my children; God will also examine our actions. He will bring to light all our unfaithfulness in His service, our forgetfulness of His Commandments, our transgression of His law, the profanation of His churches, the attachment to the world, the ill-regulated love of pleasure and of the perishable goods of earth. All, my children, will be unveiled; those thefts, that injustice, that usury, that intemperance, that anger, those disputes, that tyranny, that revenge, those criminal liberties, those abominations that cannot be named without blushes....
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March 20, 2016 - So I tell you to believe that you have received the things you ask for in prayer, and God will give them to you. Mark 11:24
CHAPTER 2 : On Death
A DAY WILL come, perhaps it is not far off, when we must bid adieu to life, adieu to the world, adieu to our relations, adieu to our friends. When shall we return, my children? Never. We appear upon this earth, we disappear, and we return no more; our poor body, that we take such care of, goes away into dust, and our soul, all trembling, goes to appear before the good God. When we quit this world, where we shall appear no more, when our last breath of life escapes, and we say our last adieu, we shall wish to have passed our life in solitude, in the depths of a desert, far from the world and its pleasures. We have these examples of repentance before our eyes every day, my children, and we remain always the same. We pass our life gaily, without ever troubling ourselves about eternity. By our indifference to the service of the good God, one would think we were never going to die.
See, my children, some people pass their whole life without thinking of death. It comes, and behold! they have nothing; faith, hope, and love, all are already dead within them. When death shall come upon us, of what use will three-quarters of our life have been to us? With what are we occupied the greatest part of our time? Are we thinking of the good God, of our salvation, of our soul? O my children! what folly is the world! We come into it, we go out of it, without knowing why. The good God places us in it to serve Him, to try if we will love Him and be faithful to His law; and after this short moment of trial, He promises us a recompense. Is it not just that He should reward the faithful servant and punish the wicked one? Should the Trappist, who has passed his life in lamenting and weeping over his sins, be treated the same as the bad Christian, who has lived in abundance in the midst of all the enjoyments of life? No; certainly not. We are on earth not to enjoy its pleasures, but to labor for our salvation.
Let us prepare ourselves for death; we have not a minute to lose: it will come upon us at the moment when we least expect it; it will take us by surprise. Look at the saints, my children, who were pure; they were always trembling, they pined away with fear; and we, who so often offend the good God - we have no fears. Life is given us that we may learn to die well, and we never think of it. We occupy ourselves with everything else. The idea of it often occurs to us, and we always reject it; we put it off to the last moment. O my children! this last moment, how much it is to be feared! Yet the good God does not wish us to despair; He shows us the good thief, touched with repentance, dying near Him on the cross; but he is the only one; and then see, he dies near the good God. Can we hope to be near Him at our last moment - we who have been far from Him all our life? What have we done to deserve that favour? A great deal of evil, and no good.
There was once a good Trappist Father, who was trembling all over at perceiving the approach of death. Someone said to him, "Father, of what then are you afraid?" "Of the judgment of God," he said. "Ah! if you dread the judgment - you who have done so much penance, you who love God so much, who have been so long preparing for death - what will become of me?" See, my children, to die well we must live well; to live well, we must seriously examine ourselves: every evening think over what we have done during the day; at the end of each week review what we have done during the week; at the end of each month review what we have done during the month; at the end of the year, what we have done during the year. By this means, my children, we cannot fail to correct ourselves, and to become fervent Christians in a short time. Then, when death comes, we are quite ready; we are happy to go to Heaven.
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March 13, 2016 - Sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. Genesis 4:7
PART II : EXPLANATIONS AND EXHORTATIONS
Sixteen Exhortations of the Holy Curé of Ars
CHAPTER 1 : On Salvation
THE HAPPINESS of man on earth, my children, is to be very good; those who are very good bless the good God, they love Him, they glorify Him, and do all their works with joy and love, because they know that we are in this world for no other end than to serve and love the good God.
Look at bad Christians; they do everything with trouble and disgust; and why, my children? because they do not love the good God, because their soul is not pure, and their hopes are no longer in Heaven, but on earth. Their heart is an impure source which poisons all their actions, and prevents them from rising to God; so they come to die without having thought of death, destitute of good works for Heaven, and loaded with crimes for Hell: this is the way they are lost forever, my children. People say it is too much trouble to save one's soul; but, my children, is it not trouble to acquire glory or fortune? Do you stay in bed when you have to go and plough, or mow, or reap? No. Well, then, why should you be more idle when you have to lay up an immense fortune which will never perish - when you have to strive for eternal glory?
See, my children, if we really wish to be saved we must determine, once for all, to labor in earnest for our salvation; our soul is like a garden in which the weeds are ever ready to choke the good plants and flowers that have been sown in it. If the gardener who has charge of this garden neglects it, if he is not continually using the spade and the hoe, the flowers and plants will soon disappear. Thus, my children, do the virtues with which God has been pleased to adorn our soul disappear under our vices if we neglect to cultivate them. As a vigilant gardener labours from morning till night to destroy the weeds in his garden, and to ornament it with flowers, so let us labor every day to extirpate the vices of our soul and to adorn it with virtues. See, my children, a gardener never lets the weeds take root, because he knows that then he would never be able to destroy them. Neither let us allow our vices to take root, or we shall not be able to conquer them.
One day, an anchorite being in a forest with a companion, showed him four cypresses to be pulled up one after the other; the young man, who did not very well know why he told him to do this, took hold of the first tree, which was quite small, and pulled it up with one hand without trouble; the second, which was a little bigger and had some roots, made him pull harder, but yet he pulled it up with one hand; the third, being still bigger, offered so much resistance, that he was obliged to take both hands and to use all his strength; the fourth, which was grown into a tree, had such deep roots, that he exhausted himself in vain efforts. The saint then said to him, "With a little vigilance and mortification, we succeed in repressing our passions, and we triumph over them when they are only springing up; but when they have taken deep root, nothing is more difficult; the thing is even impossible without a miracle. "
Let us not reckon on a miracle of Providence, my children; let us not put off till the end of our life the care that we ought daily to take of our soul; let us labor while there is yet time - later it will no longer be within our power; let us lay our hands to the work; let us watch over ourselves; above all, let us pray to the good God - with His assistance we shall always have power over our passions. Man sins, my children; but if he has not in this first moment lost the faith, he runs, he hastens, he flies, to seek a remedy for his ill; he cannot soon enough find the tribunal of penance, where he can recover his happiness. That is the way we should conduct ourselves if we were good Christians. Yes, my children, we could not remain one moment under the empire of the devil; we should be ashamed of being his slaves. A good Christian watches continually, sword in hand, the devil can do nothing against him, for he resists him like a warrior in full armour; he does not fear him, because he has rejected from his heart all that is impure. Bad Christians are idle and lazy, and stand hanging their heads; and you see how they give way at the first assault: the devil does what he pleases with them; he presents pleasures to them, he makes them taste pleasure, and then, to drown the cries of their conscience, he whispers to them in a gentle voice, "Thou wilt sin no more. " And when the occasion presents itself, they fall again, and more easily than the first time. If they go to confession he makes them ashamed, they speak only in half-words, they lower their voice, they explain away their sins, and, what is more miserable, they perhaps conceal some. The good Christian, on the contrary, groans and weeps over his sins, and reaches the tribunal of Penance already half justified.
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March 6, 2016 - The Lord is my strength and defense; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. Exodus 15:2
CHAPTER 20 : Catechism on the Cardinal Virtues
PRUDENCE SHOWS us what is most pleasing to God, and most useful to the salvation of our soul. We must always choose the most perfect. Two good works present themselves to be done, one in favour of a person we love, the other in favour of a person who has done us some harm; well, we must give the preference to the latter. There is no merit in doing good, when a natural feeling leads us to do it. A lady, wishing to have a widow to live with her to take care of, asked St. Athanasius to find her one among the poor. Afterwards, meeting the Bishop, she reproached him that he had treated her ill, because this person was too good, and gave her nothing to do by which she could gain Heaven; and she begged him to give her another. The saint chose the worst he could find; of a cross, grumbling temper, never satisfied with what was done for her. This is the way we must act, for there is no great merit in doing good to one who values it, who thanks us and is grateful.
There are some persons who think they are never treated well enough; they seem as if they had a right to everything. They are never pleased with what is done for them: they repay everybody with ingratitude. . . . Well! those are the people to whom we should do good by preference. We must be prudent in all our actions, and seek not our own taste, but what is most pleasing to the good God. Suppose you have a franc that you intend to give for a Mass; you see a poor family in distress, in want of bread: it is better to give your money to these wretched people, because the Holy Sacrifice will still be offered; the priest will not fail to say Holy Mass; while these poor people may die of hunger. . . . You would wish to pray to the good God, to pass your whole day in the church; but you think it would be very useful to work for some poor people that you know, who are in great need; that is much more pleasing to God than your day passed before the holy tabernacle.
Temperance is another cardinal virtue: we can be temperate in the use of our imagination, by not letting it gallop as fast as it would wish; we can be temperate with our eyes, temperate with our mouth - some people constantly have something sweet and pleasant in their mouth; we can be temperate with our ears, not allowing them to listen to useless songs and conversation; temperate in smelling - some people perfume themselves to such a degree as to make those about them sick; temperate with the hands - some people are always washing them when it is hot, and handling things that are soft to the touch. . . . In short, we can practice temperance with our whole body, this poor machine, by not letting it run away like a horse without bit or bridle, but checking it and keeping it down. Some people lie buried there, in their beds; they are glad not to sleep, that they may the better feel how comfortable they are. The saints were not like that. I do not know how we are ever to get where they are. . . . Well! if we are saved, we shall stay infinitely long in Purgatory, while they will fly straight to Heaven to see the good God.
That great saint, St. Charles Borromeo, had in his apartment a fine cardinal's bed, which everybody saw; but, besides that, there was one which nobody could see, made of bundles of wood; and that was the one he made use of. He never warmed himself; when people came to see him, they remarked that he placed himself so as not to feel the fire. That is what the saints were like. They lived for Heaven, and not for earth; they were all heavenly; and as for us, we are all earthly. Oh, how I like those little mortifications that are seen by nobody, such as rising a quarter of an hour sooner, rising for a little while in the night to pray! but some people think of nothing but sleeping. There was once a solitary who had built himself a royal palace in the trunk of an oak tree; he had placed thorns inside of it, and he had fastened three stones over his head, so that when he raised himself or turned over he might feel the stones or the thorns. And we, we think of nothing but finding good beds, that we may sleep at our ease.
We may refrain from warming ourselves; if we are sitting uncomfortably, we need not try to place ourselves better; if we are walking in our garden, we may deprive ourselves of some fruit that we should like; in preparing the food, we need not eat the little bits that offer themselves; we may deprive ourselves of seeing something pretty, which attracts our eyes, especially in the streets of great towns. There is a gentleman who sometimes comes here. He wears two pairs of spectacles, that he may see nothing. . . . But some heads are always in motion, some eyes are always looking about. . . . When we are going along the streets, let us fix our eyes on Our Lord carrying His Cross before us; on the Blessed Virgin, who is looking at us; on our guardian angel, who is by our side. How beautiful is this interior life! It unites us with the good God. . . . Therefore, when the devil sees a soul that is seeking to attain to it, he tries to turn him aside from it by filling his imagination with a thousand fancies. A good Christian does not listen to that; he goes always forward in perfection, like a fish plunging into the depths of the sea. . . . As for us, Alas! we drag ourselves along like a leech in the mud.
There were two saints in the desert who had sewed thorns into all their clothes; and we seek for nothing but comfort! Yet we wish to go to Heaven, but with all our luxuries, without having any annoyance; that is not the way the saints acted. They sought every way of mortifying themselves, and in the midst of all their privations they tasted infinite sweetness. How happy are those who love the good God! They do not lose a single opportunity of doing good; misers employ all the means in their power to increase their treasure; they do the same for the riches of Heaven - they are always heaping up. We shall be surprised at the Day of Judgment to see souls so rich!
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February 28, 2016 - The Lord saves good people; he is their strength in times of trouble. The Lord helps them and saves them; he saves them from the wicked, because they trust in him for protection. Psalms 37:39-40
CHAPTER 19 : Catechism on Hope
MY CHILDREN, we are going to speak of hope: that is what makes the happiness of man on earth. Some people in this world hope too much, and others do not hope enough. Some say, "I am going to commit this sin again. It will not cost me more to confess four than three. " It is like a child saying to his father, "I am going to give you four blows; it will cost me no more than to give you one: I shall only have to ask your pardon. "
That is the way men behave towards the good God. They say, "This year I shall amuse myself again; I shall go to dances and to the alehouse, and next year I will be converted. The good God will be sure to receive me, when I choose to return to Him. He is not so cruel as the priests tell us. " No, the good God is not cruel, but He is just. Do you think He will adapt Himself in everything to your will? Do you think that He will embrace you, after you have despised Him all your life? Oh no, indeed! There is a certain measure of grace and of sin after which God withdraws Himself. What would you say of a father who should treat a good child, and one not so the same, the father is not just. Well! God would not be just if He made no difference between those who serve Him and those who offend Him. My children, there is so little faith now in the world that people either hope too much, or they despair. Some say, "I have done too much evil; the good God cannot pardon me:' My children, this is a great blasphemy; it is putting a limit to the mercy of God, which has no limit - it is infinite. You may have done evil enough to lose the souls of a whole parish, and if you confess, if you are sorry for having done this evil, and resolve not to do it again, the good God will have pardoned you.
A priest was once preaching on hope, and on ; the mercy of the good God. He reassured others, but he himself despaired. After the sermon, a young man presented himself, saying, "Father, I am come to confess to you:' The priest answered, "I am willing to hear your confession:' The other recounted his sins, after which he added, "Father, I have done much evil; I am lost!" "What do you say, my friend! We must never despair:' The young man rose, saying, "Father, you wish me not to despair, and what do you do?" This was a ray of light; the priest, all astonishment, drove away that thought of despair, became a religious and a great saint. . . . The good God had sent him an angel under the form of a young man, to show him that we must never despair. The good God is as prompt to grant us pardon when we ask it of Him as a mother is to snatch her child out of the fire.
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February 21, 2016 - The Lord says, "I will make you wise and show you where to go. I will guide you and watch over you." Psalms 32:8
CHAPTER 18 : Catechism on Suffering
WHETHER WE will or not, we must suffer. There are some who suffer like the good thief, and others like the bad thief. They both suffered equally. But one knew how to make his sufferings meritorious, he accepted them in the spirit of reparation, and turning towards Jesus crucified, he received from His mouth these beautiful words: "This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise. " The other, on the contrary, cried out, uttered imprecations and blasphemies, and expired in the most frightful despair. There are two ways of suffering - to suffer with love, and to suffer without love. The saints suffered everything with joy, patience, and perseverance, because they loved. As for us, we suffer with anger, vexation, and weariness, because we do not love. If we loved God, we should love crosses, we should wish for them, we should take pleasure in them. . . . We should be happy to be able to suffer for the love of Him who lovingly suffered for us. Of what do we complain? Alas! the poor infidels, who have not the happiness of knowing God and His infinite loveliness, have the same crosses that we have; but they have not the same consolations. You say it is hard? No, it is easy, it is consoling, it is sweet; it is happiness. Only we must love while we suffer, and suffer while we love.
On the Way of the Cross, you see, my children, only the first step is painful. Our greatest cross is the fear of crosses. . . . We have not the courage to carry our cross, and we are very much mistaken; for, whatever we do, the cross holds us tight - we cannot escape from it. What, then, have we to lose? Why not love our crosses and make use of them to take us to Heaven? But, on the contrary, most men turn their backs upon crosses, and fly before them. The more they run, the more the cross pursues them, the more it strikes and crushes them with burdens. . . . If you were wise, you would go to meet it like St. Andrew, who said, when he saw the cross prepared for him and raised up into the air, "Hail O good cross! O admirable cross! O desirable cross! receive me into thine arms, withdraw me from among men, and restore me to my Master, who redeemed me through thee. "
Listen attentively to this, my children: He who goes to meet the cross, goes in the opposite direction to crosses; he meets them, perhaps, but he is pleased to meet them; he loves them; he carries them courageously. They unite him to Our Lord; they purify him; they detach him from this world; they remove all obstacles from his heart; they help him to pass through life, as a bridge helps us to pass over water. . . . Look at the saints; when they were not persecuted. they persecuted themselves. A good religious complained one day to Our Lord that he was persecuted. He said, "O Lord, what have I done to be treated thus?" Our Lord answered him, "And I, what had I done when I was led to Calvary?" Then the religious understood; he wept, he asked pardon, and dared not complain any more. Worldly people are miserable when they have crosses, and good Christians are miserable when they have none. The Christian lives in the midst of crosses, as the fish lives in the sea.
Look at St. Catherine; she has two crowns, that of purity and that of martyrdom: how happy she is, that dear little saint, to have chosen to suffer rather than to consent to sin! There was once a religious who loved suffering so much that he had fastened the rope from a well round his body; this cord had rubbed off the skin, and had by degrees buried itself in the flesh, out of which worms came. His brethren asked that he should be sent out of the community. He went away happy and pleased, to hide himself in a rocky cavern. But the same night the Superior heard Our Lord saying to him: "Thou hast lost the treasure of thy house. " Then they went to fetch back this good saint, and they wanted to see from whence these worms came. The Superior had the cord taken off, which was done by turning back the flesh. At last he got well.
Very near this, in a neighbouring parish, there was a little boy in bed, covered with sores, very ill, and very miserable; I said to him, "My poor little child, you are suffering very much!" He answered me, "No, sir; today I do not feel the pain I had yesterday, and tomorrow I shall not suffer from the pain I have now:' "You would like to get well?" "No; I was naughty before I was ill, and I might be so again. I am very well as I am. " We do not understand that, because we are too earthly. Children in whom the Holy Ghost dwells put us to shame.
If the good God sends us crosses, we resist, we complain, we murmur; we are so averse to whatever contradicts us, that we want to be always in a box of cotton: but we ought to be put into a box of thorns. It is by the Cross that we go to Heaven. Illnesses, temptations, troubles, are so many crosses which take us to Heaven. All this will soon be over. . . . Look at the saints, who have arrived there before us. . . . The good God does not require of us the martyrdom of the body; He requires only the martyrdom of the heart, and of the will. . . . Our Lord is our model; let us take up our cross, and follow Him. Let us do like the soldiers of Napoleon. They had to cross a bridge under the fire of grapeshot; no one dared to pass it. Napoleon took the colours, marched over first, and they all followed. Let us do the same; let us follow Our Lord, who has gone before us.
A soldier was telling me one day that during a battle he had marched for half an hour over dead bodies; there was hardly space to tread upon; the ground was all dyed with blood. Thus on the road of life we must walk over crosses and troubles to reach our true country. The cross is the ladder to Heaven. . . . How consoling it is to suffer under the eyes of God, and to be able to say in the evening, at our examination of conscience: "Come, my soul! thou hast had today two or three hours of resemblance to Jesus Christ. Thou hast been scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified with Him!" Oh what a treasure for the hour of death! How sweet it is to die, when we have lived on the cross! We ought to run after crosses as the miser runs after money. . . . Nothing but crosses will reassure us at the Day of Judgment. When that day shall come, we shall be happy in our misfortunes, proud of our humiliations, and rich in our sacrifices!
If someone said to you, "I should like to become rich; what must I do?" you would answer him, "You must labor:' Well, in order to get to Heaven, we must suffer. Our Lord shows us the way in the person of Simon the Cyrenian; He calls His friends to carry His Cross after Him. The good God wishes us never to lose sight of the Cross, therefore it is placed everywhere; by the roadside, on the heights, in the public squares - in order that at the sight of it we may say, "See how God has loved us!" The Cross embraces the world; it is planted at the four corners of the world; there is a share of it for all. Crosses are on the road to Heaven like a fine bridge of stone over a river, by which to pass it. Christians who do not suffer pass this river by a frail bridge, a bridge of wire, always ready to give way under their feet.
He who does not love the Cross may indeed be saved, but with great difficulty: he will be a little star in the firmament. He who shall have suffered and fought for his God will shine like a beautiful sun. Crosses, transformed by the flames of love, are like a bundle of thorns thrown into the fire, and reduced by the fire to ashes. The thorns are hard, but the ashes are soft. Oh, how much sweetness do souls experience that are all for God in suffering! It is like a mixture into which one puts a great deal of oil: the vinegar remains vinegar; but the oil corrects its bitterness, and it can scarcely be perceived.
If you put fine grapes into the wine press, there will come out a delicious juice: our soul, in the wine press of the Cross, gives out a juice that nourishes and strengthens it. When we have no crosses, we are arid: if we bear them with resignation, we feel a joy, a happiness, a sweetness! . . . it is the beginning of Heaven. The good God, the Blessed Virgin, the angels, and the saints, surround us; they are by our side, and see us. The passage to the other life of the good Christian tried by affliction, is like that of a person being carried on a bed of roses. Thorns give out a perfume, and the Cross breathes forth sweetness. But we must squeeze the thorns in our hands, and press the Cross to our heart, that they may give out the juice they contain.
The Cross gave peace to the world; and it must bring peace to our hearts. All our miseries come from not loving it. The fear of crosses increases them. A cross carried simply, and without those returns of self-love which exaggerate troubles, is no longer a cross. Peaceable suffering is no longer suffering. We complain of suffering! We should have much more reason to complain of not suffering, since nothing makes us more like Our Lord than carrying His Cross. Oh, what a beautiful union of the soul with Our Lord Jesus Christ by the love and the virtue of His Cross! I do not understand how a Christian can dislike the Cross, and fly from it! Does he not at the same time fly from Him who has deigned to be fastened to it, and to die for us?
Contradictions bring us to the foot of the Cross, and the Cross to the gate of Heaven. That we may get there, we must be trodden upon, we must be set at naught, despised, crushed. . . . There are no happy people in this world but those who enjoy calmness of mind in the midst of the troubles of life: they taste the joys of the children of God. . . . All pains are sweet when we suffer in union with Our Lord. . . . To suffer! what does it signify? It is only a moment. If we could go and pass a week in Heaven, we should understand the value of this moment of suffering. We should find no cross heavy enough, no trial bitter enough. . . . The Cross is the gift that God makes to His friends.
How beautiful it is to offer ourselves every morning in sacrifice to the good God, and to accept everything in expiation of our sins! We must ask for the love of crosses; then they become sweet.
I tried it for four or five years. I was well calumniated, well contradicted, well knocked about. Oh, I had crosses indeed! I had almost more than I could carry! Then I took to asking for love of crosses, and I was happy. I said to myself, truly there is no happiness but in this! We must never think from whence crosses come: they come from God. It is always God who gives us this way of proving our love to Him.
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February 14, 2016 - Through these he gave us the very great and precious promises. With these gifts you can share in being like God, and the world will not ruin you with its evil desires. 2 Peter 1:4
CHAPTER 17 : Catechism on Confession
MY CHILDREN, as soon as ever you have a little spot upon your soul, you must do like a person who has a fine globe of glass, which he keeps very carefully. If this globe has a little dust on it, he wipes it with a sponge the moment he perceives it, and there is the globe clear and brilliant. In the same way, as soon as you perceive a little stain on your soul, take some holy water with respect, do one of those good works to which the remission of venial sins is attached - an alms, a genuflection to the Blessed Sacrament, hearing a Mass. My children, it is like a person who has a slight illness; he need not go and see a doctor, he may cure himself without. If he has a headache, he need only go to bed; if he is hungry, he has only to eat. But if it is a serious illness, if it is a dangerous wound, he must have the doctor; after the doctor come the remedies. In the same way, when we have fallen into any grievous sin, we must have recourse to the doctor, that is the priest; and to the remedy, that is confession.
My children, we cannot comprehend the goodness of God towards us in instituting this great Sacrament of Penance. If we had had a favour to ask of Our Lord, we should never have thought of asking Him that. But He foresaw our frailty and our inconstancy in well-doing, and His love induced Him to do what we should not have dared to ask. If one said to those poor lost souls that have been so long in Hell, "We are going to place a priest at the gate of Hell: all those who wish to confess have only to go out, " do you think, my children, that a single one would remain? The most guilty would not be afraid of telling their sins, nor even of telling them before all the world. Oh, how soon Hell would be a desert, and how Heaven would be peopled! Well, we have the time and the means, which those poor lost souls have not. And I am quite sure that those wretched ones say in Hell, "O accursed priest! if I had never known you, I should not be so guilty!"
It is a beautiful thought, my children, that we have a Sacrament which heals the wounds of our soul! But we must receive it with good dispositions. Otherwise we make new wounds upon the old ones. What would you say of a man covered with wounds who is advised to go to the hospital to show himself to the surgeon? The surgeon cures him by giving him remedies. But, behold! this man takes his knife, gives himself great blows with it and makes himself worse than he was before. Well, that is what you often do after leaving the confessional.
My children, some people make bad confessions without taking any notice of it. These persons say, "I do not know what is the matter with me:' . . . They are tormented, and they do not know why. They have not that agility which makes one go straight to the good God; they have something heavy and weary about them which fatigues them. My children, that is because of sins that remain, often even venial sins, for which one has some affection. There are some people who, indeed, tell everything, but they have no repentance; and they go at once to Holy Communion. Thus the Blood of Our Lord is profaned! They go to the Holy Table with a sort of weariness. They say, "Yet, I accused myself of all my sins. . . I do not know what is the matter with me. " There is an unworthy Communion, and they were hardly aware of it!
My children, some people again profane the Sacraments in another manner. They have concealed mortal sins for ten years, for twenty years. They are always uneasy; their sin is always present to their mind; they are always thinking of confessing it, and always putting it off; it is a Hell. When these people feel this, they will ask to make a general confession, and they will tell their sins as if they had just committed them: they will not confess that they have hidden them during ten years - twenty years. That is a bad confession! They ought to say, besides, that they had given up the practice of their religion, that they no longer felt the pleasure they had formerly in serving the good God.
My children, we run the risk again of profaning the Sacrament if we seize the moment when there is a noise round the confessional to tell the sins quickly which give us most pain. We quiet ourselves by saying, "I accused myself properly; so much the worse if the confessor did not hear. " So much the worse for you who acted cunningly! At other times we speak quickly, profiting by the moment when the priest is not very attentive to get over the great sins. Take a house which has been for a long time very dirty and neglected - it is in vain to sweep out, there will always be a nasty smell. It is the same with our soul after confession; it requires tears to purify it. My children, we must ask earnestly for repentance. After confession, we must plant a thorn in our heart, and never lose sight of our sins. We must do as the angel did to St. Francis of Assisi; he fixed in him five darts, which never came out again.
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February 7, 2016 - Those who are careful about what they say keep themselves out of trouble. Proverbs 21:23
CHAPTER 16 : Catechism on Impurity
THAT WE MAY understand how horrible and detestable is this sin, which the demons make us commit, but which they do not commit themselves, we must consider what a Christian is. A Christian, created in the image of God, redeemed by the Blood of a God! a Christian, the child of God, the brother of a God, the heir of a God! a Christian, whose body is the temple of the Holy Ghost; that is what sin dishonours. We are created to reign one day in Heaven, and if we have the misfortune to commit this sin, we become the den of the devils. Our Lord said that nothing impure should enter into His kingdom. Indeed, how could a soul that has rolled itself in this filth go to appear before so pure and so holy a God?
We are all like little mirrors, in which God contemplates Himself. How can you expect that God should recognize His likeness in an impure soul? There are some souls so dead, so rotten, that they lie in their defilement without perceiving it, and can no longer clear themselves from it; everything leads them to evil, everything reminds them of evil, even the most holy things; they always have these abominations before their eyes; like the unclean animal that is accustomed to live in filth, that is happy in it, that rolls itself and goes to sleep in it, that grunts in the mud; these persons are an object of horror in the eyes of God and of the holy angels. See, my children, Our Lord was crowned with thorns to expiate our sins of pride; but for this accursed sin, He was scourged and torn to pieces, since He said Himself that after his flagellation all His bones might be counted.
O my children, if there were not some pure souls here and there, to make amends to the good God, and disarm His justice, you would see how we should be punished! For now, this crime is so common in the world, that it is enough to make one tremble. One may say, my children, that Hell vomits forth its abominations upon the earth, as the chimneys of the steam engine vomit forth smoke. The devil does all he can to defile our soul, and yet our soul is everything. . . our body is only a heap of corruption: go to the cemetery to see what you love, when you love your body. As I have often told you, there is nothing so vile as the impure soul. There was once a saint, who had asked the good God to show him one; and he saw that poor soul like a dead beast that has been dragged through the streets in the hot sun for a week.
By only looking at a person, we know if he is pure. His eyes have an air of candour and modesty which leads you to the good God. Some people, on the contrary, look quite inflamed with passion. . . Satan places himself in their eyes to make others fall and to lead them to evil. Those who have lost their purity are like a piece of cloth stained with oil; you may wash it and dry it, and the stain always appears again: so it requires a miracle to cleanse the impure soul.
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January 31, 2016 - Train children to live the right way, and when they are old, they will not stray from it. Proverbs 22:6
CHAPTER 15 : Catechism on Pride
PRIDE IS that accursed sin which drove the angels out of paradise, and hurled them into Hell. This sin began with the world. See, my children, we sin by pride in many ways. A person may be proud in his clothes, in his language, in his gestures, even in his manner of walking. Some persons, when they are in the streets, walk along proudly, and seem to say to the people they meet, "Look how tall, how upright I am, how well I walk!" Others, when they have done any good action, are never tired of talking of it; and if they fail in anything, they are miserable because they think people will have a bad opinion of them . . . others are sorry to be seen with the poor, if they meet with anybody of consequence; they are always seeking the company of the rich. . . if by chance, they are noticed by the great people of the world, they boast and are vain of it. Others take pride in speaking. If they go to see rich people, they consider what they are going to say, they study fine language; and if they make a mistake of a word, they are very much vexed, because they are afraid of being laughed at. But, my children, with a humble person it is not so. . . whether he is laughed at or esteemed, or praised, or blamed, whether he is honoured or despised, whether people pay attention to him or pass him by, it is all the same to him.
My children, there are again people who give great alms, that they may be well thought of - that will not do These people will reap no fruit from their good works. On the contrary, their alms will turn into sins. We put pride into everything like salt. We like to see that our good works are known. If our virtues are seen, we are pleased; if our faults are perceived, we are sad. I remark that in a great many people; if one says anything to them, it disturbs them, it annoys them. The saints were not like that - they were vexed if their virtues were known, and pleased that their imperfections should be seen. A proud person thinks everything he does is well done; he wants to domineer over all those who have to do with him; he is always right, he always thinks his own opinion better than that of others. That will not do! A humble and well-taught person, if he is asked his opinion, gives it at once, and then lets others speak. Whether they are right, or whether they are wrong, he says nothing more.
When St. Aloysius Gonzaga was a student, he never sought to excuse himself when he was reproached with anything; he said what he thought, and troubled himself no further about what others might think; if he was wrong, he was wrong; if he was right, he said to himself, "I have certainly been wrong some other time. " My children, the saints were so completely dead to themselves, that they cared very little whether others agreed with them. People in the world say, "Oh, the saints were simpletons!" Yes, they were simpletons in worldly things; but in the things of God they were very wise. They understood nothing about worldly matters, to be sure, because they thought them of so little importance, that they paid no attention to them.
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January 24, 2016 - Whoever does not care for his own relatives, especially his own family members, has turned against the faith and is worse than someone who does not believe in God. 1 Timothy 5:8
CHAPTER 14 :Catechism on Sin
SIN IS the executioner of the good God, and the assassin of the soul. It snatches us away from Heaven to precipitate us into Hell. And we love it! What folly! If we thought seriously about it, we should have such a lively horror of sin that we could not commit it. O my children, how ungrateful we are! The good God wishes to make us happy; that is very certain; He gave us His Law for no other end. The Law of God is great; it is broad. King David said that he found his delight in it, and that it was a treasure more precious to him than the greatest riches. He said also that he walked at large, because he had sought after the Commandments of the Lord. The good God wishes, then, to make us happy, and we do not wish to be so. We turn away from Him, and give ourselves to the devil! We fly from our Friend, and we seek after our murderer! We commit sin; we plunge ourselves into the mire. Once sunk in this mire, we know not how to get out. If our fortune were in the case, we should soon find out how to get out of the difficulty; but because it only concerns our soul, we stay where we are.
We come to confession quite preoccupied with the shame that we shall feel. We accuse ourselves by steam. It is said that many confess, and few are converted. I believe it is so, my children, because few confess with tears of repentance. See, the misfortune is, that people do not reflect. If one said to those who work on Sundays, to a young person who had been dancing for two or three hours, to a man coming out of an alehouse drunk, "What have you been doing? You have been crucifying Our Lord!" they would be quite astonished, because they do not think of it. My children, if we thought of it, we should be seized with horror; it would be impossible for us to do evil. For what has the good God done to us that we should grieve Him thus, and put Him to death afresh - Him, who has redeemed us from Hell? It would be well if all sinners, when they are going to their guilty pleasures, could, like St. Peter, meet Our Lord on the way, who would say to them, "I am going to that place where thou art going thyself, to be there crucified afresh. " Perhaps that might make them reflect.
The saints understood how great an outrage sin is against God. Some of them passed their lives in weeping for their sins. St. Peter wept all his life; he was still weeping at his death. St. Bernard used to say, "Lord! Lord! it is I who fastened Thee to the Cross!" By sin we despise the good God, we crucify the good God! What a pity it is to lose our souls, which have cost Our Lord so many sufferings! What harm has Our Lord done us, that we should treat Him so? If the poor lost souls could come back to the earth! if they were in our place! Oh, how senseless we are! the good God calls us to Him, and we fly from Him! He wishes to make us happy, and we will not have His happiness. He commands us to love Him, and we give our hearts to the devil. We employ in ruining ourselves the time He gives us to save our souls. We make war upon Him with the means He gave us to serve Him.
When we offend the good God, if we were to look at our crucifix, we should hear Our Lord saying to us in the depths of our soul, "Wilt thou too, then, take the side of My enemies? Wilt thou crucify Me afresh?" Cast your eyes on Our Lord fastened to the Cross, and say to yourself, "That is what it cost my Saviour to repair the injury my sins have done to God!" A God coming down to earth to be the victim of our sins, a God suffering, a God dying, a God enduring every torment, because He would bear the weight of our crimes! At the sight of the Cross, let us understand the malice of sin, and the hatred we ought to feel for it. Let us enter into ourselves; let us see what we can do to make amends for our poor life.
"What a pity it is!" the good God will say to us at our death; "why hast thou offended Me - Me, who loved thee so much?" To offend the good God, who has never done us anything but good; to please the devil, who can never do us anything but evil! What folly! Is it not real folly to choose to make ourselves worthy of Hell by attaching ourselves to the devil. when we might taste the joys of Heaven, even in this life, by uniting ourselves to God by love? One cannot understand this folly; it cannot be enough lamented. Poor sinners seem as if they could not wait for the sentence which will condemn them to the society of the devils; they condemn themselves to it. There is a sort of foretaste in this life of Paradise, of Hell, and of Purgatory. Purgatory is in those souls that are not dead to themselves; Hell is in the heart of the impious; Paradise in that of the perfect, who are closely united to Our Lord.
He who lives in sin takes up the habits and the appearance of the beasts. The beast, which has not reason, knows nothing but its appetites. So the man who makes himself like the beasts loses his reason, and lets himself be guided by the inclinations of his body. He takes his pleasure in good eating and drinking, and in enjoying the vanities of the world, which pass away like the wind. I pity the poor wretches who run after that wind; they gain very little, they live a great deal for very little profit - they live their eternity for the miserable smoke of the world.
My children, how sad it is! when a soul is in a state of sin, it may die in that state; and even now, whatever it can do is without merit before God. That is the reason why the devil is so pleased when a soul is in sin, and perseveres in it, because he thinks that it is working for him, and if it were to die he would have possession of it. When we are in sin, our soul is all diseased, all rotten; it is pitiful. The thought that the good God sees it ought to make it enter into itself. And then, what pleasure is there in sin? None at all. We have frightful dreams that the devil is carrying us away, that we are falling over precipices. Put yourself on good terms with God; have recourse to the Sacrament of Penance; you will sleep as quietly as an angel. You will be glad to waken in the night, to pray to God; you will have nothing but thanksgivings on your lips; you will rise I towards Heaven with great facility, as an eagle soars through the air.
See, my children, how sin degrades man; of an angel created to love God, it makes a demon who will curse Him for eternity. Ah! if Adam, our first father, had not sinned, and if we did not sin every day, how happy we should be! we should be as happy as the saints in Heaven. There would be no more unhappy people on the earth. Oh, how beautiful it would be! In fact, my children, it is sin that brings upon us all calamities, all scourges, war, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, fires, frost, hail, storms - all that afflicts us, all that makes us miserable. See, my children, a person who is in a state of sin is always sad. Whatever he does, he is weary and disgusted with everything; while he who is at peace with God is always happy, always joyous. . . . Oh, beautiful life! Oh, beautiful death!
My children, we are afraid of death; I can well believe it. It is sin that makes us afraid of death; it is sin that renders death frightful, formidable; it is sin that terrifies the wicked at the hour of the fearful passage. Alas! O God! there is reason enough to be terrified, to think that one is accursed - accursed of God! It makes one tremble. Accursed of God! and why? for what do men expose themselves to be accursed of God? For a blasphemy, for a bad thought, for a bottle of wine, for two minutes of pleasure! For two minutes of pleasure to lose God, one's soul, Heaven forever! We shall see going up to Heaven, in body and soul, that father, that mother, that sister, that neighbour, who were here with us, with whom we have lived, but whom we have not imitated; while we shall go down body and soul to burn in Hell. The devils will rush to overwhelm us. All the devils whose advice we followed will come to torment us.
My children, if you saw a man prepare a great pile of wood, heaping up fagots one upon another, and when you asked him what he was doing, he were to answer you, "I am preparing the fire that is to burn me, " what would you think? And if you saw this same man set fire to the pile, and when it was lighted throw himself upon it, what would you say? This is what we do when we commit sin. It is not God who casts us into Hell; we cast ourselves into it by our sins. The lost souls will say, "I have lost God, my soul, and Heaven; it is through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault!" He will raise himself out of the fire only to fall back into it. He will always feel the desire of rising because he was created for God, the greatest, the highest of beings, the Most High . . . as a bird shut up in a room flies to the ceiling, and falls down again, the justice of God is the ceiling which keeps down the lost.
There is no need to prove the existence of Hell. Our Lord Himself speaks of it, when He relates the history of the wicked rich man who cried out, "Lazarus! Lazarus!" We know very well that there is a Hell, but we live as if there were not; we sell our souls for a few pieces of money. We put off our conversion till the hour of death; but who can assure us that we shall have time or strength at that formidable moment, which has been feared by all the saints - when Hell will gather itself up for a last assault upon us, seeing that it is the decisive moment? There are many people who lose the faith, and never see Hell till they enter it. The Sacraments are administered to them; but ask them if they have committed such a sin, and they will answer you, "Oh! settle that as you please. "
Some people offend the good God every moment; their heart is an anthill of sins: it is like a spoilt piece of meat, half-eaten by worms. . . . No, indeed; if sinners were to think of eternity - of that terrible forever - they would be converted instantly.
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January 17, 2016 - We know that in everything God works for the good of those who love him. They are in the people he called, because that was his plan. Romans 8:28
CHAPTER 13 :Catechism on Frequent Communion
MY CHILDREN, all beings in creation require to be fed, that they may live; for this purpose God has made trees and plants grow; it is a well-served table, to which all animals come and take the food which suits each one. But the soul also must be fed. Where, then, is its food? My brethren, the food of the soul is God. Ah! what a beautiful thought! The soul can feed on nothing but God. Only God can suffice for it; only God can fill it; only God can satiate its hunger; it absolutely requires its God! There is in all houses a place where the provisions of the family are kept; it is the store-room. The church is the home of souls; it is the house belonging to us, who are Christians. Well, in this house there is a store-room. Do you see the tabernacle? If the souls of Christians were asked, "What is that?" your souls would answer, "It is the store-room. "
There is nothing so great, my children, as the Eucharist! Put all the good works in the world against one good Communion; they will be like a grain of dust beside a mountain. Make a prayer when you have the good God in your heart; the good God will not be able to refuse you anything, if you offer Him His Son, and the merits of His holy death and Passion. My children, if we understood the value of Holy Communion, we should avoid the least faults, that we might have the happiness of making it oftener. We should keep our souls always pure in the eyes of God. My children, I suppose that you have been to confession today, and you will watch over yourselves; you will be happy in the thought that tomorrow you will have the joy of receiving the good God into your heart. Neither can you offend the good God tomorrow; your soul will be all embalmed with the precious Blood of Our Lord. Oh, beautiful life!
O my children, how beautiful will a soul be in eternity that has worthily and often received the good God! The Body of Our Lord will shine through our body, His adorable Blood through our blood; our soul will be united to the Soul of Our Lord during all eternity. There it will enjoy pure and perfect happiness. My children, when the soul of a Christian who has received Our Lord enters paradise, it augments the joy of Heaven. The Angels and the Queen of Angels come to meet it, because they recognize the Son of God in that soul. Then will that soul be rewarded for the pains and sacrifices it will have endured in its life on earth. My children, we know when a soul has worthily received the Sacrament of the Eucharist, it is so drowned in love, so penetrated and changed, that it is no longer to be recognised in its words or its actions. . . . It is humble, it is gentle, it is mortified, charitable, and modest; it is at peace with everyone. It is a soul capable of the greatest sacrifices; in short, you would not know it again.
Go, then, to Communion, my children; go to Jesus with love and confidence; go and live upon Him, in order to live for Him! Do not say that you have too much to do. Has not the Divine Saviour said, "Come to Me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you"? Can you resist an invitation so full of love and tenderness? Do not say that you are not worthy of it. It is true, you are not worthy of it; but you are in need of it. If Our Lord had regarded our worthiness, He would never have instituted His beautiful Sacrament of love: for no one in the world is worthy of it, neither the saints, nor the angels, nor the archangels, nor the Blessed Virgin; but He had in view our needs, and we are all in need of it. Do not say that you are sinners, that you are too miserable, and for that reason you do not dare to approach it. I would as soon hear you say that you are very ill, and therefore you will not take any remedy, nor send for the physician.
All the prayers of the Mass are a preparation for Communion; and all the life of a Christian ought to be a preparation for that great action. We ought to labor to deserve to receive Our Lord every day. How humbled we ought to feel when we see others going to the holy table, and we remain motionless in our place! How happy is a guardian angel who leads a beautiful soul to the holy table! In the primitive Church they communicated every day. When Christians had grown cold, they substituted blessed bread for the Body of Our Lord; this is both a consolation and a humiliation. It is indeed blessed bread; but it is not the Body and Blood of Our Lord!
There are some who make a spiritual communion every day with blessed bread. If we are deprived of Sacramental Communion, let us replace it, as far as we can, by spiritual communion, which we can make every moment; for we ought to have always a burning desire to receive the good God. Communion is to the soul like blowing a fire that is beginning to go out, but that has still plenty of hot embers; we blow, and the fire burns again. After the reception of the Sacraments, when we feel ourselves slacken in the love of God, let us have recourse at once to spiritual communion. When we cannot come to church, let us turn towards the tabernacle: a wall cannot separate us from the good God; let us say five Patres and five Aves to make a spiritual communion. We can receive the good God only once a day; a soul on fire with love supplies for this by the desire to receive Him every moment. O man, how great thou art! fed with the Body and Blood of a God! Oh, how sweet a life is this life of union with the good God! It is Heaven upon earth; there are no more troubles, no more crosses! When you have the happiness of having received the good God, you feel a joy, a sweetness in your heart for some moments. Pure souls feel it always, and in this union consists their strength and their happiness.
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January 10, 2016 - Be careful that no one fails to receive God's grace and begins to cause trouble among you. A person like that can ruin many of you. Hebrews 12:15
CHAPTER 12 : Catechism on Communion
TO SUSTAIN the soul in the pilgrimage of life, God looked over creation, and found nothing that was worthy of it. He then turned to Himself, and resolved to give Himself. O my soul, how great thou art, since nothing less than God can satisfy thee! The food of the soul is the Body and Blood of God! Oh, admirable Food! If we considered it, it would make us lose ourselves in that abyss of love for all eternity! How happy are the pure souls that have the happiness of being united to Our Lord by Communion! They will shine like beautiful diamonds in Heaven, because God will be seen in them.
Our Lord has said, Whatever you shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. We should never have thought of asking of God His own Son. But God has done what man could not have imagined. What man cannot express nor conceive, and what he never would have dared to desire, God in His love has said, has conceived, and has executed. Should we ever have dared to ask of God to put His Son to death for us, to give us His Flesh to eat and His Blood to drink? If all this were not true, then man might have imagined things that God cannot do; he would have gone further than God in inventions of love! That is impossible. Without the Holy Eucharist there would be no happiness in this world; life would be insupportable. When we receive Holy Communion, we receive our joy and our happiness. The good God, wishing to give Himself to us in the Sacrament of His love, gave us a vast and great desire, which He alone can satisfy. In the presence of this beautiful Sacrament, we are like a person dying of thirst by the side of a river - he would only need to bend his head; like a person still remaining poor, close to a great treasure - he need only stretch out his hand. He who communicates loses himself in God like a drop of water in the ocean. They can no more be separated.
At the Day of Judgment we shall see the Flesh of Our Lord shine through the glorified body of those who have received Him worthily on earth, as we see gold shine in copper, or silver in lead. When we have just communicated, if we were asked, "What are you carrying away to your home?" we might answer, "I am carrying away Heaven. " A saint said that we were Christ-bearers. It is very true; but we have not enough faith. We do not comprehend our dignity. When we leave the holy banquet, we are as happy as the Wise Men would have been, if they could have carried away the Infant Jesus. Take a vessel full of liquor, and cork it well - you will keep the liquor as long as you please. So if you were to keep Our Lord well and recollectedly, after Communion, you would long feel that devouring fire which would inspire your heart with an inclination to good and a repugnance to evil. When we have the good God in our heart, it ought to be very burning. The heart of the disciples of Emmaus burnt within them from merely listening to His voice.
I do not like people to begin to read directly when they come from the holy table. Oh no! what is the use of the words of men when God is speaking? We must do as one who is very curious, and listens at the door. We must listen to all that God says at the door of our heart. When you have received Our Lord, you feel your soul purified, because it bathes itself in the love of God. When we go to Holy Communion, we feel something extraordinary, a comfort which pervades the whole body, and penetrates to the extremities. What is this comfort? It is Our Lord, who communicates Himself to all parts of our bodies, and makes them thrill. We are obliged to say, like St. John, "It is the Lord!" Those who feel absolutely nothing are very much to be pitied.
SOMETHING TO PONDER
A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him. When class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks right to the top, rocks about 2" diameter.
He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them in to the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.
The students laughed.
He asked his students again if the jar was full?
They agreed that yes, it was.
The professor then picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
"Now," said the professor, "I want you to recognize that this is your life.
The rocks are the important things - your family, your partner, your health, your children - anything that is so important to you that if it were lost, you would be nearly destroyed.
The pebbles are the other things in life that matter but on a smaller scale. The pebbles represent things like your job, your house, your car.
The sand is everything else - the small stuff.
If you put the sand or the pebbles into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your energy and time on the small stuff, material things, you will never have room for the things that are truly most important.
Pay attention to the things that are critical in your life.
Play with your children.
Take your partner out dancing.
There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner
party and fix the disposal."
Take care of the rocks first -the things that really matter. Set your
priorities. The rest is just pebbles and sand.
* May there always be work for your hands to do;
* May your purse always hold a coin or two;
* May the sun always shine on your windowpane;
* May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain;
* May the hand of a friend always be near you;
* May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
Have a blessed day!
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January 3, 2016 - Then you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. So if the Son makes you free, you will be truly free. John 8:32-36
CHAPTER 11 : Catechism on the Real Presence
OUR LORD is hidden there, waiting for us to come and visit Him, and make our request to Him. See how good He is! He accommodates Himself to our weakness. In Heaven, where we shall be glorious and triumphant, we shall see him in all His glory. If He had presented Himself before us in that glory now, we should not have dared to approach Him; but He hides Himself, like a person in a prison, who might say to us, "You do not see me, but that is no matter; ask of me all you wish and I will grant it. " He is there in the Sacrament of His love, sighing and interceding incessantly with His Father for sinners. To what outrages does He not expose Himself, that He may remain in the midst of us! He is there to console us; and therefore we ought often to visit Him. How pleasing to Him is the short quarter of an hour that we steal from our occupations, from something of no use, to come and pray to Him, to visit Him, to console Him for all the outrages He receives! When He sees pure souls coming eagerly to Him, He smiles upon them. They come with that simplicity which pleases Him so much, to ask His pardon for all sinners, for the outrages of so many ungrateful men. What happiness do we not feel in the presence of God, when we find ourselves alone at His feet before the holy tabernacles! "Come, my soul, redouble thy fervour; thou art alone adoring thy God. His eyes rest upon thee alone. " This good Saviour is so full of love for us that He seeks us out everywhere.
Ah! if we had the eyes of angels with which to see Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is here present on this altar, and who is looking at us, how we should love Him! We should never more wish to part from Him. We should wish to remain always at His feet; it would be a foretaste of Heaven: all else would become insipid to us. But see, it is faith we want. We are poor blind people; we have a mist before our eyes. Faith alone can dispel this mist. Presently, my children, when I shall hold Our Lord in my hands, when the good God blesses you, ask Him then to open the eyes of your heart; say to Him like the blind man of Jericho, "O Lord, make me to see!" If you say to Him sincerely, "Make me to see!" you will certainly obtain what you desire, because He wishes nothing but your happiness. He has His hands full of graces, seeking to whom to distribute them; Alas! and no one will have them. . . . Oh, indifference! Oh, ingratitude! My children, we are most unhappy that we do not understand these things! We shall understand them well one day; but it will then be too late!
Our Lord is there as a Victim; and a prayer that is very pleasing to God is to ask the Blessed Virgin to offer to the Eternal Father her Divine Son, all bleeding, all torn, for the conversion of sinners; it is the best prayer we can make, since, indeed, all prayers are made in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ. We must also thank God for all those indulgences that purify us from our sins. . . but we pay no attention to them. We tread upon indulgences, one might say, as we tread upon the sheaves of corn after the harvest. See, there are seven years and seven quarantines for hearing the catechism, three hundred days for reciting the Litany of the Blessed Virgin, the Salve Regina, the Angelus. In short, the good God multiplies His graces upon us; and how sorry we shall be at the end of our lives that we did not profit by them!
When we are before the Blessed Sacrament, instead of looking about, let us shut our eyes and our mouth; let us open our heart: our good God will open His; we shall go to Him, He will come to us, the one to ask, the other to receive; it will be like a breath from one to the other. What sweetness do we not find in forgetting ourselves in order to seek God! The saints lost sight of themselves that they might see nothing but God, and labor for Him alone; they forgot all created objects in order to find Him alone. This is the way to reach Heaven.
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December 27, 2015 - The Lord shall judge the peoples; Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, And according to my integrity within me. Psalms 7:8
MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!
CHAPTER 10 : Catechism on the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
ALL GOOD WORKS together are not of equal value with the sacrifice of the Mass, because they are the works of men, and the holy Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison; it is the sacrifice that man makes of his life to God; the Mass is the sacrifice that God makes to man of His Body and of His Blood. Oh, how great is a priest! if he understood himself he would die. . . . God obeys him; he speaks two words, and Our Lord comes down from Heaven at his voice, and shuts Himself up in a little Host. God looks upon the altar. "That is My well-beloved Son, " He says, "in whom I am well-pleased. " He can refuse nothing to the merits of the offering of this Victim. If we had faith, we should see God hidden in the priest like a light behind a glass, like wine mingled with water.
After the Consecration, when I hold in my hands the most holy Body of Our Lord, and when I am in discouragement, seeing myself worthy of nothing but Hell, I say to myself, "Ah, if I could at least take Him with me! Hell would be sweet with Him; I could be content to remain suffering there for all eternity, if we were together. But then there would be no more Hell; the flames of love would extinguish those of justice. " How beautiful it is. After the Consecration, the good God is there as He is in Heaven. If man well understood this mystery, he would die of love. God spares us because of our weakness. A priest once, after the Consecration, had some little doubt whether his few words could have made Our Lord descend upon the Altar; at the same moment he saw the Host all red, and the corporal tinged with blood.
If someone said to us, "At such an hour a dead person is to be raised to life, " we should run very quickly to see it. But is not the Consecration, which changes bread and wine into the Body and Blood of God, a much greater miracle than to raise a dead person to life? We ought always to devote at least a quarter of an hour to preparing ourselves to hear Mass well; we ought to annihilate ourselves before God, after the example of His profound annihilation in the Sacrament of the Eucharist; and we should make our examination of conscience, for we must be in a state of grace to be able to assist properly at Mass. If we knew the value of the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, or rather if we had faith, we should be much more zealous to assist at it.
My children, you remember the story I have told you already of that holy priest who was praying for his friend; God had, it appears, made known to him that he was in Purgatory; it came into his mind that he could do nothing better than to offer the holy Sacrifice of the Mass for his soul. When he came to the moment of Consecration, he took the Host in his hands and said, "O Holy and Eternal Father, let us make an exchange. Thou hast the soul of my friend who is in Purgatory, and I have the Body of Thy Son, Who is in my hands; well, do Thou deliver my friend, and I offer Thee Thy Son, with all the merits of His Death and Passion. " In fact, at the moment of the elevation, he saw the soul of his friend rising to Heaven, all radiant with glory. Well, my children, when we want to obtain anything from the good God, let us do the same; after Holy Communion, let us offer Him His well-beloved Son, with all the merits of His death and His Passion. He will not be able to refuse us anything.
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December 22, 2015 - The power of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord supports those who do right. The Lord watches over the lives of the innocent, and their reward will last forever. They will not be ashamed when trouble comes. They will be full in times of hunger. Psalms 37:17-19
CHAPTER 9 : Catechism on the Priesthood
MY CHILDREN, we have come to the Sacrament of Orders. It is a Sacrament which seems to relate to no one among you, and which yet relates to everyone. This Sacrament raises man up to God. What is a priest! A man who holds the place of God - a man who is invested with all the powers of God. "Go, " said Our Lord to the priest; "as My Father sent Me, I send you. All power has been given Me in Heaven and on earth. Go then, teach all nations. . . . He who listens to you, listens to Me; he who despises you despises Me. " When the priest remits sins, he does not say, "God pardons you"; he says, "I absolve you. " At the Consecration, he does not say, "This is the Body of Our Lord;" he says, "This is My Body. "St. Bernard tells us that everything has come to us through Mary; and we may also say that everything has come to us through the priest; yes, all happiness, all graces, all heavenly gifts. If we had not the Sacrament of Orders, we should not have Our Lord. Who placed Him there, in that tabernacle? It was the priest. Who was it that received your soul, on its entrance into life? The priest. Who nourishes it, to give it strength to make its pilgrimage? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, by washing that soul, for the last time, in the blood of Jesus Christ? The priest - always the priest. And if that soul comes to the point of death, who will raise it up, who will restore it to calmness and peace? Again the priest. You cannot recall one single blessing from God without finding, side by side with this recollection, the image of the priest.
Go to confession to the Blessed Virgin, or to an angel; will they absolve you? No. Will they give you the Body and Blood of Our Lord? No. The Holy Virgin cannot make her Divine Son descend into the Host. You might have two hundred angels there, but they could not absolve you. A priest, however simple he may be, can do it; he can say to you, "Go in peace; I pardon you. " Oh, how great is a priest! The priest will not understand the greatness of his office till he is in Heaven. If he understood it on earth, he would die, not of fear, but of love. The other benefits of God would be of no avail to us without the priest. What would be the use of a house full of gold, if you had nobody to open you the door! The priest has the key of the heavenly treasures; it is he who opens the door; he is the steward of the good God, the distributor of His wealth. Without the priest, the Death and Passion of Our Lord would be of no avail. Look at the heathens: what has it availed them that Our Lord has died? Alas! they can have no share in the blessings of Redemption, while they have no priests to apply His Blood to their souls!
The priest is not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you. After God, the priest is everything. Leave a parish twenty years without priests; they will worship beasts. If the missionary Father and I were to go away, you would say, "What can we do in this church? there is no Mass; Our Lord is no longer there: we may as well pray at home. " When people wish to destroy religion, they begin by attacking the priest, because where there is no longer any priest there is no sacrifice, and where there is no longer any sacrifice there is no religion.
When the bell calls you to church, if you were asked, "Where are you going?" you might answer, "I am going to feed my soul. " If someone were to ask you, pointing to the tabernacle, "What is that golden door?" "That is our storehouse, where the true Food of our souls is kept. " "Who has the key? Who lays in the provisions? Who makes ready the feast, and who serves the table?" "The priest. " "And what is the Food?" "The precious Body and Blood of Our Lord. " O God! O God! how Thou hast loved us! See the power of the priest; out of a piece of bread the word of a priest makes a God. It is more than creating the world. . . . Someone said, "Does St. Philomena, then, obey the Curé of Ars?" Indeed, she may well obey him, since God obeys him.
If I were to meet a priest and an angel, I should salute the priest before I saluted the angel. The latter is the friend of God; but the priest holds His place. St. Teresa kissed the ground where a priest had passed. When you see a priest, you should say, "There is he who made me a child of God, and opened Heaven to me by holy Baptism; he who purified me after I had sinned; who gives nourishment to my soul. " At the sight of a church tower, you may say, "What is there in that place?" "The Body of Our Lord. " "Why is He there?" "Because a priest has been there, and has said holy Mass. "
What joy did the Apostles feel after the Resurrection of Our Lord, at seeing the Master whom they had loved so much! The priest must feel the same joy, at seeing Our Lord whom he holds in his hands. Great value is attached to objects which have been laid in the drinking cup of the Blessed Virgin and of the Child Jesus, at Loretto. But the fingers of the priest, that have touched the adorable Flesh of Jesus Christ, that have been plunged into the chalice which contained His Blood, into the pyx where His Body has lain, are they not still more precious? The priesthood is the love of the Heart of Jesus. When you see the priest, think of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
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December 13, 2015 - Even if I walk through a very dark valley, I will not be afraid, because you are with me. Your rod and your shepherd's staff comfort me. Psalms 23:4
CHAPTER 7 : Catechism on the Sanctification of Sunday
YOU LABOR, you labor, my children; but what you earn ruins your body and your soul. If one ask those who work on Sunday, "What have you been doing?" they might answer, "I have been selling my soul to the devil, crucifying Our Lord, and renouncing my Baptism. I am going to Hell; I shall have to weep for all eternity in vain. " When I see people driving carts on Sunday, I think I see them carrying their souls to Hell.
Oh, how mistaken in his calculations is he who labours hard on Sunday, thinking that he will earn more money or do more work! Can two or three shillings ever make up for the harm he does himself by violating the law of the good God? You imagine that everything depends on your working; but there comes an illness, an accident. . . . so little is required! a tempest, a hailstorm, a frost. The good God holds everything in His hand; He can avenge Himself when He will, and as He will; the means are not wanting to Him. Is He not always the strongest? Must not He be the master in the end?
There was once a woman who came to her priest to ask leave to get in her hay on Sunday. "But, " said the priest, "it is not necessary; your hay will run no risk. " The woman insisted, saying, "Then you want me to let my crop be lost?" She herself died that very evening; she was more in danger than her crop of hay. "Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting. " [Jn. 6:27].
What will remain to you of your Sunday work? You leave the earth just as it is; when you go away, you carry nothing with you. Ah! when we are attached to the earth, we are not willing to go! Our first end is to go to God; we are on the earth for no other purpose. My brethren, we should die on Sunday, and rise again on Monday.
Sunday is the property of our good God; it is His own day, the Lord's day. He made all the days of the week: He might have kept them all; He has given you six, and has reserved only the seventh for Himself. What right have you to meddle with what does not belong to you? You know very well that stolen goods never bring any profit. Nor will the day that you steal from Our Lord profit you either. I know two very certain ways of becoming poor: they are working on Sunday and taking other people's property.
CHAPTER 8 : Catechism on Prayer
SEE MY children; the treasure of a Christian is not on the earth, it is in Heaven. Well, our thoughts ought to be where our treasure is. Man has a beautiful office, that of praying and loving. You pray, you love - that is the happiness of man upon the earth. Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When our heart is pure and united to God, we feel within ourselves a joy, a sweetness that inebriates, a light that dazzles us. In this intimate union God and the soul are like two pieces of wax melted together; they cannot be separated. This union of God with His little creature is a most beautiful thing. It is a happiness that we cannot understand.
We have not deserved to pray; but God, in His goodness, has permitted us to speak to Him. Our prayer is an incense which He receives with extreme pleasure. My children, your heart is poor and narrow; but prayer enlarges it, and renders it capable of loving God. Prayer is a foretaste of Heaven, an overflow of paradise. It never leaves us without sweetness. It is like honey descending into the soul and sweetening everything. Troubles melt away before a fervent prayer like snow before the sun. Prayer makes time pass away very quickly, and so pleasantly that one does not perceive how it passes. Do you know, when I was running up and down the country, at the time that almost all the poor priests were ill, I was praying to the good God all along the road. I assure you, the time did not seem long to me.
We see some persons who lose themselves in prayer like a fish in the water, because they are all for God. There is not division in their heart. Oh, how I love those generous souls! St. Francis of Assisi and St. Colette saw Our Lord and spoke to Him as we talk to each other. While we, how often we come to church without knowing what we come for, or what we are going to ask! And yet, when we go to one's house, we know very well what we are going for. Some people seem to say to God, "I am going to say two words to Thee, to get rid of Thee. " I often think that when we come to adore Our Lord, we should obtain all we wish, if we would ask it with very lively faith, and a very pure heart. But, alas! we have no faith, no hope, no desire, no love!
There are two cries in man, the cry of the angel and the cry of the beast. The cry of the angel is prayer; the cry of the beast is sin. Those who do not pray, stoop towards the earth, like a mole trying to make a hole to hide itself in. They are all earthly, all brutish, and think of nothing but temporal things, . . . like that miser who was receiving the last Sacraments the other day; when they gave him a silver crucifix to kiss, he said, "That cross weighs full ten ounces. " If there could be one day without worship, it would no longer be Heaven; and if the poor lost souls, notwithstanding their sufferings, could worship, there would be no more Hell. Alas! they had a heart to love God with, a tongue to bless Him with; that was their destiny. And now they are condemned to curse Him through all eternity. If they could hope that they would once pray only for one minute, they would watch for that minute with such impatience that it would lessen their torments.
"Our Father who art in Heaven!" Oh, how beautiful it is, my children, to have a father in Heaven! "Thy kingdom come. " If I make the good God reign in my heart, He will make me reign with Him in His glory. "Thy will be done. " There is nothing so sweet, and nothing so perfect, as to do the will of God. In order to do things well, we must do them as God wills, in all conformity with His designs. "Give us this day our daily bread. " We are composed of two parts, the soul and the body. We ask the good God to feed our poor body, and He answers by making the earth produce all that is necessary for our support. . . . But we ask Him to feed our soul, which is the best part of ourselves; and the earth is too small to furnish enough to satisfy it; it hungers for God, and nothing but God can satiate it. Therefore the good God thought He did not do too much, in dwelling upon the earth and assuming a body, in order that this Body might become the Food of our souls. "My Flesh, " said Our Lord, "is meat indeed. . . . The bread that I will give is my Flesh, for the life of the world:' The bread of souls is in the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the storehouse of Christians. . . . Oh, how beautiful it is, my children! When the priest presents the Host, and shows it to you, your soul may say, "There is my food. " O my children, we are too happy! . . . We shall never comprehend it till we are in Heaven. What a pity that is!
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December 6, 2015 - The words of the Lord are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. Psalms 12:6
CHAPTER 6 : Catechism on the Prerogatives of the Pure Soul
NOTHING IS so beautiful as a pure soul. If we understood this, we could not lose our purity. The pure soul is disengaged from matter, from earthly things, and from itself. . . . That is why the saints ill-treated their body, that is why they did not grant it what it required, not even to rise five minutes later, to warm themselves, to eat anything that gave them pleasure. . . . For what the body loses the soul gains, and what the body gains the soul loses.
Purity comes from Heaven; we must ask for it from God. If we ask for it, we shall obtain it. We must take great care not to lose it. We must shut our heart against pride, against sensuality, and all the other passions, as one shuts the doors and windows that nobody may be able to get in. What joy is it to the guardian angel to conduct a pure soul! My children, when a soul is pure, all Heaven looks upon it with love! Pure souls will form the circle round Our Lord. The more pure we have been on earth, the nearer we shall be to Him in Heaven. When the heart is pure, it cannot help loving, because it has found the source of love, which is God. "Happy, " says Our Lord, "are the pure in heart, because they shall see God!"
My children, we cannot comprehend the power that a pure soul has over the good God. It is not he who does the will of God, it is God who does his will. Look at Moses, that very pure soul. When God would punish the Jewish people, He said to him: Do not pray for them, because My anger must fall upon this people. Nevertheless, Moses prayed, and God spared His people; He let Himself be entreated; He could not resist the prayer of that pure soul. O my children, a soul that has never been stained by that accursed sin obtains from God whatever it wishes!
Three things are wanted to preserve purity - the presence of God, prayer, and the Sacraments. Another means is the reading of holy books, which nourishes the soul. How beautiful is a pure soul! Our Lord showed one to St. Catherine; she thought it so beautiful that she said, "O Lord, if I did not know that there is only one God, I should think it was one. " The image of God is reflected in a pure soul, like the sun in the water. A pure soul is the admiration of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. The Father contemplates His work: There is My creature! . . . The Son, the price of His Blood: the beauty of an object is shown by the price it has cost. . . . The Holy Spirit dwells in it, as in a temple.
We also know the value of our soul by the efforts the devil makes to ruin it. Hell is leagued against it - Heaven for it. Oh, how great it must be! In order to have an idea of our dignity, we must often think of Heaven, Calvary, and Hell. If we could understand what it is to be the child of God, we could not do evil - we should be like angels on earth. To be children of God, oh, what a dignity!
It is a beautiful thing to have a heart, and, little as it is, to be able to make use of it in loving God. How shameful it is that man should descend so low, when God has placed him so high! When the angels had revolted against God, this God who is so good, seeing that they could no longer enjoy the happiness for which He had created them, made man, and this little world that we see to nourish his body. But his soul required to be nourished also; and as nothing created can feed the soul, which is a spirit, God willed to give Himself for its Food. But the great misfortune is that we neglect to have recourse to this divine Food, in crossing the desert of this life. Like people who die of hunger within sight of a well-provided table, there are some who remain fifty, sixty years, without feeding their souls.
Oh, if Christians could understand the language of Our Lord, who says to them, "Notwithstanding thy misery, I wish to see near Me that beautiful soul which I created for Myself. I made it so great, that nothing can fill it but Myself. I made it so pure, that nothing but My Body can nourish it. "
Our Lord has always distinguished Pure souls. Look at St. John, the well-beloved disciple, who reposed upon His breast. St. Catherine was pure, and she was often transported into Paradise. When she died, angels took up her body, and carried it to Mount Sinai, where Moses had received the Commandments of the law. God has shown by this prodigy that a soul is so agreeable to Him, that it deserves that even the body which has participated in its purity should be buried by angels.
God contemplates a pure soul with love; He grants it all it desires. How could He refuse anything to a soul that lives only for Him, by Him, and in Him? It seeks God, and He shows Himself to it; it calls Him, and God comes; it is one with Him; it captivates His will. A pure soul is all-powerful with the gracious Heart of Our Lord. A pure soul with God is like a child with its mother. It caresses her, it embraces her, and its mother returns its caresses and embraces.
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November 29, 2015 - The soverign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. For the director of music. On my stringed instruments. Habakkuk 3:19
CHAPTER 5 : Catechism on The Word of God
MY CHILDREN, the Word of God is of no little importance! These were Our Lord's first words to His Apostles: "Go and teach" . . to show us that instruction is before everything.
My children, what has taught us our religion? The instructions we have heard. What gives us a horror of sin? What makes us alive to the beauty of virtue, inspires us with the desire of Heaven? Instructions. What teaches fathers and mothers the duties they have to fulfil towards their children and children the duties they have to fulfil towards their parents? Instructions.
My children, why are people so blind and so ignorant? Because they make so little account of the Word of God. There are some who do not even say a Pater and an Ave to beg of the good God the grace to listen to it attentively, and to profit well by it. I believe, my children, that a person who does not hear the Word of God as he ought, will not be saved; he will not know what to do to be saved. But with a well-instructed person there is always some resource. He may wander in all sorts of evil ways; there is still hope that he will return sooner or later to the good God, even if it were only at the hour of death. Instead of which a person who has never been instructed is like a sick person - like one in his agony who is no longer conscious: he knows neither the greatness of sin nor the value of virtue; he drags himself from sin to sin, like a rag that is dragged in the mud.
See, my children, the esteem in which Our Lord holds the Word of God; to the woman who cries, "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps that gave Thee suck!" He answers, "Yea, rather blessed are they who hear the Word of God and keep it!" Our Lord, who is Truth itself, puts no less value on His Word than on His Body. I do not know whether it is worse to have distractions during Mass than during the instructions; I see no difference. During Mass we lose the merits of the Death and Passion of Our Lord, and during the instructions we lose His Word, which is Himself. St. Augustine says that it is as bad as to take the chalice after the Consecration and to trample it underfoot.
My children, you make a scruple of missing holy Mass, because you commit a great sin in missing it by your own fault; but you have no scruple in missing an instruction. You never consider that in this way you may greatly offend God. At the Day of Judgment, when you will all be there around me, and the good God will say to you, "Give Me an account of the instructions and the catechisms which you have heard and which you might have heard, " you will think very differently.
My children, you go out during the instructions, you amuse yourselves with laughing, you do not listen, you think yourselves too clever to come to the catechism . . . do you think, my children, that things will be allowed to go on so? Oh no, certainly not! God will arrange matters very differently. How sad it is! We see fathers and mothers stay outside during the instruction; yet they are under obligation to instruct their children; but how can they teach them? They are not instructed themselves. . . . All this leads straight to Hell. . . . It is a pity!
My children, I have remarked that there is no moment when people are more inclined to sleep than during the instructions. . . . You will say, I am so very sleepy. . . . If I were to take up a fiddle, nobody would think of sleeping; everybody would be roused, everybody would be on the alert. My children, you listen when you like the preacher; but if the preacher does not suit you, you turn him into ridicule. . . . We must not think so much about the man. It is not the body that we must attend to. Whatever the priest may be, he is still the instrument that the good God makes use of to distribute His holy Word. You pour liquor through a funnel; whether it be made of gold or of copper, if the liquor is good it will still be good.
There are some who go about repeating everywhere, "Priests say just what they please. " No, my children, priests do not say what they please; they say what is in the Gospel. The priests who came before us said what we say; those who shall come after us will say the same thing. If we were to say things that are not true, the Bishop would very soon forbid us to preach. We say only what Our Lord has taught.
My children, I will give you an example of what it is not to believe what priests tell you. There were two soldiers passing through a place where a mission was being given; one of the soldiers proposed to his comrade to go and hear the sermon, and they went. The missionary preached upon Hell. "Do you believe all that this priest says?" asked the least wicked of the two. "Oh, no!" replied the other, "I believe it is all nonsense, invented to frighten people. " "Well, for my part, I believe it; and to prove to you that I believe it, I shall give up being a soldier, and go into a convent. " "Go where you please; I shall continue my journey. " But while he was on his journey, he fell ill and died. The other, who was in the convent, heard of his death, and began to pray that God would show him in what state his companion had died. One day, as he was praying, his companion appeared to him; he recognised him, and asked him, "Where are you?" "In Hell; I am lost!" "O wretched man! do you now believe what the missionary said?" "Yes, I believe it. Missionaries are wrong only in one respect; they do not tell you a hundredth part of what is suffered here. "
My children, I often think that most of the Christians who are lost for want of instruction - they do not know their religion well. For example, here is a person who has to go and do his day's work. This person has a desire to do great penances, to pass half the night in prayer; if he is well instructed, he will say, "No, I must not do that, because then I could not fulfil my duty tomorrow; I should be sleepy, and the least thing would put me out of patience; I should be weary all the day, and I should not do half as much work as if I had rested at night; that must not be done. "
Again, my children, a servant may have a desire to fast, but he is obliged to pass the whole day in digging and ploughing, or whatever you please. Well, if this servant is well instructed, he will think, "But if I do this, I shall not be able to satisfy my master. " Well, what will he do? He will eat his breakfast, and mortify himself in some other way. That is what we must do - we must always act in the way that will give most glory to the good God.
A person knows that another is in distress, and takes from his parents what will relieve that distress. He would certainly do much better to ask than to take it. If his parents refuse to give it, he will pray to God to inspire a rich person to give the alms instead of him. A well-instructed person always has two guides leading the way before him - good counsel and obedience.
November 22, 2015 - They are blessed who are persecuted for doing good, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. Matthew 5:10-12
CHAPTER 4 : Catechism on the Blessed Virgin
THE FATHER takes pleasure in looking upon the heart of the most Holy Virgin Mary, as the masterpiece of His hands; for we always like our own work, especially when it is well done. The Son takes pleasure in it as the heart of His Mother, the source from which He drew the Blood that has ransomed us; the Holy Ghost as His temple. The Prophets published the glory of Mary before her birth; they compared her to the sun. Indeed, the apparition of the Holy Virgin may well be compared to a beautiful gleam of sun on a foggy day.
Before her coming, the anger of God was hanging over our heads like a sword ready to strike us. As soon as the Holy Virgin appeared upon the earth, His anger was appeased. . . . She did not know that she was to be the Mother of God, and when she was a little child she used to say, "When shall I then see that beautiful creature who is to be the Mother of God?" The Holy Virgin has brought us forth twice, in the Incarnation and at the foot of the Cross; she is then doubly our Mother. The Holy Virgin is often compared to a mother, but she is much better still than the best of mothers; for the best of mothers sometimes punishes her child when it displeases her, and even beats it: she thinks she is doing right. But the Holy Virgin does not so; she is so good that she treats us with love, and never punishes us.
The heart of this good Mother is all love and mercy; she desires only to see us happy. We have only to turn to her to be heard. The Son has His justice, the Mother has nothing but her love. God has loved us so much as to die for us; but in the heart of Our Lord there is justice, which is an attribute of God; in that of the most Holy Virgin there is nothing but mercy. Her Son being ready to punish a sinner, Mary interposes, checks the sword, implores pardon for the poor criminal. "Mother, " Our Lord says to her, "I can refuse you nothing. If Hell could repent, you would obtain its pardon. "
The most Holy Virgin places herself between her Son and us. The greater sinners we are, the more tenderness and compassion does she feel for us. The child that has cost its mother most tears is the dearest to her heart. Does not a mother always run to the help of the weakest and the most exposed to danger? Is not a physician in the hospital most attentive to those who are most seriously ill? The Heart of Mary is so tender towards us, that those of all the mothers in the world put together are like a piece of ice in comparison to hers. See how good the Holy Virgin is! Her great servant St. Bernard used often to say to her, "I salute thee, Mary. " One day this good Mother answered him, "I salute thee, my son Bernard. "
The Ave Maria is a prayer that is never wearisome. The devotion to the Holy Virgin is delicious, sweet, nourishing. When we talk on earthly subjects or politics, we grow weary; but when we talk of the Holy Virgin, it is always new. All the saints have a great devotion to Our Lady; no grace comes from Heaven without passing through her hands. We cannot go into a house without speaking to the porter; well, the Holy Virgin is the portress of Heaven.
When we have to offer anything to a great personage, we get it presented by the person he likes best, in order that the homage may be agreeable to him. So our prayers have quite a different sort of merit when they are presented by the Blessed Virgin, because she is the only creature who has never offended God. The Blessed Virgin alone has fulfilled the first Commandment - to adore God only, and love Him perfectly. She fulfilled it completely.
All that the Son asks of the Father is granted Him. All that the Mother asks of the Son is in like manner granted to her. When we have handled something fragrant, our hands perfume whatever they touch: let our prayers pass through the hands of the Holy Virgin; she will perfume them. I think that at the end of the world the Blessed Virgin will be very tranquil; but while the world lasts, we drag her in all directions. . . . The Holy Virgin is like a mother who has a great many children - she is continually occupied in going from one to the other.
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November 15, 2015 - This is what the Lord says: "Stand where the roads cross and look. Ask where the old way is, where the good way is, and walk on it. If you do, you will find rest for yourselves. But they have said, 'We will not walk on the good way.'" Jeremiah 6:16
I just finished reading a simplified version of a spiritual diary written by Elizabeth Kindelmann. In it she is told to write down certain things Jesus and Mary say to her, particularly about the Flame of Love. What struck me is something we can all do right now. In November of 1965 Our Lady said, “If at any moment, someone prays three Hail Mary’s in my honor, while referring to the Flame of Love, they will free a soul from purgatory. During November, one Hail Mary will free ten souls.”
So think about it, if we say a rosary each day and on the Hail Mary’s we refer to the Flame of Love 530 souls will be freed each day. Mary was specific on the reference to the Flame of Love. Say this special prayer, “Spread the effect of grace of Thy Flame of Love over all of humanity”, and say it in the Hail Mary following “pray for us sinners.”
Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed are thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary mother of God pray for us sinners
Spread the effect of grace of Thy Flame of Love over all of humanity
now and at the hour of my death. Amen.
Thanks you just freed 10 souls. Ask them to now pray for you.
CHAPTER 3 : Catechism on The Holy Spirit
O my CHILDREN, how beautiful it is! The Father is our Creator, the Son is our Redeemer, and the Holy Ghost is our Guide. . . . Man by himself is nothing, but with the Holy Spirit he is very great. Man is all earthly and all animal; nothing but the Holy Spirit can elevate his mind, and raise it on high. Why were the saints so detached from the earth? Because they let themselves be led by the Holy Spirit. Those who are led by the Holy Spirit have true ideas; that is the reason why so many ignorant people are wiser than the learned. When we are led by a God of strength and light, we cannot go astray.
The Holy Spirit is light and strength. He teaches us to distinguish between truth and falsehood, and between good and evil. Like glasses that magnify objects, the Holy Spirit shows us good and evil on a large scale. With the Holy Spirit we see everything in its true proportions; we see the greatness of the least actions done for God, and the greatness of the least faults. As a watchmaker with his glasses distinguishes the most minute wheels of a watch, so we, with the light of the Holy Ghost, distinguish all the details of our poor life. Then the smallest imperfections appear very great, the least sins inspire us with horror. That is the reason why the most Holy Virgin never sinned. The Holy Ghost made her understand the hideousness of sin; she shuddered with terror at the least fault.
Those who have the Holy Spirit cannot endure themselves, so well do they know their poor misery. The proud are those who have not the Holy Spirit.
Worldly people have not the Holy Spirit, or if they have, it is only for a moment. He does not remain with them; the noise of the world drives Him away. A Christian who is led by the Holy Spirit has no difficulty in leaving the goods of this world, to run after those of Heaven; he knows the difference between them. The eyes of the world see no further than this life, as mine see no further than this wall when the church door is shut. The eyes of the Christian see deep into eternity. To the man who gives himself up to the guidance of the Holy Ghost, there seems to be no world; to the world there seems to be no God. . . . We must therefore find out by whom we are led. If it is not by the Holy Ghost, we labor in vain; there is no substance nor savour in anything we do. If it is by the Holy Ghost, we taste a delicious sweetness . . . it is enough to make us die of pleasure!
Those who are led by the Holy Spirit experience all sorts of happiness in themselves, while bad Christians roll themselves on thorns and flints. A soul in which the Holy Spirit dwells is never weary in the presence of God; his heart gives forth a breath of love. Without the Holy Ghost we are like the stones on the road. . . . Take in one hand a sponge full of water, and in the other a little pebble; press them equally. Nothing will come out of the pebble, but out of the sponge will come abundance of water. The sponge is the soul filled with the Holy Spirit, and the stone is the cold and hard heart which is not inhabited by the Holy Spirit.
A soul that possesses the Holy Spirit tastes such sweetness in prayer, that it finds the time always too short; it never loses the holy presence of God. Such a heart, before our good Saviour in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, is a bunch of grapes under the wine press. The Holy Spirit forms thoughts and suggests words in the hearts of the just. . . . Those who have the Holy Spirit produce nothing bad; all the fruits of the Holy Spirit are good. Without the Holy Spirit all is cold; therefore, when we feel we are losing our fervour, we must instantly make a novena to the Holy Spirit to ask for faith and love. . . . See, when we have made a retreat or a jubilee, we are full of good desires: these good desires are the breath of the Holy Ghost, which has passed over our souls, and has renewed everything, like the warm wind which melts the ice and brings back the spring. . . . You who are not great saints, you still have many moments when you taste the sweetness of prayer and of the presence of God: these are visits of the Holy Spirit. When we have the Holy Spirit, the heart expands - bathes itself in divine love. A fish never complains of having too much water, neither does a good Christian ever complain of being too long with the good God. There are some people who find religion wearisome, and it is because they have not the Holy Spirit.
If the damned were asked: Why are you in Hell? they would answer: For having resisted the Holy Spirit. And if the saints were asked, Why are you in Heaven? they would answer: For having listened to the Holy Spirit. When good thoughts come into our minds, it is the Holy Spirit who is visiting us. The Holy Spirit is a power. The Holy Spirit supported St. Simeon on his column; He sustained the martyrs. Without the Holy Spirit, the martyrs would have fallen like the leaves from the trees. When the fires were lighted under them, the Holy Spirit extinguished the heat of the fire by the heat of divine love. The good God, in sending us the Holy Spirit, has treated us like a great king who should send his minister to guide one of his subjects, saying, "You will accompany this man everywhere, and you will bring him back to me safe and sound. " How beautiful it is, my children, to be accompanied by the Holy Spirit! He is indeed a good Guide; and to think that there are some who will not follow Him. The Holy Spirit is like a man with a carriage and horse, who should want to take us to Pans. We should only have to say "yes, " and to get into it. It is indeed an easy matter to say "yes"!. . . Well, the Holy Spirit wants to take us to Heaven; we have only to say "yes, " and to let Him take us there.
The Holy Spirit is like a gardener cultivating our souls. . . . The Holy Spirit is our servant. . . . There is a gun; well you load it, but someone must fire it and make it go off. . . . In the same way, we have in ourselves the power of doing good. . . when the Holy Spirit gives the impulse, good works are produced. The Holy Spirit reposes in just souls like the dove in her nest. He brings out good desires in a pure soul, as the dove hatches her young ones. The Holy Spirit leads us as a mother leads by the hand her child of two years old, as a person who can see leads one who is blind.
The Sacraments which Our Lord instituted would not have saved us without the Holy Spirit. Even the death of Our Lord would have been useless to us without Him. Therefore Our Lord said to His Apostles, "It is good for you that I should go away; for if I did not go, the Consoler would not come. " The descent of the Holy Ghost was required, to render fruitful that harvest of graces. It is like a grain of wheat - you cast it into the ground; yes, but it must have sun and rain to make it grow and come into ear. We should say every morning, "O God, send me Thy Spirit to teach me what I am and what Thou art. "
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November 8, 2015 - They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. 2 Samuel 22:19
CHAPTER 2 : Catechism on The Love of God
OUR BODY is a vessel of corruption; it is meant for death and for the worms, nothing morel And yet we devote ourselves to satisfying it, rather than to enriching our soul, which is so great that we can conceive nothing greater - no, nothing, nothing! For we see that God, urged by the ardour of His charity, would not create us like the animals; He has created us in His own image and likeness, do you see? Oh, how great is man?
Man, being created by love, cannot live without love: either he loves God, or he loves himself and he loves the world. See, my children, it is faith that we want. . . . When we have not faith, we are blind. He who does not see, does not know; he who does not know does not love; he who does not love God loves himself, and at the same time loves his pleasures. He fixes his heart on things which pass away like smoke. He cannot know the truth, nor any good thing; he can know nothing but falsehood, because he has no light; he is in a mist. If he had light, he would see plainly that all that he loves can give him nothing but eternal death; it is a foretaste of Hell.
Do you see, my children, except God, nothing is solid - nothing, nothing! If it is life, it passes away; if it is a fortune, it crumbles away; if it is health, it is destroyed; if it is reputation, it is attacked. We are scattered like the wind. . . . Everything is passing away full speed, everything is going to ruin. O God! O God! how much those are to be pitied, then, who set their hearts on all these things! They set their hearts on them because they love themselves too much; but they do not love themselves with a reasonable love - they love themselves with a love that seeks themselves and the world, that seeks creatures more than God. That is the reason why they are never satisfied, never quiet; they are always uneasy, always tormented, always upset. See, my children, the good Christian runs his course in this world mounted on a fine triumphal chariot; this chariot is borne by angels, and conducted by Our Lord Himself, while the poor sinner is harnessed to the chariot of this life, and the devil who drives it forces him to go on with great strokes of the whip.
My children, the three acts of faith, hope and charity contain all the happiness of man upon the earth. By faith, we believe what God has promised us: we believe that we shall one day see Him, that we shall possess Him, that we shall be eternally happy with Him in Heaven. By hope, we expect the fulfilment of these promises: we hope that we shall be rewarded for all our good actions, for all our good thoughts, for all our good desires; for God takes into account even our good desires. What more do we want to make us happy?
In Heaven, faith and hope will exist no more, for the mist which obscures our reason will be dispelled; our mind will be able to understand the things that are hidden from it here below. We shall no longer hope for anything, because we shall have everything. We do not hope to acquire a treasure which we already possess. . . . But love; oh, we shall be inebriated with it! we shall be drowned, lost in that ocean of divine love, annihilated in that immense charity of the Heart of Jesus! so that charity is a foretaste of Heaven. Oh, how happy should we be if we knew how to understand it, to feel it, to taste it! What makes us unhappy is that we do not love God.
When we say, "My God, I believe, I believe firmly, " that is, without the least doubt, without the least hesitation. . . Oh, if we were penetrated with these words: "I firmly believe that Thou art present everywhere, that Thou seest me, that I am under Thine eyes, that one day I myself shall see Thee clearly, that I shall enjoy all the good things Thou hast promised me! O my God, I hope that Thou wilt reward me for all that I have done to please Thee! O my God, I love Thee; my heart is made to love Thee!" Oh, this act of faith, which is also an act of love, would suffice for everything! If we understood our own happiness in I being able to love God, we should remain motionless in ecstasy. . . .
If a prince, an emperor, were to cause one of his subjects to appear before him, and should say to him, "I wish to make you happy; stay with me, enjoy all my possessions, but be careful not to give me any just cause of displeasure, " with what care, with what ardour, would not that subject endeavour to satisfy his prince! Well, God makes the same proposals to us . . . and we do not care for His friendship, we make no account of His promises. . . . What a pity!
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November 1, 2015 - Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:4
PART 1 : INSTRUCTIONS ON THE CATECHISM
CHAPTER 1 : Catechism on Salvation
There are many Christians who do not even know why they are in the world. "Oh my God, why hast Thou sent me into the world?" "To save your soul. " "And why dost Thou wish me to be saved?" "Because I love you. " The good God has created us and sent us into the world because He loves us; He wishes to save us because He loves us. . . . To be saved, we must know, love and serve God. Oh, what a beautiful life! How good, how great a thing it is to know, to love and serve God! We have nothing else to do in this world. All that we do besides is lost time. We must act only for God, and put our works into His hands. . . . We should say, on awaking, "I desire to do everything today for Thee, O my God! I will submit to all that Thou shalt send me, as coming from Thee. I offer myself as a sacrifice to Thee But, O God, I can do nothing without Thee. Do Thou help me!"
Oh, how bitterly shall we regret at the hour of death the time we have given to pleasures, to useless conversations, to repose, instead of having employed it in mortification, in prayer, in good works, in thinking of our poor misery, in weeping over our poor sins; then we shall see that we have done nothing for Heaven. Oh, my children, how sad it is! Three-quarters of those who are Christians labor for nothing but to satisfy this body, which will soon be buried and corrupted, while they do not give a thought to their poor soul, which must be happy or miserable for all eternity. They have neither sense nor reason: it makes one tremble.
Look at that man, who is so active and restless, who makes a noise in the world, who wants to govern everybody, who thinks himself of consequence, who seems as if he would like to say to the sun, "Go away, and let me enlighten the world instead of you." Some day this proud man will be reduced at the utmost to a little handful of dust, which will be swept away from river to river, from Saone to Saone, and at last into the sea.
See my children, I often think that we are like those little heaps of sand that the wind raises on the road, which whirl round for a moment, and are scattered directly. . . . We have brothers and sisters who are dead. Well, they are reduced to that little handful of dust of which I was speaking. Worldly people say, it is too difficult to save one's soul. Yet nothing is easier. To observe the Commandments of God and the Church, and to avoid the seven capital sins; or if you like to put it so, to do good and avoid evil: that is all. Good Christians, who labor to save their souls and to work out their salvation, are always happy and contented; they enjoy beforehand the happiness of Heaven: they will be happy for all eternity. While bad Christians, who lose their souls, are always to be pitied; they murmur, they are sad, they are as miserable as stones; and they will be so for all eternity. See what a difference!
This is a good rule of conduct, to do nothing but what we can offer to the good God. Now, we cannot offer to Him slanders, calumnies, injustice, anger, blasphemy, impurity, theatres, dancing; yet that is all that people do in the world. Speaking of dances, St. Francis of Sales used to say that "they were like mushrooms, the best were good for nothing. " Mothers are apt to say indeed, "Oh, I watch over my daughters. " They watch over their attire, but they cannot watch over their hearts. Those who have dances in their houses load themselves with a terrible responsibility before God; they are answerable for all the evil that is done - for the bad thoughts, the slanders, the jealousies, the hatred, the revenge. . . . Ah, if they well understood this responsibility they would never have any dances. Just like those who make bad pictures and statues, or write bad books, they will have to answer for all the harm that these things will do during all the time they last. . . . Oh that makes one tremble!
See, my children, we must reflect that we have a soul to save, and an eternity that awaits us. The world, its riches, pleasures, and honours will pass away. Let us take care, then. The saints did not all begin well; but they all ended well. We have begun badly; let us end well, and we shall go one day and meet them in Heaven.
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October 25, 2015 -
To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. Ecclesiastes 2:25-26
"In the morning, we must do like the little child in its cradle. The moment it opens its eyes, it looks round the house for its mother. When it sees her, it begins to smile; if it does not see her, it cries. " Speaking of the priest, he made use of this touching simile:
"The priest is like a mother to you, like a nurse to a child of a few months old. She feeds it - it has only to open its mouth. The mother says to her child, 'Here my little one, eat. ' The priest says to you, 'Take and eat; this is the Body of Jesus Christ. May it keep you, and lead you to life eternal. ' Oh, beautiful words! 'A child struggles against anyone who keeps it back; it opens its little mouth, and stretches out its little arms to embrace her. Your soul, in the presence of the priest, naturally springs towards him; it runs to meet him; but it is held back by the bonds of the flesh, in men who give everything to the senses, who live only for their body.
"Our soul is swathed in our body, like a baby in its swaddling - clothes; we can see nothing but its face. " Everyone will be struck with the truth and aptitude of this last simile. Besides these touching comparisons, some of M. Vianney's were original and energetic. To exalt the benefits of the Sacrament of Penance, he made use of metaphors and parables: "A furious wolf once came into our country, devouring everything. Finding on his way a child of two years old, he seized it in his mouth, and carried it off; but some men, who were pruning a vineyard, ran to attack him, and snatched his prey from him. It is thus that the Sacrament of Penance snatches us from the claws of the devil. "
When he had to draw a parallel between Christians and worldly people, he said, "I think none so much to be pitied as those poor worldly people. They wear a cloak lined with thorns - they cannot move without pricking themselves; while good Christians have a cloak lined with soft fur. The good Christian sets no value on the goods of this world. He escapes from them like a rat out of the water.
"Unhappily, our hearts are not sufficiently pure and free from all earthly affections. If you take a very clean and very dry sponge, and soak it in water, it will be filled to overflowing; but if it is not dry and clean, it will take up nothing. In like manner, when the heart is not free and disengaged from the things of the earth, it is in vain that we steep it in prayer; it will absorb nothing.
"The heart of the wicked swarms with sins like an anthill with ants. It is like a piece of bad meat full of worms. When we abandon ourselves to our passions, we interweave thorns around our heart. We are like moles a week old; no sooner do we see the light, than we bury ourselves in the ground. The devil amuses us till the last moment, as a poor man is kept amused while the soldiers are coming to take him. When they come, he cries and struggles in vain, for they will not release him.
"When men die, they are often like a very rusty bar of iron, that must be put into the fire. Poor sinners are stupefied like snakes in winter. The slanderer is like the snail, which crawling over flowers, leaves its slime upon them and defiles them. What would you say of a man who should plough his neighbour's field, and leave his own uncultivated? Well, that is what you do. You are always at work on the consciences of others, and you leave your own untilled. Oh, when death comes, how we shall regret having thought so much of others, and so little of ourselves; for we shall have to give an account of ourselves, and not of others! Let us think of ourselves, of our own conscience, which we ought always to examine, as we examine our hands to see if they are clean.
"We always have two secretaries: the devil, who writes down our bad actions, to accuse us of them; and our good angel, who writes down our good ones, to justify us at the Day of Judgment. When all our actions shall be brought before us, how few will be pleasing to God, even among the best of them! So many imperfections, so many thoughts of self-love, human satisfactions, sensual pleasures, self-complacency, will be found mingled with them all! They appear good, but it is only appearance, like those fruits which seem yellow and ripe because they have been pierced by insects. "
We see by these fragments that M. Vianney was one of those contemplatives who do not disdain to soften the austerity of their ideas by simple graces of expression, whether out of compassionate kindness to their disciples, or from the natural attraction felt by those who are good for what is beautiful. He found in beautiful creatures Him who is supremely beautiful; he disdained not the least of them. At peace with all things, and having returned in a manner to the primitive innocence and condition of Eden, when Adam beheld creatures in the divine light, and loved them with fraternal charity, his heart overflowed with love, not only for men, but also for all beings visible and invisible. His words breathed an affectionate sympathy for the whole of creation, which no doubt appeared to him in its original dignity and purity. He looked upon it as a sister, who expressed the same thoughts and the same love as himself in another manner. This is shown in his apostrophe to the little birds. Where other eyes perceived nothing but perishable beauties, he discovered, as with a sort of second sight, the holy harmony and the eternal relations which connect the physical with the moral order - the mysteries of nature with those of faith. He did the same in the region of history. Ages, events, and men were to him only symbols and allegories, prophecies and their accomplishment. \ Nothing could be more beautiful, touching, and pathetic, than the application that he made of the legend of St. Alexis to the Real Presence of Our Lord. At the moment when the mother of St. Alexis recognises her son in the lifeless body of the beggar, who has lived thirty years under the staircase of her palace, she cries out, "O my son, why have I known thee so late?" . . The soul, on quitting this life, will see Him whom it possessed in the Holy Eucharist; and at the sight of the consolations, of the beauty, of the riches that it failed to recognize, it also will cry out, "O Jesus! O my God! why have I known Thee so late.
The Curé of Ars sometimes made edifying reflections on recent events and circumstances which had made an impression upon himself; and, though he did it with reserve, we have in this way gained some valuable information, which would otherwise have been lost. "Because Our Lord does not show Himself in the most Holy Sacrament in all His majesty you behave without respect in His Presence; but, nevertheless, He Himself is there He is in the midst of you. . . . So, when that good bishop was here the other day, everybody was pushing against him . . . Ah, if they had known he was a bishop! . . .
"We give our youth to the devil, and the remains of our life to the Good God, who is so good that He deigns to be content with even that. . . but, happily, everyone does not do so. A great lady has been here, of one of the first families in France; she went away this morning. She is scarcely three-and-twenty, and she is rich - very rich indeed. . . . She has offered herself in sacrifice to the good God for the expiation of sins, and for the conversion of sinners. She wears a girdle all armed with iron points; she mortifies herself in a thousand ways; and her parents know nothing of it. She is white as a sheet of paper. Hers is a beautiful soul, very pleasing to the good God, such as are still to be found now and then in the world, and they prevent the world from coming to an end.
"One day, two Protestant ministers came here, who did not believe in the Real Presence of Our Lord. I said to them, 'Do you think that a piece of bread could detach itself, and go, of its own accord, to place itself on the tongue of a person who came near to receive it?' 'No. ' 'Then it is not bread. ' There was a man who had doubts about the Real Presence, and he said, 'What do we know about it? It is not certain. What is consecration? What happens on the altar at that moment?' But he wished to believe, and he prayed the Blessed Virgin to obtain faith for him. Listen attentively to this. I do not say that this happened somewhere, but I say that it happened to myself. At the moment when this man came up to receive Holy Communion, the Sacred Host detached Itself from my fingers while I was still a good way Off, and went off Itself and placed Itself upon the tongue of that man. "
We will not undertake to give a consecutive view of the teaching of the Curé of Ars. There was indeed a sort of connection between the parts of it, but it would be impossible to describe the sudden inspirations that burst forth and ran through it like rays of light. His Catechisms in general defied analysis; and we should be afraid of disfiguring them by reducing them to the formality of a theological system. We shall therefore confine ourselves to offering to our readers an abridgment of some of the most remarkable discourses.
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"In the morning, we must do like the little child in its cradle. The moment it opens its eyes, it looks round the house for its mother. When it sees her, it begins to smile; if it does not see her, it cries. " Speaking of the priest, he made use of this touching simile:
"The priest is like a mother to you, like a nurse to a child of a few months old. She feeds it - it has only to open its mouth. The mother says to her child, 'Here my little one, eat. ' The priest says to you, 'Take and eat; this is the Body of Jesus Christ. May it keep you, and lead you to life eternal. ' Oh, beautiful words! 'A child struggles against anyone who keeps it back; it opens its little mouth, and stretches out its little arms to embrace her. Your soul, in the presence of the priest, naturally springs towards him; it runs to meet him; but it is held back by the bonds of the flesh, in men who give everything to the senses, who live only for their body.
"Our soul is swathed in our body, like a baby in its swaddling - clothes; we can see nothing but its face. " Everyone will be struck with the truth and aptitude of this last simile. Besides these touching comparisons, some of M. Vianney's were original and energetic. To exalt the benefits of the Sacrament of Penance, he made use of metaphors and parables: "A furious wolf once came into our country, devouring everything. Finding on his way a child of two years old, he seized it in his mouth, and carried it off; but some men, who were pruning a vineyard, ran to attack him, and snatched his prey from him. It is thus that the Sacrament of Penance snatches us from the claws of the devil. "
When he had to draw a parallel between Christians and worldly people, he said, "I think none so much to be pitied as those poor worldly people. They wear a cloak lined with thorns - they cannot move without pricking themselves; while good Christians have a cloak lined with soft fur. The good Christian sets no value on the goods of this world. He escapes from them like a rat out of the water.
"Unhappily, our hearts are not sufficiently pure and free from all earthly affections. If you take a very clean and very dry sponge, and soak it in water, it will be filled to overflowing; but if it is not dry and clean, it will take up nothing. In like manner, when the heart is not free and disengaged from the things of the earth, it is in vain that we steep it in prayer; it will absorb nothing.
"The heart of the wicked swarms with sins like an anthill with ants. It is like a piece of bad meat full of worms. When we abandon ourselves to our passions, we interweave thorns around our heart. We are like moles a week old; no sooner do we see the light, than we bury ourselves in the ground. The devil amuses us till the last moment, as a poor man is kept amused while the soldiers are coming to take him. When they come, he cries and struggles in vain, for they will not release him.
"When men die, they are often like a very rusty bar of iron, that must be put into the fire. Poor sinners are stupefied like snakes in winter. The slanderer is like the snail, which crawling over flowers, leaves its slime upon them and defiles them. What would you say of a man who should plough his neighbour's field, and leave his own uncultivated? Well, that is what you do. You are always at work on the consciences of others, and you leave your own untilled. Oh, when death comes, how we shall regret having thought so much of others, and so little of ourselves; for we shall have to give an account of ourselves, and not of others! Let us think of ourselves, of our own conscience, which we ought always to examine, as we examine our hands to see if they are clean.
"We always have two secretaries: the devil, who writes down our bad actions, to accuse us of them; and our good angel, who writes down our good ones, to justify us at the Day of Judgment. When all our actions shall be brought before us, how few will be pleasing to God, even among the best of them! So many imperfections, so many thoughts of self-love, human satisfactions, sensual pleasures, self-complacency, will be found mingled with them all! They appear good, but it is only appearance, like those fruits which seem yellow and ripe because they have been pierced by insects. "
We see by these fragments that M. Vianney was one of those contemplatives who do not disdain to soften the austerity of their ideas by simple graces of expression, whether out of compassionate kindness to their disciples, or from the natural attraction felt by those who are good for what is beautiful. He found in beautiful creatures Him who is supremely beautiful; he disdained not the least of them. At peace with all things, and having returned in a manner to the primitive innocence and condition of Eden, when Adam beheld creatures in the divine light, and loved them with fraternal charity, his heart overflowed with love, not only for men, but also for all beings visible and invisible. His words breathed an affectionate sympathy for the whole of creation, which no doubt appeared to him in its original dignity and purity. He looked upon it as a sister, who expressed the same thoughts and the same love as himself in another manner. This is shown in his apostrophe to the little birds. Where other eyes perceived nothing but perishable beauties, he discovered, as with a sort of second sight, the holy harmony and the eternal relations which connect the physical with the moral order - the mysteries of nature with those of faith. He did the same in the region of history. Ages, events, and men were to him only symbols and allegories, prophecies and their accomplishment. \ Nothing could be more beautiful, touching, and pathetic, than the application that he made of the legend of St. Alexis to the Real Presence of Our Lord. At the moment when the mother of St. Alexis recognises her son in the lifeless body of the beggar, who has lived thirty years under the staircase of her palace, she cries out, "O my son, why have I known thee so late?" . . The soul, on quitting this life, will see Him whom it possessed in the Holy Eucharist; and at the sight of the consolations, of the beauty, of the riches that it failed to recognize, it also will cry out, "O Jesus! O my God! why have I known Thee so late.
The Curé of Ars sometimes made edifying reflections on recent events and circumstances which had made an impression upon himself; and, though he did it with reserve, we have in this way gained some valuable information, which would otherwise have been lost. "Because Our Lord does not show Himself in the most Holy Sacrament in all His majesty you behave without respect in His Presence; but, nevertheless, He Himself is there He is in the midst of you. . . . So, when that good bishop was here the other day, everybody was pushing against him . . . Ah, if they had known he was a bishop! . . .
"We give our youth to the devil, and the remains of our life to the Good God, who is so good that He deigns to be content with even that. . . but, happily, everyone does not do so. A great lady has been here, of one of the first families in France; she went away this morning. She is scarcely three-and-twenty, and she is rich - very rich indeed. . . . She has offered herself in sacrifice to the good God for the expiation of sins, and for the conversion of sinners. She wears a girdle all armed with iron points; she mortifies herself in a thousand ways; and her parents know nothing of it. She is white as a sheet of paper. Hers is a beautiful soul, very pleasing to the good God, such as are still to be found now and then in the world, and they prevent the world from coming to an end.
"One day, two Protestant ministers came here, who did not believe in the Real Presence of Our Lord. I said to them, 'Do you think that a piece of bread could detach itself, and go, of its own accord, to place itself on the tongue of a person who came near to receive it?' 'No. ' 'Then it is not bread. ' There was a man who had doubts about the Real Presence, and he said, 'What do we know about it? It is not certain. What is consecration? What happens on the altar at that moment?' But he wished to believe, and he prayed the Blessed Virgin to obtain faith for him. Listen attentively to this. I do not say that this happened somewhere, but I say that it happened to myself. At the moment when this man came up to receive Holy Communion, the Sacred Host detached Itself from my fingers while I was still a good way Off, and went off Itself and placed Itself upon the tongue of that man. "
We will not undertake to give a consecutive view of the teaching of the Curé of Ars. There was indeed a sort of connection between the parts of it, but it would be impossible to describe the sudden inspirations that burst forth and ran through it like rays of light. His Catechisms in general defied analysis; and we should be afraid of disfiguring them by reducing them to the formality of a theological system. We shall therefore confine ourselves to offering to our readers an abridgment of some of the most remarkable discourses.
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October 18, 2015 - Trust the Lord and do good. Live in the land and feed on truth. Psalms 37:3
"What happiness will it be for the just, at the end of the world, when the soul, perfumed with the odours of Heaven, shall be reunited to its body, and enjoy God for all eternity! Then our bodies will come out of the ground like linen that has been bleached. . . . The bodies of the just will shine in Heaven like fine diamonds, like globes of love! What a cry of joy when the soul shall come to unite itself to its glorified body - to that body which will never more be to it an instrument of sin, nor a cause of suffering! It will revel in the sweetness of love, as the bee revels in flowers. . . . Thus the soul will be embalmed for eternity!"
We see that the Curé of Ars was a poet, in the highest sense of the word; his heart was endowed with exquisite sensibility, and he gave expression to it in the simplest and truest manner.
"One day in spring, " he said, "I was going to see a sick person; the bushes were full of little birds that were singing with all their might. I took pleasure in listening to them, and I said to myself, 'Poor little birds, you know not what you are doing! What a pity that is! You are singing the praises of God. " Does not this recall St. Francis of Assisi?
"Our holy Curé, " writes one of his most intelligent hearers, "is always equally admirable in his life, his works, and his words. This may perhaps surprise you, but it is perfectly true. There is something astonishing in the satisfaction, or rather the enthusiasm, with which the crowd of all classes presses in to hear his so - called catechisms. I have heard distinguished ecclesiastics, men of the world, learned men, and artists, declare that nothing had ever touched them so much as that expansion of a heart that is contemplating, loving, and adoring. A collection might almost be made of the Fioretti of the Curé of Ars. Nothing could be more graceful and brilliant than the picture he drew, a few days ago, of spring. "
A few lines further on, he added, "Yesterday, our old St. Francis of Assisi was more poetical than ever, in the midst of his tears and of his bursts of love. Speaking of the soul of man, which ought to aspire to God alone, he cried out, 'Does the fish seek the trees and the fields? No; it darts through the water. Does the bird remain on the earth? No; it flies in the air. . . . And man, who is created to love God, to possess God, to contain God, what will he do with all the powers that have been given to him for that end?'"
He liked to relate the simple and poetic legend of St. Maur, who, when he was one day carrying St. Benedict his dinner, found a large serpent. He took it up, put it in the fold of his habit, and showed it to St. Benedict, saying, "See, Father, what I have found:' When the holy patriarch and all the religious were assembled, the serpent began to hiss, and tried to bite them. Then St. Benedict said, "My child, go back and put it where you found it. " And when St. Maur was gone, he added, "My brethren, do you know why that animal is so gentle with that child? It is because he has kept his baptismal innocence. "
He also repeated with great pleasure the anecdote of St. Francis of Assisi preaching to the fishes. "One day, " he said, "St. Francis of Assisi was preaching in a province where there were a great many heretics. These miscreants stopped their ears to avoid hearing him. The saint then led the people to the seashore, and called the fishes to come and listen to the Word of God, since men rejected it. The fishes came to the edge of the water, the large ones behind the little ones. St. Francis asked them this question, 'Are you grateful to the good God for saving you from the deluge?' The fishes bowed their heads. Then St. Francis said to the people, 'See, these fishes are grateful for the benefits of God, and you are so ungrateful as to despise them!'"
M. Vianney mingled with his discourses some happy reminiscenses of his shepherd's life: "We ought to do like shepherds who are in the fields in winter - life is indeed a long winter. They kindle a fire, but from time to time they run about in all directions to look for wood to keep it up. If we, like the shepherds, were always to keep up the fire of the love of God in our hearts by prayers and good works, it would never go out. If you have not the love of God, you are very poor. You are like a tree without flowers or fruit. It is always springtime in a soul united to God. " When he spoke of prayer, the most pleasing and ingenious comparisons fell abundantly from his lips: "Prayer is a fragrant dew; but we must pray with a pure heart to feel this dew. There flows from prayer a delicious sweetness like the juice of very ripe grapes. Prayer disengages our soul from matter; it raises it on high, like the fire that inflates a balloon.
"The more we pray, the more we wish to pray. Like a fish which at first swims on the surface of the water, and afterwards plunges down, and is always going deeper, the soul plunges, dives, and loses itself in the sweetness of conversing with God. Time never seems long in prayer. I know not whether we can even wish for Heaven? Oh, yes!. . . The fish swimming in a little rivulet is well off, because it is in its element; but it is still better in the sea. When we pray, we should open our heart to God, like a fish when it sees the wave coming. The good God has no need of us. He commands us to pray only because He wills our happiness, and our happiness can be found only in prayer. When He sees us coming, He bends His heart down very low towards His little creature, as a father bends down to listen to his little child when it speaks to him.
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October 11, 2015 - Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you. Jeremiah 31:3
"A dying man was asked what should be put on his tomb. He answered, 'You shall put, Here lies a fool, who went out of this world without knowing how he came into it.' If the poor lost souls had the time that we waste, what good use they would make of it! If they had only half - an hour, that half - hour would depopulate Hell. In dying, we make restitution; we restore to the earth what it gave us - a little pinch of dust, the size of a nut; that is what we shall become. There is, indeed, much to be proud of in that! For our body, death is only a cleansing. In this world we must labor, we must fight. We shall have plenty of time to rest in all eternity.
"If we understood our happiness aright, we might almost say that we are happier than the saints in Heaven. They live upon their income; they can earn no more, while we can augment our treasure every moment. The Commandments of God are the guides which God gives us to show us the road to Heaven, like the names written up at the corners of the streets and on guideposts, to point out the way. The grace of God helps us to walk and supports us. He is as necessary to us as crutches are to a lame man.
"When we go to confession, we ought to understand what we are going to do. It might be said that we are going to unfasten Our Lord from the Cross. When you have made a good confession, you have chained up the devil. The sins that we conceal will all come to light.
"In order to conceal our sins effectually, we must confess them thoroughly. Our faults are like a grain of sand beside the great mountain of the mercies of the good God."
M. Vianney made great use of comparisons and similes in his teachings; he borrowed them from nature, which was known and loved by the crowd whom he addressed, from the beauties of the country, from the emotions of rural life. The recollections of his childhood had kept all their freshness, and in his old age he could not resist the innocent pleasure of recalling for a moment the lively sympathies of his youth. This return of the thoughts to the brightest days of life is like an anticipation of the Resurrection. After the manner of Our Lord, he used the most well known events, the most common facts, the incidents that came before him as figures of the spiritual life, and made them the theme of his instructions. The Gospel is full of symbols and figures, fitted to lead the soul to the comprehension of eternal truths by a comparison with what is more evident to the senses. In like manner, allusions, metaphors, parables and figures colored all the discourses of the Curé of Ars. His mind had acquired the habit of raising itself, by means of visible things, to God and to the invisible. There was not one of his catechisms in which he did not often speak of rivulets, forests, trees, birds, flowers, dew, lilies, balm, perfume and honey. All contemplatives love this language, and the innocence of their thoughts attaches itself by predilection to all the beautiful and pure things with which the Author of creation has embellished His work. A good man, Our Lord says, brings forth good things out of the good treasures of his heart. The sweet writings of St. Francis of Sales are a model of this style, dear to all mystics; and we are not surprised to find these graces of language and this exquisite taste in the Bishop of Geneva. But where had this poor country curé learnt his flowers of eloquence? Who had taught him to use them with such delicate tact and ingenuity? Let us listen:
"Like a beautiful white dove rising from the midst of the waters, and coming to shake her wings over the earth, the Holy Spirit issues from the infinite ocean of the Divine perfections, and hovers over pure souls, to pour into them the balm of love. The Holy Spirit reposes in a pure soul as on a bed of roses. There comes forth from a soul in which the Holy Spirit resides a sweet door, like that of the vine when it is in flower.
"He who has preserved his baptismal innocence is like a child who has never disobeyed his father. . . . One who has kept his innocence feels himself lifted up on high by love, as a bird is carried up by its wings. Those who have pure souls are like eagles and swallows, which fly in the air. . . . A Christian who is pure is upon earth like a bird that is kept fastened down by a string. Poor little bird! it only waits for the moment when the string is cut to fly away.
"Good Christians are like those birds that have large wings and small feet, and which never light upon the ground, because they could not rise again and would be caught. They make their nests, too, upon the points of rocks, on the roofs of houses, in high places. So the Christian ought to be always on the heights. As soon as we lower our thoughts towards the earth, we are taken captive.
"A pure soul is like a fine pearl. As long as it is hidden in the shell, at the bottom of the sea, no one thinks of admiring it. But if you bring it into the sunshine, this pearl will shine and attract all eyes. Thus, the pure soul, which is hidden from the eyes of the world, will one day shine before the angels in the sunshine of eternity. The pure soul is a beautiful rose, and the Three Divine Persons descend from Heaven to inhale its fragrance.
"The mercy of God is like an overflowing torrent - it carries away hearts with it as it passes. The good God will pardon a repentant sinner more quickly than a mother would snatch her child out of the fire. The elect are like the ears of corn that are left by the reapers, and like the bunches of grapes after the vintage. Imagine a poor mother obliged to let fall the blade of the guillotine upon the head of her child: such is the good God when He condemns a sinner.
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October 4, 2015 - Wise people are careful and stay out of trouble, but fools are careless and quick to act. Someone with a quick temper does foolish things, but someone with understanding remains calm. Proverbs 14:16-17
Prayer helps us a little, because prayer is the elevation of the soul to Heaven. . . . The more we know men, the less we love them. It is the reverse with God; the more we know Him, the more we love Him. This knowledge inflames the soul with such a love, that it can no longer love or desire anything from God. . . . Man was created by love; therefore he is so disposed to love. On the other hand, he is so great that nothing on the earth can satisfy him. He can be satisfied only when he turns towards God. . . . Take a fish out of the water, and it will not live. Well, such is man without God.
"There are some who do not love the good God, who do not pray to Him, and who prosper; that is a bad sign. They have done a little good in the midst of a great deal of evil. The good God rewards them in this life.
"This earth is a bridge to cross the water; it serves only to support our steps. . . . We are in this world, but we are not of this world, since we say every day, 'Our Father, Who art in Heaven. ' We must wait, then, for our reward till we are at home, in our Father's house. This is the reason why good Christians suffer crosses, contradictions, adversities, contempt, calumnies - so much the better! . . . But people are astonished at this. They seem to think that because we love the good God a little, we ought to have nothing to contradict us, nothing to make us suffer. . . . We say, 'There is a person who is not good, and yet everything goes well with him; but with me, it is of no use doing my best; everything goes wrong. It is because we do not understand the value and the happiness of crosses. We say sometimes that God chastises those whom He loves. That is not true. Trials are not chastisements; they are graces to those whom God loves. . . . We must not consider the labor, but the recompense. A merchant does not consider the trouble he undergoes in his commerce, but the profit he gains by it. . . . What are twenty years, thirty years, compared to eternity? What, then, have we to suffer? A few humiliations, a few annoyances, a few sharp words; that will not kill us.
"It is glorious to be able to please God, so little as we are! Our tongue should be employed only in praying, our heart in loving, our eyes in weeping. We are great, and we are nothing. . . . There is nothing greater than man, and nothing less. Nothing is greater, if we consider his soul; nothing is less, if we look at his body. . . . We occupy ourselves with the body, as if we had it alone to take care of; we have, on the contrary, it alone to despise. . . . We are the work of a God. . . . one always loves one's own work. . . . It is easy enough to understand that we are the work of a God; but that the crucifixion of a God should be our work! that is incomprehensible.
"Some people attribute a hard heart to the Eternal Father. Oh, how mistaken they are! The Eternal Father, to disarm His own justice, gave to His Son an excessively tender heart; no one can give what he does not possess. Our Lord said to His Father: 'Father, do not punish them!' . . . Our Lord suffered more than was necessary to redeem us. But what would have satisfied the justice of I His Father would not have satisfied His love. With - I out Our Lord's death, all mankind together could not expiate a single little lie.
"In the world, people hide Heaven and Hell: Heaven, because if we knew its beauty, we should wish to go there at all costs - we should, indeed, leave the world alone; Hell, because if we knew the torments that are endured there, we should do all we could to avoid going there.
"The Sign of the Cross is formidable to the devil, because by the Cross we escape from him. We should make the Sign of the Cross with great respect. We begin with the forehead: it is the head, creation - the Father; then the heart: love, life, redemption - the Son; then the shoulders: strength - the Holy Ghost. Everything reminds us of the Cross. We ourselves are made in the form of a cross. In Heaven we shall be nourished by the breath of God. . . . The good God will place us as an architect places the stones of a building - each one in the spot to which it is adapted. The soul of the saints contained the foundations of Heaven. They felt an emanation from Heaven, in which they bathed and lost themselves. . . . As the disciples on Mount Thabor saw nothing but Jesus alone, so interior souls, on the Thabor of their hearts no longer see anything but Our Lord. They are two friends, who are never tired of each other. . . .
"There are some who lose the faith, and never see Hell till they enter it. The lost will be enveloped in the wrath of God, as the fish are in the water. It is not God who condemns us to Hell; it is we ourselves who do it by our sins. The lost do not accuse God; they accuse themselves. They say, 'I have lost God, my soul, and Heaven by my own fault. ' No one was ever lost for having done too much evil; but many are in Hell for a single mortal sin of which they would not repent. If a lost soul could say once, 'O my God I love Thee!' there would be no more Hell for him . . . but, alas, poor soul! it has lost the power of loving which it had received, and of which it made no use. Its heart is dried up like grapes that have passed through the winepress. No more joy in that soul, no more peace, because there is no more love. . . . Hell has its origin in the goodness of God. The lost will say, 'Oh, if at least God had not loved us so much, we should suffer less! Hell would be endurable. . . . But to have been so much loved! what grief!"
Besides these deep thoughts, he had some that were forcible and startling. He called the cemetery, the home of all; Purgatory, the infirmary of the good God; the earth, a warehouse. "We are on the earth, " he said, "only as in a warehouse, for a very little moment. . . . We seem not to move, and we are going toward eternity as if by steam.
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September 27 2015 - When you pray, you should go into your room and close the door and pray to your Father who cannot be seen. Your Father can see what is done in secret, and he will reward you. Matthew 6:6
The holy Curé spoke without any other preparation than his continual union with God; he passed without any interval or delay from the confessional to the pulpit; and yet he showed an imperturbable confidence, which sprang from complete and absolute forgetfulness of himself. Besides, no one was tempted to criticise him. People generally criticise those who are not indifferent to their opinion of them. Those who heard the Curé of Ars had something else to do - they had to pass judgment on themselves.
M. Vianney cared nothing for what might be said or thought of him. Of whomsoever his audience might consist, though bishops and other illustrious personages often mingled with the crowd that surrounded his pulpit, he never betrayed the least emotion, nor the least embarrassment proceeding from human respect. He, who was so timid and so humble, was no longer the same person when he passed through the compact mass that filled the church at the hour of catechism; he wore an air of triumph, he carried his head high, his face was lighted up, and his eyes cast brilliant glances.
He was asked one day if he had never been afraid of his audience. "No, " he answered; "on the contrary, the more people there are, the better I am pleased. " Then, to impose on us, he added, "A proud man always thinks he does well. " If he had had the pope, the cardinals, and kings around his pulpit, he would have said neither more nor less, for he thought only of souls, and made them think only of God. This real power of his word supplied in him the want of talent and rhetoric; it gave a singular majesty and an irresistible authority to the most simple things that issued from that venerable mouth.
The power of his word was also increased by the high opinion the pilgrims entertained of his sanctity. "The first quality of the man called to the perilous honour of instructing the people, " says St. Isidore, "is to be holy and irreproachable. He whose mission it is to deter others from sin must be a stranger to sin; he whose task it is to lead model of perfection. " In the holy catechist of Ars, virtue was preaching truth. When he spoke of the love of God, of humility, gentleness, patience, mortification, sacrifice, poverty, or the desire of suffering, his example gave immense weight to his words; for a man who practices what he teaches is very powerful in convincing and persuading others.
He used to put his ideas into the most simple and transparent form, letting them suggest the expression that best suited them. He could bring truths of the highest order within the reach of every intellect; he clothed them in familiar language; his simplicity touched the heart, and his doctrine delighted the mind. That science which is not sought for is abundant; it flows like the fountain of living water, which the Samaritan woman knew not, and of which the Saviour taught her the virtue. Thus, his considerations on sin, on the offence it is against God, and the evil it inflicts on man, were the painful result of his thoughts. They penetrated him, they overwhelmed him; they were like a burning arrow piercing his breast; he relieved his pain by giving utterance to it.
It was a wonderful thing that this man, so ready to proclaim his own ignorance, had by nature a great attraction for the higher faculties of the mind. The greatest praise that he could give anyone was to say that he was clever. When the good qualities of any great person, whether an ecclesiastic or a layman, were enumerated before him, he seldom failed to complete the panegyric in these words: "What pleases me most is that he is learned. "
M. Vianney appreciated the gift of eloquence in others; he blessed God, who for His own glory gives such privileges to man, but he disdained them for himself. He had no scruple in utterly neglecting grammar and syntax in his discourses; he seemed to do it on purpose, out of humility, for there were faults in them that he might easily have avoided. But this incorrect language penetrated the souls of his hearers, enlightened and converted them. "A polished discourse, " says St. Jerome, "only gratifies the ears; one which is not so makes its way to the heart. "
His manner of speaking was sudden and impetuous; he loosed his words like arrows from a bow, and his whole soul seemed to fly with them. In these effusions the pathetic, the profound, the sublime, was often side by side with the simple and vulgar. They had all the freedom and irregularity, but also all the originality and power of an improvisation. We have sometimes tried to write down what we had just heard, but it was impossible to recall the things that had most moved us and to put them into form. What is most divine in the heart of man cannot be expressed in writing. We have, however, set down a few words, in which we find more than a remembrance. We find the Curé of Ars himself, the simple expression of his heart and of his soul. These are some of his lofty and deep thoughts:
"To love God! oh how beautiful it is! We must be in Heaven to comprehend love. . .
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September 20, 2015 - A friend loves you all the time, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.
Proverbs 17:17
When persons have heard him discourse upon Heaven, on the Sacred Humanity of Our Lord, on His dolorous Passion, His Real Presence in the most Holy Sacrament of our altars, on the Blessed Virgin Mary, her attractions and her greatness, on the happiness of the saints, the purity of the angels, the beauty of souls, the dignity of man - on all those subjects which were familiar to him - it often happened to them to come out from the discourse quite convinced that the good father saw the things of which he had spoken with such fullness of heart, with such eloquent emotion, in such passionate accents, with such abundance of tears; and indeed his words were then impressed with a character of divine tenderness, of sweet gentleness, and of penetrating unction, which was beyond all comparison. There was so extraordinary a majesty, so marvellous a power, in his voice, in his gestures, in his looks, in his transfigured countenance, that it was impossible to listen to him and remain cold and unmoved.
Views and thoughts imparted by a divine light have quite a different bearing from those acquired by study. Doubt was dispelled from the most rebellious hearts, and the admirable clearness of faith took its place before so absolute a certainty, an exposition at once so luminous and so simple.
The word of the Curé of Ars was the more efficacious because he preached with his whole being. His mere presence was a manifestation of the Truth; and of him it might well be said that he would have moved and convinced men even he would have moved and convinced men even by his silence. When there appeared in the pulpit that pale, thin, and transparent face; when you heard that shrill, piercing voice, like a cry, giving out to the crowd sublime thoughts clothed in simple and popular language, you fancied yourself in the presence of one of those great characters of the Bible, speaking to men in the language of the prophets. You were already filled with respect and confidence, and disposed to listen, not for enjoyment, but for profit.
Before he began, the venerable catechist used to cast a glance over his hearers, which prepared the way for his word. Sometimes this glance became fixed on someone; it seemed to be searching into the depths of some soul which the saint had suddenly seen through, and in which one would have thought he was looking for the text of his discourse. How many have thought he was speaking to them alone! How many have recognised themselves in the picture he drew of their weaknesses! How many have listened to the secret history of their failings, of their temptations, of their combats, of their uneasiness, and of their remorse!
To those to whom it was given to assist at these catechisms, two things were equally remarkable - the preacher and the hearer. It was not words that the preacher gave forth, it was more than words; it was a soul, a holy soul, all filled with faith and love, that poured itself out before you, of which you felt in your own soul the immediate contact and the warmth. As for the hearer, he was no longer on the earth, he was transported into those pure regions from which dogmas and mysteries descend. As the saint spoke, new and clear views opened to the mind: Heaven and earth, the present and the future life, the things of time and of eternity, appeared in a light that you had never before perceived.
When a man, coming fresh from the world, and bringing with him worldly ideas, feelings, and impressions, sat down to listen to this doctrine, it stunned and amazed him; it set so utterly at defiance the world, and all that the world believes, loves and extols. At first he was astonished and thunderstruck; then by degrees he was touched, and surprised into weeping like the rest. No eloquence has drawn forth more tears, or penetrated deeper into the hearts of men. His words opened a way before them like flames, and the most hardened hearts melted like wax before the fire. They were burning, radiating, triumphant; they did more than charm the mind, they subdued the whole soul and brought it back to God, not by the long and difficult way of argument, but by the paths of emotion which lead shortly and directly to the desired end.
M. Vianney was listened to as a new apostle, sent by Jesus Christ to His Church, to renew in Her the holiness and fervour of His Divine Spirit, in an age whose corruption had so effaced them from the souls of most men. And it is a great marvel that, proposing, like the apostles, a doctrine incomprehensible to human reason, and very bitter to the depraved taste of the world - speaking of nothing but crosses, humiliations, poverty, and penance - his doctrine was so well received. Those who had not yet received it into their hearts were glad to feed their minds upon it. If they had not courage to make it the rule of their conduct, they could not help admiring and wishing to follow it.
It is not less remarkable that, though he spoke only in the incorrect and common French natural to the people brought up in the country, one might say of him as of the Apostles, that he was heard by all the nations of the world, and that his voice resounded through all the earth. He was the oracle that people went to consult, that they might learn to know Jesus Christ. Not only the simple but the learned, not only the fervent but the indifferent, found in it a divine unction which penetrated them and made them long to hear it again. The more they heard, the more they wished to hear; and they always came back with love to the foot of that pulpit, as to a place where they had found beauty and truth. Nothing more clearly showed that the Curé of Ars was full of the Spirit of God, who alone is greater than our heart; we may draw from His depths without ever exhausting them, and the divine satiety which He gives only excites a greater appetite.
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September 13, 2015 - "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one." Mark 12:29
THE BLESSED CURÉ OF ARS IN HIS CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTIONS
Saint John Vianney
EXPLANATIONS AND EXHORTATIONS
1. CHAPTER 1 : On Salvation
2. CHAPTER 2 : On Death
3. CHAPTER 3 : On the Last Judgment
4. CHAPTER 4 : On Sin
5. CHAPTER 5 : On Temptations
6. CHAPTER 6 : On Pride
7. CHAPTER 7 : On Avarice
8. CHAPTER 8 : On Lust
9. CHAPTER 9 : On Envy
10. CHAPTER 10 : On Gluttony
11. CHAPTER 11 : On Anger
12. CHAPTER 12 : On Sloth
13. CHAPTER 13 : On Grace
14. CHAPTER 14 : On Prayer
15. CHAPTER 15 : On the Love of God
16. CHAPTER 16 : On Paradise
"THERE IS no doubt, " says Pere Gratry, "that, through purity of heart, innocence, either preserved or recovered by virtue, faith, and religion, there are in man capabilities and resources of mind, of body, and of heart which most people would not suspect. To this order of resources belongs what theology calls infused science, the intellectual virtues which the Divine Word inspires into our minds when He dwells in us by faith and love."
And Pere Gratry quotes with enthusiasm, excusing himself for not translating them better, these magnificent words of a saint who lived in the eleventh century in one of the mystic monasteries on the banks of the Rhine: "This is what purifies the eye of the heart, and enables it to raise itself to the true light: contempt of worldly cares, mortification of the body, contrition of heart, abundance of tears . . . meditation on the admirable Essence of God and on His chaste Truth, fervent and pure prayer, joy in God, ardent desire for Heaven. Embrace all this, " adds the saint, "and continue in it. Advance towards the light which offers itself to you as to its sons, and descends of itself into your hearts. Take your hearts out of your breasts, and give them to Him who speaks to you, and He will fill them with deific splendour, and you will be sons of light and angels of God. "
The description we have just read seems to have been traced from the very life of the Curé of Ars. Every detail recalls him, every feature harmonises marvellously with his. Who has ever carried further "contempt of worldly cares, mortification of the body, abundance of tears?" He was always bathed in tears. And then, "meditation on the admirable Essence of God and on His chaste Truth, and fervent and pure prayer, joy in God, ardent desire for Heaven" - how characteristic is this! "He had advanced towards the light, and the light had descended of itself into his heart. . . . He had taken his heart from his breast, and given it to Him who spoke to him; and He who spoke to him, " who is the Divine, uncreated Word of God, "filled him with deific splendour. " No one could doubt it who has had the happiness of assisting at any of the catechisms of Ars; of hearing that extraordinary language, which was like no human language; who has seen the irresistible effect produced upon hearers of all classes by that voice, that emotion, that intuition, that fire, and the signal beauty of that unpolished and almost vulgar French, which was transfigured and penetrated by his holy energy, even to the form, the arrangement, and the harmony of its words and syllables. And yet the Curé of Ars did not speak words: true eloquence consists in speaking things; he spoke things, and in a most wonderful manner. He poured out his whole soul into the souls of the crowds who listened to him, that he might make them believe, love, and hope like himself. That is the aim and the triumph of evangelical eloquence.
How could this man, who had nearly been refused admittance into the great seminary because of his ignorance, and who had, since his promotion to the priesthood, been solely employed in prayer and in the labours of the confessional - how could he have attained to the power of teaching like one of the Fathers of the Church? Whence did he derive his astonishing knowledge of God, of nature, and of the history of the soul? How was it that his thoughts and expressions so often coincided with those of the greatest Christian geniuses, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa?
For example, we have often heard him say that the heart of the saints was liquid. We were much struck with this energetic expression, without suspecting that it was so theologically accurate; and we were surprised and touched to find, in turning over the pages of the Summa, that the angelical doctor assigns to love four immediate effects, of which the first is the liquefaction of the heart. M. Vianney had certainly never read St. Thomas, which makes this coincidence the more remarkable; and, indeed, it is inexplicable to those who are ignorant of the workings of grace, and who do not comprehend those words of the Divine Master: "Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. " [Matt. 11:25].
The Spirit of God had been pleased to engrave on the heart of this holy priest all that he was to know and to teach to others; and it was the more deeply engraved, as that heart was the more pure, the more detached, and empty of the vain science of men; like a clean and polished block of marble, ready for the tool of the sculptor.
The faith of the Curé of Ars was his whole science; his book was Our Lord Jesus Christ. He sought for wisdom nowhere but in Jesus Christ, in His death and in His Cross. To him no other wisdom was true, no other wisdom useful. He sought it not amid the dust of libraries, not in the schools of the learned, but in prayer, on his knees, at his Master's Feet, covering His Divine Feet with tears and kisses. In the presence of the Blessed Sacrament where he passed his days and nights before the crowd of pilgrims had yet deprived him of liberty day and night, he had learnt it all.
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September 6, 2015 - We ask you, brothers and sisters, to warn those who do not work. Encourage the people who are afraid. Help those who are weak. Be patient with everyone. 1 Thessalonians 5:14
CONGRATULATIONS!!! You have completed studying and reviewing the new catechism. I hope it has been an enlightening and rewarding experience. God bless all you faithful visitors to this site.
During the weeks leading up this event Jesus provided me with a new opportunity. So we will continue our catechism study by reviewing the wonderful catechetical work of St. John Vienney, BLESSED CURÉ OF ARS IN HIS CATECHETICAL INSTRUCTIONS.
Have a wonderful Labor Day holiday and I look forward to our new journey.
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August 30, 2015 - For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
153 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 4 Pg 754
Article 4 The Final Doxology
The final doxology, "For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and forever," takes up again, by inclusion, the first three petitions to our Father: the glorification of his name, the coming of his reign, and the power of his saving will. But these prayers are now proclaimed as adoration and thanksgiving, as in the liturgy of heaven. The ruler of this world has mendaciously attributed to himself to three titles of kingship, power, and glory. Christ, the Lord, restores them to his Father and our Father, until he hands over the kingdom to him when the mystery of salvation will be brought to its completion and God will be all in all.
"Then after the prayer is over you say ‘Amen,’ which means ‘So be it,’ thus ratifying with our ‘Amen,’ what is contained in the prayer that God has taught us."
In the Our Father, the object of the first three petitions is the glory of the Father: the sanctification of his name, the coming of the kingdom, and the fulfillment of his will. The four others present or wants to him: -- that our lives be nourished, healed of sin, and made victorious in the struggle of good over evil.
By asking "hallowed be thy name" we enter into God's plan, the sanctification of his name -- -- revealed first to Moses and then in Jesus -- -- by us and in us, in every nation and each man.
By the second petition, the Church looks first to Christ's return and the final coming of the Reign of God. It also prays for the growth of the Kingdom of God in the "today" our own lives.
In the third petition, we ask our Father to unite our wills to that of his Son, so as to fulfill his plan of salvation in the life of the world.
In the fourth petition, by saying "give us," we express in communion with our brethren our filial trust in our heavenly Father. "Our daily bread" refers to the earthly nourishment necessary to everyone for subsistence, and also to the Bread of Life: the Word of God and the Body of Christ. It is received in God's "today," as the indispensable, (super-) essential nourishment of the feast of the coming Kingdom anticipated in the Eucharist.
The fifth of petition begs God's mercy for our offenses, mercy which can penetrate our hearts only if we have learned to forgive our enemies, wit the example and help of Christ.
When we say "lead us not into temptation" we are asking God not to allow us to take the path that leads to sin. This petition implores the Spirit of discernment and strength; it requests the grace of vigilance and final perseverance."
In the last petition, "but deliver us from evil," Christians pray to God with the Church to show forth the victory, already won by Christ, over the "ruler of this world," Satan, the angel personally opposed to God and to his plan of salvation.
By the final "Amen," we express our “fiat” concerning the seven petitions: "So be it."
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August 23, 2015 - I will praise the Lord at all times; his praise is always on my lips. My whole being praises the Lord. The poor will hear and be glad. Glorify the Lord with me, and let us praise his name together. Psalms 34:1-3
152 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section VI VII Pg 751
VI – “And Lead Us Not Into Temptation”
This petition goes to the root of the preceding one, for our sins result from our consenting to temptation; we therefore ask our Father not to "feed" us into temptation. It is difficult to translate the Greek verb used by a single English word: the Greek means both "do not allow us to enter into temptation" and "do not let us yield to temptation." "God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one"; on the contrary, he wants to set us free from evil. We ask him not to allow us to take the way that leads to sin. We are engaged in the battle "between flesh and spirit"; this petition implored the Spirit of discernment and strength.
The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and temptation, which leads to sin and death. We must also discern between being tempted and consenting to temptation. Finally, discernment unmasks the lie of temptation, whose object appears to be good, a "delight to the eyes" and desirable, when in reality its fruit is death.
God does not want to impose the good, but wants free beings... There is a certain usefulness to temptation. No one but God knows what our soul has received from him, not even we ourselves. But temptation reveals it in order to teach us to know ourselves, and in this way we discover our evil inclinations and are obliged to give thanks for the goods that temptation has revealed to us.
"Lead us not into temptation" implies a decision of the heart: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also... No one can serve two masters." “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit." In this assent to the Holy Spirit the Father gives us strength. "No testing has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, so that you may be able to endure it."
Such a battle and such a victory become possible only through prayer. It is by his prayer that Jesus vanquishes the tempter, both at the outset of his public mission in the ultimate struggle of his agony. In this petition to our heavenly Father, Christ unites us to his battle and his agony. He urges us to vigilance of the heart in communion with his own. Vigilance is "custody of the heart," and Jesus prayed for us to the Father: "Keep them in your name." The Holy Spirit constantly seeks to awaken us to keep watch. Finally, this petition takes on all its dramatic meaning in relation to the last temptation of our earthly battles; it asks for final perseverance. "Lo, I am coming like a theif; Blessed is he who is awake."
VII – But Deliver Us From Evil”
The last petition to our Father is also included in Jesus' prayer: "I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one." It touches each of us personally, but it is always "we" who pray, in communion with whole Church, for the deliverance of the whole human family. The Lord's Prayer continually opens us to the range of Gods economy of salvation. Our interdependence in the drama of sin and death is turned into solidarity in the Body of Christ, the "communion of saints."
In this petition, evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil (dia-bolos) is the one who “throws himself across" God's plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ.
"A murderer from the beginning... a liar and the father of lies," Satan is "the deceiver of the whole world." Through him sin and death entered the world and by his definitive defeat all creation will be "freed from the corruption of sin and death." Now "we know that anyone born of God does not sin, but He who was born of God keeps him, and even one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil one."
The Lord who has taken away your sin and pardoned your faults also protects you and keeps you from the wiles of your adversary the devil, so that the enemy, who is accustomed to leading into sin, may not surprise you. One who entrusts himself to God does not dread the devil. "if God is for us, who is against us?"
Victory over the "prince of this world" was won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely gave himself up to death to give us his life. This is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world is "cast out." "He pursued the woman" but had no hold on her: the new Eve, "full of grace" of the Holy Spirit, is preserved from sin and the corruption of death (the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God, Mary, ever Virgin). "Then the dragon was angry with a woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring." Therefore the Spirit and the Church pray: "Come, Lord Jesus," since his coming will deliver us from the Evil One. When we ask to be delivered from the Evil One, we pray as well to be freed from all evils, present, past, and future, of which he is the author or instigator. In this final petition, the Church brings before the Father all the distress of the world. Along with deliverance from the evils that overwhelm humanity, she implores the precious gift of peace and the grace of perseverance in expectation of Christ's return. By praying in this way, she anticipates in humility of faith the gathering together of everyone and everything in him who has "the keys of Death and Hades," who "is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."
Deliver us, Lord, we beseech you, from every evil and grant us peace in our day, so that aided by your mercy we might be ever free from sin and protected from all anxiety, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
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August 16, 2015 - If you remain in me and follow my teachings, you can ask anything you want, and it will be given to you. John 15:7
151 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section V Pg 748
V – “And Forgive Us Our Trespasses, As We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us”
This petition is astonishing. If it consisted only of the first phrase, "And forgive us our trespasses," it might have been included, implicitly, in the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer, since Christ's sacrifice is "that sins may be forgiven." But, according to the second phrase, our petition will not be heard unless we have first met a strict requirement. Our petition looks to the future, but our response must come first, for the two parts are joined by the single word "as."
And forgive us our trespasses...
With bold confidence, we begin praying to our Father. In begging him that his name be hallowed, we were in fact asking him that we ourselves might be always made more holy. But though we are clothed with the baptismal garment, we do not cease to sin, turn away from God. Now, in this new petition, we return to him like the prodigal son and, like the tax collector, recognize that we are sinners before him. Our petition begins with a "confession" of our wretchedness in his mercy. Our hope is firm because, his Son, "we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." We find the efficacious and undoubted sign of his forgiveness in the sacraments of his Church.
Now -- -- and this is daunting -- -- this outpouring of mercy cannot penetrate our hearts as long as we have not forgiven those who have trespassed against us. Love, like the Body of Christ, is indivisible; we cannot love God we cannot see if we do not love the brother or sister we do see. In refusing to forgive our brothers and sisters, our hearts are closed and their hardness makes them impervious to the Father's merciful love; but in confessing our sins, our hearts are opened to his grace.
This petition is so important that it is the only one to which the Lord returns and which he develops explicitly in the Sermon on the Mount. This crucial requirement of the covenant mystery is impossible for man. But "with God all things are possible."
... As we forgive those who trespass against us
This "as" is not unique in Jesus' teaching: "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect"; "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful"; "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." It is impossible to keep the Lord’s commandment by imitating the divine model from outside; there has to be a vital participation, coming from the depths of the heart, in the holiness and the mercy and love of our God. Only the spirit by whom we live can make "ours" the same mind that was in Christ Jesus. Then the unity of forgiveness becomes possible and we find ourselves "forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave" us.
Thus the Lord's words on forgiveness, the love that loves to the end, become a living reality. The parable of the merciless servant, which crowns the Lord's teaching on ecclesial communion, ends with these words: "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." It is there, in fact, "in the depths of the heart," that everything is bound and loosed. It is not in our power not to feel or to forget an offense; but the heart that offers itself to the Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies the memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.
Christian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies, transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his Master. Forgiveness is a high-point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God's compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin. The martyrs of yesterday and today bear this witness to Jesus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another.
There is no limit or measure to this essentially divine forgiveness, whether one speaks of "sins" as in Luke (11:4), or "debt's" as in Matthew (6:12). We are always debtors: "Owe no one anything, except to love one another." The communion of the Holy Trinity is the source and criterion of truth in every relationship. It is lived out in prayer, above all in the Eucharist.
God does not accept the sacrifice of a sewer of disunion, but commands that he depart from the altar so that he may first be reconciled with his brother. For God can be appeased only by prayers that make peace. To God, the better offering is peace, brotherly concord, and a people made one in the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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August 09, 2015 - Let us hold firmly to the hope that we have confessed, because we can trust God to do what he promised. Hebrews 10:23
150 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section IV Pg 745
IV – “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread”
"Give us": The trust of children who look to their Father for everything is beautiful. "He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." He gives to all the living "their food in due season." Jesus teaches us this petition, because it glorifies our Father by acknowledging how good he is, beyond all goodness.
"Give us" also expresses the covenant. We are his and he is ours, for our sake. But this "us" also recognizes him as the Father of all men and we pray to him for them all, in solidarity with their needs and sufferings.
"Our bread": The Father who gives us life cannot but give us the nourishment life requires -- -- all appropriate goods and blessings, both material and spiritual. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus insists on the filial trust that cooperates with our Father's providence. He is not inviting us to idleness, but wants to relieve us from nagging worry and preoccupation. Such is the fuel surrender of the children of God:
To those who seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, he has promised to give all else besides. Since everything indeed belongs to God, he who possesses God wants for nothing, if he himself is not found wanting before God.
But the presence of those who hunger because they lack bread opens up another profound meaning of this petition. The drama of hunger in the world calls Christians who pray sincerely to exercise responsibility toward their brethren, both in their personal behavior and in their solidarity with the human family. This petition of the Lord's Prayer cannot be isolated from the parables of the poor man Lazarus and of the Last Judgment.
As leaven is the dough, the newness of the kingdom should make the earth "rise" by the Spirit of Christ. This must be shown by the establishment of justice in personal and social, economic and international relations, without ever forgetting that there are no just structures without people who want to be just.
"Our" bread is the "one" loaf for the "many." In the Beatitudes "poverty" is the virtue of sharing: it calls us to communicate and share both material and spiritual goods, not by coercion but out of love, so that the abundance of some may remedy the needs of others.
"Pray and work. “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you." Even when we have done our work, the food we receive is still a gift from our Father; it is good to ask him for it and to thank him, as Christian families do when saying grace at meals.
This petition, with the responsibility it involves also applies to another hunger from which men are perishing: "Man does not live by bread alone, but... by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God," that is, by the Word he speaks and the sSpirit he breathes forth. Christians must make every effort "to proclaim the good news to the poor." There is a famine on earth, "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord." For this reason the specifically Christian sense of this fourth petition concerns the Bread of Life: the Word of God accepted in faith, the Body of Christ received in the Eucharist.
" This day" is also an expression of trust taught us by the Lord, which we would never have resumed to invent. Since it refers above all to his Word and to the Body of his Son, this "today" is not only that of our mortal time, but also the "today" of God.
If you receive the bread each day, each day is today for you. Christ is yours today, he rises for you every day. How can this be? "You are my Son, today I have begotten you." Therefore, "today" is when Christ rises.
"Daily" (epiousios) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. Taken in a temporal sense, this word is a pedagogical repetition of "this day," to confirm us in trust "without reservation." Taken in the qualitative sense, it signifies what is necessary for life, and more broadly every good thing sufficient for subsistence. Taken literally (epi-ousios: "super-essential"), it refers directly to the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the "medicine of immortality," without which we have no life within us. Finally in this connection, its heavenly meaning is evident: "this day" is the Day of the Lord, the day of the feast of the kingdom, anticipated in the Eucharist that is already the foretaste of the kingdom to come. For this reason it is fitting for the Eucharistic liturgy to be celebrated each day.
The Eucharist is our daily bread. The power belonging to this divine food makes it a bond of union. Its effect is then understood as unity, so that, gathered into his Body and made members of him, we may become what we receive... This also is our daily bread: the readings you hear each day in church and the hymns you hear sing. All these are necessities for our pilgrimage.
The Father in heaven urges us, as children of heaven, to ask for the bread of heaven. [Christ] himself is the bread who, sewn in the Virgin, raised up in the flesh, kneaded in the Passion, baked in the oven of the tomb, reserved in churches, brought to altars, furnishes the faithful each day with food from heaven.
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August 02, 2015 - Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not get upset with others. Love does not count up wrongs that have been done. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
149 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section II III Pg 742
II – Thy Kingdom Come
In the New Testament, the word basileia can be translated by “kingship” (abstract noun), “kingdom” (concrete noun) or “reign” (action noun). The Kingdom of God lies ahead of us. It is brought near in the Word incarnate, it is proclaimed throughout the whole Gospel, and it has come in Christ’s death and Resurrection. The Kingdom of God has been coming since the Last Supper and, in the Eucharist, it is in or midst. The kingdom will come in glory when Christ hands it over to his Father:
It may even be...that the Kingdom of God means Christ himself, whom we daily desire to come, and whose coming we wish to have manifested quickly to us. For as he is our resurrection, since in him we rise, so he can also be understood as the Kingdom of God, for in him we shall reign.
This petition is "Marana tha,” the cry of the Spirit and the Bride: "Come, Lord Jesus."
Even if it had not been prescribed to pray for the coming of the kingdom, we would willingly have brought forth this speech, eager to embrace our hope. In indignation the souls of the martyrs under the altar cry out to the Lord: "O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?" For their retribution is ordained for the end of the world. Indeed, as soon as possible, Lord, may your kingdom come!
In the Lord’s Prayer, "thy Kingdom come" refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ's return. But, far from distracting the Church from her mission in this present world, this desire commits her to it all the more strongly. Since Pentecost, the coming of that Reign is the work of the Spirit of the Lord who "completes his work on earth and brings us to the fullness of grace." "The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." The end-time in which we live is the age of the outpouring of the Spirit. Ever since Pentecost, a decisive battle has been joined between "the flesh" and the Spirit.
Only a pure soul can boldly say: "Thy Kingdom come." One who has heard Paul say, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies," and has pacified himself in action, thought, and word to say to God: "Thy Kingdom come!"
By a discernment according to the Spirit, Christians have to distinguish between the growth of the Reign of God and the progress of the culture and society in which they are involved. This distinction is not a separation. Man's vocation to eternal life does not suppress, but actually reinforces, his duty to put into action in this world the energies ad means received from the Creator to serve justice and peace.
This petition is taken up and granted in the prayer of Jesus which is present and effective in the Eucharist; it bears its fruit in new life in keeping with the Beatitudes.
III - – “Thy Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven”
Our Father "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." He “is for bearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish." His commandment is "that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another." This commandment summarizes all the others and expresses his entire will.
"He has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ... to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will." We ask insistently for this loving plan to be fully realized on earth as it is already in heaven.
In Christ, and through his human will, the will of the Father has been perfectly fulfilled once for all. Jesus said when entering into this world: "Lo, I have come to do your will, O God." Only Jesus can say: "I always do what is pleasing to him." In the prayer of his agony, he consents totally to this will: "not my will, but yours be done." For this reason Jesus "gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
"Although he was a Son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered." How much more reason have we sinful creatures to learn obedience -- -- we who in him have become children of adoption. We ask our Father to unite our will to his Son’s, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of salvation for the life of the world. We are radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and with the power of his Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his Son has always chosen: to do what is pleasing to the Father.
In committing ourselves to [Christ], we can become one spirit with him, and thereby accomplish his will, in such wise that it will be perfect on earth as it is in heaven.
Consider how [Jesus Christ] teaches us to be humble, by making us see that our virtue does not depend on our work alone but on grace from on high. He commands each of the faithful who prays to do so universally, for the whole world. He did not say "thy will be done in me or in us," but "on earth," the whole earth, so that error may be banished from it, truth takes root in it, all vice be destroyed on it, virtue flourish on it, then earth no longer differ from heaven.
By prayer we can discern "what is the will of God" and obtain the endurance to do it. Jesus teaches us that one enters the kingdom of heaven not by speaking words, but by doing "the will of my Father in heaven."
"If anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him." Such is the power of the Church's prayer in the name of her Lord, above all in the Eucharist. Her prayer is also a communion of intercession with the all-holy Mother of God and all the saints who have been pleasing to the Lord because they willed his will alone:
It would not be inconsistent with the truth to understand the words, "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," to mean: "in the Church as in our Lord Jesus Christ himself"; or "in the Bride who has been betrothed, just as in the Bridegroom who has accomplished the will of the Father."
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July 26, 2015 - Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
148 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section I Pg 739
I – “Hallowed Be Thy Name”
The term "to hallow" is to be understood here not primarily in its causative sense (only God hallows, makes holy), but above all in an evaluative sense: to recognize as holy, to treat in a holy way. And so, in adoration, this invocation is sometimes understood as praise and thanksgiving. But this petition is here taught to us by Jesus as an optative: a petition, a desire, and an expectation in which God and man are involved. Beginning with this first petition to our Father, we are immersed in the innermost mystery of his Godhead and the drama of the salvation of our humanity. Asking the Father that his name be made holy draws us into his plan of loving kindness for the fullness of time, "according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ," that we might "be holy and blameless before him in love."
In the decisive moments of his economy God reveals his name, but he does so by accomplishing his work. This work, then, is realized for us and in us only if his name is hallowed by us and in us.
The holiness of God is the inaccessible center of this eternal mystery. What is revealed of it in creation and history, Scripture calls "glory," the radiance of his majesty. In making man in his image and likeness, God "crowned him with glory and honor," but by sinning, men fall "short of the glory of God." From that time on, God was to manifest his holiness by revealing and giving his name, in order to restore man to the image of his Creator.
In the promise to Abraham and the oath that accompanied it, God commits himself but without disclosing his name. He begins to reveal it to Moses and makes it known clearly before the eyes of the whole people when he saves them from the Egyptians: "he has triumphed gloriously." From the covenant of Sinai onwards, this people is "his own" it is to be a "holy (or "consecrated": the same word is used for both in Hebrew) nation, because the name of God dwells in it.
In spite of the holy Law that again and again their Holy God give them -- -- "You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy" -- -- and although the Lord shows patience for the sake of his name, the people turn away from the Holy One of Israel and profane his name among the nations. For this reason the just ones of the old covenant, the poor survivors returned from exile, and the prophets burned with passion for the name.
Finally, in Jesus the name of the Holy God is revealed and given to us, in the flesh, as Savior, revealed by what he is, by his word, and by his sacrifice. This is the heart of his priestly prayer: "Holy Father... for their sake I consecrate myself, but that they also may be consecrated in truth." Because he "sanctifies" his own name, Jesus reveals to us the name of the Father. At the end of Christ's Passover, the Father gives him the name that is above all names: "Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
In the waters of Baptism we have been washed... sanctified... justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." Our Father calls us to holiness in the whole of our life, and since "he is the source of [our] life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God and... sanctification.," both his glory and our life depend on the following of his name in us and by us. Such is the urgency of our first petition.
By whom is God hallowed, since he is the one who hallows? But since he said, "You shall be holy to me; for I the Lord am holy," we seek and ask that we who were sanctified in Baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be. And we ask this daily, for we need sanctification daily, that we who fail daily may cleanse away our sins by being sanctified continually... We pray that this sanctification may remain in us.
The sanctification of his name among the nations depends inseparably on our life and our prayer:
We ask God to hallow his name, which by its own holiness saves and makes holy all creation... It is this name that gives salvation to a lost world. But we ask that this name of God should be hallowed in us through our actions. For God's name is blessed when we live well, but is blasphemed when we live wickedly. As the Apostle says: "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” We ask then just as the name of God is holy so we may obtain his Holiness in our souls.
When we say "hallowed be thy name," we ask that it should be hallowed in us, who are in him; but also in others whom God's grace still awaits, that we may obey the precept that obliges us to pray for everyone, even our enemies. That is why we do not say expressly "hallowed be thy name ’ in us,’ “ for we ask that it be so in all men.
This petition embodies all the others. Like the six petitions that follow, it is fulfilled by the prayer of Christ. Prayer to her Father is our prayer, if it is prayed in the name of Jesus. In his priestly prayer, Jesus asks "Holy Father, protect in your name those whom you have given me.”
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July 19, 2015 - These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. Isaiah 56:7
147 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 2 Section III IV Pg 734
III – “Our” Father
"Our" Father refers to God. The adjective, as used by us, does not express possession, but an entirely new relationship with God.
When we say "our" Father, we recognize first that all his promises of love announced by the prophets are fulfilled in the new and eternal covenant in his Christ: we have become "his" people and he is henceforth "our" God. The new relationship is the purely gratuitous gift of belonging to each other: we are to respond to "grace and truth" given us in Jesus Christ with love and faithfulness.
Since the Lord's Prayer is that of his people in the "endtime," this "our" also expresses the certitude of our hope in God's ultimate promise: in the new Jerusalem he will say to the victor, "I will be his God and he shall be my son."
When we pray to "our" Father, we personally address the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By doing so we do not divide the Godhead, since the Father is its "source and origin," but rather confess that the Son is eternally begotten by him and the Holy Spirit proceeds from him. We are not confusing the persons, for we confess our communion is with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ, in their one Holy Spirit. The Holy Trinity is consubstantial and indivisible. When we pray to the Father, we adore and glorify him together and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Grammatically, "our" qualifies a reality common to more than one person. There is only one God, and he is recognized as Father by those who, through faith in his only Son, are reborn of them by water and the Spirit. The Church is this new communion of God and Man. United with the only Son, who has become "the firstborn among many brethren," she is in communion with one and the same Father in one and the same Holy Spirit. In praying "our" Father, each of the baptized is praying in this communion. "The company of those who believed were of one heart and soul.”
For this reason, in spite of the divisions among Christians, this power to "our" Father remains our common patrimony and an urgent summons for all the baptized. In Communion by faith in Christ and by baptism, they ought to join in Jesus' prayer for the unity of his disciples.
Finally if we pray the our Father sincerely, we leave individualism behind, because the love that we receive frees us from it. The "our" at the beginning of the Lord's Prayer, like the "us" of the last four partitions, excludes no one. If we are to say it truthfully, our divisions and oppositions have to become overcome.
The baptized cannot pray to "our" Father without bringing before him all those for whom he gave his beloved Son. God's love has no bounds, neither should our prayer. Praying "our" Father opens to us the dimensions of his love revealed in Christ: praying with and for all who do not yet know him,." God's care for all men and for the whole of creation has inspired all the great practitioners of prayer; it should extend our prayer to the full breadth of love whenever we dare to say "our" Father.
IV – “Who Art In Heaven”
This biblical expression does not mean a place (“space"), but a way of being; it does not mean that God is distant, but majestic. Our Father is not "elsewhere": he transcends everything we can conceive of his holiness. It is precisely because he is thrice holy that he is so close to the humble and contrite heart.
"Our Father who art in heaven" is rightly understood to mean that God is in the hearts of the just, as in his holy temple. At the same time, it means that those who pray should desire the one they invoke to dwell in them.
"Heaven" could also be those who bear the image of the heavenly world, and in whom God dwells and tarries.
The symbol of the heavens refers back to the mystery of the covenant we are living when we pray to our Father. He is in heaven, his dwelling place; the Father's house is our homeland. Sin has exiled us from the land of the covenant, but conversion of heart enables us to return to the Father, to heaven. In Christ then, heaven and earth are reconciled, for the Son alone "descended from heaven" and causes us to ascend there with him, by his Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension.
When the Church prays "our Father who art in heaven," she is professing that we are the People of God already seated "with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" and "hidden with Christ in God;" yet at the same time, "here indeed we groan, and long to put on our heavenly dwelling."
[Christians] are in the flesh, but do not live according to the flesh. They spend their lives on earth, but are citizens of heaven.
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July 12, 2015 - Those who go to God Most High for safety will be protected by the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, "You are my place of safety and protection. You are my God and I trust you." God will save you from hidden traps and from deadly diseases. Psalms 91:1-3
146 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 2 Section I II Pg 731
I – “We Dare To Say”
In the Roman liturgy, the Eucharistic assembly is invited to pray to our heavenly Father with filial boldness; the Eastern liturgies develop and use similar expressions: "dare in all confidence,” "make us worthy of..." From the burning bush Moses heard a voice saying to him, "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." Only Jesus could cross that threshold of divine holiness, for "when he had made purification for sins," he brought us into the Father's presence: "Here am I, and the children God has given me."
Our awareness of our status as slaves would make us sink into the ground and our earthly condition would dissolve into dust, if the authority of our Father himself and the Spirit of his Son had not impelled us to this cry...’Abba, Father!’… When would a mortal dare call God ‘Father,’ if man's innermost being were not animated by power from on high?"
This power of the Spirit who introduces us to the Lord's Prayer is expressed in the liturgies of East and West by the beautiful, characteristically Christian expression: parrhesia, straightforward simplicity, filial trust, joyous assurance, humble boldness, the certainty of being loved.
II – “Father”
Before we make our own this first exclamation of the Lord's Prayer, we must humbly cleanse our hearts of certain false images drawn "from this world." Humility makes us recognize that "no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him," that is, "to little children." The purification of our hearts has to do with paternal or maternal images, stemming from our personal and cultural history, and influencing our relationship with God. God our Father transcends the categories of the created world. To impose our own ideas in this area "upon him" would be to fabricate idols to adore or pull down. To pray to the Father is to enter into his mystery as he is and as the Son has revealed him to us.
The expression God the Father had never been revealed to anyone. When Moses himself asked God who he was, he heard another name. The Fathers’ name had been revealed to us in the Son, for the name "Son" implies the new name "Father."
We can invoke God as "Father" because he is revealed to us by his Son become man and because his Spirit makes him known to us. The personal relation of the Son to the Father is something that man cannot conceive of nor the angelic powers even dimly see: and yet, the Spirit of the Son grants a participation in that very relation to us who believe that Jesus is the Christ and that we are born of God.
When we pray to the Father, we are in communion with him and with his Son, Jesus Christ. Then we know and recognize him with an ever new sense of wonder. The first phrase of the Our Father is a blessing of adoration before it is a supplication. For it is the glory of God that we should recognize him as "Father," the true God. We give him thanks for having revealed his name to us, for the gift of believing in it, and for the indwelling of his Presence in us.
We can adore the Father because he has caused us to be reborn to his life by adopting us as his children and his only Son: by Baptism, he incorporates us into the Body of his Christ; through the anointing of his Spirit who flows from the head to its members, he makes us other "Christs."
God, indeed, who has predestined us to adoption as his sons, has confirmed us to the glorious Body of Christ. So then you who have become sharers in Christ are appropriately called "Christs."
The new man, reborn and restored to his God by grace, says first of all, "Father!" because he has now begun to be a son.”
Thus the Lord's Prayer reveals us to ourselves at the same time that it reveals the Father to us.
O man, you did not dare to raise your face to heaven, you lowered your eyes to the earth, and suddenly you have received the grace of Christ: all your sins have been forgiven. From being a wicked servant you have become a good son... Then raise your eyes to the Father who has begotten you through Baptism, to the Father who has redeemed you through his Son, and say "Our Father..." But do not claim any privilege. He is the Father in a special way only of Christ, but he is the common Father of us all, because while he has begotten only Christ, he has created us. Then also say by his grace, "Our Father," so that you may merit being his own.
The free gift of adoption requires on our part continual conversion and new life. Praying to our Father should develop us two fundamental dispositions:
First, the desire to become like him: though created in his image, we are restored to his likeness by grace; we must respond to this grace.
We must remember... and know that when we call God "our Father" we ought to behave as sons of God.
You cannot call the God of all kindness your Father if you preserve a cruel and inhuman heart; for in this case you no longer have in you the marks of the heavenly Father's kindness.
We must contemplate the beauty of the Father without ceasing and adorn our own souls accordingly.
Second, a humble and trusting heart that enables us "to turn and become like children": for it is to "little children" that the Father is revealed.
[The prayer is accomplished] by the contemplation of God alone, and by the warmth of love, through which the soul, molded and directed to love them, speaks very familiarly to God as to its own Father with special devotion.
Our Father at this name love is aroused in us... and the confidence of obtaining what we are about to ask... What would he not give to his children who ask, since he has already granted them the gift of being his children?
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July 5, 2015 - Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. Colossians 3:23
145 Part 4 Sec 2 Chapter 3 Article 1 Section I II III Pg 727
I - At The Center Of The Scriptures
After showing how the psalms are the principal food of Christian prayer and flew together in the petitions of the Our Father, St. Augustine concludes:
Run through all the words of the holy prayers [in Scripture], and I do not think that you will find anything in them but not contained and included in the Lord's prayer.
All the Scriptures -- -- the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms -- -- are fulfilled in Christ. The Gospel is this "Good News." Its first proclamation is summarized by St. Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount; the prayer to our Father is at the center of this proclamation. It is in this context that each petition bequethed to us by the Lord is illuminated:
The Lord's prayer is the most perfect of prayers.… In it we ask, not only for all the things we can rightly desire, but also in the sequence that they should be desired. This prayer not only teaches us to ask for things, but also in what order we should desire them.
The Sermon on the Mount is teaching for life, the Our Father is a prayer; but in both the one and the other the Spirit of the Lord gives new form to our desires, those inner movements that animate our lives. Jesus teaches us this by his words; he teaches us to ask for it by our prayer. The rightness or life in him will depend on the rightness of our prayer.
II – “The Lord’s Prayer”
The traditional expression "the Lord's prayer" -- --oratio Dominica -- -- means that the prayer to our Father is taught and given to us by the Lord Jesus. The prayer that comes to us from Jesus is truly unique: it is "of the Lord." On the other hand, in the words of this prayer the only Son gives us the words the Father gave him: he is the master of our prayer. On the other, as Word incarnate, he knows in his human heart the needs of his human brothers and sisters and reveals them to us: he is the model of our prayer.
But Jesus does not give us a formula to repeat mechanically. As in every vocal prayer, it is through the Word of God that the Holy Spirit teaches the children of God to pray to their Father. Jesus not only gives us the words of our filial prayer; at the same time he gives us the Spirit by whom these words become in us "spirit and life." Even more, the proof and possibility of our filial prayer is that the Father "sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ “Since our prayer sets forth our desires before God, it is again the Father, "he who searches the hearts of men," who "knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the Saints according to the will of God." The prayer to our Father is inserted into the mysterious mission of the Son and of the Spirit.
III – The Prayer OF The Church
This indivisible gift of the Lord's words and of the Holy Spirit who gives life to them in the hearts of believers has been received and lived by the Church from the beginning. The first communities prayed the Lord's prayer three times a day, in place of the Eighteen Benedictions" customary in Jewish piety. According to the apostolic tradition, the Lord's prayer is essentially rooted in liturgical prayer:
[the Lord] teaches us to make prayer in common for all our brethren. For he did not say "my Father" who art in heaven, but "our" Father, offering petitions for the common body.
In all the liturgical traditions, the Lord's prayer is an integral part of the major hours of the Divine Office. In the three sacraments of Christian initiation its ecclesial character is especially in evidence:
In Baptism and Confirmation, the handing on (traditio) of the Lord's prayer signifies new birth into the divine life. Since Christian prayer is our speaking to God with the very word of God, those who are "born anew... through the living and abiding word of God" learn to invoke their Father by the one Word he always hears. They can henceforth do so, for the seal of the Holy Spirit’s anointing is indelibly placed on their hearts, ears, lips, indeed their whole filial being. This is why most of the patristic commentaries on the Our Father are addressed to catechumens and neophytes. When the Church prays the Lord's prayer, it is always the people made up of the "new born" who pray and obtain mercy.
In the Eucharistic liturgy the Lord's prayer appears as the prayer of the whole Church and there reveals its full meaning and efficacy. Placed between the anaphora (the Eucharistic prayer) and the Communion, the Lord's prayer sums up on the one hand all the petitions and intercessions expressed in the movement of the epiclesis and, on the other, knocks at the door of the Banquet of the kingdom which sacramental communion anticipates.
In the Eucharist, the Lord's prayer also reveals the eschatological character of its petitions. It is the proper prayer of "the end --time," the time of salvation that began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and will be fulfilled with the Lord's return. The petitions addressed to our Father, as distinct from the prayers of the old covenant, rely on the mystery of salvation already accomplished, once for all, in Christ crucified and risen.
From this unshakable faith springs forth the hope that sustains each of the seven petitions, which express the groanings of the present age, this time of patients and expectation during which "it does not yet appear what we shall be." The Eucharist and the Lord's prayer look eagerly for the Lord's return, "until he comes."
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June 28, 2015 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
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I Objections To Prayer
In the battle of prayer, we must face in ourselves and around those erroneous notions of prayer. Some people view prayer as a simple psychological activity, others as an effort of concentration to reach a mental void. Still others reduce prayer to virtual words and postures. Many Christians unconsciously regard prayer as an occupation that is incompatible with all the other things they have to do: they "don't have the time." Those who seek God by prayer are quickly discouraged because they do not know the prayer comes also from the Holy Spirit and not from themselves alone.
We must also face the fact that certain attitudes deriving from the mentality of "this present world" can penetrate our lives if we are not vigilant. For example, some would have it that only that is true which can be verified by reason and science; yet prayer is a mystery that overflows both our conscious and unconscious lives. Others overly prize production and profit; thus prayer, being unproductive, is useless. Still others exalt sensuality and comfort as the criteria of the true, the good, and the beautiful; whereas prayer, the "love of beauty" (philokalia), is caught up in the glory of the living and true God. Finally, some see prayer as a flight from the world in reaction against activism; but in fact, Christian prayer is neither an escape from reality nor a divorce from life.
Finally, our battle has to confront what we experience as failure in prayer: discouragement during periods of dryness; sadness that, because we have "great possessions," we have not given all to the Lord; disappointment over not being heard according to our own will; wounded pride, stiffened by the indignity that is ours as sinners; our resistance to the idea that prayer is a free and unmerited gift; and so forth. The conclusion is always the same: what good does it do to pray? To overcome these obstacles, we must battle to gain humility trust and perseverance.
II Humble Vigilance Of Heart
Facing difficulties in prayer
The habitual difficulty in prayer is distraction. It can affect words and their meaning in vocal prayer; it can concern, more profoundly, him to whom we are praying, and vocal prayer (liturgical or personal), meditation, and contemplative prayer. To set about hunting down distractions would be to fall into their trap, when all that is necessary is to turn back to our heart: for a distraction reveals to us what we are attached to, and this humble awareness before the Lord should awaken our preferential love for him and lead us resolutely to offer him our heart to be purified. Therein lies the battle, the choice of which master to serve.
In positive terms, the battle against the possessive and dominating self requires vigilance, sobriety of heart. When Jesus insists on vigilance, he always relates it to himself, to his coming on the last day and every day: today. The bridegroom comes in the middle of the night; the light that must not be extinguished is that of faith: “Come”, my heart says, “seek his face!”
Another difficulty, especially for those who sincerely want to pray, is dryness. Dryness belongs to contemplative prayer when the heart is separated from God, with no taste for thoughts, memories, and feelings, even spiritual ones. This is a moment of sheer faith clinging faithfully to Jesus in his agony and in his tomb. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." If dryness is due to lack of roots, because the word has fallen on rocky soil, the battle requires conversion.
Facing temptations in prayer
The most common yet most hidden temptation is our lack of faith. It expresses itself less by declared incredulity than by our actual preferences. When we begin to pray, a thousand labors or cares thought to be urgent vie for priority; once again, it is the moment of truth for the heart: what is its real love? Sometimes we turn to the Lord as a last resort, but do we really believe he is? Sometimes we enlist the Lord as an ally, but our heart remains presumptuous. In each case our lack of faith reveals that we do not yet share in the disposition of a humble heart: "Apart from me, you can do nothing."
Another temptation, to which presumption opens the gate, is acedia. The spiritual writers understand by this a form of depression due to lax ascetical practice, decreasing vigilance, carelessness of the heart. "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." The greater the height, the harder the fall. Painful as discouragement is, it is the reverse of presumption. The humble are not surprised by their distress; it leads them to trust more, to hold fast in constancy.
III Filial Trust
Filial trust is tested -- -- it proves itself -- -- in tribulations. The principal difficulty concerns the prayer of petition, for oneself or for others in intercession. Some even stop praying because they think their petition is not heard. Here two questions should be asked: Why do we think our petition has not been heard? How is our prayer heard, how is it “efficacious"?
Why do we complain of not being heard?
In the first place, we ought to be astonished by this fact: when we praise God or give him thanks for his benefits in general, we are not particularly concerned whether or not our prayer is acceptable to him. On the other hand, we demand to see the results of our petitions. What is the image of God that motivates our prayer: an instrument to be used? or the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?
Are we convinced that "we do not know how to pray as we ought"? Are we asking God for "what is good for us"? Our Father knows what we need before we ask him, but he awaits our petition because the dignity of his children lies in their freedom. We must pray, then, with his Spirit of freedom, to be able truly to know what he wants.
"You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." If we ask with a divided heart, we are "adulterers"; God cannot answer us for a desire of our well-being our life. "Or do you suppose that it is in vain that the Scripture says, "He yearns jealously over the spirit which he has made to dwell in us?" That our God is "jealous" for us is the sign of how true his love is. If we enter into the desire of his Spirit, we shall be heard.
Do not be troubled if you do not immediately receive from God what you ask him; for he desires to do something even greater for you, while you claim to him in prayer."
God wills that our desires should be exercised in prayer, that we may be able to receive what he is prepared to give.
How is our prayer efficacious?
The revelation of prayer in the economy of salvation teaches us that faith rests on God's action in history. Our filial trust is enkindled by his supreme act: the Passion and Resurrection of his Son. Christian prayer is cooperation with his providence, his plans of love for men.
For St. Paul, this trust is bold, founded on the prayer of the Spirit in us and on the faithful love of the Father who has given us his only Son. Transformation of the praying hert is the first response to our petition.
The prayer of Jesus makes Christian prayer an efficacious petitione. He is its model, he prays in us and with us. Since the heart of the Son seeks only what pleases the Father how could the prayer of the children of adoption be centered on the gifts rather than the Giver?
Jesus also prays for us--in our place and on our behalf. All our petitions were gathered up once for all in his cry on the Cross and, in his Resurrection, heard by the Father. This is why he never ceases to intercede for us with the Father. If our prayer is resolutely united with that of Jesus, in trust and boldness as children, we obtain all that we ask in his name, even more than any particular thing: the Holy Spirit himself, who contains all gifts.
IV Persevering in Love
"Pray constantly... always and for everything, giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father." St. Paul adds, "Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplications for all the saints." For "we have not been commanded to work, to keep watch and to fast constantly, but it has been laid down that we are to pray without ceasing." This tireless fervor can come only from love. Against our dullness and laziness, the battle of prayer is that of humble, trusting, and persevering love. This love opens our hearts to three enlightning and life-giving fax of faith about prayer.
It is always possible to pray: The time of the Christian is that of the risen Christ who is with us always, no matter what tempests may arise. Our time is in the hands of God:
It is possible to offer fervent prayer even while walking in public or strolling along, or seated in your shop,... while buying or selling,... or even while cooking.
Prayer is a vital necessity. Proof from the contrary is no less convincing: if we do not allow the Spirit to lead us, we fall back into the slavery of sin. How can the Holy Spirit be our life if our heart is far from him?
Nothing is equal to prayer; for what is impossible it makes possible, what is difficult, easy... For it is impossible, utterly impossible, for the man who prays eagerly and invokes God ceaselessly ever to sin.
Those who pray are certainly saved; those who do not pray are certainly damned.
Prayer and Christian life are inseparable, for they concern the same love and the same renunciation, proceeding from love; the same filial and loving conformity with the Father’s plan of love; the same transforming union in the Holy Spirit who conforms us more and more to Christ Jesus; the same love for all men, the love with which Jesus has loved us. "Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he [will] give it to you. This I command you, to love one another."
He "prays without ceasing" who unites prayer to works and good works to prayer. Only in this way can we consider as realizable the principle of praying without ceasing.
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June 21, 2015 - I leave you peace; my peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world does. So don't let your hearts be troubled or afraid. John 14:27
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I Vocal Prayer
Though his Word, God speaks to man. By words, mental or vocal, our prayer takes flesh. Yet it is most important that the heart should be present to him to whom we are speaking in prayer: "Whether or not our prayer is heard depends not on the number of words, but on the fervor of our souls."
Vocal prayer is an essential element of the Christian life. To his disciples, drawn by their Masters silent prayer, Jesus teaches a vocal prayer, the Our Father. He not only prayed aloud the liturgical prayers of the synagogue but, as the Gospels show, he raised his voice to express his personal prayer, from exultant blessing of the Father to the agony of Gethsemane.
The need to involve the senses in interior prayer corresponds to a requirement of our human nature. We are body and spirit, and we experience the need to translate our feelings externally. We must pray with our whole being to give all power possible to our supplication.
This need also corresponds to a divine requirement. God seeks worshipers in Spirit and in Truth, and consequently living prayer that rises from the depths of the soul. He also wants the external expression that associates the body with interior prayers, for it renders him that perfect homage which is his due.
Because it is external and so thoroughly human, vocal prayer is the form of prayer most readily accessible to groups. Even interior prayer, however, cannot neglect vocal prayer. Prayer is interalized to the extent that we become aware of him "to whom we speak." Thus vocal prayer becomes an initial form of contemplative prayer.
II Meditation
Meditation is above all a quest. The mind that seeks to understand the why and how of the Christian life, in order to adhere and respond to what the Lord is asking. The required attentiveness is difficult to sustain. We are usually helped by books, and Christians do not want for them: the Sacred Scriptures, particularly the Gospels, holy icons, liturgical texts of the day or season, writings of the spiritual fathers, works of spirituality, the great book of creation, and of history -- -- the page on which the "today" of God is written.
To meditate on what we read helps us to make it our own b by confronting it with ourselves. Here, another book is opened: the book of life. We pass from thoughts to reality. To the extent that we are humble and faithful, we discover in meditation the movements that stir the heart and we are able to discern them. It is a question of acting truthfully in order to come into the light: "Lord, what do you want me to do?"
There are as many and varied methods of meditation as there are spiritual masters. Christians owe it to themselves to develop the desire to meditate regularly, lest they come to resemble the three first kinds of soil in the parable of the sewer. B>ut a method is only a guide; the important thing is to advance, with the Holy Spirit, along one way of prayer: Christ Jesus
Meditation engages thought, imagination, emotion, and desire. This mobilization of faculties is necessary in order to deepen our convictions of faith prompt the coversion of our heart, and strengthen our will to follow Christ. Christian prayer tries above all to meditate on the mysteries of Christ, as in lectio divina or the rosary. This form of prayerful reflection is of great value, but Christian prayers should go further: to the knowledge of the love of the Lord Jesus, to union with him.
III Contemplative Prayer
What is contemplative prayer? St. Teresa answers: "Contemplative prayer [oracion mental] in my opinion is nothing else than a close sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us."
Contemplative prayer seeks him "whom my soul loves." It is Jesus, and in him, the Father. We seek him, because to desire him is always the beginning of love, and we seek him in that pure faith which causes us to be born of him and to live in him. In this inner prayer we can still meditate, but our attention is fixed on the Lord himself.
The choice of the time and duration of the prayer arises from a determined will, revealing the secrets of the heart. One does not undertake contemplative prayer only when one has the time: one makes time for the Lord, with a firm determination not to give up, no matter what trials and dryness one may encounter. One cannot always meditate, but one can always enter into inner prayer, independently of the conditions of health, work, or emotional state. The heart is the place of this quest and encounter, in poverty and in faith.
Entering into contemplative prayer is like entering into the Eucharistic liturgy: we "gather up" the heart, recollect our whole being under the prompting of the Holy Spirit, abide in the dwelling place of the Lord which we are, awaken our faith in order to enter into the presence of him who awaits us. We let our masks fall and turn our hearts back to the Lord who loves us, so as to hand ourselves over to him as an offering to be purified and transformed.
Contemplative prayer is the prayer of the child of God, of the forgiven sinner who agrees to welcome the love by which is loved and who wants to respond to it by loving even more. He knows that the love he is returning is poured out by the Spirit in his heart, for everything is grace from God. Contemplative prayer is the poor and humble surrender to the loving will of the Father in even deeper union with his beloved Son.
Contemplative prayer is the simplest expression of the mystery of prayer. It is a gift, a grace; it can be accepted only in humility and poverty. Contemplative prayer is a covenant relationship established by God within our hearts. Contemplative prayer is a communion in which the Holy Trinity conforms man, the image of God, "to his likeness."
Contemplative prayer is also the pre-eminently intense time of prayer. In it the Father strengthens our inner being with power through his Spirit "that Christ may dwell in [our] hearts through faith" and we may be "grounded in love."
Contemplation is a gaze of faith, fixed on Jesus. "I look at him and he looks at me"; this is what a certain peasant of Ars in the time of his holy cure used to say while praying before the current tabernacle. This focus on Jesus is a renunciation of self. His gaze purifies our heart; the light of the countenance of Jesus illumines the eyes of our heart and teaches us to see everything in the light of his truth and his compassion for all men. Contemplation also turns its gaze on the mysteries of the life of Christ. Thus it learns the "interior knowledge of our Lord," the more to love him and follow him."
Contemplative prayer is hearing the word of God. Far from being passive, such attentiveness is the obedience of faith, the unconditional acceptance of a servant, and the loving commitment of a child. It participates in the "Yes" of the Son become servant and the Fiat of God's lowly handmaid,
Contemplative prayer is silence, the "symbol of the world to come" or "silent love." Words in this kind of prayer are not speeches; they are like kindling that feeds the fire of love. In this silence, unbearable to the "outer" man, the Father speaks to us his incarnate Word, who suffered, died, and rose; in this silence the spirit of adoption enables us to share in the prayer of Jesus.
Contemplative prayer is a union with the prayer of Christ insofar as it makes us participate in his mystery. The mystery of Christ is celebrated by the Church in the Eucharist, and the Holy Spirit makes it come alive in contemplative prayer so that our charity will manifest it in our acts.
Contemplative prayer is a communion of love bearing life for the multitude, to the extent that it consents to abide in the night of faith. The Paschal night of the Resurrection passes through the night of the agony and the tomb -- -- the three intense moments of the Hour of Jesus which his Spirit (and not "the flesh [which] is weak") brings to life in prayer. We must be willing to "keep watch with [him] one hour."
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June 14, 2015 - Your word is like a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. I will do what I have promised and obey your fair laws. Psalms 119:105-106
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6UIDES FOR PRAYER
A cloud of witnesses
The witnesses who have preceded us into the kingdom, especially those whom the Church recognizes as saints, sharing the living tradition of prayer by the examples of their lives, the transmission of their writings, and their prayer today. They contemplate God, praise him and constantly care for those whom they have left on earth. When they entered into the joy of their master, they were "put in charge of many things." Their intercession uttermost exulted service to God's plan. We can and should ask them to intercede for us and for the whole world.
In the communion of saints, many and varied spiritualties have been developed throughout the history of the churches. The personal charism of some witnesses to God's love for man has been handed on, like "the spirit" of Elijah to Elisha and John the Baptist, so that their followers may have a share in this spirit. A distinct spirituality can also arise at the point of convergence of liturgical and theological currents, bearing witness to the integration of the faith into a particular human environment in its history. The different schools of Christian spirituality share in the living tradition of prayer and are essential guides for the faithful. In their rich diversity they are refractions of the one pure light of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit is truly the dwelling of the saints and the saints are for the Spirit a place where he dwells as in his own home, since they offer themselves as a dwelling place for God and are called his temple.
Servants of prayer
The Christian family is the first place of education in prayer. Based on the sacrament of marriage, the family is the "domestic Church" where God's children learn to pray "as the Church" and to persevere in prayer. For young children in particular, daily family prayer is the first witness of the Church's living memory as awakened patiently by the Holy Spirit.
Ordained ministers are also responsible for the formation of prayer of their brothers and sisters in Christ. Servants of the good Shepherd, they are named to lead the people of God to the living waters of prayer: the Word of God, the liturgy, the theological life (the life of faith, hope, and charity), and the Today of God in concrete situations.
Many religious have consecrated their whole lives to prayer. Hermits, monks, nuns since the time of the desert fathers have devoted their time to praising God and interceding for his people. The consecrated life cannot be sustained or spread without prayer; it is one of the living sources of contemplation and the spiritual life of the Church.
The catechesis of children, young people, and adults aims at teaching them to meditate on the Word of God in personal prayer, practicing it in liturgical prayer, internalizing it at all times in order to bear fruit in a new life. Catechesis is also a time for the discernment and education of popular piety. The memorization of basic prayers offers as essential support to the life of prayer, but it is important to to help learners savor their meaning.
Prayer groups, indeed "schools of prayer," are today one of the signs and one of the driving forces of renewal of prayer in the Church, provided they drink from authentic wellsprings of Christian prayer. Concern for ecclesial communion is a sign of true prayer and the Church.
The Holy Spirit gives to certain of the faithful the gifts of wisdom, faith and discernment for the sake of this common good which is prayer (spiritual direction). Men and women endowed are true servants of the living tradition of prayer.
According to St. John of the Cross, the person wishing to advance toward perfection should "take care into whose hands he entrusts himself, for as the master is, so will the disciple be, as the father is so will be the son." And further: "In addition to being learned and discrete a director should be experienced... if the spiritual director has no experience of the spiritual life he will be incapable of leading into it the souls whom God is calling to it, and he will not even understand them."
Places favorable for prayer
The church, the house of God, is the proper place for the liturgical prayer of the parish community. It is also the privileged place for adoration of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. The choice of a favorable place is not a matter of indifference for true prayer.
-- -- For personal prayer, this can be a "prayer corner" with the Sacred Scriptures and icons, in order to be there, in secret, before our Father. In a Christian family, this kind of little oratory fosters prayer in common.
-- -- In regions where monasteries exist, the vocation of these communities is to further the participation of the faithful in the Liturgy of the Hours and to provide necessary solitude for more intense personal prayer.
-- Pilgrimages evoke our earthly journey toward heaven and are traditionally very special occasions for renewal in prayer. For pilgrims seeking living water, shrines are special places for living the forms of Christian prayer "in Church"
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June 7, 2015 - But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31
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THE WAY OF PRAYER
In the living tradition of prayer, each Church proposes to its faithful, according to its historic, social, and cultural context, a language for prayer: words, melodies, gestures, iconography. The Magisterium of the Church has the task of discerning the fidelity of these ways of praying to the tradition of apostolic faith; it is for pastors and catechists to explain their meaning, always in relation to Jesus Christ.
Prayer to the Father
There is no other way of Christian prayer than Christ. Whether our prayer is communal or personal, vocal or interior, it has access to the Father only if we pray "in the name" of Jesus. The sacred humanity of Jesus is therefore the way by which the Holy Spirit teaches us to pray to God our Father.
Prayer to Jesus
The prayer of the Church, nourished by the Word of God and the celebration of the liturgy, teaches us to pray to the Lord Jesus. Even though her prayer is addressed above all to the Father, it includes in all the liturgical traditions forms of prayer addressed to Christ. Certain psalms, given their use in the Prayer of the Church, and the New Testament place on our lips and engrave in our prayer to Christ in the form of invocations: Son of God, Word of God, Lord, Savior, Lamb of God, King, Beloved Son, Son of the Virgin, Good Shepherd, our
Life, our Light, our Hope, our Resurrection, Friend of mankind...
But the one name that contains everything is the one that the Son of God received in his incarnation: JESUS. The divine name may not be spoken by human lips, but by assuming our humanity "The Word of God hands it over to us and we can invoke it: "Jesus," "YHWH saves." The name "Jesus" contains all: God and man and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray "Jesus" is to invoke him and to call him within us. His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies. Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him.
This simple invocation of faith developed in the tradition of prayer under many forms in East and West. The most usual formulation, transmitted by the spiritual writers of the Sinai, Syria, and Mt. Athos, is the invocation, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us sinners." It combines the Christological hymn of Philippians 2:6 -- 11 with the cry of the publican and the blind man begging for light. By it the heart is opened to human wretchedness and the Savior's mercy.
The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the word and "brings forth fruit with patience." This prayer is possible "at all times" because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus.
The prayer of the Church venerates and honors the Heart of Jesus just as it invokes his most holy name. It adores the incarnate Word and his Heart which, out of love for men, he allowed to be pierced by our sins. Christian prayer loves to follow the Way of the Cross in the Savior's steps. The stations from the Praetoria\um to Golgatha and the tomb trace the way of Jesus, who by his holy Cross has redeemed the world.
"Come Holy Spirit"
"No one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit." Every time we begin to pray to Jesus is the Holy Spirit who draws us on the way of prayer by his prevenient
grace. Since he teaches us to pray by recalling Christ how could we not pray to the Spirit too? That is why the Church invites us to call upon the Holy Spirit every day, especially at the beginning and the end of every important action.
If the spirit should not be worshiped, how can he divinize me through Baptism? If he should be worshiped, should he not be the object of that adoration?
The traditional form of petition to the Holy Spirit is to invoke the Father through Christ our Lord to give us the Consoler Spirit. Jesus insist on this petition to be made in his name at the very moment when he promises the gift of the Spirit of Truth. But the simplest and most direct prayer is also traditional, "Come Holy Spirit," and every liturgical tradition has developed it in antiphon's and hymns.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.
Heavenly King, Consoler Spirit, Spirit of Truth, present everywhere and filling all things, treasure of all good source of all life, come dwell in us,, cleanse and save us, you who are All-Good.
The Holy Spirit whose anointing permeates our whole being, is the interior Master of Christian prayer. He is the artesian of the living tradition of prayer. To be sure, there are as many paths of prayer as there are persons who pray but it is the same Spirit acting in all and with all. It is in the communion of the Holy Spirit that Christian prayer is prayer in the Church.
In communion with the Holy Mother of God
In prayer the Holy Spirit unites us to the person of the only Son, in his glorified humanity, through which and in which our filial prayer unites us in the Church with the Mother of Jesus.
Mary gave her consent in faith at the Annunciation and maintained it without hesitation at the foot of the Cross. Ever since, her motherhood has extended to the brothers and sisters of her Son "who still journey on earth surrounded by dangers and difficulties." Jesus, the only mediator, is the way of our prayer; Mary, his mother and ours, is wholly transparent to him: she shows the away" (hodigitria) and is herself "the Sign" of the way, according to the traditional iconography of the East and West.
Beginning with Mary's unique cooperation with the working of the Holy Spirit, the Churches developed their prayer to the Holy Mother of God, centering it on the person of Christ manifested in his mysteries. In countless hymns and antiphons expressing this prayer, two movements usually alternate with one another: the first "magnifies" the Lord for the "great things" he did for his lowly servant and through her for all human beings; the second entrusts the supplications and praises of the children of God to the mother of Jesus, because she now knows the humanity which, in her, the Son of God espoused.
The twofold movement of prayer to Mary has found a privileged expression in the Ave Maria:
Hail Mary [or Rejoice, Mary]: the greeting of the angel Gabriel opens this prayer. It is God himself who, through his angel as intermediary, greets Mary. Our prayer dares to take up this greeting to Mary with the regard God had for the lowliness of his humble servant and to exalt in the joy he finds in her.
Full of Grace, the Lord is with thee: These two phrases of the angel’s greeting shed light on one another. Mary is full of Grace because the Lord is with her. The grace with which she is filled is the presence of him who is the source of all grace. "Rejoice... O daughter of Jerusalem... the Lord your God is in your midst." Mary, in whom the Lord himself has just made his dwelling, is the daughter of Zion in person, the ark of the covenant, the place where the glory of the Lord dwells. She is "the dwelling of God... with men." Full of Grace, Mary is wholly given over to him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world.
Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. After the angel’s greeting, we make Elizabeth's greeting her own "Filled with the Holy Spirit," Elizabeth is the first in a long succession of generations who have called Mary "blessed," "Blessed is she who believed..." Mary is "blessed among women" because she believed in the fulfillment of the Lord's word. Abraham, because of his faith, became a blessing for all the nations of the earth. Mary, because of her faith, became the mother of believers, through whom all nations of the earth receive him who is God's own blessing: Jesus, the "fruit of thy womb."
Holy Mary, Mother of God: With Elizabeth we marvel, "And why is this granted me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Because she gives us Jesus, her son, Mary is Mother of God and our mother; we can entrust all our cares and petitions to her: she prays for us as she prayed for herself: "Let it be to me according to your word." By entrusting ourselves to her prayer, we abandon ourselves to the will of God together with her: "Thy will be done."
Pray for us sinners, now at the hour of our death: By asking Mary to pray for us we acknowledge ourselves to be poor sinners and we address ourselves to the "Mother of Mercy," the All-Holy One. We give ourselves over to her now in the Today of our lives. And our trust broadens further, already at the present moment, to surrender "the hour of our death" wholly to her care. May she be there as she was at her son's death on the cross. May she welcome us as our mother at the hour of our passing to lead us to her son, Jesus, and paradise.
Medieval piety in the West developed the prayer of the rosary as a popular substitute for the Liturgy of the Hours. In the East, the litany called the Akathistos and the Paraclesis remained closer to the choral office in the Byzantine churches, while the Armenian, Coptic, and Syriac traditions preferred popular hymns and songs to the Mother of God. But in the Ave Maria, the theotokia , the hymns of St. Ephrem or St. Gregory of Narek, the tradition of prayer is basically the same.
Mary is the perfect Orans (pray-er), a figure of the Church. When we pray to her, we are adhering with her to the plan of the Father, who sends his Son to save all men. Like the beloved disciple we welcome Jesus’ mother into our homes, for she has become the mother of all the living. We can pray with and to her. The prayer of the Church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it and hope.
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May 31, 2015 - You, Lord, give true peace to those who depend on you, because they trust you. So, trust the Lord always, because he is our Rock forever. Isaiah 26:3-4
Hope you enjoy this one also.
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THE WELLSPRING OF PRAYER
The Holy Spirit is the living water "welling up to eternal life" in the heart that prays. It is he who teaches us to accept it at its source: Christ. Indeed in the Christian life there are several wellsprings where Christ awaits us to enable us to drink the Holy Spirit.
The Word Of God
The Church "forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful... to learn “the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:8) by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures... Let them remember, however, that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that a dialogue takes place between God and man. For “we speak to him when we pray; we listen to him when we read the divine oracles.”
The spiritual writers, paraphrasing Matthew 7:7, summarized in this way the dispositions of the heart nourished by the word of God in prayer "Seek in reading and you will find in meditating; knock in mental prayer and it will be opened to you by contemplation."
The Liturgy of the Church
In the sacramental liturgy of the Church, the mission of Christ and of the Holy Spirit proclaims, makes present, and communicates the mystery of salvation which is continued in the heart that prays. The spiritual writers sometimes compare the heart to an altar. Prayer internalizes and assimilates the liturgy during and after its celebration. Even when it is lived out "in secret," prayer is always prayer of the Church it is a communion with the Holy Trinity.
The theological virtues
One enters into prayer as one enters into liturgy by the narrow gate of faith. Through the signs of his presence, it is the Face of the Lord that we seek and desire; it is his word that we want to hear and keep.
The Holy Spirit, who instructs us to celebrate the liturgy in expectation of Christ's return, teaches us to pray in hope. Conversely, the prayer of the Church and personal prayer nourish hope in us. The psalms especially, with their concrete and varied language, teach us to fix our hope in God: "I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry." As St. Paul prayed: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope."
"Hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Prayer, formed by the liturgical life, draws everything into the love by which we are loved in Christ and which enables us to respond to him by loving as he has loved us. Love is the source of prayer; whoever draws from it reaches the summit of prayer. In the words of the Cure of Arts:
I love you, O my God, and my only desire is to love you until the last breath of my life. I love you, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving you, then live without loving you. I love you, Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love you eternally... My God, if my tongue cannot say every moment that I love you, I want my heart to repeat it to you as often as I draw breath.
"Today"
We learn to pray at certain moments by hearing the Word of the Lord and sharing in his Paschal mystery, but his Spirit is offered us at all times, in the events of each day, to make prayer spring up from us. Jesus’ teaching about praying to our Father is in the same vein as his teaching about providence: time is in the Father's hands; it is in the present that we encounter him, not yesterday not tomorrow, but today: "O that today you would hearken to his voice! Harden not your hearts."
Prayer in the events of each day and each moment is one of the secrets of the kingdom revealed to "Little children," to the servants of Christ, to the poor of the Beatitudes. It is right and good to pray so that the coming of the kingdom of justice and peace may influence the march of history, but it is just as important to bring the help of prayer into humble, everyday situations; all forms of prayer can be the leaven to which the Lord compares the kingdom.
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May 24, 2015 - You are joined together with peace through the Spirit, so make every effort to continue together in this way. Ephesians 4:2-3
Part 4 Sec 1 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section IV V Pg 696
IV – Prayer of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving characterizes the prayer of the Church which, in celebrating the Eucharist, reveals and becomes more fully what she is. Indeed, in the work of salvation, Christ sets creation free from sin and death to consecrate it anew and make it a return to the Father, for his glory. The thanksgiving of the members of the Body participates in that of their Head.
As in the prayer of petition, every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving. The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving, and the Lord Jesus is always present in it: "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you"; "Continued steadfastly in prayer, being watchful and it with thanksgiving."
V – Prayer Of Praise
Praise is the form of prayer which recognizes most immediately that God is God. It lauds God for his own sake and gives him glory, quite beyond what he does, but simply because HE IS. It shares in the blessed happiness of the pure of heart who love God in faith before seeing him in glory. By praise, the Spirit is joined to our spirits to bear witness that we are children of God, testifying to the only Son in whom we are adopted and by whom we glorify the Father. Praise embraces the other forms of prayer and carries them toward him who is its source and goal: the "one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist."
St. Luke in his gospel often expresses wonder and praise that the marvels of Christ and in his Acts of the Apostles stresses them as actions of the Holy Spirit: the community of Jerusalem, the invalid healed by Peter and John, the crowd that gives glory to God for that, and the pagans of Pisidia who "were glad and glorified the word of God."
"[Address] one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." Like the inspired writers of the New Testament, the first Christian communities read the book of Psalms in a new way, singing in it the mystery of Christ. In the newness of the Spirit, they also compose hymns and canticles in the light of the unheard-of event that God accomplished in his Son: his Incarnation, his death which conquered death, his Resurrection, and Ascension to the right hand of the Father. Doxology, the praise of God, arises from this "marvelous work" of the whole economy of salvation.
The Revelation of “what must soon take place," the Apocalypse, is borne along by the songs of the heavenly liturgy but also by the intercession of the "witnesses" (martyrs). The prophets and the saints, all those who were slain on earth for their witness to Jesus, the vast throng of those who, having come through the great tribulation, have gone before us into the Kingdom, all sing the praise and glory of him who sits on the throne, and of the Lamb. In communion with them, the Church on earth also sings these songs with faith in the midst of trial. By means of petition and intercession, faith hopes against all hope and gives thanks to "Father of lights," from whom "every perfect gift" comes down. Thus faith is pure praise.
The Eucharist contains and expresses all forms of prayer: it is "the pure offering" of the whole Body of Christ to the glory of God's name and, according to the traditions of East and West, it is the "sacrifice of praise."
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May 17, 2015 - And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8
Part 4 Sec 1 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section I II III Pg 693
I – Blessing And Adoration
Blessing expresses the basic movement of Christian prayer: it is an encounter between God and man. In blessing, God's gift and man's acceptance of it are united in dialogue with each other. The prayer of blessing is man’s response to God's gifts: because God blesses, the human heart can in return bless the One who is the source of every blessing.
Two fundamental forms express this movement our prayer ascends in the Holy Spirit through Christ to the Father -- -- we bless him for having blessed us; it implores the grace of the Holy Spirit that descends through Christ from the Father -- -- he blesses us.
Adoration is the first attitude of man acknowledging that he is a creature before his Creator. It exalts the greatness of the Lord who made us and the almighty power of the Savior who sets us free from evil. Adoration is homage of the Spirit to the "King of glory," respectful silence in the presence of the "ever greater" God. Adoration of the thrice-holy and sovereign God of love blends with humility and gives assurance to our supplications.
II – Prayer Of Petition
The vocabulary of supplication in the New Testament is rich in shades of meaning: ask, beseech, plead, invoke, intreat, cry out, even "struggle in prayer." Its most usual form, because the most spontaneous, is petition: by prayer of petition we express awareness of our relationship with God. We are creatures who are not our own beginning, not the masters of adversity, not our own last end. We are sinners who as Christians know that we have turned away from our Father. Our petition is already a turning back to him.
The New Testament contains scarcely any prayers of lamentation, so frequent in the Old Testament. And there was a Christ the Church’s petition is buoyed by hope, even if we still wait in a state of expectation and must be converted anew every day. Christian petition, what St. Paul calls "groaning," arises from another depth, that of creation "in labor pains" and that of ourselves "as we wait for the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved." In the end, however, "with sighs too deep for words" the Holy Spirit "helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words."
The first movement of the prayer of petition is asking forgiveness, like the tax collector in the parable "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" It is a prerequisite for righteousness and pure prayer. A trusting humility brings us back into the light of communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and with one another, so that "we receive from him whatever we ask." Asking forgiveness is the prerequisite for both the Eucharistic liturgy and personal prayer.
Christian petition is centered on the desire and search for the Kingdom to come, in keeping with the teaching of Christ. There is a hierarchy in these petitions: we pray first for the Kingdom, then for what is necessary to welcome it and cooperate with its coming. This collaboration with the mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit, which is now that of the Church, is the object of the prayer of the apostolic community. It is the prayer of Paul, the apostle par excellence, which reveals to us how the divine solicitude for all the churches ought to inspire Christian prayer. By prayer every baptized person works for the coming of the Kingdom.
When we share in God's saving love, we understand that every need can become the object of petition. Christ, who assumed all things in order to redeem all things, is glorified by what we asked the Father in his name. It is with this confidence that St. James and St. Paul exhorted us to pray at all times.
III – Prayer Of Intercession
Intercession is a prayer of petition which leads us to pray as Jesus did. He is the one intercessor with the Father on behalf of all men, especially sinners. He is "able for all time to save those who draw near to God for him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." The Holy Spirit "himself intercedes for us... and intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."
Since Abraham, intercession -- -- asking on behalf of another -- -- has been characteristic of a heart attuned to God's mercy. In the age of the Church, Christian intercession participates in Christ's, as an expression of the communion of saints. In intercession, he who prays looks "not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others," even to the point of praying for those who do him harm.
The first Christian communities lived this form of fellowship intensely. Thus the Apostle Paul gives them a share in his ministry of preaching the Gospel but also intercedes for them. The intercession of Christians recognizes no boundaries: "for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions," for persecutors, for the salvation of those who reject the Gospel.
Words by gifted song writer and musician Don Moen:
“God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength
For each new day
He will make a way
He will make a way.”
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May 10, 2015 - Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4
Part 4 Sec 1 Chapter 1 Article 2 Part 2 Pg 687
Jesus teaches us how to pray
When Jesus prays he is already teaching us how to pray. His prayer to his Father is the theologal path (the path of faith, hope, and charity) of our prayer to God. But the gospel also gives us Jesus’ explicit teaching on prayer. A wise teacher he takes hold of us where we are and leads us progressively toward the Father. Addressing the crowds following him, Jesus builds on what they already know of prayer from the Old Covenant and opens to them the newness of the coming Kingdom. Then he reveals this newness to them in parables. Finally, he will speak openly of the Father and the Holy Spirit to his disciples who will be the teachers of prayer his Church.
From the Sermon on the Mount onwards, Jesus insists on conversion of the heart: reconciliation with one's brother before presenting an offering on the altar, love of enemies, and prayer for persecutors, prayer to the Father in secret, not heaping up empty phrases, prayerful forgiveness from the depths of the heart, purity of heart, and seeking the Kingdom before all else. This filial conversion is entirely directed to the Father.
Once committed to conversion, the heart learns to pray in faith. Faith is a filial adherence to God beyond what we feel and understand. It is possible because the beloved Son gives us access to the Father. He can ask us to "seek" and to "knock" since he himself is the door and the way.
Just as Jesus prays to the Father and gives banks before receiving his gifts, so he teaches us a filial boldness: "Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and you will." Such is the power of prayer and of faith that does not doubt: "all things are possible to him who believes." Jesus is as saddened by the "lack of faith" of his own neighbors and the "little faith" of his own disciples as he is struck with admiration at the great faith of the Roman centurion and the Canaanite woman.
The prayer of faith consists not only of saying "Lord, Lord," but in disposing the heart to do the will of the Father. Jesus calls his disciples to bring into their prayer this concern for cooperating with underlying plan.
In Jesus "the Kingdom of God is at hand." He calls his hearers to conversion and faith, but also to watchfulness. In prayer the disciple keeps watch, attentive to Him Who Is in Him Who Comes, in memory of his first coming in the lowliness of the flesh, and in the hope of his second coming in glory. In communion with their Master, the disciples’ prayer is a battle; only by keeping watch in prayer can one avoid falling into temptation.
Three principal parables on prayer are transmitted to us by St. Luke:
-- -- The first, "the importunate friend," invites us to urgent prayer: ",Knock, and it will be opened to you." To the one who prays like this, the heavenly Father will "give whatever he needs," and above all the Holy Spirit contains all gifts.
-- -- The second, " the importunate widow," is centered on one of the qualities of prayer: it is necessary to pray always without ceasing and what the patients of faith. "And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
-- -- Third parable, "the Pharisee and the tax collector," concerns the humility of the heart that prays. "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" The Church continues to make this prayer its own: Kyrie eleison!
When Jesus openly entrusts to his disciples the mystery of prayer to the Father, he reveals to them what their prayer and ours must be, once he has returned to the Father in his glorified humanity. What is new is to "ask in his name." Faith in the Son introduces the disciples into the knowledge of the Father, because Jesus is "the way, and the truth, and the life." Faith bears its fruit in love: it means keeping the word and the commandments of Jesus, it means abiding with him in the Father who, in him, so loves us that he abides with us. In this new covenant the certitude that our petitions will be heard is founded on the prayer of Jesus.
Even more, what the Father gives us when our prayer is united with that of Jesus is "another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth." This new dimension of prayer and of its circumstances is displayed throughout the farewell discourse. In the Holy Spirit, Christian prayer is a communion of love with the Father, not only through Christ but also in him: "Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name; ask, and you' will receive, that your joy may be full."
Jesus hears our prayer
Prayer to Jesus is answered by him already during his ministry, through signs that anticipate the power of his death and Resurrection: Jesus hears the prayer of faith, expressed in words (the lyper, Jairus, the Canaanite woman, the good thief) or in silence (the bearers of the paralytic, the woman with a hemorrhage who touches his clothes, the tears and ointment of the sinful woman).urgent request of the blind men, "have mercy on us, Son of David" or "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” has been renewed in the traditional prayer to Jesus known as the Jesus prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” Healing infirmities or forgiving sins, Jesus always responds to a prayer offered in faith: "Your faith has made you well; go in peace."
St. Augustine wonderfully summarizes the three dimensions of Jesus’ prayer: "He prays for us as our priest, prays in us as our Head, and is prayed to by us as our God. Therefore let us
Acknowledge our voice in him and his in us.."
The prayer of the Virgin Mary
Mary's prayer is revealed to us at the dawning of the fullness of time. Before the incarnation of the Son of God, and before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, her prayer cooperates in a unique way with the Father's plan of loving kindness: at the Annunciation, for Christ's conception; at Pentecost, for the formation of the Church, his Body. In the faith of his humble handmaid, the Gift of God found the acceptance he had awaited from the beginning of time. She whom the Almighty made "full of grace" responds by offering her whole being: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be [done] to me according to your word." "Fiat”: this is Christian prayer: to be wholly God’s, because he is wholly ours.
The Gospel reveals to us how Mary prays and intercedes in faith. At Cana the mother of Jesus asks her Son for the needs of the wedding feast; this is the sign of another feast -- -- that of the wedding of the Lamb where he gives his body and blood at the request of the Church, his Bride. It is at the hour of the New Covenant, at the foot of the cross, Mary is heard as the Woman, the new Eve, the true "Mother of all the living."
That is why the Canticle of Mary, the Magnificat (Latin) or Megalynei (Byzantine) is the song both of the Mother of God and of the Church; the song of the Daughter of Zion and of the new People of God; the song of thanksgiving for the fullness of graces poured out in the economy of salvation and the song of the "poor" whose hope is met by the fulfillment of the promises made to our ancestors, "to Abraham and to his posterity forever."
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One simple carpenter - E-Water
May 3, 2015 - And God can give you more blessings than you need. Then you will always have plenty of everything- enough to give to every good work. 2 Corinthians 9:8
Part 4 Sec 1 Chapter 1 Article 2 Part 1 Pg 684
Article 2 – In The Fullness of Time
The drama of prayer is fully revealed to us in the Word who became flesh and dwells among us. To seek to understand his prayer through what his witness proclaim to us in the Gospel is to approach the holy Lord Jesus as Moses approached the burning bush: first to contemplative him in prayer, then to hear how he teaches us to pray, in order to know how he hears our prayer.
Jesus prays
The Son of God who became Son of the Virgin also learned to pray according to his human heart. He learns the formulas of prayer from his mother, who could kept in her heart and meditated upon all the "great things" done by the Almighty. He learns to pray in words and rhythms of the prayer of his people, in a synagogue at Nazareth and the Temple at Jerusalem. But his prayer springs from an otherwise secret source, as he intimates at the age of 12: "I must be in my Father's house." Here the newness of prayer in the fullness of time begins to be revealed: his filial prayer, which the Father awaits from his children, is finally going to be lived out by the only Son in his humanity, with and for men.
The Gospel according to St. Luke emphasizes the action of the Holy Spirit in the meaning of prayer in Christ’s ministries. Jesus prays before the decisive moments of his mission: before his Father's witness to him during his baptism and Transfiguration, and before his own fulfillment of the Father's plan of love by his Passion. He also prays before the decisive moments involving the mission of his apostles: at his election and called of the 12, before Peter's confession of him as "the Christ of God," and again that the faith of the chief of the Apostles may not fail when tempted. Jesus’ prayer before the events of salvation that the Father has asked him to fulfill is a humble and trusting commitment to his human will to the loving will of the Father.
"He was praying in a certain place and when he had ceased, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray." In seeing the Master at prayer disciple of Christ who also wants to pray. By contemplating and hearing the Son, the master of prayer, the children learn to pray to the Father.
Jesus often draws apart to pray in solitude, on a mountain, preferably at night. He Includes all men in his prayer, for he has taken on humanity in his incarnation, and he offers them to the Father when he offers himself. Jesus, the Word who has become flesh, shares by his human prayer in all that "his brethren" experience; he sympathizes with their weaknesses in order to free them. It was for this that the Father sent him. His words and works are the visible manifestation of his prayer in secret.
The evangelists have preserved two more explicit prayers offered by Christ during his public ministry. Each begins with thanksgiving. In the first, Jesus confesses the Father, acknowledges, and blesses him because he has hidden the mysteries of the Kingdom from those who think themselves learned and has revealed them to infants, the poor of the Beatitudes. His exclamation, "Yes, Father!" expresses the depth of his heart, his adherence to the Father's "good pleasure," echoing his mother’s Fiat at the time of his conception and prefiguring what he would say to the Father in his agony. The whole prayer of Jesus is contained in his loving adherence of his human heart to the mystery of the will of the Father.
The second prayer, before the raising of Lazarus is recorded by St. John. Thanksgiving precedes the event: "Father, I thank you for having heard me," which implies that the Father always hears his petitions. Jesus immediately adds: "I know that you always hear me," which implies that Jesus, on his part, constantly made such petitions. Jesus’ prayer, characterized by thanksgiving, reveals to us how to ask: before the gift is given, Jesus commits himself to the One who in giving gives himself. The Giver is more precious than the gift; he is the "treasure"; in him abides his Son's heart; the gift is given "as well."
The priestly prayer of Jesus holds a unique place in the economy of salvation. A meditation on it will conclude Section 1. It reveals the ever present prayer of our high Priest and, at the same time, contains what he teaches us about our prayer to our Father, which will be developed in Section 2.
When the hour had come for him to fulfill the Father's plan of love, Jesus allows a glimpse of the boundless depth of his filial prayer, not only before he freely delivered himself up ("Abba… not my will, but yours."), but even in his last words on the Cross, were prayer and the gift of self are but one: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"; "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise"; "Woman, behold your son" -- -- "behold your mother"; "I thirst."; "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"; "It is finished"; "father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" Until the "loud cry" as he expires, giving up his spirit.
All the troubles, for all time, of humanity enslaved by sin and death, all the petitions and intercession of salvation history are summed up in this cry of the incarnate Word. Here the Father accepts them and, beyond all hope, answers them by raising his Son. Thus is fulfilled and brought to completion the drama of prayer in the economy of creation and salvation. The Psalter gives us the key to prayer in Christ. In the "today" of the Resurrection the Father says: "you are my Son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession."
The letter to the Hebrews expresses in dramatic terms how the prayer of Jesus accomplished the victory of salvation: "in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear. Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him."
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April 26, 2015 - Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city. Proverbs 16:32
Part 4 Sec 1 Chapter 1 Article 1 Part 2 Pg 679
David and the prayer of the king
The prayer of the People of God flourishes in the shadow of God’s dwelling place, first the ark of the covenant and later the Temple. At first the leaders of the people -- -- the shepherds and the prophets -- -- teach them to pray. The infant Samuel must have learned from his mother Hannah how "to stand before the LORD" and from the priest Eli how to listen to his word: "speak, LORD, for your servant is listening." Later, he will also know the cost and consequences of intercession: "Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you; and I will instruct you in the good and the right way."
David is par excellence the king "after God's own heart," the shepherd who prays for his people prays in their name. His submission to the will of God, his praise, and his repentance, will be a model for the prayer of the people. His prayer, the prayer of God's Anointed, is a faithful adherence to the divine promise and expresses a loving and joyful trust in God, the only King and Lord. In the Psalms of David, inspired by the Holy Spirit is the first prophet of Jewish and Christian prayer. The prayer of Christ, the true Messiah and Son of David, will reveal and fulfill the meaning of this prayer.
The Temple of Jerusalem, the house of prayer that David wanted to build, will be the work of his son, Solomon. The prayer at the dedication of the Temple relies on God's promise and covenant, on the active presence of his name among his People, recalling his mighty deeds at the Exodus. The king lifts his hands toward heaven and begs the Lord, on his own behalf, on behalf of the entire people, and of the generations yet to come, for the forgiveness of their sins and for their daily needs, so that the nations may know that He is the only God and that the heart of his people may belong wholly and entirely to him.
Elijah, the prophets and conversion of heart
For the people of God, the Temple was to be the place of their education and prayer: pilgrimages, feasts and sacrifices, the evening offering, the incense, and the bread of the presence ("shewbread")-- all these signs of the holiness and glory of God Most High and Most Near were appeals to and ways of prayer. But ritualism often encouraged an excessively external worship. The people needed education in faith and conversion of heart; this was the mission of the prophets, both before and after the Exile.
Elijah is the "father" of the prophets, "the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob." Elijah's name, "the Lord is my God," foretells the people’s cry in response to his prayer on Mt. Carmel. St. James refers to Elijah in order to encourage us to pray: "The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective."
After Elijah had learned mercy during his retreat at the Wadi Cherith, he teaches the widow of Zarephath to believe in the Word of God and confirms her faith by his urgent prayer: God brings the widow’s child back to life.
The sacrifice on Mt. Carmel is a decisive test for the faith of the People of God. In response to Elijah's plea, "Answer me, O LORD, answer me," the Lord's fire consumes the holocaust, at the time of the evening oblation. The Eastern liturgies repeat Elijah's plea in the Eucharistic epiclesis.
Finally, taking the desert road that leads to the place where the living and true God reveals himself to his people, Elijah, like Moses before him, hides "in a cleft of the rock" until the mysterious presence of God has passed by. But only on the mountain of the Transfiguration will Moses and Elijah behold the unveiled face of him whom they sought; "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God [shines] in the face of Christ," crucified and risen.
In their "one-to-one" encounters with God, the prophets draw light and strength for their mission. Their prayer is not flight from this unfaithful world, or rather attentiveness to the Word of God. At times their prayer is an argument or a complaint, but it is always an intercession that awaits and prepares for the intervention of the Savior God, the Lord of history.
The Psalms, the prayer of the assembly
From the time of David to the coming of the Messiah texts appearing in these sacred books show a deepening in prayer for oneself and in prayer for others. Thus the psalms were gradually collected into the five books of the Psalter (or "Praises"), the masterwork of prayer in the Old Testament.
The Psalms both nourished and expressed the prayer of the People of God gathered during the great feasts at Jerusalem and each Sabbath in the synagogues. Their prayer is inseparably personal and communal; it concerns both those who are praying and all men. The Psalms arose from the communities of the holy land and the Diaspora, but embrace all creation. Their prayer recalls the saving events of the past, yet extends into the future, even to the end of history; it commemorates the promises God has already kept, and awaits the Messiah who will fulfill them definitively. Prayed by Christ and fulfilled in him, the Psalms remain essential to the prayer of the Church.
The Psalter is the book in which the Word of God becomes man's prayer. in other books of the Old Testament, "the words proclaim [God's] works and bring to light the mystery they contain." The words of the Psalmist, sung for God, both express and acclaimed the Lord's saving works; the same Spirit inspires both God's work and man's response. Christ will unite the two. In him, the psalms continue to teach us how to pray.
The Psalter's many forms of prayer take shape both in the liturgy of the Temple and in the human heart. Whether hymns or prayers of lamentation or Thanksgiving, whether individual or communal, whether royal chants, songs of pilgrimage or wisdom meditations, the Psalms are a mirror of God's marvelous deeds in the history of his people, as well as reflections of the human experience of the Psalmist. Though a given psalm may reflect an event of the past, it still possesses such direct simplicity that it can be prayed in truth by men of all times and conditions.
Certain constant characteristics appear throughout the Psalms: simplicity and spontaneity of prayer; the desire for God himself through and with all that is good in his creation; the distraught situation of the believer who, in his preferential love for the Lord, is exposed to a host of enemies and temptations, but who waits upon what the faithful God will do, in the certitude of his love and in submission to his will. The prayer of the psalms is always sustained by praise; that is why the title of this collection as handed down to us is so fitting: "The Praises. Collected for the assemblies worship, the Psalter both sounds the call to prayer and sings the response to that call: Hallelu-Yah (“Alleluia”), "praise the Lord!"
What is more pleasing than a psalm? David expresses it well: "Praise the Lord, for a psalm is good: let there be praise of our God with gladness and grace!" Yes, a psalm is a blessing on the lips of the people, praise of God, the assembly's homage, a general acclamation, a word that speaks for all, the voice of the Church, a confession of faith in song."
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April 19, 2015 - Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
Part 4 Sec 1 Chapter 1 Article 1 Pg 676
Article 1 – In The Old Testament
In the Old Testament, the revelation of prayer comes between the fall and the restoration of man, that is, between God's sorrowful call to his first children: "Where are you?... What is this that you have done?" and the response of God's only son on coming into the world: "Lo, I have come to do your will, oh God." Prayer is bound up with human history, for it is a relationship with God and historical events.
Creation – source of prayer
Prayer is lived in the first place beginning with realities of creation. The first nine chapters of Genesis described his relationship with God as an offering of the first-born of Abel’s flock, as the invocation of the divine name at the time of Enosh, and as "walking with God." Noah’s offering is pleasing to God, who blesses him and through him all creation, because his heart was upright and undivided; Noah, like Enoch before him, "walks with God." This kind of prayer is lived by many righteous people in all religions.
In his indefectible covenant with every living creature, God has always called people to prayer. But it is above all beginning with our father Abraham that prayer is revealed in the Old Testament.
God’s promise and the prayer of Faith
When God calls him, Abraham goes forth "as the Lord had told him"; Abraham's heart is entirely submissive to the Word and so he obeys. Such attentiveness of the heart, whose decisions are made according to God's will, is essential to prayer, while the words used, count only in relation to it. Abraham's prayer is expressed first by deeds: a man of silence, he constructs an altar to the Lord at each stage of his journey. Only later does Abraham's first prayer in words appear: a veiled complaint reminding God of his promises which seem unfulfilled. Thus one aspect of the drama of prayer appears from the beginning: the test of faith in the fidelity of God.
Because Abraham believed in God and walked in his presence and in covenant with him, the patriarch is ready to welcome a mysterious Guest into his tent. Abraham's remarkable hospitality at Mamre foreshadows the annunciation of the true Son of the promise. After that, once God had confided his plan, Abraham's heart is attuned to his Lord's compassion for men and he dares to intercede for them with bold confidence.
As a final stage in the purification of his faith, Abraham, "who had received the promises," is asked to sacrifice the son God had given him. Abraham’s faith does not weaken ("God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering."), for he "considered that God was able to raise men even from the dead." And so the father of believers is conformed to the likeness of the Father who will not spare his own son but will deliver him up for us all. Prayer restores man to God's likeness and enables him to share in the power of God's love that saves the multitude.
God renews his promise to Jacob, the ancestor of the 12 tribes of Israel. Before confronting his older brother Esau, Jacob wrestles all night with a mysterious figure refuses to reveal his name, but who blesses him before leaving him at dawn. From this account, the spiritual tradition of the Church has retained the symbol of prayer as a battle of faith and as a triumph of perseverance.
Moses and the prayer of the mediator
Once the promise begins to be fulfilled (Passover, the Exodus, the gift of the Law, and the ratification of the covenant), the prayer of Moses becomes the most striking example of intercessory prayer, which will be fulfilled in "the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
Here again the initiative is God. From the midst of the burning bush he calls Moses. This event will remain one of the primordial images of prayer in the spiritual tradition of Jews and Christians alike. When "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob" calls Moses to be his servant, it is because he is the living God who wants men to live. God reveals himself in order to save them, though he does not do this alone or despite them: he calls Moses to be his messenger, an associate in his compassion, his work of salvation. There is something of a divine plea in this mission, and only after long debate does Moses attune his own will to that of the Savior God. But in the dialogue in which God confides in him, Moses also learns how to pray: he balks, makes excuses, above all questions: it is in response to his question that the Lord confides his ineffable name, which will be revealed through his mighty deeds.
"Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." Moses prayer is characteristic of contemplative prayer by which God's servant remains faithful to his mission. Moses converses with God often and at length, climbing the mountain to hear and entreat him and coming down to the people to repeat the words of his God for their guidance. Moses "is entrusted with all my house. With him I speak face-to-face, clearly, not in riddles," for "Moses was very humble, more so than anyone else on the face of the earth."
From this intimacy with the faithful God, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, Moses drew strength and determination for his intercession. He does not pray for himself but for the people whom God made his own. Moses already intercedes for them during the battle with the Amalekites and prays to obtain the healing for Miriam. But it is chiefly after their apostasy that Moses "stands in the breech" before God in order to save the people. The arguments of his prayer -- for intercession is also a mysterious battle -- -- will inspire the boldness of the great intercessors among the Jewish people in the Church: God is love; he is therefore righteous and faithful; he cannot contradict himself; he must remember his marvelous deeds, since his glory is at stake, and he cannot forsake his people that bears his name.
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April 12, 2015 - Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers, making the most of every opportunity. When you talk, you should always be kind and pleasant so you will be able to answer everyone in the way you should. Colossians 4:5-6
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 10 Section II III IV Pg 669
II – The Desires Of The Spirit
the economy of law and grace turns men's hearts away from avarice and envy. It initiates them into desire for the Sovereign Good; it instructs them in the desires of the Holy Spirit who satisfies man's heart.
The God of the promises always warned man against seduction by what from the beginning has seemed "good for food... a delight to the eyes... to be desired to make one wise."
The law entrusted to Israel never sufficed to justify those subject to it; it even became the instrument of "lust." The gap between wanting and doing points to the conflict between God's law which is the "law of my mind," and another law "making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members."
"But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." Henceforth, Christ's faithful "have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires"; they are led by the spirit and follow the desires of the Spirit.
III – Poverty Of Heart
Jesus enjoins his disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone, and bids them "renounce all that [they have]" for his sake and that of the Gospel. Shortly before his passion he gave them the example of the poor widow of Jerusalem, out of her poverty, gave all that she had to live on. The precept of detachment from riches is obligatory for entrance into the Kingdom of heaven.
All Christ's faithful are to "direct their affections rightly, lest they be hindered in their pursuit of perfect charity but the use of worldly things and by an adherence to riches which is contrary to the spirit of evangelical poverty."
"Blessed are the poor in spirit.” The Beatitudes reveal order of happiness and grace, of beauty and peace. Jesus celebrates the joy of the poor, to whom the Kingdom already belongs:
The Word speaks of voluntary humility as "poverty of spirit"; the Apostle gives an example of God's poverty when he says: "For your sakes he became poor."
The Lord grieves over the rich, because they find their consolation in the abundance of goods. "Let the proud seek and love earthly kingdoms, but blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." Abandonment to the providence of the Father in heaven frees us from anxiety about tomorrow. Trust in God is a preparation for the blessedness of the poor. They shall see God.
IV- “I Want to See God”
Desire for true happiness frees man from his immoderate attachment to the goods of this world so that he can find his fulfillment in the vision and beatitude of God. "The promise [of seeing God] surpasses all beatitude... In Scripture, to see is to possess... Whoever sees God has obtained all the goods of which he can conceive."
It remains for the holy people to struggle, with grace from on high, to obtain the good things God promises. In order to possess and contemplate God, Christ's faithful mortify their cravings and, with the grace of God, prevail over the seductions of pleasure and power.
On this way of perfection, the spirit and the Bride call whoever hears them to perfect communion with God:
There will true glory be, where no one will be praised by mistake or flattery; true honor will not be refused to the worthy, nor granted to the unworthy; likewise, no one unworthy will pretend to be worthy, where only those who are worthy will be admitted. There true peace will reign, where no one will experience opposition either from self or others. God himself will be virtue’s reward; he gives virtue and has promised to give himself as the best and greatest reward could exist... "I shall be their God and they will be my people..." This is also the meaning of the Apostle’s words: "So that God may be all in all. " God himself will be the goal of our desires; we shall contemplate him without end, love him without surfeit, praise him without weariness. This gift, this state, this act, like eternal life itself, will assuredly be common to all.
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April 5, 2015 - Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the Lord. Psalms 31:24
Easter Sunday is a cause for great joy. Christians rejoice because Our Lord Jesus Christ truly is risen from the dead. There is no doubt about it. His victory is our victory! The forty days of Lent bring us renewed hope and joy because of the expectation
of Our Lord’s Resurrection. Our days of penance, fasts, and sacrifices, offered for our sins and the sins of the whole world, yield us more faithful in our conversion towards Christ So on this day we exclaim, HE is risen, Hallelujah!!
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 10 Section I Pg 667
Article 10 The Tenth Commandment
You shall not covet anything that is your neighbors …
I – The Disorder of Covetous Desires
The sensitive appetite leads us to desire pleasant things we do not have, e.g., the desire to eat when we are hungry or to warm ourselves when we are cold. These desires are good in themselves; but often they exceed the limits of reason and drive us to covet unjustly what is not ours and belongs to another or is owed to him.
The 10th Commandment forbids greed and the desire to amass earthly goods without limit. It forbids avarice arising from a passion for riches and their attendant power. It also forbids the desire to commit injustice by harming our neighbor in his temporal goods:
When the Law says, "You shall not covet," these words mean that we should banish our desires for whatever does not belong to us. Our thirst for another's goods is immense, infinite, and never quenched. Thus it is written: "He who loves money never has money enough."
It is not a violation of this Commandment to desire to obtain things that belong to one's neighbor, provided this is done by just means. Traditional catechesis realistically mentions "those who have a harder struggle against their criminal desires" and so who "must be urged the more to keep this commandment":
... merchants who desire scarcity and rising prices, who cannot bear not to be the only ones buying and selling so that they themselves can sell more dearly and buy more cheaply; those who hope that their peers will be impoverished, in order to realize a profit either by selling to them or buying from them... physicians who wish disease to spread; lawyers who are eager for many important cases and trials.
The 10th commandment requires that envy be banished from the human heart. When the prophet Nathan wants to spur King David to repentance, he told him the story about the poor man who had only one ewe lamb that he treated like his own daughter and the rich man who, despite the great number of his flock, envied the poor man and ended by stealing his lamb. Envy can lead to the worst crimes. "Through the devil’s envy death entered the world":
We fight one another, and envy arms us against one another... If everyone strives to unsettle the Body of Christ, where shall we end up? We are engaged in making Christ Body a corpse... We declare ourselves members of one and the same organism, yet we devour one another like beasts.
Envy is a capital sin. It refers to the sadness at the sight of another's goods and the immoderate desire to acquire them for oneself, even unjustly. When it wishes great harm to a neighbor it is a mortal sin:
St. Augustine saw envy as "the diabolical sin." "From envy are born hatred, detraction, calumny, joy caused by the misfortune of a neighbor, and displeasure caused by his prosperity."
Envy represents a form of sadness and therefore a refusal of charity; the baptized person should struggle against it by exercising goodwill. Envy often comes from pride; the baptized person should train himself to living in humility:
Would you like to see God glorified by you? Then rejoice in your brother's progress and you will immediately give glory to God. Because his servant could conquer envy by rejoicing in the merits of others, God will be praised.
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March 29, 2015 - At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 2 Timothy 4:16
There is not another person like you. ‘You are rare, precious and fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:14). You are God’s masterpiece, (Ephesians 2:10). You are “His treasured possession”, (Deuteronomy 14:2)
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Section I II Pg. 663
Article 9 The Ninth Commandment
I – Purification Of The Heart
The heart Is the seat of moral personality: "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery fornication..." the struggle against carnal covetousness entails purifying the heart and practicing temperance:
Remain simple and innocent, and you will be like little children who do not know the evil that destroys man's life.
The sixth beatitude proclaims, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." "Pure in heart" refers to those who have attuned their intellects and wills to the demands of God's holiness, chiefly in three areas: charity; chastity or sexual rectitude; love of truth and orthodoxy of faith. There is a connection between purity of heart, of body, and of faith:
The faithful must believe the articles of the Creed "so that by believing they may obey God, by obeying may live well, by living well may purify their hearts, and with pure hearts may understand what they believe."
The "pure in heart" are promised that they will see God face to face and be like him. Purity of heart is the precondition of the vision of God. Even now it enables us to see according to God, to accept others as "neighbors"; it lets us receive the human body -- -- ours and our neighbors -- -- as a temple of the Holy Spirit a manifestation of divine beauty.
II – The Battle For Purity
Baptism confers on its recipient the grace of purification from all sins. But the baptized must continue to struggle against concupiscence of the flesh and disordered desires. With God's grace he will prevail:
--- by the virtue and gift of chastity, for chastity lets us love with upright and undivided heart;
-- --by purity of intention which consists in seeking the true end of man: with simplicity of vision, the baptized person seeks to find and to fulfill God's will in everything;
-----by purity of vision, external and internal; by discipline of feelings and imagination; by refusing all complicity in impure thoughts that incline us to turn aside from the path of God's commandments: "Appearance arouses yearning in fools";
-- -- by prayer:
I thought that continence arose from one's own powers, which I did not recognize in myself. I was foolish enough not to know -- -- -- that no one can be continent unless you grant it. For you would truly have granted it if my inner groaning had reached your ears and I, with firm faith had cast my cares on you.
Purity requires modesty, an integral part of temperance. Modesty protects the intimate center of the person. It means refusing to unveil what should remain hidden. It is ordered to chastity to whose sensitivity it bears witness. It guides how one looks at others and behaves toward them in conformity with the dignity of persons and their solidarity.
Modesty protects the mystery of persons and their love. It encourages patience and moderation in loving relationships; it requires that the conditions for the definitive gaming and commitment of man and woman to one another be fulfilled. Modesty is decency. It inspires one's choice of clothing. It keeps silence or reserve where there is evident risk of unhealthy curiosity. It is discreet.
There is modesty of the feelings as well as of the body. It protests, for example, against the voyeuristic explorations of the human body in certain advertisements, or against the solicitations of certain media that go too far in the exhibition of intimate things. Modesty inspires a way of life which makes it possible to resist the allurements of fashion and the pressures of prevailing ideologies.
The forms taken by modesty vary from one culture to another. Everywhere, however, modesty exists as an intuition of the spiritual dignity proper to man. It is born with the awakening consciousness of being a subject. Teaching modesty to children and adolescents means awakening in them respect for the human person.
Christian purity requires a purification of the social climate. It requires of the communications media that their presentations show concern for respect and restraint. Purity of heart brings freedom from widespread eroticism and avoids entertainment inclined to voyeurism and illusion.
So-called moral permissiveness rests on an erroneous conception of human freedom; the necessary precondition for the development of true freedom is to let oneself be educated in the moral law. Those in charge of education can reasonably be expected to give young people instruction respectful of the truth, the qualities of the heart, and the moral and spiritual dignity of man.
"The good news of Christ continually renews the life and cultural of fallen man; it combats and remove the error and evil which flow from the ever present attraction of sin. It never ceases to purify and elevate the morality of peoples. It takes the spiritual qualities and endowments of every age and nation, and with supernatural riches it causes them to blossom, as it were, from within; it fortifies, completes, and restores them in Christ."
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March 22, 2015 - But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. 1 Corinthians 12:11
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section IV Pg 657
IV – Respect For The Truth
The right to the communication of the truth is not unconditional. Everyone must conform his life to the Gospel precept of fraternal love. This requires us in concrete situations to judge whether or not it is appropriate to reveal the truth to someone who asks for it..
Charity and respect for the truth should dictate the response to a request for information or communication. The good and safety of others, respect for privacy, and the common good are sufficient reasons for being silent about what ought not to be known or for making use of a discrete language. The duty to avoid scandal often commands strict discretion. No one is bound to reveal the truth to someone who does not have the right to know it.
The secret of the Sacrament of reconciliation is sacred, and cannot be violated under any pretext. "The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore, it is a crime for a confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or any other manner or for any reason."
Professional secrets -- for example, those of political office holders, soldiers, physicians, and lawyers -- -- or confidential information given under the seal of secrecy must be kept, save in exceptional cases were keeping the secret is bound to cause very grave harm to the one who confided it, the one who received it or to a third party, and where the very grave harm can be avoided only by divulging the truth. Even if not confided under the seal of secrecy, private information prejudicial to another is not to be divulged without a grave and proportionate reason.
Everyone should observe an appropriate reserve concerning persons’ private lives. Those in charge of communications should maintain a fair balance between the requirements of the common good and respect for individual rights. Interference by the media in the private lives of persons engaged in political or public activity is to be condemned to the extent that it infringes upon their privacy and freedom.
V The Use Of The Social Communication Media
Within modern society the communications media play a major role in information, cultural promotion, and information. This role is increasing, as a result of technological progress, the extent and diversity of the news transmitted, and the influence exercised on public opinion.
The information provided by the media is at the service of the common good. Society has a right to information based on truth, freedom, justice, and solidarity:
The proper exercise of this right demands that the content of the communication be true and -- -- within the limits set by justice and charity -- -- complete. Further, it should be communicated honestly and properly. This means that in the gathering and in the publication of news, the moral law and the legitimate rights and dignity of man should be upheld.
"It is necessary that all members of society meet the demands of justice and charity in this domain. They should help, through the means of social communication, in the formation and diffusion of sound public opinion." Solidarity is a consequence of genuine and right communication and the free circulation of ideas that further knowledge and respect for others.
The means of social communication (especially the mass media) can give rise to a certain passivity among users, making them less than vigilant consumers of what is said or shown. Users should practice moderation and discipline in their approach to the mass media. They will want to form enlightened and correct consciences for the more easily to resist unwholesome influences.
By the very nature of their profession, journalists have an obligation to serve the truth and not offend against charity in disseminating information. They should strive to respect, with equal care, the nature of the facts and the limits of critical judgment concerning individuals. They should not stoop to defamation.
"Civil authorities have particular responsibilities in this field because of the common good... it is for the civil authority... to defend and safeguard a true and just freedom of information." By promulgating laws and overseeing their application, public authority should ensure that "public moraleity and social progress are not gravely endangered" through misuse of the media. Civil authority should punish any violation of the rights of individuals to their reputation and privacy. They should give timely and reliable reports concerning the general good or respond to well-founded concerns of the people. Nothing can justify recourse to disinformation for manipulating public opinion through the media. Interventions by public authority should avoid injuring the freedom of individuals or groups.
Moral judgment must condemn the plague of totalitarian states which systematically falsify the truth, exercise political control of opinion through the media, manipulate defendants and witnesses at public trials, and imagine that they secure their tyranny by strangling and repressing everything they consider "thought crimes."
VI – Truth, Beauty, and Sacred Art
The practice of goodness is accompanied by spontaneous spiritual joy and moral beauty. Likewise, truth carries with it the joy and splendor of spiritual beauty. Truth is beautiful in itself. Truth in words, the rational expression of the knowledge of created and uncreated reality, is necessary to man, who is endowed with intellect. But truth can also find other complementary forms of human expression, above all when it is a matter of invoking what is beyond words: the depths of the human heart, the exalations of the soul, the mystery of God. Even before revealing himself to man in words of truth, God reveals himself to him through the universal language of creation, the work of his Word, of his wisdom: the order and harmony of the cosmos -- -- which both the child and the scientist discover -- -- "from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator," "the author of beauty created them."
[Wisdom] is a breath of the power of God, and a pure emanation of the glory of the Almighty; therefore nothing defiled gains entrance into her. For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an image of his goodness. For [wisdom] is more beautiful than the sun, and excels every constellation of the stars. Compared with the light she is found to be superior, for it is succeeded by the night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail. I became enamored of her beauty.
Created "in the image of God," man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works. Indeed, art is a distinctively human form of expression; beyond the search for the necessities of life which is common to all living creatures, art is a freely given superabundance of the human beings inner riches. Arising from talent given by the Creator and from man's own effort, art is a form of practical wisdom, uniting knowledge and skill, to give form to the truth of reality in a language accessible to sight or hearing. To the extent that it is inspired by truth and love of beings, art bears a certain likeness to God's activity in what he has created. Like any other human activity, art is not an absolute end in itself, but is ordered and ennobled by the ultimate end of man.
Sacred art is true and beautiful when it's form corresponds to its particular vocation: evoking and glorifying, in faith and narration, the transcendent mystery of God -- -- the surpassing invisible beauty of truth and love visible in Christ, who "reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature," in whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily." This spiritual beauty of God is reflected in the most Holy Virgin Mother of God, the angels, and the saints. Genuine sacred art draws man to adoration, to prayer, and for the love of God, Creator and Savior, the Holy One and Sanctifier.
For this reason bishops, personally or through delegates, should see to the promotion of sacred art, old and new, in all its forms and, with the same religious care, remove from the liturgy and from places of worship everything which is not in conformity with the truth of faith and the authentic beauty of sacred art.
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March 15, 2015 But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. Hebrews 10:38
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section II Pg 653
II – To Bear Witness To The Truth
Before Pilate, Christ proclaims that he "has come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” The Christian is not to "be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord." In situations that require witness to the faith, the Christian must profess it without equivocation, after the example of St. Paul before his judges. We must keep “a clear conscience toward God and toward men.”
The duty of Christians to take part in the life of the Church impels them to act as witnesses of the Gospel and of the obligations that flow from it. This witness is a transmission of the faith in words and deeds. Witness is an act of justice that establishes the truth or makes it known.
All Christians by the example of their lives and the witness of their word, wherever they live, have an obligation to manifest the new man which they have put on in Baptism and to reveal the power of the Holy Spirit by whom they were strengthened at Confirmation.
Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity. He bears witness to the truth of the faith and of Christian doctrine. He endures death through an act of fortitude. "Let me become the food of the beasts through whom it will be given me to reach God."
The Church has painstakingly collected the records of those who persevered to the end in witnessing to their faith. These are the acts of the Martyrs. They form the archives of truth written letters of blood:
Neither the pleasures of the world nor the kingdoms of this age will be of any use to me. It is better for me to die [in order to unite myself] to Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. I see Ken who died for us; I desire him who rose for us. My birth is approaching...
I bless you for having judged me worthy from this day and this hour to be counted among your martyrs... You have kept your promise, God of faithfulness and truth. For this reason and for everything, I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. Through him, who is with you and the Holy Spirit, may glory be given to you, now and in the ages to come. Amen.
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III – Offenses Against Truth
Christ's disciples have "put on the new man, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." By "putting away falsehood," they are to "put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander."
False witness and perjury, when it is made publicly, a statement contrary to the truth takes on a particular gravity. In court it becomes false witness. When it is under oath, it is perjury. Acts such as these contribute to condemnation of the innocent, exoneration of guilty, or the increased punishment of the accused. They gravely compromise the exercise of justice and fairness of judicial decisions.
Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury. He becomes guilty:
-- -- Of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor;
-- -- Of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another's faults and failings to persons who did not know them;
--- Of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.
To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor’s thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way.
Every good Christian ought to be more ready to give a favorable interpretation to another’s statement than to condemn it. But if he cannot do so, let him ask how the other understands it. And if the latter understands it badly, let the former correct him with love. If that does not suffice, let the Christian try all suitable ways to bring the other to a correct interpretation so that he may be saved.
Detraction and calumny destroy the reputation and honor of one’s neighbor. Honor is the social witness given to human dignity and everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name and reputation and to respect. Thus detraction and calumny offend against the virtues of justice and charity.
Every word or attitude is forbidden which by flattery, adulation, or complaisance encourages and confirms another in malicious acts and perverse conduct. Adulation is a grave fault if it makes one an accomplice in another's vices or grave sins. Neither the desire to be of service nor friendship justifies duplicitous speech. Adulation is a venial sin when it only seeks to be agreeable, to avoid evil, to meet a need, or to obtain legitimate advantages
Boasting or bragging is an offense against truth. So is irony aimed at disparaging someone by maliciously caricaturing some aspect of his behavior.
"A lie consists in speaking a falsehood with the intention of deceiving." The Lord denounces lying as the work of the devil: “You are of your father the devil,…there is no truth in him, When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Lying is the most direct offense against the truth. To lie is to speak or act against the truth in order to lead someone into error. By injuring man’s relation to truth and to his neighbor, a lie offends against the fundamental relation of man and of his word to the Lord.
The gravity of a lie is measured against the nature of the truth it deforms, the circumstances, the intentions of the one who lies, and the harm suffered by its victims. If a lie in itself only constitutes a venial sin, it becomes mortal when it does grave injury to the virtues of justice and charity.
By its very nature, lying is to be condemned. It is a profanation of speech, whereas the purpose of speech is to communicate known truth to others. The deliberate intention of leading a neighbor into error by saying things contrary to the truth constitutes a failure in justice and charity. The culpability is greater when the intention of deceiving entails the risk of deadly consequences for those who are led astray.
Since it violates the virtue of truthfulness, a lie does real violence to another. It affects his ability to know, which is a condition of every judgment and decision. It contains the seed of discord and all consequent evils. Lying is destructive of society; it undermines trust among men and tears apart the fabric of social relationships.
Every offense committed against justice and truth entails the duty of reparation, even if its author has been forgiven. When it is impossible publicly to make reparation for a wrong, it must be made secretly. If someone who has suffered harm cannot be directly compensated, he must be given moral satisfaction in the name of charity. This duty of reparation also concerns offenses against another’s reputation. This reparation, moral and sometimes material, must be evaluated in terms of the extent of the damage inflicted. It obliges in conscience.
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March 8, 2015 - Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. Matthew 21:21
Section 130 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section I Pg 651
I – Living In The Truth
The Old Testament attests that God is the source of all truth. His word is truth. His law is truth. His "faithfulness endures to all generations." Since God is "true," the members of his people are called to live in the truth.
In Jesus Christ, the whole of God's truth has been made manifest. "Full of grace and truth,” he came as a "light of the world," he is the Truth. "Whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness." The disciple of Jesus continues in his word so as to know "the truth [that] will make you free" and that sanctifies. To follow Jesus is to live in "the Spirit of truth," whom the Father sends in his name and who leads "into all the truth." To his disciples Jesus teaches the unconditional love of truth: "Let what you say be simply ‘Yes or No. ‘ "
Man tends by nature toward the truth. He is obliged to honor and bear witness to it: "it is in accordance with their dignity that all men, because they are persons... are both impelled by their nature and bound by a moral obligation to seek the truth, especially religious truth. They are also bound to adhere to the truth once they come to know it and direct their lives in accordance with the demands of truth."
Truth as uprightness in human action and speech is called truthfulness, sincerity, or candor. Truth or truthfulness is the virtue which consists in showing oneself true in deeds and truthful in words, and in guarding against duplicity, dissimulation, and hypocrisy.
"Men could not live with one another if there were not mutual confidence that they were being truthful to one another." The virtue of truth gives another his just due. Truthfulness keeps to the just mean between what ought to be expressed and what ought to be kept secret: it entails honesty and discretion. In justice, "as a matter of honor, one man owes it to another to manifest the truth."
The disciple of Christ consents to "live in the truth," that is, in the simplicity of a life in conformity with the Lord's example, abiding in his truth. "If we say we have fellowship with him but we walk in darkness, we lie and do not live according to the truth."
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March 1, 2015 - It is by faith we understand that the whole world was made by God's command so what we see was made by something that cannot be seen. Hebrews 11:3
Section 129 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 7 Section VI Pg 646
VI – Love For The Poor
God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them: "Give to him who begs from you, do not refuse him who would borrow from you"; "you received without pay, give without pay." It is by what they have done for the poor that Jesus Christ recognized his chosen ones when "the poor have the good news preached to them," it is the sign of Christ's presence.
"The Church’s love for the poor... is a part of her constant tradition." This love is inspired by the Gospel of the Beatitudes, of the poverty of Jesus, and of his concern for the poor. Love for the poor is even one of the motives for the duty of working so as to "be able to give to those in need." It extends not only to material poverty but also to the many forms of cultural and religious poverty.
Love for the poor is incompatible with immoderate love of riches and their selfish use:
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you.
St. John Christendom vigorously recalls this: "Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs." The demands of justice must be satisfied first of all; that which is already due in justice is not to be offered as a gift of charity":
When we attend to the needs of those in want, we give them what is theirs, not ours. More than performing works of mercy we're paying a debt of justice.
The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor and his spiritual and bodily necessities. Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God:
He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food must do likewise. But give for alms those things which are within; and behold, everything is clean for you. If a brother or sister is ill-clad and a lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?
“In its various forms---material deprivation, unjust oppression, physical and psychological illness and death—human misery is the obvious sign of the inherited condition of frailty and need for salvation in which man finds himself as a consequence of original sin. This misery elicited the compassion of Christ the Savior, who willingly took it upon himself and identified himself with the least of his brethren. Hence, those who are oppressed by poverty are the object of a preferential love on the part of the Church which, since her origin and in spite of the failings of many of her members, has not ceased to work for their relief, defense, and liberation through numerous works of charity which remain indispensable always and everywhere.
Beginning with the Old Testament, all kinds 0f juridical measures (the jubilee year of forgiveness of debts, prohibition of loans at interest and the keeping of collateral, the obligations to tithe, the daily payment of the day-laborer, the right to glean vines and fields) answer the exhortation of Deuteronomy: “For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor in the land.’ “Jesus makes these words his own: “The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” In so doing he does not soften the vehemence of former oracles against “buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals---,” but invites us to recognize his own presence in the poor who are his brethren:
When her mother reproached her for caring for the poor and the sick at home, St. Rose of Lima said to her: “When we serve the poor and the sick, we serve Jesus. We must not fail to help our neighbors, because in them we serve Jesus.”
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February 22, 2015 - And to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:7-8
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 7 Section V VI Pg 645
V – Justice And Solidarity Amog Nations
On the international level, inequality of resources and economic capability is such that it creates a real "gap" between nations. On one side there are those nations possessing and developing the means of growth and, on the other, those accumulating debts.
Various causes of a religious, political, economic, and financial nature today give "the social question a worldwide dimension." There must be solidarity among nations which are already politically independent. It is even more essential when it is a question of dismantling the "perverse mechanisms" that impede the development of the less advanced countries. In place of abusive if not usurious financials systems, iniquitous commercial relations among nations, and the arms race, there must be substituted a common effort to mobilize resources toward objectives of moral, cultural, and economic development, "redefining the priorities and hierarchies of values."
Rich nations have a grave moral responsibility towards those which are unable to ensure the means of their development by themselves or have been prevented from doing so by tragic historical events. It is a duty in solidarity and charity; it is also an obligation in justice if the prosperity of the rich nations has come from resources that have not been paid for fairly.
Direct aid is an appropriate response to immediate, extraordinary needs caused by natural catastrophes, epidemics, and the like. But it does not suffice to repair the grave damage resulting from destitution or to provide a lasting solution to a country's needs. Ii is also necessary to reform international economic and financial institutions so that they will better promote equitable relationships with less advanced countries. The efforts of poor countries working for growth and liberation must be supported. This doctrine must be applied especially in the area of agricultural labor. Peasants, especially in the Third World, form the overwhelming majority of the poor.
An increased sense of God and increased self-awareness are fundamental to any full development of human society. This development multiplies material goods and puts them at the service of the person and his freedom. It reduces dire poverty and economic exploitation. It makes for growth and respect for cultural identities and openness to the transcendent.
It is not the role of the Pastors of the Church to intervene directly in the political structuring and organization of social life. This task is part of the vocation of the lay faithful, acting on their own initiative with their fellow citizens. Social action can assume various concrete forms. It should always have the common good in view and be in conformity with the message of the Gospel and the teaching of the Church. It is the role of the laity "to animate temporal realities with Christian commitment, by which they show that they are witnesses and agents of peace and justice."
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February 15, 2015 - When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? Psalms 56:3-4
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 7 Section III IV Pg 640
III - The Social Doctrine of the Church
“Christian revelation... promotes deeper understanding of the laws of social living." The Church receives from the Gospel the full revelation of the truth about man. When she fulfills her mission of proclaiming the Gospel, she bears witness to man, in the name of Christ, to his dignity and his vocation to the communion of persons. She teaches him the demands of justice and peace in conformity with divine wisdom.
The Church makes a moral judgment about economic and social matters, "when the fundamental rights of the person or the salvation of souls requires it." In the moral order she bears a mission distinct from that of political authorities: the Church is concerned with the temporal aspects of the common good because they are ordered by the sovereign Good, our ultimate end. She strives to inspire right attitudes with respect to earthly goods and in socio-economic relationships.
The social doctrine of the Church developed in the 19th century when the Gospel encountered modern industrial society with its new structures for the production of consumer goods, its new concept of society, the state and authority, and its new forms of labor and ownership. The development of the doctrine of the Church on economic and social matters attests the permanent value of the Church is teaching at the same time as it attests the true meaning of her Tradition, always living and active.
The Church’s social teaching comprises a body of doctrine, which is articulated as the Church interprets events in the course of history, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, in light of the whole of what has been revealed by Jesus Christ. This teaching can be more easily accepted by men of good will, the more the faithful let themselves be guided by it.
The Church's social teaching proposes principles for reflection; it provides criteria for judgment; it gives guidelines for action:
Any system in which social relationships are determined entirely by economic factors is contrary to the nature of the human person and his acts.
A theory that makes profit the exclusive norm and ultimate end of economic activity is morally unacceptable. The disordered desire for money cannot but produce perverse effects. It is one of the causes of the many conflicts which disturb the social order.
A system that "subordinates the basic rights of individuals and groups to the collective organization of production" is contrary to human dignity. Every practice that reduces persons to nothing more than a means of profit enslaves man, leads to idolizing money, and contributes to the spread of atheism. "You cannot serve God and mammon."
The Church has rejected the totalitarian and atheistic ideologies associated in modern times with "communism" or "socialism." She has likewise refused to accept, in the practice of "capitalism," individualism and the absolute primacy of the law of the marketplace over human labor. Regulating the economy solely by centralized planning perverts the basis of social bonds; regulating it solely by the law of the marketplace fails social justice, for "there are many human needs which cannot be satisfied by the market." Reasonable regulation of the marketplace and economic initiatives, in keeping with a just hierarchy of values and a view to the common good, is to be commended.
IV- Economic Activity and Social Justice
The development of economic activity and growth in production are meant to provide for the needs of human beings. Economic life is not meant solely to multiply goods produced and increase profit or power; it is ordered first of all to the service of persons, of the whole man, of the entire human community. Economic activity, conducted according to its own proper methods, is to be exercised within the limits of the moral order, in keeping with social justice so as to correspond to God's plan for man.
Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another. Hence work is a duty: "if anyone will not work, let him not eat." Work honors the Creators many gifts and the talents received from him. It can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the son of God and his redemptive work. He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish. Work can be a means of sanctification in a way it of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ.
In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature. The primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary. Work is for man, not man for work.
Everyone should be able to draw from work the means of providing for his life and that of his family, and of serving the human community.
Everyone has the right of economic initiative; everyone should make legitimate use of his talents to contribute to the abundance that will benefit all and to harvested the just fruits of his labor. He should seek to observe regulations issued by legitimate authority for the sake of the common good.
Economic life brings into play different interests, often opposed to one another. This explains why the conflicts that characterize it arise. Efforts should be made to reduce these conflicts by negotiation that respects the rights and the desires of each social partner: those responsible for business enterprises, representatives of wage earners (for example, trade unions), and public authorities when appropriate.
The responsibility of the state. "Economic activity, especially the activity of a market economy, cannot be conducted in an institutional, juridical or political vacuum. On the contrary, it presupposes sure guarantees of individual freedom and private property, as well as a stable currency and efficient public services. Hence the principal task of the state is to guarantee this security, so that those who work and produce can enjoy the fruits of their labors and thus feel encouraged to work efficiently and honestly... Another task of the state is that of overseeing and directing the exercise of human rights in the economic sector. However, primary responsibility in this area belongs not to the state but to individuals and to the various groups and associations which make up society."
Those responsible for business enterprises are responsible to society for the economic and ecological effects of their operations. They have an obligation to consider the good of persons and not only the increase of profits. Profits are necessary, however. They make possible the investments to assure the future of business and they guarantee employment.
Access to employment and to professions must be open to all without unjust discrimination: men and women, healthy and disabled, natives and immigrants. For its part society should, according to circumstances, help citizens find work and employment
A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withold it can be a grave injustice. In determining fair pay both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account. "Remuneration for work should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural, and spiritual level, taking into account the role and the productivity of each, the state of the business, and the common good." Agreement between the parties is not sufficient to justify morally the amount to be received in wages.
Recourse to a strike is morally legitimate and when it cannot be avoided, or at least when it is necessary to obtain a proportionate benefit. It becomes morally unacceptable when accompanied by violence or when objectives are included that are not directly linked to working conditions or contrary to the common good.
It is unjust not to pay the social security contributions required by legitimate authority. Unemployment almost always wounds its victim’s dignity and threatens the equilibrium of his life. Besides the harm done to him personally, it entails many risks for his family.
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February 8, 2015 - Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. 1 John 3:21
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 7 Section I II Pg 636
I - The Universal Destination and the Private Ownership of Goods
In the beginning God entrusted the earth and their resources to the common stewardship of mankind to take care of them, master them by labor, and/or their fruits. Those of creation are destined for the whole human race. However, the earth is divided up among men to ensure the security of their lives, endangered and by violence. It is your property is legitimate for guaranteeing the freedom and beauty of persons and for helping each of them to meet their basic needs and the needs of those in his charge. It should allow free natural solidarity to develop between men.
The right to private property, acquired or received in a just way, does not do away with the original gift of the earth to the whole of mankind. The universal destination of goods remains primordial, even if the promotion of the common good requires respect for the right to private property and its exercise.
"In his use of things man should regard the external goods he legitimately owns not merely as exclusive to himself but common to others also, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as himself." The ownership of any property makes its holder a steward of Providence, with the task of making it through full and communicating its benefits to others, first of all his family.
Goods of production -- -- material or immaterial -- -- such as land, factories, practical or artistic skills, oblige their possessors to employ them in ways that will benefit the greatest number. Those who hold goods for use and consumption should use them with moderation, reserving the better part for guest, for the sick and the poor.
Political authority has the right and duty to regulate the legitimate exercise of the right to ownership for the sake of the common good.
II - Respect for Persons and Their Goods
In economic matters, respect for human dignity requires the practice of the virtue of temperance, so as to moderate attachment to this world's goods; the practice of the virtue of justice, to preserve our neighbors rights and render him what is his dues; and the practice of solidarity, in accordance with the Golden rule and in keeping with the generosity of the Lord, who "though he was rich, yet for your sake... became poorer so that by his poverty, you might become rich."
Respect for the good of others
The seventh commandment forbids theft, that is, usurping another's property against the reasonable will of the owner. There is no theft if consent can be presumed where free fuse low is contrary to reason and the universal destination of goods. This is the case in obvious and urgent necessity when the only way to provide for immediate, essential needs (food, shelter, clothing...) is to put that one's disposal and use the property of others.
Even if it does not contradict the provisions of civil law, any form of unjustly taking in keeping the property of others is against the seventh commandment: bus, delivered retention of goods lent or of objects lost; business fraud; change unjust wages; forcing up prices by taking advantage of the ignorance and hardship of another.
The following are also morally illicit; speculation in which one contrives to manipulate the price of goods artificially in order to gain an advantage to the detriment of others; corruption and with one influences the judgment of those who must make decisions according to law; appropriation and use for private purposes of the common goods of an enterprise; work poorly done; tax evasion; forgery of checks and invoices; excessive expense and waste. Willfully damaging private or public property is contrary to the moral law and requires reparation.
Promises must be kept and contract strictly observed to the extent that the commitments made in them or morally just. A significant part of economic and social life depends on the honoring of contracts between physical or moral persons -- -- commercial contracts of purchase or sale, rental or label contracts. All contracts must be agreed to and executed in good faith.
Contracts are subject to communicative justice which regulates exchanges between persons and between institutions in accordance with a strict respect for the rights. Commutative justice obliges strictly; it requires safeguarding property rights, pain meds, and fulfilling obligations freely contracted. Without communicative justice, no other form of justice is possible. One distinguishes communicative justice from legal justice which concerns what the citizen oaths in fairness to the community, and from distributive justice which regulates what the community owes its citizens in proportion to their contributions and needs.
In virtue of communicative justice, reparation for injustice committed requires the restitution of stolen goods to their owner:
Jesus blesses Zacchaeus for his pledge: "if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restored for full." Those who, directly or indirectly, have taken possession of the goods of another, or obliged to make restitution of them, or to return the equivalent in-kind or in money, if the goods have disappeared, as well as the profit or advantages their owner would have legitimately obtained from them. Likewise, all in some manner have taken part in a theft or who have knowingly benefited from it -- -- for example, those who ordered it, assisted in it, or received the stolen goods -- -- or obliged to make restitution in proportion to their responsibility to their share of always taking.
Games of chance (card games, etc.) Or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming enslavement. Unfair wagers and cheating games constitute grave matter, unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who severs it cannot reasonably considered significant.
The seventh commandment forbids acts or enterprises that for any reason -- -- selfless or ideological, commercial, or totalitarian -- -- lead to the enslavement of human beings, they're being bought, sold and exchanged like merchandise, and disregard for their personal dignity. It is a sin against the dignity of persons and their fundamental rights to reduce them by violence to their productive value her to a source of profit per St. Paul directed a Christian master to treat his Christian slave "no longer is a slave of more than a slave, as a beloved brother, both in the flesh and in the Lord."
Respect for the integrity of creation
The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plans and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity. Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Man whose dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation.
Animals are God's creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assissi or St. Philip Neri treated animals,
God entrusted animals to the stewardship of those whom he created in his image. Hence it is legitimate to use animals for food and clothing. They may be domesticated to help manage his work and leisure. Medical and scientific experimentation on animals is a morally acceptable practice if it remains within reasonable limits and contributes to caring for her saving human lives.
It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly. It is likewise unworthy to spend money on them that should as a priority go to the relief of human misery. One can love animals; one should not direct to them the affection due only to persons.
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February 01, 2015 - But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. 1 Timothy 5:4
It is crucial for us to remember there are no “second –rate” people in the Church, as if being a faithful lay person is somehow or other less worthy than the fidelity of a priest or consecrated religious. Each of us has a place in God’s love and mercy. All of us have the same basic calling, which involves responding to Christ as best we can by living lives of love for God and neighbor carried out in service to both.Two quotations about service come to mind. One is a warning and the other an encouragement. First the warning: “Some people are willing to serve God, but only as His consultant.” Now the encouragement: “”Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position. prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, character and service.” Fr. Leonard Peterson
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 6 Section IV Pg 632
IV - Offenses Against the Dignity of Marriage
Adultery refers to marital infidelity. When two partners, of whom at least one is married to another party, have sexual relations -- -- even transient ones -- -- they commit adultery. Christ condemns even adultery of mere desire. The sixth Commandment and the New Testament forbid adultery absolutely. The prophets denounce the gravity of adultery; they see it as an image of the sin of idolatry.
Adultery is an injustice. He who commits adultery fails in his commitment. He does injury to the sign of the covenant which the marriage bond is, transgresses the rights of the other spouse, and undermines the institution of marriage by breaking a contract on which it is based. He compromises the good of human generation and the welfare of children who need their parents’ stable union.
Divorce
The Lord Jesus insisted on the original intention of the Creator who willed that marriage be indissoluble. He abrogates the accommodations that had slipped into the old Law.
Between the baptized, "a ratified and consummated marriage cannot be dissolved by human power or for any reason other than death."
The separation of spouses while maintaining the marriage bond can be legitimate in certain cases provided for by canon law.
If civil divorce remains the only possible way of ensuring certain legal rights, the care of the children, or the protection of inheritance, it can be tolerated and does not constitute a moral offense.
Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death. Divorce does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign. Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery:
If a husband, separated from his wife, approaches another woman, he is an adulterer because he makes that woman commit adultery; and the woman who lives with him as an adulteress, because she has drawn another's husband to herself.
Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.
It can happen that one of the spouses is the innocent victim of a divorce decreed by civil law; this spouse therefore has not contravened the moral law. There is a considerable difference between a spouse who has sincerely tried to be faithful to the sacrament of marriage and is unjustly abandoned, and one who through his own grave fault destroys a canonically valid marriage.
Other offenses against the dignity of marriage
The predicament of a man who, desiring to convert to the Gospel, is obliged to repudiate one or more wives with whom he has shared years of conjugal life, is understandable. However polygamy is not in accord with the moral law. "[Conjugal] communion is radically contradicted by polygamy; this, in fact, directly negates the plan of God which was revealed from the beginning, because it is contrary to the equal personal dignity of men and women who in matrimony give themselves with a love that is total and therefore unique and exclusive." The Christian who has previously live in polygamy has a grave duty in justice to honor the obligations contracted in regard to his former wives and children.
Incest designates intimate relations between relatives or in-laws within a degree that prohibits marriage between them. St. Paul stigmatizes this especially grave offense: "it is actually reported that there is immorality among you... for a man is living with his father's wife... in the name of the Lord Jesus... you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh..."
Incest corrupts family relationships and marks a regression toward animality.
Connected to incest is any sexual abuse perpetrated by adults on children or adolescents entrusted to their care. The offense is compounded by the scandalous harm done to the physical and moral integrity of the young, who will remain scarred by it all their lives; and the violation of responsibility for their upbringing.
In a so-called free union, a man and a woman refuse to give juridical and public form to a liaison involving sexual intimacy.
The expression "free union" is fallacious: what can "union" mean when the partners make no commitment to one another, each exhibiting a lack of trust in the other, in himself, or in the future?
The expression covers a number of different situations: concubinage, rejection of marriage as such, or an ability to make long-term commitments. All these situations offend against the dignity of marriage; they destroy the very idea of the family; they weaken the sense of fidelity. They are contrary to the moral law. The sexual act must take place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion.
Some today claim a "right to a trial marriage" where there is an intention of getting married later. However firm the purpose of those who engage in premature sexual relations may be, "the fact is that such liaisons can scarcely ensure mutual sincerity and fidelity in a relationship between a man and a woman, nor, especially, can they protect it from inconstancy of desires or whim." Carnal union is morally legitimate only when a definitive community of life between a man and a woman has been established. Human love does not tolerate "trial marriages." It demands a total and definitive gift of persons to one another.
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January 25, 2015 - But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 1 Thessalonians 4:13
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 6 Section III Pg 626
III - The Love of Husband and Wife
Sexuality is ordered to the conjugal love of man and woman. In marriage the physical intimacy of the spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual communion. Marriage bonds between baptized persons are sanctified by the sacrament.
"Sexuality, by means of which man and woman give themselves to one another through the acts which are proper and exclusive to spouses, is not something simply biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human persons as such. It is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and a woman commit themselves totally to one another until death."
Tobias got out of bed and said to Sarah, "Sister get up, let us pray and implore our Lord that he grant us mercy and safety." So she got up, and they began to pray and implore that they might be kept safe. Tobias began by saying, "Blessed are you, O God of our fathers... You made Adam, and for him you made his wife Eve as a helper and support. From the two of them the race of mankind has sprung. You said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; let us make a helper for him like himself." I now am taking this kinswoman of mine, not because of lust, but with sincerity. Grant that she and I may find mercy and that we may grow old together." And they both said, "Amen, Amen." Then they went to sleep for the night.
"The acts in marriage by which the intimate and chaste union of the spouses takes place are noble and honorable; the truly human performance of these acts fosters the self-giving they signify and enriches the spouses in joy and gratitude." Sexuality is a source of joy and pleasure:
The Creator himself... established that in the (generative) function, spouses should experience pleasure and enjoyment of body and spirit. Therefore, the spouses do nothing evil in seeking this pleasure and enjoyment. They accept what the Creator has intended for them. At the same time, spouses should know how to keep themselves within the limits of just moderation.
The spouses union achieves the twofold end of marriage: the good of the spouses themselves and the transmission of life. These two meanings or values of marriage cannot be separated without altering the couples spiritual life and compromising the goods of marriage and the future of the family.
The conjugal love of man and woman thus stands under the twofold obligation of fidelity and fecundity.
Conjugal fidelity
The married couple forms "the intimate worship of life and love established by the Creator and governed by his laws; it is rooted in the conjugal covenant, that is, in their irrevocable personal consent." Both give themselves definitively and totally to one another. There are no longer two; from now on they form one flesh. The covenant they freely contracted imposes on the spouses the obligation to preserve it as unique and indissoluble. "What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
Fidelity expresses constancy in keeping one's a given word. God is faithful. The sacrament of matrimony enables man and woman to enter into Christ's fidelity for his Church. Through conjugal chastity, they bear witness to this mystery before the world.
St. John Chrysostom suggests that young husbands shuld say to their wives: I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us... I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.
The fecundity of marriage
Fecundity is a gift, an end of marriage, for conjugal love naturally seeks to be fruitful. A child does not come from outside as something added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment. So the Church, which "is on the side of life”, teaches that "it is necessary that each and every marriage act remain ordered per se to the procreation of human life." "This particular doctrine, expounded on numerous occasions by the Magisterium, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act."
Called to give life, spouses share in the creative power and fatherhood of God. "Married couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to educate their children; they should realize that they are thereby cooperating with the love of God the Creator and are, in a certain sense, its interpreters. They will fulfill this duty with a sense of human and Christian responsibility."
A particular aspect of this responsibility concerns the regulation of procreation. For just reasons, spouses may wish to space the birth of their children. It is their duty to make certain that their desire is not motivated by selfishness but is in conformity with the generosity appropriate to responsible parenthood. Moreover they should confirm their behavior to the objective criteria of morality:
When it is a question of harmonizing married love with the responsible transmission of life, the morality of the behavior does not depend on sincere intention and evaluation of motives alone; but it must be determined by objective criteria, criteria drawn from the nature of the person and his act, criteria that respect the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love; this is possible only if the virtue of married chastity is practiced with sincerity of heart.
"By safeguarding both these essential aspects, the unitive and the procreative, the conjugal act preserves in its fullness the sense of true mutual love and its orientation towards man's exalted vocation to parenthood."
Periodic continence, that is, the methods of birth regulation based on self-observations and the use of infertile periods, is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality. These methods respect the bodies of their spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, "every action which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or it's accomplishment, or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes whether as an end or as a means, to render procreation impossible" is intrinsically evil:
Thus the innate language that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language, namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality... The difference, both anthropological and moral, between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle... involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person and of human sexuality.
"Let all be convinced that human life and the duty of transmitting it are not limited by the horizons of this life only: their true evaluation and full significance can be understood only in reference to man's eternal destiny
The state has a responsibility for its citizen’s well-being. In this capacity it is legitimate for it to intervene to orient the demography of the population. This can be done by means of objective and respectful information, but certainly not by authoritarian, coercive measures.
The state cannot legitimately usurp the initiative of spouses, who have the primary responsibility for the procreation and education of their children. In this area it is not authorized to employ means contrary to the moral law.
The gift of a child
Sacred Scripture and the Church's traditional practice see in large families a sign of God's blessing and the parents’ generosity.
Couples who discover that they are sterile suffer greatly. "What will you give me," asked Abraham of God, "for I continue childless?" And Rachel cries to her husband Jacob, "give me children, or I shall die!"
Research aimed at reducing human sterility is to be encouraged, on condition that it is placed "at the service of the human person, of his inalienable rights, and his true and integral good according to the design and will of God."
Techniques that entail the disassociation of husband and wife, by the intrusion of a person other than the couple (donation of sperm or ovum, surrogate uterus), are gravely immoral. These techniques (heterologous artificial insemination and fertilization) infringe the child's right to be born of a father and mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage. They betray the spouses "right to become a father and a mother only through each other."
Techniques involving only the married couple (homologous artificial insemination and fertilization) are perhaps less reprehensible, yet remain morally unacceptable. They dissociate the sexual act from the procreative act. The act which brings the child until existence is no longer an act by which two persons give themselves to one another but one that "entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person. Such a relationship of domination is in itself contrary to the dignity and quality that must be common to parents and children." "Under the moral aspect procreation is deprived of its proper perfection when it is not willed as the fruit of the conjugal act, that is to say, of the specific act of the spouses union... Only respect for the link between the meanings of the conjugal act and respect for the unity of the human being make possible procreation in conformity with the dignity of that person.”
A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. The "supreme gift of marriage" is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property an idea to which an alleged "right to a child" would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right "to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents," and "the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception."
The Gospel shows that physical sterility is not an absolute evil. Spouses who still suffer from infertility after exhausting legitimate medical procedures should unite themselves with the Lord's Cross, the source of all spiritual fecundity. They can give expression to their generosity by adopting abandoned children are performing demanding services for others.
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January 18, 2015 - But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Isaiah 53:5
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 6 Section I II Pg 619
I – “Male and Female he created them”
"God is love and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image..., God described in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion."
"God created man in his own image... male and female he created them"; he blessed them and said, "be fruitful and multiply"; "when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created."
Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others.
Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral and spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs, and mutual support between the sexes are lived out.
"In creating men", ‘male and female, ‘God gives man and woman an equal personal dignity." "Man is a person, man and women equally so, since both were created in the image and likeness of the personal God."
Each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way. The union of man and woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator’s generosity and fecundity; "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh." All human generations proceed from this union.
Jesus came to restore creation to the purity of its origins. In the Sermon on the Mount, he interprets God's plan strictly: "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.
The tradition of the Church has understood the sixth commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality.
II - The Vocation to Chastity
Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man and his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man’s belonging to the body and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, and the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman.
The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift.
The integrity of the person
The chaste person maintains the integrity of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.
Chastity includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom. The alternative is clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be dominated by them and becomes unhappy. "Man's dignity therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what is good and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the means suited to this end."
Whoever wants to remain faithful to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt the means for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of an ascesis adapted to the situations that confront him, obedience to God's commandments, exercise of the moral virtues, and fidelity to prayer. “Indeed it is through chastity that we are gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were fragmented into multiplicity.”
The virtue of chastity comes under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the passions and appetites of the senses with reason.
Self-mastery is a long and exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It pre-supposes renewed effort at all stages of life. The effort required can be more intense in certain period, such as when the personality is being formed during childhood and adolescence.
Chastity has laws of growth which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often by sin. “Man…day by day builds himself up through his free decisions; and so he knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by stages of growth.”
Chastity represents an eminently personal task; it also involves a cultural effort, for there is “an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of society.” Chastity presupposes respect for the rights of the person, in particular the right to receive information and an education that respect the moral and spiritual dimensions of human life.
Chastity is a moral virtue. It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort. The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to imitate the purity of Christ.
The integrality of the gift of self
Charity is the form of all the virtues. Under its influence, chastity appears as a school of the gift of the person. Self-mastery is ordered to the gift of self. Chastity leads him who practices it to become a witness to his neighbor of God's fidelity and loving kindness.
The virtue of chastity blossoms in friendship. It shows the disciple how to follow and imitate him who has chosen us as his friends, who has given himself totally to us and allows us to participate in his divine estate. Chastity is a promise of immortality.
Chastity is expressed notably in friendship with one's neighbor. Whether it develops between persons of the same or opposite sex, friendship represents a great good for all. It leads to spiritual communion
The various forms of chastity
All the baptized are called to chastity. The Christian has "put on Christ," the model for all chastity. All Christ's faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping with their particular states of life. At the moment of his Baptism, the Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity.
"People should cultivate [chastity] in the way that is suited to their state of life. Some profess virginity or consecrated celibacy which enables them to give themselves to God alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable manner. Others live in the way prescribed for all by the moral law, whether they are married or single." Married people are called to live conjugal chastity; others practice chastity in continence:
There are three forms of the virtue of chastity: the first is that of spouses, the second from that of widows, and the third that of virgins. We do not praise any one of them to the exclusion of the others... This is what makes for the richness of the discipline of the Church.
Those who are engaged to marry are called to live chastity in continence. They should see in this time of testing a discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in fidelity, and the hope of receiving one another from God. They should reserve for marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married love. They will help each other grow and chastity.
Offenses against chastity
Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive purses.
By Masturbation is to be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to derive sexual pleasure. "Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and gravely disordered action." "The deliberate use of the sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially contrary to its purpose." For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of "the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true love is achieved."
To form an equitable judgment about the subjects’ moral responsibility and to guide pastoral actions, one must take into account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of anxiety, or other psychological or social factors that can lessen, if not even reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.
Fornication is carnal union between an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave scandal when there is corruption of the young.
Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.
Prostitution does injury to the dignity of the person who engages in it, reducing the person to an instrument of sexual pleasure. The one who pays sins gravely against himself: he violates the chastity to which his Baptism pledged him and defiles his body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Prostitution is a social scourge. It usually involves women, but also men, children, and adolescents (the latter two cases involve the added sin of scandal.). While it is always gravely sinful to engage in prostitution, the imputability of the offense can be attenuated by destitution, blackmail, or social pressure.
Rape is the formal violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice and charity. Rape deeply wounds to respect, freedom, and physical and moral integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act. Graver still is the rape of children committed by parents (incest) o those responsible for the education of the children entrusted to them.
Chastity and homosexuality
Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
The number of men and women who have deep-seeded homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtue of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
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January 11, 2015 - Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. Psalms 1:1-2
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 5 Section III Pg 613
III - Safeguarding Peace
Peace
By recalling the commandment, "You shall not kill," our Lord asked for peace of heart and denounced murderous anger and hatred as immoral.
Anger is a desire for revenge. "To desire vengeance in order to do evil to someone who should be punished is illicit," but it is praiseworthy to impose restitution "to correct vices and maintain justice." If anger reaches the point of a deliberate desire to kill or seriously wound a neighbor, it is gravely against charity; it is a mortal sin. The Lord says, "Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment."
Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity. Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him the evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm. "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven."
Respect for and development of human life require peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is "the tranquility of order." Peace is the work of justice and effect of charity.
Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic "Prince of Peace." By the blood of his Cross, "in his own person he killed the hostility," he reconciled men with God and made his Church the sacrament of the unity of the human race and of its union with God. "He is our peace." He has declared: "Blessed are the peacemakers."
Those who renounce violence and bloodshed and, in order to safeguard human rights, make use of those means of defense available to the weakest, bear witness to evangelical charity, provided they do so without harming the rights and obligations of other men and societies. They bear legitimate witness to the gravity of the physical and moral risks of recourse to violence, with all its destruction and death.
Avoiding war
The fifth commandment forbids the intentional destruction of human life. Because of the evils and injustices that accompany all war, the Church insistently urges everyone to prayer and to action so that the divine Goodness may free us from the ancient bondage of war.
All citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war.
However, "as long as the danger of war persists there is no international authority with the necessary competence and power, governments cannot be denied the right of lawful self-defense, once all peace efforts have failed."
The strict conditions for legitimate defense by military force require rigorous consideration. The gravity of such a decision makes it subject to rigorous conditions of moral legitimacy. At one and the same time:
-- -- the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
-- -- all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
-- -- there must be serious prospects of success;
-- -- the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition.
These are the traditional elements enumerated in what is called the "just war" doctrine.
The evaluation of these conditions for moral legitimacy belongs to the prudential judgment of those who have responsibility for the common good.
Public authorities, in this case, have the right and duty to impose on citizens the obligations necessary for national defense.
Those who are sworn to serve their country in the armed forces are servants of the security and freedom of nations. If they carry out their duty honorably, they truly contribute to the common good of the nation and the maintenance of peace.
Public authorities should make equitable provision for those who for reasons of conscience refuse to bear arms; these are nonetheless obliged to serve the human community and some other way.
The Church and human reason both assert the permanent validity of the moral law during armed conflict. "The mere fact that war has regrettably broken out does not mean that everything becomes licit between the warring parties."
Non-combatants, wounded soldiers, and prisoners must be respected and treated humanely.
Actions deliberately contrary to the law of nations and to its universal principles are crimes, as are the orders that command such actions. Blind obedience does not suffice to excuse those who carry them out. Thus the extermination of a people, nation, or ethnic minority must be condemned as a mortal sin. One is morally bound to resist orders that command genocide.
“Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man, which merits firm and unequivocal condemnation." A danger of modern warfare is that it provides the opportunity to those who possess modern scientific weapons -- -- especially atomic, biological, or chemical weapons -- -- to commit such crimes.
The accumulation of arms strikes many as a paradoxically suitable way of deterring potential adversaries from war. They see as the most effective means of ensuring peace among nations. This method of deterence gives rise to strong moral reservations. The arms race does not ensure peace. Far from eliminating the causes of war, it risks aggravating them. Spending enormous sums to produce ever new types of weapons impedes efforts to aid needy populations; it thwarts development of peoples. Over-armament multiplies reasons for conflict and increases the dangers of escalation.
The production and sale of arms affect the common good of nations and of the international community. Hence public authorities have the right and ability to regulate them. The short-term pursuit of private or collective interests cannot legitimate undertakings that promote violence and conflict among nations and compromise the international juridical order.
Injustice, excessive economic or social inequalities, envy, distrust, and pride raging among men and nations constantly threaten peace and cause wars. Everything done to overcome these disorders contributes to building up peace and avoiding war:
Insofar as men are sinners, the threat of war hangs over them and will so continue until Christ comes again; but insofar as they can vanquish sin by coming together in charity, violence itself will be vanquished and these words will be fulfilled: "they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore."
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January 4, 2015- Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And Your dominion endures throughout all generations. Psalms 145:13
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 5 Section II Pg 609
II - Respect For The Dignity of Persons
Respect for the souls of others: scandal
Scandal is an attitude or behavior which leads another to do evil. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor’s tempter. He damages virtue and integrity; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death. Scandal is a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense.
Scandal takes on a particular gravity by reason of the authority of those who cause it or the weakness of those who are scandalized. It prompted our Lord to honor this curse: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea." Scandal is grave when given by those who by nature or office are obliged to teach and educate others. Jesus reproaches the scribes and Pharisees on this account: he likens them to wolves in sheep's clothing.
Scandal can be provoked by laws or institutions, by fashion or opinion.
Therefore, they are guilty of scandal who establish laws or social structures leading to the decline of morals and the corruption of religious practice, or to "social conditions that, intentionally or not, make Christian conduct and obedience to the Commandments difficult and practically impossible." This is also true of business leaders who make rules encouraging fraud, teachers who provoke their children to anger, or manipulators of public opinion who turn it away from moral values.
Anyone who uses the power at his disposal in such a way that leads others to do wrong becomes guilty of scandal and responsible for the evil that he has directly or indirectly encouraged. "Temptations to sin are sure to come; but woe to him by whom they come!"
Respect for health
Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take responsible care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good.
Concern for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living- conditions that allow them to grow and reach maturity: food and clothing, housing, health care, basic education, employment, and social assistance.
If morality requires respect for the life of the body, it does not make it an absolute value. It rejects a neo-pagan notion that tends to promote the cult of the body, to sacrifice everything for its sake, to idolize physical perfection and success at sports. By its selective preference of the strong over the weak, such a conception can lead to the perversion of human relationships.
The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobaccoo, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others' safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.
The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense. Clandestine production of and trafficking in drugs are scandalous practices. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law.
Respect for the person and scientific research
Scientific, medical, or psychological experiments on human individuals or groups can contribute to healing the sick and the advancement of public health.
Basic scientific research, as well as applied research, is a significant expression of man's dominion over creation. Science and technology are precious resources when placed at the service of man and promote his integral development for the benefit of all. By themselves however they cannot disclose the meaning of existence and of human progress. Science and technology are ordered to man, from whom they take their origin and development; hence they find in the person and in his moral values both evidence of their purpose and awareness of their limits.
It is an illusion to claim moral neutrality in scientific research and its applications. On the other hand guiding principles cannot be inferred from simple technical efficiency, or from the usefulness accruing to some at the expense of others or, even worse, from prevailing ideologies. Science and technology by their very nature require unconditional respect for fundamental moral criteria. They must be at the service of the human person, of his inalienable rights, of his true and integral good, in conformity with the will of God.
Research or experimentation on the human being cannot legitimate acts that are in themselves contrary to the dignity of persons or to the moral law. The subjects’ potential consent does not justify such acts. Experimentation on human beings is not really legitimate if it exposes the subject’s life or physical and psychological integrity to disproportionate or avoidable risks. Experimentation on human beings does not conform to the dignity of the person if it takes place without the informed consent of the subject or those who legitimately speak for him.
Organ transplants are in conformity with the moral law if the physical and psychological dangers and risks to the donor are proportionate to the good that is sought for the recipient. Organ donation after death is a noble and meritorious act is to be encouraged as an expression of generous solidarity. It is not morally acceptable if the donor or his proxy is not given explicit consent. Moreover, it is not morally admissible directly to bring about the disabling mutilation or death of a human being, even in order to delay the death of other persons.
Respect for bodily integrity
Kidnapping and hostage taking bring on a reign of terror; by means of threats they subject their victims to intolerable pressures. They are morally wrong. Terrorism threatens, wounds, and kills indiscriminately is gravely against justice and charity. Torture which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity. Except when performed for strictly therapeutic medical reasons, directly intended amputations, mutilations, and sterilizations performed on innocent persons are against the moral law.
In times past, cruel practices were commonly used by legitimate governments to maintain law and order, often without protest from the Pastors of the Church, who themselves adopted in their own tribunals prescriptions of Roman law concerning torture. Regrettable as these facts are, the Church always taught the duty of clemency and mercy. She forbade clerics to shed blood. In recent times it has become evident that these cruel practices were neither necessary for public order, nor in conformity with the legitimate rights of the human person. On the contrary, these practices lead to ones even more degrading. It is necessary to work for their abolition. We must pray for the victims and their tormentors.
Respect for the dead
The dying should be given attention and care to help them live their last moments in dignity and peace. They will be helped by the prayer of their relatives, who must see to it that the sick receive at the proper time the sacraments to prepare them to meet the living God.
The bodies of the dead must be treated with respect and charity, in faith and hope of the Resurrection. The burial of the dead is a corporal work of mercy; it honors the children of God, who are temples of the Holy Spirit.
Autopsies can be permitted legal inquest were scientific research. The free gift of organs after death is legitimate and can be meritorious.
The church permits cremation, provided that it does not demonstrate a denial of faith in the resurrection of the body.
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Hope you all had a Blessed, Joyous and Merry Christmas!!!
December 27, 2014 - I give you a new command: Love each other. You must love each other as I have loved you. John 13:34
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 5 Section I Pg 602
I - Respect for Human Life
The witness of sacred history
In the account of Abel's murder of his brother Cain, Scripture reveals the presence of anger and envy in man, consequences of original sin, from the beginning of human history. Man has become the enemy of his fellow man. God declares the wickedness of this fratricide: "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand."
The covenant between God and mankind is interwoven with reminders of God's gift of human life and man's murderous violence:
For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning.... Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; God made man in his own image.
The Old Testament always considered blood a sacred side of life. This teaching remains necessary for all time.
Scripture specifies the prohibition contained in the fifth commandment: "Do not slay the innocent and the righteous." The deliberate murder of an innocent person is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human being, to the golden rule, and to the holiness of the Creator. The law forbidding it is universally valid: it obliges each and every one, always and everywhere.
In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord recalls the commandment, "You shall not kill," and adds to it the proscription of anger, hatred, and vengeance. Going further, Christ asks his disciples to turn the other cheek, to love their enemies. He did not defend himself and told Peter to leave his sword in its sheath.
Legitimate defense
The legitimate defense of persons and societies is not an exception to the prohibition against the murder of the innocent that constitutes intentional killing. "The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one's own life; and the killing of the aggressor... The one is intended, the other is not."
Love toward oneself remains a fundamental principle of morality. Therefore it is legitimate to insist on respect for one's own right to life. Someone who defends his life is not guilty of murder even if he is forced to deal his aggressor a lethal blow:
If a man in self-defense uses more than necessary violence, it will be unlawful: whereas if he retells force with moderation, his defense will be lawful.... Nor is it necessary for salvation that a man omit the act of moderate self-defense to avoid killing the other man, since one is bound to take more care of one's own life that of another's.
Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who is responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm. For this reason, those who legitimately hold authority also have the right to use arms to repel aggressors against the civil community entrusted to their responsibility.
The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people's rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and the duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense. When it is willingly accepted by the guilty party, it assumes the value of expiation. Punishment then, in addition to defending public order and protecting people's safety, has a medicinal purpose: as far as possible, it must contribute to the correction of the guilty party.
Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.
If, however non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human process.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm -- -- without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself -- -- the cases in which the exception of the offender is an absolute necessity "are rare, if not practically nonexistent."
Intentional homicide
The fifth commandment forbids direct and intentional killing as gravely sinful. The murderer and those who cooperate voluntarily in murder commit a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance.
Infanticide, fratricide, parricide, and the murder of a spouse are especially grave crimes by reason of the natural bonds which they break. Concern for eugenics or public health cannot justify any murder, even if commanded by public authority.
The fifth commandment forbids doing anything with the intention of indirectly bringing about a person's death. The moral law prohibits exposing someone to mortal danger without grave reason, as well as refusing assistance to a person in danger.
The acceptance by human society of murderous famines, without efforts to remedy them, is a scandalous injustice and a grave offense. Those whose usurious avaricious dealings lead to the hunger and death of their brethren in the human family indirectly commit homicide, which is imputable to them.
Unintentional killing is not morally imputable. But one is not exonerated from grave offense if, without proportionate reasons, he has acted in a way that brings about someone's death, even without the intention to do so.
Abortion
Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person -- -- among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I consecrated you.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.
Since the first century of the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to man the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.
Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,” "by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation:
"The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death."
"The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined... As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights."
Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being.
Parental diagnosis is morally licit, "if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward safeguarding or healing as an individual... It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence."
"One must hold as licit procedures carried out on the human embryo which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it, but are directed toward its healing, the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival."
"It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material."
"Certain attempts to influence chromosomic or genetic inheritance are not therapeutic but are aimed at producing human beings selected according to sex or other predetermined qualities. Such manipulations are contrary to the personal dignity of the human being and his integrity and identity" which are unique and unrepeatable.
Euthanasia
Those whose lives are diminished or weakened deserve special respect. Sick or handicapped persons should be helped to lead lives as normal as possible.
Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable.
Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.
Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate; it is the refusal of "overzealous" treatment. Hence one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted. The decision should be made by the patient if he is competent and able or, if not, by those legally entitled to act for the patient, whose reasonable will and legitimate interests must always be respected.
Even if death is thought imminent, the extraordinary care owed to a sick person cannot be legitimately interrupted. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable. Palliative care is a special form of disinterested charity. As such it should be encouraged.
Suicide
Everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of.
Suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life. It is gravely contrary to the just love of self. It likewise offends love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family, nation, and other human societies to which we continue to have obligations. Suicide is contrary to love for the living God.
If suicide is committed with the intention of setting an example, especially to the young, it also takes on the gravity of scandal. Voluntary co-operation in suicide is contrary to the moral law.
Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide.
We should not despair of the eternal solvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives.
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December 21, 2014 - I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. John 16:33
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 4 Section IV Pg 596
IV - The Family And The Kingdom
Family ties are important but not absolute. Just as the child grows to maturity and human and spiritual autonomy, so his unique vocation which comes from God asserts itself more clearly and forcefully. Parents should respect this call and encourage their children to follow it. They must be convinced that the first vocation of the Christian is to follow Jesus "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
Becoming a disciple of Jesus means accepting the invitation to belong to God's family, to live in conformity with His way of life: "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother."
Parents should welcome and respect with joy and thanksgiving the Lords a call to one of their children to follow him in virginity for the sake of the Kingdom in the consecrated life or in priestly ministry.
V - The Authorities In Civil Society
God's fourth amendment also enjoins us to honor all who for our good have received authority in society from God. It clarifies the duties of those who exercise authority as well as those who benefit from it.
Duties of civil authorities
Those who exercise authority should do so as a service. "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant." The exercise of authority is measured morally in terms of its divine origin, its reasonable nature and its specific object. No man can command or establish what is contrary to the dignity of persons and the natural law.
The exercise of authority is meant to give outward expression to a just hierarchy of values in order to facilitate the exercise of freedom and responsibility by all. Those in authority should practice distributive justice wisely, taking account of the needs and contribution of each, with a view to harmony and peace. They should take care that the regulations and measures they adopt are not a source of temptation by setting personal interest against that of the community.
Political authorities are obliged to respect the fundamental rights of the human person. They will dispense justice humanely by respecting the rights of everyone, especially of families and the disadvantaged.
The political rights attached to citizenship can and should be granted according to the requirements of the common good. They cannot be suspended by public authorities without legitimate and proportionate reasons. Political rights are meant to be exercised for the common good of the nation and the human community.
The duties of citizens
Those subject to authority should regard those in authority as representatives of God, who has made them stewards of his gift; "Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution... Live as free men, yet without using your freedom as a pretext for evil; but live as servants of God." Their loyal collaboration includes the right, and at times the duty, to voice their just criticisms of that which seems harmful to the dignity of persons and to the good of the community.
It is the duty of citizens to contribute along with the civil authorities to the good of society in the spirit of truth, justice, solidarity, and freedom. The love and service of one's country follow from the duty of gratitude to belong to the order of charity. Submission to legitimate authorities and service of the common good requires citizens to fulfill their roles in the life of the political community.
Submission to authority and co-responsibility for the common good make it morally obligatory to pay taxes to exercise the right to vote, and to defend one's country:
Pay to all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due."
[Christians] reside in their own nations, but as resident aliens. They participate in all things as citizens and/or all things as foreigners... They obey the established laws and their way of life surpasses the laws... so noble is the position to which God has assigned them that they are not allowed to desert it."
The apostle exhorts us to offer prayers and thanksgiving for kings and all who exercise authority, "that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way."
The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under production of those who receive him.
Political authorities for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various judicial conditions especially with regard to the immigrant's duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens.
The citizen is obliged in conscience not to follow the directives of civil authorities when they are contrary to the demands of the moral order, to the fundamental rights of persons or the teachings of the Gospel. Refusing obedience to civil authorities, when their demands are contrary to those of upright conscience, finds its justification in the distinction between serving God and serving the political community. "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." “We must obey God rather than men"
When citizens are under the oppression of a public authority which oversteps its competence, they should still not refuse to give or to do what is objectively demanded of them by the common good; but it is legitimate for them to defend their own rights and those of their fellow citizens against the abuse of this authority within limits of the natural law and the law of the Gospel.
Armed resistance to oppression by political authority is not legitimate, unless all the following conditions are met: 1) there is certain, grave, and prolonged violation of fundamental rights; 2) all other means of redress have been exhausted; 3) such resistance will not provoke worse disorders; 4) there is well-founded hope of success; and 5) it is impossible reasonably to foresee any better solution.
The political community and the Church
Every institution is inspired, at least implicitly, by a vision of man and his destiny, from which it derives the point of reference for its judgment, its hierarchy of values, its line of conduct. Most societies have formed their institutions in the recognition of a certain preeminence of man over things. Only the divinely revealed religion has clearly recognized man's origin and destiny in God, the Creator and Redeemer. The Church invites political authority to measure their judgments and decisions against this inspired truth about God and man:
Societies not recognizing this vision or rejecting it in the name of their independence from God are brought to seek their criteria and goal in themselves or to borrow them from some ideology. Since they do not admit that one can defend an objective criterion of good and evil, they arrogate to themselves an explicit or implicit totalitarian power over man and his destiny, as history shows.
The Church, because of her commission and competence, is not to be confused in any way with the political community. She is both the sign and the safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person. "The Church respects and encourages the political freedom and responsibility of the citizen."
It is a part of the Church's mission "to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it. The means, the only means, she may use are those which are in accord with the Gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and circumstances."
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December 14, 2014 - I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. Proverbs 8:17
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 4 Section III Pg 592
III – The Duties of Family Members
The duties of children
The divine fatherhood is the source of human fatherhood; this is the foundation of the honor code to parents. The respect of children, whether minors or adults, for their father and mother is nourished by the natural affection born of the bond uniting them. It is required by God's commandment.
Respect for parents (filial piety) derives from gratitude toward those who, by the gift of life, their love and their work, have brought their children into the world and enabled them to grow in stature, wisdom, and grace. "With all your heart honor your father, and do not forget the birth pains of your mother. Remember that through your parents you were born; what can you give back to them that equals their gift to you?"
Filial respect is shown by true docility and obedience. "My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching... When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you." A wise son hears his father's instructions, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke."
As long as a child lives at home with his parents, the child should obey his parents and all that they ask of him when it is for his good or that of the family. “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord." Children should also obey the reasonable directions of their teachers and all to whom their parents have entrusted them. But if a child is convinced in conscience that it would be morally wrong to obey a particular order, he must not do so.
As they grow up, children should continue to respect their parents. They should anticipate their wishes, willingly seek their advice, and accept their just admonitions. Obedience towards parents ceases with the emancipation of the children; not so respect, which is always owed to them. This respect has its roots in the fear of God, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The fourth commandment reminds grown children of their responsibilities towards their parents. As much as they can, they must give them the material and moral support in old age and in times of illness, loneliness, or distress. Jesus recalls this duty of gratitude.
For the Lord honored the father above the children, and he confirmed the right of the mother over her sons. Whoever honors his father atones for sins, and whoever glorifies his mother is like one who has duties of a treasure. Whoever honors his father will be gladdened by his own children, and when he prays he will be heard. Whoever glorifies his father will have long life, and whoever obeys the Lord will refresh his mother.
O son, help your father in his old age, and do not grieve him as long as he lives; even if he is lacking in understanding, show forbearance; in all your strength do not despise them... Whoever forsakes his father is like a blasphemer, and whoever angers his mother is cursed by the Lord.
Filial respect promotes harmony in all of family life; it also concerns relationships between brothers and sisters. Respect toward parents fills the home with light and warmth. "Grandchildren are the crown of the aged." "With all humility and meekness, with patience, [support] one another in charity."
For Christians a special gratitude is due to those from whom they have received the gift of faith, the grace of Baptism, and life in the Church. These may include parents, grandparents, other members of the family, pastors, catechists, and other teachers or friends. "I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you."
The duties of parents
The fecundity of conjugal love cannot be reduced solely to the procreation of children, but must extend to their moral education and their spiritual formation. "The role of parents in education is of such importance that it also impossible to provide an adequate substitute." The right and the duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable.
Parents must regard their children as children of God and respect them as human persons. Showing themselves obedient to the will of the Father in heaven they educate their children to fulfill God's law.
Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well-suited for education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery -- -- the preconditions of all true freedom. Parents should teach their children to subordinate the "material and instinctual dimensions to interior and spiritual ones." Parents have a grave responsibility to give good example to their children. By knowing how to acknowledge their own failings to their children, parents will be better able to guide and correct them:
He who loves his son will not spare the rod... He who disciplines his son will profit by him. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
The home is the natural environment for initiating a human being into solidarity and communal responsibilities. Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies.
Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are the "first herald's" for their children. They should associate them from their tenderest years with the life of the Church. A wholesome family life can foster interior dispositions that are a genuine preparation for a living faith and remain a support for it throughout one's life.
Education in the faith by the parents should begin in the child's earliest years. This already happens when family members help one another to grow in faith by the witness of a Christian life in keeping with the Gospel. Family catechisms precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the faith. Parents have the mission of teaching their children to pray and to discover their vocation as children of God. The parish is the Eucharistic community and the heart of the liturgical life of Christian families; it is a privileged place for the catechesis of children and parents.
Children in turn contribute to the growth in holiness of their parents. Each and every one should be generous and tireless and forgiving one another for offenses, quarrels, injustices, and neglect. Mutual affection suggests this. The charity of Christ demands it.
Parents respect and affection are expressed by the care and attention they devote to bringing up their young children and providing for their physical and spiritual needs. As the children grow up the same respect and devotion lead parents to educate them in the right use of their reason and freedom.
As those first responsible for the education of their children, parents have the right to choose a school for them which corresponds to their own convictions. This right is fundamental. As far as possible parents have the duty of choosing schools that will best help them in their task as Christian educators. Public authorities have the duty of guaranteeing this parental right of ensuring the concrete conditions for its exercise.
When they become adults, children have the right and duty to choose their profession and state of life. They should assume their new responsibilities within a trusting relationship with their parents, willingly asking and receiving their advice and counsel. Parents should be careful not to exert pressure on their children either in the choice of a profession or in that of a spouse. This necessary restraint does not prevent them -- -- quite the contrary -- -- from giving their children judicious advice, particularly when they are planning to start a family.
Some forgo marriage in order to care for their parents or brothers and sisters, to give themselves more completely to a profession, or to serve other honorable ends. They can contribute greatly to the good of the human family.
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December 7, 2014 - I pray that the God who gives hope will fill you with much joy and peace while you trust in him. Then your hope will overflow by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 2 Article 4 Section I Pg 587
I – Fourth Commandment The Family in God’s Plan
The nature of the family
The conjugal community is established upon the consent of the spouses. Marriage and the family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children. The love of the spouses and the begetting of children create among members of the same family personal relationships and primordial responsibilities.
A man and a woman united in marriage, together with their children, form a family. This institution is prior to any recognition by public authority, which has an obligation to recognize. It should be considered the normal reference point by which the different forms of family relationship are to be evaluated.
In creating man and woman, God instituted the human family and endowed it with its fundamental constitution. Its members are persons equal in dignity. For the common good of its members and of society, the family necessarily has manifold responsibilities, rights, and duties.
The Christian family
"The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church." It is a community of faith, hope, and charity; it assumes singular importance in the Church, as is evident in the New Testament.
The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. In the procreation and education of children it reflects the Father's work of creation. It is called to partake of the prayer and sacrifice of Christ. Daily prayer and the reading of the Word of God strengthen it in charity. The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task.
The relationships within the family bring an affinity of feelings, affections and interest, arising above all from the members’ respect for one another. The family is a privileged community called to achieve a "sharing of thought and common deliberation by the spouses as well as their eager cooperation as parents in their children's upbringing."
II - The Family and Society
The family is the original cell of social life. It is the natural society in which husband and wife are called to give themselves in love and in the gift of life. Authority, stability, and a life of relationships within the family constitute the foundations for freedom, security, and fraternity within society. The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God, and make good use of freedom. Family life is an initiation into life in society.
The family should live in such a way that its members learn to care and take responsibility for the young, the old, the sick, handicapped, and the poor. There are many families who are at times incapable of providing this help. It devolves then on other persons, other families, and, in a subsidiary way, society to provide for their needs: "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world."
The family must be helped and defended by appropriate social measures. Where families cannot fulfill their responsibilities, other social bodies have the duty of helping them and of supporting the institution of the family. Following the principle of subsidiarity, larger communities should take care not to usurp the family’s prerogatives or interfere in its life.
The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family. Civil authority should consider it a grave duty "to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity."
The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially:
-- -- The freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family's own moral and religious connections;
-- -- The protection of the stability of the marriage bond in the institution of the family;
-- -- The freedom to profess one's faith, too hand it on, and raise one's children in it, with the necessary means and institutions;
-- -- The right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work in housing, and the right to emigrate;
-- -- In keeping with the country's institutions the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family benefits;
-- -- The protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography, alcoholism, etc.;
-- -- The freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation before civil authority.
The fourth commandment illuminates other relationships in society. In our brothers and sisters we see the children of our parents; in our cousins, the descendants of our ancestors; in our fellow citizens, the children of our country; in the baptized, the children of our mother the Church; in every human person, a son or daughter of the One who wants to be called "our Father." In this way our relationships with our neighbors are recognized as personal in character. The neighbor is not a "unit" in the human collective; he is "someone" who by his known origins deserves particular attention and respect.
Human communities are made up of persons. Governing them well is not limited to guaranteeing rights and fulfilling duties such as honoring contracts. Right relations between employers and employees, between those who govern and citizens, presuppose a natural good will in keeping with the dignity of human persons concerned for justice and fraternity.
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November 30, 2014 - I wait for the Lord to help me, and I trust his word. Psalms 130:5
116 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 3 Section I II Pg 580
I - The Sabbath Day
The third commandment of the Decalogue recalls the holiness of the Sabbath: The seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord."
In speaking of the Sabbath Scripture recalls creation: "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."
Scripture also reveals in the Lord's Day a memorial of Israel's liberation from bondage in Egypt: "You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and Lord your God brought you out thence with mighty hand and outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day."
God entrusted the sabbath to Israel to keep as a sign of the irrevocable covenant. The Sabbath is for the Lord, holy and set apart for the praise of God, his work of creation, and his saving actions on behalf of Israel.
God's action is the model for human action. If God "rested and was refreshed" on the seventh day, man too ought to "rest" and should let others, especially the poor, "be refreshed." The sabbath brings everyday work to a halt and provides a respite. It is a day of protest against the servitude of work and the worship of money.
The Gospel reports many incidents when Jesus was accused of violating the sabbath law. But Jesus never fails to respect the holiness of this day. He gives this law its authentic and authoritative interpretation: "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." With compassion, Christ declares the sabbath for doing good rather than harm, for saving life rather than killing. The sabbath is the day of the Lord of mercies and a day to honor God. "The Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath."
II - The Lord's Day
This is the day which the Lord has made; ley us rejoice and be glad in it.
The day of the Resurrection: the new creation
Jesus rose from the dead "on the first day of the week." Because it is the "first day," the day of Christ's resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the "eight day" following the sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ's Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, but first of all feasts, the Lord's Day (he kuriake hemera, dies dominica)—Sunday:
We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on the same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead.
Sunday -- -- Fulfillment of the sabbath
Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath. In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man’s eternal rest in God. For worship under the Law prepared for the mystery of Christ, and what was done there prefigured some aspects of Christ:
Those who lived according to the old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the sabbath, but the Lord's Day, in which our life is blessed by him and by his death.
The celebration of Sunday observes the moral commandment inscribed by nature in the human heart to render to God an outward, visible, public, and regular worship "as a sign of his universal beneficence to all." Sunday worship fulfills the moral command of the Old Covenant, taking up its rhythm and spirit in the weekly celebration of the Creator and Redeemer of his people.
The Sunday Eucharist
The Sunday celebration of the Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's life. "Sunday is the day on which the paschal mystery is celebrated in light of the apostolic tradition and is to be observed as the foremost holy day of obligation in the universal Church."
"Also to be observed are the day of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Epiphany, the Ascension of Christ, the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, the feast of Mary the Mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, her Assumption, the feast of St. Joseph, the feast of the Apostles St. Peter and Paul, and the feast of All Saints."
This practice of the Christian assembly dates from the beginnings of the apostolic age. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds the faithful "not to neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but to encourage one another,
Tradition preserves the memory of an ever-timely exhortation: Come to Church early, approach the Lord, and confess your sins, repent in prayer... Be present at the sacred and divine liturgy, conclude its prayer and do not leave before the dismissal... We have often said: "This day is given to you for prayer and rest. This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it."
"A parish is a definite community of the Christian faithful established on a stable basis within a particular church; the pastoral care of the parish is entrusted to a pastor as its own shepherd under the authority of the diocesan bishop." It is the place where all the faithful can be gathered together for the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist. The parish initiates the Christian people into the ordinary expression of the liturgical life: it gathers them together in this celebration; it teaches Christ's saving doctrine; it practices the charity of the Lord in good works and brotherly love:
You cannot pray at home as at Church, where there is a great multitude, where exclamations are cried out to God as from one great heart, and where there is something more: the union of minds, the accord of souls, the bond of charity, the prayers of the priests.
The Sunday obligation
The precept of the Church specifies the law of the Lord more precisely: "On Sundays and other holy days of obligation the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass." "The precept of participating in the Mass is satisfied by assistance at a Mass which is celebrated anywhere in a Catholic rite either on the holy day on the evening of the preceding day."
The Sunday Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason (for example, illness, the care of infants) or dispensed by their own pastor. Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.
Participation in the communal celebration of the Sunday Eucharist is a testimony of belonging and of being faithful to Christ and to his Church. The faithful give witness to this by their communion in faith and charity. Together they testify to God's holiness and their hope of salvation. They strengthen one another under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
"If because of lack of a sacred minister or for other great cause participation in the celebration of the Eucharist is impossible, it is specially recommended that the faithful take part in the Liturgy of the Word if it is celebrated in the parish Church or in another sacred place according to the prescriptions of the diocesan bishop, or engage in prayer for an appropriate amount of time personally or in a family or, as occasion offers, in groups of families."
A day of grace and rest from work
Just as God "rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done," human life has a rhythm of work and rest. The institution of the Lord's Day helps everyone enjoy adequate rest and leisure to cultivate their familial, cultural, social, and religious lives.
On Sundays and other days of obligation the faithful are to refrain from engaging in work or activities that hinder the worship owed to God, the joy proper to the Lord's Day, the performance of the works of mercy, and the appropriate relaxation of mind and body. Family needs or important social service can legitimately excuse one from the obligation of Sunday rest. The faithful should see to it that legitimate excuses do not lead to habits prejudicial to religion, family life, and health.
The charity of truth seeks holy leisure; the necessity of charity accepts just work.
Those Christians who have leisure should be mindful of their brethren who have the same needs and the same rights, yet cannot rest from work because of poverty and misery. Sunday is traditionally consecrated by Christian piety to good works and humble service of the sick, the infirm, and the elderly. Christians will also sanctify Sunday by devoting time and care to their families and relatives, often difficult to do on other days of the week. Sunday is a time for reflection, silence, cultivation of the mind, and meditation which furthers the growth of the Christian interior life.
Sanctifying Sundays and holy days requires a common effort. Every Christian should avoid making unnecessary demands of others that would hinder them from observing the Lord's Day. Traditional activities (sport, restaurants, etc.), and social necessities (public services, etc.), require some people to work on Sundays, but everyone should still take care to set aside sufficient time for leisure. With temperance and charity the faithful will see to it they avoid the excesses and violence sometimes associated with popular leisure activities. In spite of economic constraints, public authorities should ensure citizens a time intended for rest and divine worship. Employers have a similar obligation toward their employees.
In respecting religious liberty and the common good of all, Christians should seek recognition of Sundays and the Church’s holy days as legal holidays. They have to give everyone a public example of prayer, respect, and joy and defend their traditions as a precious contribution to the spiritual life of society. If a country's legislation or other reasons require work on Sunday, the day should nevertheless be lived as the day of our deliverance which lets us share in this "festal gathering," this "assembly of the first-born who are enrolled in heaven."
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This Thursday is Thanksgiving. Catherine Galasso-Vigorito, a syndicated religious columnist, recommends to get into a place of reflection and thankfulness by keeping a "Gratitude Journal". Keep a notepad or tape recorder by your bed and each night before retiring jot down one or two things about the day which were nice or for which you are grateful. Don't have to do it every day, but it helps, then thank God for each blessing. So one day when you're feeling anxious or worried or upset pick up the journal and read about your blessings. It will be a great picker upper. As the old song says "accentuate the positive"! God bless and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
November 23, 2014 - He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20
115 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section II III Pg 577
II - Taking The Name Of The Lord In Vain
The second commandment forbids false oaths, Taking an oath or swearing is to take God as witness to what one affirms. It is to invoke the divine truthfulness as a pledge of one's own truthfulness. And ohath engages the Lord's name. "You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve him, and swear by his name."
Rejection of false oaths is a duty toward God. As Creator and Lord, God is the norm of all truth. Human speech is either in accord with or in opposition to God's truth itself. When it is truthful and legitimate, an oath highlights the relationship of human speech with God's truth. A false oath calls on God to be witness to lie.
A person commits perjury when he makes a promise under oath with no intention of keeping it, or when after promising on oath he does not keep it. Perjury is a grave lack of respect for the Lord of all speech. Pledging oneself by oath to commit an evil deed is contrary to the holiness of the divine name.
In the Sermon on the mount, Jesus explained the second commandment: "You have heard that it was said to the men of old," You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn." I say to you, do not swear at all... Let what you say be simply "Yes" or "No"; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” Jesus teaches that every oath involves a reference to God and that God's presence and his truth must be honored in all speech. Discretion and calling upon God is allied with a respectful awareness of his presence, which all our assertions either witness to or mock.
Following St. Paul, the tradition of the Church has understood Jesus' words as not excluding oaths made for grave or right reasons (for example, in court). "An oath, that is the invocation of the divine name as a witness to truth, cannot be taken unless in truth, in judgment, and in justice."
The holiness of the divine name demands that we neither use it for trivial matters, nor take an oath which on the basis of the circumstances could be interpreted as approval of an authority unjustly requiring it. When an oath is required by illegitimate civil authorities, it may be refused. It must be refused when it is required for purposes contrary to the dignity of persons or to ecclesial communion.
III - The Christian Name
The sacrament of Baptism is conferred "in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." In Baptism, the Lord's name sanctifies man, and the Christian receives his name in the Church. This can be the name of a saint, that is, of a disciple who has lived a life of exemplary fidelity to the Lord. The patron saint provides a model of charity; we are assured of his intersession. The "baptismal name" can also express a Christian mystery or Christian virtue. "Parents, sponsors, and the pastor are to see that a name is not given which is foreign to Christian sentiment."
The Christian begins his day, his prayers, and his activities with the Sign of the Cross: "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit . Amen." The baptized person dedicates the day to the glory of God and calls on the Savior's grace which lets him act in the spirit as a child of the Father. The sign of the cross strengthens us in temptations and difficulties.
God calls each one by name. Everyone's name is sacred. The name is the icon of the person. It demands respect as a sign of the dignity of the one who bears it.
The name one receives is a name for eternity. In the kingdom, the mysterious and unique character of each person marked with God's name will shine forth in splendor. "To him who conquers... I will give a white stone, with a new name written on the stone which no one knows except him who receives it." Then I looked and Lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”
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November 16, 2014 - Happy are those who respect the Lord and obey him. You will enjoy what you work for, and you will be blessed with good things. Psalms 128:1-2
114 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section I Pg 575
I - The Name Of The Lord Is Holy
The second commandment prescribes respect for the Lord's name. Like the first commandment, it belongs to the virtue of religion and more particularly it governs our use of speech in sacred matters.
Among all the words of Revelation, there is one which is unique: the revealed name of God. God confides his name to those who believe in him; he reveals himself to them in his personal mystery. The gift of a name belongs to the order of trust and intimacy. "The Lord's name is holy." For this reason man must not abuse it. He must keep it in mind in silent, loving narration. He will not introduce it into his own speech except to bless, praise, and glorify it.
Respect for his name is an expression of the respect owed to the mystery of God himself and to the whole sacred reality it evokes. The sense of the sacred is part of the virtue of religion:
Are these feelings of fear and awe Christian feelings or not?... I say this, then, which I think no one can reasonably dispute. They are the class of feelings we should have -- -- yes, have to an intense degree -- -- if we literally had the sight of Almighty God; therefore they are the class of feelings which we shall have, if we realize His presence. In proportion as we believe that He is present, we shall have them; and not to have been, is not to realize, not to believe that He is present.
The faithful should bear witness to the Lord's name by confessing the faith without giving way to fear. Preaching and catechizing should be permeated with adoration and respect for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The second commandment forbids the abuse of God's name, I.E., every improper use of the names of God, Jesus Christ, but also of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.
Promises made to others in God's name engage the divine honor, fidelity, truthfulness, and authority. They must be respected in justice. To be unfaithful to them is to misuse God's name and in some way to make God out to be a liar.
Blasphemy is directly opposed to the s second commandment. It consists in uttering against God -- -- inwardly or outwardly -- -- words of hatred, reproach, or defiance; in speaking ill of God; in failing in respect toward him in one's speech; in misusing God's name. St. James condemns those "who blaspheme that honorable name [of Jesus] by which you were called." The prohibition of blasphemy extends to language against Christ's Church, the saints, and sacred things. It is also blasphemous to make use of God's name to cover up criminal practices, to reduce peoples to servitude, to torture persons or put them to death. The misuse of God's name to commit a crime can provoke others to repudiate religion.
Blasphemy is contrary to the respect due God and his holy name. It is in itself a grave sin.
Oaths which misuse God's name, though without the intention of blasphemy, show lack of respect for the Lord. The second commandment also forbids magical use of the divine name.
[Gods] name is great and spoken with respect for the greatness of his Majesty. God's name is holy when said with adoration and fear of offending him.
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My dear friends in Jesus Christ. My original assignment from Jesus was to make the catechism available to everyone who wished to study it. Now He has asked me to attempt to keep His name in front of the public. How can I do that, I asked? His answer was so simple I am still dumbfounded. He said, “How many people every day ask ‘How are you?’ ” They usually say ‘Good morning’ or ‘Hello’ and then add ‘How are you?’ So what He said was to answer as you usually do, but add “thank Jesus”. I am amazed how many times I say this every day. So give it a try.
November 9, 2014 - I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13
113 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section IV Pg573
IV - You Shall Not Make For Yourself a Graven Image...
The divine injunction included the prohibition of every representation of God by the hand of man. Deuteronomy explains: "Since you saw no form on the day that the Lord spoke to you at Horeb of the midst of the fire, beware lest you act corruptly by making a graven image for yourselves, in the form of any figure..." It is the absolutely transcendent God who revealed himself to Israel. "He is the all," but at the same time "he is greater than all his works." He is "the author of beauty."
Nevertheless, already in the Old Testament, God ordained or permitted the making of images that pointed symbolically toward solvation by the incarnate Word: so it was with the bronze serpent, the ark of the covenant, and the cherubim.
Basing itself on the mystery of the incarnate Word, the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea (787) justified against the iconoclasts the veneration of icons -- -- of Christ, but also of the Mother of God, the angels, and all the saints. By becoming incarnate, the Son of God introduced a new "economy" of images.
The Christian veneration of images is not contrary to the first commandment which proscribes idols. Indeed, "the honor rendered to an image passes to its prototype,” and "whoever venerates an image venerates the person portrayed in it." The honor paid to sacred images is a "respectful veneration," not the adoration due to God alone:
Religious worship is not directed to images in themselves, considered as mere things, but under their distinctive aspect as images leading us on to God incarnate. The movement toward the image does not terminate in it as image, but tends towards that whose image it is.
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My friends, good news! Apparently our call to act as disciples for Jesus has been answered by some of you. The number of visits to this site has doubled since that request. God Bless you all and keep up God's work.
November 2, 2014 - God is the Father who is full of mercy and all comfort. He comforts us every time we have trouble, so when others have trouble, we can comfort them with the same comfort God gives us. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
112 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section III TBD 568
III You Shall Have No Other God Before Me
Superstition
Superstition is the deviation of religious feeling and of the practices this feeling imposes. It can even affect worship we offer the true God, e.g., when one attributes an importance in some way magical to certain practices otherwise lawful or necessary. To attribute the efficacy of prayers or of sacramental signs to their mere external performance, apart from the interior dispositions that they demand, is to fall into superstition.
Idolatry
The first Commandment condemns polytheism. It requires man neither to believe in, nor to venerate, other divinities than the one true God. Scripture constantly recalls this rejection of "idols, [of] silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths but do not speak; eyes, but do not see." These empty idols make their worshipers empty: "Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them." God, however, is the "living God" who gives life and intervenes in history.
Idolatry not only refers to false pagan worship. It remains a constant temptation to faith. Idolatry consists in divinizing what is not God. Man commits idolatry whenever he honors and reveres a creature in place of God, whether this be gods or demons (for example, satanism), power, pleasure, race, ancestors, the state, money, etc. Jesus says, "You cannot serve God and mammon." Many martyrs died for not adoring "the Beast" refusing even to simulate such worship. Idolatry rejects the unique Lordship of God; it is therefore incompatible with communion with God.
Human life finds its unity in the adoration of the one God. The commandment to worship the Lord alone integrates man and saves him from an endless disintegration. Idolatry is a perversion of man's innate religious sense. An idolater is someone who "transfers his indestructible notion of God to anything other than God."
Divination and magic
God can reveal the future to his prophets or to other saints. Still, a sound Christian attitude consists in putting oneself confidently into the hands of Providence for whatever concerns the future, and giving up all unhealthy curiosity about it. Improvidence, however, can constitute a lack of responsibility.
All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one's service and have a supernatural power over others -- -- even if this were for the sake of restoring their health -- -- are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity.
Irreligion
God's first Commandment condemns the main symptoms of irreligion: tempting God, in words or deeds, sacrilege, and simony.
Tempting God consists in putting his goodness and almighty power to the test by word or deed. Thus Satan tried to induce Jesus to throw himself down from the Temple and, by this gesture, force God to act. Jesus opposed Satan with the word of God: "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." The challenge contained in such tempting of God wounds the respect and trust we owe our Creator and Lord. It always harbors doubt about his love, his providence, and his power.
Sacrilege consists in profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons, things, or places consecrated to God. Sacrilege is a grave sin especially when committed against the Eucharist, for in this sacrament the true Body of Christ is made substantially present for us.
Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things. To Simon the magician, who wanted to buy the spiritual power he saw at work in the apostles, St. Peter responded: "Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God's gift with money!" Peter thus held to the words of Jesus: "You received without pay, give without pay." It is impossible to appropriate to oneself spiritual goods and behave toward them as their owner or master, for they have their source in God. One can receive them only from him, without payment.
"The minister should ask nothing for the administration of the sacraments beyond the offering defined by the competent authority, always being careful that the needy are not deprived of the help of the sacraments because of their poverty." The competent authority determines these "offerings" in accordance with the principle that the Christian people ought to contribute to the support of the Church's ministers. "The laborer deserves his food."
Atheism
"Many... of our contemporaries either do not at all perceive, or explicitly reject, this intimate and vital bond of man to God. Atheism must therefore be regarded as one of the most serious problems of our time."
The name "atheism" covers many very different phenomena. One common form is the practical materialism which restricts its needs and aspirations to space and time. Atheistic humanism falsely considers man to be "an end to himself, and the sole maker, with supreme control, of his own history." Another form of contemporary atheism looks for the liberation of man through economic and social liberation. "It holds their religion, of its very nature, thwarts such emancipation by raising man's hopes in a future life, thus both deceiving him and discouraging him from working for a better form of life on earth."
Since it rejects or denies the existence of God atheism is a sin against the virtue of religion. The imputability of this offense can be significantly diminished in virtue of the intentions and the circumstances. "Believers can have more than a little to do with the rise of atheism. To the extent that they are careless about their instruction in the faith, or present its teachings falsely, or even fail and their religious, moral, or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than to reveal the true nature of God and of religion."
Atheism is often based on a false conception of human autonomy, exaggerated to the point of refusing any dependence on God. Yet, "to acknowledge God is in no way to oppose the dignity of man, since such dignity is grounded and brought to perfection in God..." "For the Church knows full well that our message is in harmony with the most secret desires of the human heart."
Agnosticism
Agnosticism assumes a number of forms. In certain cases the agnostic refrains from denying God; instead he postulates the existence of a transcendent being which is incapable of revealing itself, and about which nothing can be said. In other cases, the agnostic makes no judgment about God's existence, declaring it impossible to prove, or even to affirm or deny.
Agnosticism can sometimes include a certain search for God, but it can equally express
indifferentism, a flight from the ultimate question of existence, and a sluggish moral conscience. Agnosticism is all too often equivalent to practical atheism.
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October 26, 2014 - For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. Psalms 91:11
Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section II pg 564
II - "Him Only Shall You Serve"
The theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity inform and give life to the moral virtues. Thus charity leads us to render to God what we as creatures all him in all justice. The virtue or religion disposes us to have this attitude.
Adoration
Adoration is the first act of the virtue of religion. To adore God is acknowledge him as God, as the Creator and Savior, the Lord and Master of everything that exists, as infinite and merciful love. "You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve," says Jesus, citing Deuteronomy.
To adore God is to acknowledge, in respect and absolute submission, the "nothingness of the creature" who would not exist but for God. To adore God is to praise and exalt him and to humble oneself, as Mary did in the Magnificat, confessing with gratitude that he has done great things and holy is his name. The worship of the one God sets man free from turning in on himself, from the slavery of sin and the idolatry of the world.
Prayer
The acts of faith, hope, and charity enjoined by the first commandment are accomplished in prayer. Lifting up the mind toward God is an expression of our adoration of God: prayer of praise and thanksgiving, intercession and petition. Prayer is an indispensable condition for being able to obey God's commandments. "We ought always to pray and not lose heart."
Sacrifice
It is right to offer sacrifice to God as a sign of adoration and gratitude, supplication and communion: "Every action done so as to cling to God in communion of holiness, and thus achieve blessedness, is a true sacrifice."
Outward sacrifice, to be genuine, must be the expression of spiritual sacrifice: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit..." the prophets of the Old Covenant often denounced sacrifices that were not from the heart were not coupled with love of neighbor. Jesus recalls the words of the prophet Hosea: "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." The only perfect sacrifice is the one that Christ offered on the cross as a total offering to the Father's love and for our salvation. By uniting ourselves with his sacrifice we can make our lives a sacrifice to God.
Promises and Vows
In many circumstances, the Christian is called to make promises to God. Baptism and Confirmation, Matrimony and Holy Orders always entail promises. Out of personal devotion, the Christian may also promise to God this action, that prayer, this almsgiving, that pilgrimage, and so forth. Fidelity to promises made to God is a sign of the respect owed to the divine majesty and of love for a faithful God.
"A vow is a deliberate and free promise made to God concerning a possible and better goods which must be fulfilled by reason of virtue of religion." A vow is an act of devotion in which the Christian dedicates himself to God or promises him some good work. By fulfilling his vows he renders to God what has been promised and consecrated to Him. The Acts of the Apostles shows us St. Paul concerned to fulfill the vows he had made.
The Church recognizes an exemplary value in the vows to practice the evangelical counsels:
Mother Church rejoices that she has within herself many men and women who pursue the Savior's self-emptying more closely and show it forth more clearly, by undertaking poverty with the freedom of the children of God, and renouncing their own will: they submit themselves to man for the sake of God, thus going beyond what is of precept in the matter of perfection, so as to conform themselves more fully to the obedient Christ.
The Church can, in certain cases and for proportionate reasons, dispense from vows and promises.
The social duty of religion and the right to religious freedom
"All men are bound to seek the truth, especially in what concerns God and his Church, and to embrace it and hold on to it as they come to know it." This duty derives from "the very dignity of the human person." It does not contradict a "sincere respect" for different religions which frequently "reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all men," nor the requirement of charity, which urges Christians "to treat with love, prudence and patience those who are in error or ignorance with regard to the faith."
The duty of offering God genuine worship concerns man both individually and socially. This is "the traditional Catholic teaching on the moral duty of individuals and societies towards the true religion and the one Church of Christ." By constantly evangelizing men, the Church works towards enabling them "to infuse the Christian spirit into the mentality and mores, laws and structures of the communities in which they live." The social duty of Christians is to respect and awaken in man the love of the true and the good. It requires them to make known the worship of the one true religion which subsist in the Catholic and apostolic Church. Christians are called to be the light of the world. Thus, the church shows forth the kingship of Christ over all creation and in particular over human societies.
"Nobody may be forced to act against his convictions, nor is anyone to be restrained from acting in accordance with his conscience in religious matters in private or in public, alone or in association with others, without due limits." This right is based on the very nature of the human person, whose dignity enables him freely to assent to the divine truth which transcends the temporal order. For this reason it "continues to exist even in those who do not live up to their obligation of seeking the truth adhering to it."
"If because of the circumstances of a particular people special civil recognition is given to one religious community in the constitutional organizations of a state, the right of all citizens and religious communities to religious freedom must be recognized and respected as well."
The right to religious liberty is neither a moral license to adhere to error, nor a supported right to error, but rather a natural right of the human person to civil liberty, I.E., immunity, within just limits, from external constraint in religious matters by political authorities. This natural right ought to be acknowledged in the judicial order of society in such a way that it constitutes a civil right.
The right to religious liberty can itself be neither unlimited nor limited only by a "public order" conceived in a positivist or naturalist manner. The "due limits" which are inherent in it must be determined for each social situation by political prudence, according to the requirements of the common good, and ratified by the civil authority in accordance with "legal principles which are in conformity with the objective moral order."
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October 19, 2014 - God, your love is so precious! You protect people in the shadow of your wings. Psalms 36:7
110 Part 3 Sec 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section I pg 561
I - "You Shall Worship The Lord Your God and Him Only Shall You Serve”
God makes himself known by recalling his all-powerful, loving, and liberating action in the history of the one he addresses: "I brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage." The first word contains the first commandment of law: "You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve him... you shall not go after other gods." God's first call and just demand is that man except him and worship him.
The one and true God first reveals his glory to Israel. The revelation of the vocation and truth of man is linked to the revelation of God. Man’s vocation is to make God manifest by acting in conformity with his creation "in the image and likeness of God":
There will never be another God, Trypho, and there has been no other since the world began... than he who made and ordered the universe. We do not think that our God is different from yours. He is the same who brought your fathers out of Egypt "by his powerful hand and his outstretched arm." We do not place our hope in some other god, for there is none, but in the same God as you do: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
"The first commandment embraces faith, hope, and charity. When we say "God" we confess a constant, unchangeable being, always the same, faithful and just, without any evil. It follows that we must necessarily accept his words and have complete faith in him and acknowledge his authority. He is almighty, merciful, and infinitely beneficent… Who could not place all hope in him? Who could not love him when contemplating the treasures of goodness and love he has poured out on us? Hence the formula guide employees in the Scripture at the beginning and end of his commandments: "I am the Lord."
Faith
Our moral life has its source in faith in God who reveals his love to us. St. Paul speaks of the “obedience of faith" as our first obligation. He shows that “ignorance of God" is the principal and explanation of all moral deviations. Our duty toward God is to believe in him and to bear witness to him.
The first commandment requires us to nourish and protect our faith with prudence and vigilance, and to reject everything that is opposed to it. There are various ways of sinning against faith:
Voluntary doubt about the faith disregards or refuses to hold as true what God has revealed and the Church proposes for belief. Involuntary doubt refers to hesitation in believing, difficulty in overcoming objections connected with the faith, or also anxiety aroused by its obscurity. If deliberately cultivated doubt can lead to spiritual blindness.
Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. "Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the church subject to him."
Hope
When God reveals Himself and calls him, man cannot fully respond to the divine love by his own powers. He must hope that God will give them the capacity to love him in return and to act in conformity with the commandments of charity. Hope is the confident expectation of divine blessing and a beatific vision of God; it is also the fear of offending God's love and of incurring punishment.
The first commandment is also concerned with sins against hope, namely, despair and presumption:
By despair, man ceases to hope for his personal salvation from God, for help in attaining it or for the forgiveness of his sins. Despair is contrary to God's goodness, to his justice -- -- for the Lord is faithful to his promises -- -- and to his mercy
There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit).
Charity
Faith in God's love encompasses the call and the obligation to respond with sincere love to divine charity. The first commandment enjoins us to love God above everything and all creatures for him because of him.
One can sin against God's love in various ways:
- -- Indifference neglects or refuses to reflect on divine charity; it fails to consider its prevenient goodness and denies its power.
-- -- Ingratitude fails or refuses to acknowledge divine charity and to return to him love for love.
-- -- lukewarmness is hesitation or negligence in responding to divine love; it can imply
refusal to give oneself over to the prompting of charity.
-- -- acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness.
-- -- hatred of God comes from pride. It is contrary to love of God, whose goodness it denies, and whom it presumes to curse as the one who forbids sins and inflicts punishments.
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October 12, 2014 - Do all things without complaining and disputing. Philippians 2:14
109 Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section II pg 548
II – The Precepts Of The Church
The precepts of the Church are set in the context of a moral life bound to and nourished by liturgical life. The obligatory character of these positive laws decreed by the pastoral authorities is meant to guarantee to the faithful the very necessary minimum in the spirit of prayer and moral effort, in the growth in love of God and neighbor:
The first precept ("You shall attend Mass on Sundays and on holy days of obligation and rest from servile labor") requires the faithful to sanctify the day commemorating the Resurrection of the Lord's as well as the principal liturgical feasts honoring the mysteries of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints; in the first place by participating in the Eucharistic celebration, in which the Christian community is gathered and by resting from those works and activities which could impede such as segregation of these days.
The second precept (“You shall confess your sins at least once a year.") ensures preparation for the Eucharist by the reception of the sacrament of reconciliation, which continues Baptism’s work of conversion and forgiveness.
The third precept (“You shall receive the sacrament of the Eucharist at least during the Easter season.") guarantees as a minimum the reception of the Lord's Body and Blood in connection with the Paschal feasts, the origin and center of Christian liturgy.
The fourth precept (“You shall observe the days of fasting and abstinence established by the Church”) ensures the times of ascesis and tenants which prepares us for the liturgical feasts and helps us acquire mastery over our instincts and freedom of heart.
The fifth precept (”You shall help to provide for the needs of the Church rate quote) means that the faithful are obliged to assist with the material needs of the Church, each according to his own ability.
III Moral Life and Missionary Witness-
The fidelity of the baptized is a primordial condition for the proclamation of the Gospel and for the Church's mission in the world. In order that the message of salvation can show the power of its truth and radiance before man, it must be authenticated by the witness of the life of Christians. "The witness of a Christian life and good works done in a supernatural spirit have great power to draw men to the faith and to God."
Because they are members of the body whose head is Christ, Christians contribute to building up the Church by the constancy of their convictions and their moral lives. The Church increases, grows, and develops through the holiness of her faithful, until "we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."
By living with the mind of Christ, Christians hasten the coming of the Reign of God, "a kingdom of justice, love, and peace." They do not, for all that, abandon their earthly tasks; faithful to their master, they fulfill them with uprightness, patience, and love.
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October 5, 2014 - Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2
108 Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 3 Section I pg 546
I - Moral Life and The Magisterium of The Church
The Church, the "pillar and bulwark of the truth," "has received this solemn command of Christ from the apostles to announce the saving truth." "To the Church belongs the right always and everywhere to announce moral principles, including those pertaining to the social order, and to make judgments on any human affairs to the extent that they are required by the fundamental rights of the human person or the salvation of souls."
The Magisterium of the Pastors of the Church in moral matters is ordinarily exercised in catechesis and preaching, with the help of the works of theologians and spiritual authors. Thus from generation to generation, under the aegis and vigilance of the pastors, the "deposit" of Christian moral teaching has been handed on, a deposit composed of a characteristic body of rules, commandments, and virtues proceeding from faith in Christ and animated by charity. Alongside the Creed and the Our Father, the basis for this catechesis has traditionally been the Decalogue which sets out the principles of the moral life valid for all men.
The Roman Pontiff and the bishops are "authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach the faith to the people entrusted to them, the faith to be believed and put into practice." The ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Pope and the bishops in communion with him teach the faithful the truth to believe, the charity to practice, the beatitudes to hope for.
The supreme degree of participation in the authority of Christ is ensured by the charism of infallibility. This infallibility extends as far as does the deposit of divine Revelation; it also extends to all those elements of doctrine, including morals, without which the saving truths of the faith cannot be preserved, explained, or observed.
The authority of the Magisterium extends also to the specific precepts of the natural law, because their observance, demanded by the Creator, is necessary for salvation. In recalling the prescriptions of the natural law, the Magisterium of the Church exercises an essential part of its prophetic office of proclaiming to men what they truly are and reminding them of what they should be before God.
The law of God entrusted to the Church is taught to the faithful as the way of life and truth. The faithful therefore have the right to be instructed in the divine saving precepts that purify judgment and, with grace, heal wounded human reason. They have the duty of observing the constitutions and decrees conveyed by the legitimate authority of the Church. Even if they concerned disciplinary matters, these determinations call for docility in charity.
In the work of teaching and applying Christian morality, the Church needs the dedication of pastors, the knowledge of theologians, and the contribution of all Christians and men of goodwill. Faith and the practice of the Gospel provide each person with an experience of life "in Christ," who enlightens him and makes him able to evaluate the divine and human realities according to the Spirit of God. Thus the Holy Spirit can use the humblest to enlighten the learned and those in the highest positions.
Ministries should be exercised in a spirit of fraternal service and dedication to the Church, in the name of the Lord. At the same time the conscience of each person should avoid confirming itself to individualistic considerations in its moral judgments of the person’s own acts. As far as possible conscience should take account of the good of all as expressed in the moral law, natural and revealed, and consequently in the law of the Church and in the authoritative teaching of the Magisterium on moral questions. Personal conscience and reason should not be set in opposition to the moral law or the Magisterium of the Church.
Thus a true filial spirit toward the Church can develop among Christians. It is the normal flowering of the baptismal grace which has begotten us in the womb of the Church and made us members of the Body of Christ. In her motherly care, the Church grants us the mercy of God which prevails over all our sins and is especially at work in the sacrament of reconciliation. With a mother's foresight, she also lavishes on us day after day in her liturgy the nourishment of the Word and Eucharist of the Lord.
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September 28, 2014 - Delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Psalms 37:4
107 Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 2 Section III IV pg 541
III – Merit
You are glorified in the assembly of your Holy Ones, for in crowning their merits you are crowning your own gifts.
The term "merit" refers in general to the recompense owed by a community or a society for the action of one of its members, experienced either as beneficial or harmful, deserving reward or punishment. Merit is relative to the virtue of justice, in conformity with the principle of equality which governs it.
With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received everything from him, our Creator.
The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows man's free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful. Man's merit, moreover, itself is due to God, for his good actions proceed in Christ, from the predispositions and assistance given by the Holy Spirit.
Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God's gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us "co-heirs" with Christ and worthy of obtaining "the promised inheritance of eternal life." The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness. "Grace has gone before us; now we are given what is due... Our merits are God’s gifts."
Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life. Even temporal goods like health and friendship can be merited in accordance with God's wisdom. These graces and goods are the object of Christian prayer. Prayer attends to the grace we need for meritorious actions.
The charity of Christ is the source in us of all our merits before God. Grace, by uniting us to Christ in active love, ensures the supernatural quality of our acts and consequently their merit before God and before men. The saints have always had a lively awareness that their merits were pure grace.
After earth's exile, I hope to go and enjoy you in the fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for your love alone... in the evening of this life; I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord, to come my works. All our justice is blemished in your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in your own justice and to receive from your love eternal possession of yourself.
IV – Christian Holiness
"We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him... For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified."
"All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity." All are called to holiness: "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
In order to reach this perfection the faithful should use the strength dealt out to them by Christ's gift, so that... doing the will of the Father in everything, they made wholeheartedly devote themselves to the glory of God and to the service of their neighbor. Thus the holiness of the People of God will grow in fruitful abundance, as is clearly shown in the history of the Church through the lives of so many saints.
Spiritual progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ. This union is called "mystical" because it participates in the mystery of Christ through the sacraments -- -- -- "the holy mysteries" -- -- -- and, in him, in the mystery of the Holy Trinity. God calls us all to this intimate union with him, even if the special graces are extraordinary signs of this mystical life are granted only to some for the sake of manifesting the gratuitous gift given to all.
The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle. Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes:
He who climbs never stops going from beginning to beginning, through beginnings that have no end. He never stops desiring what he already knows.
The children of our holy mother the Church rightly hope for the grace of final perseverance and the recompense of God their Father for the good works accomplished with his grace in communion with Jesus. Keeping the same rule of life, believers share the "blessed hope" of those whom the divine mercy gathers into the "holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."
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September 21, 2014 - Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God's child and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8
Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 2 Section II pg 538
II = Grace
Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.
Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an "adopted son" he can henceforth call God "Father," in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity and to him and who forms the Church.
This vocation to eternal life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God's gratuitous initiative, for he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect, as that of every other creature.
The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism It is in us the source of the work of sanctification:
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.
Sanctifying grace is a habitual gift, a stable and supernatural disposition that perfects the soul itself to enable it to live with God, to act by his love. Habitual grace, the permanent disposition to live and act in keeping with God’s call, is distinguished from actual graces which refer to God's interventions, whether at the beginning of conversion or in the course of the work of sanctification.
The preparation of man for the reception of grace is already a work of grace. This latter is needed to arouse and sustain our collaboration in justification through faith, and in sanctification through charity. God brings to completion in us what he has begun, "since he who completes his work by cooperating with our will began by working so that we might will it: “
Indeed we also work, but we are only collaborating with God who works, for his mercy has gone before us. It has gone before us so that we may be healed, and follows us so that once healed, we may be given life; it goes before us so that we may be called, and follows us so that we may be glorified; it goes before us so that we may live devoutly, and follows us that we may always live with God: for without him we can do nothing.
God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him. The soul only enters freely into a communion of love. Guiding immediately touches and directly moves the heart of man. He has placed in man a longing for truth and goodness that only he can satisfy. The promises of “eternal life" respond, beyond all hope, to this desire:
If at the end of your very good works... you rested on the seventh day, it was to foretell by the voice of your book that at the end of our works, which are indeed "very good" since you have given them to us, we shall also rest in you on the Sabbath of eternal life.
Grace is first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But Grace also includes the gifts that the Spirit grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the salvation of others in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church. There are sacramental graces, gifts proper to the different sacraments. There are furthermore special graces, also called charisms after the Greek term used by St. Paul and meaning "favor," "gratuitous gift," "benefit." Whatever their character -- -- -- sometimes it is extraordinary, such as the gift of miracles or of tongues -- -- -- charisms are oriented toward sanctifying grace and are intended for the common good of the Church. They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church.
Among the special graces ought to be mentioned the graces of state that accompany the exercise of the responsibilities of the Christian life and of the ministries within the Church:
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith, if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved. However according to the Lord's words -- -- "Thus you will know them by their fruits" -- -- reflection on God's blessings in our life and in the lives of the saints offers us a guarantee that grace is at work in us that spurs us on to an ever greater faith and an attitude of trustful poverty.
A pleasing illustration of this attitude is found in the reply of St. Joan of Arc to a question posed as a trap by her ecclesiastical judges: "Asked if she knew that she was in God's grace, she replied: ‘If I am not, may it please God to put me in it; if I am, it please God to keep me there.’ "
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September 14, 2014 - Continue to do those things; give your life to doing them so your progress may be seen by everyone. 1 Timothy 4:15
Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 2 Section I - Pg 535
I – Justification
The grace of the Holy Spirit has the power to justify us, that is, to cleanse us from our sins and to communicate to us "the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ" and through baptism:
But we have died with Christ; we believe that we shall also live with him. For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves as dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ's passion by dying to sin: and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is himself:
God gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit we become communicants in the divine nature... For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized.
The first work of the grace of the Holy Spirit is conversion, effecting justification in accordance with Jesus’ proclamation at the beginning of the Gospel: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Moved by grace, man turns toward God and away from sin, thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high. "Justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man."
Justification detaches man from sin which contradicts the love of God, and purifies his heart of sin. Justification follows upon God's merciful initiative of offering forgiveness. It reconciles man with God. It frees from the enslavement to sin, and in heals.
Justification is at the same time the acceptance of God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. Righteousness (or "justice") here means the rectitude of divine love. With justification, faith, hope, and charity are poured into our hearts, and obedience to the divine will is granted us.
Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men. Justification is conferred in Baptism, the sacrament of faith. It conforms us to the righteousness of God, who makes us inwardly just by the power of his mercy. Its purpose is the glory of God and of Christ, and the gift of eternal life:
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies him who has faith in Jesus.
Justification establishes cooperation between God's grace and man's freedom. On man's part it is expressed by the assent of faith to the Word of God, which invites him to conversion, and in the cooperation of charity with the prompting of the Holy Spirit who precedes and preserves his assent:
When God touches man's heart through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, man himself is not inactive while receiving an inspiration, since he could reject it; and yet, without God's grace, he cannot by his own free will move himself toward justice in God's sight.
Justification is the most excellent work of God's love made manifest in Christ Jesus and granted by the Holy Spirit. It is the opinion of St. Augustine that "the justification of the wicked is a greater work than the creation of heaven and earth. Because "heaven and earth will pass away but the salvation and justification of the elect... will not pass away." He holds also that the justification of sinners surpasses the creation of the angels in justice, in that it bears witness to a greater mercy.
The Holy Spirit is the master of the interior life. By giving birth to the "inner man," justification entails the sanctification of his whole being;
Just as you once yielded your members to impurity and to greater and greater iniquity, so now yield your members to righteousness for sanctification.... But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the return you get is the sanctification and its end, eternal life.
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Sorry I was away and missed last weeks update. God Bless!
September 7, 2014 - To which of the angels did God ever say, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"? Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? Hebrews 1:13-14
104 Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 1 Section I Pg527
I – THE NATURAL MORAL LAW
Man participates in the wisdom and goodness of the Creator who gives him mastery over his acts and the ability to cover himself with a view to the true and the good. The natural law expresses the original moral sense which enables man to discern by reason of good and evil, the truth and a lie:
The natural law is written and engraved in the soul of each and every man, because it is human reason ordaining him to do good and forbidding him to sin... But this command of human reason would not have the force of law if it were not the voice and interpreter of a higher reason to which our spirit and our freedom must be submitted.
The "divine and natural" law shows a man the way to follow Celeste to practice the good and attain his end. The natural law states the first and essential precepts which govern the moral life. It hinges upon the desire for God and submission to him, who is the source and judge of all that is good, as well as upon the sense that the other is one's equal. Its principal precepts are expressed in the Decalogue. This law is called "natural," not in reference to the nature of irrational beings, but because reason which decrees it properly belongs to human nature:
Where then are these rules written, if not in the book of that light we call the truth? In it is written every just law; from it the law passes into the heart of the man who does justice, not that it migrates into it, but that it places its imprint on it, like a seal on a ring that passes onto wax, without leaving the ring.
The natural law is nothing other than the light of understanding placed in us by God; through it we know what we must do and what we must avoid. God has given this light or law at the creation.
The natural law, present in the heart of each man and established by reason, is universal in its precepts and its authority extends to all men. It expresses the dignity of the person and determines the basis for his fundamental rights and duties:
For there is a true law: right reason. It is in conformity with nature, is diffused among all men, and is immutable and eternal; its orders summon to duty; its prohibitions turn away from offense... To replace it with a contrary law is a sacrilege; failure to apply even one of its provisions is forbidden; no one can abrogate it entirely.
Application of the natural law varies greatly; it can demand reflection that takes account of various conditions of life according to places, times, and circumstances. Nevertheless, the diversity of cultures, the natural law remains as a rule that binds men among themselves and imposes on them, beyond the inevitable differences, common principles.
The natural law is immutable and permanent throughout the variations of history; it subsists under the flux of ideas and customs and supports their progress. The rules that express it remain substantially valid. Even when it is rejected and is very principles, it cannot be destroyed or removed from the heart of man. It always rises again in the life of individuals and societies: Theft is surely punished by your law, O Lord, and by the law that is written in the human heart, the law that iniquity itself does not efface.
The natural law, the Creator’s very good work, provides the solid foundation on which man can build the structure of moral rules to guide his choices. It also provides the indispensable moral foundation for building the human community. Finally, it provides the necessary basis for the civil law with which it is connected, whether by a reflection that draws conclusions from its principles, or by additions of a positive and juridical nature,
The precepts of natural law are not perceived by everyone clearly and immediately. In the present situation sinful man needs grace and revelation so moral or religious truths may be known "by everyone with facility, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error." The natural law provides revealed law and grace with a foundation prepared by God in accordance with the work of the Spirit.
104 Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 1 Section II Pg 529
II – THE OLDLAW
God, our Creator and Redeemer, chose Israel for himself to be his people and revealed his Law to them, thus preparing for the coming of Christ. The Law of Moses expresses many truths naturally accessible to reason. These are stated at authenticated within the covenant of salvation.
The Old law is the first stage of revealed Law. Its moral prescriptions are summed up in the 10 Commandments. The precepts of the Decalogue lay the foundations for the vocation of man fashioned in the image of God; they prohibit what is contrary to the love of God and neighbor and prescribe what is essential to it. The Decalogue is a light offered to the conscience of every man to make God's call and ways known to him and to protect him against evil: God wrote on the tables of Law what men did not read in their hearts.
According to Christian tradition, the Law is holy, spiritual, and good, yet still imperfect. Like a tutor it shows what must be done, but does not of itself give the strength, the grace of the Spirit, to fulfill it. Because of sin, which it cannot remove, it remains a law of bondage. According to St. Paul, its special function is to denounce and disclose sin, which constitutes a "law of concupiscence" in the human heart.
However, the Law remains the first stage on the way to the kingdom. It prepares and disposes the chosen people and each Christian for conversion and faith in the Savior God. It provides a teaching which it endures forever, like the Word of God.
The Old Law is a preparation for the Gospel. "The Law is a pedagogy and a prophecy of things to come." It prophesies and presages the work of liberation from sin which will be fulfilled in Christ: it provides the New Testament with images, "types," and symbols for expressing the life according to the Spirit. Finally, the wall is completed by the teaching of the sapiential books and the prophets which set its course toward the New Covenant and the Kingdom of heaven.
There were... under the regimen of the Old Covenant, people who possessed the charity and grace of the Holy Spirit and longed above all for the spiritual and eternal promises by which they were associated with the New Law. Conversely, there exist carnal men under the New Covenant, still distanced from the perfection of the New Law: the fear of punishment and certain temporal promises have been necessary, even under the New Covenant, to incite them to virtuous works. In any case, even though the Old Law prescribed charity, it did not give the Holy Spirit, through whom "God is a charity has been poured into our hearts."
104 Part 3 Chapter 3 Article 1 Section III Pg 531
III – THE NEW LAW OR THE LAW OF THE GOSPEL
The new law or the Law of the Gospel is the perfection here on earth of the divine law, natural and revealed. It is the work of Christ and is expressed particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. It is also the work of the Holy Spirit and through him it becomes the interior law of charity: "I will establish a New Covenant with the house of Israel... I'll put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."
The New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit given to the faithful through faith in Christ. It works through charity; it uses the Sermon on the Mount to teach us what must be done and makes use of the sacraments to give us the grace to do it:
if anyone should meditate with devotion and perspicacity on the sermon our Lord gave on the Mount, as we read in the Gospel of St. Matthew, he will doubtless find there... the perfect way of the Christian life... This sermon contains... all the precepts needed to shape one's life.
The Law of the Gospel "fulfills," refines, surpasses, and leads the Old Law to its perfection. In the Beatitudes, the New Law fulfills the divine promises by elevating and orientating them toward the "kingdom of heaven." It is addressed to those open to accepting this new hope with faith -- -- -- the poor, the humble, the afflicted, the pure of heart, those persecuted on account of Christ -- -- -- and so marks out the surprising ways of the Kingdom.
The Law of the Gospel fulfills the Commandments of the Law. The Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, far from abolishing or devaluing the moral prescriptions of the Old Law, releases their hidden potential and has new demands arise from them: it reveals their entire divine and human truth. It does not add new external precepts, but proceeds to reform the heart, the root of human acts, where man chooses between the pure and impure, where faith, hope, and charity are formed and with them the other virtues. The Gospel thus brings the Law to its fullness through imitation of the perfection of the heavenly Father, through forgiveness of enemies and prayer for persecutors, and emulation of the divine generosity.
The New Law practices the acts of religion: almsgiving, prayer and fasting, directing them to the "Father who sees in secret," in contrast with the desire to "be seen by men." Its prayer is the Our Father.
The Law of the Gospel requires us to make a decisive choice between "the two ways" and to put into practice the words of the Lord. It is summed up in the Golden Rule, "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; this is the law and the prophets. The entire law of the Gospel is contained in the "new commandment" of Jesus, to love one another as he has loved us.
To the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount it is fitting to add the moral catechesis of the apostolic teachings, such as Romans 12 -- 15, 1 Corinthians 12 -- 13, Colossians 3 – 4, Ephesians 4-5 etc.
This doctrine hands on the Lord's teaching with the authority of the apostles, particularly in the presentation of the virtues that flow from faith in Christ and are animated by charity, the principal gift of the Holy Spirit. "Let charity be genuine.... Love one another with brotherly affection... Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality." The catechesis also teaches us to deal with cases of conscience in the light of our relationship to Christ and to the Church.
The New Law is called the law of love because it makes us act out of the love infused by the Holy Spirit, rather than from fear; a law of grace, because it confers the strength of grace to act, by means of faith and the sacraments; a law of freedom, because it sets us free from the ritual and juridical observances of the Old Law, inclines us to act spontaneously by the prompting of charity and, finally lets us pass from the condition of a servant who "does not know what his master is doing" to that of a friend of Christ -- -- "For all that I have heard from my father I have made known to you" -- -- or even to the status of son and heir.
Besides its precepts, the New Law also includes evangelical counsels. The traditional distinction between God's commandments and the evangelical counsels is drawn in relation to charity, the perfection of Christian life. The precepts are intended to remove whatever is incompatible with charity. The aim of the counsels is to remove whatever might hinder the development of charity, even if it is not contrary to it.
The evangelical counsels manifest the living fullness of charity, which is never satisfied with not giving more. They attest its vitality and call forth our spiritual readiness. The perfection of the New Law consists essentially in the precepts of love of God and neighbor. The counsels point out the more direct ways, the readier means, and are to be practiced in keeping with the vocation of each: God does not want each person to keep all the counsels, but only those appropriate to the diversity of persons, times, opportunities, and strengths, as charity requires; for it is charity, as queen of all virtues, all commandments, all counsels, and, in short, of all laws and all Christian actions, that gives to all of them their rank, order, time, and value.
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August 31, 2014 - A gentle answer will calm a person's anger, but an unkind answer will cause more anger. Proverbs 15:1
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 3 Section I Pg 521
I = RESPECT FOR THE HUMAN PERSON
Social justice can be obtained only in respecting the transcendent dignity of man. The person represents the ultimate and of society, which is ordered to him:
What is at stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by the Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly and that.
Respect for the human person entails respect for the rights that flow from his dignity as a creature. These rights are prior to society and must be recognized by it. They are the basis of the moral legitimacy of every authority by flouting them, or refusing to recognize them in its positive legislation, a society undermines its own moral legitimacy. If it does not respect them, authority can rely only on force or violence to obtain obedience from its subjects. It is the Church’s role to remind men of good will of these rights and to distinguish them from unwarranted or false claims.
Respect for the human person proceeds by way of respect for the principle that "everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception) as "another self," above all bearing in mind his life and the means necessary for living it with dignity." No legislation could by itself totally do awy with the fears, prejudices, and attitudes of pride and selfishness which obstruct the establishment of truly fraternal societies. Such behavior will cease only through the charity that finds in every man a "neighbor," a brother.
The duty of making oneself a neighbor to others and actively serving them becomes even more urgent when it involves the disadvantaged, in whatever area this may be. "As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."
The same duty extends to those who think or act differently from us. The teaching of Christ goes so far as to require the forgiveness of offenses. He extends the commandment of love, which is that of the New Law, to all enemies. Liberation in the spirit of the Gospel is incompatible with hatred of one's enemy as a person, but not with hatred of the evil that he does as an enemy.
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 3 Section II Pg 522
II – EQUALITY AND DIFFERENCES AMONG MEN
Created in the image of the one God and equally endowed with rational souls, all men have the same nature in the same order. Redeemed by the sacrifice of Christ, all are called to participate in the same divine beatitude: all therefore enjoy an equal dignity.
The equality of men rests essentially on their dignity as persons and the rights that flow from it:
Every form of social or cultural discrimination in fundamental personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language, or religion must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design.
On coming into the world, man is not equipped with everything he needs for developing his bodily and spiritual life. He needs others. Differences appear tied to age, physical abilities, intellectual or moral aptitudes, the benefits derived from social commerce, and the distribution of wealth. The "talents" are not distributed equally.
These differences belong to God's plan, who wills that each receive what he needs from others, and that those endowed with particular "talents" share the benefits with those who need them. These differences encourage and often oblige persons to practice generosity, kindness, and sharing of goods; they foster the mutual enrichment of cultures:
I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others... I shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a living faith to that one... and so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another... I have willed that one should need a mother and all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me.
There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel:
Their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one human race as a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international peace.
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 3 Section III Pg 524
III – HUMAN SOLIDARITY
The principle of solidarity, also articulated in terms of "friendship" or "social charity," is a direct demand of human and Christian brotherhood.
An error, "today abundantly widespread, is disregard for the law of human solidarity and charity, dictated and imposed both by our common origins and by the equality and rational nature all men, whatever nation they belong to. This law is sealed by the sacrifice of redemption offered by Jesus Christ on the altar of the Cross to his heavenly Father, on behalf of sinful humanity."
Solidarity is manifested in the first place by the distribution of goods and remuneration for work. It also presupposes the effort for a more just social order where tensions are better able to be reduced and conflicts more readily settled by negotiation.
Socio-economic problems can be resolved only with the help of all the forms of solidarity: solidarity of the poor among themselves, between rich and poor, of workers among themselves, between employers and employees in a business, solidarity among nations and peoples. International solidarity is a requirement of the moral order; world peace depends in part upon this.
The virtue of solidarity goes beyond material goods. In spreading the spiritual goods of the faith, the Church has promoted, and often opened new paths for, the development of temporal goods as well. And so throughout the centuries has the Lord’s saying been verified: "Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well":
For 2000 years this sentiment has lived in the soul of the Church, impelling souls then and now to the heroic charity of monastic farmers, liberators of slaves, healers of the sick, and messengers of faith, civilization, and science to all generations and all peoples for the sake of creating the social conditions capable of offering to everyone possible a life worthy of man and of a Christian.
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August 24, 2014 - But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done. 1 John 1:9
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 2 Section I Pg 515
I - Authority
Human society can be neither a well ordered nor prosperous unless it has some people invested with legitimate authority to preserve its institutions and to devote themselves as far as is necessary to work and care for the good of all.”
By "Authority" one means the quality by virtue of which persons or institutions make laws and give orders to men and expect obedience from them.
Every human community needs an authority to govern it. The foundation of such authority lies in human nature. It is necessary for the unity of the state. Its role is to ensure as far as possible the common good of the society.
The authority required by the moral order derives from God: "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
The duty of obedience requires all to give due honor to authority and to treat those who are charged to exercise it with respect, and, in so far as it is deserved with gratitude and goodwill.
Pope St. Clement of Rome provides the Church’s most ancient prayer for political authorities:
"Grant to them Lord health, peace, concord, and stability, so that they may exercise within offense the sovereignty you have given them. Master, heavenly King of the ages, you give glory, honor, and power over the things of earth to the sons of men. Direct, Lord, their counsel, following what is pleasing and acceptable in your sight, so that by exercising with devotion and in peace and gentleness and power that you have given to them, they may find favor with you."
If authority belongs to the order established by God, "the choice of the political regime and the appointment of rulers are left to the free decision of the citizens."
The diversity of political regimes is morally acceptable, provided they serve a legitimate good of the communities that adopt them. Regimes whose nature is contrary to the natural law, to the public order, and to the fundamental rights of persons cannot achieve the common good of the nations on which they have been imposed.
Authority does not derive its moral legitimacy from itself. It must not believe in a despotic manner, but must act for the common good as a "moral force based on freedom and a sense of responsibility":
A human law has the character of law to the extent that it accords with right reason, and thus derives from the eternal aw. Insofar as it falls short of right reason it is said to be an unjust law, and thus has not so much the nature of law as of a kind of violence.
Authority is exercised legitimately only when it seeks the common good of the group concerned and if it employs morally licit means to attain it. If rulers were to enact unjust laws or take measures contrary to the moral order, such arrangements would not be binding in conscience. In such a case, "authority breaks down completely and results in shameful abuse."
"It is preferable that each power be balanced by other powers and by other spheres of responsibility which keep it within proper bounds. This is the principle of the "rule of law," in which the wall is sovereign and not the arbitrary will of men."
3 Chapter 2 Article 2 Section II pg 517
II - The Common Good
In keeping with the social nature of man, the good of each individual is necessarily related to the common good, which in turn can be defined only in reference to the human person:
Do not live entirely isolated, having retreated into yourselves, as if you were already justified, but gather instead to seek the common good together.
By common good is to be understood "the sum total of social conditions which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfillment more fully and more easily." The common good concerns the life of all. It calls for prudence from each, and even more from those who exercise the office of authority. It consists of three essential elements:
First, the common good presupposes respect for the person has such. In the name of the common good, public authorities are bound to respect the fundamental and inalienable rights of the human person. Society should permit each of its members to fulfill his vocation. In particular, the common good resides in the conditions for the exercise of the natural freedoms indispensable for the development of the human vocations, such as "the right to act according to a sound norm of conscience and to safeguard... privacy, and rightful freedom also in matters of religion.
Second, the common good requires the social well-being and development of the group itself. Development is the epitome of all social duties. Certainly, it is the proper function of authority to arbitrate, in the name of the common good between various particular interests; but it should make accessible to each what is needed to lead a truly human life: food, clothing, health, work, education and culture, suitable information, the right to establish a family, and so on.
Finally, the common good requires peace, that is, the stability and security of a just order. It presupposes that authority should ensure by morally acceptable means the security of society and its members. It is the basis of the right to legitimate personal and collective defense.
Each human community possesses a common good which permits it to be recognized as such; it is in the political community that its most complete realization is found. It is the role of the state to defend and promote the common good of civil society, its citizens, and intermediate bodies.
Human interdependence is increasing and gradually spreading throughout the world. The unity of the human family, embracing people who enjoy equal natural dignity, implies a universal common good. This good calls for an organization of the community of nations able to "provide for the different needs of men; this will involve the sphere of social life to which belong questions of food, hygiene, education,... and certain situations arising here and there, as for example... alleviating the miseries of refugees dispersed throughout the world, and assisting migrants and their families."
The common good is always oriented towards the progress of persons: "The order of things must be subordinate to the order of persons, and not the other way around." This order is founded on truth, built-up injustice, and animated by love.
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 2 Section III Pg 519
III - Responsibility And Participation
"Participation" is the voluntary and generous engagement of a person in social interchange. It is necessary that all participate, each according to his position and role, in promoting the common good. This obligation is inherent in the dignity of the human person.
Participation is achieved first of all by taking charge of the areas for which one assumes personal responsibility: by the care taken for the education of his family, by conscientious work, and so forth, man participates in the good of others and of society.
As far as possible citizens should take an active part in public life. The manner of this participation may vary from one country or culture to another. "One must pay tribute to those nations who systems permit the largest possible number of the citizens to take part in public life in a climate of genuine freedom."
As with any ethical obligation, the participation of all in realizing the common good calls for a continually renewed conversion of the social partners. Fraud and other subterfuges, by which some people evade the constraints of the law and the prescriptions of societal obligation, must be firmly condemned because they are incompatible with the requirements of justice. Much care should be taken to promote institutions and improved conditions of human life.
It is incumbent on those who exercise authority to strengthen and to inspire confidence of the members of the group and encourage them to put themselves at the service of others. Participation begins with education and culture. "One is entitled to think that the future of humanity is in the hands of those who are capable of providing the generations to come up with reasons for life and optimism."
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CALLING ALL DISCIPLES – Jesus wants us to be disciples’. How can we do that?
Very simple every day acts like helping someone who needs it cross a
street. Helping someone carry their packages. Offering someone a
ride to church or the store. Any act of kindness is acting like a disciple of Jesus.
August 17, 2014 - But from there you will seek the Lord
your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all
your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 1 Section I pg 511
I - The Communal Character Of The Human Vocation
All men are called to the same end; God himself. There is a
certain resemblance between the unity of the divine persons and the fraternity
that men are to establish among themselves in truth and love. Love of neighbor
is inseparable from love for God.
The human person needs to live in society. Society is not for
him an extraneous addition but a requirement of his nature. Through the exchange
with others, mutual service and dialogue with his brethren, man develops his
potential; he thus responds to his vocation.
A society is a group of persons bound together organically by a
principle of unity that goes beyond each one of them. As an assembly that is at
once visible and spiritual, a society endures through time: it gathers up the
past and prepares for the future. By means of society, each man is established
as an “heir" and receive certain "talents" that enrich his destiny and whose
fruits he must develop. He rightly owes loyalty to the communities of which he
is part and respect to those in authority who have charge of the common good.
Each community is defined by its purpose and consequently obeys
specific rules; but "the human person... is and ought to be the principle, the
subject and the end of all social institutions."
Certain societies, such as the family and the state, correspond
more directly to the nature of man; they are necessary to him. To promote the
participation of the greatest number in the life of a society, the creation of
voluntary associations and institutions must be encouraged "on both national and
international levels, which relate to economic and social goals, to cultural and
recreational activities, to sport, to various professions, and to political
affairs." This "socialization" also expresses the natural tendency for human
beings to associate with one another for the sake of attaining objectives that
exceed individual capacities. It develops the qualities of the person,
especially the sense of initiative and responsibility, and helps guarantee his rights.
Socialization also presents dangers. Excessive intervention by
the state can threaten personal freedom and initiative. The teaching of the
Church has elaborated the principles of subsidiarity, according to which "a
community of a higher order should not interfere in the internal life of a
community of a lower order, depriving the latter of its functions, but rather
should support it in case of need and help to coordinate its activity with the
activities of the rest of society, always with a view to the common good."
God has not willed to reserve to himself all exercise of
power. He f nature. This mode of
entrusts to every creature the functions it is capable of performing, according
to the capacities of its own nature.
This mode of governance ought to be followed in social life. The way God
acts in governing the world, which bears witness to such great regard for human
freedom, shoud inspire the wisdom of those who govern human communities. They
should behave as ministers of divine
providence.
The principle of subsidiarity is opposed to all forms of
collectivism. It sets limits for
state intervention. It aims at harmonizing the relationships between individuals
and societies. It tends towards the establishment of true international
order.
Part 3 Chapter 2 Article 1 Section II pg 513
II - Conversion And Society
Society is essential to the fulfillment of the human vocation.
To attain this aim, respect must be accorded to the just hierarchy of values,
which "subordinates physical and instinctual dimensions to interior and
spiritual ones:"
Human Society must primarily be considered something pertaining
to the spiritual. Through it, in the bright light of truth, men should share
their knowledge, be able to exercise their rights and fulfill their obligations,
be inspired to seek spiritual values; mutually derive genuine pleasure from the
beautiful, of whatever order it be; always be readily disposed to pass on to
others the best of their own cultural heritage; and eagerly strive to make their
own the spiritual achievements of others. These benefits not only influence, but
at the same time give aim and scope to all that has bearing on cultural
expressions, economic, and social institutions, political movements and forms,
laws, and all other structures by which society is outwardly established and
constantly developed.
The inversion of means and ends, which results in giving the
value of ultimate end to what is only a means for attaining it, or in viewing
persons as mere means to that end, engenders unjust structures which "make
Christian conduct in keeping the commandments of the divine Law-giver difficult
and almost impossible."
It is necessary, then, to appeal to the spiritual and moral
capacities of the human person and to the permanent need for his inner
conversion, so as to obtain social changes that will really serve him. The
acknowledged priority of the conversion of heart in no way eliminates but on
the contrary imposes the obligation of bringing the appropriate remedies to
institutions and living conditions when they are an inducement to sin, so that
they conform to the norms of justice and advance the good rather than hinder
it.
Without the help of grace, men would not know how "to discern
the often narrow path between the cowardice which gives into evil, and the
violence which under the illusion of fighting evil only makes it worse." This is
the path of charity, that is, of the love of God and of neighbor. Charity is the
greatest social commandment. It respects others and their rights. It requires
the practice of justice and it alone makes us capable of it.
Charity inspires a life of self-giving: "Whoever seeks to gain his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve
it."
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August 9, 2014 - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 8 Section IV pg 506
IV - The Gravity Of Sin: The Mortal and Venial Sin
Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity. The
distinction between moral and venial sin, already evident in Scripture, became
part of the tradition of the Church. It is corroborated by human experience.
Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave
violation of God's law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and
his beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him. Venial sin allows charity
to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it.
Mortal sin, by attacking the vital principle within us -- --
that is, charity -- -- necessitates a new initiative of God's mercy and a
conversion of heart which is normally accomplished within the setting of the
sacrament of reconciliation:
When the will sets itself upon something that is of its nature
incompatible with the charity that orients man towards his ultimate end, then
the sin is mortal by its very object... whether it contradicts the love of God,
such as blasphemy or perjury, was love for neighbor, such as homicide or
adultery... but when the sinner’s will is set upon something that of its nature
involves a disorder, but is not opposed to the love God and neighbor, such as
thoughtless chatter or immoderate laughter and the like, such sins are venial.
For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met:
"Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with
full knowledge and deliberate consent."
Grave matter as specified by the 10 Commandments, corresponding
to the answer of Jesus to the rich young man: "Do not kill.
Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not
defraud, Honor your father and mother." The gravity of sins is more or less
great: murder is graver than theft. One must also take into account who is
wronged: violence against parents is in itself graver than violence against a
stranger.
Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It
presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to
God's law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal
choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather
increase, the voluntary character of a sin.
Unintentional ignorance can diminish or even remove the
capability of a grave offense. But no one is deemed to be ignorant of the
principles of the moral law, which are written in the conscience of every man.
The promptings of feelings and passion can also diminish the voluntary and free
character of the offense, as can external pressures or pathological disorders.
Sin committed through malice, by deliberate choice of evil, is the gravest.
Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human freedom, as is love
itself. It results in the loss of charity and the privation of sanctifying
grace, that is, of the state of grace. If it is not redeemed by repentance and
God's forgiveness, it causes exclusion from Christ's kingdom and the eternal
death of hell, for our freedom has the power to make choices for ever, with no
turning back. However, although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave
offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God.
One commits venial sin when, in a less serious matter, he does
not observe the standard prescribed by the moral law, or when he disobeys the
moral law in a grave matter, but without full knowledge or without complete
consent.
Venial sin weakens charity; it manifests a disordered affection
for created goods; it impedes the soul’s progress in the exercise of the virtues
and the practice of the moral good; it merits temporal punishment. Deliberate
and unrepentant venial sins dispose us little by little to commit mortal sin.
However venial sin does not break the covenant with God. With God's grace it is
humanly reparable. "Venial sin does not deprive the sinner of sanctifying grace,
friendship with God, charity, and consequently eternal
happiness."
While he is in the flesh, man cannot help but have at least some
light sins. But do not despise these sins which we call "light"; if you take
them for light when you weigh them, tremble when you count them. A number of
light objects makes a great mass; a number of drops fills a river; a number of
grains makes a heap What then is our hope? Above all, confession...
"Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven
men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven." There are no
limits to the mercy of God, but anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his
mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation
offered by the Holy Spirit. Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence
and eternal loss.
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 8 Section V p 509
V - The Proliferation Of Sin
Sin creates a proclivity to sin; it engenders vice by repetition
of the same acts. This results in perverse inclinations which cloud conscience
and corrupt the concrete judgment of good and evil. Thus sin tends to reproduce
itself and reinforce itself, but it cannot destroy the moral sense at its
root.
Vices can be classified according to the virtues they oppose, or
also be linked to the capital sins which Christian experience has distinguished,
following St. John Cassain and St. Gregory the Great.
They are called "capital" because they engender other sins, other vices.
They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, sloth or acedia.
The catechetical tradition also recalls that there are "sins
that cry to heaven": the blood of Abel, the sin of the Sodomites, the cry of the
people oppressed in Egypt, the cry of the foreigner, the widow, and the orphan,
injustice to the wage earner.
Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for
the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:
-- by participating directly in voluntarily in them;
-- by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;
-- by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an
obligation to do so;
-- by protecting evil-doers.
Thus sin makes us accomplices of one another and causes
concupiscence, violence, and injustice to reign among them. Sins give rise to
social situations and institutions that are contrary to the divine goodness.
"Structures of sin" are the expression and effect of personal sins. They lead
their victims to do evil in their turn. In an analogous sense, they constitute a
"social sin."
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August 2, 2014 - Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to
God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 8 Section I pg 504
I - Mercy and Sin
The Gospel is the revelation in Jesus Christ of God's mercy to
sinners. The angel announced to Joseph: "You shall call his name Jesus, for he
will save his people from their sins." The same is true of the Eucharist, the
sacrament of redemption: "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out
for many for the forgiveness of sins."
"God created us without us: but he did not will to save us
without us." To receive his mercy, we must admit our faults.
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
enough. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our
sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
As St. Paul affirms, "Where sin increased, grace abounded all
the more." But to do its work grace must uncover sin so as to convert our hearts
and bestow on us "righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Like a physician who probes the wound before treating it, God, by his word by
his Spirit, cast a living light on sin:
Conversion requires convincing of sin; it includes the interior
judgment of conscience, and this, being a proof of the action of the Spirit of
truth in man’s inmost being, becomes at the same time the start of a new grant
of grace and love: "Receive the Holy Spirit." Thus in this "convincing
concerning sin" we discover a double gift: the gift of the truth of conscience
and the gift of the certainty of redemption. The Spirit of truth is the Consoler.
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 8 Section II pg 505
II - The Definition Of Sin
Sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience;
it is failure and genuine love for God and neighbor caused by a perverse
attachment to certain goods. It wounds the nature of man and injures human
solidarity. It has been defined as "an utterance, a deed, or a desire contrary
to the eternal law."
Sin is an offense against God: "Against you, you alone, have I
sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight." Sin sets itself against
God's love for us and turns our hearts away from it. Like the first sin, it is
disobedience, a revolt against God through the will to become "like gods,"
knowing and determining good and evil. Sin is thus "love of oneself even to
contempt of God." In his proud self-exultation, sin is diametrically opposed to
the obedience of Jesus, which achieves our salvation.
It is precisely in the Passion, when the mercy of Christ is
about to vanquish it, that sin most clearly manifests its violence and its many
forms: unbelief, murderous hatred, shunning and mockery by the leaders and the
people, Pilate’s cowardice and the cruelty of the soldiers, Judas's betrayal --
-- so bitter to Jesus, Peter's denial and the disciples’ flight. However, at the
very hour of darkness, the hour of the prince of this world, the sacrifice of
Christ secretly becomes the source from which the forgiveness of our sins will
pour forth it exhaustively.
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 8 Section III pg 506
III - The Different Kinds Of Sins
They are a great many kinds of sins. Scripture provides several
lists of them. The Letter to the Galatians contrast the works of the flesh with
the fruit of the Spirit: "Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication,
impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger,
selfishness, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I
warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not
inherit the Kingdom of God.
Sin can be distinguished according to their objects, as can
every human act; or according to the virtues they oppose, but excess or defect;
or according to the commandments they violate. They can also be classed
according to whether they concern God, neighbor, or oneself; they can be
divided into spiritual and carnal sins, or again as sins in thought, word,
deed, or omission. The root of sin is in the heart of man, and his free will,
according to the teaching of the Lord: "For out of the heart come evil
thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These
are what defile a man." But in the heart also resides charity, the source of
the good and pure works, which sin wounds.
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July 26, 2014 - And we know that all things work together for
good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His
purpose. Romans 8:28
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 7 Section II III Pg 498
II. The Theological Virtues
The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which
adapt man's faculties for participation in the divine nature: for the
theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in
a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for
their origin, motive, and object.
The theological virtues are the foundations of Christian moral
activity; they animate and give it its special character. They inform and give
life to all the moral virtues. They are infused by God into the souls of the
faithful to make them capable of acting as his children and of meriting eternal
life. They are the pledge of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in the
faculties of the human being. There are three theological virtues: faith, hope,
and charity.
Faith
Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and
believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes
for our belief, because he is truth itself. By faith "man freely commits his
entire self to God." For this reason the believer seeks to know and do God's
will. "The righteous shall live by faith." Living faith "work[s] through charity."
The gift of faith remains in one who has not sinned against it.
But "faith apart from works is dead": when it is deprived of hope and love,
faith does not fully unite the believer to Christ and does not make him a living
member of his Body.
The disciple of Christ must not only keep the faith and live on
it, but also profess it, confidently bear witness to it, and spread it: "All
however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow him along
the way of the Cross, amidst the persecutions which the Church never lacks."
Service of and witness to the faith are necessary for salvation: "So everyone
who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is
in heaven; but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father
who is in heaven."
Hope
Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of
heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises
and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy
Spirit. "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he
who promised is faithful." "The
Holy Spirit... he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so
that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life."
The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which
God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire
men's activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven;
it keeps man from discouragement; it sustains him during times of abandonment;
it opens up his heart in expectation of eternal beatitude. Buoyed up by hope, he
is preserved from selfishness and led to the happiness that flows from charity.
Christian hope takes up and fulfills the hope of the chosen
people which has its origin and model in the hope of Abraham, who was blessed
abundantly by the promises of God fulfilled in Isaac, and who was purified by
the test of the sacrifice. "Hoping against hope, he believed, and thus became
the father of many nations."
Christian hope unfolds from the beginning of Jesus' preaching in
the proclamation of the beatitudes. The beatitudes raise our hope toward heaven
as the new Promised Land; they trace a path that leads through the trials that
await the disciples of Jesus. But through the merits of Jesus Christ ad of his
Passion, God keeps us in the "hope that does not disappoint." Hope is the "sure
and steadfast anchor of the soul... that enters... where Jesus has gone as a
forerunner on our behalf." Hope is also a weapon that protects us in the
struggle of salvation: "Let us... put on the breastplate of faith and charity,
and for a helmet the hope of salvation." It affords us joy even under trial:
"Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation." Hope is expressed and
nourished in prayer, especially in the Our Father, the summary of everything
that hope leads us to desire.
We can therefore hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to
those who love him and do his will.
In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God,
to persevere "to the end" and to obtain the joy of having, as God’s eternal
reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ. In hope, the
Church prays for "all men to be saved." She longs to be united with Christ, her
Bridegroom, in the glory of heaven:
Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither yhe day nor the hour.
Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience
makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one.
Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your
God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and
rapture that can never end.
Charity
Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all
things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
Jesus makes charity the new commandment. By loving his own “to
the end," he makes manifest the Father's love which he receives. By loving one
another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which they themselves received.
Whence Jesus says: "Ss the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my
love." And again: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have
loved you."
Fruit of the Spirit and fullness of the Law, charity keeps the
commandments of God and his Christ: "Abide in my love. If you keep my
commandments, you will abide in my love."
Christ died out of love for us, while we were still "enemies."
The Lord asks us to love as he does, even our enemies, to make ourselves the
neighbor of those farthest away, and to love children and the poor as Christ
himself.
The apostle Paul has given an incomparable depiction of charity: "charity is patient and kind, charity is not jealous or boastful; it is not
arrogant or rude. Charity does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or
resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Charity
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
"If I... have not charity." Says the Apostle, "I am nothing."
Whatever my privilege, service, or even virtue, "if I... have not charity, I
gain nothing." Charity is superior to all the virtues. It is the first of the
theological virtues: "so faith, hope, charity abide, these three. But the
greatest of these is charity."
The practice of all the virtues is animated and inspired by
charity, which "binds everything together in perfect harmony"; it is the form of
the virtues; it articulates and orders them among themselves; it is the source
and the goal of their Christian practice. Charity upholds and purifies our human
ability to love, and raises it to the supernatural perfection of divine love.
The practice of the moral life animated by charity gives to the
Christian the spiritual freedom of the children of God.
He no longer stands before God as a slave, and servile fear, or as a
mercenary looking for wages, but as a son responding to the love of him who
"first loved us":
If we turn away from evil out of fear of punishment, we are in
the position of slaves. If we pursue the enticement of wages,... we resemble
mercenaries. Finally if we obey for the sake of the good itself and out of love
for him who commands... we are in the position of children.
The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands
beneficence and fraternal correction; it is benevolence; it fosters reciprocity
and remains disinterested and generous; it is friendship and communion:
Love is itself the fulfillment of all our works. There is the
goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, we shall find
rest.
III. The Gifts And 2
Fruits Of The Holy Spirit
The moral life of Christians is sustained by the gifts of the
Holy Spirit. These are permanent dispositions and make man docile in following
the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding,
counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their
fullness to Christ, son of David. They complete and perfect the virtues of those
who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations.
Let your good spirit lead me on a level path.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God... If
children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit
forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory. The tradition of the Church
lists 12 of them: "Charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, chastity."
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July 19, 2014 - And now abide
faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.1 Corinthians 13:13
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 7 Section I Pg 495
I. The Human Virtues
Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual
perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions,
and guide our conduct according to reason and faith. They make possible ease,
self-mastery, and joy in leading a morally good life. The virtuous man is he who
freely practices the good.
The moral virtues are acquired by human effort. They are the
fruit and seed of morally good acts; they dispose all the powers of the human
being for communion with divine love.
The cardinal virtues.
Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called
"cardinal"; all the others are grouped around them. They are "prudence, justice,
fortitude, and temperance. "If
anyone loves righteousness, [Wisdom’s] labors are virtues; for she teaches
temperance and prudence, justice, and courage." These virtues are praised under
other names in many passages of Scripture.
Prudence is the virtue that disposes practical reason to discern
our true good in every circumstance and to choose the right means of achieving
it; "the prudent man looks where he is going." "Keep sane and sober for your prayers."
Prudence is "right reason in action," writes St. Thomas Aquinas, following
Aristotle. It is not to be confused with timidity or fear, nor with duplicity or dissimulation. It is
called auriga virtutum (the charioteer of the virtues); it guides the other
virtues by setting rule and measure. It is prudence that immediately guides the
judgment of conscience. The prudent man determines and directs his conduct in
accordance with this judgment. With the help of this virtue we apply moral
principles to particular cases without error and overcome doubts about the good
to achieve an evil to avoid.
Justice is the moral virtue that consist in the constant and
firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Justice towards God is called
the "virtual religion." Justice towards men disposes one to respect the rights
of each ad to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity
with regard to persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in
the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right-thinking and the
uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor. "You shall not be partial to the
poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your
neighbor." "Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also
have a Master in heaven."
Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness of
difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the
resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The
virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to
face trials nd persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his
life in defense of a just cause. "The Lord is my strength and my soul." "In the
world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the
world."
Temperance is the moral virtue that moderates the attraction of
pleasures and provides balance in the use of created goods. It ensures the wills
mastety over instincts and keeps desires within the limits of what is honorable.
The temperate person directs the sensitive appetite towards what is good and
maintains a healthy discretion:
"Do not follow your inclinations and strength, walking according to the
desires of your heart." Temperance is often praised in the Old Testament: "Do
not follow your base desires, but restrain your appetites." In the New Testament
it is called "moderation" or "sobriety." We ought "to live sober, upright, and
godly lives in this world."
To live well is nothing other than to love God with all one's
heart, with all one's soul and with all one's efforts; from this it comes about
that love is kept whole and uncorrupted (through temperance). No misfortune can
disturb it (and this is fortitude). It obeys only God (and this is justice), and
is careful in discerning things, so as not to be surprised by deceit or trickery
(and this is prudence).
The virtues and grace
Human virtues acquired by education, by deliberate acts and by a
perseverance ever-renewed in repeated efforts are purified and elevated by
divine grace. With God’s help, they forge character and give facility to the
practice of the good. The virtuous man is happy to practice them.
It is not easy for man, wounded by sin, to maintain moral
balance. Christ's gift of salvation offers us the grace necessary to persevere
in the pursuit of the virtues. Everyone should always ask for this grace of
light and strength, frequent the sacraments, cooperate with the Holy Spirit,
and follow his calls to love what is good and shunned
evil.
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July 12, 2014 – A student is not better than the teacher, but the student who
has been fully trained will be like the teacher. Luke 6:40
Based on todays Gospel a little seed sowing before the normal study unit. Enjoy!
It's spring and time to plant
How to Plant Your Garden...no dirt required!!
How To Plant Your Garden
First, you Come to the garden alone,
while the dew is still on the roses.
FOR THE GARDEN OF YOUR DAILY LIVING,
PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS
1. Peace of mind
2. Peace of heart
3. Peace of soul
PLANT FOUR ROWS OF SQUASH:
1. Squash gossip
2. Squash indifference
3. Squash grumbling
4. Squash selfishness
PLANT FOUR ROWS OF LETTUCE:
1. Lettuce be faithful
2. Lettuce be kind
3. Lettuce be patient
4. Lettuce really love one another
NO GARDEN IS WITHOUT TURNIPS:
1.Turnip for meetings
2.Turnip for service
3.Turnip to help one another
TO CONCLUDE OUR GARDEN YOU MUST HAVE THYME:
1.Thyme for God
2.Thyme for each other
3.Thyme for family
4.Thyme for friends
WATER FREELY WITH PATIENCE AND CULTIVATE WITH LOVE.
THERE IS MUCH FRUIT IN YOUR GARDEN BECAUSE YOU REAP WHAT YOU
SOW.
"IN GOD WE TRUST"
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 6 Section I II III pg 490
I. The Judgment Of Conscience
Moral conscience, present at the heart of the person enjoins him
at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil.
It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and
announcing those that are evil. It bears witness to the authority of truth in
reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it
welcomes the commandments. When he
listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.
Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person
recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that is going to perform, is in
the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does,
man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by
the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the
prescriptions of the divine law:
Conscience is a law of the mind; yet [Christians] would not
grant that it is nothing more; I mean that it was not a dictate, nor conveyed
the notion of responsibility, of duty, of a threat and a promise... [Conscience]
is a messenger of him, who, both in nature and grace, speaks to us behind a
veil, and teaches and rules us by his representatives. Conscience is the
aboriginal Vicar of Christ.
It is important for every person to be sufficiently present to
himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience. This
requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as life often distracts us
from any reflection, self-examination or introspection:
Return to your conscience, question it... turn inward, breheren,
and in everything you do, see God as your witness.
The dignity of the human person implies and requires uprightness
of moral conscience. Conscience includes the perception of the principles of
morality (synderesis); their
application in the given circumstances by practical discernment of reasons and
goods; and finally judgment about concrete acts yet to be performed or already
performed. The truth about the moral good, stated in the law of reason, is
recognized practically and concretely by the prudent judgment of conscience. We
called that man prudent who chooses in conformity with this judgment.
Conscience enables one to assume responsibility for the acts
performed. If man commits evil, the just judgment of conscience can remain
within him as the witness to the universal truth of the good, and at the same
time as the evil of his particular choice. The verdict of the judgment of
conscience remains a pledge of hope and mercy. In attesting to the fault
committed, it calls to mind he forgiveness that must be asked, the good that
must still be practiced, and the virtue that must be constantly cultivated with
the grace of God:
We shall... reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts
condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as
personally to make moral decisions. "He must not be forced to act contrary to
his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his
conscience, especially in religious matters."
II. The Formation of Conscience
Conscience must be informed and moral judgment enlightened. A
well-formed conscience is upright
and truthful. It formulates its judgments according to reason, in conformity
with the true good willed by the wisdom of the Creator. The education of
conscience is indispensable for human beings were subjected to negative
influences and tempted by sin to prefer their own judgment and to reject
authoritative teachings.
The education of the conscience is a lifelong task. From the
earliest years, it awakens the child to the knowledge and practice of the
interior law recognized by conscience. Prudent education teaches virtue; it
prevents or cures fear, selfishness and pride, resentment arising from guilt,
and feelings of complacency, human weakness and faults. The education of
conscience guarantees freedom and engenders peace of the heart.
In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for
our path, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We
must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the
gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by
the authoritative teaching of the Church.
III. To Choose In Accord With Conscience
Faced with a moral choice, conscience can make either a right
judgment in accordance with reason and the divine law or, on the contrary, an
erroneous judgment that departs from them.
Man is sometimes confronted by situations that make moral
judgments less assured and decision difficult. But he must always seriously
seek what is right and good and discern the will of God expressed in divine
law.
To this purpose, man strives to interpret the data of experience
and the signs of the times assisted by the virtue of prudence, by the advice of
competent people, and by the help of the Holy Spirit and his gifts.
Some rules apply in every case:
-- -- One may never do evil so that good may result from it;
-- -- the Golden rule: "whatever you wish that men would do to
you, do so to them."
-- -- Charity always proceeds by way of respect for one's
neighbor and his conscience: "Thus sinning against your brethren and wounding
their conscience... you sin against Christ." Therefore "it is right not to... do
anything that makes your brother stumble."
IV. Erroneous Judgment
A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his
conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself.
Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous
judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.
This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility.
This is the case when a man" takes little trouble to find out what is true and
good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of
committing sin." In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.
Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others,
enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of
conscience, rejection of the Church’s authority and her teaching, lack of
conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment and
moral conduct.
If -- -- on the contrary -- -- the ignorance is invincible, or
the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil
committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a
privation, a disorder. One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral
conscience.
A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith, for
charity proceeds at the same time "from a pure heart and a good conscience and
sincere faith."
The more a correct conscience prevails, the more do persons and
groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by objective standards
of moral conduct.
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July 06, 2014 - All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 5 Section I II Pg 487
I. Passions
The term "passions" belongs to the Christian patrimony. Feelings
or passions re emotions or movements of the sensitive appetite that incline us
to act or not to act in regard to something felt or imagined to be good or evil.
The passions are natural components of the human psyche; they
form the passageway and ensure the connection between the life of the senses and
the life of the mind. Our Lord called man's heart the source from which the
passions spring.
There are many passions. The most fundamental passion is love,
aroused by the attraction of the good. Love causes a desire for the absent good
and the hope of obtaining it; this movement finds completion in the pleasure and
joy of the good possessed. The apprehension of evil causes hatred, aversion, and
fear of the impending evil; this movement and sadness at some present evil, or
in the anger that resists it.
"To love is to will the good of another." All other affections
have their source in this first movement of the human heart toward the good.
Only the good can be loved. Passions "are evil if love is evil and good if it is good."
II. Passions And Moral Life
In themselves passions are neither good nor evil. They are
morally qualified only to the extent that they effectively engage reason and
will. Passions are said to be voluntary, "either because they are commanded by
the will or because the will does not place obstacles in their way." It belongs
to the perfection of the moral or human good that the passions be governed by reason.
Strong feelings are not decisive for the morality or the
holiness of persons; they are simply the inexhaustible reservoir of images and
affections in which the moral life is expressed. Passions are morally good when
they contribute to a good action, evil in the opposite case. The upright will
orders the movements of the senses it appropriates to the good and to
beatitude; an evil will succombs to disordered passions and exacerbates them.
Emotions and feelings can be taken up into the virtues or perverted by the vices.
In the Christian life, the Holy Spirit himself accomplishes his
work by mobilizing the whole being, with all its sorrows, fears and sadness, as
is visible in the Lord's agony and passion. In Christ human feelings are able to
reach their consummation and charity and divine beatitude.
Moral perfection consists in a man's being moved to the good up
by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of the
psalm: "My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living
God.”
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June 29, 2014 - When a person's steps follow the Lord, God is
pleased with his ways. If he stumbles, he will not fall, because the Lord holds
his hand. Psalms 37:23-24
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 4 Section I II Pg 485
I. The Sources Of Morality
The morality of human acts depends on:
-- -- the object chosen;
-- -- the end in view or the intention;
-- -- the circumstances of the action.
The object, the intention, and the circumstances make up the
"sources," or constitutive elements, of the morality of human acts.
The object chosen is a good toward which the will deliberately
directs itself. It is the matter of a human act. The object chosen morally
specifies the act of the will, insofar as reason recognizes and judges it to be
or not to be in conformity with the true good. Objective norms of morality
express the rational order of good and evil, attested to by
conscience.
In contrast to the object, the intention resides in the acting
subject. Because it lies at the voluntary source of an action and determines it
by its end, intention is an element essential to the moral evaluation of action.
The end is the first goal of the intention and indicates the purpose pursued in
the action. The intention is a movement of the will toward the end: it is
concerned with the goal of the activity. It aims at the good anticipated for the
action undertaken. Intention is not limited to directing individual actions, but
can guide several actions towards one and the same purpose; it can orient one's
whole life towards its ultimate end. For example, a service done with the end of
helping one's neighbor can at the same time be inspired by the love of God as
the ultimate end of all our actions. One and the same action can also be
inspired by several intentions, such as performing a service in order to obtain
a favor or to boast about it.
A good intention (for example, that of helping one's neighbor)
does not make behavior that is intrinsically disordered, such as lying
and calumny, good or just. The end does not justify the means. Thus the
condemnation of an innocent person cannot be justified as a legitimate means of
saving the nation. On the other hand, an added bad intention (such as vainglory)
makes an act evil that, in and of itself, can be good (such as alms giving).
The circumstances, including the consequences, are secondary
elements of a moral act. They contribute to increasing or diminishing the moral
goodness or evil human acts (for example, the amount of a theft). They can also
diminish or increase the agent's responsibility (such as acting out of a fear of
death). Circumstances of themselves cannot change the moral quality of acts
themselves; they can make neither good nor write an action that is in itself evil.
II. Good Acts And Evil Acts
A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the
end, and of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action, even if
the object is good in itself (such as praying and fasting) "in order to be seen
by men").
The object of choice can by itself vitiate an act in its
entirety. There are some concrete
acts-- -- such as fornication -- -- that it is always wrong to choose, because
choosing them entails a disorder of the will, that is, a moral evil.
It is therefore an error to judge the morality of human acts by
considering only the intention that inspires them or the circumstances
environment, social pressure, duress or emergency, etc.) which supply their
context. There are acts which, in and of themselves, independently of
circumstances and intentions, are always gravely illicit a reason of their
object; such as blasphemy and perjury, murder and adultery. One may not do evil
so that good may result from it.
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June 22, 2014 - "The mountains may disappear, and the hills may
come to an end, but my love will never disappear; my promise of peace will not
come to an end," says the Lord who shows mercy to you. Isaiah 54:10
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 3 Section I II pg 481
I. Freedom and Responsibility
Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not
to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one’s own
responsibility. By free will one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force
for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when
directed toward God, or beatitude.
As long as freedom has not bound itself definitively to its
ultimate good which is God, there is the possibility of choosing between good
and evil, and thus of growing in perfection or of failing and sinning. This
freedom characterizes properly human acts. It is the basis of praise or blame,
merit or reproach.
The more one does what is good, the freer one becomes. There is
no true freedom except in the service of what is good and just. The choice to
disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery of sin."
Freedom makes man responsible for his acts to the extent that
they are voluntary. Progress in virtue, knowledge of the good, and ascesis
enhance the mastery of the will over its acts.
Imputability and responsibility for action can be diminished or
even nullified by ignorance,
inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other
psychological or social factors.
Every act directly willed is imputable to its author:
Thus the Lord asked Eve after the sin in the garden:“What is
this that you have done?" He asked Cain the same question. The prophet Nathan
questioned David in the same way after he committed adultery with the wife of
Uriah and had him murdered.
An action can be indirectly voluntary when it results from
negligence regarding something that one should have known or done: for example,
an accident arising from ignorance of traffic laws.
An effect can be tolerated without being willed by its agent;
for instance, a mother's exhaustion from tending her sick child. A bad effect is
not imputable if it was not willed either as an end or as a means of an action,
e.g. a death a person incurs in aiding someone in danger. For a bad effect to be
imputable it must be foreseeable and the agent must have the possibility of
avoiding it, as in the case of manslaughter caused by a drunken
driver.
Freedom is exercised in relationships between human beings.
Every human person, created in the image of God, has the natural right to be
recognized as a free and responsible being. All owe to each other this duty of
respect. The right to the exercise of freedom, especially in moral and religious
matters, is an inalienable requirement of the dignity of the human person. This
right must be recognized and protected by civil authorities within the limits of
the common good and public order.
II. Human Freedom In The Economy Of Salvation
Freedom and sin. Man's freedom is limited and fallible. In fact,
man failed. He freely sinned. By refusing God’s plan of love, he deceived
himself and became a slave to sin. This first alienation engendered a multitude
of others. From its outset, human history attests the wretchedness and
oppression born of the human heart and consequence of the abuse of freedom.
Threats to freedom. The exercise of freedom does not imply a
right to say or do anything. It is false to maintain that man, "the subject of
this freedom," is "an individual who is fully self-sufficient and whose finality
is the satisfaction of his own interest in the enjoyment of earthly goods."
Moreover, the economic, social, political, and cultural conditions that are
needed for a just exercise of freedom are too often disregarded or violated.
Such situations of blindness and injustice injure the moral life and involve the
strong as well as the weak in the temptation to sin against charity. Buy
deviating from the moral law man violates his own freedom, becomes imprisoned
within himself, disrupts neighborly fellowship, and rebels against divine truth.
Liberation and salvation. By his glorious Cross Christ has won
salvation for all men. He redeemed them from the sin that held them in bondage.
"For freedom Christ has set us free." In him we have communion with the "truth
that makes us free." The Holy Spirit has been given to us and, as the Apostle
teaches, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Already we glory
in the "liberty of the children of God."
Freedom and grace. The grace of Christ is not in the slightest
way a rival of our freedom when this freedom accords with the sense of the true
and the good that God has put in the human heart. On the contrary, as Christian
experience attests especially in prayer, the more docile we are in the
promptings of grace, the more we grow in inner freedom and confidence during
trials, such as those we face in the pressures and constraints of the outer
world. By the working of grace the Holy Spirit educates us in spiritual freedom
in order to make us free collaborators in his work in the church and in the world:
Almighty and merciful God, in your goodness take away from us all that is harmful,
so that, made ready both in mind and body, we may freely accomplish your will.
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June 15, 2014 - We must not become tired of doing good. We will
receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time if we do not give
up. Galatians 6:9
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section I II III Pg 477
I. The Beatitudes
The Beatitudes are at the heart of Jesus’ preaching. They take
up the promises made to the chosen people since Abraham. The Beatitudes fulfill
the promises by ordering them no longer merely to the possession of the
territory, but to the Kingdom of heaven:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for there is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for
they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of
God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter
all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven.
The Beatitudes depict the countenance of Jesus Christ and
portray his charity. They express vocation of the faithful associated with the
glory of his Passion and Resurrection; they shed light on the actions and
attitudes characteristic of the Christian life; they are the paradoxical
promises that sustain hope in the midst of tribulations; they proclaim the
blessings and rewards already secured, however dimly, for Christ's disciples
they have begun in the lives of the Virgin Mary and all the saints.
II. The Desire For Happiness
The Beatitudes respond to the natural desire for happiness. This
desire is of divine origin: God has placed it in the human heart in order to
draw man to the One who alone can fulfill it:
We all want to live happily; in the whole human race there is no
one who does not assent to this proposition, even before it is fully
articulated.
How is it, then, that I seek you, Lord?
Since in seeking you, my God, I seek a happy life, let me seek you so
that my soul may live, for my body draws life from my soul and my soul draws
life from you.
God alone satisfies.
The Beatitudes reveal the goal of human existence, the ultimate
end of human acts:
God calls us to his own beatitude. This vocation is addressed to
each individual personally, also to the Church as a whole, the new people made
up of those who have accepted the promise of live from it in faith.
III. Christian Beatitude
The New Testament uses several expressions to characterize the
beatitude to which Christ calls man:
-- -- the coming of the Kingdom of God;
-- -- the vision of God: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God";
-- -- entering into the joy of the Lord;
-- -- entering into God's rest:
There we shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall
love and praise. Behold what will be at the end without end. For what other end
do we have, if not to reach the kingdom which has no
end?
God put us in the world to know, to love, and to serve him, and
soon to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of the divine nature"
and of eternal life. With beatitude, man enters into the glory of Christ and
into the joy of the Trinitarian life.
Such beatitude surpasses the understanding and powers of man. It
comes from an entirely free gift of God: whence it is called supernatural, as is
the grace that disposes man to enter into the divine joy.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." It is
true, because of the greatness and inexpressible glory of God, that "man shall
not see me and live," for the Father cannot be grasped. But because of God's
love and goodness towards us, and because he can do all things, he goes so far
as to grant those who love him the privilege of seeing him….for "what is
impossible for men is possible for God."
The beatitude we are promised confronts us with decisive moral
choices. It invites us to purify our hearts of bad instincts and to seek the
love of God above all else. It teaches us that true happiness is not found in
riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement -- --
however beneficial and may be -- -- such as science, technology, and art, or
indeed in any creature, but in God alone, the source of every good and of all
love:
All bow down before wealth. Wealth is that to which the
multitude of men pay an instinctive homage. They measure happiness by wealth;
and by wealth they measure respectability... It is a homage resulting from a
profound faith... that with wealth he may do all things. Wealth is one idol of
the day and notoriety is a second…Notoriety or the making of a noise in the
world -- -- it may be called "newspaper fame" -- -- has come to be considered a
great good in itself, and a ground of
veneration.
The Decalogue, the Sermon on the Mount, and the apostolic
catechesis describe for us the paths that lead to the Kingdom of heaven.
Sustained by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we tread them, step-by-step, by
everyday acts. By the working of the Word of Christ, we slowly bear fruit in
the Church to the glory of God.
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June 8, 2014 - When you are praying, if you are angry with someone, forgive him so that your Father in heaven will also forgive your sins. Mark 11:25
Part 3 Chapter 1 Article 1 pg 474
Chapter 1 - The Dignity Of the Human Person
The dignity of the human person is rooted in his creation in the
image and likeness of God (article 1); it is fulfilled in his vocation to divine
beatitude (article 2). It is
essential to a human being freely to direct himself to this fulfillment
(article 3). By his deliberate actions (article 4), the human person does, or
does not, conform to the good promised by God and attested by moral conscience
(article 5). Human beings make their own contributions to their interior
growth; they make their whole sentiment and spiritual lives into means of this
growth (article 6). With the help of grace they grow in virtue (article 7),
avoid sin, and if they sin they trust themselves as did the prodigal son to the
mercy of our Father in heaven (article 8). In this way they attain to the
perfection of charity.
Article 1 - Man: The Image Of God
"Christ,... in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father
and of his love, makes man fully manifest to himself and brings to light his
exalted vocation." It is in Christ, "the image of the invisible God," that man
has been created "in the image and likeness" of the Creator. It is in Christ,
Redeemer and Savior, that the divine image, disfigured in man by the first sin,
has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of
God.
The divine image is present in every man. It shines forth in the
communion of persons, in the likeness of the unity of the divine persons among
themselves (cf chapter two).
Endowed with "a spiritual and immortal" soul the human person is
"the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake." From his
conception, he is destined for eternal
beatitude.
The human person participates in the light and power of the
divine Spirit. By his reason, he is capable of understanding the order of things
established by the Creator. By free will, he is capable of directing himself
toward his true good. He finds his perfection "in seeking and loving what is
true and good."
By virtue of his soul and his personal powers of intellect and
will, man is endowed with freedom, an "outstanding manifestation of the divine
image."
By his reason man recognizes the voice of God which urges him
"to do what is good and avoid what is evil." Everyone is obliged to follow this
law, which makes itself heard in conscience and is fulfilled in the love of God
and of neighbor. Living a moral life bears witness to the dignity of the
person.
"Man, enticed by the Evil One, abused his freedom at the very
beginning of history." He succumbed to temptation and did what was evil. He
still desires the good, but his nature bears the wound of original sin. He is
now inclined to evil is subject to error:
Man is divided in himself. As a result, the whole life of men,
both individual and social, shows itself to be a struggle, and a dramatic one,
between good and evil, between light and
darkness.
By his passion, Christ delivered us from Satan and from sin. He
merited for us the new life in the Holy Spirit. His grace restores what sin had
damaged in us. He who believes in Christ becomes a son of God. This filial
adoption transforms him by giving him the ability to follow the example of
Christ. It makes him capable of acting rightly and doing good. In union with his
Savior, the disciple attains the perfection of charity which is holiness. Having
matured in grace, the moral life blossoms into eternal life in the glory of
heaven.
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June 1, 2014 - When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say
what people need- words that will help others become stronger. Then what you say
will do good to those who listen to you. Ephesians 4:29
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 4 Article 2 Sec I II pg 467
I. The Christian’s Last Passover
The Christian’ meaning of death is revealed in the light of the
Paschal mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ in whom resides our only
hope. The Christian who dies in Christ Jesus is "away from the body and at home
with the Lord."
For the Christian day of death inaugurates, at the end of his
sacramental life, the fulfillment of his new birth begun at Baptism, the
definitive "conformity" to "the image of the Son" conferred by the anointing of
the Holy Spirit, and participation in the feast of the Kingdom which was
anticipated in the Eucharist -- -- even if final purifications are still
necessary for him in order to be closed with the nuptial word.
The Church who, as Mother, has borne the Christian sacramentally
in her womb during his earthly pilgrimage, accompanies him at his journey's end,
in order to surrender him "into the Father's hands." She offers to the Father,
in Christ, the child of his grace, and she commits to earth, in hope, the seed
of the body that will rise in glory. This offering is fully celebrated in the
Eucharistic sacrifice; the blessings before and after Mass are sacramentals.
II. The Celebration Of Funerals
The Christian funeral is a liturgical celebration of the Church.
The ministry of the Church in this instance aims at expressing efficacious
communion with the deceased, at the participation in that communion of the
community gathered for the funeral, and at the proclamation of eternal life to
the community.
The different funeral rites express the Paschal character of
Christian death and are in keeping with the situations and traditions of each
region, even as to the color of the liturgical vestments worn.
The Order of Christian Funerals (Ordo exsequiarum) of the Roman
liturgy gives three types of funeral celebrations, corresponding to the three
places in which they are conducted (the home, the Church, and the cemetery), and
according to the importance attached to them by the family, local customs,
culture, and popular piety. This order of celebration is common to all the
liturgical traditions and comprises four principal elements:
The greeting of the community. A greeting of faith begins the
celebration. Relatives and friends of the deceased are welcomed with a word of
"consolation" (in the New Testament sense of the Holy Spirit's power in hope).
The community assembling in prayer also awaits the "words of eternal life." The
death of a member of the community (or the anniversary of the death, or the
seventh or 13th day after death) is an event that should lead beyond the
perspectives of "this world" and should draw the faithful into the true
perspective of faith in the risen Christ.
The liturgy of the Word during funerals demands very careful
preparation because the assembly present for the funeral may include some
faithful who rarely attend the liturgy, and friends of the deceased who are not
Christians. The homily in particular must "avoid the literary genre of funeral
eulogy" and illumine the mystery of Christian death in the light of the risen
Christ.
The Eucharistic sacrifice. When the celebration takes place in
church, the Eucharist is the heart of the Paschal reality of Christian death. In
the Eucharist, the Church expresses her efficacious communion with the departed:
offering to the Father in the Holy Spirit the sacrifice of the death and
resurrection of Christ, she asked to purify his child of his sins and their
consequences, and to admit him to the Paschal fullness of the table of the
Kingdom. It is by the Eucharist thus celebrated that the community of the
faithful, especially the family of the deceased, learn to live in communion
with the one who "has fallen asleep in the Lord," by communicating in the Body
of Christ of which he is a living member and, then, by praying for him and with
him.
A farewell to the deceased is his final "commendation to God" by
the Church. It is "the last farewell by which the Christian community greets one
of its members before his body is brought to its tomb. "The Byzantine tradition
expresses this by the kiss of farewell to the deceased: By this final greeting
"we sing for his departure from this life and separation from us, but because
there is a communion and a reunion. For even dead, we are not at all separated
from one another, because we all run the same course and we will find one
another again in the same place. We shall never be separated, for we live for
Christ, and now we are united with Christ as we go toward him... we shall be
together in Christ."
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May 25, 2014 - When you are in distress, and all these things
come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey
His voice Deuteronomy 4:30
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 4 Article 1 pg 464
Article 1 Sacramentals
"Holy Mother Church has, moreover, instituted sacramental. These
are sacred signs which bear a resemblance to the sacraments. They signify
effects, particularly of a spiritual nature, which are obtained through the
intercession of the Church. By them men are disposed to receive the chief effect
of the sacraments, and various occasions in life are rendered holy."
The characteristics of Sacramentals
Sacramentals are instituted for the sanctification of certain
ministries of the Church, certain states of life, a great variety of
circumstances in Christian life, and the use of many things helpful to man. In
accordance with bishops’ pastoral decisions, they can also respond to the
needs, culture, and special history of the Christian people of a particular
region or time. They always include a prayer, often accompanied by specific
sign, such as the laying on of hands, the sign of the cross, or the sprinkling
of holy water (which recalls baptism).
Sacramentals derive from the baptismal priesthood: every
baptized person is called to be a "blessing," and to bless. Hence lay people
may preside at certain blessings; the more a blessing concerns ecclesial
sacramental life, the more is its administration reserved to the ordained
ministry (bishops, priests, or deacons).
Sacramentals do not confer grace of the Holy Spirit in the way
that the sacraments do, but by the Church’s prayer, they prepare us to receive
grace and dispose us to cooperate with it. "For well- disposed members of the
faithful, the liturgy of the sacraments and sacramentals sanctifies almost every
event of their lives with the grace which flows from the Paschal mystery of the
Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Christ. From this source all sacraments and
sacramentals draw their power. There is scarcely any proper use of material
things which cannot be thus directed toward the sanctification of men and the
praise of God."
Various forms of sacramental
Among sacramentals blessings (of persons, meals, objects, and
places) come first. Every blessing praises God and prays for his gifts. In
Christ, Christians are blessed by God the father "with every spiritual
blessing." This is why the Church imparts blessings by invoking the name of
Jesus, usually while making the holy sign of the cross of Christ.
Certain blessings have a lasting importance because they
consecrate persons to God, or reserve objects and places for liturgical use.
Among those blessings which are intended for the persons -- -- not to be
confused with sacramental ordination -- -- are the blessing of the abbot or
abbess of a monastery, the consecration of virgins and widows, the rite of
religious profession and the blessing of certain ministries of the Church
(readers, acolytes, catechists, etc.). The dedication or blessing of a church or
an altar, the blessing of holy oils, vessels, and vestments, bells, etc., can be
mentioned as examples of blessings that concern objects.
When the Church asks publicly and afford to flee in the name of
Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the power of the Evil
One and withdrawn from his dominion, it is called exorcism. Jesus performed
exorcisms and from him the Church has received the power and office of
exorcizing. In a simple form,
exorcism is performed at the celebration of Baptism. The solemn exorcism, called
"a major exorcism," can be performed only by a priest and with the permission of
the bishop. The priest must proceed with prudence, strictly observing the rules
established by the Church. Exorcism is directed at the expulsion of demons or to
the liberation from demonic possession through the spiritual authority which
Jesus entrusted to his Church. Illness, especially psychological illness, is a
very different matter; treating this is the concern of medical science.
Therefore, before an exorcism is performed, it is important to ascertain that
one is dealing with the presence of the Evil One, and not an illness.
Popular piety
Besides sacramental liturgy and sacramentals, catechesis must
take into account the forms of piety and popular devotions among the faithful.
The religious sense of the Christian people has always found expression in
various forms of piety surrounding the Church's sacramental life, such as the
veneration of relics, visits to sanctuaries, pilgrimages, processions, the
stations of the Cross, religious dances, the rosary, medals, etc.
These expressions of piety extend the liturgical life of the
Church, but do not replace it. They "should be so drawn up that they harmonize
with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some way
derived from it and lead the people to it, since in fact the liturgy by its very
nature is far superior to any of them."
Pastoral discernment is needed to sustain and support popular
piety and, if necessary, to purify and correct the religious sense which
underlies these emotions so that the faithful may advance in knowledge of the
mystery of Christ. Their exercise is subject to the care and judgment of the
bishops and to the general norms of the Church.
At its core the piety of the people is a storehouse of values
that offers answers of Christian wisdom to the great questions of life. The
Catholic wisdom of the people is capable of fashioning a vital synthesis.... It
creatively combines the divine and human, Christ and Mary, spirit and body,
communion and institution, person and community, faith and homeland,
intelligence and emotion. This wisdom is a Christian humanism that radically
affirms the dignity of every person as a child of God, establishes a basic
fraternity, teaches people to encounter nature and understand work, provides
reasons for joy and humor even in the midst of a very hard life. For the people
this wisdom is also a principle of discernment and an evangelical instinct
through which they spontaneously sense when the Gospel is served in the Church
and when it is emptied of its content and stifled by other
interests.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 18, 2014 - It is by faith we understand that the whole world
was made by God's command so what we see was made by something that cannot be
seen. Hebrews 11:3
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 7 Sec IV pg 456
IV - The Effects of The Sacrament Of Matrimony
"From a valid marriage arises a bond between the spouses which
by its very nature is perpetual and exclusive; furthermore, in a Christian
marriage the spouses are strengthened and, as it were, consecrated for the
duties and the dignity of their state by a special sacrament."
The marriage bond
The content by which the spouses mutually give and receive one
another is sealed by God himself. From their covenant arises "an institution,
confirmed by the divine law,... even in the eyes of society." The covenant
between the spouses is integrated into God's covenant with man: "Authentic
married love is caught up in the divine love."
Thus marriage bond has been established by God himself in such a
way that a marriage concluded and consummated between baptized persons can never
be dissolved. This bond, which results from the free human act of the spouses
and their consummation of the marriage, is a reality, henceforth irrevocable,
and gives rise to a covenant guaranteed by God's fidelity. The Church does not
have the power to contravene this disposition of divine wisdom.
The grace of the sacrament of Matrimony
"By reason of their state in life and of their order, [Christian
spouses] have their own special gifts in the People of God." This grace proper
to the sacrament of matrimony is intended to perfect the couple's love and to
strengthen their indissoluble unity. By this grace they "help one another to
attain holiness in their married life and welcoming and educating their children."
Christ is the source of this grace. "Just as of old God
encountered his people with a covenant of love and fidelity, so our Savior, the
spouse of the Church, now counters Christian spouses through the sacrament of
matrimony." Christ dwells with them, gives them the strength to take up their
crosses and so follow him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one
another, to bear one another's burdens, to "be subject to one another out of
reverence for Christ," and to love one another with supernatural, tender, and
fruitful love. In the joys of their love and family life he gives them here on
earth a foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb:
How can I ever express the happiness of a marriage joined by the
Church, strengthened by an offering, sealed by blessing, announced by angels,
and ratified by the Father?... How wonderful the bond between two believers, now
one in hope, one in desire, one in discipline, one in the same service! They are
both children of one Father and servants of the same Master, undivided in Spirit
and flesh, truly two in one flesh. Where the flesh is one, one also is the spirit.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 7 Sec V pg 458
V – The Goods and Requirements Of Conjugal Love
"Conjugal love involves a totality, in which all the elements of
the person enter -- -- appeal of the body and instinct, power of feeling and
affectivity, aspiration of the spirit and of will. It aims at a deeply personal
unity, a unity that, beyond union in one flush, leads to forming one heart and
soul; it demands indissolubility and faithfulness and definitive mutual giving;
and it is open to fertility. In a word it is a question of the normal
characteristics of all natural conjugal love, but with a new significance which
not only purifies and strengthens them, but raises them to the extent of making
them the expression of specifically Christian values."
The unity and indissolubility of marriage
The love of the spouses requires, of its very nature, the unity
and indissolubility of the spouses community of persons, which embraces their
entire life: "so they are no longer two, but one flesh." They "are called to
grow continually in their communion through day-to-day fidelity to their
marriage promise of total mutual self-giving." This human communion is confirmed,
purified, and completed by communion in Jesus Christ, given through the
sacrament of matrimony. It is deepened by lives of the common faith and by the
Eucharist received together.
"The unity of marriage, distinctly recognized by our Lord, is
made clear in the equal personal dignity which must be accorded to man and wife
in mutual and unreserved affection." Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love which
is undivided and exclusive.
The fidelity of conjugal love
By its very nature conjugal love requires the inviolable
fidelity of the spouses. This is the consequence of the gift of themselves
which they make to each other. Love seeks to be definitive; it cannot be an
arrangement "until further notice." The "intimate union of marriage, as a
mutual giving of two persons, and the good of the children, demand total
fidelity from the spouses and require an unbreakable union between them."
The deepest reason is found in the fidelity of God to his
covenant, in that of Christ to his Church. Through the sacrament of Matrimony
the spouses are enabled to represent their fidelity and witness to it. Through
the sacrament, the indissolubility of marriage receives a new and deeper
meaning.
It can seem difficult, even impossible, to bind oneself for life
to another human being. This makes it all the more important to proclaim the
good news that God loves us with a definitive and irrevocable love, that married
couples share in this love, that it supports and sustains them, and that by
their own faithfulness they can be witnesses to God's faithful love. Spouses who
with God's grace give this witness, often in very difficult conditions, deserve
the gratitude and support of the ecclesial
community.
Yet there are some situations in which living together becomes
practically impossible for a variety of reasons. In such cases the church
permits the physical separation of the couple and their living apart. The
spouses do not cease to be husband and wife before God and so are not free to
contract a new union. In this difficult situation, the best solution would be,
if possible, reconciliation. The Christian community is called to help these
persons about the situation in a Christian manner and fidelity to their marriage
bond which remains indissoluble.
Today there are numerous Catholics in many countries who have
recourse to civil divorce and contract new civil unions. And fidelity to the
words of Jesus Christ -- -- "whoever divorces his wife and marries another,
commits adultery against her; if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery" -- -- the church maintains that a new union cannot be
recognized as valid, if the first marriage was. If the divorced are remarried
civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God's
law. Consequently, they cannot receive Eucharistic communion as long as this
situation persist. For the same
reason, they cannot exercise certain ecclesial responsibilities. Reconciliation
through the sacrament of Penance can be granted only to those who have repented
for having violated the sign of the covenant and of fidelity to Christ, and who
are committed to living in complete continence.
Toward Christians who live in this situation, and who often keep
the faith and desire to bring up their children in a Christian manner, priests
and the whole community must manifest an attentive solicitude, so that they do
not consider themselves separated from the Church, in whose life they can and
must participate s baptized persons:
They should be encouraged to listen to the Word of God, to
attend the Sacrifice of the Mass., to persevere in prayer, to contribute to
works of charity and to community efforts for justice, to bring up their
children in the Christian faith, to cultivate the spirit and practice of
penance and thus implore, day by day, God's
grace.
The openness to fertility
"By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love
is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them
that it finds its crowning glory." Children are the supreme gift of marriage and
contribute greatly to the good of the parents themselves. God himself said: "it
is not good that man should be alone," and "from the beginning [he] made them
male and female"; wishing to associate them in a special way in his own creative
work, God blessed the man and woman with the words: "be fruitful and multiply."
Hence, true married love and the whole structure of family life which results
from it, without diminishment of the other ends of the marriage, are directed to
disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and
Savior, who through them will increase and enrich his family from day to
day.
The fruitfulness of conjugal love extends to the fruits of the
moral, spiritual and supernatural life that parents hand on their children by
education. Parents are the principal first educators of their children. In this
sense the fundamental task of marriage and family is to be at the service of
life.
Spouses to whom God has not granted children can nevertheless
have a conjugal life full of meaning, in both human and Christian terms. Their
marriage can radiate a fruitfulness of charity, of hospitality, and of
sacrifice.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 7 Sec VI pg 461
VI - The Domestic Church
Christ chose to be born and grow up in the bosom of the holy
family of Joseph and Mary. The Church is nothing other than "the family of God."
From the beginning, the core of the Church was often constituted by those who
had become believers "together with all [their] household." When they were
converted, they desired that "their whole households" should also be saved.
These families who became believers were islands of Christian life in an
unbelieving world.
In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to
faith, believing families are of primary importance as centers of living,
radiant faith. For this reason the Second Vatican Council, using an ancient
expression, calls the family the Ecclesia domestica.
It is in the bosom of the family that parents are "by word and example...
the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children. They should
encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each child, fostering with
special care any religious vocation."
It is here that the father of the family, the mother, children,
and all members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a
privileged way "by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the
witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity." Thus the home is
the first school of Christian life and "a school for human enrichment." Here one
learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous -- -- even
repeated -- -- forgiveness, and above all divine worship and prayer and the
offering of one's life.
We must also remember the great number of single persons who,
because of the particular circumstances in which they have to live -- --often
not of their own choosing -- -- are especially close to Jesus’ heart and
therefore deserve the special affection and active solicitude of the Church,
especially of pastors. Many remain without a human family, often due to
conditions of poverty. Some live their situation in the spirit of the
Beatitudes, serving God and neighbor in exemplary fashion. The doors of homes,
the "domestic churches," and of the great family which is the Church must be
open to all of them. "No one is without a family in this world: the Church is a
home and family for everyone, especially those who ‘labor and are heavy laden.’ "
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May 11, 2014 - I leave you peace; my peace I give you. I do not
give it to you as the world does. So don't let your hearts be troubled or
afraid. John 14:27
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 7 Sec II pg 452
II – The Celebration of Marriage
In the Latin Rite the celebration of marriage between two
Catholic faithful normally takes place during Holy Mass, because of the
connection of all the sacraments with the Paschal mystery of Christ. In the
Eucharist the memorial of the new covenant is realized, the new covenant in
which Christ has united himself forever to the Church, his beloved bride for
whom he gave himself up. It is therefore fitting that the spouses should seal
their consent to give themselves to each other through the offering of their
own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church made present
in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and by receiving the Eucharist so that,
communicating in the same Body and the same Blood of Christ, they may form but
"one body" in Christ.
"Inasmuch as it is a sacramental action of sanctification, the
liturgical celebration of marriage... must be, per se, valid, worthy, and
fruitful." It is therefore appropriate for the bride and groom to prepare
themselves for the celebration of their marriage by receiving the sacrament of
penance.
According to the Latin tradition, the spouses as ministers of
Christ's grace usually confer upon each other at the sacrament of Matrimony by
expressing their consent before the Church. In the tradition of the Eastern
Churches, the priest (bishops or presbyters) are witnesses to the mutual consent
given by the spouses, but for the validity of the sacrament their blessing is
also necessary.
The various liturgies abound in prayers of blessing and
epiclesis asking God's grace and blessing on the new couple, especially the
bride. In the epiclesis of the sacrament the spouses receive the Holy Spirit as
the communion of love of Christ and the Church. The Holy Spirit is the seal of
their covenant, the ever available source of their love and the strength to
renew their fidelity.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 7 Sec IIIpg 453
III – Matrimonial Consent
The parties to a marriage covenant are a baptized man and woman,
free to contract marriage, who freely express their consent; "to be free"
means:
-- -- not being under constraint;
-- -- not impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law
The Church holds the exchange of consent between the spouses to
be the indispensable element that "makes the marriage." If consent is lacking
there is no marriage.
The consent consists in a "human act by which the partners
mutually give themselves to each other": "I take you to be my wife" -- -- "I
take you to be my husband." This consent that binds the spouses to each other
finds its fulfillment in the two "becoming one
flesh."
The consent must be an act of will of each of the contracting
partners, free of coercion or grave external fear. No human power can substitute
for this consent. If this freedom is lacking the marriage is
invalid.
For this reason (or for other reasons that render the marriage
null and void) the Church, after an examination of the situation by the
competent ecclesiastical tribunal, can declare the nullity of a marriage, i.e.,
that the marriage never existed. In this case the contracting parties are free
to marry, provided the natural obligations of the previous union are
discharged.
The priest (or deacon) who assists at the celebration of a
marriage receives the consent of the spouses in the name of the Church and give
the blessing of the Church. The presence of the Church's minister (and also of
the witnesses) visibly expresses the fact that marriage is an ecclesial
reality.
This is the reason why the Church normally requires that the
faithful contract marriage according to the ecclesiastical form. Several reasons
converge to explain this requirement:
-- -- Sacramental marriage is a liturgical act. It is therefore
appropriate that it should be celebrated in the public liturgy of the
Church;
-- -- Marriage introduces one into an ecclesial order, and
creates rights and duties in the Church between the spouses and towards their
children;
-- -- Since marriage is a state of life in the Church, certainty
about it is necessary (hence the obligation to have
witnesses);
-- -- The public character of the consent protects the "I do"
once given that helps the spouses remain faithful to it.
So that the "I do" of the spouses may be a free and responsible
act and so that the marriage covenant may have solid and lasting human and
Christian foundations, preparation for marriage is of prime
importance.
The example and teaching given by parents and families remain a
special form of this preparation.
The role of pastors and of the Christian community as the
"family of God" is indispensable for the transmission of the human and
Christian values of marriage and family, and much more so in our era when many
young people experience broken homes which no longer sufficiently assure this
initiation:
It is imperative to give suitable and timely instruction to
young people, above all in the heart of their own families, about the dignity of
married love, its role and its exercise, so that, having learned the value of
chastity, they will be able at a suitable age to engage in honorable courtship
and entering upon a marriage of their own.
Mixed marriages and disparity of cult
In many countries the situation of a mixed marriage (marriage
between a Catholic and a baptized non-Catholic) often arises. It requires
particular attention on the part of couples and their pastors. A case of
marriage with disparity of cult (between a Catholic and a non-baptized person)
requires even greater circumspection.
Difference of confession between the spouses does not constitute
an insurmountable obstacle for marriage, when they succeed in placing in common
what they have received from their respective communities, and learn from each
other the way in which each lives in fidelity to Christ. But the difficulties of
mixed marriages must not be underestimated. They arise from the fact that the
separation of Christians has not yet been overcome. The spouses risk
experiencing the tragedy of Christian disunity even in the heart of their own
home. Disparity of cult can further aggravate these difficulties. Differences
about faith and the very notion of marriage, but also different religious
mentalities, can become sources of tension in marriage, especially as regards
the education of children. The temptation to religious indifference can
arise.
According to law in force in the Latin Church, a mixed marriage
needs for liceity the express permission of ecclesiastical authority. In case of
disparity of cult an express dispensation from this impediment is required for
the validity of the marriage. This permission or dispensation presupposes that
both parties know and do not exclude the essential ends and properties of
marriage; and furthermore that the Catholic party confirms the obligations,
which have been made known to the non-Catholic party, of preserving his or her
own faith and ensuring the baptism and education of the children in the Catholic
Church.
Through ecumenical dialogue Christian communities in many
regions have been able to put into effect a common pastoral practice for mixed
marriages. Its task is to help such couples live out their particular situation
in the light of faith, overcome the tensions between the couples obligations to
each other and towards their ecclesial communities, and encouraged the
flowering of what is common to them in faith and respect for what separates
them.
In marriages with disparity of cult the Catholic spouse has a
particular task: "For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife,
and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband." It is a great joy
for the Christian spouse and for the Church if this "consecration" should lead
to the free conversion of the other spouse to the Christian faith. Sincere
married love, the humble and patient practice of the family virtues, and
perseverance in prayer can prepare the non=believing spouse to accept the grace
of conversion.
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May 4, 2014 - Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you
will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 7 Sec I pg 446
The Sacrament of Matrimony
I – Marriage In God’s Plan
Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and woman in
the image and likeness of God and concludes with a vision of "the wedding feast
of the Lamb." Scripture speaks throughout of marriage and its "mystery," its
institution and the meaning God has given it, its origin and its end, its
various realizations throughout the history of salvation, the difficulties
arising from sin and its renewal "in the Lord" in the New Covenant of Christ and
the Church.
Marriage in the order of creation
"The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the
married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its
own proper laws.... Got himself is the author of marriage." The vocation to
marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the
hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many
variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures,
social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause
us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of
this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, some sense
of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. "The
well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is
closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family
life."
God who created man out of love also calls him to love -- -- the
fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the
image and likeness of God who is himself love. Since God created him men and
women, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love
with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. And this
love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the
common work of watching over creation: ‘And God blessed them, and God said to
them: "be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.‘ "
Holy Scripture affirms that men and women were created for one
another:" It is not good that man should be alone." The woman, "flesh of his
flesh," as equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a
"helpmate"; she thus represents God from whom comes our help. "Therefore a man
leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one
flesh." The Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their
two lives by recalling what the plan of the Creator had been "in the beginning":
"So they are no longer two, but one flesh."
Marriage under the regime of sin
Every man experiences evil around him and within himself. This
experience makes itself felt in the relationships between man and woman. Their
union has always been threatened by discord, a spirit of domination, infidelity,
jealousy, and conflicts that can escalate into hatred and separation. This
disorder can manifest itself more or less acutely, and can be more or less
overcome according to the circumstances of cultures, eras, and individuals, but
it does seem to have a universal character.
According to faith the disorder we notice so painfully does not
stem from the nature of man and woman, nor from the nature of their relations,
but from sin. As a break with God, the first sin had for its first consequences
of rupture of the original communion between man and woman. Their relations were
distorted by mutual recriminations; their mutual attraction, the creators own
good, changed into a relationship of domination and lust; and the beautiful
vocation of man and woman to be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth was
burdened by the pain of childbirth and the toil of
work.
Nevertheless, the order of creation persists, though seriously
disturbed. To heal the wounds of sin, man and woman need the help of the grace
that God in his infinite mercy never refuses them. Without his help man and
woman cannot achieve the union of their lives for which God created them "in the
beginning."
Marriage under the pedagogy of the Law
In his mercy God has not forsaken sinful man. The punishments
consequent upon sin, "pain in childbearing" and toil "in the sweat of your
brow," also embody remedies that limit the damaging effects of sin. After the
fall, marriage helps to overcome self-absorption, egoism, pursuit of one's own
pleasure, and to open oneself to the other, to mutual aid and to
self-giving.
Moral conscience concerning the unity and indissolubility of
marriage developed under the pedagogy of the old law. In the Old Testament the
polygamy of patriarchs and kings is not yet explicitly rejected. Nevertheless,
the law given to Moses aims at protecting the wife from arbitrary domination by
the husband, even though according to the Lord's words it still carries traces
of man's "hardness of heart" which was the reason Moses permitted men to divorce
their wives.
Seeing God's covenant with Israel and the image of exclusive and
faithful married love, the prophets prepared the chosen people's conscience for
a deepened understanding of the unity and indissolubility of marriage. The books
of Ruth and Tobit bear moving witness to an elevated sense of marriage and to
the fidelity and tenderness of spouses. Tradition has always seen in the song of
Solomon a unique expression of human love, insofar as it is a reflection of
God's love -- -- a love "strong as death" that "many waters cannot
quench."
Marriage in the Lord
The nuptial covenant between God and his people Israel had
prepared the way for the new and everlasting covenant in which the Son of God,
by becoming incarnate and giving his life, has united to himself in a certain
way all mankind saved by him, thus preparing for "the wedding feast of the
Lamb."
On the threshold of his public life Jesus performed his first
sign -- -- at his mother's request -- -- during a wedding feast. The Church
attaches great importance to Jesus’ presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in
it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that
thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ's
presence.
In his preaching Jesus unequivocally taught the original meaning
of the union of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the beginning
"permission given by Moses to divorce one's wife was a concession to the
hardness of heart. The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble: God
himself has determined it:" what therefore God has joined together, let no man
put asunder."
This unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the
marriage bond may have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand
impossible to realize. However, Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden
impossible to bear, or too heavy -- -- heavier than the Law of Moses. By coming
to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives
the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of
God. It is by following Christ,
renouncing themselves, and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to
"receive" the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ.
This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ's cross, the source of all
Christian life.
This is what the apostle Paul made clear when he says:
"husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for
her, that he might sanctify her," adding at once: "for this reason a man shall
leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become
one. This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the
Church."
The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of
Christ and the Church. Already Baptism, the entry into the People of God, is a
nuptial mystery; it is so to speak the nuptial bath which precedes the wedding
feast, the Eucharist. Christian marriage in its turn becomes an efficacious
sign, the sacrament of the covenant of Christ and the Church. Since it signifies
and communicates grace, marriage between baptized persons is a true sacrament of
the New Covenant.
Virginity for the sake of the Kingdom
Christ is the center of all personal life. The bond with him
takes precedence over all other bonds, familial or social. From the very
beginning of the Church there have been men and women who have renounced the
great good of marriage to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, to be intent on the
things of the Lord, to seek to please him, and to go out to meet the bridegroom
who is coming. Christ himself has invited certain persons to follow him in this
way of life, of which he remains the model:
"For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there
are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have
made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to
receive this, let him receive it."
Virginity for the sake of the kingdom of heaven is an unfolding
of baptismal grace, a powerful sign of the supremacy of the bond with Christ and
of the ardent expectation of his return, a sign which also recalls that marriage
is a reality of this present age which is passing
away.
Both the sacrament of Matrimony and virginity for the Kingdom of
God come from the Lord himself. It is he who gives them meaning and grants them
the grace which is indispensable for living them out in conformity with his
will. Esteem of virginity for the sake of the kingdom and the Christian
understanding of marriage are inseparable, and they reinforce each
other:
Whoever denigrates marriage also diminishes the glory of
virginity. Whoever praises it
makes virginity more admirable and resplendent. What appears good only in
comparison with evil would not be truly good. The most excellent good is
something even better than what is admitted to be
good.
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April 27, 2014 - But when you ask, you must believe and not
doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by
the wind. James 1:6
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec VII pg 441
VII - The Effects Of The Sacrament Of Holy
Orders
The indelible character
The Sacrament configures the recipient to Christ by a special
grace of the Holy Spirit, so that he may serve as Christ's instrument for his
Church. By ordination one is enabled to act as a representative of Christ, Head
of the Church, in his triple office of priest, prophet, and
King.
As in the case of Baptism and Confirmation that they share in
Christ's office is granted once for all. The sacrament of Holy Orders, like the
other two, confers an indelible spiritual character and cannot be repeated or
conferred temporarily.
It is true that someone validly ordained can, for grave reasons,
be discharged from the obligations and functions linked to ordination, or can be
forbidden to exercise them; but he cannot become a layman again in the strict
sense, because the character imprinted by ordination is forever. The vocation
and mission received on the day of his ordination mark him
permanently.
Since it is ultimately Christ who acts and effects salvation
through the ordained minister, the unworthiness of the latter does not prevent
Christ from acting. St. Augustine states this
forcefully:
As for the proud minister, he is to be ranked with the devil.
Christ’s gift is not thereby profaned: what flows through him keeps its purity,
and what passes through him remains clear and reaches the fertile earth... The
spiritual power of the sacrament is indeed comparable to light: those to be
enlightened receive it in its purity, and if it should pass through defiled
beings, it is not itself defiled.
The grace of the Holy Spirit
The grace of the Holy Spirit proper to this sacrament is
configuration to Christ as Priest, Teacher, Pastor, of whom the ordained is
made a minister.
For the bishop, this is first of all a grace of strength ("the
governing spirit": prayer of Episcopal Consecration in the Latin rite): the
grace to guide and defend his Church with strength and prudence as a father and
pastor, with gratuitous love for all and a peferential love for the poor, the
sick, and the needy. This grace impells him to proclaim the Gospel to all, to be
the model for his flock, to go before it on the way of sanctification by
identifying himself in the Eucharist with Christ the priest and victim, not
fearing to give his life for his sheep:
Father, you know all hearts. You have chosen your servant for
the office of bishop. May he be a shepherd to your holy flock, and a high priest
blameless in your sight, ministering to you night and day; may he always gain
the blessing of your favor and offer the gifts of your holy Church. Through the
Spirit who gives the grace of high priesthood grant him the power to forgive
sins as you have commanded, to assign ministries as you have decreed, and to
loose from every bond by the authority which you gave your apostles. May he be
pleasing to you by his gentleness and purity of heart, presenting a fragrant
offering to you, through Jesus Christ, your
Son...
The spiritual gift conferred by the presbyteral ordination is
expressed by this prayer of the Byzantine Rite. The bishop, while laying on his hand,
says among other things: Lord, fill with the gift of the Holy Spirit him whom
you have deigned to raise the rank of the priesthood, that he may be worthy to
stand without reproach before your altar, to proclaim the Gospel of your
kingdom, to fulfill the ministry of your word of truth, to offer you spiritual
gifts and sacrifices, to renew your people by the bath of rebirth; so that he
may go out to meet our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, your only Son, on the
day of his second coming, and may receive from your vast goodness to recompense
for a fateful administration of his order.
With regard to deacons, "strengthened by sacramental grace they
are dedicated to the People of God, in conjunction with the bishop and his body
of priests, in the service (diakonia) of the liturgy, of the Gospel, and of
works of charity."
Before the grandeur of the priestly grace and office, the holy
doctors felt an urgent call to conversion in order to conform their whole lives
to him whose sacrament had made them ministers. Thus St. Gregory of Nazianzus,
as a very young priest, exclaimed:
We must begin by purifying ourselves before purifying others; we
must be instructed to be able to instruct, become light to illuminate, draw
close to God to bring them close to others, be sanctified as to sanctify, lead
by the hand and counsel prudently. I know whose ministers we are, where we find
ourselves and to where we arrived. I know God's greatness and man's weakness,
but also his potential. [Who then is the priest? He is] the defender of truth,
who stands with angels, gives glory with archangels, causes sacrifices to rise
to the altar on high, shares Christ's priesthood, refashions creation, restores
it in God's image, re-creates it for the world on high and, even greater, is
divinized and divnizes.
And the holy Cure’ of Ars: "The priest continues the work of
redemption on earth... If we really understood the priest on earth, we would die
not of fright but of love... the Priesthood is the love of the heart of
Jesus."
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HE IS RISEN – ALLELULIA
April 20, 2014 - Careless words stab like a sword, but wise
words bring healing. The Lord hates those who tell lies but is pleased with
those who keep their promises.
Proverbs 12:18-22
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec IV pg 438
IV - The Celebration Of This Sacrament
Given the importance that the ordination of a bishop, a priest,
or a deacon has for the life of the particular Church, its celebration calls for
as many of the faithful as possible to take part.
It should take place preferably on Sunday, in the cathedral, with
solemnity appropriate to the occasion. All three ordinations, of the Bishop, of
the priest, and of the deacon, follow the same movement. Their proper place is
within the Eucharistic liturgy.
The essential rite of the sacrament of Holy Orders for all three
degrees consists in the bishop's imposition of hands on the head of the ordinand
and in the bishop's specific consecratory prayer asking God for the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit and his gifts proper to the ministry to which the candidate
is being ordained.
As in all the sacraments additional rites surround the
celebration. Varying greatly among the different liturgical traditions, these
rites have in common the expression of the multiple aspects of the sacramental
grace. Thus in the Latin Church, the initial rites -- -- presentation and
election of the ordinand, instruction by the bishop, examination of the
candidate, litany of the saints -- -- attest that the choice of the candidate
is made in keeping with the practice of the Church and prepare for the solemn
act of consecration, after which several rites symbolically express and
complete the mystery accomplished: for bishop and priest, an anointing with
holy chrism, a sign of the special anointing of the Holy Spirit who makes their
ministry fruitful; giving the book of the Gospels, the ring, the miter, and a
crosier to the bishop as a sign of his apostolic mission to proclaim the Word
of God, of his fidelity to the Church, the bride of Christ, and his office as
shepherd of the Lord's flock; presentation to the priest of the paten and
chalice, "the offering of the holy people" which he is called to present to
God; giving the book of the Gospels to the deacon who has just received the
mission to proclaim the Gospel of Christ.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec V pg 439
V - Who Can Confer This Sacrament?
Christ himself chose the apostles and gave them a share in his
mission and authority. Raised to the Father's right hand, he has not forsaken
his flock but he keeps it under his constant protection through the apostles,
and guides it still through the same pastors who continue his work today. Thus,
it is Christ whose gift is that some be apostles, others pastors. He continues
to act for the bishops.
Since the sacrament of Holy Orders is the sacrament of the
apostolic ministry, it is for the bishops as the successors of the apostles to
hand on the "gift of the Spirit," the "apostolic line." Validly ordained
bishops, i.e., those who are in the line of apostolic succession, validly confer
the three degrees of the sacrament of Holy Orders.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec VI pg 439
VI - Who Can Receive This Sacrament?
"Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination."
The Lord Jesus chose men (viri) to form the college of the 12 apostles, and the
apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their
ministry. The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the
priesthood, makes the college of the 12 an ever present and ever active reality
until Christ's return. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice
made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not
possible.
No one has a right to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders.
Indeed no one claims this office for himself; he is called by God. Anyone who
thinks he recognizes the signs of God's call to the ordained ministry must
humbly submit a desire to the authority of the Church, who has the
responsibility and right to call someone to receive orders. Like every grace
this sacrament can be received only as an unmerited gift.
All the ordained ministers of the Latin Church, with the
exception of permanent deacons, are normally chosen from among men of faith who
live a celibate life and who intend to remain celibate "for the sake of the
kingdom of heaven." Called to consecrate themselves with undivided heart to the
Lord and to "the affairs of the Lord," they give themselves entirely to God and
to men. Celibacy is a sign of this new life to the service of which the Church's
minister is consecrated; accepted with a joyous heart celibacy radiantly
proclaims the Reign of God.
In the Eastern Churches a different discipline has been in force
for many centuries: while bishops are chosen solely from among celibates,
married men can be ordained as deacons and priests. This practice has long been
considered legitimate; these priests exercise a fruitful ministry within their
communities. Moreover, priestly celibacy is held in great honor and the Eastern
Churches and many priests have freely chosen it for the sake of the Kingdom of
God. In the East as in the West a man who has already received the sacrament of
Holy Orders can no longer marry.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 13, 2014 - And without faith it is impossible to please
God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he
rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec III p 433
III - The Three Degrees Of The Sacrament Of Holy Orders
"The divinely instituted ecclesiastical ministry is exercised in
different degrees by those who even from ancient times have been called bishops,
priests, and deacons." Catholic doctrine, expressed in the liturgy, the
Magisterium, and the constant practice of the Church, recognizes that there are
two degrees of ministerial participation in the priesthood of Christ: the
episcopacy and the presbyterate. The diaconate is intended to help and serve
them. For this reason the term sacerdos in current usage denotes bishops and
priests but not deacons. Yet Catholic doctrine teaches that the degrees of
priestly participation (a episcopate and presbyterate) and the degree of service
(diaconate) are all three conferred by a sacramental act called "ordination,"
that is, by the Sacrament of Holy Orders.
Let everyone revere the deacons as Jesus Christ, the bishop as
the image of the Father, and to presbyters as the senate of God and the assembly
of the apostles. For without them one cannot speak of the Church.
Episcopal ordination -- -- fullness of the Sacrament of Holy Orders
"Amongst those various offices which have been exercised in the
Church from the earliest times the chief place, according to the witness of
tradition, is held by the function of those who, through their appointment to
the dignity and responsibility of bishop, and in virtue consequently of the
unbroken succession going back to the beginning, are regarded as transmitters of
the apostolic line."
To fulfill their exalted mission, "the apostles were endowed by
Christ with a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit coming upon them, and by the
imposition of hands they passed on to their auxiliaries the give of the Spirit,
which is transmitted down to our day through episcopal consecration."
The second Vatican Council "teaches... that the fullness of the
Sacrament of Holy Orders is conferred by epicopal consecration, that fullness
namely which, both in the liturgical tradition of the Church and the language of
the Fathers of the Church, is called the high priesthood, the acme (summa) of
the sacred ministry."
"Episcopal consecration confers, together with the office of
sanctifying, also the offices of teaching and ruling... in fact... by the
imposition of hands and through the words of the consecration, the grace of the
Holy Spirit is given, and a sacred character is impressed in such wise that
bishops, in an eminent and visible manner take the place of Christ himself
teacher shepherd, and priest, and act as his representative (in Eius persona
agant)." "By virtue, therefore, of the Holy Spirit who has been given to them,
bishops have been constituted true and authentic teachers of the faith and have
been made pontiffs and pastors."
"One is constituted a member of the episcopal body in virtue of
the sacramental consecration and by the hierarchical communion with the head and
members of the college." The character and collegial nature of the episcopal
order are evidenced among other ways by the Church's ancient practice which
calls for several bishops to participate in the consecration of a new bishop. In
our day, the lawful ordination of bishop requires a special intervention of the
Bishop of Rome, because he is the supreme visible bond of the communion of the
particular Churches in the one Church and the guarantor of their freedom.
As Christ’s vicar, each bishop has the pastoral care of the
particular Church entrusted to him, but at the same time he bears collegially
with all his brothers in the episcopacy the solitude for all the Churches:
"Though each bishop is the lawful pastor only of the portion of the flock
entrusted to his care, as a legitimate successor of the apostles he is, by
divine institution and precert, responsible with the other bishops for the
apostolic mission of the Church."
The above considerations explain why the Eucharist celebrated by
the bishop has a quite special significance as an expression of the Church
gathered around the altar, with the one who represents Christ, the Good Shepherd
and Head of his Church, presiding.
The ordination of priests -- -- coworkers of the bishops
"Christ, whom the Father hallowed and sent into the world, has,
through his apostles, made their successors, the bishops namely, sharers in his
consecration and mission; and these, in their turn, duly entrusted in varying
degrees various members of the Church with the office of the ministry." "The
function of the bishops ministry was handed over in a subordinate degree to
priests so that they might be appointed in the order of priesthood and
co-workers of the episcopal order for the proper fulfillment of the apostolic
mission that had been entrusted to it by Christ."
"Because it is joined with the episcopal order the office of
priests and sharers in the authority by which Christ himself builds up and
sanctifies and rules his Body.
Hence the priesthood of priests, while presupposing sacraments of
initiation, is nevertheless conferred by its own particular sacrament. Through
that sacrament priests by the anointing of the Holy Spirit are signed with a
special character and so are configured to Christ the priest in such a way that
they are able to act in the person of Christ the
head."
"Whilst not having the supreme degree of the pontifical office,
and notwithstanding the fact that they depend on the bishops in the exercise of
their own proper power, the priests for for all that associated with them by
reason of their sacerdotal dignity; and in virtue of the Sacrament of Holy
Orders, after the image of Christ, the supreme eternal priest, they are
concentrated in order to preach the Gospel and shepherd the faithful as well as
to celebrate divine worship as true priests of the New
Testament."
Through the Sacrament of Holy Orders priests share in the
universal dimensions of the mission that Christ entrusted to the apostles. The
spiritual gift they have received in ordination prepares them, not for a
limited and restricted mission, "but for the fullest, in fact the universal
mission of salvation "to the end of the earth,’ " "prepared in spirit to preach
the Gospel everywhere."
"It is in the Eucharistic cult or in the Eucharistic assembly of
the faithful (synaxis) that they exercise in a supreme degree their sacred
office; there, acting in the person of Christ and proclaiming his mystery, they
unite the votive offerings of the faithful to the sacrifice of Christ their
head, and in the sacrifice of the Mass they may make present again and apply,
until the coming of the Lord, the unique sacrifice of the New Testament, that
namely of Christ offering himself once for all a spotless victim to the
Father." From this unique sacrifice their whole priestly ministry draws its
strength.
"The priests, prudent cooperators of the episcopal college and
its support and instrument, called to the service of the People of God,
constitute, together with their bishop, a unique sacerdotal college
(presbyterium) dedicated, it is true, to a variety of distinct duties. In each
local assembly of the faithful they represent, in a certain sense, the bishop,
with whom they are associated in all trust and generosity; in part they take
upon themselves his duties and solicitude and in their daily toils discharge
them." Priests can exercise their ministry only in dependence on the bishop and
in communion with him. The promise of obedience they make to the bishop at the
moment of ordination and the kiss of peace from him at the end of the ordination
liturgy mean that the bishop considers them his coworkers, his sons, his
brothers and his friends, and that they in return owe him love and obedience.
"All priests, who are constituted in the order of priesthood by
the Sacrament of Order, are bound together by an intimate sacramental
brotherhood, but in a special way they form one priestly body in the diocese to
which they are attached under their own bishop..." The unity of the presbyterium
finds liturgical expression in the costume of the presbyters imposing hands,
after the mission, during the rite of ordination.
The ordination of the deacons -- -- "in order to serve"
“At a lower level of the hierarchy are to be found deacons, who
receive the imposition of hands ‘not unto the priesthood, but into the
ministry.’ " At an ordination to the diaconate only the bishop lays hands on the candidate,
thus signifying the deacons’ special attachment to the bishop and the tasks of his
"diakonia._
Deacons share in Christ's mission and grace in a special way.
The Sacrament of Holy Orders marks them with an imprint ("character") which
cannot be removed and which configures them to Christ, who made himself the
"deacon" or servant of all. Among other tasks, it is the task of deacons to
assist the bishops and priests in the celebration of the divine mysteries, above
all the Eucharist, in the distribution of Holy Communion, in assisting at and
blessing marriages, in the proclamation of the Gospel and preaching, in
presiding over funerals, and in dedicating themselves to the various ministries
of charity.
Since the second Vatican Council the Latin Church has restored
the diaconate "as a proper and permanent rank of the hierarchy,”while the
Churches of the East had always maintained it. This permanent diaconate, which
can be conferred on married men, constitutes an important enrichment for the
Church's mission. Indeed it is appropriate and useful that men who carry out a
truly diaconal ministry in the Church, whether in its liturgical and pastoral
life or whether in its social and charitable works, should "be strengthened by
the imposition of hands which has come down from the apostles. They would be
more closely bound to the altar and their ministry would be made more fruitful
for the sacramental grace of the diaconate."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 06, 2014 - Being respected is more important than having
great riches. To be well thought of is better than silver or gold. Proverbs 22:1
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec I p 427
I - Why Is This Sacrament Called "Orders"?
The word order and Roman antiquity designated an established
civil body, especially a governing body. Ordinatio means incorporation into an
ordo. In the Church there are established bodies which Tradition, not without a
basis in Sacred Scripture, has since ancient times called taxeis (Greek) or
ordines. And so the liturgy speaks of the ordo episcoporum , the ordo
presbyterorum, the ordo diaconorum.
Other groups also receive this name of ordo: catechumens, virgins,
spouses, widows ….
Integration into one of these bodies in the Church was
accomplished by a rite called ordinatio, a religious and liturgical act which
was a consecration, a blessing or a Sacrament. Today the word "ordination" is
reserved for the sacramental act which integrates a man into the order of
bishops, presbyters, or deacons, and goes beyond a simple election, designation,
delegation, or institution by the community, for it confers a gift of the Holy
Spirit that permits the exercise of a “sacred power”(sacra potestas) which can
come only from Christ himself through his Church. Ordination is also called
consecratio, for it is a setting apart and an investiture by Christ himself for
his Church.
The Laying on of hands by the bishop, with the consecratory
prayer, constitutes the visible sign of this
ordination.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 3 Article 6 Sec II p 428
II - The Sacrament Of Holy Orders In The Economy Of Salvation
The priesthood of the Old Covenant
The chosen people was constituted by God as "a kingdom of
priests and a holy nation." But within the people of Israel, God chose one of
the 12 tribes, that of Levi, and set it apart for liturgical service; God
himself is its inheritance. A special rite concentrated the beginnings of the
priesthood of the Old Covenant. The priests are "appointed to act on behalf of
men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins."
Instituted to proclaim the Word of God and to restore communion
with God by sacrifices and prayer, this priesthood nevertheless remains
powerless to bring about salvation, needing to repeat its sacrifices ceaselessly
and being unable to achieve a definitive sanctification, which only the
sacrifice of Christ would accomplish.
The liturgy of the Church, however, sees in the priesthood of
Aaron and the service of the Levites, as in the institution of the 70 elders, a
prefiguring of the ordained ministry of the New Covenant. Thus in the Latin Rite
the Church prays in the concecratory preface of the ordination of
bishops:
God the father of our Lord Jesus Christ,...
by your gracious word
you have established the plan of your Church.
From the beginning, you chose the descendants of Abraham
to be your holy nation.
You established rulers and priests,
and did not leave your sanctuary without ministers to serve you...
At the ordination of priests, the Church prays:
Lord, holy Father,...
when you had appointed high priests to rule your people,
you chose other men next to them in rank and dignity
to be with them and to help them in their task...
you extended the spirit of Moses to 70 wise man...
You shared among the sons of Aaron the fullness of their father’s power.
In the consecratory prayer for ordination of deacons, the Church
confesses:
Almighty God...,
You make the Church, Christ’s body,
grow to its full stature as a new and greater temple.
You enrich it with every kind of grace
and perfect it with a diversity of members
to serve the whole body and a wonderful pattern of unity
You established a threefold ministry of worship and service,
for the glory of your name.
As ministers of your tabernacle you chose the sons of
Levi and gave them your blessing as their everlasting inheritance.
The one priesthood of Christ
Everything that the priesthood of the Old Covenant prefigured
finds its fulfillment in Christ Jesus, the "one mediator between God and men."
The Christian tradition considers Melchizedek, "priest of God Most High," as a
prefiguration of the priesthood of Christ, the unique "high priest after the
order of Melchizedek”; "holy,
blameless, unstained," "by a single offering he has perfected for all time those
who are sanctified," that is, by the unique sacrifice of the cross.
The redemptive sacrifice of Christ is unique, accomplished once
for all; yet it is made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Church. The
same is true of the one priesthood of Christ; it is made present through the
ministerial priesthood without diminishing the uniqueness of Christ's
priesthood: "Only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his
ministers."
Two participations in the one priesthood of Christ
Christ, high priest and unique mediator, has made of the Church
"a kingdom, priests for his God and Father." The whole community of believers
is, as such, priestley. The faithful exercise their baptismal priesthood through
their participation, each according to his own vocation, in Christ's mission as
priest, prophet, and king. Through the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation
the faithful are "consecrated to be... a holy priesthood."
The ministerial or hierarchical priesthood of bishops and
priests, and the common priesthood of all the faithful participate, "each in
its own proper way, in the one priesthood of Christ." While being "ordered one
to another," they differ essentially. In what sense? While the common priesthood
of the faithful is exercised by the unfolding of baptismal grace -- -- a life of
faith, hope, and charity, and life according to the Spirit -- --, the
ministerial priesthood is at the service of the common priesthood. It is
directed at the unfolding of the baptismal grace of all Christians. The
ministerial priesthood is a means by which Christ unceasingly builds up and
leads his Church. For this reason it is transmitted by its own sacrament, the
Sacrament of Holy Orders.
In the person of Christ the Head...
In the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ
himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his flock,
high priest of the redemptive sacrifice, Teacher of Truth.
This is what the Church means by saying that the priest, by virtue of the
sacrament of Holy Orders, acts in persona Christi Capitis:
It is the same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred
person his minister truly represents. Now the minister, by
reason of the sacerdotal consecration which he has
received, is truly made like to the high priest and possesses the
authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ himself
(virtute ac persona ipsius Christi).
Christ is the source of all priesthood: the priest of the old
law was a figure of Christ, and the priest of the new law acts in the person of
Christ.
Through the ordained ministry, especially that of bishops and
priests, the presence of Christ as head of the Church is made visible in the
midst of the community of believers. In the beautiful expression of St. Ignatius
of Antioch, the bishop is typos tou Patros: he is like the living image of God
the Father.
This presence of Christ in the minister is not to be understood
as if the latter were preserved from all human weaknesses, the spirit of
domination, error, even sin. The power of the Holy Spirit does not guarantee all
acts of ministers in the same way. While this guarantee extends to the
sacraments, so that even the ministers send cannot impede the fruit of grace, in
many other acts the minister leaves human traces that are not always signs of
fidelity to the Gospel and consequently can harm the apostolic fruitfulness of
the Church.
This priesthood is ministerial. "That office... which the Lord
committed to the pastors of his people, is in the strict sense of the term a
service." It is entirely related to Christ and to men. It depends entirely on
Christ and on his unique priesthood; it has been instituted for the good of men
and the communion of the Church. The Sacrament of holy orders communicates a
"sacred power" which is none other than that of Christ. The exercise of this
authority must therefore be measured against the model of Christ, whom by love
made himself the least and the servant of all. The Lord said clearly that
concern for his flock was proof of love for him."
... "In the name of the whole Church"
The ministerial priesthood has the task not only of representing
Christ -- -- Head of the Church -- -- before the assembly of the faithful, but
also of acting in the name of the whole Church when presenting to God the prayer
of the Church, and above all when offering the Eucharistic
sacrifice.
"In the name of the whole Church" does not mean that priest are
the delegates of the community. The prayer and offering of the Church are
inseparable from the prayer and offering of Christ, her head; it is always the
case that Christ worships in and through his Church. The whole Church, the body
of Christ, prays and offers herself "through him, with him, in him," in the
unity of the Holy Spirit, to God the Father. The whole body, caput et membra,
prays and offers itself, and therefore those who in the Body are especially his
ministers are called ministers not only of Christ, but also of the Church. It is
because the ministerial priesthood represents Christ that it can represent the
Church.
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March 30, 2014 - Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial,
because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that
the Lord has promised to those who love him. James 1:12
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 5 Sec II P 421
II – Who Receives and Who Administers This Sacrament?
In case of grave illness...
The Anointing of the Sick "is not a sacrament for those only who
are at the point of death. Hence, as soon as any one of the faithful begins to
be in danger of death from sickness or old age, the fitting time for him to
receive this sacrament has certainly already arrived."
If a sick person who received this anointing recovers his
health, he can in the case of another grave illness receive the sacrament
again. If during the same illness the person's condition becomes more serious,
the sacrament may be repeated. It is fitting to receive the Anointing of the
ick just prior to a serious operation. The same holds for the elderly whose
frailty becomes more pronounced.
"... Let him call for the presbyters of theChurch"
Only priests (bishops and presbyters) are ministers of the
Anointing of the Sick. It is the duty of pastors to instruct the faithful on the
benefits of this sacrament. The faithful should encourage the sick to call for a
priest to receive the sacrament. The sick should prepare themselves to receive
it with good dispositions, assisted by their pastor and the whole ecclesial
community, which is invited to surround the sick in a special way through their
prayers and fraternal attention.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 5 Sec III P 421
III - How Is This Sacrament Celebrated?
Like all the sacraments the Anointing of the Sick is a
liturgical and communal celebration, whether it takes place in the family home,
hospital or church, for a single sick person or a whole group of sick persons.
It is very fitting to celebrate it within the Eucharist, the memorial of the
Lord’s Passover. If circumstances suggest it, the celebration of the sacrament
can be preceded by the sacrament of Penance and followed by the sacrament of the
Eucharist. As the sacrament of Christ's Passover the Eucharist should always be
the last sacrament of the earthly journey, the "viaticum" for "passing over" to
eternal life.
Word and Sacrament form an indivisible whole. The Liturgy of the
Word, preceded by an act of repentance, opens the celebration. The words of
Christ, the witness of the apostles, awaken the faith of the sick person and of
the community to ask the Lord for the strength of his
Spirit.
The celebration of the sacrament includes the following
principal elements: the "priests of the Church" -- -- in silence -- -- lay hands
on the sick; they pray over them in the faith of the Church -- -- this is the
epiclesis proper to this sacrament; they then anoint them with the oil blessed,
if possible, by the bishop.
These liturgical actions indicate what grace this sacrament
confers upon the sick.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 5 Sec IV P 421
IV - The Effects Of The Celebration Of his Sacrament
A particular gift of the Holy Spirit. The first grace of this
sacrament is one of strengthening, peace and courage to overcome the
difficulties that go with the condition of serious illness or the frailty of
old age. This grace is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews trust and faith in
God and strengthens against the temptations of the evil one, the temptation to
discouragement and anguish in the face of death. This assistance from the Lord
by the power of his Spirit is meant to lead the sick person to healing of the
soul, but also of the body if such is God's will. Furthermore, "if he has
committed sins, he will be forgiven."
Union with the passion of Christ. By the grace of the sacrament
the sick person receives the strength and the gift of uniting himself more
closely to Christ's Passion: in a certain way he is consecrated to bear fruit by
configuration to the Savior’s redemptive Passion. Suffering, a consequence of
original sin, acquires a new meaning; it becomes a participation in the saving
work of Jesus.
An ecclesial grace. The sick who receive this Sacrament, "by
freely uniting themselves to the passion and death of Christ," "contribute to
the good of the People of God." By celebrating this sacrament the Church, in the
communion of saints, intercedes for the benefit of the sick person, and he, for
his part, through the grace of this sacrament, contributes to the sanctification
of the Church and to the good of all men for whom the Church suffers and offers
herself through Christ to God the Father.
A preparation for the final journey. If the sacrament of
Anointing of the Sick is given to all who suffer from serious illness and
infirmity, even more rightly is it given to those at the point of departing
this life; so it is also called sacramentum exeuntium (the sacrament of those
departing). The Anointing of the Sick completes our conformity to the death and
Resurrection of Christ, just as Baptism began it.: It completes the holy
anointings that mark the whole Christian life: that of Baptism which sealed the
new life in us, and that of Confirmation which strengthened us for the combat
of this life. This last anointing fortifies the end of our earthly life like a
solid rampart for the final struggles before entering the Father's house.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 5 Sec V P 421
V – Viaticum, The Last Sacrament Of The Christian
In addition to the Anointing of the Sick, the Church offers
those who are about to leave this life the Eucharist as viaticum.
Communion in the body and blood of Christ, received at this moment of
"passing over" to the Father, has a particular significance and importance. It
is the seed of eternal life and the power of resurrection, according to the
words of the Lord: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life,
and I will raise him up at the last day." The sacrament of Christ once dead and
now risen, the Eucharist is here the sacrament of passing over from death to
life, from this world to the Father.
Thus, just as the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the
Eucharist form a unity called "the sacraments of Christian initiation," so too
it can be said that Penance, the Anointing of the Sick and the Eucharist as
viaticum constitute at the end of Christian life "the sacraments that prepare
for our heavenly homeland" or the sacraments that complete the earthly
pilgrimage.
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March 23, 2014 - And now abide faith, hope, love, these three;
but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 5 Sec I pg 417
"By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the
priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and
glorified Lord, that he may raise them up and save them. And indeed she exhorts
them to contribute to the good of the People of God by freely uniting
themselves to the Passion and death of Christ."
I - Its Foundations in the Economy of Salvation
Illness in human life
Illness and suffering have always been among the gravest
problems confronted in human life. In illness, man experiences his
powerlessness, his limitations, and his finitude. Every illness can make us
glimpse death.
Illness can lead to anguish, self-absorption, sometimes even
despair and revolt against God. It can also make a person more mature, helping
him discern in his life what is not essential so that he can turn toward that
which is. Very often illness provokes a search for God and a return to him.
The sick person before God
The man of the Old Testament lives his sickness in the presence
of God. It is before God that he laments his illness, and it is of God, Master
of life and death, that he implores healing. Illness becomes a way to
conversion; God's forgiveness initiates the healing. It is the experience of
Israel that illness is mysteriously linked to sin and evil, and that
faithfulness to God according to his law restores life: "For I am the Lord,
your healer." The prophet intuits that suffering can also have a redemptive
meaning for the sins of others. Finally Isaiah announces that God will usher in
a time for Zion when he will pardon every offense and heal every illness.
Christ the physician
Christ's compassion toward the sick and his many healings of
every kind of infirmity are a resplendent sign that "God has visited his people"
and that the Kingdom of God is close at hand. Jesus has the power not only to
heal, but also to forgive sins; he has come to heal the whole man, soul and
body; he is the physician the sick have need of. His compassion toward all who
suffer goes so far that he identifies himself with them: "I was sick and you
visited me." His preferential love for the sick has not ceased through the
centuries to draw the very special attention of Christians toward all those who
suffer in body and soul. It is the source of tireless efforts to comfort them.
Often Jesus asked the sick to believe. He makes use of signs to
heal: spittle and the laying on of hands, mud and washing. The sick try to touch
him, "for power came forth from him and healed them all." And so in the
sacraments Christ continues to "touch" us in order to heal us.
Moved by so much suffering Christ not only allows himself to be
touched by the sick, but he makes their miseries his own: "He took our
infirmities and bore our diseases." But he did not heal all of the sick. His
healings were signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God. They announced a more
radical healing: the victory over sin and death through his Passover. On the
cross Christ took upon himself the whole weight of evil and took away the "sin
of the world," of which illness is only a consequence. By his passion and death
on the cross Christ has given a new meaning to suffering: it can henceforth
configure us to him and unite us with his redemptive Passion.
"Heal the sick..."
Christ invites his disciples to follow him by taking up their
cross in their turn. By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and
the sick. Jesus associates them with his own life of poverty and service. He
makes them share in his ministry of compassion and healing: "So they went out
and preached that men should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed
with oil many that were sick and healed them."
The risen Lord renews his mission ("in my name... they lay their
hands on the sick, and they will recover.") And confirms it through the signs
that the Church performs by invoking his name. These signs demonstrate in a
special way that Jesus is truly "God who
saves."
The Holy Spirit gives to some a special charism of healing /to
make manifest the power of the grace of the risen Lord. But even the most
intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses. Thus St. Paul
must learn from the Lord that "my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is
made perfect in weakness," and
that the sufferings to be in the word can mean that "in my flesh I complete what
is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his Body, that is, the Church."
" Heal the sick!" The Church has received this charge from the
Lord and strives to carry it out by taking care of the sick as well as by
accompanying them with her prayer of intercession. She believes in the
life-giving presence of Christ, the physician of souls and bodies. This presence
is particularly active through the sacraments, and in an altogether special way
through the Eucharist, the bread that gives eternal life and that St. Paul
suggests is connected with bodily health.
However, the apostolic church has its own rite for the sick,
attested to by St. James: "is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders
[presbyters| of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil on
the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the
Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven."
Tradition has recognized in this rite one of the seven
sacraments.
A sacrament of the sick
The Church believes and confesses that among the seven
sacraments there is one especially intended to strengthen those who are being
tried by illness, the Anointing of the Sick:
This sacred anointing of the sick was instituted by Christ our
Lord as a true and proper sacrament of the New Testament. It is alluded to
indeed by Mark, but is recommended to the faithful and promulgated by James the
apostle and brother of the Lord.
From ancient times in the liturgical traditions of both East and
West, we have testimonies to the practice of anointing of the sick with blessed
oil. Over the centuries the Anointing of the Sick was conferred more and more
exclusively on those at the point of death. Because of this it received the name
"Extreme Unction." Notwithstanding
this evolution the liturgy has never failed to beg the Lord that the sick person
may recover his health if it would be conducive to
salvation.
The Apostolic Constitution Sacram unctionem infirmorum,
following upon the Second Vatican Council, established that henceforth, in the
Roman Rite, the following be observed:
The sacrament of Anointing of the Sick is given to those who are
seriously ill by anointing them on the forehead and hands with duly blessed oil
-- -- pressed from olives or from other plants -- -- saying, only once: "Through
this holy anointing may the Lord in his love and mercy help you with the grace
of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord who frees you from sin save you and raise you
up."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 16, 2014 - Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry: for anger rests in the bosom of fools. Ecclesiastes 7:9
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec IX pg 409
IX – The Effects of This Sacrament
"The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in
restoring us to God's grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship."
Reconciliation with God is thus the purpose and effect of this sacrament. For
those who receive the sacrament of Penance with contrite heart and religious
disposition, reconciliation "is usually followed by peace and serenity of
conscience with strong spiritual consolation." Indeed the sacrament of
Reconciliation with God brings about a true "spiritual resurrection,"
restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, of
which the most precious his friendship with God.
This sacrament reconciles us what the Church. Sin damages or
even breaks fraternal communion. The sacrament of Penance repairs or restores
it. In this sense it does not simply heal the one restored to ecclesial communion, but has also a
revitalizing effect on the life of the Church which suffered from the sin of
one or her members. Re-established or strengthened in the communion of saints,
the sinner is made stronger by the exchange of spiritual goods among all the
living members of the Body of Christ, whether still on pilgrimage or already in
the heavenly homeland:
It must be recalled that... this reconciliation with God leads,
as it were, to other reconciliations, which repair the other breaches caused by
sin. The forgiven penitent is reconciled with himself in his inmost being, where
he regains his innermost truth. He is reconciled with his brethren whom he hasin
some way offended and wounded. He is reconciled with the Church. He is
reconciled with all creation.
In this sacrament, the sinner, placing himself before the
merciful judgment of God, anticipates in a certain way the judgment to which he
will be subjected at the end of his earthly life. For it is now, in this life,
that we are offered the choice between life and death, and it is only by the
road of conversion that we can enter the Kingdom, from which one is excluded by
grave sin. In converting to Christ through penance and faith, the sinner passes
from death to life and "does not come into judgment."
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec X pg 411
X - Indulgences
The doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are
closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of
Penance.
What is an indulgence?
"An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal
punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful
Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through
the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and
applies with authority the treasury of the satisfaction of Christ and the
saints."
“An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes
either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin." The faithful can gain
indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead.
The punishments of sin
To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is
necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us
of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the
privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin. On the other hand
every sin, even venial, entails aa uhealthy attachment to creatures, which must
be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory.
This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of
sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance
inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A
conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete
purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.
The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God
entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment
of sin remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and,
when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept
this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy
and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put
off completely the "old man" and to put on the "new man."
In the Communion of Saints
The Christian who seeks to purify himself of his sin and to
become holy with the help of God's grace is not alone. "The life of each of
God's children is joined in Christ and through Christ in a wonderful way to the
life of all the other Christian brethren and in the supernatural unity of the
Mystical Body of Christ, as in a single mystical person."
In the communion of saints, "a perennial link of charity exists
between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are
expiating their sins in Purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth.
Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things." In this
wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm
that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints
lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the
punishments for sin.
We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints
the Church’s treasury, which is "not the sum total of the material goods which
have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the
"treasury of the Church" is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted,
which Christ's merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of
mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In
Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption
exist and find their efficacy.
"This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of
the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine
in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works
of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the
Lord and by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission the
Father entrusted to them. In this way they attained their own salvation and at
the same time cooperated in saving their brothers and the unity of the Mystical
Body."
Obtaining indulgence from God through the Church
An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of
the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in
favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of
Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the
temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply to
come to the aid of these Christians but also to spur them to works of devotion,
penance, and charity.
Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members
of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain
indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may
be remitted.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec XI pg 413
XI - The Celebration of the Sacrament of Penance
Like all the sacraments, Penance is a liturgical action. The
elements of the celebration are ordinarily these: a greeting and blessing from
the priest, reading the word of God to illuminate the conscience and elicit
contrition, and an exhortation to repentance; the confession, which acknowledges
sins and makes them known to the priest; the imposition and acceptance of the
penance; the priest’s absolution; a prayer of thanksgiving and praise and
dismissal with the blessing of the priest.
The Byzantine Liturgy recognizes several formulas of absolution,
in the form of invocation, which admirably express the mystery of forgiveness:
"May the same God, who through the Prophet Nathan forgave David when he
confessed his sins, who forgave Peter when he wept bitterly, the prostitute when
she washed his feet with her tears, the publican, and the prodigal son, through
me, a sinner, forgive you both in this life and in the next and enable you to
appear before his awe inspiring tribunal without condemnation, he who is blessed
forever. Amen."
The Sacrament of Penance can also take place in the framework of
a communal celebration in which we prepare ourselves together for confession and
give thanks together for the forgiveness received. Here, the personal confession
of sins and individual absolution are inserted into a liturgy of the Word of God
with readings and a homily, an examination of conscience conducted in common, a
communal request for forgiveness, the Our Father and a thanksgiving in common.
This communal celebration expresses more clearly the ecclesial character of
penance. However regardless of its manner of celebration the sacrament of
Penance is always by its very nature, a liturgical action, and therefore an
ecclesial and public action.
In case of grave necessity recourse may be had to a communal
celebration of reconciliation with the general confession and general
absolution. Grave necessity of this sort can arise when there is imminent
danger of death without sufficient time for the priest or priests to hear each
penitent’s confession. Grave necessity can also exist when given the number of
penitents there are not enough confessors to hear individual confessions
properly in a reasonable time so that the penitents through no fault of their
own would be deprived of sacramental grace or Holy Communion for a long
time. In this case, or for the
absolution to be valid the faithful must have the intention of individually
confessing their grave sins in the time required. The diocesan bishop is the
judge of whether or not the conditions required for general absolution exist. A
large gathering of the faithful on the occasion of major feast or pilgrimages
does not constitute a case of grave
necessity.
"Individual, integral confession and absolution remain the only
ordinary way for the faithful to reconcile themselves with God and the Church,
unless physical or moral impossibility excuses from this kind of confession."
There are profound reasons for this. Christ is at work in each of the
sacraments. He personally addresses every sinner: "My son, your sins are
forgiven." He is the physician tending each one of the sick who need him to cure
them. He raises them up and re-integrates them into fraternal communion.
Personal confession is thus the form most expressive of reconciliation with God
and and with the Church.
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March 9, 2014 - But if any of you needs wisdom, you should ask
God for it. He is generous to everyone and will give you wisdom without
criticizing you. James 1:5
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec VII pg 404
VII – The Acts of the Penitent
"Penance requires... the sinner to endure all things willingly,
be contrite of heart, confess with the lips, and practice complete humility and
fruitful satisfaction."
Contrition
Among the penitent's acts contrition occupies first place. Contrition is "sorrow of the soul and
detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin
again."
When it arises from a love by which God is loved above all else,
contrition is called "perfect" (contrition of charity). Such contrition remits
venial sins; it also obtains forgiveness of mortal sins if it includes the firm
resolution to have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as
possible.
The contrition called "imperfect" (or "attrition") is also a
gift of God, a prompting of the Holy Spirit. It is born of the consideration of
sin’s ugliness or the fear of eternal damnation and the other penalties
threatening the sinner (contrition of fear). Such a stirring of conscience can
initiate an interior process which, under the prompting of grace, will be
brought to completion by sacramental absolution. By itself however, imperfect
contrition cannot obtain the forgiveness of grave sins, but it disposes one to
obtain forgiveness and the Sacrament of Penance.
The reception of this sacrament ought to be prepared for by an
examination of conscience made in the light of the Word of God. The passages
best suited to this can be found in the 10 Commandments, the moral catechesis of
the Gospels and the apostolic Letters, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the
apostolic teachings.
The confession of sins
The confession (or disclosure) of sins, even from a simply human
point of view, frees us and facilitates our reconciliation with others. Through
such an admission man looks squarely at the sins he is guilty of, takes
responsibility for them, and thereby opens himself again to God and to the
communion of the Church in order to make a new future possible.
Confession to a priest is an essential part of the Sacrament of
Penance: "All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination
are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most
secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue;
for these sins sometimes wound the soul more greviously and are more dangerous
than those which are committed openly."
When Christ’s faithful strive to confess all the sins that they
can remember, they undoubtedly place all of them before the divine mercy for
pardon. But those who fail to do so knowingly withhold some, place nothing
before the divine goodness for remission through the mediation of the priest,
"for if the sick person is too ashamed to show his wound to the doctor, the
medicine cannot heal what it does not know."
According to the Church's command, "after having attained the
age of discretion, each of the faithful is bound by an obligation faithfully to
confess serious sins at least once a year." Anyone who is aware of having
committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion, even if he experiences
deep contrition, without having first received sacramental absolution, unless he
has a great reason for receiving Communion and there is no possibility of going
to confession. Children must go to the Sacrament of Penance before receiving
Holy Communion for the first time.
Without being strictly necessary, confession of everyday faults
(venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church. Indeed the
regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience, fight
against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the
life of the Spirit. By receiving more frequently through this sacrament the
gift of the Father's mercy, we are spurred to be merciful as he is
merciful:
Whoever confesses his sins... is already working with God. God
indicts your sins; if you also indict them, you are joined with God. Man and
sinner are, so to speak, two realities: when you hear "man"-- -- this is what
God has made; when you hear "sinner" -- -- this is what man himself has made.
Destroy what you have made, so that God may save what he has made... When you
begin to abhor what you have made, it is then that your good works are
beginning, since you are accusing yourself of your evil works. The beginning of
good works is the confession of evil works. You do the truth and come to the
light.
Satisfaction
Many sins wrong our neighbor. One must do what is possible in
order to repair the harm (E.G., return stolen goods, restore the reputation of
someone slandered, pay compensation for injuries). Simple justice requires as
much. But since also injures and weakens the sinner himself, as well as his
relationships with God and neighbor. Absolution takes away sin, but it does not
remedy all the disorders sin has caused. Raised up from sin, the sinner must
still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends
for the sin: he must "make satisfaction for" or "expiate" his sins. This
satisfaction is also called "penance".
The penance the confessor imposes must take into account the
penitence personal situation and must seek his spiritual good. It must
correspond as for as possible with the gravity and nature of the sins
committed. It can consist of prayer, an offering, works of mercy, service of
neighbor, voluntary self-denial, sacrifices, and above all the patient
acceptance of the cross we must bear. Such penances help configure us to
Christ, who alone expiated our sins once for all. They allow us to become
co-heirs with the risen Christ, "provided we suffer with
him."
The satisfaction that we make for our sins, however, is not so
much ours as though it were not done through Jesus Christ. We who can do nothing
ourselves, as if just by ourselves, can do all things with the cooperation of
"him we make satisfaction who strengthens" us. Thus man has nothing of which to
boast, but all our boasting is in Christ... in whom we make satisfaction by
bringing forth "fruits that befit repentance." These fruits have their efficacy
from him, by him they are offered to the Father, and through him they are
accepted by the Father.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec VIII pg 408
VIII - The Minister of This Sacrament
Since Christ entrusted to his apostles the ministry of
reconciliation, bishops who are their successors, and priest, the bishops
collaborators, continue to exercise his ministry. Indeed bishops and priests,
by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, have the power to forgive all sins
"in the name of the Father, ad of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit."
Forgiveness of sins brings reconciliation with God, but also
with the Church. Since ancient times the bishop, visible head of a particular
Church, as thus rightfully been considered to be the one who principally has the
power and ministry of reconciliation: he is the moderator of the penitential
discipline. Priests, his collaborators, exercise it to the extent that they have
received the commission either from their bishop (or religious superior) or the
Pope, according to the law of the Church.
Certain particularly grave sins incur excommunication, the most
severe ecclesiastical penalty, which impedes the reception of the sacraments and
the exercise of certain ecclesiastical acts, and for which absolution
consequently cannot be granted, according to canon law, except by the Pope, the
bishop of the place or priests authorized by them. In danger of death any
priest, even if deprived of faculties for hearing confessions, can absolve from
every sin and excommunication.
Priests must encourage the faithful to come to the sacrament of
Penance and must make themselves available to celebrate this sacrament each time
Christians reasonably ask for it.
When he celebrates the sacrament of Penance, the priest is
fulfilling the ministry of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep, of the
Good Samaritan who binds up wpinds, of the Father who awaits the prodigal son
and welcomes him on his return, and of the just and impartial judge whose
judgment is both just and merciful.
The priest is the sign and the instrument of God’s merciful love for the
sinner.
The confessor is not the master of God's forgiveness, but it's
servant. The minister of this sacrament should unite himself to the intention
and charity of Christ. He should have a proven knowledge of Christian behavior,
experience of human affairs, respect and sensitivity toward the one who has
fallen; he must love the truth, be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church,
and lead the penitent with patience towards healing and full maturity.
He must pray and do penance for his penitent, entrusting him to the Lord's mercy.
Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the
respect due to persons, the Church declares that every priest who hears
confession is bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy
regarding the sins his penitents Have confessed to him. He can make no use of
knowledge that confession gives him about penitents’ lives. This secret, which
admits of no exceptions, is called the "sacramental seal," because what the
penitent has made known to the priest remains "sealed" by the
sacrament.
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March 2, 2014 - But the people who trust the Lord will become strong again. They will rise up as an eagle in the sky; they will run and not need rest; they will walk and not become tired. Isaiah 40:31
On retreat this weekend at Malvern Retreat House in Malvern, PA. Weekend with Jesus.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec V pg400
V - The Many Forms of Penance In Christian Life
The interior penance of the Christian can be expressed in many and various ways. Scripture and the Fathers
insist above all on three forms, fasting, prayer, and alms giving, which express conversion in relation to
oneself, to God, and to others. Alongside the radical purification brought about by Baptism or martyrdom
they cite as means of obtaining forgiveness of sins: efforts at reconciliation with one's neighbor, tears of repentance,
concern for the salvation of one's neighbor, the intercession of the saints, and the practice of charity "which covers
a multitude of sins."
Conversion is accomplished in daily life by gestures of reconciliation, concern for the poor, the exercise and defense of justice and right, by the admission of faults to one's bretheren, fraternal correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one's cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance.
Eucharist and Penance. Daily conversion and penance find their source and nourishment in the Eucharist, for in it is made present the sacrifice of Christ which has reconciled us with God. Through the Eucharist those who live from the life of Christ are fed and strengthened. "It is a remedy to free us from our daily faults and to preserve us from mortal sins."
Reading Sacred Scripture, praying the Liturgy of the Hours and the Our Father -- -- every sincere act of worship or devotion revives the spirit of conversion and repentance within us and contributes to the forgiveness of our sins.
The seasons and days of penance in the course of the liturgical year (Lent, and each Friday in memory of the death of the Lord) are intense moments of the Churches penitential practice. These times are particularly appropriate for spiritual exercises, penitential liturgies, pilgrimages as signs of penance, voluntary self-denial such as fasting and alms giving, and fraternal sharing (charitable and missionary works).
The process of conversion and repentance was described by Jesus in the parable of the prodigal son, the center of which is the merciful father: the fascination of illusionary freedom, the abandonment of the father's house; the extreme misery in which the son finds himself after squandering his fortune; his deep humiliation at finding himself obliged to feed swine, and still worse, and wanting to feed on the husks the pigs ate; his reflection on all he has lost; his repentance and decision to declare himself guilty before his father; the journey back; the father’s generous welcome; the father's joy -- -- all these are characteristic of the process of conversion. The beautiful robe, the ring, and the festive banquet are symbols of that new life -- -- pure, worthy, and joyful -- -- of anyone who returns to God and to the bosom of his family, which is the Church. Only the heart of Christ who knows the depths of his Father's love could reveal to us the abyss of his mercy in so simple and beautiful a way.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec VI pg 401
VI - The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation
Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of communion with him. At the same time it damages communion with the Church. For this reason conversion entails both God's forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, which are expressed and accomplished liturgically by the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.
Only God forgives sin
Only God forgives sins. Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, "the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" and exercises this divine power: "Your sins are forgiven." Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name Christ Christ has willed that in her prayer and life and action his whole Church should be the sign and instrument of the forgiveness and reconciliation that he acquired for us at the price of his blood. But he entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry which he charged with the "ministry of reconciliation." The apostle is sent out "on behalf of Christ" with "God making his appeal" through him and pleading: "Be reconciled to God."
Reconciliation with the Church
During his public life Jesus not only forgave sins, but also made plain the effect of this forgiveness: he re-integrated forgiven sinners into the community of the People of God from which sin had alienated or even excluded them. A remarkable sign of this is the fact that Jesus receives sinners at his table, a gesture that expresses in an astonishing way both God's forgiveness and a return to the bosom of the People of God.
In imparting to his apostles his own power to forgive sins the Lord also gives them the authority to reconcile sinners with the Church. This ecclesial dimension of their task is expressed most notably in Christ's solemn words to Simon Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of the apostles united to his head."
The words bind and loose mean: whomever you exclude from your communion, will be excluded from communion with God;
whomever you receive anew into your communion, God will welcome back into his. Reconciliation with the
Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God.
The Sacrament of forgiveness -
Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as "the second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace."
Over the centuries the concrete form in which the Church has exercised this power received from the Lord has varied considerably.
During the first centuries the reconciliation of Christians who had committed particularly grave sins after their Baptism (for example, idolatry, murder, or adultery) was tied to a very rigorous discipline, according to which penitents had to do public penance for their sins, often for years, before receiving reconciliation. To this "order of penitents" (which concerned only certain grave sins), one was only rarely admitted and in certain regions only once-in-a-lifetime. During the seventh century Irish missionaries,
inspired by the Eastern monastic tradition took to continental Europe the "private" practice of penance, which does not require public and prolonged completion of penitential works before reconciliation with the Church. From that time on, the sacrament has been performed in secret between penitent and priest. This new practice envisioned the possibility of repetition and so opened the way to a regular frequenting of this sacrament. It allowed the forgiveness of grave sins and venial sins to be integrated into one sacramental celebration. In its main lines this is the form of penance that the church has practiced down to our day.
Beneath the changes in discipline and celebration that this sacrament has undergone over the centuries, the same fundamental structure is to be discerned. It comprises two equally essential elements: on the one hand, the acts of the man who undergoes conversion through the action of the Holy Spirit: namely, contrition, confession, and satisfaction; on the other, God's action through the intervention of the Church. The Church, who through the bishop and his priests forgives sins in the name of Jesus Christ and determines the manner of satisfaction, also prays for the sinner and does penance with him. Thus the sinner is healed and re-established in ecclesial communion.
The formula of absolution used in the Latin Church expresses the essential elements of this sacrament: the Father of mercies is the source of all forgiveness. He effects the reconciliation of all sinners through the Passover of his Son and the gift of the Spirit, through the prayer and ministry of the Church:
God the father of mercies,
through the death and the resurrection of his Son
has reconciled the world to himself
and sent the Holy Spirit among us
for the forgiveness of sins;
through the ministry of the Church
may God give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Spirit.
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February 23, 2014 - But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our
sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all
the wrongs we have done. 1 John 1:9
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec I p 396
I - What Is This Sacrament Called?
It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes
sacramentally present Jesus’ call to conversion, the first step in returning to
the Father from whom one has strayed by sin.
It is called the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the
Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and
satisfaction.
It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure
or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In
a profound sense it is also a "confession" -- --acknowledgment and praise -- --
of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man.
It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest's
sacramental absolution God grants
the penitent "pardon and peace."
It is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts
to the sinner the love of God who reconciles: "Be reconciled to God." He who
lives by God’s merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord's call: "Go; first
be reconciled to your brother."
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec II p 397
II - Why A Sacrament of Reconciliation After Baptism?
"You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God." One must appreciate
the magnitude of the gift God has given us in the sacraments of Christian
initiation in order to grasp the degree to which sin is excluded for him who has
"put on Christ." But the apostle
John also says: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth
is not in us." And the Lord himself taught us to pray: "Forgive us our
trespasses," linking our forgiveness of one another's offenses to the
forgiveness of our sins that God will grant us.
Conversion to Christ, the new birth of Baptism, the gift of the
Holy Spirit in the Body and Blood of Christ received as food have made us "holy
and without blemish," just as the Church herself, the Bride of Christ, is "holy
and without blemish." Nevertheless the new life received in Christian initiation
has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination
to sin that tradition calls concupiscence, which remains in the baptized such
that with the help of the grace of Christ they may prove themselves in the
struggle of Christian life. This is the struggle of conversion directed toward
holiness and eternal life to which the Lord never ceases to call us.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec
III - The Conversion of the Baptized
Jesus calls us to conversion. This call is a central part of the
proclamation of the kingdom: "the time is fulfilled columns and the kingdom of
God is ahead; repent, and believe in the gospel buried" in the churches
preaching this call is addressed first to those who do not yet know Christ and
his Gospel. Also, baptism is the principal place for the first and fundamental
conversion. It is by faith in the gospel and my baptism that one renounces evil
and gain salvation, that is, the forgiveness of all sins and the gift of new
life.
Christ's call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of
Christians. The second conversion is an honor to task for the whole Church who,
"clasping sinners to her bosom. Is that once holy and always in need of
purification, and follows constantly the path of penance and renewal." This
endeavor of conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a
"contrite heart," drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of
God who loved us first.
St. Peter's conversion after he had denied the Masters three
times bears witness to this. Jesus look of infinite mercy drew tears of
repentance from Peter and, after the Lord's resurrection, a threefold
affirmation of love for him. The second conversion also has a communitarian
dimension, as is clear in the Lord's call to a whole Church:
"Repent!"
St. Ambrose says of the two conversions that, in the church,
"there are water and tears: the water of baptism and the tears of
repentance."
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 2 Article 4 Sec IV p 399
IV – Interior Penance
Jesus’ call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets
before him, does not aim first at outward works, "sack cloth and ashes," fasting
and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion.
Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior
conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of
penance.
Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole
life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning
away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At
the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with
hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart
is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi
cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of
heart).
The human heart is heavy and hardened. God must give man a new
heart. Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our
hearts return to him: "Restore us to thyself, O Lord, that we may be restored!"
God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of
God's love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins
to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. The human heart is
converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced:
Let us fix our eyes on Christ's blood and understand how
precious it is to his Father, for, poured out for our salvation, it has brought
to the whole world the grace of repentance.
Since Easter, the Holy Spirit has proved "the world wrong about
sin," I.E., proved that the world has not believed in him whom the Father has
sent. But this same Spirit who brings sin to light is also the Counselor who
gives the human heart grace for repentance and
conversion.
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February 16, 2014 - A gentle answer will calm a person's anger, but an unkind answer will cause more
anger. Proverbs 15:1
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec VII p 392
VII - The Eucharist-- -- "Pledge of the Glory to Come"
In an ancient prayer the Church acclaims the mystery of the
Eucharist: "O sacred banquet in which Christ is received as food, the memory of
his Passion is renewed, the soul is filled with grace and a pledge of the life
to come is given to us." If the Eucharist is the memorial of the Passover of the
Lord Jesus, if by our communion at the altar we are filled "with every heavenly
blessing and grace," then the Eucharist is also an anticipation of the heavenly
glory.
At the Last Supper the Lord himself directed his disciples’
attention toward the fulfillment of the Passover in the kingdom of God: "I tell
you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I
drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." Whenever the Church celebrates
the Eucharist she remembers this promise and turns her gaze "to him who is to
come." In her prayer she calls for his coming: “Marana tha!”
"Come, Lord Jesus!" "May your grace come and this world pass
away!"
The Church knows that the Lord comes even now in his Eucharist
and that he is there in our midst. However, his presence is veiled. Therefore we
celebrate the Eucharist "awaiting the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior,
Jesus Christ," asking "to share in your glory when every tear will be wiped
away. On that day we shall see you, our God, as you are. We shall become like
you and praise you forever through Christ our
Lord."
There is no surer pledge or clearer sign of this great hope in
the new heaven and new earth "in which righteousness dwells," then the
Eucharist. Every time this mystery is celebrated, "the work of our redemption is
carried on" and we "break the one bread that provides the medicine of
immortality, the antidote for death, and the food that makes us live forever in
Jesus Christ."
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February 9, 2014 - But the Lord is faithful and will give you strength and will protect you from the
Evil One. 2 Thessalonians 3:3
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec VI p 386
VI – The Paschal Banquet
The Mass is at the same time, and inseparably, the sacrificial
memorial in which the sacrifice of the cross is perpetuated in the sacred
banquet of communion with the Lord's body and blood. But the celebration of the
Eucharistic sacrifice is only directed toward the intimate union of the faithful
with Christ through communion. To receive communion is to receive Christ himself
who has offered himself for us.
The altar, around which the Church is gathered in celebration of
the Eucharist, represents the two aspects of the same mystery: the altar of the
sacrifice and the table of the Lord. This is all the more so since the Christian
altar is the symbol of Christ himself, present in the midst of the assembly of
his faithful, both as the victim offered for our reconciliation and as food from
heaven who is giving himself to us. "For what is the altar of Christ if not the
image of the Body of Christ?" asks St. Ambrose. He says elsewhere, "The altar
represents the body of Christ and the Body of Christ is on the altar." The
liturgy expresses this unity of sacrifice and communion in many prayers. Thus
the Roman Church prays in its anaphora:
We entreat you, almighty God, that by the hands of your holy
Angel this offering may be borne to your altar in heaven in the sight of your
divine Majesty, so that as we receive in communion at this altar the most holy
Body and Blood of your Son we may be filled with every heavenly blessing and
grace.
"Take this and eat it, all of you":
Communion
The Lord addresses an invitation to us, urging us to receive him
in the sacrament of the Eucharist: "Truly, I say to you, unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."
To respond to this invitation we must prepare ourselves for so
great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience:
"Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an
unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let
a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any
one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment
upon himself." Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of
Reconciliation before coming to communion.
Before so great a sacrament, the faithful can only echo humbly
and with ardent faith the words of the Centurian: ”Domine, non sum dingus ut
inters sub tecum meum, sed tantum dic verbo, et sanabitur anima mea”(Lord, I am
not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my
soul will be healed."). And in the
Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom the faithful pray in the same spirit:
O Son of God, bring me into Communion today with your mystical
supper. I shall not tell your enemies the secret, nor kiss you with Judas’ kiss.
But like the good thief I cry, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your
kingdom."
To prepare for worthy reception of this sacrament, the faithful
should observe the fast required in their Church. Bodily demeanor (gestures,
clothing) ought to convey the respect, solemnity, and joy of this moment when
Christ becomes our guest.
It is in keeping with the very meaning of the Eucharist that the
faithful, if they have the required dispositions, receive communion when they
participate in the Mass. As the Second Vatican Council says:
"That more perfect form of participation in the Mass whereby the
faithful, after the priest's communion, receive the Lord’s Body from the same
sacrifice, is warmly recommended."
The Church obliges the faithful to take part in the Divine
Liturgy on Sundays and feast days and, prepared by the sacrament of
Reconciliation, to receive the Eucharist at least once a year, if possible
during the Easter season. But the Church strongly encourages the faithful to
receive the holy Eucharist on Sundays and feast days, or more often still, even
daily.
Since Christ is sacramentally present under each of the species,
communion under the species of bread alone makes it possible to receive all the
fruit of Eucharistic grace. For pastoral reasons this manner of receiving
Communion has been legitimately established as the most common form in the Latin
rite. But "the sign of communion is more complete when given under both kinds,
since in that form the sign of the Eucharistic meal appears more clearly." This
is the usual form of receiving Communion in the Eastern rites.
The Fruits of Holy Communion
Holy Communion augments our union with Christ. The principal
fruit of receiving the Eucharist in Holy Communion is an intimate union with
Christ Jesus. Indeed, the Lord said: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood
abides in me, and I in him." Life in Christ has its foundation in the
Eucharistic banquet: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the
Father, so he who eats me will live because of me."
On the feasts of the Lord, when the faithful receive the Body of
the Son, they proclaim to one another the Good News that the first fruits of
life have been given, as when the angel said to Mary Magdalene, "Christ is
risen!" Now too are life and resurrection conferred on whoever receives
Christ.
What material food produces in our bodily life, Holy Communion
wonderfully achieves in our spiritual life. Communion with the flesh of the
risen Christ, a flesh "given life and giving life through the Holy Spirit,"
preserves, increases, and renews the life of grace received at Baptism. This
growth in Christian life needs the nourishment of Eucharistic Communion, the
bread for our pilgrimage until the moment of death, when it will be given to us
as viaticum.
Holy Communion separates us from sin. The body of Christ we
receive in Holy Communion is "given up for us," and the blood we drink "shed for
the many for the forgiveness of sins." For this reason the Eucharist cannot
unite us to Christ without at the same time cleansing us from past sins and
preserving us from future sins:
For as often as we eat this bread and drink the cup, we proclaim
the death of the Lord. If we proclaim the Lord's death, we proclaim the
forgiveness of sins. If, as often as his blood is poured out, it is poured for
the forgiveness of sins, I should always receive it, so that it may always
forgive my sins. Because I always sin, I should always have a remedy.
As bodily nourishment restores lost strength, so the Eucharist
strengthens our charity, which tends to be weakened in daily life; and this
living charity wipes away venial sins. By giving himself to us Christ revives
our love and enables us to break our disordered attachments to creatures and
root ourselves in him:
Since Christ died for us out of love, when we celebrate the
memorial of his death at the moment of sacrifice we ask that love may be granted
to us by the coming of the Holy Spirit. We humbly pray that in the strength of
this love by which Christ willed to die for us, we, by receiving the gift of the
Holy Spirit, may be able to consider the world as crucified for us, and to be
ourselves as crucified to the world... Having received the gift of love, let us
die to sin and live for God.
By the same charity that it enkindles in us, the Eucharist
preserves us from future mortal sins. The more we share the life of Christ and
progress in his friendship, the more difficult it is to break away from him by
mortal sin. The Eucharist is not ordered to the forgiveness of mortal sins -- --
that is proper to the sacrament of Reconciliation. The Eucharist is properly the
sacrament of those who are in full communion with the Church.
The unity of the Mystical Body: the Eucharist makes the Church.
Those who receive the Eucharist are united more closely to Christ. Through it
Christ unites them to all the faithful in one body --the Church.
Communion renews, strengthens, and deepens this incorporation into the
Church, already achieved by Baptism.
In Baptism we have been called to form the one body.
The Eucharist fulfills this call: "The cup of blessing which we bless, is
it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it
not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who
are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread:"
If you are the body and members of Christ, then it is your
sacrament that is placed on the table of the Lord; it is your sacrament that you
receive. To that which you are to respond "Amen" ("yes, it is true!") And by
responding to it you assent to it. For you hear the words "the Body of Christ"
and respond “Amen”. Be then a member of the Body of Christ that your Amen may be true.
The Eucharist commits us to the poor. To receive in truth the
Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the
poorest, his brethren:
You have tasted the Blood of the Lord, yet you do not recognize
your brother,... you dishonor this table when you do not judge worthy of sharing
your food someone judged worthy to take part in this meal… God freed you from
all your sins and invited you here, but you have not become more
merciful.
The Eucharist and the unity of Christians. Before the greatness
of this mystery St. Augustine explains, "Oh Sacrament of devotion! O sign of unity!
O bond of charity!" The more painful the experience of the
divisions in the Church, which break the common participation in the table of
the Lord, the more urgent are our prayers to the Lord that the time of complete
unity among all who believe in a return.
The Eastern churches that are not in full communion with the
Catholic Church celebrate the Eucharistic with great love. "These churches,
although separated from us, yet possess true sacraments, above all -- -- by
apostolic succession -- -- the priesthood and the Eucharist, whereby they are
still joined to us in closest intimacy." A certain communion in sacris, and so
in the Eucharist, "given suitable circumstances and the approval of Church
authority, is not merely possible but is encouraged."
Ecclesial communities derived from the Reformation and separated
from the Catholic Church, "have not preserved the proper reality of the
Eucharistic mystery in its fullness, especially because of the absence of the
sacrament of Holy Orders." It is for this reason that, for the Catholic Church,
Eucharistic intercommunion with these communities is not possible. However these
ecclesial communities, "when they commemorate the Lord's death and resurrection
in the Holy Supper... profess that it signifies life in communion with
Christ and await his coming in glory."
When, in the Ordinary’s judgment, a grave necessity arises,
Catholic ministers may give the sacraments of the Eucharist, Penance, and
Anointing of the Sick to other Christians not in full communion with the
Catholic Church, who ask for them of their own free will, provided they give
evidence of holding the Catholic faith regarding these sacraments and possess
the required dispositions.
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February 2, 2014 - Do to others what you would want them to do to you. Luke 6:31
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec V cont.
The presence of Christ by the power of his word and the Holy Spirit
"Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who
is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us," is present in many
ways to his Church: in his word, in his Church's prayer, "where two or three are
gathered in my name," in the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned, in the
sacraments of which he is the author, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the
person of the minister. But "he is present... most especially in the Eucharistic
species."
The mode of Christ’s presence under the Eucharistic species is
unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of
the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend." In the most
blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul
and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is
truly, really, and substantially contained." "This presence is called "real" --
-- by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they
could not be "real" too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that
is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes
himself wholly and entirely present."
It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ's body
and blood that Christ becomes present in this sacrament. The Church fathers
strongly affirmed the faith of the Church in the efficacy of the Word of Christ
and of the action of the Holy Spirit to bring about this conversion.
Thus St. John Chrysostom declares:
It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body
and Blood of Christ, but he who was crucified for us, Christ himself. The
priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace
are God’s. This is my body, he says. This word transforms the things offered.
And St. Ambrose says about this conversion:
Be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what
the blessing has consecrated. The power of the blessing prevails over that of
nature, because by the blessing nature itself is changed... Could not Christ’s
word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things
into what they were not before? It is no less a feat to give things their
original nature than to change their nature.
The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring:
"Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was
offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the
Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the
consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole
substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of
the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the
holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation."
The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the
consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist.
Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and
entire in each of their parts, and such a way that the breaking of the bread
does not divide Christ.
Worship of the Eucharist. In the liturgy of the Mass we express
our faith in the real presence of Christ under the species of bread and wine by,
among other ways, genuflecting or bowing deeply as a sign of adoration of the
Lord. "The Catholic Church has always offered and still offers to the sacrament
of the Eucharist the cult of adoration, not only during Mass, but also outside
of it, reserving the consecrated hosts with the utmost care, exposing them to
the solemn veneration of the faithful, and carrying them in procession."
The tabernacle was first intended for the reservation of the
Eucharist in a worthy place so that it could be brought to the sick and those
absent, outside of Mass. As faith in the real presence of Christ in his
Eucharist deepened, the Church became conscious of the meaning of silent
adoration of the Lord present under the Eucharistic species. It is for this
reason that the tabernacle should be located an especially worthy place in the
church and should be constructed in such a way that it emphasizes and manifests
the truth of the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain
present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his
departure from his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental
presence; since he was about to offer himself on the cross to save us, he wanted
us to have the memorial of the love with which he loved us "to the end," even to
the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in
our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself up for us, and he remains
under signs that express and communicate this
love:
The Church and the world have a great need for Eucharistic
worship. Jesus awaits us in this sacrament of love. Let us not refuse the time
to go to meet him in adoration, and contemplation full of faith, and open to
making amends for the serious offenses and crimes of the world. Let our
adoration never cease.
"That in this sacrament are the true Body of Christ and his true
Blood is something that "cannot be apprehended by the senses," says St. Thomas,
"but only by faith, which relies on divine authority." For this reason, and a
commentary on Luke 22:19 ("This is my body which is given for you."), St. Cyril
says: "Do not doubt whether this is true, but rather receive the words of the
Savior in faith, for since he is the truth, he cannot lie."
Godhead here in hiding, who I do adore
Masked by these bare shadows, shape and nothing more,
See, Lord, at thy service low lies here a heart
Lost, all lost in wonder at the God thou art.
Seeing, touching, tasting are in thee deceived;
How says trusty hearing? That shall be believed;
What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do;
Truth himself speaks truly where there’s nothing true.
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January 26, 2014 - Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God's child and
knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 1 John 4:7-8
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec V pg 378
V. The Sacramental Sacrifice: Thanksgiving, Memorial, Presence
If from the beginning Christians have celebrated the Eucharist
and in a form whose substance has not changed despite the great diversity of
times and liturgies, it is because we know ourselves to be bound by the command
the Lord gave on the eve of his Passion: "Do this in remembrance of me."
We carry out this command of the Lord by celebrating the
memorial of his sacrifice. In so doing, we offer to the Father what he has
himself given us: the gifts of his creation, bread and wine which, by the power
of the Holy Spirit and by the words of Christ, have become the body and blood
of Christ. Christ is thus really and mysteriously made present.
We must therefore consider the Eucharist as:
-- -- Thanksgiving and praise to the Father;
-- -- the sacrificial memorial of Christ and his Body;
-- -- the presence of Christ by the power of his word and of his Spirit.
Thanksgiving and praise to the Father
The Eucharist, the sacrament of our salvation accomplished by
Christ on the cross, is also a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving for the work
of creation. In the Eucharistic sacrifice the whole of creation loved by God is
presented to the Father through the death and the Resurrection of Christ.
Through Christ the Church can offer the sacrifice of praise in thanksgiving for
all that God has made good, beautiful, and just in creation and in humanity.
The Eucharist is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father, a blessing by
which the Church expresses her gratitude to God for all his benefits, for all
that he has accomplished through creation, redemption, and
sanctification. Eucharist means first of all "thanksgiving."
The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of praise to which the
Church sings the glory of God in the name of all creation. This sacrifice of
praise is possible only through Christ: he unites the faithful to his person, to
his praise, and to his intercession, so that the sacrifice of praise to the
Father is offered through Christ and with him, to be accepted in him.
The Sacrificial memorial of Christ and of his Body, the Church
The Eucharist is
the memorial of Christ's Passover, the making present and the sacramental
offspring of his unique sacrifice, and the liturgy of the Church which is his
Body. In all the Eucharistic prayers we find after the words of institution a
prayer called the anamnesis or
memorial.
In the sense of Sacred Scripture the memorial is not merely the
recollection of past events but the proclamation of the mighty works wrought by
God for men. In the liturgical celebration of these events, they become in a
certain way present and real. This is how Israel understands its liberation from
Egypt: every time Passover is celebrated, the Exodus events are made present to
the memory of believers so that they may conform their lives to
them.
In the New Testament, the memorial takes on new meaning. When
the Church celebrates the Eucharist, she commemorates Christ's Passover, and it
is made present: the sacrifice Christ offered once for all on the cross remains
ever present. "As often as the sacrifice of the Cross by which "Christ our Pasch
has been sacrificed" is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is
carried out."
Because it is the memorial of Christ's Passover, the Eucharist
is also a sacrifice. The sacrificial character of the Eucharist is manifested in
the very words of institution: "This is my body which is given for you" and
"This cup which is poured out for you is the New Covenant in my blood." In the
Eucharist Christ gives us the very body which he gave up for us on the cross,
very blood which he "poured out for many for the forgiveness of
sins."
The Eucharist is thus a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes
present) the sacrifice of the cross, because it is its memorial and because it
applies its fruit:
[Christ], our Lord and God, what was once and for all to offer
himself to God the Father by his death on the altar of the cross, to accomplish
there an everlasting redemption. But because his priesthood was not to end with
his death, at the Last Supper "on the night when he was betrayed," [he wanted]
to leave to his beloved spouse the Church a visible sacrifice (as the nature of
man demands) by which the bloody sacrifice which he was to accomplish once for
all on the cross would be re-presented, it's memory perpetuated until the end of
the world, and its salutary power be applied to the forgiveness of sins we daily
commit.
The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of the Eucharist are
one single sacrifice: "The victim is one and the same: the same now offers
through the ministry of priests, who then offered himself on the cross; only a
manner of offering is different." "And since in this divine sacrifice which is
celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once in a bloody
manner on the altar of the cross is contained in offered in an unbloody
manner... this sacrifice is truly
propitiatory."
The Eucharist is also the sacrifice of the Church. The Church
which is the Body of Christ participates in the offering of her Head. With him,
she herself is offered whole and entire. She unites herself to his intercession
with the Father for all men. In the Eucharist the sacrifice of Christ becomes
also the sacrifice of the members of his Body. The lives of the faithful, their
praise, sufferings, prayer, and work, are united with those of Christ and with
his total offering, and so acquire a new value. Christ's sacrifice present on
the altar makes it possible for all generations of Christians to be united with
his offering.
In the catacombs the Church is often represented as a woman in
prayer, arms outstretched in the praying position. Like Christ who stretched out
his arms on the cross, through him, with him, and in him, she offers herself and
intercedes for all men.
The whole Church is united with the offering and intercession of
Christ. Since he has the ministry of Peter in the Church, the Pope is associated
with every celebration of the Eucharist, wherein he is named as the sign of
servant of the unity of the universal Church. The bishop of the place is always
responsible for the Eucharist, even when a priest presides; the bishop's name is
mentioned to signify his presidency over the particular Church, in the midst of
his presbyterium and with the assistance of deacons. The community intercedes
also for all ministers who, for it and with it, offer the Eucharistic
sacrifice:
Let only that Eucharist be regarded as legitimate which is
celebrated under [the presidency of] the bishop or him to whom he has entrusted
it.
Through the ministry of priests the spiritual sacrifice of the
faithful is completed in union with the sacrifice of Christ the only Mediator,
which in the Eucharist is offered through the priest's hands in the name of the
whole Church in an unbloody and sacramental manner until the Lord himself
comes.
To the offering of Christ are united not only the members of
still here on earth, but also those already in the glory of heaven. In communion
with and commemorating the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the Church
offers the Eucharistic sacrifice. In the Eucharist the Church is as it were at
the foot of the cross with Mary, united with the offering and intercession of
Christ.
The Eucharistic sacrifice is also offered for the faithful
departed who "have died in Christ but are not yet wholly purified," so that they
may be able to enter into the light and peace of Christ:
Put this body anywhere! Don't trouble yourselves about it! I
simply ask you to remember me at the Lord’s altar wherever you are. Then, we
pray [in the anaphora] for the holy fathers and bishops who have fallen asleep,
and in general for all who have fallen asleep before us, in the belief that it
is a great benefit to the souls on whose behalf the supplication is offered,
while the holy and tremendous Victim is present...... By offering to God our
supplications for those who have fallen asleep, if they have sinned, we... offer
Christ sacrificed for the sins of all, and so render favorable, for them and for
us, the God who loves me.
St. Augustine admirably summed up this doctrine that moves us to
ever more complete participation in our Redeemer's sacrifice which we celebrate
in the Eucharist:
This wholly redeemed city, the assembly and society of the
saints, is offered to God as a universal sacrifice by the high priest who in the
form of a slave went so for as to offer himself for us in his Passion, to make
us the Body of so great a head …Such is the sacrifice of Christians: "we who are
many are one Body in Christ." The Church continues to reproduce this sacrifice
in the sacrament of the altar so well-known to believers wherein it is evident
to them that in what she offers she herself is
offered.
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January 19, 2014 - Don't ever forget kindness and truth. Wear them like a necklace. Write them on your
heart as if on a tablet. Then you will be respected and will please both God
and people. Proverbs 3:3-4
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec IV pg 374
IV. The Liturgical Celebration of the Eucharist
The Mass of all ages
As early as the second century we have the witness of St. Justin
Martyr for the basic lines of the order of the Eucharistic celebration. They
have stayed the same until our own day for all the great liturgical families.
St. Justin wrote the pagan emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161) around the year 155,
explaining what Christians did:
On the day we call the day of the sun, all who dwell in the city
or country gather in the same place.
The memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are
read, as much as time permits.
When the reader has finished, he who presides over those
gathered admonishes and challenges them to imitate these beautiful
things.
Then we all rise together and offer prayers for ourselves... and
for all others, wherever they may be, so that we may be found righteous by our
life and actions, and faithful to the commandments, so as to obtain eternal
salvation.
When the prayers are concluded we exchange the kiss.
Then someone brings bread and a cup of water and wine mixed
together to him who presides over the
brethren.
He takes them and offers praise and glory to the Father of the
universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and for a
considerable time he gives thanks (in Greek: eucharistian) that we have been
judged worthy of these gifts.
When he has concluded the prayers and thanksgivings, all present
give voice to an acclimation by saying:
"Amen."
When he who presides has given thanks and the people have
responded, those whom we call deacons give to those present the “eucharisted”
bread, wine and water and take them to those who are absent.
The liturgy of the Eucharist unfolds according to a fundamental
structure which has been preserved throughout the centuries down to our own day.
It displays two great parts that form a fundamental unity:
-- the gathering, the liturgy of the Word, with readings,
homily, and general intercessions;
-- the liturgy of the Eucharist, with the presentation of the
bread and wine, the consecratory thanksgiving, and
communion.
The liturgy of the Word and liturgy of the Eucharist together
form "one single act of worship"; the Eucharistic table set for us in the table
both of the Word of God and of the Body of the
Lord.
Is this not the same movement as the Paschal meal of the risen
Jesus with his disciples? Walking with them he explained the Scriptures to them;
sitting with them at table "he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to
them."
The movement of the celebration
All gather together. Christians come together in one place for
the Eucharistic assembly. At its head is Christ himself, the principal agent of
the Eucharist. He is high priest of the New Covenant; it is he himself who
presides invisibly over every Eucharistic celebration. It is in representing him
that the bishop or priest acting in the person of Christ the head (in persona
Christi capitis) presides over the assembly, speaks after the readings, receives
the offerings, and says the Eucharistic Prayer. All have their own active parts
to play in the celebration, each in his own way: readers, those who bring up the
offerings, those who give communion, and the whole people whose "Amen" manifests
their participation.
The Liturgy of the Word includes "the writings of the prophets,"
that is, the Old Testament, and "the memoirs of the apostles" (their letters and
the Gospels). After the homily, which is an exhortation to accept this Word as
what it truly is, the Word of God, and to put into practice, come the
intercessions for all men, according to the Apostle's words: "I urge that
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men,
for kings, and all who are in high
positions."
The presentation of the offerings (the Offertory). Then,
sometimes in procession, the bread and wine are brought to the altar; they will
be offered by the priest in the name of Christ in the Eucharistic sacrifice in
which they will become his body and blood. It is the very action of Christ at
the Last Supper -- -- "taking the bread and a cup." "The Church alone offers
this pure oblation to the Creator, when she offers what comes forth from his
creation but thanksgiving." The presentation of the offerings at the altar takes
up the gesture of Melchizedek and commits the Creator's gifts into the hands of
Christ who, in his sacrifice, brings to perfection all human attempts to offer
sacrifices.
From the very beginning Christians have brought, along with the
bread and wine for the Eucharist, gifts to share with those in need. This custom
of the collection, ever appropriate, is inspired by the example of Christ who
became poor to make us rich:
Those who are well off, and who are also willing, give as each
chooses. What is gathered is given to him who presides to assist orphans and
widows, those whom illness or any other cause has deprived of resources,
prisoners, immigrants and, in a word, all who are in need.
The anaphora: with the Eucharistic Prayer -- -- the prayer of
thanksgiving and consecration -- -- we come to the heart and summit of the
celebration:
In the preface, the church gives thanks to the Father, through
Christ, in the Holy Spirit, for all his works: creation, redemption, and
sanctification. The whole community thus joins in the unending praise that the
Church in heaven, the angels and all the saints, sing to the thrice-holy
God.
In the epiclesis, the Church asks the Father to send his Holy
Spirit (or the power of his blessing) on the bread and wine, so that by his
power they may become the body and blood of Jesus Christ and so that those who
take part in the Eucharist may be one body and one spirit (some liturgical
traditions put the epiclesis after the
anamnesis).
In the institution narrative, the power of the words in the
action of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit, make sacramentally present
under the species of bread and wine Christ's body and blood, his sacrifice
offered on the cross once for all.
In the anamnesis that follows, the Church calls to mind the
Passion, resurrection, and glorious return of Christ Jesus; she presents to the
Father the offering of his Son which reconciles us with
him.
In the intercessions, the Church indicates that the Eucharist is
celebrated in communion with the whole Church in heaven and on earth, the living
and the dead, and in communion with the pastors of the church, the Pope, the
diocesan bishop, his presbyterium and his deacons, and all the bishops of the
whole world together with their Churches.
In the communion, preceded by the Lord's prayer and the breaking
of the bread, the faithful receive "the bread of heaven" and "the cup of
salvation," the body and blood of Christ who offered himself "for the life of
the world":
Because this bread and wine have been made Eucharist
("eucharisted," according to an ancient expression), "we call this food
Eucharist, and no one may take part in it unless he believes that what we teach
is true, has received baptism for the forgiveness of sins and new birth, and
lives in keeping with what Christ taught."
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January 12, 2014 - Each person should judge his own actions and not compare himself with others. Then he
can be proud for what he himself has done. Galatians 6:4
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec III pg 371
III. The Eucharist in the Economy of Salvation
The signs of bread and wine
At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and
wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become
Christ's Body and Blood. Faithful to the Lord's command the Church continues to
do, in his memory and until his glorious return, what he did on the eve of his
Passion: "He took bread…." "He took the cup filled with wine….” The signs of
bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of
Christ; they continue also to signify the goodness of creation. Thus in the
Offertory we give thanks to the creator for bread and wine, fruit of the "work
of human hands," but above all as "fruit of the earth" and "of the vine”--
gifts of the Creator. The Church sees in the gesture of the king-priest
Melchizedek, who "brought out bread and wine," a prefiguring of her own
offering.
In the Old Covenant bread and wine were offered in sacrifice
among the first fruits of the earth as a sign of grateful acknowledgment to the
Creator. But they also received a new significance in the context of the Exodus:
the unleavened bread that Israel eats every year at Passover commemorates the
haste of the departure that liberated them from Egypt; the remembrance of the
manna in the desert will always recall to Israel that it lives by the bread of
the Word of God; their daily bread is the fruit of the promised land, the pledge
of God's faithfulness to his promises. The "cup of blessing" at the end of the
Jewish Passover meal adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological
dimension: the messianic expectation of the rebuilding of Jerusalem. When Jesus
instituted the Eucharist, he gave a new and definitive meaning to the blessing
of the bread and the cup.
The miracles of the multiplication of the loaves, what the Lord
says the blessing, brakes and distributes the loaves through his disciples to
feed the multitude, prefigure the superabundance of this unique bread of his
Eucharist. The sign of water turned into wine at Cana already announces the Hour
of Jesus's glorification. It makes
manifest the fulfillment of the wedding feast in the Father's kingdom, where the
faithful will drink the new wine that has become the Blood of
Christ.
The first announcement of the Eucharist divided the disciples,
just as the announcement of the Passion scandalized them: "This is a hard
saying; who can listen to it?" The Eucharist and the Cross are stumbling blocks.
It is the same mystery and it never ceases to be an occasion of division. "Will
you also go away?": The Lord's question echoes through the ages,
as a loving invitation to discover that only
he has "the words of eternal life" and that to receive in faith the gift of his
Eucharist is to receive the Lord himself.
The institution of the Eucharist
The Lord, having loved those who were his own, loved them to the
end. Knowing that the hour had come to leave this world a return to the Father,
in the course of a meal he washed their feet and gave them a commandment to
love. In order to leave them a pledge of his love, in order never to depart from
his own and to make them sharers in his Passover, he instituted the Eucharist as
the memorial of his death and Resurrection and commanded his apostles to
celebrate it until his return; "thereby he constituted them priests of the New
Testament."
The three synoptic Gospels and St. Paul have handed on to us the
account of the institution of the Eucharist; St. John for his part, reports the
words of Jesus in the synagogue of Capernaum that prepare for the institution of
the Eucharist: Christ calls himself the bread of life, come down from
heaven.
Jesus chose the time of Passover to fulfill what he had
announced at Capernaum: giving his disciples his Body and his
Blood:
Then came the day of Unleavened Bread, on which the passover
lamb had to be sacrificed. So Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and prepare
the passover meal for us, that we may eat it….” They went... and prepared the
passover. And when the hour came, he sat at table, and the apostles with him.
And he said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you
before I suffer; for I tell you I shall not eat it again until it is fulfilled
in the kingdom of God."... And he took bread, and when he and given thanks he
broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body which is given up for
you. Do this in remembrance of me." And likewise the cup after supper saying,
“This cup which is poured out for you in the New Covenant in my blood."
By celebrating the Last Supper with his apostles in the course
of the Passover meal, Jesus gave the Jewish Passover its definitive meaning.
Jesus’ passing over to his father by his death and Resurrection, the new
Passover, is anticipated in the supper and celebrated in the Eucharist; which
fulfills the Jewish Passover and anticipates the final Passover of the Church
and the glory of the kingdom.
“Do this in memory of me”
The command of Jesus to repeat his actions and words "until he
comes" does not only ask us to remember Jesus and what he did. It is directed at
the liturgical celebration, by the apostles and their successors, of the
memorial of Christ, of his life, of his death, of his Resurrection, and of his
intercession in the presence of the Father.
From the beginning the Church has been faithful to the Lord's
command. Of the Church of Jerusalem is written:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers... Day by day attending
the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they partook of food
with glad and generous hearts.
It was above all on "the first day of the week," Sunday, the day
of Jesus' resurrection, that the Christians meant "to break bread." From that
time on down to our own day the celebration of the Eucharist has been continued
so that today we encounter it everywhere in the Church with the same fundamental
structure. It remains the center of the Church's life.
Thus from celebration to celebration, as they proclaim the
Paschal mystery of Jesus "until he comes," the pilgrim People of God advances,
"following the narrow Way of the Cross," toward the heavenly banquet, when all
the elect will be seated at the table of the kingdom.
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January 5, 2014 - Always be humble, gentle, and patient, accepting each other in love. Ephesians 4:2
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec I pg 368
I. The Eucharist –Source and Summit of Ecclesial Life
The Eucharist is "source and summit of the Christian life." "The
other sacraments, indeed all ecclesiastical ministries and works of the
apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is
contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our
Pasch."
"The Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that
communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the
Church is kept in being. It is the culmination both of God's action sanctifying
the world in Christ and of the worship men offered to Christ and through him to
the Father and the Holy Spirit."
Finally, I the Eucharistic celebration we already unite
ourselves with the heavenly liturgy and anticipate eternal life, when God will
be all in all.
In brief, the Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith:
"our way of thinking is attuned to the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn
confirms our way of thinking."
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 3 Sec II
II. What Is This Sacrament Called?
The inexhaustible richness of this sacrament is expressed in the
different names we give it. Each name evokes aspects of it. It is
called:
Eucharist, because it is an action of thanksgiving to God. The
Greek words eucharistein and eulogein recall the Jewish blessings that proclaim
-- -- especially during a meal
-- -- God's works: creation, redemption, and sanctification.
The Lord’s supper, because of its connection with the supper
which the Lord took with his disciples on the eve of his Passion and because it
anticipates the wedding feast of the Lamb in the heavenly
Jerusalem.
The Breaking of Bread, because Jesus used this rite, part of a
Jewish meal, when as master of the table he blessed and distributed the bread,
above all at the Last Supper. It is by this action that his disciples will
recognize him after his Resurrection, and it is this expression that the first
Christians will use to designate their Eucharistic assemblies; by doing so they
signified that all who eat the one broken bread, Christ, enter into communion
with him and form but one body in him.
The Eucharistic assembly (synaxis), because the Eucharist is
celebrated amid the assembly of the faithful, the visible expression of the
Church.
The memorial of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection.
The Holy Sacrifice, because it makes present the one sacrifice
of Christ the Savior and includes the Churches offering. The terms holy
sacrifice of the Mass, "sacrifice of praise," spiritual sacrifice, pure and holy
sacrifice are also used, since it completes and surpasses all the sacrifices of
the Old Covenant.
The Holy and Divine Liturgy, because the Church’s whole liturgy
finds its center and most intense expression in the celebration of this
sacrament; in the same sense we also call its celebration the Sacred Mysteries.
We speak of the Most Blessed Sacrament because it is the Sacrament of
sacraments. The Eucharistic species reserved in the tabernacle are designated
by the same name.
Holy Communion, because by this sacrament we unite ourselves to
Christ, who makes us sharers in his Body and Blood to form a single body. We
also call it: the holy things (ta hagia; sancta) -- -- the first meaning of the
phrase "communion of saints" in the Apostles Creed -- -- the bread of Angels,
bread from heaven, medicine of immortality,
viaticum….
Holy Mass (Missa), because the liturgy in which the mystery of
salvation is accomplished concludes with the sending forth (missio) of the
faithful, so that they may fulfill God's will in their daily
lives.
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December 29, 2013 - In the same way, you should be a light for other people. Live so that they will
see the good things you do and will praise your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
Hope you had a Merry and Joyous Christmas and I wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 2 Sec IV pg 364
Who Can Receive the Sacrament
Every baptized person not yet confirmed can and should receive the sacrament of
Confirmation. Since Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist form a unity, it
follows that "the faithful are obliged to receive this sacrament at the
appropriate time," for without Confirmation and Eucharist, Baptism is certainly
valid and efficacious, but Christian initiation remains incomplete.
For centuries, Latin custom has indicated "the age of discretion" as the reference
point for receiving Confirmation. But in danger of death children should be
confirmed even if they have not yet attained the age of discretion.
Although Confirmation is sometimes called the "sacrament of Christian maturity," we must
not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth, nor forget that
the baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited election and does not need
"ratification" to become effective. St. Thomas reminds us of this:
Age of body does not determine age of soul. Even in childhood man can attain
spiritual maturity: as the book of Wisdom says: "For old age is not honored for
length of time, or measured by number of years." Many children, through the
strength of the Holy Spirit they have received, have bravely fought for Christ
even to the shedding of their blood.
Preparation for Confirmation should aim at leading the Christian toward a more intimate
union with Christ a more lively familiarity with the Holy Spirit -- -- his
actions, his gifts, and his biddings-- -- in order to be more capable of
assuming the apostolic responsibilities of Christian life. To this end
catechesis for Confirmation should strive to awaken a sense of belonging to the
Church of Jesus Christ, the universal Church as well as the parish community.
The latter bears special responsibility for the preparation of confirmands.
To receive Confirmation one must be in a state of grace. One should receive the
sacrament of Penance in order to be cleansed for the gift of the Holy
Spirit. More intense prayer should prepare one to receive the strength and graces
of the Holy Spirit with docility and readiness to act.
Candidates for Confirmation, as for Baptism, fittingly seek spiritual help of a sponsor. To
emphasize the unity of the two sacraments, it is appropriate that this will be
one of the baptismal godparents.
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 2 Sec V pg 366
V. The Minister of Confirmation
The original minister of Confirmation is the bishop.
In the East, ordinarily the priest who baptizes also immediately confers
Confirmation in one and the same celebration. But he does so with sacred chrism
consecrated by the patriarch or the bishop, thus expressing the apostolic unity
of the Church whose bonds are strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation. In
the Latin Church, the same discipline applies to the Baptism of adults or to the
reception into full communion with the Church of a person baptized in another
Christian community that does not have a valid Confirmation.
In the Latin Rite, the ordinary minister of Confirmation is the bishop. If the need
arises the bishop may grant the faculty of administering Confirmation to
priests, although it is fitting that he confer it himself, mindful that the
celebration of Confirmation has been temporally separated from Baptism for this
reason. Bishops are the successors of the apostles. They have received the
fullness of the sacrament of Holy Orders. The administration of this sacrament
by them demonstrates clearly that its effect is to unite those who receive it
more closely to the Church, to her apostolic origins, and to her mission of
bearing witness to Christ.
If a Christian is in danger of death, any priest can give Confirmation. Indeed the
Church desires that none of her children, even the youngest, should depart this
world without having been perfected by the Holy Spirit with the gift of Christ's
fullness.
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December 22, 2013 - If
any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and
without reproach, and it will be given to him. James 1:5
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 2 Sec II III p360
II - The Signs and the Rite of Confirmation
In treating the rite of Confirmation, it is fitting to consider the sign of
anointing and what it signifies and imprints: a spiritual seal.
Anointing, in Biblical and other ancient symbolism, is rich in meaning: oil is a sign of
abundance and joy; it cleanses (anointing before and after a bath) and limbers
(the anointing of athletes and wrestlers); oil is a sign of healing, since it is
soothing to bruises and wounds; and it makes radiant with beauty, health, and
strength.
Anointing with oil has all these meanings in the sacramental life. The pre-baptismal
anointing with the oil of catechumens signifies cleansing and strengthening; the
anointing of the sick expresses healing and comfort. The post-baptismal
anointing with sacred chrism in Confirmation and ordination is the sign of
consecration. By Confirmation Christians, that is, those who are anointed, share
more completely in the mission of Jesus Christ and the fullness of the Holy
Spirit with which he is filled, so that their lives may give off "the aroma of
Christ."By this anointing the confirmed receives the "mark," the seal of the
Holy Spirit. A seal is a symbol
of a person, a sign of personal authority, or ownership of an object. Hence
soldiers were marked with their leader’s seal and slaves with their master’s. A
seal authenticates a juridical act or document and occasionally makes it secret.
Christ himself declared that he was marked with his Fathers seal. Christians are also
marked with a seal: "It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has
commissioned us; he has put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts
as a guarantee." This seal on the Holy Spirit marks our total belonging to
Christ, our enrollment in his service forever, as well as the promise of divine
protection in the great eschatological trial.
The celebration of confirmation
The consecration of the sacred chrism is an important action that precedes the
celebration of Confirmation, but is in a certain way a part of it. It is the
bishop who, in the course of the Chrism Mass of Holy Thursday, consecrates the
sacred chrism for his whole diocese. In some Eastern Churches this consecration
is even reserved to the patriarch:
The liturgy of Antioch expresses the epiclesis for the consecration of the sacred
chrism (myron) in this way: "[Father... send your Holy Spirit] on us and on this
oil which is before us and consecrate it, so that it may be for all who are
anointed and marked with it holy myron, priestly myron, royal myron, anointing
with gladness, clothing with light, a cloak of salvation, a spiritual gift, the
sanctification of souls and bodies, imperishable happiness, the indelible seal,
a buckler of faith, and a fearsome helmet against all the works of the adversary."
When Confirmation is celebrated separately from baptism, as is the case in the Roman
Rite, the Liturgy of Confirmation begins with the renewal of baptismal promises
and the profession of faith by the confirmands. This clearly shows that Confirmation
follows Baptism. When adults are baptized, they immediately receive Confirmation
and participate in the Eucharist.
In the Roman Rite the bishop extends his hands over the whole group of the
confirmands. Since the time of the apostles this gesture has signified the gift
of the Spirit. The bishop invokes the outpouring of the Spirit in these words:
All-powerful God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, by water and the Holy Spirit you freed
your sons and daughters from sin and gave them new life. Send your Holy Spirit
upon them to be their helper and guide. Give them the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge
and reverence. Fill them with the spirit of wonder and awe in your presence. We
ask this through Christ our Lord.
The essential right of the sacrament follows. In the Latin rite, "the sacrament of
Confirmation is conferred through the anointing with chrism on the forehead,
which is done by the laying on of hand, and through the words: ‘Accipe
signaculum doni Spiritus Sancti’ [Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.]."
In the Eastern Churches of Byzantine rite after a prayer of epiclesis, the more
significant parts of the body are anointed with myron: forehead, eyes, nose,
ears, lips, chest, back, hands, and feet. Each anointing is accompanied by the
formula Signaculum doni Spiritus Sancti’: "the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit"
The sign of peace that concludes the right of the sacrament signifies and
demonstrates ecclesial communion with the bishop and with all the faithful.
III - The Effects of Confirmation
It is evident from its celebration that the effect of the sacrament of
Confirmation is the special outpouring of the Holy Spirit as once granted to
the apostles on the day of Pentecost.
From this fact, Confirmation brings an increase in deepening of baptismal grace:
---- It roots us more deeply in the divine filiation which makes us cry, "Abba! Father!";
---- It unites us more firmly to Christ;
---- it increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us;
---- it renders our bond with the Church more perfect;
---- it gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the
faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of
Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross:
Recall then that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of right judgment and courage, the spirit of knowledge
and reverence, the spirit of holy fear in God's presence. Guard what you have
received. God the Father has marked you with his sign; Christ the Lord has
confirmed you and has placed his pledge, the Spirit, in your hearts.
Like Baptism which it completes, Confirmation is given only once, for it too imprints
on the soul an indelible spiritual mark, the "character," which is the sign that
Jesus Christ has marked a Christian with the seal of his Spirit by clothing him
with power from on high so that he may be his witness.
This "character" perfects the common priesthood of the faithful, received in Baptism,
and "the confirmed person receives the power to profess faith in Christ publicly
and as it were officially (quasi ex officio)."
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December 15, 2013 - It is you who bless the upright, Yahweh, you surround them with favour as with a
shield. Psalms 5:12
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 2 Sec I p358
The Sacrament of Confirmation
I - Confirmation in the economy of salvation
In the Old Testament prophets announced the Spirit of the Lord would rest on the
hoped-for Messiah for his saving mission. The descent of the Holy Spirit on
Jesus at his baptism by John was the sign that this was he who was to come, the
Messiah, the Son of God. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit; his whole life and
his whole mission are carried out in total communion with the Holy Spirit and
the father gives him "without measure."
This fullness of the Spirit was not to remain uniquely the Messiah’s, but was to be
communicated to the whole messianic people. On several occasions Christ promised
this outpouring of the Spirit, a promise which he fulfilled first on Easter
Sunday and then more strikingly at Pentecost. Filled with the Holy Spirit the
apostles began to proclaim again “the mighty works of God," and Peter declared
this outpouring of the Spirit to be the sign of the messianic age. Those who
believed in the apostolic preaching and were baptized received the gift of the
Holy Spirit in their turn.
"From that time on the apostles, in fulfillment of Christ's will, imparted to the
newly baptized by the laying on of hands the gift of the Spirit that completes
the grace of Baptism. For this reason in the Letter to the Hebrews the doctrine
concerning Baptism and the laying on of hands is listed among the first elements
of Christian instruction. The imposition of hands is rightly recognized by the
Catholic tradition as the origin of the Sacrament of Confirmation, which in a
certain way perpetuates the grace of Pentecost in the Church."
Very early, the better to signify the gift of the Holy Spirit, an anointing with
perfumed oil (chrism) was added to the laying on of hands. This anointing
highlights the name "Christian," which means "anointed" and derives from that of
Christ himself whom God "anointed with the Holy Spirit." This rite of anointing
has continued ever since, in both East and West. For this reason the Eastern
Churches called this Sacrament Chrismation, anointing with chrism, or myron
which means "chrism." In the West, the term Confirmation suggests that this Sacrament both confirms baptism
strengthens baptismal grace.
Two traditions: East and West
In the first centuries Confirmation generally comprised one single celebration with
Baptism, forming with it a "double sacrament," according to the expression of
St. Cyprian. Among other reasons, the multiplication of infant baptisms all through the year, the increase of
rural parishes, and the growth of dioceses often prevented the bishop from being
present at all baptismal celebrations. In the West the desire to reserve the
completion of Baptism to the bishop caused the temporal separation of the two
sacraments. The East has kept them united, so that Confirmation is conferred by
the priest who baptizes. But he can do so only with the "myron” consecrated by a bishop.
A custom of the Roman Catholic facilitated the development of the Western
practice: a double anointing with sacred chrism after Baptism. The first
anointing of the neophyte coming out of the baptismal bath was performed by the
priest; it was completed by a second anointing on the forehead of the newly
baptized by the bishop. The first anointing with sacred chrism, by the priest,
has remained attached to the baptismal rite; it signifies the participation of
the one baptized in the prophetic, priestly, and kingly offices of Christ. If
baptism is conferred on an adult, there is only one post-baptismal anointing,
that of Confirmation.
The practice of the Eastern Churches gives greater emphasis to the unity of
Christian initiation. That of the Latin Church more clearly expresses the
communion of the new Christian with the bishop as guarantor and servant of the
unity, catholicity and apostolicity of his Church, and hence the connection with
the apostolic origins of Christ's church.
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December 8, 2013 - Yahweh will do all things for me. Yahweh, your faithful love endures for ever, do not
abandon what you have made. Psalms 138:8
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 1 Sec VI VII p352
VI - The Necessity of Baptism
The Lord himself affirms that Baptism is necessary for salvation. He also commands
his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to all nations and to baptize them. Baptism
is necessary for salvation for those to whom the Gospel has been proclaimed and
who have had the possibility of asking for this sacrament. The Church does not
know of any means other than Baptism that assures entry into eternal beatitude
this is why she takes care not to neglect the mission she has received from the
Lord to see that all who can be baptized are "reborn of water and the Spirit."
God has bound salvation to the sacrament of Baptism, but he himself is not bound
by his sacraments.
The Church has always held the firm conviction that those who suffer death for the
sake of the faith without having received Baptism are baptized by their death
for and with Christ. This Baptism of blood, like the desire for Baptism, brings
about the fruits of Baptism without being a sacrament.
For catechumens who die before their Baptism, their explicit desire to receive it,
together with repentance for their sins, and charity, assures them the salvation
that they were not able to receive through the sacrament.
“Since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the the
same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all
the possibility of being made partakers, in a way known to God, of the Paschal
mystery."
Every man who is ignorant of the Gospel of Christ and of his Church, but seeks the
truth and does the will of God in accordance with his understanding of it, can
be saved. It may be supposed that such persons would have desired Baptism
explicitly if they had known its necessity.
As regards children who have died without Baptism, the Church can only entrust them
to the mercy of God, as she does in her funeral rites for them.
Indeed,
the great mercy of God who desires that all men should be saved,
and Jesus’ tenderness toward children which caused him to say: "Let the children
come to me, do not hinder them," allow us to hope that there is a way of salvation
for children who have died without Baptism. All the more urgent is the
Church's call not to prevent little children coming to Christ through the gift
of holy Baptism.
VII – The Grace of Baptism
The different effects of Baptism are signified by the perceptible elements of the
sacramental rite. Immersion in water symbolizes not only death and purification,
but also regeneration and renewal. Thus the two principal effects are
purification from sins and new birth in the Holy Spirit.
For the forgiveness of sins...
By Baptism all sins are forgiven, original sin and all personal sins, as well as
all punishment for sin. In those who have been reborn nothing remains that would
impede their entry into the kingdom of God, neither Adam’s sin, nor personal
sin, nor the consequences of sin, the greatest of which is separation from
God.
Yet certain temporal consequences of sin remain in the baptized, such as suffering,
illness, death, and such frailties inherent in life as weaknesses of character,
and so on, as well as an inclination to sin that Tradition calls concupiscence,
or metaphorically, "the tinder for sin" (fomes peccati); since concupiscence "is
left for us to wrestle with, it cannot harm those who do not consent but
manfully resist it by the grace of Jesus Christ." Indeed, "an athlete is not
crowned unless he competes according to the rules."
"A new creature"
Baptism not only purifies us from all sins, but also makes neophyte "a new creature, "an
adopted son of God, who has become a "partaker of the divine nature," member of
Christ" and co-heir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit.
The most Holy Trinity gives the baptized sanctifying grace, the grace of
justification:
-- -- enabling them to believe in God, to hope in him, and to love him through the theological virtues;
---- giving them the power to live and act under the prompting of the Holy Spirit through
the gifts of the Holy Spirit;
---- allowing them to grow in goodness through the moral virtues.
Thus the whole organism of the Christian's supernatural life has its roots in Baptism.
Incorporated into the Church, the Body of Christ
Baptism makes us members of the Body of Christ: "Therefore... we are members one of
another."
Baptism incorporates us into the Church.
From the baptismal fonts is born the one People of God of the New
Covenant, which transcends all the natural or human limits of nations, cultures,
races, and sexes: "For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body."
The baptized have become "living stones" to be "built into a spiritual house, to be
a holy priesthood." By Baptism they share in the priesthood of Christ, in his
prophetic and royal mission. They are "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, God's own people, that [they] may declare the wonderful deeds of him who
called [them] out of darkness into his marvelous light." Baptism gives a share
in the common priesthood of all believers.
Having become a member of the Church, the person baptized belongs no longer to himself,
but to him who died and rose for us. From now on, he is called to be subject to
others, to serve them in the communion of the Church, and to "obey and submit"
to the Church's leaders, holding them in respect and affection. Just as Baptism
is the source of responsibilities and duties, the baptized person also enjoys
rights within the Church: to receive the sacraments, to be nourished with the
Word of God and to be sustained by the other spiritual helps of the Church.
"Reborn as sons of God, [the baptized] must profess before men the faith they have
received from God through the Church” and participate in the apostolic and
missionary activity of the People of God.
The sacramental bond of the unity of Christians
Baptism constitutes the foundation of communion among all Christians, including those
who are not yet in full communion with the Catholic Church: "For men who believe
in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in some, though imperfect,
communion with the Catholic Church. Justified by faith in Baptism, [they] are
incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called Christians,
and with good reason are accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic
Church."
"Baptism therefore constitutes the sacramental bond of unity existing among
all who through it are reborn."
An indelible spiritual mark...
Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, the person baptized is configured to Christ. Baptism
seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his
belonging to Christ. No sin can erase this mark, even if sin prevents Baptism
from bearing the fruits of salvation. Given once for all, Baptism cannot be repeated.
Incorporated into the Church by Baptism, the faithful have received the sacramental character
that consecrates them for Christian religious worship. The baptismal seal
enables and commits Christians to serve God by a vital participation in the holy
liturgy of the Church and to exercise their baptismal priesthood by the witness
of holy lives and practical charity.
The Holy Spirit has marked us with the seal of the Lord ("Dominicus character") “for
the day of redemption." "Baptism indeed is the seal of eternal life."
The faithful Christian who has "kept the seal" until the end, remaining faithful to the
demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life "marked with the sign of faith," with his baptismal
faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God -- -- the consummation of faith
-- -- and in the hope of resurrection.
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December 1, 2013 - Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful
or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not
take offense or store up grievances. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 1:6
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 1 Sec IV, V p349
IV - Who can receive baptism?
"Every person not yet baptized and only such person is able to be baptized."
The Baptism of adults
Since the beginning of the Church, adult baptism is the common practice where the
proclamation of the Gospel is still new. The catechumenate (preparation for
Baptism) therefore occupies an important place. This initiation into Christian
faith and life should dispose the catechumen to receive the gift of God in
Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist.
The catechumenate, or formation of catechumens, aims at bringing their conversion
and faith to maturity, in response to the divine initiative and in union with an ecclesial
community. The catechumenate is to be "a formation in the whole
Christian life... during which the disciples will be joined to Christ their teacher.
The catechumens should be properly initiated into the mystery of salvation
and the practice of the evangelical virtues, and they should be introduced
into the life of faith, liturgy, and charity of the People of God by
successive sacred rites."
Catechumens "are already joined to the Church, they are already of the household of Christ,
and are quite frequently already living a life of faith, hope, and charity."
"With love and solicitude mother Church already embraces them as her own.”
The Baptism of infants
Born with a fallen human nature and tainted by original sin, children also have need
of the new birth in Baptism to be freed from the power of darkness and brought
into the realm of the freedom of the children of God, to which all men are called.
The sheer gratuitousness of the grace of salvation is particularly
manifest in infant Baptism. The Church and the parents would deny a child the
priceless grace of becoming a child of God were they not to confer Baptism
shortly after birth.
Christian parents will recognize that this practice also accords with their role as
nurturers of the life that God has entrusted to them.
The practice of infant Baptism is an immemorial tradition of the Church.
There is explicit testimony to this practice from the second century on,
and it is quite possible that, from the beginning of the apostolic preaching,
when whole "households" received baptism, infants may also have been
baptized.
Faith and Baptism
Baptism is the sacrament of faith. But faith needs the community of believers. It is
only within the faith of the Church that each of the faithful can believe. The faith
required for Baptism is not a perfect and mature faith, but a beginning
that is called to develop. The catechumen or the godparent is asked: "what do
you ask of God's church?: The response is:
"Faith"
For all the baptized, children or adults, faith must grow after Baptism. For this
reason the Church celebrates each year at the Easter Vigil the renewal of
baptismal promises. Reparation for Baptism leads only to the threshold of life.
Baptism is the source of that new life in Christ from which the entire Christian
life springs forth.
For the grace of Baptism to unfold, the parents help is important. So too is the
role of the Godfather and godmother, who must be firm believers, able and ready
to help the newly baptized -- -- child or adult -- --on the road of Christian life.
Their task is a truly ecclesial function (officium).
The whole ecclesial community bears some responsibility for the
development and safeguarding of the grace given at Baptism.
V - Who can Baptize?
The ordinary ministers of Baptism are the bishop and priest and, in the Latin
Church, also the deacons. In case of necessity, anyone, even a non-baptized
person, with the required intention, can baptize, by using the Trinitarian
baptismal formula. The intention
required is to will to do what the Church does when she baptizes. The Church
finds the reason for this possibility in the universal saving will of God and
the necessity of Baptism for salvation.
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November 24, 2013 - Then since the gifts that we have differ according to the grace that was given to each of us:
if it is a gift of prophecy, we should prophesy as much as our faith tells us; Romans 12:6
Christian Initiation
From the time of the apostles, becoming a Christian has been accomplished by a
journey and initiation in several stages. This journey can be covered rapidly or
slowly, but certain essential elements will always have to be present:
proclamation of the Word, acceptance of the Gospel entailing conversion,
profession of faith, Baptism itself, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and
admission to Eucharistic communion.
This initiation has varied greatly through the centuries according to circumstances.
In the first centuries of the Church, Christian initiation saw considerable
development.
A long period of catechumenate included a series of preparatory
rites, which were liturgical landmarks along the path of catechumenal
preparation and culminated in the celebration of the sacraments of Christian initiation.
Where infant Baptism has become the form in which the Sacrament is usually celebrated,
it has become a single act encapsulating the preparatory stages of Christian
initiation in a very abridged way. By its very nature infant Baptism requires a
post-baptismal catechumenate. Not only is there a need for instruction after
Baptism, but also for the necessary flowering of baptismal grace in personal growth.
The catechism has its proper place here.
The second Vatican Council restored for the Latin Church "the catechumenate for
adults, comprising several distinct steps." The rites for these stages are to
be found in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). The Council
also gives permission that: "In mission countries, in addition to what is furnished
by the Christian tradition, those elements of initiation rites may be admitted
which are already in use among some peoples insofar as they can be adapted to
the Christian ritual."
Today and all the rights, Latin and Eastern, the Christian initiation of adults begins
with their entry into the catechumenate and reaches its culmination in a single celebration
of the three sacraments of initiation: Baptism, Confirmation,
and the Eucharist. In the Eastern rites the Christian initiation of infants
also begins with Baptism followed immediately by Confirmation and the
Eucharist,while in the Roman rite it is followed by years of catechesis before being
completed later by Confirmation and the Eucharist, the summit of their
Christian initiation.
The mystagogy of the celebration
The meaning and grace of the sacrament of Baptism are clearly seen in the rites of
its celebration. By following the gestures and words of this celebration with
attentive participation, the faithful are initiated into the riches this
sacrament signifies and actually brings about in each newly baptized person.
The sign of the cross, on the threshold of celebration, marks with the imprint of
Christ the one who is going to belong to him signifies the grace of the redemption
Christ won for us by his cross.
The proclamation of the Word of God enlightens the candidates and the assembly with
the revealed truth and elicits the response of faith, which is inseparable from Baptism.
Indeed Baptism is "the sacrament of faith" in a particular way, since
it is the sacramental entry into the life of faith.
Since Baptism signifies liberation from sin and from its instigator the devil, one or
more exorcisms are pronounced over the candidate. The celebrant then anoints him
with the oil of catechumens, or lays his hands on him, and he explicitly
renounces Satan. Thus prepared, he is able to confess the faith of the Church,
to which he will be "entrusted” by Baptism.
The baptismal water is consecrated by a prayer of epiclesis (either at this moment
or at the Easter Vigil). The Church asks God that through his Son the power of the
Holy Spirit may be sent upon the water, so that those who will baptized in
it may be "born of water and the Spirit."
The essential rite of the sacrament follows "Baptism properly speaking. It signifies
and actually brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the Most holy
Trinity through configuration to the Paschal mystery of Christ. Baptism is
performed in the most expressive way by triple immersion in the baptismal
water.
However, from ancient times it has also been able to be conferred by
pouring the water three times over the candidate’s head.
In the Latin Church this triple infusion is accompanied by the minister's words:
“N., I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
In the Eastern liturgies the catechumen turns toward the East and the
priest says: "The servant of God, N., is baptized in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." At the invocation of each person with
theMost Holy Trinity, the priest immerses the candidate in the water and
raises him up again.
The anointing with sacred chrism, perfumed oil consecrated by the bishop, signifies
the gift of the Holy Spirit to the newly baptized, who has become a Christian,
that is, one anointed" by the Holy Spirit, incorporated into Christ who is
anointed priest, prophet, and king.
In the liturgy of the Eastern churches, the post-baptismal anointing is the
sacrament of Chrismation (confirmation). In the Roman liturgy the post-baptismal
anointing announces a second anointing with sacred chrism to be conferred later
by the Bishop -- --Confirmation, which will as it were "confirm" and complete
the baptismal anointing.
The white garment symbolizes that the person baptized has "put on Christ," has
risenwith Christ. The candle, lit from the Easter candle, signifies that Christ
hasenlightened the neophyte. In him the baptized are "the light of the world."
The newly baptized is now, in the only Son, a child of God entitled to say the
prayer of the children of God: "Our Father."
First Holy Communion. Having become a child of God clothed with the wedding garment,
the neophyte is admitted "to the marriage supper of the Lamb" and receives the
food of the new life, the body and blood of Christ. The Eastern Churches
maintain a lively awareness of the unity of Christian initiation by giving Holy
Communion to all the newly baptized and confirmed, even little children,
recalling the Lord's words: "Let the children come to me, do not hinder them."
The Latin Church, which reserves admission to Holy Communion to those who
have
attained
the age of reason, expresses the orientation of Baptism to
the
Eucharist
by having the newly baptized child brought the altar for the
praying
of
the Our Father.
The solemn blessing concludes the celebration of Baptism. At the Baptism of newborns
the blessing of the mother occupies a special place.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November
17, 2013
- And my God will fulfill
all your needs out of the riches of his glory
in
Christ
Jesus. Phillippians
4:19
Part
2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 1 Sec II pg
343
II.
Baptism in the Economy of Salvation
Prefigurations
of Baptism in the Old Covenant
In
the liturgy of the Easter Vigil, during the blessing of the baptismal water, the
Church
solemnly commemorates the great events in salvation history that already
prefigured
the mystery of Baptism:
Father,
you give us grace through sacramental signs, which tell us of the wonders of
your
unseen power. In Baptism we use your gift of water, which you have made a
rich
symbol of the grace you give us in the sacrament.
Since
the beginning of the world, water, so humble and wonderful a creature, has been
the
source of life and fruitfulness. Sacred Scripture sees it as "overshadowed"
by
the Spirit of God:
At
the very dawn of creation your spirit breathed on the waters, making them the
wellspring
of all holiness.
The
Church has seen in Noah’s ark a prefiguring of salvation by Baptism, for by it
"a
few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water":
The
waters of the great flood you made a sign of the waters of Baptism, that make an
end
of sin and a new beginning of goodness.
If
water springing up from the earth symbolizes life, the water of the sea is a
symbol
of death and so can represent the mystery of the cross. By this symbolism
baptism
signifies communion with Christ to death.
But
above all, the crossing of the Red Sea, literally the liberation of Israel from
the
slavery of Egypt, announces the liberation wrought by
Baptism:
You
freed the children of Abraham from the slavery of Pharaoh, bringing them
dry-shod
through the waters of the Red Sea, to be an image of the people set
free
in Baptism.
Finally,
Baptism is prefigured in the crossing of the Jordan River by which the People of
God
received the gift of the land promised to Abraham's descendants, an image of
eternal
life. The promise of this blessed inheritance is fulfilled in the New
Covenant.
Christ's
baptism
All
the Old Covenant prefigurations find their fulfillment in Christ Jesus. He
begins
his public life after having himself baptized by St. John the Baptist in
the
Jordan. After his resurrection Christ gives this mission to his apostles:
"Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that
I have commanded you."
Our
Lord voluntarily submitted himself to the baptism of St. John, intended for
sinners,
in order to "fulfill all righteousness." Jesus' gesture is a
manifestation
of his self-emptying. The spirit who had hovered over the waters
of
the first creation descended then on Christ as a prelude of the new creation,
and
the Father revealed Jesus as his "beloved Son."
In
his Passover Christ opened to all men the fountain of Baptism. He had already
spoken
of his Passion, which he was about to suffer in Jerusalem, as a "Baptism"
with
which he had to be baptized. The blood and water that flowed from the
pierced
side of the crucified Jesus are types of Baptism and the Eucharist, the
sacraments
of new life. From then on, it is possible "to be born of water and
the
Spirit" in order to enter the kingdom of God.
See
where you are baptized, see where Baptism comes from, if not from the cross of
Christ,
from his death. There is the whole mystery: he died for you. In him you
are
redeemed, in him you are saved.
Baptism
in the Church
From
the very day of Pentecost the Church has celebrated and administered holy
Baptism.
Indeed St. Peter declares to the crowd astounded by his preaching:
"Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
forgiveness
of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
The
apostles and their collaborators offer Baptism to anyone who believed in
Jesus:
Jews, the God-fearing, pagans. Always, Baptism is seen as connected with
faith:
"Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your
household,"
St. Paul declared to his jailer in Philippi.
And
the narrative continues, the jailer "was baptized at once, with all
his
family."
According
to the Apostle Paul, the believer enters through Baptism into communion with
Christ's
death, is buried with him, and rises with him:
Do
you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized
into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into
death,
so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we
too
might walk in newness of life.
The
baptized have "put on Christ." Through the Holy Spirit, Baptism is a bath that
purifies,
justifies, and sanctifies.
Hence
Baptism is a bath of water in which the "imperishable seed" of the Word of God
produces
its life -- giving effect. St. Augustine says of Baptism: "The word is
brought
to the material element, and it becomes a sacrament."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November
10, 2013
- 'Scripture says: Human beings live not on bread alone but on every word that
comes from the mouth of God.' Matthew
4:4
Part
2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 Chap 1 Article 1 Sec I pg 341
Section
Two – The Seven Sacraments of the Church
Christ
instituted the sacraments of the new law. There are seven: Baptism,
Confirmation,
the Eucharist, Penance, the Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders,
and
Matrimony. The seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important
moments
of Christian life: they give birth and increase, healing and mission to
the
Christian's life of faith. There is thus a certain resemblance between the
stages
of natural life and the stages of spiritual life.
Following
this analogy, the first chapter will expound the three sacraments of Christian
initiation;
the second, the sacraments of healing; and the third, the sacraments
at
the service of communion and mission of the faithful. This order, while not
the
only one possible, does allow one to see that the sacraments form an organic
whole
in which each particular sacrament has its own vital place. In this
organic
whole, the Eucharist occupies a unique place as the "Sacrament of
sacraments":
"all the other sacraments are ordered to it as to their
end."
Chapter
One – The Sacraments of Christian Initiation
The
sacraments of Christian initiation -- --Baptism, Confirmation, and the
Eucharist
-- -- lay the foundations of every Christian life. "The sharing in the
divine
nature given to men through the grace of Christ bears a certain likeness
to
the origin, development, and nourishing of natural life. The faithful are
born
anew by Baptism, strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation, and receive
in
the Eucharist the food of eternal life. By means of these sacraments of
Christian
initiation, they thus receive in increasing measure the treasures of
the
divine life and advanced toward the perfection of
charity."
Article
1. The Sacrament of Baptism
Holy
Baptism is the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the
Spirit
(vitae spiritualis ianua), and the door which gives access to the other
sacraments.
Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God; we
become
members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church and made sharers in
her
mission: "Baptism is the sacrament of regeneration through water in the
word."
I.
What is this Sacrament Called?
This
sacrament is called Baptism, after the central rite by which it is carried out:
to
baptize (Greek baptizein) means to "plunge" or "immerse"; the "plunge" into
the
water symbolizes the catechumen’s burial into Christ's death, from which
he
rises
up by resurrection with him, as "a new creature."
This
sacrament is also called "the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy
Spirit,"
for it signifies that actually brings about the birth of water and the
Spirit
without which no one "can enter the kingdom of God."
"This
bath is called enlightenment, because those who receive this [catechetical]
instruction
are enlightened in their understanding..." Having received in
Baptism
the Word, "the true light that enlightens every man," the person
baptized
has been "enlightened," he becomes a "son of light," indeed, he becomes
"light"
himself:
Baptism
is God's most beautiful and magnificent gift.... We call it gift, grace,
anointing,
enlightenment, garment of immortality, bath of rebirth, seal, and
most
precious gift. It is called gift because it is conferred on those who bring
nothing
of their own; grace since it is given even to the guilty; Baptism
because
sin is buried in the water; anointing for it is priestly and royal as
are
those who are anointed; enlightenment because it radiates light; clothing
since
it veils our shame; bath because it washes; and seal as it is our guard
and
the sign of God's Lordship.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 3, 2013 - “Do not be afraid, for I am with you; do not be alarmed, for I am your
God. I give you strength, truly I help you, truly I hold you firm with my saving
right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Sec 2 pg 338
Article 2. Liturgical Diversity and the Unity of the Mystery
Liturgical traditions and the catholicity of the Church
From the first community of Jerusalem until the parousia, it is the same Paschal
mystery that the Churches of God, faithful to the apostolic faith, celebrate in
every place. The mystery celebrated in the liturgy is one, but the forms of
celebration or diverse.
The mystery of Christ is so unfathomably rich that it cannot be exhausted by its
expression in any single liturgical tradition. The history of the blossoming and
development of these rites witnesses to a remarkable complementarity. When the
Churches lived their respective liturgical traditions in the communion of the
faith and the sacraments of the faith, they enriched one another and grew in
fidelity to Tradition and to the common mission of the whole church.
The diverse liturgical traditions have arisen by very reason of the Church's
mission.
Churches of the same geographical and cultural area came to celebrate
the mystery of Christ through particular expressions characterize by the
culture: in the tradition of the "deposit of faith," in liturgical symbolism, in
the organization of fraternal communion, in the theological understanding of the
mysteries, and in various forms of holiness. Through the liturgical life of a
local church, Christ, the light and salvation of all peoples, is made manifest
to the particular people and culture to which that Church is sent and in which
she is rooted. The Church is catholic, capable of integrating into her unity,
while purifying them, all the authentic riches of cultures.
The liturgical traditions or rites presently in use in the Church are the Latin
(principally the Roman rite, but also the rites of certain local churches, such
as the Ambrosian rite, or those of certain religious orders) and the Byzantine,
Alexandrian or Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Maronite, and Chaldean rites. In "faithful
obedience to tradition, the sacred Council declares that Holy Mother Church
holds all lawfully recognized rites to be of equal right and dignity, and that she wishes to
preserve them in the future and to foster them in every way."
Liturgy and culture
The celebration of the liturgy, therefore, should correspond to the genius and
culture of the different peoples. In order that the mystery of Christ be "made
known to all the nations... to bring about the obedience of faith," it must be
proclaimed, celebrated, and lived in all cultures in such a way that they
themselves are not abolished by it, but redeemed and fulfilled: it is with and
through their own human culture, assumed and transfigured by Christ, that the
multitudes of God's children has access to the Father, in order to glorify him
in the one Spirit.
"In the liturgy, above all that of the sacraments, there is an immutable part, a
part that is divinely instituted and of which the Church is the guardian, and
parts that can be changed, which the Church has the power and on occasion also
the duty to adapt to the cultures of recently evangelized peoples."
"Liturgical diversity can be a source of enrichment, but it can also provoke tensions,
mutual misunderstandings, and even schisms. In this matter it is clear that
diversity must not damage unity. It must express only fidelity to the common
faith, to the sacramental signs that the Church has received from Christ, and to
hierarchical communion. Cultural adaptation also requires a conversion of heart
and even, where necessary, a breaking with ancestral customs incompatible with
the Catholic faith."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 27, 2013
- Yahweh is good to those who trust him, to all who search for him. It is good
to wait in silence for Yahweh to save. Lamentations 3:25-26
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 1 Section IV pg 334
IV. Where is the Liturgy Celebrated?
The worship "in spirit and in truth" of the New Covenant is not tied exclusively to
any one place. The whole earth is sacred and entrusted to the children of men.
What matters above all is that, when the faithful assemble in the same place,
they are the "living stones," gathered to be "built into a spiritual house." For
the body of the risen Christ is the spiritual temple from which the source of
living water springs forth: incorporated into Christ by the Holy Spirit, "we are
the temple of the living God."
When the exercise of religious liberty is not thwarted, Christians construct
buildings for divine worship. These visible churches are not simply gathering
places but signify and make visible the Church living in this place, the
dwelling of God with men reconciled and united in Christ.
A church," a house of prayer in which the Eucharist is celebrated and reserved,
where the faithful assemble, and where is worshiped the presence of the Son of
God our Savior, offered for us on the sacrificial altar for the hope and
consolation of the faithful -- -- this house ought to be in good taste and a
worthy place for prayer and sacred ceremonial." In this "house of God" the truth
and the harmony of the signs that make it up should show Christ to be present
and active in this place.
The altar of the New Covenant is the Lord's Cross, from which the sacraments of the
Paschal mystery flow. On the altar, which is the center of the church, the
sacrifice of the cross is made present under sacramental signs. The altar is
also the table of the Lord, to which the People of God are invited.
In certain Eastern liturgies the altar is also the symbol of the tomb
(Christ truly died and is truly risen).
The tabernacle is to be situated "in churches in a most worthy place with the
greatest honor." The dignity, placing, and security of the Eucharistic
tabernacle should foster adoration before the Lord really present in the Blessed
Sacrament of the altar.
The sacred chrism (myron), used in anointings as the sacramental sign of the seal of
the gift of the Holy Spirit, is traditionally reserved and venerated in a secure
place in the sanctuary. The oil of catechumens and the oil of the sick may also
be placed there.
The chair of the Bishop (cathedral) or that of the priest "should express his office
of presiding over the assembly and of directing prayer."
The lectern (ambo): "The dignity of the Word of God requires the church to have a
suitable place for announcing his message so that the attention of the people
may be easily directed to that place during the liturgy of the Word."
The gathering of the People of God begins with Baptism; a church must have a place
for the celebration of Baptism (bapistry) and for fostering remembrance of the
baptismal promises (holy water font).
The renewal of the baptismal life requires penance. A church then, must lend itself
to the expression of repentance and the reception of forgiveness, which requires
an appropriate place to receive penitents.
A church must also be a space that invites us to the recollection and silent
prayer that extend and internalize the great prayer of the Eucharist.
Finally, the church has an eschatological significance. To enter into the house of God,
we must cross a threshold, which symbolizes passing from the world wounded by
sin to the world of the new Life to which all men are called. The visible church
is a symbol of the Father's house toward which the People of God is journeying
and were the father "will wipe every tear from their eyes." Also for this
reason, the church is the house of all God's children, open and
welcoming.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 20, 2013 - ‘And teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with
you always; yes, to the end of time.' Matthew 28:20
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 1 Section III pg 329
III. When is the Liturgy Celebrated?
Liturgical seasons
"Holy Mother Church believes that she should celebrate the saving work of her divine
Spouse in a sacred commemoration on certain days throughout the course of th
year.
Once each week, on the day which she has called the Lord’s Day, she keeps
the memory of the Lord's resurrection. She also celebrates it once every year,
together with his blessed Passion, at Easter, that most solemn of all feasts. In
the course of the year, moreover, she unfolds the whole mystery of Christ...
Thus recalling the mysteries of the redemption, she opens up to the faithful the
riches of her Lord’s powers and merits, so that these are in some way made
present in every age; the faithful lay hold of them and are filled with saving
grace."
From the time of the Mosaic law, the People of God have observed fixed feasts,
beginning with Passover, to commemorate the astounding actions of the Savior
God, to give him thanks for them, to perpetuate their remembrance, and to teach
new generations to conform their conduct to them. In the age of the church,
between the Passover of Christ already accomplished once for all, and its
consummation in the kingdom of God, the liturgy celebrated on fixed days bears
the imprint of the newness of the mystery of Christ.
When the Church celebrates the mystery of Christ, there is a word that marks her
prayer:
"Today!" -- -- A word echoing the prayer her Lord taught her and the
call of the Holy Spirit. This "today"
of the living God which man is called to enter is "the hour" of Jesus'
Passover, which reaches across and underlies all history:
Life extends over all beings and fills them with unlimited light; the Orient of
orients pervades the universe, and he who was "before the daystar" and before
the heavenly bodies, immortal and vast, the great Christ, shines over all beings
more brightly than the sun. Therefore a day of long, eternal light is ushered in
for us who believe in him, a day which is never blotted out: the mystical
Passover.
The Lord's Day
"By a tradition handed down from the apostles which took its origin from the very
day of Christ's Resurrection, the Church celebrates the Paschal mystery every
seventh day, which day is appropriately called the Lord’s Day or Sunday.” The day
of Christ’s Resurrection is both the first day of the week, the memorial of the
first day of creation, and
the "eighth day," on which Christ after his "rest" on the great sabbath
inaugurates the "day that the Lord has made," the "day that knows no evening."
The Lord's Supper is its center, for there the whole community of the faithful
encounters the risen Lord who invites them to his banquet:
The Lord's Day, the day of Resurrection, the day of Christians, is our day. It is
called the Lord’s day because on it the Lord rose victorious to the Father. If
pagans call it the "day of the sun," we willingly agree, for today the light of
the world is raised, today is revealed the sun of justice with healing in his
rays.
Sunday is the pre-eminent day for the liturgical assembly, when the faithful gather "to
listen to the word of God and take part in the Eucharist, thus calling to mind
the Passion, Resurrection, and glory of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God who
"has begotten them again, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’
onto a living hope":
When we ponder, O Christ, the marvels accomplished on this day, the Sunday of your
holy resurrection, we say: "Blessed is Sunday, for on it began creation... the
worlds salvation... the renewal of the human race... On Sunday heaven and earth
rejoiced and the whole universe was filled with light. Blessed is Sunday, for on
it were opened the gates of paradise so that Adam and all the exiles might enter
it without fear.
The liturgical year
Beginning with the Easter Triduum as its source of light, the new age of the Resurrection
fills the whole liturgical year with its brilliance. Gradually, on either side
of the source, the year is transfigured by the liturgy. It really is a "year of
the Lord's favor." The economy of salvation is at work within the framework of
time, but since its fulfillment is the Passover of Jesus and the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit, the culmination of history is anticipated "as a foretaste," and
the kingdom of God enters into our time.
Therefore Easter is not simply one feast among others, but the "Feast of feasts," the
"Solemnity of solemnities," just as the Eucharist is the "Sacrament of
sacraments" (the Great Sacrament). St. Athanasius calls Easter "the Great
Sunday" and the Eastern churches call Holy Week "the Great Week." The mystery of
the Resurrection, in which Christ crushed death, permeates with its powerful
energy our old time, until all is subjected to him.
At the Council of Nicaea in 325, all the Churches agreed that Easter, the Christian
Passover, should be celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon (14
Nisan) after the vernal equinox. Because of different methods of calculating the
14th day of the month of Nisan the date of Easter and the Western and Eastern
churches is not always the same. For this reason, the Churches are currently
seeking an agreement in order once again to celebrate the day of the Lord's
resurrection on a common date.
In the liturgical year the various aspects of the one Paschal mystery unfolds. This
is also the case with the cycle of feasts surrounding the mystery of the
incarnation (Annunciation, Christmas,Epiphany). They commemorate the beginning
of our salvation and communicate to us the first fruits of the Paschal
mystery.
The sanctoral in the liturgical year
"In celebrating this annual cycle of the mysteries of Christ, Holy Church honors the
Blessed Mary, Mother of God, with a special love. She is inseparably linked with
the saving work of her Son. In her the Church admires and exalts the most
excellent fruit of redemption and
joyfully contemplates, as in a faultless image, that which she herself desires
and hopes wholly to be."
When the Church keeps the memorials of martyrs and other saints during the annual
cycle, she proclaims the Paschal mystery in those "who have suffered and have
been glorified with Christ. She proposes them to the faithful as examples who
draw all men to the Father through Christ, and through their merits she begs for
God's favors."
The Liturgy of the Hours
The mystery of Christ, his incarnation and Passover, which we celebrate in the
Eucharist especially at the Sunday assembly, permeates and transfigures the time
of each day, through the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, "the divine
office."
This celebration, faithful to the apostolic exhortations to "pray
constantly," is "so devised that the whole course of the day and night is made
holy by the praise of God." In this "public prayer of the Church," the
faithfu (clergy, religious, and lay people) exercise the royal priesthood of
the baptized. Celebrated in "the form approved" by the Church, the Liturgy of the
Hours "is truly the voice of the Bride herself addressed to her Bridegroom. It
is the very prayer which Christ himself together with his Body addresses to the
Father."
The Liturgy of the Hours is intended to become the prayer of the whole People of
God. In it Christ himself "continues his priestly work through his Church." His
members participate according to their own place in the Church and the
circumstances of their lives: priests devoted to the pastoral ministry, because
they are called to remain diligent in prayer and the service of the word;
religious, by the charism of their consecrated lives; all the faithful as much
as possible: "Pastors of souls should see to it that the principal hours
especially Vespers, are celebrated in common in church on Sundays and on the
more solemn feasts. The laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office,
either with the priests, or among themselves, or even individually."
Thecelebration of the Liturgy of the Hours demands not only harmonizing the voice
with the praying heart, but also a deeper "understanding of the liturgy and of
the Bible, especially of the Psalms."
The hymns and litanies of the Liturgy of the Hours integrate the prayer of the
psalms into the age of the Church, expressing the symbolism of the time of day,
the liturgical season, or the feast being celebrated. Moreover, the reading from
the Word of God at each hour (with the subsequent responses or troparia) and
readings from the Fathers and spiritual masters at certain Hours, reveal more
deeply the meaning of the mystery being celebrated, assist in understanding the
psalms, and prepare for silent prayer. The lectio divina, where the Word of God
is so read and meditated that it becomes prayer, is thus rooted in the
liturgical celebration.
The Liturgy of the Hours, which is like an extension of the Eucharistic celebration,
does not exclude but rather in a complementary way calls forth the various
devotions of the People of God, especially adoration and worship of the Blessed
Sacrament.
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October 13, 2013 - Since the whole of the Law is summarized in the one commandment: You must love your neighbour as yourself. If you go snapping at one another and tearing one another to
pieces, take care:you will be eaten up by one another. Galatians 5:14-15
Part 2 Chapter 2 Article 1 Section II. How is the Liturgy Celebrated? Pg324
Signs and symbols
A sacramental celebration is woven from signs and symbols. In keeping with the
divine pedagogy of salvation, their meaning is rooted in the work of creation
and in human culture, specified by the events of the Old Covenant and fully
revealed in the person and work of Christ.
Signs of the human world. In human life, signs and symbols occupy an important place.
As
a being at once body and spirit, man expresses and perceives spiritual
realities
through physical signs and symbols. As a social being, man needs signs
and
symbols to communicate with others, through language, gestures, and actions.
The
same holds true for his relationship with
God.
God
speaks to man through the visible creation. The material cosmos is so presented
to
man's intelligence that he can read there traces of its Creator. Light and
darkness,
wind and fire, water and earth, the tree and its fruit speak of God
and
symbolize both his greatness and his
nearness.
Inasmuch
as they are creatures, these perceptible realities can become means of
expressing
the actions of God who sanctifies men, and the action of men who
offer
worship to God. The same is true of signs and symbols taken from the
social
life of man: washing and anointing, breaking bread and sharing the cup
can
express the sanctifying presence of God and man's gratitude toward his
Creator.
The
great religions of mankind witness, often impressively, to this cosmic and
symbolic
meaning of religious rites. The liturgy of the Church presupposes,
integrates
and sanctifies elements from creation and human culture, conferring
on
them the dignity of signs of grace, of the new creation in Jesus
Christ.
Signs
of the covenant. The chosen people received from God distinctive signs and
symbols
that marked its liturgical life. These are no longer solely celebrations
of
cosmic cycles and social gestures, but signs of the covenant, symbols of
God's
mighty deeds for his people. Among these liturgical signs from the Old
Covenant
are circumcision, anointing and consecration of kings and priests,
laying
on of hands, sacrifices, and above all the Passover. The Church sees in
these
signs a prefiguring of the sacraments of the New
Covenant.
Signs
taken up by Christ. It his preaching the Lord Jesus often makes use of the signs
of
creation to make known the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. He performs
healings
and illustrates his preaching with physical signs or symbolic gestures.
He
gives new meaning to the deeds and signs of the Old Covenant, above all to
the
Exodus and the Passover, for he himself is the meaning of all these
signs.
Sacramental
signs. Since Pentecost, it is through the sacramental signs of his Church that
the
Holy Spirit carries on the work of sanctification. The sacraments of the
Church
do not abolish but purify and integrate all the richness of the signs and
symbols
of the cosmos and of social life. Further, they fulfill the types and
figures
of the Old Covenant, signify and make actively present the salvation
wrought
by Christ, and prefigure and anticipate the glory of
heaven.
Words
and actions
A
sacramental celebration is a meeting of God's children with their Father, in
Christ
and the Holy Spirit; this meeting takes the form of a dialogue, through
actions
and words. Admittedly, the symbolic actions are already a language, but
the
word of God and the response of faith have to accompany and give life to
them,
so that the seed of the Kingdom can bear its fruit in good soil. The
liturgical
actions signify what the Word of God expresses: both his free
initiative
and his people's response of faith.
The
liturgy of the Word is an integral part of sacramental celebrations. To nourish
the
faith of believers, the signs which accompany the Word of God should be
emphasized:
the book of the Word (a lectionary or a book of the Gospels), its
veneration
(procession, incense, candles), the place of its proclamation
(lecturn
or ambo), it's audible and intelligible reading, the minister's homily
which
extends its proclamation, and the responses of the assembly (acclamations,
meditation
psalms, litanies, and profession of
faith).
The
liturgical word and action are inseparable both insofar as they are signs and
instruction
and insofar as they accomplish what they signify. When the Holy
Spirit
awakens faith, he not only gives an understanding of the word of God, but
through
the sacraments also makes present the "wonders" of God which it
proclaims.
The Spirit makes present and communicates the Fathers work, fulfilled
by
the beloved Son.
Singing
and music
"The
musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value,
greater
even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence
is
that, as a combination of sacred music and words, it forms a necessary or
integral
part of solemn liturgy." The composition and singing of inspired
psalms,
often accompanied by musical instruments, were already closely linked to
the
liturgical celebrations of the Old Covenant. The Church continues and
develops
this tradition: "Address... one another in psalms and hymns and
spiritual
songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart." "He
who
sings prays twice."
Song
and music fulfill their function as signs in a manner all the more significant
when
they are "more closely connected... what the liturgical action," according
to
three principal criteria beauty expressive of prayer, the unanimous
participation
of the assembly at the designated moments, and the solemn
character
of the celebration. In this way they participate in the purpose of the
liturgical
words and actions: the glory of God and the sanctification of the
fatithul:
How
I wept deeply moved by your hymns, songs, and the voices that echoed through
your
Church! What emotion I
experienced
in them! Those sounds flowed into my ears, distilling the truth in
my
heart. A feeling of devotion surged within me, and tears streamed down my
face
-- -- tears that did me good.
The
harmony of signs (song, music, words, and actions) is all the more expressive
and
fruitful when expressed in the cultural richness of the People of God who
celebrate.
Hence "religious singing by the faithful is to be intelligently
fostered
so that in devotions and sacred exercises as well as in liturgical
services,"
in conformity with the Church's norms, "the voices of the faithful
may
be heard." But "the texts intended to be sung must always be in conformity
with
Catholic doctrine. Indeed they should not be drawn chiefly from the Sacred
Scripture
and from liturgical sources."
Holy
images
The
sacred image, the liturgical icon, principally represents Christ. It cannot
represent
the invisible and incomprehensible God, but the incarnation of the Son
of
God has ushered in a new "economy" of
images:
Previously
God, who has neither a body nor a face, absolutely could not be represented by
an
image. But now that he has made himself visible in the flesh and has lived
with
men, I can make an image of what I have seen of God... and contemplate the
glory
of God, his face unveiled.
Christian
iconography expresses in images the same gospel message that Scripture
communicates
by words. Image and word illuminate each other: We declare that we
preserve
intact all the written and unwritten traditions of the Church which
have
been entrusted to us. One of these traditions consists in the production of
representational
artwork, which accords with the history of the preaching of the
Gospel.
For it confirms that the incarnation of the Word of God was real and not
imaginary,
and to our benefit as well, for realities that illustrate each other
undoubtedly
reflect each other's meaning.
All
the signs and the liturgical celebrations are related to Christ: as are sacred
images
of the holy Mother of God and of the saints as well. They truly signify Christ,
who is glorified in them. They make manifest the "cloud of witnesses" who
continue to participate in
the
salvation of the world and to whom we are united, above all in sacramental
celebrations.
Through their icons, it is man "in the image of God," finally
transfigured
"into his likeness," who is revealed to our faith. So too are
the
angels,
who also are recapitulated in Christ:
Following
the divinely inspired teachings of our holy Fathers is in the tradition of the
Catholic
Church (for we know that this tradition comes from the Holy Spirit who
dwells
in her) we rightly define with full certainty and correctness that, like
the
figure of the precious and life-giving cross, venerable and holy images of
our
Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, our inviolate Lady, the holy Mother
of
God, and the venerated angels, all the saints and the just, whether painted
or
made of mosaic or another suitable material, are to be exhibited in the holy
churches
of God, on sacred vessels and vestments, walls and panels, and houses
and
on streets.
"The
beauty of the images moves me to contemplation, as a meadow delights the eyes
and
subtly infuses the soul with the glory of God." Similarly, the contemplation
of
sacred icons, united with meditation on the Word of God and the singing of
liturgical
hymns, enters into the harmony of the signs of celebration so that
the
mystery celebrated is imprinted in the heart’s memory and is then expressed
in
the new life of the faithful.
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October
6, 2013 - Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:9
Part
2 Chapter 2 Article 1 Section I – Celebrating the Church’s Liturgy pg
321
I. Who
celebrates?
Liturgy
is an "action" of the whole Christ (Christus totus). Those who even now
celebrate it without signs are already in the heavenly liturgy, where
celebration is wholly communion and feast.
The
celebrants of the heavenly liturgy
The
book of Revelation of St. John, read in the Church's liturgy, first reveals to
us, "A throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne": "the Lord God."
It then shows the Lamb, "standing, as though it had been slain": Christ
crucified and risen, the one high priest of the true sanctuary, the same one
"who offers and is offered, who gives it is given." Finally it presents "the
river of the water of life... flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb,"
one of the most beautiful symbols of the Holy Spirit.
"Recapitulated
in Christ," these are the ones who take part in the service of the praise of
God and the fulfillment of his plan: the heavenly powers, all creation (the four
living beings), the servants of the Old and New Covenants (the 24 elders), the
new People of God (the 144,000), especially the orders "slain for the word of
God," and the all-holy Mother of God (the Woman), the Bride of the Lamb, and
finally "a great multitude which no one could number, from every nation, from
all tribes, and peoples and tongues."
It
is in this eternal liturgy that the Spirit and the Church enable us to
participate whenever we celebrate the mystery of salvation and the
sacraments.
The
celebrants of the sacramental liturgy
It
is the whole community, the Body of Christ united with its Head, that
celebrates. "Liturgical services are not private functions but are celebrations
of the Church which is ‘the sacrament of unity,’ namely, the holy people united
and organized under the authority of the bishops. Therefore, liturgical services
pertain to the whole Body of the Church. They manifest it, and have effects
upon it. But they touch individual members of the Church in different ways,
depending on their orders, their role in the liturgical services, and their
actual participation in them." For this reason, "rites which are meant to be
celebrated in common, with the faithful present and actively participating,
should as far as possible be celebrated in that way rather than by an
individual and quasi-privately."
The
celebrating assembly is the community of the baptized who," by regeneration and
the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a
holy priesthood, that through all the works of Christian men they may offer
spiritual sacrifices." This "common priesthood" is that of Christ the sole
priest, in which all his members participate:
Mother
Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that full,
conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded
by the very nature of the liturgy, and to which the Christian people, "a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a redeemed people," have a right and
an obligation by reason of their Baptism.
But
"the members do not all have the same function." Certain members are called by
God, in and through the Church, to a special service of the community. These
servents are chosen and consecrated by the sacrament of Holy Orders, by which
the Holy Spirit enables them to act in the person of Christ the head, for the
service of all the members of the Church. The ordained minister is, as it were,
an “icon”of Christ the priest. Since it is in the Eucharist that the sacrament
of the Church is made fully visible, it is in his presiding at the Eucharist
that the bishop’s ministry is most evident, as well as, in communion with him,
the ministry of priests and deacons.
For
the purpose of assisting the work of the common priesthood of the faithful,
other particular ministries also exist, not concentrated by the sacrament of
Holy Orders; their functions are determined by the bishops, in accord with
liturgical traditions and pastoral needs. "Servers, readers, commentators, and
members of the choir also exercise a genuine liturgical
function."
In
the celebration of the sacraments it is thus the whole assembly that is
leitourgos, each according to his function, but in the "unity of the Spirit" who
acts in all. "In liturgical celebrations each person, minister or layman, who
has an office to perform, should carry out all and only those parts which
pertain to his office by the nature of the rite and the norms of the
liturgy."
September
29, 2013 - Go
round Zion, walk right
through her, count her bastions, admire her walls, examine her palaces, to tell
future generations that such is God; our God
for ever and ever, he is our guide!
Psalms 48:12-14
Part
2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section III - The Sacraments of Faith 317
Christ
sent his apostles so that "repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached
in his name to all nations." "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
The mission to baptize, and so the sacramental mission, is implied in the
mission to evangelize, because the sacrament is prepared for by the word of God
and by the faith which is assent to this word:
The
People of God is formed into one in the first place by the Word of the living
God... The preaching of the Word is required for the sacramental ministry
itself, since the sacraments are sacraments of faith, drawing their origin and
nourishment from the Word.
"The
purpose of the sacraments is to sanctify men, to build up the Body of Christ
and, finally to give worship to God. Because they are signs they also instruct.
They not only presuppose faith, but by words and objects they also nourish,
strengthen, and express it. That is why they are called ‘sacraments of
faith.’
The
Church's faith precedes the faith of the believer who is invited to adhere to
it. When the Church celebrates the sacraments, she confesses the faith received
from the apostles -- -- whence the ancient saying: lex orandi, lex credendi (or:
legem credendi lex statuat supplicandi, , according to Prosper of Aquitaine [5th
century]). The law of prayer is the law of faith: the Church believes as she
prays. Liturgy is a constitutive element of the holy living
Tradition.
For
this reason no sacramental rite may be modified or manipulated at the will of
the minister or the community. Even the supreme authority in the Church may not
change the liturgy arbitrarily, but only in the obedience of faith and with
religious respect for the mystery of liturgy.
Likewise,
since the sacraments express and develop the communion of faith in the Church,
the lex orandi is one of the essential criteria of the dialogue that seeks to
restore the unity of Christians.
Part
2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section IV - The Sacraments of Salvation
319
Celebrated
worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify. They are
efficacious because in them Christ himself is at work: it is he who baptizes, he
who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament
signifies. The Father always hears the prayer of his Son’s Church which, in the
epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith in the power of the Spirit. As
fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms
into the divine life whatever is subjected to his
power.
This
is the meaning of the Church’s affirmation that the sacraments act ex opere
operato (literally: "by the very fact of the action’s being performed"), i.e.,
by virtue of the saving work of Christ, accomplished once for all. It follows
that "the sacrament is not wrought by the righteousness of either the celebrant
or the recipient, but by the power of God." From the moment that a sacrament is
celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ
and his Spirit acts in and through it, independently of the personal holiness of
the minister. Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the
disposition of the one who receives them.
The
Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are
necessary for salvation. "Sacramental grace" is the grace of the Holy Spirit,
given by Christ and proper to each sacrament. The Spirit heals and transforms
those who receive them by conforming them to the Son of God. The fruit of the
sacramental life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in
the divine nature by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the
Savior.
Part
2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section V- The Sacraments of Eternal Life
320
The
Church celebrates the mystery of her Lord "until he comes," when God will be
"everything to everyone." Since the apostolic age the liturgy has been drawn
toward its goal by the Spirit’s groaning in the Church: Marana tha!
The liturgy thus shares in Jesus' desire: "I have earnestly desired to
eat this Passover with you... until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." In
the sacraments of Christ the Church already receives the guarantee of her
inheritance and even now shares in everlasting life, while "awaiting our
blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ
Jesus." The "Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come... Come, Lord Jesus!’
"
St.
Thomas sums up the various aspects of sacramental signs "Therefore a sacrament
is a sign that commemorates what precedes it-- -- Christ’s Passion; demonstrates
what is accomplished in us through Christ passion -- -- grace; and prefigures
what that Passion pledges to us -- --future glory."
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September 22, 2013 - So give encouragement to each other, and keep strengthening one another, as you do already. 1 Thessalonians 5:11
Part 2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section I The Paschal Mystery in the Church's Sacraments pg 315 The whole liturgical life of the Church revolves around the Eucharistic sacrifice and the sacraments. There are seven sacraments of the Church: Baptism, Confirmation (orChrismatio), Eucharist, Penance, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony. This article will discuss what is common to the Church's seven sacraments from a doctrinal point of view. What is common to them in terms of their celebration will be presented in the second chapter, and what is distinctive about each will be the topic of the Section 2.
I. the Sacraments of Christ
"Adhering to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, to the apostolic traditions, and to the consensus... of the Fathers," we profess that "the sacraments of the new law were... all instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord."
Jesus' words and actions during his hidden life and public ministry were already salvific, for they anticipated the power of his Paschal mystery. They announced and prepared what he was going to give the Church when all was accomplished. The mysteries of Christ life are the foundations of what he would henceforth dispense in the sacraments, through the ministers of his Church, for "what was visible in our Savior has passed over into his mysteries."
Sacraments are "powers that comes forth" from the body of Christ, which is ever living and life-giving. They are actions of the Holy Spirit at work in his Body, the Church. They are "the masterworks of God" in the new and everlasting covenant.
Part 2 Chapter 1 Article 2 Section II - The Sacraments of the Church pg 316
As she has done for the canon of Sacred Scripture and for the doctrine of the faith, the Church, by the power of the Spirit who guides her "into all truth," has gradually recognized this treasurer received from Christ and, as the faithful steward of God's mysteries, has determined its "dispensation." Thus the church has discerned over the centuries that among liturgical celebrations there are seven that are, in the strict sense of the term, sacraments instituted by the Lord.
The sacraments are "of the Church" in the old sense that they are "by herer" and "for her." They are "by the Church," for she is the sacrament of Christ’s action at work in her through the mission of the Holy Spirit. They are "for the Church" in the sense that "the sacraments make the Church," since they manifest and communicate to men, above all in the Eucharist, the mystery of communion with the God who is love, one in three persons.
Forming "as it were, one mystical person" with Christ the head, the Church acts in the sacraments as "an organically structured priestly community." Through Baptism and Confirmation the priestly people is enabled to celebrate the liturgy, while those of the faithful "who have received Holy Orders, are appointed to nourish the church with the word grace of God in the name of Christ."
The ordained ministry or ministerial priesthood is at the service of the baptismal priesthood. The ordained priesthood guarantees that it really is Christ who acts in the sacraments through the Holy Spirit for the Church. The saving mission entrusted by the Father to his incarnate Son was committed to the apostles and through them to their successors: they received the Spirit of Jesus to act in his name and in his person. The ordained minister is the sacramental bond that ties the liturgical action to what the apostles said and did and, through them, to the words and actions of Christ, the source and foundation of the sacraments.
The three sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Orders confer, in addition to grace, a sacramental character or "seal" by which the Christian shares in Christ's priesthood and is made a member of the church according to different states and functions. This configuration to Christ and to the Church, brought about by the Spirit, is indelible; it remains for ever in the Christian as a positive disposition for grace, a promise and guarantee of divine protection, and as a vocation to divine worship and to the service of the Church. Therefore the sacraments can never be repeated.
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September 15, 2013 - They pass away but you remain; they all wear out like a garment, like outworn clothes you change them Psalms 102:26
Part 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section III – The Holy Spirit and the Church in the Liturgy pg 309 In the liturgy the Holy Spirit is teacher of the faith of the People of God and artisan of "God's masterpieces," the sacraments of the New Covenant. The desire and work of the Spirit in the heart of the Church is that we may live the life of the risen Christ. When the Spirit encounters in us the response of faith which he has aroused us, he brings about genuine cooperation. Through it, the liturgy becomes a common work of the Holy Spirit and the Church.
In this sacramental dispensation of Christ’s mysteries the Holy Spirit acts in the same way as at other times in the economy of salvation: he prepares the Church to counter her Lord; he recalls a big Christ manifested the fate of the assembly. By his transforming power, he makes the mystery of Christ present here and now. Finally the Spirit of communion unites the Church to the life and mission of Christ.
The Holy Spirit prepares for the reception of Christ
In the sacramental economy the Holy Spirit fulfills what was prefigured in the Old Covenant. Since Christ’s Church was "prepared in the marvelous fashion in the history of the people of Israel and in the Old Covenant," the Church's liturgy has retained certain elements of the worship of the Old Covenant as integral and irreplaceable, adopted him as her own:
-- -- notably, reading the Old Testament;
-- -- praying the Psalms;
-- -- above all, recalling the saving events and significant realities which have found their fulfillment in the mystery of Christ (promise and covenant, Exodus and Passover, kingdom and temple, exile and return).
It is on this harmony of the two Testaments that the Paschal catechesis of the Lord is built, and then, that the Apostles of the Fathers of the Church. This catechesis unveils what lay hidden under the letter of the Old Testament: the mystery of Christ. It is called "typological" because it reveals the newness of Christ on the basis of the "figures" (types) which announce him in the deeds, words, and symbols of the first covenant. By this re-reading in the Spirit of Truth, starting from Christ, the figures are unveiled. Thus the flood and Noah's ark prefigured salvation by Baptism, as did the cloud and the crossing of the Red Sea. Water from the rock was the figure of the spiritual gifts of Christ, and manna in the desert prefigured the Eucharist, "the true bread from heaven."
For this reason the Church, especially during Advent and Lent and above all at the Easter Vigil, re-reads and re-lives the great events of salvation history in the "today" of her liturgy. But this also demands that catechesis help the faithful to open themselves to this spiritual understanding of the economy of salvation as the Church's liturgy reveals it and enables us to live it.
Jewish liturgy and Christian liturgy. A better knowledge of the Jewish people's faith and religious life as professed and lived even now can help our better understanding of certain aspects of Christian liturgy. For both Jews and Christians Sacred Scripture is an essential part of their respective liturgies: in the proclamation of the Word of God, the response to this word, prayer of praise and intercession for the living and the dead, invocation of God's mercy. In its characteristic structure the Liturgy of the Word originates in Jewish prayer. The liturgy of the Hours and other liturgical texts and formularies, as well as those of our most venerable prayers, including the Lord's Prayer, has parallels in Jewish prayer. The Eucharistic Prayers also draw their inspiration from the Jewish tradition. The relationship between Jewish liturgy and Christian liturgy, but also their differences in content, are particularly evident in the great feasts of the liturgical year, such as Passover. Christians and Jews both celebrate the Passover. For Jews, it is the Passover of history, tending toward the future; for Christians, it is the Passover fulfilled in the death and Resurrection of Christ, though always in expectation of its definitive consummation.
In the liturgy of the New Covenant every liturgical action, especially the celebration of the Eucharist and the sacraments, is an encounter between Christ and the Church. The liturgical assembly derives its unity from "communion of the Holy Spirit" who gathers the children of God into the one Body of Christ. This assembly transcends racial, cultural, social -- -- indeed, all human affinities.
The assembly should prepare itself to encounter its Lord and to become "a people well disposed." The preparation of hearts is the joint work of the Holy Spirit and the assembly, especially of its ministers. The grace of the Holy Spirit seeks to awaken faith, conversion of heart, and adherence to the Father's will. These dispositions are the precondition both for the reception of other graces conferred in the celebration itself and the fruits of new life which the celebration is intended to produce afterward.
The Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ
The Spirit and the Church cooperate to manifest Christ and his work of salvation in the liturgy. Primarily in the Eucharist, and by analogy in the other sacraments, the liturgy is the memorial of the mystery of salvation. The Holy Spirit is the Church's living memory.
The Word of God. The Holy Spirit first recalls a meeting of the salvation event to the liturgical assembly by giving life to the Word of God, which is proclaimed so that it may be received and lived:
In the celebration of the liturgy, Sacred Scripture is extremely important. From it comes the lessons that are read and explained in the homily and the psalms that are sung. It is from the Scriptures that the prayers, collects, and hymns draw their inspiration and their force, and that actions and signs derive their meaning.
The Holy Spirit gives a spiritual understanding of the Word of God to those who read or hear it, according to the dispositions of their hearts. By means of the words, actions, and symbols that form the structure of a celebration, the Spirit puts both the faithful and the ministers into a living relationship with Christ, the Word and Image of the Father, so that they can live out the meaning of what they hear, contemplate, and do in the celebration.
By the saving word of God, faith... is nourished in the hearts of believers. By this faith then the congregation of the faithful begins and grows." The proclamation does not stop with a teaching; it elicits the response of faith as consent and commitment, directed at the covenant between God and his people. Once again it is the Holy Spirit who gives the grace of faith, strengthens it and makes it grow in the community. The liturgical assembly is first of all a communion and faith.
Anamnesis. The liturgical celebration always refers to God's saving interventions in history. "The economy of Revelation is realized by deeds and words which are intrinsically bound up with each other... The words for their part proclaim the works and bring to light the mystery they contain." In the liturgy of the Word the Holy Spirit "recalls" to the assembly all that Christ has done for us. In keeping with the nature of liturgical actions and the ritual traditions of the churches, the celebration "makes a remembrance" of the marvelous works of God in an anamnesis which may be more or less developed. The Holy Spirit who thus awakens the memory of the Church then inspires thanksgiving and praise (doxology).
The Holy Spirit makes present the mystery of Christ
Christian liturgy not only recalls the events that saved us but actualizes them, makes them present. The Paschal mystery of Christ is celebrated, not repeated. It is the celebrations that are repeated, and in each celebration there is an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that makes the unique mystery present.
The Epiclesis ("invocation upon") is the intercession in which the priest begs the Father to send the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, so that the offerings may become the body and blood of Christ and that the faithful, by receiving them, may themselves become a living offering to God.
Together with the anamnesis, the epiclesis is at the heart of the sacramental celebration, most especially of the Eucharist:
You ask how the bread becomes the Body of Christ, and the wine... the Blood of Christ. I shall tell you: the Holy Spirit comes upon them and accomplishes what surpasses every word and thought... Let it be enough for you to understand that it is by the Holy Spirit, just as it was of the Holy Virgin and by the Holy Spirit of the Lord, through and it himself, took flesh.
The Holy Spirit's transforming power in the liturgy hastens the coming of the kingdom and the consummation of the mystery of salvation. While we wait in hope he causes us really to anticipate the fullness of communion with the Holy Trinity. Sent by the Father who hears the epiclesis of the Church, the Spirit gives life to those who accept him and is, even now, the "guarantee" of their inheritance..
The communion of the Holy Spirit
In every liturgical action the Holy Spirit is sent in order to bring us into communion with Christ and so to form his Body. The Holy Spirit is like the sap of the Father's vine which bears fruit on its branches. The most intimate cooperation of the Holy Spirit and the Church is achieved in the liturgy. The Spirit, who is the Spirit of communion, abides indefectibly in the Church. For this reason the Church is the great sacrament of divine communion which gathers God’s scattered children together. Communion with the Holy Trinity and fraternal communion are inseparably the fruit of the Spirit and the liturgy.
The epiclesis is also a prayer for the full effect of the assembly's communion with the mystery of Christ. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit" have to remain with us always and bear fruit beyond the Eucharistic celebration. The Church therefore asks the Father to send the Holy Spirit to make the lives of the faithful a living sacrifice to God by their spiritual transformation into the image of Christ, by concern for the Church's unity, and by taking part in her mission through the witness and service of charity.
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September 8, 2013- ‘Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, the wine
runs out, and the skins are lost. No; they put new wine in fresh skins and both are preserved.' Matthew 9:17
Part 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section I – The Liturgy – Work of the Holy Trinity pg 305
I. The Father –Source and Goal of the Liturgy
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before
him. He destined us before him in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ,
according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which
he freely bestowed on us in the beloved."
Blessing is a divine and life-giving action, the source of which is the Father; his
blessing is both word and gift. When applied to man, the word "blessing" means
adoration and surrender to his Creator in
thanksgiving.
From the beginning until the end of time the whole of God's work is a blessing. From
the liturgical poem of the first creation to the canticles of the heavenly
Jerusalem, the inspired authors proclaim the plan of salvation as one vast
divine blessing.
From the very beginning God blessed all living beings, especially man and woman. The
covenant with Noah and with all living things renewed this blessing of
fruitfulness despite man's sin which had brought a curse on the ground. But with
Abraham, the divine blessing entered into human history which was moving towards
death, to redirect it toward life, toward its source. By the faith of "the
father of all believers," who embraced the blessing, the history of salvation is
inaugurated.
The divine blessings were made manifest in astonishing and saving events: the birth
of Isaac, the escape from Egypt (Passover and Exodus), the gift of the promised
land, the election of David, the presence of God in the Temple, the purifying
exile, and return of a "small remnant." The Law, the prophets, and the Psalms,
interwoven in the liturgy of the Chosen People, recall these divine blessings
and at the same time respond to them the blessings of praise and thanksgiving.
In the Church's liturgy the divine blessing is fully revealed and communicated. The
Father is acknowledged and adored as the source and the end of all the blessings
of creation and salvation. In his Word who became incarnate, died, and rose for
us, he fills us with his blessings. Through his Word, he pours into our hearts
the Gift that contains all gifts, the Holy Spirit.
The dual dimension of the Christian liturgy as a response of faith and love to the
spiritual blessings the Father bestows on us is thus evident. On the one hand,
the Church, united with her Lord and "in the Holy Spirit blesses the Father “for
his inexpressible gift” in her adoration, praise, and thanksgiving.
On the other hand, until the consummation of God’s plan, the Church never
ceases to present to the Father the offering of his own gifts and to beg him to
send the Holt Spirit upon that offering, upon herself, upon the faithful, and
upon the whole world, so that through communion in the death and resurrection of
Christ the Priest, and by the power of the Spirit, these divine blessings will
bring forth the fruits of life "to the praise of his glorious grace."
Part 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Section II – Christ’s Work in the Liturgy pg 307
Christ glorified...
"Seated at the right hand of Father" and pouring out the Holy Spirit on his body which
is the Church, Christ now acts through the sacraments he instituted to
communicate his grace. The sacraments are perceptible signs (words and actions)
accessible to our human nature. By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit they make
present efficaciously the grace that they signify.
In the liturgy of the Church, it is principally his own Paschal mystery that Christ
signifies and makes present. During his earthly life Jesus announced his Paschal
mystery by his teaching and anticipated by his actions. When his Hour comes, he
lives out the unique event of history which does not pass away: Jesus dies, is
buried, rises from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the Father "once
for all." His Paschal mystery is a real event that occurred in our history, but
it is unique: all other historical events happen once, and then they pass away,
swallowed up in the past. The Paschal mystery of Christ, by contrast, cannot
remain only in the past, because by his death he destroyed death, and all that
Christ is -- -- all that he did and suffered for all men -- participates in the
divine eternity, and so transcends all times while being made present in them
all. The event of the Cross and Resurrection abides and draws everything toward
life.
... From the time of the Church of the Apostles...
"Accordingly, just as Christ was sent by the Father so also he sent the apostles, filled with
the Holy Spirit. This he did so that they might preach the Gospel to every
creature and proclaim that the Son of God by his death and resurrection has
freed us from the power of Satan and from death and brought us into the Kingdom
of his Father. But he also willed that the work of salvation which they preached
should be set in train through the sacrifice and sacraments around which the
entire liturgical life revolves."
Thus the risen Christ, by giving the Holy Spirit to the apostles, entrusted to them
his power of sanctifying: they became sacramental signs of Christ. By the power
of the same Holy Spirit they entrusted his power to their successors. This
"apostolic succession" structures the whole liturgical life of the Church and is
itself sacramental, handed on by the sacrament of Holy Orders.
... Is present in the earthly liturgy..
"To accomplish so great a work" -- -- the dispensation or communication of his work
of salvation -- -- "Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her
liturgical celebrations. He is present in the sacrifice of the Mass not only in
the person of his minister,‘the same now offering, through the ministry of
priests, who formally offered himself on the cross,’ but especially in the
Eucharistic species. By his power he is present in the sacraments so that when
anybody baptizes, it is really Christ himself who baptizes. He is present in his
word since it is he himself who speaks when the holy Scriptures are read in the
Church. Lastly, he is present when the Church prays and sings, for he has
promised ‘where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the
midst of them.’ "
"Christ, indeed, always associates the Church with himself in this great work in which
God is perfectly glorified and men are sanctified. The Church is his beloved
Bride who calls to her Lord and through him offers worship to the eternal
father."
... Which participates in the liturgy of heaven
"In the earthly liturgy we share in a foretaste of that heavenly liturgy which is
celebrated in The Holy City of Jerusalem toward which we journey as pilgrims,
where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, Minister of the sanctuary and
of the true tabernacle. With all the warriors of the heavenly army we sing a
hymn of glory to the Lord; venerating the memory of the saints, we hope for
some part and fellowship with them; we eagerly await a Savior, our Lord Jesus
Christ, until he, our life, shall appear and we too will appear with him in glory."
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Today at Mass I received a message from Our Lord Jesus. He wants us to be diciples of faith. So please try to talk to family, friends and neighbors and ask them to consider turning or returning to Christ. You do not have to be a Crusader, just mention opportunities if the situation allows. God bless you.
September 1, 2013 - Whatever your work is, put your heart into it as done for the Lord and not for human beings, Colossians 3:23
Part 2 Section I The celebration Of The Christian Mystery
Why the liturgy?
In the Symbol of the faith the Cuurch confesses the mystery of the Holy Trinity and
of the plan of God's "good pleasure" for all creation: the Father, accomplishes
the "mystery of his will" by giving his beloved Son and his Holy Spirit for the
salvation of the world and for the glory of his name. Such is the mystery of
Christ, revealed and fulfilled in history according to the wisely ordered plan
that St. Paul calls the "plan of the mystery" and the patristic tradition will
call the "economy of the Word incarnate" or the "economy of salvation."
"The wonderful works of God among the people of the Old Testament were but a prelude
to the work of Christ the Lord in redeeming mankind and giving perfect glory to
God. He accomplished this work principally by the Paschal mystery of his blessed
Passion, Resurrection from the dead, and glorious Ascension, whereby ‘dying he
destroyed our death, rising he restored our life." For it was from the side of
Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon the cross that there came forth "the
wondrous sacrament of the whole Cuurch." For this reason, the Cuurch celebrates
in the liturgy above all the Paschal mystery by which Christ accomplished the
work of our salvation.
It is this mystery of Christ that the Cuurch proclaims and celebrates her liturgy
so that the faithful may live from it and bear witness to it in the world:
For it is in the liturgy, especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist, that
"the work of our redemption is accomplished," and it is through the liturgy
especially that the faithful are enabled to express in their lives and manifest
to others the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the true Cuurch."
Section 1 – The Sacramental Economy
The Cuurch was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring
of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the
"dispensation of the mystery" -- -- the age of the Church, during which Christ
manifests, makes present, and communicate his work of salvation through liturgy
of his Church, "until he comes." In this age of the Church Christ now lives in
acts in and with his Church, in a new way appropriate to this new age. He acts
through the sacraments in what the common Traditions of the East and the West
calls "the sacramental economy"; this is the communication (or "dispensation")
of the fruits of Christ's Paschal mystery in the celebration of the Church’s
"sacramental” liturgy.
It is therefore important first to explain this "sacramental dispensation" (chapter
1). The nature and essential features of liturgical celebration will then
appear more clearly (chapter 2).
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Dear readers and schloars. Very sorry about last week. Not exactly sure what happened. I think the pubish failed and I did not notice. This week has two lessons.
August 25, 2013 - For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.2 Timothy 1:7
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 12 Section V – pg 293
The Last Judgment
The resurrection of all the dead, "of both the just and the unjust," will precede
the Last Judgment. This will be "the hour when all who are in the tombs will
hear [the Son of man's] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the
resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of
judgment." Then Christ will come "in his glory, and all the angels with him...
Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from
another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, they will place the
sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left... And they will go away
into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man's
relationship with God will be laid bare. The Last Judgment will reveal even to
its furtherest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during
his earthly life:
All that the wicked do is recorded, and they do not know. When "our God comes, he
does not keep silence."... he will turn toward those at his left hand:... "I
placed my poor little ones on earth for you. I as ther head was seated in
heaven at the right hand of my Father -- -- but on earth my members were
suffering, by members on earth were in need. If you gave anything to my
members, what you gave would reach their Head. Would that you had known that my
little ones were in need when I place them on earth for you and appointed them
your stewards to bring your good works into my treasury. But you have placed
nothing in their hands; therefore you have found nothing in my presence."
The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the
day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his
Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know
the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of
salvation and understand the marvellous ways by which his Providence led
everything towards its final end. The Last Judgment will reveal that God's
justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that
God's love is stronger than death.
The message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving
them "the acceptable time... on the day of salvation." It inspires a holy fear
of God and commits them to the justice of the Kingdom of God. It proclaims the
"blessed hope" of the Lord's return, when he will come "to be glorified in his
saints, and to be marvelled at it in all who have believed."
VI. The Hope of the New Heaven and the New Earth
At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the
universal judgment the righteous will reign forever with Christ, glorified in
body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed:
The Church... will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, when will
come the time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human
race, the universe itself, which is so closely related to man and which attains
its destiny through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ.
Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal, which will transform humanity and the
world, "new heavens and a new earth." It will be the definitive realization of
God's plan to bring under a single head "all things in [Christ], things in
heaven and things on earth."
In this new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem, God will have his dwelling among men.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more,
neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former
things have passed away."
For man, this consummation will be the final realization of the unity of the human
race, which God willed from creation and of which the pilgrim Church has been
"in the nature of sacrament." Those were united with Christ will form the
community of the redeemed, "the holy city" of God, "the Bride, the wife of the
Lamb." She will not be wounded any longer by sin, stains, self-love, that
destroy or wound the earthly community. The beatific vision, in which God opens
himself in an inexhaustible way to the elect, will be the ever-flowing
well-spring of happiness, peace, and mutual
communion.
For the cosmos, Revelation affirms the profound common destiny of the material world
and man: For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons
of God... in hope because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage
to decay…. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together
until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first
fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the
redemption of our bodies.
The visible universe, then, is itself destined to be transformed, "so that the world
itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be
at the service of the just," sharing their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ.
We know neither the moment of the consummation of the earth and of man, nor the way
in which the universe will be transformed. The form of this world, distorted by
sin, is passing away, and we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling and
a new earth in which righteousness dwells, in which happiness will fill and
surpass all the desires of peace arising in the hearts of
men."
"Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the expectancy of a new
earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new human family
grows, foreshadowing in some way the age which is to come. That is why, although
we must be careful to distinguish earthly progress clearly from the increase of
the kingdom of God, such progress is of vital concern to the kingdom of God, in
so far as it could contribute to the better ordering of human
society."
When we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and our enterprise... according
to the command of the Lord and in his Spirit, we will find them once again,
cleansed this time from the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured, when
Christ presents to his Father an eternal and universal kingdom." God will then
be "all in all" in eternal life:
True and subsistent life consists in this: the Father, through the Son and in the
Holy Spirit, pouring out his heavenly gifts of all things without exception.
Thanks to his mercy, we too, men that we are, have received the inalienable
promise of eternal life.
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August 18, 2013 - Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:17
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 12 Section III IV – The Final Purification, or Purgatory pg 291
All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are
indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo
purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of
heaven.
The church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which
is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The Church formulated
her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and
Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture,
speaks of a cleansing fire:
As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment,
there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to
come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in
this age, but certain others in the age to come.
This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned
in Sacred Scripture: "therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead,
that they might be delivered from their sin." From the beginning the Church has
honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above
all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the
beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and
works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:
Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father’s
sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some
consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our
prayers for them.
IV Hell
We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot
love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against
ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother
is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."
Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the
serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. To die in
mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining
separated from him forever our own free choice. This state of definitive
self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."
Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna," of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to
the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and
body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and
they will gather... all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire," and
that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the
eternal fire!"
The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity.
Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin
descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."
The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man
can possess to life and happiness for which he was created for which he longs.
The affirmations of sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject
of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his
freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call
to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is
easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the
gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it
are few."
Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord
and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is
completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be
numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be
ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will
weep and gnash their teeth."
God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a
mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the
Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church
implores the mercy of God, who does not want " any to perish, but all to come to
repentance":
Father, accept this offering from your whole family. Grant us your peace in this life,
save us from final damnation, and count us among those you have chosen.
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August 11, 2013 - For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor
powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any
other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 12 Section I – The Particular Judgment pg 288
I -
Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or
rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ. The New Testament speaks of
judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his
second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded
immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith. The parable of
the poor man Lazarus in the words of Christ on the cross to the good thief, as
well as other New Testament texts speak of a final destiny of the soul -- -- a
destiny which can be different for some and for others.
Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of
his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either
entrance into the blessedness of heaven -- -- through a purification or
immediately, -- -- or immediate and everlasting damnation.
At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 12 Section II – Heaven pg 289
Those who die in God's grace and friendship are perfectly purified live forever with
Christ. They are like God forever, for they "see him as he is, it"
face-to-face:
By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the
general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints... and other faithful
who died after receiving Christ’s holy Baptism (provided they were not in need
of purification when they died,... or, if they then did or will need some
purification, when they have been purified after death,...) already before they
take up their bodies again and before the general judgment -- -- -- and this
since the Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into heaven -- -- --
have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial
paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the
Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and do see
the divine essence with an intuitive vision, and even face-to-face, without the
mediation of any creature.
This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity -- -- this communion of life and love
with the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed -- -- is
called "heaven." Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human
longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.
To live in heaven is "to be with Christ." The elect live "in Christ," but they
retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name.
For life is to be with Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom.
By his death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has "opened" heaven to us. The life of
the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession of the fruits of the
redemption accomplished by Christ. He makes partners in his heavenly
glorification those who have believed in him and remained faithful to his will.
Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into
Christ.
This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all
understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it as images: life, light,
peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father's house, the heavenly
Jerusalem, paradise: "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man
conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him."
Because of this transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up
his mystery to man’s immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it.
The church calls this contemplation of God and his heavenly glory "the beatific
vision":
how great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be honored
with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with Christ your Lord and
God,... to delight in the joy of immortality in the Kingdom of heaven with the
righteous and God's friends.
In the glory of heaven the blessed continue joyfully to fulfill God's will in
relation to other men and to all creation. Already they reign with Christ;
within "they shall reign forever and ever."
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August 4, 2013 - Everyword of God is true. He guards those who come to him for safety. Proverbs 30:5
Section II Dying in Christ Jesus
To rise with Christ, we must die with Christ: we must "be away from the body and at
home with the Lord." In that "departure" which is death the soul is separated
from the body. It will be reunited with the body on the day of resurrection of
the dead.
Death
"It is in regard to death that man's condition is most shrouded in doubt." In a
sense bodily death is natural, but for faith it is in fact "the wages of sin."
For those who die in Christ’s grace it is a participation in the death of the
Lord, so that they can also share his
Resurrection.
Death is the end of earthly life. Our lives are measured by time, in the course of
which we change, grow old and, as with all living beings on earth, death seems
like the normal end of life. That aspect of death lends urgency to our lives:
remembering our mortality helps us realize that we have only a limited time in
which to bring our lives to fulfillment:
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth,... before the dust returns to the
earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
Death is a consequence of sin. The churches Magisterium, as authentic interpreter of
the affirmations of Scripture and Tradition, teaches that death entered the
world on account of man's sin. Even though man's nature is mortal, God had
destined him not to die. Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the
Creator and entered the world as a consequence of sin. "Bodily death, from which
man would have been immune had he not sinned” is thus "the last enemy" of man
left to be conquered.
Death is transformed by Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death
that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death,
he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father's will.
The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a
blessing.
The meaning of Christian death
Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning: "For to me to live in Christ,
and to die is gain." “The saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also
live with him." What is essentially new about Christian death is this: through
Baptism, the Christian has already "died with Christ" sacramentally, in order to
live a new life; and if we die in Christ’s grace, physical death completes this
"dying with Christ" and so completes our incorporation into him and his
redeeming act:
It is better for me to die in (eis) Christ Jesus and to reign over the ends of the
earth. Him it is I seek -- -- -- who died for us. Him it is I desire -- -- --
who rose for us. I am on the point of giving birth... Let me receive pure light;
when I shall have arrived there, then shall I be a man.
In death, God calls man to himself. Therefore the Christian can experience a desire
for death like St. Paul's: "My desire is to depart and be with Christ." He can
transform his own death into an act of obedience and love towards the Father,
after the example of Christ:
My earthly desire has been crucified;...there is no living water in me, water that
murrmurs and says within me: Come to the Father.
I want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die. I am not dying; I am
entering life.
The Christian vision of death receives privileged expression in the liturgy of the
Church.
Lord, for your faithful people life is changed, not ended.
When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death we gain an
everlasting dwelling place in heaven.
Death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God
offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan,
and to decide his ultimate destiny. When "the single course of our earthly life"
is completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives; "it is appointed for
men to die once." There is no "reincarnation" after death.
The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of death. In the ancient
litany of the Saints, for instance, she has us pray: "From a sudden and
unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord"; to ask the Mother of God to intercede for
us "at the hour of our death" in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves to St.
Joseph, the patron of a happy death.
Every action of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before
the day is out. Death should have
no great terrors for you if you had a quiet conscience...Then why not keep clear
of sin instead of running away from death? If you aren't fit to face death
today, it's very unlikely you will be tomorrow... Praised are you, my Lord, for
our sister bodily Death, from whom no living man can escape. Woe on those who
will die in mortal sin! Blessed are they who will be found in your most holy
will, for the second death will not harm them.
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July 28, 2013 - But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your
reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to
the unthankful and evil. Luke 6:35
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 11– I Believe In The Resurrection Of The Body pg 279
Section I Christ’s Resurrection and Ours
The progressive revelation of the Resurrection
God revealed the Resurrection of the dead to his people progressively. Hope in the
bodily resurrection of the dead established itself as a consequence intrinsic to
faith in God as creator of the whole man, soul and body. The Creator of heaven
and earth is also the one who faithfully maintains his covenant with Abraham and
his posterity. It was at this double perspective that faith in the resurrection
came to be expressed. In their trials, the Maccabean martyrs confessed:
The King of the universe will raise us up to an everlasting renewal of life, because
we have died for his laws. One cannot but choose to die at the hands of men and
to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him.
The Pharisees and many of the Lord's contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. Jesus teaches it firmly. To the
Sadducees who deny it he answers," Is not this why you are wrong, that you know
neither the scriptures nor the power of God?" Faith in the resurrection rests on
the faith in God who "is not God of the dead, but of living."
But there is more. Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person: "I am
the Resurrection and the life." It is Jesus himself who on the last day will
raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body in drunk his
blood. Already now in this present life he gives a sign and pledge of this by
restoring some of the dead to life, announcing thereby his own Resurrection,
though it was to be of another order. He speaks of this unique event as the
"sign of Jonah," the sign of the temple: he announces that he will be put to
death but rise on the third day.
To be a witness to Christ is to be a "witness to his Resurrection," to "have eaten
and drunk with him after he rose from the dead." Encounters with the risen
Christ characterized Christian hope of resurrection. We shall rise like Christ,
with him, and through him.
From the beginning, Christian faith in the resurrection has met with incomprehension
and opposition. “On no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition
than on the resurrection of the body." It is very commonly accepted that the
life of the human person continues in a spiritual fashion after death. But how
can we believe that this body, so clearly mortal, could rise to everlasting
life?
How do the dead rise?
What is "rising"?
In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body
decays and soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified
body. God, in his Almighty power, will definitely grant incorruptible life for
bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus'
Ressurection.
Who will rise?
All the dead will rise, "those who have done good, to the
resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of
judgment."
How?
Christ is raised with his own body: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I
myself"; but he did not return to earthly life. So, in him, "all of them will
rise again with their own bodies which they now bear," but Christ "will change
our lowly body to be like his glorious body," into a "spiritual body":
But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they
come?" You foolish man! What you
sew does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which
is to be, a bare kernel... What is sown is perishable, what is raised is
imperishable…The dead will be raised imperishable….For this perishable nature
must be put on the imperishable and his mortal nature must be put on immortality.
This "how" exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is accessible only to faith.
Yet our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ's
transfiguration of our bodies:
Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God's blessing has been invoked upon
it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one
earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the
Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection.
When?
Definitely "at the last day," "at the end of the world." Indeed, the
resurrection of the dead is closely associated with Christ’s
Parousia:
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a cry of command, with the
archangels call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in
Christ will rise first.
Risen with Christ
Christ will raise us up "on the last day"; but it is also true that, in a certain way,
we have already risen with Christ. For, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, Christian
life is already now on earth a participation in the death and Resurrection of
Christ:
And you were buried with him in Baptism, in which you were also raised with him
through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead... If then you
have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God.
United with Christ by Baptism, believers already truly participate in the heavenly life
of the risen Christ, but his life remains "hidden with Christ in God." The
Father has already "raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Nourished with his body in the Eucharist, we
already belong to the body of Christ. When we rise on the last day we "also will
appear with him in glory."
In expectation of that day, the believer's body and soul already participate in the
dignity of belonging to Christ. This dignity entails the demand that he should
treat with respect his own body, but also the body of every other person,
especially the suffering:
The body is meant for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord
and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are
members of Christ?... You are not your own; ... So glorify God in your body.
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July 21, 2013 - This is my commandment: love one another, as I have loved you.
No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends, if you do what I command you.
I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master's business; I call
you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father.
You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and
to bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name.
My command to you is to love one another. John 15:12-17
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 10 Section I II – “I Believe In The Forgiveness Of Sins” pg 276
One Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
Our Lord tied the forgiveness of sins to faith and Baptism: "Go into all the world
and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized
will be saved." Baptism is the first and chief sacrament of forgiveness of sins
because it unites us with Christ, who died for our sins and rose for our
justification, so that "we too might walk in newness of life."
"When we made our first profession of faith while receiving the holy Baptism that
cleansed us, the forgiveness we received then was so full and complete that
there remained in us absolutely nothing left to efface, neither original sin nor
offenses committed by our own will, nor was there left any penalty to suffer in
order to expiate them... Yet the grace of Baptism delivers no one from all the
weaknesses of nature. On the contrary, we must still combat the movements of
concupiscence that never cease leading us into evil."
In this battle against our inclination towards evil, who could be brave and
watchful enough to escape every wound of sin? "If the Church has the power to
forgive sins, then Baptism cannot be her only means of using the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven received from Jesus Christ. The Church must be able to forgive
all penitents their offenses, if they should sin until the last moment of their
lives."
It is through the Sacrament of Penance that the baptized can be reconciled with God
and with the Church:
Penance has rightly been called by the holy Fathers "a laborious kind of baptism." This
Sacrament of Penance is necessary for salvation for those who have fallen after
Baptism, just as Baptism is necessary for salvation for those who have not yet
been reborn.
II THE POWER OF THE KEYS
After his Resurrection, Christ sent his apostles "so that repentance and forgiveness
of sins should be preached in his name to all nations."
The apostles and their successors carry out this "ministry of
reconciliation," not only by announcing to men God's forgiveness merited for us
by Christ, and calling them to conversion and faith; but also by communicating
to them the forgiveness of sins in Baptism, and reconciling them with God and
with the Church through the power of the keys, received from Christ.
The church has received the keys of the Kingdom of heaven so that, in her, sins may
be forgiven through Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit's action. In this Church,
the soul dead through sin comes back to life in order to live with Christ, whose
grace has saved us.
There is no offense, however serious, that the Church cannot forgive. "There is no
one, however wicked and guilty, who may not confidently hope for forgiveness,
provided his repentance is honest." Christ died for all men desires that in his
Church the gates of forgiveness should always be open to anyone who turns away
from sin.
Catechesis strives to awaken and nourish in the faithful faith in the incomparable
greatness of the risen Christ’s gift to his Church: the mission and the power to
forgive sins through the ministry of the apostles and their successors:
The Lord wills that his disciples possess a tremendous power: that his lowly
servants accomplish in his name all that he did when he was on earth.
Priests have received from God a power that he has given neither to angels nor to
archangels... God above confirms what priests do here below.
Were there no forgiveness of sins in the Church, there would be no hope of life to
come or eternal liberation. Let us thank God who has given his Church such a
gift.
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July 14, 2013 - And he said: "I tell you the truth, you must change and become like little
children. Otherwise, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 6 Section I – Mary’s Motherhood with regard to the Church –p 273
Wholly united with her son...
Mary's role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly
from it. "This union of the mother with a Son in the work of salvation is made
manifest from the time of Christ's virginal conception up to his death"; it is
made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:
Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully
persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping
with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his
suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother's heart, and
lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given,
by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with
these words: "Woman, behold your son."
After her Son's Ascension, Mary "aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers."
In her association with the apostles and several women, "we also see Mary by her
prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in
the Annunciation."
... Also in her Assumption
"Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the
course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into
heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she
might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of
sin and death." The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation
in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other
Christians:
In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the
world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the
living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.
... She is our Mother in the order of grace
By her complete adherence to the Father's will, to her Son's redemptive work, and
to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church's model of
faith and charity. Thus she is a "preeminent and... wholly unique member of the
Church"; indeed, she is the "exemplary realization" (typus) of the Church.
Her role in relation to the Church and to all humanity goes still further. "In a
wholly singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope, and burning
charity in the Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this
reason she is a mother to us in the order of grace."
"This motherhood of Mary in the order of grace continues uninterruptedly from the
consent which he loyally gave at the Annunciation and which she sustained
without wavering beneath the cross, until the eternal fulfillment of all the
elect. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her
manifold intercession continues to bring us the gifts of eternal salvation...
Therefore the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of
Advocate, Helper, Benefactress, and Mediatrix."
"Mary's function as mother of men in no way obscures and diminishes this unique
mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. But the Blessed Virgin’s
salutary influence on men... flows forth from the superabundance of the merits
of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it, and draws all its
power from it." "No creature could ever be counted along with the Incarnate Word
and Redeemer; but just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways
both by his ministers of the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is
radiated in different ways among his creatures, so also the unique mediation of
the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation
which is but a sharing in this one source."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 6 Section II – Devotion to the Blessed Virgin p 275
"All generations will call me blessed": "The Church’s devotion to the Blessed Virgin
is intrinsic to Christian worship." The Church rightly honors "the Blessed
Virgin with special devotion. From the most ancient times the Blessed Virgin has
been honored with the title of ‘Mother of God,’ to whose protection the faithful
fly in all their dangers and needs... This very special devotion….differs
essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word and equally
to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and greatly fosters this adoration." The
liturgical feasts dedicated to the Mother of God and Marian prayer, such as the
rosary, an "epitome of the whole Gospel," expresses this devotion to the Virgin Mary.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 6 Section III – Mary—Eschatological Icon of the Church – p 275
After speaking of the Church, her origin, mission, destiny, we can find no better way
to conclude than by looking to Mary. In her we contemplate what the Church
already is in her mystery on her own "pilgrimage of faith," and what she will be
in the homeland at the end of her journey. There, "in the glory of the Most Holy
and Undivided Trinity," “in the communion of all the saints," the Church is
awaited the one she venerates as Mother of her Lord and as her own mother.
In the meantime the Mother of Jesus, in the glory which she possesses in body and
soul in heaven, is the image and beginning of the Church as it is to be
protected in the world to come. Likewise she shines forth on earth, until the
day of the Lord shall come, a sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim
people of God.
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July 7, 2013 - As a tree gives fruit, healing words give life; but dishonest words crush the spirit. Proverbs 15:4
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 5 Section I – Communion in Spiritual Goods pg 269
In the primitive community of Jerusalem, the disciples "devoted themselves to the
apostles’teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers"
Communion in the faith. The faith of the faithful is the faith of the Church, received
from the apostles. Faith is a treasure of life which is enriched by being shared.
Communion of the sacraments. "The fruit of all the sacraments belongs to all the faithful.
All the sacraments are sacred links uniting the faithful with one another and
binding them to Jesus Christ, and above all Baptism, the gate by which we enter
into the Church. The communion of saints must be understood as the communion of
the sacraments... but the name ‘Communion’ can be applied to all of them, for
they unite us to God...... But this name is better suited to the Eucharist that
brings this communion about."
Communion of charisms. Within the communion
of the Church, the Holy Spirit "distributes special graces among the faithful of
every rank" for the building up of the Church. Now, "to each is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."
"They had everything in common." "Everything the true Christian has is to be regarded
as a good possessed in common with everyone else. All Christians should be ready
and eager to come to the help of the needy... and of their neighbors in want." A
Christian is a steward of the Lord's goods.
Communion in charity. In the sanctorum communio, "None of us lives to himself, and none of
us dies to himself." "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member
is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and
individually members of it." "Charity does not insist on its own way." In this
solidarity with all men, living or dead, which is founded on the communion of
saints, the least of our acts done in charity rebounds to the profit of all.
Every sin harms this communion.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 5 Section II – The Communion of the Church of heaven and Earth pg 270
The three states of the Church. "When the Lord comes in glory, and all his angels
with him, death will be no more and all things will be subject to him. But at
the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims on earth. Others have died
and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating ‘in full
light, God himself triune and one, exactly as he is’ ":
All of us, however, in varying degrees and in different ways share in the same
charity towards God and our neighbors, and we all sing the one hymn of glory to
our God. All, indeed, who are of Christ and who have his Spirit form one Church
and in Christ cleave together.
"So it is that the union of the wayfarers with the brethren who sleep in peace of
Christ is in no way interrupted, but on the contrary, according to the constant
faith of the Church, this union is reinforced by an exchange of spiritual goods."
The intercession of the saints. "Being more closely united to Christ, those who
dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly and holiness... They do not
cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they
acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus....
So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped."
Do not weep, for I shall be more useful to you after my death and I shall help you
then more effectively than during my life.
I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth.
Communion with the saints. "It is not merely by the title of example that we cherish the
memory of those in heaven; we seek, rather, that by this devotion to the
exercise of fraternal charity the union of the whole Church and the spirit may
be strengthened. Exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings
us closer to Christ, so our communion with the saints joins us to Christ, from
whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace, and the life of the People
of God itself":
We worship Christ as God's son; we love the martyrs as the Lord's disciples and
imitators, and rightly so because of their matchless devotion towards their king
and master. May we also be their companions and fellow disciples!
Communion with the dead. "In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical
Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members, from the very earliest
days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the
dead; and ‘because it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead
that they may be loosed from their sins’ she offers her suffrages for them." Our
prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their
intercession for us effective.
In the one family of God. "For if we continue to love one another and to join in
praising the Most Holy Trinity -- -- all of us who are sons of God and form one
family in Christ -- -- we will be faithful to the deepest vocation to church."
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June 30, 2013 - Be joyful because you have hope. Be patient when trouble comes, and pray at all
times. Romans 12:12
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 4 Section III – The Consecrated Life pg 262
"The state of life which is constituted by the profession of the evangelical
counsels, while not entering into the hierarchical structure of the Church,
belongs undeniably to her life and holiness."
Evangelical counsels, consecrated life
Christ proposes the evangelical counsels, in their great variety, to every disciple.
The perfection of charity, to which all the faithful are called, entails for
those who freely follow the call to consecrated life the obligation of
practicing chastity in celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom, poverty and
obedience. It is the profession of these counsels, within a permanent state of
life recognized by the Church, that characterizes the life consecrated to God.
The state of consecrated life is thus one way of experiencing a "more intimate"
consecration, rooted in Baptism and dedicated totally to God. In the
consecrated life, Christ's faithful, moved by the Holy Spirit, propose to
follow Christ more nearly, to give themselves to God who is loved above all
and, pursuing the perfection of charity in the service of the Kingdom, to
signify and proclaim in the Church the glory of the world to come.
One great tree, with many branches
"From the God-given seed of the counsels, a wonderful and wide-spreading tree has
grown up in the field of the Lord, branching out into various forms of the
religious life lived in solitude or in community. Different religious families
have come into existence in which spiritual resources are multiplied for the
progress in holiness of their members and for the good of the entire body of
Christ."
From the very beginning of the Church there were men and women who set out to follow
Christ with greater liberty, and to imitate him more closely, by practicing the
evangelical counsels. They led lives dedicated to God, each in his own way.
Many of them, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became hermits or
founded religious families. These the church, by virtue of her authority,
gladly accepted and approved.
Bishops will always strive to discern the gifts of consecrated life granted to the
Church by the Holy Spirit; the approval of new forms of consecrated life is
reserved to the Apostolic See.
The eremitic life
Without always professing the three evangelical counsels publicly, hermits "devote their
life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter
separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and
penance."
They manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church, that is,
personal intimacy with Christ. Hidden from the eyes of men, the life of a hermit
is a silent preaching of the Lord, to whom he has surrendered his life simply
because he is everything to him. Here is a particular call to find in the
desert, in the thick of spiritual battle, the glory of the Crucified One.
Consecrated virgins of widows
From apostolic times Christian virgins and widows, called by the Lord to cling only
to him with greater freedom of heart, body, and spirit, have decided with the
Church's approval to live in the respective states of viginity or perpetual
chastity "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven."
"Virgins who, committed to the holy plan of following Christ more closely, are
consecrated to God by the diocesan Bishop according to the approved liturgical
right, are betrothed mystically to Christ, the Son of God, and are dedicated to
the service of the Church." By the solemn rite (Consecratio Virginum), the
Virgin is "constituted... a sacred person, a transcendent sign of the Church's
love for Christ, and an eschatological image of this heavenly Bride of Christ
and of the life to come."
"As with other forms of consecrated life," the order of virgins establishes the
woman living in the world (or the nun) in prayer, penance, service of her
brethren, and apostolic activity, according to the state of life and spiritual
gifts given to her. Consecrated virgins can form themselves into association to
observe their commitment more faithfully.
Religious life
Religious life was born in the East during the first centuries of Christianity. Lived
within institutes canonically erected by the Church, it is distinguished from
other forms of consecrated life by its liturgical character, public profession
of the evangelical counsels, fraternal life led in common, and witness given to
the union of Christ with the Church.
Religious life derives from the ministry of the Church. It is a gift she has received from
her Lord, a gift she offers as a stable way of life to the faithful called by
God to profess the counsels. Thus,
the Church can both show forth Christ and acknowledge herself to be the Savior's
bride. Religious life in its various forms is called to signify the very
charity of God in the language of our time.
All religious, whether exempt or not, take their place among the collaborators of
the diocesan bishop in his pastoral duty. From the outset of the work of
evangelization, the missionary "planting" and expansion of the church require
the presence of the religious life in all its forms. "History witnesses to the
outstanding service rendered by religious families in the propagation of the
faith and in the formation of new Churches: from the ancient monastic
institutions to the medieval orders, all the way to the more recent
congregations."
Secular institutes
"A secular institute is an Institute of consecrated life in which the Christian
faithful living in the world strive for the perfection of charity and work for
the sacification of the world especially from within."
By a "life perfectly and entirely consecrated to [such] sanctification," the
members of these institutes share in the Church's task of evangelization, "in
the world and from whithn the world," where their presence acts as "leaven in
the world." "Their witness of a Christian life" aims "to order temporal things
according to God and inform the world with the power of the gospel." They commit
themselves to the evangelical counsels by sacred bonds and observe among
themselves the communion and fellowship appropriate to their "particular secular
way of life."
Societies of apostolic life
Alongside the different forms of consecrated life are "societies of apostolic life whose
members without religious vows pursue the particular apostolic purpose of their
society, and lead a life as brothers or sisters in common according to a
particular manner of life, strive for the perfection of charity through the
observance of the constitutions.
Among these there are societies in which the members embrace the
evangelical counsels" according to their constitutions.
Consecration and mission: proclaiming the King who is coming
Already dedicated to him through Baptism, the person who surrenders himself to the God
he loves above all else thereby consecrate himself more intimately to God
service and to the good of the Church. By this state of life consecrated to God,
the Church manifests Christ and shows us how the Holy Spirit acts so wonderfully
in her. And so the first mission of those who profess the evangelical counsels
is to live out their consecration.
Moreover, "since members of institutes of consecrated life dedicate
themselves through their consecration to the service of the Church they are
obliged in a special manner to engage in missionary work, in accord with the
character of the Institute."
In the Church, which is like the sacrament -- -- the sign and instrument -- -- of
God’s own life, the consecrated life is seen as a special sign of the mystery of
redemption. To follow and imitate Christ more nearly and to manifest more
clearly his self-emptying is to be more deeply present to one's contemporaries,
in the heart of Christ. For those who are on this "narrower" path encourage
their brethren by their example, and bear striking witness "that the world
cannot be transfigured and offered to God without the spirit of the Beatitudes."
Whether their witness is public, as in the religious state, are less public, or in
secret, Christ’s coming remains for all those consecrated both the origin and
rising sun of their life:
For the people of God has here no lasting city,... [and this state] reveals more
clearly to all believers the heavenly goods which are already present in this
age, witnessing to the new and eternal life which we have acquired through the
redemptive work of Christ and preluding our future resurrection and the glory of
the heavenly kingdom.
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June 23, 2013 - Being respected is more important than having great riches. To be well thought of is
better than silver or gold. Proverbs 22:1
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 4 Section I – The Hierarchical Constitution of the Church (cont)
"The individual bishops are the visible source and foundation of unity in their own
particular Churches." As such, they "exercise their pastoral office over the
portion of the People of God assigned to them," assisted by priests and deacons.
But, as a member of the episcopal college, each bishop shares of the concern for
all the Churches. The bishops exercise this care first "by ruling well their own
Churches as portions of the universal Church," and so contributing "to the
welfare of the whole Mystical Body, which, from another point of view, is a
corporate body of Churches." They extend it especially to the poor, to those
persecuted for the faith, as well as to missionaries who are working throughout
the world.
Neighboring particular Churches who share the same culture form ecclesiastical provinces or
larger groupings called patriarchates or regions. The bishops of these groupings
can meet in synods or provincial councils. "In a like fashion, the episcopal
conferences at the present time are in a position to contribute in many and
fruitful ways to the concrete realization of the collegiate spirit."
The teaching office
Bishops, with priests as co-workers, have as their first task "to preach the Gospel of
God to all men," in keeping with the Lord's command. They are "heralds of faith,
who draw new disciples to Christ; they are authentic teachers" of the apostolic
faith "endowed with the authority of Christ."
In order to preserve the church in the purity of the faith handed on by the
apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own
infallibility. By a "supernatural sense of faith" the People of God, under the
guidance of the Church's living Magisterium, "unfailingly adheres to this faith."
The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant
established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium’s task to
preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the
objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the
pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God
abides in the truth that liberates.
To fulfill this service, God endowed the Church’s shepherds with the
charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. The exercise of this
charism takes several forms:
"The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in
virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful --
-- -- who confirms his brethren in the faith -- -- -- he proclaims by a
definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals.
... The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops
when, together with Peter’s successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium,"
above all in an Ecumenical Council. When the Church through its supreme
Magisterium proposes a doctrine "for belief as being divinely revealed," and as
the teaching of Christ, the definitions "must be adhered to with the observance
of faith." This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.
Divine assistance is also given to the successors of the apostles, teaching in
communion with the successor of Peter, and, in a particular way, the bishop of
Rome, pastor of the whole Church, when, without arriving at an infallible
definition and without pronouncing in a "definitive manner," they propose in the
exercise of the ordinary Magisterium a teaching that leads to better
understanding of Revelation in matters of faith and morals. To this ordinary
teaching the faithful "are to adhere to it with religious assent" which, though
distinct from the assent of faith, is nontheless an extension of it.
The sanctifying office
The bishop is “the steward of the grace of the supreme priesthood,” especially in
the Eucharist which he offers personally or whose offering he assures through
the priests, his co-workers. The Eucharist is the center of the life of the
particular Church. The bishop and priests sanctify the Church by their prayer at
work, by their ministry of the word and of the sacraments. They sanctify her by
their example, "not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples
to the flock." Thus, "together with the flock entrusted to them, they may attain
eternal life."
The governing office
"The bishops, as vicars and legates of Christ, govern the particular Churches
assigned to them by their counsels, exhortations, an example, but over and above
that also by the authority and sacred power" which indeed they ought to exercise
so as to edify, in their spirit of service which is that of their Master.
"The power which they exercise personally in the name of Christ, is proper, ordinary,
and immediate, although its exercise is ultimately controlled by the supreme
authority of the Church." But the bishops should not be thought of as vicars of
the Pope. His ordinary and immediate authority over the whole Church does not
annul, but on the contrary confirms and defends that of the bishops.
Their authority must be exercised in communion with the Church under the
guidance of the Pope.
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June 16, 2013 - Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. John 20:29
HAPPY FATHERS DAY TO ALL OUR FATHERS
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 4 Section I – The Hierarchical Constitution of
the Church (cont)
"The individual bishops are the visible source and foundation of unity in their own
particular Churches." As such, they "exercise their pastoral office over the
portion of the People of God assigned to them," assisted by priests and deacons.
But, as a member of the episcopal college, each bishop shares of the concern for
all the Churches. The bishops exercise this care first "by ruling well their own
Churches as portions of the universal Church," and so contributing "to the
welfare of the whole Mystical Body, which, from another point of view, is a
corporate body of Churches." They extend it especially to the poor, to those
persecuted for the faith, as well as to missionaries who are working throughout
the world.
Neighboring particular Churches who share the same culture form ecclesiastical provinces or
larger groupings called patriarchates or regions. The bishops of these groupings
can meet in synods or provincial councils. "In a like fashion, the episcopal
conferences at the present time are in a position to contribute in many and
fruitful ways to the concrete realization of the collegiate spirit."
The teaching office
Bishops, with priests as co-workers, have as their first task "to preach the Gospel of
God to all men," in keeping with the Lord's command. They are "heralds of faith,
who draw new disciples to Christ; they are authentic teachers" of the apostolic
faith "endowed with the authority of Christ."
In order to preserve the church in the purity of the faith handed on by the
apostles, Christ who is the Truth willed to confer on her a share in his own
infallibility. By a "supernatural sense of faith" the People of God, under the
guidance of the Church's living Magisterium, "unfailingly adheres to this faith."
The mission of the Magisterium is linked to the definitive nature of the covenant
established by God with his people in Christ. It is this Magisterium’s task to
preserve God's people from deviations and defections and to guarantee them the
objective possibility of professing the true faith without error. Thus, the
pastoral duty of the Magisterium is aimed at seeing to it that the People of God
abides in the truth that liberates.
To fulfill this service, God endowed the Church’s shepherds with the
charism of infallibility in matters of faith and morals. The exercise of this
charism takes several forms:
"The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in
virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful --
-- -- who confirms his brethren in the faith -- -- -- he proclaims by a
definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals.
... The infallibility promised to the Church is also present in the body of bishops
when, together with Peter’s successor, they exercise the supreme Magisterium,"
above all in an Ecumenical Council. When the Church through its supreme
Magisterium proposes a doctrine "for belief as being divinely revealed," and as
the teaching of Christ, the definitions "must be adhered to with the observance
of faith." This infallibility extends as far as the deposit of divine Revelation itself.
Divine assistance is also given to the successors of the apostles, teaching in
communion with the successor of Peter, and, in a particular way, the bishop of
Rome, pastor of the whole Church, when, without arriving at an infallible
definition and without pronouncing in a "definitive manner," they propose in the
exercise of the ordinary Magisterium a teaching that leads to better
understanding of Revelation in matters of faith and morals. To this ordinary
teaching the faithful "are to adhere to it with religious assent" which, though
distinct from the assent of faith, is nontheless an extension of it.
The sanctifying office
The bishop is “the steward of the grace of the supreme priesthood,” especially in
the Eucharist which he offers personally or whose offering he assures through
the priests, his co-workers. The Eucharist is the center of the life of the
particular Church. The bishop and priests sanctify the Church by their prayer at
work, by their ministry of the word and of the sacraments. They sanctify her by
their example, "not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples
to the flock." Thus, "together with the flock entrusted to them, they may attain
eternal life."
The governing office
"The bishops, as vicars and legates of Christ, govern the particular Churches
assigned to them by their counsels, exhortations, an example, but over and above
that also by the authority and sacred power" which indeed they ought to exercise
so as to edify, in their spirit of service which is that of their Master.
"The power which they exercise personally in the name of Christ, is proper, ordinary,
and immediate, although its exercise is ultimately controlled by the supreme
authority of the Church." But the bishops should not be thought of as vicars of
the Pope. His ordinary and immediate authority over the whole Church does not
annul, but on the contrary confirms and defends that of the bishops.
Their authority must be exercised in communion with the Church under the
guidance of the Pope.
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June 9, 2013 – But if we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share fellowship with
each other. Then the blood of Jesus, God's Son, cleanses us from every sin. 1 John 1:7
After reviewing todays section, check out the photo gallery.
A friend of mine sent me the slides and I so enjoyed them I thought I’d
share them with you. To start the show click on Play, you can click pause if you want to stop on a slide. To end the show just close the tab or exit the site as you normally do.
God bless!
Section
2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 4 Section I – The Hierarchical Constitution of
the Church pg 252
Why the ecclesial ministry?
Christ is himself the source of ministry in the Church. He instituted the Church. He
gave her authority and mission, orientation and goal;
In order to shepherd the People of God and to increase its numbers without cease,
Christ the Lord set up in his Church a variety of offices which aim at the good
of the whole body.
The holders of office, who are invested with a sacred power, are, in fact, dedicated
to promoting the interests of their brethren, so that all belong to the People
of God... may attain to salvation. "How are they to believe in him of whom they
have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men
preach unless they are sent?" No one-- -- no individual and no community -- --
can proclaim the Gospel to himself: "Faith comes from what is heard." No one can
give himself the mandate and mission to proclaim the Gospel. The one sent by the
Lord does not speak and act on his own authority, but by virtue of Christ's
authority; not as a member of the community, but speaking to it in the name of
Christ. No one can bestow grace on himself; it must be given and offered. This
fact presupposes ministers of grace, authorized and empowered by Christ. From
him, bishops and priests receive the mission and faculty ("the sacred power") to
act in persona Christi Capitis; deacons receive the strength to serve the people
of God in the diaconia of liturgy, word, and charity, in communion with the
Bishop and his presbyterate. The ministry in which Christ's emissaries do and give by God's grace what they
cannot do and give by their own powers, is called a "sacrament" by the churches
tradition. Indeed, the ministry of the Church is conferred by a special sacrament.
Intrinsically linked to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry is its character as
service. Entirely dependent on Christ who gives mission authority, ministers are
truly "slaves of Christ," in the image of him who freely took "the form of a
slave" for us. Because the word and grace of which there are ministers are not
their own, but are given to them by Christ for the sake of others they must
freely become the slaves of all.
Likewise, it belongs to the sacramental nature of ecclesial ministry that it have a
collegial character. In fact, from the beginning of his ministry, the Lord Jesus
instituted the Twelve as "the seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of the
sacred hierarchy.” Chosen together, they were also sent out together, and their
fraternal unity would be at the service of the fraternal communion of all the
faithful; they would reflect and witness to the communion of the divine persons.
For this reason every Bishop exercises his ministry from within the episcopal
college, in communion with the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter and
head of the college. So also priests exercise their ministry from within the
presbyterium of the diocese, under the direction of their bishop.
Finally, it belongs to the sacramental nature of the ecclesial ministry that it have a
personal character. Although Christ's ministers act in communion with one
another, they also always act in a personal way. Each one is called personally:
"You, follow me" in order to be a personal witness within the common mission, to
bear personal responsibility before him who gives the mission, acting "in his
person" and for other persons: "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit...";
"I absolve you... "
Sacramental ministry in the Church, then, is a service exercised in the name of Christ. It
has a personal character and a collegial form. This is evidenced by the bonds
between the episcopal college and its head, the successor of St. Peter, and the
relationship between the bishop’s pastoral responsibility for his particular
church and the common solicitude of the episcopal college for the universal
Church.
The episcopal college and its head, the Pope
When Christ instituted the Twelve, "he constituted [them] in the form of a college or
permanent assembly, at the head of which he placed Peter, chosen from among
them." Just as "by the Lord's institution, St. Peter and the rest of the
apostles constitute a single apostolic college, so in like fashion the Roman
Pontiff, Peter’s successor, and the bishops, the successors of the apostles, are
related with that united to one another."
The Lord made Simon alone, whom he named Peter, the "rock" of his Church. He gave
him the keys to his Church and instituted him shepherd of the whole flock. "The
office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the
college of apostles united to its head." This pastoral office of Peter and the
other apostles belongs to the Church’s very foundation and is continued by the
bishops on the primacy of the Pope.
The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter's successor, "is the perpetual and visible source
and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the
faithful." "For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ,
and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over
the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered."
"The college or body of bishops has no authority unless united with the Roman
Pontiff, Peter’s successor, as its head." As such, this college has "supreme and
full authority over the universal Church; but this power cannot be exercised
without the agreement of the Roman Pontiff."
"The college of bishops exercises power over the universal church in a solemn matter
in an ecumenical council." But "there never is an ecumenical council which is
not confirmed or at least recognized as such by Peter’s successor."
"This college, in so far as it is composed of many members, is the expression of the
variety and universality of the People of God; and of the unity of the flock of
Christ, in so far as it is assembled under one head."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 2, 2013 - But I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. Matthew 5:44
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section III – The Church is Catholic
Missionary paths. The Holy Spirit is the protagonist, "the principal agent of the whole of
the Church's mission." It is he who leads the Church on her missionary paths.
"This mission continues and, in the course of history, unfolds the mission of
Christ, who was sent to evangelize the poor; so the Church, urged on by the
Spirit of Christ must walk the road, Christ himself walked, a way of poverty
and obedience, of service and self-sacrifice even to death, a death from which
he emerged victorious by his resurrection." So it is that "the blood of martyrs
is the seed of Christians."
On her pilgrimage, the Church has also experienced the "discrepancy existing
between the message she proclaims and the human weakness of those to whom the
Gospel has been entrusted." Only by taking the "way of penance and renewal," the
"narrow way of the cross," can the People of God extend Christ's reign. For
"just as Christ carried out the work of redemption in poverty and oppression, so
the Church is called to follow the same path if she is to communicate the fruits
of salvation to men."
By her very mission, "the Church... travels the same journey as all humanity and
shares the same earthly lot with the world: she is to be a leaven and, as it
were, the soul of human society in its renewal by Christ and transformation into
the family of God." Missionary endeavor requires patience. It begins with the
proclamation of the Gospel to peoples and groups who do not yet believe in
Christ, continues with the establishment of Christian communities that are "a
sign of God's presence in the world," and leads to the foundation of local
churches. It must involve a process of inculturation if the Gospel is to take
flesh and each people's culture. There will be times of defeat. "With regard to
individuals, groups, and peoples it is only by degrees that [the Church] touches
and penetrates them, and so receives them into a fullness which is
Catholic."
The Church's mission stimulates efforts towards Christian unity. Indeed, "divisions
among Christians prevent the Church from realizing in practice the fullness of
catholicity proper to her in those of her sons who, though joined to her by
Baptism, are yet separated from full communion with her. Furthermore, the
Church herself finds it more difficult to express in actual life for full
catholicity in all its aspects."
The missionary task implies a respectful dialogue with those who do not yet accept
the Gospel. Believers can profit from this dialogue by learning to appreciate
better "those elements of truth and grace which are found among peoples, and
which are, as it were, a secret presence of God." They proclaim the Good News
to those who do not know it, in order to consolidate, complete, and raise up the
truth and goodness that God has distributed among men and nations, and to purify
them from error and evil "for the glory of God, the confusion of the demon, and
happiness of man."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section IV – The Church is Apostolic pg 247
The church is apostolic because she is having on the apostles, and three
ways:
-- she was and remains built on "the foundation of the Apostles," the witnesses
chosen and sent on mission by Christ himself;
-- with the help of the Spirit dwelling in her, the Church keeps and hands on
the teaching, the "good deposit," the salutary words she has heard from the
apostles;
-- she continues to be taught, sanctified, and guided by the apostles until
Christ's return, through their successors in pastoral office: the college of
bishops, "assisted by priests, in union with the successor of Peter, the
Church's supreme pastor":
You are the eternal Shepherd who never leaves his flock untended. Through the
apostles you watch over us and protect us always. You made them shepherds of the
flock to share in the work of your Son...
The Apostles’ mission
Jesus is the Father's Emissary. From the beginning of his ministry, he "called to him
those whom he desired;.... And he appointed twelve, whom also he named apostles,
to be with him, and to be sent out to preach." From then on, they would also be
his "emissaries" (Greek apostoloi). In them, Christ continues his own mission:
"As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." The apostles’ ministry is the
continuation of his mission; Jesus said to the Twelve: "he who receives you
receives me."
Jesus unites them to the mission he received from the Father. As "the Son can do
nothing of his own accord," but receives everything from the Father who sent
him, so those whom Jesus sends can do nothing apart from him, from whom they
received both the mandate for their mission and the power to carry out. Christ's
apostles knew that they were called by God as "ministers of a new covenant,"
"servants of God," "ambassadors for Christ," "servants of Christ and stewards of
the mysteries of God."
In the office of the apostles there is one aspect that cannot be transmitted: to be
the chosen witnesses of the Lord's Resurrection and so the foundation stones of
the Church. But their office also has a permanent aspect. Christ promised to
remain with them always. The divine mission entrusted by Jesus to them "will
continue to the end of time, since the Gospel they handed on is the lasting
source of all life for the Church. Therefore,... the apostles took care to
appoint successors."
The bishops -- -- successors of the apostles
"In order that the mission entrusted to them might be continued after their death,
[the apostles] consigned, by will and testament, as it were, to their immediate
collaborators the duty of completing and consolidating the work they had begun,
urging them to tend to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit had appointed
them to shepherd the Church of God. They accordingly designated such men and
then made the ruling that likewise on their death other proven men should take
over their ministry area"
"Just as the office which the Lord confided to Peter alone, as first of the apostles,
destined to be transmitted to his successors, is a permanent one, so also
endures the office, which the apostles received, of shepherding the Church, a
charge destined to be exercised without interruption by the sacred order of the
bishops." Hence the Church teaches that "the bishops have by divine institution
taken the place of the apostles as pastors of the Church, in such wise that
whoever listens to them is listening to Christ and whoever despises them
despises Christ and him who sent Christ."
The apostolate
The whole Church is apostolic, in that she remains, through the successors of St.
Peter and the other apostles, in communion of faith and life with her origin:
and in that she is "sent out" into the whole world. All members of the church
share in this mission, though in various ways. "The Christian vocation is, of
its nature, a vocation to the apostolate as well." Indeed, we call an
apostolate "every activity of the Mystical Body" that aims "to spread the
Kingdom of Christ over all the earth."
"Christ, sent by the Father, is the source of the church's whole apostolate"; thus the
fruitfullness of apostolate ordained ministers as well as for lay people
clearly depends on their vital union with Christ. In keeping with their
vocations, the demands of the times and the various gifts of the Holy Spirit,
the apostolate assumes the most varied forms. But charity, drawn from the
Eucharist above all, is always "as it were, the soul of the whole apostolate."
The church is ultimately one, holy, catholic, apostolic in her deepest and ultimate
identity, because it is in her that "the Kingdom of heaven," the "Reign of God,"
already exists and will be fulfilled at the end of time. The kingdom has come in
the person of Christ and grows mysteriously in the hearts of those incorporated
into him, until its full eschatological manifestation. Then all those he has
redeemed and made "holy and blameless before him in love," will be gathered
together as the one People of God, the "Bride of the Lamb," the holy city
Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God." For "the
wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them the twelve names of the
twelve apostles of the Lamb."
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May 26, 2013 - But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is
like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. James 1:6
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section III – The Church is Catholic
The Church's bond with non-Christian religions is in the first place the common
origin and end of the human race:
All nations form but one community. This is so because all stem from the one stock
which God created to people the entire earth, and also because all share a
common destiny, namely God. His providence, evident goodness, and saving designs
extend to all against the day when the elect are gathered together in the holy
city...
The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and
images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and
all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all
goodness and truth found in these religions as "a preparation for the Gospel and
given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life."
In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that
disfigure the image of God in them:
Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasoning, and
have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than
the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are
exposed to ultimate despair.
To reunite all his children, scattered and led astray by sin, the Father willed to
call the whole of humanity together into his Son's Church. The Church is the
place where humanity must rediscover its unity and salvation. The Church is "the
world reconciled." She is that bark which "in the full sail of the Lord's cross,
by the breath of the Holy Spirit, navigates safely in this world." According to
another image dear to the Church Fathers, she is prefigured by Noah's Ark, which
alone saves from the flood.
"Outside the Church there is no salvation"
How are we to understand this affirmation often repeated by the Church Fathers?
Re-formulated positively, it means that all salvation comes from Christ the Head
through the church which is his Body:
Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a
pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator
in the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He
himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby
affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through
Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the
Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse
either to enter it or to remain in it.
This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not
know Christ and his Church:
Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his
Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and moved by his
grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates
of their conscience -- -- those too may achieve eternal salvation.
"Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own,
are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to
please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to
evangelize all men."
Mission -- --requirement of the churches catholicity
The missionary mandate. "Having been divinely sent to the nations that she might be
"the universal sacrament of salvation," the Church, in obedience to the command
of her founder and because it is demanded by her own essential universality,
strives to preach the Gospel to all men": Go therefore and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and Lo, I am
with you always, until the close of the age."
The origin and purpose of mission. The Lord's missionary mandate is ultimately
grounded in the eternal law of the Most Holy Trinity: "The Church on earth is by
her nature missionary since, according to the plan of the Father, she has as her
origin the mission of the Son and Holy Spirit." The ultimate purpose of mission
is none other than to make men share in the communion between the Father and
the Son in their Spirit of Love.
Missionary motivation.
It is from God's love for all men that the Church in every age
receives both the obligation and the vigor of her missionary dynamism, "for the
love of Christ urges us on." Indeed, God "desires all men to be saved and to
come to the knowledge of the truth"; that is, God wills the salvation of
everyone through the knowledge of the truth. Salvation is found in the truth.
Those who obey the prompting of the Spirit of truth are already on the way of
salvation. But the Church, to whom this truth has been entrusted, must go out to
meet their desire, so as to bring them the truth. Because she believes in God’s
universal plan of salvation, the church must be
missionary.
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May 19, 2013 - Depend on the Lord in whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section III – The Church is Catholic pg 240 (cont)
Each particular Church is “catholic”
"The Church of Christ is really present in all legitimately organized local groups of
the faithful, which, in so far as they are united to their pastors, are also
quite appropriately called Churches in the New Testament... In them the faithful
are gathered together through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and the
mystery of the Lord's Supper is celebrated….In these communities, though they
may often be small and poor, or existing in the dispora, Christ is present,
through whose power and influence the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church is
constituted."
The phrase "particular church," which is first of all the diocese (or eparchy),
refers to a community of the Christian faithful in communion of faith and
sacraments with their bishop ordained in apostolic succession. These particular
Churches "are constituted after the model of the universal Church; it is in
these and formed out of them that the one and unique Catholic Church exists."
Particular Churches are fully catholic through their communion with one of them, the Church
of Rome "which presides in charity. "For with this church, by reason of its
pre-eminence, the whole Church, that is the faithful everywhere, must
necessarily be in accord." Indeed, "from the incarnate Word's descent to us,
all Christian churches everywhere have held and hold the great Church that is
here [at Rome] to be their only basis and foundation since, according to the
Savior's promise, the gates of hell have never prevailed against her."
"Let us be very careful not to conceive of the universal Church as the simple sum,
or... the more or less anomalous federation of essentially different particular
churches. In the mind of the Lord the Church is universal by vocation and
mission, when she puts down her roots in a variety of cultural, social, and
human terrains, she takes on different external expressions and appearances in
each part of the world." The rich variety of ecclesiastical discipline,
liturgical rites, and theological and spiritual heritages proper to the local
churches "unified in a common effort, shows all the more resplendently
catholicity of the undivided Church."
Who belongs to the Catholic Church?
"All men are called to this catholic unity of the People of God... And to it, in
different ways, belong or are ordered: the Catholic faithful, others who believe
in Christ, and finally all mankind, called by God's grace to
salvation."
"Fully incorporated into the society of the Church are those who, possessing the
Spirit of Christ, accept all the means of salvation given to the Church
together with her entire organization, and who -- -- by the bonds constituted
by the profession of faith, the sacraments, ecclesiastical government, and
communion -- -- are joined in the visible structure of the Church of Christ,
who rules her through the Supreme Pontiff, and the bishops. Even though
incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is
not saved. He remains indeed in the bosom of the Church, but "in body" not "in
heart.’ "
"The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by
the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or
have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter." Those "who
believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although
imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church." With the Orthodox Churches, this
communion is so profound "that it lacks a little to attain the fullness that
would permit a common celebration of the Lord’s
Eucharist.”
The Church and non-Christians
"Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various
ways.”The relationship of the Church with the Jewish people. When she delves
into her own mystery, the Church, the People of God in the New Covenant,
discovers her link with the Jewish People, "the first to hear the Word of God."
The Jewish faith, unlike other non-Christian religions, is already a response to
God's revelation in the Old Covenant. To the Jews "belong the sonship, the
glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to
them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the
Christ"; for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable."
And when one considers the future, God's people of the Old Covenant and the new
People of God tend towards similar goals: expectation of the coming (or the
return) of the Messiah. But one awaits the return of the Messiah who died and
rose from the dead and is recognized as Lord and Son of God; the other awaits
the coming of a Messiah whose features remain hidden until the end of time; and
the latter waiting is accompanied by the drama of not knowing or of
misunderstanding Christ Jesus.
The Church's relationship with the Muslims.
"The plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator, in the first
place amongst whom are the Muslims; these profess to hold the faith of Abraham,
and together with us they adore the one, merciful God, mankind's judge on the
last day."
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May 12, 2013 - Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God Philippians 4:6
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section II – The Church is Holy
"The Church... is held, as a matter of faith, to be unfailingly holy. This is because
Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is hailed as "alone
holy," loved the Church as his Bride, giving himself up for her so as to
sanctify her; he joined her to himself as his body and endowed her with the
gift of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God." The Church, then, is "the holy
People of God," and her members are called "saints."
United with Christ, the Church is sanctified by him; through him and with him she
becomes sanctifying. "All the activities of the Church are directed, as toward
their end, to the sanctification of men in Christ and the glorification of
God." It is in the Church that "the fullness of the means of salvation" has
been deposited. It is in her that "by the grace of God we acquire
holiness."
"The Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is real though
imperfect." In her members perfect holiness is something yet to be acquired:
"Strengthened by so many and such great means of salvation, all the faithful,
whatever their condition or state -- -- though each in his own way -- -- are
called by the Lord to that perfection of sanctity by which the Father himself is
perfect."
Charity is the soul of the holiness to which all are callee: it "governs, shapes, and
perfects all the means of sanctification."
If the Church was a body composed of different members, it couldn't lack the
noblest of all; it must have a Heart and a Heart BURNING WITH LOVE.
And I realize that this love alone was the true motive force which
enabled the other members of the Church to act; if it ceased to function, the
Apostles would forget to preach the gospel, the Martyrs would refuse to shed
their blood. LOVE IN FACT, IS THE VOCATION WHICH INCLUDES ALL OTHERS; IT’S A
UNIVERSE OF ITS OWN, COMPRISING ALL TIME AND SPACE—IT’S
ETERNAL!
"Christ, ‘holy, innocent, and undefiled,’ knew nothing of sin, but came only to expiate
the sins of the people. The Church, however, clasping sinners to her bosom, at
once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly the path of
penance and renewal." All members of the Church, including her ministers, must
acknowledge that they are sinners. In everyone, the weeds of sin will still be
mixed with a good wheat of the Gospel until the end of time. Hence the Church
gathers sinners already caught up in Christ's salvation but still on the way to
holiness:
The Church is therefore holly, though having sinners in her midst, because she
herself has no other life but the life of grace. If they live her life, her
members are sanctified; if they move away from her life, they fall into sins and
disorders that prevent the radiation of her sanctity. This is why she suffers
and does penance for those offenses, of which she has the power to free her
children through the blood of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
By canonizing some of the faithful, I.E., by solemnly proclaiming that they
practiced heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace, the Church
recognizes the power of the Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope
of believers by proposing the saints to them as models and intercessors. The
saints have always been the source and origin of renewal in the most difficult
moments in the Church's history." Indeed, "holiness is the hidden source and
infallible measure of her apostolic activity and missionary zeal."
"But while in the most Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection
whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle, the faithful still strive is to
conquer sin and increase in holiness.
And so they turn their eyes to Mary": in her, the Church is already the "all --holy."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section III – The Church is Catholic
What does “catholic”mean?
The word "catholic" means "universal," in the sense of "according to the totality"
or "in keeping with the whole." The Church is catholic in a double sense:
First, the Church is catholic because Christ is present in her. "Where there is Christ
Jesus, there is the Catholic Church." In her subsists the fullness of Christ's
body united with its head; this implies that she receives from him "the
fullness of the means of salvation" which he has willed: correct and complete
confession of faith, full sacramental life, and ordained ministry in apostolic
succession. The Church was, in this fundamental sense, catholic on the day of
Pentecost and will always be so until the day of the Parousia.
Secondly, the Church is catholic because she has been sent out by Christ on a mission to
the whole of the human race: All men are called to belong to the new People of
God. This People, therefore, while remaining one and only one, is to be spread
throughout the whole world and to all ages in order that the design of God's
will may be fulfilled: he made human nature one in the beginning and has decreed
that all his children who were scattered should be finally gathered together as
one... The character of universality which adorns the People of God is a gift
from the Lord himself whereby the Catholic Church ceaselessly and efficaciously
seeks for the return of all humanity and all its goods, under Christ the Head in
the unity of the Spirit.
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May 5, 2013 - Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalms 23:4
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 3 Section I – The Church is One pg 233
The Church is one because of her source: "the highest exemplar and source of this
mystery is the unity, and the Trinity of Persons, of one God, the Father and Son
in the Holy Spirit." The Church is one because of her founder: for "the Word
made flesh, the Prince of peace, reconciled all men to God by the cross,...
restoring the unity of all in one people and one body." The Church is one
because of her "soul": "It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling in those who believe and
pervading and ruling over the entire Church, who brings about that wonderful
communion of the faithful and joins them together so intimately in Christ that
he is the principal of the Church's unity." Unity is of the essence of the
Church:
What an outstanding mystery! There's one Father of the universe, one Logos of the
universe, and also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same; there is also
one virgin become mother, and I should like to call her
"Church."
From the beginning, this one Church has been marked by a great diversity which comes
from both the variety of God's gifts and the diversity of those who received
them. Within the unity of the People of God, a multiplicity of peoples and
cultures is gathered together. Among the Church's members, there are different
gifts, offices, conditions, and ways of life. "Holding a rightful place in the
communion of the Church there are also particular Churches that retain their own
traditions." The great richness of such diversity is not opposed to the Church’s
unity. Yet sin and the burden of its consequences constantly threaten the gift
of unity. And so the Apostle has to exhort Christians to "maintain the unity of
the Spirit in the bond of peace"
What are these bonds of unity? Above all, charity "binds everything together in
perfect harmony." But the unity of the pilgrim Church is also assured by visible
bonds of communion:
-- -- profession of one faith received from the Apostles;
-- -- common celebration of divine worship, especially of the sacraments;
-- -- apostolic succession through the sacrament of Holy Orders, maintaining the
fraternal concord of God's family.
"The sole Church of Christ [is that] which our Savior, after his Resurrection,
entrusted to Peter's pastoral care, commissioning him and the other apostles to
extend and rule it....This Church, constituted and organized as a society in the
present world, subsists in (subsistit in) the Catholic Church, which is governed
by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him."
The Second Vatican Council's Decree on Ecumenism explains: "For it is through
Christ’s Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation,
that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained. It was to the
apostolic college alone, of which Pe6ter is the head, that we believe that our
Lord entrusted all the blessings of the New Covenant, in order to establish on
earth the one Body of Christ into which all those should be fully incorporated
who belong in any way to the People of God."
Wounds to unity
In fact, "in this one and only Church of God from its very beginnings there arose
certain riffs, which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable. But in
subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large
communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church -- --
for which often enough, men of both sides were to blame." The ruptures that
wound the unity of Christ's Body -- -- here we must distinguish heresy,
apostasy, and schism -- -- do not occur without human sin:
Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies, and disputes. Where
there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity, from which arise the
one heart and one soul for all believers.
“However, one cannot charge with the sin of the separation those who at present are born
into these communities [that resulted from such separation] and in them are
brought up in the faith of Christ, and the Catholic Church accepts them with
respect and affection of his brothers... All who have been justified by faith in
Baptism are incorporated into Christ; they therefore have a right to be called
Christians, and with good reason or accepted as brothers in the Lord by the
children of the Catholic Church."
"Furthermore, many elements of sanctification and of truth" are found outside the visible
confines of the Catholic Church: "the written Word of God; the life of grace;
faith, hope, and charity, with the other interior gifts of the Holy Spirit, as
well as visible elements." Christ's Spirit uses these Churches and ecclesial
communities as means of salvation, whose power derives from the fullness of
grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church. All these
blessings come from Christ and lead to him and are in themselves calls to
"Catholic unity."
Toward unity
"Christ bestowed unity on his Church from the beginning. This unity, we believe,
subsists in the Catholic Church as something she can never lose, and we hope
that it will continue to increase until the end of time." Christ always gives
his Church the gift of unity, but the Church must always pray and work to
maintain, reinforce, and perfect the unity that Christ wills for her. This is
why Jesus himself prayed at the hour of his Passion, and does not cease praying
to his Father, for the unity of his disciples: "That they may all be one. As
you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be one of us,... so that
the world may know that you have sent me." The desire to recover the unity of
all Christians is a gift of Christ and a call of the Holy Spirit.
Certain things are required in order to respond adequately to this call:
-- -- a permanent renewal of the Church in greater fidelity to her vocation; such
renewal is the driving force of the movement toward unity;
-- -- conversion of heart as the faithful "try to live holier lives according to
the Gospel"; for it is the unfaithfulness of the members to Christ's gift which
causes divisions;
-- -- prayer is common, because “change of heart and holiness of life, along with
public and private prayer for the unity of Christians, should be regarded as the
soul of the whole ecumenical movement, and merits the name “spiritual ecumenism; "
-- -- fraternal knowledge of each other;
-- -- ecumenical formation of the faithful and especially of priests;
-- -- dialogue among theologians and meetings among Christians of the different
churches and communities;
-- -- collaboration among Christians in various areas of service to mankind. "Human
service" is the idiomatic phrase.
Concern for achieving unity "involves the whole Church, faithful and clergy alike." But
we must realize "that this holy objective -- -- the reconciliation of all
Christians in the unity of the one and only Church of Christ -- -- transcends
human powers and gifts." That is why we place all our hope "in the prayer of
Christ for the Church, in the love of the Father for us, and in the power of the
Holy Spirit."
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April 28, 2013 - Don't wear yourself out trying to get rich; be wise enough to control yourself.
Wealth can vanish in the wink of an eye. It can seem to grow wings and fly away
like an eagle. Proverbs 23:4-5
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 2 Section II – The Church – Body of Christ pg 226
From the beginning, Jesus associated his disciples with his own life, revealed the
mystery of the Kingdom to them, and gave them a share in his mission, joy, and
sufferings. Jesus spoke of a still more intimate communion between him and those who would follow him:
“Abide in me, and I in you….I am the vine, you are the branches. And he proclaimed a myserious and real
communion between his own body and ours:”He wo eats my flesh and drinks my blood
abides in me, and I in him.”
When his visible presence was taken from them, Jesus did not leave his disciples
orphans. He promised to remain
with them until the end of time; he sent them his Spirit, As
a result communion with Jesus has become, in a way, more intense:
“By communicating his Spirit, Christ mystically constitutes as his body
those brothers of his who are called together from every nation.”
The comparison of the Church with the body casts light on the intimate bond between
Christ and his Church. Not only is she gathered around him; she I united in him, in his body.
Three aspects of the Church as the Body of Christ are to be more
specifically noted: the unity of all her members with each other as a result of
their union with Christ; Christ as head of the Body; and the Church as bride of Christ.
“One Body”
Believers who respond to God’s word and become members of Christ’s Body, become intimately
united with him: “In that body the
life of Christ is communicated to those who believe, and who, through the
sacraments, are united in a hidden and real way to Christ in his Passion and
glorification.” This is especially
true pf Baptism, wich unites us to Christ’s death and Resurrection, and the
Eucharist, by which “really sharing in the body of the Lord…we are taken up into
communion with him and with on another.”
The body’s unity does not do away with the diversity of its members: “In the
building up of Christ’s Body there is engaged a diversity of members and
functions. There is only one Spirit who, according to his own richness and the
needs of the ministries, gives his different gifts for the welfare of the Church.”
The unity of the Mystical Body produces and stimulates charity among the
faithful: “From this it follows that if one member suffers anything, all the
members suffer with him, and if one member is honored, all the members together
rejoice.” Finally, the unity of the
Mystical Body triumphs over all human divisions: “For as many of you as were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
“Christ is the Head of this Body”
Christ “is head of the body, the Church. ”He is the principle of creation and
redemption. Raised in the Father’s glory, “in everything he [is] preeminent,”
especially in the Churc, through whom he extends his reign over all things.
Christ unites us with his Passover: all his members mu strive to resemble him, “until
Christ be formed” in them. “For
this reason we …are taken up into the mysteries of his life….associated with his
sufferings as the body with its head, suffering with him, that with him we may
be glorified.”
Christ provides for our growth; to make us grow toward him, our head, he provides in
his Body, the Church, the gifts and assistance by which we help one another
along the way of salvation.
Christ and his Church thus together make up the “whole Christ” (Christus totus). The Church is one with Christ. The saints are acutely aware of this unity:
Let us rejoice then and give thanks that we have become not only Christians, but
Christ himself. Do you understand and grasp, brethren, God’s grace toward
us? Marvel and rejoice: we have become Christ.
For if he is the head, we are the members; he and we together are the
whole man…The fullness of Christ then is the head and the members.
But what does “head and members” mean? Christ and the Church.
Our redeemer has shown himself to be one person with the holy Church whom he has taken to himself.
Head and members form as it were one and the same mystical person.
A reply of St. Joan of Arc to her judges sums up the faith of the holy doctors and
the good sense of the believer: “About Jesus Christ and the Church, I simply
know they’re just one thing, and we shouldn’t complicate the matter.”
The Church is the Bride of Christ
The unity of Christ and the Church, head and members of one Body, also implies the
distinction of the two within a personal relationship.
This aspect is often expressed by the image of bridegroom and bride. The theme of Christ as Bridegroom of
the Church was prepared for by the prophets and announced by John the
Baptist. The Lord referred to
himself as the “bridegroom.” The Apostle speaks of the whole Church and each of
the faithful, members of his Body, as a bride “betrothed” to Christ the Lord so
as to become but one spirit with him.
The Church is the spotless bride of the spotless Lamb.
“Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might
sanctify her.” He has joined her
with himself in an everlasting covenant and never stops caring for her as for
his own body:
This is the whole Christ, head and body. .one formed from many…whether the head or
members speak, it is Christ who speaks.
He speaks in his role as head (ex persona capitis) and in his role as
body (ex persona corporis). What does this mean? “The two will become one flesh. This is a great
mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the Church.”
And the Lord himself says in the Gosel: “So they are no longer two, but
one flesh.” They are, in fact, two
different persons, yet they are one in the conjugal union….as head, he calls
himself the bridegroom, as body, he calls himself “bride.”
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 2 Section III – The Church is the Temple of the Holy Spirit pg 230
“What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which
is the Church.” “To this Spirit of Christ, as an invisible principle, is to be
ascribed the fact that all parts of the body are joined one with the other and
with their exalted head; for the whole Spirit of Christ is in the head, the
whole Spirit is in the body, and the whole Spirit is in each of the
members.” The Holy Spirit makes the Church “the temple of the living God”:
Indeed, it is to the Church herself that the “Gift of God” has been entrusted….In it is
in her that communion with Christ has been deposited, that is to say: the Holy
Spirit, the pledge of incorruptibility, the strengthening of our faith and the
ladder of our ascent to God….For where the Church is, there also is God’s
Spirit; where God’s Spirit is, there is the Church and every grace.
The Holy Spirit is“the principle of every vital and truly saving action in each part
of the Body.” He works in many ways to build up the whole Body in charity: by God’s Word“which is able to build
you up”: by Baptism, through which he forms Christ’s Body; by the sacraments,
which give growth and healing to Christ’s members; by“the grace of the apostles,
which holds first place among his gifts”; by the virtues, which make us act
according to what is good; finally by the many graces (called “charisms”),by
which he makes the faithful “fit and ready to undertake vrious tasks and offices
for the renewal and building up of the Church.
Charisms
Whether extraordinary or simple and humble, charisms are graces of the Holy Spirit which
directly or indirectly benefit the Church, ordered as they are to her building
up, to the good of men, and to the needs of the world.
Charisms are to be accepted with gratitude by the person who receives them and by all
members of the Church as well.
They are a wonderfully rich grace for the apostolic vitality and for the
holiness of the entire Body of Christ, provided they really are genuine gifts of
the Holy Spirit and re used in full conformity with authentic promptings of this
same Spirit, that is, in keeping with charity, the true measure of all
charisms.
It is in this sense that discernment of charisms is always necessary.
No charism is exempt from being referred and submitted to the Church’s
shepherds. “Their office [is] not indeed to extinguish the Spirit, but to test
all things and hold fast to what is good,”so that all the diverse and
complementary charisms work together “for the common good.”
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April 21, 2013 - Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always
giving thanks. And God's peace, which is so great we cannot understand it, will
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 2 Section I –
The Church – People of God, Body of Christ, Temple of the Holy Spirit pg 224
“At all times, and in every race, anyone who fears God and does what is right has
been acceptable to him. He was,
however, willed to make men holy and save them, not as individuals without any
bond or link between them, but rather to make them into a people who might
acknowledge him and serve him in holiness. He therefor chose the Israelite race to
be his own people and established a covenant with it.
He gradually instructed this people….All these things, however, happened
as a preparation for and figure of that new and perfect covenant which was to be
ratified in Christ…the New Covenant in his blood;
he called together a race made up of Jews and Gentiles which would be
one, not according to the flesh, but in the Spirit.
Characteristics of the People f God
The People of God is marked by chracteristics that clearly distinguish it from all other religious, ethnic, political, or cultural groups found in
history:
It is the People of God: God is not
the property of any one people.
But he acquired a people for himself from those who previously were not a
people: “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
One becomes a member of this people not by physical birth, but by being “born anew,”
a birth “of water and the spirit,”
that is, by faith in Christ, and Baptim.
This People has for its Head Jesus the Christ (the anointed, the Messiah). Because the same anointing, the Holy
Spirit, flows from the head into the body, this is “the messianic people.”
“The status of this people is that of the dignity and freedom of the sons of God, in
whose hearts the Holy Spirit dwells as n a temple.”
“Its law is the new commandment to love as Christ loved us.”
This is the “new” law of the Holy Spirit.
Its mission is to be salt of the earth and light of the world.
This people is “a most sure seed of unity, hope, and salvation for the
whole human race.”
Its destiny, finally,“is the Kingdom of God which has been begun by God himself on
earth and which must be further extended until it has been brought to perfection
by him at the end of time.”
A priestly, prophetic, and royal people
Jesus Christ is the one whom the Father anointed with the Holy Spirit nd established
as priest, prophet, and king. The
whole People of God participates in these three offices of Christ and bears the
responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them.
On entering the People of God through faith and Baptism, one receives a share in
this people’s unique, priestly vocation:
“Christ the Lord, high priest taken from among men, has made this new
people ‘a kingdom of priests to God, his Father.’
The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are
consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood.”
“The holy People of God shares also in Chrst’s prophetic office,” above all in the
supernatural sense of faith that belongs to the whole People, lay and clergy,
when it “unfailingly adheres to this faith…once for all delivered to the
saints,” and when it deepens its understanding and beomes Christ’s witness in
the midst of this world.
Finally, the People of God shares in the royal office of Christ.
He exercises his kingship by drawing all men to himself through his death
and Resurrection. Christ, King and
Lord of the universe, made himself the servant of all, forhe came “not to be
served but to serve, and to give his life as ransom for many.”
For the Christian, “to reign is to serve him,”particulary whenwhenn
serving “the poor and the suffering, in whom the Church recognizes the image of
her poor and suffering founder.”
The People of God fulfills its royal dignity by a life in keeping with
its vocation to serve with Christ.
The sign of the cross makes kings of all those reborn in Christ and the anointing of
the Holy Spirit consecrates them as priests, so that, apart from the particular
service of our ministry, all spiritual and rational Christians are recognized as
members of this royal race and sharers in Christ’s priestly office.
What, indeed, is as royal for a soul as to govern the body in obedience
to God? And what is as priestly as
to dedicate a pure conscience to the Lord and to offer spotless offerings of
devotion on the altar of the heart?
April 14, 2013 - Don't ever forget kindness and truth. Wear them like a necklace. Write them on your
heart as if on a tablet. Then you will be respected and will please both God and people. Proverbs 3:3-4
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 1 Section III – The Mystery of the Church
The Church is in history, but at the same time she transcends it. It is only "with
the eyes of faith" that one can see her in her visible reality and at the same
time in her spiritual reality as bearer of divine life.
The Church --- both visible and spiritual
"The one mediator, Christ, established and ever sustains here on earth his holy
Church, the community of faith, hope, and charity, as the visible organization
through which he communicates truth and grace to all men." The Church is at
the same time:
-- -- -- a "society structured with hierarchical organs and the mystical body of Christ;
-- -- -- the visible society and the spiritual community;
-- -- -- the earthly God and the Church endowed with heavenly riches."
These dimensions together constitute "one complex reality which comes together from a
human and a divine element"
The Church is essentially both human and divine visible but endowed with invisible
realities, zealous in action and dedicated to contemplation, present in the
world, but as a pilgrim, so constituted that in her the human is directed toward
and subordinated to the divine, the visible to the invisible, action to
contemplation, and this present world to that city yet to come, the object of
our quest.
Oh humility!" O sublimity! Both
tabernacle of cedar and sanctuary of God; earthly dwelling and celestial palace;
House of clay and royal hall; body of death and temple of light; and at last
both object of scorn to the proud and bride of Christ! She is black but
beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem, for even if the labor and pain of her long
exile may have discolored her, yet heaven’s beauty have adorned her.
The Church --- mystery of men’s union with God
It is in the Church that Christ fulfills and reveals his own mystery as the purpose
of God's plan: "to unite all things in him." St. Paul calls the nuptial union of
Christ and the Church "a great mystery." Because she is united to Christ as to
her bridegroom, she becomes a mystery in her own. Contemplating this mystery in
her, Paul exclaims: "Christ in you, the hope of glory."
In the Church this communion of men with God, in the "love that never ends," is the
purpose which governs everything in her that is a sacramental means, tied to
this passing world. "The Church’s structure is totally ordered to the holiness
of Christ's members. And holiness is measured according to the "great mystery"
in which the Bride responds with the gift of love to the gift of the
Bridegroom." Mary goes before us all in the holiness that is the Church's
mystery as "the bride without spot or wrinkle." That is why the "Marian"
dimension of the Church precedes the "Petrine."
The universal Sacrament of Salvation
the Greek word mysterion was translated into Latin by two terms: mysterium and
sacramentum. In later usage the
term sacramentum emphasizes the visible sign of the hidden reality of salvation
which was indicated by the term mysterium. In this sense, Christ himself is the
mystery of salvation: "For there is no other mystery of God, except Christ." The
saving work of his holy and sanctifying humanity is the sacrament of salvation,
which is revealed and active in the Church's sacraments (which the Eastern
Churches also call "the holy mysteries"). The seven sacraments are the signs and
instruments by which the Holy Spirit spreads the grace of Christ the head
throughout the Church which is his Body. The Church, then, both contains and
communicates the invisible grace she signifies. It is in this analogical sense,
that the Church is called a "sacrament."
"The Church, in Christ, like a sacrament -- -- a sign and instrument, that is, of
communion with God and of unity among all men." The Church's first purpose is to
be the sacrament of the inner union of men with God. Because men's communion
with one another is rooted in a union with God, the Church is also the sacrament
of the unity of the human race. In her, this unity is already begun, since she
gathers men "from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues"; at the
same time, the Church is the "sign and instrument" of the full realization of
the unity yet to come.
As sacrament, the Church is Christ's instrument. "She is taken up by him also as
the instrument for the salvation of all," "the universal sacrament of
salvation," by which Christ is "at once manifesting and actualizing the mystery
of God's love for men." The Church "is the visible plan of God's love for
humanity," because God desires "that the whole human race may become one People
of God, form one body of Christ, and be built up into one temple of the Holy Spirit."
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April 7, 2013 - Freely you have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 1 Section II (cont) –
The Church – foreshadowed from the world’s beginning
Christians of the first centuries said "The world was created for the sake of the Church.”
God created the world for the sake of communion with his divine life, a
communion brought about by the "convocation" of men in Christ, and this
"convocation" is the Church. The Church is the goal of all things, and God
permitted such painful upheavals as the angels’ fall and man’s sin only as
occasions and means for displaying all the power of his arm and the whole
measure of love he would to give the world:
Just as God's will is creation and is called "the world," so his intention is the
salvation of men, and it is called "the Church."
The Church – prepared for the Old Covenant
The gathering together of the People of God began at the moment when sin destroyed
the communion of men with God, and that of men among themselves. The gathering
together of the Church is, as it were, God’s reaction to the chaos provoked by
sin. This reunification is achieved secretly in the heart of all peoples: "In
every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable" to God.
The remote preparation for this gathering together of the People of God begins when
he calls Abraham and promises that he will become the Father of a great people.
It's immediate preparation begins with Israel's election as the People of God.
By this election, Israel is to be the sign of the future gathering of all
nations. But the prophets accuse Israel of breaking the covenant and behaving
like a prostitute. They announce a new and eternal covenant. "Christ instituted
this new Covenant."
The Church ---instituted by Christ Jesus
It was the Son’s task to accomplish the Father's plan of salvation in the fullness
of time. Its accomplishment was the reason for his being sent. "The Lord Jesus
inaugurated his Church by preaching the Good News, that is, the coming of the
Reign of God, promised over the ages in the Scriptures." To fulfill the Father's
will, Christ ushered in the Kingdom of heaven on earth. The Church "is the Reign
of Christ already present in mystery."
"This Kingdom shines out before men in the word, in the works and in the presence of
Christ." To welcome Jesus' word is to welcome "the Kingdom itself." The seed and
beginning of the Kingdom are the "little flock" of those whom Jesus came to
gather around him, the flock who shepherd he is. They form Jesus’ true family.
To those whom he thus gathered around him, he taught a new "way of acting" and a
prayer of their own.
The Lord Jesus endowed his community with a structure that will remain until the
Kingdom is fully achieved. Before all else there is the choice of the 12 with
Peter as their head. Representing the 12 tribes of Israel, they are the
foundation stones of the new Jerusalem. The 12 and the other disciples share in
Christ's mission and his power, but also in his lot. By all his actions, Christ
preparers and builds his Church.
The Church is born primarily of Christ's total self-giving for our salvation,
anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the cross. "The
origin and growth of the Church are symbolized by the blood and water which
flowed from the open side of the crucified Jesus."
“For it was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death upon
the cross that there came forth the ‘wondrous sacrament of the Church.’ " As Eve
was formed from the sleeping house side, so the Church was born from the pierced
heart of Christ hanging dead on the cross.
The Church ---revealed by the Holy Spirit
"When the work which the Father gave the Son to do on earth was accomplished, the Holy
Spirit was sent on the day of Pentecost in order that he might continually
sanctify the Church." Then "the Church was openly displayed to the crowds
and the spread of the Gospel among the nations, through preaching, was begun."
As the "convocation" of all men for
salvation, the Church in her very nature is missionary, sent by Christ to all
the nations to make disciples of them.
So that she can fulfill her mission, the Holy Spirit "bestows upon the Church
varied hierarchic and charismatic gifts, and in this way he directs her."
"Henceforward the Church, endowed with the gifts of her founder and faithfully
observing his precepts of charity, humility and self-denial, receives the
mission of proclaiming and establishing among all peoples the Kingdom of Christ
and of God, and she is on earth the seed and the beginning of that kingdom."
The Church ---perfected in glory
"The church... will receive its perfection only in the glory of heaven," at the time
of Christ's glorious return. Until that day, "the Church progresses on her
pilgrimage amidst this world’s persecutions and God's consolations." Here below
she knows that she is in exile far from the Lord, and longs for the full coming
of the Kingdom, when she will "be united in glory with her king." The Church,
and thru her the world, will not be perfected in glory without great trials.
Only then will "all the just from the time of Adam, ‘from Able, the just one, to
the last of the elect,’... be gathered together in the universal Church in the
Father's presence."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________
March 31, 2013 – He is risen – Alleluia. HAPPY EASTER!
Tradition holds that Jesus walked from Pilate’s praetorium to Golgotha (The Place of the
skull) The devotion known as “the
way”,or Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis), originated with pilgrims who walked
the Via Dolorosa (the “way of tears”) in Jerusalem.
In 2001, the Congregation for the Discipline of the Scriptures issued a
Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (DPPL) and, when referring to this
devotion, stated that “In the Via Crucis, various strands of Christian piety
coalesce: the idea of life as
being journey or pilgrimage; as a passage from earthly exile to our true home in
Heaven; the deep desire to be conformed to the Passion of Christ, which imply
that his disciples must follow behind their Master daily carrying their own
crosses (cf. Luke 9,23)” (DPPL 133)
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 1 Section I –
Names Images of the Church
The word "Church" (Latin ecclesia, from the Greek ek-ka-lein, to “call out of”))
means convocation or an assembly. It designates the assemblies of the people,
usually for a religious purpose. Ekklesia is used frequently in the Greek Old
Testament for the assembly of the Chosen People before God, above all for their
assembly on Mount Sinai where Israel received the Law and was established by God
as his holy people. By calling itself "Church," the first community of Christian
believers recognized itself as heir to that assembly. In the Church, God is
"calling together" his people from all the ends of the earth. The equivalent
Greek term Kyriake, for which the English word Church and the German Kirche are
devised, means "what belongs to the Lord."
In Christian usage, the word "church" designates the liturgical assembly, but also
the local community or the whole universal community of believers. These three
meetings are inseparable. "The Church" is the People that God gathers in the
whole world. She exists in local communities and is made real as a liturgical,
above all a Eucharistic, assembly. She draws her life from the word and the Body
of Christ and so herself becomes Christ's body.
Symbols of the Church
In Scripture, we find a host of interrelated images and figures through which
Revelation speaks of the inexhaustible mystery of the Church. The images taken
from the Old Testament are variations on a profound theme: the People of God. In
the New Testament, all these images find a new center because Christ has become
the head of his people, which henceforth is his Body. Around this center are
grouped images taken “for the life of the shepherd or from cultivation of the
land, from the art of building or from family life and marriage."
“The church is, accordingly, a sheepfold, the sole and necessary gateway to which is
Christ. It is also the flock of which God himself foretold that he would be the
shepherd, and whose sheep, even though governed by human shepherds, are
unfailingly nourished and led by Christ himself, the Good Shepherd and the
Prince of Shepherds, who gave his life for his sheep.
"The Church is a cultivated field”, the tillage of God. On that land the ancient
olive tree grows whose holy roots were the prophets and in which the
reconciliation of the Jews and Gentiles has been brought about and will be
brought about again. That land, like a choice vineyard, has been planted by the
heavenly cultivator. Yet the true vine is Christ who gives life and fruitfulness
to the branches, that is, to us, who through the Church remain in Christ,
without whom we can do nothing.
"Often, too, the Church is called the building of God. The Lord compared himself to the
stone which the builders rejected, but which was made into the cornerstone. On
this foundation the Church is built by the apostles and from it the Church
receives solidarity and unity. This edifice has many names to describe it: the
house of God in which his family dwells; the household of God in the Spirit; the
dwelling-place of God among men; and, especially the holy temple. This temple,
symbolized in places of worship built out of stone, is praised by the Fathers
and, not without reason, is compared in the liturgy to the Holy City, the New
Jerusalem. As living stones we here on earth are built into it. It is this holy
city that is seen by John as it comes down out of heaven from God when the
world is made anew, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband.
"The Church, further, which is called ‘that Jerusalem which is above’ and ‘our
mother’, is described as the spotless spouse of the spotless lamb. It is she
whom Christ‘loved and for whom he delivered himself up that he might sanctify
her.’ It is she who he unites to himself by an unbreakable alliance, and whom he
constantly ‘nourishes and churches.’ "
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 9 Paragraph 1 Section II – The Church’s Origin, Foundation, and Mission
We began our investigation of the Church's mystery by meditating on her origin in
the Holy Trinity's plan and her progressive realization in history.
A plan is born in the Father’s heart
"The eternal Father, in accordance with the utterly gratuitous and mysterious design
of his wisdom and goodness, created the whole universe and chose to raise up men
to share in his own divine life," to which he calls all men in his Son. "The
Father... determined to call together in a holy Church those who should believe
in Christ." This "family of God"
is gradually formed and takes shape during the stages of human history, in
keeping with the Father’s plan. In fact, "already present in figure at the
beginning of the world, this Church was prepared in marvelous fashion in the
history of the people of Israel and the old Alliance. Established in this last
age of the world and made manifest in the outpouring of the Spirit, it will be
brought to glorious completion at the end of time."
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March 24, 2013 - For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Luke 14:11
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section V – The Spirit and the Church in the Last Days Pentecost
On the day of Pentecost when the seven weeks of Easter come to an end, Christ
passed over is fulfilled in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, manifested,
given, and communicated as a divine person: of his fullness, Christ, the Lord,
pours out the Spirit in abundance.
On that day, the holy Trinity is fully revealed. Since that day, the kingdom
announced by Christ has been open to those who believe in him: and the humility
of the flesh and in faith, they already share in the communion of the holy
Trinity. By his coming, which never ceases, the Holy Spirit causes the world to
enter into the "last days," the time of the church, the kingdom already
inherited though not yet consummated. We have seen the true light, we have
received the heavenly spirit, we have found the true faith: we adore the
indefeasible Trinity, who has saved us.
The Holy Spirit----God’s gift
"God is love" and love is his first gift, containing all others. "God's love has been
poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."
Because we are dead or at least wanted to send, the first effect of the gift of love is
the forgiveness of our sins. The communion of the Holy Spirit in the Church
restores to baptize the final item is lost through sin.
He, then, gives us the "pledge" or "first fruits" of our inheritance: the very life
of the Holy Trinity, which is to love us as "God [has] loved us." This love (the
"charity" 01COR 13) is the source of the new life in Christ, made possible
because we have received "power" from the Holy Spirit.
By this power of the Spirit, God's children can bear much fruit. He who has grafted
us onto the true vine will make a spare "the fruit of the Spirit;... love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control."
"We live by the Spirit"; the more renounce ourselves, the more we "wall by the
Spirit." Through the Holy Spirit we are restored to paradise, led back to the
kingdom of heaven, and adopted as children, given confidence to call God
"father" and to share in Christ's grace, called children of light and given a
share of eternal glory."
The Holy Spirit and the Church
The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church,
which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit. This joint
mission henceforth brings Christ's faithful to share in his communion with the
Father and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit prepares men and goes out to them with
his grace, in order to draw them to Christ. The Spirit manifests the risen Lord
to them, recalls his word to them and opens their minds to the understanding of
his Death and Resurrection. He makes present the mystery of Christ supremely in
the Eucharist in order to reconcile them, to bring them into communion with God,
that they may "bear much fruit."
Thus the Church's mission is not an addition to that of Christ and the Holy Spirit,
but is its sacrament: in her whole being and in all her members, the Church is
sent to announce, bear witness, make present, and spread the mystery of the
communion of the Holy Trinity (the topic of the next article):
All of us who have received one and the same Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, are
in a sense blended together with one another and with God. For if Christ,
together with the Father's and his own Spirit, comes to dwell in each of us,
though we are many, still the Spirit is one and undivided. He binds together the
spirits of each and every one of us and makes all appear as one in him. For just
as the power of Christ's sacred flesh unites those in whom it dwells into one
body, I think that in the same way the one and undivided Spirit of God, who
dwells in all, leads all into spiritual unity.
Because the Holy Spirit is the anointing of Christ, it is Christ, as the head of the
Body, pours out the Spirit among his members to nourish, heal, and organize them
in their mutual functions, to give them life, send them to bear witness, and
associate them to his self-offering to the Father and to his intercession for
the whole world. Through the Church's sacraments, Christ communicates his Holy
and sanctifying Spirit to the members of his Body. (This will be the topic of
Part Two of the Catechism.)
These "mighty works of God," offered to believers in the sacraments of the Church,
bear their fruit in the new life in Christ, according to the Spirit. (This will
be the topic of part three.)
"The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but
the Spirit himself intercedes with sighs too deep for words." The Holy Spirit,
the artisan of God's works, is the master of prayer.
(This will be the topic of Part Four).
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March 17, 2013 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues
through all generations. Psalms 100:5
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section IV – The Spirit of Christ in the Fullness of Time
John, precursor, prophet, and baptist
"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John" John was "filled with the Holy
Spirit even from his mother's womb" by Christ himself, whom the Virgin Mary had
just conceived by the Holy Spirit. Mary's visitation to Elizabeth thus became a
visit from God to his people.
John is "Elijah [who] must come." The fire of the Spirit dwells in him and makes him
the forerunner of the coming Lord. In John, the precursor, the Holy Spirit
completes the work of " [making] ready a people prepared for the Lord."
John the Baptist is "more than a prophet." In him, the Holy Spirit concludes his
speaking through the prophets. John completes the cycle of prophets begun by
Elijah. He proclaims the imminence of the consolation of Israel; he is the
"voice" of the Counselor who is coming. As the Spirit of truth will also do,
John "came to bear witness to the light." In John's sight, the Spirit thus
brings to completion the careful search of the prophets and fulfills the longing
of the Angels. He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who
baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I have seen and have borne witness that this
is the Son of God... Behold, the Lamb of God."
Finally, with John the Baptist, the Holy Spirit begins the restoration to man of "the
divine likeness," prefiguring what he would achieve with and in Christ. John's
baptism was for repentance; baptism in water and the Spirit will be a new birth.
“Rejoice, you who are full of grace”
Mary, the all-holy-ever-virgin Mother of God, is the masterwork of the mission of the
Son and the Spirit in the foremost of time. For the first time in the plan of
salvation and because his spirit had prepared her, the Father found the dwelling
place where his Son and his Spirit could dwell among men. In this sense the
Church's Tradition has often read the most beautiful texts of wisdom in relation
to Mary. Mary is acclaimed and represented in the liturgy has the "Seat of
wisdom." In her, the "wonders of God" that the Spirit was to fulfill in Christ
and the Church began to be manifested:
The Holy Spirit prepared Mary by his grace. It was fitting that the mother of him in
whom "the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily" should herself be "full of
grace." She was, by sheer grace, conceived without sin as the most humble of
creatures, the most capable of welcoming the inexpressible gift of the Almighty.
It was quite correct for the angel Gabriel to greet her as the "order of Zion":
"Rejoice." It is the thanksgiving of the whole People of God, and thus of the
Church, which Mary in her Canticle lifts up to the Father in the Holy Spirit
while carrying within her the eternal Son.
In Mary, the Holy Spirit fulfills the plan of the Father's loving goodness. Through
the Holy Spirit, the Virgin conceives and gives birth to the Son of God. By the
Holy Spirit's power and her faith, her virginity became uniquely fruitful.
In Mary, the Holy Spirit manifests the Son of the Father, now become the Son of the
Virgin. She is the burning bush of the definitive theophany. Filled with the
Holy Spirit she makes the Word visible in the humility of his flesh. It is to
the poor and the first representatives of the gentiles that she makes him known.
Finally, through Mary, the Holy Spirit begins to bring men, the object of God's merciful
love, into communion with Christ. And the humble are always the first to accept
him: shepherds, magi, Simeon and Anna, the bride and groom at Cana, and the
first disciples
At the end of this mission of the Spirit, Mary became the Woman, the new Eve
(“mother of the living"), the mother of the "whole Christ." As such, she was
present with the Twelve, who "with one accord devoted themselves to prayer," at
the dawn of the "end time" which the Spirit was to inaugurate on the morning of
the Pentecost with the manifestation of the Church.
Christ Jesus
The entire mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit, in the fullness of time, is
contained in this: that the Son is the one anointed by the Father's Spirit since
his incarnation -- -- Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. Everything in the second
chapter of the Creed is to be read in this light. Christ’s whole work
is in fact a joint mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here, we shall
mention only what has to do with Jesus' promise of the Holy Spirit in the gift
of him by the glorified Lord.
Jesus does not reveal the Holy Spirit fully, until he himself has been glorified
through his Death and Resurrection. Nevertheless, little by little he alludes to
him even in his teaching of the multitudes, as when he reveals that his own
flesh, will be food for the life of the world. He also alludes to the Spirit in
speaking to Nicodemus, to the Samaritan woman, and to those who take part in the
feast of Tabernacles. To his disciples he speaks openly of the Spirit in
connection with prayer and with the witness they will have to
bear.
Only when the hour has arrived for his glorification does Jesus promise the coming of
the Holy Spirit, since his Death and Resurrection will fulfill the promise made
to fathers. The Spirit of truth, the other Paraclete, will be given by the
father in answer to Jesus' prayer; he will be sent by the Father in Jesus' name;
and Jesus will send him from the Father's side, since he comes from the Father.
The Holy Spirit will come and we shall know him; he will be with us forever; he
will remain with us. The Spirit will teach us everything, remind us of all that
Christ said to us and bear witness to him. The Holy Spirit will lead us into all
truth and will glorify Christ. He will prove the world wrong about sin,
righteousness, and judgment.
At last Jesus’ hour arrived: he commends his spirit into the Father's hands at the
very moment when by his death he conquers death, so that, "raised from the dead
by the glory of the Father," he might immediately give the Holy Spirit by
"breathing" on his disciples. From this hour onward the mission of Christ and
the Spirit becomes the mission of the Church: "As the Father has sent me, even
so I send you."
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March 10, 2013 I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he
shall live. John 11:25
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section III – God’s Spirit and Word in the Time of the inaugurates
the economy of salvation, at the culmination of which the Son himself will
assume the “image” and restore it in the Father’s“likeness” by giving it again
its Glory, the Spirit who is “the life.”
Against all human hope God promises descendants to Abraham, as the fruit of faith and of
the power of the Holy Spirit. In Abraham's progeny all the nations of the earth
will be blessed. This progeny will be Christ himself, in whom the outpouring of
the Holy Spirit will "gather into one the children of God were scattered
abroad." God commits himself by his own solemn oath to giving his beloved Son
and "the promised Holy Spirit... [who is] the guarantee of our inheritance until
we acquire possession of it."
In Theophanies and the Law
Theophanies (manifestations of God) light up the way of the promise, from the patriarchs to
Moses and from Joshua to the visions that inaugurated the missions of the great
prophets. Christian tradition has always recognized that God's Word allowed
himself to be seen and heard in these theophanies, in which the cloud of the
Holy Spirit both revealed him and concealed him m in its
shadow.
This divine pedagogy appears especially in the gift of he Law. God gave the Law as a
"Pedagogy" to lead his people towards Christ. But the Law's powerlessness to
save man deprived of the divine "likeness," along with a growing awareness of
sin that it imparts, enkindles a desire for the Holy Spirit. The lamentations of
the Psalms are witness to this.
In the Kingdom and the Exile
The Law, the sign of God's promise and covenant, ought to have governed the hearts
and institutions of that people to whom Abraham's faith gave birth. "If you will
obey my voice and keep my covenant,,... you shall be to me a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation." But after David, Israel gave into the temptation of becoming
a kingdom like other nations. The Kingdom, however, the object of the promise
made to David, would be the work of the Holy Spirit; it would belong to the poor
according to the Spirit.
The forgetting of the Law and the infidelity to the covenant end in death: it is the
Exile, apparently the failure of the promises, which is in fact the mysterious
fidelity of the Savior God and the beginning of a promised restoration, but
according to the Spirit. The People of God had to suffer this purification. In
God's plan, the Exile already stands in the shadow of the Cross, and a Remnant
of the poor that returns from the Exile is one of the most transparent
prefigurations of the Church.
Expectation of the Messiah and his Spirit
"Behold, I am doing a new thing." Two prophetic lines were to develop, one leading to the
expectation of the Messiah, the other pointing to the announcement of a new
Spirit. They converge in the small Remnant, the people of the poor, who await in
hope the "consolation of Israel" and "the redemption of Jerusalem.” We have seen
earlier how Jesus fulfills the prophecies concerning himself. We limit ourselves
here to those in which the relationship of the Messiah and his Spirit appears
more clearly.
The characteristics of the awaited Messiah begin to appear in the "book of Emmanuel"
("Isaiah said this when he saw his glory," speaking of Christ), especially in
the first two verses of Isaiah 11:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
The Messiah's characteristics are revealed above all in the "Servant songs." These
songs proclaim the meaning of Jesus’Passion and show how he will pour out the
Holy Spirit to give life to the many: not as an outsider, but by embracing our
"form as slave." Taking our death upon himself, he can communicate to us his own
Spirit of life.
This is why Christ inaugurates the proclamation of the Good News by making his own
the following passage from Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me o bring good tidings to the afflicted;
he has sent me to build up the broken hearted,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lords favor.
The prophetic texts that directly concern the sending of the Holy Spirit are oracles
by which God speaks to the heart of his people in the language of the promise,
with the accents of "love and fidelity." St. Peter will proclaim their
fulfillment on the morning of Pentecost. According to these promises, at the
"end times" the Lord’s Spirit will renew the hearts of men, engraving a new law
in them. He will gather and reconcile the scattered and divided peoples; he will
transform the first creation, and God will dwell there with men in peace.
The People of the "poor" -- -- those who, humble and meek, rely solely on their
God's mysterious plans, who await the justice, not of men but of the Messiah --
-- are in the end the great achievement of the Holy Spirit's hidden mission
during the time of the promises that prepare for Christ's coming. It is this
quality of heart, purified and enlightened by the Spirit, which is expressed in
the Psalms. In these poor, the Spirit is making ready "a people prepared for the Lord."
March 3, 2013 His anger lasts only a moment, but his kindness lasts for a lifetime. Crying may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Psalms 30:5
Sorry this week’s publication is a little late but I attended a weekend retreat at the
Malvern Retreat House (www.malvernretreatcom). If you have never attended a retreat you
should consider it. It is a wonderful chance to get closer to Jesus.
There are conferences on faith and many special events.
I especially enjoy the private adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Those moments alone with just you and
Jesus are very special.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section II – (cont)
Symbols of the Holy Spirit pg 199
Water. The symbolism of water signifies the Holy Spirit’s action in Baptism since after
the invocation of the Holy Spirit becomes the efficacious sacramental sign of
new birth: just as the gestation of our first birth took place in water, so the
water of Baptism truly signifies that our birth into the divine life is given
to us in the Holy Spirit. As "by one Spirit we were all baptized," so we are
also "made to drink of one Spirit." Thus the Spirit is also personally the
living water welling up from Christ crucified as its source and welling up in us
to eternal life.
Anointing. The symbolism of anointing with oil also signifies the Holy Spirit, to the point
of becoming a synonym for the Holy Spirit. In Christian initiation, anointing is
the sacramental sign of Confirmation, called "Chrismation" in the Churches of
the East. Its full force can be grasped only in relation to the primary
anointing accomplished by the Holy Spirit, that of Jesus. Christ (in Hebrew
"Messiah") means the one "anointed" by God's Spirit. There were several anointed
ones of the Lord in the Old Covenant, pre-eminently King David. But Jesus is
God's Anointed in a unique way: the humanity the Son assumed was entirely
anointed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit established him as "Christ." The
Virgin Mary conceived Christ by the Holy Spirit who, through the angel,
proclaimed him the Christ at his birth, and prompted Simeon to come to the
temple to see the Christ of the Lord. The Spirit filled Christ and the power of
the Spirit went out from him in his acts of healing and of saving. Finally, it
was the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. Now, fully established as
"Christ" in his humanity victorious over death, Jesus pours out the Holy Spirit
abundantly until "the saints” constitute-- -- in their union with the humanity
of the Son of God -- -- that perfect man "to the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ": "the whole Christ," in St. Augustine's
expression.
Fire. While water signifies birth and the fruitfulness of life given in the Holy Spirit, fire symbolizes the transforming
energy of the Holy Spirit's actions. The prayer of the prophet Elijah, who
"arose like fire" and whose "word burned like a torch," brought down fire from
heaven on the sacrifice on Mount Carmel. This event was a "figure" of the fire
of the Holy Spirit, who transforms what he touches. John the Baptist, who goes
"before [the Lord] in the spirit and power of Elijah," proclaims Christ as the
one who "will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." Jesus will say of
the Spirit: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already
kindled!" In the form of tongues "as of fire," the Holy Spirit rests on the
disciples on the morning of Pentecost and fills them with himself. The spiritual
tradition has retained this symbolism of fire is one of the most expressive
images of the Holy Spirit's actions. "Do not quench the Spirit."
Cloud and light. These two images occur together in the manifestations of the Holy
Spirit. In the theophanies of the Old Testament, the cloud, now obscure, now
luminous, reveals the living and saving God, while veiling the transcendence of
his glory -- -- with Moses on Mount Sinai, at the tent of meeting, and during
the wandering in the desert, and with Solomon at the dedication of the Temple.
In the Holy Spirit, Christ fulfills these figures. The Spirit comes upon the
Virgin Mary and "overshadows" her, so that she might conceive and give birth to
Jesus. On the mountain of Transfiguration, the Spirit in the "cloud came and
overshadowed" Jesus, Moses and Elijah, Peter, James and John, and "a voice came
out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’ “Finally,
the cloud took Jesus out of sight of the disciples on the day of his ascension
and will reveal him as Son of man in glory on the day of his final
coming.”
The seal is a symbol close to that of anointing. "The Father has set his seal" on
Christ and also seals us in him. Because this seal indicates the indelible
effect of the anointing with Holy Spirit in the sacraments of Baptism,
Confirmation, and Holy Orders, the image of the seal (sphragis) has been used in
some theological traditions to express the indelible "character" imprinted by
these three unrepeatable sacraments.
The hand. Jesus heals the sick and blesses little children by laying hands on them.
In his name the apostles will do the same. Even more pointedly, it is by the
apostles imposition of hands that the Holy Spirit is given. The Letter to the
Hebrews lists the imposition of hands among the "fundamental elements" of its
teaching. The Church has kept this sign of the all-powerful outpouring of the
Holy Spirit in its sacramental epiclesis.
The finger. "It is by the finger of God that [Jesus] cast out demons." If God's law
was written on tablets of stone "by the finger of God," then the "letter from
Christ" entrusted to the care of the apostles, is written "with the Spirit of
the living God, not on tablets of stone, on tablets of human hearts." The hymn
Veni Creator Spritus invokes the Holy Spirit as the "finger of the Father's
right hand."
The dove. At the end of the flood, whose symbolism refers to Baptism, a dove
released by Noah returns with a fresh olive-tree branch in its beak as a sign
that the earth was again habitable? When Christ comes up from the water of his
baptism, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove comes down upon him and remains
with him. The Spirit comes down and remains in the purified hearts of the
baptized. In certain churches, the Eucharist is reserved in a medical receptacle
in the form of the (columbarium) suspended above the altar. Christian
iconography traditionally uses the dove to suggest the Spirit.
Dear friends in Christ. My apologies for last week. I am not sure exactly what happened but apparently the weekly update was not saved to the web site. I have included it in this weeks udate.
February 24, 2013 He protects those who are loyal to him, but evil people will be silenced in darkness. Power is not the key to success. 1 Samuel 2:9
Section 2 Chapter 3 Article 8 Section I – The Joint Mission of the Son and the Spirit
The One whom the Father has sent into our hearts, the Spirit of his Son, is truly
God. Consubstantial with the Father and the Son, the Spirit is inseparable from
them, in both the inner life of the Trinity and his gift of love for the world.
in adoring the Holy Trinity, life-giving, consubstantial, and indivisible, the
Church's faith also professes the distinction of persons. When the Father sends
his Word, he always sends his Breath. In their joint mission, the Son and the
Holy Spirit are distinct but inseparable. To be sure, it is Christ who is seen,
the visible image of the invisible God, but it is a spirit who reveals him.
Jesus Christ, "anointed," because the Spirit is his anointing, and everything that
occurs from the Incarnation on derives from his fullness. When Christ is
finally glorified, he can in turn send the spirit from his place with the
Father to those who believe in him: he communicates to them his glory, that is,
the Holy Spirit who glorifies him. From that time on, this joint mission will
be manifested in the children adopted by the Father in the Body of his Son: the
mission of the Spirit of adoption is to unite them to Christ and make them live
in him:
The notion of anointing suggests... that there is no distance between the Son and
the Spirit. Indeed, just as between the surface of the body and the anointing
with oil neither reason nor sensation recognizes any intermediary, so the
contact of the Son with the Spirit is immediate, so that anyone who would make
contact with the Son by faith must first encounter the oil by contact. In fact
there is no part that is not covered by the Holy Spirit. That is why the
confession of the Son’s Lordship is made in Holy Spirit by those who receive
him, the Spirit coming from all sides to those who approach the Son in faith.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 8 Section II – The Name, Titles, and Symbols of the Holy Spirit
The proper name of the Holy Spirit
"Holy Spirit" is the proper name of the one whom we adore and glorify with the Father
and a Son. The Church has received this name from the Lord and professes it in
the Baptism of her children. The term "Spirit" translates the Hebrew word ruah,
which, in its primary sense, means breath, air, wind. Jesus indeed uses the
sensory image of the wind to suggest to Nicodemus the transcendent newness of
him who is personally God’s breath, the divine Spirit. On the other hand,
"Spirit" and "Holy" are divine attributes common to the three divine persons. By
joining the two terms, Scripture, liturgy, and theological language designates
the inexpressible person of the Holy Spirit, without any possible equivocation
with other uses of the terms "spirit" and "holy.”
Titles of the Holy Spirit
When he proclaims and promises the coming of the Holy Spirit, Jesus calls him the
"Paraclete,” literally, "he was called to one’s side, " ad-vocatus. "Paraclete"
is commonly translated by "consoler," and Jesus is the first consoler. The Lord
also called the Holy Spirit "the Spirit of truth." Besides the proper name of
"Holy Spirit," which is most frequently used in the Acts of the Apostles and
the Epistles, we also find in St. Paul the titles "the Spirit of the promise,
the Spirit of adoption, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of the Lord, and the
Spirit of God -- -- and, in Saint Peter, the Spirit of glory.
February17, 2013 - God does not see the same way people see. People look at the outside of a person,
but the Lord looks at the heart. 1 Samuel 6:7
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 7 Section I – He Will Come Again in Glory
"Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living."
Christ's Ascension into heaven signifies his participation, in his humanity, in
God's power and authority. Jesus Christ is Lord: he possesses all power in
heaven and on earth. He is "far above all rule and authority and power and
dominion," for the Father "has put all things under his feet." Christ is Lord
of the cosmos and of history. In him human history and indeed all creation are
"set forth" and transcendentally fulfilled.
As Lord, Christ is also head of the Church, which is his Body. Taken up to heaven
and glorified after he had thus fully accomplished his mission, Christ dwells on
earth in his church. The redemption is the source of the authority that Christ,
by virtue of the Holy Spirit, exercises over the Church. "The kingdom of Christ
is already present in mystery," "on earth, the seed and the beginning of the
kingdom."
Since the Ascension God's plan has entered into his fulfillment. We are already at
"the last hour." "Already the final age of the world is with us, and the renewal
of the world is irrevocably under way; it is even now anticipated in a certain
real way, for the Church on earth is endowed already with a sanctity that is
real but imperfect." Christ's kingdom already manifests its presence through the
miraculous signs that attend its proclamation by the Church.
Though already present in his Church, Christ’s reign is nevertheless yet to be
fulfilled "with power and great glory" by the king's return to earth. This reign
is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated
definitively by Christ's Passover. Until everything is subject to him, "until
there be realized new heavens and a new earth in which justice dwells, the
pilgrim Church, in her sacraments and institutions, which belong to this present
age, carries the mark of this world which will pass, and she herself takes her
place among the creatures which groan and travail yet and await the revelation
of the sons of God." That is why Christians pray, above all in the Eucharist, to
hasten Christ's return by saying to him: Marana tha! "Our Lord,come!"
Before his Ascension Christ affirmed that the hour had not yet come for the glorious
establishment of the messianic kingdom awaited by Israel which, according to the
prophets, was t bring all men the definitive order of justice, love, and peace.
According to the Lord, the present time is the time of the Spirit and of
witness, but also a time still marked by "distress" and the trial of evil which
does not spare the Church and ushers in the struggles of the last days. It is a
time of waiting and watching.
Since the Ascension Christ’s coming in glory has been imminent, even though "it is not
for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own
authority." This eschatological coming could be accomplished at any moment, even
if both it and the final trial that will precede it or "delayed."
The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his
recognition by "all Israel," for "a hardening has come upon part of Israel" in
their "unbelief" toward Jesus. St. Peter says to the Jews in Jerusalem after
Pentecost: "Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out,
that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may
send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the
time for establishing all that God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from
of old." St. Paul echoes him: "For if their rejection means a reconciliation of
the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" The "full
inclusion" of the Jews in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake of "the full
number of the Gentiles," will enable the People of God to achieve "the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ," in which "God may be all in all."
Before Christ's second coming to Church must pass through a final trial that will shake
the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on
earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception
offering men and apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy
from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a
pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his
Messiah come in the flesh.
The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the
claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be
realized beyond history through the eschatalogical judgment. The Church has
rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under
the name of millenarianism especially the "intrinsically perverse" political
form of secular messianism
The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover,
which she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will
be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the church through a
progressive ascendancy, but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of
evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God's triumph over
the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final
cosmic upheaval of this passing world.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 7 Section II – To Judge the Living and the Dead
Following in the steps of the prophets of John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgment
the Last Day in his preachung. Then will the conduct of each one and the
secrets of hearts be brought to light. Then will the culpable unbelief that
counted the offer of God's grace as nothing to be condemned. Our attitude about
her neighbor will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love. On
the last day Jesus will say: "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the
least of these my brethren, you did it to me."
Christ is Lord of eternal life. Full right to pass definitive judgment on the works of
hearts of men belongs to him as redeemer of the world. He "acquired" this right
by his cross. The Father has given "all judgment to the Son." Yet the Son did
not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself. By
rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to
one's works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the
Spirit of love.
February 10, 2013 - God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same. Romans 3:22
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 6 –
He Ascended into Heaven and is Seated at the Right Hand of the Father
"So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God." Christ's body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the new supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently enjoys. But during the 40 days when eats and drinks familiarly with his disciples and teaches them about the kingdom, his glory remains veiled under the appearance of ordinary humanity. Jesus' final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God's right hand. Only in a wholly exceptional and unique way wold Jesus show himself to Paul "as to one untimely born," in a last apparition that established him as an apostle. The veiled character of the glory of the Risen One during this time is intimated in his mysterious words to Mary Magdalene: "I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." This indicates a difference in manifestation between the glory of the risen Christ and of the Christ exalted to the Father’s right hand, a transition marked by the historical and transcendent event of the Ascension.
This final stage stays closely linked to the first, that is, his descent from heaven in the incarnation. Only the one who "came from the Father" can return to the Father: Christ Jesus. “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man." Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the “Father's house”, to God’s life and happiness. Only Christ can open to a man such access that we, as members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us. "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." The lifting up of Jesus on the cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his Ascension into heaven, and indeed begins it. Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and eternal Covenant, "entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands... but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf." There Christ permanently exercises his priesthood, for he "always lives to make intercession" for "those who draw near to God through him." As "high priest of the good things to come" he is the center and the principal actor of the liturgy that honors the Father in heaven.
Henceforth Christ is seated at the right hand Father: " By ‘the Father's right hand’ we understand the glory and honor of divinity, where he who exists as Son of God before all ages, indeed as God, of one being with the Father, is seated bodily after he became incarnate and his flesh was glorified."
Being seated at the Father's right hand signifies the inauguration of the Messiah's kingdom, the fulfillment of the prophet Daniel's vision concerning the Son of Man: "To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." After this event the apostle became witnesses of the "kingdom that will have no end."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 5 Paragraph 2 Section II –The Resurrection – A Work of the Holy Trinity
Christ's Resurrection is an object of faith in that it is a transcendent intervention of God himself in creation and history. In it the three divine persons act together as one, and manifest their own proper characteristics. The Father's power "raised up" Christ the Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son's humanity, including his body, into the Trinity. Jesus is conclusively revealed as "Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead." St. Paul insists on the manifestation of God's power through the working of the Spirit who gave life to Jesus’ dead humanity and called it to the glorious state of Lordship.
As for the Son, he effects his own Resurrection by virtue of his divine power. Jesus announces that the Son of Man will have to suffer much, die, and then rise. Elsewhere he affirms explicitly: "I lay down my life, that I may take it again... I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." "We believe that Jesus died and rose again."
The Fathers contemplate the Resurrection from the perspective of the divine person of Christ who remained united to his soul and body, even when these were separated from each other by death: "By the unity of the divine nature, which remains present in each of the two components of man, these are reunited. For as death is produced by the separation of the human components, so Resurrection is achieved by union of the two."
February 10, 2013 - God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is
true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same. Romans 3:22
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 6 – He Ascended into Heaven4 and is Seated at the Right Hand of the Father
"So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and
sat down at the right hand of God." Christ's body was glorified at the moment of
his Resurrection, as proved by the new supernatural properties it subsequently
and permanently enjoys. But during the 40 days when eats and drinks familiarly
with his disciples and teaches them about the kingdom, his glory remains veiled
under the appearance of ordinary humanity. Jesus' final apparition ends with
the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the
cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God's right
hand. Only in a wholly exceptional and unique way wold Jesus show himself to
Paul "as to one untimely born," in a last apparition that established him as an apostle.
The veiled character of the glory of the Risen One during this time is intimated in his mysterious words to Mary
Magdalene: "I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say
to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."
This indicates a difference in manifestation between the glory of the risen
Christ and of the Christ exalted to the Father’s right hand, a transition marked
by the historical and transcendent event of the Ascension.
This final stage stays closely linked to the first, that is, his descent from heaven
in the incarnation. Only the one who "came from the Father" can return to the
Father: Christ Jesus. “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from
heaven, the Son of Man." Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the “Father's house”,
to God’s life and happiness. Only Christ can open to a man such access that we, as
members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our
Source, has preceded us.
"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." The lifting
up of Jesus on the cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his Ascension
into heaven, and indeed begins it. Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and
eternal Covenant, "entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands... but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf." There Christ
permanently exercises his priesthood, for he "always lives to make
intercession" for "those who draw near to God through him." As "high priest of
the good things to come" he is the center and the principal actor of the liturgy
that honors the Father in heaven.
Henceforth Christ is seated at the right hand Father: " By ‘the Father's right hand’ we
understand the glory and honor of divinity, where he who exists as Son of God
before all ages, indeed as God, of one being with the Father, is seated bodily
after he became incarnate and his flesh was glorified."
Being seated at the Father's right hand signifies the inauguration of the Messiah's
kingdom, the fulfillment of the prophet Daniel's vision concerning the Son of
Man: "To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples,
nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."
After this event the apostle became witnesses of the "kingdom that will have no
end."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 5 Paragraph 2 Section II –The Resurrection – A Work of the
Holy Trinity
Christ's Resurrection is an object of faith in that it is a transcendent intervention of
God himself in creation and history. In it the three divine persons act together
as one, and manifest their own proper characteristics. The Father's power
"raised up" Christ the Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son's
humanity, including his body, into the Trinity. Jesus is conclusively revealed
as "Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection
from the dead." St. Paul insists on the manifestation of God's power through the
working of the Spirit who gave life to Jesus’ dead humanity and called it to the
glorious state of Lordship.
As for the Son, he effects his own Resurrection by virtue of his divine power.
Jesus announces that the Son of Man will have to suffer much, die, and then
rise. Elsewhere he affirms explicitly: "I lay down my life, that I may take it
again... I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." "We
believe that Jesus died and rose again."
The Fathers contemplate the Resurrection from the perspective of the divine person
of Christ who remained united to his soul and body, even when these were
separated from each other by death: "By the unity of the divine nature, which
remains present in each of the two components of man, these are reunited. For as
death is produced by the separation of the human components, so Resurrection is
achieved by union of the two."
ASH WEDNESDAY 2/13/2013
The first day of Lent, a preparation for the celebration of Easter. On this day the pastor or priest blesses us
and makes the sign of the cross in ashes on each of our forehead's. It is meant to remind us of our sins
and the need for constant repentance. Wearing the ashes reminds us to be humble and recommit ourselves
to living a better life. Some of you may give up something for Lent, I choose to attend mass each day during Lent.
Whatever you choose do it with love of our Lord.
________________________________________________________
February 3, 2013 - All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Romans 8:1
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 5 Paragraph 2 Section I – The Historical and Transcendent Event
The mystery of Christ's resurrection is a real event, with manifestations that were
historically verified, as the New Testament bears witness. In about a.d. 56,
St. Paul could already write to the Corinthians: "I delivered to you as of first
importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance
with the scriptures, and that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day
in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the
12..." the Apostle speaks here of the living tradition of the Resurrection which
he had learned after his conversion at the gates of Damascus.
The empty tomb
"Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." The first
element we encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty tomb.
It itself is not direct proof of resurrection; the absence of Christ's body
from the tomb could be explained otherwise. Nonetheless the empty tomb was
still an essential sign for all.
Its discovery by the disciples was the first step toward recognizing the
very fact of the Resurrection. This was the case, first with holy women, and
then with Peter. The disciple "whom Jesus loved" affirmed that when he entered
the empty tomb and discovered "the linen cloths lying there," "he saw and
believed." This suggests that he realized from the empty tomb's condition that
the absence of Jesus' body could not have been of human doing and that Jesus had
not simply returned to earthly life as had been the case with Lazarus.
The appearances of the Risen One
Mary Magdalen and the holy women who came to finish anointing the body of Jesus,
which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began on the evening of Good
Friday, were the first to encounter the risen one. Thus the women were the first
messengers of Christ's Resurrection for the apostles themselves. They were the
next to whom Jesus appears: first Peter, then the 12. Peter had been called to
strengthen the faith of his brothers, and so sees the Risen One before them; it
is on the basis of his testimony that the community exclaims: "The Lord has
risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"
Everything that happened during those Paschal days involves each of the apostles -- -- and
Peter in particular -- -- in the building of the new era begun on Easter
morning. As witnesses of the Risen One, they remain the foundation stones of
his Church. The faith of the first community of believers is based on the
witness of concrete men known to the Christians and for the most part still
living among them. Peter and the 12 are the primary "witnesses to his
Resurrection," but they are not the only ones -- Paul speaks clearly of more
than 500 persons to whom Jesus appeared on a single occasion and also James and
of all the apostles.
Given all these testimonies, Christ’s Resurrection cannot be interpreted as something
outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an
historical fact. It is clear from the facts that the disciples’ faith was
drastically put to the test by their master's Passion and death on the cross,
which he had foretold. The shock provoked by the Passion was so great that at
least some of the disciples did not at once believe in in the news of the
Resurrection. Far from showing us a community seized by a mystical exaltation,
the Gospels present us with disciples demoralized ("looking sad") and
frightened. For they had not believed the holy women returning from the tomb and
had regarded their words as an "idle tale." When Jesus reveals himself to the 11
on Easter evening, "he unbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart,
because they had not believed him those who saw him after he had risen."
Even when faced with the reality of the risen Jesus the disciples are still doubtful,
so impossible did the thing seem: they thought they were seeing a ghost. "In
their joy they were still disbelieving and still wondering." Thomas will also
experience the test of doubt and St. Matthew relates that during the risen
Lord's last appearance in Galilee "some doubted." Therefore the hypothesis that
the resurrection was produced by the apostles faith (or credulity) will not hold
up. On the contrary their faith in the Resurrection was born, under the action
of divine grace, from their direct experience with the reality of the risen Jesus.
The condition of Christ’s risen humanity
By means of touch and the sharing of a meal, the risen Jesus establishes direct
will contact with his disciples. He invites them in this way to recognize that
he is not a ghost and above all to verify that the risen body in which he
appears to them is the same body that had been tortured and crucified, for it
still bears the traces of his passion. Yet at the same time this authentic, real
body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and
time but able to be present how and when he wills; for Christ’ humanity can no
longer be confined to earth and belongs henceforth only to the Father's divine
realm. For this reason too the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign freedom of
appearing as he wishes: in the guise of a gardener or in other forms familiar to
his disciples, precisely to awaken their faith.
Christ's resurrection was not a return to earthly life, as was the case with the raisings
from the dead that he had performed before Easter: Jarius' daughter, the young
man of Naim, Lazarus. These actions were miraculous events, but the persons
miraculously raised returned by Jesus’ power to ordinary earthly life. At some
particular moment they would die again. Christ's Resurrection is essentially
different. In his risen body he passes from the state of death to another life
beyond time and space. At Jesus' Resurrection his body is filled with the power
of the Holy Spirit: he shares the divine life and his glorious state, so that
St. Paul can say that Christ is "the man of heaven."
The Resurrection as transcendent event
O truly blessed Night, sings the Exsultet of the Easter Vigil, which alone
deserved to know the time and the hour when Christ rose from the realm of the
dead! But no one was an eyewitness
to Christ’s Resurrection and no evangelist describes it. No one can say how it
came about physically. Still less was its innermost essence, his passing over to
another life, perceptible to the senses. Although the Resurrection was an
historical event that could be verified by the sign of the empty tomb and by the
reality of the apostles encounters with the risen Christ, still it remains at
the very heart of the mystery of faith as something that transcends and
surpasses history. This is why the risen Christ does not reveal himself to the
world, but to his disciples, "to those who came up with him from Galilee to
Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people."
January 27, 2013 Enjoy serving the Lord, and he will give you what you want. Depend on the Lord; trust him, and he will take care of you. Psalms 37:4-5
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 1 – Christ Descended into Hell
The frequent New Testament affirmations that Jesus was "raised from the dead"
presuppose that the crucified one sojourned into the realm of the dead prior to
his resurrection. This was the first meaning given in the apostolic preaching to
Christ's descent into hell: that Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in
his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead. But he descended there as
Savior, proclaiming the Good News to the spirits in prison there.
Scripture calls the abode of the dead, to which the dead Christ went down, "hell" -- --
Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek -- -- because those who are there are deprived
of the vision of God. Such is the case for all the dead, whether evil or
righteous, while they await the Redeemer: which does not mean that their lot is
identical, as Jesus shows through the parable of the poor man Lazarus who was
received into "Abraham's bosom": "it is precisely these holy souls, who awaited
their Savior in Abraham's bosom, whom Christ the Lord delivered when he
descended into hell." Jesus did not descend into hell to deliver the damned,
nor to destroy the hell of damnation, but to free the just who hadgone before him.
“The gospel was preached even to the dead." The descent into hell brings the Gospel
message of salvation to complete fulfillment. This is the last phase of Jesus's
messianic mission, a phase which is condensed in time but vast in its real
significance: the spread of Christ's redemptive work to all men of all times and
all places, for all who are saved have been made sharers in the redemption.
Christ went down into the depths of death so that “the dead will hear the voice
of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Jesus, "the author of life,"
by dying destroyed "him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and
delivered all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage."
Henceforth to resent Christ holds "the keys of death and Hades," so that "in the
name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth."
Today a great silence reigns on earth, a great silence and a great stillness. A great
silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God
has fall asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since
the world began... He has gone to search for Adam, our first father, and for a
lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the
shadow of death, he hass gone to free from sorrow Adam in his bonds and Eve,
captive with him -- -- He who is both their God and the son of Eve... "I am your
God, who for your sake have become your son... I order you, O sleeper, to awake.
I did not create you to be a prisoner in hell. Ise from the dead, for I am the life of
the dead."
January 20, 2013 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Ephesians 4:29
Jesus substitutes his obedience for our disobedience
"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's
disobedience many were being made righteous." But his obedience unto death,
Jesus accomplished the substitution of the suffering servant, who "makes himself
an offering for sin," when "he bore the sin of many," and who "shall make many
to be accounted righteous," for "he shall bear their antiquities." Jesus atoned
for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins to the father.
Jesus consummates his sacrifice on the Cross
It is love "to the end" that confers on
Christ's sacrifice its value as redemption and reparation, as atonement and
satisfaction. He knew and loved us all when he offered his life.
Now "the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one
has died for all; therefore all have died." No man, not even the holiest, was
ever able to take on himself the sins of all men and offer himself ats A
sacrifice for all. The existence in Christ of the divine person of the Son, who
at once surpasses and embraces all human persons and constitutes himself as the
Head of all mankind makes possible his redemptive sacrifice for all.
The Council of Trent emphasizes the unique character of Christ's sacrifice as "the
source of eternal salvation" and teaches that "his most holy Passion on the wood
of the cross merited justification for us." And the Church venerates his cross
as it sings: "Hail, O Cross, our only hope."
Our participation in Christ’s sacrifice
The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, the "one mediator between God and men."
But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to
every man, "the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in
the paschal mystery" is offered to all men. He calls his disciples to "take up
their cross and follow him," for "Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an
example so that we should follow in his steps." In fact Jesus desires to
associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be his first
beneficiaries. This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was
associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his
redemptive suffering.
Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.
Paragraph 3 - Jesus Christ Was Buried
"By the Grace of God" Jesus tasted death "for everyone." In his plan of salvation,
God ordained that his Son should not only "die for our sins" but should also
"taste death," experience the condition of death, the separation of the soul
from his body, between the time he expired on the cross and the time he was
raised from the dead. The state of the dead Christ is the mystery of the tomb
and the descent into hell. It is the mystery of Holy Saturday, when Christ,
lying in the tomb, reveals God’s great Sabbath rest after the fulfillment of
man's salvation, which brings peace to the whole universe.
Christ in the tomb in his body
Christ's stay in the tomb constitutes the real link between his passible state before
Easter and his glorious and risen state today. The same person of the "Living
One" can say, "I died, and behold I am alive for evermore": God the Son did not
impede death from separating his soul from his body according to the necessary
order of nature, but has reunited them to one another in the Resurrection, so
that he himself might be, in his person, the meeting point for death and life,
by arresting in himself the decomposition of nature produced by death and so
becoming the source of reunion for the separated parts.
Since the "Author of life" who was killed is the same "living one [who has] risen,"
the divine person of the Son of God necessarily continued to possess his human
soul and body, separated from each other by death:
By the fact that at Christ's death his soul was separated from his flesh, his one
person is not itself divided into two persons; for the human body and soul of
Christ existed in the same way from beginning of his earthly existence, in the
divine person of the Word; and in death, although separated from each other,
both remained with one and the same person of the Word.
“You will not let your Holy One see corruption"
Christ’s death was a real death in that it put an end to his earthly human existence. But
because of the union which the person of the Son retained with his body, his was
not a mortal corpse like others, for "it was not possible for death to hold
them" and therefore "divine power preserved Christ's body from corruption." Both
of these statements can be said of Christ: "He was cut off out of the land of
the living," and "My flesh will dwell in hope. For you will not abandon my soul
to Hades, nor let your Holy One see corruption." Jesus' Resurrection "on the
third day" was a sign of this, also because bodily decay was held to begin on
the fourth day after death.
”Buried with Christ…”
Baptism, the original and full sign of which is immersion, efficaciously signifies the
descent into the tomb by the Christian who dies to sin with Christ in order to
live a new life. "We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so
that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might
walk in newness of life."
January 13, 2013 But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth. Psalms 86:15
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 2 Section III – Christ Offered Himself to His Father for Our Sins
Christ’s whole life is an offering to the Father
The Son of God, who came down "from heaven, not to do his own will, but the will of
him who sent him," said on coming into the world, "Lo, I have come to do your
will, O God." "And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once and for all." From the first moment of his
Incarnation the Son embraces the Father's plan of divine salvation in his
redemptive mission: "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to
accomplish his work." The sacrifice of Jesus "for the sins of the whole world"
expresses his loving communion with his Father. "The Father loves me, because I
lay down my life," said the Lord, "for I do as the Father has commanded me, so
that the world may know that I love the Father." The desire to embrace his
Father's plan of redeeming love inspired Jesus’ whole life, for his redemptive
passion was the very reason for his Incarnation. And so he asked, "And what
shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come
to this hour." And again, "Shall I not drink the cup which the Father has given
me?" From the cross just before "It is finished," he said "I thirst."
“The Lamb who takes away the sin of the world”
After agreeing to baptize him along with the sinners, John the Baptist looked at Jesus
and pointed him out as the "Lamb of God, who comes to takes away the sin of the
world." By doing so, he reveals that Jesus is at the same time the suffering
Servant who silently allows himself to be led to the slaughter and who bears the
sin of the multitudes, and also the Paschal Lamb, the symbol of Israel's
redemption at the first Passover Christ’s whole life expresses his mission: "to
serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Jesus freely embraced the Father’s redeeming love
By embracing in his human heart the Father's love for men, Jesus "loved them to the
end," for "greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends." In suffering and death his humanity became the free and perfect
instrument of his divine love which desires the salvation of men. Indeed, of
love for his father and for men, whom the father wants to save, Jesus freely
accepted his Passion and death: "No one takes my life from me, but I lay it
down of my own accord." Hence the sovereign freedom of God's son as he went out
to his death
At the Last Supper Jesus anticipated the free offering of his life
Jesus gave the supreme expression of his free offering of himself at the meal shared
with the 12 apostles "on the night he was betrayed." On the eve of his Passion,
while still free, Jesus transformed this Last Supper with the apostles into the
memorial of his voluntary offering to the Father for the salvation of men: "This
is my body which is given for you." "This is my blood of the covenant, which is
poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
The Eucharist that Christ institutes at that moment will be the memorial of his
sacrifice. Jesus includes the apostles in his own suffering and bids them
perpetuate it By doing so, the
Lord Institutes his apostles as priests of the New Covenant: "For their sakes I
sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth."
The agony at Gethsemani
The cup of the New Covenant, which Jesus anticipated when he offered himself at the
Last Supper, is afterwards accepted by him from his Father's hands in his agony
in the garden of Gethsemani,”, making himself "obedient unto death." Jesus
prays: "My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me..." Thus he
expresses the horror that death represented for his human nature. Like ours, his
human nature is destined for eternal life; but unlike ours, it is perfectly
exempt from sin, the cause of death. Above all, his human nature has been
assumed by the divine person of the "Author of life," the "Living One." By
accepting in his human that the Father's will be done, he accepts his death as
redemptive, for "he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree."
Christ’s death is the unique and definitive sacrifice
Christ's death is both the Paschal sacrifice that accomplishes the definitive redemption
of men, through "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world," and the
sacrifice of the New Covenant, which restores man to communion with God by
reconciling him to God through the "blood of the covenant, which was poured out
for many for the forgiveness of sins."
This sacrifice of Christ is unique; it completes and surpasses all other sacrafices.
First, it is a gift from God the Father himself, for the Father handed his Son
over to sinners in order to reconcile us with himself very at the same time it
is the offering of the son of God made man, who in freedom and low offered his
life to his father through the Holy Spirit in reparation for
disobedience.
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January 6, 2013 Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord
your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 2 Section I –
The Trial of Jesus among the religious authorities of Jerusalem, not only were the
Pharisee Nicodemus and the prominent Joseph of Arimathea both secret disciples
of Jesus, but there was also a long-standing dissension about him, so much so
that St. John says of these authorities on the very eve of Christ's Passion,
"many... believed in him," though very imperfectly. This is not surprising, if
one recalls on the day after Pentecost "a great many of the priests were
obedient to the faith" and "some believers... belong to the party of the
Pharisees," to the point that St. James could tell St. Paul, "How many
thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed; and they are all
zealous for the Law."
The religious authorities in Jerusalem were not unanimous about
what stance to take towards Jesus. The Pharisees threatened to excommunicate his
and followers. To those who feared that "everyone will believe in him, and the
Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation," the high
priest Caiaphas replied by prophesying: "It is expedient for you that one man
should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish." The
Sanhedrin, having declared Jesus deserving of death as a blasphemer but having
lost the right to put anyone to death, hands him over to the Romans, accusing
him of political revolt, a charge that puts him in the same category as Barabbas
who had been accused of sedition. The high priests also threatened Pilate
politically said that he would condemn Jesus to death.
Jews are not collectively responsible for Jesus’ death.
The historical complexity of Jesus’ trial is apparent in the
Gospel accounts. The personal sins of the participants (Judas, the Sanhedrin,
Pilate) is known to God alone. Hence we cannot lay responsibility for the trial
on the Jews in Jerusalem as a whole, despite the outcry of a manipulated crowd
and the global reproaches contained in the apostles’ calls to conversion after
Pentecost. Jesus himself, in forgiving them on the cross, and Peter in following
suit, both accept "the ignorance" of the Jews of Jerusalem and even of their
leaders. Still less can we extend responsibility to other Jews of different
times and places, based merely on the crowd’s cry: "His blood be on us and our
children!" a formula for ratifying a judicial sentence. As the church declared
at the Second Vatican Council:...-Nether all Jews indiscriminately at that time,
nor Jews today, can be charged with the crimes committed during his Passion...
The Jews should not be spoken of as rejected or accursed as if this followed
from holy Scripture.
All sinners were the authors of Christ’s Passion.
In her Magisterial teaching of the faith and in the witness of
her saints, the Church has never forgotten that "sinners were the authors and
the ministers of all the sufferings that the divine Redeemer endured." Taking
into account the fact that our sins affect Christ himself, the Church does not
hesitate to impute to Christians the greatest responsibility for the torments
inflicted upon Jesus, a responsibility with which they have all too often
burdened the Jews alone:
We must regard as guilty all those who continue to relapse into
their sins. Since our sins made the Lord Christ suffer the torment of the cross,
those who plunge themselves into disorders and crimes crucify the Son of God
anew in their hearts (for he is in them) and hold him up to contempt. And it can be seen that our crime in
this case is greater in us than the Jews. As for them, according to the witness
of the Apostle, "None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they
had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."
We, however, profess to know him. And when we deny him by our deeds, we
in some way seem to lay violent hands on him. Nor did demons crucify him; it is you
who have crucified him and crucify him still, when you delight in your vices and
sins.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 2 Section II – Christ’s Redemptive Death in God’s Plan of Salvation
“Jesus handed over according to the definite plan of God”
Jesus’ violent death was not the result of chance in an
unfortunate coincidence of circumstances, but is part of the mystery of God's
plan, as St. Peter explains to the Jews of Jerusalem in his first sermon on
Pentecost: "This Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and
foreknowledge of God." This Biblical language does not mean that those who
handed him over were merely passive players in a scenario written in advance by God.
To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When
therefore he establishes his eternal plan of "predestination," he includes in it
each person's free response to his grace: "In this city, in fact, both Herod and
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together
against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and
your plan had predestined to take place." For the sake of accomplishing his plan
of salvation, God permitted the acts that flowed from their blindness.
“He died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.”
The Scriptures had foretold this divine plan of salvation
through the putting to death of "the righteous one, my Servant" as a mystery of
universal redemption, that is, as the ransom that would free men from the
slavery of sin. Citing a confession of faith that he himself had "received," St.
Paul professes that "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the
scriptures." In particular Jesus’ redemptive death fulfills Isaiah's prophecy of
the suffering Servant. Indeed Jesus himself explained the meaning of his life
and death in the light of God suffering Servant. After his Resurrection he gave
this interpretation of the Scriptures to the disciples at Emmaus, and then to the apostles.
“For our sake God made him to be sin.”
Consequently, St. Peter can formulate the apostolic faith in the
divine plan of salvation in this way: "You were ransomed from the futile ways
inherited from your fathers... with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a
lamb without blemish or spot. He was destined before the foundation of the world
but was made that we might be "reconciled to God by the death of his Son."
God takes the initiative of universal redeeming love.
By giving up his own Son for our sins, God manifests that his
plan for us is one of benevolent love,, prior to any merit of our part: "In this
is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the
expiation for our sins." God "shows his love for us in that while we were yet
sinners Christ died for us."
At the end of the parable of the lost sheep Jesus recalled that
God's love excludes no one: "So it is not the will of your Father who is in
heaven that one of these little ones should perish." He affirms that he came "to
give his life as a ransom for many"; this last term is not restrictive, but
contrasts the whole of humanity with the unique person of the redeemer who
handed himself over to save us. The Church, following the apostles, teaches that
Christ died for all men without exception: "There is not, never has been, and
never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer."
ARCHIVES
Started November 2011
Hello, my name is Joel Chanitz, I started this website because I believe I have been given a mission to spread the word of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I have no special credentials except
a very strong voice in my mind directing me to perform His work. I do believe
that at an early age He sent me a call to join the priesthood. But at the time
I had many distractions, and many things that a teenage youth has interest in
besides being a priest. So all thru my life I've been given many gifts, a
wonderful family a good and a reasonably comfortable life. But I have always
had the feeling that He wanted me to do something above and beyond whatever I
was doing for my religion. So I'm here to give a brief discussion about what I
believe He expects me to do. And I hope you'll find some measure of inspiration
from this site.
So you may ask, what makes you so special that He would ask you to do this work. I have absolutely no idea but I believe that since I started this site and you are here, therefore there must be some reason He has chosen me.
It appears as if my mission is to reinvigorate catechism. I know many of you remember the
Baltimore catechism. Remember the little dots on your soul for venial sins and
the whole thing being blackened by a mortal sin? I don't know if many of you
realize how difficult a book that was to write? Each sentence in the book takes
a piece of our faith and summarizes it into one or two sentences. So concise
is this information, that almost every word in the sentence is important. For
example a simple question. Why did God make me? And the answer, God made me
to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him. That is a beautiful statement and
our whole faith is driven in that one sentence; everything else we've put around
that is man-made. All God expected was for us to follow those three simple
steps.
But alas man was given a free will
because God did not want a pre-destined following of his commands but a free
will following. Even before Adam and Eve the angels in heaven could not follow
these simple requests and we had Michael the archangel having to drive Lucifer
and his followers out of heaven since Lucifer thought he was superior to God.
So all thru history angels and men have mostly ignored or violated this simple
heavenly request.
Man’s personal pursuits get in the way of the three simple steps. The desire for power, riches and pleasure all interfere and become more important than following the three steps. It
seems that only when we are faced with life threatening situations that God
becomes important again. If you think about the gospels Jesus told us in Matthew
26 to 34 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat
[or drink], or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food
and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow
or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single
moment to your life-span?* Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from
the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not
even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so
clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven
tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to
drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your
heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom (of
God) and his righteousness,* and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for
a day is its own evil.”
So if we concentrate on the three steps we can find our way to the Lord.
December 30, 2012 - But I say to you who hear: Love your
enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray
for those who spitefully use you. Luke 6:27-28
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 4 Paragraph 1 Section III –
Jesus an Israel’s Faith in the One God and Savior
If the Law and the Jerusalem Temple could
be occasions of opposition to Jesus that Israel's religious authorities,
his role and redemption of sins, the divine work par excellence, was the
true stumbling-block for them.
Jesus scandalized the Pharisees by eating with tax
collectors and sinners as familiarly as with themselves. Against those
among them "who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised
others," Jesus affirms: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance." He went further by proclaiming before the Pharisees that,
since sin is universal, those who pretend not to need salvation are blind
to themselves.
Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his
merciful conduct toward sinners with God's own attitude toward them. He
went so far as to hint by sharing the table of sinners he was admitting
them to the messianic banquet. But it was most especially by forgiving sins
that Jesus placed the
religious authorities of Israel on the horns of a
dilemma. Were they not entitled to demand in consternation,
"Who can forgive sins but God alone?" By forgiving sins Jesus either
is blaspheming as a man who made himself
God’s equal or is speaking the truth, and his
person really does make present and reveal God's name.
Only divine identity of Jesus' person can justify so
absolute a claim as "He who is not with me is against me"; and his saying
that there was in him "something greater than Jonah,...," something
"greater than the Temple"; his reminder that David had called the Messiah
his Lord, and his affirmations,
"Before Abraham was, I AM"; and even "I and the Father are one."
Jesus asked the religious authorities of Jerusalem to believe in
him because of the Father's works which he accomplished. But such an act of
faith must go through a mysterious death to self, for a new "birth from above"
under the influence of divine grace. Such a demand for conversion in the
face of so surprising a fulfillment of the promises allows one to
understand the Sanhedrin's tragic misunderstanding of Jesus: they judged
that he deserved the death sentence as a blasphemer. The members of the
Sanhedrin were thus acting at
the same time out of "ignorance" and the
"hardness" of their
"unbelief."
December 23, 2012 - For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son,
that whoever believes
in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it
through Him.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 4 Paragraph 1
Section I –
In the eyes of many in Israel, Jesus seems to be acting against
essential institutions of the Chosen
People:
-- -- submission to the whole of the Law in its written
commandments and, for Pharisees, in the interpretation of oral
tradition;
-- -- the centrality of the Temple at Jerusalem as the holy
place where God's presence dwells in a special
way;
--
-- faith in the one God whose glory no man can share.
Jesus
and the Law
At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus issued a
solemn warning in which he presented God's law, given on Sinai during the first
covenant, in light of the grace of the new
covenant:
Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets: I
have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven
and
earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass
from the
law, until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of
the least of
these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be
called least in
the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches
them will be called
great in the kingdom of
having.
Jesus, Israel's Messiah and therefore the greatest in
the
kingdom of heaven, was to fulfill the Law by keeping it in its
all-embracing
detail -- -- according to his own words, down to "the least of
these
commandments." He is in fact the only one who could keep it perfectly.
On their
own admission the Jews were never able to observe the Law in its
entirety
without violating the least of its precepts. This is why every year
on the day
of atonement that children of Israel ask God's forgiveness for
their
transgressions of the Law. The Law indeed makes up one inseparable
whole, and
St. James recalls, "Whoever keeps the whole Law but fails in one
point had
become guilty of all of it"
This principle of integral observance of the Law not only in
letter but in spirit was dear to the Pharisees. By giving Israel this
principle
they had led many Jews of Jesus' time to extreme religious zeal.
This zeal were
it not to lapse into "hypocritical" casuistry, could only
prepare the People for
the unprecedented intervention of God through the
perfect fulfillment of the Law
by the only Righteous One in place of all
sinners.
The perfect fulfillment of the Law could be the work of none
but
the divine legislature, born subject to the Law in the person of the
Son. In
Jesus, the Law no longer appears engraved on tables of stone but
"upon the
heart" of the Servant who becomes "a covenant to the people,"
because he will
"faithfully bring forth justice." Jesus fulfills the Law to
the point of taking
upon himself "the curse of the Law" incurred by those
who do not "abide by the
things written in the book of the Law, and do
them," for his death took place to
redeem them "from the transgressions
under the first covenant."
The Jewish people and their spiritual leaders viewed Jesus as a
rabbi. He often argued within the framework of rabbinical interpretation of
the
Law. Yet Jesus could not help but offend the teachers of the law, for
he was not content to propose his
interpretation alongside theirs but
taught the people "as one who had authority and not as their scribes."
In
Jesus, the same Word of God, that had resounded on Mount
Sinai to give the
written Law to Moses, made itself heard anew on the Mount of
the
Beatitudes. Jesus did not abolish the Law but fulfilled it by giving its
ultimate interpretation in a divine way: "You have heard that it was said to the
men of old... But I say to you..." With this same divine authority, he
disavowed
certain human traditions of the Pharisees that were "making void
the word of
God."
Going even further, Jesus perfects the dietary law, so
important
in Jewish daily life, by revealing its pedagogical meaning
through a divine
interpretation: "Whatever goes into a man from outside
cannot defile him...
(Thus he declared all foods clean.). What comes out of
a man is what defiles a
man. For from within, out of the heart of man come
evil thoughts..."
in presenting with divine authority the definitive
interpretation of the
Law, Jesus found himself confronted by certain
teachers of the Law who did not
accept his interpretation of the Law,
guaranteed though it was by the divine
signs that accompanied it. This was
the case especially with the sabbath laws,
for he recalls often with
rabbinical arguments, that the sabbath rest is not
violated by serving God
and neighbor, but his own healings
did.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 4 Paragraph 1 Section II –
Jesus and the Temple
Like the prophets before him Jesus expressed
the deepest respect
for the Temple in Jerusalem. It was in the Temple that
Joseph and Mary presented
him 40 days after his birth. At the age of 12 he
decided to remain in the Temple
to remind his parents that he must be about
his Father's business. He went there
each year during his hidden life at
least for Passover. His public ministry
itself was patterned by his
pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the great Jewish
feasts.
Jesus went up to the Temple as the privileged place of
encounter
with God. For him, the Temple was the dwelling place of his
Father, a house of
prayer, and he was angered that it's outer court had
become a place of commerce.
He drove merchants out of it because of jealous
love for his Father: "You shall
not make my Father's house a house of
trade. His disciples remembered that it
was written, ‘Zeal for your house
will consume me.’
After his Resurrection his apostles retained their
reverence for the Temple.
On the threshold of his Passion Jesus announced the coming
destruction of this splendid building, of which there would not remain "one
stone upon another." By doing so, he announced a sign of the last days, which
were to begin with his own Passover. But this prophecy would be distorted
in its
telling by false witnesses during his interrogation at the high
priest’s house
and would be thrown back at him as an insult when he was
nailed to the cross.
Far from having been hostile to the Temple, where he gave the
essential part of his teaching, Jesus was willing to pay the
temple-tax,
associating with him Peter, whom he had just made the foundation
of his future
Church. He even identified himself with the Temple by
presenting himself as
God's definitive dwelling place among men. Therefore
his being put to bodily
death presaged the destruction of the Temple, which
would manifest the dawning
of a new age in the history of salvation: "The
hour is coming when neither on
this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you
worship the
Father."
December 16, 2012 But you
will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth. Acts 1:8
A foretaste of the Kingdom: the
Transfiguration
From the day Peter confessed that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son
of the living God, the Master "began to show his
disciples that he must go to
Jerusalem and suffer many things... and be
killed, and on the third day be
raised." Peter scorns this prediction, nor
do the others understand it any
better than he. In this context the
mysterious episode of Jesus’Transfiguration
takes place on a high mountain,
before three witnesses chosen by himself: Peter,
James, and John. Jesus’
face and clothes become dazzling with light, and Moses
and Elijah appear,
speaking "of his departure, which he was to accomplish at
Jerusalem." A
cloud covers him and a voice from heaven says: "This is my Son, my
Chosen;
listen to him!"
For a moment Jesus discloses his divine glory,
confirming
Peter's confession. He also reveals that he will have to go by the
way of the
cross at Jerusalem in order to "enter into his glory." Moses and
Elijah had
seen God's glory on the mountain; the Law and the Prophets had
announced the
Messiah's sufferings. Christ’s Passion is the will of the
Father: the Son acts
as God's servant; the cloud indicates the presence of
the Holy Spirit. "The
whole Trinity appeared: the Father in the voice; the
Son in the man; the Spirit
in the shining cloud."
You were transfigured
on the mountain, and your disciples, as
much as they were capable of it,
beheld your glory, O Christ our God, so that
when they should see you
crucified they would understand that your Passion was
voluntary, and
proclaim to the world that you truly are the splendor of the
father.
On
the threshold of the public life: the baptism; on the
threshold of the
Passover: the Transfiguration. Jesus’ baptism proclaimed "the
mystery of
the first regeneration," namely, our Baptism; the Transfiguration "is
the
sacrament of the second regeneration": our own Resurrection. From now on we
share in the Lord's Resurrection through the Spirit who acts in the sacraments
of the Body of Christ. The Transfiguration gives us a foretaste of Christ's
glorious coming, when he "will change our holy body to be like his glorious
body." But it also recalls that "it is through many persecutions that we
must
enter the kingdom of God":
Peter did not yet understand this when
he wanted to remain with
Christ on the mountain. It has been reserved for
you, Peter, but for after
death. For now, Jesus says: "Go down to toil on
earth, to serve on earth, to be
scorned and crucified on earth. Life goes
down to be killed; Bread goes down to
suffer hunger; the Way he goes down
to be exhausted on his journey; the Spring
goes down to suffer thirst; and
you refuse to suffer?"
Jesus’ ascent to Jerusalem
"When
the days drew near for him to be taken up [Jesus] set his
face to go to
Jerusalem." By this decision he indicated that he was going up to
Jerusalem
prepared to die there. Three times he had announced his Passion and
Resurrection; now, heading toward Jerusalem, Jesus says: "It cannot be that a
prophet should perish away from Jerusalem."
Jesus recalls death in
Jerusalem. Nevertheless he persists in calling Jerusalem to gather
around
him: "How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen
gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" When Jerusalem comes into
view he weeps over her and expresses once again his heart's desire: "Would
that
even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are
hidden from
your eyes."
Jesus’ messianic entrance into
Jerusalem
How will Jerusalem welcome her Messiah? Although Jesus had
always refused popular attempts to make him king, he chooses the time and
prepare his details for his messianic entry into the city of "his
father
David." Acclaimed as son of David, as the one who brings salvation
(Hosanna
means "Save!" or "Give salvation!"), the "King of glory" enters
his city "riding
on an ass."
Jesus conquers the Daughter of Zion, a
figure of his Church,
neither by ruse nor by violence, but by the humility
that bears witness to the
truth. And so the subjects of his kingdom on that
day are children and God's
poor, who acclaim him as had the angels when
they announced him to the
shepherds. Their acclamation, "Blessed be he who
comes in the name of the
Lord," is taken up by the Church in the "Sanctus" of
the Eucharistic liturgy
and introduces the memorial of the Lord's
Passover.
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem manifested the coming of the kingdom
that the King -- Messiah was going to accomplish by the Passover of his
Death
and Resurrection. It is with the celebration of that entry on Palm
Sunday that
the Church's liturgy solemnly opens holy
week
December 9, 2012But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;
and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8
The signs of the Kingdom
of God
Jesus accompanies his words with many "mighty works and wonders
and signs," which manifest that the kingdom is present in him and attest
that he
was the promised Messiah.
The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him.
They invite belief in him. To those who turn to him in faith, he grants
what
they ask. So miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his
Father's works;
they bear witness that he is the Son of God. But his
miracles can only be
occasions for "offense"; they are not intended to
satisfy people's curiosity or
desire for magic. Despite his evident
miracles some people reject Jesus; he is
even accused of acting by the
power of demBy freeing some individuals from the earthly evils of hunger,
injustice, illness, and death, Jesus performed messianic signs.
Nevertheless he
did not come to abolish all evils here below, but to free
men from the greatest
slavery, sin, which thwarts them in their vocation as
God's sons and causes all
forms of human
bondage.
The coming of God's kingdom means the defeat of Satan's: "If it
is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has
come
upon you." Jesus’ exorcisms free some individuals from the domination
of demons.
They anticipate Jesus’ great victory over "the ruler of this
world." The kingdom
of God will be definitively established through
Christ's cross: "God reigns from
the wood."
“The keys
of the kingdom”
From the beginning of his public life Jesus chose certain man,
12 in number, to be with him and to participate in his mission. He gives
the 12
a share in his authority and "sent them out to preach the kingdom of
God and to
heal." They remain associated forever with Christ's kingdom, for
through them he
directs the Church:
As my Father appointed a kingdom for me, so do I appoint for
you
that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on
thrones judging
the 12 tribes of Israel.
Simon Peter holds the first place in the
college of the 12;
Jesus entrusted a unique mission to him. Through a
revelation from the Father,
Peter had confessed: "You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God." Our Lord
then declared to him: "You are Peter, and
on his rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of Hades will not prevail
against it." Christ, the "living stone,"
thus assures his Church, built on
Peter, of victory over the powers death.
Because of the faith he confessed
Peter will remain the unshakable rock of the
Church. His mission will be to
keep this faith from every lapse and to
strengthen his brothers in
it.
Jesus
entrusted a specific authority to Peter: "I will give you
the keys of the
kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound
in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The
"power of
the keys" designates authority to govern the house of God, which is
the
Church. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, confirmed this mandate after his
Resurrection: "Feed my sheep." The power to "bind and loose" connotes the
authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgments, and to make
disciplinary decisions in the Church. Jesus entrusted this authority to the
Church throgh the ministry of the apostles and in particular through the
ministry of Peter, the only one to whom he specifically entrusted the keys of
the
kingdom.
December 2, 2012 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;
and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth. Acts
1:8
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3
Paragraph 3 Section III – The Mysteries of Jesus’ Public
Life
Jesus’ public life begins with his baptism by John in
the Jordan. John preaches "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
A crowd of sinners -- -- tax collectors and soldiers, Pharisees and Sadducees,
and
prostitutes -- -- come to be baptized by him. "Then Jesus appears." The
Baptist
hesitates, but Jesus insists and receives baptism. Then the Holy
Spirit, in the
form of a dovel, comes upon Jesus and a voice from heaven
proclaims, "This is my
beloved Son." This is the manifestation ("Epiphany")
of Jesus as Messiah of
Israel and Son of God.
The baptism of Jesus is on
his part the acceptance and
inauguration of his mission as God’s suffering
servant. He allows himself to be
numbered among sinners; he is already "the
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin
of the world." Already he is
anticipating the "baptism" of his bloody death.
Already he is coming to
"fulfill all righteousness," that is, he is submitting
himself entirely to
his Father's will: out of love he consents to this baptism
of death for the
remission of our sins. The Father's voice responds to the Son’s
acceptance,
proclaiming his entire delight in his Son. The Spirit whom Jesus
possessed
in fullness from his conception comes to "rest on him." Jesus will be
the
source of the Spirit for all mankind. At his baptism "the heavens were
opened" -- -- the heavens that Adam’s sin had closed -- -- and the waters were
sanctified by the descent of Jesus and the Spirit, a prelude to the new
creation.
Through Baptism the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to
Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates his death and resurrection. The
Christian must enter into this mystery of humble self-abasement and
repentance,
go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be
reborn of water
and the Spirit so as to become the Father's beloved son in
the Son and "walk in
the newness of life”.
Let us be buried with Christ
by baptism to rise with him; let us
go down with him to be raised with him;
and let us rise with him to be glorified
with him.
Everything that
happened to Christ lets us know that, after the
bath of water, the Holy
Spirit swoops down upon us from high heaven and that,
adopted by the
Father's voice, we become sons of God.
Jesus’
temptations
The Gospels speak of a time of solitude for Jesus in the desert
immediately after his baptism by John. Driven by the Spirit into the
desert,
Jesus remains there for 40 days without eating; he lives among wild
beasts, and
angels minister to him. At the end of this time Satan tempts
him three times,
seeking to compromise his filial attitude toward God.
Jesus rebuffs these
attacks, which recapitulate the temptations of Adams in
Paradise and of Israel
in the desert and the devil leaves him "until an
opportune time."
The evangelists indicate the salvific meaning of this
mysterious
event: Jesus is the new Adam who remained faithful just where
the first ADAM had
given in to temptation. Jesus fulfills Israel's vocation
perfectly: in contrast
to those who had once provoked God during 40 years
IN the desert, Christ reveals
himself as God's servant, totally obedient to
the divine will. In this, Jesus is
the devil’s conqueror: he "binds the
strong man" to take back his plunder.
Jesus’ victory over the tempter in
the desert anticipates victory at the
Passion, the supreme act of obedience
to his filial love for the Father.
Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which
the Son of God is
Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and
the way men wish to
attribute to him. This is why Christ vanquished the
Tempter for us: "For we
have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize
with our weaknesses, but one
who in every respect has been tested as we
are, yet without sinning.” By the
solemn 40 days of Lent church unites
herself each year to the mystery of Jesus
in the
desert.
“The Kingdom of God is at hand”
"Now after John
was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching
the gospel of God, and
saying: ‘the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is
at hand: repent,
and believe in the gospel.’ “ "To carry out the will of the Father
Christ
inaugurated the kingdom of heaven on earth." Now the Father's will is
"to
raise up men to share in his own divine life." He does this by gathering men
around his Son Jesus Christ. This gathering is the Church, "on earth the
seed
and beginning of that kingdom."
Christ stands at the heart of this
gathering of men into the
"family of God." By his word, through signs that
manifest the reign of God, and
by sending out his disciples, Jesus calls
all people to come together around
him. But above all in the great Paschal
mystery -- -- his death on the cross and
his Resurrection -- -- he would
accomplish the coming of his kingdom. "And I,
when I am lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men to myself." Into this
union with Christ all men
are called.
The proclamation of the Kingdom of
God
Everyone is called to enter the kingdom. First announced to the
children of Israel, this messianic kingdom is intended to accept men of all
nations. To enter it, one must first accept Jesus’ word:
The word of the Lord
is compared to a seed which is sown in a
field; those who hear it with
faith and are numbered among the little flock of
Christ truly receive the
kingdom. Then, by its own power, the seed sprouts and
grows until the
harvest.
The kingdom belongs to the poor and lowly, which means those who
have accepted it with humble hearts. Jesus is sent to "preach good news to
the
poor"; he declare them blessed, for "theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
To them
-- -- the "little ones" -- -- the Father is pleased to reveal what
remains
hidden from the wise and learned. Jesus shares the life of the
poor, from the
cradle to the cross; he experiences hunger, thirst, and
privation. Jesus
identifies himself with the poor of every kind and makes
active love towards
them the condition for entering his kingdom.
Jesus
invites sinners to the table of the kingdom: "I came not
to call the
righteous, but sinners." He invites them to that conversion without
which
one cannot enter the kingdom, but shows them in word and deed his Father's
boundless mercy for them and the vast "joy in heaven over one sinner who
repents." The supreme proof of his love will be the sacrifice of his own life
"for the forgiveness of sins."
Jesus’ invitation to enter his kingdom
comes in the form of
parables, a characteristic feature of his teaching.
Through his parables he
invites people to the feast of the kingdom, but he
also asks for a radical
choice: to gain the kingdom, one must give
everything. Words are not enough;
deeds are required. The parables are like
mirrors for man: Will he be hard soil
or good earth for the word? What use
has he made of the talents he has
received? Jesus and the presence of the
kingdom in this world are secretly at
the heart of the parables. One must
enter the kingdom, that is, become a
disciple of Christ, in order to "know
the secrets of the kingdom of heaven."
For those who stay "outside,"
everything remains enigmatic.
November
25, 2012But seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added to you. Matthew
6:33
I
had forgotten that we have become a group who wants to get information quickly
or in small packets of data. This weeks update will be the last long lesson. I
shall endeavor to deliver smaller packets of God's
word.
Section 2 Chapter 2
Article 3 Paragraph 3 Section II –
The Mysteries of Jesus’ Infancy and Hidden Life
The coming of God's Son to earth is an event of such
immensity that God willed to
prepare for it over centuries. He makes
everything converge on Christ: all the
rituals and sacrifices, figures and
symbols of the "First Covenant." He
announces him through the mouth of the
prophets who succeeded one another in
Israel. Moreover, he awakens in the
hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of
this coming.
St. John the Baptist is the
Lord's immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to
prepare his way. "Prophet
of the Most High," John surpasses all the prophets, of
whom he is the last.
He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother's womb
welcomes the
coming of Christ, and rejoices in being "the friend of the
bridegroom,"
whom he points out as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of
the
world." Going before Jesus "in the spirit and power of Elijah," John bears
witness to Christ in his preaching, by his Baptism of conversion, and through
his martyrdom.
When the
Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this
ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for
the Savior's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his
second
coming. By celebrating the precursor's birth and martyrdom, the
Church unites
herself to this desire: "he must increase, but I must
decrease."
Jesus was born in a
humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first
witnesses to this event. In this poverty heaven’s glory was made manifest. The
church never tires of singing the glory of this night:
The Virgin today
brings into the world the Eternal
And the earth offers a cave to the
Inaccessible.
The Angels and shepherds praise him
And the magi advance
with the star,
For you are born for us,
Little Child, God
eternal!
To become a child in
relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For
this, we
must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become “children
of
God" we must be "born from above" or "born of God." Only when Christ is
formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the
mystery of this "marvelous exchange":
Oh
marvelous exchange! Man's Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have
been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself4 to share
our humanity.
Jesus’
circumcision, on the eighth day after his birth, is a sign of his incorporation
into Abraham's descendents, into the people of the covenant. It is the sign
of
his submission to the law and his deputation to Israel's worship, in
which he
will participate throughout his life. This sign prefigures that
"circumcision of
Christ" which is baptism.
The
Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and
Savior of the world. The great feast of Epiphany celebrates the adoration of
Jesus by the wise men (Magi) from the East, together with his baptism in
the
Jordan and the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee. In the magi,
representatives of
the neighboring pagan religions, the Gospel sees the
first fruits of the
nations, who welcome the good news of salvation through
the incarnation. The
Magi’s coming to Jerusalem in order to pay homage to
the King of the Jews shows
that they seek in Israel, in the messianic light
of the Star of David, the one
who will be king of the nations. Their coming
means that pagans can discover
Jesus and worship him as Son of God and
Savior of the world only by turning
toward the Jews and receiving from them
the messianic promise as contained in
the Old Testament. The Epiphany shows
that "the full number of the nations" now
takes its "place in the family of
the patriarchs," and acquires Israelitica
dignitas (are made "worthy of the
heritage of Israel").
The
presentation of Jesus in the temple shows him to be the firstborn Son who
belongs to the Lord.
With
Simeon and Anna, all Israel awaits its encounter with Savior -- -- the name
given to this event in the Byzantine tradition. Jesus is recognized as the long
expected Messiah, the "light to the nations" and the "glory of Israel," but
also
"a sign that it is spoken against." The sword of sorrow predicted for
Mary
announces Christ’s perfect and unique oblation on the cross that will
impart
the salvation God had "prepared in the presence of all
peoples."
During the greater
part of his life Jesus shared the condition of the vast majority of
human
beings: a daily life spent without evident greatness, a life of manual
labor. His religious life was that of a Jew obedient to the law of God, a life
in the community. From this whole period it is revealed to us that Jesus
was
"obedient" to his parents and that he "increased in wisdom and stature,
and in
favor with God and men."
Jesus’ obedience to his mother and legal father fulfills
the fourth commandment
perfectly and was the temporal image of his filial
obedience to his Father in
heaven. The everyday obedience of Jesus to
Joseph and Mary both announced and
anticipated the obedience of Holy
Thursday: "Not my will...."
The obedience of Christ in the daily routine
of his hidden life was
already inaugurating his work of restoring what the
disobedience of Adam had
destroyed.
The
hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus by
the most ordinary events of daily life:
The
home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus --
-- the school of the Gospel. First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem
for
silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in
us... A
lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is,
it's communion of
love, it's austere and simple beauty, and its sacred and
inviolable character...
A lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the
"Carpenter's Son," in you I would choose
to understand and proclaim the
severe and redeeming law of human work... To
conclude, I want to greet all
the workers of the world, holding up to them their
great pattern, their
brother who is God.
The finding
of Jesus in the Temple is the only event that breaks the silence of the
Gospels about the hidden years of Jesus. Here Jesus lets us catch a glimpse of
the mystery of his total consecration to a mission that flows from his
divine
sonship: "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's work?"
Mary and
Joseph did not understand these words, but they accepted them in
faith. Mary
"kept all these things in her heart" during the years Jesus
remained hidden in
the silence of an ordinary
life.
November 18, 2012 Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you . Matthew
7:7
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 3 Section I
– Christ’s Whole Life is
Mystery
Many things about Jesus of interest to human curiosity do not figure in
the Gospels.
Almost nothing is said about his hidden life at Nazareth, and
even a great part
of his public life is not recounted. What is written in
the Gospels was set down
there "so that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and
that believing you may have life in his
name."
The
Gospels were written by men who were among the first to have faith and wanted to
share it with others. Having known in faith who Jesus is, they could see
and
make others see the traces of his mystery in all his earthly life. From
the
swaddling clothes of his birth to the vinegar of his Passion and the
shroud of
his Resurrection, everything in Jesus’ life was a sign of his
mystery. His
deeds, miracles, and words all revealed that "in him the whole
fullness of deity
dwells bodily." His humanity appeared as "sacrament,"
that is, the sign and
instrument, of his divinity and of the salvation he
brings: what was visible in
his earthly life leads to the invisible mystery
of his divine sonship and
redemptive
mission.
Christ's whole earthly life -- his words and deeds, his
silences and sufferings, indeed
his manner of being and speaking -- is
Revelation of the Father. Jesus can say:
"Whoever has seen me has seen the
Father," and the Father can say: "This is my
Son, my Chosen; listen to
him!" Because our Lord became man in order to do his
Father's will, even
the least characteristics of his mysteries manifest "God is
love... among
us."
Christ’s whole life is a mystery of redemption.
Redemption comes to us above all through
the blood of his cross, but this
mystery is at work throughout Christ's entire life:
-- already in his Incarnation through which by becoming
poor he enriches us with
his poverty;
-- in his hidden life which by his
submission atones for our
disobedience;
-- in his word which purifies
its hearers;
-- in his healings and exorcisms by which "he took our
infirmities and bore our
diseases";
-- end in his Resurrection by
which he justifies us.
Christ's
whole life is a mystery of recapitulation. All Jesus did, said, and suffered
head for its game restoring fallen man to his original
vocation:
When Christ became incarnate and was made man, he
recapitulated in himself the long
history of mankind and procured for us a
"shortcut" to salvation, so that what
we had lost in Adam that is, being in
the image and likeness of God, we might
recover in Christ Jesus. For this
reason Christ experienced all the stages of
life, thereby giving communion
with God to all men.
All
Christ’s riches "are for every individual and are everybody's property." Christ
did not live his life for himself but for us, from his Incarnation "for us
men
and for our salvation" to his death "for our sins" and Resurrection
"for our
justification." He is still "our advocate with the Father," who
"always lives
to make intercession" for us. He remains ever "in the
presence of God on our
behalf, bringing before him all that he lived and
suffered for us."
In all of his life Jesus presents himself as our model.
He is "the perfect Man,"
who invites us to become his disciples and follow
him. In humbling himself, he
has given us an example to imitate, through
his prayer he draws us to pray, and
by his poverty he calls us to accept
freely privation and persecutions that may
come our
way.
Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself
lived, and he lives it in us. "By
his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, has
in a certain way united himself with
each man." We are called only to
become one with him, for he enables us as the
members of his Body to share
in what he lived for us in his flesh as our
model:
We
must continue to accomplish in ourselves the stages of Jesus' life and his
mysteries and often to beg him to perfect and realize them in us and in his
whole Church... For it is the plan of the Son of God to make us and the whole
church partake in his mysteries and to extend them to and continue them in
us
and in his whole Church. This is his plan for fulfilling his mysteries
in us.
November
11, 2012 For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone
who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John
3:16
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 2 Section I –
Conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit
The Annunciation to Mary inaugurates "the fulness of
time," the time of the
fulfillment of God's promises and preparations. Mary
was invited to conceive him
in whom the "whole fullness of deity" would
dwell "bodily." The divine response
to her question, "How can this be,
since I know not man?" was given by the power
of the Spirit: "The Holy
Spirit will come upon you."
The mission of the Holy Spirit is always conjoined and
ordered to that of the Son.
The Holy Spirit, "the Lord, the giver of Life,"
is sent to sanctify the womb of
the Virgin Mary and divinely fecundate it,,
causing her to conceive the eternal
Son of the Father in a humanity drawn
from her own.
The Father's only Son, conceived as man in the womb of
the Virgin Mary, is "Christ,"
that is to say, anointed by the Holy Spirit,
from the beginning of this human
existence, through the manifestation of
this fact takes place only
progressively: to the shepherds, to the Magi, to
John the Baptist, to the
disciples. Thus the life of Jesus Christ will make
manifest "how God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with
power."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 2 Section II
– Born of the Virgin
Mary
What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it
believes about
Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its
faith in Christ.
Mary’s
predestination
"God sent forth his Son," but to prepare a body for him,
he wanted the free
cooperation of a creature. For this, from all eternity
God chose for the mother
of his son a daughter of Israel, a young Jewish
woman of Nazareth in Galilee, "a
virgin betrothed to a man whose name was
Joseph, of the house of David; and the
virgin’s name was
Mary":
The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should
be preceded by assent on
the part of the predestined mother, so that just
as a woman had a share in the
coming of death, so also should a woman
contribute to the coming of life.
Throughout the Old Covenant the mission of many holy women
prepared for that of Mary. At
the very beginning there was Eve; despite her
disobedience, she receives the
promise of a posterity that will be
victorious over the evil one, as well as the
promise that she will be the
mother of all the living. By virtue of this
promise, Sarah conceived a son
in spite of her old age. Against all human
expectation God chooses those
who were considered powerless and weak to show
forth his faithfulness to
his promises: Hannah, the mother of Samuel; Deborah;
Ruth; Judith and
Esther; and many other women. Mary "stands out among the poor
and humble of
the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from
him. After a
long period of waiting the times are fulfilled in her, the exulted
Daughter
of Zion, and a new plan of salvation is
established."
The Immaculate Conception
To become the mother of the Savior, Mary "was enriched
by God with gifts
appropriate to such a rule." The angel Gabriel at the
moment of the Annunciation
salutes her as "full of grace." In fact, in
order for Mary to be able to give
the free assent of her faith to the
announcement of her vocation, it was
necessary that she be wholly borne by
God’s grace
Through the centuries the Church has become even more
aware that Mary, "full of grace"
through God, was redeemed from the moment of
her conception. That is what the
dogma of the Immaculate Conception
confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:
The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from
the first moment of her conception, by a
singular grace and privilege of
Almighty God and by virtue of the merits of
Jesus Christ, savior of the
human race, preserved immune from all stain of
original
sin.
The
"splendor of an entirely unique holiness" by which Mary is "enriched from
the
first instant of her conception" comes wholly from Christ: she is
"redeemed, in
a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son."
The Father blessed
Mary more than any other created person "in Christ with
every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places" and chose her "in Christ
before the foundation of the
world, to be holy and blameless before him in
love."
The fathers of the Eastern tradition called the mother
of God "the All-Holy"
(Panagia) and celebrate her as "free from any stain
of sin, as though fashioned
by the Holy Spirit and formed is a new
creature." By the grace of God Mary
remained free of every personal sin her
whole life long.
“Let it be done to me according to your
word……”
At the announcement that she would give birth to " to
the Son of the Most High"
without knowing man, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, Mary responded with the
obedience of faith, certain that "with God
nothing will be impossible": "Behold
I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it
be done to me according to your word."
Thus, giving her consent to God's
word, Mary becomes the mother of Jesus.
Espousing the divine will for
salvation wholeheartedly, without a single sin to
restrain her, she gave
herself entirely to the person and to the work of her
Son; she did so in
order to serve the mystery of redemption with him and
dependent on him, by
God’s grace:
As St. Irenaeus says, "Being obedient she became the
cause of salvation for herself
and for the whole human race." Hence a few
of the early Fathers gladly assert...
"The knot of Eve’s disobedience was
untied by Mary's obedience: what the virgin
Eve bound through her
disbelief, very loosened by her faith." Comparing her with
Eve, they call
Mary "the Mother of the living" and frequently claim: "Death
through Eve,
life through Mary."
Mary’s divine
motherhood
Called in the Gospels "the mother of Jesus," Mary is
acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the
prompting of the Spirit and even before birth
of her son, as "the mother of my
Lord." In fact, the One she conceived as
man by the Holy Spirit, who truly
became her Son according to the flesh,
was none other than the Father’s eternal
Son, the second person of the holy
Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary
is truly "Mother of God"
(Theo-tokos).
Mary’s
virginity
From the first formulations of her faith, the Church has
confessed that Jesus was
conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit
in the womb of the Virgin Mary,
affirming also the corporeal aspect of this
event: Jesus was conceived "by the
Holy Spirit without human seed." The
Fathers see in the virginal conception the sign that it truly was the Son who
came in a humanity like our own.
Thus St. Ignatius of Antioch at the
beginning of the second century says:
You are firmly convinced about our Lord, who is truly of the
race of David according
to the flesh, Son of God according to the will and
power of God, truly born of a
virgin,... he was truly nailed to a tree for us
in his flesh under Pontius Pilate... he truly suffered, as he is also truly
risen.
The
Gospel accounts understand the virginal conception of Jesus as a divine work
that surpasses all human understanding and possibility: "That which is
conceived
in her is of the Holy Spirit," said the angel to Joseph about
Mary his fiancée.
The Church sees here the fulfillment of the divine
promise given through the
prophet Isaiah: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son."
People are sometimes troubled by the silence of St.
Mark's Gospel and the New Testament
Epistles about Jesus’ virginal
conception. Some might wonder if we were merely
dealing with legends or
theological constructs not claiming to be history. To
this we must respond:
Faith in the virginal conception of Jesus met with a
lively opposition,
mockery, or incomprehension of nonbelievers, Jews and pagans
alike; so it
could hardly have been motivated by pagan mythology or by some
adaptation
to the ideas of the age. The meaning of this event is accessible only
to
faith, which understands in it the "connection of these mysteries with
one
another" in the totality of Christ’s mysteries, from his Incarnation to
his
Passover. St. Ignatius of Antioch already bears witness to this
connection:
"Mary’s virginity and giving birth, and even the Lords death
escaped the notice
of the prince of this world: these three mysteries
worthy of proclamation were
accomplished in God's
silence."
Mary --- ever
virgin
The deepening of faith in the virginal motherhood led
the Church to confess Mary's
real and perpetual virginity even in the act
of giving birth to the Son of God
made man. In fact, Christ's birth "did
not diminish his mother's virginal
integrity but sanctified it." And so the
liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary
as Aeiparthenos, the
"Ever-virgin."
Against this doctrine the objection is sometimes raised
that the Bible mentions brothers
and sisters of Jesus. The Church has
always understood these passages as not
referring to other children of the
Virgin Mary. In fact James and Joseph,
"brothers of Jesus," are the slums
of another Mary, a disciple of Christ, St.
Matthew significantly calls "the
other Mary." They are close relations of Jesus,
according to an Old Testament
expression.
Jesus is Mary’s only son, but her spiritual motherhood
extends to all men whom indeed
he came to save: "The Son whom she brought
forth is he whom God placed as the
first born among many brethren, that is,
the faithful in whose generation and
formulation she cooperates
with a mothers love."
Mary’s virginal motherhood in God’s
plan
The
eyes of faith can discover in the context of the whole of Revelation to
mysterious reasons why God in his saving plan wanted his Son to be born of a
virgin. These reasons touch both on the person of Christ and his redemptive
mission, and on the welcome Mary gave that mission on behalf of all
men.
Mary's virginity manifests God's absolute initiative in
the Incarnation. Jesus has only
God as Father. "He was never estranged of
the Father because of the human nature
which he assumed... He is naturally
Son of the Father as to his divinity and
naturally son of his mother to his
humanity, but properly Son of the Father in
both
natures."
Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin
Mary's womb because he is the New
Adam, who inaugurates the new creation:
"The first man was from the earth, a man
of dust; the second man is from
heaven." From his conception, Christ's humanity
is filled with the Holy
Spirit, for God "gives him the Spirit without measure."
From "his fullness"
as the head of redeemed humanity "we have all received,
grace upon
grace."
By his virginal conception, Jesus, the New Adam, ushers
in the new birth of
children adopted in the Holy Spirit through faith. "How
can this be?"
Participation in the divine life arises "not of blood nor of
the will of the
flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." The acceptance
of this life is
virginal because it is entirely the Spirit's gift to man.
The spousal character
of the human vocation in relation to God is fulfilled
perfectly in Mary's
virginal motherhood.
Mary is a virgin because her virginity is
the sign of her faith" unadulterated by any
doubt," and her undivided gift
of herself to God's will. It is her faith that
enables her to become the
mother of the Savior: "Mary is more blessed because
she embraces faith in
Christ than because she concedes the flesh of
Christ.”
And once virgin and mother, Mary is the symbol and the
most perfect realization of
the Church: "the church indeed... by receiving
the word of God in faith becomes
herself a mother. By preaching and Baptism
she brings forth sons, wo are
conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of God,
to a new and immortal life. She
herself is a virgin, who keeps in its
entirety and purity the faith she pledged
to her
spouse."
November 4, 2012- Do not hasten in your spirit to
be angry: for anger rests in the bosom of fools. Ecclesiastes
7:9
Todays reading is rather lengthy and intense. There are
many defenses against heresy presented and may take some deep thought to grasp,
but please persevere. God Bless!
Section 2
Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 1 Section III–
True God and True
Man
The
unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does
not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that
he
is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and human. He became
truly man
while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man.
During the
first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth
of faith
against the heresies falsified it.
The first heresies denied not so much
Christ's divinity as his true humanity
(Gnostic Docetism). From apostolic
times the Christian faith has insisted on the
true incarnation of Gods Son
"come in the flesh." But already in the third
century, the Church in a
council at Antioch had to affirm against Paul of
Samosata that Jesus Christ
is Son of God by nature and not by adoption. The
first ecumenical Council
of Nicaea in 325 confessed in its Creed that the son of
God is "begotten,
not made, of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father,"
and condemned
Arius, who had affirmed that the son of God "came to be from
things that
were not" and that he was "from another substance" than that of the
Father.
The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person
joined to the divine person
of God's Son. Opposing this heresy,
St.
Cyril of Alexandria and the third ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431
confessed "that the Word, uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by
a rational soul, became man."
Christ’s humanity has no other subject
than the divine person of the Son
of God, who assumed it and made it his
own, from his conception. For this reason
the Council of Ephesus proclaimed
in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of
God by the human conception of
the Son of God in her womb: "Mother of God, not
that the nature of the Word
or his divinity received the beginning of its
existence from the holy
Virgin, but that, since the holy body, animated by a
rational soul, which
the Word of God united to himself according to the
hypostasis, was born
from her, the Word is said to be born according to the
flesh.”
The Monophysites affirmed that the human nature had
ceased to exist as such in
Christ when the divine person of God’s Son
assumed it. Faced with this heresy,
the fourth ecumenical council, at
Chalcedon in 451, confessed:
Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and
confess one and the same Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in
divinity and perfect in humanity, the
same truly God and truly man,
composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial
with the Father as to
his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his
humanity; "like us in all
things but sin." He was begotten from the Father
before all ages as to his
divinity in these last days, for us and for our
salvation, was born as to
his humanity of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of
God.
We
confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be
acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division, or separation.
The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but
rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as
they
came together in one person (prosopon) and one
hypostasis.
After the Council of Chalcedon, some made of Christ's
human nature a kind of personal
subject. Against them, the fifth ecumenical
Council at Constantinople in 553
confessed that "there is but one
hypostasis [or person], which is our Lord Jesus
Christ, one of the
Trinity." Thus everything in Christ's human nature is to be
attributed to
his divine person as its proper subject, not only his miracles but
also his
sufferings and even his death: "He who was crucified in the flesh, our
Lord
Jesus Christ, is true God, Lord of glory, and one of the Holy
Trinity."
The Church thus confesses that Jesus is inseparably true
God and true man. He is
truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God
and Lord, became a man had
our brother:
"What he was, he remained and what he was
not, he assumed," sings the Roman Liturgy.
And the liturgy of St. John
Chrysostom proclaims and sings: "O only begotten Son
and the Word of God,
immortal being, you who deigned for our salvation to become
incarnate of
the holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, you who without change
became
man and were crucified, O Christ our God, you who by your death have
crushed death, you who are one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with the Father
and the Holy Spirit, save us!”
Section 2 Chapter 2
Article 3 Paragraph 1 Section IV – How Is the Son of God Man?
Because
"human nature was assumed, not absorbed," in the mysterious union of
the
Incarnation, the Church was led over the course of centuries to confess
the
full reality of Christ's human soul, with its operations of intellect and
will,
and of his human body. In parallel-fashion, she had to
recall on each occasion
that Christ's human nature belongs, as his own, to
the divine person of the Son
of God, who assumed it. Everything
that Christ is and does in this nature
derives from "one of the Trinity." The
son of God and therefore communicates to
his humanity and his own personal
mode of existence in the Trinity. In his soul
as in his body, Christ thus
expresses humanly the divine ways of the Trinity:
The Son of
God... worked with human hands; he thought with a human mind. He
acted with
a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin
Mary, he
has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except
sin.
Christ
soul and his human knowledge
Apollinaris of Laodicaea asserted that in
Christ the divine word had replaced the soul or
spirit. Against this error
the Church confessed that the eternal Son also
assumed a rational, human
soul.
This
human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge.
As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised
in
the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This is
why the
Son of God could, when he became man, "increase in wisdom and in
stature, and in
favor with God and man," and would even have to inquire for
himself about what
one in the human condition can learn only from
experience. This corresponded to
the reality of his voluntary emptying of
himself, taking "the form of a slave."
But at the same time, this truly human
knowledge of God's Son expressed the divine
life of his person. "The human
nature of God's Son, not by itself but by its
union with the Word, knew and
showed forth in itself everything that pertains to
God." Such is first of all
the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge
that the Son of God made
man has of his Father. The Son in his human knowledge
also showed the
divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human
hearts.
By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word
incarnate, Christ
enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of
understanding of the eternal
plans he had come to reveal. What he admitted
to not knowing in this area, he
elsewhere declared himself not sent to
reveal.
Christ’s human
will
Similarly, at the sixth ecumenical Council, Constantinople III in 681,
the Church confessed
that Christ possesses two wills and two natural
operations, divine and human.
They are not opposed to each other, but
cooperate in such a way that the Word
made flesh willed humanly in
obedience to his Father all that he had decided
diinely with the Father and
the Holy Spirit for our salvation. Christ’s human
will "does not resist or
oppose but rather submits to his divine and Almighty
will."
Christ’s true
body
Since the
Word became flesh in assuming a true humanity, Christ's body was finite.
Therefore the human face of Jesus can be portrayed; at the seventh ecumenical
Council (Nicaea II in 787) the Church recognized its representation in holy
images to be legitimate.
At the same time the Church has always acknowledged that
in the body of Jesus "we
see our God made visible and so are caught up in
love of the God we cannot see."
The individual characteristics of Christ's
body express the divine person of
God's Son. He has made the features of
his human body his own, to the point that
they can be venerated when
portrayed in a holy image, for the believer "who
venerates the icon and
venerating in it the person of the one
depicted"
October 28, 2012
But, thanks be to God who always gives us in Christ a part in his triumphal procession, and through us is
spreading everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of himself. 2 Corinthians
2:14
Section
2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 1 Section I – Why Did the Word Become Flesh
With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing "For us men
and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit,
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made
man."
The
Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who
"loved us and sent his son to be the expiation for our sins": "the father
has
sent his son as the Savior of the world," and "he was revealed to take
away sins"
Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be
raised up; dead to rise again.
We had lost possession of the good; it was
necessary for it to be given back to
us. Closed in darkness, it was
necessary to bring us the light; captives, we
awaited a Savior; prisoners,
help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor
or insignificant? Did
they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it,
since humanity was
in so miserable and unhappy a state?
The Word became flesh so that thus we
might know God’s love: "In this the love of
God was made manifest among us,
that God sent his only Son into the world, so
that we might live through
him." “For God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life."
The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: "Take
my yoke upon you, and learn
from me." "I am the way, the truth, and the
life; no one comes to the Father,
but by me." On the mountain of the
Transfiguration the Father commands: "Listen
to him!" Jesus is the model
for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: "Love one another as I have
loved you."
This love implies an effective offering of oneself, after his
example.”
The Word became flesh to make us
"partakers of the divine nature": "For this is whythe Word became man, and the
Son of God became the Son of man: So that man, by entering into communion with
the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God." "For the
Son of God became man so that we might become
God." "The only begotten Son of
God, wanting to make us sharers in his
divinity, assumed our nature, so
that he, made man, might make men
gods."
Section
2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 1 Section II – The Incarnation
Taking up St.
John’s expression, "The Word became flesh," the church calls "Incarnation" the
fact that the Son of God assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our
salvation in it. In a hymn cited by St. Paul, the Church sings the mystery
of:
Have
this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was
in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but
emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the
likeness this
of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and
became obedient
unto death, even death on a cross.
The letter to the
Hebrews refers to same mystery:
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
"Sacrifices and offerings you have not
desired, but a body have you
prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sinofferings you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do your will, O God.’
"
Belief
in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian
faith: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses
that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God." Such is the
joyous conviction of
the Church from her beginning whenever she sings "the
mystery of our religion":
"He was manifested in the
flesh."
October 21, 2012
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who
comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly
seek him. Hebrews 11:6
Section 2 Chapter 2
Article 2 Section I –Jesus
Jesus means in Hebrew: "God saves." At
the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel gave him
the name Jesus as his proper
name, which expresses both his identity and his mission. Since God alone can
forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus His eternal son made man, "will save his
people from their sins." In Jesus, God
recapitulates all of his history of
salvation on behalf of men.
In the history of salvation God was not content to
deliver Israel "out of the house
of bondage" by bringing them out of Egypt.
He also saves them from their sin.
Because sin is always an offense against
God, only he can forgive it. For this reason Israel, becoming more and more
aware of the universality of sin, will no longer be able to seek salvation
except by invoking the name of the Reedeemer
God.
The
name "Jesus" signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of the
Son, made man for the universal and definitive redemption from sins. It is
the
divine name that alone brings salvation, and henceforth all can invoke
his name,
for Jesus united himself to all men through His Incarnation, so
that "there is
no other name under heaven given among men by which we must
be saved."
The name of the Savior God was invoked only once in the
year by the high priest in
atonement for the sins of Israel, after he had
sprinkled the mercy seat in the
Holy of Holies with the sacrificial blood.
The mercy seat was the place of God's
presence. When St. Paul speaks of Jesus
whom "God put forward as an expiation
by his blood," he means that in
Christ's humanity "God was in Christ reconciling
the world to
himself."
Jesus’ Resurrection glorifies the name of the Savior
God, for from that time on it is
the name of Jesus that fully manifest the
supreme power of the "name which is
above every name." The evil spirits
fear his name; in his name his disciples
perform miracles, for the Father
grants all they ask in his name.
The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer.
All liturgical prayers
conclude with the words "through our Lord Jesus
Christ." The Hail Mary reaches
its high point in the words "blessed is the
fruit of thy womb, Jesus." The
Eastern prayer of the heart, the Jesus
Prayer, says: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of
God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
Many Christians, such as St. Joan of Arc, have
died with the one word
"Jesus" on their lips.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Section
II – Christ
The
word "Christ" comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, which
means "anointed." It became the name proper to Jesus only because he
accomplished perfectly the divine mission that "Christ" signifies. In effect, in
Israel those consecrated to God for a mission that he gave were anointed in
his
name. This was the case for kings, for priest and, in rare instances,
for
prophets. This had to be the case all the more so for the Messiah from
whom God
would send to inaugurate his kingdom definitively. It was
necessary that the
Messiah be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord at once as
king and priest, and
also as prophet. Jesus fulfilled the messianic hope of
Israel in his threefold
office of priest, prophet, and
King.
To
the shepherds, the angel announced the birth of Jesus as the Messiah promised to
Israel: "To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is
Christ
the Lord." From the beginning he was "the one whom the father
consecrated and
sent into the world," conceived as "holy" in Mary's
virginal womb. God called
Joseph to "take Mary as your wife, for that which
is conceived in her is of the
Holy Spirit," so that Jesus, "who is called
Christ," should be born of Joseph's
spouse into the messianic lineage of
David.
Jesus’ messianic consecration reveals his divine
mission, "for the name ‘Christ’
implies‘he who anointed,’ ‘he who was
anointed’ and ‘the very anointing with
which he was anointed.’ The one who
anointed is the Father, the one who was
anointed is the Son, and he was
anointed with the Spirit who is the
anointing."
His eternal messianic consecration was revealed during
the time of his earthly life
at the moment of his baptism by John, when
"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Spirit and with the power,"
"that he might be revealed to Israel" as
its Messiah. His works and words
will manifest him as "the Holy One of
God."
Many Jews and even certain Gentiles who
shared their hope recognized in Jesus the
fundamental attributes of the
messianic "Son of David,"
as promised by God to Israel. Jesus accepted his
rightful title of
Messiah, though with some reserve because it was
understood by some of his
contemporaries in too human a sense, as
essentially political.
Jesus accepted Peter's profession of faith, which acknowledged
him to be the Messiah,
by announcing the imminent passion of the Son of
Man. He unveiled the authentic
content of his messianic kingship over the
transcendent identity of the Son of
Man "who came down from heaven," and in
his redemptive mission as the suffering
servant: "The Son of Man came not
to be served but to serve, and to give his
life as a ransom for many."
Hence the true meaning of his kingship is revealed
only when he is raised
high on the cross. Only after his Resurrection will Peter
be able to
proclaim Jesus’ messianic kingship to the People of God: "Let all the
house
of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and
Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."
Section 2 Chapter 2
Article 2 Section III – The Only Son of God
In
the Old Testament, "son of God" is a title given to the angels, the Chosen
People, the children of Israel, and their kings. It signifies an adoptive
sonship that establishes a relationship with particular intimacy between God and
his creature. When the promised Messiah -- King is called "son of God," it
does
not necessarily imply that he was more than human, according to the
literal
meaning of these texts. Those who called Jesus "son of God," as the
Messiah of
Israel, perhaps meant nothing more than
this.
Such is
not the case for Simon Peter when he confesses Jesus as "the Christ, the Son
of the living God," for Jesus responds solemnly: "Flesh and blood has
not
revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Similarly Paul
will
write, regarding his conversion on the road to Damascus, "When he who
had set
me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace,
was pleased to
reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among
the Gentiles..."
"And in the synagogues immediately Paul proclaimed Jesus
saying, "He is the Son
of God." From the beginning this acknowledgment of
Christ's divine sonship will
be the center of the apostolic faith, first
professed by Peter as the Church's
foundation.
Peter could recognize the transcendent character of the
Messiah's divine sonship
because Jesus had clearly allowed it to be so
understood. To his accusers’
question before the Sanhedrin, "Are you the
Son of God, then?” Jesus answered,
"You say that I am." Well before this,
Jesus referred to himself as "the Son"
who knows the Father, as distinct
from the "servants" God had earlier sent to
his people; he is superior even
to the angels. He distinguished his sonship from
that of his disciples by
never saying "our Father," except to command them:
"You, then, pray like
this: "Our Father," and he emphasized this distinction,
saying my father
and your Father."
The Gospels report that at two solemn moments, the
Baptism and the Transfiguration
of Christ, the voice of the Father
designates Jesus his "beloved Son." Jesus
calls himself the "only Son of
God," and by this title affirms his eternal
preexistence. He asked for
faith in "the name of the only son of God." In the
centurions’exclamation
before the crucified Christ, "Truly this man was the Son
of God," that
Christian confession is already heard. Only in the Paschal mystery
can the
believer give the title "Son of God" it's full
meaning.
After his Resurrection, Jesus’ divine sonship becomes
manifest in the power of his
glorified humanity. He was "designated Son of
God in power according to the
Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from
the dead." The apostles can confess:
"We have beheld his glory, glory as of
the only Son from the Father, full of
grace and
truth."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Section IV –
Lord
In
the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the ineffable Hebrew name YHWH, by
which God reveals himself to Moses, is rendered as Kyrios, "Lord." From
then on,
"Lord" becomes the more usual name for which to indicate the
divinity of Israel's
God. The New Testament uses this full sense of the
title "Lord" both for the
Father and-- --what is new -- -- for Jesus, who
is thereby recognized as God
himself.
Jesus ascribes this title to himself in a
veiled way when he disputes with the
Pharisees about the meaning of Psalm
110, but also in an explicit way when he
addresses his apostles. Throughout
his public life, he demonstrated his divine
sovereignty by works of power
over nature, illnesses, demons, death, and
sin.
Very
often in the Gospels people address Jesus as "Lord." This title testifies to the
respect and trust of those who approach him for help and healing. At the
prompting of the Holy Spirit, "Lord" expresses the recognition of the
divine
mystery of Jesus. In the encounter with the risen Jesus, this title
becomes
adoration: "My Lord and my God!" It thus takes on a connotation of
love and
affection that remains proper to the Christian tradition: "It is
the Lord!"
By attributing to Jesus the divine title "Lord," the
first confessions of the
Church’s faith affirm from the beginning that the
power, honor, and glory due to
God the Father are due also to Jesus,
because "he was in the form of God," and
the Father manifested the
sovereignty of Jesus by raising him from the dead and
exulting him into his
glory.
From the beginning of Christian history, the assertion
of Christ’ lordship over the
world and over history has implicitly
recognized that man should not submit his
personal freedom in an absolute
manner to any earthly power, but only to God the
Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ: Caesar is not "the Lord." “The Church...
believes that the key, the
center, and the purpose of the whole of man's history
is to be found in its
Lord and Master."
Christian prayer is characterized by the title "Lord,"
whether in the invitation to prayer
("The Lord be with you."), its
conclusion ("through Christ our Lord"), or the
exclamations full of trust and
hope Maran atha ("Our Lord, come!"), Or Marana
tha ("Come, Lord!") -- --
"Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!"
October 14, 2012 - Anyone who is having troubles should
pray. Anyone who is happy
should sing praises. James
5:13
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 -
The Good
News: God has sent his Son
"But when the time had fully come, God
sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under
the law, to redeem those who
were under the law, so that we might receive
adoption as sons." This is
"the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God": God has
visited his people.
He has fulfilled the promise he made to Abraham and his
descendants. He acted
far beyond all expectation -- he has sent his own
"beloved Son."
We believe and
confess that Jesus of Nazareth, born a Jew of a daughter of Israel
at
Bethlehem at the time of King Herod the Great and the emperor Caesar
Augustus, a carpenter by trade, who died crucified in Jerusalem under the
procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, is the eternal
Son of God made man. He "came from God," "descended from heaven," and "came
in
the flesh." For "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace
and
truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the
Father... And
from his fullness have we all received, grace upon
grace."
Moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit and drawn by the
Father, we believe in Jesus and
confess: "You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God. "On the rock of this
faith confessed by St. Peter, Christ
built His Church."
To preach...the unsearchable riches of
Christ
The transmission of the Christian faith conists
primarily in proclaiming Jesus
Christ in order to lead others to faith in
Him. From the beginning first
disciples burned with the desire to proclaim
Christ: "We cannot but speak of
what we have seen and heard." And they
invite people of every era to enter into
the joy of their communion with
Christ:
At the heart of catechesis: Christ
"At the heart of
catechesis we find, in essence, a Person the Person of Jesus of
Nazareth,
the only Son from the Father... who suffered and died for us, and who
now,
after rising, is living with us forever." To catechize is "to reveal
the
person of Christ the whole of God's eternal design reaching fulfillment
in that
Person. It is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ's actions
and words
and of the signs worked by him." Catechesis aims at putting
"people... in
communion... with Jesus Christ: only he can lead us to the
love of the Father in
the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy
Trinity."
In catechesis "Christ, the Incarnate Word and son of
God,... is taught -- --
everything else is taught with reference to him --
-- and it is Christ alone who
teaches-- -- anyone else teaches to the
extent that he is Christ's spokesman,
enabling Christ to teach with his own
lips... Every catechist should be able to
apply to himself the mysterious
words of Jesus: 'My teaching is not mine, but
his who sent me.'
"
"Whoever is called "to teach Christ" must first seek"
the surpassing worth of knowing
Christ Jesus"; he must suffer "the loss of
all things..." in order to "gain Christ and be found in him," and "to
know
him and the power of his resurrection, and [to] share his sufferings,
becoming like him in his death, that if possible [he] may attain the
resurrection from the dead."
From the loving knowledge of Christ springs the desire
to proclaim him, to
"evangelize," and to lead others to the "yes" with
Jesus Christ. But at the
same time the need to know this faith better makes
itself felt. To this end,
following the order of the Creed, Jesus'
principal titles -- -- "Christ," "Son
of God," and "Lord" (article 2) --
-- will be presented. The Creed next confesses the chief mysteries of His
life
-- -- those of his Incarnation (article 3), Paschal mystery (articles
4 and 5),
and glorification (articles 6 and
7).
October 7, 2012 - All you
who put your hope in the Lord be strong and brave. Psalms
31:24
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 7 Section
III – Orginal Sin
God
created man in his image and established him and his friendship. A spiritual
creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The
prohibition against eating "of the tree of knowledge of good and evil"
spells
this out: "for the day you eat of it, you shall die." The "tree of
the knowledge
of good and evil" symbolically evokes the insurmountable
limits that man, being
a creature, must freely recognize and respect with
trust. Man is dependent on
his Creator and subject to the laws of creation
and to the moral norms that
govern the use of freedom.
Man, tempted by the
devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing
his
freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of.
All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in
his
goodness.
In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that
very act scorned Him. He chose
himself over and against God, against the
requirements of his creaturely status
and therefore against his own good.
Constituted in a state of holiness, man was
destined to be fully "divinized"
by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he
wanted to "be like God," but
"without God, before God, and not in accordance
with
God."
Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first
disobedience. Adam and Eve
immediately lose the grace of original holiness.
They become afraid of the God
of whom they have conceived a distorted image
-- -- that of a God jealous of
his
prerogatives.
The
harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now
destroyed: the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body is
shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their
relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation
is
broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. Because of
man,
creation is now subject "to its bondage to decay." Finally, the
consequence
explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: men
will "return to
the ground," for out of it he was taken. Death makes its
entrance into human
history.
After that first sin, the world is virtually inundated
by sin. There is Cain's murder
of his brother Abel and the universal
corruption which follows in the wake of
sin. Likewise, sin frequently
manifests itself in the history of Israel,
especially as infidelity to the
God of the Covenant and as transgression of the
Law of Moses. And even
after Christ’s atonement, sin raises its head in
countless ways among
Christians. Scripture and the Church's Tradition
continually recall the
presence and universality of sin in man's
history:
What revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our
own experience. For when man
looks into his own heart he finds that he is
drawn toward what is wrong and sunk
in many evils which cannot come from
his good Creator. Also refusing to
acknowledge God as his source, man has
also upset the relationship which should
link him to his last end; and at
the same time he has broken the right order
that should reign within
himself as well as between himself and other men and
all
creatures.
All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St. Paul
affirms: "By one man's
disobedience many [that is, all men] were made
sinners": "sin came into the
world through one man and death through sin,
and so death spread to all men
because all men sinned..." the Apostle
contrasts the universality of sin and
death with the universality of
salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's trespass
led to condemnation for all
men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to
acquittal and life for all
men."
Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that
the overwhelming misery which
impresses men and their inclination toward
evil and that cannot be understood
apart from their connection with Adam's
sin and the fact that he has transmitted
to us a sin with which we are all
born afflicted, a sin which is the "death of
the soul." Because of the
certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the
remission of sins even tiny
infants who have not committed personal
sin.
How
did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants?
The whole human
race is in Adam "as one body of one man." By this "unity
of the human race"
all men are implicated in Adam's sin, and all are implicated
in Christ's
justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that
we
cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revalation that Adam had
received
original holiness and justice not for himself alone, before all
human nature.
By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal
sin, but this sin
affected the human nature that they would then transmit in
a fallen state. It
is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all
mankind, that is, by
the transmission of the human nature deprived of
original holiness and justice.
And that is why original sin is
called "sin" only in a analogical sense: it is
a sin "contracted" and not
"committed" -- -- a state and not an act.
Although it is proper to each individual, original sin
does not have the character of the
personal fault in any of Adam's
descendants. It is a deprivation of original
holiness and justice, but
human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is
wounded in the natural
powers proper to it; subject to ignorance, suffering, and
the dominion of
death; and inclined to sin-- -- an inclination to evil that is
called
"concupiscence." Baptism, by importing the life of Christ's grace, erases
original sin and turns a man back toward God, but the consequences for nature,
weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual
battle.
The Church's teaching on the transmission of original
sin was articulated more
precisely in the fifth century, especially under
the impulse of St. Augustine's
reflections against Pelagianism, and in the
16th century, in opposition to the
Protestant Reformation. Pelagius held
that man could, by the natural power of
free will and without the necessary
help of God's grace, lead a morally good
life; he thus reduced the
influence of Adam's fault to bad example. The first
Protestant reformers,
on the contrary, taught that original sin has radically
perverted man and
destroyed his freedom; they identified the sin inherited by
each man with
the tendency to evil (concupiscence), which would be
insurmountable. The
Church pronounced on the meaning of the data of Revelation
on original sin
especially at the second Council of Orange (529) and at the
Council of
Trent (1546).
The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with
that of redemption by Christ,
provides lucid discernment of man's situation
and activity in the world. By our
first parents’ sin, the devil has
acquired a certain domination over man, even
though man remains free.
Original sin entails "captivity under the power of him
who thenceforth had
the power of death, that is, the devil." Ignorance of the
fact that man has
a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors
in the areas
of education, politics, social action, and
morals.
The consequences of original sin of all men's personal
sins put the world as a whole
in the sinful condition aptly described in
St. John's expression, "the sin of
the world." This expression can also
refer to the negative influence exerted on
people by communal situations
and social structures that are the fruit of men's
sins.
This dramatic situation of "the whole world [which] is
in the power of the evil one"
makes man's life a
battle:
The
whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of
evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the
last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to
struggle to
do what is right, and it is a great cost to himself, and aided
by God's grace
that he succeeds in achieving his own inner
integrity.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 7 Section
IV –
You Did Not Abandon Him to the Power of Death
After
his fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God called him and in a
mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration
from his
fault. This passage in Genesis is called the Protoevangelium
("first gospel"):
the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a
battle between the
serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a
descendent of hers.
The
Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement over the "new
Adam"
who, because he "became obedient unto death, even death all cross,"
makes
amends superabundant we put the disobedience of Adam. Furthermore any
fathers
and Drs. of the Church have seen the woman announced in the
Protoevangeliun as
Mary, the mother of Christ, the "new Eve." Mary
benefited first of all and
uniquely from Christ's victory over sin: she was
preserved from all stain of
original sin and by a special grace of God
committed no sin of any kind during
her whole earthly
life.
But
why did God not prevent the first man from sinning? St. Leo the Great responds,
"Christ’s inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the
demon’s
envy had taken away." And St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "There is
nothing to prevent
human nature’s being raised up to something greater,
even after sin; God permits
evil in order to draw forth some greater good.
Thus St. Paul says, "Where sin
increased, grace abounded all the more"; and
the Exultet sings, "O happy
fault,... which gained for us so great a
Redeemer!"
September 30, 2012 Always be joyful. Pray
continually, and give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in
Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians
5:16-18
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 7 Section I – Where Sin
Abounded, Grace Abounded all the More
The reality of sin
Sin is present
in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this stark reality other
names would be futile.
To try to understand what sin is, one
must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this
relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity's
rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on
human life and history. Only the light of divine revelation clarifies the
reality of sin and particularly of
the sin committed at mankind's origins.
Without the knowledge Revelation gives
of God we cannot recognize sin
clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a
developmental flaw, a
psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary
consequence of an
inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of
God's plan for
man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God
gives to
created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one
another.
Original sin -- -- an essential truth of
faith
With the progress of Revelation, the reality of sin is also
illuminated. Although to
some extent the people of God in the Old Testament
ha tried to understand the
pathos of the human condition in the light of
the history of the fall narrated
in Genesis, they could not grasp this
stories ultimate meaning, which is
revealed only in the light of the death
and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We
must know Christ as a source of grace
in order to know Adam as a source of sin.
The Spirit Paraclete, sent by the
risen Christ, come to "convict the world
concerning sin," by revealing him
who is its Redeemer.
The doctrine of original sin is, so to
speak, the "reverse side" of the Good News
that Jesus is the Savior of all
men, that all need salvation, and that salvation
is offered to all through
Christ. The Church, which has the mind of Christ,
knows very well that we
cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin
without undermining the
mystery of Christ.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 7
Section II –
The Fall of the Angels
Behind the disobedient choice of our
first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to
God, which makes them fall
into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church's
Tradition see in this
being a fallen angel, called “Satan” or the “devil”. The
Church teaches that
Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil
and the other
demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became
evil by
their own doing."
Scripture speaks of the sin of these Angels. This "fall"
consists in the free choice of
these created spirits, who radically and
irrevocably rejected God and his
reign. We find a reflection of that
rebellion in the tempters words for first
parents: "You will be like God."
The devil "has sinned from the beginning"; he is "a liar and the father of
lies."
It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in
the infinite
Divine Mercy, that makes the angels sin unforgivable. "There
is no repentance
for the angels after their fall, just as there is no
repentance for men after
death."
Scripture witnesses to the disastrous
influence of the one Jesus calls "a murderer from
the beginning," who would
even try to divert Jesus from the mission received
from his Father. "The
reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works
of the devil." In
its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious
seduction
that led man to disobey God.
The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not
infinite. He is only a creature, powerful
from the fact that he is pure
spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent
the building up of God's
reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of
hatred for God and His
kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may
cause grave injuries
-- -- of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a
physical nature --
-- to each man and to society, the action is permitted by
divine providence
which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic
history. It is a
great mystery that providence should permit diabolical
activity, but "we
know that in everything God works for good with those who love
him."
September
23, 2012 “All who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified self with all its passions and its desires.” Galatians 5:24
Section 2 Chapter 1
Article 1 Paragraph 6 Section III –
Male and Female He Created Them
Man and woman have
been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in
perfect
equality as human persons; on the other, and their respective beings as
man
and woman. "Being Man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and
willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them
immediately from God their Creator. Man and woman are both with one and the
same
dignity "in the image of God." In their "being-man" and "being-woman,"
they
reflect the Creator's wisdom and
goodness.
In no way is
God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in
which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective
"perfections" of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection
of
God: those of a mother and those of a father and
husband.
God created man and woman
together and willed each for the other. The word of God
gives us to
understand this through various features of the sacred text. "It is
not
good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him."
None of the animals can be man's partner. The woman God "fashins" from the man's
rib and brings to him elicits on the man's part a cry of wonder, an
exclamation
of love and communion: "This at last is bone of my bones and
flesh of my flesh."
Man discovers a woman as another "I," sharing the same
humanity.
Man
and woman were made "for each other" -- --not that God left them half-made and
incomplete: he created them to be a communion of persons, in which each can
be
“helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of my
bones...")
and complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage God
unites them in such
a way that, by forming "one flesh," they can transmit
human life: "Be fruitful
and multiply, and fill the earth." By transmitting
human life to their
descendants, man and woman as spouses and parents
cooperate in a unique way in
the Creator's
work.
In God's plan
man and woman have the vocation of "subduing" the earth as stewards
of God.
This sovereignty is not to be an arbitrary and destructive domination.
God
calls man and women, made in the image of the Creator "who loves everything
that exists," to share in his providence toward other creatures; hence their
responsibility for the world God has entrusted to
them.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 6 Section IV –
Man in Paradise
The first man was not only created good, but was also
established in friendship with
his Creator and in harmony with himself and
with the creation around him, in a
state that would be surpassed only by
the glory of the new creation in
Christ.
The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in
an authentic way, in
the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches
that our first parents,
Adam and Eve, were constitutes in an original
"state of holiness and justice."
This grace of original holiness was "to
share in... divine life."
By the
radiance of his grace all dimensions of man's life were confirmed. As long
as he remained in the divine intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die. The
inner harmony of the human person, the harmony between man and woman, and
finally the harmony between first couple and all creation, comprised a
state
called "original justice."
The "mastery" over the world that God offered man from the
beginning was realized
above all within man himself: mastery of self. The
first man was unimpaired and
ordered in his whole being because he was free
from the triple concupiscence
that subjugates him to the pleasures of the
senses, covetousness for earthly
goods, and self-assertion, contrary to the
dictates of
reason.
The sign of
man's familiarity with God is that God places him in the garden. There
he
lives "to till it and keep it." Work is not yet a burden, or rather
the
collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the visible
creation.
This entire harmony of
original justice, forseen for man in God's plan, will be lost
by the sin of
our first parents.
September 16, 2012Make
Yahweh your joy and he willgive
you your heart's desires.Psalms
37:4
Section
2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 6 Section I –
In
the Image of God
Of
all visible creatures only man is "able to know and love his creator" He is the
only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake," and he alone is
called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end
he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity:
What
made you establish man in so great a dignity? Certainly the incalculable love by
which you have looked on your creature in yourself! You are taken with love for
her; for by love indeed you created her, by love you have given her a being
capable of tasting your eternal
Good.
Being
in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who
is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of
self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with
other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to
offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his
stead.
God
created everything for man, but man in turn was created to serve and love God
and to offer all creation back to him. "In reality it is only in the mystry of
the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes
clear."
St.
Paul tells us that the human race takes its origin from two men: Adam and
Christ... the first man, Adam, he says, became a living soul, the last Adam a
life-giving Spirit.The first Adam was
made by the last Adam, from whom he also received his soul, to give him life...
The second Adam stamped his image on the first Adam when he created him. That is
why he took on himself the role and the name of the first Adam, in order that he
might not lose what he had made in his own image. The first Adam, the last Adam:
the first had a beginning, the last knows no end. The last Adam is indeed the
first; as he himself says: "I am the first and
last."
Because
of its common origin the human race forms a unity, for "from one ancestor [God]
made all nations to inhabit the whole
earth":
O
wondrous vision, which makes us contemplate the human race to the unity of its
origin in God... in the unity of its nature, composed equally in all men of a
material body and a spiritual soul; in the unity of its immediate end and its
mission in the world; in the unity of its dwelling, the earth, whose benefits
all men, by right of nature, may use to sustain and develop life; in the unity
of its supernatural end: God himself, to whom all ought to tend; in the unity of
the means for attaining this end;... in the unity of the redemption wrought by
Christ for all.
"This
law of human solidarity and charity," without excluding the rich variety of
persons, cultures, and peoples, assures us that all men are truly
reverend.
Section
2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 6 Section II –
Body
and Soul but Truly One
The
human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporal and
spiritual. The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when
it affirms that "then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."
Man, whole and entire, is therefore willed by
God.
In
Sacred Scripture the term "soul" often refers to human life or the entire human
person. But "soul" also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of
greatest value to him, that by which he is most especially in God's image:
"soul" signifies a spiritual principle of
man.
The
human body shares in the dignity of "the image of God": it is a human body
precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human
person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the
Spirit.
The
unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider his soul to the
"form" of the body: i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made
of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two
nature's united, but rather their union forms a single
nature.
The
Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God -- -- it
is not "produced" by the parents -- -- and also that it is immortal: it does not
perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with
the body and the final
Resurrection.
Sometimes
the soul is distinguished from the spirit: St. Paul for instance prays that God
may sanctify his people "wholly," with "spirit and soul and body" kept sound and
blameless at the Lord’s coming. The Church teaches that this distinction does
not introduce a duality into the soul. "Spirit" signifies that from creation man
is ordered to be supernatural end and that his soul can gratuitously be raised
beyond all it deserves to communion with God.
The
spiritual tradition of the Church also emphasizes the heart, in the biblical
sense of the depths of one's being, when a person decides for or against God.
September 9, 2012So be strong, do not be discouraged, for your
deeds willbe rewarded.2 Chronicles 15:7
After
last weeks’ lesson on Angels, Jesus inspired me to include this short story to
ponder.
For
those of us who believe in
ANGELS!!!!
A drunk man in an
Oldsmobile
That
caused the six-car pileup
on
109 that night
When broken bodies lay about
And blood was
everywhere,
The
sirens screamed out eulogies,
For
death was in the air.
A
mother, trapped inside her car,
Was
heard above the noise;
Her
plaintive plea near split the air:
Oh,
God, please spare my boys!
She
fought to loose her pinned hands;
She
struggled to get free,
But
mangled metal held her fast
In
grim captivity.
Her
frightened eyes then focused
On
where the back seat once had been,
But
all she saw was broken glass and
Two
children's seats crushed in.
Her
twins were nowhere to be seen;
She
did not hear them cry,
And
then she prayed they'd been thrown free,
Oh,
God, don't let them die!
Then
firemen came and cut her loose,
But
when they searched the back,
They
found therein no little boys,
But
the seat belts were intact.
They
thought the woman had gone mad
And
was traveling alone,
But
when they turned to question her,
They
discovered she was gone.
Policemen
saw her running wild
And
screaming above the noise
In
beseeching supplication,
Please
help me find my boys!
They're
four years old and wear blue shirts;
Their
jeans are blue to match.
One
cop spoke up, They're in my car,
And
they don't have a scratch.
They
said their daddy put them there
And
gave them each a cone,
Then
told them both to wait for Mom
To
come and take them home.
I've
searched the area high and low,
But
I can't find their dad.
He
must have fled the scene,
I
guess, and that is very bad.
The
mother hugged the twins and said,
While
wiping at a tear,
He
could not flee the scene, you see,
For
he's been dead a year.
The
cop just looked confused and asked,
Now,
how can that be true?
The
boys said, Mommy, Daddy came
And
left a kiss for you.
He
told us not to worry
And
that you would be all right,
And
then he put us in this car with
The
pretty, flashing light.
We wanted him to stay with us,
Because
we miss him so,
But Mommy, he just hugged us tight
And
said he had to go.
He
said someday we'd understand
And
told us not to fuss,
And
he said to tell you, Mommy,
He's
watching over us
.The
mother knew without a doubt
That
what they spoke was true,
For
she recalled their dad's last words,
I
will watch over you.
The
firemen's notes could not explain
The
twisted, mangled car,
And
how the three of them escaped
Without
a single scar.
But
on the cop's report was scribed,
In
print so very fine,
An
angel walked the beat tonight on
Highway
109.
*********************************
He
who has a thousand friends has not a
friend
to spare.
*********************************
This
morning when the Lord opened a window to Heaven,
He
saw me, and he asked: 'My child, what is your greatest wish for
today?'
I
responded: 'Lord please, take care of the person who is reading
this
message, their family and their special friends.
They deserve it and I know, You love them very much.
'
Please send this to all the Angels you
know,
some
times, since they don't all have wings, we call them
FRIENDS.
Pass
this on to your true friends and/or ask them to join us on this
site.
September 2, 2012With so many witnesses in a great
cloud all around us, we too, then, should throw off everything that weighs us
down and the sinthat clings so closely, and with perseverance keep running in
the race which lies ahead of us. Hebrews
12:1
I want to thank all of you for continuing to visit this site
and increase your knowledge of Jesus and the Church's teaching. I was reminded
to reiterate the basic premise that the simple truth is that we need to continue
to perform the simple acts of Knowing, Loving and Serving God on this earth so
that we may enjoy eternal happiness with Him in
heaven.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 5 Section I –
The Angels
The
apostles Creed professes that God is "Creator of heaven and earth." The Nicene
Creed makes it explicit that this profession includes "all that is, seen and
unseen."
The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred
Scripture usually calls "angels" is the truth of faith. The witness of Scripture
is as clear as the unanimity of
Tradition.
St. Augustine says: " ‘Angel’ is the name of their office, not
the nature. If you seek to name of their nature, it is ‘spirit’; if you seek the
name of their office, it is‘angel’: from what they are, ‘spirit’ from what they
do, ‘angel.’ “With their whole being the
angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they "always behold the face
of my Father who is in heaven" they are the "mighty ones who do his word,
hearkening to the voice of his
word.”
As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will:
they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible
creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness.
Christ is the center of the angelic world. They are his angels:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him..." they
belong to him because they were created through him and for him: "for in him all
things are created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities -- -- all things were
created through him and for him." They belong to him still more because he has
made them messengers of his saving plan: "Are they not all ministering spirits
sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain
salvation?"
Angels have been present since creation and throughout the
history of salvation, announcing the salvation from afar or near and serving the
accomplishment of the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise; protected
Lot; saved Hagar and her child; stayed Abraham's hand; communicated the law by
their ministry; let the people of God; announced births and callings; and
assisted the prophets, just to cite a few examples. Finally, the angel Gabriel
announced the birth of the Precursor and that of Jesus
himself.
From the Incarnation to the Ascension, the life of the Word
incarnate is surrounded by the adoration and service of angels. When God "brings
the firstborn into the world, he says: ‘Let all God's angels worship him.’ “
Their song of praise at the birth of Christ has not ceased resounding in the
Church's praise: "Glory to God in the highest!"They protect Jesus in his infancy, serve him
in the desert, strengthen him in his agony in the garden, when he could have
been saved by them from the hands of his enemies as Israel had been.Again,
it is the angels who "evangelize" by proclaiming the Good News of Christ's
Incarnation and Resurrection. They will be present at Christ's return, which
they will announce, to serve in his
judgment.
In the meantime, the whole life of the Church benefits from the
mysterious and powerful hope of
angels.
In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the
thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance in the funeral liturgy’s In
Paradisum deducant te angeli....[“ May the angels lead you into
Paradise...”].Moreover, in the "Cherubic
hymn" of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more
particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, San Raphael, and the Guardian
Angels).
From its beginning until death human life is surrounded by their
watchful care and intercession. "Beside each believer stands an angel as
protector and shepherd leading him to life." Already here on earth the Christian
life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in
God.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 5 Section II –
The Visible World
God himself created the visible world in all its richness,
diversity, and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as
a succession of six days of divine "work," concluded by the "rest" of the
seventh day. On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths
revealed by God for our salvation, permitting us to "recognize the inner nature,
the value, and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of
God."
Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the
Creator. The world began when God's word drew it out of nothingness; all
existent beings, all of nature, in all human history are rooted in this
primordial event, the very genesis by which the world was constructed and time
begun.
Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and
perfection. For each one of the works of the "six days" it is said: "And God saw
that it was good." "By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed
with its own stability, truth, and excellence, its own order and laws." Each of
the various creatures, willed in its own being, reflects in its own way a ray of
God's infinite wisdom and goodness. Men must therefore respect the particular
goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things which would be
in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human
beings and their
environment.
God wills the interdependence of creatures. The sun and the
moon, the cedar and the little flower, the eagle and the sparrow: the spectacle
of their countless diversities and inequalities tells us that no creature is
self-sufficient. Creatures exist only in dependence on each other, to complete
each other, in the service of each
other.
The beauty of the universe: The order and harmony of the created
world results from the diversity of beings and from the relationships which
exist among them. Man discovers them progressively as the laws of nature. They
call forth the admiration of scholars. The beauty of creation reflects the
infinite beauty of the Creator and ought to inspire the respect and submission
of man's intellect and
will.
The hierarchy of creatures is expressed by the order of the "six
days," from the less perfect to the more perfect. God loves all his creatures
and takes care of each one, even the sparrow. Nevertheless, Jesus said: "You are
of more value than many sparrows," or again: "Of how much more value is a man
and a sheep!"
Man is the summit of the Creator's work, as the inspired account
expresses by clearly distinguishing the creation of man from that of the other
creatures.
There is a solidarity among all creatures arising from the fact
that all of the same Creator and are all order to his
glory.
The Sabbath -- -- the end of the work of the six days. The
sacred text says that "on the seventh day God finished his work which he had
done," that the "heavens and the earth were finished," and that God "rested" on
this day and sanctified and blessed it. These inspired words are rich and
profitable instruction:
In
creation God laid a foundation and establish laws that remain firm, on which the
believer can rely with confidence, for they are the sign and pledge of the
unshakable faithfulness of God's covenant. For his part man must remain faithful
to this foundation and respect the laws which the Creator has written into
it.
Creation was fashioned with a view to the sabbath and therefore
for the worship and adoration of God. Worship is inscribed in the order of
creation. As a rule of St. Benedict says, nothing should take precedence over
"the work of God," that is, solemn worship. This indicates the right order of
human concerns.
The sabbath is at the heart of Israel's law. To keep the
commandments is to correspond to the wisdom and the will of God as expressed in
his work of creation.
The
eighth day. But for us a new day has dawned: the day of Christ's Resurrection.
The seventh day completes the first creation. The eighth day begins the new
creation. Thus, the work of creation culminates in the greater work redemption.
The first creation finds its meaning and its summit in the new creation in
Christ, the splendor of which surpasses that of the first
creation.
August 26, 2012
Yahweh
guides a strong man's steps and keeps them firm; and takes pleasure in him. When
he trips he is not thrown sprawling, since Yahweh supports him by the hand. Psalms 37:23-24
Section 2
Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 4 Section IV –
This weeks review is longer than normal but
the concepts and teachings involved could not be easily separated.
The
Mystery of Creation
We believe that God created the world according to his
wisdom. It is not the product of necessity nor blind fate or chance. We believe
that it proceeds from his free will; he wanted to make creatures to share in his
being, wisdom, and goodness: "For you created all things, and by your will they
existed and were created." Therefore the Psalmist explains: "O Lord, how
manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made all"; and "the Lord is good to
all, and his compassion is over all that he has made."
We
believe that God needs no preexistent thing where any help in order to create,
nor his creation any sort of necessary emanation from the divine substance. God
creates really "out of nothing"
Scripture bears witness to faith in creation
"out of nothing" as a truth full of promise and hope. Thus the mother of seven
sons encourages them for martyrdom: I do not know how you came into being in my
womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the
elements within each of you. Therefore the Creator of the world who shaped the
beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, let his mercy give life
and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for sake of his
laws... look at the heavens and the earth and see everything that is in them,
and recognize that God did not make another things that existed. Thus also
mankind comes into being.
Since God could create everything out of nothing,
he can also, through the Holy Spirit, give spiritual life to sinners by creating
a pure heart in them and bodily life to the dead through the Resurrection.
God“gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not
exist." And since God was able to make light shine in darkness by his word, he
can also give the light of faith to those who do not yet know
him.
Because God creates through
wisdom, his creation is ordered:
"You have arranged all things by measure
and number and weight." The universe, created in by the eternal Word, the "image
of the invisible God," is destined for and addressed to man, himself created the
"image of God" and called for a personal relationship with God. Our human
understanding which shares in the light of the divine intellect, can understand
what God tells us by means of his creation, though not without great effort and
only in a spirit of humility and respect before the Creator and his work.
Because creation comes forth from God’s goodness, it shares in that goodness --
-- "and God saw that it was good... very good" -- -- for God willed creation as
a gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined for and entrusted to him. On
many occasions the Church has had to defend the goodness of creation, including
that of the physical world.
God is infinitely greater than all his works:
"You have set your glory above the heavens." Indeed, God's "greatness is
unsearchable." But because he is the free and sovereign Creator, the first cause
of all that exists, God is present to his creatures inmost being: "In him we
live and move and have our being." In the words of St. Augustine, God is "higher
than my highest and more inward than my innermost self."
With creation, God
does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and
existence, but also, at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being,
enables them to act and brings them to their final end. Recognizing this utter
dependence with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy
and confidence:
For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the
things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated
it. How would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would
anything not called forth but you have been preserved? You spare all things, for
they are yours, O Lord, you who love the
living.
Section 2 Chapter 1
Article 1 Paragraph 4 Section V –
God Carries Out His Plan: Divine
Providence
Creation has its own
goodness and proper perfection, but did not spring forth complete the hands of
the Creator. The universe was created "in a state of journeying" (in statu viae)
toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it.
We call "Divine Providence" the dispositions by which God guides his creation
towards perfection:
By his providence
God protects and governs all things which he has made, "reaching mightily from
one end of the earth to the other, and ordering all things well.” For "all are
open and laid bare to his eyes," even those things which are yet to come into
existence through the free action of creatures.
The witness of Scripture is
unanimous that the solicitude of divine providence is concrete and immediate;
God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and
its history. The sacred books powerfully affirm God's absolute sovereignty over
the course of events: "Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases."
And so it is with Christ, "who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one
opens." As the book of Proverbs states: "Many are the plans in the mind of a
man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established."
And so we
see the Holy Spirit, the principal author of sacred Scripture, often attributing
actions to God without mentioning any secondary causes. This is not a "primitive
mode of speech," but a profound way of recalling God's primacy and absolute
Lordship over history in the world, and so of educating its people to trust in
him. The prayer of the Psalms is the great school of this trust.
Jesus asks
for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes
care of his children's smallest needs: "Therefore do not be anxious, saying,
‘What shall we?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’,... Your heavenly father knows that
you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all
these things shall be yours as well."
God is sovereign master of his plan.
But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures’ cooperation. This is not
a sign of weakness, but rather a token of Almighty God's greatness and goodness.
For God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of
acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus
cooperating in the accomplishment of his plan.
To human beings God even gives
the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the
responsibility of "subduing" the earth and having dominion over it. God thus
enables men to be intelligent and free clauses in order to complete the work of
creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbors.
Though often unconscious collaborators with God's will, they can also enter a
deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers, and their
sufferings. They then fully become "God's fellow workers" and coworkers for his
kingdom.
The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is
inseparable from faith in God the Creator. God is the first cause who operates
in and through secondary causes: "For God is at work in you, both to will and to
work for his good pleasure." Far from diminishing the creatures dignity, this
truth enhances it. Drawn from nothingness by God's power, wisdom, and goodness,
it can do nothing if it is cut off from its origin, for "without a Creator the
creature vanishes." Still less can a creature attain its ultimate end without
the help of God's grace.
If God the Father Almighty, creator of the ordered
and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this
question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious,
no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the
answer to this question: the goodness of creation, the drama of sin, and the
patient love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive
Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the
power of the sacraments, and his call to a blessed life to which free creatures
are invited to consent in advance, but from which, by a terrible mystery, they
can also turn away in advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian
messagethat is not in part an answer to the question of evil.
But why did God
not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it? With infinite
power God could always create something better. But with infinite wisdom and
goodness God freely willed to create a world "in a state of journeying" toward
its ultimate perfection. In God's plan this process of becoming involves the
appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of
the more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive
forces of nature. With physical good there exist also physical evil as long as
creation has not reached perfection.
Angels and men, as intelligent and free
creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice
and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned.
Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered
the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He
permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and,
mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it:
For Almighty God..., because
he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his
works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from
evil itself.
In time we can discover
that God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an
evil, even a moral evi, caused by his creatures: "It was not you," said Joseph
to his brothers, "who sent me here, but
God... You meant evil against me;
but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept
alive." From the greatest moral evil ever committed -- -- the rejection and
murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men -- -- God, by his grace
that "abandoned all the more," brought the greatest of goods: the glorification
of Christ and our redemption. But for all
that, evil never becomes a
good.
“We know that in everything God
works for good for those who love him.” The constant witness of the saints
confirms this
truth:
St.
Catherine of Siena said to "those who are scandalized and rebel against what
happens to them": "Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation
of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind."
St. Thomas More,
shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter: "Nothing can come but that
that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never
so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best."
Dame Julian Norwich: "Here I
was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the faith...
and that at the same time I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in
what our Lord showed in this time -- -- that ‘all manner of thing shall be
well’ "
We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its history.
But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end, when
our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God "face to face," will we fully know
the ways by which -- -- even through the dramas of evil and sin -- -- God has
guided his creation to that definitive sabbath rest for which he created heaven
and earth.
August 19, 2012The
lives of the just are in Yahweh's care, their birthright
will
endure for ever;Psalms
37:18
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 4 Section II –
Creation – Work Of the Holy Trinity
"In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth": three things are affirmed
in these first words of Scripture: the eternal God gave a beginning to all that
exist outside of himself; he alone is Creator (the verb "create" -- -- Hebrew
bara -- -- always has God for its subject). The totality of what exists
(expressed by the formula "the heavens and the earth") depends on the One who
gives it being.
"In the beginning was the Word... and the Word was God... all
things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was
made."The New Testament reveals that God
created everything by the eternal Word, his beloved Son.
In him"all things were
created, in heaven and on earth... all things were created through him and for
him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." The Church's
faith likewise confesses the creative action of the Holy Spirit, the "giver of
life," "the Creator Spirit" ("Veni, Creator Spiritus"), the "source of every
good."
The Old Testament suggests and the New Covenant reveals the
creative action of the Son and the Spirit, inseparably one with that of the
Father. This creative cooperation is clearly affirmed in the Church’s rule of
faith: "There exists but one God... he is the Father, God, the Creator, the
author, the giver of order.
He
made all things by himself, that is, by his Word and by his Wisdom," "by the Son
and the Spirit" who, so to speak, are "his hands." Creation is the common work
of the Holy Trinity.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 4 Section III –
The World Was Created for the Glory of God
Scripture and Tradition never cease to teach and celebrate this
fundamental truth: "The world was made for the glory of God." St. Bonaventure
explains that God created all things "not to increase his glory, but to show it
forth and to communicate it," for God has no other reason for creating than his
love and goodness: "Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened
his hand." The first Vatican Council
explains:
This one, true God, of his own goodness and "almighty power,"
not for increasing his own beatitude, nor for attaining his perfection, but in
order to manifest his perfection through the benefits which he bestows on
creatures, with absolute freedom of counsel "and from the beginning of time,
made out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the
corporal..."
The glory of God consists in the realization of this
manifestation and communication of his goodness, for which the world was
created. God made us "to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the
purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace," for "the glory of God
is man fully alive; moreover man's life is the vision of God: if God's
revelation through creation has already obtained life for all the beings that
dwell on earth, how much more will the Word’s manifestation of the Father obtain
life for those who see God." The ultimate purpose of creation is that God "who
is the Creator of all things may at last become‘all in all,’ thus simultaneously
assuring his own glory and our
beatitude."
August 12, 2012As it is, these remain: faith,
hopeand love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is
love.1Corinthians
13:13
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 4
-
The Creator-
Catechesis on creation is of major importance. It concerns the
very foundations of human and Christian life: For it makes explicit the response
of the Christians faith to the basic question that men of all times have asked
themselves: "Where do we come from?”"Where are we going?” "What is our origin?"
"What is our end?" "Where does everything that exists come from and where is it
going?" The two questions, the first about the origin and the second about the
end, are inseparable. They are decisive for the meaning and orientation of our
life and actions.
The question about the origins of the world and of man has been
the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our
knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms
and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to even greater
admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for
all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and
researchers. With Solomon they can say: "It is he who gave me unerring knowledge
of what exists, to know the structure of the world and the activity of the
elements... for wisdom, the fashioner or all things, taught
me."
The great interest accorded to these studies is strongly
stimulated by a question of another order, which goes beyond the proper domain
of the natural sciences. It is not only a question of knowing when and how the
universe arose physically, or when men appeared, but rather of discovering the
meaning of such an origin: is the universe governed by chance, blind faith,
anonymous necessity, or by a transcendent, intelligent and good Being, called
"God"? And if the world does come from God's wisdom and goodness, why is there
evil? Where does it come from? Who is responsible for it? Is there any
liberation from it?
Since the beginning the Christian faith has been challenged by
responses to the question of origins that differ from its own. Ancient religions
and cultures produced many myths concerning origins. Some philosophers have said
that everything is God, that the world is God, or that the development of the
world is the development of God (Pantheism).
Others
have said that the world is a necessary emanation arising from God and returning
to him. Still others have affirmed the existence of two eternal principles, Good
and Evil, Light and Darkness, locked in permanent conflict (Dualism,
Manichaeism).
According to some of these conceptions, the world (at least the
physical world) is evil, the product of a fall, and is thus to be rejected or
left behind (Gnosticism). Some admit that the world was made by God, but as by a
watchmaker who, once he has made a watch, abandons it to itself (Deism).
Finally, others reject any transcendent origin for the world, but see it as
merely the interplay of matter that has always existed (Materialism). All these
attempts bear witness to the permanence and universality of the question of
origins. This inquiry is distinctively
human.
Human intelligence is surely already capable of finding a
response to the question of origins. The existence of God the Creator can be
known with certainty through his works, by the light of human reason, even if
this knowledge is often obscured and disfigured by error. This is why faith
comes to confirm and enlighten reason in the correct understanding of this
truth: "By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so
that what is seen was made out of things which do not
appear."
The truth about creation is so important for all of human life
that God in his tenderness wanted to reveal to his People everything that is
salutary to know on the subject. Beyond the natural knowledge that every man can
have of the Creator, God progressively revealed to Israel the mystery of
creation. He who chose the patriarchs, who brought Israel out of Egypt, and who
by choosing Israel created and formed it, this same God reveals himself as the
One to whom belong all the peoples of the earth, and the whole earth itself; he
is the One who alone "made heaven and
earth."
Thus the revelation of creation is inseparable from the
revelation and forging of the covenant of the one God and his People. Creation
is revealed as the first step towards this covenant, the first and universal
witness to God's all-powerful love. And so, the truth of creation is also
expressed with growing vigor in the message of the Prophet, the prayer of the
psalms and the liturgy, and in wisdom sayings of the Chosen
People.
August 5, 2012Yahweh says this, "Stand at the crossroads and
look, ask for the ancient paths: which was the good way? Take it and you will find rest for yourselves". But they have said, "We
will not take it."Jeremiah
6:16
Section
2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 3 -
The
Almighty
Of all the divine attributes, only God's omnipotence is
named in the Creed: to confess this power has great bearing on our lives. We
believe that His might is universal, for God who created
everything also rules everything and can do everything. God's power is loving,
for He is our Father, and mysterious, for only faith can discern it when it "is
made perfect in weakness."
The
Holy Scriptures repeatedly confess the universal power of God. He is called the
"Mighty One of Jacob," the "Lord of hosts," the "strong and mighty" one. If God
is almighty "in heaven and on earth," it is because he made them. Nothing is
impossible with God, who disposes his works according to his will. He is the
Lord of the universe, whose order he established and which remains wholly
subject to him and at his disposal. He is a master of history, governing hearts
and events in keeping with as well: "it is always in your power to show great
strength, and who can withstand the strength of your arm?"
God is the Father
Almighty, whose fatherhood and power shed light on one another: God reveals his
fatherly omnipotence by the way he takes care of our needs; by the filial
adoption that he gives us ("I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons
and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."): finally by his infinite mercy, for he
displays his power at its height by freely forgiving sins.
God's almighty power
is in no way arbitrary "In God, power, essence, will, intellect, wisdom, and
justice are all identical. Nothing therefore can be in God's power which could
not be in his just will or his wise intellect.
Faith
in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and
suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of stopping evil.
But in the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his Almighty power in
the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered
evil. Christ crucified is thus "the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than
men." It Is in Christ's Resurrection and exultation that the Father has shown
forth "the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who
believe."
Only
faith can embrace the mysterious ways of God's almighty power. This faith
glories in its weaknesses in order to draw to itself Christ's power. The Virgin
Mary is the supreme model of this faith, for she believed that "nothing will be
impossible with God," and was able to magnify the Lord: "For he who is mighty
has done great things for me, and holy is his
name."
An
inspirational excerpt from Catherine Galasso-Vigorito who is a syndicated
columnist and author of “A New You, Words to Soothe the Mind, Body and
Spirit.”
Do
you sometimes feel like giving up?Have
you been through so many disappointments you think, “What’s the use of trying
anymore?” Now, you are about to walk
away from your heart’s dream, short-changing yourself, just settling for “good
enough.”
But,
“good enough” isn’t “good enough” for you.So allow me to be the voice of
encouragement.You are a child of God,
and He created you for a great purpose.
Do no quit prematurely or yield to defeat too quickly.No
matter where you are, where you’ve been or what challenges you are confronting,
never fall short of walking in the life that God intends for you.Your
God-given dreams are still within your grasp.
Hence pick yourself up and try again.
God
says: “You are “more than a conqueror.” (Romans 8:38)You’re
“strongin the Lord and in the power of His might.” (Ephesians 6:11) “You’re
fearfully and wonderfully made.”(Psalms 139:4) And you are “blessed coming in
and blessed going out.”(Deuteronomy 28:6).
Remember
that “God hath not given you a spirit of far, but of power, of love and of a
sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:8)“He has not
forgotten you…” (Isaiah 49:15)For, “He
has written your name in the palm of His hand.” (Isaiah 49:16).
Circumstances won’t
always be as they are today.Persist!
Your situation can turn around, and you can be ushered into a whole new
opportunity.
I
may add “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over
again!”.
July 29, 2012
“Trust wholeheartedly in
Yahweh, put no faith in your own perception; “Proverbs
3:5
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 2 Section III
-
The Holy Trinity in the Teaching of the Faith
From the
beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Spirit has been at the very root of
the Church's living faith, principally by means of Baptism. It finds its
expression in the role of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching,
catechesis, and prayer of the Church. Such formulations are already found in the
apostolic writings, such as the salutation taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy:
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of
the Holy Spirit be with you all."
During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify its
Trinitarian faith, both to deepen its own understanding of the faith and to
defend it against the errors that were deforming it. This clarification was the
work of the early councils, aided by the theological work of the Church Fathers
and sustained by the Christian people's sense of faith.
It
order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the church had to develop its own
terminology with the help of certain notions of philosophical origin:
"substance," "person" or "hypostasid," "relation," and so on. In doing this, she
did not submit the faith to human wisdom, but gave a new and unprecedented
meeting to these terms, which from then on would be used to signify an affable
mystery, "infinitely beyond all that we can humanly
understand."
The church uses (I) the term "substance" (rendered also at times
by "essence" or "nature") to designate the Divine being in its unity, (II) the
term "person" or "hypostasis" to designate the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in
the real distinction among them, and (III) the term "relation" to designate the
fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the
others.
The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in
three persons, the "consubstantial Trinity." The Divine persons do not share the
one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole entire: "The Father
is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the
Son that was the Holy Spirit is, i. e., by nature one God." In the words of the
Fourth Lateran Council (1215): "Each of the persons is that supreme reality,
viz., the Divine substance, essence or nature."
The Divine persons are really distinct from one another. "God is
one but not solitary." "Father," "Son," "Holy Spirit" are not simply names
designating modalities of the Divine being, they are really distinct from one
another: "He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the
Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son." They are
distinct from one another and their relations of origin:" It is the Father who
generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds." The
Divine Unity is Triune.
The Divine persons are relative to one another. Because it does
not divide the Divine unity, the real distinction of the persons from one
another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to one another:
"in the relational names of the persons the Father is related to the Son, the
Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit both.While they are called three persons in view of
their relations, we believe in one nature or substance." Indeed "everything (in
them) is one where there is no opposition of relationship." "Because of that
unity the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is
wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; Holy Spirit is wholly in the
Father and wholly in the Son."
St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called "the theologian," and
trust this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of
Constantinople:
Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I
live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which make me
bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am
soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you
as a companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and
power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way.
Divinity without disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that
raises up or inferior degree that cast down... the infinite co-naturality of
three infinites.Each person considered
in himself is entirely God... the three considered together... I have not even
begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendor. I have not
even begin to think of Trinity when unity grasps
me...
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 2 Section IV -
The Divine Works and the Trinitarian Missions
"O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!" God is eternal
blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is
the "plan of his loving kindness," conceived by the Father before the foundation
of the world, in his beloved Son: "He estined us in love to be his Sons" and "to
be conformed to the image of his Son," through "the spirit of sonship." This
plan is a "grace (which) was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,"
stemming immediately from Trinitarian love." It unfolds in the work of creation,
the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and
the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the
Church.
The whole Divine economy is the common work of the three divine
persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same nature, so too does it
have only one and the same operation: "The Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit are
not three principles of creation but one principle." However each Divine person
performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the
Church confesses, following the New Testament, "one God and Father from whom all
things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy
Spirit in whom all things are." It is above all the Divine missions of the Son's
Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of
the divine persons.
Being a work at once common and personal, the whole Divine
economy makes known both what is proper to the divine persons and their one
divine nature. Hence the whole Christian life is a communion with each of the
divine persons, without in any way separating them. Everyone who glorifies the
Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows Christ
does so because the Father draws him and the spirit moves
him.
The ultimate end of the whole Divine economy is the entry of
God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. But even now we
are called to be a dwelling for the Most holy Trinity: "If a man loves me," says
the Lord, "he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come
to him, and make our home with
him":
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely
so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already
in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my
unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery!
Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of
your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire,
completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your
creative action.
July22,
2012In the same way your light must shine in people's sight, so
that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your
Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
Section
2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 1 Section I -
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit
Christians are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit." Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a
three-part question when asked to confess the Father, the son, and Holy Spirit:
"I do." "The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity."Christians
are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit: not in
their names, there is only one God, the Almighty Father, his only Son, and the
Holy Spirit: the Most Holy
Trinity.
The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of
Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in Himself. It is therefore
the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that
enlightens.
It is the most
fundamental and essential teaching in the "hierarchy of truths of faith." The
whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the
means by which the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals Himself
to men "and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from
sin."
This paragraph expounds briefly (I) how the mystery of the
Blessed Trinity was revealed (II) how the church has articulated the doctrine of
the Faith regarding this mystery, and (III) how, by the divine missions of the
Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Father fulfills the "plan of his loving
goodness" of creation, redemption, and sanctification.
The Fathers of the Church distinguish between theology
(theologia) and economy (oikonomia). "Theology" refers to the mystery of God's
inmost life within the Blessed Trinity and "economy" to all the works by which
God reveals Himself and communicates his
life.
The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of
the "mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are
revealed by God." To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in
his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his
inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone
or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of God's Son and the sending of
the Holy Spirit.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 1 Section II -
The Revelation of God s Trinity
Many
religions invoke God as "Father." The deity is often considered the "father of
gods and men." In Israel, God is called "Father" inasmuch as he is Creator of
the world. Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and of the gift of
the law to Israel, "his firstborn son." God is also called the Father of the
king of Israel. Most especially he is "the Father of the poor," of the orphaned
and widowed, who are under his loving
protection.
By calling God "Father," the language of faith indicates two
main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent
authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his
children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of
motherhood, which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and
creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents,
who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience
also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of
fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the
human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He
also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and
standard: no one is father as God as
Father.
Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard of sense: he is
Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to his only
Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father: "No one knows the Son
except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to
whom the Son chooses to reveal
him."
For this reason the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; as
"the image of the invisible God"; as the "radiance of the glory of God and the
very stamp of his nature."
Following
this apostolic tradition, the Church confess at the first ecumenical Council at
Nicaea (325) that the Son is "consubstantial" with the Father, that is, one only
God with him. The second ecumenical Council held at Constantinople in 381, kept
this expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed "the only
begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light, true
God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the
Father."
Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of "another
Paraclete" (Advocate), the Holy Spirit.At work since creation, having previously
"spoken through the prophets," the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples,
to teach them and guide them "into all the truth." The Holy Spirit is thus
revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the
Father.
The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission
and time. The Spirit has sent the apostles and to the church both by the father
and nails done and by the son in person, again returned to the father. The
sending of the person of the Spirit after Jesus glorification reveals in its
fullness the mystery of the holy Trinity.The apostolic faith concerning the Spirit was
confessed by the second ecumenical Council at Constantinople 381: "We believe in
the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father." By
this confession, the Church recognizes the Father as "the source and origin of
the whole divinity." But the eternal origin of the Spirit is not unconnected
with the Son's origin: "The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is
God, one in equal with the Father and the Son, of the same substance and also of
the same nature. ...Yet he is not called the Spirit of the Father alone,... but
the spirit of both the Father and Son. The Creed of the Church from the Council
of Constantinople confesses: "With the Father and the Son, he is worshiped and
glorified."
The Latin tradition of the Creed confesses that the Spirit
"proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque)."The
Council of Florence in 1438 explains: "The Holy Spirit is eternally from Father
and Son; He has his nature and subsistence at once
(simul) from the Father and the Son. He proceeds eternally from both as
from one principle and through one's spiration.. And, since the Father has
through generation given to the only begotten Son everything that belongs to the
Father, except being Father, the Son has also eternally from the Father, from
whom he is eternally born, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the
Son."
The affirmation of the filioque does not appear in the Creed
confesse in 381 at Constantinople. But Pope Leo I,following
an ancient Latin and Alexandrian tradition, had already confessed it
dogmatically in 447, even before Rome, in 451 at the Council of Chalcedon, came
to recognize and receive theymbol of
381.The use of this formula in the Creed
was gradually admitted into the Latin liturgy (between the eighth and 11th
centuries). The introduction of the filioque into the Niceno --
Constantinopolitan Creed by the Latin liturgy constitutes moreover, even today,
a point of disagreement with the Orthodox
Churches.
At the outset the Eastern tradition expresses the Father's
character as first origin of the Spirit. By confessing the Spirit as he "who
proceeds from the Father," it affirms that he comes from the Father through the
Son. The Western tradition expresses first the consubstantial communion between
Father and Son, by saying that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son
(filioque). It says this, "legitimately and with good reason," for the eternal
order of the divine persons in their consubstantial communion implies that the
Father, as "the principle without principle," is the first origin of the Spirit,
but also that as Father of the only Son, he is, what the Son, the single
principle from which the Holy Spirit proceeds. This legitimate complementarity,
provided it does not become rigid, does not affect the identity of faith in the
reality of the same mystery confessed.
July 15, 2012
'Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and
actson them willbe like a sensible man who built his house on rock..
Matthew
7:24
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 1 Section III - God “He
who is” Is Truth and Love
God, "He who is," reveals himself to Israel as the one
"abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." These two terms express
summarily the riches of the divine name. In all his works God displays not only
his kindness, goodness, grace, and steadfast love, but also his trustworthiness,
constancy, faithfulness, and truth. "I give thanks to your name for your
steadfast love and your faithfulness." He is truth, for "God is light and in Him
there is no darkness"; "God is love," as the apostle John
teaches.
God is
truth
"The sum of your word is truth; and every one of your righteous
ordinances endures forever." "And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words
are true;" this is why God's promises always come true. God is truth itself,
whose words cannot deceive. This is why one can abandon oneself in full trust to
the truth and faithfulness of his word in all things. The beginning of sin and
of man's fall was due to a lie of the tempter who induced doubt of God's word,
kindness, and faithfulness.God's truth is his wisdom, which commands the whole created
order and governs the world. God who alone made heaven and earth, can alone
impart true knowledge of every created thing in relation to
Himself.
-God is also truthful when he reveals Himself-- the teaching
that comes from God is "true instruction." When He sends His Son into the world
it will be "to bear witness to the truth": "We know that the Son of God has come
and has given us understanding to know Him who is
true."
God is love
In the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that
God had only one reason to reveal Himself to them, a single motive for choosing
them from among all peoples as His special possession: His sheer gratuitous
love. And thanks to the prophets Israel understood that it was again out of love
that God never stopped saving them and pardoning their unfaithfulness and
sins.
Gods love for Israel is compared to a father's love for his son.
His love for His people is stronger than a mother's for her children. God loves
His people more than a bridegroom his beloved; His love will be victorious over
even the worst infidelities will extend to his most precious gift: "God so loved
the world that He gave his only Son."
God's love is "everlasting"; "For the mountains may depart and
the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you." Through
Jeremiah God declares to His people, "I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to
you."
But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God is
love": God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of love
in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God Himself is
an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and He has destined
us to share in that exchange.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 1 Section IV -
Implications of Faith in One God
Believing in God, the only one, and loving Him with all our
being has enormous consequences for life. It means coming to know God's greatness and majesty: "Behold,
God is great, and we know Him not." Therefore, we must "serve God
first."
It means living in thanksgiving: if God is the only One,
everything we are comes from Him: "What have you that you did not receive?"
"What shall I render to the Lord for all his bounty to
me?"
It means knowing the unity and true dignity of all men: everyone
is made in the image and like God.
It means making good use of created things: faith in God, the
only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings
us closer to Him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away
from Him.
It means trusting God in every circumstance, even in adversity.
A prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus wonderfully expresses this trust:
Let nothing trouble you, let nothing frighten you
everything passes, God never changes
patience,
obtains all
Whoever has God, wants for nothing
God alone is
enough
July 8, 2012 To do what is upright and
just is more pleasing to Yahweh than sacrifice.Proverbs
21:23
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 1 Section I - I Believe
in God
Through the centuries many professions or symbols of faith have
been articulated in a response to the needs of the different eras. Among all the
creeds, two occupy a special place in the Church's life: the Apostles Creed is
so called because it is rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the
apostles faith. The Nicene Creed draws its great authority from the fact that it
stems from the first two ecumenical Councils in 325 and 381. It remains common
to all the great Churches of both East and West to this day.Our
presentation of the faith will follow the Apostles Creed, which constitutes, as
it were, "the oldest Roman catechism." The presentation will be completed
however by constant references to the Nicene Creed which is often more explicit
and more detailed.
"I believe in God": this first affirmation of the Apostles Creed
is also the most fundamental. The whole Creed speaks of God, and when it also
speaks of man and of the world it does so in relation to God. The other articles
of the Creed all depend on the first, just as the remaining commandments make
the first explicit. The other articles help us to know God better as he reveals
himself progressively to men. "The fateful first professed their belief in God."
I believe in one God, these are the words with which the Nicene Creed begins.
The confession of God's oneness which has its roots in the divine revelation of
the Old Covenant, is inseparable from the profession of God's existence and is
equally fundamental.
To Israel, His chosen, God reveals himself as only One: "Hear, O
Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." "Turn to me
and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, then there is no
other.... To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall
swear.
Jesus himself affirms that God is "the one Lord" who you must
love "with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and
with all your strength." To confess that Jesus is Lord is distinctive of
Christian faith. This is not contrary to belief in one God. Nor does believing
in the Holy Spirit as "Lord and giver of life" introduce any division into the
One God.
We firmly believe and confess without reservation that there is
only one true God, eternal, infinite and unchangeable, incomprehensible,
almighty, and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three
persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely
simple.
Section
2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 1 Section II - God reveals His
Name
God revealed himself to His people Israel by making His name
known to them. A name expresses a person's essence and identity and the meaning
of this person's life. God has a name; He is not an anonymous force. To disclose
one's name is to make oneself known to others; in a way it is to hand oneself
over by becoming accessible, capable of being known more intimately and
addressed personally.
God
reveals Himself progressively and under different names to His people, but the
revelation that proved to be the fundamental one for both the old and new
covenants was the revelation of the divine name to Moses in the theophany of the
burning bush.God calls Moses from the
midst of the Bush that burns without being consumed: "I am the God of your
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." God is the
God of the fathers, the one who had called and guided the patriarchs in their
wanderings. He is the fateful and compassionate God remembers them and His
promises; He comes to free their descendents from slavery. He is the God who,
from beyond space and time, can do this and will to do it, God will put his
almighty power to work for this
plan.
In revealing His mysterious name,YHWH
( "I AM He who is," "I AM who AM" or "I AM who I AM"), God says who He is and by
what name He is to be
called.
This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at
once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it
better expresses God is what He is -- -- infinitely above everything that we can
understand: He is the "hidden God," His name is ineffable, and He is the God who
makes Himself close to men. By revealing his name God at the same time reveals
His faithfulness which is from everlasting to everlasting, valid for the past
("I am the God of your fathers"), as for the future ("I will be with you"). God
who reveals his name as "I AM," reveals himself as the God who is always there,
resident to His people in order to save
them.
Faced with God's fascinating and mysterious presence, man
discovers his own insignificance. Before the burning bush, Moses takes off his
sandals and veils his face in the presence of God's holiness. Before the glory
of the thrice-holy God, Isaiah cries out: "Woe is me! I am lost: for I am a man
of unclean lips. " Before the divine signs rought by Jesus, Peter exclaims:
"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." But because God is holy He can
forgive the man who realizes that he is a sinner before Him: "I will not execute
my fierce anger... for I am God and not man, the holy one in your midst."
Out
of respect for the holiness of God, the people of Israel did not pronounce his
name. In the reading of Sacred Scripture, the revealed name YHWH is replaced by
the divine title Lord.It is under this
title that the divinity of Jesus will be acclaimed: "Jesus is Lord."
A
God merciful and gracious
After
Israel's sin, when the people had turned away from God to worship the golden
calf, God hears Moses' prayer of intercession and agrees to walk in the
midstof an unfaithful people, thus
demonstrating His love. When Moses asked to see His glory, God responds "I will
make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name 'the
Lord', YHWH. Then the Lord passes before Moses and proclaims, YHWH, YHWH, a God
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness"; Moses then confesses that the Lord is a forgiving
God.
The divine name, "I Am" or "He Is," expresses God's
faithfulness: despite the faithlessness of men's sin and the punishment it
deserves, He keeps "steadfast love for thousands." By going so far as to give up
His own son for us, God reveals that He is "rich in mercy." By giving His life
to free us from sin, Jesus reveals that He Himself bears the divine name: "When
you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you'll realize that 'I
Am.'
God alone
IS
Over the centuries, Israel's faith was able to manifest and
deepen realization of the riches contained in the revelation of the divine name.
God is unique; there are no other gods besides Him. He transcends the world and
history. He made heaven and earth: "They will perish, but you endure; they will
all wear out like a garment... but you are the same, and your ears have no end."
In God "there is no variation or shadow due to change." God is "He who is," from
everlasting to everlasting, and as such remains ever faithful to himself and to
his promises.
The revelation of the ineffable name "I Am who I Am" contains
then the truth that God alone IS. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew
Scriptures, and following it the Church's Tradition, understood that in the
divine name in this sense: God is the fullness of being and of every perfection,
without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have
from Him; He alone is His very being, and He has of Himself everything that He
is.
July 1, 2012 'Things that are impossible by human resources, are possible
for God.' Luke 18:27
Chapter
3 Article 2 Section I - Lord, Look upon The Faith of Your Church
It
is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes, and sustains my
faith. Everywhere, it is the church that first confesses the Lord: "Throughout
the world the holy Church acclaims you."It is through the church that we receive faith
and new life in Christ by baptism. The Minister of baptism asks the catechumen:
"What you ask of God's church?" And the answer is: "Faith." "What does faith
offer you?" "Eternal life." Salvation
comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the
church, she is our mother: "We believe the church as the mother of our new
birth, and not in the church as if she were the author of our salvation."
Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in
faith.
Chapter
3 Article 2 Section II - The Language of Faith
We do not believe in formulas, but in those
realities they express, which faith allows us to touch.The
believers act of faith does not terminate in the propositions, but in the
realities which they express. All the same, we do approach these realities with
the help of formulations of the faith which permit us to express the faith and
to hand it on, to celebrate it in community, to assimilate and live on it for
more and more.
The church, "the pillar and bulwark of the truth," faithfully
guards "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." She guards
the memory of Christ's words; if you she from generation to generation hands on
the apostlesconfession of faith. The church our
mother teaches us the language of faith in order to introduce us to the
understanding and the life of
faith.
Chapter
3 Article 2 Section III - only one Faith
Through the centuries, in so many languages,
cultures, peoples, and nations, the Church has constantly confessed this one
Faith, received from the one Lord, transmitted by one baptism, and grounded in
the conviction that all people have only one God and Father. St. Irenaeus, a
witness of his face, declared; "indeed, the church, though scattered throughout
the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, having received the faith from
the apostles and their disciples... guards this preaching and faith with care,
as dwelling in a single house, and similarly believes as if having but one soul
and a single heart, and preaches, teaches, and hands on this faith a unanimous
voice, as if possessing only one
mouth."
"For
though languages differ throughout the world the content of the Tradition is one
and the same. The Churches established in Germany have no other faith or
Tradition nor do those of the Iberians, not those of the Celts, nor those of the
East, of Egypt, of Libya, nor those established that the center of the world...
the Church's message "is true and solid, in which one and the same way of
salvation appears throughout the whole
world."
"We
guard with care the faith that we have received from the Church, for without
ceasing, under the action of God's Spirit, this deposit of great price, as if in
an excellent vessel, is constantly being renewed and causes the very vessel that
contains it to be
renewed."
June 24, 2012"Give, and there
Will be giftsfor you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and
overflowing,
willbe poured into your lap; because the
standard you use
will be the standard used for you.”Luke
6:38
Chapter 3 Article 1 Section III – The Characteristics of
Faith
When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
the living God , Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from
flesh and blood" but from "My Father who is in heaven." Faith is a gift of God,
a supernatural virtue infused by Him. Before this faith can be exercised, man
must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior
helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens
the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept the
truth.'
Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of
the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human
act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the
truths He has revealed are contrary, neither to human freedom or to human
reason. Even in human relations itis not contrary to our dignity to believe what
other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions or to trust their
promises.If this is so, how less
contrary to human dignity is it to "yield by faith the full submission of
intellect and will to God who
reveals."
In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine
grace: Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by
command of the will moved by God through
grace."
What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths
appear as true and intelligible in light of our natural reason: we believe
"because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither
deceive nor be deceived."So "that the
submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God
willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joinedto
the internal helps of the Holy Spirit." Thus the miracles of Christ and the
Saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and
stability "are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the
intelligence of all"; they are "motives of credibility" which show that the
assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the
mind."
Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge
because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure,
revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but "the
certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of
natural reason gives."
"Faith
seeks understanding": it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know
better the One in whom he has put his faith and to understand better what he has
revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith,
increasingly set afire by love. The grace of faith opens "the eyes of your
hearts" to a lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the
totality of God's plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each
other and with Christ, the center of the revealed mystery. "The same Holy Spirit
constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and more
profoundly understood." In the words of St. Augustine, "I believe, in order to
understand; and I understand, the better to
believe."
Faith and science: "Though faith is above reason, there can
never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who
reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the
human mind, God cannot deny Himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth."
Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is
carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can
never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of
faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the
secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of
himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they
are."
To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and
therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. The act
of faith is of its very nature a free act.""God calls men to serve Him in spirit and in
truth.
Consequently
they are bound to Him in conscience, but not coerced.
This fact received its fullest manifestation in Christ
Jesus."Indeed, Christ invited people to
faith and conversion, but never coerced them. "For He bore witness to the truth
but refused to use force to impose it on those who spoke against it. His kingdom
grows by the love with which Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws men to
Himself."
Believing
in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for
obtaining that salvation "since without faith it is impossible to please God and
to attain to the Fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever
attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life but he who endures
to the end."
Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can
lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good
warfare, holding faith in good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain
persons have made shipwreck of their faith." To live, grow, and persevere in the
faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of
God.
Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific
vision, the goal of our journey here below so faith is already the beginning of
eternal life. Now, however, "we walk by faith, not by sight";even
thoughenlightened by Him in whom it
believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test.The world we live in often seems very far from
the one promised us by faith. Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice,
and death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become
a temptation against it. It is then we must turn to the witness of faith: to
Abraham, who "in hope believed against hope" to the Virgin Mary, who in "her
pilgrimage of faith," walked into the "night of faith" in sharing the darkness
of her Son's suffering and death.Let us
lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with
perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and
perfecter of our faith.
Wow, there’s a lot of information in that section. If we follow
St. Augustine’s, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the
better to believe."So if you truly
search for the truth you will come to understand that some things of God are not
comprehensible to us with our limited knowledge and we must “believe in good
faith,”that which has been revealed to
us.
June 17, 2012So then, as long as we have the opportunity
let all our actions be for the good of everybody, and especially of those
who belong to the household of the faith. Galatians
6:10
Chapter 3 Article 1 Section I - The
Obedience of Faith
To obey in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been
heard, because it's truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is
the model of such obedience offered to us by sacred Scripture. Virgin Mary is
its most perfect embodiment.
The letter to the Hebrews, in it's great eulogy of the faith of
Israel's ancestors, lays special emphasis on Abraham's faith:"By
faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to
receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to
go."By faith, he lived as a stranger and
pilgrim in the promised land. By faith, Sarah was given to conceive the son of
the promise. And by faith Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice.Abraham
thus fulfills the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance
of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen": because he was "strong
in hisfaith," Abraham became the "father
of all who believe." The Old Testament
is rich in witness to this faith.The
letter to the Hebrews proclaims its eulogy of the exemplary faith of the
ancestors who "received divine approval."The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the
obedience of faith. By faith Mary welcome tidings and promise brought by the
angel Gabriel, believing that with "God nothing will be impossible" and so
giving her accent: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me
according to Your word." It is for this
faith that all generations have called Mary blessed. Throughout her life until
her last ordeal when Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary's faith never
wavered. She never ceased to believe in the fulfillment of God's word. And so
the church venerates in Mary the purest realization of
faith.
Chapter 3 Article 1 Section II - I Know Who I Have Believed
Faith
is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and
inseparably it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly
to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to
place such faith in a creature. For a Christian, believing in God cannot be
separated from believing in the one He sent, his beloved Son, and whom the
father was well pleased; God tells us to listen to him. The Lord himself said to
His disciples: "believing God, believe also in me." We can believe in Jesus
Christ because He is Himself God, the Word made flesh: "No one has ever seen
God; the only Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him
known."Because he "has seen the Father,"
Jesus Christ is the only one who knows Him and can reveal
Him
One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his
spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to men who Jesus is. For "no one can
say 'Jesus is Lord', except by the Holy Spirit,"who
searches everything, even the depths of God.....No one comprehends the
thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God."Only God knows God completely: we believe in
the Holy Spirit because He is
God.
The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God:
Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
June 10, 2012
… and those who live by their natural inclinations can never be
pleasing to God.You, however, live not
by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has
made a home in you. Indeed, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not
belong to him.
Romans
8:8-9
Chapter 2 Article 3 Section IV – The Canon of
Scripture
. It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned
which writings are to be included in the list of sacred books. This complete
list is called the Canon of Scripture includes 46 books of the Old Testament (45
if we count Jeremiah and Lametations as one) and 27 for the New. The Old
Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are divinely
inspired and retain a permanent value for the Old Covenant has never been
revoked.Indeed, the economy of the Old
Testament was deliberately so oriented that it should prepare for and declare in
prophecy the coming of Christ, redeemer of all men.
Even though they contain matters imperfect and provisional, the books of
the Old Testament bear witness to the whole divine pedagogy of God's saving
love. In them, too, the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden
way.
Christians venerate the Old Testament as true Word of God. The
Church has always vigorously opposed the idea of rejecting the Old Testament
under the pretext that the New has rendered it void.
The word of God which is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who has faith, is set forth in and displays its power in a most
wonderful way in the writings of the New Testament which hand on the ultimate
truth of God's Revelation. Their central object is Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate
son: His acts, teachings, Passion and glorification, and his Church's beginnings
under the Spirit’s
guidance.
The Gospels are the heart of all the Scriptures. We can
distinguish three stages in the formation of the
Gospels:
evident both in the veneration which the liturgy accords it and in the
surpassing attraction it has exercised on the saints of all
times.
Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of
Christ crucified and risen. Such typological reading discloses the inexhaustible
content of the Old Testament; but it must not make us forget that the Old
Testament retains its own intrinsic value as Revelation reaffirmed by our Lord
Himself.Besides, the New Testament has
to be read in the light of the old. Early Christian catechesis make constant use
of the Old Testament. As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in
the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New. Topology indicates the
dynamic movement toward the fulfillment of the divine plan when God will be
everything to everyone.
Chapter 2 Article 3 Section V – Sacred Scripture in the Life of
the Church
And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can
serve the Church as her support and vigor and the children of the Church as
strength for their faith, food for the soul, and a pure lasting font of
spiritual life.
Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul
of sacred theology. All forms of Christian instruction, among which the
liturgical Homily should hold pride of place -- is healthfully nourished and
thrives in holiness through the Word of
Scripture.
The church forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian
faithful to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading
of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of
Christ.
June 3,
2012Yahweh says this, 'Stand at the
crossroads and look, ask for the ancient paths: which was the
good way? Take it and you willfind rest for yourselves. But they have said, "We
will not take it."Jeremiah
6:16
Chapter 2 Article 3 Section II - Inspiration and Truth of Sacred
Scripture
God is the author of sacred Scripture. The divinely revealed
realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture,
have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Holy mother
Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and
canonical books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all
their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the
Church herself.
God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. God chose
certain man who, while He employed them in this task, made full use of their own
faculties and powers so that, though He acted in them and by them, it was as
true authors that they consigned to writing whatever He wanted written, and no
more.
Since all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm
should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the
books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which
God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred
Scriptures.
Still the Christian faith is not a religion of the book but
rather Christianity is the religion of the word of God, a word which is not a
written and mute word but the word which is incarnate and living. The eternal
Word of the living God must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to
understand the Scriptures.
Chapter 2 Article 3 Section III – Holy Spirit, Interpreter of
Scripture
In sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To
interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human
authors truly wanted to affirm and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their
words.
In order to discover the sacred author's intention, the reader
must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary
genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking, and narrating
then current.For the fact is that truth
is differently presented as expressed in the various types of historical
writing, and the prophetical and political texts, and other forms of literary
expression.
But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, it must be read and
interpreted in the light of the same Spirit that it was written. The Second
Vatican Council indicates three criteria for interpreting Scripture in
accordance with the Spirit who inspired
it.
They can be distinguished as the literal and spiritual, with the latter
being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses.
The literal sense of the meaning conveyed by the words of
Scripture and discovered by the exegesis, following the rules of sound
interpretation: All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the
literal’
The spiritual sense, thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only
the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks
can be signs. A medieval couplet summarizes the significance of the four senses:
the letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith; the Moral how to act; Anagogv our
destiny.
It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules,
toward a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture
in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgment. For,
of course, all that has been said about the matter of interpreting Scripture is
ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church which exercises the divinely
conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the word of
God.
May 27, 2012The
reward of humilityis the fear of Yahweh, and riches, honourand
life. Proverbs
22:4
Chapter
2 Article 2 Section III - The Interpretation of the Heritage of
Faith
The
apostles entrusted the "Sacred Deposit" of the faith (the depositum fidei)
contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, to the whole of the Church.By adhering to this heritage the entire holy
people, united to its pastors, remains always faithful to the teaching of the
apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So, in
maintaining, practicing, and professing the faith that has been handed on, there
should be a remarkable harmony between the bishops and faithful. The task of
interpreting the Word of God authentically had been entrusted solely to the
Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion
with him.Yet this magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its
servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command
and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards
itwith dedication, and expounds it
faithfully. Mindful of Christ's words to his apostles: "He who hears you hears
me," the faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their
pastors give them a different
form.
The
Church 's Magisterium exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the
fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes, in a form
obligatingthe Christian people to an
irrevocable adherence of the faith, truths contained in divine Revelation or
also when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection
with these.
The
mutual connections between dogmas, and their coherence, can be found in the
whole of the Revelation of the mystery of Christ. In Catholic doctrine there
exists an order or hierarchy of truths, since they vary in their relation to the
foundation of the Christian faith
The whole body of
the faithful, cannot err in matters of belief, since they have received the
anointing of the Holy Spirit, who instructs them and guidse them into all truth.
Through the contemplation and study of believers, from the intimate sense of
spiritual realities which believers experience, from the preaching of those who
have received, along with their right of succession in the episcopate the sure
charism of truth, it is clearer, then from the supremely wise arrangement of
God, sacredTtradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church that
are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the
others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy
Spirit they all contribute effectively to the salvation of
souls.
Chapter
2 Article 3 Section I - Christ--The Unique Word of Sacred
Scripture
All
Sacred Scripture is but one book, in this one book is Christ, because all divine
Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine scripture is fulfilled in Christ. For
this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the
Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life,
taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body.In
Sacred Scripture, the church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength,
for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is, the word of
God. In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his
children, and talks with them.
May 20, 2012“None of the trials which have come upon you
is more than a human being can stand. You can trust that
Godwill not let you be put to the test beyond your strength, but with
any trial will also provide a way out by enabling you
to put up with it.”1
Corinthians 10:13
An interesting photo story for your perusal and thoughtful
meditation.Please click on the Photo
Gallery tab above to review the photos that go with the story below.
Make sure you go to the bottom of the pictures and review the messages.
IN
A LITTLE TOWN CALLED GROOM, TEXAS which is about 70 miles outside of Amarillo
there is an incredible display of Christian symbols.In
the Photo Gallery are pictures of the stations, sculpted from metal, by a man
near Amarillo, TX.The man did this, with
the only compensation being his ability to share his love of Christ with
us.The land was donated so he could
place his works on display.
(There
is always someone stopped here to visit, pray, or
meditate;
trucks,
buses, or single vehicles. Groom is a tiny town on I-40, but
it
gets lots of visitors because
of this display.)
May 13,
2012
You
will come to know the truth, and the truthwill set you free.So if the
Son sets you free, you will indeed be free. John
8:32-36
Chapter 2 Article 1 Section III - Christ Jesus - "Mediator and
Fullness of All
Revelation
in
many and various ways God spoke of old to our father's by the prophets, but in
these last days he has spoken to us by a Son.Christ, the Son of God made man, is the
Father's one, perfect, and unsurpassable Word.In him he has said everything; there will be
no other word than this one. There will be no further revelation. The Christian
economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass
away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious
manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.Yet even if revelation is already complete, it
has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually
to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries. Throughout the
ages, there have been so-called private revelations, some of which have been
recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the
deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's
definitive revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of
history.Christian faith cannot accept
"revelations"that claim to surpass or correct the revelation of which Christ is
the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in
certain recent sects which base themselves on such
"revelations".
God has revealed Himself fully by sending His own Son, in whom
he has established his covenant forever. The Son is his Father's definitive
Word; so there will be no further revelation after
Him.
Chapter
2 Article 2 Section I - Christ Jesus - The Apostolic
Tradition
Christ
the Lord, and on the entire revelation of the most high God is summed up,
commanded the apostles to preach the gospel, and to communicate the gifts of God
to all men. This gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral
discipline. In keeping with the Lord's command, the gospel was handed on in two
ways: orally by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their
preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what
they themselves had received-- whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of
life and his works, or whether they had learned at the prompting of the Holy
Spirit; in writing by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles
who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit committed the message of
salvation to writing.In order that the
forward-looking gospel might always be preserved in the church the apostles left
bishops as their successors, gave them their own position of teaching authority,
indeed, the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way was to be
preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time. This living
translation, accomplished in the Holy Spirit is called Tradition, since it is
distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it. Through
tradition, the church in her doctrine, life, and warship perpetuates and
transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes.
The sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of
this Tradition. The Father's self communication made through his Word and Holy
Spirit, remains present and active in the church: God who spoke in the past
continues to converse with his beloved Son and the Holy Spirit through wjhom the
living voice of the gospel rings out in the church which leads believers to the
full truth, and makes the word of Christ dwell in them in all its
richness.
Chapter 2 Article 2 Section II – The Relationship Between
Tradition and Sacred
Scripture
What
Christ entrusted to the apostles, they in turn handed on by their preaching and
writing, under the inspiration of the Spirit, to all generations, until Christ
returns in glory. Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred
deposit of the word of God in which, as in a mirror, the pilgrim Church
contemplates God, the source of all her
riches.
The church, and her doctrine, life, and worship, perpetuates and
transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she
believes.
May 6, 2012
Always be joyful; pray
constantly; and for all things give thanks; this is the
will of God for you in Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Chapter
2 Article 1 Section I GOD REVEALS HIS "PLAN OF
LOVING GOODNESS”
It pleased God, in His goodness and wisdom, to
reveal Himself and to make known the
mystery of His will. His will was that
men should have access to the Father,
through Christ, the Word made flesh,
and the Holy Spirit, and thus become
sharers in the divine nature." God,
who "dwells in unapproachable light," wants
to communicate His own divine
life to the men He freely created, in order to
adopt them as His sons in
his only-begotten Son. By revealing Himself God wishes
to make men capable
of responding to Him, and knowing Him, and loving Him far
beyond their own
natural capacity. The divine plan of Revelation is realized
simultaneously
"by deeds and words which are intrinsically bound up with each
other" and
shed light on each other. It involves a specific divine pedagogy: God
prepares men to welcome by stages the supernatural Revelation that is to
culminate in the person and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. St.
Irenaeus of Lyons repeatedly speaks of this divine pedagogy using the image
of
God and man becoming accustomed to one another: The word of God dwelt in
man and
became the Son of man in order to accustom man to perceive God and
to accustom
God to dwell in man, according to the Father's pleasure.So
if we stop here and go over the several preceding paragraphs the Baltimore
catechism summarized:“God made me to know Him, to Love Him and to serve Him in
this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next. This is a great
example of what I meant about each word in the Baltimore catechism being
important. Chapter
2 Article 1 Section II THE STAGES OF REVELATION God
who created and conserves all things by His word provides men with constant
evidence of Himself and created realities. And furthermore, wishing to open
up
the way to heavenly salvation, He manifested Himself to our first
parents from
the very beginning. He invited them to intimate communion with
Himself and
clothed them with resplendent grace and justice. Even after
they sinned God
buoyed them up with the hope of salvation, by promising
redemption; and He has
never ceased to show His solicitude for the human
race. He wishes to give
eternal life to all those who seek salvation by
patience in
well-doing.After
the unity of the human race was shattered
by sin God at once sought to save
humanity part by part. The covenant with
Noah after the flood gives expression
to the principle of the divine
economy toward the" nations", in other words,
grouped in their lands each
with their own language, by their families, in their
nations. This state of
division into many nations is at once cosmic, social,
and religious. It is
intended to limit the pride of full humanity as at Babel.
But, because of
sin, both polytheism and adultery of the nation and its rulers
constantly
threaten this provisional economy with the perversion of
paganism.The
covenant with our Lord remains in force during the times of the Gentiles, until
the universal proclamation of the Gospel. The Bible venerates several great
figures among the Gentiles: Able the just, the king-priest Melchizedek –a
figure
of Christ - and the upright Noah, Daniel and Job. Scripture thus
expresses the
heights of sanctity that can be reached by those who live
according to the
covenant of Noah. In
order to gather together
scattered humanity God calls Abram from his country and
makes him Abraham,
that is, the father of a multitude of nations. " In you all
the nations of
the earth shall be blessed." The people descended from Abraham
would be the
trustees of the promise made to the patriarchs, the chosen people,
called
to prepare for that day when God will gather all His children into the
unity of the church. The patriarchs, prophets, and certain other Old
Testament
figures have been and always will be honored as saints in all the
churches
liturgical traditions.After
the patriarchs, God formed Israel
as His people by freeing them from slavery in
Egypt. He established with
them the covenant of Mount Sinai and through Moses,
gave them His law so
that they would recognize Him and serve Him as the one
living and true God.
Israel is the priestly people of God, called by the name of
the Lord, the
people of elder brother in in the faith of
Abraham.Through
the
prophets, God forms His people in the hope of salvation, in the expectation
of a new and everlasting covenant intended for all to be written on their
hearts. The prophets proclaim a radical redemption of the peoples of God,
purification from all their infidelities, a salvation which will include all the
nations. Above all, the poor and humble of the Lord will bear this hope.
Such
holy women as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Judith,
and
Esther kept alive the hope of Israel's salvation. The purest figure
among them
is Mary.
April 29, 2012
“Be strong, stand firm,
have no fear, do not be afraid of them, for
Yahweh
your God
is going with you; he willnot
fail you or desertyou.”
Deuteronomy
31:6Chapter
1 Section III THE
KNOWLEDGE OF GOD ACCORDING TO THE CHURCHOur
Holy mother, the Church, holds
and teaches that God, the first principle and
last end of all things, can
be known with certainty from the created world by
the natural light of
human reason Though human reason is, strictly speaking,
truly capable by
its own natural power and light of attaining to a true and
certain
knowledge of the one personal God, who watches over and controls the
world
by His providence, and of the natural law written in our hearts by their
Creator; there are many obstacles which prevent reason from the effective and
fruitful use of this inborn faculty. The truths that concern the
relationship
between God and man wholly transcend the visible order of
things, and, if they
are translated into human action and influence it,
they call for self-surrender
and abnegation. The human mind, in its turn,
is hampered in the attaining of
such truths not only by the impact of the
senses and imagination, but also by
disordered appetites which are the
consequences of original sin. And so it is
that men easily persuade
themselves that what they would not like to be true is
false or at least
doubtful. This is why man stands in need of being enlightened
by God's
revelation not only about those things that exceed his understanding,
but
also about those religious and moral truths which of themselves are not
beyond the grasp of human reason; therefore, they can be known by all men with
ease, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error.Chapter
1
Section IV HOW CAN WE SPEAK ABOUT GOD?In
defending the ability of human
reason to know God, the church is expressing her
confidence in the
possibility of speaking about Him to all men and with all men,
and
therefore of some dialogue with other religions, with philosophy and
science, as well as with unbelievers and atheists. Since our knowledge of God is
limited our language about him is equally so limited. All creatures bear a
certain resemblance to God, most especially man, created in the image and
likeness of God. The manifold perfections of creatures all reflect the
infinite
perfection of God. God transcends all creatures. We must therefore
continually
purify our language of everything in it that is limited, image
bound or
imperfect. Our human words always fall short of the mystery of
God. Admittedly
in speaking about God like this, our language is using
human modes of
expression; nevertheless it really does attain to God
himself, though unable to
express Him in His infinite simplicity.
Concerning God, we cannot grasp what He
is, only what He is not, and how
other beings stand in relation to
Him.As
I mentioned earlier since God
is an infinite being we can only use our reasoning
and intellect to gather
a certain amount of "facts" about God, however, in the
end it comes down to
having faith in an Almighty Being.
April 22, 2012 The
Lord
said,
'If
you had faith
like a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree,
"Be uprooted and
planted in the sea," and it would obey you. Luke
17:6Chapter
1 Section I –THE DESIRE FOR GODThe
desire for God is
written in the human heart, because man is created by God and
for God. Only
in God will be find the truth and happiness he never stop
searching for.
Throughout history men have given expression to their quest for
God in
their religious beliefs, behavior, prayers, sacrifices, rituals,
meditations and so forth. But this innate and vital bond of man to God can be
forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by men. Such attitudes
can
have different causes for example religious ignorance or indifference,
the cares
and riches of this world, the scandal of bad example on the part
of believers,
and current thought hostile to religion. This attitude of
sinful man makes him
hide from God out of fear and flee God's call.
Although men can forget God or
reject him He never ceases to call every man
to seek Him; God never ceases to
draw men to himself and forgive their
transgressions. But the search for God
demands of man every effort of
intellect, a sound will, an upright heart, as
well as the witness of others
who teach him to seek God.
Chapter 1 Section II WAYS OF COMING TO KNOW
GODCreated
in God's image and called to know Him, to love Him and to serve
Him, the person
who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know Him.
These are called
proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of
proofs in the natural
sciences, but rather in the sense of converging and
convincing arguments which
allow us to attain certainty about the truth.
These "ways" of approaching God
have a twofold point of departure: the
physical world and the human
person.From
the physical world we can
look to St. Paul who says of the Gentiles: for what
can be known about God
is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever
since the creation
of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power
and deity has
been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. St.
Augustine
issues this challenge: question the beauty of the earth, question the
beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing
itself, question the beauty of the sky, question all these realities. All
respond: "See we are beautiful." Their beauty is a profession. These beauties
are subject to change. Who made them if not the beautiful One who is not
subject
to change?From
a human person perspective, with his openness
to truth and beauty, a sense of
moral goodness, his freedom and the voice
of his conscience, with his longings
for the infinte and for happiness, man
questions himself about God's existence.
Man's faculties make him capable
of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a
personal God. But for man to
be able to enter into real intimacy with Him, God
willed both to reveal
Himself to man and to give him the grace of being able to
welcome this
revelation and faith. The proofs of God's existence, however, can
predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to
reason.We
need to keep in mind here is that the Baltimore catechism was
written in a very
simplistic way to help us see the truths of our religion.
But as we became more
knowledgeable and information became more available,
we began to desire more
detailed information than the condensation of
information in the Baltimore
catechism. This is why this version of the
catechism was released. You will see
in the coming chapters very much
detail about the beliefs of our church. This is
why I like the Baltimore
catechism so much because it was very concise and
factual, however, it
required a deep and abiding faith.
April 15, 2012“Peace
I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world
gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
John
14:27Before
we begin the new catechism review here are some prayers
that you may find of
interest. PRAYER
TO ST. JOSEPHOh,
St.
Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne
of God, I place in you all my interests and desires. Oh, St. Joseph, do
assist
me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your divine
Son all
spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So that,
having engaged
here below your heavenly power, and may offer my
Thanksgiving in homage to the
most loving of fathers. Oh, St. Joseph, I
never weary contemplating you, and
Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not
approach while he reposes near your heart.
Press Him in my name and kiss
His fine head for me and ask Him to return the
Kiss when I draw my dying
breath. St. Joseph, patron of departing souls pray for
me. Dear
St.
Joseph, I pray that you will ask Jesus for the grace to be as pure for the
rest of my life as you were for all of your life. PRAYER
OF ST. FRANCISMake
me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring your
love.
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord,
And where there's
doubt, true
faith in you.
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there's despair in life, let me bring
hope.
Where there is
darkness only light,
And where there's sadness ever
joy.Oh
Master,
grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console.
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my
soul.Make
me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we
are pardoned;
In
giving of ourselves that we receive,
And in dying
that we're born to eternal
life.THE
CONFITEORI
confess to
Almighty God, to Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, to Blessed Michael the
Archangel, to Blessed John the Baptist, and to the holy apostles Peter and Paul,
and all the Saints, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and
deed,
through my fault, through my fault through my most grievous fault.
Therefore, I
beseech Blessed Mary ever Virgin, Blessed Michael the
Archangel, Blessed John
the Baptist, the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and
all the Saints to pray to the
Lord our God for me. May the Almighty God
have mercy on me, and forgive me my
sins, and bring me to everlasting life.
Amen.May
the Almighty and merciful Lord grant me pardon, absolution, and
remission all my
sins. AmenACT
OF ADORATIONI
adore Thee, O Jesus,
as the Lamb of God immolated for the salvation of mankind.
I joined in the
profound adoration which the angels and saints pay to Thee in
heaven.ACT
OF THANKSGIVINGLord,
Thou hast looked on my unworthiness. I was sick,
and Thou hast healed me. I was
poor, and thou hast bestowed upon me Thy
numberless benefits. How shall I be
able to thank Thee, O my Lord, for all
Thy favors? I will invoke Thy Holy Name,
and eternally sing Thy mercies.ACT
OF OFFERINGWhat
can I offer Thee, O my God, for the grace of having
given Thyself for me? I
consecrate to Thy glory my body, my soul, and all
that I possess! Dispose of me
according to Thy Holy Will.ACT
OF
PETITIONMy
Divine Redeemer, Thou has taken possession of me. Do not let the
enemy of my
salvation ravish precious treasure I bear in my heart. Preserve
me from all sin,
and defend me against temptation, that I may persevere
until death in the
practice of Thy Holy Law. Amen.ACT
OF FAITHJesus
Christ, my Sovereign Lord, I firmly believe that Thou art really present in
the
Holy Eucharist, and that it is Thy body, Thy blood, Thy soul, and Thy
divinity
that I shall receive in that Adorable Sacrament.ACT
OF
HOPEThou
hast said, O my God, that those hoping in Thee shall never be
confounded. I
place all my confidence in Thy promises, and I hope that,
having nourished
myself with Thy body on earth, I shall have the happiness
of seeing and
possessing Thee eternally in heaven.ACT
OF LOVEO
my
Divine Jesus, Who hast so loved me as to nourish me with Thy adorable flesh,
I love Thee with all my heart that above all things; I wish to live and die
in
Thy holy love. ACT
OF HUMILITYMy
Savior and my God, Thou art
all sanctity. I am not worthy that thou shouldst
enter my heart; yet, speak
but the word and my soul shall be
healedACT
OF DESIREMy
sou
desires Thee, O my God! Thou art its joy and happiness. Come, O Divine
Jesus, come into my heart; it desires ardently to receive
Thee.
April 8, 2012
HE has Risen! Halleluiah!
Easter
is upon us,
which marks the miraculous resurrection of our Savior. Christ died
on the
cross so that we may have everlasting life. Let us celebrate His
selflessness this Easter with a grateful heart.
“In His great mercy he has
given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ
from the dead…” 1 Peter 1:3, NIV
Lesson
37
discusses the Last Judgment and the Resurrection, Hell, Purgatory and Heaven.
Christ
will judge us immediately upon our death and then on the last
day. The judgment
immediately upon death is called the Particular Judgment
while the judgment on
the last day is called the General Judgment. So why
two judgments? Well the one
immediately upon death is to reward or punish
us according to our deeds. The
General Judgment is so that the providence
of God, which on earth, often permits
the good to suffer and the wicked to
prosper, may in the end appear just before
all men. The rewards and
punishment are Heaven, Purgatory and Hell. Hell is a
state to which the
wicked are condemned, and in which they are deprived of the
sight of God
for all eternity, and are in dreadful torments. Purgatory is a
state in
which those suffer for a time who died guilty of venial sins or without
having satisfied for the punishment due to their sins. The faithful on earth can
help the souls in Purgatory thru prayer, fasts, alms-deeds; by indulgences
and
by having Masses said for them. Heaven is the state f everlasting life
in which
we see God face to face, are made like unto Him in glory and enjoy
eternal
happiness. Our bodies will shall in the rewards and punishment or
our souls
because on the last day through the resurrection they will again
be united. The
just will rise glorious and immortal and the damned will be
condemned to
eternal punishment. Always
remember the words of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ: “What does it profit a
man if he gain the whole
world and suffer the loss of his own soul, or what
exchange shall a man
give for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the
glory of His Father
with His angels; and then will He render to every man
according to his
works.” This
completes the Baltimore Catechism course. I hope you found it
useful and
enlightening. What follows now is a review of the new Catechism
of the Catholic
Church as revised in accordance with the Official Latin
Text promulgated by Pope
John Paul II. This book and the Baltimore
Catechism are available on Amazon,com
or at your local Catholic book
store.
April 1, 2012 My
friends, do not be surprised at the
terrible trouble which now comes to test
you. Do not think that something
strange is happening to you. But be happy that
you are sharing in Christ's
sufferings so that you will be happy and full of joy
when Christ comes
again in glory. 1 Peter 4:12-13 Lesson
36 discusses the Third,
Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Commandments of the Church.
The
third and
fourth commandments of the Church go hand in hand. Confess at least
once
per year and receive Communion during the Easter season. Easter season in
the United States runs from first Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday (eight weeks
after Easter Sunday). Most casual Catholics combine these two on the
Saturday
before Easter and Easter Sunday. Of course if you remember Lesson
13 one of the
benefits of confession is the receipt of sanctifying grace.
By
the fifth commandment we are obligated to contribute to the support of
our
pastor, church and school. This can be difficult during poor financial
periods
but should not be totally neglected. Remember the parable about the
woman who
only has two coins and donates them in the temple. (Synoptic
gospels – Mark
12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-40)The
sixth commandment, not to
marry within the third degree of kindred means that
with in the blood
relationship no one that is a third cousin or less can be
taken as a
spouse. The command to not marry privately means none should marry
without
the blessing of God’s priests or without witnesses. The meaning of not
to
solemnize marriage at forbidden times means that during Lent and Advent the
marriage ceremony should not be performed with pomp or a nuptial Mass. Catholics
should be married at a nuptial Mass because they show greater reverence for
the
sacrament of Matrimony and bring richer blessings (an increase in
sanctifying
grace) upon themselves.I
found it interesting that Jesus
first recorded miracle was at the wedding feast
at Cana.
March 25, 2012 “Make every effort to give yourself to God as the
kind of person he will approve. Be a worker who is not ashamed and who uses
the
true teaching in the right way.“ Timothy 2:15
Lesson
35 discusses the First and Second Commandments of the Church.
There
are six chief commandments of the Church. They are:·To
hear Mass on
Sundays and holydays of obligaton.·To
fast and abstain on the days
appointed.Commandments of the
Church.·To
confess at least once a
year.·To
receive the Holy Eucharist during the Easter time.·To
contribute to support of our pastors.·Not
to marry persons who are not
Catholics, or who are related to us within the
third degree of kindred, nor
privately without witnesses, nor to solemnize
marriage at forbidden times.
(The non Catholic rule has been relaxed since the
Baltimore Catechism.)
Missing
Mass on Sunday or a holyday od obligation is a mortal sin unless
there is valid
serious reason. It is also a mortal sin to hinder anyone
else from attending
Mass without sufficient reason.Holydays
of the
Church were instituted to remind us about the great mysteries of religion
and the virtues of the saints.Fasting
and abstinence are desirable in order
to mortify our passions and satisfy for
our sins. So what’s the difference?
Fasting means we are allowed only one full
meal per day. The very young ,
old and ill are excused from this restriction.
Abstinence means we are not
allowed to eat flesh-meat but are permitted the
normal number of meals per
day. At the time of the Baltimore Catechism this
meant every Friday to
honor the day on which Jesus died. This of course was
changed in later
years. ·The current regulations concerning Lenten fasting and abstinence for
Roman Catholics in the United States generally are as
follows:
For Roman Catholics whose health or ability to work would be
negatively affected by fasting and/or abstinence, the regulations above
don't
apply. If a Friday in Lent coincides with a the abstinence is not
required. The
bishop of a diocese can modify these rules for Roman
Catholics in his diocese;
for example, it is not uncommon for a bishop of a
diocese in the United States
to give dispensations from the normal Lenten
regulations if St. Patrick's
Day(March 17)
falls on a Friday during Lent.
March 18, 2012 Love the Lord your God with all your
heart, all your soul,
your entire mind, and all your strength. Mark
12:30Lesson
33 discusses the Fourth thru the Seventh Commandments.This
lesson discusses the fourth through
the seventh commandments. The fourth
commandment, honor thy father and
mother commands us to honor, love and obey our
parents in all that is not
sin. We are also bound to honor and obey our bishops,
pastors, magistrates,
teachers and other lawful superiors. Parents and superiors
have a duty to
take good care of all under their charge and give them proper
direction and
example. The fourth commandment forbids all disobedience, contempt
and
stubbornness towards our parents or lawful superiors.The
fifth commandment is thou shall not
kill. This Commandment commands us to live
in peace and union with our
neighbor, to respect his rights, to seek his
spiritual and bodily welfare
and to take proper care of our own life and health.
The fifth Commandment
forbids all willful murder, fighting, anger, hatred,
revenge and bad
example.The
sixth
commandment is thou shall not commit adultery. This Commandment commands
us
to be pure in thought and modest in all our looks, words and actions. This
commandment forbids all unchaste freedom with another's wife or husband; also
all immodesty with ourselves or others in looks, dress, word or actions.
The
commandment also forbids the reading of bad and immodest books and
newspapers.
Basically it forbids any action that is selfish in nature to
bring physical
satisfaction to oneself. Things like masturbation and
pornography.Lesson
34 discusses the Seventh thru the Tenth Commandment.This
lesson discusses the seventh through the 10th
commandments. The seventh
commandment thou shalt not steal, commands us to
give all men what belongs to
them and to respect their property. It forbids
all unjust taking or keeping what
belongs to another. We are told to repair
the damage we have unjustly caused.
We're bound to restore ill-gotten goods
or the value of them as far as we are
able; otherwise we cannot be
forgiven.The
eighth
Commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor
commands us to speak the truth in all things, and to be careful of the honor and
reputation of everyone. It forbids all rash judgments, backbiting, slanders
and
lies. Those who have lied about their neighbor, and seriously injured
their
character must repair the injury done as far as they are able.
Otherwise they
will not be forgiven. The
ninth Commandment thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife. This Commandment
instructs us to keep ourselves pure in thoughts and
desire. Impure thoughts and
desires are always sins, unless they displease
us and we try to banish them.
The
10th Commandment thou shalt not covet my neighbor's goods,
commands us to be
content with what we have and to rejoice in our
neighbor's welfare. This
commandment, forbids all desires to take or keep
wrongfully what belongs to
another.
March 11, 2012 “Every
best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father
of
lights, with whom there is no change nor shadow of alteration.” James
1:17
Lesson
31 discusses the First Commandment further on the Honor and Invocation of
the
Saints.
The
importance of the First Commandment can be observed
since the catechism provides
two chapters discussing and explaining the
first Commandment. This lesson raises
a question on whether it is forbidden
to honor the saints. It is not forbidden,
or rather approved upon each
other by honoring the saints who are the chosen
friends of God, we honor
God Himself. The first Commandment does not forbid us
to pray to saints.
Because by praying to the saints we mean the asking of their
help and
prayers. We know they hear our prayers because they are with God and He
makes our prayers known to them. We believe the saints will help us because both
they and we are members of the same church, and they love us as their
brethren.
The saints and we are members of the same Church because the
Church in heaven
and the Church on earth are one and the same Church and
all its members are in
communion with one another. This communion of the
members is called the
communion of saints, which means the union which
exists between the members of
the Church on earth with one another and with
the blessed in heaven and with
the suffering souls in purgatory. The First
Commandment does not forbid us to
honor relics, because relics or the
bodies of the saints or objects directly
connected with them or with our
Lord. The first Commandment does forbid the
making of images if they are
made to be adored as gods, but it does not forbid
the making of them to put
us in mind of Jesus Christ, His blessed Mother and
the saints. It is right
to show respect to the pictures and images of Christ
and His saints, as
they are of representations and memorials of them. As I said
early on the
catechism was written with very specific words, for example, it is
not
allowed to pray to the crucifix or images and relics of the saints
but rather to pray before them. Praying to them is meaningless as
they
have no life, nor power to help us, nor sense to hear us. Rather we
pray before
them because they live our devotion by exciting pious affection
and desires,
and by reminding us of Christ and of the saints that we may
imitate their
virtues.
Lesson
32 discusses the Second and Third
Commandments.
The
second Commandment Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,
means we should speak with reverence of God and of the saints, and of all
holy
things, and to keep our lawful oaths and vows. An oath is the calling
upon God
to witness the truth of what we say. We may make an oath when it
is ordered by
lawful authority or required for God's honor or for our own
or our neighbors
good. To make an oath lawful it is necessary that what we
swear to, be true and
that there be a sufficient cause for taking an
oath.
A vow is a deliberate
promise made to God to do something that is
pleasing to Him. But not to fulfill
our vows is a sin, mortal or venial,
according to the nature of the vow and the
intention we had in making it.
The second Commandment forbids all false, rash,
unjust and unnecessary
oaths blasphemy, cursing and profane words.
The
third Commandment
commands us to keep holy the Lord's Day and the holy days of
obligation, on
which we are to give our time to the service and worship of God.
We are to
worship God on Sundays and holy days of obligation by hearing Mass,
prayer
and by other good works. The Sabbath day and Sunday are not the same. The
Sabbath is the seventh day of the week and is the day which was kept holy in the
Old Law; Sunday is the first day of the week and is the day, which is kept
holy
and the New Law. The Church commands us to keep Sunday holy instead of
the
Sabbath because on Sunday, Christ rose from the dead, and on Sunday He
sent the
Holy Ghost upon the Apostles. The third Commandment forbids all
unnecessary
servile work and whatever else may hinder the due observance of
the Lord's Day.
Servile works are those which require labor of the body
rather than that of the
mind. Servile works are lawful on Sunday when the
honor of God, the good of our
neighbor or necessity requires
them.
March 4, 2012
Lord,
your word is
everlasting; it continues forever in heaven. Psalms
119:89
Lesson
29 discusses the Commandments of
God.
It
is
not enough just to belong to the Church in order to be saved; we must also
keep the Commandments of God and of the Church. There are two commandments that
contain the whole law of God; the first Thou shall love the Lord thy God
with
thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, with thy whole strength, and
with thy
whole mind; the second, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
These two
commandments contain the whole law, because all the other
Commandments are
given, either to help us to keep these two or to direct us
how to shun what is
opposed to them.
The 10 Commandments are:
1 -
I am the Lord thy God;
Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.
2 -
Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain.
3 - Remember
thou keep holy the Sabbath day
4
- Honor thy father and thy mother.
5
- Thou shalt not kill.
6 - Thou shalt
not commit adultery.
7 - Thou
shalt not steal.
8 - Thou shalt not bear
false witness against my
neighbor.
9 - Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife.
10 -Thou
shalt not covet they neighbor's goods.
God Himself gave
these
commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai and Christ our Lord confirmed
them.
Lesson
30 discusses the First Commandment.
The
first Commandment helps us to keep the great Commandment of
the love of God
because it commands us to adore God alone. We adore God by
faith, hope and
charity, by prayer and sacrifice. This first Commandment
may be broken by giving
to a creature or an idol, the honor which belongs
to God alone; by false
worship; and by attributing to a creature or idol, a
perfection which belongs to
God alone. Those who make use of spells and
charms, believe in dreams, in
mediums, spiritist, fortunetellers and the
like, sin against the first
Commandment, because they attribute to
creatures perfections which belongs to
God alone. Sins against faith, hope
and charity are also sins against the first
Commandment. A person sins
against faith by not trying to know what God has
taught; by refusing to
believe all that God has taught; by neglecting to
professes their belief in
what God has taught. We fail to try to know what God
has taught by
neglecting to learn the Christian doctrine. Failing to believe
all that God
has taught makes one a heretic and infidel. Those who neglect to
profess
their belief in what God has taught are those who fail to acknowledge
the
true Church in which they believe. Those who fail to profess their faith in
the true Church in which they believe, cannot expect to be saved while in
that
state for Christ has said: "Whoever shall deny me before men, I will
also deny
him before My Father who is in heaven. We are obligated to make
open professions
of our faith as often as God's honor, our neighbors
spiritual good of our own
spiritual good, requires it. "Whosoever shall
confess Me before men, I will also
confess him before My Father who is in
heaven", says Christ.
The sins
against hope are presumption and
despair. Presumption is a rash expectation of
salvation without making
proper use of the necessary means to obtain it. An
example is committing
the same sin over and over without trying to avoid it,
expecting that God
will forgive us in confession. This is a presumption on God's
goodness.
Despair is the loss of hope in God's mercy. We sin against the love
of God by all sin, but particularly by mortal sin.
February 26, 2012 Keep
your lives free from the love of money, and be
satisfied with what you have. God
has said, "I will never leave you; I will
never forget you." Hebrews
13:5
Lesson
27 discusses the
Sacramentals.
A
sacramental is anything set apart or blessed by the church to excite good
thoughts and to increase devotion and through these movements of the heart to
remit venial sin. The difference between the sacraments and the
sacramentals is
that the sacraments were instituted by Jesus Christ and the
sacramentals were
instituted by the Church. Secondly, the sacraments give
grace of themselves when
we place no obstacle in the way; the sacramentals
excite in us pious
dispositions by means of which we may obtain grace. The
chief sacramental used
in the Church is the sign of the cross. We make the
sign of the cross by
touching the right hand to the forehead then to the
chest and to the left and
right shoulders saying in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost, Amen. The sign of the cross is used
to impress upon us that we are
Christians and to profess our belief in the
chief mysteries of our religion. The
sign of the cross professes our belief
in the chief mysteries of our religion,
because it expresses the mystery of
Unity and Trinity of God and of the
Incarnation and death of our Lord. The
words In the name, express the unity of
God; the words that follow, of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
express the mystery of the
Trinity. The sign of the cross expresses the mystery
of the Incarnation by
reminding us that the son of God, having become man,
suffered death on the
cross. Another sacramental in very frequent use is holy
water. Holy water
is ordinary water blessed by the priest with solemn prayer to
beg God's
blessing on those who use it and protection from the powers of
darkness
(The devil and his angels). The size the sign of the cross and holy
water.
There are many other sacramental, such as blessed candles ashes, palms
crucifixes, images of the Blessed Virgin and of the saints, rosaries and
scapulars.
Lesson 28 discusses prayer.
Another
means of obtaining God's grace is through prayer. Prayer
is the lifting up of
our minds and hearts to God to adore Him, to thank Him
for His benefits to ask
His forgiveness and to beg of Him all the graces we
need, whether for soul or
body. Prayer is necessary to salvation, and
without it no one having the use of
reason can be saved. There are
particular times that we should pray, for
example, on Sundays and holy
days, every morning and evening, in all dangers,
temptations and
afflictions. We should pray with attention, with a sense of our
own
helplessness and dependence upon God, with a great desire for the graces we
beg of God, with trust in God's goodness and with perseverance. The most
recommended prayers are the Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, Apostles Creed, the
Confiteor and the acts of Faith, Hope, Love and Contrition. Prayers which
are
said with willful distractions are of no avail.
The Act of Faith
- Jesus
Christ, my sovereign Lord, I firmly believe that Thou art really
present in the
Holy Eucharist, and that it isThy body, Thy blood, Thy soul
and Thy divinity
that I shall receive in that Adorable
Sacrament.
The Act of Hope - Thou
has said, O my God, that those
hoping in Thee shall never be confounded. I place
all my confidence in Thy
promises, and I hope that, having nourished myself with
Thy Body on earth,
I shall have the happiness of seeing and possessing Thee
eternally in
heaven.
The Act of Love - O my divine Jesus, Who has so
loved me as
to nourish me with Thy adorable flesh, I love Thee with all my
heart, and
above all things; I wish to live and die in Thy holy love.
The
Act
of Contrition - Oh my God I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee and I
detest all my sins because I dread loss of heaven and the pains of hell,
but
most of all because they offend Thee my God who are all good and
deserving of my
love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to
confess my sins to do
Penance and to amend my life, Amen.
February 19, 2012
“This
is My
commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
John
15:12
Lesson
25 discusses Extreme Unction and Holy
Orders.
Extreme
Unction is the Sacrament which, through the anointing and prayer of the priest
gives health and strength to the soul, and sometimes to the body when we
are in
danger of death from sickness or from a wound or accident. We should
not wait
until we are in extreme danger before we receive Extreme Unction,
but if
possible, we should receive it while we have the use of our senses.
The effects
of Extreme Unction are to comfort us in the pains of sickness,
and to strengthen
us against temptation; to remit venial sins and to
cleanse our souls from the
remains of sin; to restore us to health when God
sees fit. By the remains of
sin I mean the inclination to evil, and the
weakness of the will which are the
result of our sins, and which remain
after our sins have been forgiven. We
should receive the sacrament of
Extreme Unction in the state of grace, (so it
may be necessary to go to
confession first) and with lively faith and
resignation to the will of God.
The priest is the minister of the sacrament of
extreme unction.
Holy
Orders is the Sacrament by which bishops, priests
and other ministers of
the Church are ordained and receive the power and grace
to perform their
sacred duties. To receive Holy Orders worthily it is necessary
to be in a
state of grace, have the necessary knowledge and a divine call to
this
sacred office. Christians should look upon the priests of the church as the
messengers of God and the dispensers of His mysteries. Bishops can confer the
sacrament of Holy Orders.
Lesson
26 discusses
Matrimony.
The
Sacrament of Matrimony is the Sacrament which unites a Christian man and
woman
in lawful marriage. A Christian man and woman cannot be united in
lawful
marriage, in the eyes of the church, in any other way than by the
Sacrament of
Matrimony, because Christ raised marriage to the dignity of a
Sacrament. The
bond of Matrimony cannot be dissolved by any human power.
The effects of the
Sacrament of Matrimony are to sanctify the love of
husband and wife; to give
them grace to bear with each other's weaknesses;
to enable them to bring up
their children in the fear and love of God. To
receive the Sacrament Matrimony,
worthily it is necessary to be in the
state of grace and it is necessary also to
comply with the laws of the
Church. The Church alone has the right to make laws
concerning the
Sacrament of marriage but the state also has the right to make
laws
concerning the civil effects of the marriage contract. The Church does
forbid the marriage of Catholics to persons who have a different religion or
no
religion at all because such marriages have generally lead to
indifference,
loss of faith, and neglect of the religious education of the
children. Many
marriages prove unhappy as they are entered into hastily and
without worthy
motives. Christians should prepare for a holy and happy
marriage by receiving
the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist; by
begging God to grant them a
pure intention and he to direct their choice;
and by seeking the advice of
their parents, and the blessing of their
pastors.
February 12, 2012 In
the service of the Lord, work not halfheartedly but
with conscientiousness and
an eager spirit. Romans
12:11
Lesson
23
discusses the
Ends for which the Holy Eucharist was instituted.
Christ
instituted
the holy Eucharist to unite us to Himself and to nourish our soul
with His
divine life; to increase sanctifying grace, and all virtues in our
soul; to
lessen our evil inclinations; to be a pledge of everlasting life; to
prepare our bodies for a glorious resurrection; to continue the sacrifice of the
Cross in his Church. We are united to Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist
by
means of Holy Communion which is the receiving of the body and blood of
Christ
in the form of bread and wine. To make a good Communion it is
necessary to be
in the state of sanctifying grace to have a right intention
and to obey the
laws of fasting, which are abstaining from all food,
beverages and alcoholic
drinks for one hour before receiving Holy
Communion. Water may be taken at any
time; the sick may take food and
nonalcoholic drinks and any medicine up to
Communion time. If someone
receives Communion in mortal sin and still receive
the body and blood of
Christ. But do not receive his grace and commit a great
sin called a
sacrilege. To receive the full graces of Holy Communion we should
be free
from mortal sin, and also free from all affection to venial sin and
make
the acts of faith, hope and love. The only exception to the fasting rule
is
if someone is in danger of death or when it is necessary to save the Blessed
Sacrament from insult or injury. We are bound to receive Holy Communion,
under
pain of mortal sin during Easter time and when in danger of death. It
is good
to receive Holy Communion often as nothing is a greater aid to a
holy life and
to often receive the Author of all grace and the Source of
all good. After
receiving holy Communion we should spend some time in
adoring our Lord,
thanking Him for the grace we have received and asking
him for the blessings we
need.
Lesson
24
discusses the Sacrifice of the Mass.
The bread and wine
are changed into
the body and blood of Christ at the Consecration in the
Mass. If you remember
from an earlier lesson, this is called
Transubstantiation. The Mass is the
unbloody sacrifice of the body and
blood of Christ. A sacrifice is the offering
of an object by a priest to
God alone, and the consuming of it to acknowledge
that He is the Creator
and Lord of all things. The Mass is the same sacrifice as
that of the Cross
because the offering will and the priest are the same Christ
our Blessed
Lord; and he ends for which the sacrifice of the Mass is offered are
the
same as those of the Sacrifice of the cross. The ends for which the
sacrifice of the Cross was offered were: to honor and glorify God; to thank Him
for all the graces bestowed on the whole world; to satisfy God's justice
for the
sins of men; to obtain all graces and blessings. The difference
between the
sacrifice of the Cross and the sacrifice of the Mass is the
manner in which the
sacrifices offered. On the cross Christ really shed his
blood and was really
slain; in the Mass there is no real shedding of blood,
nor real death, he goes
Christ can die no more; the sacrifice of the Mass ,
through these separate
consecration of the bread and the wine represents
his death on the Cross. We
should assist at Mass with great interior
recollection and piety and with every
outward mark of respect and devotion.
The best manner of hearing Mass is to
offer it to God with the priest for
the same purpose for which it is said, that
is to meditate on Christ's
sufferings and death, and to go to Holy Communion.
Again in this lesson the
building blocks of the catechism are evident. What
happens at the Mass,
what is the Mass, what is the sacrifice, is the offering
the sam?. It just
builds one sentence after another.
February 5, 2012 This
is My commandment, that you love one another as I
have loved you. John
15:12
Lesson 21
discusses Indulgences.
An Indulgence is the remission in whole or in part
of the temporal punishment due to sin. It is not a pardon from sin, nor a
license to commit sin and if one is in a state of mortal sin they cannot
gain
any Indulgence. There are two kinds of Indulgence, Plenary and
Partial. Plenary
Indulgence is the full removal of temporal punishment due
to sin. Partial is the
remission of part of the temporal punishment due to
sin. The Church by means of
Indulgence remits the temporal punishment due
to sin by applying to us the
merits of Jesus Christ, and the superabundant
satisfactions of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and of the saints; which merits
and satisfactions are its spiritual
treasury. To gain an Indulgence we must
be in the state of grace and perform the
works ordered to be done.
This list is a convenient compilation of all
the ways to obtain a
plenary indulgence. Note that in addition to the described
work, obtaining
a plenary indulgence also has the following conditions:
Obtainable
any time any place
·
A partial indulgence is
granted to the faithful, who with the veneration
due the divine word make a
spiritual reading from Sacred Scripture.
· A
plenary
indulgence is granted, if this reading is continued for at least
one
half an hour.
The pious exercise must be made before stations of the Way of
the Cross legitimately
erected.
For the erection of the Way of the
Cross fourteen crosses are
required, to which it is customary to add
fourteen pictures or images, which
represent the stations of Jerusalem.
According to the more common
practice, the pious exercise consists
of fourteen pious readings, to which some
vocal prayers are added. However,
nothing more is required than a pious
meditation on the Passion and Death
of the Lord, which need not be a particular
consideration of the individual
mysteries of the stations.
A movement
from one station to the next
is required. But if the pious exercise is made
publicly and if it is not
possible for all taking part to go in an orderly way
from station to
station, it suffices
if at least the one conducting the
exercise goes from station to station,
the others remaining in their place.
·
A partial indulgence is
granted to the faithful, who visit the Most
Blessed Sacrament to adore
it.
· A plenary indulgence is granted,
if the visit lasts
for at least one half an hour.
Obtainable on
special
occasions
Obtainable
on special
days
Obtainable
on special
days at special places
Obtainable
on special occasions in one's
life
Lesson
22
discusses the Holy Eucharist.
The Holy Eucharist is the
Sacrament which
contains the body and blood, soul and divinity, of our Lord
Jesus Christ under
the appearances of bread and wine. Christ instituted
Holy Eucharist at the Last
Supper. The twelve Apostles were present when
the Lord instituted Holy
Eucharist. He instituted it in the following way:
He took the bread,
blessed it, broke it and gave it to the Apostles
saying,
TAKE THIS, ALL
OF YOU, AND EAT OF IT,
FOR THIS IS MY
BODY,
WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR
YOU.
In a similar way, when
supper was ended,
he took the chalice
and, once more giving
thanks,
he gave it to his disciples, saying:
TAKE THIS, ALL OF
YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT,
FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY
BLOOD,
THE
BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT,
WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT
FOR YOU
AND FOR MANY
FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.
DO THIS IN MEMORY OF
ME.
When Our Lord said this is my body the substance of the bread was
changed into the substance of His body, likewise when He said this is my
blood
the substance of the wine was changed into the substance of His
blood. What
remained after this consecration was the appearance of bread of
wine; that is
the figure, the color, the taste and whatever appears to the
senses. This change
is called Transubstantiation. By Christ’s almighty
power the substance of the
bread and wine was changed. Jesus gave His
priests this power when He said to
the Apostles, ‘Do this in memory of me.”
This change takes place during the
consecration portion of the Mass. This
is another item that must be believed
because of faith as there is no
physical way to prove it.
January 29, 2012 “Life
is a marathon, not a sprint!”
Lesson 19
discusses Confession.
Confession is the telling of our sins to an
authorized priest for the purpose of
obtaining forgiveness. We are bound to
confess ALL mortal sins and should also
confess venial sins. There are 3
qualities of a good confession. It must be
humble, sincere and entire. A
confession is humble when we accuse ourselves of
our sins with a deep sense
of shame and sorrow for having offended God. A
confession is sincere when
we tell our sins honestly and truthfully neither
exaggerating nor excusing
them. A confession is entire when we tell the number
and kinds of our sins
and the circumstances which change their nature. If we
can’t remember the
number of our sins we should tell the number as closely as
possible. If we
should forget to tell a mortal sin our confession, the
confession is still
worthy and the sin is forgiven. To conceal a mortal sin
during confession
is a grievous offense against the Holy Ghost and makes the
confession
unworthy. If we are guilty of such an offense we must confess it as
soon as
possible and repeat all sins committed since the last worth confession.
The
priest gives us penance so that we may satisfy God for the temporal
punishment due to our sins. Penance forgives the eternal punishment due to
sin
but does not always forgive the temporal punishment which God requires
as
satisfaction for our sins. Temporal punishment is required by God to
teach us
the great evil of sin and to help prevent us from falling again.
The chief
means of satisfying temporal punishment are Prayer, Fasting, and
Almsgiving,
all spiritual and corporal works of mercy and patient suffering
of the ills of
life. There are 7 spiritual works of mercy: To admonish the
sinner, to instruct
the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to comfort the
sorrowful, to bear wrongs
patiently, to forgive all injuries and to pray
for the living and the dead. The
chief corporal works of mercy are also
seven: To feed the hungry, to give drink
to the thirsty, to clothe the
naked, to ransom the captive, to harbor the
harbor-less, to visit the sick
and to bury the dead. Why would God make us
serve temporal punishment? Well
obviously we don’t get it! He sent His only Son
to suffer and die for our
sins and yet we continue to commit them!
Lesson 20 discusses the
manner and making of a good Confession.
On
entering the confessional
we should knell, make the sign of the cross and say to
the priest, Bless me
Father for I have sinned, my last confession was, here
mention how long ago
it was since your last confession. There are many
variations to this
opening but basically you need to cover the fact you have
sinned and how
long ago your last confession took place. We then confess all
mortal sins
we have committed since the last confession and any venial sins we
wish to
mention. Any questions or discussion by the priest must be answered
truthfully and clearly. After telling our sins listen intently to the words
of
the confessor. When he is giving absolution recite the Act of
Contrition.
So let’s review, four chapters on Penance and
contrition. Sure seems like
God thru the church is trying to tell us this
might be important. God loves us
very much and is trying to give us every
opportunity to love Him and to serve
Him by forgiving our
trespasses.
January 22, 2012 “Each
one of you has received a special grace, so, like
good
stewards responsible for all these varied graces of God,
put it at the service
of others. Peter 4:10”
Lesson 17 discusses the
Sacrament of Penance.
Penance is the Sacrament in which sins
committed after Baptism are forgiven.
Sins are forgiven and the soul is
restored to the friendship of God by means of
absolution from the priest.
The priest has the power of absolution because
Jesus Christ granted it to
His Church when He said “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Whose sins you shall
forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall
retain (to hold back,
refuse forgiveness) they are retained.” The priests
exercise this power of
forgiveness by hearing the confession of sins and
granting pardon for them
as ministers of God and in His name. To make a good
and worthy confession
we must examine our conscience, which is an earnest
effort to recall all
our sins since our last worthy confession. Before
beginning the examination
we should pray to God to give us light to know our
sins and the grace to
detest them. To help us make a good examination of our
conscience we can
use the 10 commandments, the precepts of the Church, the
seven capital
sins, the imperatives of Jesus and the particular duties of our
state in
life. We must have sorrow for our sins. I have found that besides
reviewing
the Ten Commandments, reviewing the Beatitudes is a good way to
examine our
conscience. Actions have consequences; nothing we do is done in a
vacuum.
Our culture makes excuses, denies, lies, distorts, equivocates and
ignores
the reality of our actions. The below is taken from the Handbook of
spiritual exercises at the Malvern Retreat House.
1. Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Do I fear the poverty
of my
spirit, my sinfulness, inclinations, obsessions and compulsions, or
do I give my
poverty of spirit to Jesus Christ? Of the two basic motives in
life – love and
fear, which do I choose most? Has fear prevented me from
accepting
responsibilities, new challenges, speaking the truth, living a
free life? Jesus
gave the command “be not afraid” over 80 times, more than
any other. Has fear
caused me wallow in guilt, force my opinion on others,
try to control others to
meet my expectations?
2. Blessed are the
meek, for they shall inherit
the earth.
Am I courageous enough to be
“meek” (the Greek word means
“gentle)? In the face of violence, anger,
hatred, do I choose nonviolence,
forgiveness, “turning the other cheek?” Do
I need to be first noticed, be
recognized as important, sit at the head of
the table, or am I comfortable in my
own skin without seeking the praises
of others? Am I able to be present to
others in their problems or sadness
without needing to solve, fix or give an
answer? Am I able to step back and
observe, pray and let God into difficult
situations, or do I need to force
myself upon others? Am I intimidated by those
who are forceful and seek
control, or am I able to gently “shake their dust from
my feet?”
3.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be
comforted.
Do I feel the
injustices of war, poverty, prejudices in the world,
my country, my
community, my family, my life and seek to change those sinful
structures?
Do I accept the sorrows in my life with humility and dignity and
seek
comfort from others? Do I seek to comfort those who mourn – the elderly,
those in nursing homes, those with no one to visit them, those who have lost a
loved one, hospital patients, Alzheimer’s patients? Do I mourn lost
relationships and try to heal them with forgiveness, sensitivity, making amends
and love when possible?
4. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst
for
righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Do I hunger and thirst for
the
righteousness of Jesus Christ or do I run from threatening situations
as did
Peter and the apostles? What principles and beliefs do I have and
hold that I
will defend and protect with my life? In what situations have I
cowardly been
silent when I knew Jesus wanted me to speak or act? What time
do I give to
righteous causes (helping those less fortunate than me,
pro-life, environment,
racial and gender equality)? Do I stay aware of
current events, political
elections and movements that are focused on
changing attitudes, laws and
government to more Christ-like
choices?
5. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain
mercy.
Do I truly believe Jesus when He says that by the
measure I
forgive is the measure by which I will be forgiven? Do I expect
forgiveness
when I refuse to forgive? Do I turn to Jesus in my sinfulness
believing in
His desire for mercy upon me, or do I wallow in the self-pity of
guilt? Are
laws, rules, dogmas and doctrines more important to me than mercy?
Are
there people in my life who suffer because I refuse mercy? Do I think there
are people in the world who do not deserve mercy?
6. Blessed are the
clean of heart, for they shall see God.
What in my deepest heart do I
believe
about God, life, family, faith and myself? Do these beliefs help or
hurt me in
seeing God in the world and in myself? Are my actions and words
grounded in
integrity, honesty, simplicity, clarity and a truthfulness that
allows others to
see God in me and themselves? Do I find time in prayer,
meditation, inspired
readings and the Sacred Scriptures to be open and
quiet before Our Lord? Do I
stretch the truth for my advantage, tell “white
lies” to avoid problems, act in
deceptive ways to increase my reputation,
treasures or advancement?
7.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they
shall be called children of God.
When I
am hurt do I seek to hurt back
or do I seek to find ways to diffuse the problem,
be reconciled with the
one who hurt me, bring peace to a place in my life that
lacks peace? Would
I be considered a person of peace on issues of nuclear
armaments, war and
our military presence in the world? Do I know the Church
teachings on
conditions for war, capital punishment, nuclear proliferation? Do I
do
anything about it? When I am the cause of conflict in my family, business,
school, neighborhood, am I able to accept responsibility, ask for forgiveness
and make amends or do I deny the problem, blame others, make excuses or
avoid
the consequences of my actions? Does my entertainment include movies,
sports,
activities that revolve around violence, abuse or cruelty? Do I
understand how
this culture hurts everyone but it especially robs children
of their childhood?
8. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for
justice sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when
people revile you and persecute
you and utter all kinds of evil against you
falsely on my account. Rejoice and
be glad for your reward is great in
heaven.
Am I embarrassed to take a stand
on issues that are important to
God and to me (war, prolife, the media,
religion, racial slurs, language)
for fear of being ridiculed? Am I part of the
crowd who ridicules others
for their beliefs, culture or lifestyle? Do I live my
life confident in the
rewards of heaven and base my decisions and actions in
this world on that
confidence? Has the situation in this world caused
depression,
hopelessness, anxiety in my life or does the promise of Jesus Christ
allow
me to embrace the hope and belief that God will protect those persecuted
on
God’s account, and that God’s Will and Life can be embraced by me and
others?
Lesson 18 discusses contrition.
Contrition is a hatred of
sin and a true grief of the soul for having offended God and a firm purpose
of
sinning no more. The sorrow we have should be interior, supernatural,
universal
and sovereign. Wow, let’s look at these individually. When we say
the sorrow
must be interior we mean it must come from the heart not merely
the lips. You
have the feel the sorrow inside yourself. When we say it
should be supernatural
we mean it should be prompted by the grace of God
and we should be excited by
motives coming from faith and not merely
natural motives. When we say it should
be universal we mean we should be
sorry for all mortal sins without exception.
When we say it should be
sovereign we mean we should grieve more for having
offended God than for
any other evil that can befall us. The Act of Contrition
emphasizes this
notion with the words,“….because I dread the loss of heaven and
the pains
of hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God……” Being
sorrowful for our sins is necessary because serious sin is the greatest of evils
and an offense against God our Creator and it shuts us out of heaven and
condemns us the eternal pain of hell. There are two kinds of contrition,
perfect
and imperfect. Perfect contrition fills us with sorrow and hatred
of sin because
it offends God who is infinitely good and worthy of all
love. Imperfect
contrition means we hate what offends God but more because
we fear the loss of
heaven and pains of hell. Imperfect contrition is
sufficient for the forgiveness
of sin but we need to strive for perfect
contrition. When we say a firm purpose
to sin no more we mean we need to
avoid all mortal sins and any person, place or
thing that may lead us into
sin. Well I think it’s time for a reminder, say it
with me; To know Him, to
love Him and to serve Him.
January
15, 2012 “Let
the peace that Christ gives control your thinking, because you were all called
together in one body to have peace. Always be thankful. Colossians
3:15
”
Lesson 15 discusses Confirmation.
Confirmation is
the Sacrament
through which we receive the Holy Ghost to make us strong and
perfect Christians
and soldiers of Jesus Christ. The bishop is the ordinary
minister of
Confirmation. The bishop extends his hands over the one to be
confirmed prays
that they may receive the Holy Ghost and anoints the
forehead of each with holy
chrism in the form of the cross while giving
them a new name for the glory of
God. Holy chrism is a mixture of olive oil
and balm (the juice of the balsam
tree) consecrated by the bishop. In
anointing each person the bishop says: I
sign thee with the sign of the
cross, and I confirm thee with the chrism of
salvation, in the name of the
Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. By
anointing the forehead with
chrism the Christian who is confirmed must openly
profess and practice
their faith, never be ashamed of it, and rather die than
deny it. The
bishop gives the person being confirmed a slight blow on the cheek
to
remind them that they must be ready to suffer everything, even death, for the
sake of Christ. Wow, pretty heavy stuff here. Let’s think how this applies
to
me. Let’s remember this was originally written in 1932. Well if we think
about
scripture, Revelations talks about one currency and those wanting to
participate
in the government taking a sign. With the Euro failing and the
Europeans talking
about a new single currency, and our government talking
about fully subsidized
health care and some kind of tattoo or RFID tag to
identify a covered person it
sure sounds like the makings of the mark of
the devil. So what would you do?
Will we stand firm and refuse the mark?
Will we die for our faith and for Jesus
Christ? HMMM, tough choices.
Well back to confirmation. To receive it one
must be in the state of
grace and must know the chief mysteries of faith and the
duties of a
Christian and be instructed in the nature and effects of the
Sacrament. It
is a sin to neglect Confirmation, especially in these evil days
when faith
and morals are exposed to so many and such violent temptations. WOW
again!
Remember this was written in 1932 yet it rings true even today. This is
why
I truly believe in scripture and the teachings of the church. It is
consistent and spans all time. So when I hear the young people of today complain
about going to mass once a week or observing a holy day I want to smack
them
upside the head and remind them that it’s not about them but about the
big
three, know Him, love Him and serve Him. He suffered and died for us
but yet I’m
convinced we still don’t get it!
Lesson
16
discusses the gifts and fruits of the Holy
Ghost.
Confirmation increases
sanctifying grace, strengthens our
faith and infuses the gifts of the Holy
Ghost. The gifts of the Holy Ghost
are Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel,
Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of
the Lord. Hold on I thought God loved me
why Fear of the Lord? Well it’s to
remind us to dread sin. Sin is an acceptance
of the devil and denial of the
Lord, so we are turning our back on the Lord.
There will be retribution for
that act. God loves us very much but we cannot
presume we can do what we
like and be forgiven over and over. Remember Sodom and
Gomorrah. Piety
makes us love God as a Father and obey Him because we love Him.
Knowledge
enables us to discover the will of God in all things, but we have to
look!
Fortitude strengthens us to do the will of God in all things. Have I been
in a position to speak out for the Lord and kept silent for fear of ridicule or
exclusion from a group? Counsel warns us of the deceit of the devil and of
the
dangers to salvation. Understanding enables us to know more clearly the
mysteries of faith. Remember faith is accepting those things we cannot
understand or explain but accept because Jesus told it is true. Wisdom gives us
a relish for the things of God and to direct our lives and actions to His
honor
and glory.
There are 12 fruits of the Holy Ghost. They are:
Charity, Joy,
Peace, Patience, Benignity ( kindness and sweetness),
Goodness, Long-suffering,
Mildness, Faith, Modesty, Continency (self
control) and Chastity.
The
catechism is such a great book. There are so
many facets of faith contained
within its pages that I am in awe as I hope
you have become. I thank the Lord
for leading me
here.
January 8, 2012 “What
is impossible with men is possible with God." Luke
18:27
Lesson 13
discusses the Sacraments in general.
A
Sacrament is an outward sign
instituted by Jesus Christ to give grace. The
Sacraments give grace from the
merits of Jesus Christ. Please note at this
point the constant thread that is
woven throughout the catechism. It all
starts with God sending his only Son to
suffer for our sins. Jesus Christ
as the God made Man institutes many things
while here on earth. By his
divine being the things necessary for salvation have
been established. Our
faith in Him and His teachings are what commit us to
belief in the Church
tenements and the matter on which the Catechism is based.
There are 7
Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Extreme
Unction, Holy Orders and Matrimony. Some of the Sacraments give sanctifying
grace and others increase the grace in our souls. The Sacraments that give
sanctifying grace are Baptism and Penance which are also called the Sacraments
of the dead because they take away sin, which is the death of the soul, and
give
grace which is life to the soul. The Sacraments that increase
sanctifying grace
are Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Extreme Unction, Holy
Orders and Matrimony
which are also called the Sacraments of the living
because those who receive
them worthily (very key word here worthily) are
already living in a state of
grace. To receive a Sacrament while living in
mortal sin is a sacrilege, which
is a great sin because it abuses a sacred
thing. Sacraments also provide
sacramental grace, which is a special help
which God gives to attain the end for
which each Sacrament was instituted.
Again please note the building blocks of
the Catechism. Each statement
adding to the previous. OK, pop quiz. No looking
ahead now! How many
Sacraments can only be received once?
Baptism,
Confirmation and Holy
Orders. These Sacraments imprint a character in the soul,
a spiritual mark
that remains forever, even after death, for the honor and glory
of those
who are saved; for the shame and punishment of those who are lost.
Lesson 14 discusses Baptism
Baptism is a Sacrament that cleanses the
soul from original sin, makes us children of God and heirs of heaven.
Actual
sins may also be forgiven depending upon when Baptism is received.
Baptism is
necessary for salvation, because without it we cannot enter into
the kingdom of
heaven. The priest is the ordinary minister of Baptism but
in case of an
emergency anyone who has the use of reason may baptize.
Whoever baptizes should
pour water on the head of the person to be baptized
(or in the case of a
miscarriage as reasonable a choice as possible to the
position of the head) and
while poring the water should say : I baptize
thee in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
There are three kinds of Baptism: Baptism
of water, desire and blood. The
Baptism of water was described above. The
Baptism of desire is an ardent
wish to receive Baptism and to do all that God
has ordained for our
salvation. This type of Baptism was most prevalent by the
faithful in
Communist Russia. I personally knew people living under communist
rule
whose children would report them to the authorities if they saw them
praying. The Baptism of blood is the shedding of one’s blood for the faith of
Christ. Both of these types of Baptism save the soul since the Baptism of
water
is not available. If you remember our godparents promise for us to
renounce the
devil and all his works and pomps. That is the reason for
godparents. They also
promise to instruct the child in its religious duties
should the parents neglect
to do so or become deceased. The name of a saint
is given at Baptism so that the
person baptized may imitate their virtues
and have them as a protectorate. There
is sometimes a great discussion
about saint’s names. It is very difficult since
everyone in heaven is a
saint so who knows what a saints name really might be? I
defer to my church
to direct this process but as a Jesuit friend of mind said
who really know
how many saints there really are?
January 1, 2012 “God our Father, walk through my house and take
away all my worries and illnesses and
please watch over and heal my family
in your name, Amen.”
Lesson 12
discusses the attributes and marks of
the church.
Happy New Year. Also,
as in the “old days”, happy feast
of the circumcision of Christ. This is a segue
into our lesson. The
attributes of the Church are three: authority,
infallibility and
indefectibility. The authority of the Church is the right and
power which
the Pope and bishops have to teach and to govern the faithful as
successors
of St. Peter and the Apostles. The infallibility of the Church is
that it
cannot err when it teaches a doctrine of faith or morals. Please note
the
words “when it teaches a doctrine of faith or morals.” Doesn’t mean the Pope
can’t make a mistake, except when he speaks on doctrine of faith or morals.
The
indefectibility of the Church means the Church, as Christ founded it,
will last
until the end of time. These attributes are found in their
fullness in the Pope,
the visible Head of the Church. There are four marks
of the Church. The Church
is One, it is Holy, it is Catholic and it is
Apostolic. I don’t know about you
but I certainly knew One, Holy, Catholic
and Apostolic but I didn’t remember
them as marks of the Church. Anyway,
let’s examine each one. The Church is One
because all its members agree in
one faith, are in one communion and under one
Head. The Church is Holy
because its founder, Jesus Christ, is holy; because it
teaches a holy
doctrine and invites all to a holy life. The Church is Catholic
or
universal because it subsists in all ages, teaches all nations and maintains
all truth.
Remember what I said earlier in the introduction. These
simple
sentences have years of study and intelligence molded into them. “It
subsists
for all ages”,has so much meaning and study built into it.
Scholars have studied
the Bible, logic, philosophy, theology in order to
summarize these findings into
those words. I have studied a modicum of
these teachings and have come to
believe and trust in the teachings of the
Church and Scriptures.
The
Church is Apostolic because it was founded by Christ on His
Apostles and their
successors and has never and will never cease to teach
their doctrine.
The
Pope when speaking for the Church on matters of
morality is infallible, where
does this infallibility originate? It comes
from the Holy Ghost, the spirit of
truth, who abides with it forever. The
Holy Ghost, the spirit of love and
holiness, unites the Church members
throughout the world to keep the Church One,
Holy and Catholic.
Well
that was a pretty intensive lesson. Please review it
this week and test
yourself against the lesson.
December 25, 2011
“What a Glorious day”
“Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ
the Lord”
Lesson 11 discusses the Church
Jesus, by his life, death and Resurrection has purchased for us eternal life. The means by which we share in
the fruits of His Redemption are the Church and the Sacraments. The Church is the congregation of all those who profess the faith of Christ, partake of the same Sacraments and are governed under one visible head. Jesus is the invisible
Head of the Church. But he said “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I shall build
my Church.” Peter was the visible Head of the Church. So the successor to Peter
is Our Holy Father the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of Christ on earth. A Vicar by the way is a person acting in the name
and with the authority of another. The successors of the other Apostles are the bishops of the Church.
Christ founded the Church to teach, govern, sanctify and save all men. All are
bound to belong to the Church, and he who knows the Church to be the true Church and remains out of it cannot be
saved. So sounds like if you’re not a Catholic you can’t be saved. Well, the all knowing God welcomes all who truly believe
into His kingdom. There are many doors into heaven, doors for each faith, but beware, those who
choose a faith for their own convenience and do not believe within their heart for they shall feel the wrath of the Lord. Why do we believe the Catholic Faith is the one true faith. From everything I know and have read,
if you truly seek the truth with an open mind you will eventually find that the
Catholic faith offers the most acceptable understanding of the mysteries of
God.
As an example let’s look at the Immaculate Conception. How could the
Mother of God be stained by sin? The Son of God made man is conceived by
the Holy Spirit in a woman. The woman cannot have a sin and be the Mother
of God. It is logical but does not follow any of the rules, that is, that everyone is born with
original sin. So what’s up? There are thousands of hours of study and many books written that substantiate the information
that to be the Mother of God Mary had to free from all sin. For those of you who accept on Faith, God bless you, and
He does and always will. As He said to Thomas, 'You have come to believe because
you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.' (Jn
20:29). For those who cannot, accept on faith, please keep looking and searching for the truth.
It is easy to get comfortable with our choices and then make them reality,
but please keep searching.
On this special day let me wish you a
Merry Christmas. YES, a Christmas. I say to everyone I meet. Not Happy Holidays,
but Merry Christmas. For those who are offended or say “well I am not a
Catholic” I say well then you wish me according to your belief, be it
Hanukkah, Quanza or any other religion or belief. But I believe in Christ
and I believe in Christmas. God bless you all and keep the faith.
December 18, 2011
"To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did"
Lesson 9 Descent of the Holy
Ghost upon the Apostles The Holy Ghost is the third person of the Blessed Trinity, He proceeds from the Father and the Son and He is equal to Father and the Son. He came down upon the Apostles 10 days after the ascension of our Lord and this day is called Whitsunday or Pentecost. He came down upon the apostles in the form of tongues of fire. Jesus Christ sent
the Holy Ghost to the apostles to sanctify his church to enlighten and
strengthen the Apostles and to enable them to preach the gospel. The Holy Ghost
will abide with the church forever and guide it in the way of holiness and truth.
As I said earlier, we are using the Baltimore catechism and as we
know in later years the church has changed the Holy Ghost and to the
Holy Spirit, however basic facts stated above remain unchanged.
The Holy Spirit was first introduced to a Catholic at baptism because the Holy
Trinity is invoked at the ceremony. During confirmation Holy Spirit comes
upon the person accompanied by God the Father and God the Son just as he
did at Pentecost.
Lesson 10 the effects of the Redemption.
The main effects of the Redemption are two: the satisfaction of God's justice by Christ's suffering, and
the gaining of grace for men. Grace is a supernatural gift of God bestowed upon us through Jesus Christ for our salvation. There are two kinds of grace, sanctifying and actual. Sanctifying grace makes the soul holy and pleasing to
God. The graces or gifts of God by which we believe in Him and hope in Him and
love Him are called the Divine virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity.
Faith is the Divine virtue by which we firmly believe the truths which God has
revealed. Hope is the Divine virtue by which we firmly trust that God will
give us eternal life and the means to attain it. Charity is the Divine
virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our
neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
Actual grace is the help of God which enlightens our mind and moves our will to shun evil and do good.
Grace is necessary for salvation, because without it we can do nothing to merit heaven.
Because of our free will we can resist the grace of God, and unfortunately often do.
The grace of perseverance is a particular gift of God which allows us to continue in the state of grace
until death.
As we go thru these catechism lessons I am still amazed at
how much of our faith is condensed into the Baltimore Catechism book. It contains the foundations of our faith
reduced to simple and easy to understand statements. The scholars of the Church have studied logic,
psychology, philosophy, theology and St. Thomas Summa Theologica and have been able to produce the statements found in this great
little book.
December 11, 2011
"The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you."
Lesson 7 incarnation and redemption.
God did not abandon man after he fell into sin but promised him a Redeemer, who was to satisfy for man’s sin and reopen to him the
gates of heaven. Our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the Redeemer.
He is the Son of God the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, true God and true man. True God, because he is the true and only Son of
God the Father. True man, because he is the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary and has a body
and soul like ours. Jesus Christ has two natures the nature of God and the nature of man but He is one Divine Person. Jesus was not always a man but became man at the time of His Incarnation. He was conceived and made man by
the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary who is truly the Mother of God because the same Devine Person who is the Son of God is also the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Those who lived before, the Son of God became man could be saved by believing in a Redeemer to come and by keeping the commandments. The Son of God was conceived and made man
on Annunciation day, the day on which the angel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she was to be the Mother of God.
Christ was born on Christmas Day in the stable at Bethlehem over 1900 years ago. He
lived on earth, about 33 years to show usthe way to heaven by His teachings and example.
Well if you think about it, most of our faith is wrapped up in this lesson.
Faith is defined as:
confidence or trust in a person or thing:belief that is not based on proof: belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: a system of religious belief. Since in our mortal state we cannot
understand and therefore cannot prove how the things in this lesson are possible we believe they are true because of our faith and the faith that the Bible tells us so. Harold Hill in his book “How to Live Like a King’s Kid”, calls the Bible the Manufacturers Handbook. If you think that thru a little it makes good sense.
Lesson 8 the Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord.
Jesus Christ suffered a bloody sweat, a cruel scourging, a crown of thorns and was crucified for our sins. From His suffering
and death we learn the great evil of sin, the hatred God bears to it and the great sacrifice required to satisfy for it.
Christ died on Calvary on Good Friday. Why would we call it Good if Christ died that day? It is called Good
because by His death He showed His great love for man and purchased for him the rewards of eternal life. But even after all of this we continue to fall by the wayside and sin and offend God.
The catechism says he died and descended in hell. This is not the hell of the damned but rather a place that was called
Limbo, to announce to them the joyful tidings of their redemption. Remember we are using the Baltimore catechism. So by way of current explanation the Catholic Church’s official catechism issued in 1992, after decades of work dropped the
mention of limbo. By the expression“He descended into hell”, the Apostles Creed confesses that Jesus did really die and through His death for us conquered death and the devil “who is the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14)
In his human soul united to his divine person the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven's gates for the just, who had gone before HimChrist rose from the dead on the third day after his death on Easter Sunday. (The Resurrection)
Christ stayed on earth for 40 days after he rose to show that he was truly risen from the dead and to instruct his Apostles. After 40 days
Christ ascended into heaven. (The Ascension). In heaven He is seated at the right hand of God meaning He is equal to his Father in all things, and that as man, He is in the highest place in heaven next to God. Well those were two pretty intense lessons so take some time to read them again and contemplate their content.
December 4, 2011 “Thank you Oh Lord for this joyous day and for the all of the blessings that are coming our way.”
Lesson 5 discusses our first parents and their sin.
Adam and Eve were the first man and woman and were innocent and holy when God created them. The chief blessing for them was a
constant state of happiness in their life and everlasting glory in the next. To test their obedience God
commanded Adam and Eve to not eat a certain fruit on the tree in the center of the garden of paradise. Just a
little side note, notice it does not say apple it says fruit. The apple reference came from some poetic license taken somewhere in our
history. As we know, Adam and Eve did not remain faithful and ate the fruit and because of this they lost their innocence and holiness and were doomed to sickness and death.
Because of the disobedience of our first parents we all share in their sin and punishment, as we would have shared in their happiness if they had remained faithful. We were corrupted by this sin, which darkened our understanding, weakened our will and
left in us with a strong inclination to evil. This sin is called Original Sin, as it comes down to us from our first parents and we are brought into this world with its guilt on our soul. The Blessed Virgin Mary through the merits of her divine Son was preserved free from sin andthis is called to her Immaculate Conception.
So again God's simple request to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him was ignored and punishment followed.
The Angels failed and now man has failed.
Lesson 6 discusses various kinds of sin.
Besides original sin there is another kind of sin which we commit ourselves called actual sin. Actual sin is any wilful thought, word,
deed or omission contrary to the law of God. There are two kinds of actual sin mortal and venial. Mortal sin is a
grievous offense against the law of God and it deprives us of spiritual life, which is sanctifying grace and brings everlasting death and damnation on our soul. To make a sin mortal, three things are necessary; a grievous matter, sufficient reflection and full consent
of the will. Venial sin is a slight transgression against the law of God committed without sufficient
reflection or full consent of the will. Venial sin lessens the love of God in our heart making us less worthy of
His help and weakening our power to resist mortal sin.
For those of you young enough to remember, mortal made the picture of the heart totally black, while venial sin put a dot on
it.
The chief sources of sin are called capital sins, and there are seven: Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy and Sloth.
So now even after failure and punishment, man continues to ignore the simple request from God, the big three, and continues to
find additional ways to satisfy himself while ignoring the Supreme Being.
So try to remember, "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the ruin of his soul?"
November 27, 2011 “It’s nice to be important, but more important to be nice.”
Lesson 3 discusses the unity and trinity of God.
There is one God and three divine persons. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you go thru extensive theology and logic
study, the Trinity cannot be explained by us mortals, so this becomes one of those things we take on Faith. How do we know about this? The gospels talk about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father spoke at the baptism of Jesus, “This is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”, Jesus spoke of sending the Holy Spirit to the disciples. Why should we believe this is true? As I said it is a matter of faith, but the gospel writers were just reporting what they were told. They have no reason to fabricate what they wrote. It is like us today watching the news. Although we are not physically where the actions are taking place in
another country we believe what we are told or see on theradio or television because they reporting the news. I know, I know some
stories are twisted by the media but most of the reporters are just telling us what they have witnessed and we can accept what they say in good faith.
Lesson 4 discusses creation.
God created heaven and earth, and all things from nothing by a single act of His all-powerful will. The chief creatures of God are angels and men. Angels are pure spirits without bodies to adore and enjoy God in heaven. They were created good and happy
and to assist before the throne of God. They have often been sent as messengers from God to man; and also are appointed our
guardians. Unfortunately not all angels remained good and happy many of them sinned and were cast into hell with their leader Lucifer.
This lesson repeats some of lesson one about creation and brings in angels and men. Well what about this “big bang theory” we hear about. Well science is continually evolving new and more intense theories. Scientific technique involves trial and
error, calculation and re-calculation. Generation after generation discards the conclusions of their predecessors until finally a
new stratum is laid upon the slowly accumulating pyramid of unquestioned fact.
The Bible has remained unchanged and undeviating for thousands of years. Its writers never contradict one another, and all of
its contents have an unwavering unanimity upon every subject introduced into its pages. So when men of science agree unanimously
upon any correlated body of facts and do not change their conclusions or agreements concerning these facts for several thousand years I think we should then compare against the Bible and possibly accept their conclusions instead.
Anyway back to the big bang. Basically this states about 15 billion years ago a tremendous explosion started the expansion of the universe.
This explosion is known as the Big Bang. At the point of this event all of the matter and energy of space was contained at one point. What existed prior to this event is completely unknown and is a matter of pure speculation. This occurrence was
not a conventional explosion but rather an event filling all of space with all of the particles of the embryonic universe rushing away from each other. The Big Bang actually consisted of an explosion of space within itself unlike an explosion of a bomb were
fragments are thrown outward. The galaxies were not all clumped together, but rather the Big Bang lay the foundations for the
universe.
Now no matter how many of these theories come about we must always ask and where did the “matter and energy of space contained in one point” come from? The scientific answer seems to be a matter of speculation, but we know because the bible tells us so!
God created heaven and earth, and all things from nothing by a single act of His all-powerful will.
No matter how many discussions are had we will always come back to this one and only possible solution.
November 20, 2011
So let’s get right into it and review the catechism. If we open to the first lesson we find:
Lesson 1
ON THE END OF MAN
God made the world. God, who is the Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things.
Notice how this adds onto the first statement. The maker of everything out of nothing God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.
The big three!
Man is a creature composed of body and soul, and made to the image and likeness of God.
To attain heaven we must worship God by faith, hope and charity that is we must believe in Him, Hope in Him and love Him with our
heart and soul. We know what to believe thru the gospels and the teaching of the church.
The basic truths of our belief are found in the Apostles Creed.
Again, a synopsis of the truths of our faith:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus
Christ, His only Son, our Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son,
our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, from of the Virgin Mary, suffered
under Pontius Pilate, was crucified; dies, and was buried.
He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at
the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge
the living and the dead. I believe
in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
Take some time and read each section of the creed and notice how
full of information they are. For example “I believe in God the Father Almighty. I believe in God, a
profession of faith. The Father Almighty, recognition of God as a supreme being.
Continue on and meditate on each section.
Lesson 2 discusses God and His perfections.
God is an infinitely perfect spirit. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He will always be. He
is everywhere and knows everything, even our most secret thoughts. God is all just, all holy and all merciful.
Always remember he gave us everything we need, but we have
chosen to believe we know better and demand more for ourselves.
We lose sight of the big three and want things for our own pleasure. The devil is always looking to show us
what is good for our physical self so we turn from the spiritual aspect, the big three.
Remember the angel of darkness is ever hovering about seeking
the ruin of our souls. Let us guard against that by prayer and everlasting belief in our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Started November 2011
Hello, my name is Joel Chanitz, I started this website because I believe I have been given a mission to spread the word of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I have no special credentials except
a very strong voice in my mind directing me to perform His work. I do believe
that at an early age He sent me a call to join the priesthood. But at the time
I had many distractions, and many things that a teenage youth has interest in
besides being a priest. So all thru my life I've been given many gifts, a
wonderful family a good and a reasonably comfortable life. But I have always
had the feeling that He wanted me to do something above and beyond whatever I
was doing for my religion. So I'm here to give a brief discussion about what I
believe He expects me to do. And I hope you'll find some measure of inspiration
from this site.
So you may ask, what makes you so special that He would ask you to do this work. I have absolutely no idea but I believe that since I started this site and you are here, therefore there must be some reason He has chosen me.
It appears as if my mission is to reinvigorate catechism. I know many of you remember the
Baltimore catechism. Remember the little dots on your soul for venial sins and
the whole thing being blackened by a mortal sin? I don't know if many of you
realize how difficult a book that was to write? Each sentence in the book takes
a piece of our faith and summarizes it into one or two sentences. So concise
is this information, that almost every word in the sentence is important. For
example a simple question. Why did God make me? And the answer, God made me
to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him. That is a beautiful statement and
our whole faith is driven in that one sentence; everything else we've put around
that is man-made. All God expected was for us to follow those three simple
steps.
But alas man was given a free will
because God did not want a pre-destined following of his commands but a free
will following. Even before Adam and Eve the angels in heaven could not follow
these simple requests and we had Michael the archangel having to drive Lucifer
and his followers out of heaven since Lucifer thought he was superior to God.
So all thru history angels and men have mostly ignored or violated this simple
heavenly request.
Man’s personal pursuits get in the way of the three simple steps. The desire for power, riches and pleasure all interfere and become more important than following the three steps. It
seems that only when we are faced with life threatening situations that God
becomes important again. If you think about the gospels Jesus told us in Matthew
26 to 34 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat
[or drink], or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food
and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow
or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they? Can any of you by worrying add a single
moment to your life-span?* Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from
the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not
even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. If God so
clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven
tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to
drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your
heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom (of
God) and his righteousness,* and all these things will be given you besides.
Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for
a day is its own evil.”
So if we concentrate on the three steps we can find our way to the Lord.
December 30, 2012 - But I say to you who hear: Love your
enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray
for those who spitefully use you. Luke 6:27-28
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 4 Paragraph 1 Section III –
Jesus an Israel’s Faith in the One God and Savior
If the Law and the Jerusalem Temple could
be occasions of opposition to Jesus that Israel's religious authorities,
his role and redemption of sins, the divine work par excellence, was the
true stumbling-block for them.
Jesus scandalized the Pharisees by eating with tax
collectors and sinners as familiarly as with themselves. Against those
among them "who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised
others," Jesus affirms: "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners
to repentance." He went further by proclaiming before the Pharisees that,
since sin is universal, those who pretend not to need salvation are blind
to themselves.
Jesus gave scandal above all when he identified his
merciful conduct toward sinners with God's own attitude toward them. He
went so far as to hint by sharing the table of sinners he was admitting
them to the messianic banquet. But it was most especially by forgiving sins
that Jesus placed the
religious authorities of Israel on the horns of a
dilemma. Were they not entitled to demand in consternation,
"Who can forgive sins but God alone?" By forgiving sins Jesus either
is blaspheming as a man who made himself
God’s equal or is speaking the truth, and his
person really does make present and reveal God's name.
Only divine identity of Jesus' person can justify so
absolute a claim as "He who is not with me is against me"; and his saying
that there was in him "something greater than Jonah,...," something
"greater than the Temple"; his reminder that David had called the Messiah
his Lord, and his affirmations,
"Before Abraham was, I AM"; and even "I and the Father are one."
Jesus asked the religious authorities of Jerusalem to believe in
him because of the Father's works which he accomplished. But such an act of
faith must go through a mysterious death to self, for a new "birth from above"
under the influence of divine grace. Such a demand for conversion in the
face of so surprising a fulfillment of the promises allows one to
understand the Sanhedrin's tragic misunderstanding of Jesus: they judged
that he deserved the death sentence as a blasphemer. The members of the
Sanhedrin were thus acting at
the same time out of "ignorance" and the
"hardness" of their
"unbelief."
December 23, 2012 - For God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son,
that whoever believes
in Him shall not perish but shall have eternal life.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it
through Him.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 4 Paragraph 1
Section I –
In the eyes of many in Israel, Jesus seems to be acting against
essential institutions of the Chosen
People:
-- -- submission to the whole of the Law in its written
commandments and, for Pharisees, in the interpretation of oral
tradition;
-- -- the centrality of the Temple at Jerusalem as the holy
place where God's presence dwells in a special
way;
--
-- faith in the one God whose glory no man can share.
Jesus
and the Law
At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus issued a
solemn warning in which he presented God's law, given on Sinai during the first
covenant, in light of the grace of the new
covenant:
Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets: I
have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven
and
earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass
from the
law, until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of
the least of
these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be
called least in
the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches
them will be called
great in the kingdom of
having.
Jesus, Israel's Messiah and therefore the greatest in
the
kingdom of heaven, was to fulfill the Law by keeping it in its
all-embracing
detail -- -- according to his own words, down to "the least of
these
commandments." He is in fact the only one who could keep it perfectly.
On their
own admission the Jews were never able to observe the Law in its
entirety
without violating the least of its precepts. This is why every year
on the day
of atonement that children of Israel ask God's forgiveness for
their
transgressions of the Law. The Law indeed makes up one inseparable
whole, and
St. James recalls, "Whoever keeps the whole Law but fails in one
point had
become guilty of all of it"
This principle of integral observance of the Law not only in
letter but in spirit was dear to the Pharisees. By giving Israel this
principle
they had led many Jews of Jesus' time to extreme religious zeal.
This zeal were
it not to lapse into "hypocritical" casuistry, could only
prepare the People for
the unprecedented intervention of God through the
perfect fulfillment of the Law
by the only Righteous One in place of all
sinners.
The perfect fulfillment of the Law could be the work of none
but
the divine legislature, born subject to the Law in the person of the
Son. In
Jesus, the Law no longer appears engraved on tables of stone but
"upon the
heart" of the Servant who becomes "a covenant to the people,"
because he will
"faithfully bring forth justice." Jesus fulfills the Law to
the point of taking
upon himself "the curse of the Law" incurred by those
who do not "abide by the
things written in the book of the Law, and do
them," for his death took place to
redeem them "from the transgressions
under the first covenant."
The Jewish people and their spiritual leaders viewed Jesus as a
rabbi. He often argued within the framework of rabbinical interpretation of
the
Law. Yet Jesus could not help but offend the teachers of the law, for
he was not content to propose his
interpretation alongside theirs but
taught the people "as one who had authority and not as their scribes."
In
Jesus, the same Word of God, that had resounded on Mount
Sinai to give the
written Law to Moses, made itself heard anew on the Mount of
the
Beatitudes. Jesus did not abolish the Law but fulfilled it by giving its
ultimate interpretation in a divine way: "You have heard that it was said to the
men of old... But I say to you..." With this same divine authority, he
disavowed
certain human traditions of the Pharisees that were "making void
the word of
God."
Going even further, Jesus perfects the dietary law, so
important
in Jewish daily life, by revealing its pedagogical meaning
through a divine
interpretation: "Whatever goes into a man from outside
cannot defile him...
(Thus he declared all foods clean.). What comes out of
a man is what defiles a
man. For from within, out of the heart of man come
evil thoughts..."
in presenting with divine authority the definitive
interpretation of the
Law, Jesus found himself confronted by certain
teachers of the Law who did not
accept his interpretation of the Law,
guaranteed though it was by the divine
signs that accompanied it. This was
the case especially with the sabbath laws,
for he recalls often with
rabbinical arguments, that the sabbath rest is not
violated by serving God
and neighbor, but his own healings
did.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 4 Paragraph 1 Section II –
Jesus and the Temple
Like the prophets before him Jesus expressed
the deepest respect
for the Temple in Jerusalem. It was in the Temple that
Joseph and Mary presented
him 40 days after his birth. At the age of 12 he
decided to remain in the Temple
to remind his parents that he must be about
his Father's business. He went there
each year during his hidden life at
least for Passover. His public ministry
itself was patterned by his
pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the great Jewish
feasts.
Jesus went up to the Temple as the privileged place of
encounter
with God. For him, the Temple was the dwelling place of his
Father, a house of
prayer, and he was angered that it's outer court had
become a place of commerce.
He drove merchants out of it because of jealous
love for his Father: "You shall
not make my Father's house a house of
trade. His disciples remembered that it
was written, ‘Zeal for your house
will consume me.’
After his Resurrection his apostles retained their
reverence for the Temple.
On the threshold of his Passion Jesus announced the coming
destruction of this splendid building, of which there would not remain "one
stone upon another." By doing so, he announced a sign of the last days, which
were to begin with his own Passover. But this prophecy would be distorted
in its
telling by false witnesses during his interrogation at the high
priest’s house
and would be thrown back at him as an insult when he was
nailed to the cross.
Far from having been hostile to the Temple, where he gave the
essential part of his teaching, Jesus was willing to pay the
temple-tax,
associating with him Peter, whom he had just made the foundation
of his future
Church. He even identified himself with the Temple by
presenting himself as
God's definitive dwelling place among men. Therefore
his being put to bodily
death presaged the destruction of the Temple, which
would manifest the dawning
of a new age in the history of salvation: "The
hour is coming when neither on
this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you
worship the
Father."
December 16, 2012 But you
will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the
earth. Acts 1:8
A foretaste of the Kingdom: the
Transfiguration
From the day Peter confessed that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son
of the living God, the Master "began to show his
disciples that he must go to
Jerusalem and suffer many things... and be
killed, and on the third day be
raised." Peter scorns this prediction, nor
do the others understand it any
better than he. In this context the
mysterious episode of Jesus’Transfiguration
takes place on a high mountain,
before three witnesses chosen by himself: Peter,
James, and John. Jesus’
face and clothes become dazzling with light, and Moses
and Elijah appear,
speaking "of his departure, which he was to accomplish at
Jerusalem." A
cloud covers him and a voice from heaven says: "This is my Son, my
Chosen;
listen to him!"
For a moment Jesus discloses his divine glory,
confirming
Peter's confession. He also reveals that he will have to go by the
way of the
cross at Jerusalem in order to "enter into his glory." Moses and
Elijah had
seen God's glory on the mountain; the Law and the Prophets had
announced the
Messiah's sufferings. Christ’s Passion is the will of the
Father: the Son acts
as God's servant; the cloud indicates the presence of
the Holy Spirit. "The
whole Trinity appeared: the Father in the voice; the
Son in the man; the Spirit
in the shining cloud."
You were transfigured
on the mountain, and your disciples, as
much as they were capable of it,
beheld your glory, O Christ our God, so that
when they should see you
crucified they would understand that your Passion was
voluntary, and
proclaim to the world that you truly are the splendor of the
father.
On
the threshold of the public life: the baptism; on the
threshold of the
Passover: the Transfiguration. Jesus’ baptism proclaimed "the
mystery of
the first regeneration," namely, our Baptism; the Transfiguration "is
the
sacrament of the second regeneration": our own Resurrection. From now on we
share in the Lord's Resurrection through the Spirit who acts in the sacraments
of the Body of Christ. The Transfiguration gives us a foretaste of Christ's
glorious coming, when he "will change our holy body to be like his glorious
body." But it also recalls that "it is through many persecutions that we
must
enter the kingdom of God":
Peter did not yet understand this when
he wanted to remain with
Christ on the mountain. It has been reserved for
you, Peter, but for after
death. For now, Jesus says: "Go down to toil on
earth, to serve on earth, to be
scorned and crucified on earth. Life goes
down to be killed; Bread goes down to
suffer hunger; the Way he goes down
to be exhausted on his journey; the Spring
goes down to suffer thirst; and
you refuse to suffer?"
Jesus’ ascent to Jerusalem
"When
the days drew near for him to be taken up [Jesus] set his
face to go to
Jerusalem." By this decision he indicated that he was going up to
Jerusalem
prepared to die there. Three times he had announced his Passion and
Resurrection; now, heading toward Jerusalem, Jesus says: "It cannot be that a
prophet should perish away from Jerusalem."
Jesus recalls death in
Jerusalem. Nevertheless he persists in calling Jerusalem to gather
around
him: "How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen
gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" When Jerusalem comes into
view he weeps over her and expresses once again his heart's desire: "Would
that
even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are
hidden from
your eyes."
Jesus’ messianic entrance into
Jerusalem
How will Jerusalem welcome her Messiah? Although Jesus had
always refused popular attempts to make him king, he chooses the time and
prepare his details for his messianic entry into the city of "his
father
David." Acclaimed as son of David, as the one who brings salvation
(Hosanna
means "Save!" or "Give salvation!"), the "King of glory" enters
his city "riding
on an ass."
Jesus conquers the Daughter of Zion, a
figure of his Church,
neither by ruse nor by violence, but by the humility
that bears witness to the
truth. And so the subjects of his kingdom on that
day are children and God's
poor, who acclaim him as had the angels when
they announced him to the
shepherds. Their acclamation, "Blessed be he who
comes in the name of the
Lord," is taken up by the Church in the "Sanctus" of
the Eucharistic liturgy
and introduces the memorial of the Lord's
Passover.
Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem manifested the coming of the kingdom
that the King -- Messiah was going to accomplish by the Passover of his
Death
and Resurrection. It is with the celebration of that entry on Palm
Sunday that
the Church's liturgy solemnly opens holy
week
December 9, 2012But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;
and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8
The signs of the Kingdom
of God
Jesus accompanies his words with many "mighty works and wonders
and signs," which manifest that the kingdom is present in him and attest
that he
was the promised Messiah.
The signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father has sent him.
They invite belief in him. To those who turn to him in faith, he grants
what
they ask. So miracles strengthen faith in the One who does his
Father's works;
they bear witness that he is the Son of God. But his
miracles can only be
occasions for "offense"; they are not intended to
satisfy people's curiosity or
desire for magic. Despite his evident
miracles some people reject Jesus; he is
even accused of acting by the
power of demBy freeing some individuals from the earthly evils of hunger,
injustice, illness, and death, Jesus performed messianic signs.
Nevertheless he
did not come to abolish all evils here below, but to free
men from the greatest
slavery, sin, which thwarts them in their vocation as
God's sons and causes all
forms of human
bondage.
The coming of God's kingdom means the defeat of Satan's: "If it
is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has
come
upon you." Jesus’ exorcisms free some individuals from the domination
of demons.
They anticipate Jesus’ great victory over "the ruler of this
world." The kingdom
of God will be definitively established through
Christ's cross: "God reigns from
the wood."
“The keys
of the kingdom”
From the beginning of his public life Jesus chose certain man,
12 in number, to be with him and to participate in his mission. He gives
the 12
a share in his authority and "sent them out to preach the kingdom of
God and to
heal." They remain associated forever with Christ's kingdom, for
through them he
directs the Church:
As my Father appointed a kingdom for me, so do I appoint for
you
that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on
thrones judging
the 12 tribes of Israel.
Simon Peter holds the first place in the
college of the 12;
Jesus entrusted a unique mission to him. Through a
revelation from the Father,
Peter had confessed: "You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God." Our Lord
then declared to him: "You are Peter, and
on his rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of Hades will not prevail
against it." Christ, the "living stone,"
thus assures his Church, built on
Peter, of victory over the powers death.
Because of the faith he confessed
Peter will remain the unshakable rock of the
Church. His mission will be to
keep this faith from every lapse and to
strengthen his brothers in
it.
Jesus
entrusted a specific authority to Peter: "I will give you
the keys of the
kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound
in heaven,
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." The
"power of
the keys" designates authority to govern the house of God, which is
the
Church. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, confirmed this mandate after his
Resurrection: "Feed my sheep." The power to "bind and loose" connotes the
authority to absolve sins, to pronounce doctrinal judgments, and to make
disciplinary decisions in the Church. Jesus entrusted this authority to the
Church throgh the ministry of the apostles and in particular through the
ministry of Peter, the only one to whom he specifically entrusted the keys of
the
kingdom.
December 2, 2012 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;
and you will be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth. Acts
1:8
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3
Paragraph 3 Section III – The Mysteries of Jesus’ Public
Life
Jesus’ public life begins with his baptism by John in
the Jordan. John preaches "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
A crowd of sinners -- -- tax collectors and soldiers, Pharisees and Sadducees,
and
prostitutes -- -- come to be baptized by him. "Then Jesus appears." The
Baptist
hesitates, but Jesus insists and receives baptism. Then the Holy
Spirit, in the
form of a dovel, comes upon Jesus and a voice from heaven
proclaims, "This is my
beloved Son." This is the manifestation ("Epiphany")
of Jesus as Messiah of
Israel and Son of God.
The baptism of Jesus is on
his part the acceptance and
inauguration of his mission as God’s suffering
servant. He allows himself to be
numbered among sinners; he is already "the
Lamb of God, who takes away the sin
of the world." Already he is
anticipating the "baptism" of his bloody death.
Already he is coming to
"fulfill all righteousness," that is, he is submitting
himself entirely to
his Father's will: out of love he consents to this baptism
of death for the
remission of our sins. The Father's voice responds to the Son’s
acceptance,
proclaiming his entire delight in his Son. The Spirit whom Jesus
possessed
in fullness from his conception comes to "rest on him." Jesus will be
the
source of the Spirit for all mankind. At his baptism "the heavens were
opened" -- -- the heavens that Adam’s sin had closed -- -- and the waters were
sanctified by the descent of Jesus and the Spirit, a prelude to the new
creation.
Through Baptism the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to
Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates his death and resurrection. The
Christian must enter into this mystery of humble self-abasement and
repentance,
go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be
reborn of water
and the Spirit so as to become the Father's beloved son in
the Son and "walk in
the newness of life”.
Let us be buried with Christ
by baptism to rise with him; let us
go down with him to be raised with him;
and let us rise with him to be glorified
with him.
Everything that
happened to Christ lets us know that, after the
bath of water, the Holy
Spirit swoops down upon us from high heaven and that,
adopted by the
Father's voice, we become sons of God.
Jesus’
temptations
The Gospels speak of a time of solitude for Jesus in the desert
immediately after his baptism by John. Driven by the Spirit into the
desert,
Jesus remains there for 40 days without eating; he lives among wild
beasts, and
angels minister to him. At the end of this time Satan tempts
him three times,
seeking to compromise his filial attitude toward God.
Jesus rebuffs these
attacks, which recapitulate the temptations of Adams in
Paradise and of Israel
in the desert and the devil leaves him "until an
opportune time."
The evangelists indicate the salvific meaning of this
mysterious
event: Jesus is the new Adam who remained faithful just where
the first ADAM had
given in to temptation. Jesus fulfills Israel's vocation
perfectly: in contrast
to those who had once provoked God during 40 years
IN the desert, Christ reveals
himself as God's servant, totally obedient to
the divine will. In this, Jesus is
the devil’s conqueror: he "binds the
strong man" to take back his plunder.
Jesus’ victory over the tempter in
the desert anticipates victory at the
Passion, the supreme act of obedience
to his filial love for the Father.
Jesus’ temptation reveals the way in which
the Son of God is
Messiah, contrary to the way Satan proposes to him and
the way men wish to
attribute to him. This is why Christ vanquished the
Tempter for us: "For we
have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize
with our weaknesses, but one
who in every respect has been tested as we
are, yet without sinning.” By the
solemn 40 days of Lent church unites
herself each year to the mystery of Jesus
in the
desert.
“The Kingdom of God is at hand”
"Now after John
was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching
the gospel of God, and
saying: ‘the time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is
at hand: repent,
and believe in the gospel.’ “ "To carry out the will of the Father
Christ
inaugurated the kingdom of heaven on earth." Now the Father's will is
"to
raise up men to share in his own divine life." He does this by gathering men
around his Son Jesus Christ. This gathering is the Church, "on earth the
seed
and beginning of that kingdom."
Christ stands at the heart of this
gathering of men into the
"family of God." By his word, through signs that
manifest the reign of God, and
by sending out his disciples, Jesus calls
all people to come together around
him. But above all in the great Paschal
mystery -- -- his death on the cross and
his Resurrection -- -- he would
accomplish the coming of his kingdom. "And I,
when I am lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men to myself." Into this
union with Christ all men
are called.
The proclamation of the Kingdom of
God
Everyone is called to enter the kingdom. First announced to the
children of Israel, this messianic kingdom is intended to accept men of all
nations. To enter it, one must first accept Jesus’ word:
The word of the Lord
is compared to a seed which is sown in a
field; those who hear it with
faith and are numbered among the little flock of
Christ truly receive the
kingdom. Then, by its own power, the seed sprouts and
grows until the
harvest.
The kingdom belongs to the poor and lowly, which means those who
have accepted it with humble hearts. Jesus is sent to "preach good news to
the
poor"; he declare them blessed, for "theirs is the kingdom of heaven."
To them
-- -- the "little ones" -- -- the Father is pleased to reveal what
remains
hidden from the wise and learned. Jesus shares the life of the
poor, from the
cradle to the cross; he experiences hunger, thirst, and
privation. Jesus
identifies himself with the poor of every kind and makes
active love towards
them the condition for entering his kingdom.
Jesus
invites sinners to the table of the kingdom: "I came not
to call the
righteous, but sinners." He invites them to that conversion without
which
one cannot enter the kingdom, but shows them in word and deed his Father's
boundless mercy for them and the vast "joy in heaven over one sinner who
repents." The supreme proof of his love will be the sacrifice of his own life
"for the forgiveness of sins."
Jesus’ invitation to enter his kingdom
comes in the form of
parables, a characteristic feature of his teaching.
Through his parables he
invites people to the feast of the kingdom, but he
also asks for a radical
choice: to gain the kingdom, one must give
everything. Words are not enough;
deeds are required. The parables are like
mirrors for man: Will he be hard soil
or good earth for the word? What use
has he made of the talents he has
received? Jesus and the presence of the
kingdom in this world are secretly at
the heart of the parables. One must
enter the kingdom, that is, become a
disciple of Christ, in order to "know
the secrets of the kingdom of heaven."
For those who stay "outside,"
everything remains enigmatic.
November
25, 2012But seek
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added to you. Matthew
6:33
I
had forgotten that we have become a group who wants to get information quickly
or in small packets of data. This weeks update will be the last long lesson. I
shall endeavor to deliver smaller packets of God's
word.
Section 2 Chapter 2
Article 3 Paragraph 3 Section II –
The Mysteries of Jesus’ Infancy and Hidden Life
The coming of God's Son to earth is an event of such
immensity that God willed to
prepare for it over centuries. He makes
everything converge on Christ: all the
rituals and sacrifices, figures and
symbols of the "First Covenant." He
announces him through the mouth of the
prophets who succeeded one another in
Israel. Moreover, he awakens in the
hearts of the pagans a dim expectation of
this coming.
St. John the Baptist is the
Lord's immediate precursor or forerunner, sent to
prepare his way. "Prophet
of the Most High," John surpasses all the prophets, of
whom he is the last.
He inaugurates the Gospel, already from his mother's womb
welcomes the
coming of Christ, and rejoices in being "the friend of the
bridegroom,"
whom he points out as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of
the
world." Going before Jesus "in the spirit and power of Elijah," John bears
witness to Christ in his preaching, by his Baptism of conversion, and through
his martyrdom.
When the
Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this
ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for
the Savior's first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his
second
coming. By celebrating the precursor's birth and martyrdom, the
Church unites
herself to this desire: "he must increase, but I must
decrease."
Jesus was born in a
humble stable, into a poor family. Simple shepherds were the first
witnesses to this event. In this poverty heaven’s glory was made manifest. The
church never tires of singing the glory of this night:
The Virgin today
brings into the world the Eternal
And the earth offers a cave to the
Inaccessible.
The Angels and shepherds praise him
And the magi advance
with the star,
For you are born for us,
Little Child, God
eternal!
To become a child in
relation to God is the condition for entering the kingdom. For
this, we
must humble ourselves and become little. Even more: to become “children
of
God" we must be "born from above" or "born of God." Only when Christ is
formed in us will the mystery of Christmas be fulfilled in us. Christmas is the
mystery of this "marvelous exchange":
Oh
marvelous exchange! Man's Creator has become man, born of the Virgin. We have
been made sharers in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself4 to share
our humanity.
Jesus’
circumcision, on the eighth day after his birth, is a sign of his incorporation
into Abraham's descendents, into the people of the covenant. It is the sign
of
his submission to the law and his deputation to Israel's worship, in
which he
will participate throughout his life. This sign prefigures that
"circumcision of
Christ" which is baptism.
The
Epiphany is the manifestation of Jesus as Messiah of Israel, Son of God and
Savior of the world. The great feast of Epiphany celebrates the adoration of
Jesus by the wise men (Magi) from the East, together with his baptism in
the
Jordan and the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee. In the magi,
representatives of
the neighboring pagan religions, the Gospel sees the
first fruits of the
nations, who welcome the good news of salvation through
the incarnation. The
Magi’s coming to Jerusalem in order to pay homage to
the King of the Jews shows
that they seek in Israel, in the messianic light
of the Star of David, the one
who will be king of the nations. Their coming
means that pagans can discover
Jesus and worship him as Son of God and
Savior of the world only by turning
toward the Jews and receiving from them
the messianic promise as contained in
the Old Testament. The Epiphany shows
that "the full number of the nations" now
takes its "place in the family of
the patriarchs," and acquires Israelitica
dignitas (are made "worthy of the
heritage of Israel").
The
presentation of Jesus in the temple shows him to be the firstborn Son who
belongs to the Lord.
With
Simeon and Anna, all Israel awaits its encounter with Savior -- -- the name
given to this event in the Byzantine tradition. Jesus is recognized as the long
expected Messiah, the "light to the nations" and the "glory of Israel," but
also
"a sign that it is spoken against." The sword of sorrow predicted for
Mary
announces Christ’s perfect and unique oblation on the cross that will
impart
the salvation God had "prepared in the presence of all
peoples."
During the greater
part of his life Jesus shared the condition of the vast majority of
human
beings: a daily life spent without evident greatness, a life of manual
labor. His religious life was that of a Jew obedient to the law of God, a life
in the community. From this whole period it is revealed to us that Jesus
was
"obedient" to his parents and that he "increased in wisdom and stature,
and in
favor with God and men."
Jesus’ obedience to his mother and legal father fulfills
the fourth commandment
perfectly and was the temporal image of his filial
obedience to his Father in
heaven. The everyday obedience of Jesus to
Joseph and Mary both announced and
anticipated the obedience of Holy
Thursday: "Not my will...."
The obedience of Christ in the daily routine
of his hidden life was
already inaugurating his work of restoring what the
disobedience of Adam had
destroyed.
The
hidden life at Nazareth allows everyone to enter into fellowship with Jesus by
the most ordinary events of daily life:
The
home of Nazareth is the school where we begin to understand the life of Jesus --
-- the school of the Gospel. First, then, a lesson of silence. May esteem
for
silence, that admirable and indispensable condition of mind, revive in
us... A
lesson on family life. May Nazareth teach us what family life is,
it's communion of
love, it's austere and simple beauty, and its sacred and
inviolable character...
A lesson of work. Nazareth, home of the
"Carpenter's Son," in you I would choose
to understand and proclaim the
severe and redeeming law of human work... To
conclude, I want to greet all
the workers of the world, holding up to them their
great pattern, their
brother who is God.
The finding
of Jesus in the Temple is the only event that breaks the silence of the
Gospels about the hidden years of Jesus. Here Jesus lets us catch a glimpse of
the mystery of his total consecration to a mission that flows from his
divine
sonship: "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's work?"
Mary and
Joseph did not understand these words, but they accepted them in
faith. Mary
"kept all these things in her heart" during the years Jesus
remained hidden in
the silence of an ordinary
life.
November 18, 2012 Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you . Matthew
7:7
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 3 Section I
– Christ’s Whole Life is
Mystery
Many things about Jesus of interest to human curiosity do not figure in
the Gospels.
Almost nothing is said about his hidden life at Nazareth, and
even a great part
of his public life is not recounted. What is written in
the Gospels was set down
there "so that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and
that believing you may have life in his
name."
The
Gospels were written by men who were among the first to have faith and wanted to
share it with others. Having known in faith who Jesus is, they could see
and
make others see the traces of his mystery in all his earthly life. From
the
swaddling clothes of his birth to the vinegar of his Passion and the
shroud of
his Resurrection, everything in Jesus’ life was a sign of his
mystery. His
deeds, miracles, and words all revealed that "in him the whole
fullness of deity
dwells bodily." His humanity appeared as "sacrament,"
that is, the sign and
instrument, of his divinity and of the salvation he
brings: what was visible in
his earthly life leads to the invisible mystery
of his divine sonship and
redemptive
mission.
Christ's whole earthly life -- his words and deeds, his
silences and sufferings, indeed
his manner of being and speaking -- is
Revelation of the Father. Jesus can say:
"Whoever has seen me has seen the
Father," and the Father can say: "This is my
Son, my Chosen; listen to
him!" Because our Lord became man in order to do his
Father's will, even
the least characteristics of his mysteries manifest "God is
love... among
us."
Christ’s whole life is a mystery of redemption.
Redemption comes to us above all through
the blood of his cross, but this
mystery is at work throughout Christ's entire life:
-- already in his Incarnation through which by becoming
poor he enriches us with
his poverty;
-- in his hidden life which by his
submission atones for our
disobedience;
-- in his word which purifies
its hearers;
-- in his healings and exorcisms by which "he took our
infirmities and bore our
diseases";
-- end in his Resurrection by
which he justifies us.
Christ's
whole life is a mystery of recapitulation. All Jesus did, said, and suffered
head for its game restoring fallen man to his original
vocation:
When Christ became incarnate and was made man, he
recapitulated in himself the long
history of mankind and procured for us a
"shortcut" to salvation, so that what
we had lost in Adam that is, being in
the image and likeness of God, we might
recover in Christ Jesus. For this
reason Christ experienced all the stages of
life, thereby giving communion
with God to all men.
All
Christ’s riches "are for every individual and are everybody's property." Christ
did not live his life for himself but for us, from his Incarnation "for us
men
and for our salvation" to his death "for our sins" and Resurrection
"for our
justification." He is still "our advocate with the Father," who
"always lives
to make intercession" for us. He remains ever "in the
presence of God on our
behalf, bringing before him all that he lived and
suffered for us."
In all of his life Jesus presents himself as our model.
He is "the perfect Man,"
who invites us to become his disciples and follow
him. In humbling himself, he
has given us an example to imitate, through
his prayer he draws us to pray, and
by his poverty he calls us to accept
freely privation and persecutions that may
come our
way.
Christ enables us to live in him all that he himself
lived, and he lives it in us. "By
his Incarnation, he, the Son of God, has
in a certain way united himself with
each man." We are called only to
become one with him, for he enables us as the
members of his Body to share
in what he lived for us in his flesh as our
model:
We
must continue to accomplish in ourselves the stages of Jesus' life and his
mysteries and often to beg him to perfect and realize them in us and in his
whole Church... For it is the plan of the Son of God to make us and the whole
church partake in his mysteries and to extend them to and continue them in
us
and in his whole Church. This is his plan for fulfilling his mysteries
in us.
November
11, 2012 For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone
who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John
3:16
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 2 Section I –
Conceived by the Power of the Holy Spirit
The Annunciation to Mary inaugurates "the fulness of
time," the time of the
fulfillment of God's promises and preparations. Mary
was invited to conceive him
in whom the "whole fullness of deity" would
dwell "bodily." The divine response
to her question, "How can this be,
since I know not man?" was given by the power
of the Spirit: "The Holy
Spirit will come upon you."
The mission of the Holy Spirit is always conjoined and
ordered to that of the Son.
The Holy Spirit, "the Lord, the giver of Life,"
is sent to sanctify the womb of
the Virgin Mary and divinely fecundate it,,
causing her to conceive the eternal
Son of the Father in a humanity drawn
from her own.
The Father's only Son, conceived as man in the womb of
the Virgin Mary, is "Christ,"
that is to say, anointed by the Holy Spirit,
from the beginning of this human
existence, through the manifestation of
this fact takes place only
progressively: to the shepherds, to the Magi, to
John the Baptist, to the
disciples. Thus the life of Jesus Christ will make
manifest "how God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with
power."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 2 Section II
– Born of the Virgin
Mary
What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it
believes about
Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its
faith in Christ.
Mary’s
predestination
"God sent forth his Son," but to prepare a body for him,
he wanted the free
cooperation of a creature. For this, from all eternity
God chose for the mother
of his son a daughter of Israel, a young Jewish
woman of Nazareth in Galilee, "a
virgin betrothed to a man whose name was
Joseph, of the house of David; and the
virgin’s name was
Mary":
The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should
be preceded by assent on
the part of the predestined mother, so that just
as a woman had a share in the
coming of death, so also should a woman
contribute to the coming of life.
Throughout the Old Covenant the mission of many holy women
prepared for that of Mary. At
the very beginning there was Eve; despite her
disobedience, she receives the
promise of a posterity that will be
victorious over the evil one, as well as the
promise that she will be the
mother of all the living. By virtue of this
promise, Sarah conceived a son
in spite of her old age. Against all human
expectation God chooses those
who were considered powerless and weak to show
forth his faithfulness to
his promises: Hannah, the mother of Samuel; Deborah;
Ruth; Judith and
Esther; and many other women. Mary "stands out among the poor
and humble of
the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation from
him. After a
long period of waiting the times are fulfilled in her, the exulted
Daughter
of Zion, and a new plan of salvation is
established."
The Immaculate Conception
To become the mother of the Savior, Mary "was enriched
by God with gifts
appropriate to such a rule." The angel Gabriel at the
moment of the Annunciation
salutes her as "full of grace." In fact, in
order for Mary to be able to give
the free assent of her faith to the
announcement of her vocation, it was
necessary that she be wholly borne by
God’s grace
Through the centuries the Church has become even more
aware that Mary, "full of grace"
through God, was redeemed from the moment of
her conception. That is what the
dogma of the Immaculate Conception
confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854:
The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from
the first moment of her conception, by a
singular grace and privilege of
Almighty God and by virtue of the merits of
Jesus Christ, savior of the
human race, preserved immune from all stain of
original
sin.
The
"splendor of an entirely unique holiness" by which Mary is "enriched from
the
first instant of her conception" comes wholly from Christ: she is
"redeemed, in
a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son."
The Father blessed
Mary more than any other created person "in Christ with
every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places" and chose her "in Christ
before the foundation of the
world, to be holy and blameless before him in
love."
The fathers of the Eastern tradition called the mother
of God "the All-Holy"
(Panagia) and celebrate her as "free from any stain
of sin, as though fashioned
by the Holy Spirit and formed is a new
creature." By the grace of God Mary
remained free of every personal sin her
whole life long.
“Let it be done to me according to your
word……”
At the announcement that she would give birth to " to
the Son of the Most High"
without knowing man, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, Mary responded with the
obedience of faith, certain that "with God
nothing will be impossible": "Behold
I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it
be done to me according to your word."
Thus, giving her consent to God's
word, Mary becomes the mother of Jesus.
Espousing the divine will for
salvation wholeheartedly, without a single sin to
restrain her, she gave
herself entirely to the person and to the work of her
Son; she did so in
order to serve the mystery of redemption with him and
dependent on him, by
God’s grace:
As St. Irenaeus says, "Being obedient she became the
cause of salvation for herself
and for the whole human race." Hence a few
of the early Fathers gladly assert...
"The knot of Eve’s disobedience was
untied by Mary's obedience: what the virgin
Eve bound through her
disbelief, very loosened by her faith." Comparing her with
Eve, they call
Mary "the Mother of the living" and frequently claim: "Death
through Eve,
life through Mary."
Mary’s divine
motherhood
Called in the Gospels "the mother of Jesus," Mary is
acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the
prompting of the Spirit and even before birth
of her son, as "the mother of my
Lord." In fact, the One she conceived as
man by the Holy Spirit, who truly
became her Son according to the flesh,
was none other than the Father’s eternal
Son, the second person of the holy
Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary
is truly "Mother of God"
(Theo-tokos).
Mary’s
virginity
From the first formulations of her faith, the Church has
confessed that Jesus was
conceived solely by the power of the Holy Spirit
in the womb of the Virgin Mary,
affirming also the corporeal aspect of this
event: Jesus was conceived "by the
Holy Spirit without human seed." The
Fathers see in the virginal conception the sign that it truly was the Son who
came in a humanity like our own.
Thus St. Ignatius of Antioch at the
beginning of the second century says:
You are firmly convinced about our Lord, who is truly of the
race of David according
to the flesh, Son of God according to the will and
power of God, truly born of a
virgin,... he was truly nailed to a tree for us
in his flesh under Pontius Pilate... he truly suffered, as he is also truly
risen.
The
Gospel accounts understand the virginal conception of Jesus as a divine work
that surpasses all human understanding and possibility: "That which is
conceived
in her is of the Holy Spirit," said the angel to Joseph about
Mary his fiancée.
The Church sees here the fulfillment of the divine
promise given through the
prophet Isaiah: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son."
People are sometimes troubled by the silence of St.
Mark's Gospel and the New Testament
Epistles about Jesus’ virginal
conception. Some might wonder if we were merely
dealing with legends or
theological constructs not claiming to be history. To
this we must respond:
Faith in the virginal conception of Jesus met with a
lively opposition,
mockery, or incomprehension of nonbelievers, Jews and pagans
alike; so it
could hardly have been motivated by pagan mythology or by some
adaptation
to the ideas of the age. The meaning of this event is accessible only
to
faith, which understands in it the "connection of these mysteries with
one
another" in the totality of Christ’s mysteries, from his Incarnation to
his
Passover. St. Ignatius of Antioch already bears witness to this
connection:
"Mary’s virginity and giving birth, and even the Lords death
escaped the notice
of the prince of this world: these three mysteries
worthy of proclamation were
accomplished in God's
silence."
Mary --- ever
virgin
The deepening of faith in the virginal motherhood led
the Church to confess Mary's
real and perpetual virginity even in the act
of giving birth to the Son of God
made man. In fact, Christ's birth "did
not diminish his mother's virginal
integrity but sanctified it." And so the
liturgy of the Church celebrates Mary
as Aeiparthenos, the
"Ever-virgin."
Against this doctrine the objection is sometimes raised
that the Bible mentions brothers
and sisters of Jesus. The Church has
always understood these passages as not
referring to other children of the
Virgin Mary. In fact James and Joseph,
"brothers of Jesus," are the slums
of another Mary, a disciple of Christ, St.
Matthew significantly calls "the
other Mary." They are close relations of Jesus,
according to an Old Testament
expression.
Jesus is Mary’s only son, but her spiritual motherhood
extends to all men whom indeed
he came to save: "The Son whom she brought
forth is he whom God placed as the
first born among many brethren, that is,
the faithful in whose generation and
formulation she cooperates
with a mothers love."
Mary’s virginal motherhood in God’s
plan
The
eyes of faith can discover in the context of the whole of Revelation to
mysterious reasons why God in his saving plan wanted his Son to be born of a
virgin. These reasons touch both on the person of Christ and his redemptive
mission, and on the welcome Mary gave that mission on behalf of all
men.
Mary's virginity manifests God's absolute initiative in
the Incarnation. Jesus has only
God as Father. "He was never estranged of
the Father because of the human nature
which he assumed... He is naturally
Son of the Father as to his divinity and
naturally son of his mother to his
humanity, but properly Son of the Father in
both
natures."
Jesus is conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Virgin
Mary's womb because he is the New
Adam, who inaugurates the new creation:
"The first man was from the earth, a man
of dust; the second man is from
heaven." From his conception, Christ's humanity
is filled with the Holy
Spirit, for God "gives him the Spirit without measure."
From "his fullness"
as the head of redeemed humanity "we have all received,
grace upon
grace."
By his virginal conception, Jesus, the New Adam, ushers
in the new birth of
children adopted in the Holy Spirit through faith. "How
can this be?"
Participation in the divine life arises "not of blood nor of
the will of the
flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." The acceptance
of this life is
virginal because it is entirely the Spirit's gift to man.
The spousal character
of the human vocation in relation to God is fulfilled
perfectly in Mary's
virginal motherhood.
Mary is a virgin because her virginity is
the sign of her faith" unadulterated by any
doubt," and her undivided gift
of herself to God's will. It is her faith that
enables her to become the
mother of the Savior: "Mary is more blessed because
she embraces faith in
Christ than because she concedes the flesh of
Christ.”
And once virgin and mother, Mary is the symbol and the
most perfect realization of
the Church: "the church indeed... by receiving
the word of God in faith becomes
herself a mother. By preaching and Baptism
she brings forth sons, wo are
conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of God,
to a new and immortal life. She
herself is a virgin, who keeps in its
entirety and purity the faith she pledged
to her
spouse."
November 4, 2012- Do not hasten in your spirit to
be angry: for anger rests in the bosom of fools. Ecclesiastes
7:9
Todays reading is rather lengthy and intense. There are
many defenses against heresy presented and may take some deep thought to grasp,
but please persevere. God Bless!
Section 2
Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 1 Section III–
True God and True
Man
The
unique and altogether singular event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does
not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that
he
is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and human. He became
truly man
while remaining truly God. Jesus Christ is true God and true man.
During the
first centuries, the Church had to defend and clarify this truth
of faith
against the heresies falsified it.
The first heresies denied not so much
Christ's divinity as his true humanity
(Gnostic Docetism). From apostolic
times the Christian faith has insisted on the
true incarnation of Gods Son
"come in the flesh." But already in the third
century, the Church in a
council at Antioch had to affirm against Paul of
Samosata that Jesus Christ
is Son of God by nature and not by adoption. The
first ecumenical Council
of Nicaea in 325 confessed in its Creed that the son of
God is "begotten,
not made, of the same substance (homoousios) as the Father,"
and condemned
Arius, who had affirmed that the son of God "came to be from
things that
were not" and that he was "from another substance" than that of the
Father.
The Nestorian heresy regarded Christ as a human person
joined to the divine person
of God's Son. Opposing this heresy,
St.
Cyril of Alexandria and the third ecumenical Council at Ephesus in 431
confessed "that the Word, uniting to himself in his person the flesh animated by
a rational soul, became man."
Christ’s humanity has no other subject
than the divine person of the Son
of God, who assumed it and made it his
own, from his conception. For this reason
the Council of Ephesus proclaimed
in 431 that Mary truly became the Mother of
God by the human conception of
the Son of God in her womb: "Mother of God, not
that the nature of the Word
or his divinity received the beginning of its
existence from the holy
Virgin, but that, since the holy body, animated by a
rational soul, which
the Word of God united to himself according to the
hypostasis, was born
from her, the Word is said to be born according to the
flesh.”
The Monophysites affirmed that the human nature had
ceased to exist as such in
Christ when the divine person of God’s Son
assumed it. Faced with this heresy,
the fourth ecumenical council, at
Chalcedon in 451, confessed:
Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and
confess one and the same Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in
divinity and perfect in humanity, the
same truly God and truly man,
composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial
with the Father as to
his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his
humanity; "like us in all
things but sin." He was begotten from the Father
before all ages as to his
divinity in these last days, for us and for our
salvation, was born as to
his humanity of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of
God.
We
confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be
acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division, or separation.
The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but
rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as
they
came together in one person (prosopon) and one
hypostasis.
After the Council of Chalcedon, some made of Christ's
human nature a kind of personal
subject. Against them, the fifth ecumenical
Council at Constantinople in 553
confessed that "there is but one
hypostasis [or person], which is our Lord Jesus
Christ, one of the
Trinity." Thus everything in Christ's human nature is to be
attributed to
his divine person as its proper subject, not only his miracles but
also his
sufferings and even his death: "He who was crucified in the flesh, our
Lord
Jesus Christ, is true God, Lord of glory, and one of the Holy
Trinity."
The Church thus confesses that Jesus is inseparably true
God and true man. He is
truly the Son of God who, without ceasing to be God
and Lord, became a man had
our brother:
"What he was, he remained and what he was
not, he assumed," sings the Roman Liturgy.
And the liturgy of St. John
Chrysostom proclaims and sings: "O only begotten Son
and the Word of God,
immortal being, you who deigned for our salvation to become
incarnate of
the holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, you who without change
became
man and were crucified, O Christ our God, you who by your death have
crushed death, you who are one of the Holy Trinity, glorified with the Father
and the Holy Spirit, save us!”
Section 2 Chapter 2
Article 3 Paragraph 1 Section IV – How Is the Son of God Man?
Because
"human nature was assumed, not absorbed," in the mysterious union of
the
Incarnation, the Church was led over the course of centuries to confess
the
full reality of Christ's human soul, with its operations of intellect and
will,
and of his human body. In parallel-fashion, she had to
recall on each occasion
that Christ's human nature belongs, as his own, to
the divine person of the Son
of God, who assumed it. Everything
that Christ is and does in this nature
derives from "one of the Trinity." The
son of God and therefore communicates to
his humanity and his own personal
mode of existence in the Trinity. In his soul
as in his body, Christ thus
expresses humanly the divine ways of the Trinity:
The Son of
God... worked with human hands; he thought with a human mind. He
acted with
a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin
Mary, he
has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except
sin.
Christ
soul and his human knowledge
Apollinaris of Laodicaea asserted that in
Christ the divine word had replaced the soul or
spirit. Against this error
the Church confessed that the eternal Son also
assumed a rational, human
soul.
This
human soul that the Son of God assumed is endowed with a true human knowledge.
As such, this knowledge could not in itself be unlimited: it was exercised
in
the historical conditions of his existence in space and time. This is
why the
Son of God could, when he became man, "increase in wisdom and in
stature, and in
favor with God and man," and would even have to inquire for
himself about what
one in the human condition can learn only from
experience. This corresponded to
the reality of his voluntary emptying of
himself, taking "the form of a slave."
But at the same time, this truly human
knowledge of God's Son expressed the divine
life of his person. "The human
nature of God's Son, not by itself but by its
union with the Word, knew and
showed forth in itself everything that pertains to
God." Such is first of all
the case with the intimate and immediate knowledge
that the Son of God made
man has of his Father. The Son in his human knowledge
also showed the
divine penetration he had into the secret thoughts of human
hearts.
By its union to the divine wisdom in the person of the Word
incarnate, Christ
enjoyed in his human knowledge the fullness of
understanding of the eternal
plans he had come to reveal. What he admitted
to not knowing in this area, he
elsewhere declared himself not sent to
reveal.
Christ’s human
will
Similarly, at the sixth ecumenical Council, Constantinople III in 681,
the Church confessed
that Christ possesses two wills and two natural
operations, divine and human.
They are not opposed to each other, but
cooperate in such a way that the Word
made flesh willed humanly in
obedience to his Father all that he had decided
diinely with the Father and
the Holy Spirit for our salvation. Christ’s human
will "does not resist or
oppose but rather submits to his divine and Almighty
will."
Christ’s true
body
Since the
Word became flesh in assuming a true humanity, Christ's body was finite.
Therefore the human face of Jesus can be portrayed; at the seventh ecumenical
Council (Nicaea II in 787) the Church recognized its representation in holy
images to be legitimate.
At the same time the Church has always acknowledged that
in the body of Jesus "we
see our God made visible and so are caught up in
love of the God we cannot see."
The individual characteristics of Christ's
body express the divine person of
God's Son. He has made the features of
his human body his own, to the point that
they can be venerated when
portrayed in a holy image, for the believer "who
venerates the icon and
venerating in it the person of the one
depicted"
October 28, 2012
But, thanks be to God who always gives us in Christ a part in his triumphal procession, and through us is
spreading everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of himself. 2 Corinthians
2:14
Section
2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 1 Section I – Why Did the Word Become Flesh
With the Nicene Creed, we answer by confessing "For us men
and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit,
he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and was made
man."
The
Word became flesh for us in order to save us by reconciling us with God, who
"loved us and sent his son to be the expiation for our sins": "the father
has
sent his son as the Savior of the world," and "he was revealed to take
away sins"
Sick, our nature demanded to be healed; fallen, to be
raised up; dead to rise again.
We had lost possession of the good; it was
necessary for it to be given back to
us. Closed in darkness, it was
necessary to bring us the light; captives, we
awaited a Savior; prisoners,
help; slaves, a liberator. Are these things minor
or insignificant? Did
they not move God to descend to human nature and visit it,
since humanity was
in so miserable and unhappy a state?
The Word became flesh so that thus we
might know God’s love: "In this the love of
God was made manifest among us,
that God sent his only Son into the world, so
that we might live through
him." “For God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life."
The Word became flesh to be our model of holiness: "Take
my yoke upon you, and learn
from me." "I am the way, the truth, and the
life; no one comes to the Father,
but by me." On the mountain of the
Transfiguration the Father commands: "Listen
to him!" Jesus is the model
for the Beatitudes and the norm of the new law: "Love one another as I have
loved you."
This love implies an effective offering of oneself, after his
example.”
The Word became flesh to make us
"partakers of the divine nature": "For this is whythe Word became man, and the
Son of God became the Son of man: So that man, by entering into communion with
the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God." "For the
Son of God became man so that we might become
God." "The only begotten Son of
God, wanting to make us sharers in his
divinity, assumed our nature, so
that he, made man, might make men
gods."
Section
2 Chapter 2 Article 3 Paragraph 1 Section II – The Incarnation
Taking up St.
John’s expression, "The Word became flesh," the church calls "Incarnation" the
fact that the Son of God assumed a human nature in order to accomplish our
salvation in it. In a hymn cited by St. Paul, the Church sings the mystery
of:
Have
this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was
in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but
emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the
likeness this
of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and
became obedient
unto death, even death on a cross.
The letter to the
Hebrews refers to same mystery:
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
"Sacrifices and offerings you have not
desired, but a body have you
prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sinofferings you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Lo, I have come to do your will, O God.’
"
Belief
in the true Incarnation of the Son of God is the distinctive sign of Christian
faith: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses
that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God." Such is the
joyous conviction of
the Church from her beginning whenever she sings "the
mystery of our religion":
"He was manifested in the
flesh."
October 21, 2012
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who
comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly
seek him. Hebrews 11:6
Section 2 Chapter 2
Article 2 Section I –Jesus
Jesus means in Hebrew: "God saves." At
the Annunciation, the angel Gabriel gave him
the name Jesus as his proper
name, which expresses both his identity and his mission. Since God alone can
forgive sins, it is God who, in Jesus His eternal son made man, "will save his
people from their sins." In Jesus, God
recapitulates all of his history of
salvation on behalf of men.
In the history of salvation God was not content to
deliver Israel "out of the house
of bondage" by bringing them out of Egypt.
He also saves them from their sin.
Because sin is always an offense against
God, only he can forgive it. For this reason Israel, becoming more and more
aware of the universality of sin, will no longer be able to seek salvation
except by invoking the name of the Reedeemer
God.
The
name "Jesus" signifies that the very name of God is present in the person of the
Son, made man for the universal and definitive redemption from sins. It is
the
divine name that alone brings salvation, and henceforth all can invoke
his name,
for Jesus united himself to all men through His Incarnation, so
that "there is
no other name under heaven given among men by which we must
be saved."
The name of the Savior God was invoked only once in the
year by the high priest in
atonement for the sins of Israel, after he had
sprinkled the mercy seat in the
Holy of Holies with the sacrificial blood.
The mercy seat was the place of God's
presence. When St. Paul speaks of Jesus
whom "God put forward as an expiation
by his blood," he means that in
Christ's humanity "God was in Christ reconciling
the world to
himself."
Jesus’ Resurrection glorifies the name of the Savior
God, for from that time on it is
the name of Jesus that fully manifest the
supreme power of the "name which is
above every name." The evil spirits
fear his name; in his name his disciples
perform miracles, for the Father
grants all they ask in his name.
The name of Jesus is at the heart of Christian prayer.
All liturgical prayers
conclude with the words "through our Lord Jesus
Christ." The Hail Mary reaches
its high point in the words "blessed is the
fruit of thy womb, Jesus." The
Eastern prayer of the heart, the Jesus
Prayer, says: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of
God, have mercy on me, a sinner."
Many Christians, such as St. Joan of Arc, have
died with the one word
"Jesus" on their lips.
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Section
II – Christ
The
word "Christ" comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Messiah, which
means "anointed." It became the name proper to Jesus only because he
accomplished perfectly the divine mission that "Christ" signifies. In effect, in
Israel those consecrated to God for a mission that he gave were anointed in
his
name. This was the case for kings, for priest and, in rare instances,
for
prophets. This had to be the case all the more so for the Messiah from
whom God
would send to inaugurate his kingdom definitively. It was
necessary that the
Messiah be anointed by the Spirit of the Lord at once as
king and priest, and
also as prophet. Jesus fulfilled the messianic hope of
Israel in his threefold
office of priest, prophet, and
King.
To
the shepherds, the angel announced the birth of Jesus as the Messiah promised to
Israel: "To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is
Christ
the Lord." From the beginning he was "the one whom the father
consecrated and
sent into the world," conceived as "holy" in Mary's
virginal womb. God called
Joseph to "take Mary as your wife, for that which
is conceived in her is of the
Holy Spirit," so that Jesus, "who is called
Christ," should be born of Joseph's
spouse into the messianic lineage of
David.
Jesus’ messianic consecration reveals his divine
mission, "for the name ‘Christ’
implies‘he who anointed,’ ‘he who was
anointed’ and ‘the very anointing with
which he was anointed.’ The one who
anointed is the Father, the one who was
anointed is the Son, and he was
anointed with the Spirit who is the
anointing."
His eternal messianic consecration was revealed during
the time of his earthly life
at the moment of his baptism by John, when
"God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with
the Holy Spirit and with the power,"
"that he might be revealed to Israel" as
its Messiah. His works and words
will manifest him as "the Holy One of
God."
Many Jews and even certain Gentiles who
shared their hope recognized in Jesus the
fundamental attributes of the
messianic "Son of David,"
as promised by God to Israel. Jesus accepted his
rightful title of
Messiah, though with some reserve because it was
understood by some of his
contemporaries in too human a sense, as
essentially political.
Jesus accepted Peter's profession of faith, which acknowledged
him to be the Messiah,
by announcing the imminent passion of the Son of
Man. He unveiled the authentic
content of his messianic kingship over the
transcendent identity of the Son of
Man "who came down from heaven," and in
his redemptive mission as the suffering
servant: "The Son of Man came not
to be served but to serve, and to give his
life as a ransom for many."
Hence the true meaning of his kingship is revealed
only when he is raised
high on the cross. Only after his Resurrection will Peter
be able to
proclaim Jesus’ messianic kingship to the People of God: "Let all the
house
of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and
Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."
Section 2 Chapter 2
Article 2 Section III – The Only Son of God
In
the Old Testament, "son of God" is a title given to the angels, the Chosen
People, the children of Israel, and their kings. It signifies an adoptive
sonship that establishes a relationship with particular intimacy between God and
his creature. When the promised Messiah -- King is called "son of God," it
does
not necessarily imply that he was more than human, according to the
literal
meaning of these texts. Those who called Jesus "son of God," as the
Messiah of
Israel, perhaps meant nothing more than
this.
Such is
not the case for Simon Peter when he confesses Jesus as "the Christ, the Son
of the living God," for Jesus responds solemnly: "Flesh and blood has
not
revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Similarly Paul
will
write, regarding his conversion on the road to Damascus, "When he who
had set
me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace,
was pleased to
reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among
the Gentiles..."
"And in the synagogues immediately Paul proclaimed Jesus
saying, "He is the Son
of God." From the beginning this acknowledgment of
Christ's divine sonship will
be the center of the apostolic faith, first
professed by Peter as the Church's
foundation.
Peter could recognize the transcendent character of the
Messiah's divine sonship
because Jesus had clearly allowed it to be so
understood. To his accusers’
question before the Sanhedrin, "Are you the
Son of God, then?” Jesus answered,
"You say that I am." Well before this,
Jesus referred to himself as "the Son"
who knows the Father, as distinct
from the "servants" God had earlier sent to
his people; he is superior even
to the angels. He distinguished his sonship from
that of his disciples by
never saying "our Father," except to command them:
"You, then, pray like
this: "Our Father," and he emphasized this distinction,
saying my father
and your Father."
The Gospels report that at two solemn moments, the
Baptism and the Transfiguration
of Christ, the voice of the Father
designates Jesus his "beloved Son." Jesus
calls himself the "only Son of
God," and by this title affirms his eternal
preexistence. He asked for
faith in "the name of the only son of God." In the
centurions’exclamation
before the crucified Christ, "Truly this man was the Son
of God," that
Christian confession is already heard. Only in the Paschal mystery
can the
believer give the title "Son of God" it's full
meaning.
After his Resurrection, Jesus’ divine sonship becomes
manifest in the power of his
glorified humanity. He was "designated Son of
God in power according to the
Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from
the dead." The apostles can confess:
"We have beheld his glory, glory as of
the only Son from the Father, full of
grace and
truth."
Section 2 Chapter 2 Article 2 Section IV –
Lord
In
the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the ineffable Hebrew name YHWH, by
which God reveals himself to Moses, is rendered as Kyrios, "Lord." From
then on,
"Lord" becomes the more usual name for which to indicate the
divinity of Israel's
God. The New Testament uses this full sense of the
title "Lord" both for the
Father and-- --what is new -- -- for Jesus, who
is thereby recognized as God
himself.
Jesus ascribes this title to himself in a
veiled way when he disputes with the
Pharisees about the meaning of Psalm
110, but also in an explicit way when he
addresses his apostles. Throughout
his public life, he demonstrated his divine
sovereignty by works of power
over nature, illnesses, demons, death, and
sin.
Very
often in the Gospels people address Jesus as "Lord." This title testifies to the
respect and trust of those who approach him for help and healing. At the
prompting of the Holy Spirit, "Lord" expresses the recognition of the
divine
mystery of Jesus. In the encounter with the risen Jesus, this title
becomes
adoration: "My Lord and my God!" It thus takes on a connotation of
love and
affection that remains proper to the Christian tradition: "It is
the Lord!"
By attributing to Jesus the divine title "Lord," the
first confessions of the
Church’s faith affirm from the beginning that the
power, honor, and glory due to
God the Father are due also to Jesus,
because "he was in the form of God," and
the Father manifested the
sovereignty of Jesus by raising him from the dead and
exulting him into his
glory.
From the beginning of Christian history, the assertion
of Christ’ lordship over the
world and over history has implicitly
recognized that man should not submit his
personal freedom in an absolute
manner to any earthly power, but only to God the
Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ: Caesar is not "the Lord." “The Church...
believes that the key, the
center, and the purpose of the whole of man's history
is to be found in its
Lord and Master."
Christian prayer is characterized by the title "Lord,"
whether in the invitation to prayer
("The Lord be with you."), its
conclusion ("through Christ our Lord"), or the
exclamations full of trust and
hope Maran atha ("Our Lord, come!"), Or Marana
tha ("Come, Lord!") -- --
"Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!"
October 14, 2012 - Anyone who is having troubles should
pray. Anyone who is happy
should sing praises. James
5:13
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 -
The Good
News: God has sent his Son
"But when the time had fully come, God
sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under
the law, to redeem those who
were under the law, so that we might receive
adoption as sons." This is
"the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God": God has
visited his people.
He has fulfilled the promise he made to Abraham and his
descendants. He acted
far beyond all expectation -- he has sent his own
"beloved Son."
We believe and
confess that Jesus of Nazareth, born a Jew of a daughter of Israel
at
Bethlehem at the time of King Herod the Great and the emperor Caesar
Augustus, a carpenter by trade, who died crucified in Jerusalem under the
procurator Pontius Pilate during the reign of Emperor Tiberius, is the eternal
Son of God made man. He "came from God," "descended from heaven," and "came
in
the flesh." For "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace
and
truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the
Father... And
from his fullness have we all received, grace upon
grace."
Moved by the grace of the Holy Spirit and drawn by the
Father, we believe in Jesus and
confess: "You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God. "On the rock of this
faith confessed by St. Peter, Christ
built His Church."
To preach...the unsearchable riches of
Christ
The transmission of the Christian faith conists
primarily in proclaiming Jesus
Christ in order to lead others to faith in
Him. From the beginning first
disciples burned with the desire to proclaim
Christ: "We cannot but speak of
what we have seen and heard." And they
invite people of every era to enter into
the joy of their communion with
Christ:
At the heart of catechesis: Christ
"At the heart of
catechesis we find, in essence, a Person the Person of Jesus of
Nazareth,
the only Son from the Father... who suffered and died for us, and who
now,
after rising, is living with us forever." To catechize is "to reveal
the
person of Christ the whole of God's eternal design reaching fulfillment
in that
Person. It is to seek to understand the meaning of Christ's actions
and words
and of the signs worked by him." Catechesis aims at putting
"people... in
communion... with Jesus Christ: only he can lead us to the
love of the Father in
the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy
Trinity."
In catechesis "Christ, the Incarnate Word and son of
God,... is taught -- --
everything else is taught with reference to him --
-- and it is Christ alone who
teaches-- -- anyone else teaches to the
extent that he is Christ's spokesman,
enabling Christ to teach with his own
lips... Every catechist should be able to
apply to himself the mysterious
words of Jesus: 'My teaching is not mine, but
his who sent me.'
"
"Whoever is called "to teach Christ" must first seek"
the surpassing worth of knowing
Christ Jesus"; he must suffer "the loss of
all things..." in order to "gain Christ and be found in him," and "to
know
him and the power of his resurrection, and [to] share his sufferings,
becoming like him in his death, that if possible [he] may attain the
resurrection from the dead."
From the loving knowledge of Christ springs the desire
to proclaim him, to
"evangelize," and to lead others to the "yes" with
Jesus Christ. But at the
same time the need to know this faith better makes
itself felt. To this end,
following the order of the Creed, Jesus'
principal titles -- -- "Christ," "Son
of God," and "Lord" (article 2) --
-- will be presented. The Creed next confesses the chief mysteries of His
life
-- -- those of his Incarnation (article 3), Paschal mystery (articles
4 and 5),
and glorification (articles 6 and
7).
October 7, 2012 - All you
who put your hope in the Lord be strong and brave. Psalms
31:24
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 7 Section
III – Orginal Sin
God
created man in his image and established him and his friendship. A spiritual
creature, man can live this friendship only in free submission to God. The
prohibition against eating "of the tree of knowledge of good and evil"
spells
this out: "for the day you eat of it, you shall die." The "tree of
the knowledge
of good and evil" symbolically evokes the insurmountable
limits that man, being
a creature, must freely recognize and respect with
trust. Man is dependent on
his Creator and subject to the laws of creation
and to the moral norms that
govern the use of freedom.
Man, tempted by the
devil, let his trust in his Creator die in his heart and, abusing
his
freedom, disobeyed God's command. This is what man's first sin consisted of.
All subsequent sin would be disobedience toward God and lack of trust in
his
goodness.
In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that
very act scorned Him. He chose
himself over and against God, against the
requirements of his creaturely status
and therefore against his own good.
Constituted in a state of holiness, man was
destined to be fully "divinized"
by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he
wanted to "be like God," but
"without God, before God, and not in accordance
with
God."
Scripture portrays the tragic consequences of this first
disobedience. Adam and Eve
immediately lose the grace of original holiness.
They become afraid of the God
of whom they have conceived a distorted image
-- -- that of a God jealous of
his
prerogatives.
The
harmony in which they had found themselves, thanks to original justice, is now
destroyed: the control of the soul’s spiritual faculties over the body is
shattered; the union of man and woman becomes subject to tensions, their
relations henceforth marked by lust and domination. Harmony with creation
is
broken: visible creation has become alien and hostile to man. Because of
man,
creation is now subject "to its bondage to decay." Finally, the
consequence
explicitly foretold for this disobedience will come true: men
will "return to
the ground," for out of it he was taken. Death makes its
entrance into human
history.
After that first sin, the world is virtually inundated
by sin. There is Cain's murder
of his brother Abel and the universal
corruption which follows in the wake of
sin. Likewise, sin frequently
manifests itself in the history of Israel,
especially as infidelity to the
God of the Covenant and as transgression of the
Law of Moses. And even
after Christ’s atonement, sin raises its head in
countless ways among
Christians. Scripture and the Church's Tradition
continually recall the
presence and universality of sin in man's
history:
What revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our
own experience. For when man
looks into his own heart he finds that he is
drawn toward what is wrong and sunk
in many evils which cannot come from
his good Creator. Also refusing to
acknowledge God as his source, man has
also upset the relationship which should
link him to his last end; and at
the same time he has broken the right order
that should reign within
himself as well as between himself and other men and
all
creatures.
All men are implicated in Adam's sin, as St. Paul
affirms: "By one man's
disobedience many [that is, all men] were made
sinners": "sin came into the
world through one man and death through sin,
and so death spread to all men
because all men sinned..." the Apostle
contrasts the universality of sin and
death with the universality of
salvation in Christ. "Then as one man's trespass
led to condemnation for all
men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to
acquittal and life for all
men."
Following St. Paul, the Church has always taught that
the overwhelming misery which
impresses men and their inclination toward
evil and that cannot be understood
apart from their connection with Adam's
sin and the fact that he has transmitted
to us a sin with which we are all
born afflicted, a sin which is the "death of
the soul." Because of the
certainty of faith, the Church baptizes for the
remission of sins even tiny
infants who have not committed personal
sin.
How
did the sin of Adam become the sin of all his descendants?
The whole human
race is in Adam "as one body of one man." By this "unity
of the human race"
all men are implicated in Adam's sin, and all are implicated
in Christ's
justice. Still, the transmission of original sin is a mystery that
we
cannot fully understand. But we do know by Revalation that Adam had
received
original holiness and justice not for himself alone, before all
human nature.
By yielding to the tempter, Adam and Eve committed a personal
sin, but this sin
affected the human nature that they would then transmit in
a fallen state. It
is a sin which will be transmitted by propagation to all
mankind, that is, by
the transmission of the human nature deprived of
original holiness and justice.
And that is why original sin is
called "sin" only in a analogical sense: it is
a sin "contracted" and not
"committed" -- -- a state and not an act.
Although it is proper to each individual, original sin
does not have the character of the
personal fault in any of Adam's
descendants. It is a deprivation of original
holiness and justice, but
human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is
wounded in the natural
powers proper to it; subject to ignorance, suffering, and
the dominion of
death; and inclined to sin-- -- an inclination to evil that is
called
"concupiscence." Baptism, by importing the life of Christ's grace, erases
original sin and turns a man back toward God, but the consequences for nature,
weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual
battle.
The Church's teaching on the transmission of original
sin was articulated more
precisely in the fifth century, especially under
the impulse of St. Augustine's
reflections against Pelagianism, and in the
16th century, in opposition to the
Protestant Reformation. Pelagius held
that man could, by the natural power of
free will and without the necessary
help of God's grace, lead a morally good
life; he thus reduced the
influence of Adam's fault to bad example. The first
Protestant reformers,
on the contrary, taught that original sin has radically
perverted man and
destroyed his freedom; they identified the sin inherited by
each man with
the tendency to evil (concupiscence), which would be
insurmountable. The
Church pronounced on the meaning of the data of Revelation
on original sin
especially at the second Council of Orange (529) and at the
Council of
Trent (1546).
The doctrine of original sin, closely connected with
that of redemption by Christ,
provides lucid discernment of man's situation
and activity in the world. By our
first parents’ sin, the devil has
acquired a certain domination over man, even
though man remains free.
Original sin entails "captivity under the power of him
who thenceforth had
the power of death, that is, the devil." Ignorance of the
fact that man has
a wounded nature inclined to evil gives rise to serious errors
in the areas
of education, politics, social action, and
morals.
The consequences of original sin of all men's personal
sins put the world as a whole
in the sinful condition aptly described in
St. John's expression, "the sin of
the world." This expression can also
refer to the negative influence exerted on
people by communal situations
and social structures that are the fruit of men's
sins.
This dramatic situation of "the whole world [which] is
in the power of the evil one"
makes man's life a
battle:
The
whole of man's history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of
evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the
last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to
struggle to
do what is right, and it is a great cost to himself, and aided
by God's grace
that he succeeds in achieving his own inner
integrity.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 7 Section
IV –
You Did Not Abandon Him to the Power of Death
After
his fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God called him and in a
mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration
from his
fault. This passage in Genesis is called the Protoevangelium
("first gospel"):
the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a
battle between the
serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a
descendent of hers.
The
Christian tradition sees in this passage an announcement over the "new
Adam"
who, because he "became obedient unto death, even death all cross,"
makes
amends superabundant we put the disobedience of Adam. Furthermore any
fathers
and Drs. of the Church have seen the woman announced in the
Protoevangeliun as
Mary, the mother of Christ, the "new Eve." Mary
benefited first of all and
uniquely from Christ's victory over sin: she was
preserved from all stain of
original sin and by a special grace of God
committed no sin of any kind during
her whole earthly
life.
But
why did God not prevent the first man from sinning? St. Leo the Great responds,
"Christ’s inexpressible grace gave us blessings better than those the
demon’s
envy had taken away." And St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "There is
nothing to prevent
human nature’s being raised up to something greater,
even after sin; God permits
evil in order to draw forth some greater good.
Thus St. Paul says, "Where sin
increased, grace abounded all the more"; and
the Exultet sings, "O happy
fault,... which gained for us so great a
Redeemer!"
September 30, 2012 Always be joyful. Pray
continually, and give thanks whatever happens. That is what God wants for you in
Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians
5:16-18
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 7 Section I – Where Sin
Abounded, Grace Abounded all the More
The reality of sin
Sin is present
in human history; any attempt to ignore it or to give this stark reality other
names would be futile.
To try to understand what sin is, one
must first recognize the profound relation of man to God, for only in this
relationship is the evil of sin unmasked in its true identity as humanity's
rejection of God and opposition to him, even as it continues to weigh heavy on
human life and history. Only the light of divine revelation clarifies the
reality of sin and particularly of
the sin committed at mankind's origins.
Without the knowledge Revelation gives
of God we cannot recognize sin
clearly and are tempted to explain it as merely a
developmental flaw, a
psychological weakness, a mistake, or the necessary
consequence of an
inadequate social structure, etc. Only in the knowledge of
God's plan for
man can we grasp that sin is an abuse of the freedom that God
gives to
created persons so that they are capable of loving him and loving one
another.
Original sin -- -- an essential truth of
faith
With the progress of Revelation, the reality of sin is also
illuminated. Although to
some extent the people of God in the Old Testament
ha tried to understand the
pathos of the human condition in the light of
the history of the fall narrated
in Genesis, they could not grasp this
stories ultimate meaning, which is
revealed only in the light of the death
and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. We
must know Christ as a source of grace
in order to know Adam as a source of sin.
The Spirit Paraclete, sent by the
risen Christ, come to "convict the world
concerning sin," by revealing him
who is its Redeemer.
The doctrine of original sin is, so to
speak, the "reverse side" of the Good News
that Jesus is the Savior of all
men, that all need salvation, and that salvation
is offered to all through
Christ. The Church, which has the mind of Christ,
knows very well that we
cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin
without undermining the
mystery of Christ.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 7
Section II –
The Fall of the Angels
Behind the disobedient choice of our
first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to
God, which makes them fall
into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church's
Tradition see in this
being a fallen angel, called “Satan” or the “devil”. The
Church teaches that
Satan was at first a good angel, made by God: "The devil
and the other
demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became
evil by
their own doing."
Scripture speaks of the sin of these Angels. This "fall"
consists in the free choice of
these created spirits, who radically and
irrevocably rejected God and his
reign. We find a reflection of that
rebellion in the tempters words for first
parents: "You will be like God."
The devil "has sinned from the beginning"; he is "a liar and the father of
lies."
It is the irrevocable character of their choice, and not a defect in
the infinite
Divine Mercy, that makes the angels sin unforgivable. "There
is no repentance
for the angels after their fall, just as there is no
repentance for men after
death."
Scripture witnesses to the disastrous
influence of the one Jesus calls "a murderer from
the beginning," who would
even try to divert Jesus from the mission received
from his Father. "The
reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works
of the devil." In
its consequences the gravest of these works was the mendacious
seduction
that led man to disobey God.
The power of Satan is, nonetheless, not
infinite. He is only a creature, powerful
from the fact that he is pure
spirit, but still a creature. He cannot prevent
the building up of God's
reign. Although Satan may act in the world out of
hatred for God and His
kingdom in Christ Jesus, and although his action may
cause grave injuries
-- -- of a spiritual nature and, indirectly, even of a
physical nature --
-- to each man and to society, the action is permitted by
divine providence
which with strength and gentleness guides human and cosmic
history. It is a
great mystery that providence should permit diabolical
activity, but "we
know that in everything God works for good with those who love
him."
September
23, 2012 “All who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified self with all its passions and its desires.” Galatians 5:24
Section 2 Chapter 1
Article 1 Paragraph 6 Section III –
Male and Female He Created Them
Man and woman have
been created, which is to say, willed by God: on the one hand, in
perfect
equality as human persons; on the other, and their respective beings as
man
and woman. "Being Man" or "being woman" is a reality which is good and
willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them
immediately from God their Creator. Man and woman are both with one and the
same
dignity "in the image of God." In their "being-man" and "being-woman,"
they
reflect the Creator's wisdom and
goodness.
In no way is
God in man's image. He is neither man nor woman. God is pure spirit in
which there is no place for the difference between the sexes. But the respective
"perfections" of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection
of
God: those of a mother and those of a father and
husband.
God created man and woman
together and willed each for the other. The word of God
gives us to
understand this through various features of the sacred text. "It is
not
good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helper fit for him."
None of the animals can be man's partner. The woman God "fashins" from the man's
rib and brings to him elicits on the man's part a cry of wonder, an
exclamation
of love and communion: "This at last is bone of my bones and
flesh of my flesh."
Man discovers a woman as another "I," sharing the same
humanity.
Man
and woman were made "for each other" -- --not that God left them half-made and
incomplete: he created them to be a communion of persons, in which each can
be
“helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of my
bones...")
and complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage God
unites them in such
a way that, by forming "one flesh," they can transmit
human life: "Be fruitful
and multiply, and fill the earth." By transmitting
human life to their
descendants, man and woman as spouses and parents
cooperate in a unique way in
the Creator's
work.
In God's plan
man and woman have the vocation of "subduing" the earth as stewards
of God.
This sovereignty is not to be an arbitrary and destructive domination.
God
calls man and women, made in the image of the Creator "who loves everything
that exists," to share in his providence toward other creatures; hence their
responsibility for the world God has entrusted to
them.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 6 Section IV –
Man in Paradise
The first man was not only created good, but was also
established in friendship with
his Creator and in harmony with himself and
with the creation around him, in a
state that would be surpassed only by
the glory of the new creation in
Christ.
The Church, interpreting the symbolism of biblical language in
an authentic way, in
the light of the New Testament and Tradition, teaches
that our first parents,
Adam and Eve, were constitutes in an original
"state of holiness and justice."
This grace of original holiness was "to
share in... divine life."
By the
radiance of his grace all dimensions of man's life were confirmed. As long
as he remained in the divine intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die. The
inner harmony of the human person, the harmony between man and woman, and
finally the harmony between first couple and all creation, comprised a
state
called "original justice."
The "mastery" over the world that God offered man from the
beginning was realized
above all within man himself: mastery of self. The
first man was unimpaired and
ordered in his whole being because he was free
from the triple concupiscence
that subjugates him to the pleasures of the
senses, covetousness for earthly
goods, and self-assertion, contrary to the
dictates of
reason.
The sign of
man's familiarity with God is that God places him in the garden. There
he
lives "to till it and keep it." Work is not yet a burden, or rather
the
collaboration of man and woman with God in perfecting the visible
creation.
This entire harmony of
original justice, forseen for man in God's plan, will be lost
by the sin of
our first parents.
September 16, 2012Make
Yahweh your joy and he willgive
you your heart's desires.Psalms
37:4
Section
2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 6 Section I –
In
the Image of God
Of
all visible creatures only man is "able to know and love his creator" He is the
only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake," and he alone is
called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end
he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity:
What
made you establish man in so great a dignity? Certainly the incalculable love by
which you have looked on your creature in yourself! You are taken with love for
her; for by love indeed you created her, by love you have given her a being
capable of tasting your eternal
Good.
Being
in the image of God the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who
is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of
self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with
other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to
offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give in his
stead.
God
created everything for man, but man in turn was created to serve and love God
and to offer all creation back to him. "In reality it is only in the mystry of
the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes
clear."
St.
Paul tells us that the human race takes its origin from two men: Adam and
Christ... the first man, Adam, he says, became a living soul, the last Adam a
life-giving Spirit.The first Adam was
made by the last Adam, from whom he also received his soul, to give him life...
The second Adam stamped his image on the first Adam when he created him. That is
why he took on himself the role and the name of the first Adam, in order that he
might not lose what he had made in his own image. The first Adam, the last Adam:
the first had a beginning, the last knows no end. The last Adam is indeed the
first; as he himself says: "I am the first and
last."
Because
of its common origin the human race forms a unity, for "from one ancestor [God]
made all nations to inhabit the whole
earth":
O
wondrous vision, which makes us contemplate the human race to the unity of its
origin in God... in the unity of its nature, composed equally in all men of a
material body and a spiritual soul; in the unity of its immediate end and its
mission in the world; in the unity of its dwelling, the earth, whose benefits
all men, by right of nature, may use to sustain and develop life; in the unity
of its supernatural end: God himself, to whom all ought to tend; in the unity of
the means for attaining this end;... in the unity of the redemption wrought by
Christ for all.
"This
law of human solidarity and charity," without excluding the rich variety of
persons, cultures, and peoples, assures us that all men are truly
reverend.
Section
2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 6 Section II –
Body
and Soul but Truly One
The
human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporal and
spiritual. The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when
it affirms that "then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."
Man, whole and entire, is therefore willed by
God.
In
Sacred Scripture the term "soul" often refers to human life or the entire human
person. But "soul" also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of
greatest value to him, that by which he is most especially in God's image:
"soul" signifies a spiritual principle of
man.
The
human body shares in the dignity of "the image of God": it is a human body
precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human
person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the
Spirit.
The
unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider his soul to the
"form" of the body: i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made
of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two
nature's united, but rather their union forms a single
nature.
The
Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God -- -- it
is not "produced" by the parents -- -- and also that it is immortal: it does not
perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with
the body and the final
Resurrection.
Sometimes
the soul is distinguished from the spirit: St. Paul for instance prays that God
may sanctify his people "wholly," with "spirit and soul and body" kept sound and
blameless at the Lord’s coming. The Church teaches that this distinction does
not introduce a duality into the soul. "Spirit" signifies that from creation man
is ordered to be supernatural end and that his soul can gratuitously be raised
beyond all it deserves to communion with God.
The
spiritual tradition of the Church also emphasizes the heart, in the biblical
sense of the depths of one's being, when a person decides for or against God.
September 9, 2012So be strong, do not be discouraged, for your
deeds willbe rewarded.2 Chronicles 15:7
After
last weeks’ lesson on Angels, Jesus inspired me to include this short story to
ponder.
For
those of us who believe in
ANGELS!!!!
A drunk man in an
Oldsmobile
That
caused the six-car pileup
on
109 that night
When broken bodies lay about
And blood was
everywhere,
The
sirens screamed out eulogies,
For
death was in the air.
A
mother, trapped inside her car,
Was
heard above the noise;
Her
plaintive plea near split the air:
Oh,
God, please spare my boys!
She
fought to loose her pinned hands;
She
struggled to get free,
But
mangled metal held her fast
In
grim captivity.
Her
frightened eyes then focused
On
where the back seat once had been,
But
all she saw was broken glass and
Two
children's seats crushed in.
Her
twins were nowhere to be seen;
She
did not hear them cry,
And
then she prayed they'd been thrown free,
Oh,
God, don't let them die!
Then
firemen came and cut her loose,
But
when they searched the back,
They
found therein no little boys,
But
the seat belts were intact.
They
thought the woman had gone mad
And
was traveling alone,
But
when they turned to question her,
They
discovered she was gone.
Policemen
saw her running wild
And
screaming above the noise
In
beseeching supplication,
Please
help me find my boys!
They're
four years old and wear blue shirts;
Their
jeans are blue to match.
One
cop spoke up, They're in my car,
And
they don't have a scratch.
They
said their daddy put them there
And
gave them each a cone,
Then
told them both to wait for Mom
To
come and take them home.
I've
searched the area high and low,
But
I can't find their dad.
He
must have fled the scene,
I
guess, and that is very bad.
The
mother hugged the twins and said,
While
wiping at a tear,
He
could not flee the scene, you see,
For
he's been dead a year.
The
cop just looked confused and asked,
Now,
how can that be true?
The
boys said, Mommy, Daddy came
And
left a kiss for you.
He
told us not to worry
And
that you would be all right,
And
then he put us in this car with
The
pretty, flashing light.
We wanted him to stay with us,
Because
we miss him so,
But Mommy, he just hugged us tight
And
said he had to go.
He
said someday we'd understand
And
told us not to fuss,
And
he said to tell you, Mommy,
He's
watching over us
.The
mother knew without a doubt
That
what they spoke was true,
For
she recalled their dad's last words,
I
will watch over you.
The
firemen's notes could not explain
The
twisted, mangled car,
And
how the three of them escaped
Without
a single scar.
But
on the cop's report was scribed,
In
print so very fine,
An
angel walked the beat tonight on
Highway
109.
*********************************
He
who has a thousand friends has not a
friend
to spare.
*********************************
This
morning when the Lord opened a window to Heaven,
He
saw me, and he asked: 'My child, what is your greatest wish for
today?'
I
responded: 'Lord please, take care of the person who is reading
this
message, their family and their special friends.
They deserve it and I know, You love them very much.
'
Please send this to all the Angels you
know,
some
times, since they don't all have wings, we call them
FRIENDS.
Pass
this on to your true friends and/or ask them to join us on this
site.
September 2, 2012With so many witnesses in a great
cloud all around us, we too, then, should throw off everything that weighs us
down and the sinthat clings so closely, and with perseverance keep running in
the race which lies ahead of us. Hebrews
12:1
I want to thank all of you for continuing to visit this site
and increase your knowledge of Jesus and the Church's teaching. I was reminded
to reiterate the basic premise that the simple truth is that we need to continue
to perform the simple acts of Knowing, Loving and Serving God on this earth so
that we may enjoy eternal happiness with Him in
heaven.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 5 Section I –
The Angels
The
apostles Creed professes that God is "Creator of heaven and earth." The Nicene
Creed makes it explicit that this profession includes "all that is, seen and
unseen."
The existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred
Scripture usually calls "angels" is the truth of faith. The witness of Scripture
is as clear as the unanimity of
Tradition.
St. Augustine says: " ‘Angel’ is the name of their office, not
the nature. If you seek to name of their nature, it is ‘spirit’; if you seek the
name of their office, it is‘angel’: from what they are, ‘spirit’ from what they
do, ‘angel.’ “With their whole being the
angels are servants and messengers of God. Because they "always behold the face
of my Father who is in heaven" they are the "mighty ones who do his word,
hearkening to the voice of his
word.”
As purely spiritual creatures angels have intelligence and will:
they are personal and immortal creatures, surpassing in perfection all visible
creatures, as the splendor of their glory bears witness.
Christ is the center of the angelic world. They are his angels:
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him..." they
belong to him because they were created through him and for him: "for in him all
things are created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities -- -- all things were
created through him and for him." They belong to him still more because he has
made them messengers of his saving plan: "Are they not all ministering spirits
sent forth to serve, for the sake of those who are to obtain
salvation?"
Angels have been present since creation and throughout the
history of salvation, announcing the salvation from afar or near and serving the
accomplishment of the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise; protected
Lot; saved Hagar and her child; stayed Abraham's hand; communicated the law by
their ministry; let the people of God; announced births and callings; and
assisted the prophets, just to cite a few examples. Finally, the angel Gabriel
announced the birth of the Precursor and that of Jesus
himself.
From the Incarnation to the Ascension, the life of the Word
incarnate is surrounded by the adoration and service of angels. When God "brings
the firstborn into the world, he says: ‘Let all God's angels worship him.’ “
Their song of praise at the birth of Christ has not ceased resounding in the
Church's praise: "Glory to God in the highest!"They protect Jesus in his infancy, serve him
in the desert, strengthen him in his agony in the garden, when he could have
been saved by them from the hands of his enemies as Israel had been.Again,
it is the angels who "evangelize" by proclaiming the Good News of Christ's
Incarnation and Resurrection. They will be present at Christ's return, which
they will announce, to serve in his
judgment.
In the meantime, the whole life of the Church benefits from the
mysterious and powerful hope of
angels.
In her liturgy, the Church joins with the angels to adore the
thrice-holy God. She invokes their assistance in the funeral liturgy’s In
Paradisum deducant te angeli....[“ May the angels lead you into
Paradise...”].Moreover, in the "Cherubic
hymn" of the Byzantine Liturgy, she celebrates the memory of certain angels more
particularly (St. Michael, St. Gabriel, San Raphael, and the Guardian
Angels).
From its beginning until death human life is surrounded by their
watchful care and intercession. "Beside each believer stands an angel as
protector and shepherd leading him to life." Already here on earth the Christian
life shares by faith in the blessed company of angels and men united in
God.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 5 Section II –
The Visible World
God himself created the visible world in all its richness,
diversity, and order. Scripture presents the work of the Creator symbolically as
a succession of six days of divine "work," concluded by the "rest" of the
seventh day. On the subject of creation, the sacred text teaches the truths
revealed by God for our salvation, permitting us to "recognize the inner nature,
the value, and the ordering of the whole of creation to the praise of
God."
Nothing exists that does not owe its existence to God the
Creator. The world began when God's word drew it out of nothingness; all
existent beings, all of nature, in all human history are rooted in this
primordial event, the very genesis by which the world was constructed and time
begun.
Each creature possesses its own particular goodness and
perfection. For each one of the works of the "six days" it is said: "And God saw
that it was good." "By the very nature of creation, material being is endowed
with its own stability, truth, and excellence, its own order and laws." Each of
the various creatures, willed in its own being, reflects in its own way a ray of
God's infinite wisdom and goodness. Men must therefore respect the particular
goodness of every creature, to avoid any disordered use of things which would be
in contempt of the Creator and would bring disastrous consequences for human
beings and their
environment.
God wills the interdependence of creatures. The sun and the
moon, the cedar and the little flower, the eagle and the sparrow: the spectacle
of their countless diversities and inequalities tells us that no creature is
self-sufficient. Creatures exist only in dependence on each other, to complete
each other, in the service of each
other.
The beauty of the universe: The order and harmony of the created
world results from the diversity of beings and from the relationships which
exist among them. Man discovers them progressively as the laws of nature. They
call forth the admiration of scholars. The beauty of creation reflects the
infinite beauty of the Creator and ought to inspire the respect and submission
of man's intellect and
will.
The hierarchy of creatures is expressed by the order of the "six
days," from the less perfect to the more perfect. God loves all his creatures
and takes care of each one, even the sparrow. Nevertheless, Jesus said: "You are
of more value than many sparrows," or again: "Of how much more value is a man
and a sheep!"
Man is the summit of the Creator's work, as the inspired account
expresses by clearly distinguishing the creation of man from that of the other
creatures.
There is a solidarity among all creatures arising from the fact
that all of the same Creator and are all order to his
glory.
The Sabbath -- -- the end of the work of the six days. The
sacred text says that "on the seventh day God finished his work which he had
done," that the "heavens and the earth were finished," and that God "rested" on
this day and sanctified and blessed it. These inspired words are rich and
profitable instruction:
In
creation God laid a foundation and establish laws that remain firm, on which the
believer can rely with confidence, for they are the sign and pledge of the
unshakable faithfulness of God's covenant. For his part man must remain faithful
to this foundation and respect the laws which the Creator has written into
it.
Creation was fashioned with a view to the sabbath and therefore
for the worship and adoration of God. Worship is inscribed in the order of
creation. As a rule of St. Benedict says, nothing should take precedence over
"the work of God," that is, solemn worship. This indicates the right order of
human concerns.
The sabbath is at the heart of Israel's law. To keep the
commandments is to correspond to the wisdom and the will of God as expressed in
his work of creation.
The
eighth day. But for us a new day has dawned: the day of Christ's Resurrection.
The seventh day completes the first creation. The eighth day begins the new
creation. Thus, the work of creation culminates in the greater work redemption.
The first creation finds its meaning and its summit in the new creation in
Christ, the splendor of which surpasses that of the first
creation.
August 26, 2012
Yahweh
guides a strong man's steps and keeps them firm; and takes pleasure in him. When
he trips he is not thrown sprawling, since Yahweh supports him by the hand. Psalms 37:23-24
Section 2
Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 4 Section IV –
This weeks review is longer than normal but
the concepts and teachings involved could not be easily separated.
The
Mystery of Creation
We believe that God created the world according to his
wisdom. It is not the product of necessity nor blind fate or chance. We believe
that it proceeds from his free will; he wanted to make creatures to share in his
being, wisdom, and goodness: "For you created all things, and by your will they
existed and were created." Therefore the Psalmist explains: "O Lord, how
manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made all"; and "the Lord is good to
all, and his compassion is over all that he has made."
We
believe that God needs no preexistent thing where any help in order to create,
nor his creation any sort of necessary emanation from the divine substance. God
creates really "out of nothing"
Scripture bears witness to faith in creation
"out of nothing" as a truth full of promise and hope. Thus the mother of seven
sons encourages them for martyrdom: I do not know how you came into being in my
womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the
elements within each of you. Therefore the Creator of the world who shaped the
beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, let his mercy give life
and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for sake of his
laws... look at the heavens and the earth and see everything that is in them,
and recognize that God did not make another things that existed. Thus also
mankind comes into being.
Since God could create everything out of nothing,
he can also, through the Holy Spirit, give spiritual life to sinners by creating
a pure heart in them and bodily life to the dead through the Resurrection.
God“gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not
exist." And since God was able to make light shine in darkness by his word, he
can also give the light of faith to those who do not yet know
him.
Because God creates through
wisdom, his creation is ordered:
"You have arranged all things by measure
and number and weight." The universe, created in by the eternal Word, the "image
of the invisible God," is destined for and addressed to man, himself created the
"image of God" and called for a personal relationship with God. Our human
understanding which shares in the light of the divine intellect, can understand
what God tells us by means of his creation, though not without great effort and
only in a spirit of humility and respect before the Creator and his work.
Because creation comes forth from God’s goodness, it shares in that goodness --
-- "and God saw that it was good... very good" -- -- for God willed creation as
a gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined for and entrusted to him. On
many occasions the Church has had to defend the goodness of creation, including
that of the physical world.
God is infinitely greater than all his works:
"You have set your glory above the heavens." Indeed, God's "greatness is
unsearchable." But because he is the free and sovereign Creator, the first cause
of all that exists, God is present to his creatures inmost being: "In him we
live and move and have our being." In the words of St. Augustine, God is "higher
than my highest and more inward than my innermost self."
With creation, God
does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and
existence, but also, at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being,
enables them to act and brings them to their final end. Recognizing this utter
dependence with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy
and confidence:
For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the
things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated
it. How would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would
anything not called forth but you have been preserved? You spare all things, for
they are yours, O Lord, you who love the
living.
Section 2 Chapter 1
Article 1 Paragraph 4 Section V –
God Carries Out His Plan: Divine
Providence
Creation has its own
goodness and proper perfection, but did not spring forth complete the hands of
the Creator. The universe was created "in a state of journeying" (in statu viae)
toward an ultimate perfection yet to be attained, to which God has destined it.
We call "Divine Providence" the dispositions by which God guides his creation
towards perfection:
By his providence
God protects and governs all things which he has made, "reaching mightily from
one end of the earth to the other, and ordering all things well.” For "all are
open and laid bare to his eyes," even those things which are yet to come into
existence through the free action of creatures.
The witness of Scripture is
unanimous that the solicitude of divine providence is concrete and immediate;
God cares for all, from the least things to the great events of the world and
its history. The sacred books powerfully affirm God's absolute sovereignty over
the course of events: "Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever he pleases."
And so it is with Christ, "who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one
opens." As the book of Proverbs states: "Many are the plans in the mind of a
man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established."
And so we
see the Holy Spirit, the principal author of sacred Scripture, often attributing
actions to God without mentioning any secondary causes. This is not a "primitive
mode of speech," but a profound way of recalling God's primacy and absolute
Lordship over history in the world, and so of educating its people to trust in
him. The prayer of the Psalms is the great school of this trust.
Jesus asks
for childlike abandonment to the providence of our heavenly Father who takes
care of his children's smallest needs: "Therefore do not be anxious, saying,
‘What shall we?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’,... Your heavenly father knows that
you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all
these things shall be yours as well."
God is sovereign master of his plan.
But to carry it out he also makes use of his creatures’ cooperation. This is not
a sign of weakness, but rather a token of Almighty God's greatness and goodness.
For God grants his creatures not only their existence, but also the dignity of
acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each other, and thus
cooperating in the accomplishment of his plan.
To human beings God even gives
the power of freely sharing in his providence by entrusting them with the
responsibility of "subduing" the earth and having dominion over it. God thus
enables men to be intelligent and free clauses in order to complete the work of
creation, to perfect its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbors.
Though often unconscious collaborators with God's will, they can also enter a
deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers, and their
sufferings. They then fully become "God's fellow workers" and coworkers for his
kingdom.
The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is
inseparable from faith in God the Creator. God is the first cause who operates
in and through secondary causes: "For God is at work in you, both to will and to
work for his good pleasure." Far from diminishing the creatures dignity, this
truth enhances it. Drawn from nothingness by God's power, wisdom, and goodness,
it can do nothing if it is cut off from its origin, for "without a Creator the
creature vanishes." Still less can a creature attain its ultimate end without
the help of God's grace.
If God the Father Almighty, creator of the ordered
and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this
question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious,
no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the
answer to this question: the goodness of creation, the drama of sin, and the
patient love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive
Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the
power of the sacraments, and his call to a blessed life to which free creatures
are invited to consent in advance, but from which, by a terrible mystery, they
can also turn away in advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian
messagethat is not in part an answer to the question of evil.
But why did God
not create a world so perfect that no evil could exist in it? With infinite
power God could always create something better. But with infinite wisdom and
goodness God freely willed to create a world "in a state of journeying" toward
its ultimate perfection. In God's plan this process of becoming involves the
appearance of certain beings and the disappearance of others, the existence of
the more perfect alongside the less perfect, both constructive and destructive
forces of nature. With physical good there exist also physical evil as long as
creation has not reached perfection.
Angels and men, as intelligent and free
creatures, have to journey toward their ultimate destinies by their free choice
and preferential love. They can therefore go astray. Indeed, they have sinned.
Thus has moral evil, incommensurably more harmful than physical evil, entered
the world. God is in no way, directly or indirectly, the cause of moral evil. He
permits it, however, because he respects the freedom of his creatures and,
mysteriously, knows how to derive good from it:
For Almighty God..., because
he is supremely good, would never allow any evil whatsoever to exist in his
works if he were not so all-powerful and good as to cause good to emerge from
evil itself.
In time we can discover
that God in his almighty providence can bring a good from the consequences of an
evil, even a moral evi, caused by his creatures: "It was not you," said Joseph
to his brothers, "who sent me here, but
God... You meant evil against me;
but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept
alive." From the greatest moral evil ever committed -- -- the rejection and
murder of God's only Son, caused by the sins of all men -- -- God, by his grace
that "abandoned all the more," brought the greatest of goods: the glorification
of Christ and our redemption. But for all
that, evil never becomes a
good.
“We know that in everything God
works for good for those who love him.” The constant witness of the saints
confirms this
truth:
St.
Catherine of Siena said to "those who are scandalized and rebel against what
happens to them": "Everything comes from love, all is ordained for the salvation
of man, God does nothing without this goal in mind."
St. Thomas More,
shortly before his martyrdom, consoled his daughter: "Nothing can come but that
that God wills. And I make me very sure that whatsoever that be, seem it never
so bad in sight, it shall indeed be the best."
Dame Julian Norwich: "Here I
was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the faith...
and that at the same time I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in
what our Lord showed in this time -- -- that ‘all manner of thing shall be
well’ "
We firmly believe that God is master of the world and of its history.
But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us. Only at the end, when
our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God "face to face," will we fully know
the ways by which -- -- even through the dramas of evil and sin -- -- God has
guided his creation to that definitive sabbath rest for which he created heaven
and earth.
August 19, 2012The
lives of the just are in Yahweh's care, their birthright
will
endure for ever;Psalms
37:18
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 4 Section II –
Creation – Work Of the Holy Trinity
"In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth": three things are affirmed
in these first words of Scripture: the eternal God gave a beginning to all that
exist outside of himself; he alone is Creator (the verb "create" -- -- Hebrew
bara -- -- always has God for its subject). The totality of what exists
(expressed by the formula "the heavens and the earth") depends on the One who
gives it being.
"In the beginning was the Word... and the Word was God... all
things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was
made."The New Testament reveals that God
created everything by the eternal Word, his beloved Son.
In him"all things were
created, in heaven and on earth... all things were created through him and for
him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." The Church's
faith likewise confesses the creative action of the Holy Spirit, the "giver of
life," "the Creator Spirit" ("Veni, Creator Spiritus"), the "source of every
good."
The Old Testament suggests and the New Covenant reveals the
creative action of the Son and the Spirit, inseparably one with that of the
Father. This creative cooperation is clearly affirmed in the Church’s rule of
faith: "There exists but one God... he is the Father, God, the Creator, the
author, the giver of order.
He
made all things by himself, that is, by his Word and by his Wisdom," "by the Son
and the Spirit" who, so to speak, are "his hands." Creation is the common work
of the Holy Trinity.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 4 Section III –
The World Was Created for the Glory of God
Scripture and Tradition never cease to teach and celebrate this
fundamental truth: "The world was made for the glory of God." St. Bonaventure
explains that God created all things "not to increase his glory, but to show it
forth and to communicate it," for God has no other reason for creating than his
love and goodness: "Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened
his hand." The first Vatican Council
explains:
This one, true God, of his own goodness and "almighty power,"
not for increasing his own beatitude, nor for attaining his perfection, but in
order to manifest his perfection through the benefits which he bestows on
creatures, with absolute freedom of counsel "and from the beginning of time,
made out of nothing both orders of creatures, the spiritual and the
corporal..."
The glory of God consists in the realization of this
manifestation and communication of his goodness, for which the world was
created. God made us "to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the
purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace," for "the glory of God
is man fully alive; moreover man's life is the vision of God: if God's
revelation through creation has already obtained life for all the beings that
dwell on earth, how much more will the Word’s manifestation of the Father obtain
life for those who see God." The ultimate purpose of creation is that God "who
is the Creator of all things may at last become‘all in all,’ thus simultaneously
assuring his own glory and our
beatitude."
August 12, 2012As it is, these remain: faith,
hopeand love, the three of them; and the greatest of them is
love.1Corinthians
13:13
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 4
-
The Creator-
Catechesis on creation is of major importance. It concerns the
very foundations of human and Christian life: For it makes explicit the response
of the Christians faith to the basic question that men of all times have asked
themselves: "Where do we come from?”"Where are we going?” "What is our origin?"
"What is our end?" "Where does everything that exists come from and where is it
going?" The two questions, the first about the origin and the second about the
end, are inseparable. They are decisive for the meaning and orientation of our
life and actions.
The question about the origins of the world and of man has been
the object of many scientific studies which have splendidly enriched our
knowledge of the age and dimensions of the cosmos, the development of life-forms
and the appearance of man. These discoveries invite us to even greater
admiration for the greatness of the Creator, prompting us to give him thanks for
all his works and for the understanding and wisdom he gives to scholars and
researchers. With Solomon they can say: "It is he who gave me unerring knowledge
of what exists, to know the structure of the world and the activity of the
elements... for wisdom, the fashioner or all things, taught
me."
The great interest accorded to these studies is strongly
stimulated by a question of another order, which goes beyond the proper domain
of the natural sciences. It is not only a question of knowing when and how the
universe arose physically, or when men appeared, but rather of discovering the
meaning of such an origin: is the universe governed by chance, blind faith,
anonymous necessity, or by a transcendent, intelligent and good Being, called
"God"? And if the world does come from God's wisdom and goodness, why is there
evil? Where does it come from? Who is responsible for it? Is there any
liberation from it?
Since the beginning the Christian faith has been challenged by
responses to the question of origins that differ from its own. Ancient religions
and cultures produced many myths concerning origins. Some philosophers have said
that everything is God, that the world is God, or that the development of the
world is the development of God (Pantheism).
Others
have said that the world is a necessary emanation arising from God and returning
to him. Still others have affirmed the existence of two eternal principles, Good
and Evil, Light and Darkness, locked in permanent conflict (Dualism,
Manichaeism).
According to some of these conceptions, the world (at least the
physical world) is evil, the product of a fall, and is thus to be rejected or
left behind (Gnosticism). Some admit that the world was made by God, but as by a
watchmaker who, once he has made a watch, abandons it to itself (Deism).
Finally, others reject any transcendent origin for the world, but see it as
merely the interplay of matter that has always existed (Materialism). All these
attempts bear witness to the permanence and universality of the question of
origins. This inquiry is distinctively
human.
Human intelligence is surely already capable of finding a
response to the question of origins. The existence of God the Creator can be
known with certainty through his works, by the light of human reason, even if
this knowledge is often obscured and disfigured by error. This is why faith
comes to confirm and enlighten reason in the correct understanding of this
truth: "By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so
that what is seen was made out of things which do not
appear."
The truth about creation is so important for all of human life
that God in his tenderness wanted to reveal to his People everything that is
salutary to know on the subject. Beyond the natural knowledge that every man can
have of the Creator, God progressively revealed to Israel the mystery of
creation. He who chose the patriarchs, who brought Israel out of Egypt, and who
by choosing Israel created and formed it, this same God reveals himself as the
One to whom belong all the peoples of the earth, and the whole earth itself; he
is the One who alone "made heaven and
earth."
Thus the revelation of creation is inseparable from the
revelation and forging of the covenant of the one God and his People. Creation
is revealed as the first step towards this covenant, the first and universal
witness to God's all-powerful love. And so, the truth of creation is also
expressed with growing vigor in the message of the Prophet, the prayer of the
psalms and the liturgy, and in wisdom sayings of the Chosen
People.
August 5, 2012Yahweh says this, "Stand at the crossroads and
look, ask for the ancient paths: which was the good way? Take it and you will find rest for yourselves". But they have said, "We
will not take it."Jeremiah
6:16
Section
2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 3 -
The
Almighty
Of all the divine attributes, only God's omnipotence is
named in the Creed: to confess this power has great bearing on our lives. We
believe that His might is universal, for God who created
everything also rules everything and can do everything. God's power is loving,
for He is our Father, and mysterious, for only faith can discern it when it "is
made perfect in weakness."
The
Holy Scriptures repeatedly confess the universal power of God. He is called the
"Mighty One of Jacob," the "Lord of hosts," the "strong and mighty" one. If God
is almighty "in heaven and on earth," it is because he made them. Nothing is
impossible with God, who disposes his works according to his will. He is the
Lord of the universe, whose order he established and which remains wholly
subject to him and at his disposal. He is a master of history, governing hearts
and events in keeping with as well: "it is always in your power to show great
strength, and who can withstand the strength of your arm?"
God is the Father
Almighty, whose fatherhood and power shed light on one another: God reveals his
fatherly omnipotence by the way he takes care of our needs; by the filial
adoption that he gives us ("I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons
and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."): finally by his infinite mercy, for he
displays his power at its height by freely forgiving sins.
God's almighty power
is in no way arbitrary "In God, power, essence, will, intellect, wisdom, and
justice are all identical. Nothing therefore can be in God's power which could
not be in his just will or his wise intellect.
Faith
in God the Father Almighty can be put to the test by the experience of evil and
suffering. God can sometimes seem to be absent and incapable of stopping evil.
But in the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his Almighty power in
the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered
evil. Christ crucified is thus "the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the
foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than
men." It Is in Christ's Resurrection and exultation that the Father has shown
forth "the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who
believe."
Only
faith can embrace the mysterious ways of God's almighty power. This faith
glories in its weaknesses in order to draw to itself Christ's power. The Virgin
Mary is the supreme model of this faith, for she believed that "nothing will be
impossible with God," and was able to magnify the Lord: "For he who is mighty
has done great things for me, and holy is his
name."
An
inspirational excerpt from Catherine Galasso-Vigorito who is a syndicated
columnist and author of “A New You, Words to Soothe the Mind, Body and
Spirit.”
Do
you sometimes feel like giving up?Have
you been through so many disappointments you think, “What’s the use of trying
anymore?” Now, you are about to walk
away from your heart’s dream, short-changing yourself, just settling for “good
enough.”
But,
“good enough” isn’t “good enough” for you.So allow me to be the voice of
encouragement.You are a child of God,
and He created you for a great purpose.
Do no quit prematurely or yield to defeat too quickly.No
matter where you are, where you’ve been or what challenges you are confronting,
never fall short of walking in the life that God intends for you.Your
God-given dreams are still within your grasp.
Hence pick yourself up and try again.
God
says: “You are “more than a conqueror.” (Romans 8:38)You’re
“strongin the Lord and in the power of His might.” (Ephesians 6:11) “You’re
fearfully and wonderfully made.”(Psalms 139:4) And you are “blessed coming in
and blessed going out.”(Deuteronomy 28:6).
Remember
that “God hath not given you a spirit of far, but of power, of love and of a
sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:8)“He has not
forgotten you…” (Isaiah 49:15)For, “He
has written your name in the palm of His hand.” (Isaiah 49:16).
Circumstances won’t
always be as they are today.Persist!
Your situation can turn around, and you can be ushered into a whole new
opportunity.
I
may add “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and start all over
again!”.
July 29, 2012
“Trust wholeheartedly in
Yahweh, put no faith in your own perception; “Proverbs
3:5
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 2 Section III
-
The Holy Trinity in the Teaching of the Faith
From the
beginning, the revealed truth of the Holy Spirit has been at the very root of
the Church's living faith, principally by means of Baptism. It finds its
expression in the role of baptismal faith, formulated in the preaching,
catechesis, and prayer of the Church. Such formulations are already found in the
apostolic writings, such as the salutation taken up in the Eucharistic liturgy:
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of
the Holy Spirit be with you all."
During the first centuries the Church sought to clarify its
Trinitarian faith, both to deepen its own understanding of the faith and to
defend it against the errors that were deforming it. This clarification was the
work of the early councils, aided by the theological work of the Church Fathers
and sustained by the Christian people's sense of faith.
It
order to articulate the dogma of the Trinity, the church had to develop its own
terminology with the help of certain notions of philosophical origin:
"substance," "person" or "hypostasid," "relation," and so on. In doing this, she
did not submit the faith to human wisdom, but gave a new and unprecedented
meeting to these terms, which from then on would be used to signify an affable
mystery, "infinitely beyond all that we can humanly
understand."
The church uses (I) the term "substance" (rendered also at times
by "essence" or "nature") to designate the Divine being in its unity, (II) the
term "person" or "hypostasis" to designate the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in
the real distinction among them, and (III) the term "relation" to designate the
fact that their distinction lies in the relationship of each to the
others.
The Trinity is One. We do not confess three Gods, but one God in
three persons, the "consubstantial Trinity." The Divine persons do not share the
one divinity among themselves but each of them is God whole entire: "The Father
is that which the Son is, the Son that which the Father is, the Father and the
Son that was the Holy Spirit is, i. e., by nature one God." In the words of the
Fourth Lateran Council (1215): "Each of the persons is that supreme reality,
viz., the Divine substance, essence or nature."
The Divine persons are really distinct from one another. "God is
one but not solitary." "Father," "Son," "Holy Spirit" are not simply names
designating modalities of the Divine being, they are really distinct from one
another: "He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the
Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son." They are
distinct from one another and their relations of origin:" It is the Father who
generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds." The
Divine Unity is Triune.
The Divine persons are relative to one another. Because it does
not divide the Divine unity, the real distinction of the persons from one
another resides solely in the relationships which relate them to one another:
"in the relational names of the persons the Father is related to the Son, the
Son to the Father, and the Holy Spirit both.While they are called three persons in view of
their relations, we believe in one nature or substance." Indeed "everything (in
them) is one where there is no opposition of relationship." "Because of that
unity the Father is wholly in the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son is
wholly in the Father and wholly in the Holy Spirit; Holy Spirit is wholly in the
Father and wholly in the Son."
St. Gregory of Nazianzus, also called "the theologian," and
trust this summary of Trinitarian faith to the catechumens of
Constantinople:
Above all guard for me this great deposit of faith for which I
live and fight, which I want to take with me as a companion, and which make me
bear all evils and despise all pleasures: I mean the profession of faith in the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. I entrust it to you today. By it I am
soon going to plunge you into water and raise you up from it. I give it to you
as a companion and patron of your whole life. I give you but one divinity and
power, existing one in three, and containing the three in a distinct way.
Divinity without disparity of substance or nature, without superior degree that
raises up or inferior degree that cast down... the infinite co-naturality of
three infinites.Each person considered
in himself is entirely God... the three considered together... I have not even
begun to think of unity when the Trinity bathes me in its splendor. I have not
even begin to think of Trinity when unity grasps
me...
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 2 Section IV -
The Divine Works and the Trinitarian Missions
"O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!" God is eternal
blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is
the "plan of his loving kindness," conceived by the Father before the foundation
of the world, in his beloved Son: "He estined us in love to be his Sons" and "to
be conformed to the image of his Son," through "the spirit of sonship." This
plan is a "grace (which) was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,"
stemming immediately from Trinitarian love." It unfolds in the work of creation,
the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and
the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the
Church.
The whole Divine economy is the common work of the three divine
persons. For as the Trinity has only one and the same nature, so too does it
have only one and the same operation: "The Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit are
not three principles of creation but one principle." However each Divine person
performs the common work according to his unique personal property. Thus the
Church confesses, following the New Testament, "one God and Father from whom all
things are, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and one Holy
Spirit in whom all things are." It is above all the Divine missions of the Son's
Incarnation and the gift of the Holy Spirit that show forth the properties of
the divine persons.
Being a work at once common and personal, the whole Divine
economy makes known both what is proper to the divine persons and their one
divine nature. Hence the whole Christian life is a communion with each of the
divine persons, without in any way separating them. Everyone who glorifies the
Father does so through the Son in the Holy Spirit; everyone who follows Christ
does so because the Father draws him and the spirit moves
him.
The ultimate end of the whole Divine economy is the entry of
God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. But even now we
are called to be a dwelling for the Most holy Trinity: "If a man loves me," says
the Lord, "he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come
to him, and make our home with
him":
O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely
so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already
in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my
unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery!
Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of
your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire,
completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your
creative action.
July22,
2012In the same way your light must shine in people's sight, so
that, seeing your good works, they may give praise to your
Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16
Section
2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 1 Section I -
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit
Christians are baptized "in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit." Before receiving the sacrament, they respond to a
three-part question when asked to confess the Father, the son, and Holy Spirit:
"I do." "The faith of all Christians rests on the Trinity."Christians
are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit: not in
their names, there is only one God, the Almighty Father, his only Son, and the
Holy Spirit: the Most Holy
Trinity.
The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of
Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in Himself. It is therefore
the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that
enlightens.
It is the most
fundamental and essential teaching in the "hierarchy of truths of faith." The
whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the
means by which the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, reveals Himself
to men "and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from
sin."
This paragraph expounds briefly (I) how the mystery of the
Blessed Trinity was revealed (II) how the church has articulated the doctrine of
the Faith regarding this mystery, and (III) how, by the divine missions of the
Son and the Holy Spirit, God the Father fulfills the "plan of his loving
goodness" of creation, redemption, and sanctification.
The Fathers of the Church distinguish between theology
(theologia) and economy (oikonomia). "Theology" refers to the mystery of God's
inmost life within the Blessed Trinity and "economy" to all the works by which
God reveals Himself and communicates his
life.
The Trinity is a mystery of faith in the strict sense, one of
the "mysteries that are hidden in God, which can never be known unless they are
revealed by God." To be sure, God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in
his work of creation and in his Revelation throughout the Old Testament. But his
inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone
or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of God's Son and the sending of
the Holy Spirit.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 1 Section II -
The Revelation of God s Trinity
Many
religions invoke God as "Father." The deity is often considered the "father of
gods and men." In Israel, God is called "Father" inasmuch as he is Creator of
the world. Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and of the gift of
the law to Israel, "his firstborn son." God is also called the Father of the
king of Israel. Most especially he is "the Father of the poor," of the orphaned
and widowed, who are under his loving
protection.
By calling God "Father," the language of faith indicates two
main things: that God is the first origin of everything and transcendent
authority; and that he is at the same time goodness and loving care for all his
children. God's parental tenderness can also be expressed by the image of
motherhood, which emphasizes God's immanence, the intimacy between Creator and
creature. The language of faith thus draws on the human experience of parents,
who are in a way the first representatives of God for man. But this experience
also tells us that human parents are fallible and can disfigure the face of
fatherhood and motherhood. We ought therefore to recall that God transcends the
human distinction between the sexes. He is neither man nor woman: he is God. He
also transcends human fatherhood and motherhood, although he is their origin and
standard: no one is father as God as
Father.
Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard of sense: he is
Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father in relation to his only
Son, who is eternally Son only in relation to his Father: "No one knows the Son
except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to
whom the Son chooses to reveal
him."
For this reason the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; as
"the image of the invisible God"; as the "radiance of the glory of God and the
very stamp of his nature."
Following
this apostolic tradition, the Church confess at the first ecumenical Council at
Nicaea (325) that the Son is "consubstantial" with the Father, that is, one only
God with him. The second ecumenical Council held at Constantinople in 381, kept
this expression in its formulation of the Nicene Creed and confessed "the only
begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light, true
God from true God, begotten not made, consubstantial with the
Father."
Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of "another
Paraclete" (Advocate), the Holy Spirit.At work since creation, having previously
"spoken through the prophets," the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples,
to teach them and guide them "into all the truth." The Holy Spirit is thus
revealed as another divine person with Jesus and the
Father.
The eternal origin of the Holy Spirit is revealed in his mission
and time. The Spirit has sent the apostles and to the church both by the father
and nails done and by the son in person, again returned to the father. The
sending of the person of the Spirit after Jesus glorification reveals in its
fullness the mystery of the holy Trinity.The apostolic faith concerning the Spirit was
confessed by the second ecumenical Council at Constantinople 381: "We believe in
the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father." By
this confession, the Church recognizes the Father as "the source and origin of
the whole divinity." But the eternal origin of the Spirit is not unconnected
with the Son's origin: "The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is
God, one in equal with the Father and the Son, of the same substance and also of
the same nature. ...Yet he is not called the Spirit of the Father alone,... but
the spirit of both the Father and Son. The Creed of the Church from the Council
of Constantinople confesses: "With the Father and the Son, he is worshiped and
glorified."
The Latin tradition of the Creed confesses that the Spirit
"proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque)."The
Council of Florence in 1438 explains: "The Holy Spirit is eternally from Father
and Son; He has his nature and subsistence at once
(simul) from the Father and the Son. He proceeds eternally from both as
from one principle and through one's spiration.. And, since the Father has
through generation given to the only begotten Son everything that belongs to the
Father, except being Father, the Son has also eternally from the Father, from
whom he is eternally born, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the
Son."
The affirmation of the filioque does not appear in the Creed
confesse in 381 at Constantinople. But Pope Leo I,following
an ancient Latin and Alexandrian tradition, had already confessed it
dogmatically in 447, even before Rome, in 451 at the Council of Chalcedon, came
to recognize and receive theymbol of
381.The use of this formula in the Creed
was gradually admitted into the Latin liturgy (between the eighth and 11th
centuries). The introduction of the filioque into the Niceno --
Constantinopolitan Creed by the Latin liturgy constitutes moreover, even today,
a point of disagreement with the Orthodox
Churches.
At the outset the Eastern tradition expresses the Father's
character as first origin of the Spirit. By confessing the Spirit as he "who
proceeds from the Father," it affirms that he comes from the Father through the
Son. The Western tradition expresses first the consubstantial communion between
Father and Son, by saying that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son
(filioque). It says this, "legitimately and with good reason," for the eternal
order of the divine persons in their consubstantial communion implies that the
Father, as "the principle without principle," is the first origin of the Spirit,
but also that as Father of the only Son, he is, what the Son, the single
principle from which the Holy Spirit proceeds. This legitimate complementarity,
provided it does not become rigid, does not affect the identity of faith in the
reality of the same mystery confessed.
July 15, 2012
'Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and
actson them willbe like a sensible man who built his house on rock..
Matthew
7:24
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 1 Section III - God “He
who is” Is Truth and Love
God, "He who is," reveals himself to Israel as the one
"abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." These two terms express
summarily the riches of the divine name. In all his works God displays not only
his kindness, goodness, grace, and steadfast love, but also his trustworthiness,
constancy, faithfulness, and truth. "I give thanks to your name for your
steadfast love and your faithfulness." He is truth, for "God is light and in Him
there is no darkness"; "God is love," as the apostle John
teaches.
God is
truth
"The sum of your word is truth; and every one of your righteous
ordinances endures forever." "And now, O Lord God, you are God, and your words
are true;" this is why God's promises always come true. God is truth itself,
whose words cannot deceive. This is why one can abandon oneself in full trust to
the truth and faithfulness of his word in all things. The beginning of sin and
of man's fall was due to a lie of the tempter who induced doubt of God's word,
kindness, and faithfulness.God's truth is his wisdom, which commands the whole created
order and governs the world. God who alone made heaven and earth, can alone
impart true knowledge of every created thing in relation to
Himself.
-God is also truthful when he reveals Himself-- the teaching
that comes from God is "true instruction." When He sends His Son into the world
it will be "to bear witness to the truth": "We know that the Son of God has come
and has given us understanding to know Him who is
true."
God is love
In the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that
God had only one reason to reveal Himself to them, a single motive for choosing
them from among all peoples as His special possession: His sheer gratuitous
love. And thanks to the prophets Israel understood that it was again out of love
that God never stopped saving them and pardoning their unfaithfulness and
sins.
Gods love for Israel is compared to a father's love for his son.
His love for His people is stronger than a mother's for her children. God loves
His people more than a bridegroom his beloved; His love will be victorious over
even the worst infidelities will extend to his most precious gift: "God so loved
the world that He gave his only Son."
God's love is "everlasting"; "For the mountains may depart and
the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you." Through
Jeremiah God declares to His people, "I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore I have continued my faithfulness to
you."
But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God is
love": God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of love
in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God Himself is
an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and He has destined
us to share in that exchange.
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 1 Section IV -
Implications of Faith in One God
Believing in God, the only one, and loving Him with all our
being has enormous consequences for life. It means coming to know God's greatness and majesty: "Behold,
God is great, and we know Him not." Therefore, we must "serve God
first."
It means living in thanksgiving: if God is the only One,
everything we are comes from Him: "What have you that you did not receive?"
"What shall I render to the Lord for all his bounty to
me?"
It means knowing the unity and true dignity of all men: everyone
is made in the image and like God.
It means making good use of created things: faith in God, the
only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings
us closer to Him, and to detach ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away
from Him.
It means trusting God in every circumstance, even in adversity.
A prayer of St. Teresa of Jesus wonderfully expresses this trust:
Let nothing trouble you, let nothing frighten you
everything passes, God never changes
patience,
obtains all
Whoever has God, wants for nothing
God alone is
enough
July 8, 2012 To do what is upright and
just is more pleasing to Yahweh than sacrifice.Proverbs
21:23
Section 2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 1 Section I - I Believe
in God
Through the centuries many professions or symbols of faith have
been articulated in a response to the needs of the different eras. Among all the
creeds, two occupy a special place in the Church's life: the Apostles Creed is
so called because it is rightly considered to be a faithful summary of the
apostles faith. The Nicene Creed draws its great authority from the fact that it
stems from the first two ecumenical Councils in 325 and 381. It remains common
to all the great Churches of both East and West to this day.Our
presentation of the faith will follow the Apostles Creed, which constitutes, as
it were, "the oldest Roman catechism." The presentation will be completed
however by constant references to the Nicene Creed which is often more explicit
and more detailed.
"I believe in God": this first affirmation of the Apostles Creed
is also the most fundamental. The whole Creed speaks of God, and when it also
speaks of man and of the world it does so in relation to God. The other articles
of the Creed all depend on the first, just as the remaining commandments make
the first explicit. The other articles help us to know God better as he reveals
himself progressively to men. "The fateful first professed their belief in God."
I believe in one God, these are the words with which the Nicene Creed begins.
The confession of God's oneness which has its roots in the divine revelation of
the Old Covenant, is inseparable from the profession of God's existence and is
equally fundamental.
To Israel, His chosen, God reveals himself as only One: "Hear, O
Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with
all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." "Turn to me
and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, then there is no
other.... To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall
swear.
Jesus himself affirms that God is "the one Lord" who you must
love "with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and
with all your strength." To confess that Jesus is Lord is distinctive of
Christian faith. This is not contrary to belief in one God. Nor does believing
in the Holy Spirit as "Lord and giver of life" introduce any division into the
One God.
We firmly believe and confess without reservation that there is
only one true God, eternal, infinite and unchangeable, incomprehensible,
almighty, and ineffable, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit; three
persons indeed, but one essence, substance or nature entirely
simple.
Section
2 Chapter 1 Article 1 Paragraph 1 Section II - God reveals His
Name
God revealed himself to His people Israel by making His name
known to them. A name expresses a person's essence and identity and the meaning
of this person's life. God has a name; He is not an anonymous force. To disclose
one's name is to make oneself known to others; in a way it is to hand oneself
over by becoming accessible, capable of being known more intimately and
addressed personally.
God
reveals Himself progressively and under different names to His people, but the
revelation that proved to be the fundamental one for both the old and new
covenants was the revelation of the divine name to Moses in the theophany of the
burning bush.God calls Moses from the
midst of the Bush that burns without being consumed: "I am the God of your
father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." God is the
God of the fathers, the one who had called and guided the patriarchs in their
wanderings. He is the fateful and compassionate God remembers them and His
promises; He comes to free their descendents from slavery. He is the God who,
from beyond space and time, can do this and will to do it, God will put his
almighty power to work for this
plan.
In revealing His mysterious name,YHWH
( "I AM He who is," "I AM who AM" or "I AM who I AM"), God says who He is and by
what name He is to be
called.
This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at
once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it
better expresses God is what He is -- -- infinitely above everything that we can
understand: He is the "hidden God," His name is ineffable, and He is the God who
makes Himself close to men. By revealing his name God at the same time reveals
His faithfulness which is from everlasting to everlasting, valid for the past
("I am the God of your fathers"), as for the future ("I will be with you"). God
who reveals his name as "I AM," reveals himself as the God who is always there,
resident to His people in order to save
them.
Faced with God's fascinating and mysterious presence, man
discovers his own insignificance. Before the burning bush, Moses takes off his
sandals and veils his face in the presence of God's holiness. Before the glory
of the thrice-holy God, Isaiah cries out: "Woe is me! I am lost: for I am a man
of unclean lips. " Before the divine signs rought by Jesus, Peter exclaims:
"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." But because God is holy He can
forgive the man who realizes that he is a sinner before Him: "I will not execute
my fierce anger... for I am God and not man, the holy one in your midst."
Out
of respect for the holiness of God, the people of Israel did not pronounce his
name. In the reading of Sacred Scripture, the revealed name YHWH is replaced by
the divine title Lord.It is under this
title that the divinity of Jesus will be acclaimed: "Jesus is Lord."
A
God merciful and gracious
After
Israel's sin, when the people had turned away from God to worship the golden
calf, God hears Moses' prayer of intercession and agrees to walk in the
midstof an unfaithful people, thus
demonstrating His love. When Moses asked to see His glory, God responds "I will
make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name 'the
Lord', YHWH. Then the Lord passes before Moses and proclaims, YHWH, YHWH, a God
merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness"; Moses then confesses that the Lord is a forgiving
God.
The divine name, "I Am" or "He Is," expresses God's
faithfulness: despite the faithlessness of men's sin and the punishment it
deserves, He keeps "steadfast love for thousands." By going so far as to give up
His own son for us, God reveals that He is "rich in mercy." By giving His life
to free us from sin, Jesus reveals that He Himself bears the divine name: "When
you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you'll realize that 'I
Am.'
God alone
IS
Over the centuries, Israel's faith was able to manifest and
deepen realization of the riches contained in the revelation of the divine name.
God is unique; there are no other gods besides Him. He transcends the world and
history. He made heaven and earth: "They will perish, but you endure; they will
all wear out like a garment... but you are the same, and your ears have no end."
In God "there is no variation or shadow due to change." God is "He who is," from
everlasting to everlasting, and as such remains ever faithful to himself and to
his promises.
The revelation of the ineffable name "I Am who I Am" contains
then the truth that God alone IS. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew
Scriptures, and following it the Church's Tradition, understood that in the
divine name in this sense: God is the fullness of being and of every perfection,
without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have
from Him; He alone is His very being, and He has of Himself everything that He
is.
July 1, 2012 'Things that are impossible by human resources, are possible
for God.' Luke 18:27
Chapter
3 Article 2 Section I - Lord, Look upon The Faith of Your Church
It
is the Church that believes first, and so bears, nourishes, and sustains my
faith. Everywhere, it is the church that first confesses the Lord: "Throughout
the world the holy Church acclaims you."It is through the church that we receive faith
and new life in Christ by baptism. The Minister of baptism asks the catechumen:
"What you ask of God's church?" And the answer is: "Faith." "What does faith
offer you?" "Eternal life." Salvation
comes from God alone; but because we receive the life of faith through the
church, she is our mother: "We believe the church as the mother of our new
birth, and not in the church as if she were the author of our salvation."
Because she is our mother, she is also our teacher in
faith.
Chapter
3 Article 2 Section II - The Language of Faith
We do not believe in formulas, but in those
realities they express, which faith allows us to touch.The
believers act of faith does not terminate in the propositions, but in the
realities which they express. All the same, we do approach these realities with
the help of formulations of the faith which permit us to express the faith and
to hand it on, to celebrate it in community, to assimilate and live on it for
more and more.
The church, "the pillar and bulwark of the truth," faithfully
guards "the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints." She guards
the memory of Christ's words; if you she from generation to generation hands on
the apostlesconfession of faith. The church our
mother teaches us the language of faith in order to introduce us to the
understanding and the life of
faith.
Chapter
3 Article 2 Section III - only one Faith
Through the centuries, in so many languages,
cultures, peoples, and nations, the Church has constantly confessed this one
Faith, received from the one Lord, transmitted by one baptism, and grounded in
the conviction that all people have only one God and Father. St. Irenaeus, a
witness of his face, declared; "indeed, the church, though scattered throughout
the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, having received the faith from
the apostles and their disciples... guards this preaching and faith with care,
as dwelling in a single house, and similarly believes as if having but one soul
and a single heart, and preaches, teaches, and hands on this faith a unanimous
voice, as if possessing only one
mouth."
"For
though languages differ throughout the world the content of the Tradition is one
and the same. The Churches established in Germany have no other faith or
Tradition nor do those of the Iberians, not those of the Celts, nor those of the
East, of Egypt, of Libya, nor those established that the center of the world...
the Church's message "is true and solid, in which one and the same way of
salvation appears throughout the whole
world."
"We
guard with care the faith that we have received from the Church, for without
ceasing, under the action of God's Spirit, this deposit of great price, as if in
an excellent vessel, is constantly being renewed and causes the very vessel that
contains it to be
renewed."
June 24, 2012"Give, and there
Will be giftsfor you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and
overflowing,
willbe poured into your lap; because the
standard you use
will be the standard used for you.”Luke
6:38
Chapter 3 Article 1 Section III – The Characteristics of
Faith
When St. Peter confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
the living God , Jesus declared to him that this revelation did not come "from
flesh and blood" but from "My Father who is in heaven." Faith is a gift of God,
a supernatural virtue infused by Him. Before this faith can be exercised, man
must have the grace of God to move and assist him; he must have the interior
helps of the Holy Spirit, who moves the heart and converts it to God, who opens
the eyes of the mind and 'makes it easy for all to accept the
truth.'
Believing is possible only by grace and the interior helps of
the Holy Spirit. But it is no less true that believing is an authentically human
act. Trusting in God and cleaving to the
truths He has revealed are contrary, neither to human freedom or to human
reason. Even in human relations itis not contrary to our dignity to believe what
other persons tell us about themselves and their intentions or to trust their
promises.If this is so, how less
contrary to human dignity is it to "yield by faith the full submission of
intellect and will to God who
reveals."
In faith, the human intellect and will cooperate with divine
grace: Believing is an act of the intellect assenting to the divine truth by
command of the will moved by God through
grace."
What moves us to believe is not the fact that revealed truths
appear as true and intelligible in light of our natural reason: we believe
"because of the authority of God himself who reveals them, who can neither
deceive nor be deceived."So "that the
submission of our faith might nevertheless be in accordance with reason, God
willed that external proofs of his Revelation should be joinedto
the internal helps of the Holy Spirit." Thus the miracles of Christ and the
Saints, prophecies, the Church's growth and holiness, and her fruitfulness and
stability "are the most certain signs of divine Revelation, adapted to the
intelligence of all"; they are "motives of credibility" which show that the
assent of faith is "by no means a blind impulse of the
mind."
Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge
because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure,
revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but "the
certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of
natural reason gives."
"Faith
seeks understanding": it is intrinsic to faith that a believer desires to know
better the One in whom he has put his faith and to understand better what he has
revealed; a more penetrating knowledge will in turn call forth a greater faith,
increasingly set afire by love. The grace of faith opens "the eyes of your
hearts" to a lively understanding of the contents of Revelation: that is, of the
totality of God's plan and the mysteries of faith, of their connection with each
other and with Christ, the center of the revealed mystery. "The same Holy Spirit
constantly perfects faith by his gifts, so that Revelation may be more and more
profoundly understood." In the words of St. Augustine, "I believe, in order to
understand; and I understand, the better to
believe."
Faith and science: "Though faith is above reason, there can
never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who
reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the
human mind, God cannot deny Himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth."
Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is
carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can
never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of
faith derive from the same God. The humble and persevering investigator of the
secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of
himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they
are."
To be human, "man's response to God by faith must be free, and
therefore nobody is to be forced to embrace the faith against his will. The act
of faith is of its very nature a free act.""God calls men to serve Him in spirit and in
truth.
Consequently
they are bound to Him in conscience, but not coerced.
This fact received its fullest manifestation in Christ
Jesus."Indeed, Christ invited people to
faith and conversion, but never coerced them. "For He bore witness to the truth
but refused to use force to impose it on those who spoke against it. His kingdom
grows by the love with which Christ, lifted up on the cross, draws men to
Himself."
Believing
in Jesus Christ and in the One who sent him for our salvation is necessary for
obtaining that salvation "since without faith it is impossible to please God and
to attain to the Fellowship of his sons, therefore without faith no one has ever
attained justification, nor will anyone obtain eternal life but he who endures
to the end."
Faith is an entirely free gift that God makes to man. We can
lose this priceless gift, as St. Paul indicated to St. Timothy: "Wage the good
warfare, holding faith in good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain
persons have made shipwreck of their faith." To live, grow, and persevere in the
faith until the end we must nourish it with the word of
God.
Faith makes us taste in advance the light of the beatific
vision, the goal of our journey here below so faith is already the beginning of
eternal life. Now, however, "we walk by faith, not by sight";even
thoughenlightened by Him in whom it
believes, faith is often lived in darkness and can be put to the test.The world we live in often seems very far from
the one promised us by faith. Our experiences of evil and suffering, injustice,
and death, seem to contradict the Good News; they can shake our faith and become
a temptation against it. It is then we must turn to the witness of faith: to
Abraham, who "in hope believed against hope" to the Virgin Mary, who in "her
pilgrimage of faith," walked into the "night of faith" in sharing the darkness
of her Son's suffering and death.Let us
lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with
perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and
perfecter of our faith.
Wow, there’s a lot of information in that section. If we follow
St. Augustine’s, "I believe, in order to understand; and I understand, the
better to believe."So if you truly
search for the truth you will come to understand that some things of God are not
comprehensible to us with our limited knowledge and we must “believe in good
faith,”that which has been revealed to
us.
June 17, 2012So then, as long as we have the opportunity
let all our actions be for the good of everybody, and especially of those
who belong to the household of the faith. Galatians
6:10
Chapter 3 Article 1 Section I - The
Obedience of Faith
To obey in faith is to submit freely to the word that has been
heard, because it's truth is guaranteed by God, who is Truth itself. Abraham is
the model of such obedience offered to us by sacred Scripture. Virgin Mary is
its most perfect embodiment.
The letter to the Hebrews, in it's great eulogy of the faith of
Israel's ancestors, lays special emphasis on Abraham's faith:"By
faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place which he was to
receive as an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to
go."By faith, he lived as a stranger and
pilgrim in the promised land. By faith, Sarah was given to conceive the son of
the promise. And by faith Abraham offered his only son in sacrifice.Abraham
thus fulfills the definition of faith in Hebrews 11:1: "Faith is the assurance
of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen": because he was "strong
in hisfaith," Abraham became the "father
of all who believe." The Old Testament
is rich in witness to this faith.The
letter to the Hebrews proclaims its eulogy of the exemplary faith of the
ancestors who "received divine approval."The Virgin Mary most perfectly embodies the
obedience of faith. By faith Mary welcome tidings and promise brought by the
angel Gabriel, believing that with "God nothing will be impossible" and so
giving her accent: "Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me
according to Your word." It is for this
faith that all generations have called Mary blessed. Throughout her life until
her last ordeal when Jesus her son died on the cross, Mary's faith never
wavered. She never ceased to believe in the fulfillment of God's word. And so
the church venerates in Mary the purest realization of
faith.
Chapter 3 Article 1 Section II - I Know Who I Have Believed
Faith
is first of all a personal adherence of man to God. At the same time, and
inseparably it is a free assent to the whole truth that God has revealed.It is right and just to entrust oneself wholly
to God and to believe absolutely what he says. It would be futile and false to
place such faith in a creature. For a Christian, believing in God cannot be
separated from believing in the one He sent, his beloved Son, and whom the
father was well pleased; God tells us to listen to him. The Lord himself said to
His disciples: "believing God, believe also in me." We can believe in Jesus
Christ because He is Himself God, the Word made flesh: "No one has ever seen
God; the only Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him
known."Because he "has seen the Father,"
Jesus Christ is the only one who knows Him and can reveal
Him
One cannot believe in Jesus Christ without sharing in his
spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to men who Jesus is. For "no one can
say 'Jesus is Lord', except by the Holy Spirit,"who
searches everything, even the depths of God.....No one comprehends the
thoughts of God, except the Spirit of God."Only God knows God completely: we believe in
the Holy Spirit because He is
God.
The Church never ceases to proclaim her faith in one only God:
Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit.
June 10, 2012
… and those who live by their natural inclinations can never be
pleasing to God.You, however, live not
by your natural inclinations, but by the Spirit, since the Spirit of God has
made a home in you. Indeed, anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not
belong to him.
Romans
8:8-9
Chapter 2 Article 3 Section IV – The Canon of
Scripture
. It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned
which writings are to be included in the list of sacred books. This complete
list is called the Canon of Scripture includes 46 books of the Old Testament (45
if we count Jeremiah and Lametations as one) and 27 for the New. The Old
Testament is an indispensable part of Sacred Scripture. Its books are divinely
inspired and retain a permanent value for the Old Covenant has never been
revoked.Indeed, the economy of the Old
Testament was deliberately so oriented that it should prepare for and declare in
prophecy the coming of Christ, redeemer of all men.
Even though they contain matters imperfect and provisional, the books of
the Old Testament bear witness to the whole divine pedagogy of God's saving
love. In them, too, the mystery of our salvation is present in a hidden
way.
Christians venerate the Old Testament as true Word of God. The
Church has always vigorously opposed the idea of rejecting the Old Testament
under the pretext that the New has rendered it void.
The word of God which is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who has faith, is set forth in and displays its power in a most
wonderful way in the writings of the New Testament which hand on the ultimate
truth of God's Revelation. Their central object is Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate
son: His acts, teachings, Passion and glorification, and his Church's beginnings
under the Spirit’s
guidance.
The Gospels are the heart of all the Scriptures. We can
distinguish three stages in the formation of the
Gospels:
- The life and teaching of Jesus. The Church holds firmly
that the four Gospels which historicity, she unhesitatingly affirms,
faithfully hand on what Jesus, the Son of God, while he lived among men,
really did and taught for their eternal salvation, until the day He was
taken up. - The oral tradition. For after the Ascension of the Lord the
apostles handed on to their hearers what He had said and done but with the
fuller understanding which they received through enlightenment by the Holy
Spirit. - The written Gospels. The sacred authors, in writing the
four Gospels selected certain of the many elements which had been handed on,
either orally or already in written form. Others they synthesized or
explained with an eye to the situation of the churches, while sustaining the
form of preaching, but always in such a fashion that they have told us the
honest truth about Jesus.
evident both in the veneration which the liturgy accords it and in the
surpassing attraction it has exercised on the saints of all
times.
Christians therefore read the Old Testament in the light of
Christ crucified and risen. Such typological reading discloses the inexhaustible
content of the Old Testament; but it must not make us forget that the Old
Testament retains its own intrinsic value as Revelation reaffirmed by our Lord
Himself.Besides, the New Testament has
to be read in the light of the old. Early Christian catechesis make constant use
of the Old Testament. As an old saying put it, the New Testament lies hidden in
the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New. Topology indicates the
dynamic movement toward the fulfillment of the divine plan when God will be
everything to everyone.
Chapter 2 Article 3 Section V – Sacred Scripture in the Life of
the Church
And such is the force and power of the Word of God that it can
serve the Church as her support and vigor and the children of the Church as
strength for their faith, food for the soul, and a pure lasting font of
spiritual life.
Therefore, the study of the sacred page should be the very soul
of sacred theology. All forms of Christian instruction, among which the
liturgical Homily should hold pride of place -- is healthfully nourished and
thrives in holiness through the Word of
Scripture.
The church forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian
faithful to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading
of the divine Scriptures. Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of
Christ.
June 3,
2012Yahweh says this, 'Stand at the
crossroads and look, ask for the ancient paths: which was the
good way? Take it and you willfind rest for yourselves. But they have said, "We
will not take it."Jeremiah
6:16
Chapter 2 Article 3 Section II - Inspiration and Truth of Sacred
Scripture
God is the author of sacred Scripture. The divinely revealed
realities, which are contained and presented in the text of Sacred Scripture,
have been written down under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Holy mother
Church, relying on the faith of the apostolic age, accepts as sacred and
canonical books of the Old and the New Testaments, whole and entire, with all
their parts, on the grounds that, written under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the
Church herself.
God inspired the human authors of the sacred books. God chose
certain man who, while He employed them in this task, made full use of their own
faculties and powers so that, though He acted in them and by them, it was as
true authors that they consigned to writing whatever He wanted written, and no
more.
Since all that the inspired authors or sacred writers affirm
should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the
books of Scripture firmly, faithfully, and without error teach that truth which
God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the Sacred
Scriptures.
Still the Christian faith is not a religion of the book but
rather Christianity is the religion of the word of God, a word which is not a
written and mute word but the word which is incarnate and living. The eternal
Word of the living God must, through the Holy Spirit, open our minds to
understand the Scriptures.
Chapter 2 Article 3 Section III – Holy Spirit, Interpreter of
Scripture
In sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To
interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human
authors truly wanted to affirm and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their
words.
In order to discover the sacred author's intention, the reader
must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary
genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking, and narrating
then current.For the fact is that truth
is differently presented as expressed in the various types of historical
writing, and the prophetical and political texts, and other forms of literary
expression.
But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, it must be read and
interpreted in the light of the same Spirit that it was written. The Second
Vatican Council indicates three criteria for interpreting Scripture in
accordance with the Spirit who inspired
it.
- Be especially attentive to the content and unity of the
whole Scripture. Different as the books which comprise it may be, Scripture
is a unity by reason of the unity of God's plan, of which Christ Jesus at
the center and heart, open since his Passover - Read the Scripture within the living tradition of the whole
Church.According to a saying of the
Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the church’s heart
rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her
Tradition the living memorial of God's Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who
gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture, according to the
spiritualmeaning which the Spirit
grants to church - Be attentive to the analogy of faith, which means the
coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan
of Revelation.
They can be distinguished as the literal and spiritual, with the latter
being subdivided into the allegorical, moral and anagogical senses.
The literal sense of the meaning conveyed by the words of
Scripture and discovered by the exegesis, following the rules of sound
interpretation: All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the
literal’
The spiritual sense, thanks to the unity of God's plan, not only
the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks
can be signs. A medieval couplet summarizes the significance of the four senses:
the letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith; the Moral how to act; Anagogv our
destiny.
It is the task of exegetes to work, according to these rules,
toward a better understanding and explanation of the meaning of Sacred Scripture
in order that their research may help the Church to form a firmer judgment. For,
of course, all that has been said about the matter of interpreting Scripture is
ultimately subject to the judgment of the Church which exercises the divinely
conferred commission and ministry of watching over and interpreting the word of
God.
May 27, 2012The
reward of humilityis the fear of Yahweh, and riches, honourand
life. Proverbs
22:4
Chapter
2 Article 2 Section III - The Interpretation of the Heritage of
Faith
The
apostles entrusted the "Sacred Deposit" of the faith (the depositum fidei)
contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, to the whole of the Church.By adhering to this heritage the entire holy
people, united to its pastors, remains always faithful to the teaching of the
apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. So, in
maintaining, practicing, and professing the faith that has been handed on, there
should be a remarkable harmony between the bishops and faithful. The task of
interpreting the Word of God authentically had been entrusted solely to the
Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion
with him.Yet this magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its
servant. It teaches only what has been handed on to it. At the divine command
and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it listens to this devotedly, guards
itwith dedication, and expounds it
faithfully. Mindful of Christ's words to his apostles: "He who hears you hears
me," the faithful receive with docility the teachings and directives that their
pastors give them a different
form.
The
Church 's Magisterium exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the
fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes, in a form
obligatingthe Christian people to an
irrevocable adherence of the faith, truths contained in divine Revelation or
also when it proposes, in a definitive way, truths having a necessary connection
with these.
The
mutual connections between dogmas, and their coherence, can be found in the
whole of the Revelation of the mystery of Christ. In Catholic doctrine there
exists an order or hierarchy of truths, since they vary in their relation to the
foundation of the Christian faith
The whole body of
the faithful, cannot err in matters of belief, since they have received the
anointing of the Holy Spirit, who instructs them and guidse them into all truth.
Through the contemplation and study of believers, from the intimate sense of
spiritual realities which believers experience, from the preaching of those who
have received, along with their right of succession in the episcopate the sure
charism of truth, it is clearer, then from the supremely wise arrangement of
God, sacredTtradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Magisterium of the Church that
are so connected and associated that one of them cannot stand without the
others. Working together, each in its own way, under the action of the one Holy
Spirit they all contribute effectively to the salvation of
souls.
Chapter
2 Article 3 Section I - Christ--The Unique Word of Sacred
Scripture
All
Sacred Scripture is but one book, in this one book is Christ, because all divine
Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine scripture is fulfilled in Christ. For
this reason, the Church has always venerated the Scriptures as she venerates the
Lord's Body. She never ceases to present to the faithful the bread of life,
taken from the one table of God's Word and Christ's Body.In
Sacred Scripture, the church constantly finds her nourishment and her strength,
for she welcomes it not as a human word, but as what it really is, the word of
God. In the sacred books, the Father who is in heaven comes lovingly to meet his
children, and talks with them.
May 20, 2012“None of the trials which have come upon you
is more than a human being can stand. You can trust that
Godwill not let you be put to the test beyond your strength, but with
any trial will also provide a way out by enabling you
to put up with it.”1
Corinthians 10:13
An interesting photo story for your perusal and thoughtful
meditation.Please click on the Photo
Gallery tab above to review the photos that go with the story below.
Make sure you go to the bottom of the pictures and review the messages.
IN
A LITTLE TOWN CALLED GROOM, TEXAS which is about 70 miles outside of Amarillo
there is an incredible display of Christian symbols.In
the Photo Gallery are pictures of the stations, sculpted from metal, by a man
near Amarillo, TX.The man did this, with
the only compensation being his ability to share his love of Christ with
us.The land was donated so he could
place his works on display.
(There
is always someone stopped here to visit, pray, or
meditate;
trucks,
buses, or single vehicles. Groom is a tiny town on I-40, but
it
gets lots of visitors because
of this display.)
May 13,
2012
You
will come to know the truth, and the truthwill set you free.So if the
Son sets you free, you will indeed be free. John
8:32-36
Chapter 2 Article 1 Section III - Christ Jesus - "Mediator and
Fullness of All
Revelation
in
many and various ways God spoke of old to our father's by the prophets, but in
these last days he has spoken to us by a Son.Christ, the Son of God made man, is the
Father's one, perfect, and unsurpassable Word.In him he has said everything; there will be
no other word than this one. There will be no further revelation. The Christian
economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass
away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious
manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.Yet even if revelation is already complete, it
has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually
to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries. Throughout the
ages, there have been so-called private revelations, some of which have been
recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the
deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's
definitive revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of
history.Christian faith cannot accept
"revelations"that claim to surpass or correct the revelation of which Christ is
the fulfillment, as is the case in certain non-Christian religions and also in
certain recent sects which base themselves on such
"revelations".
God has revealed Himself fully by sending His own Son, in whom
he has established his covenant forever. The Son is his Father's definitive
Word; so there will be no further revelation after
Him.
Chapter
2 Article 2 Section I - Christ Jesus - The Apostolic
Tradition
Christ
the Lord, and on the entire revelation of the most high God is summed up,
commanded the apostles to preach the gospel, and to communicate the gifts of God
to all men. This gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral
discipline. In keeping with the Lord's command, the gospel was handed on in two
ways: orally by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their
preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what
they themselves had received-- whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of
life and his works, or whether they had learned at the prompting of the Holy
Spirit; in writing by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles
who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit committed the message of
salvation to writing.In order that the
forward-looking gospel might always be preserved in the church the apostles left
bishops as their successors, gave them their own position of teaching authority,
indeed, the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way was to be
preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time. This living
translation, accomplished in the Holy Spirit is called Tradition, since it is
distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it. Through
tradition, the church in her doctrine, life, and warship perpetuates and
transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes.
The sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of
this Tradition. The Father's self communication made through his Word and Holy
Spirit, remains present and active in the church: God who spoke in the past
continues to converse with his beloved Son and the Holy Spirit through wjhom the
living voice of the gospel rings out in the church which leads believers to the
full truth, and makes the word of Christ dwell in them in all its
richness.
Chapter 2 Article 2 Section II – The Relationship Between
Tradition and Sacred
Scripture
What
Christ entrusted to the apostles, they in turn handed on by their preaching and
writing, under the inspiration of the Spirit, to all generations, until Christ
returns in glory. Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred
deposit of the word of God in which, as in a mirror, the pilgrim Church
contemplates God, the source of all her
riches.
The church, and her doctrine, life, and worship, perpetuates and
transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she
believes.
May 6, 2012
Always be joyful; pray
constantly; and for all things give thanks; this is the
will of God for you in Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Chapter
2 Article 1 Section I GOD REVEALS HIS "PLAN OF
LOVING GOODNESS”
It pleased God, in His goodness and wisdom, to
reveal Himself and to make known the
mystery of His will. His will was that
men should have access to the Father,
through Christ, the Word made flesh,
and the Holy Spirit, and thus become
sharers in the divine nature." God,
who "dwells in unapproachable light," wants
to communicate His own divine
life to the men He freely created, in order to
adopt them as His sons in
his only-begotten Son. By revealing Himself God wishes
to make men capable
of responding to Him, and knowing Him, and loving Him far
beyond their own
natural capacity. The divine plan of Revelation is realized
simultaneously
"by deeds and words which are intrinsically bound up with each
other" and
shed light on each other. It involves a specific divine pedagogy: God
prepares men to welcome by stages the supernatural Revelation that is to
culminate in the person and mission of the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ. St.
Irenaeus of Lyons repeatedly speaks of this divine pedagogy using the image
of
God and man becoming accustomed to one another: The word of God dwelt in
man and
became the Son of man in order to accustom man to perceive God and
to accustom
God to dwell in man, according to the Father's pleasure.So
if we stop here and go over the several preceding paragraphs the Baltimore
catechism summarized:“God made me to know Him, to Love Him and to serve Him in
this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next. This is a great
example of what I meant about each word in the Baltimore catechism being
important. Chapter
2 Article 1 Section II THE STAGES OF REVELATION God
who created and conserves all things by His word provides men with constant
evidence of Himself and created realities. And furthermore, wishing to open
up
the way to heavenly salvation, He manifested Himself to our first
parents from
the very beginning. He invited them to intimate communion with
Himself and
clothed them with resplendent grace and justice. Even after
they sinned God
buoyed them up with the hope of salvation, by promising
redemption; and He has
never ceased to show His solicitude for the human
race. He wishes to give
eternal life to all those who seek salvation by
patience in
well-doing.After
the unity of the human race was shattered
by sin God at once sought to save
humanity part by part. The covenant with
Noah after the flood gives expression
to the principle of the divine
economy toward the" nations", in other words,
grouped in their lands each
with their own language, by their families, in their
nations. This state of
division into many nations is at once cosmic, social,
and religious. It is
intended to limit the pride of full humanity as at Babel.
But, because of
sin, both polytheism and adultery of the nation and its rulers
constantly
threaten this provisional economy with the perversion of
paganism.The
covenant with our Lord remains in force during the times of the Gentiles, until
the universal proclamation of the Gospel. The Bible venerates several great
figures among the Gentiles: Able the just, the king-priest Melchizedek –a
figure
of Christ - and the upright Noah, Daniel and Job. Scripture thus
expresses the
heights of sanctity that can be reached by those who live
according to the
covenant of Noah. In
order to gather together
scattered humanity God calls Abram from his country and
makes him Abraham,
that is, the father of a multitude of nations. " In you all
the nations of
the earth shall be blessed." The people descended from Abraham
would be the
trustees of the promise made to the patriarchs, the chosen people,
called
to prepare for that day when God will gather all His children into the
unity of the church. The patriarchs, prophets, and certain other Old
Testament
figures have been and always will be honored as saints in all the
churches
liturgical traditions.After
the patriarchs, God formed Israel
as His people by freeing them from slavery in
Egypt. He established with
them the covenant of Mount Sinai and through Moses,
gave them His law so
that they would recognize Him and serve Him as the one
living and true God.
Israel is the priestly people of God, called by the name of
the Lord, the
people of elder brother in in the faith of
Abraham.Through
the
prophets, God forms His people in the hope of salvation, in the expectation
of a new and everlasting covenant intended for all to be written on their
hearts. The prophets proclaim a radical redemption of the peoples of God,
purification from all their infidelities, a salvation which will include all the
nations. Above all, the poor and humble of the Lord will bear this hope.
Such
holy women as Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, Hannah, Judith,
and
Esther kept alive the hope of Israel's salvation. The purest figure
among them
is Mary.
April 29, 2012
“Be strong, stand firm,
have no fear, do not be afraid of them, for
Yahweh
your God
is going with you; he willnot
fail you or desertyou.”
Deuteronomy
31:6Chapter
1 Section III THE
KNOWLEDGE OF GOD ACCORDING TO THE CHURCHOur
Holy mother, the Church, holds
and teaches that God, the first principle and
last end of all things, can
be known with certainty from the created world by
the natural light of
human reason Though human reason is, strictly speaking,
truly capable by
its own natural power and light of attaining to a true and
certain
knowledge of the one personal God, who watches over and controls the
world
by His providence, and of the natural law written in our hearts by their
Creator; there are many obstacles which prevent reason from the effective and
fruitful use of this inborn faculty. The truths that concern the
relationship
between God and man wholly transcend the visible order of
things, and, if they
are translated into human action and influence it,
they call for self-surrender
and abnegation. The human mind, in its turn,
is hampered in the attaining of
such truths not only by the impact of the
senses and imagination, but also by
disordered appetites which are the
consequences of original sin. And so it is
that men easily persuade
themselves that what they would not like to be true is
false or at least
doubtful. This is why man stands in need of being enlightened
by God's
revelation not only about those things that exceed his understanding,
but
also about those religious and moral truths which of themselves are not
beyond the grasp of human reason; therefore, they can be known by all men with
ease, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error.Chapter
1
Section IV HOW CAN WE SPEAK ABOUT GOD?In
defending the ability of human
reason to know God, the church is expressing her
confidence in the
possibility of speaking about Him to all men and with all men,
and
therefore of some dialogue with other religions, with philosophy and
science, as well as with unbelievers and atheists. Since our knowledge of God is
limited our language about him is equally so limited. All creatures bear a
certain resemblance to God, most especially man, created in the image and
likeness of God. The manifold perfections of creatures all reflect the
infinite
perfection of God. God transcends all creatures. We must therefore
continually
purify our language of everything in it that is limited, image
bound or
imperfect. Our human words always fall short of the mystery of
God. Admittedly
in speaking about God like this, our language is using
human modes of
expression; nevertheless it really does attain to God
himself, though unable to
express Him in His infinite simplicity.
Concerning God, we cannot grasp what He
is, only what He is not, and how
other beings stand in relation to
Him.As
I mentioned earlier since God
is an infinite being we can only use our reasoning
and intellect to gather
a certain amount of "facts" about God, however, in the
end it comes down to
having faith in an Almighty Being.
April 22, 2012 The
Lord
said,
'If
you had faith
like a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree,
"Be uprooted and
planted in the sea," and it would obey you. Luke
17:6Chapter
1 Section I –THE DESIRE FOR GODThe
desire for God is
written in the human heart, because man is created by God and
for God. Only
in God will be find the truth and happiness he never stop
searching for.
Throughout history men have given expression to their quest for
God in
their religious beliefs, behavior, prayers, sacrifices, rituals,
meditations and so forth. But this innate and vital bond of man to God can be
forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by men. Such attitudes
can
have different causes for example religious ignorance or indifference,
the cares
and riches of this world, the scandal of bad example on the part
of believers,
and current thought hostile to religion. This attitude of
sinful man makes him
hide from God out of fear and flee God's call.
Although men can forget God or
reject him He never ceases to call every man
to seek Him; God never ceases to
draw men to himself and forgive their
transgressions. But the search for God
demands of man every effort of
intellect, a sound will, an upright heart, as
well as the witness of others
who teach him to seek God.
Chapter 1 Section II WAYS OF COMING TO KNOW
GODCreated
in God's image and called to know Him, to love Him and to serve
Him, the person
who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know Him.
These are called
proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of
proofs in the natural
sciences, but rather in the sense of converging and
convincing arguments which
allow us to attain certainty about the truth.
These "ways" of approaching God
have a twofold point of departure: the
physical world and the human
person.From
the physical world we can
look to St. Paul who says of the Gentiles: for what
can be known about God
is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever
since the creation
of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power
and deity has
been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. St.
Augustine
issues this challenge: question the beauty of the earth, question the
beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing
itself, question the beauty of the sky, question all these realities. All
respond: "See we are beautiful." Their beauty is a profession. These beauties
are subject to change. Who made them if not the beautiful One who is not
subject
to change?From
a human person perspective, with his openness
to truth and beauty, a sense of
moral goodness, his freedom and the voice
of his conscience, with his longings
for the infinte and for happiness, man
questions himself about God's existence.
Man's faculties make him capable
of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a
personal God. But for man to
be able to enter into real intimacy with Him, God
willed both to reveal
Himself to man and to give him the grace of being able to
welcome this
revelation and faith. The proofs of God's existence, however, can
predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to
reason.We
need to keep in mind here is that the Baltimore catechism was
written in a very
simplistic way to help us see the truths of our religion.
But as we became more
knowledgeable and information became more available,
we began to desire more
detailed information than the condensation of
information in the Baltimore
catechism. This is why this version of the
catechism was released. You will see
in the coming chapters very much
detail about the beliefs of our church. This is
why I like the Baltimore
catechism so much because it was very concise and
factual, however, it
required a deep and abiding faith.
April 15, 2012“Peace
I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world
gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
John
14:27Before
we begin the new catechism review here are some prayers
that you may find of
interest. PRAYER
TO ST. JOSEPHOh,
St.
Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne
of God, I place in you all my interests and desires. Oh, St. Joseph, do
assist
me by your powerful intercession, and obtain for me from your divine
Son all
spiritual blessings, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So that,
having engaged
here below your heavenly power, and may offer my
Thanksgiving in homage to the
most loving of fathers. Oh, St. Joseph, I
never weary contemplating you, and
Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not
approach while he reposes near your heart.
Press Him in my name and kiss
His fine head for me and ask Him to return the
Kiss when I draw my dying
breath. St. Joseph, patron of departing souls pray for
me. Dear
St.
Joseph, I pray that you will ask Jesus for the grace to be as pure for the
rest of my life as you were for all of your life. PRAYER
OF ST. FRANCISMake
me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring your
love.
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord,
And where there's
doubt, true
faith in you.
Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there's despair in life, let me bring
hope.
Where there is
darkness only light,
And where there's sadness ever
joy.Oh
Master,
grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console.
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my
soul.Make
me a channel of your peace.
It is in pardoning that we
are pardoned;
In
giving of ourselves that we receive,
And in dying
that we're born to eternal
life.THE
CONFITEORI
confess to
Almighty God, to Blessed Mary, ever Virgin, to Blessed Michael the
Archangel, to Blessed John the Baptist, and to the holy apostles Peter and Paul,
and all the Saints, that I have sinned exceedingly in thought, word and
deed,
through my fault, through my fault through my most grievous fault.
Therefore, I
beseech Blessed Mary ever Virgin, Blessed Michael the
Archangel, Blessed John
the Baptist, the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and
all the Saints to pray to the
Lord our God for me. May the Almighty God
have mercy on me, and forgive me my
sins, and bring me to everlasting life.
Amen.May
the Almighty and merciful Lord grant me pardon, absolution, and
remission all my
sins. AmenACT
OF ADORATIONI
adore Thee, O Jesus,
as the Lamb of God immolated for the salvation of mankind.
I joined in the
profound adoration which the angels and saints pay to Thee in
heaven.ACT
OF THANKSGIVINGLord,
Thou hast looked on my unworthiness. I was sick,
and Thou hast healed me. I was
poor, and thou hast bestowed upon me Thy
numberless benefits. How shall I be
able to thank Thee, O my Lord, for all
Thy favors? I will invoke Thy Holy Name,
and eternally sing Thy mercies.ACT
OF OFFERINGWhat
can I offer Thee, O my God, for the grace of having
given Thyself for me? I
consecrate to Thy glory my body, my soul, and all
that I possess! Dispose of me
according to Thy Holy Will.ACT
OF
PETITIONMy
Divine Redeemer, Thou has taken possession of me. Do not let the
enemy of my
salvation ravish precious treasure I bear in my heart. Preserve
me from all sin,
and defend me against temptation, that I may persevere
until death in the
practice of Thy Holy Law. Amen.ACT
OF FAITHJesus
Christ, my Sovereign Lord, I firmly believe that Thou art really present in
the
Holy Eucharist, and that it is Thy body, Thy blood, Thy soul, and Thy
divinity
that I shall receive in that Adorable Sacrament.ACT
OF
HOPEThou
hast said, O my God, that those hoping in Thee shall never be
confounded. I
place all my confidence in Thy promises, and I hope that,
having nourished
myself with Thy body on earth, I shall have the happiness
of seeing and
possessing Thee eternally in heaven.ACT
OF LOVEO
my
Divine Jesus, Who hast so loved me as to nourish me with Thy adorable flesh,
I love Thee with all my heart that above all things; I wish to live and die
in
Thy holy love. ACT
OF HUMILITYMy
Savior and my God, Thou art
all sanctity. I am not worthy that thou shouldst
enter my heart; yet, speak
but the word and my soul shall be
healedACT
OF DESIREMy
sou
desires Thee, O my God! Thou art its joy and happiness. Come, O Divine
Jesus, come into my heart; it desires ardently to receive
Thee.
April 8, 2012
HE has Risen! Halleluiah!
Easter
is upon us,
which marks the miraculous resurrection of our Savior. Christ died
on the
cross so that we may have everlasting life. Let us celebrate His
selflessness this Easter with a grateful heart.
“In His great mercy he has
given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
Christ
from the dead…” 1 Peter 1:3, NIV
Lesson
37
discusses the Last Judgment and the Resurrection, Hell, Purgatory and Heaven.
Christ
will judge us immediately upon our death and then on the last
day. The judgment
immediately upon death is called the Particular Judgment
while the judgment on
the last day is called the General Judgment. So why
two judgments? Well the one
immediately upon death is to reward or punish
us according to our deeds. The
General Judgment is so that the providence
of God, which on earth, often permits
the good to suffer and the wicked to
prosper, may in the end appear just before
all men. The rewards and
punishment are Heaven, Purgatory and Hell. Hell is a
state to which the
wicked are condemned, and in which they are deprived of the
sight of God
for all eternity, and are in dreadful torments. Purgatory is a
state in
which those suffer for a time who died guilty of venial sins or without
having satisfied for the punishment due to their sins. The faithful on earth can
help the souls in Purgatory thru prayer, fasts, alms-deeds; by indulgences
and
by having Masses said for them. Heaven is the state f everlasting life
in which
we see God face to face, are made like unto Him in glory and enjoy
eternal
happiness. Our bodies will shall in the rewards and punishment or
our souls
because on the last day through the resurrection they will again
be united. The
just will rise glorious and immortal and the damned will be
condemned to
eternal punishment. Always
remember the words of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ: “What does it profit a
man if he gain the whole
world and suffer the loss of his own soul, or what
exchange shall a man
give for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the
glory of His Father
with His angels; and then will He render to every man
according to his
works.” This
completes the Baltimore Catechism course. I hope you found it
useful and
enlightening. What follows now is a review of the new Catechism
of the Catholic
Church as revised in accordance with the Official Latin
Text promulgated by Pope
John Paul II. This book and the Baltimore
Catechism are available on Amazon,com
or at your local Catholic book
store.
April 1, 2012 My
friends, do not be surprised at the
terrible trouble which now comes to test
you. Do not think that something
strange is happening to you. But be happy that
you are sharing in Christ's
sufferings so that you will be happy and full of joy
when Christ comes
again in glory. 1 Peter 4:12-13 Lesson
36 discusses the Third,
Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Commandments of the Church.
The
third and
fourth commandments of the Church go hand in hand. Confess at least
once
per year and receive Communion during the Easter season. Easter season in
the United States runs from first Sunday of Lent to Trinity Sunday (eight weeks
after Easter Sunday). Most casual Catholics combine these two on the
Saturday
before Easter and Easter Sunday. Of course if you remember Lesson
13 one of the
benefits of confession is the receipt of sanctifying grace.
By
the fifth commandment we are obligated to contribute to the support of
our
pastor, church and school. This can be difficult during poor financial
periods
but should not be totally neglected. Remember the parable about the
woman who
only has two coins and donates them in the temple. (Synoptic
gospels – Mark
12:41-44 and Luke 21:1-40)The
sixth commandment, not to
marry within the third degree of kindred means that
with in the blood
relationship no one that is a third cousin or less can be
taken as a
spouse. The command to not marry privately means none should marry
without
the blessing of God’s priests or without witnesses. The meaning of not
to
solemnize marriage at forbidden times means that during Lent and Advent the
marriage ceremony should not be performed with pomp or a nuptial Mass. Catholics
should be married at a nuptial Mass because they show greater reverence for
the
sacrament of Matrimony and bring richer blessings (an increase in
sanctifying
grace) upon themselves.I
found it interesting that Jesus
first recorded miracle was at the wedding feast
at Cana.
March 25, 2012 “Make every effort to give yourself to God as the
kind of person he will approve. Be a worker who is not ashamed and who uses
the
true teaching in the right way.“ Timothy 2:15
Lesson
35 discusses the First and Second Commandments of the Church.
There
are six chief commandments of the Church. They are:·To
hear Mass on
Sundays and holydays of obligaton.·To
fast and abstain on the days
appointed.Commandments of the
Church.·To
confess at least once a
year.·To
receive the Holy Eucharist during the Easter time.·To
contribute to support of our pastors.·Not
to marry persons who are not
Catholics, or who are related to us within the
third degree of kindred, nor
privately without witnesses, nor to solemnize
marriage at forbidden times.
(The non Catholic rule has been relaxed since the
Baltimore Catechism.)
Missing
Mass on Sunday or a holyday od obligation is a mortal sin unless
there is valid
serious reason. It is also a mortal sin to hinder anyone
else from attending
Mass without sufficient reason.Holydays
of the
Church were instituted to remind us about the great mysteries of religion
and the virtues of the saints.Fasting
and abstinence are desirable in order
to mortify our passions and satisfy for
our sins. So what’s the difference?
Fasting means we are allowed only one full
meal per day. The very young ,
old and ill are excused from this restriction.
Abstinence means we are not
allowed to eat flesh-meat but are permitted the
normal number of meals per
day. At the time of the Baltimore Catechism this
meant every Friday to
honor the day on which Jesus died. This of course was
changed in later
years. ·The current regulations concerning Lenten fasting and abstinence for
Roman Catholics in the United States generally are as
follows:
- Abstinence from all meat is to be
observed by all Roman Catholics
14 years old and older on Ash
Wednesday, on all Fridays of Lent, and on Good
Friday (which is not
part of Lent, but rather part of the three day Paschal
Triduum). - Fasting is to be observed on Ash
Wednesday and Good Friday by all
Roman Catholics who are 18 years of
age but not yet 59.
For Roman Catholics whose health or ability to work would be
negatively affected by fasting and/or abstinence, the regulations above
don't
apply. If a Friday in Lent coincides with a the abstinence is not
required. The
bishop of a diocese can modify these rules for Roman
Catholics in his diocese;
for example, it is not uncommon for a bishop of a
diocese in the United States
to give dispensations from the normal Lenten
regulations if St. Patrick's
Day(March 17)
falls on a Friday during Lent.
March 18, 2012 Love the Lord your God with all your
heart, all your soul,
your entire mind, and all your strength. Mark
12:30Lesson
33 discusses the Fourth thru the Seventh Commandments.This
lesson discusses the fourth through
the seventh commandments. The fourth
commandment, honor thy father and
mother commands us to honor, love and obey our
parents in all that is not
sin. We are also bound to honor and obey our bishops,
pastors, magistrates,
teachers and other lawful superiors. Parents and superiors
have a duty to
take good care of all under their charge and give them proper
direction and
example. The fourth commandment forbids all disobedience, contempt
and
stubbornness towards our parents or lawful superiors.The
fifth commandment is thou shall not
kill. This Commandment commands us to live
in peace and union with our
neighbor, to respect his rights, to seek his
spiritual and bodily welfare
and to take proper care of our own life and health.
The fifth Commandment
forbids all willful murder, fighting, anger, hatred,
revenge and bad
example.The
sixth
commandment is thou shall not commit adultery. This Commandment commands
us
to be pure in thought and modest in all our looks, words and actions. This
commandment forbids all unchaste freedom with another's wife or husband; also
all immodesty with ourselves or others in looks, dress, word or actions.
The
commandment also forbids the reading of bad and immodest books and
newspapers.
Basically it forbids any action that is selfish in nature to
bring physical
satisfaction to oneself. Things like masturbation and
pornography.Lesson
34 discusses the Seventh thru the Tenth Commandment.This
lesson discusses the seventh through the 10th
commandments. The seventh
commandment thou shalt not steal, commands us to
give all men what belongs to
them and to respect their property. It forbids
all unjust taking or keeping what
belongs to another. We are told to repair
the damage we have unjustly caused.
We're bound to restore ill-gotten goods
or the value of them as far as we are
able; otherwise we cannot be
forgiven.The
eighth
Commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor
commands us to speak the truth in all things, and to be careful of the honor and
reputation of everyone. It forbids all rash judgments, backbiting, slanders
and
lies. Those who have lied about their neighbor, and seriously injured
their
character must repair the injury done as far as they are able.
Otherwise they
will not be forgiven. The
ninth Commandment thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife. This Commandment
instructs us to keep ourselves pure in thoughts and
desire. Impure thoughts and
desires are always sins, unless they displease
us and we try to banish them.
The
10th Commandment thou shalt not covet my neighbor's goods,
commands us to be
content with what we have and to rejoice in our
neighbor's welfare. This
commandment, forbids all desires to take or keep
wrongfully what belongs to
another.
March 11, 2012 “Every
best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father
of
lights, with whom there is no change nor shadow of alteration.” James
1:17
Lesson
31 discusses the First Commandment further on the Honor and Invocation of
the
Saints.
The
importance of the First Commandment can be observed
since the catechism provides
two chapters discussing and explaining the
first Commandment. This lesson raises
a question on whether it is forbidden
to honor the saints. It is not forbidden,
or rather approved upon each
other by honoring the saints who are the chosen
friends of God, we honor
God Himself. The first Commandment does not forbid us
to pray to saints.
Because by praying to the saints we mean the asking of their
help and
prayers. We know they hear our prayers because they are with God and He
makes our prayers known to them. We believe the saints will help us because both
they and we are members of the same church, and they love us as their
brethren.
The saints and we are members of the same Church because the
Church in heaven
and the Church on earth are one and the same Church and
all its members are in
communion with one another. This communion of the
members is called the
communion of saints, which means the union which
exists between the members of
the Church on earth with one another and with
the blessed in heaven and with
the suffering souls in purgatory. The First
Commandment does not forbid us to
honor relics, because relics or the
bodies of the saints or objects directly
connected with them or with our
Lord. The first Commandment does forbid the
making of images if they are
made to be adored as gods, but it does not forbid
the making of them to put
us in mind of Jesus Christ, His blessed Mother and
the saints. It is right
to show respect to the pictures and images of Christ
and His saints, as
they are of representations and memorials of them. As I said
early on the
catechism was written with very specific words, for example, it is
not
allowed to pray to the crucifix or images and relics of the saints
but rather to pray before them. Praying to them is meaningless as
they
have no life, nor power to help us, nor sense to hear us. Rather we
pray before
them because they live our devotion by exciting pious affection
and desires,
and by reminding us of Christ and of the saints that we may
imitate their
virtues.
Lesson
32 discusses the Second and Third
Commandments.
The
second Commandment Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,
means we should speak with reverence of God and of the saints, and of all
holy
things, and to keep our lawful oaths and vows. An oath is the calling
upon God
to witness the truth of what we say. We may make an oath when it
is ordered by
lawful authority or required for God's honor or for our own
or our neighbors
good. To make an oath lawful it is necessary that what we
swear to, be true and
that there be a sufficient cause for taking an
oath.
A vow is a deliberate
promise made to God to do something that is
pleasing to Him. But not to fulfill
our vows is a sin, mortal or venial,
according to the nature of the vow and the
intention we had in making it.
The second Commandment forbids all false, rash,
unjust and unnecessary
oaths blasphemy, cursing and profane words.
The
third Commandment
commands us to keep holy the Lord's Day and the holy days of
obligation, on
which we are to give our time to the service and worship of God.
We are to
worship God on Sundays and holy days of obligation by hearing Mass,
prayer
and by other good works. The Sabbath day and Sunday are not the same. The
Sabbath is the seventh day of the week and is the day which was kept holy in the
Old Law; Sunday is the first day of the week and is the day, which is kept
holy
and the New Law. The Church commands us to keep Sunday holy instead of
the
Sabbath because on Sunday, Christ rose from the dead, and on Sunday He
sent the
Holy Ghost upon the Apostles. The third Commandment forbids all
unnecessary
servile work and whatever else may hinder the due observance of
the Lord's Day.
Servile works are those which require labor of the body
rather than that of the
mind. Servile works are lawful on Sunday when the
honor of God, the good of our
neighbor or necessity requires
them.
March 4, 2012
Lord,
your word is
everlasting; it continues forever in heaven. Psalms
119:89
Lesson
29 discusses the Commandments of
God.
It
is
not enough just to belong to the Church in order to be saved; we must also
keep the Commandments of God and of the Church. There are two commandments that
contain the whole law of God; the first Thou shall love the Lord thy God
with
thy whole heart, with thy whole soul, with thy whole strength, and
with thy
whole mind; the second, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
These two
commandments contain the whole law, because all the other
Commandments are
given, either to help us to keep these two or to direct us
how to shun what is
opposed to them.
The 10 Commandments are:
1 -
I am the Lord thy God;
Thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.
2 -
Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain.
3 - Remember
thou keep holy the Sabbath day
4
- Honor thy father and thy mother.
5
- Thou shalt not kill.
6 - Thou shalt
not commit adultery.
7 - Thou
shalt not steal.
8 - Thou shalt not bear
false witness against my
neighbor.
9 - Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's
wife.
10 -Thou
shalt not covet they neighbor's goods.
God Himself gave
these
commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai and Christ our Lord confirmed
them.
Lesson
30 discusses the First Commandment.
The
first Commandment helps us to keep the great Commandment of
the love of God
because it commands us to adore God alone. We adore God by
faith, hope and
charity, by prayer and sacrifice. This first Commandment
may be broken by giving
to a creature or an idol, the honor which belongs
to God alone; by false
worship; and by attributing to a creature or idol, a
perfection which belongs to
God alone. Those who make use of spells and
charms, believe in dreams, in
mediums, spiritist, fortunetellers and the
like, sin against the first
Commandment, because they attribute to
creatures perfections which belongs to
God alone. Sins against faith, hope
and charity are also sins against the first
Commandment. A person sins
against faith by not trying to know what God has
taught; by refusing to
believe all that God has taught; by neglecting to
professes their belief in
what God has taught. We fail to try to know what God
has taught by
neglecting to learn the Christian doctrine. Failing to believe
all that God
has taught makes one a heretic and infidel. Those who neglect to
profess
their belief in what God has taught are those who fail to acknowledge
the
true Church in which they believe. Those who fail to profess their faith in
the true Church in which they believe, cannot expect to be saved while in
that
state for Christ has said: "Whoever shall deny me before men, I will
also deny
him before My Father who is in heaven. We are obligated to make
open professions
of our faith as often as God's honor, our neighbors
spiritual good of our own
spiritual good, requires it. "Whosoever shall
confess Me before men, I will also
confess him before My Father who is in
heaven", says Christ.
The sins
against hope are presumption and
despair. Presumption is a rash expectation of
salvation without making
proper use of the necessary means to obtain it. An
example is committing
the same sin over and over without trying to avoid it,
expecting that God
will forgive us in confession. This is a presumption on God's
goodness.
Despair is the loss of hope in God's mercy. We sin against the love
of God by all sin, but particularly by mortal sin.
February 26, 2012 Keep
your lives free from the love of money, and be
satisfied with what you have. God
has said, "I will never leave you; I will
never forget you." Hebrews
13:5
Lesson
27 discusses the
Sacramentals.
A
sacramental is anything set apart or blessed by the church to excite good
thoughts and to increase devotion and through these movements of the heart to
remit venial sin. The difference between the sacraments and the
sacramentals is
that the sacraments were instituted by Jesus Christ and the
sacramentals were
instituted by the Church. Secondly, the sacraments give
grace of themselves when
we place no obstacle in the way; the sacramentals
excite in us pious
dispositions by means of which we may obtain grace. The
chief sacramental used
in the Church is the sign of the cross. We make the
sign of the cross by
touching the right hand to the forehead then to the
chest and to the left and
right shoulders saying in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost, Amen. The sign of the cross is used
to impress upon us that we are
Christians and to profess our belief in the
chief mysteries of our religion. The
sign of the cross professes our belief
in the chief mysteries of our religion,
because it expresses the mystery of
Unity and Trinity of God and of the
Incarnation and death of our Lord. The
words In the name, express the unity of
God; the words that follow, of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
express the mystery of the
Trinity. The sign of the cross expresses the mystery
of the Incarnation by
reminding us that the son of God, having become man,
suffered death on the
cross. Another sacramental in very frequent use is holy
water. Holy water
is ordinary water blessed by the priest with solemn prayer to
beg God's
blessing on those who use it and protection from the powers of
darkness
(The devil and his angels). The size the sign of the cross and holy
water.
There are many other sacramental, such as blessed candles ashes, palms
crucifixes, images of the Blessed Virgin and of the saints, rosaries and
scapulars.
Lesson 28 discusses prayer.
Another
means of obtaining God's grace is through prayer. Prayer
is the lifting up of
our minds and hearts to God to adore Him, to thank Him
for His benefits to ask
His forgiveness and to beg of Him all the graces we
need, whether for soul or
body. Prayer is necessary to salvation, and
without it no one having the use of
reason can be saved. There are
particular times that we should pray, for
example, on Sundays and holy
days, every morning and evening, in all dangers,
temptations and
afflictions. We should pray with attention, with a sense of our
own
helplessness and dependence upon God, with a great desire for the graces we
beg of God, with trust in God's goodness and with perseverance. The most
recommended prayers are the Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, Apostles Creed, the
Confiteor and the acts of Faith, Hope, Love and Contrition. Prayers which
are
said with willful distractions are of no avail.
The Act of Faith
- Jesus
Christ, my sovereign Lord, I firmly believe that Thou art really
present in the
Holy Eucharist, and that it isThy body, Thy blood, Thy soul
and Thy divinity
that I shall receive in that Adorable
Sacrament.
The Act of Hope - Thou
has said, O my God, that those
hoping in Thee shall never be confounded. I place
all my confidence in Thy
promises, and I hope that, having nourished myself with
Thy Body on earth,
I shall have the happiness of seeing and possessing Thee
eternally in
heaven.
The Act of Love - O my divine Jesus, Who has so
loved me as
to nourish me with Thy adorable flesh, I love Thee with all my
heart, and
above all things; I wish to live and die in Thy holy love.
The
Act
of Contrition - Oh my God I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee and I
detest all my sins because I dread loss of heaven and the pains of hell,
but
most of all because they offend Thee my God who are all good and
deserving of my
love. I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to
confess my sins to do
Penance and to amend my life, Amen.
February 19, 2012
“This
is My
commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
John
15:12
Lesson
25 discusses Extreme Unction and Holy
Orders.
Extreme
Unction is the Sacrament which, through the anointing and prayer of the priest
gives health and strength to the soul, and sometimes to the body when we
are in
danger of death from sickness or from a wound or accident. We should
not wait
until we are in extreme danger before we receive Extreme Unction,
but if
possible, we should receive it while we have the use of our senses.
The effects
of Extreme Unction are to comfort us in the pains of sickness,
and to strengthen
us against temptation; to remit venial sins and to
cleanse our souls from the
remains of sin; to restore us to health when God
sees fit. By the remains of
sin I mean the inclination to evil, and the
weakness of the will which are the
result of our sins, and which remain
after our sins have been forgiven. We
should receive the sacrament of
Extreme Unction in the state of grace, (so it
may be necessary to go to
confession first) and with lively faith and
resignation to the will of God.
The priest is the minister of the sacrament of
extreme unction.
Holy
Orders is the Sacrament by which bishops, priests
and other ministers of
the Church are ordained and receive the power and grace
to perform their
sacred duties. To receive Holy Orders worthily it is necessary
to be in a
state of grace, have the necessary knowledge and a divine call to
this
sacred office. Christians should look upon the priests of the church as the
messengers of God and the dispensers of His mysteries. Bishops can confer the
sacrament of Holy Orders.
Lesson
26 discusses
Matrimony.
The
Sacrament of Matrimony is the Sacrament which unites a Christian man and
woman
in lawful marriage. A Christian man and woman cannot be united in
lawful
marriage, in the eyes of the church, in any other way than by the
Sacrament of
Matrimony, because Christ raised marriage to the dignity of a
Sacrament. The
bond of Matrimony cannot be dissolved by any human power.
The effects of the
Sacrament of Matrimony are to sanctify the love of
husband and wife; to give
them grace to bear with each other's weaknesses;
to enable them to bring up
their children in the fear and love of God. To
receive the Sacrament Matrimony,
worthily it is necessary to be in the
state of grace and it is necessary also to
comply with the laws of the
Church. The Church alone has the right to make laws
concerning the
Sacrament of marriage but the state also has the right to make
laws
concerning the civil effects of the marriage contract. The Church does
forbid the marriage of Catholics to persons who have a different religion or
no
religion at all because such marriages have generally lead to
indifference,
loss of faith, and neglect of the religious education of the
children. Many
marriages prove unhappy as they are entered into hastily and
without worthy
motives. Christians should prepare for a holy and happy
marriage by receiving
the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist; by
begging God to grant them a
pure intention and he to direct their choice;
and by seeking the advice of
their parents, and the blessing of their
pastors.
February 12, 2012 In
the service of the Lord, work not halfheartedly but
with conscientiousness and
an eager spirit. Romans
12:11
Lesson
23
discusses the
Ends for which the Holy Eucharist was instituted.
Christ
instituted
the holy Eucharist to unite us to Himself and to nourish our soul
with His
divine life; to increase sanctifying grace, and all virtues in our
soul; to
lessen our evil inclinations; to be a pledge of everlasting life; to
prepare our bodies for a glorious resurrection; to continue the sacrifice of the
Cross in his Church. We are united to Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist
by
means of Holy Communion which is the receiving of the body and blood of
Christ
in the form of bread and wine. To make a good Communion it is
necessary to be
in the state of sanctifying grace to have a right intention
and to obey the
laws of fasting, which are abstaining from all food,
beverages and alcoholic
drinks for one hour before receiving Holy
Communion. Water may be taken at any
time; the sick may take food and
nonalcoholic drinks and any medicine up to
Communion time. If someone
receives Communion in mortal sin and still receive
the body and blood of
Christ. But do not receive his grace and commit a great
sin called a
sacrilege. To receive the full graces of Holy Communion we should
be free
from mortal sin, and also free from all affection to venial sin and
make
the acts of faith, hope and love. The only exception to the fasting rule
is
if someone is in danger of death or when it is necessary to save the Blessed
Sacrament from insult or injury. We are bound to receive Holy Communion,
under
pain of mortal sin during Easter time and when in danger of death. It
is good
to receive Holy Communion often as nothing is a greater aid to a
holy life and
to often receive the Author of all grace and the Source of
all good. After
receiving holy Communion we should spend some time in
adoring our Lord,
thanking Him for the grace we have received and asking
him for the blessings we
need.
Lesson
24
discusses the Sacrifice of the Mass.
The bread and wine
are changed into
the body and blood of Christ at the Consecration in the
Mass. If you remember
from an earlier lesson, this is called
Transubstantiation. The Mass is the
unbloody sacrifice of the body and
blood of Christ. A sacrifice is the offering
of an object by a priest to
God alone, and the consuming of it to acknowledge
that He is the Creator
and Lord of all things. The Mass is the same sacrifice as
that of the Cross
because the offering will and the priest are the same Christ
our Blessed
Lord; and he ends for which the sacrifice of the Mass is offered are
the
same as those of the Sacrifice of the cross. The ends for which the
sacrifice of the Cross was offered were: to honor and glorify God; to thank Him
for all the graces bestowed on the whole world; to satisfy God's justice
for the
sins of men; to obtain all graces and blessings. The difference
between the
sacrifice of the Cross and the sacrifice of the Mass is the
manner in which the
sacrifices offered. On the cross Christ really shed his
blood and was really
slain; in the Mass there is no real shedding of blood,
nor real death, he goes
Christ can die no more; the sacrifice of the Mass ,
through these separate
consecration of the bread and the wine represents
his death on the Cross. We
should assist at Mass with great interior
recollection and piety and with every
outward mark of respect and devotion.
The best manner of hearing Mass is to
offer it to God with the priest for
the same purpose for which it is said, that
is to meditate on Christ's
sufferings and death, and to go to Holy Communion.
Again in this lesson the
building blocks of the catechism are evident. What
happens at the Mass,
what is the Mass, what is the sacrifice, is the offering
the sam?. It just
builds one sentence after another.
February 5, 2012 This
is My commandment, that you love one another as I
have loved you. John
15:12
Lesson 21
discusses Indulgences.
An Indulgence is the remission in whole or in part
of the temporal punishment due to sin. It is not a pardon from sin, nor a
license to commit sin and if one is in a state of mortal sin they cannot
gain
any Indulgence. There are two kinds of Indulgence, Plenary and
Partial. Plenary
Indulgence is the full removal of temporal punishment due
to sin. Partial is the
remission of part of the temporal punishment due to
sin. The Church by means of
Indulgence remits the temporal punishment due
to sin by applying to us the
merits of Jesus Christ, and the superabundant
satisfactions of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and of the saints; which merits
and satisfactions are its spiritual
treasury. To gain an Indulgence we must
be in the state of grace and perform the
works ordered to be done.
This list is a convenient compilation of all
the ways to obtain a
plenary indulgence. Note that in addition to the described
work, obtaining
a plenary indulgence also has the following conditions:
- Sacramental confession. A single
sacramental confession suffices for gaining several
plenary
indulgences; but Communion must be received and prayer for the
intention
of the Sovereign Pontiff must be recited for the gaining of each
plenary
indulgence. - Eucharistic
Communion. - Prayer
for the intention of the
Sovereign Pontiff. The condition of praying for the
intention of the
Sovereign Pontiff is fully satisfied by reciting one Our
Father and one
Hail Mary; nevertheless, each one is free to recite any other
prayer
according to his piety and devotion. - It
is further required that all
attachment to sin, even venial sin, be absent.
If the latter disposition
is in any way less than perfect or if the
prescribed three conditions
are not fulfilled, the indulgence will be
partial only, saving the
provisions given in Norms
34 and
35.
Obtainable
any time any place
- Reading
of Sacred
Scripture
·
A partial indulgence is
granted to the faithful, who with the veneration
due the divine word make a
spiritual reading from Sacred Scripture.
· A
plenary
indulgence is granted, if this reading is continued for at least
one
half an hour.
- Recitation
of the Marian Rosary (Rosarii
marialis
recitatio) - A
plenary indulgence is
granted, if the Rosary is recited in a church
or public oratory or in a
family group, a religious Community or pious
Association; a partial
indulgence is granted in other
circumstances
- Exercise
of the Way of the Cross - In the pious exercise of the Way of
the Cross we recall anew the sufferings,
which the divine Redeemer
endured, while going from the praetorium of
Pilate, where he was condemned
to death, to the mount of Calvary, where he
died on the cross for our
salvation. The gaining of the plenary indulgence
is regulated by the
following norms:
The pious exercise must be made before stations of the Way of
the Cross legitimately
erected.
For the erection of the Way of the
Cross fourteen crosses are
required, to which it is customary to add
fourteen pictures or images, which
represent the stations of Jerusalem.
According to the more common
practice, the pious exercise consists
of fourteen pious readings, to which some
vocal prayers are added. However,
nothing more is required than a pious
meditation on the Passion and Death
of the Lord, which need not be a particular
consideration of the individual
mysteries of the stations.
A movement
from one station to the next
is required. But if the pious exercise is made
publicly and if it is not
possible for all taking part to go in an orderly way
from station to
station, it suffices
if at least the one conducting the
exercise goes from station to station,
the others remaining in their place.
·
A partial indulgence is
granted to the faithful, who visit the Most
Blessed Sacrament to adore
it.
· A plenary indulgence is granted,
if the visit lasts
for at least one half an hour.
Obtainable on
special
occasions
- Papal
Blessing - even by
radio - Closing
Mass of a Eucharistic
Congress - During
a Diocesan Synod - During
a Pastoral
Visitation
Obtainable
on special
days
- 1st
January - Each
Friday of Lent and Passiontide after
communion - Holy
Thursday - Good
Friday - Paschal
Vigil - Feast
of Pentecost [26 May in
1996] - Feast
of Corpus Christi - 2nd Thursday
after
Pentecost - Feast
of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus -
3rd Friday after
Pentecost - Feast
of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul
- 29
June - "Portiuncula"
- 2
August - November
1-8 - All
Souls Day - November
2 - Last
Day of the
Year - Visit
to a Church or Oratory of Religious
on the Feast of the Holy
Founder - Titular
Feast of the Parochial
Church - Visit
to a Church or an Altar on the day
of its
consecration
Obtainable
on special
days at special places
Obtainable
on special occasions in one's
life
- First
Communion - Attending
a
mission - Spiritual
Exercises - First
Mass of newly-ordained Priests - Jubilees
of Sacerdotal
Ordination - The
Moment of
Death
Lesson
22
discusses the Holy Eucharist.
The Holy Eucharist is the
Sacrament which
contains the body and blood, soul and divinity, of our Lord
Jesus Christ under
the appearances of bread and wine. Christ instituted
Holy Eucharist at the Last
Supper. The twelve Apostles were present when
the Lord instituted Holy
Eucharist. He instituted it in the following way:
He took the bread,
blessed it, broke it and gave it to the Apostles
saying,
TAKE THIS, ALL
OF YOU, AND EAT OF IT,
FOR THIS IS MY
BODY,
WHICH WILL BE GIVEN UP FOR
YOU.
In a similar way, when
supper was ended,
he took the chalice
and, once more giving
thanks,
he gave it to his disciples, saying:
TAKE THIS, ALL OF
YOU, AND DRINK FROM IT,
FOR THIS IS THE CHALICE OF MY
BLOOD,
THE
BLOOD OF THE NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT,
WHICH WILL BE POURED OUT
FOR YOU
AND FOR MANY
FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.
DO THIS IN MEMORY OF
ME.
When Our Lord said this is my body the substance of the bread was
changed into the substance of His body, likewise when He said this is my
blood
the substance of the wine was changed into the substance of His
blood. What
remained after this consecration was the appearance of bread of
wine; that is
the figure, the color, the taste and whatever appears to the
senses. This change
is called Transubstantiation. By Christ’s almighty
power the substance of the
bread and wine was changed. Jesus gave His
priests this power when He said to
the Apostles, ‘Do this in memory of me.”
This change takes place during the
consecration portion of the Mass. This
is another item that must be believed
because of faith as there is no
physical way to prove it.
January 29, 2012 “Life
is a marathon, not a sprint!”
Lesson 19
discusses Confession.
Confession is the telling of our sins to an
authorized priest for the purpose of
obtaining forgiveness. We are bound to
confess ALL mortal sins and should also
confess venial sins. There are 3
qualities of a good confession. It must be
humble, sincere and entire. A
confession is humble when we accuse ourselves of
our sins with a deep sense
of shame and sorrow for having offended God. A
confession is sincere when
we tell our sins honestly and truthfully neither
exaggerating nor excusing
them. A confession is entire when we tell the number
and kinds of our sins
and the circumstances which change their nature. If we
can’t remember the
number of our sins we should tell the number as closely as
possible. If we
should forget to tell a mortal sin our confession, the
confession is still
worthy and the sin is forgiven. To conceal a mortal sin
during confession
is a grievous offense against the Holy Ghost and makes the
confession
unworthy. If we are guilty of such an offense we must confess it as
soon as
possible and repeat all sins committed since the last worth confession.
The
priest gives us penance so that we may satisfy God for the temporal
punishment due to our sins. Penance forgives the eternal punishment due to
sin
but does not always forgive the temporal punishment which God requires
as
satisfaction for our sins. Temporal punishment is required by God to
teach us
the great evil of sin and to help prevent us from falling again.
The chief
means of satisfying temporal punishment are Prayer, Fasting, and
Almsgiving,
all spiritual and corporal works of mercy and patient suffering
of the ills of
life. There are 7 spiritual works of mercy: To admonish the
sinner, to instruct
the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to comfort the
sorrowful, to bear wrongs
patiently, to forgive all injuries and to pray
for the living and the dead. The
chief corporal works of mercy are also
seven: To feed the hungry, to give drink
to the thirsty, to clothe the
naked, to ransom the captive, to harbor the
harbor-less, to visit the sick
and to bury the dead. Why would God make us
serve temporal punishment? Well
obviously we don’t get it! He sent His only Son
to suffer and die for our
sins and yet we continue to commit them!
Lesson 20 discusses the
manner and making of a good Confession.
On
entering the confessional
we should knell, make the sign of the cross and say to
the priest, Bless me
Father for I have sinned, my last confession was, here
mention how long ago
it was since your last confession. There are many
variations to this
opening but basically you need to cover the fact you have
sinned and how
long ago your last confession took place. We then confess all
mortal sins
we have committed since the last confession and any venial sins we
wish to
mention. Any questions or discussion by the priest must be answered
truthfully and clearly. After telling our sins listen intently to the words
of
the confessor. When he is giving absolution recite the Act of
Contrition.
So let’s review, four chapters on Penance and
contrition. Sure seems like
God thru the church is trying to tell us this
might be important. God loves us
very much and is trying to give us every
opportunity to love Him and to serve
Him by forgiving our
trespasses.
January 22, 2012 “Each
one of you has received a special grace, so, like
good
stewards responsible for all these varied graces of God,
put it at the service
of others. Peter 4:10”
Lesson 17 discusses the
Sacrament of Penance.
Penance is the Sacrament in which sins
committed after Baptism are forgiven.
Sins are forgiven and the soul is
restored to the friendship of God by means of
absolution from the priest.
The priest has the power of absolution because
Jesus Christ granted it to
His Church when He said “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Whose sins you shall
forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall
retain (to hold back,
refuse forgiveness) they are retained.” The priests
exercise this power of
forgiveness by hearing the confession of sins and
granting pardon for them
as ministers of God and in His name. To make a good
and worthy confession
we must examine our conscience, which is an earnest
effort to recall all
our sins since our last worthy confession. Before
beginning the examination
we should pray to God to give us light to know our
sins and the grace to
detest them. To help us make a good examination of our
conscience we can
use the 10 commandments, the precepts of the Church, the
seven capital
sins, the imperatives of Jesus and the particular duties of our
state in
life. We must have sorrow for our sins. I have found that besides
reviewing
the Ten Commandments, reviewing the Beatitudes is a good way to
examine our
conscience. Actions have consequences; nothing we do is done in a
vacuum.
Our culture makes excuses, denies, lies, distorts, equivocates and
ignores
the reality of our actions. The below is taken from the Handbook of
spiritual exercises at the Malvern Retreat House.
1. Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Do I fear the poverty
of my
spirit, my sinfulness, inclinations, obsessions and compulsions, or
do I give my
poverty of spirit to Jesus Christ? Of the two basic motives in
life – love and
fear, which do I choose most? Has fear prevented me from
accepting
responsibilities, new challenges, speaking the truth, living a
free life? Jesus
gave the command “be not afraid” over 80 times, more than
any other. Has fear
caused me wallow in guilt, force my opinion on others,
try to control others to
meet my expectations?
2. Blessed are the
meek, for they shall inherit
the earth.
Am I courageous enough to be
“meek” (the Greek word means
“gentle)? In the face of violence, anger,
hatred, do I choose nonviolence,
forgiveness, “turning the other cheek?” Do
I need to be first noticed, be
recognized as important, sit at the head of
the table, or am I comfortable in my
own skin without seeking the praises
of others? Am I able to be present to
others in their problems or sadness
without needing to solve, fix or give an
answer? Am I able to step back and
observe, pray and let God into difficult
situations, or do I need to force
myself upon others? Am I intimidated by those
who are forceful and seek
control, or am I able to gently “shake their dust from
my feet?”
3.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be
comforted.
Do I feel the
injustices of war, poverty, prejudices in the world,
my country, my
community, my family, my life and seek to change those sinful
structures?
Do I accept the sorrows in my life with humility and dignity and
seek
comfort from others? Do I seek to comfort those who mourn – the elderly,
those in nursing homes, those with no one to visit them, those who have lost a
loved one, hospital patients, Alzheimer’s patients? Do I mourn lost
relationships and try to heal them with forgiveness, sensitivity, making amends
and love when possible?
4. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst
for
righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Do I hunger and thirst for
the
righteousness of Jesus Christ or do I run from threatening situations
as did
Peter and the apostles? What principles and beliefs do I have and
hold that I
will defend and protect with my life? In what situations have I
cowardly been
silent when I knew Jesus wanted me to speak or act? What time
do I give to
righteous causes (helping those less fortunate than me,
pro-life, environment,
racial and gender equality)? Do I stay aware of
current events, political
elections and movements that are focused on
changing attitudes, laws and
government to more Christ-like
choices?
5. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain
mercy.
Do I truly believe Jesus when He says that by the
measure I
forgive is the measure by which I will be forgiven? Do I expect
forgiveness
when I refuse to forgive? Do I turn to Jesus in my sinfulness
believing in
His desire for mercy upon me, or do I wallow in the self-pity of
guilt? Are
laws, rules, dogmas and doctrines more important to me than mercy?
Are
there people in my life who suffer because I refuse mercy? Do I think there
are people in the world who do not deserve mercy?
6. Blessed are the
clean of heart, for they shall see God.
What in my deepest heart do I
believe
about God, life, family, faith and myself? Do these beliefs help or
hurt me in
seeing God in the world and in myself? Are my actions and words
grounded in
integrity, honesty, simplicity, clarity and a truthfulness that
allows others to
see God in me and themselves? Do I find time in prayer,
meditation, inspired
readings and the Sacred Scriptures to be open and
quiet before Our Lord? Do I
stretch the truth for my advantage, tell “white
lies” to avoid problems, act in
deceptive ways to increase my reputation,
treasures or advancement?
7.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they
shall be called children of God.
When I
am hurt do I seek to hurt back
or do I seek to find ways to diffuse the problem,
be reconciled with the
one who hurt me, bring peace to a place in my life that
lacks peace? Would
I be considered a person of peace on issues of nuclear
armaments, war and
our military presence in the world? Do I know the Church
teachings on
conditions for war, capital punishment, nuclear proliferation? Do I
do
anything about it? When I am the cause of conflict in my family, business,
school, neighborhood, am I able to accept responsibility, ask for forgiveness
and make amends or do I deny the problem, blame others, make excuses or
avoid
the consequences of my actions? Does my entertainment include movies,
sports,
activities that revolve around violence, abuse or cruelty? Do I
understand how
this culture hurts everyone but it especially robs children
of their childhood?
8. Blessed are they that suffer persecution for
justice sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when
people revile you and persecute
you and utter all kinds of evil against you
falsely on my account. Rejoice and
be glad for your reward is great in
heaven.
Am I embarrassed to take a stand
on issues that are important to
God and to me (war, prolife, the media,
religion, racial slurs, language)
for fear of being ridiculed? Am I part of the
crowd who ridicules others
for their beliefs, culture or lifestyle? Do I live my
life confident in the
rewards of heaven and base my decisions and actions in
this world on that
confidence? Has the situation in this world caused
depression,
hopelessness, anxiety in my life or does the promise of Jesus Christ
allow
me to embrace the hope and belief that God will protect those persecuted
on
God’s account, and that God’s Will and Life can be embraced by me and
others?
Lesson 18 discusses contrition.
Contrition is a hatred of
sin and a true grief of the soul for having offended God and a firm purpose
of
sinning no more. The sorrow we have should be interior, supernatural,
universal
and sovereign. Wow, let’s look at these individually. When we say
the sorrow
must be interior we mean it must come from the heart not merely
the lips. You
have the feel the sorrow inside yourself. When we say it
should be supernatural
we mean it should be prompted by the grace of God
and we should be excited by
motives coming from faith and not merely
natural motives. When we say it should
be universal we mean we should be
sorry for all mortal sins without exception.
When we say it should be
sovereign we mean we should grieve more for having
offended God than for
any other evil that can befall us. The Act of Contrition
emphasizes this
notion with the words,“….because I dread the loss of heaven and
the pains
of hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God……” Being
sorrowful for our sins is necessary because serious sin is the greatest of evils
and an offense against God our Creator and it shuts us out of heaven and
condemns us the eternal pain of hell. There are two kinds of contrition,
perfect
and imperfect. Perfect contrition fills us with sorrow and hatred
of sin because
it offends God who is infinitely good and worthy of all
love. Imperfect
contrition means we hate what offends God but more because
we fear the loss of
heaven and pains of hell. Imperfect contrition is
sufficient for the forgiveness
of sin but we need to strive for perfect
contrition. When we say a firm purpose
to sin no more we mean we need to
avoid all mortal sins and any person, place or
thing that may lead us into
sin. Well I think it’s time for a reminder, say it
with me; To know Him, to
love Him and to serve Him.
January
15, 2012 “Let
the peace that Christ gives control your thinking, because you were all called
together in one body to have peace. Always be thankful. Colossians
3:15
”
Lesson 15 discusses Confirmation.
Confirmation is
the Sacrament
through which we receive the Holy Ghost to make us strong and
perfect Christians
and soldiers of Jesus Christ. The bishop is the ordinary
minister of
Confirmation. The bishop extends his hands over the one to be
confirmed prays
that they may receive the Holy Ghost and anoints the
forehead of each with holy
chrism in the form of the cross while giving
them a new name for the glory of
God. Holy chrism is a mixture of olive oil
and balm (the juice of the balsam
tree) consecrated by the bishop. In
anointing each person the bishop says: I
sign thee with the sign of the
cross, and I confirm thee with the chrism of
salvation, in the name of the
Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. By
anointing the forehead with
chrism the Christian who is confirmed must openly
profess and practice
their faith, never be ashamed of it, and rather die than
deny it. The
bishop gives the person being confirmed a slight blow on the cheek
to
remind them that they must be ready to suffer everything, even death, for the
sake of Christ. Wow, pretty heavy stuff here. Let’s think how this applies
to
me. Let’s remember this was originally written in 1932. Well if we think
about
scripture, Revelations talks about one currency and those wanting to
participate
in the government taking a sign. With the Euro failing and the
Europeans talking
about a new single currency, and our government talking
about fully subsidized
health care and some kind of tattoo or RFID tag to
identify a covered person it
sure sounds like the makings of the mark of
the devil. So what would you do?
Will we stand firm and refuse the mark?
Will we die for our faith and for Jesus
Christ? HMMM, tough choices.
Well back to confirmation. To receive it one
must be in the state of
grace and must know the chief mysteries of faith and the
duties of a
Christian and be instructed in the nature and effects of the
Sacrament. It
is a sin to neglect Confirmation, especially in these evil days
when faith
and morals are exposed to so many and such violent temptations. WOW
again!
Remember this was written in 1932 yet it rings true even today. This is
why
I truly believe in scripture and the teachings of the church. It is
consistent and spans all time. So when I hear the young people of today complain
about going to mass once a week or observing a holy day I want to smack
them
upside the head and remind them that it’s not about them but about the
big
three, know Him, love Him and serve Him. He suffered and died for us
but yet I’m
convinced we still don’t get it!
Lesson
16
discusses the gifts and fruits of the Holy
Ghost.
Confirmation increases
sanctifying grace, strengthens our
faith and infuses the gifts of the Holy
Ghost. The gifts of the Holy Ghost
are Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel,
Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety and Fear of
the Lord. Hold on I thought God loved me
why Fear of the Lord? Well it’s to
remind us to dread sin. Sin is an acceptance
of the devil and denial of the
Lord, so we are turning our back on the Lord.
There will be retribution for
that act. God loves us very much but we cannot
presume we can do what we
like and be forgiven over and over. Remember Sodom and
Gomorrah. Piety
makes us love God as a Father and obey Him because we love Him.
Knowledge
enables us to discover the will of God in all things, but we have to
look!
Fortitude strengthens us to do the will of God in all things. Have I been
in a position to speak out for the Lord and kept silent for fear of ridicule or
exclusion from a group? Counsel warns us of the deceit of the devil and of
the
dangers to salvation. Understanding enables us to know more clearly the
mysteries of faith. Remember faith is accepting those things we cannot
understand or explain but accept because Jesus told it is true. Wisdom gives us
a relish for the things of God and to direct our lives and actions to His
honor
and glory.
There are 12 fruits of the Holy Ghost. They are:
Charity, Joy,
Peace, Patience, Benignity ( kindness and sweetness),
Goodness, Long-suffering,
Mildness, Faith, Modesty, Continency (self
control) and Chastity.
The
catechism is such a great book. There are so
many facets of faith contained
within its pages that I am in awe as I hope
you have become. I thank the Lord
for leading me
here.
January 8, 2012 “What
is impossible with men is possible with God." Luke
18:27
Lesson 13
discusses the Sacraments in general.
A
Sacrament is an outward sign
instituted by Jesus Christ to give grace. The
Sacraments give grace from the
merits of Jesus Christ. Please note at this
point the constant thread that is
woven throughout the catechism. It all
starts with God sending his only Son to
suffer for our sins. Jesus Christ
as the God made Man institutes many things
while here on earth. By his
divine being the things necessary for salvation have
been established. Our
faith in Him and His teachings are what commit us to
belief in the Church
tenements and the matter on which the Catechism is based.
There are 7
Sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Extreme
Unction, Holy Orders and Matrimony. Some of the Sacraments give sanctifying
grace and others increase the grace in our souls. The Sacraments that give
sanctifying grace are Baptism and Penance which are also called the Sacraments
of the dead because they take away sin, which is the death of the soul, and
give
grace which is life to the soul. The Sacraments that increase
sanctifying grace
are Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Extreme Unction, Holy
Orders and Matrimony
which are also called the Sacraments of the living
because those who receive
them worthily (very key word here worthily) are
already living in a state of
grace. To receive a Sacrament while living in
mortal sin is a sacrilege, which
is a great sin because it abuses a sacred
thing. Sacraments also provide
sacramental grace, which is a special help
which God gives to attain the end for
which each Sacrament was instituted.
Again please note the building blocks of
the Catechism. Each statement
adding to the previous. OK, pop quiz. No looking
ahead now! How many
Sacraments can only be received once?
Baptism,
Confirmation and Holy
Orders. These Sacraments imprint a character in the soul,
a spiritual mark
that remains forever, even after death, for the honor and glory
of those
who are saved; for the shame and punishment of those who are lost.
Lesson 14 discusses Baptism
Baptism is a Sacrament that cleanses the
soul from original sin, makes us children of God and heirs of heaven.
Actual
sins may also be forgiven depending upon when Baptism is received.
Baptism is
necessary for salvation, because without it we cannot enter into
the kingdom of
heaven. The priest is the ordinary minister of Baptism but
in case of an
emergency anyone who has the use of reason may baptize.
Whoever baptizes should
pour water on the head of the person to be baptized
(or in the case of a
miscarriage as reasonable a choice as possible to the
position of the head) and
while poring the water should say : I baptize
thee in the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
There are three kinds of Baptism: Baptism
of water, desire and blood. The
Baptism of water was described above. The
Baptism of desire is an ardent
wish to receive Baptism and to do all that God
has ordained for our
salvation. This type of Baptism was most prevalent by the
faithful in
Communist Russia. I personally knew people living under communist
rule
whose children would report them to the authorities if they saw them
praying. The Baptism of blood is the shedding of one’s blood for the faith of
Christ. Both of these types of Baptism save the soul since the Baptism of
water
is not available. If you remember our godparents promise for us to
renounce the
devil and all his works and pomps. That is the reason for
godparents. They also
promise to instruct the child in its religious duties
should the parents neglect
to do so or become deceased. The name of a saint
is given at Baptism so that the
person baptized may imitate their virtues
and have them as a protectorate. There
is sometimes a great discussion
about saint’s names. It is very difficult since
everyone in heaven is a
saint so who knows what a saints name really might be? I
defer to my church
to direct this process but as a Jesuit friend of mind said
who really know
how many saints there really are?
January 1, 2012 “God our Father, walk through my house and take
away all my worries and illnesses and
please watch over and heal my family
in your name, Amen.”
Lesson 12
discusses the attributes and marks of
the church.
Happy New Year. Also,
as in the “old days”, happy feast
of the circumcision of Christ. This is a segue
into our lesson. The
attributes of the Church are three: authority,
infallibility and
indefectibility. The authority of the Church is the right and
power which
the Pope and bishops have to teach and to govern the faithful as
successors
of St. Peter and the Apostles. The infallibility of the Church is
that it
cannot err when it teaches a doctrine of faith or morals. Please note
the
words “when it teaches a doctrine of faith or morals.” Doesn’t mean the Pope
can’t make a mistake, except when he speaks on doctrine of faith or morals.
The
indefectibility of the Church means the Church, as Christ founded it,
will last
until the end of time. These attributes are found in their
fullness in the Pope,
the visible Head of the Church. There are four marks
of the Church. The Church
is One, it is Holy, it is Catholic and it is
Apostolic. I don’t know about you
but I certainly knew One, Holy, Catholic
and Apostolic but I didn’t remember
them as marks of the Church. Anyway,
let’s examine each one. The Church is One
because all its members agree in
one faith, are in one communion and under one
Head. The Church is Holy
because its founder, Jesus Christ, is holy; because it
teaches a holy
doctrine and invites all to a holy life. The Church is Catholic
or
universal because it subsists in all ages, teaches all nations and maintains
all truth.
Remember what I said earlier in the introduction. These
simple
sentences have years of study and intelligence molded into them. “It
subsists
for all ages”,has so much meaning and study built into it.
Scholars have studied
the Bible, logic, philosophy, theology in order to
summarize these findings into
those words. I have studied a modicum of
these teachings and have come to
believe and trust in the teachings of the
Church and Scriptures.
The
Church is Apostolic because it was founded by Christ on His
Apostles and their
successors and has never and will never cease to teach
their doctrine.
The
Pope when speaking for the Church on matters of
morality is infallible, where
does this infallibility originate? It comes
from the Holy Ghost, the spirit of
truth, who abides with it forever. The
Holy Ghost, the spirit of love and
holiness, unites the Church members
throughout the world to keep the Church One,
Holy and Catholic.
Well
that was a pretty intensive lesson. Please review it
this week and test
yourself against the lesson.
December 25, 2011
“What a Glorious day”
“Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ
the Lord”
Lesson 11 discusses the Church
Jesus, by his life, death and Resurrection has purchased for us eternal life. The means by which we share in
the fruits of His Redemption are the Church and the Sacraments. The Church is the congregation of all those who profess the faith of Christ, partake of the same Sacraments and are governed under one visible head. Jesus is the invisible
Head of the Church. But he said “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I shall build
my Church.” Peter was the visible Head of the Church. So the successor to Peter
is Our Holy Father the Pope, the Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of Christ on earth. A Vicar by the way is a person acting in the name
and with the authority of another. The successors of the other Apostles are the bishops of the Church.
Christ founded the Church to teach, govern, sanctify and save all men. All are
bound to belong to the Church, and he who knows the Church to be the true Church and remains out of it cannot be
saved. So sounds like if you’re not a Catholic you can’t be saved. Well, the all knowing God welcomes all who truly believe
into His kingdom. There are many doors into heaven, doors for each faith, but beware, those who
choose a faith for their own convenience and do not believe within their heart for they shall feel the wrath of the Lord. Why do we believe the Catholic Faith is the one true faith. From everything I know and have read,
if you truly seek the truth with an open mind you will eventually find that the
Catholic faith offers the most acceptable understanding of the mysteries of
God.
As an example let’s look at the Immaculate Conception. How could the
Mother of God be stained by sin? The Son of God made man is conceived by
the Holy Spirit in a woman. The woman cannot have a sin and be the Mother
of God. It is logical but does not follow any of the rules, that is, that everyone is born with
original sin. So what’s up? There are thousands of hours of study and many books written that substantiate the information
that to be the Mother of God Mary had to free from all sin. For those of you who accept on Faith, God bless you, and
He does and always will. As He said to Thomas, 'You have come to believe because
you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.' (Jn
20:29). For those who cannot, accept on faith, please keep looking and searching for the truth.
It is easy to get comfortable with our choices and then make them reality,
but please keep searching.
On this special day let me wish you a
Merry Christmas. YES, a Christmas. I say to everyone I meet. Not Happy Holidays,
but Merry Christmas. For those who are offended or say “well I am not a
Catholic” I say well then you wish me according to your belief, be it
Hanukkah, Quanza or any other religion or belief. But I believe in Christ
and I believe in Christmas. God bless you all and keep the faith.
December 18, 2011
"To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did"
Lesson 9 Descent of the Holy
Ghost upon the Apostles The Holy Ghost is the third person of the Blessed Trinity, He proceeds from the Father and the Son and He is equal to Father and the Son. He came down upon the Apostles 10 days after the ascension of our Lord and this day is called Whitsunday or Pentecost. He came down upon the apostles in the form of tongues of fire. Jesus Christ sent
the Holy Ghost to the apostles to sanctify his church to enlighten and
strengthen the Apostles and to enable them to preach the gospel. The Holy Ghost
will abide with the church forever and guide it in the way of holiness and truth.
As I said earlier, we are using the Baltimore catechism and as we
know in later years the church has changed the Holy Ghost and to the
Holy Spirit, however basic facts stated above remain unchanged.
The Holy Spirit was first introduced to a Catholic at baptism because the Holy
Trinity is invoked at the ceremony. During confirmation Holy Spirit comes
upon the person accompanied by God the Father and God the Son just as he
did at Pentecost.
Lesson 10 the effects of the Redemption.
The main effects of the Redemption are two: the satisfaction of God's justice by Christ's suffering, and
the gaining of grace for men. Grace is a supernatural gift of God bestowed upon us through Jesus Christ for our salvation. There are two kinds of grace, sanctifying and actual. Sanctifying grace makes the soul holy and pleasing to
God. The graces or gifts of God by which we believe in Him and hope in Him and
love Him are called the Divine virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity.
Faith is the Divine virtue by which we firmly believe the truths which God has
revealed. Hope is the Divine virtue by which we firmly trust that God will
give us eternal life and the means to attain it. Charity is the Divine
virtue by which we love God above all things for His own sake, and our
neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.
Actual grace is the help of God which enlightens our mind and moves our will to shun evil and do good.
Grace is necessary for salvation, because without it we can do nothing to merit heaven.
Because of our free will we can resist the grace of God, and unfortunately often do.
The grace of perseverance is a particular gift of God which allows us to continue in the state of grace
until death.
As we go thru these catechism lessons I am still amazed at
how much of our faith is condensed into the Baltimore Catechism book. It contains the foundations of our faith
reduced to simple and easy to understand statements. The scholars of the Church have studied logic,
psychology, philosophy, theology and St. Thomas Summa Theologica and have been able to produce the statements found in this great
little book.
December 11, 2011
"The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you."
Lesson 7 incarnation and redemption.
God did not abandon man after he fell into sin but promised him a Redeemer, who was to satisfy for man’s sin and reopen to him the
gates of heaven. Our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the Redeemer.
He is the Son of God the second Person of the Blessed Trinity, true God and true man. True God, because he is the true and only Son of
God the Father. True man, because he is the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary and has a body
and soul like ours. Jesus Christ has two natures the nature of God and the nature of man but He is one Divine Person. Jesus was not always a man but became man at the time of His Incarnation. He was conceived and made man by
the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary who is truly the Mother of God because the same Devine Person who is the Son of God is also the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Those who lived before, the Son of God became man could be saved by believing in a Redeemer to come and by keeping the commandments. The Son of God was conceived and made man
on Annunciation day, the day on which the angel Gabriel announced to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she was to be the Mother of God.
Christ was born on Christmas Day in the stable at Bethlehem over 1900 years ago. He
lived on earth, about 33 years to show usthe way to heaven by His teachings and example.
Well if you think about it, most of our faith is wrapped up in this lesson.
Faith is defined as:
confidence or trust in a person or thing:belief that is not based on proof: belief in God or in the doctrines or teachings of religion: belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc.: a system of religious belief. Since in our mortal state we cannot
understand and therefore cannot prove how the things in this lesson are possible we believe they are true because of our faith and the faith that the Bible tells us so. Harold Hill in his book “How to Live Like a King’s Kid”, calls the Bible the Manufacturers Handbook. If you think that thru a little it makes good sense.
Lesson 8 the Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord.
Jesus Christ suffered a bloody sweat, a cruel scourging, a crown of thorns and was crucified for our sins. From His suffering
and death we learn the great evil of sin, the hatred God bears to it and the great sacrifice required to satisfy for it.
Christ died on Calvary on Good Friday. Why would we call it Good if Christ died that day? It is called Good
because by His death He showed His great love for man and purchased for him the rewards of eternal life. But even after all of this we continue to fall by the wayside and sin and offend God.
The catechism says he died and descended in hell. This is not the hell of the damned but rather a place that was called
Limbo, to announce to them the joyful tidings of their redemption. Remember we are using the Baltimore catechism. So by way of current explanation the Catholic Church’s official catechism issued in 1992, after decades of work dropped the
mention of limbo. By the expression“He descended into hell”, the Apostles Creed confesses that Jesus did really die and through His death for us conquered death and the devil “who is the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14)
In his human soul united to his divine person the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead. He opened heaven's gates for the just, who had gone before HimChrist rose from the dead on the third day after his death on Easter Sunday. (The Resurrection)
Christ stayed on earth for 40 days after he rose to show that he was truly risen from the dead and to instruct his Apostles. After 40 days
Christ ascended into heaven. (The Ascension). In heaven He is seated at the right hand of God meaning He is equal to his Father in all things, and that as man, He is in the highest place in heaven next to God. Well those were two pretty intense lessons so take some time to read them again and contemplate their content.
December 4, 2011 “Thank you Oh Lord for this joyous day and for the all of the blessings that are coming our way.”
Lesson 5 discusses our first parents and their sin.
Adam and Eve were the first man and woman and were innocent and holy when God created them. The chief blessing for them was a
constant state of happiness in their life and everlasting glory in the next. To test their obedience God
commanded Adam and Eve to not eat a certain fruit on the tree in the center of the garden of paradise. Just a
little side note, notice it does not say apple it says fruit. The apple reference came from some poetic license taken somewhere in our
history. As we know, Adam and Eve did not remain faithful and ate the fruit and because of this they lost their innocence and holiness and were doomed to sickness and death.
Because of the disobedience of our first parents we all share in their sin and punishment, as we would have shared in their happiness if they had remained faithful. We were corrupted by this sin, which darkened our understanding, weakened our will and
left in us with a strong inclination to evil. This sin is called Original Sin, as it comes down to us from our first parents and we are brought into this world with its guilt on our soul. The Blessed Virgin Mary through the merits of her divine Son was preserved free from sin andthis is called to her Immaculate Conception.
So again God's simple request to know Him, to love Him and to serve Him was ignored and punishment followed.
The Angels failed and now man has failed.
Lesson 6 discusses various kinds of sin.
Besides original sin there is another kind of sin which we commit ourselves called actual sin. Actual sin is any wilful thought, word,
deed or omission contrary to the law of God. There are two kinds of actual sin mortal and venial. Mortal sin is a
grievous offense against the law of God and it deprives us of spiritual life, which is sanctifying grace and brings everlasting death and damnation on our soul. To make a sin mortal, three things are necessary; a grievous matter, sufficient reflection and full consent
of the will. Venial sin is a slight transgression against the law of God committed without sufficient
reflection or full consent of the will. Venial sin lessens the love of God in our heart making us less worthy of
His help and weakening our power to resist mortal sin.
For those of you young enough to remember, mortal made the picture of the heart totally black, while venial sin put a dot on
it.
The chief sources of sin are called capital sins, and there are seven: Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy and Sloth.
So now even after failure and punishment, man continues to ignore the simple request from God, the big three, and continues to
find additional ways to satisfy himself while ignoring the Supreme Being.
So try to remember, "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the ruin of his soul?"
November 27, 2011 “It’s nice to be important, but more important to be nice.”
Lesson 3 discusses the unity and trinity of God.
There is one God and three divine persons. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you go thru extensive theology and logic
study, the Trinity cannot be explained by us mortals, so this becomes one of those things we take on Faith. How do we know about this? The gospels talk about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Father spoke at the baptism of Jesus, “This is my
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”, Jesus spoke of sending the Holy Spirit to the disciples. Why should we believe this is true? As I said it is a matter of faith, but the gospel writers were just reporting what they were told. They have no reason to fabricate what they wrote. It is like us today watching the news. Although we are not physically where the actions are taking place in
another country we believe what we are told or see on theradio or television because they reporting the news. I know, I know some
stories are twisted by the media but most of the reporters are just telling us what they have witnessed and we can accept what they say in good faith.
Lesson 4 discusses creation.
God created heaven and earth, and all things from nothing by a single act of His all-powerful will. The chief creatures of God are angels and men. Angels are pure spirits without bodies to adore and enjoy God in heaven. They were created good and happy
and to assist before the throne of God. They have often been sent as messengers from God to man; and also are appointed our
guardians. Unfortunately not all angels remained good and happy many of them sinned and were cast into hell with their leader Lucifer.
This lesson repeats some of lesson one about creation and brings in angels and men. Well what about this “big bang theory” we hear about. Well science is continually evolving new and more intense theories. Scientific technique involves trial and
error, calculation and re-calculation. Generation after generation discards the conclusions of their predecessors until finally a
new stratum is laid upon the slowly accumulating pyramid of unquestioned fact.
The Bible has remained unchanged and undeviating for thousands of years. Its writers never contradict one another, and all of
its contents have an unwavering unanimity upon every subject introduced into its pages. So when men of science agree unanimously
upon any correlated body of facts and do not change their conclusions or agreements concerning these facts for several thousand years I think we should then compare against the Bible and possibly accept their conclusions instead.
Anyway back to the big bang. Basically this states about 15 billion years ago a tremendous explosion started the expansion of the universe.
This explosion is known as the Big Bang. At the point of this event all of the matter and energy of space was contained at one point. What existed prior to this event is completely unknown and is a matter of pure speculation. This occurrence was
not a conventional explosion but rather an event filling all of space with all of the particles of the embryonic universe rushing away from each other. The Big Bang actually consisted of an explosion of space within itself unlike an explosion of a bomb were
fragments are thrown outward. The galaxies were not all clumped together, but rather the Big Bang lay the foundations for the
universe.
Now no matter how many of these theories come about we must always ask and where did the “matter and energy of space contained in one point” come from? The scientific answer seems to be a matter of speculation, but we know because the bible tells us so!
God created heaven and earth, and all things from nothing by a single act of His all-powerful will.
No matter how many discussions are had we will always come back to this one and only possible solution.
November 20, 2011
So let’s get right into it and review the catechism. If we open to the first lesson we find:
Lesson 1
ON THE END OF MAN
God made the world. God, who is the Creator of heaven and earth, and of all things.
Notice how this adds onto the first statement. The maker of everything out of nothing God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.
The big three!
Man is a creature composed of body and soul, and made to the image and likeness of God.
To attain heaven we must worship God by faith, hope and charity that is we must believe in Him, Hope in Him and love Him with our
heart and soul. We know what to believe thru the gospels and the teaching of the church.
The basic truths of our belief are found in the Apostles Creed.
Again, a synopsis of the truths of our faith:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus
Christ, His only Son, our Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son,
our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, from of the Virgin Mary, suffered
under Pontius Pilate, was crucified; dies, and was buried.
He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at
the right hand of God, the Father Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge
the living and the dead. I believe
in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
Take some time and read each section of the creed and notice how
full of information they are. For example “I believe in God the Father Almighty. I believe in God, a
profession of faith. The Father Almighty, recognition of God as a supreme being.
Continue on and meditate on each section.
Lesson 2 discusses God and His perfections.
God is an infinitely perfect spirit. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He will always be. He
is everywhere and knows everything, even our most secret thoughts. God is all just, all holy and all merciful.
Always remember he gave us everything we need, but we have
chosen to believe we know better and demand more for ourselves.
We lose sight of the big three and want things for our own pleasure. The devil is always looking to show us
what is good for our physical self so we turn from the spiritual aspect, the big three.
Remember the angel of darkness is ever hovering about seeking
the ruin of our souls. Let us guard against that by prayer and everlasting belief in our Lord Jesus
Christ.